Paid BattleTag Changes, Patch 7.1 Raid Testing, Sept 15 Hotfixes, 7.1 Notes Update

[chaud]

Chris Metzen Retirement, Meta Update - Top 10 S7 Builds

Value Town #87 - BatStone, Tyrande, Arena Changes, Current State of Hearthstone

Alarak & Braxis Holdout Release, Machines of War Showdown, Rotation & Sales Sep 13

Patch Notes for September 13th

Craig Amai Leaves Blizzard
Lead quest designer Craig Amai is leaving Blizzard after more than ten years. He most recently worked on the Artifact system in Legion.

Paid BattleTag Changes Now Available

Looking to change up how you identify yourself in the Blizzard online community? The BattleTag® you originally chose doesn’t have to be your nickname for all eternity—sometimes you want to switch to something more suited to the hero (or villain) you’ve become since you first arrived in the Blizzard universe.

While we’ve always provided players with one free BattleTag change per account, now we’re pleased to offer an additional paid BattleTag change service for those of you who would appreciate the opportunity to choose yet another new moniker.

Free First Change
If you’re ready for something new and haven’t already used your free BattleTag change, simply visit your Account Management Dashboard, and click the Change link under your Account Details to the right of your current tag.

If you haven’t used your free change yet, don’t worry—BattleTag changes don’t expire and yours will be waiting for you if and when you ever decide to use it.

If you’ve already used your first free change and still feel like a new nickname would be a better fit, the option to purchase an additional change will be available within Account Management. Changes are available for 10 € each, and your new moniker will be reflected on your friends list automatically after making the change.

For more details on the feature, check out our support article or visit the Shop page.

Paid BattleTag Change FAQ
If I want to change my BattleTag, does it have to be something unique?
BattleTags do not need to be unique. You can use any name you want, as long as it follows our Naming Policy. Each BattleTag is assigned a numeric ID to create a unique identifier (for example, FallenSlayer#3592).

Will changing my BattleTag affect my friends list?
Your friends will now automatically see you listed under your new BattleTag, but otherwise your friends list will not be affected by this change.

Will new accounts still get a free name change upon creation?
Yes. All new Battle.net accounts will continue to receive one free BattleTag change upon creation.

Patch 7.1 PTR Dungeon/Raid Testing Plans

This is an unusual PTR, in that we don't typically have fresh dungeon and raid content to test when a new expansion has just launched, but then again, Legion isn't exactly the typical expansion.

For testing purposes, we'll be treating Karazhan like a Normal-mode raid, since that's what it resembles in most ways except raid size. That means it'll be closed for the majority of the PTR cycle, but we'll open it up at least a couple of times for a couple of days (without any attunement required, though one will be on live - for testing you'll be able to just zone in) at a time for open-ended testing and feedback.

We also have Trial of Valor to test, as well as a few Nighthold bosses we'll want to revisit for numerical tuning. We realize that most raiding guilds are going to have their hands quite full starting next week, but we're going to try to sneak in one raid testing day on Monday (probably around 1pm PDT, 10pm CEDT). We'll update with exact testing details within a day or so, assuming server stability holds up.

I sincerely apologize on behalf of the team for all this content, and thank you in advance for any time you take away from the live servers in order to help us test it.

Raid Testing Schedule - September 19

On Monday, September 19, we will be conducting a focused raid test of two Trial of Valor Heroic bosses, and one Mythic Nighthold boss.

Remember that Heroic difficulty scales for any group size between 10 and 30 players, so feel free to assemble and bring a group of any size within that range. Mythic, of course, requires a fixed 20-player group.

Monday, September 19

Odyn - Heroic Trial of Valor
13:00 PDT (16:00 EDT, 22:00 CEST)

Guarm - Heroic Trial of Valor
14:00 PDT (17:00 EDT, 23:00 CEST)

Spellblade Aluriel - Mythic Nighthold
15:00 PDT (18:00 EDT, 00:00 CEST)

As always, this testing schedule is very fluid and subject to the realities of a PTR environment. We might have to change the time of a testing session, change the bosses being tested, or cancel a test entirely, due to bugs, server hardware issues, etc. Keep an eye on this forum for the latest information, and thank you in advance for testing and providing feedback.

Legendary Item Drop Rate Bug

We’ve identified and hotfixed an issue that could cause Legion legendary items to drop more frequently than intended, if a player had already received their first legendary.

Thanks to everyone who reported this - the ability to look at specific cases where this was and wasn’t happening was invaluable for isolating what exactly was causing this bug to occur.

Patch 7.0.3 Hotfixes - September 15

Classes

Druid (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator / Artifact Calculator / PvP Talent Calculator)

• The Restoration Druid artifact trait Power of the Archdruid will now correctly always spread Regrowth to additional targets when you cast Regrowth instead of sometimes spreading Rejuvenation.

Monk (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator / Artifact Calculator / PvP Talent Calculator)

• Soothing Mist cast from the Monk’s Jade Serpent Statue should cancel on targets farther than 60 yards from the statue.
  
• (Windwalker) The Tornado Kicks Artifact trait will no longer sometimes reduce your first Rising Sun Kick damage.

Shaman (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator / Artifact Calculator / PvP Talent Calculator)

• Players who use the Portal to the Maelstrom instead of the Astral Gate to the Maelstrom will now be granted credit for "The Voice of Thunder" quest.

• Bodyguard: Rehgar Earthfury now correctly makes Ghost Wolf move at 100% extra speed (was 130%).

Warrior (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator / Artifact Calculator / PvP Talent Calculator)

• Rampage weapon trails now show for every swing of rampage regardless of whether the weapon was sheathed.

Class Halls

• Druids who abandoned either "Essence of Balance" or "Essence of Regrowth" should now be able to reaccept the quests by returning to the Emerald Dreamway.
  
• Druids should now receive Naralex or Zen'tabra after entering their order halls.

Dungeons

• Players are now able to summon other players into Mythic dungeons as long as the player being summoned meets the requirements of the dungeon.
  
• Eye of Azshara
  
  • Restless Tides now cast Imprisoning Bubble and Undertow correctly when more than one player is in melee with them.
    

Items

• Identified and fixed an issue that could cause Legion legendary items to drop more frequently than intended if a player had already received their first legendary.
  
• Coins caught in the Dalaran Fountain are now Bind on Pickup.
  
• Jeweled Signet of Melandrus now correctly increases the damage of Auto Shot for Hunters.
  
• Stabilized Energy Pendant no longer causes resources to drain when the player changes zones.

NPCs

• Players are no longer able to use the Bribe and Mind Control abilities on Ysera.

Professions

• Cooking
  
  • Players who have previously killed Myonix should be able to acquire the Leybarbeque Ribs recipe on subsequent kills.
    
• Enchanting
  
  • Fixed an issue where some epic quality items awarded from world quests provided incorrect disenchant materials.
    
  • Enchant Cloak – Gift of Critical Strike, Enchant Cloak – Gift of Haste, Enchant Cloak – Gift of Mastery, and Enchant Cloak – Gift of Versatility now increase the player’s movement speed by 2% (was 10%).
    
    • Developers’ Notes: In fights where movement speed is important, Draenor cloak enchants (which reward run speed) were outperforming the best Legion cloak enchants (which do not). To protect enchanters from having to farm Draenor materials, we've reduced the run speed bonus on Draenor cloak enchants to 2%. We feel that cloak enchants aren’t the ideal place for run speed enhancements, and we will continue to look at interesting run speed options as the expansion continues.
      

PvP

• PvP World Quests should have rewards restored for Prestiged players.
  
• Hired Underbelly Guards should be much less likely to leave you.
  
• Warrior
  
  • Pain Train now provides a Battle Cry to all nearby allies that increases critical strike by 30%.
    

Quests

• The Lightning Rod cannot be used on the same mob multiple times during the World Quest “Electrosnack”.
  
• "Shallow Graves" should now appear at all times for players on the quest "A Grisly Task".
  
• Guardian Druids should no longer be prevented from completing "When Dreams Become Nightmares" when looting the Claws of Ursoc.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused some players on "Cry Thunder!" to be forced to get their dragon killed to be able to dismount.
  
• On “Shrine of the Truthguard”, players who navigate to Dalaran by using their Dalaran Hearthstone, regular Hearthstone, or by getting ported, will receive the “Return to Dalaran” objective and become able to turn in the quest to Lord Maxwell Tyrosus.
  
• The Mining World Quest “Leyworms” now requires 10 Leystone-Encrusted Spikes (was 40).
  
• Valewalker Farodin should now properly tell his story during the quest "Fragments of Disaster."
  
• In Maw of Souls, Ymiron’s Broken Blade now drops on Normal, Heroic, and Mythic difficulties for Warriors who have completed "Champions of Skyhold".
  
• Hunters are now able to complete "Delicate Enchantments" by using the "I'm ready" chat option after leaving the quest objective area.
  
• On-death effects should no longer behave unusually when the player reaches 1 HP during “Withered Army Training”.

Services

• Performing a faction transfer on a character who has completed an Artifact Acquisition quest, but not yet turned it in, will no longer destroy the artifact when the quest is removed from players' logs. Players may then re-accept the Artifact quest after the transfer has completed and will receive full credit for the quest.

Blue Tweets

PvP
I heard that all honor talents are unlocked when you queue rated arenas. is this true?
Not for Rated Arenas, no. However, Wargames played in Tournament Mode give fully unlocked Honor Talents & Artifacts. (WarcraftDevs)

Patch 7.1 PTR Notes Update

Trial of Valor Raid

• Quests to unlock Vrykul transmog appearances.

Classes
Priest (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator / Artifact Calculator / PvP Talent Calculator)

• Shadowform has returned as a new spell for Shadow Priests:
  
  • Assume a Shadowform, increasing your Shadow damage dealt by 10%, and reducing your Physical damage taken by 10%.
  • You may not cast any Holy spells while in this form.
  • The shadowy visual is now tied to Shadowform.
  • Voidform now acts to intensify Shadowform. It automatically triggers Shadowform if not already active, and you gain the effects of both.
  • When Voidform ends, you return to Shadowform.

Developer Interview - Luis Barriga
MMOGames had the opportunity to talk to Luis Barriga about Legion and Patch 7.1. Most of it is already well known, but there were a few important points:

• One of the issues that we see is there’s a lot of friction in getting things setup. What we’ve seen in games like Diablo and Heroes of the Storm are systems where they just notify you that ‘Hey Eric just joined a queue’ and I click and request to join. Already we’re thinking about stuff to add to our content patches.
• We finished Legion and then we didn’t stop. Okay, here’s the next patch. It’s going to be ready for testing soon. I can’t recall a time when we’ve been so aggressive when we’ve had plans for this patch and the next patch already.
• The main thing that we want to drive is that we want our fans to know we mean it when we say we have a lot of content planned for you guys. We’re well aware that it was an issue towards the end of Warlords and we want to reassure our fans that we have a content train that’s not going to stop.

[Tygra]

inb4 people starts with the "leaving the sinking ship", read his blog

[Serissa]

Paid BattleTag Changes Now Available

ZOMG That's golden field!

* Paid BattleTag Change
* Paid e-mail change
* Paid password change
* Paid Battle.net Authenticator link
* Paid Battle.net Authenticator removal
* Paid Change of account details (like phone, address, etc.)
* many-many-many other paid options

Go-go Blizzard!

[Eazy]

Ouch... another nice person leaves Blizzard.

[Rissler-Dark-]

inb4 people starts with the "leaving the sinking ship", read his blog

Not worried just kind of sucks honestly. Like 10 employees from all different areas left. Former CFO, Chris, Jonathan, and Coffee-bird etc. Just kind of crazy to think about. I am sure everyone moves on and wants to do different things. I think we can all see that, but I am sure it really comes down to time, money and family etc and it's a hard to up your hourly rate at times.

[kevincuomo]

Blizzard going through employees like a call center.

[Jotunhammer]

/sarcasm
AWESOME that they nerf the 10% of cloak and then plan to replace it later...with the same thing, just for Legion.
Thats the idea of Blizzard? Lets take the good ideas of LAST expansion, nerf them, then reintroduce them as NEW stuff for the coming expansion.
the GIFT soft costs more to make, thats why they are more expensive and they are blue, hence they are better than start of legion enchants
instead of nerfing something, would it not be better to come up with some other idea for legion?
either way, great job ruining enchanters cash flow with the nerf cause no-one in the right mind pays 2k for a cloak enchant just to get 2% speed.
/end sarcasm

[Sundreamer]

why are all the vets leaving that we have known for ages D:

[Shudder]

If that dude worked on the quest Mounting Made Easy I severely hope he trips and lands on a bucket of cancer. Fuck him.

[Malico]

What is going on? People start to leaving. Something is wrong?

[deadman1]

What is going on? People start to leaving. Something is wrong?

It's only a few people that have been doing the same job for 10+ years. Things happen, people don't stay at the same job forever.

[MrExcelion]

We finished Legion and then we didn’t stop. Okay, here’s the next patch. It’s going to be ready for testing soon. I can’t recall a time when we’ve been so aggressive when we’ve had plans for this patch and the next patch already.

That statement is sort of telling

- - - Updated - - -

It does make me wonder if the common thread here is they feel Blizzard is overworking them, especially with how they're ramping up content/the workload compared to the past. I think this is a genuine possibility. Sucks for them. At least the game is great for it, but at their expense. Just as another poster above mentioned, many of these guys are getting up their in age and might not be able to handle or justify the workload

That's just my two cents though. Until now I felt like I was missing pieces of the puzzle, but now I'd say there's at least a 50/50 chance of this being what's happening

[Deleted]

paid battletag change yet on starcraft 2 u can change your name for fucking free all the time, seriously fucked up shit, i wont be suprised if they make pvers pay per raid tier wing

[subanark]

More room for fresh Blizz employees to see if they can be more in sync with the newer player base.

[Bathory]

I said it before in the other thread last night, but I'm hoping this is just a good point for people to get off the WoW ride IF they want off. Legion is out, patches are lined up. Before jumping into a whole new workload with the next xpac and the xpac after that, maybe they are stopping here after seeing things through.

I HOPE this isn't activision forcing people out.

Either way, the vets are going, makes me a bit sad, but also makes me curious to see where some new ideas may take us in the future.

[Deleted]

inb4 he joins bonfire studios

[Deleted]

Mush: in our republic when you leave after 45 work very hardly you find any new, nobody wants old people

[Schizoide]

I'm fine with nerfing the Draenor cloak enchants and understand their reasoning for doing so, but doing that without offering Legion runspeed enchants is a serious bummer, particularly for classes with no base runspeed increase and sprints with short durations and long cooldowns, like DKs and (until 7.1 anyway) Hunters. Those classes have to walk around at literally 100% runspeed.

Really no fun at all.

On my DK and hunter, I would be happy with a 10% runspeed neck enchant with ZERO additional stats. The game just isn't fun for me at 100% runspeed. I haven't played WoW at 100% runspeed in >10 years. Feels like I'm swimming through molasses.

[Kazlofski]

Craig's post is definitely worth a read, thanks for everything and good luck!

[Exotath]

So long Craig. Thanks for the quests. <3