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Class tuning hotfixes
Yes, turns out they're still at work adjusting class tuning before we go into Warlords of Draenor. Some classes saw buffs, other classes saw another round of savage nerfs. Death knights and balance druids saw some buffs, as did elemental shamans, while mages saw a 20% nerf to frostbolt's damage (rolling back a buff from October 17th) and warriors got pummeled. A complete list of the class changes will be posted after the jump.
Warlords of Draenor is making big changes to WoW's number game
When World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor hits, players will be adjusting to more than just a new continent and gussied-up character models. With the expansion, Blizzard is looking to squish stats across the board, bring racial traits into parity with each other, prune excess abilities among the classes, and nerf a bunch of the game's crowd control skills. The stat-squishing in particular is something that the developers address at length in a new "watercooler" post: "It's important to understand that this isn't a nerf -- in effect, you'll still be just as powerful, but the numbers that you see will be easier to comprehend. This also won't reduce your ability to solo old content. In fact, to provide some additional peace of mind, we're implementing further scaling of your power against lower-level targets so that earlier content will be even more accessible than it is now." The post goes into detail about the reasoning behind the changes and how the devs expect each of them to improve WoW as a whole, so give it a read if Warlords of Draenor is on your wish list this year.
Wings Over Atreia: Return of the Aion Easy Button, starring Sauro Supply Base and Steel Rose
First there was Easy Button. Then came Easy Button Strikes Back. And now we have Return of the Easy Button. Yes Daevas, the next thrilling adventure of the easy button is on its way to an Aion dungeon near you! Well, two actually -- so it's a double feature. And we think you might just like this show. The stars of the show? Sauro Supply Base and Steel Rose, two of the new dungeons introduced in 4.0. Unlike my previous reports on the easy button invasion that were post-production reviews, this one is a sneak preview. And joining us to reveal this new Aion blockbuster is Associate Product Manager Sean Orlikowski, who provided a coming soon trailer filled with highlights to help get you ready for the main attraction. Return of the Easy Button releases next Wednesday, November 6th, on a game client near you.
Preparation, Readiness, and other cooldown resetting abilities may have grim future
Classes with cooldown resetting abilities probably won't find one of Ghostcrawler's most recent tweet all that surprising. The abilities (Preparation, Readiness, etc.) have been targeted by several nerfs and changes this expansion. Ghostcrawler wrote the following in reply to a tweet that said it may be time to stop adding cooldown resetting abilities to the game if they're constantly going to be nerfed. @Divine_Namjoo We agree. I'm not sure that design angle has payed out well. - Greg Street (@Ghostcrawler) July 16, 2013 The abilities are particularly problematic in PvP, where players can chain several attacks or crowd control abilities together within a short period of time. What do you think? Do cooldown resetting abilities belong in the game? Are they overpowered?
Patch 5.2 hotfixes for April 29th and 30th, nerf to Lei Shen
There were a few hotfixes posted earlier this week, on both Monday and Tuesday. On the 29th, both Glorious Conquest Quartermasters took leave from the game for a while. Daxxarri explains in a forum thread that, because Glorious Conquest gear is changing from ilevel 512 to 496, they wanted to remove the vendors before players purchased gear that would end up being a lower ilevel than they bought it for. The change is too big to be implemented via hotfix, so the vendors will be returning with the next major content patch. The hotfix for yesterday was a nerf to the Lei Shen encounter in the Throne of Thunder for Raid Finder groups. Lei Shen's overall hit points have been reduced by 10%, and the Static Shock effect from the North Conduit now deals only 300,000 damage at zero energy, down from 650,000. That's a big change, and hopefully will make that encounter a little simpler for struggling Raid Finder groups.
All current raids to be nerfed by 10% with Patch 5.2
Bashiok posted late last night on the US forums, highlighting a change in the recent patch 5.2 notes. The addition is as follows: Blizzard On Normal and Heroic mode, zone-wide auras have been activated in Mogu'shan Vaults, Heart of Fear, and Terrace of Endless Spring, reducing the health and damage of all enemies therein by 10%. A NPC near the entrance within each zone explains this, and offers to deactivate the buff for the benefit of brave/foolhardy adventurers. source Bashiok adds to his post, explaining how, in Mists, Blizzard is essentially trying to strike a happy medium between previous expansions' attitudes to gear progression. Cataclysm's gearing model devalued old content progression too quickly, allowing players to effectively jump straight into the current raids, while previous expansions had been criticized for their linearity. Mists retains an element of that linear nature, with Bashiok saying that new characters will have to go through Mogushan Vaults, Heart of Fear and Terrace of Endless Spring, but that drop rates will be increased and the content made easier. He does note, however, that this 10% nerf is currently slated as a one-time reduction, rather than step one of a set of progressive nerfs. What do you think of this? Hit the break for Bashiok's full post, explaining the philosophy behind the changes.
Ghostcrawler and Dave Kosak switch jobs for an evening on Twitter
When the Ghostcrawler is away, apparently the Kosak will play -- or at least, take over Ghostcrawler's job for a few days. Those following Dave "Fargo" Kosak or Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street on Twitter may have caught a flurry of tweets from the two. It all began with an innocent enough notification from everyone's favorite crustacean, letting followers on Twitter know that he would be fairly quiet over the next few days. Dave Kosak decided to respond and note that he would be taking over class tweets in the interim. Chaos, of course, ensued. Rogues? Nerf. Mages? Nerf nerf. Shaman? BUFF. 4th Shaman spec uses HATS instead of totems. Done. - Dave Kosak (@DaveKosak) January 27, 2013
Trinket nerfs insufficient to repair PvP burst issues
We reported last week on the trinket nerfs implemented by Blizzard's team, in order to help fix the current issues in PvP burst. Blizzard Community Manager Daxxarri explained that Blizzard's team's data led them to believe that the on-use trinkets were a major contributor to the very high levels of burst currently being experienced by players. Lead Systems Designer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street recently tweeted the following: .@rick97950219 We are concerned that trinket nerfs were not sufficient in curbing mage and warrior burst. Discussing options. - Greg Street (@Ghostcrawler) December 7, 2012 Given Ghostcrawler's tweet, it seems that warriors and mages are still putting out too much damage, in Blizzard's eyes at least. While it may be the case that specific actions are required to address these classes, any attempts to improve the situation in PvP are appreciated. Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.
Breakfast Topic: Do you need a nerf?
It happens to everyone, no matter what class you play. One moment you're riding high, flavor of the month, topping the meters for DPS, or healing, or tanking -- if that's even applicable. I guess you could top avoidance or damage mitigation meters. And then a patch rolls in, or an expansion rolls in, and all of a sudden you're languishing in last place. Nobody likes being nerfed, and the official forums are full of complaints from people about their own class getting nerfed. I'm guilty of this myself, I'm currently pretty unhappy about the proposed nerfs to shaman totems, the one that means they can no longer be dropped while you're silenced. The question is, though, have you ever thought "man, this class I'm playing is way too strong. I really need a nerf." I had a moment of this in the Mists of Pandaria beta, when I chose the talent Call of the Elements, which, at the time, reset the cooldown of every totem except the elemental ones. I knew it was way too strong to be able to drop a healing tide totem, then a mana tide totem, then use Call of the Elements, and drop both one after the other again. It was too much, too easy, and while it was lovely, I knew it needed a nerf. Unfortunately it was nerfed pretty much into uselessness, but these things happen. The question is, have you ever, particularly on live servers, looked at your main or any of your characters, and thought "I need a nerf"? Have you ever posted on the forums that your class is far too strong? Have you ever supported another poster's call for nerfs to your class? Do you need a nerf right now?
Breakfast Topic: How do you handle being lapped by updates and nerfs?
Despite the fact that Blizzard means for previous raid tiers to be puggably quick and easy and propel players into the most current content, plenty of slowbie guilds and players out there are moving through older content at their own dogged pace. It could be that they're part of a retro raiding group, or maybe they're trying to experience all the content in a reasonably level-appropriate fashion. Maybe they're simply new players learning the game without the benefit of leveling boosts. But there's more to the slowbie playstyle than alts making the occasional frolic through pre-Mists raids. Many players don't have the schedules, game knowledge, group coordination, or individual skill strength to push through an entire tier of raiding before it's nerfed. If you just opened your mouth to protest "But everybody can get through LFR or normal-mode raiding nowadays!", then you're in for a whole world of surprise. Many players find it more rewarding to play with friends and family than to progress without them, which can be challenging for groups with a bad group composition, scheduling snarls, or player weaknesses in key positions. The game is just as fun and rewarding for these players -- but it doesn't move very quickly. So if you're one of those happily playing along behind the curve, do you take advantage of the raid nerfs, or do you plug along without them? What about small-group or solo content and achievements that get the nerf bat before you can work your way through them -- how do you plan for and handle those? Are you even aware of the differences in the content as it was launched and as you're playing through it today, and do you care? What content are you playing through now, and do you foresee catching up to Mists in the near future?
Building a Diablo III Wizard to solo Inferno difficulty
With patch 1.04's new paragon level system, there's been a definite increase in the number of people getting back to playing Diablo III. Every class was buffed in the patch, and only a small handful of skills and items were nerfed, leaving everyone to pore over the skill windows and come up with new builds. Barbarians definitely made it out of the patch in the best shape, with huge buffs to Bash and Rend, buffs to two-handed weapons, and a whole host of new legendary weapons to aim for. Wizards, on the other hand, weren't so lucky. For all the buffs described in the 1.04 wizard preview devblog, not much has really changed. The Energy Twister nerf backfired hilariously, and all of the underpowered spells and runes that were buffed are still pretty useless. Energy Armor is still a mandatory skill, most Wizards are still running Critical Mass builds, and the new legendaries aimed at Wizards don't seem to make any sense from an itemisation standpoint. So how should you build a solo Wizard in 1.04? In this guide, I detail three highly effective Wizard builds and give tips on gearing for each of them following patch 1.04.
Gamescom Raid Q&A with the Devs: Nerfs, the raid finder and more
You may have spotted Monday's post on how to design a raid, which was the first half of the Gamescom 2012 Raids and Dungeons round table with Ion Hazzikostas and John Lagrave. The second half of the Round Table was a Q&A session in which many interesting questions were asked, shedding light on some hot issues as well as simply providing a little more insight into the Blizzard Encounter Design Team's creative processes. Again, these aren't verbatim quotations from Ion and John, as I simply can't write that fast, but the overall statements are accurate representations of their responses. Are there any encounters Blizzard have had to alter or leave out due to technical constraints? There was a boss leading up to the Lich King who you had to heal (Valithria Dreamwalker), and that was a huge challenge for their existing technology. If you think about it, Ion explained, up to that point, every healing spell in the game was designed to be cast on a friendly target, that is to say, a player. So the devs were faced with the task of reworking every healing spell in the game. They didn't want players to only be able to use certain spells on her, as that would have been bad, so they redid every healing spell. The technical team changed the game's design so that the boss basically became a raid team member. Ion and John explained that it's all about working out creative ways to implement the designers' ideas.
Play together, loot alone in Diablo III's 1.0.4 patch
What would it take to get you to give Diablo III another go? A whopping patch, perhaps? Blizzard is banking on it. In the game's upcoming 1.0.4 update, the team aims to revamp more than a few major systems, so Senior Technical Game Designer Wyatt Cheng took to the official blog to lay out the plan. For starters, Blizz wants to boost the number of folks playing co-op. That means nuking magic-find averaging in co-op matches; in 1.0.4, you'll benefit from your individual looting bonuses, and monster health will be shaved incrementally as more players join a game. The patch also nerfs elite monster pack difficulty, makes regular mobs tougher but buffs their drops, fixes terrible weapon drops (especially weak two-handers), adjusts damage-over-time skills, and reduces repair costs by 25%, the last of which ought to make endgamers happy. The devs are likewise "making a metric-ton of changes to classes," so expect more Battle.net blog posts in the near future.
League of Legends nerfs Rumble, buffs Urgot and Cho'Gath
In addition to getting a new champion every few weeks, League of Legends is continually updated with balance changes and gameplay tweaks based on player feedback. Yesterday Riot Games released its early August patch preview, detailing incoming champion nerfs and buffs in addition to big changes for the player-mediated banning tribunal. Players who are punished by the tribunal will now be emailed a reform card showing the case made against them and highlighting the exact behaviours they need to improve to avoid further bans. Following a bugfix to Rumble's Flamespitter ability in the Jayce patch, his damage suddenly increased. Rumble's Danger Zone passive and Flamespitter abilities will have their damage reduced to compensate for the increase. The previous patch also gave Urgot some heavy nerfs that went a little bit too far, and in the next patch, some of those nerfs are being reverted. Classic champion Cho'Gath will also get a number of tweaks to remove random cast time delays and make him more fun to play. Skip past the cut to watch the full patch preview video in HD.
The Guild Counsel: Nerfed to heck - now what?
You can run the best guild, have the smoothest guild atmosphere, and progress like a champion but still end up losing members through no fault of your own. Why? Nerfed classes. Classes are a double-edged sword because on one hand, they allow people to feel needed and unique. I tank, you heal, Bobby does DPS, and the group is a lot weaker if one of us is missing. On the other hand, class balance is rarely achieved, so there's always that red-headed stepchild class that no one really needs, the one who feels like the proverbial fifth wheel. If you're a guild leader whose member has suddenly gone from "OP" to "nerfed to oblivion," then what, if anything, should you do? Let's take a look in this week's Guild Counsel.
Tesla coil gun exists, may shoot lightning
Inspired by the graphic novel "Five Fists of Science" -- and perhaps encouraged by the plucky MIT student who made his own Tesla coil hat and survived -- a DIYer named Rob designed a Tesla coil gun, which he says is fully functional. Rob used a Nerf gun cast in aluminum for the housing and created a high voltage switch with a 3D powder printer. The gun is powered by an 18V ion drill battery and a flyback transformer housed inside a PVC plumbing end cap. Though Rob has yet to fire the gun, photos show what he says are sparks from the setup, and a demo clip is on the way. While video proof is always nice, so is preserving your life. We wish Rob the best with both.
SWTOR devs attempt to balance the Force through nerfs
It's Friday, Friday, and even Jedi got to get down with Friday... which also means a new community Q&A sent across the holonet to players eager for a glimpse of Star Wars: The Old Republic's future. However, the devs have asked that questions focus more on current features in the game, as in many cases they cannot give firm details about what's coming up in SWTOR. Today's topics begin with a discussion about why some advanced classes, such as Commandos and Mercenaries, lack an interrupt. This wasn't an oversight, the devs revealed, but "a purposefully designed weakness in their ability arsenal" to keep them balanced in the game -- especially in PvP. "Balance" was an answer to another issue as well, specifically the nerfs to some of the healing specs. Lead Combat Designer Georg Zoeller realized that folks were going to rail against it, but the team thought it was necessary: "I know trying to 'sell' a downwards adjustment (AKA nerf) to anyone affected is like selling the need for a tax increase to people. When you are on the receiving end of it, you're not going to be happy about it." Other questions revolved around rage timers, looping the game's music, cross-faction communication within the same guild, and legacy system specifics.
Should Blizzard leave heroic encounter difficulty alone?
When the Raid Finder was first introduced, I had high hopes for its impact on the game. While the main reason behind the implementation of this system was arguably to get as many players experiencing raid content as possible, at the time, I was more interested in the impact it would have on the progression races between all of the top guilds in the world. I have always had a great deal of admiration for players in these types of guilds and have watched intently during each new tier as they all vied for world firsts. I believed the Raid Finder could benefit this type of competition by preventing heroic encounters from being nerfed while the content was still current. Surely, I thought, if so many people are able to experience raiding like never before through this new tool, Blizzard would have no pressing reason to make heroic encounters any easier. Well, it seems I was wrong, for in the very next tier of content Blizzard released, we saw progressive nerfs to these difficult fights. Personally, I prefer to keep these encounters the way they are, at least until a new tier is released. Something just feels wrong to see the hardest fights available made easier through a series of hotfixes. Even with respect to my own guild's progression, having sweeping nerfs hit Firelands just as my guild was putting in some really good attempts on Ragnaros felt like Blizzard moved the finish line, taking what would have been a very gratifying kill and turning it into an accidental one-shot that contained none of the catharsis we had felt during previous boss kills. What do you think? With the Raid Finder now a reality and a new expansion looming on the horizon, do you think the difficulty of heroic raid encounters should be static, like those from tier 11, or should they be more flexible?
Blizzard talks Mists of Pandaria talent tree tweaks
Blizzard lead systems designer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street has penned a small novella on the official World of Warcraft website. The subject of the text dump is talent trees, and more specifically, how they'll be affected by the game's upcoming Mists of Pandaria expansion. Street addresses 10 of the most common concerns that players have voiced regarding the changes, and some of his answers are more interesting than you might think. As an example, many WoW players have said that the talent revamp will result in fewer choices across the board. Street admits that this sentiment is "ultimately correct," though he does qualify that with an assertion that players will have more choices that matter. Head to Battle.net to read the rest of his explanations.
Blizzard announces first round of Firelands raid hotfixes
Blizzard recently announced that both the normal and heroic mode encounters in the Firelands would be rebalanced and nerfed over the coming weeks to make the raid tier more accessible to many raid groups. The nerfs and changes begin this week, with the first round of nerfs to make the raiding experience a bit less demanding. Normal difficulty bosses Shannox, Beth'tilac, and Rhyolith took 15% decreases to health and damage, whereas all of the other bosses in Firelands took a 25% hit. Certain trash packs have had their proverbial bite removed, and Alysrazor's tornadoes will now move more slowly. All adds in these encounters have had their health pools and damage decreased in the same proportions to their corresponding bosses'. On heroic difficulty, all bosses' health pools and damage, along with adds' corresponding health and damage, have been reduced by a blanket 15%, which is a huge nerf for heroic modes. Alysrazor also drops more feathers on both difficulty settings, and her Wings of Flame buff is now a static 30 seconds. While many players will be upset with these nerfs, I can only imagine the many raid groups that will happily charge forward to finally defeat the encounters that they have been banging their heads against for the better part of the patch. Blizzard has said that there will be more nerfs coming, as this is just the first round, so make use of this time to get as many of the bosses as you can while the getting is hot.
