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Ask The Developers: PvP changes on the PTR
A wild post has appeared on the EU forums, detailing the ground rules for an upcoming "Ask the Developers" opportunity relating to the PvP changes on the patch 5.3 PTR. It's currently locked, but on April 9th the thread will go live for 48 hours, during which time players are encouraged to post all of their PvP-related questions and to vote on their favorites. Don't ignore the voting option, because Blizz will be prioritizing their responses by popularity, and the questions with the most votes are the most likely to be answered. There are also some ground rules for how the thread will work that are typical for "Ask the Dev" designated posts, and shouldn't be anything new for forum veterans. If you're planning on participating in the post, it's worth reading over them so your questions have the best chance of being taken seriously. So far it looks like this Q&A opportunity is only available to those with EU forum access, but we'll keep our eyes peeled for any similar posts appearing on the North American forum. You can find the full blue post behind the cut.
Shifting Perspectives: Why active shifting isn't the solution for druids
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Shifting Perspectives for cat , bear , restoration and balance druids. Balance news comes at you every Friday -- learn how to master the forces of nature, and know what it means to be a giant laser turkey! Send questions, comments, or requests for something you'd like to see to tyler@wowinsider.com or on Twitter @murmursofadruid. So on Wednesday, there was this small little thing that you may have heard about called a little live Q&A with the devs about classes and systems in WoW. While there were a few mentionings of things in the near future, most of the night's focus rested on the next expansion rising over the horizon. Highly understandable. There are a wide variety of changes coming in the next expansion for all of the classes, and I don't think that druids can claim to have a monopoly on the biggest ones. The latest direction that Blizzard wants to steer druids, however, is certainly an odd one, and it may not be all that it's cut out for. After BlizzCon, I spent some time talking about the released talents and the design considerations that came along with it. I also spent a spot of time guesting (is guest a verb now?) on Team Waffle Cast along with Arielle and Lissanna, when we talked about the druidic future. In the live chat, I fear that my suspicions were confirmed. Join me for a trip to the future that will never be.
Shifting Perspectives: Developer Q&A touches on resto druid issues
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Shifting Perspectives for cat, bear, restoration and balance druids. This week, we turn our attention the most recent developer Q&A ... and we all know what happened the last time we did that. I spent the weekend being a trifle distracted (and then heartbroken) by the Women's World Cup, but at least we can feel good about the winner. Oh, and for all those of you who utilize musk deer glands in your health regimen, please remember to check them for steroids, in much the same fashion that one would check flour for boll weevils and rice grains for moths in one's pantry. This has been a public service announcement by your friendly local World of Warcraft blog, which takes an interest in this matter because a commenter once accused it of fomenting unrest in North Korea. What the hell is this column supposed to be about? Oh, right. Anyway, the final developer Q&A was published this past Friday, and within it were a few nuggets of interest to restoration druids. We didn't get any questions that specifically dealt with our spec, so I am not required to Hulk out over the lack of answers that Blizzard has traditionally provided to such questions, so let's spend today being happy and relatively sane.
Ask the Devs Round 9 wants your tanking questions
At precisely noon today (that's right now!), Ask the Devs Round 9 will be up on the official forums. This time, the devs want to know what you want to know about tanking. Are you interested in the incoming 4.2 change that strips dodge from agility for warrior, paladin and death knight tanks? I'm personally interested in why they bothered to do that. Maybe you're more curious about the general direction of tanking in 5-mans, raids and even tank specs in PVP, or you're wondering about how good mastery is going to be for your paladin tank in 4.2. Whatever your questions are, now is your chance to answer them. So go! Go, my legion of the tanks, go and get the developers' aggro and do not let it go until your questions are answered! The news is already rolling out for the upcoming WoW Patch 4.2! Preview the new Firelands raid, marvel at the new legendary staff, and get the inside scoop on new quest hubs -- plus new Tier 12 armor!
Ask the Devs Round 8 answers your Firelands questions
The Ask the Devs question and answer series continues with Round 8, where Blizzard devs answered user-submitted questions about patch 4.2's raid content, the Firelands. Players are anxiously awaiting the next tier of raid content, and Blizzard has had a lot to answer for due to the changing nature of patches in the months to come. Blizzard answers some pretty good questions this time around and even addresses the melee DPS problem in many of the tier 11 raid fights. Some answers are a bit cryptic, however. When discussing the planned Abyssal Maw dungeon (we thought it would be a 5-man, but apparently, raid fights would have taken place there as well), Blizzard says that it believes that the Neptulon story is wrapped up fine with Throne of the Tides but doesn't make mention of the Abyssal Maw dungeons making a return. They only mention "for now," so hopefully the complete Neptulon story will be told in the depths of Vashj'ir. Another interesting point that the devs make is that they don't really understand the complaint that some aspects of the raid game are too easy, when they look at the number of people who have completed the 25-man heroic encounters in relation to the normal content modes. Also, the devs wanted to stress that they were not trying to turn 25-man raiding guilds into 10-man raiding guilds and actively tried to make the 10- and 25-man versions of encounters similar in order to stress that point. I am very excited for a new Lady Vashj bridge in the Firelands, though. WoW always has the coolest bridges. Read the full Q&A after the jump.
Ask the Devs round 6 Guild Advancement Q&A now up
Ask the Devs has landed again with Blizzard answering questions about Guild Advancement. Round 6 of this long-running Cataclysm feature on the official site has gathered a variety of questions from folks about the new guild systems and how they're working so far, as well as what they'll be doing in the future. I was particularly interested in the following excerpt. Q: Leveling guild speed varies depending on the amount of players. Have you considered tweaking the system so that guilds with fewer members get more experience per player and bigger guilds get less to even it out? Are there plans to allow smaller guilds to level their guild faster? – 信蜂 火星小喵喵 [Taiwan], Sergan [Latin America], Jardar [Europe, German], Паладиа [Europe, Russian], Amasisa [Europe, Spanish], Shory, 부너맨/노대현혹, Meltdown, 치킨아고마워/유진님 [Korea] A: Guild Challenges coming in patch 4.1 are designed to help address this issue. Obviously we already enforce a cap on the amount of XP that can be gained per day to keep the disparity from being too large, but it's clear that smaller guilds still need some help. We'll monitor the impact of Guild Challenges and see if any further changes need to be made. source The rest of the entire Q&A session is after the break.
Ask the Devs round 6 open for your guild advancement questions
Ask the Devs has been a pretty good look into the development process and future of feature development in World of Warcraft. Round 6 is going to focus on guild advancement and, presumably, the future of the guild leveling system now that guilds are at the cap. You can submit your own guild advancement questions in the Ask the Devs thread. Currently, the only available thread is for EU players, with a US thread opening soon. I know what my question about guild advancement is: Is the guild reputation cap too low? I always feel like after I reach the cap (very quickly through raiding) that there is no reason for me to continue doing dailies or other guild reputation activities when I just don't earn any reputation. After honored or revered, can we get the cap removed, much like when guilds hit level 23, their guild experience caps are removed? Read all of WoW Insider's previous Ask the Devs coverage: Ask the Devs Round 1: Questions and Answers Ask the Devs Round 2: PvP Ask the Devs Round 3: UI and macros Ask the Devs Round 4: Weapons and armor Ask the Devs Round 5: Achievements Blizzard's full announcement after the break.
Ask the Devs round 5 achievement questions answered
Ask the Devs, Blizzard's developer community question and answer feature, continues with round 5, an in-depth look at achievements detailing the difficulty of changing achievement, making certain rewards account-wide, and whether removed content is ever going to be a part of the game again. Check out the full question and answer session after the break. Quote: Q: When will achievements finally be awarded account-wide? – Larosh (Europe [German]), Eneia & Payasos (Europe [Spanish]), Rageudder & Kellgros (Europe [English]), ??????? (Europe [Russian]), Nyn (North America/ANZ), ?????? (Korea) A: Making achievements Battle.net account-wide is something we'd like to do, but it's not a goal we could provide a current timetable for. All of the original World of Warcraft coding was done with the expectation that the data on every realm would always be independent. Now that we are trying to make as many things as possible account-wide, we're having to rebuild all of those systems. It is absolutely something we want to do, but it will take a lot of time away from other features. source
Ask the Devs Round 4: Weapons and armor questions answered
Ask the Devs, the ongoing, in-depth Q&A series focusing on specific aspects of World of Warcraft, continues with round 4 answers to your questions about weapons and armor. As in the past, the devs hand picked user questions and gave detailed answers, shedding new light on some of the design intricacies that go into creating the World of Warcraft. There are some interesting questions this time around, as always, and even some more interesting answers. Highlights include the need for more armor models, a cool idea about buying quartermaster outfits, the drop rate of the legendary shards for 10- and 25-man raiding, and an interesting fix to prevent players rolling need on items in the random dungeon finder only to throw them up on the auction house. The full Q&A is after the jump.
Addon Spotlight: From raid leader tools to Ask the Devs discussion
Each week, WoW Insider brings you a fresh look at reader-submitted UIs as well as Addon Spotlight, which focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience: the user interface. Everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond -- your addons folder will never be the same. Addon Spotlight is here to brighten up your day, illuminate your soul, and add to your already impressive interface folder. Welcome, friends. This week, Blizzard's Ask the Devs round 3 focused on user interface questions and answers, and after my quick addon picks for the week, I want to delve into some of my own personal analysis of those answers. I think the Ask the Devs style is a good one, and I was pleasantly surprised at their answers this time around. I think it is easy to ask softball UI questions, but we actually got some cool answers. However, we also like to spotlight addons in this column as well. Raiding is fun, right? Of course it is. Raid leading, however, is probably less fun -- herding cats and all that. I've got two quick picks for raid leaders, and then we'll jump into some Q&A.
Ask the Devs round 3 UI questions answered
Ask the Devs Round 3 questions are already answered! We've been getting some quick turnaround on the Ask the Devs questions lately, and the third batch based on user interface questions is no different. A lot of the answers are great and informative, giving us players an interesting look into the design philosophy as it pertains to addons. One question really stood out -- looks like we're going to be getting the ability to change the order of our characters on the select screen come patch 4.2!
Ask the Devs Round 2 PvP questions answered
After the first set of Ask the Devs questions were answered just last week, we've already got another set of questions and answers available. Immediately after the first set of answers went live, a call went out for PvP questions specifically for the next round. Check out the questions and answers!
Blizzard answers your questions in Ask the Devs Q&A
If you've been waiting for the answers to the Ask the Devs Q&A, your wait is over. Not only have they answered the first installment of questions, the fine folks at Blizzard have even opened a new thread for more questions you may be burning to ask. Questions this time out ranged from PvP/PvE balance issues to death knight mastery runeforges to why moonkin don't have Execute. I personally found the discussions on Outland quest flow and why Blizzard doesn't just separate PvP and PvE spells to be pretty interesting. Take a look and pose your own questions if you don't see what you wanted answered this time out.
