Patch 5.2 interview with Dave Kosak
Inside an old alt's vault
The latest patch 5.2 news
All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsWoW Insider's guide to patch 4.0.6
by Michael Sacco 
Feb 8th 2011 at 10:14AM
Official patch notes News and discussion PvP
Posts with tag patch-4.0.6-ptr
Official patch notes News and discussion PvP
The Light and How to Swing It: Fresh patch 4.0.6 PTR notes for holy paladins
by Chase Christian Jan 16th 2011 at 6:00PM
When Wrath was released, there were just over a dozen bosses available to fight immediately. Most of them were found in Naxxramas, which fell to the superguilds so quickly that not all of them were even level 80 yet. A few achievements like A Poke in the Eye and the first "hard mode" of Sartharion with three drakes were all that the talented raiders had to keep them company during the first few months of Northrend. By the time that Ulduar was released, nearly everyone was clamoring for new content.
Cataclysm's launch hasn't shared the same fate. With heroic raids now the de facto form of progression and miles of new non-raiding content to explore, the content available at release has definitely lasted far longer. Even the most difficult bosses are still not on farm for the big guilds. Blizzard's developers have used this opportunity to start working on the first major patch after Cataclysm's release, which is of course includes plenty of holy paladin changes to keep us on our toes.
Filed under: Paladin, (Paladin) The Light and How to Swing It
Raid Rx: Patch 4.0.6 healing thoughts
by Matt Low Jan 14th 2011 at 9:00AM
Even though I wasn't responsible for it, its nice to believe that my little story in last weeks column might have influenced the Mana Tide change. What is the change, you ask?
It won't be an overpowered mana reset ability anymore. I have to admit, I do miss having that synchronizing aspect that all the healers share. Having a shaman give a 3-second warning that he is going to drop a Mana Tide cued the rest of the healers to activate their spirit trinkets. I thought that was a neat little interaction. I wouldn't mind seeing more of it somehow later on -- little ways that help promote (but not so much require) healing coordination would be a cool addition. I'm just not sure what other ways methods can be explored.Mana Tide Totem has been redesigned. The totem no longer multiplies the Spirit of those affected by it. It instead gives a flat amount of Spirit equal to 400% of the casting shaman's Spirit, exclusive of short-term Spirit buffs affecting the shaman when the totem is dropped. In addition, its effects are now raid-wide.
On the bright side, I don't need to figure out which players have the lowest mana regeneration in order to stack them into the healing group.
But hey, enough about resto shaman already! Some additional healing changes (both nerfs and buffs) will be coming soon. No idea if any of this stuff is going to stick. Tell me what you think.
Filed under: Druid, Paladin, Priest, Shaman, Raiding, Raid Rx (Raid Healing)
Ghostcrawler responds to heroic dungeon difficulty complaints
by Fox Van Allen Jan 12th 2011 at 5:00PM
Like I said, it's an epic post, and we won't reprint the whole thing here. This, however, is the key takeaway:
Wow, Dungeons are Hard!The bottom line is that we want Heroics and raids to be challenging, and that is particularly true now while the content is new and characters are still collecting gear. They're only going to get easier from here on out. We want players to approach an encounter, especially a Heroic encounter, as a puzzle to be solved. We want groups to communicate and strategize. And by extension, we want you to celebrate when you win instead of it being a foregone conclusion.
On the other hand, we don't want you to stumble your way to victory. We don't want you to be able to overwhelm bosses without noticing or caring what they're doing. We don't want healers to be able to make up for all of the mistakes on the part of the other players. While at the end of the day, dungeons may just be gussied up loot vending machines, we want you to do more than push a button to get the loot.
Ultimately, we don't want to give undergeared or unorganized groups a near guaranteed chance of success, because then the content will feel absolutely trivial for players in appropriate gear who communicate, cooperate, and strategize.
On the other hand, we don't want you to stumble your way to victory. We don't want you to be able to overwhelm bosses without noticing or caring what they're doing. We don't want healers to be able to make up for all of the mistakes on the part of the other players. While at the end of the day, dungeons may just be gussied up loot vending machines, we want you to do more than push a button to get the loot.
Ultimately, we don't want to give undergeared or unorganized groups a near guaranteed chance of success, because then the content will feel absolutely trivial for players in appropriate gear who communicate, cooperate, and strategize.
All that being said, though, is Blizzard really satisfied with its dungeon designs and their current level of difficulty? Hard heroics are indeed hard, but the updated PTR patch notes for 4.0.6 (which went live just yesterday at almost the exact same time Ghostcrawler was discussing heroics) indicate that a series of nerfs is coming our way. That will no doubt lead to player rejoicing, but remember -- heroics are naturally getting easier as people get more familiar with them and players continue to compile better gear, which makes completion even easier still.
Filed under: Cataclysm
Patch 4.0.6 PTR: Positive changes for warlocks
by Josh Myers Jan 11th 2011 at 3:00PM
After the first round of patch 4.0.6 patch notes went up last week, warlocks were left feeling disheartened. While a slight utility buff was given in allowing Shadow and Flame to proc the 5% spell crit debuff through Incinerate casts, the majority of announced changes were nerfs. Zarhym, Blizzard community manager and everyone's favorite floating skull, took a journey to the warlock forums last night to announce a few changes to the posted patch notes. Please note that none of the changes he's mentioned are actually on the PTR for testing yet.
Filed under: Warlock, News items
Looking at death knight changes testing in PTR Patch 4.0.6
by Daniel Whitcomb Jan 7th 2011 at 4:00PM
Remember, though, that this is the PTR, and things may (and probably will) change before this thing goes live. With that in mind, let's take a look at what the changes say.
Filed under: News items, Death Knight
