Public Test Realm Patch 1.0.5 Notes Update, PTR Maintenance for 1.0.5 Update, New Stash Tab Graphics
Mists of Pandaria - Patch 5.1 PTR Coming Soon
Upcoming Reputation Changes Feedback
Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
There has been a lot of great feedback and thanks to everyone who has posted. For the past couple days, I've been reading what you've shared and working with our developers to address some of your concerns and suggestions, so let's get started:
A few of you asked about guild reputation being affected by the changes and the answer is no. It's not my intent to sound harsh here so let me briefly explain: Patch 5.0.4 saw significant increases to how quickly players can level with their guild and we're pretty comfortable with the changes as they are.
Many of you have been wondering which factions will be affected by this change. The short answer is we are in the midst of discussing this now. Our thinking at this point in time is to ultimately have all the various factions affected by the increase, but that process will require extra time to test. So one idea we have is to roll out changes to Mists of Pandaria factions first, and then work in earlier expansion-based factions with patches that come later. Granted, this is very much a work-in-progress, subject-to-change situation but keep the feedback coming, it's been very helpful!
With regard to the amount of reputation needed for Honored to Revered, versus Revered to Exalted; we're definitely aware of the difference in numbers and are taking your concerns to heart.
One of the most asked questions so far is, what gives with the tabard changes? When we introduced reputation tabards in The Burning Crusade, they were set to be used as a means to gain attunement for raiding. Sadly, the specificity of each tabard made it so they discouraged players from running dungeons together. If one player needed reputation from one dungeon, while his friend needed it for another, the two ended up not playing together when they would have liked to. You saw the shift away from this philosophy during Wrath of the Lich King and on into Cataclysm.
For Mists of Pandaria, though, we feel dungeons are already rewarding so it made the most sense to have reputation earned by doing things for each particular faction. The various factions are what really bring a lot of the flavor and character to the world of Pandaria. We weren’t very happy that the status quo in Cataclysm was to virtually ignore most factions and what they’re about, by instead doing the fairly unrelated task of running dungeons. It provided a way for players to essentially double dip on rewards from dungeons and faction reputations simply by putting on a shirt when queuing. In Mists we’ve changed the reward structure in a way that we feel makes for a better, more diverse gameplay experience.
For those of you concerned about Golden Lotus related quests, keep your eyes on the forums for some very helpful information we're working on right now that we hope to have posted by Monday.
My work isn't done and if I get more information I can share, I'll be sure to post it. Thanks again, everyone! Your feedback is very much appreciated.
Lorewalkers Exalted Guide
WoWInsider has a nice guide on how to quickly earn exalted with The Lorewalkers and earn the Disc of the Red Flying Cloud.
Patch 5.0.5 Hotfixes - October 4
Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
General
The Sha of Anger now respawns more frequently, but less predictably.
Galleon can no longer be taunted, and both he and his companions are now more dangerous.
The cost to learn Battle Pet Training has been reduced from 100 gold to 10 gold.
Classes
Druid (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Fixed an issue where Stampeding Roar could sometimes be cast in any form.
Resolved several issues with the spell Nature's Vigil.
Death Knight (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
The Chillblains talent now works properly with Chains of Ice. Casting Chains of Ice on a target will apply both the Chillblains snare and the Chains of Ice rooting effect.
Mage (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Mages have learned to stop hitting themselves with Nether Tempest.
Monk (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Resuscitate now casts correctly in Arenas.
Chi Torpedo is now a full body effect, targeting friends and foes immediately surrounding the Monk, rather than those near the front of the Monk's body.
Warrior (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Devastate will now correctly activate Sword and Board.
Hunter (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Kill Command, Glaive Toss, and Powershot will now properly activate Thrill of the Hunt.
Scatter Shot will now properly break when damage is dealt by any source.
Paladin (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Both Repentance and Hammer of Justice can now be applied to the same target.
Fixed an issue where Execution Sentence could deal excessive damage under some circumstances.
Rogue (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Five combo point Deadly Throw finishing moves will no longer interrupt the spells cast by a Paladin under the effects of Devotion Aura.
Warlock (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
The instant cast Incinerate generated by Backlash will now correctly consume Backlash.
Shaman (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Players with Elemtental or Restoration specializations no longer suffer pushback when casting Elemental Blast.
Creatures
The Sha of Anger will no longer rudely interrupt the meals of those who are not engaged in combat with him.
The Sha of Anger will now correctly respawn after a wipe.
Players that are not eligible for loot from the Sha of Anger will no longer be able to use an Elder Charm of Good Fortune for an extra loot roll.
Dagou, objective of "The Guo-Lai Halls", is no longer tameable.
Blackmane Pillagers now award significantly less experience.
Sra’thik Warcallers, Sra’thik Swiftclaws, and Sra’thik Kunchongs now drop loot commensurate with their difficulty, given the assistance of Niuzao.
Birds of Pandaria are now hormone free. These healthier, slimmer birds will now drop Wildfowl Breast somewhat less frequently.
Honor quartermasters have been working out; they now have the correct amount of health and deal increased damage.
Peacekeepers of both factions in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms now have increased health.
Items
The mana gained from the two piece set bonuses provided by Tier 12 healing sets has been reduced.
The Coin of Luck now grants 537 Critical Strike instead of haste.
Brann Bronzebeard is no longer interested in buying Crates of Archaeology Fragments.
Using the Phase Fingers tinker on gloves will now increase the player's dodge rating by 2,880 for 10 seconds. The tinker can only be activated once per minute.
The Hunter glyph, Glyph of Black Ice will no longer appear in auction house searches for Monk glyphs.
The lore book, "The Wandering Widow" should now be visible regardless of player phase.
Players can no longer sell the Warbot Ignition Key to vendors after retrieving it from the mailbox or purchasing it from Jepetto Joybuzz.
Pet Battles
The pet ability Expunge now deals more damage.
Certain captured pets now appear correctly in the Pet Journal.
Cassandra Kaboom's pets are now the correct level.
Players are now able to obtain Pristine Pet Traps and Strong Pet Traps from the achievements "Pro Pet Crew" and "Going to Need More Traps".
Quests
All players attacking Dagou will now properly receive quest credit when he is slain.
Bloodknight Antari has adopted a more sedentary life-style.
Phasing now functions correctly after the quest "The Final Power" has been completed.
Leven Dawnblade is now easier to find.
Leven Dawnblade will now correctly allow players to turn in "The Secrets of Guo-Lai".
Kaz'tik the Manipulator is now clearer about his unwillingness to chat with players.
Players should no longer become disconnected after defeating a Great White Plainshawk during the quest "A Lesson in Bravery".
Players on the quest "Viseclaw Soup" will find that Viseclaw Scuttlers now have more eyeballs.
The quest "Extending Our Coverage" now offers appropriate experience, gold and reputation.
Skeer the Bloodseeker will now correctly emerge from the Ancient Amber Chunk even if a player dies while casting Break Amber.
Skeer the Bloodseeker is now appropriately conversational in the course of "The Scent of Blood".
The quest "Striking First" can now be completed.
It is no longer possible to obtain the quest "The Gou-Lai Halls" without fulfilling its prerequisites.
The Yak Wash will now make all but the filthiest Yaks sparkling clean.
Fixed an issue where players were sometimes unable to obtain the quest "Barring Entry".
Fixed several issues with the quest "Stones of Power".
Players will now properly receive credit for the quest "The Ritual" in Kun-Lai Summit.
Trainees will now properly concede defeat in the course of completing "The Lesson of Stifled Pride".
Dungeons & Raids
Bonus loot rolls on The Stone Guard in Mogu'Shan Vaults now yield appropriate loot.
Players that have defeated The Stone Guard will receive Valor Points appropriately in all difficulties.
Players are now able to obtain the guild achievement for completing Mogu'Shan Vaults.
Enemies will no longer respawn incorrectly in Mogu'Shan Vaults.
Slaying Elegon while he is beginning to Enrage will no longer sometimes prevent his chest from spawning.
After sensitivity training, Master Snowdrift now respects personal boundaries, and will no longer sometimes give awkwardly long hugs.
The creatures in Shado-Pan Monastery found between the Sha of Violence and Corrupted Taran Zhu are now less difficult.
The Shado-Pan Trainees will now attack during "The Battle Ring".
General Pa'valak's Blade Rush will no longer target pets in the Siege of Niuzao Temple.
Enemies in the Scarlet Monastery will no longer ignore line of sight when using ranged abilities against players.
Fixed an issue with Rom'ogg Bonecrusher's Chains of Woe.
PvP
Battlegrounds
The health of Demolishers in Strand of the Ancients now scales correctly with their drivers.
The time limit for Warsong Gulch has been reduced from 25 to 20 minutes.
Bug Fixes
Resolved several issues that could occur with Cross Realm Zones.
The respawn rate of Ghost Iron Ore has been reduced to the correct value.
Windwool Cloth now drops less frequently from enemies.
Cyclonic Inspiration now persists until players leave their respective faction strongholds in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms.
The guild perk, The Quick and the Dead, now increases the movement speed of dead players by 10%, down from 100%.
Players are now able to properly earn the "Save it for Later" achievement from the Greenstone Village scenario.
Completing Rare and normal Cataclysm archaeology projects will now correctly grant skill increases.
Dark Soil in the Valley of the Four Winds now respawns correctly.
Level 10 characters logging into Mists of Pandaria for the first time will now correctly learn Control Pet and Control Demon.
Pet Battle Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Pet Battles Achievements
We have a quick update about the Pet Battles achievements you guys have been great in reporting: Cory Stockton has just announced that they've located what was causing the issue and it has been hotfixed. They should be functioning correctly now across both factions. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Pet Battles Hotfixes Update
Here is the latest information I’ve received from our developers regarding some of the concerns you folks have shared with us:
Several of the hotfixes that have been applied needed realm restarts to take affect; with today’s maintenance, they should now be in place
Tooltip text on abilities that had balance fixes (e.g. Siphon Life)
Pets that didn’t appear in the journal (e.g. Crimson Moth); there are still a few pets missing which should show up after next week’s maintenance
Expunge damage has been increased by 10%
Pet Battles matchmaking has received some tweaks, you should now find PvP matches to be much more in line with your pets’ levels even if your opponent’s pets are dramatically different in level
Inputs randomly skipping should finally be resolved as of today’s restarts
We’re still working on Strong and Pristine traps not applying correctly and working on fixing this as quickly as possible
As you continue to take on Azeroth’s ferocious critters, please don’t hesitate to let us know if you encounter any issues, specifically with inputs being skipped. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Pet Battle Feedback
Will we continue to see updates to the system as the game goes on? I would love to see different abilities for pet families being able to be obtained through quests or vendors, or have the ability to upgrade certain areas of the pet (adjust the speed attribute at the expense of power, etc).
Yes. We will be planning additional updates (as they make sense) to the system over time. We'll make sure to share those when we can. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Pet Battle Feedback
No it wouldn't be diverse. Everyone would pick the most OP one of them all and stick with that.
Not only that, if it was possible to choose your own pet skills as suggested by the OP, people would have less of a reason to go out to explore and search the world for different pets.
The actual system is fine as it is, there just needs tuning and bug fixing.
Indeed
That doesn't follow, at all. I'm not ragging on the pet battle system, it's great. But it could be even greater. All I'm talking about is having one (1) open slot for an optional skill or item which would be gained from dungeon drops, crafting and so on. And nothing OP. Just minor things. Say, a totem that gives you 10% off shadow damage. etc.
I did not think you were ragging on the pet battle system at all, in fact we very much appreciate that you would spend this time coming up with ideas for the pet battle system.
Edit: but back to the non sequitor: how would this make us less willing to collect pets?
Because having a selectable pet skill combined with two "racial" pet skills is much more likely to result in specific cookie-cutter pets, and our experience tells us that as soon as something is cookie-cutter, the majority of players will go for that without question and ignore the rest.
Cookie-cutter pets would mean less flavour simply because the majority of players would go for the same handful of pets, and the rest would simply be disregarded and ignored. People are prone to select the things that are considered best, and in this case it would be a specific handful of pets because their "racial" skills combined with a specific selectable skill would make them superior and therefore the obvious choice... people would simply be inclined to just go get those three pets in the game that are considered best and then stick with those.
I'm not a game developer beyond PHP/Ajax stuff on a hobby basis, but I have a hard time understanding how this can be a problem outweighing the benefits unless it's been implemented with little thought. Of course some combinations are going to be very good but so are a myriad of others.
If what you are really saying is that the excel nerds will completely demolish the people with random cute pets, a little more than now, then I can sort of see that.
I'm not saying an idea like what you suggest couldn't be done and wouldn't be fun, but I am saying that it would most likely result in something that is not intended with the pet battle system. One of the goals with the pet battle system is exploration, to go out into the world to find and gather pets, and to experiment with the different synergies between different pets and pet families... The pet battle system is not meant for the min-maxing crowd, it is meant to be a rather casual yet fun thing you can do in-game whenever you have a little spare time available.
How about adding passives to (some) pets beyond the pet families? Maybe steal some spells off the players? I've collected a decent bunch of pets by now and there's not much variety. That's where I'm coming from.
Edit: I also want to re-emphasize that I'm not whining about the pet battle system, I'm having great fun with it. Spent the last few days going through zones and collecting rare pets and achievements. But I'm seeing maybe 3-4 amazing team combinations; there could be more if pets weren't so strictly formulaized with the same skills across hundreds of pets. Or, having a free slot as suggested in OP. Or, a small chance of one of the skills on a collected pet being drawn from a random pool.
I get where you are coming from, and calling for more variety is never a bad thing. It will just have to be done in a way that will not render a huge portion of pets irrelevant as a result of customisation making a handful of pets the obvious(and therefore the only) choice. (Official Forums)