Patch 5.4 - Tier 16 Hunter Armor Set
Keep in mind that this is just a preview and the final set may be different!
Flex Difficulty Feedback
Flex difficulty needs more testing and feedback, so be sure to give it a try if you have time this weekend!
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Many thanks for the excellent feedback thus far.
On Malkorok in particular, a bit more breathing room between the final Implosions and Breath wouldn't hurt (on Normal as well), and Blood Rage is actually doing more damage than it should be for our current Flexible tuning (a bug).
As for Flexible mode in general, we'll be reducing the overall difficulty relative to Normal across the board for our next PTR test. It's also quite possible (likely, even) that specific mechanics are overtuned on Normal as well, which will of course translate to excessive difficulty on Flexible as well -- we don't consider our Normal mode tuning final yet by any means.
I'd like to briefly clarify Flexible mode's target audience and what that means regarding how we tune the content: Flexible mode is primarily for roughly the audience served by 10-player Normal raiding in Wrath of the Lich King (10 Normal used to be a tier lower than 25 Normal). Not every guild that raids is a raiding guild, if that makes sense. I'd say that Flexible mode is for social groups that raid; Normal mode is for raiding guilds (and Heroic is for hardcore raiding guilds). That distinction consists of factors such as whether or not the group will ever recruit based on class needs, or remove someone based on performance (or even openly criticize them).
But a friends-and-family group is far from a ragtag pickup group. We're assuming that you have a leader running the show, are communicating, and are willing and able to coordinate a strategy and execute individual mechanics. Also, unlike Looking For Raid, which has a relatively flat difficulty level and which is designed to be successfully completed by all appropriately-geared players, Flexible mode entails progression. You'll learn and farm earlier fights to work your way up towards the more demanding ones deeper in the zone. A boss like Malkorok is Boss 9 of 14, and is generally designed as such. I'd compare him to bosses like Rotface or Festergut in Icecrown Citadel. Those certainly saw plenty of PUG action later in the 3.3 patch cycle, when the zone-wide Icecrown buff had ramped up a bit and the strategies were widely-known.
Now, will players form PUGs for Flexible Siege of Orgrimmar? Absolutely -- and we're excited at the prospect. But that's an organic process that will evolve over time, if we get the tuning right. I don't recall very many Trade chat PUGs waltzing into Icecrown Citadel in January 2010 and killing Festergut.
Blue Tweets
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Legendary Cloak
In vanilla and every expansion before MoP we had legendary weapons to anticipate. Why isnt there any in MoP?
Weren't happy with the entitlement feel of DWrath and Fangs. If we do leg weapons again, we'd likely make them much rarer. (Source)
Either forget legendaries, or accept that people want OP items, and OP for some means unbalance so make it easy..
Legendary weapons are kind of OP by their nature. That's fine. Last few we just made it so every potential user could get. (Source)
I am thoroughly disappointed with the legendary being a cloak. All of this work throughout the xpac and we don't use it again.
What do you mean by "don't use it again?" (Source)
it disapp. me that now there's a leg. for everyone and it's a cloak thats shaped like a towel and clips models. Why no weapon?
We feel like we've done that a lot before. We want to keep things fresh. When rewards are too predictable they get boring. (Source)
Precedent is the problem. Ppl expected awesome weapons. Disappointed by dish towels (however awesome they may be)
Imagine the problems with this sentence: "I can easily predict what WoW will do next based on precedence." (Source)
Also is the proc. from the Tanking Cloaks working while in a DPS spec ?
No, you'll have to be a legit tank to benefit from the tank proc. (Source)
Why gate the new world boss using the legendary cape? Seems arbitrary and bad for alts.
I still struggle to understand wanting lots of alts but not having to play them as much as a main. Isn't that the point of an alt? (Source)
Reforging
And yet you think about changing reforging or even removing it.
My experience is that most players just use an add on or website to tell them how to reforge. (Source)
It probably works the best for healers, since sufficient regen is a feel thing, not something you can dictate. (Source)
I do like reforging to make poor items (haste trink for fury war) easier to swallow. I don’t like it for hit/exp though.
Yeah, the cascades where getting one new item causes you to reforge all are the worst. (Source)
Do you think it's more of a hit/exp-as-a-capped-stat issue then?
Certainly part of it, but we also don't like all the work that has to go into a drop before it's ready to wear. (Source)
Aren't enchants and gems and valor upgrades (and maybe transmog) enough? (Source)
Characters / Items
how do you feel having Pandaren shared between both factions has worked out? Would you do the same if new races were added?
Not a fan of it overall. We just didn't want to deny anyone Pandaren. (Source)
Was creating a humam char yday, all faces look awful! Compared with mop/cata races... new models can't get here fast enough.
Yep. Pretty much. (Source)
Can you please explain to me why the tier sets for tier 16 look so bland and tasteless? & why season 14 rogue looks like plate
Response to tier art is so ridiculously subjective that I long ago gave up trying to understand player reaction to it. (Source)
The advice I gave before is provide feedback on the kind of designs you'd like to see for future tiers and not just shout BAD. (Source)
Is the current Challenge Mode gear still going to be attainable next exp, or will it go away for good??
Current plan is you can still try to obtain it since it scales your gear. Not 100% sure though. (Source)
Random question, Do you think you'll ever have (8) set bonuses again?
I think it's unlikely in PvE. I'm not a fan of players ignoring all pieces except tier sets. Makes loot less interesting. (Source)
What is your opinion on the fact that when everyone can get 'Epics' the term 'Epic' is cheapened.
I feel like some of that is just standard mudflation. Would earning your way from blues to epics feel the same after 9 years? (Source)
of course they can be, but blizz prefers to ignore the storage space issue. Be lucky to see a fix even next xpac.
We aren't ignoring it. We just don't believe near infinite storage is necessary. We don't like e.g. 100 slot bags. (Source)
PTR notes: RPPM proc rates for items that proc haste, wont benefit from haste to proc more?? huh?
The interaction of RPPM with haste made those mechanics more powerful than intended. (Source)
We had cases where RPPM trinkets were a 10%+ damage increase and situations where no non-RPPM trinket would ever compete. (Source)
Any chance of Void Storage ever having the deposit cost removed? That's why I never use it. Withdraw makes more sense.
Transmog was originally conceived as a way to wear older tier sets. It has grown into much more though. (Source)
Given that, we don't think the current UI necessarily supports the feature as well as it could. (Source)
Computers - Setup of the Month (by chaud)
Each month or every 2 months, depending on the hardware evolutions, the lovely chaud will work on a couple of hardware setups for those of you who are thinking of upgrading their computer!
This month
The current SSD prices are stable, with most SSDs under $1 per gigabyte when on sale.
The new Haswell CPUs from Intel are here and they run a little bit on the warmer side. Depending on how much you want to overclock, you may need to spend a bit more for a better CPU cooler like the NH-D14 or H90.
Unless you are doing a lot of video rendering or something that is similarly multithreaded, you do not need the 4770K and should spend that money elsewhere.
Make sure to keep your AMD and Nvidia drivers up to date.
Don't hesitate to post any feedback in the comments of that news post, and don't forget to visit the Computer Forum for any extra questions! If you are interested in Folding@home, take a look in our team's thread.
Peripherals/Monitors
| Component | Puppy | Dolphin |
|---|---|---|
| Monitor | Asus VS229H-P 21.5" LED IPS Monitor - $135 | ASUS VS248H-P 24-Inch Monitor - $170 |
| Keyboard | Kensington Pro Fit Media Keyboard - $18 | Cyborg V.5 - $47 |
| Mouse | Logitech G400 - $47 | Razer Deathadder - $50 |
| Speakers | Creative A220 2.1 Speaker System - $26 | Logitech Z313 Speaker System - $36 |
| Component | Narwhal | Unicorn |
| Monitor | ASUS VE278Q 27-Inch - $260 | HP ZR2440W 24-inch - $370 |
| Keyboard | Logitech G510 - $90 | Razer BlackWidow (Backlit)- $60 ($121) |
| Mouse | Logitech G500 - $45 | Razer Naga (Buttons on the Side) - $70 |
| Speakers | Logitech Z323 2.1 Speaker System - $59 | Logitech Speaker System Z523 - $70 |
Puppy and Dolphin
| Component | Puppy | Dolphin |
|---|---|---|
| Case | NZXT Source 210 - $40 | NZXT Source 210 - $40 |
| Power Supply | Corsair CX500 - $50 | XFX Core Edition PRO 550W - $50 |
| CPU | AMD FX-6300 - $125 | AMD FX-8320 - $145 |
| Heatsink | Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus - $28 | Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO - $33 |
| Motherboard | ASUS M5A97 R2.0 - $100 | ASUS M5A99FX PRO - $120 |
| Memory | Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB 1333 - $35 | 8GB G.Skill DDR3 1600 - $70 |
| Graphics Card | XFX 7770 - $97 | ASUS 7870 2 GB or ASUS GTX 660 Ti - $200 / $199 |
| Hard Drive | Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB - $55 | Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB - $85 |
| DVD | Asus 24X SATA DVD+/-RW - $22 | Asus 24X SATA DVD+/-RW - $22 |
| Total | $552 | $765 |
Narwhal and Unicorn
All of these parts can be mixed and matched to create a build between Narwhal and Unicorn. SSDs are always optional.
All of these parts can be mixed and matched to create a build between Narwhal and Unicorn. SSDs are always optional.
| Component | Narwhal | Unicorn |
|---|---|---|
| Case | Cooler Master HAF 912 - $50 | Corsair Air 540 (Special Layout) - $140 |
| Power Supply | Corsair 650TX V2 - $90 | Corsair 750HX - $110 |
| CPU | Intel i5-4670K - $219 | Intel i7-4770K - $330 |
| Heatsink | Thermaltake Frio - $57 | Noctua 6 NH-D14 - $77 |
| Motherboard | ASUS Z87-A - $112 | ASUS Z87-PLUS - $165 |
| Memory | 8GB G.Skill DDR3 1600 - $70 | 16GB G.Skill DDR3 1600 - $137 |
| Graphics Card | MSI 7950 OR MSI N760 TF - $240 / $260 | MSI 7970 OR Gigabyte GTX 770 - $350 / $400 |
| Hard Drive | Western Digital 1TB Caviar Black - $85 | Western Digital 1TB Caviar Black - $85 |
| SSD | SAMSUNG 840 128GB (Review) - $98 OR Plextor 128 GB M5 Pro (Review) - $120 | Corsair Neutron GTX 120GB (Review) - $125 OR SAMSUNG 840 Pro 128GB (Review) - $130 |
| DVD | Asus 24X SATA DVD+/-RW - $22 | Asus 24X SATA DVD+/-RW - $22 |
| Total | $1043 - $1085 | $1492 - $1574 |
Weekly News Recap
Another busy week full of news, so here is your chance to catch up!
- August 4
- We looked at a preview of the Garrosh fight in Siege of Orgrimmar.
- Bulging Bag of Charms was added to the store on the PTR.
- August 5
- We got an update on Virtual Realms, now renamed to Connected Realms.
- August 6
- We looked at the chests on Timeless Isle. These chests drop item level 496 tokens for gear, as well as the rare Burden of Eternity to upgrade that gear to 535. You can find a detailed guide here on the forums.
- There will be no epic gems in Patch 5.4.
- We got more detailed information about the changes coming to Vengeance.
- There was a new PTR build with Patch 5.4 music, along with class changes and some new items.
- August 7
- The new PTR build was applied, showing us that the weapons that drop from Garrosh are level 90 to 100 BoA Heirlooms.
- The official PTR notes were updated with some more class changes.
- The Hearthstone team posted an updated on the state of the game.
- August 8
- We looked at some of the items sold by the Timeless Isle vendors, including item level 535 trinkets, Heavenly Golden Cloud Serpent, and the Censer of Eternal Agony.
- Patch 5.4 will increase the cap on pets to 1,000.
- Sometime in the next week or two it will be time to start balancing the numbers on the PTR.
- August 9
- We looked at the rewards from Bloody Coins, farmed by killing other players on the Timeless Isle. These include things like the Ashhide Mushan Beast and Vengeful Porcupette.
- Base Resilience and Battle Fatigue will be increased in one of the upcoming PTR builds.
- The Celestial Blessings quest has been hotfixed to be easier for Yu'lon or Xuen's Celestial Challenge.
- Several sections will be removed from the WoW website this week.
- The final part of the Burdens of Shaohao series was released. Be sure to let Blizzard know if you want to see more like this in the future!
More...
