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Travis Day on Paragon 2.0, Blizzard Won the "Top Community Management Team" Award, Glow's Quest for “Paragon 1000”

Hearthstone Leveling Rewards Part 1 - Mage, Paladin, Priest

Brewfest 2013
Brewfest is upon us once again, and Icy-Veins has an in depth guide to all things Brewfest. This year the event runs from September 20 to October 6. This year offers the same items as last year, such as the Pandaren Brewpack and item level 470 epic trinkets.

If you are still leveling alts, don't forget to grab the Brewfest Enthusiast buff at 6:15 AM and 6:15 PM server time outside of Ironforge and Orgrimmar at the Tapping of the Keg ceremony.

Coren Direbrew Drops

Level Type Spec Slot Name
470 Trinket Trinket Bubbliest Brightbrew Charm
470 Trinket Trinket Bitterest Balebrew Charm
470 Trinket Spell DPS Trinket Mithril Wristwatch
470 Trinket Physical DPS Trinket Coren's Cold Chromium Coaster
470 Trinket Tank Trinket Brawler's Statue
470 Trinket Healer Trinket Thousand-Year Pickled Egg

Brewfest Prize Token Rewards

Level Type Slot Name Cost
20 Companion Pets Wolpertinger's Tankard 200 ×
20 Companion Pets Pint-Sized Pink Pachyderm 100 ×
20 Holiday Preserved Brewfest Hops 20 ×
1 Quest "Brew of the Month" Club Membership Form 200 ×
10 Head Head Belbi's Eyesight Enhancing Romance Goggles 100 ×
10 Head Head Blix's Eyesight Enhancing Romance Goggles 100 ×
1 Head Head Brown Brewfest Hat 50 ×
1 Head Head Green Brewfest Hat 50 ×
1 Head Head Blue Brewfest Hat 50 ×
1 Head Head Purple Brewfest Hat 50 ×
1 Chest Chest Brewfest Regalia 200 ×
1 Chest Chest Brewfest Dress 200 ×
1 Feet Feet Brewfest Boots 100 ×
1 Feet Feet Brewfest Slippers 100 ×
1 Consumable Pandaren Brewpack 100 ×
1 Consumable Brewfest Pony Keg 100 ×
1 Consumable Brewfest Keg Pony 200 ×
20 Consumable Fresh Brewfest Hops 2 ×
20 Consumable Fresh Goblin Brewfest Hops 5 ×
1 Consumable Brewhelm 2 ×

Siege of Orgrimmar Heroic Progression
Method is still leading progress tonight without killing any more bosses, with 11/14 bosses down. Blood Legion has managed to kill one more boss since last night, now with 11/14 bosses down, along with Exorsus, genuine, and Envy. Over in the 10 player column, Paragon is currently leading with 10/14 bosses down, followed by Sanitas, also at 10/14.

You can keep up with the rankings on WoWProgress and Manaflask.

Patch 5.4 Hotfixes: September 19
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
General
With the conclusion of the Battlefield: Barrens event, realm coalescing has been re-enabled for the Durotar area.

Classes
Hunters
General
Deterrence should now correctly have a 5-second cooldown after using a charge for Hunters with the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Chimera talent.
Monks
Talents
Xuen summoned by Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger should now be able to use Crackling Tiger Lightning against Aberration type creatures.

Raids, Dungeons, and Scenarios
Siege of Orgrimmar
Sha of Pride
Sha of Pride no longer drops Droplet of Y'shaarj on Raid Finder difficulty.
Alter Time no longer teleports players that have been banished on Heroic difficulty.
Galakras
Resetting the Galakras encounter should no longer cause doors to the towers to remain closed.
Siegecrafter Blackfuse
Siegecrafter Blackfuse will no longer Overcharge more than one cluster of Crawler Mines per wave on Heroic difficulty.

Battlegrounds and Arenas
The Crowd Chose You!!! should now be correctly applied to players that are under the effects of Cyclone.

Proving Grounds
Healer Trials
NPC party members should now be better at moving out of the fire, and use their area-of-effect attacks and swap targets correctly.
Large Illusionary Flamecallers no longer cast Pyroblast against targets that have been recently hit by a Fireball.

Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Conquest Vendors Update
Giving a quick update. We're in the process of running internal tests to see if the fix is working correctly. We hope to have it out of testing as soon as possible. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Gearing up Alt Characters
I dinged a fresh 90 on Monday, and yes I went straight to the Timeless Isle. However, in questing greens & blues, I had a very hard time. Also, I still have to go through all the old raids in LFR to unlock the latest content, not to mention get my item level high enough to enter.

I've picked up a few purples on the Timeless Isle, but I'm still nowhere near high enough yet to enter SoO LFR. Sure, if you go for it really hard and prepare with crafted goods, Valor gear etc. I'm sure it can be done. But that's why the system's good IMO, if you put in the effort you can be caught up quickly, if you're more of a casual player like me it's going to take a while, and I'm fine with that personally.

I much prefer this to the alternative—getting my alt to level 90 then having to go through the exact same content I spent months on with my other characters. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Patch 5.4 PvP Balance
Hope 6.0 will be that one patch we've been waiting since s8 to finally fix everything.
It's impossible to "fix" everything because there will always be a certain aspect of the game that someone will have an issue with, or a part they don't enjoy as much as the other. Perfection is also an endless pursuit because it's an ever elusive goal. We're constantly aiming to make the game the best it possibly can be, but to fix what someone feels is wrong will inevitably break it for someone else, so the things that are "broken" change via your own perception.

- blizzard doesn't care about all mage specs in PvP
Every spec in the game right now is viable for participation in PvP, and we care about all specs. Your complaint is not that "Blizzard doesn't care", it's that you don't feel that certain specs aren't entirely viable for high end arena. This goes for several classes though, not just mages; warrior, paladin, druid and monk tank specs and others are not viable for high end PvP either.

The biggest thing to note is that there are actually more specs now than ever before that are viable for a "Tier 1/2 comp", and at least one spec from each class is capable of reaching high ratings in PvP depending on team composition. We would be extremely pleased if we were able to reach a point in balance where all 34 specs were perfectly balanced, however we're well aware that the possibilities of accomplishing this is an incredibly difficult goal.

We'll continue to do our best to achieve the most enjoyable and balanced gameplay possible for everyone and we really appreciate all of the feedback that you're all giving in this thread about what you do and don't like about patch 5.4. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Blue Tweets
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Classes
Honestly how many classes "get benched" I haven't seen a dps class get benched even one time this xpak
It is one of those terms that lost its meaning (like "literally!") through overuse. I think many now used "benched" as a synonym. (Source)

Could I get your thoughts on this concept? Are healers an intrinsic problem in PvP games generally?
They are definitely a problem when trying to balance the option to have a healer or not have a healer. (Source)
I'm also open to the idea that having dedicated healers in PvP period is unsolveable. #notanannouncement (Source)

is it acceptable for one class (warriors) to not have a single dps spec in the top 20 dps specs? Why is this the case, then?
Don't worry about stack ranks. Worry about your spec's (or better yet, your character's) DPS relative to the average. (Source)

so what are people who love their character supposed to do when they no longer enjoy their class?
We struggle with that question, at a philosophical level, a great deal. (Source)
The con is the player (and there are many) who can't keep up with class changes if they skip an expansion or even a patch. (Source)
We hear *constantly* from players who say I love my X but I just can't bear to relearn how to play yet again, so I'm out. (Source)

I think a good rule of thumb is, if you enjoy your class, eff the numbers.
I get that there is a threshold. If you love your class but feel like you are holding your friends back, that's hard. (Source)
But just because the best players in the world do better with class X, does not mean *you* are holding your friends back. (Source)

Warrior (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
OK you're probably sick of hearing this, but feels like my ProtWar has exactly zero choice in Major glyph. DPS = mandatory. =/
Yeah we discussed this a few weeks ago. We can't make tank glyphs survival, healing or DPS. Doesn't leave many options. (Source)

Character / Items
We have a request with many people on french forum : why gnome can't do hunter when all race can? We are curious
We get many requests to make X class available to Y race. (Source)
At a fundamental level, the question is whether there is benefit in any racial restrictions on class or not. (Source)

Hi Greg. IF the item squish was to happen, would PvP and PvE gear once again have similar ilvls? WPvP purposes. Ty.
We don't know yet, but that would be a nice goal for sure. (Source)

Just out of curiosity, how does RPPM differ from old style trinkets if unaffected by haste? That seemed the point
RPPM can proc twice in a row. Old style trinkets tended to proc when their ICD was over, making them really predictable. (Source)
But Because of the RNG involved, who would want to use an RPPM trink over ICD if both technically Equal?
There is personal preference involved for sure, which we actually like. (Source)
The RPPM trinket could proc 3 times during Bloodlust while the ICD cannot. But the RPPM might not proc at all. (Source)

Flex Raiding
After downing a boss in a flex raid, is a raid guaranteed at least X items or are all rolls individual (poss. getting 0 loot)?
You can get 0 loot or you can get 25 loot. Both are exceedingly rare, but given enough raids, will happen to someone. (Source)

Flex definitely feels like a progression difficulty coming straight out of LFR. My mana was crying!
Remember that you don't have the benefit of previous tiers of flex to gear up. This should be the only time that happens. (Source)

Might we see LFR phased out in favor of Flex? If opening end-game content to all is the goal, perhaps dif way to achieve it?
If you want to raid say on your lunch break, LFR works for that but flex may not. (Source)

Dark Legacy Comics - #406 and #407
Now that things have slowed down a little bit, let's catch up on some DLC!

ust how long are your lunch breaks in America?

SoO Progression, Heroic Thok Video, Sept 20 Hotfixes, Blue Posts and Tweets, Fan Art

Update (3 PM EST): Method is now 12/14!

More Paragon 2.0 Details, The Future of AH Cards is Unknown, New Wallpaper: Reaper of Souls Logo

Puzzles and Hearthstone 2, Fireside Chat #12

Siege of Orgrimmar Heroic Progression
Method is still leading progress tonight without killing any more bosses, with 11/14 bosses down. There are now 9 guilds at 11/14. Over in the 10 player column, Paragon is currently leading with 10/14 bosses down, followed by Sanitas, also at 10/14.

Heroic Thok the Bloodthirsty Video
Method has released their video of the world first Thok kill, which you can see below. Blood Legion also had some interesting moments and a demonstration of a fun bug in their video.

Patch 5.4 Hotfixes: September 20
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Classes
Death Knight (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Glyphs
Glyph of Regenerative Magic should no longer improperly increase the cooldown on Anti-Magic Shell when a small amount of absorption remaining as it expires.

Raids, Dungeons, and Scenarios
Siege of Orgrimmar
Norushen
Look Within should now correctly favor selecting characters with higher levels of corruption for trials during the Norushen encounter on Raid Finder difficulty.
Sha of Pride
Altered the visual effects of Bursting Pride, Swelling Pride, Aura of Pride, and Unstable Corruption to improve their clarity and visibility.
Portals to Orgrimmar should now spawn properly after defeating the Sha of Pride and soft resetting the instance.
Garrosh Hellscream
Garrosh no longer has a chance to critically hit when under the effects of Leader of the Pack or other similar buffs from players that have been mind controlled by Touch of Y'Shaarj.

Battlegrounds and Arenas
The Conquest vendors have been restored.
Fixed an issue where a number of players had a higher than intended Conquest cap.

Items
Toy Windmill should now only summon 1 Windmill Lance.

Brewfest
[Requires realm restarts] Keg-Shaped Treasure Chest should now be awarding level-90 items.

Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
PvP Flagging
Flagging on PvE has always been kind of weird. You can be flagged, I'm not flagged, and I can either spend time on a long-cast nuke, or even sheep you, and you have no way to counter me. Or a flagged person can do all sorts of devious things to try to trick people into getting someone else to flag by clicking on them or whatever. Separately there are a ton of abilities in the game, and some of them just cease to work at all if we tried to fix some of them causing flagging. Lastly (?), someone can be flagged and if you heal them that flags you! (My personal favey fav as a healer.)

We're aware. It's become a more relevant discussion because of the activity on the isle and your feedback, but it's a big discussion and a big change, and probably not something we're going to be able to address while the isle is still relevant for most of you.

Bashiok: If you dont hotfix current content so that all can enjoy it, why waste time making changes after it becomes a ghost town?
Sorry my reply was maybe confusing, we're aware PvE flagging in general is weird regardless of the isle or any other content, and a change to PvE flagging in-general is something we're discussing but is probably a ways away. The problem doesn't start and stop with the Timeless Isle, although that of course seems very relevant at the moment.

in other words once the island becomes an empty deserted wasteland with little or no players then well consider making it where PvP is optional well that would kind of be a moot point then dont you think?
Not at all, PvE flagging is sure to continue to be an issue for many years to come without a change. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Timeless Isle Elites
All of the elites telegraph their attacks, meaning they have cast bars (hit V to turn on nameplates) on directed attacks or literal effects that show where their attack will land. Moving and keeping out of those things (use them Void Tendrils!) makes every elite (on the ground-level at least) definitely soloable as it's about knowing when to move out of an attack more than your health or damage. If you're doing it right you really shouldn't take any damage from them. As you go higher up the hill you'll maybe want to join a group. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Conquest Cap Bug
A fix was made to restore the Conquest cap back to the proper level of 2200. A very small number of players were able to purchase more gear than intended, and we will be addressing those on a case-by-case basis.

We're currently working on implementing a hotfix to bring the Conquest vendors back as soon as possible. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Timeless Isle
I hit level cap yesterday and I'm late to the party as it is, so to be able to catch up with my peers quickly put a real smile on my face.
First of all, I'm really glad that you're enjoying our latest patch.
Now you just need to get a new epic helmet so we can see that gremlin, ahem, I mean... goblin smile!

Plenty of people moaning about it ruining the game making older MoP raids obsolete but I don't see it that way at all. I still want to run all of them to see the story, the mechanics and just all the content.
I must say I respect both sides of the argument and I’m pretty sure devs do as well. Ultimately, catch-up mechanics accelerates the devaluing of gear, and that might have at least a psychological impact on the players’ attachment to their items and/or the effort involved in getting them and ultimately to the game itself. That’s the bad part.

The good part is, it also allows for a more relaxed and free play style, where you’re not just as good as the time you invest in the game. Time should matter of course, but it shouldn’t be the be-all and end-all in any game. Individual skill, gameplay, “fun”, and game sociability are just as important.

Content is being added and updated all the time, catch-up mechanics are here to help to bridge the gap between old content and new content, else we’d be back to Karazhan alt raiding times (which was a lot of fun I must say! But you have to admit that it was much more repetitive than it is now when you raid with an alt).

What I particularly like about this system is that it helps the new guy a little bit, but it helps the guy with a ton of alts a lot more, as he can loot chests with all his alts and have a much better chance to completely gear up a freshly dinged 90 in 496 gear. This makes sense to me, since a player with a lot of alts has a much higher chance to have already experienced all the content that is being skipped.

Of course, whoever really wanted to skip content, never needed Timeless Isle. Catch-up mechanics have been introduced in 5.3 for Arena and RBGs, and everyone had a chance to grab a full set of 496 tyrannical gear before 5.4 even arrived.

Besides, 496 is below the ilvl from last patch’s LFR gear, so this doesn’t really have a strong devaluing power over recent gear (5.3 gear). (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Blue Tweets
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Classes
well isn't that the goal for pve content? for everyone to play whatevers and be super close to dps?
The definition of "super close" changes over time. It was 30-50% in LK. It has shrunk to 1-2% in MoP. (Source)
I don't believe that shrinking definition is healthy for the game, but not sure how to prevent it. (Source)

If solo-healing challenges like on Norushen are easier to deal with by dpsing, why isn't healer dps somewhat normalized, yet?
Because it's one encounter and classes are too similar as it is. (Source)

Hunter (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
why don't Hunter Aspects add personal utility? bat (drain life on shot), spider (root on shot), turtle (dmg reduction), etc?
It's an idea that sounds better on paper. Many grew annoyed at having to twist Aspects frequently for situational benefit. (Source)

Warrior (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
any chance arms could be closer than 50k off fury in t16, having one aoe spec and one single target spec isnt fun
We're okay with Arms being ahead of Fury on cleave / AE, but want to make sure the delta between them is not too large. (Source)

remove the GCD lock from Warrior's plz ... its soo bad to be the only class locked to 1.5sec
The design keeps getting pushed that way because so many warrior players don't like any down time. (Source)
I suspect 1 sec GCD warriors would lead to more "I'm standing around waiting for rage" comments again. (Source)
It's one of those tensions between what might be a superior design vs the expectations of a dude who played warrior for 8 years. (Source)

New Character Models
W/ new models, will Nelves get their ferocity back? Nelf females feel like ditzy airheads with some animations, not amazonians
Not entirely up to me, but I miss them being fierce and a little scary from Warcraft 3. (Source)

True, but you also assume this isn't a priority to players (along with better graphics) and that just isn't true.
We made no such assumption. We did however assume that new boss and armor models in SoO were *also* a priority for players. (Source)
Character models, buildings, trees, world, etc > then 3 month armor/weapons. Missing point that game is OLD looking for 2013.
MoP had many brand new buildings and trees. We agree the character models have fallen behind, which is why we're upgrading them. (Source)

PvE
At the very, very high end, there are more Horde guilds. Alliance ones are still quite successful though. (Source)
It's when you let ridiculous imbalances like the 5% troll racial work on 1/3rd of all ToT bosses go live, so easy to avoid
That one doesn't bother us. We don't want to make situational racials irrelevant when one can finally be useful. (Source)
The active abilities for troll and orc are more to blame in our opinion: just another CD to macro with all the others. (Source)

Hardmode raiding and factional imbalance (among raiding pops, not as a whole): What can be done, if anything?
Not sure anything can be done. We'd have to make Alliance racials quite OP to convince Horde to switch until we reached parity. (Source)
And I fully get that you don't make the call on those types of decisions, so I sympathise- it's a real pickle.
Yeah, we haven't given up on the problem for sure. We just don't have a great solution in hand. (Source)

"Convincing horde to switch" is a straw man, right solution is to balance racials and let time heal those wounds
I don't think the time it would take (years?) would be acceptable to the folks with the complaint. (Source)
(By which I meant the time for equilibrium to reassert itself, not the time to balance numbers.) (Source)

So you acknowledge theyre imbalanced, but do nothing?
Players focus too much on the balance, which likely doesn't even affect them. (Source)
Bemoaning "players care about stuff they shouldn't", is that productive? Maybe attend to feedback, rather than dismissing it?
Part of being a game designer is appreciating all feedback but knowing on which you should act and on which you should file away. (Source)

Have you found that raidbots is inconsistent with your internal testing? If so, to how great a degree?
I've talked about this a few times. It's a good source of data if you understand and respect its limitations. (Source)
For example, comparing the means of populations with very different sample sizes can lead you to bad conclusions. (Source)
Also, numbers change dramatically as players learn the fights and gear up. N numbers might go down when guilds go H. (Source)

PvP
Why aren't there ever legendaries for pvp? I can't raid for hours at a time. I thought MoP was "play it your way"?
Wouldn't a PvP legendary just feel mandatory for every player before they could realistically compete in PvP? (Source)

Why exactly is PW:S nerfed by Battle Fatigue and yet not buffed by Twist of Fate? Same question on Prayer of Mending.
We felt that Battle Fatigue needed to affect absorbs or PvP healing strategy would skew towards using them. (Source)
Was more confused about ToF not affecting PW:S/PoM, not so much the reasoning behind Battle Fatigue affecting absorbs.
We use "heal" to mean literal heals (vs. absorbs) but also the general notion of keeping folks alive. For ToF, we mean the former. (Source)

Fan Art Update
Blizzard updated the art gallery to feature ten new pieces.

SoO Progression, Heroic Norushen Changes, Blue Tweets, Poll: PvE Content, Fan Art
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Artisan Showcase: "Leah the Diablo" by Sheh, Demonize Your Digital Closet, Curse Weekly Roundup

Siege of Orgrimmar Heroic Progression
Method is still leading progress with 12/14 bosses down now, followed by Blood Legion, also at 12/14. There are now 12 guilds at 11/14. Over in the 10 player column, Paragon is currently leading with 12/14 bosses down, followed by 3 other guilds at 11/14.

Manaflask got a count of 195 pulls on Blackfuse from Paragon in order to down the boss!

Heroic Norushen Changes
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
I entirely understand the frustration felt by guilds that have already defeated Heroic Norushen this week, or invested significant time attempting his current incarnation. It's never particularly enjoyable to have to relearn a fight you've already defeated and from which you've already received loot and an achievement. Changing an encounter meaningfully once it's in players' hands is not an action we take lightly. I'd like to offer a few general points of clarification:

First, we did read and closely consider all feedback received as a result of Norushen PTR testing. We made a number of adjustments to the encounter as a result of both player feedback and our own observations over the course of testing. Notably, we removed the Draw mechanic that was present for most of the PTR testing cycle, since it caused players to have to throttle their damage as their gear and execution improved. That mechanic was originally added to completely shut down any chance of a brute-force approach, but we believed that the damage penalty from the initial Corruption would be sufficient to require players to use Look Within to purify themselves in order to meet the berserk timer. Clearly we were mistaken, and I'd like to personally apologize for that.

Second, we are not looking to meaningfully increase the difficulty of the encounter. It should, on balance, be a small to moderate step up in difficulty from Heroic Fallen Protectors, and should be easier than Sha of Pride. While we're still iterating on the exact changes, they will likely entail something along the lines of entirely removing the additional pulsed Corruption received from Burst of Anger and Residual Corruption, increasing players' starting Corruption to 75 as is the case on Normal, and adjusting the health of the Amalgam accordingly. We don't expect that most guilds that defeat the encounter this week will experience any notable struggles with the revised version.

Third, in keeping with the general philosophies laid out in the Encounter Tuning Dev Watercooler, a major factor when it comes to deciding whether to make changes to address an unintended strategy is whether the approach actually involves interesting gameplay. Yes, a really tight Patchwerk-style DPS check absolutely can be fun even without any other mechanics involved, and many players had nailbiting kills and wipes on the encounter this week. But in a few more weeks, with a bit more gear, that fun would largely be gone. And for the healers that most raid groups benched in order to add damage-dealers to meet the DPS check, it likely was never there to begin with. Ultimately, this is a change made for the sake of the thousands of guilds that have yet to attempt the encounter, but will in the future. To those who are experiencing the disruption of having the boss change mid-progress, I again apologize. There are many parallels to our handling of Heroic Primordius (and, yes, those parallels do begin with us screwing up the tuning in the first place).

Finally, I've seen a few references in this thread, and elsewhere, to Thok. The change made to Thok last week was entirely a bugfix. Based on our final days of Raid Finder testing on PTR, we decided to completely disable the Acceleration mechanic that increases Thok's energy generation in Raid Finder, since he changes phases based on health % thresholds in that mode. That change inadvertently removed the mechanic from all difficulties, and the 20-hour time period for which the bug was active represents the time it took us to track down the cause, implement a fix, and test that fix before applying it to the live environment. Thok's current energy regen rate is identical to the values seen for the better part of PTR testing. Had we changed nothing, Thok would have been the easiest encounter in the zone rather than one of the more challenging ones, and we are always going to fix bugs that completely trivialize raid encounters. That was a bug that we fixed ASAP. The upcoming Norushen adjustments, however, are design changes that we're going to roll out along with raid resets next week so that they affect everyone equally.

Blue Tweets
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Item Level Squish
so essentially everything will feel the same? We'll just be putting out smaller numbers?
Exactly. If it takes you 6 seconds to kill a level 90 mob, it still will post squish. (Source)

is there no sense at all that 30 ilvls per tier or equivalent is excessive?
At max level, no. If the numbers don't jump by that amount, the gear feels like side grades. (Source)

Raid Finder
Why delay it? But OK for normal/heroic to blaze through everything in one week.
Your argument would be apples to apples if only 1% of LFR players would blaze through in one week. (Source)

Have you ever thought about ex: "You were present the entire fight, here's an extra bonus roll" in LFR to deter afks?
Yeah, we just have to be careful about detecting that to not punish legit players. (Source)

Hey Greg, any thoughts on gating LFR wings more heavily in future expansions? Influence people to try organized raiding(?).
What we have found historically is the LFR players just don't raid, or even don't play if there isn't enough content. (Source)
We'd love to encourage more players to try organized raiding, but I think we have to lure them in, not beat them in. (Source)

Your purposely trying to push aside people that use LFR as there only means to see content. Way to stick people in a box.
I'm confused. That's not what we're trying to do. (Source)
We would like someone who has run many LFRs to consider Flex for better loot now that they know the fights pretty well. (Source)
Why? If i am happy in lfr why do you want to push me out of it?
Because it provides you more content. Compare: Run LFR until finished vs. Run LFR until finished, THEN run Flex. (Source)

PvP
You got a mess on your hands with mobs of 40-50 blood coin raids killing people tryin to farm coins. Huge backlash.
You only earn coins on KBs (by design) so forming big raids isn't super efficient. (Source)

on the topic of PVP being a battle to balance, why not take a queue from Riot and do very small, weekly changes?
It's just a different approach. LoL has 4ish abilities per champion, so you are rarely re-learning whole rotations when they patch. (Source)
For us, small number tweaks rarely cause major differences in PvP. Things like CC, survival or burst move the meter more. (Source)

Regarding PvP? Don't listen to forums. Try to get some in depth from established, skilled legitimate players
We actually do, but that doesn't help the 99% out there who want to be heard but have their message get lost in the noise. (Source)
Trust your own experienced developers instead of forums. Cant democratize art. Too Many Cooks Spoil the Broth
We agree, and this isn't a democratic process, but we do like to gather feedback to make informed decisions. (Source)
The process of gathering feedback is made less efficient when players over-reward shallow points or squelch dissent. (Source)

so why does below 90 pvp don't matter? hunters disc, dks all broken, fix their scaling for 85+ please op/not fun/imbalanced
It matters. It just matters less than max level, which is what by far most players express concern about. (Source)

How is that any different from normal pvp gear being required to compete in pvp?
Presumably a PvP legendary would come with a process more involved than normal Conq gear. (Source)
Which makes me ask what would the motivation for PvP gear taking longer to acquire? (Source)

Proving Grounds
in Top100 healers on proving grounds there are only 5 priests, dont you find it a bit strange for class with 2 healing specs?
Like any encounter, the specific PG mechanics are more favorable to some specs than others. (Source)
We could make spec-specific tweaks, but does that violate the spirit of PG? (Source)

Timeless Isle
The albatross taxi service on timeless isle is the single most frustrating and annoying thing implemented in WoW.
If that's truly the case, then I'd say we're doing pretty well overall. (Source)
Also a sad commentary that players would rather kill something than see another player benefit from it. (Source)

do you think the emperor shaohao rep is a little over bearing? Or is there something missing, daily quests not giving rep..
Path of the Mistwalker will soon provide some rep. Overall though that rep is intended as a long term goal and investment. (Source)

Poll: Best World PvE Content
Which patch had the best daily quests and solo / small group content so far? Feel free to share what you liked (and didn't like) in the comments!

Method is still leading progress with 12/14 bosses down now, followed by Blood Legion, also at 12/14. There are now 12 guilds at 11/14. Over in the 10 player column, Paragon is currently leading with 12/14 bosses down, followed by 3 other guilds at 11/14.

Kor'kron Supplies, SoO Raid Schedule, September 23 Hotfixes, Blue Tweets, DLC #408
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A Lot of Paragon 2.0 Clarifications, Blue Posts, Community Commentary: Sanctuary Around You

Blue Posts - Beta Wipe Refund, Open Beta; Community Showcase - ToT Mock Raid Deck

Patch 5.4 - Kor'kron Supplies
One nice addition in Patch 5.4 that not many people have noticed is the Kor'kron Supply crates scattered around the Dark Shaman area of the Siege of Orgrimmar. These boxes contain flasks and potions that aren't specific to your class or spec and are a nice way to supplement your guild's (or your own!) consumable supply.

Siege of Orgrimmar Raid Schedule
Don't forget that Siege of Orgrimmar Raid Finder Wing 2 opens this week! You can get started on building your Tier 16 set.

Patch 5.4 Hotfixes: September 23
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Timeless Isle
Fixed an issue where defeating rare creatures while in a raid group may sometimes incorrectly display a loot cursor or sparkle effect when the creature has no loot.
Vision of Time items can no longer be used while in a Raid Finder raid until the wing has been completed.
Fishing in the waters surrounding Timeless Isle should now yield different fish than in the lakes within Timeless Isle.

Classes
Druid (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
General
Rip damage has been increased by 20%.
Druids should no longer cast One with Nature while being mind-controlled by NPCs.
Talents
Nature's Vigil should now properly increase the Druid's healing by 12%.
Class Armor
Tier-16 Guardian 2-piece bonus now automatically applies both a 3-second Savage Defense and a 20-Rage Frenzied Regeneration when Barkskin Fade. The automatic version of Frenzied Regeneration no longer triggers a global cooldown and is not affected by the Tier-15 Guardian 2-piece bonus.
Hunter (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Marksmanship
Chimera Shot damage has been increased by 50%.
Survival
Explosive Shot damage has been increased by 10%.
Mage (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
General
Ice Lance damage has been increased by 20%.
Waterbolt's damage has been increased by 10%.
Monk (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Brewmaster
Brewmasters now deal 10% less damage with all attacks.
Paladin (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Talents
Eternal Flame heal-over-time effect is increased by 50% when used on the Paladin (down from 100%).
Priest (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
General
Shadow Word: Pain damage has been reduced by 15%.
Rogue (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Assassination
Assassin's Resolve now increases the Rogue's damage by 20% (down from 25%).
Subtlety
Sanguinary Vein now causes the Rogue to deal 35% additional damage to targets afflicted by Rupture, Garrote, or Crimson Tempest (up from 25%).
Class Armor
Tier-16 4-piece set bonus should no longer incorrectly activate from attacks other than Backstab.
Shaman (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
General
Flametongue Weapon Flametongue Attack effect now deals 50% more damage.
Lightning Bolt damage has been increased by 10%.
Enhancement
Windfury Weapon Windfury Attack effect now deals 50% more damage.
Warlock (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Affliction
Haunt now increases all periodic damage against the target by 35% (down from 40%).
Demonology
Wild Imps' Fel Firebolt now deals 30% less damage.
Destruction
Immolate damage has been increased by 30%.
Warrior (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Fury
Bloodthirst damage has been increased by 20%.
Raging Blow damage has been increased by 20%.

Raids, Dungeons, and Scenarios
Siege of Orgrimmar
Norushen
Reduced the number of Fragment of Pride patrolling the area leading up to Norushen on Raid Finder difficulty.
Siegecrafter Blackfuse
Automatic Repair Beam should now always be properly applied to Automated Shredders when they get near Siegecrafter Blackfuse.
Ulduar
Fixed an issue with the Yogg-Saron encounter, where players were unable to proceed to phase 2 of the fight by damaging Sara.

Battlegrounds and Arenas
Players should no longer be unable to cast spells or use items after repeatedly using restricted items while in a Wargame.

Items
Reduced the activation rate for caster and healer Legendary cloak effects for characters in a tanking specialization by 75%.
Evil Eye of Galakras was only reducing the cooldown on 5 abilities for Warriors. The trinket should now also reduce the cooldown of Heroic Leap.
Unerring Vision of Lei Shen now has a 40% reduced chance to activate its effect for Warlocks.

Blue Tweets
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Classes
DPS/HPS logs should have never been added to the game. The cost is not justified by the benefit.
It's nice to be able to evaluate your performance to fine tune gear or rotation. Agree the competitive aspect is out of control. (Source)

This AM I saw: our DPS is too low, nobody wants us, we need an overhaul from pretty much every class. Those all can't be true. (Source)
I think it's obv from buffs/nerfs through the exp cycle that it's obvious overhauls needed. Scaling is out of control
Players obsess about scaling too much. OTOH even with perfect scaling, players would be unhappy if we didn't constantly tune balance (Source)
Put another way, even if all specs scaled identically with gear, encounter mechanics have a far greater impact on performance. (Source)

I disagree. I think a support class fun as long as people knew up front that's what they were rolling.
That's possible. Back in the MC days I suspect many players made their class decisions without that information. (Source)
In fact, I suspect back in the MC days, many players didn't even consider the endgame until they got there. (Source)
I will agree it was bullshit to find out that your feral was garbage. Less impressed with shaman/pally arguments tho.
My original MC raid had at least 4 paladins that rolled to be melee DPS and were told they had to heal and buff in raids. (Source)

Actually it's because the class has been switched upside down since launch
Claiming we don't have a direction or vision for a class is generally a good way not to get us to read something. (Source)
It's not that we are afraid of criticism; far from it. (Source)
We were pretty clear that Fistweaving was always a secondary mechanic, much like Atonement healing. (Source)
We never wanted to hear monks (or any healer) say "I cannot stand with the other healers. I MUST be in melee." (Source)

When people ask me what spec to play, I often tell them "whatever you enjoy or can do the best at" is this good advice?
Yes. Most players worry far too much about theoretical max DPS. The success of *your* group is rarely dependent on it. (Source)

what u think of talent trees? do u really think ur playerbase wants to constantly switch talents every 5 seconds?
We think they want to change talents once in awhile, versus the old model of never looking at the talent screen again. (Source)

e.g. specialize on the talent level, not the class level, by providing talents that significantly favour single or AE healing?
I think you would have to do something like: must have a shield healer and an AE healer, with 2-3 class choices each. (Source)
The problem with talents, though we still do it sometimes, is AE usually wins in MoP. (Source)
It's really hard to get that "glad we have a druid" feel you're looking for without very strong / mandatory unique utility. (Source)
A different design is that instead of tank, healer, DPS (ABC) you have ABCDE and a 10 needs two of each. (Source)
The ABCDE model lets each class / spec feel powerful and unique but hurts the raid that likes to raid with e.g. 3 hunters. (Source)

why all caster class haste make more DoT's Ticks, but meele and ranged this isn't happen??
The intent is haste generally provides more resources for melee and hunters to deliver on the "haste lets you do more" concept. (Source)

Hunter (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Example A: Deterrence doesn't work how it is supposed to work and is half as strong as it is supposed to be. no fix
Deterrence in 5.4 is working as intended. The charge system has proven challenging to explain / understand. (Source)

Warlock (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
the question about female Demon Form is constantly dodged by Blues. Is this so hard to implement? Would make locks happy.
Not that hard to implement, but it does take real artist time if it's more than just a bow on a Voidwalker. (Source)
but what if my voidwalker wants to wear a bow, even voidwalkers want to feel pretty.
I'm not judging. Each voidwalker can dress how he or she wants. I won't burden them with traditional gender norms. (Source)

Character / Items
Can we remove Personal Loot from Flex, Getting the same item 4 weeks in a row in LFR is terrible design
Sharding the same item 4 weeks in a row in heroic isn't all that fun either. (Source)
so why are there capes dropping in heroic soo?
Maybe one of your raiders decided to reroll and doesn't have an orange cloak? (Source)

Hey Greg, would you be so kind and explain the drop-system of the new heirloom weapons?
The first one you get will be for your loot spec. After that it's random. All are personal loot. (Source)
Is it the 1st one on each difficulty mode (F/N/H), or only the 1st one on the first difficulty mode you clear?
The intent is per difficulty. We don't want someone e.g. avoiding N Garrosh for fear of wasting their chance. (Source)

Flex Raiding
First 2 wings of Flex down and must say rivals BT for epic so far. Boss fights are mad fun and seem to reflect player feedback
Oustanding. (Source)

How many teeth are missing from the average Flex audience member? Are they shirtless? Have they been on "COPS"?
Our hope is that they are pretty normal players who put a premium on playing with friends and family over progression. (Source)
A traditional raiding guild might boot a nice player with low DPS. The intended flex audience would never dream of it. (Source)

i will not use on principle its an attempt to kill lfr.
It is not an attempt to kill LFR. It's an attempt to provide a more casual alternative to N for social groups who don't enjoy LFR. (Source)
Flex just is not needed. There's already that... it's called 10-man. If guild can't form then they have bigger issues.
We disagree. 10-player ToT is harder than 10-player ICC. The players who enjoyed the ICC level of difficulty are shut out. (Source)
What was the rationale for the step-up in difficulty since Wrath? Did 10-man ICC feel too easy to devs?
A series of steps. 1) Didn't want 10s to feel like 2nd class citizens, so we gave them the same ilevel. (Source)
2) Didn't want same ilevel for easier difficulty, so we brought 10s up to the 25 level (overall - there is variety per boss). (Source)
You can argue that those were both missteps, but that's how we arrived where we are today. Flex is trying to recapture ICC 10. (Source)

Dark Legacy Comics #408
DLC #408 takes a look at the different types of raiders in WoW.

SoO Progression, Connected Realms Update, September 24 Hotfixes, Blizzard Art Update

Official AH Delays Statement, Artisan Stories Will Be Continued in RoS, Differences Between Templar and Crusader, T-Shirt Design Contest Gallery

Hearthstone Leveling Rewards Part 2 - Hunter, Rogue, Shaman; Opt-In Waves Info

Siege of Orgrimmar Heroic Progression
Method is leading progress with 13/14 bosses down now, followed by Blood Legion and Midwinter, both at 12/14. There are now 12 guilds at 11/14. Over in the 10 player column, Paragon is currently leading with 12/14 bosses down.

Connected Realms Update
The first two realms are finally being connected on Wednesday!
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
In order to implement our first Connected Realms, Boulderfist and Bloodscalp will be taken down for an extended maintenance beginning Wednesday, September 25, at 3:00 a.m. PDT until approximately 11:00 a.m. PDT. During this time these realms will be unavailable for play. Additional realm connections are planned for the near future, and we’ll be posting a full list at WorldofWarcraft.com as soon as we’ve finalized the details.

Patch 5.4 Hotfixes: September 24
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Classes
Death Knight (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Talents
Runic Corruption activing multiple times should no longer cause the ability to extend its duration by an incorrect amount.
Monk (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Mistweaver
Renewing Mist no longer requires line-of-sight to jump to a nearby target.
Priest (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Discipline
Flash Heal now should correctly receive an increased critical chance from Inner Focus while Surge of Light is active.

Creatures
Loot notifications for world bosses in Pandaria should no longer be visible to all members in the raid.

Raids, Dungeons, and Scenarios
Siege of Orgrimmar
Immerseus
Corrosive Blast now has a greatly increased range.
Kor'kron Dark Shaman
Kor’kron Shadowmage’s Mind Spike ability now deals less damage on Raid Finder and Flexible Raid difficulty.

Kor'kron Warshaman's Healing Tide Totem now has less hit points on Raid Finder difficulty.
Kor'kron Supplies no longer spawn on Raid Finder difficulty.
Paragons of the Klaxxi
Ka'roz the Locust should no longer damage players in his path while dashing towards a ledge to Hurl Amber.
Players in a damage-dealing specialization that have already interacted with Rik'kal the Dissector should now be able to interact with Skeer the Bloodseeker.
Garrosh Hellscream
The Y’Shaarj Touched buff can no longer be spellstolen.

Battlegrounds and Arenas
Grievous Conquest achievement vendors (the ones that allow Conquest gear to be purchase with Honor points) have been temporarily removed.
Grievous Gladiator weapons have a temporary level requirement of 91.

Items
Oddly-Shaped Horn is no longer usable while in the Battlegrounds or Rated Battlegrounds.
Tuft of Yak Fur is no longer usable while in the Battlegrounds or Rated Battlegrounds.

Conquest Points Cap Bug
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
give everyone full s14 gear - problem solved.
We won't be granting full Grievous gear to all players, in fact those that acquired gear from the increased cap should not get too fond of holding onto it. We plan on dealing with this matter appropriately, however we cannot elaborate on our plans at this time.

I'm starting to get very concerned about this, still nothing and it's been days now. Come on Blizzard, shape up.
We'll be communicating on our plans as soon™ as possible. Taking gear away is a very delicate process and one which we definitely don't want to jump in to, too hastily, the same goes for any other actions we may take. We've recently changed the level requirement on the Grievous weapons to ensure that people cannot use them for the time being and we're looking into what else we can do to resolve this situation.

We understand that this is a frustrating situation for everyone, but we ask for your patience while we deal with this matter further. I've also increased the posting limit for this thread, so please feel free to continue discussing this topic.

Heroes of the Storm Trademark
A "Heroes of the Storm" trademark appeared in the New Zealand database tonight, and you can find a fun speculation thread on the forum.

Keep in mind that this trademark is not confirmed. Even if it were to be real, it likely wouldn't be for a WoW expansion, as the purported trademark mentions the software being used on "mobile and cellular phones, laptops, handheld computers, and tablet PCs".

Siegecrafter Video, Conquest Update, Connected Realms, Blue Posts and Tweets,
Wyatt Cheng on Negative Effects of Inconsistent Health Pools, RMAH Delay Issues Resolved, What Business Would Each Follower Want to Run?

Heroic Siegecrafter Blackfuse Video
Method has released their video of the Siegecrafter Blackfuse encounter.

Conquest Cap & Gear Update
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
As many of you are aware, there have been several hotfixes regarding PvP gearing over the past week. We wanted to take a moment to not only explain what exactly went wrong, but also what we’re going to do about it.

The problems started with an error in calculating the season "catch-up cap". As you may know, this cap is calculated on a weekly basis. Unfortunately, for some players, these calculations began before Season 14 had officially begun. So, when the season did start, those players essentially had an entire season’s worth of catch-up credit added onto their normal weekly cap of 2200.

As soon as we recognized the error, we despawned the Conquest vendors while we worked on and tested a hotfix to correct the artificially inflated Conquest caps (and remove extra Conquest that had been earned). We also created a hotfix that was intended to solve the initial error with the catch-up calculations during maintenance in other regions, but were unable to apply it before the issue had spread to other regions.

Once the hotfix to correct Conquest caps was completed, it was applied to all regions, and the Conquest vendors were respawned. At the time, we believed that the hotfix would take effect without realm restarts. That, unfortunately, did not turn out to be the case, so over the weekend, a number of players were able to acquire several pieces of gear that they should not have otherwise been able to. On top of that, a small number of players were able to earn the Grievous Conquest achievement, which then allowed them to purchase Conquest gear with Honor points.

We’ve since been working hard to correct our mistakes, and as of right now, here’s where we stand:

All players who had an inflated Conquest cap have had those caps corrected
The Grievous Conquest achievement vendors have been despawned temporarily, as no one should have access to them through normal play at this time
The Grievous Gladiator weapons have had their level requirement hotfixed to 91 temporarily, as no one should have access to them through normal play at this time

However, there is still the matter of the extra gear that some of these players were able to obtain. We need to remove this extra gear to maintain a level playing field for all of our players, but we also have to be extremely careful not to remove extra gear that players earned legitimately (as drops from world bosses, for example). To that end, here’s what we’re planning to do:

We’ve already begun manually investigating players with multiple pieces of Grievous Conquest gear, starting with the most abusive cases
For less abusive cases, we intend to apply a hotfix during the next maintenance period that should clean up any remaining extra gear
This hotfix will also remove the Grievous Conquest achievement from those who have earned it prematurely
In both cases, our plan is to convert excess Grievous gear into its Tyrannical equivalent, to ensure that no players are accidentally left without an item in a given slot

We are extremely sorry for the inconvenience this has caused, and are working around the clock to fix things as quickly and cleanly as possible. Thank you for your patience.

Hopefully those with full or near full sets actually get fixed. Lots of people running around with too much season 14 gear.
Many of those cases have actually already been resolved. We're working hard to get through all of them as quickly as possible.

Connected Realms Update
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker)
We have completed maintenance to join Boulderfist and Bloodscalp into the first pair of Connected Realms. These realms should now be live once again, and we sincerely appreciate your patience during this maintenance period.

We would like to take the time to make players aware of a couple of known issues that we are currently investigating. The first of these is that players who do not have their macros cached locally may need to re-create those macros. Additionally, we have received reports of the guild message of the day not being displayed for some characters. At this time we’re unaware of how widespread these issues may be, and will investigate and resolve these issues before connecting any additional realms.

Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Virtual Realm Progress
They can't just implement it to servers, they need hefty testings and need to decide which servers to connect. It's not as simple as switching lights on.
Pretty much this. Connecting realms is not as simple as flicking on a switch.

Patch 5.4 added a lot of new content to World of Warcraft, and it added some neat things behind the scenes as well

We now have the technology in place to connect realms, and we will do it, however there are a lot more factors than just the technology that needs to be taken into consideration when deciding which realms to connect. We are working on it though, in fact we have been working on it for a while now, and hopefully soon we will have a final list of the realms that will be connected.

If you can't do it why advertise it? It's like those offers you see during sales they advertise on TV, a certain item reduced by 50%, the problem is they have had it on the shelves for twice the price it should be. PCWorld are the worst for it.
We can do it, and we will do it! What I am saying is that patch 5.4 brought the technology that makes this possible and now the only thing that remains to be done is to decide on the best way to optimally connect those realms that needs a population boost.

I would say that it was more of a preview than actual advertisement, at least that was the intention behind the blog about connected realms that we posted before the patch went live - We wanted to provide more detailed information to people about what this feature actually entails so that people will know what to expect before realms get connected.

I can respect that but there is alot of questions unanswered still that surely by now you have made a decision on? Like will the BMAH be crossrealm, what about challenge mode times and realm first achievements?
Sure, some decisions have been made by now, but I'm afraid I can't go into much details on them right this moment. Hopefully it should not be too long until we are ready to share more information about connected realms.

4 of the 5 English speaking EU RP/PVP realms, are according to wowprogress data, amongst the 4 worst populated realms in the entire EU.

Frankly, since it has ALREADY been said that like type realm will be connected with like type realm, I fail to see the delay in connecting at least those 4 realms together right now if the technology is there. They will still be pitifully small re total player numbers unless they are all then connected to Defias Brotherhood, the high popped 5th RP/PVP realm, but hey, at least it would be a start.
Even though some realms were likely candidates to be connected together right from the start, like it is the case with some RP realms, there is also a matter of following the right procedure... things must be done in a certain order to ensure smooth implementation and to avoid mishaps that will be hard if not impossible to correct. I am fairly sure that we will not start connecting realms until final decisions have been made and we have a complete list of which realms to connect. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Blue Tweets
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Misc
I thought a game being 10 years old would be a good reason for radical changes.
No doubt there are some former players sitting on the sidelines waiting for the right feature set to jump back in, but... (Source)
I imagine a lot of former players just aren't tuned in anymore & wouldn't even know or care about the most radical changes. (Source)
Meanwhile, those still playing the game might be pretty happy with the way things are and risk walking with too much change. (Source)
Strategically, radical change probably would lose more players than it would gain. (Source)
What evidence or basis do you have that suggest you'd lose more players with radical changes?
The track record for MMOs with radical changes is not a good one. (Source)

Out of curiosity, was there a great deal of churn among players who were not raiding during BC?
We've always had a lot of churn. Historically we were able to attract more new players. (Source)
I believe in BC things like leveling an alt or grinding professions was still novel enough to motivate a lot of non-raiders. (Source)
In LK we had achievements which helped provide something to do, but 25 Naxx was also insanely popular because it was so easy. (Source)
We added LFR to try and fill that void. Flex should help too. (Source)

any chance on a lighting engine update? NPCs pacing with lanterns looks very silly.
To be clear, we have updated the lightning engine every expansion for as long as I can remember. (Source)

not smart ass Q. Saw in dev interviews team is ~40% larger and adding more. Why now and not back when subs were much higher?
We've said for yrs we want to get content out faster. Staffing up is non-trivial though - takes a while to find right people. (Source)
Is there a critical mass number of people you can hire? Too many voices; hard to rein in coherently, right?
There isn't a magical number, but concerns about hurting our process or culture by overhiring are quite legit. (Source)

Are you admitting that radical changes to the vanilla world and talents have backfired on you?
I think we're using different definitions of radical. A radical change would be overhauling the combat engine to allow dodging. (Source)
More recent games (not just MMOs) have more active combat. Maybe that would be cool for WoW. Massive and risky change though. (Source)
God please NO! I highly dislike the newer games active combat systems!
Yeah, exactly. A change of that magnitude would be a huge risk to the game and therefore extremely unlikely. (Source)

whats patch day like for you? Is it hectic or just a "normal" day and operations staff does most of the work on the servers?
No, it's very hectic. Even on smooth launches (knock on wood) there are inevitable hotfixes and ops concerns. (Source)

Who is responsible for choosing and confirming the next WoW expansion theme in Blizzard? Mike Morhaime?
It's an organic process, but mostly it comes from the WoW team. We ask lots of smart people to weigh in of course, inc. Mike. (Source)

Losing subs + more dev's working on the game. Isnt that somehow conflicting? Profit and so on?
Players often assume that numbers are driven by specific design decisions. Frequency of content is often a much bigger driver. (Source)

Quick question, do you think we may see WoW on consoles one day.
The input system (mouse + keyboard) would have to be radically rethought. (Source)

TCG Art Update
Blizzard has updated the TCG art gallery to feature ten new pieces.

SoO Progression, Spoils Video, RBG Queuing, Blue Posts, Hearthstone Wipe, GW2 Trial

New Datamined Patch - Class Changes, Passive Effects, Character slots, Stat caps, Quests, and MUCH more

Patch Blue Posts - Server Upgrades, Balancing After the Patch, Asian Beta Testing

Siege of Orgrimmar Heroic Progression
Method is leading progress with 13/14 bosses down now, followed by seven other guilds at 12/14. Over in the 10 player column, Paragon has managed to kill Paragons, so they are currently leading with 13/14 bosses down.

Heroic Spoils of Pandaria Video
While we are waiting on a Paragons of the Klaxxi video, let's take a look at the Spoils of Pandaria encounter.

Change to Rated Battleground Queuing
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
We’re in the process of applying a hotfix that will restrict a player’s ability to queue for a Rated Battleground if they’ve left one prematurely, until the previous Battleground is completed. Once the hotfix is active, should you find yourself unable to queue for a Rated Battleground immediately after leaving one in progress, you’ll simply need to wait until it has finished and will then be able to queue once again.

Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Raid Finder Difficulty
We're not really seeing a big dramatic shift in completion/failure rates for the first weeks of LFR runs with Flex now in the picture vs. previous tiers, so I think the guesses that Flex is stealing all the good players are probably a bit premature. Probably. But as I said here, we're excited so many people seem to be enjoying Flex, it's going to be preferable to a lot of people over LFR, and of course that's going to have some kind of impact, but it's just too early to know to what extent.

You clearly have not reviewed the data from wing 2. It's about on par with how ridiculous HOF part 2 was, which you had to nerf.
No, we have. Adjustments are quite possible, we already have some LFR Nazgrim tweaks in the works, but we're seeing very reasonable wipe/completion rates on second wing SoO bosses. We're keeping a close eye on things.

5hr lfr and 20 wipes for the entire LFR is reasonable?
Obviously you'll get in groups that have some trouble, and sometimes you'll get in a group that one-shots everything. Individual group to group success rates aren't going to be consistent while people are still learning the fights. But when I refer to overall wipe/success rates I'm referring to overall averages for all LFR groups for all realms of multiple regions. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Raid Finder Difficulty
It's too early to say how the interaction will fully play out between Flex and LFR, but I think it's reasonable to expect that a lot of people will prefer Flex because of its similarities with LFR (as a quick and low pressure way to raid), but without the things they don't like about LFR (Flex requiring a curated and managed group experience) for better rewards, achievements, and mounts, and with friends and guildies if possible. If that's the case, the core LFR audience changes, their reason for doing LFR changes, and it's potentially a world where LFR adapts to fit a more niche role, which could mean changes for challenge and reward to better fit the audience's intended use of it. All speculation of course, but we're certainly watching. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

World of Warcraft: Trivial Pursuit – Now Available!
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
The time has come to put your World of Warcraft knowledge to the ultimate test. You and your friends will be able to tackle 600 questions across 6 categories including: Geography, Player Characters, Lore, Loot, Villains, and Encounters. You’ll also be able to use special hand-crafted Murloc dice and cute sculpted baby Murloc movers in 6 whimsical colors to play in true Warcraft style.

Buy it now on the Blizzard Store, Amazon.com, and at other fine retailers.

SteelSeries Mists of Pandaria Celebration
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Just in time to celebrate the Anniversary of World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria, SteelSeries is offering 50% off of all World of Warcraft gear. From keyboards to mousepads with exclusive game art, you’ll be able to take your gaming to the next level. You'll need to act quickly though, the sale ends September 26th 11:59pm GMT.

Facebook fans will also be able to score some of these great items on the SteelSeries page beginning September 25 through October 9. Make sure to visit their page for more information.

Hearthstone Update - Account Wipe Incoming
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
Hello Hearthstone players (and members of our gracious community still trying to get into the beta)!

Thank you for stopping by to read this important closed beta test update. At the start of the beta, we mentioned that we would reset information at some point, wiping all progress and cards in the process. We built this into our plan as we knew going into the beta that a number of cards were likely to emerge as overpowered and we also knew that we‘d make significant adjustments to the reward system and overall game progression. So, as part of the effort to level the playing field and also prepare our players’ accounts for the release version of our progression system, we made the decision to schedule a one-time wipe of all beta participant accounts. We have just about reached the point in closed beta where we’ll be doing this wipe, and thus wanted to share what that will mean for you, what to expect on the day of the wipe, and what will happen immediately afterwards.

A wipe? What’s a wipe?
If you are participating in the Hearthstone closed beta test, your progress will be reset. This includes your gold, experience and class levels gained through play, arcane dust quantities, cards unlocked through progression, and your medal ranking in Ranked Play mode. When you load up the game afterwards, it will be as if you were starting in Hearthstone as a new player. You’ll have to play the introductory missions once more and show Illidan just how prepared he is! (Spoilers: He’s not.)

When is the wipe happening?
We’re getting ready to release a pretty major beta patch to Hearthstone, and the wipe will coincide with that patch so we can closely monitor testing with the implemented updates.

A patch! What’s in the patch!?
We’ll announce details of the patch in a separate blog, so stay tuned!

I spent real money in Hearthstone! Is that going away!?
No way! As we mentioned in the earlier blog, any money you spent in Hearthstone will be reimbursed as gold, so you will be able to repurchase the same number of packs and Arena tickets you bought previously without additional investment. For each card pack purchased with real money, you’ll get back 100 gold. Each Arena entry will get you back 150 gold. Please note that any packs you purchase after the wipe will be different than the ones you had previously, so it is unlikely that you will receive the same cards again.

A couple examples:
Tim bought the $2.99 bundle for 2 packs during the beta. After the wipe, he will receive 200 gold (100 gold per pack x 2 packs.)
Janet bought the $49.99 bundle for 40 packs during the beta. She also bought 3 Arena entries. Janet will receive 4450 gold (100 gold x 40 packs + 150 gold X 3 Arena runs) after the wipe has been completed.

Like all gold, the reimbursed gold credit can be spent on either packs or Arena tickets. So if you bought a pack bundle previously, and would prefer to use your gold credit towards Arena entry, that’s available as an option.

Did you know: Getting back a lot of gold and need to buy a lot of packs at the same time? You can buy mass quantities of packs with gold by double-clicking on the brown “1 Pack” button in the store!

I helped test the store and got a Golden Gelbin Mekkatorque card! Is he wiped too?
Your good friend Gelbin will be waiting for you as soon as you complete the Illidan introductory mission. As soon as you’ve completed that mission you will receive the “Beta Hero” quest reward which will grant you Gelbin, as well as the gold credit for any purchases made prior to the wipe.

Will there be any wipes in the future?
We don’t anticipate any further wipes. This goes for both the Hearthstone beta and after the game’s official release. Any progress made during the beta after the wipe will be retained through the release of Hearthstone, such as new cards you obtain, levels that you gain and ranks you achieve. Basically, you’ll now be able to keep your stuff.

Wait, how will this work for Korea, Taiwan, and China? Closed beta hasn’t even started there yet!
Korea, Taiwan, and China will not be wiped. The wipe only applies to the beta participants currently playing in the North American and European beta tests.

Guild Wars 2 Trial Week
Guild Wars 2 is having another trial week from September 27 to October 3. There is also a new update coming out on October 1, the Twilight Assault.

GuildOx launches Flex Raid ranking
WoW ranking database GuildOx has just announced a new feature -- world-first Flex guild progress ranking for Flex raid groups. According to data gathered by the fine folks at GuildOx, 64% of guilds that have raided Siege of Orgrimmar on normal mode have also completed kills using Flexible Raids as well. Given the popularity of the format, GuildOx decided to create a ranking list for guilds that raid on that difficulty. Flex ranking works the same as the usual raid progress ranking, with guilds being ranked by the number of encounters completed, and the date of their last kill.

For players that are diving full-force into Flex raids, the new rankings list should be a nice addition. And for players that haven't delved into Flex raids, it's interesting to see just how many guilds are taking that step, and how far they've gotten in the content. Myself, I'm curious as to how the rankings will be received -- since Flex raids can take any number of people, they're an entirely different animal than 10 or 25 man raiding. With 10 man ranking, you know you're being ranked against other 10 man guilds, and the same applies to 25 man raiding as well. But with Flex, you could be raiding with 12, and another guild with 24.

Interesting questions aside, it's nice to see we've got a ranking system in place for Flex raiding enthusiasts. As always, rank listings can be filtered and sorted by region or server. You can check out the full list of ranked guilds and their progress on GuildOx.

It's a shame, but no, no-one counts Asia due to the different lockouts and the bloated ilevels.

so why's asia get special treatment

Ya everyone complained about the shared 10/25 lockouts, so why's asia get special treatment.

because their gaming culture is different. You don't serve fried chicken at the royal wedding, and you don't offer haggis at a Tx bbq.

Mom! More hot pockets.

Patch 5.4 Drop Rates, SoO Progression, Upcoming Pet Changes, Blue Posts, Fan Art
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Wyatt Cheng on Health Pools and Combat - Part II, Differences Between the Templar and Crusader (Discussion), New Wallpaper: Book of Tyrael

Patch 5.4 Raid Finder and Flex Drop Rates
Now that we have a few weeks worth of data on WoWDB, we can talk a little bit about the Raid Finder and Flex difficulty drop rates.

World Boss Drop Rates
Celestials - 21% item drop rate. The Celestial Treasure Box drops 79% of the time.
Nalak - 18% item drop rate. The Stormtouched Cache dropped 82% of the time.
Ordos - 15% item drop rate. The Flame-Scarred Cache of Offerings dropped 85% of the time.
Oondasta - 19% drop rate. The Shiny Pile of Refuse dropped 81% of the time.
Galleon - 17% item drop rate. The Marauder's Gleaming Sack of Gold dropped 83% of the time.

Raid Boss Drop Rates
Siege of Orgrimmar Raid Finder - 25% item drop rate. The Twisted Treasures of the Vale and Coalesced Turmoil drop 75% of the time.
Throne of Thunder Raid Finder (Pre Patch 5.4) - ~16% item drop rate. The Treasures of the Thunder King dropped ~84% of the time.
Siege of Orgrimmar Flex - 25% item drop rate. The Twisted Treasures of the Vale and Coalesced Turmoil drop 75% of the time.

Siege of Orgrimmar Heroic Progression
Method and Blood Legion are leading progress with 13/14 bosses down now, followed by six other guilds at 12/14. Over in the 10 player column, Paragon is still leading with 13/14 bosses down.

Upcoming Pet Changes
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
We have a few hotfixes to share with you and these changes should be in game now, or will take effect once the realms have been restarted:

Pierre and Rascal-Bot are no longer Bind on Pickup; they can now be caged and you can collect up to 3 of each.
Rascal-Bot's Phaser spell is now a one-round ability. The tooltip still erroneously states that it is a two-round ability which we plan to correct at a later date.
Jadefire Spirit's Fade ability now has an eight-round cooldown.

Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Raid Finder Difficulty
You would think with all this LFR SoO complaints that Blizzard would get the message but they're still in denial...
You may have missed my second post. Or are you dismissing a lack of immediate change and specific hotfix notes as indifference?

This guy gets it. You don't make people better players by smoothing to road for them. You do it by handing them a shovel and saying "here's the tools, fix it yourself".
That's an unfortunately common outlook, that if you just made stuff harder for people they'd aspire to greatness. But we know that's not how it works for everyone, or how all people respond to challenges, or necessarily what everyone is even looking for in their entertainment. We're getting into social commentary territory which I'd like to avoid, but let's dismiss the notion that any of us "know what's best" for any other person, and instead accept their preferences as absolutely valid, and think and discuss about what the issues and solutions are from that viewpoint instead of focusing on how to tell other people they're enjoying their game incorrectly. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Hunter (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Patch 5.4 and Deterrence
I understand why there would be some confusion about Deterrence's function in 5.4. And yes, it's a nerf in cases where you were using it more or less on cooldown every minute for longer than about 4 minutes.

However, in cases where you'd like to use it more than once inside a 1-minute period, the new Deterrence is a significant buff. Previously, that couldn't be done without using Readiness, and the vast majority of players weren't saving Readiness for Deterrence.

It's different now, sure, but we like how the new version is working. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Blue Tweets
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
PvE
Why don't you make all raid modes share the same lockout? That way they won't have to hate such an awesome feature.
We like the idea that e.g. a HC guild could run a flex on another night for those folks who care about achievements. (Source)
FWIW, in 5.0 when my old guild was dead, LFR was the only way I was able to run those raids. So I am all for it
I am a HC raider, but if I log on an alt at 10 AM on a Sun, I don't want to have to look for guildies. LFR works great for that. (Source)

Do you think that this bias towards / insistence on larger raids leads to overemphasizing AE heals as a necessary consequence?
In 10s it's easier to coordinate and 25s easier to specialize, which leads to just doing one thing over and over. (Source)
I believe 25s are more fun personally and think better for the game strategically, but concede healing more fun in 10s. (Source)
I feel 10s are better socially. 25 is too many people I don't know well enough to care about or listen to.
Some truth to that, but 10s also have to be more selective & are less resilient to losing folks. In that way, 25s good for social. (Source)
seems the changes your making 10 man's are becoming worthless and second place to 25 man raids. how long b4 10 mans are gone
10s are in no danger of going anywhere. 25s remain in danger despite the advantages you are worried about. (Source)

so the next xpac will be another cataclysm, you had this talk before that launch about difficulty and need to change
No, the problem with Cat was there was no alternatives to HC dungeons. As I said, exclusive is fine as long as alternative exist. (Source)
That has me worried. The early cata zones is what made me leave last time!
Zones (meaning the outdoor leveling content) or dungeons? The discussion was about dungeons.... (Source)

does the vast diversity of player skill pose problems in content design?
Absolutely. Often players can use gear (which is generally a function of time invested) to help make up the difference. (Source)

Why not open heroics first week so heroic guilds dont load up on Ngear with multiple raids and the tiers last a little longer?
Seeing the encounters for one week in normal helps us catch last minute problems. (Source)
Imagine first kill of a heroic boss was 60 sec without cheating. Do we then buff the boss? Do we strip them of their kill? (Source)

If organized gameplay is "the heart and soul" of wow, why is only a minority part of this "heart and soul"?
Queuing for random matchmaking is very convenient. Our concern is that those players burn out quickly without social connections. (Source)

why the hell can i get a cloak off ordos when you need a legendary cloak to even fight him. Waste of a drop.
You can access Ordos if any character on your account has a cloak I believe. (Source)

WoWDB Addon Data Collection
Collecting data on things like the 5.4 drop rates is done with the help of thousands of players. The more people that contribute data, the more accurate and quickly we can update the database.

To help out, just click here if you have Curse Client already installed.

When you are playing the addon will gather data and save it. When you are done playing, Curse Client will see the game close and upload the collected data from the addon. You can see the last time data was uploaded by looking in the Plugins tab of the options, as well as making sure the addon is enabled there. If you don't normally leave it open, be sure you open Curse Client once in a while so that the data will upload

Heroic Garrosh Defeated, SoO Heroic Progression, Blue Tweets, Setup of the Month
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AH Update, Blizzard Working on Cinematic Auto-Skipping, Book of Tyrael at NY Comic Con, Curse Weekly Roundup

Heroic Garrosh Defeated
The 10 player Heroic Garrosh encounter has been defeated in Asia by . The group had a 573+ item level, compared to the top US and EU guilds that currently have a 565 item level.

Siege of Orgrimmar Heroic Progression
Method, Blood Legion, and Exorsus are leading progress with 13/14 bosses down now, followed by five other guilds at 12/14. Over in the 10 player column, Paragon and Depraved are leading with 13/14 bosses down.

Blue Tweets
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Class Balance Discussion
For discussion: How to solve the problem that most class discussions happen in sequestered class forums, which tend to have an echo chamber? (Source)
must ask whats good bout discussion? Just lots of opinons?maybe in game sticky so anyone can say what they likehate bout class
Discussions tend to dismantle weak arguments and let stronger ones rise to the top. Discussions are like lists + evolution. (Source)
Doesn't stop many common opinions in the community that have been dismantled time and time again.
I agree with that, though I think that's a function of online discussion forums typically having rapid turnover. (Source)

change the format. and both use formats which generate a lot of traction. Forums are becoming antiquated.
Videos take too long to watch (esp with ads). I don't get the appeal. I like Reddit though. (Source)

..and that brings it back to my initial problem. The echo chamber argument is pretty weak....
I agree with Lhivera. The echo chamber effect resists debates and encourages brofisting. (Source)
Sounds harsh and elitist, but their progress and experience tells the same story 95% of the time.
But aren't you essentially arguing that the players are usually right? That is by far not the case. They are right... sometimes. (Source)

Arguments for a real problem and for a bogus problem will look very similar in a brofisting context.
Think of it from our POV, where there are always far more demands from players than the game really needs. (Source)
Separating good arguments from bad is non-trivial, so seeing a healthy debate w/ many POVs can help us make that distinction. (Source)

also enforces groupthink around "my class sucks".
And anyone who intrudes to disagree either "doesn't understand our issues" or is accused of trolling. (Source)
I'll say it again: You will never get as good feedback as you will get from the class specific forums. Ever.
Not from where I sit. Now it's possible to have healthy debate in class forums, but I rarely see it, and I read a lot of forums. (Source)

I think that would just move the echo chamber somewhere else. Vidcast discussion panels with top players/TCs.
It's interesting that panels and podcasts tend to invite dissenting opinions (w/in reason). (Source)
I think they understand that (softly) competitive structure yields more interesting & informed discussions. (Source)
I disagree that it's the format - more the interaction. If there's more from blues I believe you'd see more healthy discussion
The problem is the developers themselves are very busy and can't afford to spend hours per day in forums. (Twitter is fast.) (Source)

Why is the echo chamber a problem? Not trying to be sarcastic; trying to understand what alternate state is desired.
We're not saying there aren't class problems, but when everything is portrayed as a crisis, it's hard to know really needs fixing. (Source)
The echo chamber effect can also cause thought leaders or eloquent posters to create mountains out of molehills. (Source)
It's nice to get a "um your DPS is fine" dissenting opinion, but those "trolls" get chased out of class-specific threads. (Source)
you're guilty of this sort over tweets. 'We like where xx is at'. Some weeks later hotfix or minor patch and buffs appear
That is ultimately the system working though. Sometimes players convince us a change is necessary. Other times data prove us wrong. (Source)

Legitimate contributors are discouraged from posting because of toxic abusive posters. Remove problems, contributors return?
I used to subscribe to that more, but over moderation can also create fear and resentment. (Source)
It's also something we can't enforce on websites other than our own, but conversations certainly take place there. (Source)

Bold idea: remove class forums. No echo. "Answers/Advice For New Players" can be its own forum instead.
It's not strictly a "class subforum" problem. Even general forums spawn class-specific threads. (Source)

And to be clear, I do think that blues should always be very careful when they decide to post in a class forum.
I don't personally post in class forums anymore (or rarely anywhere). It caused more QQ than it solved IMO. (Source)
Even today you see Why didn't we get posts / as many posts / as many substantial posts / more posts b/c our issues are worse? (Source)

Reputation / Questing
I should clarify... levelling ONE char was fun. Levelling more in MoP was not.
That's fair criticism. We hoped that choices like Four Winds vs. Krasarang would help the second time around. (Source)

I'm wondering, how do you guys consider MOP levelling? A success, failure / could be better? I find it rather boring.
We think it was probably a little slow overall. At launch, you did a bunch of quests and saw the XP bar grow only a little. (Source)
We buffed the leveling speed a patch or two ago. It feels better now IMO. (Source)

can we get option to show rep gain in quest dialog?
We explored this, but many quests offer rep for multiple factions (like e.g. all Alliance cities) and it was really spammy. (Source)

So you'd rather people get burnt out on gearing, than actually participate because it's fun?
We find most players won't participate in any activity without motivation from rewards that improve power. (Source)
In fact the opposite can also be true: if we're not careful, players will engage in unfun things just for the power rewards. (Source)
You mean daily quests?
Or chain running Mechanar. Or farming Sunwell trash. The list goes on. (Source)

I hate to sound like an echo chamber, but dailies feeling required are why I'm not playing Mists.
I think your information might be fairly old. The new patch has virtually no dailies. It still has a lot to do. (Source)

Method downed 25H Garrosh 4-5 hours ago.