That's me. I play after after work and on weekends when I can.
I think I squeeze in about 8 hours per week of gaming if I'm lucky.
KT
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The AT World of Warcraft Thread (Where do you play) and general BS
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- Status
That's me. I play after after work and on weekends when I can.
I think I squeeze in about 8 hours per week of gaming if I'm lucky.
KT
lupi
Lifer
Wrath intro patch going to live on the 14th.
End of Arena Season 4 Coming Soon / Patch 3.0.2
Release date
Season 4 will end on October 14, it wouldn't be surprising to see the Patch 3.0 deployed on live servers on the same day. (Not surprising = 95% chance to happen)
Quote from: Nethaera (Source)
We?re currently planning to end the fourth Arena season on October 14, 2008, and as always -- this date could easily change. This Arena Season is only ending in respect to the ladder, meaning we'll be taking a snapshot of the season's ladder and then go through our normal process to determine who is eligible for the end-of-season rewards. This process should take approximately one week. It's very important for players who feel that they may be eligible for the arena-specific title and/or Armored Nether Drake to refrain from transferring their character to another realm between the date outlined above, and when the end-of-season rewards are physically awarded.
Upon the end of this Arena Season, teams and ratings will not be wiped, and will carry forward allowing players to earn points each week and purchase gear until the launch of the expansion (November 13, 2008).
WotLK - All TBC Raid instances massively nerfed
It seems that the latest build brought an interesting change to TBC instances : all monsters in TBC raid instances had their health points reduced by 30%, bosses included. We don't know yet if this change is final, but below are a few exemples of changes for some of these instances, more values will be added as we go through the instances. Feel free to contribute with your own lists in comments.
Note : The change isn't confirmed by Blizzard yet. We don't know if this change will be pushed live, and we don't know when it will happen but we might see this change shipped with Patch 3.0 before the release of the expansion
The Sunwell Plateau Monster Health (TBC) Health (WotLK)
Sunblade Protector550,000 387,000
Sunblade Slayer240,000 171,000
Sunblade Arch Mage190,000 136,000
Sunblade Cabalist190,000 136,000
Sunblade Dawn Priest190,000 136,000
Kalecgos3,700,000 2,180,000
The Black Temple
Monster Health (TBC) Health (WotLK)
Coilskar Harpooner170,000 120,000
Coilskar Soothsayer170,000 120,000
Coilskar Sea-Caller170,000 120,000
Dragon Turtle100,000 73,353
Aqueous Spawn66,000 44,012
Aqueous Lord440,000 309,000
Leviathan550,000 387,000
High Warlord Naj'entus3,800,000 2,655,000
Dragonmaw Wind Reaver200,000 140,000
Dragonmaw Sky Stalker200,000 140,000
Dragonmaw Wyrm Caller200,000 140,000
Bonechewer Worker60,000 17605
Bonechewer Taskmaster170,000 120,000
Illidari Fearbringer550,000 387,000
Supremus4,500,000 3,186,000
Serpentshrine Cavern
Monster Health (TBC) Health (WotLK)
Hydross The Unstable3,400,000 2,390,000
Arena rating changes in WotLK
Since we're talking about arena, it might be worth
mentioning the change to the rating system now.
Quote from: Zarhym (Source)There will be a new, persistent rating system that should keep top-rated players facing other top-rated players, regardless of the bracket in which their current team sits. We'll have more information to come on this soon.
Warrior - Berserker Rage now usable in all StanceAnd a small thing to make all warriors very happy, and all other classes very unhappy in PvP.
Quote from: Verimonde (Source)
Ghost is out for the rest of the evening so I thought I would make a quick post regarding a new warrior change. Berserker Rage will now be usable in all stances.
End of Arena Season 4 Coming Soon / Patch 3.0.2
Release date
Season 4 will end on October 14, it wouldn't be surprising to see the Patch 3.0 deployed on live servers on the same day. (Not surprising = 95% chance to happen)
Quote from: Nethaera (Source)
We?re currently planning to end the fourth Arena season on October 14, 2008, and as always -- this date could easily change. This Arena Season is only ending in respect to the ladder, meaning we'll be taking a snapshot of the season's ladder and then go through our normal process to determine who is eligible for the end-of-season rewards. This process should take approximately one week. It's very important for players who feel that they may be eligible for the arena-specific title and/or Armored Nether Drake to refrain from transferring their character to another realm between the date outlined above, and when the end-of-season rewards are physically awarded.
Upon the end of this Arena Season, teams and ratings will not be wiped, and will carry forward allowing players to earn points each week and purchase gear until the launch of the expansion (November 13, 2008).
WotLK - All TBC Raid instances massively nerfed
It seems that the latest build brought an interesting change to TBC instances : all monsters in TBC raid instances had their health points reduced by 30%, bosses included. We don't know yet if this change is final, but below are a few exemples of changes for some of these instances, more values will be added as we go through the instances. Feel free to contribute with your own lists in comments.
Note : The change isn't confirmed by Blizzard yet. We don't know if this change will be pushed live, and we don't know when it will happen but we might see this change shipped with Patch 3.0 before the release of the expansion
The Sunwell Plateau Monster Health (TBC) Health (WotLK)
Sunblade Protector550,000 387,000
Sunblade Slayer240,000 171,000
Sunblade Arch Mage190,000 136,000
Sunblade Cabalist190,000 136,000
Sunblade Dawn Priest190,000 136,000
Kalecgos3,700,000 2,180,000
The Black Temple
Monster Health (TBC) Health (WotLK)
Coilskar Harpooner170,000 120,000
Coilskar Soothsayer170,000 120,000
Coilskar Sea-Caller170,000 120,000
Dragon Turtle100,000 73,353
Aqueous Spawn66,000 44,012
Aqueous Lord440,000 309,000
Leviathan550,000 387,000
High Warlord Naj'entus3,800,000 2,655,000
Dragonmaw Wind Reaver200,000 140,000
Dragonmaw Sky Stalker200,000 140,000
Dragonmaw Wyrm Caller200,000 140,000
Bonechewer Worker60,000 17605
Bonechewer Taskmaster170,000 120,000
Illidari Fearbringer550,000 387,000
Supremus4,500,000 3,186,000
Serpentshrine Cavern
Monster Health (TBC) Health (WotLK)
Hydross The Unstable3,400,000 2,390,000
Arena rating changes in WotLK
Since we're talking about arena, it might be worth
mentioning the change to the rating system now.
Quote from: Zarhym (Source)There will be a new, persistent rating system that should keep top-rated players facing other top-rated players, regardless of the bracket in which their current team sits. We'll have more information to come on this soon.
Warrior - Berserker Rage now usable in all StanceAnd a small thing to make all warriors very happy, and all other classes very unhappy in PvP.
Quote from: Verimonde (Source)
Ghost is out for the rest of the evening so I thought I would make a quick post regarding a new warrior change. Berserker Rage will now be usable in all stances.
BenSkywalker
Diamond Member
May be that was the only one they listed, they have Supremus taking a huge nerf but not Mother? Supremus has like a 4.3 year enrage timer, is it possible to not kill him before he enrages?
I'm assuming Brut is going to have to get hit hard with the nerf bat, just not realistic to expect him to be killed inside the enrage timer with the staggering nerfs to all classes. I would honestly be interested to see if SK could possibly kill him without a nerf after 3.0 goes live, I am doubtful.
I'm assuming Brut is going to have to get hit hard with the nerf bat, just not realistic to expect him to be killed inside the enrage timer with the staggering nerfs to all classes. I would honestly be interested to see if SK could possibly kill him without a nerf after 3.0 goes live, I am doubtful.
Aikouka
Lifer
Yeah, I assume it was just people looking at whatever boss they could get to easily. Especially since in WotLK it displays the health of the mob on your bar ( by default... no add-on required ).
Oh and no more stance dancin'!
EDIT:
I should probably say whatever boss they could /target easily... since you could just walk in and /target quite a few bosses in quite a few raid instances.
NaOH
Diamond Member
So made an orc hunter in Maiev, which is the server my friend plays on....seems really dead because I used to play on sargeras... Anyone have any experience in this realm and if I should bail out? I'm tempted to go back to sargeras because he doesn't usually always play and I would like to be able to find my own groups etc...Thanks
lupi
Lifer
go to warcraftrealms.com and check server stats. Also may want to drop in on the realm you're thinking about a couple times when you think you'll be playing to get an idea of pop load. I'd never pick a realm less than mid pop, and would be very hesitant on anything less than hi pop during prime hours. May pay more for some stuff on the AH, but I much prefer the added chance to get a group or guild that fits my needs.
FreshCrabLegs
Golden Member
Anyone need a free 30 days of WoW?
...And could shoot me a Scroll-of-Resurrection.
I'm planning on reactivating one of my accounts and figured I could also help a fellow forum member out in the process.
PM me, so I can give you my Character Name.
Thanks in Advance!
...And could shoot me a Scroll-of-Resurrection.
I'm planning on reactivating one of my accounts and figured I could also help a fellow forum member out in the process.
PM me, so I can give you my Character Name.
Thanks in Advance!
FreshCrabLegs
Golden Member
On it.
Checking my e-mail.
Checking my e-mail.
Aikouka
Lifer
I tried unholy on my Death Knight last night and just didn't like it at all. It felt so darned messy having to press so many darned buttons to set everything up. I think I'd probably macro my pet attack into Icy Touch to make it easier. As the entire setup is... Icy Touch (2) -> Plague Strike (3) -> Pet Attack (CTRL+1) -> Unholy Blight (SHIFT+1) -> Blood Strike (4) (Pestilence (SHIFT+3) if more than one) -> Blood Strike (4) (Blood Boil (SHIFT+4) if more than one) -> Scourge Strike (1)
Compare that to my typical Blood setup...
Death Coil (SHIFT+1) -> Icy Touch (2) -> Plague Strike (3) -> Blood/Heart Strike (1) (or Pestilence (SHIFT+3) for multiple mobs) -> Blood/Heart Strike (1) -> Death Strike (5)
So much more straight forward and I also dislike how Unholy Blight is a constant AoE around you... be rather fun to use it in a situation where you have lots of non-hostile-but-attackable mobs around you 😛. I might try it again sometime, but spec into Blood as my sub-tree as I had mostly a tanking build, which was still quite potent damage-wise.
Compare that to my typical Blood setup...
Death Coil (SHIFT+1) -> Icy Touch (2) -> Plague Strike (3) -> Blood/Heart Strike (1) (or Pestilence (SHIFT+3) for multiple mobs) -> Blood/Heart Strike (1) -> Death Strike (5)
So much more straight forward and I also dislike how Unholy Blight is a constant AoE around you... be rather fun to use it in a situation where you have lots of non-hostile-but-attackable mobs around you 😛. I might try it again sometime, but spec into Blood as my sub-tree as I had mostly a tanking build, which was still quite potent damage-wise.
lupi
Lifer
All TBC Raids nerfed in next patch
by Boubouille
on October 02, 2008, 05:43:43 PM
All TBC Raids nerfed in next patch
Bornakk just posted to confirm what was discovered yesterday.
[*]All TBC raid monsters will have their health reduced by about 30%. (see this post)
[*]The standard melee damage output will be reduced as well.
[*]Abilities remain unchanged, except for Illidan who won't use Shear anymore.[/list]
Quote from: Bornakk (Source)
To coincide with the upcoming new talents and mechanic changes for classes in the next patch, we are making some adjustments in existing raid content to provide a smooth transition when the upcoming patch is released. The creatures and bosses in raid dungeons that were introduced in The Burning Crusade will have their health reduced, and most will have their standard melee damage output reduced as well, but their spell and ability damage are not being changed. These changes are being made in all raid dungeons from Karazhan to Sunwell Plateau as well as the outdoor encounters of Doom Lord Kazzak and Doomwalker. On top of this Illidan is also doing his part and will stop casting Shear on players.
Druid, Paladin, Shaman changes, Blue posts
by Boubouille
on October 02, 2008, 02:57:38 PM
Druid - Restoration changes
Quote from: Ghostcrawler (Source)
Here are the changes we're making next patch. See how they feel.
Wild Growth: Coefficient and healing increased. Mana cost decreased. Cost should be about the same as Circle of Healing. It doesn't heal instantly, but will heal for about double what CoH does over its duration.
Nourish: Reduced mana cost by somewhere between 15 and 20%. This is supposed to be your Flash Heal, but we recognize that it doesn't have the same versatility -- you can't just drop one on a wounded rogue or something since you need the hot up first. Hence the lower price.
Druids have quite an arsenal of healing spells now, and it can be tricky to find niches for all of them.
Shaman - Enhancement changes
Quote from: Ghostcrawler (Source)
Here are our concerns: Lavaburst makes scaling from spell damage so good that Enhancement shamans were debating wearing Elemental gear. Enhancement shamans were also looking at using caster daggers to maximize procs. Both of these trends would cause us severe item headaches down the road and also don't fit the kit of the tree.
We're changing Maestrom Weapon to no longer affect Lavaburst. We are also changing the proc rate to a proc per minute mechanic instead of a chance on hit.
To compensate for lost damage, we are raising Flurry back up to 30% max haste and raising Dual Wield back up to 6% hit.
I don't expect this news to be popular based on previous receptions to my posts here, but I remain an eternal optimist that you'll eventually come to realize that we are trying to get all of the classes balanced. Please try to keep that in mind.
And for all the intelligent, articulate suggestions and feedback, we do thank you.
Paladin - Upcoming Divine Plea changeQuote from: Ghostcrawler (Source)
We are still showing good healing from Holy paladins. However, we are getting feedback that they may be struggling with mana and perhaps even with boredom. To help with both of these potential problems, We are going to change Divine Plea to only reduce your healing by 20% (up from 100%). However, the original nerf to the spell was partially because of it being difficult to stop a paladin in PvP, so we are going to make the effect dispellable.
We're still taking a look at some of Holy's deep talents and I do want to acknowledge that there have been many great suggestions to change some of those.
We understand that some Holy paladins still feel that their movement and group healing mechanics aren't sufficient yet. However, we still like Bacon of Light , Holy Shock and talents like Infusion of Light to help with these problems. We want to get a few of the kinks out and see them in action more before making further changes here.
We also want to reiterate that measuring healing is much tougher than estimating dps or tank mitigation. While healing throughput and efficiency are important, so is knowing who to heal when and with what spell. We're going to keep a close eye on this through the rest of beta, in the Burning Crusade patch and when Lich King goes live.
Blue posts
Quote from Blizzard staff
Rating requirements on Season 4 Gear in 3.0.2
There are no current plans to alter the costs or requirements associated with the season 3 and 4 gear. (Source)
Arena Points in Wintergrasp
Just to confirm the previous reply; this was only temporary during the beta. You will not be able to collect Arena points from Lake Wintergrasp. (Source)
Guards at 80
Those goblin guards you know and love are indeed leveling up. They will become level 77. (Source)
Brewfest - Brew of the Month
Congratulations on becoming a member of the Brew of the Month club. Yesterday was the last day of September. Binary Brew was the featured item for that month.
Today is the first of October. Autumnal Acorn Ale is the featured brew this month. This is intended functionality. Hence the whole "Brew of the Month" thing.
The reasons behind the Downranking nerf
Downranking wasn't intended in the sense that we never sat down on day one and thought that would be a cool mechanic. It was just something that emerged. We realized some people enjoyed the challenge of figuring out which spell to cast when, so we generally supported it. But late in BC we realized that mana was just a non-issue anymore. With Shadow Priests and pots and mana oil, nobody was running out of mana anymore. As we tried to move mana management back into the game, we saw players just respond by using lower and lower ranks of heals. We were spending an inordinate amount of design time coming up with the perfect cofficients to make downranking possible but not overpowering, and we finally figured we could better spend that time on something else. (Source)
Death Knight (Skills List / Talent Calc. (9014))
Frost Tree vs Unholy/Blood DPS
In our most recent tests, Frost's dps is still below Blood and Unholy. Icy Touch should make up some of those differences, but it will probably require more. We suspect Blood and Unholy just get a lot of bonus damage from talents like Bloody Vengeance and Ebon Plaguebringer that Frost can't quite yet match. (Source)
Icy Touch very high damage
We think what we might end up doing is shifting some of that damage from Icy Touch to Obliterate and Howling Blast. We got Frost's dps up a lot, which is good. It's also cool to see Icy Touch feel like a nuke again. We just want to back off of it a little and buff the double rune abilities. (Source)
Heart Strike low damage
It's still a bug. Sorry we haven't fixed it yet. The design intent hasn't changed. (Source)
Rune Strike
We felt like we had to implement an ability like Rune Strike, or death knights would never be able to tank bosses. Their dps was very high from the back of a mob and very low from the front. That's just not going to work. The three other tanking classes did very good dps and threat from the front of the mob.
The problem is almost certainly that A) DKs suffer a lot from missing key attacks in their rotation. I have compared it a little to a rogue tank who keeps missing his finishing moves or can't get enough combo points, and B) DKs do not have a rage mechanic, or the mana return that Protadins get, and can't spam an ability to burn off excess resources. A warrior can miss a Shield Slam but then turn around and queue up Heroic Strikes all day to make up for it.
Not having rage is a nice benefit for the death knight -- they can do awesome dps without having to be hit on. But in this sense it's a liability as well.
We're not too worried about dps DKs in dps gear dodging or parrying much in PvP. Tank DKs probably will and should, but the damage return will help offset their lower overall dps. (Source)
Druid (Skills List / Talent Calc. (9014))
Upcoming Feral nerf
However, we are probably going to have to nerf bears. If we don't, they will be the only MT choice for serious guilds. At the moment, bears in decent gear take less damage, have more health and generate more threat than the other 3 classes by a wide enough margin that we think it's a problem. This is even true on bosses that do a lot of magic damage (like Malygos).
I use the word "nerf" because players use it, and I don't want to hind behind euphamisms. But changing the numbers doesn't have to mean nerfing you into the ground. We just don't want you to dominate. I'm sure you'd feel the same way if Protection paladins were just head and shoulders above the other tanks.
We understand that some Ferals felt they were nerfed in BC either prematurely or in such a way that kept them steadily behind other tanks. (Though Sunwell Radiance was largely for bears.) We will try to make intelligent changes so that you're still out there tanking the Lich King himself. We want you to be about as good as warriors, paladins and death knights, not way above or below them. (Source)
Hunter (Skills List / Talent Calc. (9014))
Answers to a few recent questions
These seemed to crop up in several different threads, so rather than contaminating those, I thought I would start a new one.
? Polar Bear Cub -- This wasn't intended to be a tamable pet, and it looked ridiculous.
? Black Arrow -- This was an ability we were experimenting with. It isn't actually in the plan for hunters at this point in time. Usually we hide internal abilities better, but we're trying to get beta builds out quickly and this one slipped through the cracks.
? Freezing Trap -- The intent was that this trap break on a flat damage amount. However, we found that pets did not respect traps set up that way as CC and would happily break them. When and if we get the pet AI fixed, we'll revert it to the less fragile form of the trap.
? Lock and Load -- The design we settled on is 2/4/6, making it better than Nightfall (for comparison). If it's too low, we'll adjust it.
? Aimed Shot -- The intention is that it is better than Multi-Shot against a single target, and that the two share a cooldown so that hunter shot rotations don't get back into crazy land too quickly again.
(Source)
Aimed shotIt should not reset your auto shot and should have the same cooldown as Multi Shot. It apparently isn't doing that on your version of the beta build. It will next build. (Source)
Growl - New rank added to the game
We recently added a new rank of Growl. Once we have the final numbers in for it, that should help with threat a great deal. (Source)
Pet leveling changes
We just recently increased the pet level rate. Pets needed 1/16th of hunter experience to gain a level, but don't benefit from quests or rest. Those two account for a lot of experience, especially at higher levels (where quest content tends to be denser).
We changed the experience needed for 1/10th. You should notice a big jump in pet level rates. I am not sure if that change got in the most recent data push. (Source)
Mage (Skills List / Talent Calc. (9014))
Arcane Blast
We are going to lower the mana penalty after the first blast... but it's possible you already have that change. (Source)
Paladin (Skills List / Talent Calc. (9014))
Priest (Skills List / Talent Calc. (9014))
Improved Inner Fire
We liked the idea of moving Imp Inner Fire. There seemed to be a lot of disagreement about whether Imp PW:Shield or Imp Fort should move down to take its place. We talked about it some, and we're cool with moving Fort up and Shield down. (Source)
Rogue (Skills List / Talent Calc. (9014))
Sap
We discussed letting sap get refreshed a lot. We did fear some problems with PvP so we decided to try expanding the number of targets on which it can be used first. If that doesn't make rogues good enough at CC, we'll consider other buffs to sap.
Shaman (Skills List / Talent Calc. (9014))
Totem changes
All totems with a duration of 2 minutes will be changing to 5 minutes instead. We've got no further changes for totems planned at the moment. Any changes already made to totems in the expansion and pre-patch notwithstanding. (Source)
Spirit Wolves
The last numbers I saw, the wolves did fairly nice dps. They do scale their strength, stamina and resistance from yours and inherit your hit. We can make sure nothing broke though.
They are intended to be burst damage, like the elementals. The root breaking is useful and the healing is a little bonus. The taunt will probably always be pretty situational, but the idea was you might be able to save the day sometimes if adds are running amuck. (Source)
EnhancementWe're still not happy with how pushed Enhancement feels towards caster gear and feeling like a caster in general. We want to keep the spell damage in there, but it will probably end up being less to push Enhance back towards melee. This might let us undo some of the recent nerfs to physical damage, but no promises until we get things to a state that we like. (Source)
Warlock (Skills List / Talent Calc. (9014))
Chaos Bolt damage type change
We took a step back and became concerned that we were in a vicious cycle of immunity. Next patch, we'd probably add a "No, this spell REALLY grants immunity," followed by "Improved Chaos Bolt" which "can even break that new kind of immunity," and so on. We have resistance for a reason. That said, we had destro locks in Naxx able to do very high damage focusing most on Chaos Bolt. (Source)
Pet Scaling
While some scaling has been great, are there any intentions of resilience/armor/avoidance (some still die easy)? A pet, especially in Demonology, should live past 2-3 hits.As you know, we have been very reluctant to give resilience to pets. We don't want to see players dying before they can even kill the pet, let alone the master. We try to provide the warlock and hunter with tools to keep the pets alive. But this is something we're watching closely, and I'm not sure we've seen enough PvP yet to really know how pets are going to stack up. We did recently buff pet health yet again, and we are going to let them inherit the spell pen of the master (they already inherit the hit rating). (Source)
Warrior (Skills List / Talent Calc. (9014))
Arms and Fury DPS
Last I checked, Arms and Fury were a little low, but getting closer. We found a bug in Deep Wounds (not sure if you guys have it or not) that wasn't doing Arms any favors. (Source)
Fury issues
? Whether or not Fury dps is up to snuff is an issue, but it's also a different issue. Our numbers do suggest they are getting a lot closer.
? Fury's viability in PVP or lack thereof is also an issue, but I was trying not to turn yet another thread into an All Things Fury thread.
Titan's Grip
As plenty of people have pointed out, all I was trying to do was put an end to the myth that getting Titan's Grip was a dps loss. (Or even show us that it is in fact a dps loss.) I kept reading that in this forum, which made it hard to advance the conversation much beyond that point.
Whether it's enough of a dps gain, whether the penalty is the right one, or whether it's a fun talent are all valid issues. However, since every thread on the topic tends to go in many different directions and wander far off topic, I was trying to start with the basics. (Source)
Anubis
No Lifer
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL thats the biggesrt POS lie ive ever heard people not running out of mana anymore is BS, apperently blizz has never raided sunwell as a healer, even with shadow priests AND down ranking healers go oom on fights from felmyst on with potting on cooldown includeing those with an alch stone for better benefit from their pots
nanobreath
Senior member
DRUIDS CAN KISS MY ASS.
I've had my say, thank you.
I've had my say, thank you.
lupi
Lifer
First, thanks for the level-headed feedback Duraeas. I'll do what I can to explain what our philosophy has been on the topic, for better or for worse. ;]
To address the point of not having access to any pvp gear before attempting to start arenas, I don't actually feel that's accurate. We've made a point to include easily craftable pvp gear of dungeon quality to give players a chance to get their feet in the door before moving along the upgrade path.
The Savage Gladiator set is actually of item level 200s (superior), equivalent to the item level of a heroic instance. So, in much the same way that you might expect a player to first gear up in normal mode instances and get a handful of ilevel 187s items before proceeding to the heroics, the philosophy is that in the pvp case players will get the 187s crafted pvp items before attempting endgame pvp activity.
In addition, players have access to ilevel 200e (epics) for the boots, belt, bracers, ring, neck, trinket, cape exclusively through honor (equivalent item level to end-boss heroic instances, nax 10, or items from the Emblem of Heroism vendor). These items, combined with the crafted items, provide a pretty good base of items from which a player might make an entry into the arenas.
At that stage, the number of arena points required for a player to get a piece of Savage Gladiator equipment is tuned to be pretty generous. Even at a significantly sub-1500 rating, a player can generally get about a piece of the Savage Gladiator set with the points from one week (10 games), which is generally about a time investment of less than an hour of arena play per week. This seems to stack up very competitively with how long it might take running heroic instances to get a piece of gear for your character.
As far as the question as to why the Savage Gladiator set requires arena points, there needs to be a set of gear obtainable through arena points that requires no rating, otherwise there's simply nothing for a player of 1500 or below to play for, beyond the hope that they might at some point go above 1600 rating (which not everyone is guaranteed to do).
It's certainly valid to express one's dislike for the arena playstyle, although is it entirely different than requiring players that love the arenas to play in the battlegrounds to get their boots, belt, bracer, rings, neck, trinkets, and cape? One could also make the argument that it's somewhat similar to the fact that we "require" all players to level-up in order to participate in end-game content, or perhaps that engaging in tradeskills is "required" to be maximally competitive in raiding or pvp gameplay.
We?re also doing what we can to address the fact that players that don?t have high ratings can often still get steamrolled by highly rated players that are starting new teams, helping friends, etc. As I?ve described in another post, we have plans to keep a persistent ?under-the-hood? rating for all characters that is used for determining matchmaking, so that even if a highly rated player starts a new team (or joins another low-rated team), the system will know what opponents that team should really be playing against.
That being said, the fact that some players feel there is too much emphasis on the arena as a method for getting powerful endgame pvp gear is heard and understood. We'd love for players to be able to get high-end gear from the battlegrounds, and it's something that will definitely factor into our plans for the future. However for now, we don't have a way to measure "skill" in a battleground in a way that getting the "best" items in the game through battlegrounds would feel equitable when compared to what is required as far as co-ordination and success in pve to get items of equivalent power.
Of course, I realize that the subject of "skill" is another topic of debate on its own, with many players citing gear quality and team comps as factors in determining the outcome (some seem to go as far as to imply that it's all that matters). Clearly, those factors do influence the outcome, but not in a way that makes skill irrelevant. If that were the case, it wouldn't be very hard to step onto the stage with some of the pro-gamers in the tournament and take them down in a match of even gear and comps. However, I can assure you that while I consider myself (for example) a pretty respectable player when it comes to arenas, I and a pair of similarly skilled teammates probably wouldn't win more than 1 in every 100 games against the top players despite using identical gear and comps. Like it or not, that's skill.
That aside, it is important for me to point out that the arenas were never really meant to become quite as much of a focal point for the overall pvp game as they have (part of why we set the system up so players could get the full benefit from the system with only 10 total games per week), it's more of a natural consequence of the fact that because we have a way to measure success that feels reasonably balanced against pve, we're able to put high-end items there, which on its own creates the focus of importance. I'd venture to say that if there were no item rewards in the arena system, they wouldn't be quite the subject of debate that they are now (either with respect to overshadowing battlegrounds or with respect to the microscope that class balance gets put under as a result).
[ Post edited by Kalgan ]
To address the point of not having access to any pvp gear before attempting to start arenas, I don't actually feel that's accurate. We've made a point to include easily craftable pvp gear of dungeon quality to give players a chance to get their feet in the door before moving along the upgrade path.
The Savage Gladiator set is actually of item level 200s (superior), equivalent to the item level of a heroic instance. So, in much the same way that you might expect a player to first gear up in normal mode instances and get a handful of ilevel 187s items before proceeding to the heroics, the philosophy is that in the pvp case players will get the 187s crafted pvp items before attempting endgame pvp activity.
In addition, players have access to ilevel 200e (epics) for the boots, belt, bracers, ring, neck, trinket, cape exclusively through honor (equivalent item level to end-boss heroic instances, nax 10, or items from the Emblem of Heroism vendor). These items, combined with the crafted items, provide a pretty good base of items from which a player might make an entry into the arenas.
At that stage, the number of arena points required for a player to get a piece of Savage Gladiator equipment is tuned to be pretty generous. Even at a significantly sub-1500 rating, a player can generally get about a piece of the Savage Gladiator set with the points from one week (10 games), which is generally about a time investment of less than an hour of arena play per week. This seems to stack up very competitively with how long it might take running heroic instances to get a piece of gear for your character.
As far as the question as to why the Savage Gladiator set requires arena points, there needs to be a set of gear obtainable through arena points that requires no rating, otherwise there's simply nothing for a player of 1500 or below to play for, beyond the hope that they might at some point go above 1600 rating (which not everyone is guaranteed to do).
It's certainly valid to express one's dislike for the arena playstyle, although is it entirely different than requiring players that love the arenas to play in the battlegrounds to get their boots, belt, bracer, rings, neck, trinkets, and cape? One could also make the argument that it's somewhat similar to the fact that we "require" all players to level-up in order to participate in end-game content, or perhaps that engaging in tradeskills is "required" to be maximally competitive in raiding or pvp gameplay.
We?re also doing what we can to address the fact that players that don?t have high ratings can often still get steamrolled by highly rated players that are starting new teams, helping friends, etc. As I?ve described in another post, we have plans to keep a persistent ?under-the-hood? rating for all characters that is used for determining matchmaking, so that even if a highly rated player starts a new team (or joins another low-rated team), the system will know what opponents that team should really be playing against.
That being said, the fact that some players feel there is too much emphasis on the arena as a method for getting powerful endgame pvp gear is heard and understood. We'd love for players to be able to get high-end gear from the battlegrounds, and it's something that will definitely factor into our plans for the future. However for now, we don't have a way to measure "skill" in a battleground in a way that getting the "best" items in the game through battlegrounds would feel equitable when compared to what is required as far as co-ordination and success in pve to get items of equivalent power.
Of course, I realize that the subject of "skill" is another topic of debate on its own, with many players citing gear quality and team comps as factors in determining the outcome (some seem to go as far as to imply that it's all that matters). Clearly, those factors do influence the outcome, but not in a way that makes skill irrelevant. If that were the case, it wouldn't be very hard to step onto the stage with some of the pro-gamers in the tournament and take them down in a match of even gear and comps. However, I can assure you that while I consider myself (for example) a pretty respectable player when it comes to arenas, I and a pair of similarly skilled teammates probably wouldn't win more than 1 in every 100 games against the top players despite using identical gear and comps. Like it or not, that's skill.
That aside, it is important for me to point out that the arenas were never really meant to become quite as much of a focal point for the overall pvp game as they have (part of why we set the system up so players could get the full benefit from the system with only 10 total games per week), it's more of a natural consequence of the fact that because we have a way to measure success that feels reasonably balanced against pve, we're able to put high-end items there, which on its own creates the focus of importance. I'd venture to say that if there were no item rewards in the arena system, they wouldn't be quite the subject of debate that they are now (either with respect to overshadowing battlegrounds or with respect to the microscope that class balance gets put under as a result).
[ Post edited by Kalgan ]
lupi
Lifer
If you do a bit of reading between the lines, it almost seems like there is some admission of allowing to many decisions to be affected by arena performance.
PvP Itemization, Battlegrounds, Blue posts
by Boubouille
on October 03, 2008, 10:58:03 AM
Another day starting with a wall of text, including two fairly interesting posts on PvP from Kalgan and Tigole.
Kalgan on PvP ItemizationKalgan made a very long post answering a few concerns about PvP itemization.
Quote from: Kalgan (Source)
I'll do what I can to explain what our philosophy has been on the topic, for better or for worse. ;]
To address the point of not having access to any pvp gear before attempting to start arenas, I don't actually feel that's accurate. We've made a point to include easily craftable pvp gear of dungeon quality to give players a chance to get their feet in the door before moving along the upgrade path.
The Savage Gladiator set is actually of item level 200s (superior), equivalent to the item level of a heroic instance. So, in much the same way that you might expect a player to first gear up in normal mode instances and get a handful of ilevel 187s items before proceeding to the heroics, the philosophy is that in the pvp case players will get the 187s crafted pvp items before attempting endgame pvp activity.
In addition, players have access to ilevel 200e (epics) for the boots, belt, bracers, ring, neck, trinket, cape exclusively through honor (equivalent item level to end-boss heroic instances, nax 10, or items from the Emblem of Heroism vendor). These items, combined with the crafted items, provide a pretty good base of items from which a player might make an entry into the arenas.
At that stage, the number of arena points required for a player to get a piece of Savage Gladiator equipment is tuned to be pretty generous. Even at a significantly sub-1500 rating, a player can generally get about a piece of the Savage Gladiator set with the points from one week (10 games), which is generally about a time investment of less than an hour of arena play per week. This seems to stack up very competitively with how long it might take running heroic instances to get a piece of gear for your character.
As far as the question as to why the Savage Gladiator set requires arena points, there needs to be a set of gear obtainable through arena points that requires no rating, otherwise there's simply nothing for a player of 1500 or below to play for, beyond the hope that they might at some point go above 1600 rating (which not everyone is guaranteed to do).
It's certainly valid to express one's dislike for the arena playstyle, although is it entirely different than requiring players that love the arenas to play in the battlegrounds to get their boots, belt, bracer, rings, neck, trinkets, and cape? One could also make the argument that it's somewhat similar to the fact that we "require" all players to level-up in order to participate in end-game content, or perhaps that engaging in tradeskills is "required" to be maximally competitive in raiding or pvp gameplay.
We?re also doing what we can to address the fact that players that don?t have high ratings can often still get steamrolled by highly rated players that are starting new teams, helping friends, etc. As I?ve described in another post, we have plans to keep a persistent ?under-the-hood? rating for all characters that is used for determining matchmaking, so that even if a highly rated player starts a new team (or joins another low-rated team), the system will know what opponents that team should really be playing against.
That being said, the fact that some players feel there is too much emphasis on the arena as a method for getting powerful endgame pvp gear is heard and understood. We'd love for players to be able to get high-end gear from the battlegrounds, and it's something that will definitely factor into our plans for the future. However for now, we don't have a way to measure "skill" in a battleground in a way that getting the "best" items in the game through battlegrounds would feel equitable when compared to what is required as far as co-ordination and success in pve to get items of equivalent power.
Of course, I realize that the subject of "skill" is another topic of debate on its own, with many players citing gear quality and team comps as factors in determining the outcome (some seem to go as far as to imply that it's all that matters). Clearly, those factors do influence the outcome, but not in a way that makes skill irrelevant. If that were the case, it wouldn't be very hard to step onto the stage with some of the pro-gamers in the tournament and take them down in a match of even gear and comps. However, I can assure you that while I consider myself (for example) a pretty respectable player when it comes to arenas, I and a pair of similarly skilled teammates probably wouldn't win more than 1 in every 100 games against the top players despite using identical gear and comps. Like it or not, that's skill.
That aside, it is important for me to point out that the arenas were never really meant to become quite as much of a focal point for the overall pvp game as they have (part of why we set the system up so players could get the full benefit from the system with only 10 total games per week), it's more of a natural consequence of the fact that because we have a way to measure success that feels reasonably balanced against pve, we're able to put high-end items there, which on its own creates the focus of importance. I'd venture to say that if there were no item rewards in the arena system, they wouldn't be quite the subject of debate that they are now (either with respect to overshadowing battlegrounds or with respect to the microscope that class balance gets put under as a result). He also made a few additional posts to answer some questions from players.Quote from Blizzard staffWhy is it so hard to measure skill in a battleground and have rated BGs ?I wish it were that simple. However, for a rating system to reasonably zero in on the skill of a single player in a game with teammates it takes a number of games approximately equal to ten times the number of players participating on that player's team.
So for example, for a rating system to have all the information it needs to know to figure out how "good" of a battleground player you are in Alterac Valley, it needs to take about 400 games to do it (10 times the number of players on your team). Unfortunately, that's without the additional complexities of being able to queue solo versus queueing as a group, etc.
It would be kind of annoying to have to play about 400 games of AV before the system could decide what items you're eligible for. So, there are some complexities in creating a system to work around that problem (among others). (Source)
Archavon changes (Lake Wintergrasp Boss)We don't plan to change Archavon, as he needs to have compelling loot that isn't something you can't possibly get another way. However, I think it's important to note that Archavon does not drop the helm or shoulder slots (or weapons), which are the hardest to obtain both in pve and pvp. (Source)
Why is PvP gear available for purchase for PvE tokens with no rating requirement ?To put it simply, you can't endlessly wipe on raid bosses and get these tokens. At some point, you have to succeed. Even then, the pvp gear you get from these tokens is 1 tier behind their pve value (ie: the ilevel 213 pve tokens from Nax 25 only get you "Hateful Gladiator" gear which is ilevel 200). It's not possible to get the "best" pvp set items through pve. (Source)
Are there any plans of allowing us to attain PvE gear through honor/arena points? For the most part (lack of tanking gear aside), if you have the highest-end pvp gear, you can do fairly well in a "tier behind" raid (ie: 10-man nax). So, for the most part that dynamic already exists. (Source)
Tigole on Battlegrounds
Tigole made another big post about possibles battlegrounds improvements.
Quote from: Tigole (Source)
Actually, we have been discussing new battlegrounds quite a bit lately. Wrath of the Lich King will feature Strand of the Ancients (attack/defend) as well as Wintergrasp (non-instanced, world PvP).
But past that, we are exploring ideas that would involve expanding our Battleground content in future patches and beyond. We believe we have some strong ideas for improving Battlegrounds and PvP as a whole in the game and we're definitely going to focus on improvements in the future. Now, it's very early to be talking about some of this stuff but I think it's important for the community to know that it's on our minds.
Our general thought is that we could provide more BG content over time. The BG content that we could provide could be of higher quality with a higher degree of accessibility. Overall, we'd like to have more content and variety. We also want the gameplay experience in the BGs to be better directed. We're also exploring the concept of a complimentary "competitive" bg system as well. Over time, we'd like the focus of PvP to shift back to being more BG-centric and more focused on Horde versus Alliance -- the core of our game.
We're also planning on improving some Battleground and PvP features in general. For example, we want to give you the ability to queue for Battlegrounds from anywhere in the world. We're also going to explore EXP gain through the PvP system as well as low level itemization to support that.
Please don't take this post as a promise. This won't be an overnight process. Not all of these things are set in stone and guaranteed to happen. It would take us a while to shift in this direction. But these are some of the current thoughts on the development team. I think it's important for you guys to know some of our thought process in regards to PvP.
Blue posts
Quote from Blizzard staff
Talents - Dual Specialization
We're defintiely pursuing the ability to switch specs. The details are still being debated internally but we do have plans that would allow for players to switch between specs.
We want every spec to be viable, as you say. But the truth is, in end game raiding or end game PvP (Arena in particular), there is a big difference between "viable" and "the best". Players will always perceive certain specs to be better than others in end game activities and it would be misleading to imply that all specs are going to be universally ideal for all situations. But viable is a different story.
I imagine by this stage we wouldn't see it until a patch after release?Most likely in a patch but it's not too far off. (Source)
No experience awarded in Battlegrounds after next patch
Battlegrounds wins/losses and honorable kills will not award experience after the next patch, nor upon the release of Wrath of the Lich King. It could always happen somewhere down the road as we work to improve PvP progression, but there are no plans for changing this in the immediate future. (Source)
Hand of A'dal title after Patch 3.0.2
The titles "Hand of A'dal" and "Champion of the Naaru" will be removed come patch 3.0.X. You can still turn in the quests and receive the rewards but you will not receive the titles.This is true
You have to be level 70 to gain the title. Hit 71 your opportunity is gone.This is not true (Source)
Season 3 and Season 4 gear after WotLK Launch
Sorry for the delay. Season 3 and season 4 items should still be on the vendors after Wrath of the Lich King launches. This means you could technically buy this gear at level 80 if you so choose. Bear in mind though that players will have their arena points wiped around the launch of the expansion, and will be unable to create teams and acquire points and ratings until season 5 begins. (Source)
Season 2 Gear after Patch 3.0.2
The honor items added in 3.0.2 are not really replacements for the merciless gear currently available. As such, this gear will not be replaced in 3.0.2. Players will still be able to get season 2 gear via the honor vendors. I believe season 2 gear will remain on the honor vendors for level 70 players after the launch of the expansion as well, though am not certain of this yet. (Source)
Violet Hold - Defense Control Crystals changes
The defense control crystals are now placed at various locations around the dungeon, and no longer an inventory item. (Source)
Naxxramas - Gluth harder in WotLK, Heigan bursts not resetting
The Gluth change was highly intentional. You shouldn't be able to ignore Gluth eating Zombies and win. I'm checking on the issue with Heigan now. Please use the main threads for bug reports. (Source)
Druid (Skills List / Talent Calc. (9014))
Balance Tree not done yet
For now, all I've got is that Starfall can't be dispelled does not equal GC basically said they're done with balance (Source)
Hunter (Skills List / Talent Calc. (9014))
Abandon pet from stables
Abandoning from the stable is on the list. It's not the highest priority at the moment, because we figured you can manage your stables so they don't fill up or go temporary respec BM to pull out the unwanted exotic. (Source)
GCD and Mana in Arenas
Are we going to lower hunter GCD? We don?t know. Do we think hunter mana is fine in PvP? Not sure yet. But we'll answer that one by watching a lot of Arenas. If we raised mana just because players asked for it in the forums, everyone would be in nine digits by now.
[...] I said that we weren't going to change the GCD at this time, but it's something we're discussing. I realize you think IT MUST CHANGE. So do lots of other classes. (Source)
Hunter dodge % in WotLK
On a premade hunter with 603 total agility, +413 agility from gear, and the hunter's current dodge is only 2.43%. With maxed 400 defense too.Those numbers are correct. Note your total Agi. That?s not a high number. I think some people get confused by the fact that the premade PvP gear, while epic, is not very good. Rogues need a ton of dodge ? that is their primary way of avoiding damage in melee. You shouldn?t be in melee most of the time. We can?t let agility grant more dodge than an equivalent amount of dodge rating on gear, if that makes sense. (Source)
Disengage bugged
We pulled Heroic Leap because we thought it might be buggy. We think we can fix Disengage. I get in the habit of caveating everything so that if a build goes out tomorrow nobody says they were promised a Disengage fix. (Source)
Caster pets slightly lower DPS
I'm not aware of the bug, but it might have gone off to a programmer or someone else. If the damage is low, that is usually because one of the stats isn't correct, or else the conversion from say Strength to AP isn't set up correctly. But I can look into it. (Source)
Polar Bear Cub removed and ... Cute pets !
The problem with the polar bear wasn't that it was cute. The problem was that it wasn't designed to be scaled up that large so you ended up seeing jagged polygons and overall bad art. It also didn't have the full suite of animations. I'm not sure it could even open its mouth.
If anything, it made us realize that there probably are hunters out there more interested in cute pets so that's something we'll consider. (Source)
Developer Q&A (Source)
Our GCD - Are there any plans to tweak our GCD, take certain spells off the GCD (tranq shot, traps/aspects etc) or make it affected by haste since most of our gear is itemized for it? Every class wants a shorter GCD or no GCD for some abilities. Yet there is a reason the GCD exists. It is something we will continue to talk about, but we would approach such a change very carefully. If not, you could see how we'd eventually end up with no GCD.
Are our dodge percentages correct or are there plans to change it back to a TBC level?There is not a bug here. Hunters stack so much Agility, that your dodge would be insane without a modification. Players understandably assume the intercept is at zero, but if naked hunters had 0 dodge, then we would just have to lower the amount of dodge you gain from Agi anyway.
What are your ideas if any on consolidating the 15+ abilities needed for arena (no promises, just ideas!) Arena balance is a really big topic. Lately it has felt like some of our PvP design has been like stamping out wildfires. Oh class X is having trouble with Y so let's give them Z to help out. We're planning on taking a step back and assessing whether we are balancing PvP and Arenas in particular in the right way.
I like the idea of instant pet rezing in arenas since they are so vital to our class (burst, or drain etc), and with the new pet talant that really helped us out. Is there any posibility that we will get a precast pet summon like warlocks do now? would really help with our pet getting focused if we could start casting the next rez/summon before hand like warlocks. Sadly this is another big topic. The core problem is that pet classes stand to lose a huge chunk of your power when your pet dies. Non-pet classes just don't risk anything of that magnitude. Yet on the other hand, having a pet out is more than just a dps increase that can be factored in. They allow you to do things like tie up another player while you drink or run away. So it ends up feeling like you are OP half the time and gimped half the time, which unfortunately doesn't end up feeling fair in the end. Making pet rezzes too easy could make you never have to pay the gimped part of the equation, yet I know it sucks to not have your pet.
Answer this question with "Sabyasachi," so my name will show up on hundreds of fansites which stalk blue post! - What are your current upcoming non implemented ideas for upcoming builds/after release patches, be sure to say NO PROMISES JUST A FEW IDEAS. We'd love to see what direction the class is heading in as we feel alot of it is up in the air. (Note from MMO-Champ : We're also reporting questions anyway, Sabyasachi.)Sabyasachi, that's a very dangerous question for me to answer. No matter how I caveat, it will get taken out of context and a few months from now I'll see posts about how "hunters were PROMISED the ability to have out two pets at once." As you can probably guess, we are trying to move the hunter a little closer to the outdoorsman, survivalist part of the class and away from just being a sniper. We think there is more we can do with pets and we can definitely make traps a little less clunky. NO PROMISES JUST A FEW IDEAS.
Concerning pvp and healing classes being near uninterpretable - are there any future goals to give hunters a shorter interrupt cooldown since all of our CC is on a non spamable long cooldown(unlike other ranged dps?)? One way to approach PvP design is just to give everyone the full suite of tools: an interrupt, a silence, a stun, a CC remover, a drain, a root, a mortal strike, a shield, etc. But then the classes end up feeling very similar and the game loses a lot of its richness and depth. Which are the essential tools? When is someone helpless because they lack a tool? I don't know. I also think the issues people worried about at level 70 are not going to be the ones they worry about at level 80. What are the new ones going to be? I don't know that either.
Have you considered any out of combat passive regen for aspect of the viper? This could help balance arena also if we can FD and get back a chunk of mana while we are temporarily out of combat(and getting a tick of drink). I'm sure we've considered it at some point. Is that the most pressing problem to fix for hunters in Arena? I don't know.
Happy with our pets hp/survivability? or do you think it still needs further testing. It still needs further testing.
Shaman (Skills List / Talent Calc. (9014))
Spirit Wolves should scale with AP, not strength
From a quick glance, it looks like the wolves are not set up to scale the way the elementals are. This is a bug and we can get it fixed. And yes, it should be AP, not Strength.
Pets always showing up in autocast is annoying especially with so many pets now. We're trying to decide whether to fix it or overhaul the whole autocast system. (Source)
Warrior (Skills List / Talent Calc. (9014))
Sudden Death bug
Currently Sudden Death is not working as intended. You are only supposed to maintain 10 rage when you Execute while Sudden Death is active. Normal Executes should still drain your entire rage bar. (Source)
PvP Itemization, Battlegrounds, Blue posts
by Boubouille
on October 03, 2008, 10:58:03 AM
Another day starting with a wall of text, including two fairly interesting posts on PvP from Kalgan and Tigole.
Kalgan on PvP ItemizationKalgan made a very long post answering a few concerns about PvP itemization.
Quote from: Kalgan (Source)
I'll do what I can to explain what our philosophy has been on the topic, for better or for worse. ;]
To address the point of not having access to any pvp gear before attempting to start arenas, I don't actually feel that's accurate. We've made a point to include easily craftable pvp gear of dungeon quality to give players a chance to get their feet in the door before moving along the upgrade path.
The Savage Gladiator set is actually of item level 200s (superior), equivalent to the item level of a heroic instance. So, in much the same way that you might expect a player to first gear up in normal mode instances and get a handful of ilevel 187s items before proceeding to the heroics, the philosophy is that in the pvp case players will get the 187s crafted pvp items before attempting endgame pvp activity.
In addition, players have access to ilevel 200e (epics) for the boots, belt, bracers, ring, neck, trinket, cape exclusively through honor (equivalent item level to end-boss heroic instances, nax 10, or items from the Emblem of Heroism vendor). These items, combined with the crafted items, provide a pretty good base of items from which a player might make an entry into the arenas.
At that stage, the number of arena points required for a player to get a piece of Savage Gladiator equipment is tuned to be pretty generous. Even at a significantly sub-1500 rating, a player can generally get about a piece of the Savage Gladiator set with the points from one week (10 games), which is generally about a time investment of less than an hour of arena play per week. This seems to stack up very competitively with how long it might take running heroic instances to get a piece of gear for your character.
As far as the question as to why the Savage Gladiator set requires arena points, there needs to be a set of gear obtainable through arena points that requires no rating, otherwise there's simply nothing for a player of 1500 or below to play for, beyond the hope that they might at some point go above 1600 rating (which not everyone is guaranteed to do).
It's certainly valid to express one's dislike for the arena playstyle, although is it entirely different than requiring players that love the arenas to play in the battlegrounds to get their boots, belt, bracer, rings, neck, trinkets, and cape? One could also make the argument that it's somewhat similar to the fact that we "require" all players to level-up in order to participate in end-game content, or perhaps that engaging in tradeskills is "required" to be maximally competitive in raiding or pvp gameplay.
We?re also doing what we can to address the fact that players that don?t have high ratings can often still get steamrolled by highly rated players that are starting new teams, helping friends, etc. As I?ve described in another post, we have plans to keep a persistent ?under-the-hood? rating for all characters that is used for determining matchmaking, so that even if a highly rated player starts a new team (or joins another low-rated team), the system will know what opponents that team should really be playing against.
That being said, the fact that some players feel there is too much emphasis on the arena as a method for getting powerful endgame pvp gear is heard and understood. We'd love for players to be able to get high-end gear from the battlegrounds, and it's something that will definitely factor into our plans for the future. However for now, we don't have a way to measure "skill" in a battleground in a way that getting the "best" items in the game through battlegrounds would feel equitable when compared to what is required as far as co-ordination and success in pve to get items of equivalent power.
Of course, I realize that the subject of "skill" is another topic of debate on its own, with many players citing gear quality and team comps as factors in determining the outcome (some seem to go as far as to imply that it's all that matters). Clearly, those factors do influence the outcome, but not in a way that makes skill irrelevant. If that were the case, it wouldn't be very hard to step onto the stage with some of the pro-gamers in the tournament and take them down in a match of even gear and comps. However, I can assure you that while I consider myself (for example) a pretty respectable player when it comes to arenas, I and a pair of similarly skilled teammates probably wouldn't win more than 1 in every 100 games against the top players despite using identical gear and comps. Like it or not, that's skill.
That aside, it is important for me to point out that the arenas were never really meant to become quite as much of a focal point for the overall pvp game as they have (part of why we set the system up so players could get the full benefit from the system with only 10 total games per week), it's more of a natural consequence of the fact that because we have a way to measure success that feels reasonably balanced against pve, we're able to put high-end items there, which on its own creates the focus of importance. I'd venture to say that if there were no item rewards in the arena system, they wouldn't be quite the subject of debate that they are now (either with respect to overshadowing battlegrounds or with respect to the microscope that class balance gets put under as a result). He also made a few additional posts to answer some questions from players.Quote from Blizzard staffWhy is it so hard to measure skill in a battleground and have rated BGs ?I wish it were that simple. However, for a rating system to reasonably zero in on the skill of a single player in a game with teammates it takes a number of games approximately equal to ten times the number of players participating on that player's team.
So for example, for a rating system to have all the information it needs to know to figure out how "good" of a battleground player you are in Alterac Valley, it needs to take about 400 games to do it (10 times the number of players on your team). Unfortunately, that's without the additional complexities of being able to queue solo versus queueing as a group, etc.
It would be kind of annoying to have to play about 400 games of AV before the system could decide what items you're eligible for. So, there are some complexities in creating a system to work around that problem (among others). (Source)
Archavon changes (Lake Wintergrasp Boss)We don't plan to change Archavon, as he needs to have compelling loot that isn't something you can't possibly get another way. However, I think it's important to note that Archavon does not drop the helm or shoulder slots (or weapons), which are the hardest to obtain both in pve and pvp. (Source)
Why is PvP gear available for purchase for PvE tokens with no rating requirement ?To put it simply, you can't endlessly wipe on raid bosses and get these tokens. At some point, you have to succeed. Even then, the pvp gear you get from these tokens is 1 tier behind their pve value (ie: the ilevel 213 pve tokens from Nax 25 only get you "Hateful Gladiator" gear which is ilevel 200). It's not possible to get the "best" pvp set items through pve. (Source)
Are there any plans of allowing us to attain PvE gear through honor/arena points? For the most part (lack of tanking gear aside), if you have the highest-end pvp gear, you can do fairly well in a "tier behind" raid (ie: 10-man nax). So, for the most part that dynamic already exists. (Source)
Tigole on Battlegrounds
Tigole made another big post about possibles battlegrounds improvements.
Quote from: Tigole (Source)
Actually, we have been discussing new battlegrounds quite a bit lately. Wrath of the Lich King will feature Strand of the Ancients (attack/defend) as well as Wintergrasp (non-instanced, world PvP).
But past that, we are exploring ideas that would involve expanding our Battleground content in future patches and beyond. We believe we have some strong ideas for improving Battlegrounds and PvP as a whole in the game and we're definitely going to focus on improvements in the future. Now, it's very early to be talking about some of this stuff but I think it's important for the community to know that it's on our minds.
Our general thought is that we could provide more BG content over time. The BG content that we could provide could be of higher quality with a higher degree of accessibility. Overall, we'd like to have more content and variety. We also want the gameplay experience in the BGs to be better directed. We're also exploring the concept of a complimentary "competitive" bg system as well. Over time, we'd like the focus of PvP to shift back to being more BG-centric and more focused on Horde versus Alliance -- the core of our game.
We're also planning on improving some Battleground and PvP features in general. For example, we want to give you the ability to queue for Battlegrounds from anywhere in the world. We're also going to explore EXP gain through the PvP system as well as low level itemization to support that.
Please don't take this post as a promise. This won't be an overnight process. Not all of these things are set in stone and guaranteed to happen. It would take us a while to shift in this direction. But these are some of the current thoughts on the development team. I think it's important for you guys to know some of our thought process in regards to PvP.
Blue posts
Quote from Blizzard staff
Talents - Dual Specialization
We're defintiely pursuing the ability to switch specs. The details are still being debated internally but we do have plans that would allow for players to switch between specs.
We want every spec to be viable, as you say. But the truth is, in end game raiding or end game PvP (Arena in particular), there is a big difference between "viable" and "the best". Players will always perceive certain specs to be better than others in end game activities and it would be misleading to imply that all specs are going to be universally ideal for all situations. But viable is a different story.
I imagine by this stage we wouldn't see it until a patch after release?Most likely in a patch but it's not too far off. (Source)
No experience awarded in Battlegrounds after next patch
Battlegrounds wins/losses and honorable kills will not award experience after the next patch, nor upon the release of Wrath of the Lich King. It could always happen somewhere down the road as we work to improve PvP progression, but there are no plans for changing this in the immediate future. (Source)
Hand of A'dal title after Patch 3.0.2
The titles "Hand of A'dal" and "Champion of the Naaru" will be removed come patch 3.0.X. You can still turn in the quests and receive the rewards but you will not receive the titles.This is true
You have to be level 70 to gain the title. Hit 71 your opportunity is gone.This is not true (Source)
Season 3 and Season 4 gear after WotLK Launch
Sorry for the delay. Season 3 and season 4 items should still be on the vendors after Wrath of the Lich King launches. This means you could technically buy this gear at level 80 if you so choose. Bear in mind though that players will have their arena points wiped around the launch of the expansion, and will be unable to create teams and acquire points and ratings until season 5 begins. (Source)
Season 2 Gear after Patch 3.0.2
The honor items added in 3.0.2 are not really replacements for the merciless gear currently available. As such, this gear will not be replaced in 3.0.2. Players will still be able to get season 2 gear via the honor vendors. I believe season 2 gear will remain on the honor vendors for level 70 players after the launch of the expansion as well, though am not certain of this yet. (Source)
Violet Hold - Defense Control Crystals changes
The defense control crystals are now placed at various locations around the dungeon, and no longer an inventory item. (Source)
Naxxramas - Gluth harder in WotLK, Heigan bursts not resetting
The Gluth change was highly intentional. You shouldn't be able to ignore Gluth eating Zombies and win. I'm checking on the issue with Heigan now. Please use the main threads for bug reports. (Source)
Druid (Skills List / Talent Calc. (9014))
Balance Tree not done yet
For now, all I've got is that Starfall can't be dispelled does not equal GC basically said they're done with balance (Source)
Hunter (Skills List / Talent Calc. (9014))
Abandon pet from stables
Abandoning from the stable is on the list. It's not the highest priority at the moment, because we figured you can manage your stables so they don't fill up or go temporary respec BM to pull out the unwanted exotic. (Source)
GCD and Mana in Arenas
Are we going to lower hunter GCD? We don?t know. Do we think hunter mana is fine in PvP? Not sure yet. But we'll answer that one by watching a lot of Arenas. If we raised mana just because players asked for it in the forums, everyone would be in nine digits by now.
[...] I said that we weren't going to change the GCD at this time, but it's something we're discussing. I realize you think IT MUST CHANGE. So do lots of other classes. (Source)
Hunter dodge % in WotLK
On a premade hunter with 603 total agility, +413 agility from gear, and the hunter's current dodge is only 2.43%. With maxed 400 defense too.Those numbers are correct. Note your total Agi. That?s not a high number. I think some people get confused by the fact that the premade PvP gear, while epic, is not very good. Rogues need a ton of dodge ? that is their primary way of avoiding damage in melee. You shouldn?t be in melee most of the time. We can?t let agility grant more dodge than an equivalent amount of dodge rating on gear, if that makes sense. (Source)
Disengage bugged
We pulled Heroic Leap because we thought it might be buggy. We think we can fix Disengage. I get in the habit of caveating everything so that if a build goes out tomorrow nobody says they were promised a Disengage fix. (Source)
Caster pets slightly lower DPS
I'm not aware of the bug, but it might have gone off to a programmer or someone else. If the damage is low, that is usually because one of the stats isn't correct, or else the conversion from say Strength to AP isn't set up correctly. But I can look into it. (Source)
Polar Bear Cub removed and ... Cute pets !
The problem with the polar bear wasn't that it was cute. The problem was that it wasn't designed to be scaled up that large so you ended up seeing jagged polygons and overall bad art. It also didn't have the full suite of animations. I'm not sure it could even open its mouth.
If anything, it made us realize that there probably are hunters out there more interested in cute pets so that's something we'll consider. (Source)
Developer Q&A (Source)
Our GCD - Are there any plans to tweak our GCD, take certain spells off the GCD (tranq shot, traps/aspects etc) or make it affected by haste since most of our gear is itemized for it? Every class wants a shorter GCD or no GCD for some abilities. Yet there is a reason the GCD exists. It is something we will continue to talk about, but we would approach such a change very carefully. If not, you could see how we'd eventually end up with no GCD.
Are our dodge percentages correct or are there plans to change it back to a TBC level?There is not a bug here. Hunters stack so much Agility, that your dodge would be insane without a modification. Players understandably assume the intercept is at zero, but if naked hunters had 0 dodge, then we would just have to lower the amount of dodge you gain from Agi anyway.
What are your ideas if any on consolidating the 15+ abilities needed for arena (no promises, just ideas!) Arena balance is a really big topic. Lately it has felt like some of our PvP design has been like stamping out wildfires. Oh class X is having trouble with Y so let's give them Z to help out. We're planning on taking a step back and assessing whether we are balancing PvP and Arenas in particular in the right way.
I like the idea of instant pet rezing in arenas since they are so vital to our class (burst, or drain etc), and with the new pet talant that really helped us out. Is there any posibility that we will get a precast pet summon like warlocks do now? would really help with our pet getting focused if we could start casting the next rez/summon before hand like warlocks. Sadly this is another big topic. The core problem is that pet classes stand to lose a huge chunk of your power when your pet dies. Non-pet classes just don't risk anything of that magnitude. Yet on the other hand, having a pet out is more than just a dps increase that can be factored in. They allow you to do things like tie up another player while you drink or run away. So it ends up feeling like you are OP half the time and gimped half the time, which unfortunately doesn't end up feeling fair in the end. Making pet rezzes too easy could make you never have to pay the gimped part of the equation, yet I know it sucks to not have your pet.
Answer this question with "Sabyasachi," so my name will show up on hundreds of fansites which stalk blue post! - What are your current upcoming non implemented ideas for upcoming builds/after release patches, be sure to say NO PROMISES JUST A FEW IDEAS. We'd love to see what direction the class is heading in as we feel alot of it is up in the air. (Note from MMO-Champ : We're also reporting questions anyway, Sabyasachi.)Sabyasachi, that's a very dangerous question for me to answer. No matter how I caveat, it will get taken out of context and a few months from now I'll see posts about how "hunters were PROMISED the ability to have out two pets at once." As you can probably guess, we are trying to move the hunter a little closer to the outdoorsman, survivalist part of the class and away from just being a sniper. We think there is more we can do with pets and we can definitely make traps a little less clunky. NO PROMISES JUST A FEW IDEAS.
Concerning pvp and healing classes being near uninterpretable - are there any future goals to give hunters a shorter interrupt cooldown since all of our CC is on a non spamable long cooldown(unlike other ranged dps?)? One way to approach PvP design is just to give everyone the full suite of tools: an interrupt, a silence, a stun, a CC remover, a drain, a root, a mortal strike, a shield, etc. But then the classes end up feeling very similar and the game loses a lot of its richness and depth. Which are the essential tools? When is someone helpless because they lack a tool? I don't know. I also think the issues people worried about at level 70 are not going to be the ones they worry about at level 80. What are the new ones going to be? I don't know that either.
Have you considered any out of combat passive regen for aspect of the viper? This could help balance arena also if we can FD and get back a chunk of mana while we are temporarily out of combat(and getting a tick of drink). I'm sure we've considered it at some point. Is that the most pressing problem to fix for hunters in Arena? I don't know.
Happy with our pets hp/survivability? or do you think it still needs further testing. It still needs further testing.
Shaman (Skills List / Talent Calc. (9014))
Spirit Wolves should scale with AP, not strength
From a quick glance, it looks like the wolves are not set up to scale the way the elementals are. This is a bug and we can get it fixed. And yes, it should be AP, not Strength.
Pets always showing up in autocast is annoying especially with so many pets now. We're trying to decide whether to fix it or overhaul the whole autocast system. (Source)
Warrior (Skills List / Talent Calc. (9014))
Sudden Death bug
Currently Sudden Death is not working as intended. You are only supposed to maintain 10 rage when you Execute while Sudden Death is active. Normal Executes should still drain your entire rage bar. (Source)
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