Month: March 2010

Druid (Forums / Talent Calculator)
Glyphs

• Glyph of Focus: Now increases the damage done by Starfall by 10%, down from 20%.

Hunter (Forums / Talent Calculator)

• Heart of the Phoenix: Cooldown reduced to 8 minutes, down from 10 minutes.

Warrior (Forums / Talent Calculator)

• Thunderclap: This ability now counts as a ranged attack, granting it double damage on critical strikes instead of 150% and ranged miss chance, and still cannot be dodged or parried.

Arms

• Bladestorm: Warriors can now be Disarmed while under the effects of this ability.

Hi all,

We will be hosting another PvP event on the US realm Anasterian tomorrow (3-11-2010) at 4:00PM PST! Queue for Random Battlegrounds for your shot to PvP with us!

What: Random Battleground Finder
Who: Blizzard QA

• Horde – 'Blizzard' guild
• Alliance – 'Blizzard QA' guild

Place: US Server Anasterian (Those on Broxigar can participate by Queueing for a Random Battleground)
Time: 4:00PM PST
Date: 3/11/2010

(Note: Time/Event is subject to change.)

Hey all,

We need your help in collecting information on issues you may be running into while using the Random Battleground feature. Specifically we want to know if you are experiencing the following (and when you experienced these issues):

• Not being able to enter Battlegrounds when the queue pops.
• Not being resurrected by the Spirit Healer when dying in a Battleground.
• Unable to see Spirit Healers after dying in a Battleground.
• Getting stuck in a Battleground after the match has finished.
• Becoming un-killable after dying in a Battleground.

If you've come across other issues related to Battlegrounds that are not included in the list, please feel free to describe what you were seeing and when you were seeing it.

Thanks!

We've updated World of Warcraft's five-year anniversary site to include two fansite interviews.

Exorsus, currently the third best guild in the world, is also the top Russian and former top European guild. We met Viksh, its leader, to talk about how the guild was created, what makes it different from others, and how a team should be ruled to be efficient.

In the second interview, we speak with Fraya, the leader of the Enigma guild on the Deathwing realm, about his most memorable moments over five years of playing, Enigma’s experience in high-end raiding, and where the guild expects to find itself in Cataclysm and beyond.

Check out the anniversary site to read the full interviews.

Anniversary Site: http://www.wow-europe.com/wowanniversary/interview/
Exorsus Interview: http://www.wow-europe.com/wowanniversary/interview/exorsus.xml
Enigma Interview: http://www.wow-europe.com/wowanniversary/interview/enigma.xml

Tanking Stats
Stamina is always going to be valuable for tanks, so I'm not sure a strategy of trying to force tanks to gem / enchant other stats is ever going to feel good. That said, tanks used to worry more about being the mana sponge. The way to alleviate being the mana sponge is to take less damage and a great way to take less damage is to dodge more.

The relative value of dodge vs. parry is something we'll have to play with. My gut reaction is that parry needs to be cheaper since avoiding 100% of one hit is more valuable than avoiding 50% of two hits, but I'm not sure how much cheaper. Avoiding spikiness (which dodge will contribute to) also has value, and if the second hit after a parry is dodged instead (such that you lose the parry "charge") that plays into the cost as well.

The passive talent tree bonuses for tanks will probably be something like 1) reduces damage taken, 2) increases damage done, 3) reduces damage taken in a way unique to your tree.

Yes, we're still dodging the DK question. For now. (Source)

1v1 Balance – Healer vs DPS
I think my point there was that the healer will eventually run out of mana. If they are able to damage you while healing themselves though, they will likely win.

It comes down to this: If a healer can't beat a dps one on one, then there is no way a healer will be able to keep an entire three-person team alive. In that scenario you might as well just run with 3 dps and there becomes no role for the healer in Arena teams.

Note: this does not mean that in every single case that a dps spec defeats a healing spec in a duel that there is a problem with the class. (Source)