Greg Street & Brian Holinka Interview
Patch 5.4 PTR - Build 17325
Build 17325 will be deployed to the PTR realms soon.
Spell Changes
Originally Posted by MMO-Champion
Death Knight (Forums, Talent Calculator)
Blood
Frost
Unholy
Paladin (Forums, Talent Calculator)
Holy
Shaman (Forums, Talent Calculator)
Elemental & Restoration
Enhancement
Raid & Dungeon Abilities
Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Battlefield: Barrens and Path of the Last Emperor
What about the quest leading up to the Battlefield barrens that offer the 502 boots?
Hi there. The quest, 'Path of the Last Emperor' will not be going away when patch 5.4 goes live. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Shaman (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Patch 5.4 Resto Shaman Concerns
So first off, yes, these changes are indeed being made as measures to help with the input lag problem. We obviously recognize that they're pretty big changes and we're going to have to do some additional tuning as a result (and that goes for everyone effected, not just Shaman).
Looking at some of the Shaman-specific concerns we've seen come up:
Earthliving Weapon: We recognize that the changes mean less opportunity for Earthliving to proc, but we're not sure it's overall a big deal. Given Earthliving's duration and the fact that the new, "smart" Healing Rain will still be hitting several targets (just not all at once), we still expect that most people standing in a Healing Rain will still wind up with Earthliving active. If there is a negative impact, we don't expect it to be a big one. It is something we'll keep an eye on, though.
Ancestral Vigor: This we consider to be a good deal more important, as keeping Vigor active on as many targets as possible is one of Resto's strengths (and feels good as part of their overall kit). Due to the ramp-up time, we feel that having Vigor fall off is a much bigger setback than Earthliving. We haven't made a final call on exactly what we'll do here yet; one idea we've discussed is extending Ancestral Vigor's duration, but that could easily change as we continue tuning.
Ancestral Guidance/Ascendance: We're not sure there's actually a problem here. Currently, past 6 targets, Healing Rain's actual healing output is reduced per player it affects. The end result is that roughly the same amount of raw healing is going out if it only hits 6 players as it would if it were hitting 25. In fact, in many cases, it could actually be more. If even one of those 25 players were already at full (say they've got a bunch of absorbs on them, or used something like Divine Shield or Dark Bargain), that amount that previously would have just been overhealing will instead be allocated to someone else that actually needs it.
Again, we recognize that these changes are going to require some extra tuning, so we'll be keeping a close eye on how things shake out in continued testing. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Monk (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Patch 5.4 Windwalker Feedback
We’re definitely getting very, very different results from you guys in our own testing. For clarity, I’m not just talking about simulations – we’re getting much higher performance, in tier 16 gear, in actual playtesting on the 5.4 PTR client. We’ve even gone so far as to make duplicates of several of your characters just to be certain we’re testing under the same exact conditions.
This leads us to believe one of two things:
Again, these are results we’re able to replicate in the same test environment you guys have, using the same gear, with the same buffs/debuffs and so forth.
We're not comparing 5.4 Windwalker to 5.3 Windwalker, we're comparing 5.4 Windwalker to 5.4 everyone else. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Blue Tweets
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Misc
The bit about hardcore players not always caring about the long term interests of the game is spot on. (Source)
But it's not the players' job to make a good game. It's the devs' job. So not sure you can blame even HC players. (Source)
The screenshot with four class specs and a tinker class is fake. We can't confirm/deny every rumor but this one is just a clever fake. (Source)
Thanks for clarifying that. Is the Tinker a class that you feel would fit into WoW? I'd love to see it.
Not sure. Might be a little too whimsical for WoW. Would depend on the treatment. (Source)
any comments on the controversy behind alleged trademarking of The Dark Below?
Players seem very confident in their ability to CONFIRMED! these days. (Half Life 3 - CONFIRMED!) (Source)
Please, Greg... tell me we'll get to see the real scope of Azjol-Nerub someday.... soon™?
I am personally a huge Azjol-Nerub nerd, but I can't ram through my pet projects single handedly. Maybe someday. (Source)
Dear WoW community, the pitchfork and torches strategy has never been an effective one for fomenting class change. (Source)
I've been doing this long enough (15 years!) to know that players love the revolution narrative: (Source)
The downtrodden unite into a resistance movement that rises up against The Man and gets much needed change for their neglected characters. (Source)
It's a charming story and probably reassuring when the developers in truth have almost all the decision making power. (Source)
how about unsubbing? Is that effective?
Out of protest? I don't think so. Too hard for that message to get through. (Source)
I know you like good args., but it's hard to know what counts. You do ignore some good args. for reasons you can't say in pub.
Sure. And sometimes we agree with an argument and still won't make a change for other reasons. (Source)
We aren't going to answer "What can I do to make an argument so good that you will 100% make a change?" (Source)
And also part of what you're seeing is just the impossibility for us to publicly address every argument or even every popular one. (Source)
Any chance you'll ever release a copy of your internal sim (if you have it) to give us a tool to bypass those problems?
No. Everyone would invest too much energy trying to prove our tool wrong. It's how these things go. (Source)
Took a look at your twitter for the first time ever. I do not envy you. People are rough. Curious, do you raid on a raid team?
Yes. I'm on a heroic 25 team. I have been raiding just about since I dinged 60. (Source)
Do your guildies know who you are? How do you respond to their criticism?
Many know. I let them bitch away. It's not fair not to be able to just because I joined them. (Source)
I would bet he plays a lock.Fire mages nerfed 60% afflic/destro buffed. #numbersshowlockswerealreadyahead
.Do you guys realize I would actually get fired if I just kept buffing my characters all the time? (Source)
I think creators should not play thier own game , and yes we do believe you favor buffs of the toons you play .I
I think I'd be pretty out of touch if I didn't play my own game. How would I know what to fix? Who yells the loudest? (Source)
I hear you're on a 25H team. Roughly how much of your day/week is WoW related? work wise and personal play time.
I play WoW entirely too much when I'm not working, but I feel like I need to in order to stay in touch. (Source)
Ola, Mr. Street. just a thought; do you JUST work on WoW? if so, anything else at Blizzard you'd like a crack at?
I spend 90% of my time on WoW. I help out on other games, usually feedback or brainstorming, when those teams ask. (Source)
I worked on RTS games for years so I have a soft spot for SC and I have always been a Diablo fan. (Source)
More...
Patch 5.4 PTR - Build 17325
Build 17325 will be deployed to the PTR realms soon.
Spell Changes
Originally Posted by MMO-Champion
Blood
- Soul Reaper now does 130% weapon damage, up from 100%. Damage and AP scaling increased by 20%.
Frost
- Soul Reaper now does 130% weapon damage, up from 100%. Damage and AP scaling increased by 20%.
Unholy
- Soul Reaper now does 130% weapon damage, up from 100%. Damage and AP scaling increased by 20%.
- Light of the Ancient Kings now heals the target of your heals for 30% of the amount healed, rather than the target of your heals and allies within 10 yards of the target.
Holy
- Guardian of Ancient Kings no longer heals nearby friendly targets. Now heals for an additional 30% of the amount healed, up from 10%.
- Fire Nova damage and SP scaling increased by 82%.
- Healing Rain healing and SP scaling reduced by 30%.
- Healing Rain healing and SP scaling reduced by 30%.
Elemental & Restoration
- Lava Burst base damage increased by 11%. SP scaling no longer listed.
Enhancement
- Fire Nova damage and SP scaling increased by 82%.
- Lava Lash now does 300% weapon damage, up from 260%.
Raid & Dungeon Abilities
- Blade of the Hundred Steps Imbues all players of the tank role in the current quadrant of this warehouse with a boon. Attacks have a chance to call down a bolt of lightning, inflicting 354,000 413,000 Nature damage to enemies within 4 yards and stun them for 2 1.5 sec. This effect bypasses a creature's immunity to stuns and has a 15-second cooldown. Unlimited range. Instant.
- Caustic Blood Injects the victim with poison, inflicting 0 Nature damage every second. This effect stacks up to 10 times. This effect fails to apply to tanks using their Active Mitigation abilities. Unlimited range. 3 sec cast. 10 yd range. 3 sec cast.
- Corrosive Blood Inflicts 0 Nature damage initially, and then 0 Nature damage every 2 seconds. Limited to 1 target 2 targets. 300 yd range. 3 sec cast.
- Embodied Doubt Inflicts 150,000 Shadow damage to all enemies within the realm of Y'Shaarj. Increases damage taken by Embodied Doubt by 2% 25%. Stacks. 1,000 yd range. 2 sec cast.
- Falling Ash Summons a core of smouldering ash that will fall over 30 15 sec. Deals 999,999 Fire damage to enemies within 17 yards and 0 Fire damage to all enemies on impact. 3 sec cast.
- Foul Stream Deals 200,000 Deals 300,000 Nature damage to all enemies on a line. 50 yd range. 3 sec cast.
- Poison Bolt Inflicts 100,000 Inflicts 200,000 Nature damage. Limited to 1 target. 40 yd range. 2.5 sec cast.
- Serrated Slash The sawblade slashes nearby targets, inflicting 50 250,000 Physical damage and knocking them back. Instant.
- Serrated Slash The sawblade slashes nearby targets, inflicting 50 250,000 Physical damage and knocking them back. 300 yd range. Instant.
- Shock Pulse A mighty seismic eruption knocks enemies back and inflicts 75,000 Nature damage. 4 sec cast.12 sec cooldown.
- Sundering Blow Inflicts 0 Physical damage and sunders the target's armor, reducing armor by 10% for 60 30 sec. Generates 5 rage per stack of Sundering Blow on the target. Next melee. Melee range. 3 sec cast.
- Toxic Storm Summons a powerful toxic storm that deals 200,000 300,000 Nature damage to enemies within 9 yards every 2 sec. and periodically creates Toxic Tornadoes. Instant.
- Toxic Tornado Toxic winds deal 200,000 300,000 Nature damage to enemies within 5 yards every 1 sec. and knocks them up. Instant.
Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Battlefield: Barrens and Path of the Last Emperor
What about the quest leading up to the Battlefield barrens that offer the 502 boots?
Hi there. The quest, 'Path of the Last Emperor' will not be going away when patch 5.4 goes live. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Patch 5.4 Resto Shaman Concerns
So first off, yes, these changes are indeed being made as measures to help with the input lag problem. We obviously recognize that they're pretty big changes and we're going to have to do some additional tuning as a result (and that goes for everyone effected, not just Shaman).
Looking at some of the Shaman-specific concerns we've seen come up:
Earthliving Weapon: We recognize that the changes mean less opportunity for Earthliving to proc, but we're not sure it's overall a big deal. Given Earthliving's duration and the fact that the new, "smart" Healing Rain will still be hitting several targets (just not all at once), we still expect that most people standing in a Healing Rain will still wind up with Earthliving active. If there is a negative impact, we don't expect it to be a big one. It is something we'll keep an eye on, though.
Ancestral Vigor: This we consider to be a good deal more important, as keeping Vigor active on as many targets as possible is one of Resto's strengths (and feels good as part of their overall kit). Due to the ramp-up time, we feel that having Vigor fall off is a much bigger setback than Earthliving. We haven't made a final call on exactly what we'll do here yet; one idea we've discussed is extending Ancestral Vigor's duration, but that could easily change as we continue tuning.
Ancestral Guidance/Ascendance: We're not sure there's actually a problem here. Currently, past 6 targets, Healing Rain's actual healing output is reduced per player it affects. The end result is that roughly the same amount of raw healing is going out if it only hits 6 players as it would if it were hitting 25. In fact, in many cases, it could actually be more. If even one of those 25 players were already at full (say they've got a bunch of absorbs on them, or used something like Divine Shield or Dark Bargain), that amount that previously would have just been overhealing will instead be allocated to someone else that actually needs it.
Again, we recognize that these changes are going to require some extra tuning, so we'll be keeping a close eye on how things shake out in continued testing. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Patch 5.4 Windwalker Feedback
We’re definitely getting very, very different results from you guys in our own testing. For clarity, I’m not just talking about simulations – we’re getting much higher performance, in tier 16 gear, in actual playtesting on the 5.4 PTR client. We’ve even gone so far as to make duplicates of several of your characters just to be certain we’re testing under the same exact conditions.
This leads us to believe one of two things:
- There’s some sort of bug we haven’t caught yet that’s causing a massive DPS increase somewhere unexpected (which is possible, and we’re investigating, but haven’t found anything to suggest that’s the case), or
- We’re doing something that the community isn’t, which could possibly be due to inaccurate simulations (which in turn lead to incomplete testing of alternative builds or rotations)
Again, these are results we’re able to replicate in the same test environment you guys have, using the same gear, with the same buffs/debuffs and so forth.
We're not comparing 5.4 Windwalker to 5.3 Windwalker, we're comparing 5.4 Windwalker to 5.4 everyone else. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Blue Tweets
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Misc
The bit about hardcore players not always caring about the long term interests of the game is spot on. (Source)
But it's not the players' job to make a good game. It's the devs' job. So not sure you can blame even HC players. (Source)
The screenshot with four class specs and a tinker class is fake. We can't confirm/deny every rumor but this one is just a clever fake. (Source)
Thanks for clarifying that. Is the Tinker a class that you feel would fit into WoW? I'd love to see it.
Not sure. Might be a little too whimsical for WoW. Would depend on the treatment. (Source)
any comments on the controversy behind alleged trademarking of The Dark Below?
Players seem very confident in their ability to CONFIRMED! these days. (Half Life 3 - CONFIRMED!) (Source)
Please, Greg... tell me we'll get to see the real scope of Azjol-Nerub someday.... soon™?
I am personally a huge Azjol-Nerub nerd, but I can't ram through my pet projects single handedly. Maybe someday. (Source)
Dear WoW community, the pitchfork and torches strategy has never been an effective one for fomenting class change. (Source)
I've been doing this long enough (15 years!) to know that players love the revolution narrative: (Source)
The downtrodden unite into a resistance movement that rises up against The Man and gets much needed change for their neglected characters. (Source)
It's a charming story and probably reassuring when the developers in truth have almost all the decision making power. (Source)
how about unsubbing? Is that effective?
Out of protest? I don't think so. Too hard for that message to get through. (Source)
I know you like good args., but it's hard to know what counts. You do ignore some good args. for reasons you can't say in pub.
Sure. And sometimes we agree with an argument and still won't make a change for other reasons. (Source)
We aren't going to answer "What can I do to make an argument so good that you will 100% make a change?" (Source)
And also part of what you're seeing is just the impossibility for us to publicly address every argument or even every popular one. (Source)
Any chance you'll ever release a copy of your internal sim (if you have it) to give us a tool to bypass those problems?
No. Everyone would invest too much energy trying to prove our tool wrong. It's how these things go. (Source)
Took a look at your twitter for the first time ever. I do not envy you. People are rough. Curious, do you raid on a raid team?
Yes. I'm on a heroic 25 team. I have been raiding just about since I dinged 60. (Source)
Do your guildies know who you are? How do you respond to their criticism?
Many know. I let them bitch away. It's not fair not to be able to just because I joined them. (Source)
I would bet he plays a lock.Fire mages nerfed 60% afflic/destro buffed. #numbersshowlockswerealreadyahead
.Do you guys realize I would actually get fired if I just kept buffing my characters all the time? (Source)
I think creators should not play thier own game , and yes we do believe you favor buffs of the toons you play .I
I think I'd be pretty out of touch if I didn't play my own game. How would I know what to fix? Who yells the loudest? (Source)
I hear you're on a 25H team. Roughly how much of your day/week is WoW related? work wise and personal play time.
I play WoW entirely too much when I'm not working, but I feel like I need to in order to stay in touch. (Source)
Ola, Mr. Street. just a thought; do you JUST work on WoW? if so, anything else at Blizzard you'd like a crack at?
I spend 90% of my time on WoW. I help out on other games, usually feedback or brainstorming, when those teams ask. (Source)
I worked on RTS games for years so I have a soft spot for SC and I have always been a Diablo fan. (Source)
More...
