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Eyonix leaving Blizzard
It's sad news for the World of Warcraft community today as longtime Blizzard community manager Eyonix has announced that he's leaving the company. He announced his departure in a simple and direct post on the official forums: "For nearly six years, we've shared our thoughts with one and other, we've laughed, we've argued, and we've cried -- the crying part was just me wasn't it? Those times, I'm afraid must come to an end as I've made the decision to explore opportunities outside of Blizzard. It has very honestly been a huge pleasure, and I thank you all for allowing 'Eyonix' to always remain a very fond memory as I move on." My perspective might be a little different than some readers' due to my employment history, but I've always felt for the plight of the community manager, especially at Blizzard. Become emotionally detached, they say you're not passionate. Become emotionally invested, they say you take it too personally. Eyonix has generally managed to strike that particular balance -- no mean feat for a community manager, especially one for a community so inherently unmanageable. He was one of the good guys. We'll likely never know what caused his departure, especially given that there was definitely no horrible public meltdown accompanying this particular exit, but I hope that the move is a positive and fortuitous one for him. Even when I might've disagreed with the Community team at large, I always supported Eyonix. Godspeed, little whelp.
Lichborne: Rune cooldowns, tank mastery, and Cataclysm
The devs have been speaking a little a bit about the new mastery system coming with Cataclysm, and while they've kept most of the specific numbers vague, there's been a surprising amount of information one can read between the lines about death knights. Of course, it started with the frost death knight stats. The stats were solidly DPS oriented, providing damage, haste, and runic power generation. This lead to two major concerns: What would frost tanks do for mastery? And for that matter, even DPS don't need runic power generation that much, considering we can only use so many frost strikes (or death coils for other specs) before we need to spend our runes anyway. The Blues actually gave answers to these questions, answers that managed to both answer the question and provide a whole new level of speculation and questioning. On the question of the new runic power bonus, Ghostcrawler and Eyonix revealed that death knights would find their rotation less constrained by the global cool down and rune cool downs, and that changes such as that would make the runic power generation more desirable. On the tank front, they're actually being deliberately coy about what they have planned for death knight tanks, but they at least seem to know the issue's on the table. This week, I figure it might fun to take a look at these statements and mull over some possible ways they might implement them.
Cataclysm: Stat and system changes for spirit and MP5
One of the challenges for many novice level healing druids and priests is figuring out what provided more mana: X MP5 (which stands for mana per 5 seconds) or Y spirit. However, in Eyonix's post about Cataclysm stat changes, MP5 will be completely removed from the game. Healing paladins and shamans normally relied on slight amounts of MP5 on their gear. Instead, their gear will now pack spirit which will affect their mana gains. Say again? Yes, you heard right. MP5 is being removed. It will be gone. Fist pumps and high fives all around! In any case, when the next expansion comes around, everyone will need to relearn the entire mana regeneration mechanic. Thankfully, it should be much easier this time around. Spirit is the main stat which will contribute to mana regeneration since intellect provides spell \power. It is too early to provide any advice or guides since we can't actually see the changes in action just yet, but the basic idea is that healers will be stacking a combination of intellect and spirit to increase healing throughput as well as mana regeneration. Lastly, for the druids and shamans: Eyonix If you are a Balance druid or Elemental shaman: You will still share gear with Restoration druids and shaman. Your gear will have Spirit on it. It won't have Hit on it. You will have a talent that converts Spirit to Hit. We will adjust talents accordingly so that you want about as much Spirit as, say, a warlock wants Hit. Hit on rings and other such gear will still benefit you. Raid buffs will no longer boost Spirit, so you shouldn't find yourself unexpectedly over the Hit cap because of buffs. source I wonder if this means Prayer of Spirit will be removed. All in all, I'm very excited about the regeneration changes. It'll make things much easier for players to understand (like me)! Anyway, the line of thinking here regarding the removal of raid spirit buffs is this: Since spirit will be providing elemental shamans and Balance druids with hit due to a talent conversion, any raid buffs which boost spirit will presumable bump their hit and put them over the hit cap which isn't a good thing since any surplus points will be considered wasted. World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will destroy Azeroth as we know it. Nothing will be the same. In WoW.com's Guide to Cataclysm you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion. From Goblins and Worgens to Mastery and Guild changes, it's all there for your cataclysmic enjoyment.
The Daily Blues: Special Cataclysm report
Eyonix and Wryxian has been busy responding to questions about the just announced Cataclysm Stats and System Changes. We're going to do a special edition this afternoon of The Daily Blues and get you all the blue posts and surrounding questions/answers that are coming in. We'll keep the latest blue post about the break. For a record of everything that's been said today, check after the break (there's already several there). Eyonix Eyonix, So what's the point of being a tank anymore? All other classes will have buffed hit points.... except tanks All other classes will have bonus defensive capabilities.... except tanks All dps armor will have more stamina ... except tank armor. So why are tanks getting the big screw job? Tanks will have much more health and armor with gear, enchants, gems, and talents. From gear they'll also be getting mitigation stats such as parry and dodge (when applicable). Don't worry tanks will still be tanks, and dps/healers wont be able to fulfill that role anymore than they are able to now. source Eyonix Very nice changes overall. Only question I have is what is the point of calling plate armor plate armor if it has the same or nearly the same mitigation as cloth? Seems rather silly. Plate will still possess much more armor than cloth, the difference just wont be as significant as it is now. source Wryxian How does weapon skill chances affect for achievements such: Did Somebody Order a Knuckle Sandwich? Master of Arms I take you already know what I mean. They may well become candidates for Feats of Strength, but I have no information on this right now. source
Upon logging into World of Warcraft, I immediately...
Last week Eyonix started a poll on the forums asking players what they do directly after logging in (all of the options are listed in the picture above). For me, it's no contest -- before I do anything else, I always pop the friends list up to see who's around. The only time this doesn't happen is if I'm logging on in a rush for the night's raid, but I try to limit the number of times that occurs. Reading this poll has made me realize the extent to which I depend on my bank alt for mail and AH-related business; my main very rarely needs to check her mail. If you're interested in responding to the poll, it'll be running for another day or so, and you can find it here. Because it's on the official forums, you'll be prompted to log in to your forum account before replying.
No skipping the story in the Culling of Stratholme for now
The story of the Culling of Stratholme is cool, the first time you do it. However after about the hundreth time it gets to be a bit much. And thanks to the random heroic dungeon finder, I practically have Arthas' speech memorized now; he and I yell in sync at the end of each run "To the ends of the earth!" Be honest, I know you do, too. What has to be the most requested feature of this dungeon -- the ability to skip the long and repetitive story -- isn't coming anytime soon. When there was some discussion about this in the general forms earlier this week, Eyonix appeared and enlightened us as to Blizzard's thoughts on the matter: We agree, but unfortunately with the current tech/flagging that exists in regards to this -- it's just not possible for the game to recognize this sort of thing and allow for a bypass. It's always a possibility for the future though. So for the time being we'll have to live with this, but at least Blizzard is on the same page with us all. And if the Trial of the Champion and Halls of Reflection instances tells us anything, it's that Blizzard won't be building dungeons without the ability to skip the story in the future -- at least we hope so.
Scattered Shots: Hunter Q&A Part 1
Good day folks and welcome to Scattered Shots. The column that takes a good look at what it takes to be a Hunter in the World of Warcraft. I am Eddie "Brigwyn" Carrington from the Hunting Lodge. This week we'll be reviewing the recently released Hunter Q&A. The Hunter Q&A was like the other Class Q&As, a mixed bag of frustration, tease, and interesting concepts. It shouldn't be a surprise that we didn't get the details we wanted. Nor should it be a complete shock to you that some Hunters would feel disconnected between what players want versus what the Developers are concentrating on. Given all that, I still felt that this Q&A was overall pretty decent. There is so much to review and discuss I've decided to break the Q&A out into 2 parts. Here's a quick highlight of the main things discussed in Part 1: Developers feel Survival Hunter spec is currently performing within normal operating parameters. Crowd Control still needs work. PvP has a big influence on PvE Class Balance Ammo remains a consumable because of technical difficulties. Ammo is a focus point on Hunter damage progression. Blizzard is hoping to cut the cost of Ammo to address the cost burden for Hunters. The Hunter "No Fire" zone will remain in effect. Development considers enhancing Hunter melee attacks. All that is just in Part 1! So let's see what Ghostcrawler had to say.
Ghostcrawler adds to Hunter Q&A
As promised, there's a new version of the Hunter class Q&A up on the official forums. Very little has changed from the previous version, actually, but they did add the following question: Q: Do we have plans to increase the number of stable slots available to hunters? A:Obviously we increased it a lot in Wrath of the Lich King. We want to try and keep the pet as some kind of decision - they aren't supposed to be like mounts or titles where you just collect as many as you want. We expanded the size so that players could have say a Tenacity pet for soloing and a Ferocity pet for raiding, but we don't want every hunter to have every family available here. Now one potential problem are the Spirit Beasts, which are collected by hunters and not trivial to replace. We have also discussed expanding the Spirit Beast concept to have rare skins of other pet families (that otherwise don't convey a combat bonus). If we do that, we'd probably have to expand the stable slots. We've also considered a model where the hunter doesn't even need a stable and can work more like a warlock where they can just summon their pets whenever they want - with the remote stable ability from the dual-spec feature, we're pretty close to that already. If we went this route then maybe the stable could just become pet storage in the same way your bank has all those Invader's Scourgestones and Zul'Gurub bijous that you don't use often but can't bear to part with. That's all we can see that's changed with the Q&A.
Hunter Q&A released
Eyonix posted the initial version of the Hunter Q&A today.Please note that there will be another version of this coming out later today. We'll bring you both versions, as well as the differences.Some of the highlights of the Hunter Q&A: Ammo removal is still on the table. More details brought to light as to why it can't be implemented just yet. "Dead Zone" in its current form is not going away completely. Auto-Shoot should not work while moving, moving is a penalty. Possibly an announcement at BlizzCon concerning Hunter's reliance on mana. A new system, removing the need for mana? Pay attention at BlizzCon! Hunters are too cooldown limited. Blizzard is not happy with the current solutions to keeping pets alive. Avoidance mechanics "just don't work well." Available number of pet action bar slots will be expanded. No plans to expand the use of Tranquilizing Shot. Magmadar is scared! Oh noes! The full Q&A after the break.
Ulduar drakes not being removed anytime soon
Blizzard simply can't make up their minds about this, can they? The Rusted and Ironbound Proto-Drakes, which are rewarded for completing Glory of the Ulduar Raider on Normal and Heroic, were slated for removal at an unspecified time in the future after patch 3.2's launch. The reasoning was that it would be easier to acquire them with Coliseum gear, and they were meant for cutting-edge players only. However, Eyonix has just announced that they are not planning on removing these proto-drake rewards from the achievement in patch 3.2, and furthermore, they don't plan to do it "in the foreseeable future." In the event that they do change their minds again, you are promised a one-month warning. So get back to those hard-modes! Patch 3.2 will bring about a new 5, 10, and 25 man instance to WoW, and usher in a new 40-man battleground called the Isle of Conquest. WoW.com will have you covered every step of the way, from extensive PTR coverage through the official live release. Check out WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.2 for all the latest!
Paid character transfers time restrictions slashed
Eyonix has just announced that lockout time for paid character transfers has been reduced to 3 days from its previous 30. This means that you can now transfer your character to a new realm using the paid transfer service once every three days instead of once every thirty.This is especially useful for raiders and PvPers who move to a new realm to join a guild, and then find out that the guild doesn't work for them. There are also tens of thousands of horror stories about people moving between servers only to find that their new guilds disbands a few days later. This will be a significant boon to people who find themselves in that situation.The cost of the paid character transfers remain at $25 for a one way ticket.
Bug fix patch with talent reset coming soon
Talent bugs have plagued players since patch 3.1 hit, with its dual spec system, last Tuesday. Blizzard knows this better than anyone; unfortunately, it's going to take a content patch to fix a lot of the weirdness that has been transpiring. Fortunately, they're working to get that patch out the door as soon as possible. The way they've been talking, my money's on patch 3.1.1 coming probably tomorrow, or failing that, next week. Eyonix just posted that "in the next upcoming minor content patch," all talents are going to be wiped, but not glyphs. So (as he reminds us) make sure you put the right talents with the right glyphs, or you'll have to respec/reglyph to fix it. I would recommend waiting until tomorrow morning on any respec plans you might have (unless they're for tonight's raid), because there's a good chance you'll get it done for free in the morning.
Breakfast Topic: Northrend pop culture references
Blizzard is famous for adding references from all kinds of films, TV shows and other media into WoW (aka Easter Eggs.) Take this lovely young flower seller in Dalaran. Remind you of anyone? As I wander through Azeroth and Outland, I'm struck by the number of references to real world pop culture. From snakes on a plane in Nagrand to Dr. Boom in Netherstorm to Florist Gump in Stormwind, not to mention a talking rat and some turtles in Dalaran sewer. The list goes on and on. I also quite like the virtual presence of beloved Blues in the form of Eyonix in the Stormspire and Drysc in the Exodar, but my favourite is that human joke about a bracelet of power.With the addition of Wrath, it seems we have even more references to uncover. So tell us, constant readers, which are you favourites and have you uncovered any new ones post Patch 3.1?%Gallery-18980%
Patch 3.1 Battleground queue updates
Out of the blue tonight, the blustering Blizzard Blue bard Eyonix, came out and let us know about a few things that'll be happening with the Patch 3.1 battleground queue (see what queuing will be like now): Players will not be able to queue while dead. If you queue and accept to enter a battleground while in flight, you'll be returned to a designated destination. Now the first point is clearly to prevent dodging of corpse runs or mess around with corpse camping. As far as the second point, this is interesting and pretty much provides another way of ghetto hearthing in some circumstances (remember, ghetto hearthing is being removed in patch 3.1). Not that you should take advantage of this or anything, and chances are it'll be hotfixed relatively quickly upon release of patch 3.1.
Blessing of Wisdom and Mana Stream totem go exclusive
Eyonix has posted some bad news for Pallies and/or Shamans on the forums: the Shaman's Mana Spring totem, while still providing a raid-wide buff, won't play nice with the Paladin's Blessing of Wisdom spell. The two mana regen buffs will essentially be equivalent, but won't stack in the upcoming content patch.The reasoning? Eyonix says that Blizzard feels that Pallies and Shamans brought too many unique buffs to a group, and that this change was designed to pull in an either/or choice: either Pallies can hit up Blessing of Wisdom, and Shaman can go with Healing Stream (which isn't, apparently, being combined with the Mana Spring totem as we first heard) or do some cleansing with their Water totem slot, or Shaman can use the raid-wide Mana Spring, leaving Paladins open to use Blessing of Kings.Which makes a strange kind of sense, even though lots of Pallies and Shammies will likely be disappointed to hear of one less unique buff they can bring to a raid. There is one hidden benefit here, however: since raids were previously recieving both benefits together (and now can only get one or the other), we can probably look forward to a buff for at least one (since the Totem suffers the weakness of not being portable, you'd expect it to have some extra ability) or both.
Hearthstones down to 30 minute cooldown in patch 3.1
Alright, so they killed ghetto hearthing. Blizzard never intended the instance boot system to be used as means to travel back to one's home city while Hearthstones were on cooldown, so they're setting things right in Patch 3.1 by making it port players to the nearest graveyard, instead. Naturally, this sparked outrage amongst the instance-abusing community and some players demanded Blizzard to make up for the loss of one of the most frequently used means of travel.Eyonix was quick to shut down these arguments in a long thread but eventually capitulated to the will of the masses, announcing that Hearthstones would be usable every 30 minutes when Patch 3.1 goes live. Eyonix still doesn't quite understand what the fuss is all about, though, and points to mage portals, Dalaran portals, and good old mount riding as acceptable means of getting from point A to point B. He even dismisses the complaints as QQ at one point. That said, it looks like some QQ has won the day for now. Enjoy your 30 minute hearthstones, everyone. Patch 3.1 brings us Ulduar, dual specs, significant changes to all the classes, and more! We've got you covered from top to bottom with our Guide to Patch 3.1.
New glyphs incoming soon
Eyonix chimed in on the General forums earlier to say that we'll be seeing new glyphs soon. It's just a small line, but it should be good news for all tradeskills. It's very rare for them to add a significant amount of items to one tradeskill in a content patch and leave all of the others untouched. Personally, I think it's a good sign that we'll be seeing a lot of tradeskill love in patch 3.1, but maybe I'm reading into it too deeply.Even if we're in some crazy world where only Inscription receives tradeskill love, this is interesting news regardless. We might be seeing more glyphs incoming for a lot of our Wrath of the Lich King abilities that weren't given glyphs, so we could experience the base abilities before we started augmenting them. It wouldn't surprise me at all if we started seeing things like Glyph of Frostfire Bolt Mind Sear in patch 3.1.As soon as the PTR comes up, we'll be hitting the trainers and reputation vendors to see what is coming our way, so keep an eye on WoW Insider for all of that good stuff once it happens.Edit: Shhh. You didn't see that. It has a line through it, that means it didn't happen.
Warlock pets to get some love
Just in time for the Love is in the Air event, Eyonix made a short note on the forums to say that some love is coming the way of Warlock pets. However, he makes no promises as to the timetable for this -- probably to defuse any high hopes that it will make it in time for Patch 3.1 (remember the Hunter no more ammo fiasco?). Although Warlock pets have been improved somewhat, their contribution to Affliction and Destruction DPS is marginal, at best. While these demons may not be buffed to the level of Hunter pets, their contribution to DPS and utility needs a little more tweaking, and the increased HP change in Patch 3.0.8 and modest DPS increase is a start. Eyonix gives absolutely no details about what improvements are on the table, but many Warlocks have had great input on the forums. We'll have to stay tuned.
Bat mounts? Blizzard, please make it so.
An interesting post popped up on the forums, mourning the passing of racial mounts, which apparently nobody uses anymore. The poster pointed out that most people now using bears or mammoths, every Death Knight using their cool Deathchargers, and a rare few actually still using their faction mounts. This sparked a flurry of responses and even had Eyonix chime in with his thoughts (and enviable epeen stroking when he casually dropped his Spectral Tiger in the conversation).I'm actually guilty of not riding my faction mount, the closest I ever got being the Swift Warstrider. I currently use the very awesome but all-too-common Black War Bear (every day, it's like 40 more people pop up with the mount), and for flying I use the not-so-common but also not-very-awesome Albino Drake. On my engineer I'm enjoying the Turbo-Charged Flying Machine and I plan to get a motorcycle when he dings 80. If I could afford Salvaged Iron Golem Parts and everything else, that is. There are really quite a lot of mounts to choose from, which is probably why the easily acquired, 'vanilla' mounts aren't as popular.
Larger default backpack "very possible" in the future
Just about everyone playing World of Warcraft will be happy to hear this news: Eyonix says that it's 'very possible' that we'll be able to get our hands on a bigger backpack at some point in the future. Though the cynic in me says that 'very possible it'll happen eventually' is just a more positive way of saying 'we have no plans for that at this time,' I'll force myself to stay optimistic on this one.I've sort of grown out of whining about the little itty bitty default backpack simply because it's been there forever, but I'll be absolutely stoked if they ever let it scale or let you replace it with a bigger bag. Eyonix says that we should be proud of our trusty 16 slot, and I suppose that's sort of true. It's been with me through Molten Core and Ahn'Qiraj, through Naxxramas and the Black Temple and all of that jazz, but to be honest? It's getting kind of gross. It has developed a stench. I think it's been coated in slime and ichor a few too many times. If I could finally toss it out, that would be just great.
