RSS Patch 3.0.8, Valentine contest, Blue posts

Patch 3.0.8 this week? Probably not. We'll most likely get a confirmation in a few hours but according to the latest PTR forums activity we'll probably see a new build on test servers soon and I don't see the patch being deployed on live servers this week. Of course nothing is official and I could be totally wrong, any official message about that will be posted as soon as it's available. Patch 3.0.8 posts <ul style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0;"><li><a href="http://www.mmo-champion.com/index.php?topic=29837.0" target="_blank">Patch 3.0.8 PTR Notes and Undocumented changes</a></li><li><a href="http://www.mmo-champion.com/index.php?topic=30117.0" target="_blank">Patch 3.0.8 Build 9355 Undocumented changes and new PvP Rewards</a></li><li><a href="http://www.mmo-champion.com/index.php?topic=32802.0" target="_blank">Patch 3.0.8 Enchantment changes - Part 1</a></li><li><a href="http://www.mmo-champion.com/index.php?topic=31435.0" target="_blank">Patch 3.0.8 Reputation and Item changes</a></li><li><a href="http://www.mmo-champion.com/index.php?topic=30602.0" target="_blank">Patch 3.0.8 Small notes update</a></li><li><a href="http://www.mmo-champion.com/index.php?topic=33476.0" target="_blank">Patch 3.0.8 Build 9438 Changes - Part 1</a></li><li><a href="http://www.mmo-champion.com/index.php?topic=34002.0" target="_blank">Patch 3.0.8 Build 9438 Professions changes</a></li></ul> [EU] Valentine Contest! <div class="blizzquotewrap"><div class="blizzquoteinner"><div class="blizzquoteheader">Quote from: Vaneras (<a href="http://blue.mmo-champion.com/1/7575929251-1201-valentine-contest.html" target="_blank" style="color: white;">Source</a>)</div><div class="blizzquote">Love is in the air and the sighs of lovers creates a mist of romance all over Azeroth. That can only mean one thing: Valentine's Day is near! To get into the spirit of the occasion, we are hosting a Valentine Card Contest. To participate in the Valentine Card Contest, simply design a Valentine Card showing your love for World of Warcraft and you could win a Gurky key! You can learn more about this contest at our Valentine Contest page. <a href="http://www.wow-europe.com/en/contests/valentine2009/" target="_blank">http://www.wow-europe.com/en/contests/valentine2009/</a> You should also read the Terms and Conditions for this contest. <a href="http://www.wow-europe.com/en/legal/contests/valentine-09.html" target="_blank">http://www.wow-europe.com/en/legal/contests/valentine-09.html</a></div></div></div> Blue posts <div class="blizzquotewrap"><div class="blizzquoteinner"><div class="blizzquoteheader">Quote from Blizzard staff</div><div class="blizzquote">"Mandatory" Talents There is nothing wrong with "mandatory" talents per se. Generally the community considers them mandatory because they are very good talents. We don't want a bunch of trees with a bunch of mediocre talents. We love the depth that comes from players endlessly debating which spec to use or comparing talents to each other. Where it crosses the line in when it starts to restrict player options too much. It's okay if almost all warriors take Cruelty and slightly less okay if almost all warlocks take Ruin. If there was a 31-point talent that all specs took, then it starts to hurt the other two trees in that class. Cookie-cutter specs are okay when they are something used by players who are new to a class and don't want to spend the energy just yet learning every nuance of the class. Ideally, there are a few points that come down to player preference. As an example, before Lich King the three tanking classes had very choices in their talents -- they needed to spend almost all their points just on mitigation. The extreme alternative is something where every talent tree is equally viable. That might sound good in theory, but it makes the discussions a lot less interesting. "What's the best talent build for a Balance druid who wants to do 5-mans and Arenas?" "It doesn't matter, dude. Just take whatever and you'll do fine." So we usually land somewhere in the middle -- talents that you pretty much are always going to have, mixed in with some that come down to player preference. (<a href="http://blue.mmo-champion.com/28/14318914393-whats-so-wrong-with-mandatory-talents.html" target="_blank">Source</a>) Differences between talent specs We like the way the death knight's talent trees are shaping up. Specifically, you can tank using good builds from any of the three trees. One may be slightly higher than another at any given moment in time, but overall the goal is that they are very similar and they are certainly more similar than the other three tanking classes. We can totally imagine a world in which Arms, Fury and Protection all can tank using different styles. The Prot tree would just be more about sword and board style than tanking per se. Perhaps an Arms warrior would tank with a two-hander more like a DK does. I'm not saying we will 100% for sure go down that road, but it is interesting idea to think about. It's harder with druids and paladins because some of the other trees can heal or are ranged. (You could probably come up with a Ret tanking system). Being able to tank and heal effectively with To some extent druids are always going to be about being able to fill very different roles. While a DK tank might have a Frost tanking build and Blood tanking build that she switches between, I don't know that you would see many druid tanks switching between Bear build #1 and Bear build #2. Some will, and that's cool. But I suspect a lot of them will swap from bear to cat or from bear to Resto. I could easily see a Prot warrior who wants two different Prot tanking builds -- a high threat build vs. a high survivability build for example. I could see a Prot warrior who wants a Prot tanking build vs. a Prot off-tanking build or even a Prot PvP build. But I don't think this feature automatically locks us into Prot = tanking and Arms / Fury = dps if we don't want it to be. There is a risk that it allows us to be lazy: "Oh don't worry about making Frost mages PvE viable because they can always swap specs to Fire or Arcane for PvE." We would still like to get away from X being "the PvP tree" for every class. Likewise we'd like to get away from having tanking trees too, but it's harder or perhaps impossible for some classes. (<a href="http://blue.mmo-champion.com/26/14318633859-blizzard-i-think-dual-spec-is-a-bad-idea.html" target="_blank">Source</a>) Spells and Talents budget We have budgets for the power of individual spells and talents. We do not budget based on the total number of abilities available -- some classes just have more than others. I would also call the budgets a guideline. You have to know when to change the numbers on something even if the budget suggests that will be overpowered or underpowered. To be metaphysical for a minute, you can't define the universe with one gigantic equation. There are just too many variables. You can use simpler equations to attempt to describe small parts of things as long as you understand their limitations. A great deal of your success in WoW, perhaps even more in PvP than PvE, is your skill in using your abilities and that is a hard thing to model. (<a href="http://blue.mmo-champion.com/27/14318904200-do-classes-have-budgets-like-items-do.html" target="_blank">Source</a>) [US] Free character moves to Drak'Tharon and Tortheldrin Free character moves to Drak'Tharon and Tortheldrin are now closed. (<a href="http://blue.mmo-champion.com/1/14133099279-us--oceanic-free-realm-transfers--17.html" target="_blank">Source</a>) <img src="http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/icons/24x24/deathknight.jpg" alt="" border="0" /> Death Knight (<a href="http://www.mmo-champion.com/index.php?page=650" target="_blank">Skills List</a> / <a href="http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?deathknight" target="_blank">Talent + Glyph Calc.</a>) Threat Generation We're looking at the issue since players have brought it up. However, we are not hearing widespread feedback from across the board that DKs are struggling to maintain single-target threat. That is what makes me wonder if something else is going on, like it only occurs with some gear choices for example. If I am summarizing this thread, it appears most of the concern is about single-target threat vs. well-geared dps, especially against slow-swinging or magic-using bosses who don't proc Rune Strike as often. Groups with reliable BoSanc don't notice the problem as much. I would compare yourself to warriors more than paladins, since the next patch removes the threat of Light, which sometimes grants paladins crazy numbers. (<a href="http://blue.mmo-champion.com/26/14287008802-dk-threat--not-going-away.html" target="_blank">Source</a>) <img src="http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/icons/24x24/druid.jpg" alt="" border="0" /> Druid (<a href="http://www.mmo-champion.com/index.php?page=700" target="_blank">Skills List</a> / <a href="http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?druid" target="_blank">Talent + Glyph Calc.</a>) Improved Faerie Fire I am saying the tooltip, which currently reads: Your Faerie Fire spell also increases the chance the target will be hit by spell attacks by 3%, and increases the critical strike chance of your damage spells by 3% on targets afflicted by Faerie Fire. Should probably read: Your Faerie Fire and Feral Faerie Fire spells also increase the chance the target will be hit by spell attacks by 3%, and increase the critical strike chance of your damage spells by 3% on targets afflicted by your Faerie Fire or Feral Faerie Fire. One of the issues we are currently discussing is what to do in the case where someone chooses a talent that they end up not using because someone else in the group also has the same buff of equal or greater potency. To be fair though this is not a new problem. Raids always had to manage buffs like Spirit or Kings that were talented. I think groups usually worked around that by just grouping with the same people a lot and making s...</div></div></div>

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