Patch 5.4 patch notes
Virtual Realms feature revealed
The Proving Grounds are coming
The latest patch 5.4 newsBlizzard answers your questions in Ask the Devs Q&A
by Matthew Rossi 
Mar 14th 2011 at 4:00PM
Questions this time out ranged from PvP/PvE balance issues to death knight mastery runeforges to why moonkin don't have Execute. I personally found the discussions on Outland quest flow and why Blizzard doesn't just separate PvP and PvE spells to be pretty interesting. Take a look and pose your own questions if you don't see what you wanted answered this time out.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, News items
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 3)
N-train Mar 14th 2011 5:11PM
I've only played a balance druid to about lvl 30, but aren't you suggesting they take away what I believe is one of the signature and unique mechanics of that one spec and replacing it with something just about every class has access to?
That statement seems ironic, given the very next question:
Q: During the expansions released since vanilla, the specialities of the different classes were watered down more and more. By now, many classes can do almost everything and almost none is still special. Are there any steps planned to give the classes more “charisma”, so that they are more distinguished from each other and regain their special flair? – Blades (Europe [German])
Lemons Mar 14th 2011 5:26PM
More "effective" doesn't really mean anything. You could make a class that has no resources and has one attack that does a guaranteed 30k damage every hit. It would be hella effective, but not very balanced or interesting.
TonyKP Mar 14th 2011 5:39PM
Eclipse has been a problematic mechanic since it was implemented in 3.02 just prior to WotLK dropping. If you look back through some of the prominent moonkin bloggers and even the Shifting Perspectives column on this site you'll get something of an idea about how much difficulty Blizzard has had making Eclipse work. Heck, the first few LK builds didn't even recommend picking it up. It's currently the "least bad" it's ever been, and the frustration level is lower than it was during LK's at-the-mercy-of-the-RNG-gods era, but it still wrecks moonkin in PvP and is still causing issues when Blizzard tries to tinker with the spec.
I think that rebalancing mookin around not having Eclipse and adding an Execute-style mechanic would likely be pretty popular in a way that Eclipse never has been.
loop_not_defined Mar 14th 2011 6:01PM
TonyKP, should Blizzard remove totems and give Shamans someone else's stupid-simple mechanic? What about Hunter pets? Rogue combo points? Warrior stances? Warlock soul shards*?
*Yes, the new system.
Sterb Mar 14th 2011 6:26PM
What I find more perplexing is why it's supposedly necessary to make an execute force you to change rotation. Take Frost DKs for example, they have that passive execute range talent that doesn't affect their rotation at all. It gives some classes a weirdly unbalanced advantage in some fights (Murmur) or important burn phases (Ascendant Council).
rip Mar 14th 2011 5:07PM
I really like how they answer the questions but never really answer a question. Whats the point? Seemingly simple questions that should be a direct yes or no and they give absolutely nothing?
ex: Q: Mastery rating has become the most important attribute for Death Knight tanks, yet there isn’t any Rune Forge for mastery. Will you consider adding a new Rune Forge for Death Knight tanks? - Highlordkahn (Taiwan)
A: We want to do another pass at the Rune Forge enchants. We think we can make some more compelling choices.
Sooo..... Whats the point of asking the dev's if you're not going to get an answer?
Waste of time and energy IMHO
Skarn Mar 14th 2011 9:08PM
Now you know they are working on it. They didn't say "yes, we are adding a mastery rune forge" because they aren't ready to give that sort of detail. It was a worthwhile answer though, because you have more information now. Instead of wondering "is this going to happen?" Now you can wonder "when is this going to happen" and "what form is it going to take?"
Azizrael Mar 14th 2011 5:22PM
If you've got a question for the devs, you can save the weeks of waiting for a disappointing answer by playing the home version. All you need is a six sided dice:
1-2: "We're not looking to change that at the present time."
3-4: "We'd like to do something in the long term but it's not in the current plans for the immediate future."
5-6: "We have some interesting ideas for how to fix that but nothing we're willing to share just yet."
arixian Mar 14th 2011 5:24PM
In case you don't have time to read the article here's the summary answer to every question asked "Yes we are considering it, we have some ideas, we aren't ready to share them yet. We want to do something about it at some point in the future but we aren't ready to share when yet."
Skarn Mar 14th 2011 9:06PM
Not true. They flat out said "no" to different rule sets for PvP/PvE and a Moonkin "execute" ability. They also gave a very direct answer to the oddly popular question of "what do you do instead of WoW." Amusing to see so many votes on a WoW Q&A about a non-WoW question.
Joker Mar 14th 2011 5:32PM
Give me the option to wear what ever armor I want without effecting my stats and I'll forgive just how bad WoW has gotten in the last few years.
Those answers were a pretty big let down, wish a good MMO would come out already.
loop_not_defined Mar 14th 2011 5:56PM
WoW is bad, but no other MMO is as good as it?
You've obviously worked hard to maintain a clear perspective on the matter.
Joker Mar 14th 2011 6:52PM
@loop_not_defined. Are you really as stupid as your comment suggests?
Sky Mar 14th 2011 7:12PM
Joker sounds like a real winner in life
Khirsah Mar 14th 2011 6:51PM
The very first question, about updating the racial textures, reminded me of something: I wonder if it would be possible to add sizing to the races? Obviously, it would be within certain perameters (you could never make a gnome the size of a tauren, for example), but if you wanted to make your human warrior a few inches taller, and a few pounds heavier, you could. Or make your orc rogue slightly smaller (lets face it, with those big orc shoulders, those guys are sneaking anywhere) you could.
Not a big deal, just something that might be cool from a cosmetic and RP perspective.
Drakkenfyre Mar 14th 2011 7:12PM
No, that option is not going to be added. Size for playable races are set. Only temporary size increases/decreases are available by using the scale command. Actually adjusting the models slightly up or down will screw the animations up, bad.
They said that way back, when the game was in development. Making adjustable heights and weights required you to take that into account for every animation. Or you just ignored it, which is what Sony did with some games, and it looked like shit.
Adjusting your height would also change your armor, and probably distort the textures. Size is hardcoded, and is likely impossible to change without reworking the entire engine.
MattKrotzer Mar 15th 2011 8:22AM
I'm still hoping for a boob slider. Make the current sizes the max value, and let us have some customization. Strikes me as odd the way my female warrior so deftly wields a sword and shield with those big melons strapped to her chest.
Cyrus Mar 14th 2011 8:34PM
Re: different versions of abilities for PvP and PvE, the given answer (keeping it simple) seems stupid to me. There are already so many differences between the two experiences - resilience and CC durations being the top two, but there are definitely more - that I can't believe they couldn't just make the half dozen or so most problematic abilities work differently and leave it at that. And I get wanting to avoid slippery slopes, but the vague, slight risk of that seems like a much smaller problem of designing PvP around PvE mechanics and vice versa.
Re: voice chat, I'll be surprised if they can ever make the in-game client worth using, because it seems to me that the best reason for third-party programs is being able to use them while not in WoW. After getting disconnected, while in a queue to log in, whatever. Can't do that with the built-in version.
DayDreamer Mar 15th 2011 1:14AM
Why is there only 5 hours to post a question before the thread is closed? How about announcing this in advance so we can ask a question instead of just finding out that it exists after it's closed? Are these scheduled for a certain time on a certain day?
I want to ask about RNG in general, and then ask a more specific inventory question about completed armor sets taking up less room.
MattKrotzer Mar 15th 2011 8:23AM
It's not so much a time limit as it is a post limit. And without a limit on it, they'd never be able to stop the questions and tally votes.