MMO-Champion - Death Knight and Druid Season 14 Armor Sets, June 14 Hotfixes, Blue Posts and Tweets
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Patch 5.4 - Season 14 Death Knight and Druid Armor Sets

Patch 5.3 Hotfixes - June 14
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
  • Kor'kron Commanders are now immune to charms.

Raids, Dungeons, and Scenarios
  • Throne of Thunder
    • Lei Shen
      • Bouncing Bolts that do not impact with a player will no longer cause Unharnessed Power to spawn on Raid Finder difficulty.

Pet Battles
  • PvP Pet Battles are now required to last at least a minute before the match is eligible for experience to be awarded


Brawler's Guild
  • Razorgrin should no longer slowly regenerate health.

Blue Posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Flex Raid Rewards
Nothing is being removed from Raid Finder. In fact, the rewards Ghostcrawler mentioned in his tweets are something brand new that haven’t previously been available in any raid content.

We want there to be some incentives to “make the jump” from Raid Finder into something more organized. However, we’d like to do that in a way that doesn’t take anything away from Raid Finder. So instead of removing set bonuses, trinkets, legendary progress, or anything else along those lines, we decided to come up with something new.

Just to be totally clear: Raid Finder in Patch 5.4 will be itemized with all the same sorts of stuff you’ve come to expect over the last couple of tiers. There will, however, be a brand spanking new type of reward that is only available to players who choose to step up into Flex, Normal, or Heroic raiding. Hope that clears the air a bit! (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Sharing Development Progress
There's honestly a lot of reasons why we tend to keep things in extremely early development under wraps. A big one is that players tend to take "we're experimenting with something" as "it will be in the game in a couple months," no matter how many disclaimers or caveats we attach to it.

There's also plenty of situations where we just don't have enough nailed down yet to give players a clear idea of where things are heading. When we can't be clear, players tend to build up expectations about what they think the feature will be... and when it turns out to be something different, they're disappointed (even if the real feature is actually pretty cool). In most cases, we'd rather wait until we have something solid to share and avoid all of that confusion and heartache.

All that being said, we have a much more open development process today than we did when the game first launched. The PTR process starts earlier in the dev cycle, and is far more accessible. We have much more efficient means of gathering player feedback from the forums, fansites, social media, etc. Heck, we even have designers like Greg Street and Brian Holinka actively discussing changes with players on Twitter. We try to be as open as we can about what we can. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Patch 5.4 Shadowform Change
This change (along with the other passive damage reduction changes) is something we're going to balance around. We're just extremely early in the PTR cycle at the moment, so that balancing hasn't taken place yet.

To give some insight as to where we're headed, we wanted to chill out on some of the passive damage reduction in favor of moving to more active sources of mitigation. It just doesn't feel very good to have certain players in your raid (for example) who always take more damage from the big hits than others, even though neither player is doing anything special. We'd rather the players themselves be more in control.

For those concerned about the impact this will have in PvP, there are plenty of other ways we can balance things out that do not carry over into the other parts of the game. Resilience is an obvious example, but there's plenty of knobs that can be tweaked to make that feel right.

You took the reduction from shadow priest and moonkins but not hunters? any reason hunters get love?
We did lower the passive reduction from Aspect of the Iron Hawk a bit, but since it's a talent, it wouldn't make much sense to remove it entirely. We're okay with the passive effect in this case since it's a choice (and we're hoping that this change will help make the other talents in the tier more attractive). (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Patch 5.4 PvP Scaling
Just sharing a tweet from Brian H. that you might find particularly interesting:

Q: “The new pvp gear is 522, but whats the point if it will get scaled down to 496?”
Holinka: “The ceiling will slowly go up next season (e.g. 1 point per week) but PvP gear will be exempt from the ceiling.”

What do you guys think of this change? (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Pet Battle Experience Bug
We’d like to thank everyone who submitted information to us about this issue. We can confirm that there is a bug currently that prevents Pet Battlers from properly earning experience on characters under level 90 through PvE encounters. While the issue currently persists in game, it has been addressed and should be fixed once realms are restarted.

We appreciate your patience during this time and if there are any other updates we can provide, we'll post them here in this thread.

Not sure if you know or not, but is there a time-frame on when this restart might happen or is that just going to be next Tuesday as usual?
I'd bank on Tuesday, but there's always that slight chance something could crop up and require restarts sooner. If that's the case, Breaking News should be updated to alert players. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

PvP Pet Battle Delays

Blue Tweets
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Death Knight (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
DPS dks have pretty crap utility compared to DPS warriors
Gorefiend's Grasp and battle rez are pretty potent utility. AMZ blocks a lot of damage if your timing is good. (Source)

Druid (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Can Boomkins get a buff on hurricane/astral storm pretty please. So weak I might as well heal adds.
It is pretty weak, but we worry part of that is because multi-dotting is just so strong. It's on our list to look at. (Source)

Hunter (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Is Focus a compelling resource? All it comes down to is Arcane vs. Cobra (compare to more Energy letting you do more stuff).
Feel like when we gave hunters enough focus to do their normal rotation that we made focus just an Arcane delivery tool. (Source)
"We do plan to add quivers and other art assets for hunters so they can have some cool art"... 5.4 or another bait n switch?
If you insist on calling everything a bait and switch, we will be unable to discuss anything until patch notes. Your call. (Source)
I don't even understand how that's a "bait and switch".
I guess broken promise is more accurate but still not actually accurate. (Source)

Hi GC, registered to ask re button bloat vs. removing ablities is sin. What do you think of turning most abilites into glyphs?
If those glyphs feel mandatory then it doesn't help with the button bloat. Consider hunters... (Source)
What would be an optional ability? Serpent Sting? Arcane Shot? Snake Trap? I'd probably glyph the first 2 and not the last. (Source)

Stampede was one of the reasons why I quit Hunter in 5.0. I absolutely hated the direction the class was going.
Can you elaborate? In a burst sense? Because it was one of those (like Titan's Grip) that players campaigned to get... (Source)

Wasn't Blink Strikes changed to reduce some of the button clutter? Does the dev team want to bring that back?
We are pretty happy with the new Blink Strikes. Just want to make sure the other talents are still taken seriously by hunters. (Source)

Mage (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Do the devs acknowledge the real issues with the Mage class atm? Heavy RNG/Crit scaling on Fire and poor scaling on Frost.
We're happy with the way crit works for Fire. We understand not every player is tolerant of RNG, but Fire's DPS is competitive. (Source)
Frost is as popular as any time I can recall lately esp. in 10s. Any scaling problems it has don't seem to be holding it back. (Source)
Recall, our guidelines for scaling concerns. We only care if gear scaling causes a 5-10% dps loss within a single tier. (Source)

Priest (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Would the team consider changing Hymn of Hope so that it returns mana to only healers?
Potentially. We'll discuss. (Source)

Rogue (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Can I demand you revert the change where recuperate sucks? I speak for everyone*! *Also I am a sollipsist today.
We've actually heard the Recuperate feedback a lot lately. We'll look into it. (Source)

Shaman (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
When will Enhancement Shamans get a finishing move, like all the other melee dps have.
I tweeted about homogenization a bit ago. This is a great example where we could give in and give executes to all. Should we? (Source)
Why can't Shamans do extra damage for the first 20% or so? That's a different sort of Execute, but a neat niche?
It is a neat niche... and one already occupied by Marksman.... (Source)

Lava surge procs off crits not ticks. What elemental shaman takes crit? Comon dude. We're in need of QoL changes not nerfs...
This is a cart / horse problem. You don't stack crit b/c it's not a good stat for you. Why not make it a good stat? (Source)

Warlock (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Can you explain why Warlocks with Glyph of Demon Hunting are receiving the tank-exclusive debuff while carrying flags in RBGs?
We were worried it made them too survivable. Why are you using that glyph in PvP if not for the defensive benefits? (Source)

lock: "Damage mitigation may be the thing to be nerfed, but we will know more when Patch 5.4..." it's a joke right?
No. Guilds tell us they like to bring lots of locks because they require less healing but still bring lots of damage. (Source)

If they aren't a tank spec, why do they receive the tank debuff in RBGs?
Any flag carrier gets a debuff. The one on tanks is stronger to help compensate for their survivability. (Source)
So warlocks can be tagged as tank on pvp? What about a change in DA's PVP. so they get what realy they are? NOT a tank!
I'm trying to understand. Is the concern that DA warlocks make unbeatable flag carriers? (Source)
I thought DA warlocks got the 50% dmg debuff as well.
They do. (Source)

Warrior (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Are you guys happy with the current situation of arms warriors on pve? It's quite sad that everyone has better dps and utility
Skull Banner and Rallying Cry are pretty nice utility.... (Source)
Nice utillity every spec of warrior has. If your group needs banner or rally, you could just as easily bring fury
If raids feel like they have to bring an Arms and Fury warrior for utility they're going to run out of raid spots quick. (Source)

players dont play it because its not good compared to Fury. Arms got community. in DS most played Arms
Yeah, but every time Arms wins, even a little, all the Fury warriors come out to the forums. It's sort of a no-win situation. (Source)

I think you should read this thread and give people some advice
I don't think the 1.5 GCD is a big PvP balance problem and I'm convinced warriors would complain about empty GCDs. (Source)
I've never understood the fascination with a quicker GCD. If anything, you hand out shorter GCDs too often.
But many warriors hate having empty GCDs and with HS off the GCD, that gets even worse. (Source)
I think their wrists in 10 years will appreciate the empty GCDs! The price we may for responsive game play...
Back in I think it was Cata, warriors used the term RSI in trying to get their rotations improved. (Source)

But isnt that the way Rage has worked since...forever? Take damage=rage to spend on defense and/or offense?
Defensive Stance doesn't do that any longer for similar reasons. Tanking should be about mitigating / avoiding damage. (Source)

Why would any group bring an arms warrior that is struggling with a boss?
Because for nearly every guild, your group comp isn't what's holding you back. It's not meeting the encounter mechanics. (Source)

The problem is that neither fury nor arms are strong. Prot is in a weird spot because pally/monk. What do we do?
Fury is plenty strong in PvE. Arms is probably a little behind, but not so far that you can't play it. (Source)

WoWProgress Launches SimCraft DPS Rankings
Our friends over at WoWProgress have added yet another ranking, SimCraft DPS. This is somewhat better than an item level ranking, as it takes into account how you gem and enchant your gear. You can see the full details here.

This article was originally published in forum thread: Death Knight and Druid Season 14 Armor Sets, June 14 Hotfixes, Blue Posts and Tweets started by chaud View original post
Comments 33 Comments
  1. moveth's Avatar
    Wow. More Antlers for my Druid. Yay antlers...
  1. Imhullu's Avatar
    Druids always get antlers haha.
    I like how they are making stuff glow in and out though, that's sweet.
  1. Alfakennyone's Avatar
    I disenchanted that helm before when it had no sockets and theres no option to restore it...
  1. Deztru's Avatar
    Lei Shen nerf.

    Oh god the level of challenge blizzard gives to "casual" players is starting to fit a mental hospital
  1. Yunru's Avatar
    PvP Pet Battles are now required to last at least a minute before the match is eligible for experience to be awarded...

    Thats just ....pointless. Sometimes i pwn some scrub in just 2 turns and they run away like cowards .
  1. Deepstrider's Avatar
    Are they serious with this Druid set? It's fugly and looks demonic. Would look better on a warlock than a druid.

    Whatever happened to the nature theme?
  1. Hentai-san's Avatar
    Don't like the DK set, didn't like the previous one either. I am grateful for one thing though, the trend of 'every DK set has to have at least 200 skull stamps on it' has passed, they keep reducing the number. :P And what the hell is wrong with you, druids? You keep killing animals and decorate your sets with their skulls, not very druid-y.
  1. Haleth's Avatar
    Why not post it on the front page?
  1. chaud's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Haleth View Post
    Why not post it on the front page?
    The full preview will be here sometime this week, it isn't ready yet. Shared a few shots as I was going through it on Twitter though.
  1. Melorandor's Avatar
    I do like the Druid season 14 can't wait to see the tier.
  1. Haleth's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by chaud View Post
    Fair enough! Looking forward to that, then.
  1. Boogums's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Alfakennyone View Post
    Submit a ticket.
  1. Ferrouswheel's Avatar
    Still no hotfix to stop giant snake men in capital cities. That shit got old the first day, now it's just sad.
  1. ShadowJester's Avatar
    Is it me, or does the DK armor look like a DK found some old beat up armor, and was like "I bet this would be badass if I painted skulls on it" and then painted the skulls and was happy. Cause that's what it looks like to me, hand me down armor with skulls painted on.....
  1. Magistrate's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Alfakennyone View Post
    Caveat emptor. #howlifeworks
  1. Avayl's Avatar
    Haha the Lei Shen nerf. The fight that took just the tiniest bit of focus on lfr.
  1. Help ol Gil Out's Avatar
    You got some Warlock in that Druid...
  1. Oerba Yun Fang's Avatar
    So tired of looking like a warlock on my druid. ><
  1. TCceen's Avatar
    People always complained and were jealous Warlocks got the coolest things with skulls and horns... so last several tier they spread the horns and skulls around. /Yawn, embrace your class people and be happy with what you get :P
  1. Headfilter's Avatar
    Come on Blizzard, give Shaman some real love.

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