eyonix
Latest
That object is busy and other TTR tales
If you've been to the Tournament Test Server (TTR), you might have noticed a few things. Like lag the fact that your previous three characters have been deleted. According to Eyonix, Blizzard's latest push of the TTR sees a new character template whereby newly created characters will have existing sets of gear. In the previous build of the TTR, newly-created characters start out at Level 70 but are equipped with starting equipment like Acolyte's Robe or Worn Mace. Hybrid classes or classes with healing and DPS talent trees will have two to three sets of gear, based on the Merciless Gladiator sets from Season 2. Oddly enough, after creating multiple characters, it appears to me that the default gear equipped on hybrid classes is healing gear -- a hint from Blizzard to spec for healing? Maybe. One of the new features Blizzards wants to test is the random spawning upon character creation. After creating a Horde character, I would find myself randomly starting anywhere from Sunstrider Isle to Sen'jin Village. Part of Blizzard's test must also be the effectiveness of placing item vendors on a pedestal as opposed to being on the same level as player characters. Some spawn locations have the vendors on pedestals, such as Razor Hill or in front of Orgrimmar, while others have them on the ground such as Red Cloud Mesa in Mulgore. Strangely, the NPCs on the ground no longer have collision detection, as opposed to previous builds. While adding more spawn locations and randomizing them has eased congestion somewhat, Eyonix goes on to state that Blizzard plans to add more spawn locations in future builds. The same hiccups that were there before still exist, particularly the "That object is busy." response when attempting to purchase an item from a vendor. Lag will also prevent you from seeing that clicking multiple times (out of frustration, I swear) has garnered you bags full of an item you only really wanted one of. Despite these problems with lag and little quirks -- creating characters for the first time sometimes shows your character dressed in Season 2 gear and starting outfits in a mismatched ensemble -- Blizzard continues to encourage players to test the server. Hortus also popped onto the forums to say that not all the Alliance areas have received the makeover, so expect more changes soon. If you're not yet on the TTR, get on and give it a go. Hopefully, all the testing will help Blizzard get everything sorted out for the big brawl coming up on Sunday.
Eyonix gives Paladins some (forum) love
Eyonix seems to have taken quite a lot of coffee this morning and made a rare appearance on the Paladin boards by making a lot of posts on a couple of threads. The Blizzard CM, not to be confused with the eponymous Innkeeper in Stormspire, surprised the Paladin community by responding to some threads dealing with Protection Paladin weapons and Avenging Wrath. One thread asks for a decent Paladin tanking weapon, which is in short supply compared to the numerous Warrior tanking weapons which have Warrior-friendly mitigation and threat-generation stats. A Paladin tank benefits from a +spell damage weapon -- oddly enough one of the best Paladin tank weapons are the different Gladiator Gavels. Eyonix responds that the amount of spell damage a Paladin tank needs is directly proportional to the raid's DPS capability (in a nutshell, strong DPS needs higher +spell damage) -- which doesn't quite answer the request for more +spell damage tanking weapons, but it was nice to hear from Eyonix, anyway. As a bonus, Eyonix reveals that his Paladin tank is currently raiding SSC and TK with a *gasp* Continuum Blade.With regards to Avenging Wrath, Eyonix doesn't quite address the fact that it's an easily dispellable (leaving Forbearance, to boot!) buff that has little use for Holy Pallies and in PvP (great from screenshots, though!). He does chime in to say, however, that the Blizzard devs "didn't shoot down" the observation that Avenging Wrath currently confers no benefits to Holy Paladins. Without making any promises, Eyonix says, "you never know what the future holds." Of course, Paladins should learn not to expect anything. This is Blizzard, after all. Eyonix cleverly avoids posting a response on a thread that has had seven maxed response iterations -- suspiciously Kalganized. WoW Insider's Dan and Brian both think that Blizzard could communicate better, but any presence from Blizzard is better than no presence at all. Eyonix also posts a sobering thought on his own thread by saying that "All classes are a work in progress. That doesn't mean any class is "unfinished". Our design team will simply never be satisfied with any area the game. Our goal is to make this game the best it can be in every area imaginable." Coming from someone who has more than a few 70s -- and thus knows classes reasonably well -- that's certainly good to know.
How many 70s does Eyonix have?
Surprisingly, US CM Eyonix has dropped in on a thread titled "How many 70s do you have?" I'm surprised because I wouldn't think it would necessarily be in a CM's best interest for people to know what classes they play, as a common perception in the community is that if you don't have a level 70 <insert class here> you obviously know nothing about the class and should stop talking. Anyway, here's the four classes that the whelpling has gotten to the level cap (in the order he put them in): Shaman Priest Druid Paladin
A little more patch 2.4 love for casters
Continuing the deluge of patch 2.4 news, Eyonix and Bornakk, the brave souls they are, took to the class forums to bring us some joy! So far, they're relatively minor, but every little bit helps.My personal favorite, the priests. Bornakk drops in to let us know that Fear Ward is now able to be cast in Shadowform. This is small potatoes for the folks that don't play a shadow priest, but I can say that this is a pretty big deal. It'll be a great boon in PvP, and gone are the days of blowing my entire mana pool dropping in and out of Shadowform on Nightbane and Archimonde just for a Fear Ward.Up next, mages! Blizzard stops the pain caused by battleground gluttons, by limiting the amount of manna biscuits you can carry from a snackwell to 80. As was pointed out by a mage friend of mine, this means you can't summon a table and carry extras around to hand out later, but I think this is the lesser of two evils.Finally, warlocks will be able to summon party members into instances. No more standing around waiting for your buddy to get to the Black Temple from Goldshire, just summon away!
No patch 2.5 planned
Patch 2.3 launched relatively recently, 2.3.2 is on the PTR, and 2.4 is presumably pretty far from PTR still. As it turns out, that is expected to be about it in the way of pre-Wrath patches, according to Eyonix. 2.4 will introduce the Sunwell Plateau, an outdoor zone, including a 5-man dungeon and a 25-man raid at a harder-than-T6 difficulty level. There will probably be the now-usual assortment of class balance changes, new crafted items, and new daily quests as well, and being an outdoor zone, Sunwell Plateau will probably have some regular quests and a faction of its own as well.Does the fact that there's no patch 2.5 planned mean anything about how close Wrath is? I'd say there's probably not much connection. If Blizzard knew that it was going to be, say, a year before the expansion, then yeah, they'd probably plan for another content patch. But seeing as how Eyonix saw fit to add "Time will tell, however" on to his post, I'd say we can't infer much more than that they don't expect the expansion to take a ridiculously long time. My prediction is next March, because that's when my birthday is and it'd be a nice present.
L2p Paladin with Eyonix
Earlier today, Eyonix created a rather unique thread on the official WoW Paladin forum. He made it clear that he wasn't asking for feedback to give to the developers on the class, but rather that the questions would come from him as a player of the game. Apparently he made a Paladin alt a couple of weeks ago and is seeking advice regarding the best leveling strategy.Threads like this pop up in the class forums quite commonly. When faced with the grind from level one to seventy, players often turn to the more experienced members of their class for advice on talent builds and leveling strategies. Of course, those players are not also community managers, posting with the hallowed blue text.As you can imagine, the thread is already quite long and only promises to grow longer since Eyonix has mentioned that he'll be keeping it updated through the week with new questions. It's interesting to see a Blizzard employee posting his talent spec and asking typical player questions and there is actually a lot of good advice on playing the class. Head on over to the Paladin forum to check out the thread yourself and L2p Paladin along with Eyonix.
Blizzard plans soloing improvements for Protection Warriors and Paladins
With healers getting some soloing love in patch 2.3, Migol asked on the forums if something similar was going to happen for Warriors and Paladins who are speced Protection. Eyonix responded that they are in fact planning to make soloing easier for all non-DPS specs, including Prot Pallies and Warriors.Eyonix went on to say that they don't want Protection speced players to have to carry around a second set of DPS gear in order to grind mobs more effectively. He says that while a high level DPS set may give the player an edge, the Prot specs should be able to solo in the gear they tank in.It sounds like they are leaning toward doing something similar to what 2.3 introduces for healers. Since healers are getting free spell damage on all healing gear, will tanks get free attack power on all tanking gear?Presumably, Druid tanks won't be sharing in this love since the Feral spec is a very powerful solo spec. So, if the changes are going to affect tanking gear, it will probably only apply to plate.Eyonix does not give a time frame for Protection improvements other than "the future" and since it doesn't sound like they have a concrete plan yet, it probably won't be in patch 2.4.What kind of improvements would you like to see for Protection soloing?
Don't turn in your quests!
If you are questing tonight on a level 30 to 60 character, save your quest turn-ins for after Patch 2.3 hits tomorrow. Eyonix has verified that waiting to turn in most of your quests after the patch will earn you more experience.Not all quests will yield more experience post 2.3, however. For example, the experience from bread crumb quests will remain the same. What are bread crumb quests? (I didn't know, either.) Eyonix defines them as quests designed to move you on to the next area. So when dwarf/orc guy sends you to Thenextzoneover with a message for Captain Needssomehelp, that's a bread crumb quest. Go ahead and turn that one in tonight, if you like.That isn't to say you shouldn't log in tonight. There is still plenty of time to get some farming done. Also, if you have been on hiatus until the patch, you may want to log in now just in case you have something to download.Of course, those of you on European servers have a little extra time for hoarding quests.My pally is in Booty Bay, ready to turn in 2 quests tomorrow. Did I catch you in time? Do you have quests to save until after the patch?
Elemental buffed
Hello, saga of Shamans in patch 2.3! We haven't had a post about you in, oh...a day or so. Time for an update, don't you think? And this one ought to be pleasant to most of you readers. But first, a recap. Blizz promised buffs for Elemental DPS in 2.3. It turned out to be a nerf on the PTR (for anyone over +200 damage). Shamans got very upset. ??? Blizz realized they'd made a mistake, and buffed Elemental DPS! Yes, it's true. Eyonix has recently made a post in the Shaman forum promising an imminent hotfix to the PTR, to the tune of a 5-6% increase to the damage coefficients of Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning. According to the whelp, this works out as follows: <1100 +damage: slight buff to DPS (as compared to 2.2) 1100-1200: no change >1220: slight nerf Well, it hardly seems to be the buffs that were promised back in the day, but hey, it beats a nerf! How about it, Shaman players? Are you pleased now, and ready to go back to your regular totem-dropping lives?
Breakfast Topic: Do healers lag more than others?
Geezer asked in the forums "Why is it always healers that lag?" and Blue poster Eyonix replied:I'm sure that sometimes, lag is certainly just an excuse if the player is embarrassed to admit they had made a mistake. With that being said though, depending on the situation a second or two of lag when healing can be devastating and as a result more easily noticeable that, at the very least "something undesirable happened".A dps class lagging for a second or two, in most cases will go unnoticed.Others have suggested that spamming keys to heal can cause you to disconnect, but that doesn't explain why players who spam attacks much more quickly than heals don't disconnect too. Personally, I like player Viniculus's response: Blaming lag is more polite than telling you "no, I'm not going to heal your pet."I agree with Eyonix, but what do you think? Do you think healers lag more often than the rest of the group? Is it just more noticeable because people die? Or is it just being used as an excuse?
Forum Post of the Day: The discipline tree remix
So much as been going on with revitalizing underutilized talent trees of late. A long while back Feral Druids and Shadow Priests were changed so dramatically that they are now coveted members of raid groups. In Patch 2.3 Retribution Paladins will see passive threat reduction, and a boost to DPS that will give pallies back their Jack-of-all-Trades persona. Now there is talk of turning attention to the discipline tree. In a post today on the forums Eyonix laid the foundation for what will become some juicy speculation on what Blizzard has wanted from the discipline priests:Yesterday I took an extensive review of what we have in store for discipline (though it will see many changes between now and release) in Wrath of the Lich King. For quite some time I've been providing the designers with feedback from the community, as well as my own thoughts and ideas. Though it may not always be apparent every member of our team works very hard communicating all aspects of player feedback. With that being said, the current iteration of the tree literally blew my mind. I was in the class designers office in under a minute discussing the changes like I was a nine year old child who was given a sneak peak of an entire set of unreleased Garbage Pail Kids cards. I can't say much but I will say this: The tree will stand on its own two feet. It will be viable in PvE. You will notice impact from player feedbackThe statement is so marvelous I wanted to give it to you in its entirety (minus the first line, that merely let us know no formal announcement is being made at this time). We're going to see a fully -functional Discipline tree in WotLK, able to stand alone as a viable PvE option for priests. Finally it appears that Blizzard knows where Discipline fits in now in the scheme of things, and it seems their goal of giving every class three viable trees is coming to fruition. Who will next receive the love, do you think?
The Blizzard staff goes to the movies
So very funny. Take a few parts Blizzplanet Blizzard staff pictures page, and combine with a JibJab Flash app that lets you put your own pictures in, and you've got the makings of greatness seen above: Blizzard CM Drysc, starring in his own action movie as a rogue cop short on sanity and long on ammo, complete with cameo appearances by Nethaera, Feathers, Mike Morhaime (he's the boss, naturally), Metzen, Eyonix, and all the other Blizzard faces.Oh and there's more-- here's Neth and Drysc on the dance floor, a preview of what we'll see at the next BlizzCon, and Eyonix and Drysc... well, you might not want to watch that last one.Ivenoml of Hellscream put these all together, and salute to you, sir or madam, because these are darn funny. For their part, the Blizzard staff enjoyed them, too-- we're told by Eyonix that they're being passed around the company as we speak. So, so funny. Now we definitely need an item in WotLK called Unnecessary Force.[ via incgamers ]
Eyonix delivers: Focused Will, Natural Perfection, and Discipline
It goes on! In a post titled "Focused Will: The Saga Continues" (has Eyonix been reading WoW Insider? What up, drake!), we get another update on the new Discipline talent slated for patch 2.3:Feedback was read, gathered and the designers are fully aware of all that you've provided. As a result, we're making an adjustment to the talent so instead of seeing this morning's version of focused will in the next PTR push, you'll see:"After taking a critical hit you gain the Focused Will effect, reducing all damage taken by 1/3/5% and increasing healing effects on you by 4/7/10% for 6 seconds. Stacks up to 3 times."This is up from 1/2/3% reduced damage and 4/8/12% increased heals earlier today, although it stacked up to five times then. The associated change to the Druid talent Natural Perfection has been similarly buffed:We've read through a great deal of feedback and are making another adjustment to the natural perfection talent which you'll see in the next PTR data push."Now also grants the Natural Perfection effect after being critically hit, reducing all damage taken by 1/3/5% for 6 seconds. Stacks up to 3 times."It used to be 1/2/3% and five stacks as well. In related news, Eyonix has gotten a look at the Discipline tree in store for Wrath of the Lich King, and while his post is short on details, it does make me all warm and tingly.
PTR Notes: Natural Perfection and Focused Will 2.0
As of the next push to the patch 2.3 PTR, the Druid Restoration talent Natural Perfection will be enhanced:The restoration talent, natural perfection will now also (upon the next data push to the public test realms), grant the natural perfection effect after being critically hit, reducing all damage taken by 1/2/3% for 6 seconds. This will stacks up to 5 times. (Eyonix)This is in addition to its current effect: "Your critical strike chance with all spells is increased by 1/2/3% and melee and ranged critical strikes against you cause 4/8/12% less damage." Natural Perfection requires 30 points in Resto. If you have any feedback on that, feel free to drop a post on Eyonix over at the thread, which he promises to read throughout the day. Or leave a comment here, which I will read throughout the day, but no guarantees of it reaching the devs.The saga of the new Priest Discipline talent Focused Will continues. Here is the new version:The new discipline talent, focused will, has been redesigned. Once the next data push to the public test realms occur, upon taking a critical hit you gain the focused will effect, which will reduce all damage taken by 1/2/3% and increase healing effects on you by 2/4/6% for 6 seconds, and will stacks up to five times. (Eyonix)Like above, go over to the thread if you want to give Eyonix your opinion on it. I definitely like it better than the first version ("after taking a critical hit you gain the Focused Will effect, reducing critical damage taken by 10/20/30% and increasing healing on you by 10/20/30% for 6 sec"), and I do think it achieves the stated goal of providing an alternative to Blessed Resilience for those who would rather go deep Discipline. It could be a little stronger, though, especially considering how deep it is (requires 30 in Disc).
Eyonix enjoys his WoW
Eyonix, Blue extraordinaire, and let players know that he has spent a decent amount of time playing the game he works on. Exactly how much? Well, his /played comes to 290 days since the game's launch, which some have figured out to be on average about 6.5 hours a day. Honestly, considering the workload he's under (he says he works at least 45 hours a week) that's a surprising amount of time spent on a game you also work on.Some people in this industry claim that once you actually start working on video games, you will stop playing them. I've met plenty of people over the course of the last year that actually tried to talk me out of living my dream using this exact premise. But here I am, six months in, still enjoying the games I write about. Now I realize that writing about a game and dealing with its quality assurance and testing, its customer service and forum management, these are two very different things. But it looks as if Eyonix still enjoys WoW, so perhaps the jading of one's soul depends on how you perceive the game you work on. Or could it be that WoW is just that much fun?
Breakfast Topic: Yeah, what Eyonix said
The other day Mike wrote about how he considers the Headless Horseman event to be too easy, how giving away epic gear equivalent to those found in Heroics somehow cheapens the epics others have to earn. Evidently he's not the only one with that concern. Posters on the forums were complaining about this very issue, and Eyonix had this to say in reply:Players have a chance to participate in a fun holiday event and get a nice ring (or helmet) two weeks out of the entire year. The drops are great items, and upgrades for many, but they are certainly far from the best in-game. I'm sorry but this event doesn't undermine anything you've accomplished. Are you sure your complaint doesn't stem from the fact that your epic raid loot makes you feel like you're better than others who have lesser gear? I'm not accusing, just asking.He makes a valid point, that Eyonix. While some of the gear from the Headless Horseman encounter is very good, this is something that happens for only two weeks out of the year. Much like the epic loot dropped from bosses for a limited time last year (I can recall a faboo belt I got off a Lich in undead Stratholme) during the fall, these items are only available for a limited time, so act now! Really I see it as a great way to gear up those that can't run Heroics, and currently I think this is the best holiday event we've had. The items are good, but are they so good that they're worth making a fuss over?
Totem Twisting: Are Shamans the Bards of WoW?
Eyonix has been spending a lot of time hanging out in the Shaman Discussion Forums lately. I got introduced to the concept of Totem Twisting when he declared that it was not an exploit, but that Blizzard plans to "address" it at some point.So I asked my in-house Shaman expert about Totem Twisting (there is also a good explanation in the forums). For those of you who don't know (like I didn't), Totem Twisting is when you drop 2 totems of the same element in such a way that you have both of them active concurrently. Usually, the Shaman will drop Windfury to get the 10 second buff and then immediately drop Grace of Air until just before the Windfury buff is up. With creative use of hotkeys and a good rhythm, you can keep both totems active simultaneously. This technique is very mana intensive and severely limits the other things you can do at the same time.
Eyonix shaking things up for Shamans
Eyonix is still running around causing havok on the forums (should we expect this regularly now?), and he's making a lot of noise in the Shaman forums specifically, always a welcome sign for Shamans like myself.Where should we start? Mana tide trainable for all Shamans? Fat chance. The Spirit Weapons buff (from 15% to 30% threat reduction) will be a big help on uncontrollable burst damage like Windfury procs. And not only does he share some of his character stats (sounds like his right below where I'm at), but he's got a list of concerns that are being passed on to the devs.And my own pet issue, the various "Shields" that we've got, are due to get some love as well. Along with the 2.3 Mana whoops, Water Shield buff* (it'll be free to cast), both Earth Shield and Lightning Shield could use a buff as well. A HoT on the Earth Shield? A Lightning Shield proc that passes off damage like Chain Lightning? We can only hope.Shamans aren't a broken class-- I don't believe any class in the game is truly broken. I love my Shaman. But there are a lot of exciting days ahead for Shaman, I promise you.* As Baluki points out in the comments below, Water Shield has other good stuff happening in 2.3, too-- not only does it give more mana, but at the end of a minute, it cashes out everything for you. Very nice.
Rewarding the old timers of WoW
I like Zymm's idea over on the forums-- he suggests that people who have been playing WoW for a while, or just "older" characters, should get some sort of special recognition or title as a WoW "old-schooler." Not just because I am a WoW old-schooler, but because it'd be nice of Blizzard to give out a little recognition for players and characters that have been active and playing for a while. I'm not saying that they should start handing out Epics just for standing around, but a special tabard or title would be kind of nice.And there are other benefits, too. It'd be a quick and easy way of telling who the veterans are in-game-- as in, who should know what they're doing and who might not. Plus, our characters don't actually age, so while gear is some indication of where they're at in progression, it doesn't tell you who's been on for years and who just powerleveled to 70 in the past few months. Some common indicator of age would set a milestone for how long characters and players have been around.Eyonix jokes about "Old School Zymm," but it's a good suggestion-- we should have some way of showing off how long both we and our characters have been around Azeroth.
Retribution gets passive threat reduction!
I don't think I've ever used an exclamation point in a headline before, but this deserves it. It appears that Paladins' Retribution tree will be getting some passive threat reduction, as of patch 2.3. Posted just recently in the official forums by Eyonix:After further patch testing and some serious discussion, we've decided to add threat reduction deep in the paladin's retribution tree. As a result, fanaticism will now reduce threat caused by all actions by 6/12/18/24/30%, in addition to its current effect of course.How does that sound? 30% passive threat retribution seems pretty darned solid to me. Let's hear it for Blizzard -- looks like they do listen to what their customers want after all.
