Feb 25 Hotfixes, Dev Q&A on Feb 27, Ashran Changes, Blue Pos

[Haggle]

PTR Patch 2.2 Datamined Info, Patch 2.2 PTR is UP!, Retroactive Set Changes, PTR Patch 2.2 Notes



Hearthstone Patch 7835 Official Notes



Hero Rotation Update - Thrall, BlizzardCS NA Heroes Beta Key Giveaway



Mythic Blackhand Progress

Paragon has defeated Mythic Blackhand after a very close attempt before the reset, giving them world second. There are 18 guilds currently at 9/10.

Patch 6.1 Hotfixes - February 25

Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Classes

• Tanking Specializations no longer generate threat from heals.
• Fixed an issue where threat dropping abilities were sometimes incorrectly removing crowd-control effects.
• Fixed an issue where images summoned by Spectral Guide (Priest Talent) or Mirror Image (Mage) would incorrectly retain threat when resummoned.
• Druid (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  
  
  • General
    
    
    • Shifting in-and-out of Cat Form should now correctly reapply Cat Form's speed bonus while Dash or Stampeding Roar is active.
    • Fixed an issue where various item effects that provides a buff based on the player's highest stat sometimes picked the wrong stat for Balance and Restoration Druids that were shapeshifted into Bear Form or Cat Form.
    • Fixed an issue where Ferocious Bite may consume more Energy than intended when the ability Multistrikes.
  • Talents
    
    
    • Bloodtalons (Feral) should no longer incorrectly consume a charge if the attack misses, is dodged, or parried.
• Mage (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  
  
  • Talents
    
    
    • Prismatic Crystal should no longer be incorrectly affected by friendly auras that reduces damage taken.
• Monk (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  
  
  • General
    
    
    • Tiger Strikes should no longer incorrectly activate on unsuccessful autoattacks, but will be able to activate from successful Multistrikes. Fixing this will result in an overall damage gain for all Monks, so there are a couple of additional adjustments (see below). Additionally, Tiger Strikes should now correctly provide the full 10% chance to trigger for Mistweavers in Crane Stance while equipping one-handed items in conjunction with off-hand items. For more details of this change, please visit the forum thread: Upcoming Tiger Strikes Hotfix.
      
      
      • Keg Smash (Brewmaster) now deals 20% less damage.
      • Rising Sun Kick (Windwalker, Mistweaver) now causes enemies to take 20% increased damage from the Monk's abilities (up from 10%).
      • The tooltip for Tiger Strikes is incorrectly stating that the chance for it to activate is 6.25% while dual-wielding. The actual chance is 5% (and has been since Warlords of Draenor released). The tooltip will be corrected in a future patch.
  • Talents
    
    
    • Fixed an issue with Chi Torpedo that caused it to deal no damage unless the Glyph of Water Roll was applied.
• Paladin (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  
  
  • Glyphs
    
    
    • Glyph of Holy Shock now decreases the healing of Holy Shock by 25% and increases its damage by 25% (down from a 50% decrease to healing and 50% increase to damage).
• Priest (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  
  
  • Talents
    
    
    • Saving Grace (Discipline, Holy) should now correctly reduce absorbs done (was incorrectly reducing absorption taken).
  • Armor Sets
    
    
    • PvP 2-piece set bonus effect for Shadow Priests is now removed at the beginning of a boss encounter. The set bonus will still work during the encounter.
• Rogue (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  
  
  • Armor Sets
    
    
    • PvP 4-piece set bonus for Combat Rogues should now provide the correct set bonus for Cold Blood. Note that the tooltip will incorrectly display text for the old set bonus and will be fixed in a future client-side patch.
  • Bug Fixes
    
    
    • Fixed an issue that could allow the effects of Master of Subtlety to persist longer than intended.
    • Attacking targets immediately after Vanish transitions to Stealth should now correctly remove Stealth and trigger Subterfuge.
• Shaman (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
  
  
  • Enhancement
    
    
    • Fire Nova should now work correctly with Flurry. Additionally, Fire Nova should have its global cooldown reduced by haste.
  • Armor Sets
    
    
    • PvP 2-piece set bonus for Elemental Shaman should now correctly provide immunity to silence and interrupt effects while Ascendance is active.

Garrisons, Followers, and Outposts

• Garrison Campaign Quests
  
  
  • Bringing the Bass: Lumbering Ancient can now be tapped by multiple players. Loot from the creature has been temporarily removed.
  • New Goods (Alliance version): Fixed an issue where Lieutenant Thorn was not offering this quest to eligible players.
• Garrison Buildings
  
  
  • Mine, Level 2 (Horde): Fixed an issue where some of the ore nodes were spawning in the air.

Quests

• Frostfire Ridge
  
  
  • The Battle of Thunder Pass: Fixed an issue where players dying during the battle may sometimes be unable to complete the quest.
• Nagrand
  
  
  • Shields Down!: Players should now receive credit for interacting with the Arkonite Crystal and be able to complete the quest.

Raids and Dungeons

• Blackrock Foundry
  
  
  • General
    
    
    • Ogron Hauler no longer hits targets while casting Overhead Smash and Overhead Smash now increase Physical damage taken by 100% (down from a 200% increase) on Raid Finder difficulty.
    • Slagshop Brute now pauses for 2-seconds after using Lumbering Strength.
  • The Blast Furnace
    
    
    • Phase 1
      
      
      • Adds in the encounter should now be more immediately responsive to threat generation upon jumping into the encounter space.
      • Furnace Engineer's Repair ability now heals Heat Regulators' health every 1.5 seconds (up from every 1 second). Additionally, Furnace Engineers should no longer instantly cast Repair if they're in the middle of casting Electrocution or Bomb.
    • Phase 2
      
      
      • Firecaller's Volatile Fire now hits up to a maximum of 2 targets on Raid Finder difficulty, and 3 targets on Normal and Heroic difficulty.
      • Slag Elemental's nameplates now go away when they are Dormant.
      • Multiple Slag Elementals should no longer Fixate on the same player.
  • Flamebender Ka'graz
    
    
    • The fight should now reset when a Cinder Wolf is moved outside the encounter area.
    • Flamebender Ka'graz's Charring Breath and Lava Slash should now be correctly removed after an encounter reset.
  • Kromog
    
    
    • Players under the effects of Rune of the Grasping Hand should no longer take damage or stunned by Rune of Crushing Earth.
  • Beastlord Darmac
    
    
    • Beastlord Darmac's Pin Down ability should now deal damage in a radius of 25 yards around the spear impacts rather than around Darmac. Additionally, visuals for the attack should no longer be sometimes hidden by the floor.
    • Visuals for Spirit of the Rylak's Superheated Shrapnel and Dreadwing's Inferno Breath should now more accurately display the abilities' area of effect.
  • Operator Thogar
    
    
    • Fixed an issue where the door leading to Operator Thogar may fail to open if the raid wipes shortly after starting the encounter.
  • Blackhand
    
    
    • Blackhand should now correctly create a Slag Crater beneath the target of his Massive Shattering Smash.
    • Visuals for Blackhand's Shattering Smash and Massive Shattering Smash should now be visible with Projected Textures disabled.
• Legacy
  
  
  • Throne of the Four Winds, Conclave of Wind: Fixed an issue where players may be unable to receive loot if their pet lands the killing blow on Conclave of Wind.

PvP

• Ashran
  
  
  • Gleaming Ashmaul Strongbox no longer contains Primal Aspirant's gear (item level 600). Gleaming Ashmaul Strongbox now contains only Primal Combatant's gear (item level 620) with a small chance for Primal Gladiator's gear (item level 660) and Flask of Conquest.

Battlegrounds and Arenas

• Battlegrounds
  
  
  • Warsong Gulch: Fixed an issue where players entering a match that's in-progress will cause the character to have 1 health and be displayed as dead.
• Arenas
  
  
  • Fixed an issue where players were incorrectly awarded two Steel Lockboxes for completing a 3v3 and 5v5 skirmish.

Items

• Blackrock Ham's well fed bonus should now correctly provide a buff to Critical Strike.
• Dread Pirate Ring should correctly provide a bonus to Stamina, Critical Strike, and Haste once more (was incorrectly set to Intelligence, Stamina, and Critical Strike).
• S.E.L.F.I.E. Cameras should now use the correct animation for Human Male and Female models.
• Savage Feast's well fed bonus should now work correctly with the Pandaren Epicurean racial ability.

Bug Fixes

• General
  
  
  • Resolved an issue where players that attempt to teleport back from a dungeon after having recently upgraded their Garrisons may receive an "Instance not found" error.
  • Fixed a server crash during the daily quest reset.
• Items
  
  
  • Fixed an issue where Alliance players were unable to purchase the Battle Pet, Clock'em.

Raid and Dungeon Live Q&A February 27!

Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

This Friday, I’ll join Lead Game Designer Ion “Watcher” Hazzikostas to answer your questions live on Twitch. We’ll be focusing on the topic of Raids and Dungeons in Warlords of Draenor -- from Bloodmaul Slag Mines to Blackrock Foundry, and beyond!



When: Friday, February 27, 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM Pacific Standard Time (check here to convert that into your local time!)

Where: The World of Warcraft channel on Twitch.tv/WoW



You can submit your questions via Twitter by using the hashtag #WarlordsQA, or simply by replying to this forum thread. As we’d like to get to as many questions as possible, we’ll only consider forum questions that use 40 words or less, and all questions must be submitted before 12:01 AM PST on Friday, February 27. Keep in mind that we’re focusing on Raids and Dungeons for this Q&A session -- questions on other topics will not be answered.



See you there!

Patch 6.1 - Ashran Changes

Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

We understand there is a lot of confusion about the removal of conquest points from Grand Marshal Tremblade and High Warlord Volrath, so we’d like to explain the reasoning behind it.



Our primary goal with Ashran was to create a zone where two factions were competing against each other throughout the zone. The average visitor in Ashran has two motivations: earn 200 conquest to fulfill the Ashran bonus portion of their conquest cap, and kill the faction boss for their daily chance at loot from the Gleaming Ashmaul Strongbox. Prior to 6.1, players could earn that conquest by either killing the faction boss or by doing events. We were allowing the same reward to be earned at two different places at the same time.



This setup does not encourage competition. It encourages collusion. As a result, an implicit truce had emerged between the factions, where the Alliance claimed victory in the Road of Glory while Horde wandered the event areas unopposed for conquest. Both sides earned their reward in an efficient manner without any fighting. But Ashran is not a place for truces. Ashran is a place for killing. We removed conquest from the bosses knowing full well this meant the Alliance would be forced to compete against the Horde in events for conquest. Furthermore, we knew that facing new opposition at events, the Horde would once again engage in the central road.



Of course, we acknowledge that killing a faction boss only to receive Aspirant gear isn’t very motivating. As a result, we’ll be removing Aspirant gear from the Gleaming Ashmaul Strongbox. That means it will always award either Combatant (ilevel 620/675) or Gladiator (ilevel 660/690) gear.



We are already seeing increased competition between the two factions in both events and the main road. In every Ashran instance, the population of both factions is tightly controlled to maintain equal numbers. Your faction has the opportunity to compete, but it is up to you to earn victory. Good luck and have fun!

Blue Posts

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

Ashran

So there's no reason to attack the enemy general anymore.

A lot of people would still like to collect Combatant and Gladiator gear. It's decent.



Why? For what reason is that important now?

It might not be important for you at this stage. And that's okay. You might be one of the people who should be focusing more on winning the events over the Horde for the Conquest Points.



I guess that's why the que times are down, nobody wants to go in there anymore!

There were fairly notable changes in 6.1 to how Ashran instances are populated, the goal being to reduce the unacceptable wait times.



But what about the people who have no need for Honor or Conquest points? Are we expected to avoid Ashran now to simply do arenas or rated bgs? Why should I, who have full conq gear, take another step into Ashran?

Perhaps it depends on whether you enjoy the experience you're having there. Ultimately that's important.



Hey Zarhym.... Heres a novel idea for your fail ashran pvp.

Stopped reading right at the end of your first sentence.



A lot of people in this community have opinions to share. You might consider whether your approach to sharing yours is in the least bit palatable.



Are you ignoring feedback because it's negative? At the end of the day, there is a reason the feedback is so negative towards Ashran. Maybe you should be more open to all types of feedback, as it stands Ashran hasn't improved since launch.

We read plenty of negative feedback all the time. When it gets to an insulting level there's no point in wasting time on it. Many others can phrase their objections in reasonable and constructive ways. The less time we spend negotiating with the most hyperbolic and cynical people in the community, the more attention we can pay to the people making honest attempts to share their perspectives in civil fashion.



It's not a complicated, diabolical, or arrogant concept. There has to be a practicality to sifting through opinions in such a large community.



Given my previous post, I feel this is an opportune time to provide a simple example.



With the event timers as LONG as they are now, and often times watching groups or being in groups doing nothing but sit at a spot with nothing at all happening because they have no interest in doing a road push, the LONG wait for anything to happen at all with any kind of reward is very dull.



I did Ashran because I liked how it used to feel like old AV, and I don't like Arenas at all. For my PvP fix now I'm more likely to go to regular BGs for points, and Heroes of the Storm for FUN. (Yeah, I know it's still a Blizzard game, I play it anyway, but it goes with the fact there's nothing rewardingly fun about Ashran now if you're even half CP geared, the box drop rate is abysmal.)



What's worse is with the current state, the Gladiator's sanctum quests may never get done. I know my brother's been on the Pandaren one for months and has went into Ashran daily often to never find one at all on the Horde side.

This is negative feedback. It's also constructive feedback. I don't have anything particular to respond with right now and otherwise wouldn't be -- as is the case with many posts in this thread -- but this is the type of stuff we register, document, and discuss internally.



No response =\= ignored.



Frankly, we can't take the time to acknowledge all decent feedback or respond to it directly, but that makes it no less useful to us. In many cases honest, constructive feedback will spur a discussion of ideas within the community, until finer points are scrutinized, debated, and sometimes augmented to reflect popular feedback. We love to see it and will participate in the discussion if we feel it'll somehow enhance the conversation or clarify common misconceptions.



well that got stuffed up Zarhym. Oce servers have a 30 min + que atm because someone decided to join all of the OCE servers. It used to be insta entry on barth now I cant even get in, besides the fact I really don't want to. You broke your game even more

It was necessary to open the matchmaking pools more similar to how BG queues are handled. While we really prefer to have opponents fighting from the same realm, or at least from a small enough pool that opponents' names maybe familiar, many imbalanced and highly populated realms had extreme wait times, while low population realms had unfilled Ashran instances. Our 6.1 changes have leveled that out much more, though we'll continue to monitor the effects this has in each region.



Not like a constant update but more of "Hey, srry if patch *name* is taking a bit longer. We ran into a bad error" Something like that would kind of make me feel a bit happy.

We always try to provide as much insight and input as possible. The responsibility of crafting and relaying that info generally falls into the hands of us community managers though, as the developers are very busy taking in feedback, tackling bugs, designing new content, etc.



What aspects of Ashran gameplay do you enjoy most or think work well and why?



What aspects of Ashran gameplay do you dislike and why?



What changes would you like to see made and why?



Sincerely,

Zarhym and why? (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)



Twitter Integration

Real ID has to be enabled.

That's probably the cause if the Twitter options are just not there in-game for you, and our apologies as it was a fairly late change so not many people internally were aware of how it was implemented. Right now Twitter functionality is tied to Real ID being enabled, as it allows us to ensure parental controls can disable access to Twitter. We really wanted parental controls to be able to block Twitter access if a parent wants to do that, and to get that done and get it into the patch the best option was to attach it to the Real ID setting. We're looking into separating them into their own options in the future.



How can Real ID be enabled? I am not able to see the Twitter integration options either. I went to MENU --> INTERFACE --> BATTLE.NET , but none of the options enable it. So I'm missing something others might be unaware of as well. Help would be appreciated. Thanks.

It's under Social. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)



Flight Path Routes

Can we talk specifics?



I've just been checking out flight paths all over Draenor, looking at destinations that are three and four connections away, and they're noticeably direct. For example, from Horde Garrison to Pinchwhistle Gearworks (quite a long way), the flight path is almost perfectly straight.



Of course, while on the taxi, I noted that there was *some* deviating from the straight line, but that was always in accordance with the terrain. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Dark Legacy Comics #478 - Leaving the Nest

DLC #478 looks at how the wildlife of Draenor fares with no flying.

http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/473 ... ts-DLC-478