2.4 PTR and Patch Notes - Page 174

gia · 03/24/08, 6:17 AM

Originally Posted by Zapf

Wow, I can taste the cynicism from here. I could imagine a variety of reasons you would find a lock with some random piece of healing gear that would not indicate some problem with his or her intelligence - an actual upgrade from their last piece in that slot (completely plausible with the healing -> damage conversion on pieces now), hasn't put the time in to search out quest rewards or quest in general to find a more appropriate piece, etc. Its not like we're talkin about offensive casters in full mooncloth here (On a similar note, I did see an armory showing a lock wearing the belt - prior to the +healing changes.).

I've seen warlocks in full S1 honor gear with red +healing gems in all sockets, I think their reasoning is that they are somehow trying to boost the healing from siphon life and drain life.

• Sservis · 03/24/08, 1:24 PM

Originally Posted by Emeraude

To answer your first question, the NPC that sells the title doesn't appear until you take the main building(The Harbor), and he's at the top floor, after that you just need exalted to see the actual quest.

To answer your second question, there was nothing about gem transmutation except for taking little uncommon gems and making 1 rare gem.

I don't know why you seem to think that.

Alpha leaks for the Burning Crusade didn't hit the public until later July/early August, and then it was just a few talents, and new starting zones, the game still took months after the initial leaks to get into a beta, and finally release at the end of January.

We're almost at April, and there's really been nothing save a few updates on the WotLK about 3 of the zones, in addition Blizzard isn't just making new races, they're designing an entire new class, balance balance balance. Until we get all of the zones published on the website, and leaked alpha talents I wouldn't expect WotLK for a summer release. Hell Kalgan was talking about spell concepts for Warlocks a few weeks ago, and those weren't even set in stone.

Amazon lists the release date for preorders as Nov 30, 2008. Gamestop has Nov 03, 2008 as the date although they have a disclaimer on their date. It looks like businesses that I'd expect to be giving as good information as anyone's speculation believe that it's scheduled for the same holiday timeframe as TBC. Like TBC, who knows when it will actually come out until Blizzard says something about it.

Lookit · 03/24/08, 1:43 PM

Originally Posted by Sservis

Amazon lists the release date for preorders as Nov 30, 2008. Gamestop has Nov 03, 2008 as the date although they have a disclaimer on their date. It looks like businesses that I'd expect to be giving as good information as anyone's speculation believe that it's scheduled for the same holiday timeframe as TBC. Like TBC, who knows when it will actually come out until Blizzard says something about it.

Amazon.co.uk: Duke Nukem Forever (PC): PC & Video Games

Hey, what do you know. Duke Nukem Forever is coming out on November 30, 2008 too!

Guess I'll preorder both.

Edit: Which is to say, retailer release dates are completely made up and meaningless.

• Bluefish · 03/24/08, 2:33 PM

The blue PvP sets have their own 2-piece bonus for 35 Resilience, which will probably be enough to edge out most Heroic drops and some Kz items for PvP purposes.

Maligne · 03/24/08, 3:02 PM

Originally Posted by Bluefish

The blue PvP sets have their own 2-piece bonus for 35 Resilience, which will probably be enough to edge out most Heroic drops and some Kz items for PvP purposes.

Does anyone know if the blue sets count towards the gladiator bonuses (and vice versa)? The same way that multiple seasons count toward each other's bonuses.

• Caniki · 03/24/08, 3:05 PM

Originally Posted by Maligne

Does anyone know if the blue sets count towards the gladiator bonuses (and vice versa)? The same way that multiple seasons count toward each other's bonuses.

According to mmo-champion, they're not part of the Gladiator gearset, but part of the Battlegear gearset, so I suspect that the bonuses do not count towards each other. I have no hard evidence though.

Unseen · 03/24/08, 3:59 PM

Originally Posted by droeber

According to mmo-champion, they're not part of the Gladiator gearset, but part of the Battlegear gearset, so I suspect that the bonuses do not count towards each other. I have no hard evidence though.

This is most likely correct. The lvl 70 hwl set (which was available for honor during s1) didn't count towards the gladiator set bonuses even after they made the merge either.

Emeraude · 03/24/08, 4:10 PM

It appears they're doing another TTR battle tomorrow, I imagine that puts a nail in the coffin in any plans for 2.4 coming out tomorrow.

It's rather unfortunate, because the patch seems ready and bug free at this point. -_-

• Astrylian · 03/24/08, 4:18 PM

Originally Posted by Emeraude

It's rather unfortunate, because the patch seems ready and bug free at this point. -_-

Except for the incredibly huge itemization holes, right? At least two, hopefully four T7 sets being missing FTL.

EDIT:

Originally Posted by Kumar

I don't see why they need to put all the Items out on PTR. As long as the content has been tested ans is bug free, the Items they can just roll into the live update.

Items == Content

Kumar · 03/24/08, 4:20 PM

Originally Posted by Astrylian

Except for the incredibly huge itemization holes, right? At least two, hopefully four T7 sets being missing FTL.

I don't see why they need to put all the Items out on PTR. As long as the content has been tested ans is bug free, the Items they can just roll into the live update.

Thousand · 03/24/08, 4:24 PM

Originally Posted by Emeraude

It appears they're doing another TTR battle tomorrow, I imagine that puts a nail in the coffin in any plans for 2.4 coming out tomorrow.

It's rather unfortunate, because the patch seems ready and bug free at this point. -_-

I don't think the TTR really has any effect on the 2.4 patch going live or not.

Mordinm · 03/24/08, 4:43 PM

Originally Posted by Thousand

I don't think the TTR really has any effect on the 2.4 patch going live or not.

It wouldn't absolutely preclude the patch hitting Tuesday. But I imagine the people running the event on the TTR are the very same people who tend to have very busy Patch days. Making sure your support staff have some free time is generally a good idea on a major patch week.

immortalagain · 03/24/08, 4:44 PM

Originally Posted by Emeraude

It appears they're doing another TTR battle tomorrow, I imagine that puts a nail in the coffin in any plans for 2.4 coming out tomorrow.

It's rather unfortunate, because the patch seems ready and bug free at this point. -_-

This is my thoughts on ttl. I dont think ttr has anythign to do with 2.4 my thoughts on this are that its mostly testing for a new area server set up for tournaments and maybe a restructuring of how areana works as far as battle groups and some wotlk stuff. A good example of this is the starting at 70 seems to me like a test bed for deathknights as far as the insta 70 code works. I could see how the back end stuff code wise they cuold mess around with enchants being items as well in preperation for the expansion. Also the global servers ie can connect and play on eu or korea seems to me like more of a wotlk test bed or posably a permanint pvp uber server than anything as well as studying some pvp mechanics for changes coming in the expansion.

Wodahs · 03/24/08, 4:48 PM

Originally Posted by Emeraude

It appears they're doing another TTR battle tomorrow, I imagine that puts a nail in the coffin in any plans for 2.4 coming out tomorrow.

It's rather unfortunate, because the patch seems ready and bug free at this point. -_-

Where did you get this information? I am not seeing it on the WoW forums.

Emeraude · 03/24/08, 4:57 PM

Originally Posted by Wodahs

Where did you get this information? I am not seeing it on the WoW forums.

Errr, they didn't post it yet? O_o

Edit: Correction, they did indeed post it.

WoW Forums -> Tournament Test Realm Battle!

Wodahs · 03/24/08, 5:02 PM

Originally Posted by Emeraude

Errr, they didn't post it yet? O_o

Edit: Correction, they did indeed post it.

WoW Forums -> Tournament Test Realm Battle!

Tournament Test Realm Battle! | 03/20/2008 05:38:39 PM PDT
"This event will take place this Saturday from 12PM to 4PM PDT, and members of the Community and Development teams will join in the fray."

That was Saturday, 2 days ago.

Emeraude · 03/24/08, 5:13 PM

Originally Posted by Wodahs

Tournament Test Realm Battle! | 03/20/2008 05:38:39 PM PDT
"This event will take place this Saturday from 12PM to 4PM PDT, and members of the Community and Development teams will join in the fray."

That was Saturday, 2 days ago.

Ack, Bornakk bumped the thread.

My mistake all. Sorry, sorry.

Machinator · 03/24/08, 5:22 PM

I dont see how the TTR battle affects if 2.4 comes out tues. PTR is for 2.4, TTR is for tournament, which are not coming out at the same time and in fact would probably be harder for them to release at the same time.

What is this itemization thing that people are saying is missing on PTR? Are they acknowledged as missing or just another of many other gaps?

Illundai · 03/24/08, 5:26 PM

I'm guessing they're aiming at the complete lack of physical mail dps loot. There's like 2 drops in total?

• Astrylian · 03/24/08, 6:02 PM

Yeah. There seem to be a number of T7 sets, which are 'pairs' of sets. They're pairs in that bosses drop some of each, and then you trade for the other using a sunmote:

Feral<->Rogue
Tree<->Moonkin
RestoSham<->Elemental
HealingPriest<->ShadowPriest
Healadin<->Protadin
ProtWarr<->DPSWarr/Retadin

There's quite obviously another Mail set missing, which we'd expect to be Enh<->Hunter. And if there really is no Warlock<->Mage set, the only dps cloth set (I labeled as ShadowPriest above) will be shared by all 3, which would make those set pieces double or triple the demand of some of the others.

Metrosexuelf · 03/24/08, 6:26 PM

Fair enough but the PTR has been up for nearly two months and I would think if they were going to address the mail gear issue (or didn't already have it covered) they would have done something by now.

• Playered · 03/24/08, 6:31 PM

"This is not a bug, the CC non-breaking effects were reverted for most abilities in the recent build. The patch notes may not yet be updated."

Guess 2.4 will be known as the patch of changes that never happened

seminarca · 03/24/08, 6:46 PM

It's an odd sort of hole they've dug themselves into with Enhancement and Hunter itemization. In Blizzard's utopian world (.. of warcraft), Mail armor with Intellect and MP5 is meant for them, because, Hey! They have mana bars! Whereas in reality, Shamanistic Rage, Shadow Priests, chain chugging mana potions and Aspect of the Viper (people use that, right!?) make them longevity stats as opposed to throughput stats. So they resort to using Rogue Leather, putting it further in contention than it already is.

I don't know what the solution is either. They could make carbon copy Mail / Leather items with the only difference being base armor determined by armor type, but that would be "unimaginative". Or, what we're seeing on PTR could be their solution .. not bother making Mail variants, simply double the drop rate of the Leather pieces? I don't suppose the PTR's been up long enough to get a decent idea of drop rates.

• Playered · 03/24/08, 6:57 PM

It's a similar problem to Spirit on Cloth DPS gear, and to a lesser degree Regen on Healing gear - people just dont value the Regen stats anywhere near what Blizzard intend them to be worth.

There will always be consumables or a SP or Mana Tide or other things which will compensate for it is the ethos most thought.

The change to Int/Spi has done a good job at challenging this rule for Druids and (non Shadow)Priests somewhat.
Priests already got +Healing from Spirit and thus it retained some of its worth here, the boost to Regen will make it a much more impressive and globally acceptable stat.
Druids I believe will more think of it as an excuse to remove excess Regen we have for the sake of more +Healing unless there is a radical shift from a general low maintenance Lifebloom rotation most often used.

Daenerys · 03/24/08, 7:08 PM

Originally Posted by seminarca

It's an odd sort of hole they've dug themselves into with Enhancement and Hunter itemization. In Blizzard's utopian world (.. of warcraft), Mail armor with Intellect and MP5 is meant for them, because, Hey! They have mana bars! Whereas in reality, Shamanistic Rage, Shadow Priests, chain chugging mana potions and Aspect of the Viper (people use that, right!?) make them longevity stats as opposed to throughput stats. So they resort to using Rogue Leather, putting it further in contention than it already is.

I don't know what the solution is either. They could make carbon copy Mail / Leather items with the only difference being base armor determined by armor type, but that would be "unimaginative". Or, what we're seeing on PTR could be their solution .. not bother making Mail variants, simply double the drop rate of the Leather pieces? I don't suppose the PTR's been up long enough to get a decent idea of drop rates.

I'd rather they just address the issue with Hunter mana by giving us a reason to want Int on our gear. We are extremely reliant on our mana to do DPS, yet we have mana pools half the size of the other casters. The problem is that we require gear to have THREE base stats on it to be effective (Stam, Agi, Int), whereas the other offensive casters only require Stam and Int. In order to remain competitive, we are forced to seek out gear that doesn't have Int, which only compounds our mana issues. If they would just break down and give us a reason to want Int (making Careful Aim passive for ALL Hunters is one idea that many Hunters have suggested), the mail gear would be MUCH more appealing to us. And they just have to get over the idea that MP5 is a worthwhile stat for us...its high cost and low impact until it's stacked make it a terrible DPS stat. How often do you see MP5 on Mage or Warlock gear? What makes them think that Hunters want it if those classes do not??