RSS Patch 3.1.x, Raidcomp, Blue posts, Mimiron by Method

Minor patch scheduled before 3.2 In a blue post about the druid's tier 8 set, Ghostcrawler confirmed that at least one more minor patch will be deployed before the Patch 3.2. It's always good to know that we won't have to wait for the next major content patch to see more classes changes and bug fixes. <div class="blizzquotewrap"><div class="blizzquoteinner"><div class="blizzquoteheader">Quote from: Ghostcrawler (<a href="http://blue.mmo-champion.com/28/17223066812-any-news-on-moonkin-4pt8.html" target="_blank" style="color: white;">Source</a>)</div><div class="blizzquote">We have a fix for the current set bonus to make it work the way you imagine it should at a 7 or 8% proc chance. It's our policy not to announce patch dates ahead of time, but it will be long before 3.2. </div></div></div> Raidcomp updated to patch 3.1 Better late than never, right? During the last few weeks the <a href="http://raidcomp.mmo-champion.com/" target="_blank">Raid composition tool</a> has been updated with various changes from patch 3.1. We should now have a fairly reliable version but don't hesitate to point out any error. Raidcomp Patch 3.1 Update (Rev 5) (<a href="http://raidcomp.mmo-champion.com/" target="_blank">Link</a>) <ul style="margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0;"><li>Afffliction Warlock: Improved Shadow Bolt</li><li>Blessing of Kings: Base ability for all paladins.</li><li>Curse of Recklessness has been removed.</li><li>Curse of Weakness: Now also reduces the armor of the target by 5%.</li><li>Divine Spirit: Base ability for all priests.</li><li>Hunting Party: Spell ID has been fixed.</li><li>Improved Divine Spirit: This talent has been removed.</li><li>Improved Soul Leech: Mana regen ability for Destruction Warlocks.</li><li>Improved Water Elemental: Renamed Enduring Winter.</li><li>Protection Paladin: Heart of the Crusader</li><li>Stampede adds a 25% bleed damage debuff (that does not stack with Mangle etc.).</li><li>Unleashed Rage is now a 3/3 talent instead of 5/5 talent.</li></ul> Blue posts <div class="blizzquotewrap"><div class="blizzquoteinner"><div class="blizzquoteheader">Quote from Blizzard staff</div><div class="blizzquote">Professions Why did it take so long to nerf Jewelcrafting? The question was asked on this (and other issues) if it was OP before why did it take so long to nerf it? Usually the answer is some combination of the following (and not just with regard to JC): 1) It was only slightly OP until players really started gearing up with new combinations of items that things get out of control. 2) We had a long-term plan to do something differently and decided either that plan was going to get bumped or we couldn't wait for its implementation. 3) We have a really long list of changes we want to make to WoW. Some things just take awhile to get to. More critical issues do get bumped to the top, but sometimes it still takes us a bit to agree on the right change and often bug fixes get even higher priority than design changes. If you see something that seems off, chances are good that we do too but just haven't gotten to it yet. (<a href="http://blue.mmo-champion.com/28/17367806783-is-there-room-for-minmax-players.html" target="_blank">Source</a>) Player vs. Player Balance in 2vs2 Arena matches As we have hinted at several times, part of the problem is the over-emphasis of the 2s bracket. It's easier to organize and more-rewarding -- we get that. We also think it's a problem. The 2s are just never going to be as balanced as larger brackets. When you only have 2 players on your team you are always going to be at the mercy of a really strong counter-comp -- you can essentially lose as soon as the door opens and you see who's on the other side. Fixing this involves doing a lot of things we don't want to do, such as compressing even more abilities into every class so that you can be assured of having a really large toolbox (Mortal Strike, non-physical damage, Dispel Magic, roots, non-DR CC, etc. etc.) even with just two characters. A lot of the "dominance" problems that we see and that players complain about go away when you look at the 3s bracket (not there aren't problems that replace them, like the abundance of RMP). (<a href="http://blue.mmo-champion.com/27/17367806934-inevitable-nerf-of-druids.html" target="_blank">Source</a>) Raids & Dungeons Sunwell-level raid difficulty Are you refering to the part where warrior tanks were kept alive by casting an anti-druid aura over the whole raid? Or the part where you stacked shamans for Chain Heal and Heroism rotations? Or where the mages were bumped to make room for more warlocks to benefit from Curse of Shadows? Or where paladins were parked outside to buff everyone in between wipes? Players who liked Sunwell generally liked it because it was hard, not because the class balance was so exceptional. Mimiron's big red button is hard if that's your thing. Algalon is hard. A lot of the tank balance problems we are having exist because we thought block would be a better mitigation stat than it has turned out to be. I say "we" because the druids and DKs were also convinced at the time that they would be mana-sponges and everyone was quoting "The unblocked hit is the new crushing blow." For a variety of reasons, reality didn't work out that way. For one, we underestimated how much removing crushing blows would change the landscape. In fact, you can argue that the big magic hits (the dragon breaths and plasma blasts) are really the new crushing blows, and block does nothing to them (modulo 4 piece bonuses and the like). DKs were given amazing cooldowns, high armor and high avoidance to make up for them not being able to block. Druids were given even higher armor and high health. We backed druids off from that a little in part because they were going to end up with dps stats almost no matter what gear they chose so we wanted to incorporate those a little more into tanking. We kept buffing DKs based on early (mostly heroic dungeon) reports that healers hated healing DKs because they were so squishy when their cooldowns were blown. That seems to be less of an issue now with current levels of gear and some of the other changes to the game since then. We will almost certainly change block. I can't tell you when we'll change it, because it's a big change. We probably don't want shield-users to be at 100% up time of block if they block more per hit. We have to be careful what happens to threat since that's a big part of block, especially for warriors. Heck, maybe we fall in love with the 4 piece warrior bonus and decide to make that a core part of the ability. We might very well nerf DK mitigation or cooldowns again. We're less worried about druids, but if we nerfed DKs it might be that druids take their place. We are less likely to just buff the shield-using tanks because we like the current difficulty of the hardmode fights for them and we are reluctant to have to buff those encounters to correspond for a tank buff. Though as we've said elsewhere, we might give paladins another cooldown. Just remember that one player's "slight advantage" is another's "faceroll tanking and trivializing encounters." The balance goal has always been "close enough" not "identical." (<a href="http://blue.mmo-champion.com/26/17223093590-the-problem-is-not-dks.html" target="_blank">Source</a>) Itemization Class-specific items We don't want to expand boss loot tables. That makes it less likely you'll end up with you want, not more. If we make druid tanking sticks, and druid rings, and druid trinkets, then you have more stuff that other tanks can't wear. Therefore when players say "Please remove this stat from my gear," our answer is almost always "No, because we want other classes to share that gear." There are always just some sub-optimal items. Those are there by design. Not everything is intended to be an upgrade and we want to reward players who understand the finer points of their class enough to know when something is an upgrade and when it's not. (And I'll throw in my standard dig that if you are simply picking something because a spreadsheet or website told you too, make sure you're making the right choice for your character.) However some items also have mistakes in them and we are getting those fixed up over time. (<a href="http://blue.mmo-champion.com/26/17367977092-itemization-team-is-right-you-are-wrong.html" target="_blank">Source</a>) Items upgrades When bosses reward too well then groups finish the content too quickly and then ask why we haven't released anything new yet. If an item drops that improves some of your stats but lowers others, that is far more interesting from a game-design point of view than if you *always* knew you were going to get an upgrade. One thing I always stress is that games should be about interesting decisions. Deciding if you can afford the loss of hit to get more strenth, or trying to decide if the parry rating is worth losing a little stamina are interesting decisions. There are not always clear cut answers. It lets players demonstrate mastery of the game when they can make the right choice for their character. A best in slot item is not worth it if you have to sacrifice too much of another stat to use it. An item with tons of defense can be the best thing for you if you are wearing blues to hit the cap, or the worst thing for you if you are already comfortably above the cap. (<a href="http://blue.mmo-champion.com/26/17367977092-itemization-team-is-right-you-are-wrong.html" target="_blank">Source</a>) Intellect more attractive than Spirit It's not a problem that Int is a more attractive stat that Spirit. You are rarely choosing between the two directly. There are not +50 Int legs that you drop your +50 Spirit legs to equip. If you are a Spirit-using class (especially a priest or druid) you will most likely hav...</div></div></div>

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