Blizzard Gathering Rift and Community Buff Ideas, Zero Empathy's Clan War Competition, Reaper of Recipes Challenge Winner
Season 3 Countdown, Deck Spotlight: Pyromaniac Secrets, Weekend Events: ESL America Cup, TaKeTV Gentlemen CupCharacter Viewer Updated: Female Gnome & Male Tauren!
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
We’ve updated the viewer on our website with two of the revised character models you’ll see in Azeroth and beyond with Warlords of Draenor. Meet the new and improved Tauren Male and Gnome Female!
Our character artists strived to recapture the charm of the classic models while taking advantage of the expressiveness of their fluid new animations to bring new life to these beloved characters. We hope you like the new looks as much as we enjoyed making them.
We’ll continue to unearth more of Draenor and the shiny visuals coming to World of Warcraft around the release of Warlords. Keep your magnifiers and spectacles ready!
Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Garrisons and Questing
It says, if you choose a certain building type, you will get different quests that open up for you, which kind of defeats the purpose of leveling up with your friend if you get very different quests? Will there still be a main quest chain to do, that has little to do with the garrisons, I am concerned if I was leveling and questing with a friend and we wanted different structures, we would have to do completely different quests, before teaming up again.
There are main quest-lines in each zone, yes, and when you pick a building for your Garrison, the quests associated with it are part of the side-quests in that zone. If you and your friend pick different buildings, some of your side-quests will be different while others may overlap. You can still adventure together and help each other out, though. because no matter where you are in Draenor, there will be lots of points-of-interest (treasure, rare spawns, bonus objectives) you both can encounter. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Blue Tweets
Several of these tweets are referring to the recent alpha patchnotes update, so be sure to look at those notes for more context.
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Classes
Every other tank has quite serious healing. Oh well, going to have to pin all hopes on Blood Craze.
All tanks will be *much* more healer dependant in Warlords. In Mists, tanks needed way too little external healing. (Celestalon)
On this note, has there been talk of prorating any proc chance associated with a partial DoT tick? Or too small to worry about?
It's something we'll do on specific periodics/procs if need be, but not worry about in the general case. (Celestalon)
Death Knight (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)In addition, ONLY Multi-strike Auto's giving 15 RP, in addition to losing Rune Regen, won't we see many more empty GCD's?
You'll see some empty GCDs, but not a ton. Remember that you're adding haste to the mix. That's big. (Celestalon)
Going over the new Blood changes, Scent of Blood proc'ing from Pestilence? Wouldn't this mean we will see far fewer stacks?
Potentially, but it's tuned around that. (Celestalon)
Heart strike being removed? Why?
It was overlapping in role way too much with Blood Boil / Pestilence. Merged them all. (Celestalon)
a bit late question, will blood dk's get a new "shield" like the rune strike gave before you removed it?
No, but check out the Enhanced Death Coil perk as its replacement. (Celestalon)
so what is the point in removing the shield from rune strike and give us death coil insted? coil is useless!
Death Coil is absolutely not useless; it's better than Rune Strike in every way now, and Blood's new RP spender. (Celestalon)
on live i have tryede using coil even whit max vengence and rune strike still hits for more, that will be chanced?
Yes. Death Coil is better than Rune Strike was, in every way. (Celestalon)
Sorry to really bug, but do you consider your old design of "hard to learn easy to master" balance, applies FDKs aswell?
No, I'd say that high-ilvl FrostDKs are 'easy to learn, easy to master' on live. Primarily because their tuning was such that... (Celestalon)
...their rotation devolved to spamming 3 buttons at high item level. We're working to ensure that doesn't happen in Warlords. (Celestalon)
Why was DK Army of the Dead damage reduced by 75%? Is it now intended to be a cosmetic ability rather than a powerful cooldown?
Not cosmetic, but not a huge damage source. (Celestalon)
Druid (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)Can you comment on the removal of Pounce? It's rather iconic, thematically. That's what cats do.
Indeed, but it was awkward for Cats to have a stealth action bar for only 2 abilities, and also awkward to have 2 abilities that... (Celestalon)
...were only usable while stealthed but still taking up bar space, that many people just macro to combine with Shred/Rake anyway. (Celestalon)
Why did you guys basically add back in dream of cenarious for ferals, took away one of the interesting talents in the process.
Because Bloody Thrash was actually not very interesting; it was purely passive, and we don't want 2 passives on a row. (Celestalon)
The new balance stuff sounds even more confusing than the old. Is it basically a pendulum that's always swinging?
Yes. (Celestalon)
Well, always while in combat (and for 30sec after combat). (Celestalon)
The balance changes mostly sound good, but a 3 second starfire cast time is royally gonna screw over balance druids in pvp
Check out Enhanced Owlkin Frenzy. (Celestalon)
why is starsurge a 3 sec cast now? Same as chaos bolt? Will it do comparable dmg?
Starsurge is 1.5sec cast. Starfire is the 3sec cast. (Celestalon)
why 3.0 secs castime for starfire?,it doesn't even hit hard!,how will i cast this in pvp? will damage be proportional to it?OMG!
Yes, damage will be proportional. And check out Improved Owlkin Frenzy. (Celestalon)
thank you! for instance warlocks have chaosbolt which has a very long castime but deals a ton of damage! is something like that?
Chaos Bolt is also resource limited, and not able to be made instant. Not the same. (Celestalon)
So hyped for the Boomkin changes! Is the new Astral Showers passive or activated?
Passive. (Celestalon)
Seems like new Balance rotation is "snapshotting light", are you worried about affdots et al neutering skill check?
The Eclipse benefit on Moonfire/Sunfire is the only thing that's snapshot. (Celestalon)
is moonfire and sunfire doing equal dmg on each tick? the difference is astral shower?
Correct. (And they benefit from different Eclipses, obviously.) (Celestalon)
Any insight on the intended tools for Boomkins movement DPS either in movement heavy fights or PVP ?
Moonfire/Sunfire, Glyphed Astral Communion. Considering Starsurge being instant, but unsure yet. (Celestalon)
With the new Celestial Alignment, is that "maximum Eclipse bonus" a 30% boost to everything or a 15% boost?
30% (before Mastery). It acts as if you were at 100 energy in both directions. (Celestalon)
oh dear god that is a lot to take in. A LOT. Like. What. That's a 100% spec redesign. Scared. Very scared.
It's a big change, indeed. We look forward to getting your feedback in alpha/beta, and iterating on the fun. (Celestalon)
Mostly worry about being in wrong eclipse wrong time for AoE vs Single Target. Just gotta get hands on it.
Both sides are good at both jobs, and Astral Communion can be used to line your cycle up with the fight. (Celestalon)
Hmm. That's good to hear. I worry about Charges & being w/o a proc for Haste boost consistently.
You can bank those charges for a long time, and doing so intelligently is one of the big skill differentiators. (Celestalon)
Also! Curious on Mana Regen. Currently 50% on Pushing Eclipse. What do I get mana from if no eclipse to push?
We'll likely need to give them some form of mana regen, but that didn't make the notes. Don't worry, mana won't limit DPS. (Celestalon)
Is this tied just to new environment design, or something changed in the backend of leap itself?
Changed; it'll be more reliable everywhere. (Celestalon)
How will Balance regen mana with new Eclipse mechanic?
Not sure of the exact mechanic, but the gameplay will remain similar to today: mana is a limit on off-healing, not DPS. (Celestalon)
Still processing all the Balance druid changes, but why make Starfire's cast time even longer? It's already painful.
To ensure that both sides line up well, and feel very different. (Celestalon)
shared charges is genius.
Pretty happy with Starsurge & Starfall sharing charges in order to get Starfall out of the single target rotation(Celestalon)
balance energy only generated in combat or all the time?
Starts toward Lunar when you enter combat. 30sec after you leave combat, the next time it reaches 0, it stops there. (Celestalon)
Also lack of instant starsurge further removes the only burst opportunity (which was RNG) that moonkin had.
Reliably firing multiple Starsurges in a row is big. (Celestalon)
solar/lunar empowerment stack or are we meant to weave the starsurges between wrath/starfire
They do not stack. You'll want to place your Starsurges where you can follow them with 2 Starfires or 3 Wraths... (Celestalon)
...within the next 15sec. And preferably put those Starfires/Wraths near the top of the cycle peak. (Celestalon)
Re new Balance: Does Moonfire and Sunfire snapshot your Eclipse buff and update with all other procs?
Yes. Everything is dynamic *except* for the Eclipse level is snapshot when you cast it. So you want to cast them near the peak Eclipse (Celestalon)
just to clarify, sorry if dumb question, this is when the cast is finished/leaves my hands, correct?
Yes. (Celestalon)
will starsurge be instant with sun/moonfire procs still? Or is starsurge instant on its own now?
No, Starsurge is a 1.5sec cast time, but not instant. Charges means you can delay using it (such as due to movement) without loss. (Celestalon)
and what's the thought on the new lunar shower interacting differently with moonfire/sunfire?
Want to make the different sides feel and play differently. Pros/Cons to both. (Celestalon)
fair enough. Rewording my other question, does new mushroom just emit damage+slow while active? Or does it just emit the slow
Just the slow. Starfall+Hurrican for Balance AoE. (Celestalon)
What happened to Nature's Grace? And do Shooting Star procs still make Starsurge instant? Like the changes so far!
We'll tune Moonkin damage to be great without Nature's Grace. No, Shooting Stars doesn't make it instant, but cast time is 1.5sec. (Celestalon)
I don't understand...Nature's Grace removed or dmg loss smaller after Nature's Grace runs out? I
Nature's Grace is removed, yes. We're tuning Moonk damage to be great without it. Intended that Stellar Flare doesn't trigger SS. (Celestalon)
BTW can we get a cosmetic glyph of astral storm for the pretty astral storm effect?
Currently planning a glyph that swaps Starfall to Sunfall, and Hurricane to Astral Storm. (Celestalon)
Only way to make the new Balance DoTs work is to remove the eclipse snapshotting too. This way we're not rushed at the 30% mark.
It's a sine wave, which means it's much slower at the ends than in the middle. Easy to get 95%+ of optimal. (Celestalon)
What happens if Im in full Lunar, and it comes time to AoE which might actually happen since I no longer have control of eclipse
Then you use Starfall, which is now great for AoE. Additionally, Astral Communion is great for aligning Eclipse to the fight. (Celestalon)
And dont give Astral Communion as a solution. That's bunk. Sit there, do nothing for 7 seconds so I can AOE properly.
Starfall is quite good, and your description of Astral Communion is quite wrong, anyway; it'd be 3sec, not 7. (Celestalon)
So it would only take 3 seconds to go from one end of the eclipse bar to the other?
You move at 4x speed while channeling. In 3sec, you'd move the bar 12sec, which is where you want to be to Hurricane. (Celestalon)
(That centers the Hurricane on the peak, with decent haste) (Celestalon)
I guess Im thinking of this as more of a pendulum where at the end of each swing is the strongest. Is that not the case?
Yes, that's correct. But AoEing takes time. If you go all the way to the end of the swing, you start on the downslope. (Celestalon)
What's with the Genesis notes? Looks like the same function as live. Ps ToL was taken in progression for mana. No ooc=weaktalent
More consistent with our changes to periodics. (Celestalon)
I have to ask, will the new Druid DoC talent copy all rejuv healing onto yourself or only 1? THe former seems overly strong.
It literally casts a Rejuv on yourself. Casting multiple Rejuvs is just extending the one on yourself. (Celestalon)
Hunter (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)Wait, is Distracting Shot staying for now for WoD?
Yep! (Celestalon)
will mm's mastery be changed to not use up durability in WoD? Having to repair far more due to it is not fun.
Wild Quiver already causes no durability loss. However, in checking that, I found that Main Gauche does, so changed that. (Celestalon)
Monk (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)Where is the damage compensation from Tiger Stance going to be loaded? Every ability? RSK? FoF? CJL?
All of them. (Celestalon)
New Black Ox Statue: Does it aggro mobs towards itself or to the tank? If former, how long will it actually survive?
Towards itself. It can take a few hits. (Celestalon)
Paladin (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)Is what made losing the 10% haste from SoI so easy to bare. I was excited to actually change seals based off the situation! -c
Prot did not lose 10% haste. They never had 10% haste. Seal of Insight was spell haste only. (Celestalon)
any reasoning behind the reverting seal changes for paladins? Does this mean we are keeping the current seals model?
Yes. The Hammer/Crusader Strike changes had too negative of an impact on gameplay. (Celestalon)
What would you consider rets utility/raid CD in WoD seeing as we lose Devotion Aura? We definetly won't be brought for offheals
Lay on Hands, Hand of Sacrifice, Execution Sentence, Hand of Protection, Light's Hammer, Hand of Purity, Hand of Freedom... (Celestalon)
Clemency, Sacred Shield, Divine Shield. (Celestalon)
Priest (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)I'm glad you're killing Chakra bonus healing but...what do they do now? More CoH in Sanc, but Serenity? Holy Word is all it has?
Renew refresh as well (which is a much much bigger deal now). (Celestalon)
Hey, can u make a new minor glyph in WoD for priests, that makes chakra's visual effect invisible please ? It's really, annoying
It has a new smaller visual for after the first couple seconds. (Celestalon)
how will multistrike with PW:S work ? two shields or one bigger shield ?
One bigger shield. (Celestalon)
Rogue (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)still holding out to see some variety in rogue specs, all the options are too similar.
There are several changes that make their gameplay significantly different feeling. I think that may be more evident in testing (Celestalon)
Shaman (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)Which of the RShaman Draenor Perks was removed to add the ULE 30% movement for 4 seconds perk?
Improved Frost Shock. (Celestalon)
Wasn't Improved Frost Shock never a Resto Shaman perk?
No, it was, previously. (Celestalon)
What is reason behind Tidal Waves nerf? When will we see "buffs in other areas" that patch notes still promise?
Healing Wave is a different spell, so we needed to adjust the effect. It was too strong. We aren't listing most # changes in notes (Celestalon)
You've nerfed HR,HST,CH,MTT,AG, and now direct heals. What is even left to be buffed? Can you give us some good news at least?
It's all relative. The good news is that you're great healers. Design changes aren't nerfs to performance at this point. (Celestalon)
Warlock (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)Why on WoWSource you said that you liked where KJC was for warlocks, having them sac damage for movement then 360 and change it?
What can I say, sometimes we just like to do pirouettes. All casters are losing some DPS on the move; different environment now. (WatcherDev)
Can you PLEASE give Drain Soul the Malefic Grasp animation in Warlords? Would hate to see such a cool animation disappear.
The new Drain Soul has a combination of live's Drain Soul visual, plus Malefic Grasp's missile visual. (Celestalon)
Warrior (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)also what does this do for ignite weapon lvl 100 talent for arms?
We're still evaluating how/whether Ignite Weapon works with the new Arms rotation. (Celestalon)
Will arms get a new talent in place of ignite weapon?
It's something that we're considering, but want to see how it works for them first. (Celestalon)
Do you feel this new arms has enough depth? Dropping HS helps solve efficiency questions but rotation as a whole...very simple
Yes, primarily due to Execute. (Celestalon)
Is the Glyph of Colossus Smash intended to be a DPS gain? I'm worried about losing all complexity for Fury.
No. (Celestalon)
No path avail 4 heroic leap, but rogues can shadow step, monks transcendence, locks port, etc. Can we get a balance fix here?
There are significant improvements to your ability to reliably Heroic Leap in 6.0. (Celestalon)
I like those Arms changes. to be clear CS doesn't increase slam dmg but will slam do more dmg while CS is up or same?
It will, by virtue of being physical damage that is normally affected by armor, which CS lets it bypass (just like most things). (Celestalon)
Will Arms warriors be GCD capped with Rage on enemies >20% hp?
In general, GCD-capping will be optimal, and any free GCDs will because you over-used Execute. (Celestalon)
This Week Only - 35% Off Armored Bloodwing and Blossoming Ancient
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker)
If you’ve ever wanted to prowl the night skies astride an ironclad bat or summon a miniature version of the great Ancients to join your adventures, this is your lucky week! From now until next Tuesday, the Armored Bloodwing mount and Blossoming Ancient pet are available for 35% off their regular price—but hurry, because this sale ends June 3, 2014 at 11:59 p.m. PT.
ProGameX World of Warcraft Arena May 2014 Tournament (3v3)
ProGameX WoW Arena May 2014 Tournament will be held on 31st of May and 1st of June 2014 starting at 18.00 CET. You can find more information on ArenaJunkies.
Warcraft Movie Updates
Filming for the movie finally finished up last week. While filming may be complete, there is still a lot of post production work to be done, so the movie won't be released until March 11, 2016.
IGN is reporting that Ben Foster will be playing Medivh in the movie! He also mentions that the team is using a lot of advanced motion capture.
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