Patch 5.3 Dev Interview
Today we are taking a look at an interview on ArenaJunkies with Ghostcrawler and Holinka.
- Prior to Patch 5.3, players would often complain about how quickly they died in PvP if they didn't have PvP gear.
- The idea behind adding PvP Power was to give PvP gear an extra stat that didn't count towards its item level, not making it the only good stat in PvP. The changes made in Patch 5.3 make other stats a good choice as well when gemming your gear.
- Patch 5.3 also addresses concerns that PvE trinkets would be BiS for PvP by increasing duration of procs and reducing the effect, making them less powerful for bursting players down. Trinkets above item level 496 are also scaled down in Battlegrounds, Rated Battlegrounds, and Arenas, along with your other gear.
- More cosmetic rewards are coming in the upcoming patches and next expansion, as well as the potential for some rewards that are not just cosmetic.
- Now that you can't upgrade PvP gear anymore, the developers will try to find something else for players to spend excess Conquest Points on.
- Spells doing different amounts of damage in PvP and PvE is a rare thing and only used in cases where there will be a large difference because it is a lot to keep track of for less hardcore players that don't keep up with all of the changes.
- Making a Warlocks gateway able to be killed was done to make sure there was a way to counter it, and make matches less binary. If a Warlock got a gateway then the match played differently than if the Warlock was unable to make one initially.
- Patch 5.2 tried to give Rogues more survivability and more attractive talents, such as Shuriken Toss, Mark for Death, and Cloak and Dagger. These were a little bit too much, and Patch 5.3 brought them more in line with other talents while keeping the survivability changes.
- The changes to Hunter pet CC were caused by Hunters having a little bit too much CC, especially Beast Mastery Hunters.
- Warriors were too good in the beginning of the season and saw some hotfixes to address the issue. However, these hotfixes weren't enough, so in Patch 5.2 some larger nerfs were made. These ended up being a little bit too strong.
- The devs end up with burst being dominant because they don't want a match that goes on forever with no one able to kill anyone until the healers run out of mana. They often err on the side of too much burst, but try hard not to overcompensate.
Patch 5.3 Hotfixes - May 23
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Classes
- Druid (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
- General
- Thrash periodic damage component can once again be affected by critical chance.
- Balance
- Solar Beam and the Symbiosis version of Solar Beam Silence effect can no longer be reflected.
- General
- Shaman (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
- General
- Elemental Overload version of Lava Burst should now properly deal 75% of the damage dealt by the Lava Burst that activated it.
- General
- Warlock (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
- Destruction
- Fire and Brimstone can now only be cast when the Warlock has at least 1 Burning Ember active.
- Destruction
Creatures
- Elite versions of Quivering Filth should now have a chance to drop Half-Empty Food Container.
Pet Battles
- Pet Abilities
- Blackout Kick should now correctly have a 100% chance to hit.
- Deep Freeze should now only stun 100% of the time when target is chilled.
- Fury of 1,000 Fists should now only stun 100% of the time when target is blinded.
- Surge of Light should now only stun 100% of the time when the weather is darkness.
Raids, Dungeons, and Scenarios
- Throne of Thunder
- Dark Animus
- Anima Golems now generate more threat when attacking their current target.
- Durumu the Forgotten
- Crimson Fog and Azure Fog should now properly remain visible after being revealed by cones of light.
- Dark Animus
Battlegrounds and Arenas
- Deepwind Gorge capture points will now properly use the faction you have been assigned to when capturing mines.
Items
- Champion's Purse should now always award a Champion's Seal again.
Battlefield: Barrens
- Goblin Kor'kron Commanders' Throw Dynamite ability now deals 40% less damage.
- Shaman Kor'kron Commanders' Crackling Fury will now only increase in damage by 50% each jump, down from 200%.
- Warrior Kor'kron Commanders will now only cast Titanic Thunderclap when there are enemies within 10 yards.
- Some Kor'kron Commander abilities will no longer target or affect pets and totems.
- Fixed an issue where Overturned Caravans were despawning earlier than intended.
Brawler's Guild
- Challenge Card quests can now be completed while in a raid. Note that credit for defeating a boss will not be shared amongst party or raid members.
- Anthracite will now reset properly when a player dies or leaves the arena and can no longer be attacked by players spectating the fight.
Bug Fixes
- Achievement: Waste Not, Want Not should now be properly awarded to players that satisfied all but the Cooldown Power-Up requirement.
- Sound effects should no longer be cut out in areas with a large number of ambient sounds.
- Fixed an issue where some sounds were not playing correctly during boss fights.
- Fixed an issue where the raid warning sound was not playing correctly.
Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Valor Points Catch Up
That’s a reasonable and logical argument but I kind of agree with Máz here, in the sense that we can’t compare Conquest to Valor as if they were exactly in the same league, they’re quite different.
The conquest catch up lets you get some extra points in order to buy some initial Tyrannical pieces of gear in the middle of the season, the only other alternative would be to farm honor and get Malevolent or craft some blue gear.
In PvE, there are already plenty of other alternatives for “catching up” in terms of gear without having to waste any Valor Points, there are Heroic Scenarios, LFR, Challenge Modes, and even Arenas and RBGs… because PvP gear is actually decent to step into PvE since PvP stats like PvP Power are out of the ilvl budget.
Even though the ilvl of all of this gear will be lower than normal mode raiding gear or valor gear, they provide great upgrades at zero cost to those who’ve been away for some time, allowing them to quickly catch up with the current PvE content a bit faster.
But, like I said, I still find it a perfectly reasonable argument, and maybe devs can consider it for future updates, first let’s see how the PvP catch up works out for everyone and we’ll build upon and think about other possibilities from there.
I think this is more a question of how fast do we want PvE players to catch up with current content, and not if we want them to catch up at all, because there are already plenty of ways for them to do that. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Blue Tweets
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Reputation / Questing
Or look at dailies. Blizz removed 25 daily limit, people burned out on it, doing ALL dailies every day.
Agreed that removing daily limit was a mistake. Not sure we made the right call with 10 vs. 25. (Source)
Why restrict people from running 100 dailies every day if they want to just because others don't want to?
Huge challenge for us. "Don't nanny me" vs. "Don't make me do all of this content." Very hard to solve. (Source)
But you're not 'making' anyone do anything. People who invest more time and effort get more rewards. Why is that a problem?
That's certainly one side of it. The other is players who feel like the game asks so much of them that they can't compete at all. (Source)
if you bring back limits on dailies, make them weekly limits, not daily limits, some of us like to grind out stuff in one day
I don't know that we need quest limits. Overall when we try to "save players from themselves" it can backfire. (Source)
so only one option that devs think is best > multiple options for players? You do realize that players can choose for themself
That's not what I said. I said if there are multiple ways to earn the same reward, players will take the most efficient. (Source)
We try to discourage that because it's not fun to do the same thing over and over. (Source)
And we try to discourage it by putting different rewards in different activities. (Source)
Then why the dailies? The essence of doing the same thing over and over.
The hope was that you would not do the same dailies over and over, but the reward system didn't reinforce that behavior. (Source)
E.g. you could have chosen GL one day and Klaxxi the next, but since GL unlocked other factions, it felt mandatory. (Source)
If your goal is valor or lesser charms, you honestly have a lot of options (as it should be). (Source)
"Which dailies will I do?" isn't options. It's dailies. No matter how appealing you try to make them. They're dailies.
Very few players cap valor and charms every single week. They still make progress over time. (Source)
Very dedicated and / or hardcore players might, but they are also the ones who want more and more stuff to do. (Source)
If you hate them that much, just don't do them. Yes, you might be a few ilevels behind your friends. Maybe it's worth it. (Source)
crap answer. Maybe Mr. Heroic raider doesn't need valor gear, but some of us lesser fools do.
But why do you *need* valor gear? And even if you do, you can still earn it even if you skip dailies completely. (Source)
With respect, by that logic, you shouldn't add new classes and races. They take time away from the older ones.
Some truth to that, but ultimately I think there is also a player expectation that we will add news ones from time to time. (Source)
Fan Art
Over on Reddit, ngk08 shared some nice panorama screenshots with a Photoshop filter applied.
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