There's a developer chat going on stratics IRC.
Stratics' a site that sprung to life during the UO era of mmogs somewhere in the past century.
Kalgan and Tigole (both lead devs) as well as various other highstrung names like "Busshock" Eyonix and Mr. Drysc attend as well. They're some of the blues that tend to sometimes give meaningful info.
So far the devchat's actually answering some juicy questions.
For example: "Yes, we have had a similar discussion regarding crushing blows. We feel they add too random an element for players in endgame content." -Kalgan
That would be a recent (repetitive) experience for us very recently btw.
The postponement of this chat for another week was for a reason apparently. They just stated this'll be the last week of 2.0 and the US'll be experience Patch Tuesday tomorrow.
What sort of "average weekly time investment" do you design the end-game around? How do you determine how much time should be spent on gear acquisition, consumable farming, assisting guildmates, etc.? On that note, how "organized" do you intend for the average raiding guild to be?
- "We don't know nor care!" (paraphrased) and "focus more on end game PvE fun for the average WoW raider" (quote).
"One thing we've done in patch 2.1 is make water available through the honor system that players can drink in the arenas." -Kalgan
This is really nice since otherwise it wouldn't make that much sense for the honor water which is essentially the same as regular water you buy from the inn, only cheaper in silver and more expensive in honor points.
Are the developers actively evaluating the 10% Mage coefficient nerf? Also, please explain why it was implemented and why it is still in place. Many Mages aren't fully aware of this issue and it doesn't appear within the Improved Fireball/Frostbolt talents themselves.
- "I can't say we're really actively evaluating it at this point. Melee classes are only starting to approach where they should be in terms of damage output relative to mages, so we don't expect to make fireball/frostbolt do more damage right now. The reason we don't put it in the tooltip is that bonus coefficients are already a very hidden and expert game mechanic. We don't want every new mage totally mystified by excessively nerdy information in the tooltip." -Kalgan
Some very nice and clean honest information too (which they need to do much more frequently!).
Same on brutal questions asked on "buggy/overpowered encounters", like Al'ar.
Mentioning they hadn't any PTR guilds on Al'ar during the BC beta, for example.
Seems the chat ended after 1½ hours with a final "big bang" that's gotten a very politically correct corporate answer.
With the current status of raid progression and the corresponding attunements, it is becoming more and more clear to many people that their chances of beating (or even seeing) Black Temple or Hyjal before the next expansion is out are quite low. Only the most hardcore of the hardcore, even among raiders, seem to be making significant progress. Are there any plans to making BC raiding somewhat less unforgivable?
01:25:00 <Tigole> Yes
01:25:02 <Tigole> Tomorrow
01:25:09 <Tigole> first thing in the morning
01:25:48 <Tigole> 2.1.0 will go live and I think there are *many* significant changes to help with raid progression issues. If raid progression is still a problem after 2.1.0, we'll make further changes
01:25:54 <Tigole> we WANT people doing the content
01:26:01 <Tigole> we want the encounters to get beat
01:26:18 <Tigole> i'd rather have fun, beaten encounters then a raid game full of mysteries that no one is going to see
01:26:28 <Tigole> plus all your epics are getting a big buff tomorrow
01:26:34 <Tigole> if all that fails
01:26:42 <Tigole> there's always STARCRAFT 2 omg?
Well, yeah, I suppose that's one way to promote a game...
...not that it needs it but hey.
It's more of a response to things like Al'ar and Vashj then anything else imo.
Remains to be seen if Tigole's willing to get out of the hardcore raiding mindset he's fostered ever since his raiding days in Everquest.
The logs for this should be up later today on http://wow.stratics.com
The IRC release party for Quake (the first one) was much bigger then this though. I'd say about three times more folks on IRC and several grid crashes to boot.
This has quite... few... attendees actually.
Developer chat on Stratics IRC
Theres your shaman answers! Just like holy paladins getting an 40% efficiency nerf on all the deep holy talents if you go above the pure classes expect the nerfstick now suck it up! 
. Pretty logical though we need your bloodlust for fishing!
Kalgan: Generally speaking we want "pure" classes to perform better in their primary roles, with hybrids coming close, but providing additional group utility to offset their reduced primary role power.
Kalgan: I think shaman raid dps is a bit underrated personally. However, I would like to stick to the philosophy that we should get their dps to be "close" to pure class dps and make up for the rest in group utility.
. Pretty logical though we need your bloodlust for fishing!Kalgan: Generally speaking we want "pure" classes to perform better in their primary roles, with hybrids coming close, but providing additional group utility to offset their reduced primary role power.
Kalgan: I think shaman raid dps is a bit underrated personally. However, I would like to stick to the philosophy that we should get their dps to be "close" to pure class dps and make up for the rest in group utility.
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Toenibbler
- Warlord
- Posts: 872
- Joined: 06 Apr 2006, 18:58
- Location: Voorschoten, Holland
3 paladins with 1 holy/1prot uber sanctuary blessing lawl i kid/1ret already scale imo next patch better then 3 full holy if you can keep up the crusader judgement on the mt target and still be in healgear/mode. gogo fol spam! 
.
And according to the chat more ret improvement coming prolly even more utility.
Also crushing blow mech changecoming although i have a hard time seeing how they gonna change that without making feral druids be the best mt by far again
.And according to the chat more ret improvement coming prolly even more utility.
Also crushing blow mech changecoming although i have a hard time seeing how they gonna change that without making feral druids be the best mt by far again
Crushing blows are the spawn of satan anyway.
Practically all the wipes I've seen from the start of our raiding in KZ up to yesterday's Magtheridon are due to crushing blows in sequence combined with global cooldown or particularly regular cooldown on Shield Block combined with the player's normal net latency involved.
It's a pissboring mindnumbing mechanic anyway!
Especially if you play the "oh we don't show coefficient nerfs on mage tooltips because it's already a heavy expert game mechanic" then yes these need to die fast too.
Sure it kills the interesting min/max minigame with block rating but meh.
Practically all the wipes I've seen from the start of our raiding in KZ up to yesterday's Magtheridon are due to crushing blows in sequence combined with global cooldown or particularly regular cooldown on Shield Block combined with the player's normal net latency involved.
It's a pissboring mindnumbing mechanic anyway!
Especially if you play the "oh we don't show coefficient nerfs on mage tooltips because it's already a heavy expert game mechanic" then yes these need to die fast too.
Sure it kills the interesting min/max minigame with block rating but meh.
Fear and magical damage. Nightbane is already extremely hard and not worth doing with a druid, just because of a fear every what? 30 secs? It's okay for alliance druids tho, fear ward lolz...Versus wrote:Also crushing blow mech changecoming although i have a hard time seeing how they gonna change that without making feral druids be the best mt by far again
And I agree with Sneek. I find chrushing blows to add a way to random element to fights. Especially seeing as warriors are avoidance based so there's *no* way to make a guesstimate on how to heal. Annoying crap.
Edit.: Oh, and the devs have already stated that all the tanks (yes, paladins too!) should be viable tanks with just minor flavor distinctions. And atm that's not even near happening. Paladins suck, druids have itemization against them (heavily) and the mechanics of the fights favor the warrior class. But I have little faith in that changing, warriors will cling to the out-of-sight top of the tank foodchain and it will just dissapear further into the distance as better loot comes out. Just as pre-BC.
Anna Navarre: You're wearing sunglasses on a night operation?
JC Denton: My vision is augmented.
JC Denton: My vision is augmented.
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Toenibbler
- Warlord
- Posts: 872
- Joined: 06 Apr 2006, 18:58
- Location: Voorschoten, Holland
I rule in old hillsbrad as tank! 
Yeah if the warrior keeps up shieldblock all the time(actually the duration with improved block from a low prot talent is 1 sec longer then the cooldown you can still have a lag window though i guess if really unlucky 1 sec to spare is close) theres nothing else to do against it. The boss just uses up the block charges faster then cooldown if he hits faster then 2.0 or with extra attacks etc.
Basiacly its the same "vision" for druid and paladin tanks as they commented on enhc shamans they dont want us to be better then the pure class but to make that up in utility or some sort of different specilization of the tanking type.
They have that now in some areas though and they prolly want to build on that more;
Druids tanks have threat/aoe advantage i see most going over an easy 1000 tps easy all the time but currenlty no way of avoiding crushblows/fear but have superior ac but less avoidance on magical. Pally tanks are supposed to be better in aoe tanking too and with the current crushingblow mech are better against single mob/aoe targets with holy shield but have also no way against fear and slightly less avoidance against magical. They need massive block rating stacking on gear to reach uncrushable though with holy shield up atm.
Im fine with a tank/healer role though myself the huge nerf on everything past 20 holy makes it easy to pick up other talents that might actually be more useful some time then some less then 5% better fols now with deep holy instead.
Yeah if the warrior keeps up shieldblock all the time(actually the duration with improved block from a low prot talent is 1 sec longer then the cooldown you can still have a lag window though i guess if really unlucky 1 sec to spare is close) theres nothing else to do against it. The boss just uses up the block charges faster then cooldown if he hits faster then 2.0 or with extra attacks etc.
Basiacly its the same "vision" for druid and paladin tanks as they commented on enhc shamans they dont want us to be better then the pure class but to make that up in utility or some sort of different specilization of the tanking type.
They have that now in some areas though and they prolly want to build on that more;
Druids tanks have threat/aoe advantage i see most going over an easy 1000 tps easy all the time but currenlty no way of avoiding crushblows/fear but have superior ac but less avoidance on magical. Pally tanks are supposed to be better in aoe tanking too and with the current crushingblow mech are better against single mob/aoe targets with holy shield but have also no way against fear and slightly less avoidance against magical. They need massive block rating stacking on gear to reach uncrushable though with holy shield up atm.
Im fine with a tank/healer role though myself the huge nerf on everything past 20 holy makes it easy to pick up other talents that might actually be more useful some time then some less then 5% better fols now with deep holy instead.
I care little for tanking, rather be healer/dps (so I can actually kill some stuff when solo farming 
Planning on staying full holy after patch tho .. Ill see how it goes.
Planning on staying full holy after patch tho .. Ill see how it goes.
Paladin is man or woman with holy light, liek angel from god paladin hold up holy light so you see in dark and not be scared. You CANT play naughty paladin coz it not fit with paladin holy light ok?