Update from Tigole on 2.1

Tahotar · 04/02/07, 2:24 PM

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/th...88680668&sid=1

It sounds like they are addressing most of the concerns that have been brought up by the raiding community. Whether or not their fixes will be successful remains to be seen. Sounds like the patch is at least 3-4 weeks away.

Antiarc · 04/02/07, 2:26 PM

It'll be really interesting to see how this affects melee DPS positions. I'll have to admit that I'm slightly worried about the fury warrior-rogue dynamic, just like pre-2.0. Our fury wars are already unmatchable by melee when paired with a shammy.

• Snowy · 04/02/07, 2:28 PM

Encouraging to read about the trash situation. Interesting to see that we're to expect big changes in flasks as well as elixirs -- but no mention of potions which is in some ways the biggest offender of all.

levk · 04/02/07, 2:28 PM

Here's what it says:

Lately, I’ve been seeing a lot of posts about the same subjects – subjects that have been addressed in an upcoming patch – so I wanted to let you guys know where things stood.

The Rogue Situation

We’ve done a tuning pass of many of our dungeons/bosses/encounters to ensure that nothing overly punishing occurs to “melee DPS’ that would lead people to favor ranged DPS over Rogues/DPS Warriors etc.

Also, we’ve changed the NPC cleave mechanic so that it’s now a frontal cone ability rather than a 360 degree chain attack. Sweeping Strikes has been removed from all Burning Crusade NPC’s.
We’re also reducing the Glancing Blow damage penalty for creatures 1-3 levels higher than the player. This will have a significant effect on melee DPS as it relates to endgame melee dps. More details on this at a later time.

End Game Itemization

As we’ve stated before, we made a lot of improvements to endgame gear progression. To put it in perspective, take a look at this Warrior Tanking Breastplate from before and after.

Destroyer Chestguard – Currently
+24 Strength
+22 Agility
+39 Stamina
Blue Socket
Yellow Socket
Red Socket
Socket Bonus +6 Stamina
Equip: Increases Defense Rating by 23
Equip: Increases your dodge rating by 16
Equip: Improves hit rating by 18

Destroyer Chestguard – Patch 2.1.0
+21 Strength
+22 Agility
+51 Stamina
Blue Socket
Yellow Socket
Red Socket
Socket Bonus +6 Stamina
Equip: Increases Defense Rating by 23
Equip: Increases your dodge rating by 20
Equip: Improved hit rating by 20

”Trash” Concerns

Equally interesting yet non-epic-dropping non-bosses (or “Trash” as he community likes to call it) has been of concern lately on these forums. In all of our 25 person raid zones we’ve made a number of bug fixes and tuning adjustments. For example, the trash should be significantly easier to clear in most cases – and take less time. Also, we’ve lengthened the time between respawn on a lot of the trash. Yes, trash will respawn in some cases. It’s a pacing mechanic and one that works well when tuned correctly. For example, the trash before the Prophet Skeram or the trash before Attumen the Huntsmen or the Maiden of Virtue works well. You get a couple of tries on the boss, and if you fail, you spend a short time re-clearing. Yes, there are cases of the trash respawning too fast or the trash being too difficult or too lengthy. Those are the cases we hope to fix. We’ve also fixed some bugs that were allowing the trash to respawn after the boss for a certain area was dead.

Consumables

We’re making substantial changes to the way certain consumables work . In particular, Flasks and Elixirs are going to undergo major changes. More information will be available later on. We want Flasks and Elixirs to be a part of the game. We want alchemy to be a cool, needed profession. But we want to remove the tedium and cost from the massive consumable farming that’s going on for endgame raiding. We’ll provide more information soon – but for now, expect big changes to Flasks and Elixirs.

Boss Tuning

We’re looking at the boss tuning from dungeons to heroics to raids. Your feedback is being listened to.

To Summarize

We’re making big improvements to the game. Whenever possible, we hotfix changes to get them to you as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, there are many changes that require a patch and cannot be hotfixed. Many of these changes are coming in Patch 2.1.0. The patch will be on PTR’s in the upcoming weeks. You’ll be able to see them there and try them out for yourselves. You’ll also be able to test Black Temple. We’re also looking into ways of making Hyjal accessible on the PTR as well to get more testing on that zone.

I can assure you that we’re aware of the issues you guys are discussing on the boards and we’re listening closely. We’re also dedicated fans of the game ourselves. We play it every day =D We will affect change as quickly as we can. Patch 2.1.0 will be on the PTR soon enough and you’ll all have the opportunity to comment and make suggestions on the changes

Grogzor · 04/02/07, 2:29 PM

Good thing for rogues I see. Now hopefully they can be consistently Number 1 on dps where they belong...on most fights anyway.

And thank god they are relooking at Alchemy...i got by with 30g of consumables a night...i am sure others had a lot harder time then i did.

Kalman · 04/02/07, 2:29 PM

Originally Posted by Tigole

Also, we’ve changed the NPC cleave mechanic so that it’s now a frontal cone ability rather than a 360 degree chain attack. Sweeping Strikes has been removed from all Burning Crusade NPC’s.

We’re also reducing the Glancing Blow damage penalty for creatures 1-3 levels higher than the player.

For example, the trash should be significantly easier to clear in most cases – and take less time. Also, we’ve lengthened the time between respawn on a lot of the trash.

We’re making substantial changes to the way certain consumables work . In particular, Flasks and Elixirs are going to undergo major changes.

Bolding is mine, words are Tigole's.

Kazanir · 04/02/07, 2:32 PM

I'm glad he didn't post this yesterday.

Malan · 04/02/07, 2:35 PM

"non-epic-dropping-non-bosses"
haha.
Yah that's definitely what I think of when we pull the non CC-able one-shotting mobs.

Waz · 04/02/07, 2:36 PM

Originally Posted by Kazanir

I'm glad he didn't post this yesterday.

No kidding. I really hope they do a good job with this patch and make raiding fun again. Sounds like they are on the right track. Looking forward to hearing what the changes are to consumables. And testing Hyjal, BT on PTR, that is great news.

• Hamlet · 04/02/07, 2:37 PM

I'm going to work "equally interesting yet non-epic-dropping non-bosses" into my common raid-leader parlance.

"EIYNEDNB"

kharen · 04/02/07, 2:39 PM

Originally Posted by Kazanir

I'm glad he didn't post this yesterday.

I have to admit, my first thought upon reading it was "it's not still the first in the US, right?"

Daeus · 04/02/07, 2:40 PM

I believe thats why he didn't post this yesterday.

If they made Elixer last through death that wouldn't be so bad. Or not allow the stacking of Flask/Elixers that would also help. On easy bosses you can just Elixer up for cheap mats.

Atleast it's postive to see them learning from the clusterfuck that is SSC/TK and opening up Hyjal Testing along with Black temple hopefully this leads to more tuned/Polished Encounters

cladnin · 04/02/07, 2:40 PM

Originally Posted by Grogzor

Good thing for rogues I see. Now hopefully they can be consistently Number 1 on dps where they belong...on most fights anyway.

And thank god they are relooking at Alchemy...i got by with 30g of consumables a night...i am sure others had a lot harder time then i did.

Hundreds per night is not out of line currently. Possible April Fool the day after

? I doubt they'd be so cruel.

thebuddha · 04/02/07, 2:42 PM

It's nice to finally see them admit to the glaring issues when it comes to TBC raiding, but unfortunately for some it's too late.

Even a month to have to wait for these changes will feel like an eternity.

It's probably too late now, but I would have much better seen all those changes go in 2.1 and have Black Temple be 2.2 but whatever.

boomix · 04/02/07, 2:43 PM

Originally Posted by Arawethion

I'm going to work "equally interesting yet non-epic-dropping non-bosses" into my common raid-leader parlance.

"EIYNEDNB"

/shudder

On another note I agree with another post that Elixirs should last through death. The way I'd like to see it done would be. In order to make elixir last through death it would require 2 extra of each plant used along with another plant, something like useless plant Ragveil x 10. Then that plant would not be so useless. In practice mini-flasks.

tekmatt · 04/02/07, 2:43 PM

Originally Posted by thebuddha

Even a month to have to wait for these changes will feel like an eternity.

I'm sure it will be on the test server for at least a month, let alone it actually getting to the test server.

levk · 04/02/07, 2:45 PM

His post is dated 04/02/2007 11:04:22 AM PDT so yeah, I don't think it's a joke, besides why would it be, it's not funny.

Abaxial · 04/02/07, 2:48 PM

I was a bit surprised to see the glancing blows change. This has made me a bit less worried about the future of things to come.

Cryect · 04/02/07, 2:53 PM

Looks good besides they are holding it off till 2.1.0.

Now I only wish someone could convince blizzard to give some sort of developer notes once a week or something so their customers don't feel like they are getting completely ignored.

Malan · 04/02/07, 2:53 PM

Interesting, look at his wording at the bottom of the post about Black Temple and Hyjal.

You'll be able to test Black Temple

vs

looking into ways of making Hyjal accessible on the PTR as well to get more testing

Seems to me this means that BT does not have significant keying process, whereas Hyjal of course does since it requires Vash and Kael kills. The keying being the part they'd have to "look into" in order to put Hyjal on the PTR and allow *everyone* access to it.

aarkh · 04/02/07, 2:53 PM

Yay, communication.

It's nice to see something finally, and who knows, maybe these will be the magical fixes to everything. It still doesn't change the fact that they need a whole community of players to scream at them before they get to changing something as mindbogglingly out of control as consumables. They should be seeing these problems beforehand on their own.

Maybe with 2.1 WoW the raid game will again be just as attractive as it used to be, but this whole ordeal has left me just a little distrustful of their conduct in the future.

Playered · 04/02/07, 2:54 PM

Chest goes from ilvl 101~ to ilvl 109~ (unknown bonus armor ontop?)
Would of been better to see an example of an item worse for wear on budget than this, but still its an atleast a step in the right direction, add another 10sta and some bonus armor and it comes quite nicely close to budget.

Edit: doesn't seem to be any bonus armor on it (odd?), anyway so its still 10 ilvls short, but better than 20

@ Malan they need to create a dummy attunement method instead of one that currently exists is all, BT however they can start without adding it in so people can test the content. I very highly doubt there will be an ability to -leap frog- up past the old content to get there, unless ofcourse they make you unable to brute force it thanks to the consumable nerf/itemization buff.

♦ Praetorian · 04/02/07, 2:54 PM

Originally Posted by tekmatt

I'm sure it will be on the test server for at least a month, let alone it actually getting to the test server.

Yeah, I don't see how we're going to see this on the live servers until May, even if it hits the PTR tomorrow, and the tone of his post overall doesn't suggest that the PTR is going up tomorrow. But it's sure as hell better than silence.

Originally Posted by levk

His post is dated 04/02/2007 11:04:22 AM PDT so yeah, I don't think it's a joke, besides why would it be, it's not funny.

Are you kidding me?

groktar · 04/02/07, 2:56 PM

Originally Posted by Malan

Seems to me this means that BT does not have significant keying process, whereas Hyjal of course does since it requires Vash and Kael kills. The keying being the part they'd have to "look into" in order to put Hyjal on the PTR and allow *everyone* access to it.

Or they could spawn Jimmy McWeaksauce in Shatt and have him sell BT keys.

Grogzor · 04/02/07, 2:56 PM

Now what they need to do is give rogues a Finishing move that is like

per combo point makes a mob more susceptible to physical damage by 2/4/6/8/10% for 20 secs, that would Cure ALL PROBLEMS IN WOW.

But anyway, nice changes to that warrior piece.