Lore

Welcome, glad to have you on the team!

now buff my class plz

The following was just posted by Watcher in the NA forums, copying it here for discussion:

If any of the communication thus far, or the lack of visible action, has given the impression that we don't consider the issues raised in this thread and others like it to be a problem, I'd like to emphatically state that nothing could be farther from the truth.

At this point, the feel and pacing of the level-up experience is a top priority for the team. We made deliberate changes to the feel of combat six months ago in 7.3.5, moving away from a world where low-level players (especially with heirlooms) could often kill outdoor enemies in 3-4 seconds, and where dungeon mobs died so quickly that a caster with a long windup might not even get a single spell off. Those changes were controversial at the time, but we stand by them as an improvement to the overall pacing of the game. But we also think that those changes went quite far enough, and have absolutely no desire or intent to continue moving in that direction. Nothing about the pre-patch was deliberately intended to make combat take longer than it did previously.

So why haven't we fixed it yet? Honestly, because we genuinely don't know where exactly the problem lies, and we don't want to make a blind blanket change that actually misses the real source of the problem. That's why much of Ythisens' and others' messages thus far have been asking the community for detailed examples to guide our search.

We "squished" stats and item levels, but this was done with the aim of being neutral with respect to the duration and lethality of combat. When we heard complaints about things taking too long to kill, we immediately assumed we'd gotten those calculations wrong. But a look at the raw data didn't suggest any clear anomalies. So we started testing empirically: We can run internal 7.3.5 builds, so we set up test characters (e.g. a level 70 wearing appropriate quest gear awarded by quests around that level - Item Level 115 in 7.3.5, Item Level 79 in 8.0.1) and fight outdoor enemies in 7.3.5, and then take the same character in 8.0.1 and fight the same enemies, and compare.

We are seeing the same sort of discrepancies that folks in this thread and others have pointed out, but still have yet to pinpoint the exact aspect of scaling that we failed to account for. We want to understand WHY the numbers are off and fix the underlying cause: Were stats on gear reduced too much? Some aspect of creature armor or other combat calculations? Are our baseline values accurate, but the shape of the scaling curve wrong such that it’s particularly far off the mark in the 60-80 range? We would prefer a targeted solution versus just applying a bandaid fix that could mask deeper issues that could cause problems down the line, but at some point it’s not fair to give you a degraded experience for the sake of that investigation, so we’ll likely go ahead with a blanket health reduction in the near future while we continue to investigate.

Either way, the current state is not the game experience we intended, and it’s something we will fix.

There is another issue tangentially related to this discussion that I also would like to address: Many feel that it takes too long to level in the 60-80 range in particular, and that the combat pacing issues discussed here are just a piece of that larger problem. We agree – currently players are taking about 15% longer per level, on average, in that range as compared to before 60 or after 80. We’re in the process of assembling a set of changes that will smooth out the experience curve at level 60 and beyond, reducing the experience requirements for those levels.

We’ll have further updates as specific changes roll out, but we’re prioritizing our work on this problem and hoping to get these improvements out to everyone in the coming days.

Please note that with the launch of the pre-patch on our European realms we will not be initially enabling the World of Warcraft Communities feature. The in-game and guild chat channels will still be available for use. The Guild Calendar may also be missing events while we address these concerns.

With the Battle for Azeroth pre-patch, you’ll notice that the vendor who sold tokens that granted a random Legion Legendary item will now allow you to purchase specific Legion Legendaries relevant to your specialization. These are sold for the same cost that the token was sold for previously.

Battle for Azeroth is just around the corner, so we wanted to take this opportunity to allow players who are trying to complete their Legendary collections a more straightforward way to do so, as well as give or new or returning players a way to pick up some strong items to prepare for leveling.

These items can be purchased from Arcanomancer Vridiel in Dalaran for 1000 Wakening Essence. To help with this, many sources of Artifact Power will now grant Wakening Essences instead. Enjoy!

Thanks for the feedback. While we have to limit the SendLoggedAddonMessage to UTF-8 that is viewable in WoW, we are adding a CHAT_MSG_ADDON_LOGGED event.

New Feature: Appear Online

With this patch, we’ve added full support for players who wish to appear online at all times. Now, when you log out of World of Warcraft, you’ll still appear to be online farming random battlegrounds or dungeons. We really hope you enjoy this highly-requested new layer of confusion being added to your personal relationships.

New Loot Type: Impersonal Loot

When you select this option, loot will be practically thrown at you. It’s not even placed nicely on the boss’s body or in a chest or something. It’s just flung in your direction. Those gloves almost hit your face just now! Ugh!

New Toy: Narcissa's Black Mirror

Use: Ports you into a post-modern urban landscape where that one weird thing all the kids are doing with their Insta has been taken to the farthest extremes and now defines your very existence.

Equip: Integrates your DPS meters with your social media. If you drop too low, all your relationships IRL will crumble.

New Feature: Royale Battlegrounds

• Drop into a massive free-for-all where you and 99 other unknown players will battle to be the last one standing.
• Everyone starts each round with no equipment, talents, or class abilities; you’ll have to find them hidden around the map (or take them from your opponents) to survive.
• Earn exciting new rewards like special cosmetic gear, a new “Fort Knight” title, and more.
• Coming soon to Android and iOS!

New Mythic Keystone dungeon affixes:

• Frothing – A mass of tiny bubbles builds up from the floor as you go. Not bad at first, but …
• Languid – Everything and everyone in the dungeon just kind of feels like taking some extra time and really savoring the moment.
• Smacking – Someone in this dungeon is eating very loudly and oh my god if they take one more bite I am going to RAGE.
• Spackling – All holes and crevices in the dungeon are slowly being filled with putty and smoothed over. It’s really distracting, yet oddly satisfying at the same time.
• Twerking – Okay, this was a bad idea.

General Improvements

• All mailboxes, herbs, and mining nodes now offer the master loot option.
• The Auction House Dance Party has been moved to just outside the Auction House.
• All auctioneers have relocated to just outside the Auction House, so that they can participate in the Auction House Dance Party.
• Due to concerns for the wellbeing of auctioneers, who are now standing outside and exposed to the elements, all Auction House structures have been shifted over to provide them with cover.
• Fixed a bug where this could be us, but you playin’.
• Some flight masters now offer passengers little bottles of water and choice of music.
• That one building in Stormwind that has been under construction for over seven years has been declared a historical monument and will remain as-is in perpetuity.
• The drop rates of mounts from raids and dungeons have been adjusted to ensure that that one mount you’ve been farming for the past 3 years will drop immediately for the newest member of your guild.
• Fixed an issue causing Gamon’s Braid to occasionally summon a Gamon who wasn’t remotely interested in saving any of us.
• All player characters have been provided with 5% more class fantasy.

Classes

• Death Knight
  
  • Blood
    
    • Anti-Magic Shell now comes in four delicious candy flavors!
    • Bone Shield number of bones increased to 20 (was 3). There just weren’t enough bones to really shield you from anything, TBH.
    • Dancing Rune Weapon has gotten so good at doing what you do that it would like to try working somewhere else for a while. Maybe get a place of its own.
  • Frost
    
    • Due to global warming, Remorseless Winter is now about 10% less remorseless, depending on whose numbers you believe.
    • Sindragosa’s Fury can now be glyphed to summon other interesting dragons:
      
      • Chillmaw’s Fury, which circles around and around.
      • Hailscorn’s Fury, which hails you scornfully.
      • Sapphiron’s Fury, which takes a while to spin up.
  • Unholy
    
    • Infected Claws is just a super gross idea.
    • Pestilent Pustules is now 20% more fun to say out loud. Pestilent Pustules.
    • Sludge Belcher has been reunited with its relatives and is once again making burgers.
• Demon Hunter
  
  • Havoc
    
    • Fixed a bug that was causing Chaos Blades to behave predictably.
    • Havoc Demon Hunters have been given proper instruction on when to use their Eye Beams and should no longer inadvertently blind oncoming traffic.
    • Metamorphosis now properly includes a pupal stage in which the Demon Hunter is encased in a beautiful chrysalis.
  • Vengeance
    
    • Fallout is unchanged. It never changes.
    • Fiery Brand now has a chance to spawn an NPC, Fiery Brand Manager, who tweets fresh, spicy memes on the Demon Hunter’s behalf.
    • Last Resort redesigned: this is now the last talent you can ever choose. Seriously, do not choose this talent unless you’ve completely exhausted all other options. You've been warned.
  • New Specialization: ANGERY
    
    • Unlike Havoc or Vengeance, ANGERY Demon Hunters gain their power through sheer, unadulterated rage.
    • Use canonically ANGERY abilities like "Teef Snarl" to do your enemies a real frighten.
    • Work with other ANGERY Demon Hunters to defeating the foulest of demons: the VEGETAL.
• Druid
  
  • Balance
    
    • Celestial Alignment needs to be checked out by your mechanic every 10,000 miles or so.
    • New Moon has been in the game for a while now, and has been renamed “Moon”.
    • Starfall, when combined with Stellar Drift and Starsurge, now causes Starlord and Shooting Stars to all run together and confuse you.
  • Feral
    
    • Fixed a bug where Bleed effects could be reflected onto you. No one causes you to bleed your own blood!
    • Moment of Clarity now has a 40% increased chance of causing your character to proclaim “Eureka!” when it procs.
    • Rip removed. RIP Rip.
  • Guardian
    
    • Guardian Druids’ total health has been reduced by 50%. Let’s see if they notice!
    • Stampeding Roar now gives the Druid the eye of the tiger, a fighter, dancing through the fire. ‘Cause you are a champion!
    • Typhoon is now called “Hurricane” in the Western hemisphere.
  • Restoration
    
    • Healing Druids who keep failing to use their Clearcasting procs on the most efficient targets in the raid are going to lose their spot. I’m talking about the tanks here, Brad. Why would you cast Regrowth on yourself?!
    • Innervate can now only be cast on the first healer to call for it in voice chat.
    • Swiftmend now makes a pleasing sound that appropriately complements the visual of your mana disappearing at an alarming rate.
• Hunter
  
  • Beast Mastery
    
    • New talent: Energy Shot – Slam down 1.5 ounces of unfortunate tasting green coffee extract, sugar, amino acids, and B vitamins. 5-hour cooldown.
    • Stomp now causes your Dire Beasts to deal bonus Physical damage in a unique percussion group that combines body and ordinary objects to thrill and amaze the audience.
    • Random extra beasts who just show up to your party uninvited are now required to at least give you a few bucks to pay for the drinks.
  • Marksmanship
    
    • Trick Shot no longer causes Aimed Shot to fire fidget spinners. Those tricks were never really impressive in the first place.
    • Piercing Shot will now reverse the effects of Binding Shot, as intended.
    • In addition to its previous effects on Arcane Shot and Multi-Shot, Trueshot will now also cause Bursting Shot and Concussive Shot to trigger Counter Shot.
    • The word ‘Shot’ is starting to look weird, like it doesn’t even mean anything anymore.
    • Thas’dorah, Legacy of the Windrunners has been returned to the Windrunners, who are kind of upset that you had it all this time. It’s their legacy, man.
  • Survival
    
    • Aspect of the Eagle now causes you to take on the form of the only surviving person who can really perform “Hotel California” anymore.
    • Spitting Cobra removed because it wasn't a very nice experience.
    • Survival Hunters will now always be the last players alive when a group wipes. We apologize for only just coming to this realization after all these years of the spec’s name.

• Mage
  
  • Arcane
    
    • Added support for keyboards with fewer than one button.
    • Casting Evocation now alerts all other mana-using specs in your group that they should be so very envious of you right now.
    • Unstable Magic is fine. Really, it’s fine. What’s your problem anyway?
    • Presence of Mind has been renamed Presents of Mind. Enjoy your creepy brain gifts.
  • Fire
    
    • Fireball was feeling kind of puny, so we made it twice as large. It’s okay, fella. You’re still the most important thing in the rotation, promise.
    • Flame Patch now causes Flamestrike to leave behind one of six collectible patches that are available to convention attendees only.
    • Heating Up to a Hot Streak of four consecutive crits now activates the new effect Hottest of the Hot, causing all your damage dealing spells to cast at the same time. This can only happen once per week, but trust us, it’s pretty lit.
  • Frost
    
    • Fingers of Frost no longer sometimes break off embarrassingly and everyone stops talking and looks at you awkwardly while you bend over and pick it up and then what are you supposed to do with a dismembered frostfinger?
    • Lonely Winter no longer makes it so that you can’t summon your Water Elemental. You can, but something’s different between you.
    • Blizzard now hits harder against targets that aren’t properly dressed for it.

• Monk
  
  • Brewmaster
    
    • Keg Smash has been replaced with a less-wasteful alternative: Barrel Roll. This ability can only be used by pressing Z or R twice.
    • Leg Sweep now knocks down only one opponent. Do you have a problem with that?!
    • Fortifying Brew is now fortified with iodine, a necessary nutrient.
  • Mistweaver
    
    • Mistweaver Monks now say "chi" when using their S.E.L.F.I.E. cams.
    • Thunder Focus Tea can now be combined with a bit of milk and a few drops of vanilla extract to produce a lovely hot beverage for all seasons.
    • Monks who cast Revival at the exact same time the Priest cast Divine Hymn are now officially the worst.
  • Windwalker
    
    • Blackout Kick, Rising Sun Kick, and Spinning Crane Kick can now be combined to create new and exciting moves such as:
      
      • Spin Out Kick - You go around and around and do no damage, but it's soooo fun.
      • Spitting Raisin Kick - You annoy your opponent with saliva-covered dried grape projectiles ... while kicking them.
      • Black Hole Sun Kick – Washes away the rain.
    • Strike of the Windlord is set to carry on into its sixth week, as salary negotiations broke down yesterday in heated talks with management.
    • Touch of Death has been replaced with the equally terrifying new spell "Wee Bit of Fatality".
    • Storm, Earth, and Fire has finally renewed their cellular service and should once again heed your calls.

• Paladin
  
  • Holy
    
    • Holy Paladins are asked to please stop leaving fish in the fridge at work. We don't know who's doing this, but we know it's a Holy Paladin.
    • Crusader's Might has been redesigned with more indecision. After all, you can never tell what a Crusader might do. Hell, they might not.
    • Holy Prism no longer has any holes in it, and is once again a complete and smooth Prism.
    • Equipping The Silver Hand again causes you to come in second place behind players who use The Gold Hand. But at least you beat those Bronze Hand losers.
  • Protection
    
    • Avenger’s Shield, when combined with a Stone of Infinity, now summons Captain Azeroth, a goody-two-shoes Paladin NPC who can do this all day.
    • Fixed a bug where Consecration was lighting you up from really bad angles, giving you a lot of anxiety over how you look in screenshots.
    • Shield of the Righteous is now 20% less smug.
  • Retribution
    
    • Crusade now causes you to go on Twitter and retweet people ranting about whatever lost cause you’re going on about today, but I’m pretty sure most of your followers have you muted at this point.
    • Divine Storm damage increased again this year. I tell ya they sure seem to be getting worse.
    • Eye for an Eye counterattack damage increased by 200%. It wasn’t leaving the whole world blind, as intended.
• Priest
  
  • Discipline
    
    • Atonement no longer requires the recipient to unequip their gear and walk through the streets of Stormwind. Shame!
    • Plea is now 25% less pathetic.
  • Holy
    
    • Priests who cast Divine Hymn at the exact same time the Monk cast Revival are now officially the worst.
    • Several new Holy Words have been added:
      
      • Holy Word: Fragrance – It's not very effective but at least you smell nice.
      • Holy Word: Document – Causes nearby party and raid members to-HEY! It looks like you're trying to write a patch note. Need some help?
      • Holy Word: Firefly – Abruptly short cast time with an uneventful finish. At least you can cast Holy Word: Serenity later?
  • Shadow
    
    • Your Knaifu now speaks to you twice as often.
    • Your Knaifu can no longer be added to your ignore list. You really shouldn’t have done that.
    • Fixed a bug where you and your Knaifu never have any good ideas for dinner.
    • Your Knaifu now speaks to you three times as often.
    • Delicious.

• Rogue
  
  • Assassination
    
    • Fan of Knives has been modified to have a bit more room to hang his favorite blades on the main wall in his bedroom.
    • Rogues who cast their finishing moves at only 3 Combo Points are now highlighted in the group window for their raid leaders and that one guy who’s always telling you how to play your class. I mean, he’s not wrong, he’s just annoying.
  • Outlaw
    
    • Blade Flurry is now defaulted to ‘on’ at all times. We’re not even sure if you can turn it off anymore.
    • Deeper Strategem now provides you with 5% more mind-blowing ideas while you’re in the shower.
    • Opportunity no longer seems as though it procs but once in a lifetime.
  • Subtlety
    
    • Fixed a bug where Relentless Strikes would sometimes relent.
    • While players in all other specs are busy doing Professions or Holiday Events or Pet Battles, Subtlety Rogues are now required to study the blade.
• Shaman
  
  • Elemental
    
    • Stormkeeper has managed to lose track of the storm somehow and has been fired. If anyone you know has prior Stormkeeping experience, please have them fill out an application at jobs.blizzard.com.
    • FROST SHOCK! Haha, remember that video? Good times. Anyway, we nerfed Lava Burst.
    • Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning have had their existing visual effects removed entirely.
  • Enhancement
    
    • New ability: Sentry Totem – Summons an immobile Sentry Totem that doesn’t really do anything.
    • Feral Spirit now summons 3 wolves to fight for you (was 2). We have no idea how we ever thought that 2 wolves were enough wolves.
    • Rockbiter should no longer cause Shaman with the Boulderfist talent to chew their fingernails. Seriously, it’s gross, stop it.
    • Removed: Sentry Totem.
  • Restoration
    
    • To better differentiate between the Shaman and Druid healing specs, Restoration Shaman has been renamed "Ocean Shaman." We believe this new spec identity will take healing Shaman by the hand and lead them to the land that they understand.
    • Torrent is now properly subject to digital rights management systems. Anyone found using Torrent illegally will be prosecuted.
    • Wellspring has had its healing effect reduced by 30%, and its name changed to "Alrightspring."
    • Crashing Waves has completed a remedial driver's education course and should hopefully be back on the road once the shop finishes putting its RX-7 back together.
• Warlock
  
  • Affliction
    
    • Soul Flame now gives you Soul Glow. Just let it shine through.
    • New ability: Richard Coil, which replaces Mortal Coil for Affliction Warlocks. It does essentially the same thing as Mortal Coil, but includes a vague reference to that one cartoon series everyone's been making lame jokes about for the last couple of years.
    • Seed of Corruption now has a chance to apply Agony or Unstable Affliction in addition to Corruption. We got the packets mixed up and frankly we can’t tell them apart anyway.
    • Warlocks who choose both the Shadow Embrace and Death’s Embrace talents should probably stop being such edgelords.
  • Demonology
    
    • Seems like they’re in a really good place right now.
  • Destruction
    
    • Havoc now causes all other players within a 30 yard radius to stop and look over their shoulders to see what you’re doing over there.
    • For the third consecutive year, Cataclysm is about 10% better regarded than it was before.
    • Fixed a bug where Reverse Entropy worked. Considering quantum mechanics, it’s clearly not possible to reverse entropy in this deterministic universe.
    • Channel Demonfire now exclusively plays infomercials between 2 and 6 AM.
• Warrior
  
  • Arms
    
    • In response to feedback that there was not enough difference between Arms and Fury, we’ve added two more arms to all Arms Warriors. Visit the Barber Shop to customize the exact placement of your third and fourth arms.
    • New ability: Test Your Might. Display the sheer physical strength of your four arms by mashing buttons repeatedly.
    • Defensive Stance has not received any changes. Defensive Stance doesn’t NEED to change. Defensive Stance is doing just fine without your help, thanks.
    • Slam will now appropriately welcome nearby players to the jam.
  • Fury
    
    • When you select this spec, your character will no longer have upper body appendages.
    • Corrected an issue allowing some Warriors to select both Endless Rage and War Machine. Rage should now always correctly be against the Machine.
    • Furious Slash has, unfortunately, not been replaced with a really angry guitarist. We really wanted to, but the licensing alone would have cost a FORTUNE.
  • Protection
    
    • Into the Fray should now correctly inform Protection Warriors how to save a life.
    • Inspiring Presence has been made 200% more inspirational. Hang in there!
    • The entire Protection Warrior toolkit has been re-designed with Spell Reflection as the primary focus. They protecc, and they attacc, but most importantly, they reflecc.
    
    
  
  

New Feature: Appear Online

With this patch, we’ve added full support for players who wish to appear online at all times. Now, when you log out of World of Warcraft, you’ll still appear to be online farming random battlegrounds or dungeons. We really hope you enjoy this highly-requested new layer of confusion being added to your personal relationships.

New Loot Type: Impersonal Loot

When you select this option, loot will be practically thrown at you. It’s not even placed nicely on the boss’s body or in a chest or something. It’s just flung in your direction. Those gloves almost hit your face just now! Ugh!

New Toy: Narcissa's Black Mirror

Use: Ports you into a post-modern urban landscape where that one weird thing all the kids are doing with their Insta has been taken to the farthest extremes and now defines your very existence.

Equip: Integrates your DPS meters with your social media. If you drop too low, all your relationships IRL will crumble.

New Feature: Royale Battlegrounds

• Drop into a massive free-for-all where you and 99 other unknown players will battle to be the last one standing.
• Everyone starts each round with no equipment, talents, or class abilities; you’ll have to find them hidden around the map (or take them from your opponents) to survive.
• Earn exciting new rewards like special cosmetic gear, a new “Fort Knight” title, and more.
• Coming soon to Android and iOS!

New Mythic Keystone dungeon affixes:

• Frothing – A mass of tiny bubbles builds up from the floor as you go. Not bad at first, but …
• Languid – Everything and everyone in the dungeon just kind of feels like taking some extra time and really savoring the moment.
• Smacking – Someone in this dungeon is eating very loudly and oh my god if they take one more bite I am going to RAGE.
• Spackling – All holes and crevices in the dungeon are slowly being filled with putty and smoothed over. It’s really distracting, yet oddly satisfying at the same time.
• Twerking – Okay, this was a bad idea.

General Improvements

• All mailboxes, herbs, and mining nodes now offer the master loot option.
• The Auction House Dance Party has been moved to just outside the Auction House.
• All auctioneers have relocated to just outside the Auction House, so that they can participate in the Auction House Dance Party.
• Due to concerns for the wellbeing of auctioneers, who are now standing outside and exposed to the elements, all Auction House structures have been shifted over to provide them with cover.
• Fixed a bug where this could be us, but you playin’.
• Some flight masters now offer passengers little bottles of water and choice of music.
• That one building in Stormwind that has been under construction for over seven years has been declared a historical monument and will remain as-is in perpetuity.
• The drop rates of mounts from raids and dungeons have been adjusted to ensure that that one mount you’ve been farming for the past 3 years will drop immediately for the newest member of your guild.
• Fixed an issue causing Gamon’s Braid to occasionally summon a Gamon who wasn’t remotely interested in saving any of us.
• All player characters have been provided with 5% more class fantasy.

Classes

• Death Knight
  
  • Blood
    
    • Anti-Magic Shell now comes in four delicious candy flavors!
    • Bone Shield number of bones increased to 20 (was 3). There just weren’t enough bones to really shield you from anything, TBH.
    • Dancing Rune Weapon has gotten so good at doing what you do that it would like to try working somewhere else for a while. Maybe get a place of its own.
  • Frost
    
    • Due to global warming, Remorseless Winter is now about 10% less remorseless, depending on whose numbers you believe.
    • Sindragosa’s Fury can now be glyphed to summon other interesting dragons:
      
      • Chillmaw’s Fury, which circles around and around.
      • Hailscorn’s Fury, which hails you scornfully.
      • Sapphiron’s Fury, which takes a while to spin up.
  • Unholy
    
    • Infected Claws is just a super gross idea.
    • Pestilent Pustules is now 20% more fun to say out loud. Pestilent Pustules.
    • Sludge Belcher has been reunited with its relatives and is once again making burgers.
• Demon Hunter
  
  • Havoc
    
    • Fixed a bug that was causing Chaos Blades to behave predictably.
    • Havoc Demon Hunters have been given proper instruction on when to use their Eye Beams and should no longer inadvertently blind oncoming traffic.
    • Metamorphosis now properly includes a pupal stage in which the Demon Hunter is encased in a beautiful chrysalis.
  • Vengeance
    
    • Fallout is unchanged. It never changes.
    • Fiery Brand now has a chance to spawn an NPC, Fiery Brand Manager, who tweets fresh, spicy memes on the Demon Hunter’s behalf.
    • Last Resort redesigned: this is now the last talent you can ever choose. Seriously, do not choose this talent unless you’ve completely exhausted all other options. You've been warned.
  • New Specialization: ANGERY
    
    • Unlike Havoc or Vengeance, ANGERY Demon Hunters gain their power through sheer, unadulterated rage.
    • Use canonically ANGERY abilities like "Teef Snarl" to do your enemies a real frighten.
    • Work with other ANGERY Demon Hunters to defeating the foulest of demons: the VEGETAL.
• Druid
  
  • Balance
    
    • Celestial Alignment needs to be checked out by your mechanic every 10,000 miles or so.
    • New Moon has been in the game for a while now, and has been renamed “Moon”.
    • Starfall, when combined with Stellar Drift and Starsurge, now causes Starlord and Shooting Stars to all run together and confuse you.
  • Feral
    
    • Fixed a bug where Bleed effects could be reflected onto you. No one causes you to bleed your own blood!
    • Moment of Clarity now has a 40% increased chance of causing your character to proclaim “Eureka!” when it procs.
    • Rip removed. RIP Rip.
  • Guardian
    
    • Guardian Druids’ total health has been reduced by 50%. Let’s see if they notice!
    • Stampeding Roar now gives the Druid the eye of the tiger, a fighter, dancing through the fire. ‘Cause you are a champion!
    • Typhoon is now called “Hurricane” in the Western hemisphere.
  • Restoration
    
    • Healing Druids who keep failing to use their Clearcasting procs on the most efficient targets in the raid are going to lose their spot. I’m talking about the tanks here, Brad. Why would you cast Regrowth on yourself?!
    • Innervate can now only be cast on the first healer to call for it in voice chat.
    • Swiftmend now makes a pleasing sound that appropriately complements the visual of your mana disappearing at an alarming rate.
• Hunter
  
  • Beast Mastery
    
    • New talent: Energy Shot – Slam down 1.5 ounces of unfortunate tasting green coffee extract, sugar, amino acids, and B vitamins. 5-hour cooldown.
    • Stomp now causes your Dire Beasts to deal bonus Physical damage in a unique percussion group that combines body and ordinary objects to thrill and amaze the audience.
    • Random extra beasts who just show up to your party uninvited are now required to at least give you a few bucks to pay for the drinks.
  • Marksmanship
    
    • Trick Shot no longer causes Aimed Shot to fire fidget spinners. Those tricks were never really impressive in the first place.
    • Piercing Shot will now reverse the effects of Binding Shot, as intended.
    • In addition to its previous effects on Arcane Shot and Multi-Shot, Trueshot will now also cause Bursting Shot and Concussive Shot to trigger Counter Shot.
    • The word ‘Shot’ is starting to look weird, like it doesn’t even mean anything anymore.
    • Thas’dorah, Legacy of the Windrunners has been returned to the Windrunners, who are kind of upset that you had it all this time. It’s their legacy, man.
  • Survival
    
    • Aspect of the Eagle now causes you to take on the form of the only surviving person who can really perform “Hotel California” anymore.
    • Spitting Cobra removed because it wasn't a very nice experience.
    • Survival Hunters will now always be the last players alive when a group wipes. We apologize for only just coming to this realization after all these years of the spec’s name.

• Mage
  
  • Arcane
    
    • Added support for keyboards with fewer than one button.
    • Casting Evocation now alerts all other mana-using specs in your group that they should be so very envious of you right now.
    • Unstable Magic is fine. Really, it’s fine. What’s your problem anyway?
    • Presence of Mind has been renamed Presents of Mind. Enjoy your creepy brain gifts.
  • Fire
    
    • Fireball was feeling kind of puny, so we made it twice as large. It’s okay, fella. You’re still the most important thing in the rotation, promise.
    • Flame Patch now causes Flamestrike to leave behind one of six collectible patches that are available to convention attendees only.
    • Heating Up to a Hot Streak of four consecutive crits now activates the new effect Hottest of the Hot, causing all your damage dealing spells to cast at the same time. This can only happen once per week, but trust us, it’s pretty lit.
  • Frost
    
    • Fingers of Frost no longer sometimes break off embarrassingly and everyone stops talking and looks at you awkwardly while you bend over and pick it up and then what are you supposed to do with a dismembered frostfinger?
    • Lonely Winter no longer makes it so that you can’t summon your Water Elemental. You can, but something’s different between you.
    • Blizzard now hits harder against targets that aren’t properly dressed for it.

• Monk
  
  • Brewmaster
    
    • Keg Smash has been replaced with a less-wasteful alternative: Barrel Roll. This ability can only be used by pressing Z or R twice.
    • Leg Sweep now knocks down only one opponent. Do you have a problem with that?!
    • Fortifying Brew is now fortified with iodine, a necessary nutrient.
  • Mistweaver
    
    • Mistweaver Monks now say "chi" when using their S.E.L.F.I.E. cams.
    • Thunder Focus Tea can now be combined with a bit of milk and a few drops of vanilla extract to produce a lovely hot beverage for all seasons.
    • Monks who cast Revival at the exact same time the Priest cast Divine Hymn are now officially the worst.
  • Windwalker
    
    • Blackout Kick, Rising Sun Kick, and Spinning Crane Kick can now be combined to create new and exciting moves such as:
      
      • Spin Out Kick - You go around and around and do no damage, but it's soooo fun.
      • Spitting Raisin Kick - You annoy your opponent with saliva-covered dried grape projectiles ... while kicking them.
      • Black Hole Sun Kick – Washes away the rain.
    • Strike of the Windlord is set to carry on into its sixth week, as salary negotiations broke down yesterday in heated talks with management.
    • Touch of Death has been replaced with the equally terrifying new spell "Wee Bit of Fatality".
    • Storm, Earth, and Fire has finally renewed their cellular service and should once again heed your calls.

• Paladin
  
  • Holy
    
    • Holy Paladins are asked to please stop leaving fish in the fridge at work. We don't know who's doing this, but we know it's a Holy Paladin.
    • Crusader's Might has been redesigned with more indecision. After all, you can never tell what a Crusader might do. Hell, they might not.
    • Holy Prism no longer has any holes in it, and is once again a complete and smooth Prism.
    • Equipping The Silver Hand again causes you to come in second place behind players who use The Gold Hand. But at least you beat those Bronze Hand losers.
  • Protection
    
    • Avenger’s Shield, when combined with a Stone of Infinity, now summons Captain Azeroth, a goody-two-shoes Paladin NPC who can do this all day.
    • Fixed a bug where Consecration was lighting you up from really bad angles, giving you a lot of anxiety over how you look in screenshots.
    • Shield of the Righteous is now 20% less smug.
  • Retribution
    
    • Crusade now causes you to go on Twitter and retweet people ranting about whatever lost cause you’re going on about today, but I’m pretty sure most of your followers have you muted at this point.
    • Divine Storm damage increased again this year. I tell ya they sure seem to be getting worse.
    • Eye for an Eye counterattack damage increased by 200%. It wasn’t leaving the whole world blind, as intended.
• Priest
  
  • Discipline
    
    • Atonement no longer requires the recipient to unequip their gear and walk through the streets of Stormwind. Shame!
    • Plea is now 25% less pathetic.
  • Holy
    
    • Priests who cast Divine Hymn at the exact same time the Monk cast Revival are now officially the worst.
    • Several new Holy Words have been added:
      
      • Holy Word: Fragrance – It's not very effective but at least you smell nice.
      • Holy Word: Document – Causes nearby party and raid members to-HEY! It looks like you're trying to write a patch note. Need some help?
      • Holy Word: Firefly – Abruptly short cast time with an uneventful finish. At least you can cast Holy Word: Serenity later?
  • Shadow
    
    • Your Knaifu now speaks to you twice as often.
    • Your Knaifu can no longer be added to your ignore list. You really shouldn’t have done that.
    • Fixed a bug where you and your Knaifu never have any good ideas for dinner.
    • Your Knaifu now speaks to you three times as often.
    • Delicious.

• Rogue
  
  • Assassination
    
    • Fan of Knives has been modified to have a bit more room to hang his favorite blades on the main wall in his bedroom.
    • Rogues who cast their finishing moves at only 3 Combo Points are now highlighted in the group window for their raid leaders and that one guy who’s always telling you how to play your class. I mean, he’s not wrong, he’s just annoying.
  • Outlaw
    
    • Blade Flurry is now defaulted to ‘on’ at all times. We’re not even sure if you can turn it off anymore.
    • Deeper Strategem now provides you with 5% more mind-blowing ideas while you’re in the shower.
    • Opportunity no longer seems as though it procs but once in a lifetime.
  • Subtlety
    
    • Fixed a bug where Relentless Strikes would sometimes relent.
    • While players in all other specs are busy doing Professions or Holiday Events or Pet Battles, Subtlety Rogues are now required to study the blade.
• Shaman
  
  • Elemental
    
    • Stormkeeper has managed to lose track of the storm somehow and has been fired. If anyone you know has prior Stormkeeping experience, please have them fill out an application at jobs.blizzard.com.
    • FROST SHOCK! Haha, remember that video? Good times. Anyway, we nerfed Lava Burst.
    • Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning have had their existing visual effects removed entirely.
  • Enhancement
    
    • New ability: Sentry Totem – Summons an immobile Sentry Totem that doesn’t really do anything.
    • Feral Spirit now summons 3 wolves to fight for you (was 2). We have no idea how we ever thought that 2 wolves were enough wolves.
    • Rockbiter should no longer cause Shaman with the Boulderfist talent to chew their fingernails. Seriously, it’s gross, stop it.
    • Removed: Sentry Totem.
  • Restoration
    
    • To better differentiate between the Shaman and Druid healing specs, Restoration Shaman has been renamed "Ocean Shaman." We believe this new spec identity will take healing Shaman by the hand and lead them to the land that they understand.
    • Torrent is now properly subject to digital rights management systems. Anyone found using Torrent illegally will be prosecuted.
    • Wellspring has had its healing effect reduced by 30%, and its name changed to "Alrightspring."
    • Crashing Waves has completed a remedial driver's education course and should hopefully be back on the road once the shop finishes putting its RX-7 back together.
• Warlock
  
  • Affliction
    
    • Soul Flame now gives you Soul Glow. Just let it shine through.
    • New ability: Richard Coil, which replaces Mortal Coil for Affliction Warlocks. It does essentially the same thing as Mortal Coil, but includes a vague reference to that one cartoon series everyone's been making lame jokes about for the last couple of years.
    • Seed of Corruption now has a chance to apply Agony or Unstable Affliction in addition to Corruption. We got the packets mixed up and frankly we can’t tell them apart anyway.
    • Warlocks who choose both the Shadow Embrace and Death’s Embrace talents should probably stop being such edgelords.
  • Demonology
    
    • Seems like they’re in a really good place right now.
  • Destruction
    
    • Havoc now causes all other players within a 30 yard radius to stop and look over their shoulders to see what you’re doing over there.
    • For the third consecutive year, Cataclysm is about 10% better regarded than it was before.
    • Fixed a bug where Reverse Entropy worked. Considering quantum mechanics, it’s clearly not possible to reverse entropy in this deterministic universe.
    • Channel Demonfire now exclusively plays infomercials between 2 and 6 AM.
• Warrior
  
  • Arms
    
    • In response to feedback that there was not enough difference between Arms and Fury, we’ve added two more arms to all Arms Warriors. Visit the Barber Shop to customize the exact placement of your third and fourth arms.
    • New ability: Test Your Might. Display the sheer physical strength of your four arms by mashing buttons repeatedly.
    • Defensive Stance has not received any changes. Defensive Stance doesn’t NEED to change. Defensive Stance is doing just fine without your help, thanks.
    • Slam will now appropriately welcome nearby players to the jam.
  • Fury
    
    • When you select this spec, your character will no longer have upper body appendages.
    • Corrected an issue allowing some Warriors to select both Endless Rage and War Machine. Rage should now always correctly be against the Machine.
    • Furious Slash has, unfortunately, not been replaced with a really angry guitarist. We really wanted to, but the licensing alone would have cost a FORTUNE.
  • Protection
    
    • Into the Fray should now correctly inform Protection Warriors how to save a life.
    • Inspiring Presence has been made 200% more inspirational. Hang in there!
    • The entire Protection Warrior toolkit has been re-designed with Spell Reflection as the primary focus. They protecc, and they attacc, but most importantly, they reflecc.
    
    
  
  

Join us live on Twitch.tv/Warcraft Thursday, March 15, at 11:00 a.m. PDT (6:00 PM GMT), as we sit down with Game Director Ion Hazzikostas for our next live developer Q&A where he’ll be answering your World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth Alpha questions.

You can submit your questions here in this thread or on Twitter by using the hashtag #WarcraftQA.

As a reminder, please keep your questions short (40 words or less) so that we can get to as many questions as possible. We look forward to you joining us live on Thursday!

The Refer-A-Friend system is intended as an option for players who want to invite a friend to play WoW with them and experience the game together. When it was first introduced, we gave it a hefty bonus to experience gain as a way for both players to reach endgame content as quickly as possible.

Nowadays, purchasing the latest WoW expansion includes a free character boost, so the need to rush your friend to max level is no longer there; you can jump into the latest content with your friend right away. This meant that the only players who were using the Refer-A-Friend system in its intended way – leveling alongside their friend – were those who had decided that they wanted to experience that content together. We realized that, for those players, the 300% XP bonus was a disservice; we were cutting that shared experience short by making them finish it far too quickly.

Now, we certainly recognize that the majority of people using the Refer-A-Friend system before these changes were doing so in order to level alts quickly. If anything, we take that as a strong indication that the system needed to change: the best method to level a character in WoW shouldn’t be “buy a new copy of the game, put it on a separate account, send it a Refer-A-Friend invite, level a new character, and then transfer that character to your primary account when you’re finished.” That’s messy, at best.

That said, we’re certainly taking the feedback about the rate of leveling alts into account as we move forward with the game’s development. We’ve been happy with the changes so far, but if leveling is too slow, we’d rather address that in the game itself than have Refer-A-Friend be some kind of bizarre workaround to an outstanding issue.

Join us live on Twitch.tv/Warcraft Thursday, November 16, as we sit down with Game Director Ion Hazzikostas for our next live developer Q&A. He’ll be answering many of your questions on the BlizzCon 2017 announcements, the new Antorus raid dungeon, patch 7.3.5, and any other Legion-related questions.

Feel free to submit questions by posting in this forum thread or via Twitter using the hashtag #WoWQA.

As a reminder, please keep your questions short (40 words or less) so that we can get to as many questions as possible. We’re really looking forward to getting the chance to dive in and answer as much as we can, so we hope to see you Thursday at 8:00 p.m. CET!

We’ve recently taken action against a number of accounts that were actively participating in and/or advertising the sale of in-game raid or dungeon clears in exchange for real-world currency. Such behavior is a clear violation of the World of Warcraft Terms of Use.

Additionally, we’ve issued smaller actions against players who were found to be sharing account details in order to gain a competitive advantage during raid progression. Account sharing of any kind is against the World of Warcraft Terms of Use, and will not be tolerated. While the penalties applied as part of these actions were relatively minor, we intend to apply much harsher penalties for such behavior in the future.

As a reminder, in order to ensure fair play and competitive integrity, we closely monitor these and other activities that violate the Terms of Use. This includes selling in-game services for real money, exchanging accounts or characters, and similar violations done with the intention of gaining a competitive advantage in raid progression (such as the purchase or transfer of geared characters or accounts between owners).

Note that while selling assistance with obtaining items, achievements, PvP rating, or other in-game benefits for real-world currency is against the Terms of Use, selling those things in exchange for in-game gold is perfectly legitimate. Players should not feel as though participating in a “gold run” is going to result in negative action taken against their account.

We’re currently working on a hotfix intended to significantly reduce the amount of time it takes to reach the Artifact Knowledge cap of 40, in order to allow returning players to catch up more quickly.

Specifically, this hotfix will reduce the time it takes to research ranks of Artifact Knowledge between 26 and 40 to approximately 4 hours each. We hope to make this retroactive to any work orders already in progress when the hotfix is applied. Once these changes are live, a returning player should be able to reach the maximum level of Artifact Knowledge in only a few days.

This hotfix will require extensive testing, but our goal is to apply it within the next day or so.

We’ve seen some confusion around the availability and timing of various aspects of the 7.2 patch, and we’d like to clarify our plans for releasing the remaining pieces of Patch 7.2’s content:

• Week 2 (next week): Legion Assaults begin, first PvP Brawl becomes available
• Week 3: Chapter 5 of the Class Order Hall campaign unlocks, which activates new followers, new Order Hall upgrades, and class-specific World Quests
• Week 4+: Ongoing story pieces unlock, leading up to the eventual opening of the Tomb of Sargeras raid, and the ability to earn Class Mounts

Several of these pieces tie into the overarching story being told in 7.2: our return to the Broken Shore for vengeance, followed by the Legion’s response, and the eventual buildup toward the assault on the Tomb of Sargeras and Kil’jaeden himself. With the release of Patch 7.2, that series of events is set into motion, but they don’t all occur immediately. For example, the upcoming Legion Assaults are a direct response to our initial attack on the Broken Shore. Those assaults, in turn, prompt some of the later parts of the Order Hall campaign. These events occur in a chronological order, and we want to give players the chance to be there as it happens, rather than having some of it unfold off-screen or rushing it along.

But aside from the narrative, pacing content releases helps with clear direction and player focus. During PTR testing, where we had the calendar advanced to allow for testing of all content in parallel, players were pulled in many different directions from the outset. While the heart of the patch lies on the Broken Shore, Legion Assaults were drawing players back to the original Broken Isles zones, and many Order Campaign questlines sent players to other expansions’ continents. With the content release structure we settled on, Broken Shore can stand alone as the initial focus of attention. We didn’t open the Tomb of Sargeras raid with the patch because we don’t want to rush players who are still progressing through Nighthold, but that same sort of logic applies to nearly all other features.

We apologize that that hasn’t been clear enough from the start, but hope that this will help relieve some concerns.

Thanks for the feedback on this issue. It’s clear that we need to make some changes here, so here are our current plans:

• We’re removing the increase to damage dealt by creatures in the world. Our overall goal with this change is to keep the amount of time it takes to kill a creature from getting ridiculously short, and increasing the damage they deal is unnecessary for that goal. Instead, this was making you feel like they were becoming more dangerous, which was not our intent.
• We’re significantly reducing the rate at which creature health scales with your item level. Again, all we’re trying to do here is prevent cases where monsters die too quickly for players to react to their presence, particularly around World Quests. Our initial tuning was far more aggressive than it needed to be, which could make it feel like your upgrades weren't actually helping. This change will make it very clear that you are still becoming noticeably stronger than your enemies as your gear improves.
• Those two changes are already live, and you should be seeing them in-game now.
• Later today, we’ll be correcting a separate issue that’s causing unequipping an item to drastically alter the power of enemies you’re facing. The above changes make it so that’s never the right thing to do anyway, but this is still a strange/buggy interaction that needs to be fixed.

It should also be noted that this change was on the Patch 7.2 PTR (and has been since January). We didn’t communicate anything about it initially because we wanted to get testers’ raw and honest feedback about it when they encountered it themselves, rather than attempting to pre-empt or otherwise influence their opinions ahead of time. When that feedback never came, we assumed that meant it was an acceptable change – i.e., those who hadn’t noticed it weren’t bothered by it, and those who had noticed it thought it was fine. Clearly that was a false assumption, and we should have drawn attention to it later in the PTR cycle, so that we could have caught these issues before Patch 7.2 went live.

BURN THE FLESH, SEAR THE SOUL

Also hi.

The Kirin Tor Tavern Crawl micro-holiday is unfortunately suffering from some issues that didn’t come up in PTR testing, and we have been unable to correct via hotfix. As such, we’ve had to disable it. Apologies for the inconvenience!

The WoW token is now available once again. Thanks!

We've encountered a brief technical issue with the WoW Token system which has resulted in it temporarily being disabled in the Americas, Oceanic, and European regions. We're hard at work to restore functionality and will have it back up and running as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience.

Hey all. As with each major patch that significantly changes class spells and abilities, we review tuning based on live data once it’s live, to look for any tuning issues that may have arisen. Based on that, we’re planning to make the following changes during the next weekly restarts in each region. We’ll continue to pay close attention to each spec’s performance as players progress through the Nighthold, and are ready to make further adjustments as necessary.

Classes

Death Knight

• Blood
  
  • Blooddrinker damage reduced by 40% (unchanged in PvP).

Demon Hunter

• Havoc
  
  • Annihilation, Blade Dance, Chaos Nova, Chaos Strike, Death Sweep, Demon Blades, Demon’s Bite, Eye Beam, Fel Barrage, Fel Eruption, Fel Rush, Fury of the Illidari, Metamorphosis, and Throw Glaive damage reduced by 2%.
  • Fel Mastery now grants 30 Fury (up from 25).
  • Chaos Blades now increases autoattack damage by 150% (down from 200%).

Hunter

• Beast Mastery
  
  • Cobra Shot damage increased by 46%.
  • Chimaera Shot damage increased by 10%.
  • Barrage damage increased by 10%.
  • Kill Command damage increased by 10%.
• Marksmanship
  
  • Aimed Shot, Arcane Shot, Barrage, Black Arrow, Bursting Shot, Marked Shot, Multi-shot, Murder of Crows, Piercing Shot, Sidewinders, Volley, and Windburst damage increased by 8%.
• Survival
  
  • Carve, Flanking Strike, Explosive Trap direct damage, Flanking Strike, Mongoose Bite, Raptor Strike damage increased by 7%.
  • Explosive Trap damage over time, Lacerate, and Serpent Sting damage increased by 12%.
  • Caltrops damage reduced by 10%.
  • On The Trail damage increased by 36%.

Mage

• Fire
  
  • Flame Patch damage reduced by 17%.
• Frost
  
  • Ray of Frost damage increased by 12%.

Monk

• Windwalker
  
  • Rushing Jade Wind now applies Mark of the Crane to 4 targets (down from 5).

Paladin

• Retribution
  
  • Execution Sentence damage reduced by 15%.

Priest

• Discipline
  
  • Trinkets that deal single-target damage now deal 45% of normal damage (up from 40%).
  • Trinkets that deal multi-target damage now deal 35% of normal damage (up from 25%).
• Shadow
  
  • Mind Blast, Mind Flay, Shadow Crash, Shadow Word: Death, Shadow Word: Void, Shadowy Apparition, Void Bolt, Void Torrent, and Void Eruption damage reduced by 4%.
  • Shadow Word: Pain damage reduced by 11%.
  • Vampiric Touch damage reduced by 14%.

Rogue

• Assassination
  
  • Agonizing Poison increases damage by 3.5% per stack (down from 4%).

Shaman

• Elemental
  
  • Lightning Bolt damage increased by 9%.
• Enhancement
  
  • Crash Lightning, Flametongue, Lava Lash, Lightning Bolt, Lightning Shield, Rockbiter, Stormstrike, Windfury, and Windsong damage increased by 4%.
  • Hailstorm damage increased by 29%.
  • Boulderfist damage increased by 15%.
  • Fury of Air damage reduced by 12%.
  • Doom Vortex damage increased by 33%.

Warlock

• Affliction
  
  • Agony now has its full chance to generate a Soul Shard on Soul Effigy (up from a 55% of normal chance).
  • Malefic Grasp now increases the damage of damage over time effects by 70% (down from 80%).
• Demonology
  
  • Shadowbolt damage increased by 42%.
  • Demonbolt damage increased by 42%, but its damage is now increased by 10% per active demon (down from 18%).

Warrior

• Protection
  
  • Charge, Devastate, Devastator, Heroic Throw, Ravager, Shield Slam, Victory Rush, and Deep Wounds damage reduced by 5%.
  • Revenge and Thunder Clap damage reduced by 14%.

Legendary Items

• DPS Specs
  
  • Kiljaeden’s Burning Wish: Damage increased by 55%.
• Paladin
  
  • Chain of Thrayn: Damage bonus reduced from 20% to 10%.
• Priest
  
  • Mother Shahraz’s Seduction: Stacks of Voidform gained when entering Voidform reduced from 5 to 3.
  • Zeks Exterminatus: Damage bonus increased from 25% to 100%.
• Rogue
  
  • Duskwalker Footpads: Energy needed per 1 second of CDR for Vendetta increased from 50 to 65.

Additionally, we’re planning to make some general changes to PvP balance, with the intent of lowering overall damage from a few overperforming specs and talents. Those exact changes have not yet been finalized, but we’ll share them as soon as we are able.

01/06/2017 02:43 PMPosted by Aerya

Hello. I am a cat.

*HISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS*