2012-07-29

Diablo III Inferno Booster Pack Giveaway, More Magic Find Information, Hall of Shame - ilvl 63 Edition, Hell Yeah Comic - The Templar, Blizzard News

The Tillers

This patch finally added and unlocked the Tillers questline. First up, we have the introductory quests that demonstrate a few basic farming tasks, and tell you about Farmer Yoon's background. He is new to farming and wants to prove himself, so he needs your help!

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Level

Name

Objective

Faction

+Rep

86

A Helping Hand

Destroy 8 Unbudging Rocks.

The Tillers

250

86

The Family Farm

Join Farmer Yoon.

The Tillers

250

86

Learn and Grow II: Tilling and Planting

Till 2 plots of Untilled Soil to create Tilled Soil. Then, use the EZ-Gro Green Cabbage Seeds on 2 plots of Tilled Soil.

The Tillers

250

86

Learn and Grow III: Tending Crops

Use the Rusty Watering Can to water 2 Parched EZ-Gro Green Cabbages at Sunsong Ranch.

The Tillers

250

86

Learn and Grow IV: Harvesting

Harvest 2 EZ-Gro Green Cabbages from your field and bring them to Farmer Yoon in Sunsong Ranch.

The Tillers

250

86

Learn and Grow V: Halfhill Market

Investigate the Dark Soil underneath Farmer Yoon's house, then give a gift to Gina Mudclaw at the Halfhill Market.

The Tillers + Gina Mudclaw

250

86

Learn and Grow I: Seeds

Speak with Merchant Greenfield at Halfhill Market and acquire a Packet of Green Cabbage Seeds.

The Tillers

250

86

Learn and Grow VI: Gina's Vote

Plant and harvest 1 Scallion, then deliver 5 Scallions to Gina Mudclaw.

Scallion Seeds can be purchased from Merchant Greenfield at Halfhill Market. After tilling and tending your plant, you must wait until the next day to harvest ripe Scallions.

The Tillers + Gina Mudclaw

250

Planting Seeds
Now let's take a look at a few outcomes of planting seeds. After you get your plants to a growing state, you have to come back after the daily quest reset to gather your crop. If the mechanic for fixing a problem with your plant isn't obvious, you can check with Yoon and he will give you some instructions.

Your First Vote
As fun as watching questing is, let's take a quicker look at what happens after your first crops grow and you earn a vote!

Originally Posted by MMO-Champion

Gina Mudclaw says: Come walk with me, Chaud. I would like to pay Farmer Yoon a visit.

Gina Mudclaw says: You know, you sure saved my hide with those scallions.

Gina Mudclaw says: Cooks are always looking for fresh vegetables. Anything you grow on your farm, you can use for cooking or sell to other cooks.

Gina Mudclaw says: Talk to any of the Ironpaws at the market if you want to improve your own cooking skill.

Gina Mudclaw says: Hey Farmer Yoon!

Farmer Yoon says: Hey Gina! Didn't expect a visit from you.

Gina Mudclaw says: Listen, since you two did such a good turn by helping me out, I'm casting the first vote to help you join the Tillers.

Gina Mudclaw says: There are four other votes you'll need to get, but that'll come in time.

Gina Mudclaw says: Settle yourselves in and come by the market any day if you are looking for work.

Gina Mudclaw says: Welcome to The Heartland!

Further Votes
After you have earned your first vote, you can check your relationship status with all of the Tillers at the Tiller's Shrine. Gina will tell you more about gifts that you can give to the other members to increase your Friendship level as well as where they are located. These gifts are BoP items that are found in piles of soil around the world.



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Level

Name

Objective

Faction

+Rep

90

Farmer Fung's Vote I: Yak Attack

Speak to Farmer Fung at The Heartland or the Halfhill Market in the Valley of the Four Winds.

The Tillers + Farmer Fung

250

90

Farmer Fung's Vote II: On the Loose

Return 5 Escaped Shagskins to Farmer Fung's yak pen at the very north end of the Verdant Belt.

The Tillers + Farmer Fung

250

90

Farmer Fung's Vote III: Crazy For Cabbage

Plant and harvest 3 Green Cabbages, then deliver 15 Green Cabbages to Farmer Fung.

Green Cabbage Seeds can be purchased from Merchant Greenfield at Halfhill Market. After tilling and tending your plant, you must wait until the next day to harvest ripe Green Cabbages.

The Tillers + Farmer Fung

250

90

Nana's Vote I: Nana's Secret Recipe

Speak to Nana Mudclaw at Halfhill in the Valley of the Four Winds.

The Tillers

250

90

Nana's Vote II: The Sacred Springs

Use the Empty Pitcher at the Golden Falls to collect Thousand-Year Water.

The Tillers

250

90

Nana's Vote III: Witchberry Julep

Plant and harvest 3 Witchberries, then deliver 15 Witchberries to Nana Mudclaw.

Witchberry Seeds can be purchased from Merchant Greenfield at Halfhill Market. After tilling and tending your plant, you must wait until the next day to harvest ripe Witchberries.

The Tillers

250

90

Mung-Mung's Vote I: A Hozen's Problem

Speak to Mung-Mung at Haohan Mudclaw's House in the Valley of the Four Winds.

The Tillers

250

90

Mung-Mung's Vote II: Rotten to the Core

Collect 8 Partially Chewed Carrots.

The Tillers

250

90

Mung-Mung's Vote III: The Great Carrot Caper

Plant and harvest 2 Juicycrunch Carrots, then deliver 10 Juicycrunch Carrots to Mung-Mung.

Juicycrunch Carrot Seeds can be purchased from Merchant Greenfield at Halfhill Market. After tilling and tending your plant, you must wait until the next day to harvest ripe Juicycrunch Carrots.

The Tillers

250

90

Haohan's Vote I: Bungalow Break-In

Speak to Haohan Mudclaw at The Heartland or at Halfhill Market in the Valley of the Four Winds.

The Tillers + Haohan Mudclaw

250

90

Haohan's Vote II: The Real Culprits

Investigate 8 Suspicious Footprints.

The Tillers

250

90

Haohan's Vote III: Pure Poison

Collect 1 Bloodbloom, 1 Cave Lily, 1 Ghostcap, and 1 Violet Lichen.

The Tillers

250

90

Haohan's Vote IV: Melons For Felons

Plant and harvest 4 Striped Melons, then deliver 20 Striped Melons to Farmer Yoon.

Striped Melon Seeds can be purchased from Merchant Greenfield at Halfhill Market. After tilling and tending your plant, you must wait until the next day to harvest ripe Striped Melons.

The Tillers

250

90

Haohan's Vote V: Chief Yip-Yip

Kill Chief Yip-Yip at Kunzen Cave to the northwest.

The Tillers

250

Continued Expansion
After your first success at growing something, Farmer Yoon isn't satisfied with his four small clumps of dirt, and has you ask Gai Lan for some help clearing out the weeds. There are a few more Growing the Farm quests that come after that, likely opening some more dirt plots for you to plant in.

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Level

Name

Objective

Faction

+Rep

90

Growing the Farm I: The Weeds

Speak to Gai Lan at The Heartland in the Valley of the Four Winds.

The Tillers

250

90

Growing the Farm I: A Little Problem

Gather 6 Spideroot for Gai Lan.

The Tillers

250

90

Growing the Farm II: The Broken Wagon

Speak to Fish Fellreed at Cattail Lake or the Halfhill Market in the Valley of the Four Winds.

The Tillers

250

90

Growing the Farm II: Knock on Wood

Collect 100 Waxed Planks.

The Tillers

250

Jogu The Drunk
We have talked about Jogu before, but this time you are introduced to him and help him out with a little bit of Apple Hooch! He is still more than happy to sell you a tip for 10 gold about tomorrow's crop, which likely will yield more than anything else you plant.

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Level

Name

Objective

Faction

+Rep

90

Weed War II

Speak to Gai Lan, then pick 100 Weeds on his farm. You can pick Weeds while mounted.

Jogu the Drunk + The Tillers

250

90

A Gift For Jogu

Obtain 8 of Yoon's Apples and 50 of Yoon's Craneberries, then bring them to Bobo Ironpaw to brew into Apple-Berry Hooch.

Jogu the Drunk + The Tillers

250

Daily Quests
There are a number of daily quests that will reward general Tiller reputation, as well as friendship reputation with each of the Tiller NPCs. You can see all of the quests that reward Tiller's reputation on WoWDB!

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Level

Name

Objective

Faction

+Rep

90

Water, Water Everywhere

Speak with Wing Nga to borrow a kite, then throw water onto 35 Dusty Spots in the Heartland.

Farmer Fung + The Tillers

250 + 250

90

Chasing the Chicken

Pick up Hillpaw's Chickens until you find his Prize-Winning Chicken.

Old Hillpaw + The Tillers

250 + 250

90

Pest Problems

Speak with Wika-Wika, then stomp on 25 Black-Nose Marmots.

Haohan Mudclaw + The Tillers

250 + 250

90

Weed War II

Speak to Gai Lan, then pick 100 Weeds on his farm. You can pick Weeds while mounted.

Jogu the Drunk + The Tillers

250 + 250

90

Money Matters

Obtain Spicemaster Jin Jao's Payment, Trader Jambeezi's Payment, Innkeeper Lei Lan's Payment, and Lolo Lio's payment.

Gina Mudclaw + The Tillers

250 + 250

90

They Don't Even Wear Them

Obtain a Stolen Circlet, a Ransacked Ring, and a Burglarized Bracelet.

Tina Mudclaw + The Tillers

250 + 250

90

Not in Chee-Chee's Backyard

Kill 8 members of the Kunzen tribe in the Kunzen Village.

Chee Chee + The Tillers

250 + 250

90

Where It Counts

Throw 8 Kunzen Ritual Candles, kick 4 Blazing Embers, and slay 1 Kunzen Ritualist.

Sho + The Tillers

250 + 250

90

The Kunzen Legend-Chief

Obtain a Kunzen Legend-Book from a Kunzen Legend-Chief.

Fish Fellreed + The Tillers

250 + 250

90

You Have to Burn the Ropes

Burn 6 Kunzen Ropes.

Ella + The Tillers

250 + 250

90

The Lesser of Two Evils

Slay the Springtail Warren-Mother.

The Tillers

250

90

Stealing is Bad... Re-Stealing is OK

Re-steal 16 Stolen Vegetables.

The Tillers

250

90

Stalling the Ravage

Slay 12 Kunzen Hozen.

The Tillers

250

90

The Kunzen Hunter-Chief

Slay the Kunzen Hunter-Chief.

The Tillers

250

90

Simian Sabotage

Use the Barrel of Fireworks near the Pile of Stolen Weapons, the Pile of Stolen Tools, the Pile of Stolen Beer, and the Pile of Stolen Grain.

The Tillers

250

90

A Gift For Tina

Obtain an Uncut Chrysoberyl.

Tina Mudclaw + The Tillers

250 + 250

90

A Gift For Chee Chee

Obtain an Authentic Valley Stir Fry.

Chee Chee + The Tillers

250 + 250

90

A Gift For Sho

Obtain a bowl of Yu-Ping Soup.

Sho + The Tillers

250 + 250

90

A Gift For Fish

Obtain a Yak Statuette from the inside of a Kunzen hozen hut.

Fish Fellreed + The Tillers

250 + 250

90

A Gift For Ella

Obtain Spicy Shrimp Dumplings.

Ella + The Tillers

250 + 250

90

A Gift For Fung

Obtain a Bloody Plainshawk Leg from a Monstrous Plainshawk, and then bring it to Kol Ironpaw in the Halfhill Market.

Farmer Fung + The Tillers

250 + 250

90

A Gift For Old Hillpaw

Find a Blue Freshwater Pearl.

Old Hillpaw + The Tillers

250 + 250

90

A Gift For Haohan

Obtain an Enormous Cattail Grouper Tooth.

Haohan Mudclaw + The Tillers

250 + 250

90

A Gift For Jogu

Obtain 8 of Yoon's Apples and 50 of Yoon's Craneberries, then bring them to Bobo Ironpaw to brew into Apple-Berry Hooch.

Jogu the Drunk + The Tillers

250 + 250

90

A Gift For Gina

Obtain a Goldenfire Orchid.

Gina Mudclaw + The Tillers

250 + 250

90

The Cabbage Test

Plant a Green Cabbage in Sunsong Ranch. You can purchase seeds from Merchant Greenfield in the Halfhill Market.

The Tillers

250

90

That Dangling Carrot

Plant a Juicycrunch Carrot in Sunsong Ranch. You can purchase seeds from Merchant Greentill in the Halfhill Market.

The Tillers

250

90

Why Not Scallions?

Plant a Scallion in Sunsong Ranch. You can purchase seeds from Merchant Greenfield in the Halfhill Market.

The Tillers

250

90

A Pumpkin-y Perfume

Plant a Mogu Pumpkin in Sunsong Ranch. You can purchase seeds from Merchant Greenfield in the Halfhill Market.

The Tillers

250

90

Red Blossom Leeks, You Make the Croc-in' World Go Down

Plant a Red Blossom Leek in Sunsong Ranch. You can purchase seeds from Merchant Greenfield in the Halfhill Market.

The Tillers

250

90

The Pink Turnip Challenge

Plant a Pink Turnip in Sunsong Ranch. You can purchase seeds from Merchant Greenfield in the Halfhill Market.

The Tillers

250

90

The White Turnip Treatment

Plant a White Turnip in Sunsong Ranch. You can purchase seeds from Merchant Greenfield in the Halfhill Market.

The Tillers

250

90

Squash Those Foul Odors

Plant a Jade Squash in Sunsong Ranch. You can purchase seeds from Merchant Greenfield in the Halfhill Market.

The Tillers

250

90

It's Melon Time

Plant a Striped Melon in Sunsong Ranch. You can purchase seeds from Merchant Greenfield in the Halfhill Market.

The Tillers

250

90

Which Berries? Witchberries.

Plant Witchberries in Sunsong Ranch. You can purchase seeds from Merchant Greenfield in the Halfhill Market.

The Tillers

250

Further Friendship
Each of the NPCs that you can become friends with have some quests that do not reward Tiller's rep, but will help you to become better friends faster. You can find the list of these quests on WoWDB. Upon becoming better friends with the NPCs, they will mail you drinks, seeds, and a few items like the Straw Hat and Red Cricket!

Sho

Ella

Tina Mudclaw

Gina Mudclaw

Haohan Mudclaw

Chee Chee

Fish Felreed

Farmer Fung

Old Hillpaw

Jogu the Drunk

Rewards
After all this work, there are rewards for you! The seeds will grow into a plant that collects profession materials, something we can confirm after Revered is possible.

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Level

Type

Spec

Slot

Name

Faction

Required Rep

Cost

1

Consumable

Pandaren Scarecrow

The Tillers

Revered

250

1

Consumable

Snakeroot Seed

The Tillers

Revered

1

1

Consumable

Enigma Seed

The Tillers

Revered

1

1

Consumable

Magebulb Seed

The Tillers

Revered

1

1

Consumable

Windshear Cactus Seed

The Tillers

Revered

1

1

Consumable

Raptorleaf Seed

The Tillers

Revered

1

1

Consumable

Songbell Seed

The Tillers

Revered

1

1

Consumable

Spring Blossom Sapling

The Tillers

Revered

10

1

Consumable

Winter Blossom Sapling

The Tillers

Exalted

10

1

Other

Gin-Ji Knife Set

The Tillers

Exalted

Free

90

Mount

Reins of the Brown Riding Goat

The Tillers

Exalted

500

90

Mount

Reins of the Black Riding Goat

The Tillers

Exalted

1500

90

Mount

Reins of the White Riding Goat

The Tillers

Exalted

3250

90

Cooking Recipe

Recipe: Spicy Salmon

The Tillers

Exalted

??

90

Cooking Recipe

Recipe: Spicy Vegetable Chips

The Tillers

Exalted

??

1

Miscellaneous

Tabard

Tillers Tabard

The Tillers

Exalted

10

Beta Class Balance Analysis

Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Is it intended that secondary stats now have twice the itemization budget of primary stats in terms of gems

Yes. With the possible exception of Spirit, there is little decision in choosing red gems in the live game. Secondary stats are often more interesting in general because there are break points, hard caps, and personal preferences. Any Agi user who eschews Agi is doing it wrong.

Let me throw some numbers at you

Sadly those aren't the kind of numbers that support compelling arguments. Classes can be overpowered with only a few abilities or have dozens and still be underpowered. If there are situations where you feel helpless, let us know. If you disagree with a design direction, let us know that too (though this thread is not the right one for that).

We understand not every player has the ability and/or inclination to come up with numbers such as healing per second or the effectiveness of cooldowns. But this one thread is for those who can. It has been enormously beneficial in helping us catch bugs or design problems as well as helping players calibrate their sims and spreadsheets. Please help us keep the signal to noise ratio strong.

This point is directed the blues (and no one else)

Sorry, these are public forums. We like and encourage players to talk to each other. The echo chamber effect is strong in our forums, so we think it's actually very healthy when players can disagree with you, provided they can do so in a constructive manner. If someone's just trolling you, ignore them and we'll take care of it. But someone disagreeing with you is not the same as trolling.

Druid (Forums) / Monk (Forums)

To provide an update on tanking mechanics, I want to comment on Mastery for Guardians and Brewmasters. This is somewhat of an over-generalization, but tanks typically care about 4 things when gearing in decreasing order of importance:

Survive the maximum burst damage of the encounter (aka Effective Health)

Minimize healing needed (aka Damage Reduction + Self Healing)

Hold aggro on whatever you’re needed to hold aggro on (aka TPS)

Maximize damage dealt (aka DPS)

#4 is generally much less important than #1-3, and overlaps with #3 heavily when considering gear. And #3 is relatively easy these days anyway. So, usually it just comes down to #1 and #2.

Stamina primarily helps with #1. Dodge primarily helps with #2. Most other stats help with resource generation, which typically translate into #2. Mastery for Guardians and Brewmasters is in the somewhat unusual place of helping with both #1 and #2 significantly.

If you compare Mastery to Dodge for a Brewmaster, as a few theorycrafters here have done, you can see that, purely in terms of how much they reduce your damage taken, Dodge wins by a considerable margin. We balanced it that way, because we give value to how much it helps with #1 as well. Obviously, helping with #1 has some value, because you care about Stamina. We see Mastery for Guardians and Brewmasters as sort of a hybrid between Stamina and Avoidance, in terms of how it helps improve your character.

It’s easy to objectively compare the value of two stats in terms of how much they help with #1, or how much they help with #2. But comparing some amount of help with #1 to some amount of help with #2 is much more complex and subjective. It’s an interesting choice that tanks have to make all the time, and one of the most successful choices in gearing that the game provides (Stamina vs. Avoidance being the primary way that choice is expressed). So, that means balancing a stat that provides a mix of both can be complex and subjective as well. After much deliberation, we’re going to try valuing the effective health benefits of Mastery for Brewmasters and Guardians significantly lower than the damage reduction benefits, and adjusting the Mastery conversion rates to reflect that.

Hopefully this provides a bit of background and perspective about the complexities underlying even the simplest of changes: In the next build, you’ll find Mastery for Guardians providing 1.25% Armor per Mastery (up from 0.65%), and for Brewmasters providing 0.5% Stagger per Mastery (up from 0.3%).

Druid (Forums)

My question is, how is this talent intended to work? How much is the heal supposed to be? 25% of base maximum (which would be 20% of new maximum)? 25% of new maximum? Are health percentages supposed to remain constant through its effect? Where does this 15% come from?

We weren't able to reproduce the results you mention, but this is the intended functionality of Nature's Guardian: When it is triggered, 25% of your current maximum health is calculated. Your current and maximum health is then increased by this value. When it wears off, it reduces your current and max health by that value. It should never actually kill you, but it can reduce your current health to 1.

Hunter (Forums)

While doing hunter ability testing I noticed that Wild Quiver looks to be doing only about half the damage of an autoshot (possibly a bit less). Historically Wild Quiver has been roughly the same damage as autoshot. Was this changed deliberately or is it a bug?

Yes, Wild Quiver does 50% weapon damage now, but we’ve increased the proc rate substantially to compensate. Also, the next build you get should include a significant number of changes to hunter ability damage, so it’s probably best to wait until then for really detailed investigation of their damage formulae. Super brief and incomplete summary of changes include nearly doubling Wild Quiver’s proc chance; doubling the damage of the level 90 talents; buffing BM’s Mastery considerably; Master Marksman reduced to 3 stacks; doubling the damage of Black Arrow and Serpent Sting for Survival; significantly nerfing Beast Cleave; nearly halving the cost of Explosive Shot; buffing Aimed, Arcane, and Chimera Shot noticeably; nerfing Cobra shot noticeably; nearly doubling the damage of Kill Command; reducing the cost of Arcane Shot; nerfing Focus Fire and Frenzy somewhat… There have been a lot of changes to Hunter damage.

Shaman (Forums)

Is it intended for Healing Stream and Healing Tide to not benefit from mastery on the first ticks or is it just a technical limitation from totems? If so does this mean that crit does not benefit on first tick either for HTT(Have yet to see it but didn't do extensive testing on it).

Fixed for next build. It also dynamically adjusts with your mastery instead of snapshotting it.

Speaking of ICDs and Enhancement, could you clarify how Windfury is working for MoP?

Historically, Windfury has had a 3 second ICD between procs with a shared lockout between hands. It would also proc from white hits along with Stormstrike and Lava Lash. So my questions are this:

1) Is the 3 second ICD still the plan for MoP. I just did some initial testing against a training dummy, and that still seems to be the case.

2) Is the ICD still supposed to be shared between both hands for MoP?

3) Is this ICD a fixed 3 second ICD for MoP, or is it effected by Haste at all?

4) Is Windfury supposed to proc from Stormstrike and Lava Lash? From my testing, I didn't see a single proc when just isolating Stormstrike and Lava Lash attacks. On Live, I'm seeing both yellow attacks proc Windfury. I'm assuming this is just a bug, but I want to confirm if this is by design for MoP

Windfury should be mostly the same as on live. 1) Yes. 2) Yes. 3) Fixed. 4) White attacks and Wind Lash only. Other than adding Wind Lash to being able to proc it, it doesn’t look like it’s changed in quite a while; are you sure that yellow attacks trigger it on live? (Easy way to test just yellow attacks: Turn 90degrees away from a target dummy. White attacks won’t hit, but yellow attacks can, at exactly 90degrees).

- Do you meet #1?

- If yes, then any further value in this category is 0.

- If no, then get more stuff that increases your #1 value (primarily Stamina).

It’s not that simple though. Meeting #1 is somewhat binary, like you describe, somewhat not. If you beat an encounter without dying, obviously you had enough effective health. But more effective health would still be useful; it’s definitely not without value. Healers can use slower, more efficient heals on you if you have more of a health cushion. You can tank more mobs at a time. You also may have gotten lucky with avoidance, and never took a special attack and an undodged auto attack at the same time, or perhaps never got 5 undodged hits in a row. Every pull is different. There are definitely diminishing returns on the value of more effective health, but it doesn’t instantly diminish to 0 at some magical ‘enough’ point.

Warlock (Forums)

I was looking at the warlock changes in the upcoming beta build and noticed a few things. Why are you nerfing affliction so much? I agree it needed a nerf, but so much that it will go below the other 2 specs by a large amount?

Not to mention destroying a glyph and adding a new ability that kills clipping. People will just ignore the glyph and Pandemic and just refresh dots right after they fall off to do max dps. Clipping with or without the glyph is useless now, but with the glyph it's like nerfing yourself. Drain Soul is barley better than MG under 20% today, now with it getting a HUGE nerf it will be completely useless as an execute.

We encourage you to try out the changes and see what has changed rather than relying on information that has been datamined. To help further explain, we’ll briefly summarize what has changed with Affliction damage.

We noticed (thanks to the community interaction in this thread) that the Everlasting Affliction glyph was providing a huge DPS increase, but as we’ve said, we don’t want huge DPS increases to come from glyphs. Instead of simply nerfing the glyph, we baked the benefits that the glyph provided into the entire class via Pandemic, a level 90 passive ability, and changed the glyph to something completely different. We also changed the design of Malefic Grasp to, hopefully, make the ability more reliable and simple; our intention was not to nerf it. It’s important to note that we reduced the base period of Unstable Affliction and Corruption from 3 seconds to 2 seconds, so both Malefic Grasp and Drain Soul should give you the same additional DoT damage now as they did before.

One other clarification about the warlock changes: Drain Soul still deals double damage under 20%. It being missing from the new tooltip is just a tooltip error and has been corrected for the next build.

Now onto what some others have brought up. Does the MG/DS under 20% effect count as the dots themselves ticking? Considering how that would nerf shard regen if not, I personally believe it does. Since I can't test it yet, some clarification would be wonderful.

Yes. In all ways, the additional ticks of the DoTs provided by MG/DS should function as additional ticks of the respective DoTs. For example, the extra Corruption ticks that occur (for 50% damage) from MG are able to proc Nightfall. This means that you’re actually getting *more* Corruption ticks than before, so we reduced the proc chance per tick of Nightfall to compensate; you should get the same number of Nightfall procs per time as before.

The Malefic Grasp mechanic change should not be a nerf at all. However, the 25% nerf to most Affliction-specific abilities should amount to a ~20% (very ballpark number, don’t hold us to that number if you model it as 21.8% or something) nerf. This is indeed a rather extreme amount, because they really were that extremely overpowered. We had been balancing them previously based on not having that glyph (and so when I said that we were seeing Affliction only a little ahead of Destruction, that was based on Affliction not having that glyph).

My personal testing on target dummies and every sim i've seen is now hoping Affliction at the bottom of the warlock heap

Any sources for this so we have something to actually go on? As we said above, Affliction damage was too high. Not every damage adjustment needs to be greeted with sky is falling rhetoric or the discussion quickly loses its benefit.

Blue Posts

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

Rogue (Forums)

New Level 75 Talent

The perception was that Deadly Brew was essentially a mandatory PvP talent, which runs against our overall goal of creating choices, while at the same time being highly situational in endgame PvE.

When the new build hits the servers, take a look at the new set bonuses on the Mists PvP sets. We've added new bonuses alongside the existing ones in most cases, and for Rogues, that's where Deadly Brew has gone.

Oh okay that makes sense, but that still begs the question why remove that from PvE rogues? That entire tier has literally no options for me. The talent it self is extremely situational, however I can see its uses on boss adds that need to be burned. If you don't want to make mandatory talents why is prep still an option? Any word on how sap, blind, and gouge benefit from this talent?

A couple of points here: First off, regarding the functionality of Prey on the Weak, the primary benefit is going to come on Cheap Shot and Kidney Shot. Blind, Sap, and Gouge are included as a minor ancillary benefit -- there may be situations where you use an Incapacitate to pool energy and prepare a burst, and a bit of increased damage on your opening attack (or a teammate's Chaos Bolt...) would be helpful.

Second, regarding the usefulness of the tier as a whole in PvE, what you really are questioning is its usefulness in raiding. Any of the talents in that row are going to be quite impactful in scenarios, dungeons (and if you scoff at the idea of using any sort of crowd control in dungeons, check out our Challenge Modes), outdoor solo gameplay, etc. So let's be clear about that. But the criticism regarding raiding is a fair one.

The majority of our raid bosses do not involve enemies that can be stunned or incapacitated, and I'm not going to try to argue to the contrary. And ideally, a talent tier like the Rogue level 75 would be universally appealing, and present compelling choices, to all types of players who do all types of content. Here are three possible approaches to solving that problem:

Add a clearly raid-useful talent to the tier in place of Deadly Brew; something that increases your DPS, or gives you more movement or survivability. The problem? Every raiding rogue will take that talent, and ignore the other two.

Redesign the whole tier, moving away from a control theme entirely. The problem here is that we'd essentially be abandoning the design space of ever having talents that improve or rely upon crowd control effects.

Attempt to incorporate more opportunities for crowd-control effects and short-duration effects like Stuns and Incapacitates to shine in our raid encounters. In general, the most interesting raid encounters are the ones that involve movement, control, coordination, and aren't just a matter of making your DPS number as big as possible. We're not there yet, but I think we'd like to be.

(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Brewfest in Mists of Pandaria

Brewfest will be updated for Mists of Pandaria. This means that you will have approximately 10 days after the release of Mists of Pandaria to reach level 89 in order to queue for the Brewfest dungeon boss. Luckily though, a lot of the content does not have a level requirement so you will still be able to participate in a lot of the fun even if you are not level 89.

Will be Brewfest's part before 25 september be for 85; and then change for 90 levels when 25 september hits? We will not rule out the possibility of this changing, but currently the level requirements will remain the same through the entirety of the event. So you will not be able to access Coren Direbrew until Mists of Pandaria has been released. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Pet Battle Blue Posts

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

Question about early NPC Trainer battles

The first Trainer battle on the horde side is against a trainer who has a level 5 team (Dagara the fierce). Meanwhile on the alliance side, the first trainer battle is against a trainer with level 2 pets (Julia).

This was just a bug. The trainer levels will be mirrored on both sides in the next build. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Need More Level 22 Pets

There are a lot of 23 -24 level pets in cataclysm and Pandaria, and plenty of level 21 pets in Sholazar Basin. The only zones that have level 22 pets seem to be Icecrown and Stormpeaks, but there are very few to battle. Adding more pets to those zones, and/or making Mount Hyjal level 22 would help fill the gap.

We are making adjustments to the leveling flow that you should see in the next build. Should alleviate this problem. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

UI Improvements

I just started testing pets, but one thing I noticed is that its pretty frustrating not to be able to select a pet to view their stats from the slot they occupy.

We intend to make the entire battle slot clickable to show the pet details. Should see it in a future build. (Official Forums)

PvP Vulnerability

The fact that players are vulnerable to PvP attacks while in a pet battle is intentional. However, a couple features that go along with this are not implemented yet.

First off, the exact pet you were fighting when you were broke out of pet battle will be respawned. Same quality, stats and skin color. Second, you will get a 3s damage shield that absorbs 50% of incoming damage to help negate the fact that you need time to recover after exiting the pet battle interface. Both of these will be in for the next build.

We feel its very important to keep the PvP aspect of the game intact and if you choose to play on a PvP server, you will certainly be fighting for those rare spawns. (This rule effects PVE servers as well but only in contested areas.) (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Eternal Striders not in Pet Journal

The Eternal Striders in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms are able to be battled, and they are able to be trapped, but they do not show up in the pet journal at all.

It's a bug and its fixed in the next build. Thanks for the report. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Why restrict Argent Squires?

I like how we can battle with Balloons but not Squires.

Balloons, Kites, Argent Squire/Gruntlings and Guild Pages/Heralds will not be able to pet battle. This may change with time, but this is the current plan. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Lack of Stable Masters in Pandaria

I have been all around looking for a Stable Master who can help my poor babies in Pandaria, Alas there is but one and he is VoEB

Most of these were bugged and have been fixed for the next build. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Questions about Pets I already have.

If I have three of the same pets that I bought or traded for before MoP and they are not WILD Pets, would I be able to learn all three in my pet book, just like if I caught three wild pets of the same kind, or is the 3 pets maximum reserved only only for the wild pets?

Yes, you w

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