So I finally managed to dodge the angry barrage of 2k+ rated rogues running vial and hit 2.2k. The problem is I am currently too scared to que because of the shear amount of vial trinkets out there and the possibility of running into legendary daggers.I have never been this scared in my life, I haven’t played arena in over 2 weeks. I am currently having nightmares of rogues opening on me and killing me. It’s not only rogues who keep me away from arena, Hunter/Melee cleaves are almost equally as scary. I like arena, I just dislike dying in openers. I dislike dying in openers so much that I can’t even arena anymore. In WOTLK I never had this problem because it was actually balanced around that burst meaning people couldn’t just rush in and spam CC and get a kill without risk of getting counter globalled. Cata burst is not intended therefore not prepared for meaning it’s just plain stupid and gives unfair advantages to one side who can rush in and spend 30 second on CC people while being immune to damage and CC.I don’t really know what to do with myself. I have just been telling my partners I don’t feel like arenaing but I think they might kick me off the team soon. I tried raiding I’ve just cleared 8/8 and it’s getting a little boring. There are no real changes to fix anything in 4.3.2 except the vial nerf, but rogues still do crazy damage without vial.

_____________________
Vaeflare replies:

As you already mentioned, in the upcoming patch there is a change to Vial of Shadows that should reduce some of the burst damage you are experiencing in PvP.

Dying in openers certainly isn’t fun, and can be incredibly frustrating if you’re the one on the receiving end of such a coordinated attack, but don’t give up! In addition to perhaps taking some time to focus on other activities such as Rated and unrated Battlegrounds where you have more people to watch your back, you might also consider browsing some PvP videos from other members of the community to not only help inspire you, but to also arm you with a further arsenal of tactics that you can use to your own advantage against opposing teams.

Also, from my own experience, when I was having a lot of trouble against a certain class or spec that I felt countered my usual tactics, I found it helpful to sometimes grab a friend that played that class and spent some time dueling them so that they could critique me on areas where I could improve my skills, including my timing on using certain abilities, and how I could counter some of their own tactics. That way when I stepped back into arenas, I was more confident in my own skills and felt better-prepared for how to expose the weaknesses of my enemies.

Keep at it, and remember there are players out there equally as scared to see you step out onto the Arena floor.

______________________

One of our upcoming goals in Mists of Pandaria is to make the gap between the overall DPS/healing of both PvE and PvP items smaller. In fact, we have design plans for new PvP combat mechanics that will make PvP gear and weapons markedly better in PvP than equivalent level PvE gear and weapons.

The overall goal is to reduce the barrier for crossing between PvE and PvP (and vice versa), as well as to also ensure that PvP gear is the best in PvP, and PvE gear is the best in PvE.

More details on these upcoming changes will be posted as they become available.

Regardless of anyone’s rankings past or present, the process of learning and striving to improve never stops: it helps even the most battle-hardened gladiator remain able to go toe-to-toe with their fiercest opponents.

In team-based combat such as Arenas, pressuring an enemy in order to go for a kill or striving to protect your comrade from being the brunt of a focused assault are part of the experience, no matter what classes are driving to get the job done. Most matches are an incredibly complicated dance between combatants: a push and pull of offensive and defensive tactics, of coordinating switches, interrupts, dispels, crowd control, and of learning when to use your particular cooldowns or abilities, and when to change your tactics on the fly. Depending on who you ask, what class they are, what brackets they are in, and what team compositions they run, you are likely to get a totally different answer as to what particular class gives them the most trouble at any given time.

As far as the current balance of various classes: it’s something we are, as always, keeping a close watch on. We welcome you to post constructively about your observations in the appropriate threads, and the more focused and on-topic you can keep it, the better.

While it’s not possible to address every individual thread or concern of the community, rest assured we are listening, regardless if you see us post within a particular thread or not.

 

Greetings Combatants of the Glorious Alliance and the Merciless Horde!
It is my great honor to invite you all to test your skills, steel, and sorcery against Blizzard employees such as myself (watch the face though, I got an image to maintain).

So if a bit of You vs. Blue action sounds like your idea of a good time come on down to the 4.3.2 PTRs this Tuesday, January 17th. We’ll be queuing for Rated Battlegrounds from 3pm-6pm PST, you’ll know it’s us from our [Blizzard Horde] & [Blizzard Alliance] guild names.

Hope to see you on the fields of battle!

Rogue

• Adrenaline Rush no longer triggers a global cooldown.

Dungeons & Raids

• Baradin Hold
  • The roaming Eyes of Occu’thar have been replaced by hateful creatures who serve Alizabal.
• Dragon Soul
  • Warmaster Blackhorn
    • The visual warning for Twilight Elites’ Blade Rush should be easier to see.

Items

• Vial of Shadows damage (Lightning Strike) has been reduced to approximately one-third of previous damage. However, it will now trigger approximately 3 times as often. This is intended to keep overall DPS the same while reducing burst damage, especially in PvP.

Brewmaster Guide!

 

October 21-22, 2011

Join us at BlizzCon…
from the comfort of your own home!
The BlizzCon Virtual Ticket lets you experience the sights and sounds of BlizzCon through a live, high-definition Internet video stream. The Virtual Ticket provides four channels of access to the panels, eSports tournaments, and other activities at the show, warping you straight into the heart of BlizzCon! Check out the Virtual Ticket FAQ for more info!

$39.99 USD

FAQ
What is the Virtual Ticket multi-channel Internet stream?

Those who purchase the Virtual Ticket Internet stream will be able to switch freely between multiple high-definition (720p) channels dedicated to different areas of BlizzCon, allowing viewers expanded access to the panels and events they’re most interested in. The four HD streaming channels are:Main BlizzCon stage coverage, including panel discussions, game-related announcements, exclusive interviews, the opening ceremony, contests, and the closing concert.Panel Stage coverage, including all panels and events on the second stage.Complete StarCraft II tournament stage coverageComplete World of Warcraft tournament stage coveragePlease note that limited standard-definition coverage of the opening ceremony and tournaments will be available online for free — all you’ll need to watch the free streams is a Battle.net account.

If I order the BlizzCon 2011 Virtual Ticket Internet stream, will I receive the BlizzCon 2011-exclusive World of Warcraft and StarCraft II in-game items?

Yes, if you purchase the Internet stream, you will receive the BlizzCon 2011-exclusive World of Warcraft and StarCraft II items (to be announced at a later date). The items will be linked to the Battle.net account used to purchase the Virtual Ticket no later than the first day of BlizzCon.Please note that the BlizzCon 2011 in-game items are available only to players on World of Warcraft and StarCraft II realms/servers in the following regions: North America (including those serving players in Latin America, Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia), Europe, Russia, Taiwan, and Korea.

Will replays be available after BlizzCon is over?

Yes! Anyone who purchases a Virtual Ticket will be able to access on-demand replays of all four channels of coverage for up to two weeks after the end of the event.

I am not a DIRECTV customer; can I order the Pay Per View Internet stream?

Yes. A DIRECTV subscription is not required to order the multi-channel Internet stream. It is available for a purchase price of $39.99 USD (international pricing and availability may vary) and includes both days of the event.

What is the exclusive merchandise sale for BlizzCon Virtual Ticket buyers? When does it occur?

A limited quantity of BlizzCon merchandise is being set aside for BlizzCon Virtual Ticket holders, to be sold in an exclusive merchandise sale occurring in the weeks before the show. After ordering, your Battle.net account will automatically be flagged to get access to the merchandise sale. We’ll have more information to share on the sale at a later date.

How do I order the Virtual Ticket Internet stream?

You can order the Virtual Ticket by logging in to your Battle.net account and visiting the Virtual Ticket ordering page. Please ensure you have a valid, updated payment method associated with your Battle.net account. If you do not yet have a Battle.net account, you can create one for free at https://us.battle.net/account/creation/tos.html.

In what languages will the multi-channel Internet stream be available?

The BlizzCon 2011 Internet stream and DIRECTV broadcast will be available in English only.

Can I purchase the BlizzCon Virtual Ticket Internet stream if I live outside of the United States?

Yes, the BlizzCon Pay Per View Internet stream will be available for purchase in multiple regions around the world. Pricing and availability may vary by region.

Do I need to download anything to view the live stream?

The most current version of Adobe Flash will be required to view the stream.

What are the system requirements to view the live stream?

PC Requirements:Intel® Pentium® 4 2.4GHz or Intel Core 1.6GHz (SSE2-enabled processor required for AMD systems) or higherMicrosoft Windows® XP Professional or Home Edition with Service Pack 2 or Microsoft 2000 or later512MB of RAM Graphics card with 128MB of RAM50MB of available hard-disk space for installation Microsoft DirectX-compatible sound card and display adapterAdobe Flash Player 10.0.32 or higherMac Requirements:Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) or higherSafari 3 or Firefox 3 browser or higherAny Mac with Intel CPU512MB of RAM (recommended)Flash Player 10.0.32 or higherSupported Browsers:Firefox 1.1 or later, Internet Explorer 7.0 or later, Safari, Google Chrome, or Opera

What are the minimum bandwidth requirements for the viewer?

You will need a broadband connection such as DSL or cable with at least 1.2Mbps download bandwidth.

I purchased the BlizzCon 2011 Pay Per View event through DIRECTV. Do I have to pay for the Internet stream?

No, the Internet stream is included for free in your DIRECTV Pay Per View event purchase. After ordering through DIRECTV, you will receive an email containing a code that will grant one Battle.net account access to the Virtual Ticket Internet stream and the BlizzCon 2011 World of Warcraft and StarCraft II in-game items. Enter this code through the DIRECTV code redemption page at any time, and your Battle.net account will be flagged to the Internet stream. Make sure to redeem this code using the Battle.net account you wish to receive the in-game items.

When will the BlizzCon DIRECTV Pay Per View be available in the United States?

Existing DIRECTV customers in the United States will be able to order the BlizzCon Pay Per View event though DIRECTV beginning Monday, October 10. Please note that you will need to purchase the event through DIRECTV, not the Blizzard Virtual Ticket web page, in order to view the Pay Per View event on television. Visit www.directv.com/blizzcon for more information.New customers who order DIRECTV through their special BlizzCon promotional page at www.directv.com/blizzcon before September 25 will receive the BlizzCon Pay Per View event and Virtual Ticket Internet Stream for free.Customers who order through either method will receive a code from DIRECTV via email granting access to the Internet stream and the in-game items.

Happy Friday, everyone!

We’d like to get this day started by offering you a first look at the legendary daggers coming with the patch 4.3 raid, Dragon Soul. We’ve got them set up on a night elf rogue wearing the upcoming tier 13 armor.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150323249109034&set=a.10150277767579034.343653.138011799033&type=1&theater

Enjoy!

It looks like Blizzard is gearing up to announce a new expansion for World of Warcraft. Yesterday they filed a trademark for the title “Mists of Pandaria” in the United States. 

The trademark application (via MMO-Champion) applies to “Computer game software; computer game discs; computer game software and related instruction manuals and guides sold together as a unit; downloadable computer game software; computer game software downloadable from a global computer network; downloadable electronic games via the internet and wireless devices; interactive multimedia computer game program; mousepads.” This rules out the possibility that this is just a comic or some other form of merchandise. 

Some of you aren’t sufficiently nerdy enough to know what Pandaria is. Allow me to explain. Pandaria is the island home of the Pandaren, a mysterious race that resembles giant Pandas. Their society most closely resembles feudal Japan – okay, it’s pretty much exactly like feudal Japan. They appeared in WarCraft III to a limited extent. Players could control Pandaren Brewmaster units in a few select missions. 

The race actually started as a joke. On April’s Fools Day a few years back, Blizzard stated they were going to be one of the four playable races in WC3. The giant Panda people were surprisingly well-received by gamers, though, so Blizzard decided to work them into the game’s lore. 

It’s sort of hard to believe that Blizzard would make an entire World of Warcraft expansion based around a race they made up for “lulz.” While WoW does have a comic tone at times, generally the main focus of an expansion is serious in nature. For example, the Cataclysm expansion is focused on how the world is literally coming apart at the seams after the return of the mad black dragon Deathwing. 

While Blizzard is typically the sort of company that releases one big project a year, I am slightly curious whether Pandaria will be something smaller. Maybe it’s a mobile game? Pandaren would make for a good kid’s game, too. 

If an announcement is forthcoming, it will probably happen at BlizzCon. BlizzCon 2011 will take place on October 21st and 22nd. 

“In a raid you can repair by using a repair bot, Jeeves, a Travelers Tudnra Mammoth. Some dungeons and raids have vendors at the entrance who can repair your things as well such as Ulduar or Firelands. Make sure you hit a vendor for repairs after entering a dungeon instead of using a repair bot cool down!”

---

Want to experience the panel discussions, tournaments, game-related announcements, and all the excitement of BlizzCon 2011 from the comfort of your own home? Then be sure to check out the BlizzCon Virtual Ticket! 

The BlizzCon 2011 Virtual Ticket is now available for purchase around the world for $39.99 USD (pricing may vary by region). Virtual Ticket coverage will be available as a multi-channel Internet stream and also via Pay-per-View on DIRECTV in the United States, granting viewers a front-row seat to all of the action on the show floor including exclusive interviews, demos, and more! 

DIRECTV customers who order the Pay-per-View event will receive the multi-channel Internet stream at no extra charge, and those who order the BlizzCon Virtual Ticket will also receive this year’s to-be-announced BlizzCon-exclusive World of Warcraft and StarCraft II in-game items. 

Don’t miss out! To learn more about the BlizzCon Virtual Ticket, head on over to our official BlizzCon 2011 Live Stream page or read the FAQ.

Thanks to the overwhelming generosity of World of Warcraft players around the world who purchased the Cenarion Hatchling pet, we’ve raised a total of more than $1.9 million USD to support the ongoing earthquake and tsunami relief efforts in Japan. In May, we announced that for every Cenarion Hatchling purchased by July 31, 2011, 100% of the $10 USD adoption fee would be going to assist victims of this disaster — and the community responded by opening up their hearts and wallets wide. Thanks again for your support and for helping to make an impact on the lives of those affected by these events. 

World Joyland (环球动漫嬉戏谷, Huánqiú Dòngmàn Xīxì Gǔ) better known as the Warcraft and Starcraft-themed amusement park, has been the subject of massive speculation since the first digital rendering surfaced on the internet six months ago. An amusement park entirely devoted to making your online virtual nerd-topia a reality, the EPIC potential of our MMORPG fever-dreams made manifest led us to the park with pretty massive expectations.

Joyland is located in Changzhou, Jiangsu province, and if you need directions we’ve got you covered (even though non-noobs would probably be able to find the park relying on nothing but their roaming skillz). It claims to be the world’s first video-game-themed park, it cost 200 million yuan (about $30 million USD) and includes seven sections (see our review of the non-Blizzard sections here) spread over 600,000 square meters.

Joyland might not succeed in actually evoking the gamer’s experience – there were no activities anywhere evocative of actual game-play (they confiscated our bow and mage staff at gate, so no 20-sided dice) and there was a shocking dearth of nerds. But the sheer and constant stimulation factor more than makes up for the lack of felicity in recreating epically massive terrains that gamerz have sacrificed their health and sex lives to live inside of.

The concept of the park in general is actually pretty cool – Joyland is an attempt to merge our digital entertainment lives with the real world:

World Joyland will gather the world’s best contents of digital culture, combine the newest digital entertainment and interactive technologies, partially realize anime-and-game virtual sceneries, innovate anime and game communication and display methods, interpret the core value of digital culture, archive education during entertainment.

To that end, they have devoted a large section of the park to arguably the two most popular games on the planet: Blizzard behemoths World of Warcraft and Starcraft. And the park has now successfully become a conceptual mecca of sorts to the gamers of the earth. 1337!

They’ve also built enormous gaming and technology R&D facilities on the park premises, including the National E-Sports Competition Center(!!!), International Anime-and-Game Expo Pavilion, Anime-and-Game Technology and Derivatives R&D Park, and a Digital Technology High-end Professionals Training Center.

According to their promotional video (see below) China wants World Joyland to compete with the likes of Universal Studios and Disney! They don’t bother to address the logistical and legal issues involved with exporting such a shanzhai-tastic park, though, without going completely broke from legitimately licensing the project.

Because they obviously didn’t purchase the rights to use characters and names from Blizzard, the Warcraft park is instead “Terrain of Magic” and Starcraft is humorously mislabeled the “Universe of Starship.”

The sheer size of the park left some of us wishing we’d done more research before our visit. We missed entirely, for example, the giant theater near the entrance that was likely screening the terrifying fire-breathing underwater/space monster show being promoted on Joyland’s many posters around Changzhou.

After hitting the restrooms and traipsing through Taobao street, we hung a left and entered World of Magic. Park maps are available at the entrance, and except for the section titles, are entirely in Chinese. We set our sights on what looked like the largest things on the map, and made our way in that direction.

Terrain of Magic (a.k.a Warcraft world)

No doubt about it, one of the most entertaining aspects of the park is the sign boards in front of each attraction. They include huhlarious descriptions, in both English and Chinese, followed by a rating system using one of three indexes: Splendor Index, Happiness Index, and Thrill Index (no damage index). Here’s an example from the first attraction:

With thousand years of unstopped war, this place is forbidden to losers and cowards. We are looking forward to a hero to bring back peace with his sword!

Unfortunately that ride was closed, particularly disappointing because the map makes it look like a giant battleground. Idk, maybes we have to L2p b4 going in.

We couldn’t help but imagine finding groups of aimless people waiting outside rides looking to join a raid. Or giant microphones blasting agitated youths cursing one another, or costumed dwarves screaming LEEEEROY JENKINSSS at 15 minute-intervals throughout the park.

Our first ride was an exciting little number called Splash of Monster Blood, and they’re not kidding about the splash. We’ll just say this much: trying to act cool by refusing to buy a sky blue poncho on your way in is a giant n00b stamp.

The ride was, as its sign board attests, a “beast-bloody journey” (a.k.a. your standard amusement park log ride affair.) After clicking and chugging up a tunnel full of orcs and monsters, you are then plunged down into water that manages somehow to smash you from both the front and the back simultaneously. Sadly, this was not the wettest part of the ride. You are then squirted by multiple streams of water, which we later found out are aimed by demonic lookers-on who fill water-gun machines with coins to spray you.

Ride attendants in the Warcraft park were forced/delighted to be wearing what appeared to be glorified bam-bam outfits of brown and leopard-print spandex.

You can buy fake battle swords and Minnie Mouse hair bows, respectively, from the merch carts. Sword ran us 20rmb (about $3.50), Minnie ears about the same. One may be tempted to ravish the big-breasted elves and mer-women statues with one’s sword, but be prepared to face a judgmental “dude, there are kids” from your companions.

By the way, there are a LOT of kids.

The most impressive part of the Warcraft park are the enormous statues lining your park experience with massive copyright infringement written all over their faces. There’s no horde/alliance distinction however, and tauren/night elves/humans are strewn about with seeming abandon. They throw in mermaids and dragons for good measure.

universe-of-starship.jpg Universe of Starship (a.k.a Starcraft world)

The transition from Warcraft World into Starcraft world was noticeable in the color palate. Everything changed from brown/orange/red to blue/yellow/white.

We saw a total of two other foreigners in the park, and barely more Chinese. We couldn’t imagine why it wasn’t packed on a summer weekend afternoon, but we also didn’t care because the longest we had to wait was 20-25 minutes for any ride, including the big-name roller coaster.

In fact, the best rides in the park often seemed the least populated, which was probably because most of the park guests were children, and locals in general tend to prefer the boring rides.

The main attraction of the park is a big blue inverted rollercoaster, aptly named the Sky Scraper but misspelled as the Sky Scrapper on its signboard. Amusement park rides are a dangerous affair in China, and we weren’t entirely sure we’d come back from this one alive. But we did, and have the photos to prove it.

One of the most disturbing parts of the park was the general decay we witnessed, unnerving in a park open only a hair shy of two months. Cracks in paint and rust on handrails made the attendants’ habit of screaming “Goodbye!” as the roller coaster surged out of the gates even more terrifying.

The other big attraction in Starcraft world is the Wrath of Ratheon, one of those drop tower rides that we skipped because every park has one.

Lastly, we walked into the largest, most overpowering unit at the center of Starship Universe to see what the 4D theater was all about. By far our longest wait, we were surrounded by oodles of teenage girls, which we don’t have time for because we’re busy farming XP, DUH! We were picturing the aforementioned fire-blasting sea monster posters 4D extravaganza, but instead got a boring Star Wars Episode I pod racer knock off ride. The 4D chairs jiggle you around enough to make the girls scream bloody murder, but it was a totally uninspiring experience in general. EXCEPT for the safety instructional video on the way in, where a ninja tells you not to smoke or get pregnant or tear off your shirt and get drunk:

The park is open from 9am to 10pm, but if you want that much time in the park you’ll have to arrange for your own transportation. In fact, if you have more than three or four people, hiring a car could actually be cheaper than the 160RMB roundtrip on trains each. Directions here.

The Idea of Joyland video via MIC Gadget (and yes, that is in game music from WoW you’re hearing):

July 19

General

• The frequency at which players can use /yell, /say, and any emotes is now throttled to prevent excessive spamming of chat logs from occurring.

Death Knights

• Improved Death Strike now provides 40/80/120% bonus damage, up from 30/60/90%, and a 10/20/30% critical strike chance, up from 3/6/9%.

Druids

• Flight Form now cancels the Leyara’s Locket buff.
• Moonfire will now generate Lunar Energy when crossing from Solar to Lunar on the Eclipse bar.

Dungeons & Raids

• All bosses in The Bastion of Twilight, Blackwing Descent, and Throne of the Four Winds once again award Valor Points in all raid sizes and difficulties. 10-player bosses award 35 Valor Points, while 25-player bosses award 45 Valor Points. This change does not apply to Argaloth in Baradin Hold. More information can be found here.
• Firelands
  • Superheated cannot be cast on players, even if they attack the Flamewaker Animators as they are channeling energy towards the Unstable Magma.
  • Alysrazor
    • Collecting Blazing Power now refreshes Wings of Flame to its full duration each time.
    • Alysrazor will now always face the correct direction during Firestorm.
    • Imprinted should now be cleared from characters under all conditions when the encounter resets.
    • Interacting with a Molten Feather will now dismount characters, preventing the feather from being wasted.
  • Beth’tilac
    • Beth’tilac will now only eat spiderlings that move very close to her (the range on her ability to consume them has been reduced). In addition, eaten spiderlings will no longer sometimes remain on the ground or on players once she consumes them.
    • Drones should no longer evade or aggro characters on top of the web.
    • Fixate now truly fixates on random targets.
  • Ragnaros
    • On 25-player Heroic difficulty, Cloudbursts will now always properly apply Deluge to 3 players before fading away.
    • It should always be possible to interact with Cloudbursts, even if several players click on one at the same time.

Items

• Heroic bind-on-equip items now sell to vendors for gold.

PvP

• A resolution has been put into place which should help alleviate Rated Battleground matchmaking delays. This fix corrects an issue that could occur if a team at the front of the queue was particularly difficult to match, resulting in a bottleneck which slowed matchmaking for all players in queue. More information can be found here.

Quests & Creatures

• The melee evasion angle of several creatures has been adjusted. Most notably, melee classes should no longer be seeing abilities, such as Backstab or Shred, getting parried when standing well enough out of Ragnaros’s melee evasion angle, or other bosses/creatures with similar evasion angles.

Hey all,

We are aware of the issue regarding extended queue times affecting Rated Battlegrounds. We’re currently investigating the situation and working to resolve it as soon as possible, but there isn’t an ETA for when this process will be complete. We’ll provide further updates as the situation develops and we thank you for your patience in the meantime.

Due to some recent player feedback we’ve made the decision to implement a hotfix that will put Valor Points back on the bosses in Blackwing Descent, Bastion of Twilight, and Throne of the Four Winds (except Argoloth).

We agreed that players should have some additional options for earning Valor Points beyond Firelands, Zandalari dungeons, and tier 11 Heroic difficulty raids. We don’t want raiding guilds to feel like they have to raid Firelands AND the old raids every week, but we do want players to feel like they have some options besides running ZA/ZG over and over.

Bosses in these raids will award 35 VP on 10-player normal difficulty, and 45 VP on 25-player normal difficulty, to match the rewards currently offered for the Heroic versions of those encounters.

This change should be live within the next few hours. You can stay informed about the latest hotfixes by checking the Patch 4.2 Hotfixes article for updates: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/3019413

BlizzCon may still be months away, but we’re already getting our contests ready for your invariably impressive submissions. You’ll be able sign up for the online and onstage contests soon with the launch of our upcoming brand-new BlizzCon Contests page. Keep checking in at BlizzCon.com so you don’t miss your chance to sign up for our Costume and Dance contests and submit your masterpieces for our Original Song, Fan Art, and Movie contests.

We understand that raw patch notes don’t always provide enough context for changes to the game, so we thought we’d take a moment to explain some of our logic behind the buffs and nerfs coming in the 4.2 “Rage of the Firelands” patch. We particularly want to try to combat the perception that classes end up nerfed in PvE as collateral damage from PvP nerfs (or vice versa). The number of PvP buffs versus PvP nerfs were about equal this time around, and we make careful consideration to keep the impact outside of PvP minimal. So, if we nerfed your class’s PvE damage, it’s most likely because we thought your class was doing too much damage in PvE.

No doubt you’ll disagree with some of our logic — “But we were middle of the pack!” seems to be the common rebuttal these days. Balance is an art, though, not a science. (This topic probably deserves its own blog, but I’ll try to spell it out briefly.)

Balancing a Battleship

Player feedback certainly plays a role in our deciding to make balance changes, but it’s just one small part. (And remember that our public forums are not the only place where players voice their opinions.) We also do a lot of internal testing, both simulations and actual character performance, and we collect a lot of external data, which needs to include players at a wide variety of skill levels.

If a class is performing poorly except in the hands of one percent of the population, that’s a problem, but it’s not an excuse for that class to be overpowered when played by that one percent, especially in PvP. In PvP, your group composition (whether your whole Arena team or just the participants in a given fight in a Battleground) matters enormously. In PvE, the encounter specifics matter enormously (and we’re about to get a new cast of characters in Firelands). As a result, it can be challenging to decide which numbers are the right numbers. It doesn’t make sense to balance PvE damage solely around Patchwerk-style target dummies and assume everything else is a gimmick. Likewise it doesn’t make sense to buff and nerf for each individual encounter. (Say a boss buffs casters — do you then nerf casters as a consequence?)

Also realize that we don’t believe in the existence of any single thermometer for estimating character performance. By that I mean there is no single relatively-accurate measurement of real and true DPS (or tanking, or healing) upon which most players agree. Everything from simulations to target dummy DPS to Arena comp percentages to the top 100 raid parses all count as pieces of the puzzle, and you really have to consider the totality of all of that information in the proper context.

Resto druids “win” healing meters now in part because their raid cooldown, Tranquility, shows up as healing. Warriors do well on Chimaeron because they take a lot of raid damage. (Resto shaman heal well on Chimaeron because everyone is wounded all the time.) Yet once you start eliminating data — “oh that’s a gimmick fight” or “oh, someone is inflating their meters by attacking an irrelevant target” — you risk skewing the results.

Statistics is a complex business. That doesn’t mean all of this stuff is inherently unknowable and nobody should bother. It just means you have to be careful; the discussions about these topics are never short and simple. It’s wise to be skeptical when anyone attempts to boil down conclusions on class balance to very simple declarations.

Simple Declarations

Having said that, we have a lot of ground to cover below, so some of these notes are going to be very terse by necessity. My apologies in advance.

General

We changed the way interrupts interact with spell schools. Our intent when we created dual school spells (like Mind Spike being Frost and Shadow) was to allow players locked out of one school to still have something to cast, and we now have the technology to deliver on that design. However, we maintained the rule that being interrupted while casting a dual-school spell will lock you out of both schools because we didn’t want players to only use those spells as a way of avoiding interruption.
We changed all heals to have 200% crits because we wanted to make crit a more attractive stat to healers. Anything random is already at a disadvantage when viewed by a healer, and one point of haste just flat out increased throughput more than a point of crit.
We removed the threat caused by buffs or crowd control because we wanted to make communication and coordination easier in dungeons, especially among strangers using Dungeon Finder. We want the challenge of a dungeon encounter to be the encounter mechanics, not marking targets. We also think this change will be a quality of life improvement for tanks, who inherited a lot of the responsibility for explaining fights, marking targets and otherwise setting the pace.
We changed the values of Agility for plate-wearers and Strength for leather-wearers to reinforce which type of armor you should be using and so we wouldn’t have to spend diminishing returns trying to balance tanks wearing non-traditional armor sets.

Death Knights

We added the cast time to Hungering Cold for PvP reasons. It is one of the most powerful forms of crowd control in the game, especially in Battlegrounds, and yet was impossible to prevent.
The nerfs to Obliterate and Howling Blast were made because Frost damage was too high in both PvP and PvE. Note that these values were hotfixed — you shouldn’t see damage drop further when 4.2 goes live.
The Glyph of Dark Succor change was to keep Death Strike from providing so much healing in PvP.
The Might of the Frozen Wastes change was a small tweak to help keep one-handed Frost relatively competitive with two-handed style.
The Unholy Might buff was to help catch Unholy up to Frost in PvE. Interestingly, we didn’t nerf Unholy damage at all in 4.1, but you can still see a small drop in their DPS because so many talented DKs went Frost. I’d love to have the discussion some time about how close two similar specs need to be before players will play the one that is most fun for them and not the one that does theoretical higher damage. Is it 5%? 1%? 0%?

Druids

We boosted Feral damage to compensate for their losing the attack power from Strength. Net DPS shouldn’t change much overall, though burst may be slightly higher. (We didn’t want to buff bleeds since that was a problem before in PvP.)
We cut back on the power of Innervates from Feral and Balance druids because we felt they were contributing to too much healer mana.
We changed several Balance druid mechanics to cut down on the damage they could do while moving in both PvP and PvE and to cut back on some of their strength in multi-dot fights in PvE. Furthermore, we felt like druids were spending too much time at one end or the other of the Eclipse bar by using dots rather than moving the bar back and forth as intended.
We toned down bear damage, because they were going to do more DPS than other tanks while tanking. Other changes were made to keep bears from neglecting certain core abilities.
We redesigned Restoration’s mastery because it was devalued in situations where druids did a lot of raid healing by HoT-ing different targets, especially in 25-player raids.

Hunters

Multi-Shot was doing too much damage in PvE given how simple it was to use.
Careful Aim allowed Marskman hunters to do too much damage in PvE raiding, where the 80% health phase could last for a long stretch of time.
However, the Careful Aim nerf also affected Survival, whose DPS was fine or even a little low, so we buffed Black Arrow to compensate.

Mages

We nerfed Arcane Blast because Arcane’s damage was too high in PvE. We wanted Arcane to be competitive with Fire, especially given that Fire tends to perform better on fights with movement or multiple targets. However, it looked like many Fire mages were begrudgingly respeccing to Arcane, which wasn’t the intent. We wanted Arcane to be competitive, not the only serious mage spec for PvE. (See Frost vs. Unholy note above.)
We originally tried nerfing Spellsteal’s cooldown, but that made it feel really random (for both sides) since the mage had no control over which spell was stolen. We instead nerfed the mana cost to encourage tactical use of Spellsteal and discourage spamming. We’d still like to try a model where dispels have a long cooldown but remove everything, but that is too big a change for now.
We added the diminishing returns to Deep Freeze and Ring of Frost (after earlier trying some different nerfs) to tone down Frost mage control, especially in the mid and lower tiers of PvP when dispels can’t be assured.

Paladins

We concluded PvE Holy paladins were ending fights with too much mana relative to other healers, so we raised the mana cost of their single-target heals.
We tweaked Holy Light because we wanted it to compete a little more with Divine Light, especially when used with Beacon of Light.
We buffed Word of Glory for three reasons: We felt Holy Power was mattering less to Holy paladins than it did at Cataclysm launch. We wanted to provide more uninterruptible healing in PvP. We knew Light of Dawn was trumping Word of Glory in almost all cases in 25-player raids.
We changed the Denounce mechanic to give Holy paladins slightly more offensive utility in PvP. We felt that ignoring the other healing classes came at some risk which was not the case for paladins.
We buffed Holy Radiance both to help PvE paladins feel like they could make larger contributions to raid healing (especially in light of the single-target nerfs) but also as part of a significant buff to Speed of Light to let Holy paladins have more mobility in PvP.
We made a tweak to Holy’s mastery to allow its bubble to stack, so it would be wasted less often when healing a single target.
We made Selfless Healer, Divine Protection, and Beacon of Light no longer dispellable so that paladins didn’t lose so much of their survivability in PvP to dispels. (At no point in this patch was Avenging Wrath undispellable — that was a myth.)
We redesigned Holy Shield, partially because paladin mitigation was going to be too good in the Firelands raid, but also because many paladins (though of course not all) told us they wanted a more dynamic rotation and less passive mitigation.
We buffed Seal of Righteousness to let Retribution use it for AE fights as intended, and also to buff Ret AE damage overall.
We made a slight buff to Selfless Healer. While we thought the old model was unbalanced and turned Ret into too much of a healing spec, we heard from a lot of players who liked the utility of being able to help heal somewhat. This talent should provide that trade-off in a more balanced way.

Priests

Shadow was doing too much DPS in PvE when multiple DoTs was favored, so we nerfed their DoT damage. We want Shadow to benefit from multi-DoTs, but Shadow’s damage was just too high under those conditions. We buffed Shadow cast-time spells to compensate.
We changed the facing requirement of Psychic Horror as a PvP quality of life change to make it consistent with other non-projectile crowd control spells.

Rogues

We nerfed Cloak of Shadows because it felt like rogues could counter both casters and melee specs too easily. This change forces them to choose between Cloak of Shadows and Combat Readiness.
However, we wanted to compensate rogues for this PvP nerf, and we concluded rogue damage in PvE was also too low, so we buffed their damage overall.
The buff to Hemorrhage was designed to make it less punishing when it wasn’t possible to get behind a target, which often arises in PvP but also sometimes in PvE.

Shaman

We previously nerfed Water Shield via hotfix because shaman were gaining too much mana in PvP when attacked (especially by pets to discourage drinking). The 4.2 change is just a more elegant implementation of the same nerf that should keep the same mana per time as they have currently.
We recognized Fire Nova had some usability issues so we increased its throughput and added the Flame Shock refresh mechanic to help ease some of the inconvenience. This is a new mechanic and one we are still evaluating.
We introduced the Glyph of Unleashed Lightning to help shaman feel less punished by movement in both PvP and PvE. The impact of changes like this is very difficult to model.
We nerfed Mana Tide for the same reason we nerfed Innervate — it was just providing too much mana for the group’s healers as a whole. We didn’t want to decrease the benefit to the shaman, so we redesigned / added the talent of Resurgence to help offset the nerf to them personally.

Warlocks

We nerfed the Glyph of Soul Swap to reduce the ease of applying multiple DoTs in PvP.
We nerfed Drain Life because Affliction was forsaking Shadowbolt in PvE, which wasn’t intended. We want Drain Life to be for utility, not primarily for damage, and we want all casters to have to hard cast at least some of the time. This was done via hotfix and players won’t see a change in 4.2.

Warriors

We put Deadly Calm and Recklessness on the same cooldown to reduce warrior burst in PvP.
We also nerfed Arms and Fury damage across the board because they were doing too much damage in both PvP and PvE. While we are sensitive to casters outperforming melee on several raid encounters, having warriors handily outperform all other melee isn’t the solution to that problem.
The stance requirement changes on long cooldowns was a quality of life change.
We didn’t want warriors using Charge as a rotational ability on some fights without actually having to move (which was a bug created as a result of a fix put in to help hunter problems with minimum range).

Raid Nerfs

As discussed previously, now that players who have spent a lot of time in Throne of the Four Winds, Blackwing Descent, and Bastion of Twilight are moving on to Firelands, we wanted to make sure players who previously couldn’t progress on those raids are now able to experience them. In a way, this provides new content for everyone — if you’re done with the 4.0 raids, you now have 4.2. If you haven’t seen the 4.0 raids yet, now’s your chance.

As I write this, 4.2 has not been completed, so there is still time for us to make additional changes. Constructive feedback is always welcome. Even the most articulate, logical, and passionate argument won’t always force our hand, but it helps.

Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street is the lead systems designer for World of Warcraft. He successfully resisted the urge to bore the other designers with tales of obscure marine fauna for Vashj’ir, though he did suggest the pogonophorans.

There will be a new Dungeon Journal coming out in Patch 4.2. The WoW Vault has added a basic Dungeon Journal Guide so that you have the opportunity to preview the forthcoming Dungeon Journal and be familiar with it’s features when it releases.  

Let us know what you think of the Dungeon Journal so far! Good information? Will it be helpful? Or is it jsut another icon to clutter up your action bar?

May 20-June 1

Classes

Stationary ground effects should no longer move with the casting character if he or she moves (or is moved) from his or her current location.

Warlocks
It is no longer possible under specific circumstances for players to keep the buff from the now-defunct Improved Demonic Tactics talent.

Glyph of Imp should not be increasing the spell damage of all warlock pets by 20%.

Dungeons & Raids

Blackwing Descent

Maloriak now prefers to cast Flash Freeze on caster targets more than 15 yards away. Tank-specialized characters are not targeted, but Flash Freeze can chain onto them. If all the characters in the raid stack up within 15 yards of the boss, they can be hit by Flash Freeze.

Throne of the Tides

Unstable Corruptions now award much less experience when killed on normal difficulty.

Zul’Gurub

Shadows of Hakkar can no longer be reflected or deflected.

Professions

Archaeology

The Bountiful Bags guild perk should no longer sometimes incorrectly reward Archaeologists with multiple keystones from dig sites.

Skinning

Players can no longer continue gaining Skinning skill points using low-level creatures below the intended skill threshold.

PvP

Arenas

It should no longer be possible under specific conditions for the Matchmaking Value shown at the end of an Arena match to be incorrect.

Battlegrounds

Several changes have been made to Battleground queuing to improve the flow for those who queue for random Battlegrounds versus those who queue for specific ones.

The ability for players to retain a second queue for a Battleground after they’ve already entered one has been removed. Previously, players were able to queue for two Battlegrounds, have one queue pop and retain their second queue while they decided if they wanted to join the one that was ready. This is no longer the case. When a Battleground queue pops players will automatically be removed from all other active queues. To queue for a different Battleground it will be necessary to finish the match and queue again. This solves a design issue in that the old system gave players an opening to abandon their teammates if things weren’t going as well as they’d hoped; and it also solves some queue system inconsistencies that were being caused as a side effect of how the old system functioned.

Races

The goblin racial Best Deals Anywhere should now only be applying to vendors with associated reputations. It no longer incorrectly applies to vendors with no attached reputations, nor does it apply to flight path costs. (Note: the displayed costs for flight paths require a client-side patch to update and are not currently reflecting this racial change). In addition, it is no longer possible for goblin characters exalted with their guild to receive an extra discount on top of the exalted faction discount from guild vendors.

Quests & Creatures

Gilneas

Genn Greymane should now always correctly enter The Battle for Gilneas City, ensuring the event won’t sometimes stall during the final phase.