Blue Tracker RSS and Other Updates, WoR Recruitment, Blue Posts

This weekend is a bit slow for news since the new year activities are still winding down, but we should have quite a bit of content coming over the next two weeks.

WoW Blue Tracker Update

We've made a few updates to the WoW Blue Tracker since it was released this past week.  Below is a list of what's new and a few fixes; these are primarily thanks to the feedback so far, so keep it coming!

• RSS is here, and it's available in a number of different ways!  You can get an RSS of all posts, a specific category, or even a specific blue poster like Ghostcrawler.  Please leave us feedback if you'd like additional RSS options.
• Now when viewing a thread, you will see a number at the beginning of a blue post.  This is their post number in the thread, giving you an idea of how many total posts are between each blue post.  Take this Rune Strike discussion as an example; you'll notice that Ghostcrawler's reply is #3 in the thread.
• You can now link directly to a specific reply within a thread similar to the WoW forums.  You can access the URL for this link via the number associated with that reply.
• Fixed a few CSS bugs with page layouts that caused them to display really oddly in some situations.
• Fixed some issues with the "All" category which were preventing it from truly tracking all forum categories.  They should now display even if you don't see them in the tracker's category list.
• The Blue Tracker tab should now be highlighted when viewing the Blue Tracker, instead of the Home tab.  Another fix will be coming shortly that will add its tab to the forum navigation.

World of Raids Recruitment

As mentioned last week, recruitment is now closed.  I'll begin contacting potential staff members this coming week, so if you sent in an application keep an eye on your email's inbox!  Please do not email us asking for a status update on this; if you titled your subject as requested (following directions is important) you will be getting a response, whether you're brought on to the team or not.

Clarification: Ghostcrawler's Healing in Arenas Comments

Recently Ghostcrawler made a comment on the forums that really set a lot of people off about healing in arenas.  This is a fairly important clarification, so I think it deserves its own spot rather than in the middle of a bunch of blue posts.

Healing in Arenas

I made an unclear post that ended up setting a lot of people off. I did not mean dps classes should be able to faceroll healers. I did not mean that one dps should be a match for one healer. I did not mean that CC should have no role in Arenas. I did not mean that healing should have no role in Arenas. I did not mean that we think healers are finally getting their just deserts in season 5.

The best way I can think to say it is: Burst damage should not dominate Arenas. Crowd control should not dominate Arenas. Healing should not dominate Arenas.

I don't think this is really news to people who have been doing Arenas very long.

Blue Posts

On Healing Overhaul

I have given an ETA and I will give another one. It will be a long time. Do not look for it in the next patch or so. We want to take a comprehensive look at healing the way we did at tanking, and that took a long time. Healing may even be trickier to change. I also always add when I comment on this topic that you should not assume that all or even most healers hate healing or even find it clunky at best. Many players love healing and we have to be careful not to break the game for them.

Current State of Arenas

We (Blizzard) are talking about the current state of Arena. It's not appropriate for me to say anything about it yet because honestly we need more discussions with our entire design team. It isn't fair for me to give you my opinions without consulting them (and it's a long conversation), particularly not on something that elicits such passionate responses from players. Anything that brings about this much discussion from the community (and I don't think it's just QQ) is going to promote discussions at Blizzard.

Healing vs. Damage in Arenas

No, this was actually my point. When shamans see the only way to kill a healer to be a stun, silence or mana drain, then they understandably ask for those abilities (and probably MS too). We don't want Arena to be a system where every class has the same tools and just endlessly counter each other. Damage in Arenas needs to be a factor.

On Arena / Chess Comparison

I also strongly agree with this. This is where the chess analogy fails IMO, because it typically isn't about coordination, team work and fast reflexes. This (the quote) is exactly what Arena should be in my mind. I think maybe some of the confusion comes from interpreting my comments to mean "And I think we have achieved that right now." I didn't say that. I was talking more about what we think the ideal Arena should be (and I asked in another thread for player opinions too).

Brief Comment on Healer's Role in Arenas

I think that is a very long answer, and one that many of the people who have been doing Arenas for 5 seasons could answer.

I will just leave it at this: When you put a healer on your team, you need to feel that the dps you lose from not having another dps class is more than offset by the survivability brought by the healing. I'm cool with all damage teams existing, so long as there aren't too many of them and they take big risks from neglecting healing.

Current Healing in Arenas Comments

Yes, I said that. If you are disagreeing with that remark, then you are essentially saying "It shouldn't be a viable tactic to kill a healer."

If you aren't saying that, then all we're really quibbling over is a matter of degree.

I didn't say it should be trivial to kill a healer. I purposefully didn't specify how many people it should take to kill a healer. I didn't say that we were happy with how easy it is to currently kill a healer. But if you are anticipating a point where you just laugh at warriors or shamans or other classes without brutal CC and drains, then you might be disappointed.

Healer PvP Rings

I'll look into the healer ring issue.

The mp5 is a different story and gets into the whole larger issue of what is that stat supposed to do and who is it for if not paladins?

Damage in Arenas

I would say we are definitely worried that players are dying too fast, particularly to a handful of specs that combine high damage with high survivability. We know resilience will make a difference, but they jury is still out on whether it will make enough of a difference. Regardless, it's clear a lot of players aren't having fun, so it is something we are talking about.

Replacing Naxx Gear with PvP Gear

• Right now they can kill you quickly, so they might as well have 20 health.
• Once they can’t kill you as quickly (because you have more resilience) then their defense becomes more important. Unless you are on the legendary 3 healer comp, your side can do some damage too. If the healers survive longer, then everyone has to worry more about defense.
• Now some players (esp. rogues) with too much innate survivability have been able to avoid PvP gear in the past, or reach the resil cap so easily that they can mix in high dps PvE gear as well. This is definitely a concern with paladins and DKs at the moment.
• If your contention is that no amount of resilience is going to keep them from three-shotting you, then the attackers are never going to need defense because the battles will never last long enough. That is why we are trying to predict what things will be like with more resilience so we know how much we have to backfill.

Level 1-79 Balance Consideration

We do take them into consideration. For example, we do put some thought into the structure of the talent trees based on when classes get new abilities. Part of the whole design of hierloom items was to give players who have reached max level a reason to go try another (for some of us, yet another) class.

We don't spend much effort balancing PvP or PvE for levels below the max level, since nearly all player balance concerns are about max level.

PvP DPS Hierarchy

That hierarchy is largely a structure for PvE. I don't know how well it maps to PvP at all. Strength in PvP has a lot more to do with a handful of specific abilities. Ultimately the goal is the same -- we have had classes and specs that historically were not very viable in Arenas, and that's not what we want. It is just a lot harder to fix for PvP because balance is so dependent on the specifics of those abilities and testing is so limited by the skill of the players involved. There is no test dummy on which to test PvP effectiveness.

Resilience and Arena Gear

What I have said is that damage will be lower with high resilience. I don't anyone argues that point -- it's mostly just math. So then the question becomes how far off we will be then (what I said in my last post).

We want Arena gear to be attractive. If we get to the point where players can survive without it, then the Arena rewards are less desirable. If we get to the point where players can hit the cap too easily, then they can mix in PvE gear and we have the raid-in-order-to-Arena problem. If we over-compensate and nobody can kill anyone, then you risk a world where the best drain teams win and there won't be a spot for classes that emphasize damage over crowd control (warlocks and shamans perhaps).

I think most players agree on what things should feel like when everyone has good gear -- something akin to the best parts of the previous seasons (and ideally with broader class representation). If you buy that, then the question is how we get there and what things should feel like in the early seasons.

Deathknight (Skills / Talents / Glyphs)

Rune Strike

Rune Strike is largely to make up for the fact that DK tanks are really penalized for failing to land attacks. For example if you open with a Plague Strike and get a miss or dodge, your rotation is thrown off and your threat will be lower.

It is dependent on a proc so that you have an incentive to hit other buttons and to make it less useful when doing dps. It is on next swing so that it doesn't tie up a GCD. It can't be avoided so that DKs who miss a Plague Strike and a Rune Strike aren't doubly screwed.

Hunter (Skills / Talents / Glyphs)

Upcoming Hunter Changes

On the actual topic, we are pretty happy with the numbers we can generate for hunters with the changes. However, I will certainly bring up with the team that many hunters have posted (some even after testing) that the nerfs were too severe, especially to BM.

Beast Mastery Talent Should Not Define Tree

That is not our design. If the 51-point talent defines the tree then you are closing the door on a hybrid spec of some kind ever being viable. The rest of a talent tree should not be filler to reach the 51 pointer. That is why we budget them exactly the same as the first tier talents. Now there are specs for which the 51 feels more mandatory and those for which it feels less mandatory. We’re okay with that too. Talent trees should be diverse and what works for one class might not work for another.

Hunter Pets: Cats and Scorpids

I don’t think I was clear enough: the PTR build does not reflect the new numbers for cat and scorpid. If I remember, I will post what those new numbers are since there seems to be a lot of concern about it (but I don't have them in front of me).

Scorpid Poison Bug

It's not intended, but we also aren't jumping through a lot of hoops to make scorpids even more popular right now. Once we get the pets more equal, then we'll see if we can get this fixed.

One suggestion that has come up a lot if just getting rid of the stacking altogether. It's neat that it makes the scorpid different from the other pets, but it has been a balance problem for some time.

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