News Roundup: Blizzard Talks Soulstone, WSG Graveyard Changes, DK Tanking and more!

Live Posted 2011/03/04 at 3:18 AM by Miyari

Firelands raid will not come with patch 4.1

Valor to Justice Points Conversion in 4.2

Soulstone as a Combat Resurrection

An End(?) to Graveyard Camping in WSG

On Preventing Spam Through Chat Limitations

Blizzard's 20th Anniversary Video Contest

Thoughts on the State of DK Tanking

Valor to Justice Points Conversion in 4.2

Is any change being made to the gear acquired from the Justice Point vendor? I would assume since Firelands has been moved to 4.2, that the Justice and Valor Points gear will remain unchanged.

This thread is going interesting places... but Zarhym posted a relevant response in the big sticky post:
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2179759307?page=9#172

Soulstone as a Combat Resurrection

Our plan is still to let Soulstones be used on dead targets, effectively giving warlocks a combat resurrection as well. Unlike the death knight one, which was a relatively straight forward change, the warlock one requires new code. We still plan on making this change for 4.1, but we will keep you updated.

Having lots of unique and powerful abilities is not always compatible with having 10-player raids. We don’t think the smaller raid needs every possible buff or defensive ability to be successful, but we were convinced that the combat rez made groups without a druid at a significant disadvantage. It’s often subjective as to what constitutes mandatory raid tools. In our minds, combat rez has become one.

Our plan is still to let Soulstones be used on dead targets, effectively giving warlocks a combat resurrection as well. Unlike the death knight one, which was a relatively straight forward change, the warlock one requires new code. We still plan on making this change for 4.1, but we will keep you updated.

Having lots of unique and powerful abilities is not always compatible with having 10-player raids. We don’t think the smaller raid needs every possible buff or defensive ability to be successful, but we were convinced that the combat rez made groups without a druid at a significant disadvantage. It’s often subjective as to what constitutes mandatory raid tools. In our minds, combat rez has become one.

An End(?) to Graveyard Camping in WSG

We have an update on this topic for you :-)

The days of graveyard camping in Warsong Gulch may be coming to an end soon, thanks to some new plans we have in store for the battleground in patch 4.1:

We are moving the graveyards to their own terrain level, preventing camping by members of the opposing team.

However, this will also serve another purpose; players will no longer be able to respawn and run straight back into their flag room. They will either have to drop down then run up the tunnel, or go around the top of the base. This adds around 20 seconds to the journey from the graveyard to the flag room.

On Preventing Spam Through Chat Limitations

Why has Blizzard not disabled the ability for Level 1 characters to access Trade Chat?

http://us.blizzard.com/support/article.xml?locale=en_US&articleId=21262Blizzard's 20th Anniversary Video Contest

Thank you for joining us during Blizzard Entertainment's twentieth anniversary celebration. We couldn't have made it here without you, so we'd love for you to help us make this milestone even more memorable by entering our upcoming twentieth anniversary video contest.

Blizzard gamers from across the globe have provided us with twenty years of wonderful memories, and we want to know how we've been a part of yours. Unleash your creativity and capture your fondest Blizzard memory on video. Your favorite moment can be touching, hilarious, or simply epic -- what's important is that you share your memory with us. If your video manages to make our crew of stone-faced judges crack a smile (or shed a tear) it could be chosen as one of the winning entries, earning you countless accolades, untold fame, the respect of your peers... and an awesome prize to boot.

The official contest rules are coming soon, but we want you to start thinking about video ideas. Stay tuned for further details!

Thoughts on the State of DK Tanking

Are you content with the power contained by DS? Right now, that ability accounts for our block and a portion of our armor. Is the design goal of blood to use DS over anything else?

Are you content with the timing constraints on a DK? Premature DS can mean a significant block loss, does the fact that DKs are using a mod to try to guess their shields match your goals? Do you feel that Blood has to pay an overly large amount of attention to their resources to maintain their mitigation?

Are you content with the punishment for errors in the DK rotation? DKs that mis-spend a F/U rune are out a descent amount of mitigation. Do you envision mistakes costing DKs that much?

Applying diseases presents a clear danger when you do it by taking runes away from Death Strike, are you content with DKs actively striving not to put up diseases or striving to time them when there is a 0 second grace period?

Are you satisfied with the healing done by DKs? As it stands, DK overhealing increases with boss damage. DKs on hard modes are healing for about the same as DKs just starting in raids, is that satisfactory? Do you think this healing design will scale correctly into future tiers?

Are you content with the current clarity of DK design? Many Death Knights are literally playing the class incorrectly and have to use outside sources to learn how to get their mitigation up to par with other tanks.

Are you satisfied with the signature strike (Heart Strike) being on such a low use priority?

Are you content that DKs are willing to dump 5 talent points for lichborne? Are you content knowing that there is very little to do with the remaining 10 talent points after a DK finishes their talent tree?

Are you content with RE and other quirky mechanics that DKs are working with? DKs are able to game RE procs by sitting on their blood runes, forcing additional FU runes for Death Strikes. This goes against the design of Blade Barrier, but more importantly is still more powerful.

Above all, are you content with the current DK QoL? DKs have been moaning and groaning about a number of things. Many are trivial. Many just want to be heard. Many don't understand what they should be doing. Does the DK tank class feel polished and smooth to you?

If people are trying for 100% shield uptime, youll always feel like you're lacking. In the end, healers are expected to heal something. If they think you need to be at 100% all the time, then they force you into overhealing. If a healer lets you dip down 25%, they would see you're doing a good deal of healing yourself.

We're not being forced to choose between threat and survivability. I really don't know of many DK's having threat problems right now (Rune Strike is kinda insane...). What we're being forced to do is choose between surviving the next blow and reducing the bosses damage output for the next x seconds.

Good feedback does indeed effect change. The cause and effect can be hard to see, but it happens.

On that note, I'm curious: what kind of trade-offs do you guys find interesting when you're selecting talents in the Blood tree? If you had the opportunity to alter or devise talents that appeal to different styles of play, without being mandatory to both (and without cherry-picking talents from other tanking trees, since tanking styles differ so greatly) where would you start?

Comment by 508567This post was from a user who has deleted their account.Comment by Crytek89I really hope they don't add any restrictions to lower levels talking in trade, I have my bank alt for example which I use to do all my AH transactions because of ease. It'd just be a hassle, although not difficult to level to a certain point in order to do my daily tasks of buying in selling in trade chat.Comment by roadkill21Nice to get some consgructive feedback from not only the DK community but also Blizz. DK tanking is a very unique style and is difficult to really nail down in terms of rotation, cooldowns, and overall survivability. In contrast to how it worked in Wrath, and subsequently it's current incarnation, I think significant improvements have been made abd I look forward to what Blizz has in store for us.

I admit that I kind of miss the easy mode Frost tank Howling Blast face roll tanking sometimes but I enjoy tanking far more now that it requires a flexibke rotation and crowd control. Good hunting to my fellow DK's and I'll see you at the DK Clubhouse.Comment by atomicwolf22I really hope they don't add any restrictions to lower levels talking in trade, I have my bank alt for example which I use to do all my AH transactions because of ease. It'd just be a hassle, although not difficult to level to a certain point in order to do my daily tasks of buying in selling in trade chat.Comment by SlidhzI really hope they don't add any restrictions to lower levels talking in trade, I have my bank alt for example which I use to do all my AH transactions because of ease. It'd just be a hassle, although not difficult to level to a certain point in order to do my daily tasks of buying in selling in trade chat.Comment by OrranisAww... So no Blood Runes as Death Runes for me :(?Comment by SekhenThe "Lvl1 muted in trade" is not that big of an issue.
In my experience new players explore a little bit, make a few beginners quest, and level up within 30 minutes. They don't run to the nearest capital and start chatting in Trade.
An experienced player wanting to make a trade / barking character can have it done in 10. Easily.Comment by runarfI really hope they don't add any restrictions to lower levels talking in trade, I have my bank alt for example which I use to do all my AH transactions because of ease. It'd just be a hassle, although not difficult to level to a certain point in order to do my daily tasks of buying in selling in trade chat.Comment by 161859This post was from a user who has deleted their account.Comment by 136091This post was from a user who has deleted their account.Comment by draenenspam in /trade is one of those things that can be taken care of with addons. You never have to see it if you don't want to, but that the impetus to block it should be on the player's end, not Blizzard's.

Install Badboy and you'll never see spam in /trade again.Comment by xaratherusMost posts are saying that it's not hard for normal players to get past level 1, but surely that means it's just as easy for spammers.Comment by InterestMost posts are saying that it's not hard for normal players to get past level 1, but surely that means it's just as easy for spammers.Comment by 544685This post was from a user who has deleted their account.Comment by ContayI really hope they don't add any restrictions to lower levels talking in trade, I have my bank alt for example which I use to do all my AH transactions because of ease. It'd just be a hassle, although not difficult to level to a certain point in order to do my daily tasks of buying in selling in trade chat.terribleterrible(Example: you pick the Priest class when you make a character in Aion. You would at level 10 pick between being a Cleric or a Chanter; one being a dedicated healer, the other being a hybrid support. When you made your priest, you would be in the Cleric and Chanter game-wide channels so you could see discussions and ask questions to Clerics/Chanters about their opinions of the classes.)(this was when Aion was a NEW GAME and guides/wikis with new player guides did not exist yet in english)TL;DR: putting a level cap on being able to use public channels will only force goldspammers to flood starting areas with bots, making legitimate players who are trying to play the game normally endure a botting nightmare. The solution to spammers must take into account all players who are in different phases of this game -- people at the very start of their WoW experience included.Comment by 533681This post was from a user who has deleted their account.Comment by InterestWhat NCSoft did in response to the spammers, though, hurt a lot of the game experience that a lot of people enjoyed when they participated in the game's open Beta -- they simply shut off a character's ability to speak in any chat channel -- local general or global channels -- or send private messages until they were level 10. The reason why this hurt so much, was that one of the features of the game was a realm-wide chat for each subclass, where you could speak with the people in those channels and ask their opinions on which class you should go for if you were interested in some type of group role. (Example: you pick the Priest class when you make a character in Aion. You would at level 10 pick between being a Cleric or a Chanter; one being a dedicated healer, the other being a hybrid support. When you made your priest, you would be in the Cleric and Chanter game-wide channels so you could see discussions and ask questions to Clerics/Chanters about their opinions of the classes.) Comment by TalonosI really hope they don't add any restrictions to lower levels talking in trade, I have my bank alt for example which I use to do all my AH transactions because of ease. It'd just be a hassle, although not difficult to level to a certain point in order to do my daily tasks of buying in selling in trade chat.Comment by imjcEnding spam is not Blizzards responsibility. Because they cant end it. If lvl 1's were prohibited from speaking in trade channels, the spammers would simply move to level 2 or 10 or whichever level is "allowed to spam". Why? Because there is a market for it. To end the spamming, and this has been proven to work by a member in the EVE Online community, you need to go the spammers website contact them, and kindly explain to them how they are being annoying and how you would not wish to purchase anything from them. This is very powerful, and it will eventually lead to them to find another non-intrusive way of marketing themselves. Real money trading is here to stay so the key-word is co-existing however dreadfull that may sound to many - i have never RMT'ed personally, but i can see why people would do it, and as long as there is a market you cant stop it. Excactly same story as with the prohibiton of selling drugs. -People still find a way to do it. So to end spam, we must face the spammers directly and explain to them how they are hurting themselves... (No-one likes a spammer.) Go tell em.

And by the way, i find the "Sorry you must wait untill you can post more in this channel" to be far more annoying than the eventual spammer. I mean, it didnt even solve the problem its still spammers galore. If they insist on this mutation, at least dont apply it to lvl 85's. They have far too much to loose to be spamming and annoying anyway, which will keep this to a very minimum at least.

gl hfComment by vincistisNoooo. I like camping graveyards.