Patch 5.3 Dev Interviews
Gamebreaker had a live video interview with Blizzard this week, so here is a recap in case you missed it!
Subscription Numbers
- Players come back for expansions, and patches help a little bit, but players are always lost over time until the next expansion. Blizzard is trying to get content and expansions out quicker to make sure everyone has something to do.
- When quitting the game, players mention that the game changes too fast and they couldn't keep up.
- The devs read fansites and the official forums to get feedback and see what players are thinking, but the players that actually post or even read those sites are the minority.
PvP Changes
- The PvP gearing changes in Patch 5.2 were meant to address the different tiers of PvE gear by matching them with different tiers of PvP gear. Upgraded items made this messy and a non optimal solution.
- Patch 5.2 tried to make some of the less interesting talents more desirable choices, but the changes went a little bit too far and made some classes too good. This will hopefully be corrected by the changes in Patch 5.3. The goals of these changes are to try and make different classes and specs competitive, make the gameplay fun, and then make some talents and rotations interesting and fun to play.
- World PvP outcomes generally depend on how many players of each faction there are, which makes it difficult to balance for. The gearing changes in 5.3 aren't likely to cause drastic changes for most world PvP battles.
- After the gearing changes made in 5.3, Conquest gear should let you start to raid with your friends, and PvE gear should let you start to PvP with your friends.
- There is no advantage to be gained by queuing as an incorrect role for battlegrounds, as the system has no set number for each role, it just roughly matches the number of healers on both sides. Signing up as a healer when you are not healing won't give you a faster queue, but it will put your team at a disadvantage.
- Matching players by gear for battlegrounds is a nice idea, but it would be hard for players to tell that it is working. The base resilience change and other changes in 5.3 should help to address large gear disparities.
- Warsong still has problems with graveyard camping. One potential solution can be seen in Deepwind Gorge, which has two different graveyards, putting you at the one on the opposite side when you die.
- The best kind of CC has a cast time and is interruptible and the worst kind are the instant casts that have no cooldown or stun.
PvE
- The original scenarios are too easy now, as they were designed for players with older gear with lower item levels. Heroic scenarios provide more difficulty and better rewards.
- Throne of Thunder had to be a big and epic raid, which took up a lot of dev time. When the team compromised with Dragon Soul and delivered a raid and five man dungeons in one patch, the raid ended up being a little bit smaller than everyone wanted.
- The first tier of raids in this expansion had slightly easier content in the 10 player difficulty, which matched the audience who was raiding 10 player difficulty.
- There aren't many 25 player raiding guilds that only focus on Normal difficulty, as it takes a lot more coordination to manage 25 players rather than 10. These guilds usually try to get through Normal difficulty encounters quickly to move on to Heroic difficulty encounters.
- There are a lot of 10 player raiding guilds that just focus on Normal content though, which means the players doing 10 player difficulty in Throne of Thunder struggled a little bit compared to the 25 player guilds.
Patch 5.4
- In Patch 5.4, Valor Points will still be used to upgrade your items. There will also be other sources of gear for players that don't like raiding, which will not require raiding or Valor Points.
- The new events in the Barrens are designed to keep players out in the world, without using daily quests. As long as things go well in 5.3, there will be something similar added in Patch 5.4.
Patch 5.3 Hotfixes - May 21
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Classes
- Druid (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
- Talents
- Force of Nature now summons Treants that have 40% of the Druid's health, up from 10%.
- Balance Druid Treants: Cast time for Wrath has been increased to 2.5 seconds, up from 2.0 seconds, and damage dealt has been increased by 25%.
- Force of Nature now summons Treants that have 40% of the Druid's health, up from 10%.
- Talents
- Monk (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
- Mistweaver
- Surging Mist will again properly grant Chi to the casting Monk when healing targets other than themselves while Glyph of Surging Mist is active.
- Mistweaver
- Paladin (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
- General
- Divine Protection should now be usable while stunned.
- General
- Shaman (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
- General
- Fixed an issue for Restoration Shamans where Ascendance did not divide the amount healed by Restorative Mists among nearby allies properly.
- General
Quests
- Path of the Last Emperor: Seer Hao Pham Roo should no longer be overlapping with Lorewalker Cho.
Creatures
- Galleon should now use the correct loot table while awarding loot.
Raids, Dungeons, and Scenarios
- Karazhan
- Chess Event: Increased the delay between moves for enemy chess pieces.
- Scenarios
- Fixed an issue with characters not shape-shifting back into the correct race while under the effects of an illusion spell enabling them to participate in an opposing faction's Scenarios.
PvP
- Conquest Quartermasters (Armsmaster Holinka and Roo Desvin) have been temporarily disabled while we work to resolve an issue with the Tyrannical Conquest achievement.
- Big Zokk Torquewrench has been found by a search party and brought back from their extended leave of absence.
Battlegrounds and Arenas
- Deepwind Gorge has been temporarily removed from Rated Battlegrounds rotation while we work to resolve an issue affecting base capture.
Battlefield: Barrens
- Map markers for caravans that have been destroyed should now be properly removed from the world map.
- Overturned caravans should now despawn properly.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed a crash on startup for Macs with the GMA 950 chipset.
Conquest Vendors Temporarily Disabled
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
The achievement, Tyrannical Conquest, is only intended to be awarded when players earn 25,000 Conquest Points. Due to an issue that was not detected during the PTR testing process, the achievement could be awarded much earlier than intended. We are currently in the process of working to resolve the issue.
In the meantime, we’ve applied a hotfix that temporarily prevents players from purchasing gear from Tyrannical PvP item vendors.
LF Feedback - Pet Abilities Adjustments
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
We’re looking to make further Pet Battles adjustments in a future patch (potentially 5.4), and your valuable feedback is needed!
Currently, in an Elemental vs. Mechanical matchup, Elementals gain both an attack bonus versus Mechanicals as well as a defensive bonus against Mechanical abilities. In order to help even the playing field a bit, we were mulling over some potential changes to damage types, and the families they would be weak against.
Here are some initial ideas that are being kicked around:
- Mechanical abilities would deal less damage versus Critter (instead of Elemental)
- Elemental abilities would deal less damage versus Dragonkin (instead of Critter)
- Flying abilities would deal less damage versus Elemental (instead of Dragonkin)
And here is a second set of ideas we’re considering:
- Undead abilities would deal less damage versus Elemental (instead of Aquatic)
- Mechanical abilities would deal less damage versus Aquatic (instead of Elemental)
Your thoughts on these potential changes would be really helpful, so please take a moment to reply below and let us know what you think.
Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Heroic Scenarios
Punishment for players who aren't social?
There are a great many things to do in World of Warcraft for players that prefer to be less engaged socially, such as Raid Finder, Dungeon Finder, PvP queues, questing, etc. The fact that there are pursuits in the game oriented toward organized gameplay isn't a punishment.
Quite the opposite. Heroic scenarios represent a reasonable challenge. It would be misleading to present a queue, since in other cases they exist only for gameplay elements designed specifically for randomly assembled groups, and for those players who queue to struggle because the content wasn't designed with random queuing in mind.
I know it would mean stepping outside of a comfort zone, but if you want to try them out, maybe you'll actually find that you have some fun finding other players on your realm to explore them with.
Aww...first time I'm ever quoted by a blue and I was being silly. I definitely agree with the sentiment that it just isn't intended to be done with a random queue. I think it is a good thing to encourage people to work in teams smaller than 10 again since the social part of the game (outside of guilds is dwindling)
That's awesome to hear! I'm curious to see what you think of them after you've tried a few.
I hear the loot has the potential to be pretty good. And I just quoted you in particular because I wanted to address the argument (not your argument) that pre-made group content represents some kind of punishment. I also quoted you because you're awesome. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
25k Conquest Achievement Fix
This is intentional. The achievement will be awarded once again after the issue that was causing it to be awarded too early is resolved.
Any estimate on how long this is going to be?
There's no ETA available at the moment, but it is something that we hope to resolve as soon as possible. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
25k Conquest Achievement Fix
And I still can't buy stuff from the QM's. I won arenas and BGs, then logged over to an alt.... now I can't buy them on this character...
Both the achievement and the vendors have been disabled until a fix can be applied that resolves an issue that was allowing the Tyrannical Conquest achievement to be awarded too early. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Heirloom Discount
Which discount were you referring to, out of curiosity? I don't recall any patch notes referring to Heirloom discounts?
I believe that the the Heirloom upgrades were reduced in price from their original costs, though. Perhaps that's the source of the confusion? (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Queue Times
We're definitely aware of the issue and are currently investigating it now, though we don't have an ETA for you just yet. Hang in there and we'll keep you informed should there be any further updates we can provide. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Dark Legacy Comics
DLC #390 has been released!
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