Ghostcrawler discusses PTR class and set bonus issues

Lead Systems Designer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street posted today on the US forums, pre-empting questions about class balance and tier 15 set bonuses. Ghostcrawler describes the purpose of the thread as follows: GhostcrawlerWhenever a PTR build goes up, we get a flurry of simple questions that we want to address, but that don't feel patch note worthy. We are going to be posting the answers to some of these in this thread.
We're going to leave the thread unlocked. Feel free to leave feedback here, but be aware that this is just a running list of explanations and don't expect a lot of back and forth discussion.Likewise, you don't need to ask your question here. We'll try and cover anything we see in our forums, other forums, Twitter, etc.The focus of this thread is on class mechanics and set bonuses. We aren't going to cover e.g. achievements, raid encounters, pet battles, account issues, or GC's favorite cover bands. Likewise, these are simple answers, not "What is your vision for my class?"
Ghostcrawler then goes into some of the finer points about Tier 15 set bonuses.

Post highlights are as follows: The Mage 2T15 bonus does favor taking Invocation, as people quickly pointed out, and we're considering revising it.We're still iterating on this design for Wild Mushrooms. Currently, they each absorb 25% overheal, up to a max of 33% of the Druid's max health (total of 75% / 100% with 3 Mushrooms out). This max size isn't working in build 16446, but we hope to hotfix that soon. WoW Insider's team is sad that the giant mushrooms aren't here to stay!We are still iterating on Blade Flurry. We feel like the implementation of Blade Flurry on live forces rogues to go Combat on any cleave fights, while leaving Combat too far behind on any single target fights. It's fine if the rogue specs have niches, but the niches shouldn't be so rigid that you don't feel like you have any choice in spec.Shadow Priests have raised concerns about both of their T15 bonuses being tied to Shadowy Apparitions. Know that we have improved Shadowy Apparitions. Previously, there was a cap of 4 out at once. In build 16446, that's raised to 5 if you have 2T15. However in the next build, we just raised the cap to 10, which you should basically never hit. And more importantly, we significantly improved their AI. Please try them out. If they give you problems, please be as specific as possible about those situations.See the full post below! It seems like these simple notes may allay a lot of PTR testing players' concerns, and it's really useful to see the inside information on what Blizzard's development team are working on, and to have requests for specific feedback on class-by-blass abilities and set bonuses. GhostcrawlerDruid
• We're still iterating on this design for Wild Mushrooms. Currently, they each absorb 25% overheal, up to a max of 33% of the Druid's max health (total of 75% / 100% with 3 Mushrooms out). This max size isn't working in build 16446, but we hope to hotfix that soon. Upon blooming, their accumulated healing is split over the targets they heal. Several parts of this aren't yet working in build 16446, leading them to be massively overpowered (which we also hope to hotfix soon). Feedback, especially in future builds, is appreciated.

Mage
• The Mage 2T15 bonus does favor taking Invocation, as people quickly pointed out, and we're considering revising it.
• The Arcane Mage 4T15 bonus is a multiplier on all of the effects of Arcane Charges. Damage, mana cost, and number of additional targets hit.
• The Fire Mage 4T15 bonus is before Critical Mass. Net increase to your Pyroblast's crit rate will be +6.5%.
• This build included a new version of Blazing Speed. We changed it from the previous build because we thought that it was too strong. This is definitely something we're still iterating on for 5.2. The new version replaces Blink, but goes farther than Blink (and distance is variable instead of fixed), does not cost a GCD, and provides brief stun and root immunity, and is on a different spell school. Feedback from playing with it is very helpful. We realize that there is somewhat of a conflict here with the PvP Glove bonus, and will resolve that if needed.
• Another talent we're iterating on is Invocation; it's quite possible that the current version is overpowered, but we'd like people to try it out, and give us feedback about how you use it, especially as Arcane.

Hunter
• The Hunter 2T15 bonus is a chance to summon a Thunderhawk. That Thunderhawk will assist you, and will always cast 5x Lightning Bolts for 16k to 24k Nature damage. Its damage will scale with BM mastery, and will not scale with Survival mastery. However, the proc chances (which are Real PPM) vary by spec: 0.7/min for BM, 1/min for MM, 1.2/min for Surv.
• The Hunter 4T15 bonus is affected by Survival's mastery, cannot trigger Wild Quiver, and procs at a rate of 3 RealPPM.

Monk
• Storm, Earth, and Fire is a new ability for Windwalkers. It's intended to be fill the role of attacking 2 or 3 targets. It's a rather complex ability, technically, and you're seeing a very early version of it that still has some significant bugs (which we're hoping to hotfix soon). To give you an idea of the design intent here, the spirits should mirror your damaging attacks against targets other than the one they're on (so that it's not a single target DPS gain). The spirits auto attack on their own. It should reduce your and your spirits damage while they're out, but the exact tuning for that is still being iterated on. They're currently -40% for 1 (total of 120% of normal against 2 targets), and -55% for 2 (total of 135% against 3 targets). Non-damaging attacks (such as Spear Hand Strike) should not be mirrored, but damaging attacks (such as Fists of Fury) should. Feedback very appreciated.

Rogue
• We are still iterating on Blade Flurry. We feel like the implementation of Blade Flurry on live forces rogues to go Combat on any cleave fights, while leaving Combat too far behind on any single target fights. It's fine if the rogue specs have niches, but the niches shouldn't be so rigid that you don't feel like you have any choice in spec. Blade Flurry will be how Combat does 2-5 target AoE damage. In the next PTR build, it deals 40% of normal damage to up to 4 additional targets, for a 20% energy regen reduction.
• The Rogue 2T15 bonus does apply to all finishers with a duration, including Slice and Dice, Kidney Shot, Recuperate, Envenom, and Rupture. In build 16446, the Kidney Shot increase was broken, but is fixed for the next build.

Priest
• Shadow Priests have raised concerns about both of their T15 bonuses being tied to Shadowy Apparitions. Know that we have improved Shadowy Apparitions. Previously, there was a cap of 4 out at once. In build 16446, that's raised to 5 if you have 2T15. However in the next build, we just raised the cap to 10, which you should basically never hit. And more importantly, we significantly improved their AI. Please try them out. If they give you problems, please be as specific as possible about those situations.

Shaman
• The Elemental Shaman 2T15 bonus triggers from Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning hits (including Overloads). A Chain Lightning that hits 5 targets has 5 separate chances to trigger the Lightning Strike. If it Overloads, then 10 chances. There is no ICD, so it can proc multiple times from a single Chain Lightning. However, in the next build (or perhaps a hotfix), the damage from the Lightning Strike will be split between affected targets. There is a very high potential impact from this set bonus, so we're keeping our eye on this, and may have to nerf it. But we're trying it this way, since it is the most fun version.

Warlock
• Fel Armor has a significant typo in its tooltip; we added the 10% damage reduction and took away the armor. The health and healing received are still increases, not decreases.
• The new Glyph of Unstable Affliction reduces the cast time, but does not affect the GCD. Thus, it is not a DPS gain in a purely Patchwerk situation, but makes it harder to be interrupted, and allows you to start moving again slightly faster.
• The Affliction Warlock 4T15 bonus increases the damage of Malefic Grasp itself, and the extra ticks triggered by it. Same with Drain Soul.

Warrior
• The DPS Warrior 2T15 bonus has a RealPPM rate of 1.6 for Arms and 0.6 for Fury. It triggers all of the effects of enraging, including generating a Raging Blow charge, and 10 rage.

Death Knight
• The DPS Death Knight 2T15 bonus has a RealPPM rate of 1.0. The Zandalari spirit it summons has damage and attacks similar to the normal DK Ghoul, benefits from Unholy's mastery, does not replace your current ghoul, and you can have multiple of them up at once.
• While the DPS Death Knight 4T15 bonus (increased Army duration) is on target, performance-wise, in most fights, it's always challenging to have a set bonus improve a 10min cooldown. We're considering some additional changes to this, such as also lowering the channel time and / or rune cost. We understand this is a challenging set bonus to design, so we're going to have to iterate on it a bit.

Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.
Tags: breaking, featured, ghostcrawler, patch-5.2, patch-5.2-class-changes, patch-5.2-dk-changes, patch-5.2-druid-changes, patch-5.2-hunter-changes, patch-5.2-mage-changes, patch-5.2-monk-changes, patch-5.2-priest-changes, patch-5.2-ptr, patch-5.2-ptr-changes, patch-5.2-rogue-changes, patch-5.2-shaman-changes, patch-5.2-warlock-changes, patch-5.2-warriror-changes

Filed under: News items, Mists of Pandaria

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Ghostcrawler: Not all things datamined will be in patch 5.2

In what could potentially be filed under the "duh" category, but still something that has to be mentioned just about every time any datamining news comes out, Ghostcrawler makes it crystal clear as to what to take away from the recent waves of datamined info:

@tweetsrdumb Players have also datamined a lot of stuff in 5.2 that isn't going to be in 5.2 either. Shrug.

- Greg Street (@Ghostcrawler) January 6, 2013

Including things in the PTR and game files that are not present is an age old tradition at Blizzard. The Emerald Dream and Hellfire were in the game files in extremely early development form for ages. As were never released battlegrounds and crazy spells.

Patches tend to get things that don't make much sense to us when we're looking at them from the outside in. On Blizzard's end they must make some sense, although it does seem the amount of seemingly useless data (for lack of a better phrase) has decreased over the last few years. But then again, how do we know it's useless? We don't.

Bottom line, a good reminder from top to bottom that you shouldn't read into datamined stuff very much. Tags: datamined-info, ghostcrawler, patch-5.2, wow-datamined-info, wow-ghostcrawler, wow-patch-5.2

Filed under: News items

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Ghostcrawler tells 8 year old how to be a game designer

Rarely are the forums heartwarming, but this forum thread not only delivers on the heartwarming aspect but it also gives us a reasonably detailed peek at what companies like Blizzard are looking at when they look for new designers. When forum poster Aaiya made a thread on behalf of his or her eight year old son who is interested in becoming a game designer someday, we first got a solid response from Peratryn and then Daxxari comes in with a response from Ghostcrawler.

Not only is it cool that the people who work at Blizzard would take the time to answer the thread in the first place, but upon reading Daxxari's post with Ghostcrawler's response, I know I felt like I'd learned something new, and I figured a lot of us would be interested in reading it over.

Rather than pick it apart, we'll reproduce Daxxari's entire post after the cut.

Daxxari - 8 year old wants to talk to BlizzardNote: Ghostcrawler (Lead Systems Designer for World of Warcraft) saw this thread, and had a few thoughts to share on the subject with all those interested in pursuing a career in game design at Blizzard:

Hi Aayia,

Peratryn offers some great advice, and I can elaborate on it. I do know a ton about what the different game teams here look for, and I'm happy to share.

Most everything that follows is relevant to game design specifically. If your son (or anyone reading this) is interested in a career as a game programmer or artist, the path may be slightly different. Above all, know that this is a relatively young career, and people take a lot of different paths to get here. The bad news is it can be fairly competitive. It's a great job and there are a lot of gamers out there who are dying to break into it. The good news is that the industry continues to grow, so there are new opportunities available and by the time your son is old enough to get a job, there should be even more, economy willing.

I'll talk first about education. At this point in time, there are a few college degrees in game development. Most of these programs are still fairly young and I don't know many professional designers with those degrees. Yet. This is not at all to disparage those programs (personally I think it's awesome to watch them grow), but to point out you don't need a game design degree and most designers don't have them. In fact, there isn't a "wrong" college degree to pursue for game design. We have several designers who have computer science degrees, but it varies enormously. We have designers with backgrounds in art, economics, writing, math, law and of course science. The only common thread is that communication skills are really important in game design, because a big part of the job is explaining your designs and otherwise collaborating with a team.

Next comes experience. You need some kind of experience to get a job in game design. Playing a lot of games does count as experience, but it's the kind of thing that's hard for us to test. You're better off playing a lot of games and doing something else as well. Career experience as a professional game designer is of course the most desirable. Blizzard is in a position where we can afford to be really picky about who we hire so we often look for prior experience. I will quickly add that plenty of our designers didn't have any, but it helps a lot. Less established companies are more likely to give a beginner a shot, and once you have some experience, you'll have a lot more options. If you can't get a job as a game designer, you can try to get a job in a game company and hope to move sideways into game design. We have several designers who worked in quality assurance and customer service. You just have to get your foot in the door.

If you can't get a job in the game industry there are still several options. The first is to be a very good, perhaps even professional, game player, but that can be even harder than getting into game development in the first place. Not all great game players are great designers, but it's the kind of thing that may score you an interview. The second is to design your own game. That is easier than ever in this day of mobile devices, but still not a trivial feat you can throw together on a weekend. This next part is important: we like to see completed games because it shows you can finish something. One of the dark secrets of game design is that good ideas are cheap. Nobody gets hired because they had a great idea for a class ability or a raid encounter let alone a great idea for a game. They get hired because they can take those ideas to the next level, foresee problems, come up with solutions, and otherwise put in all of the hard implementation work long after the shininess has worn off of the original idea. If you can't build an actual game, then the third thing you can try is to create an add-on, level or some other additional content for an existing game. Finishing that project isn't as impressive as finishing an actual game, but it can still work. (This is how I got my foot in the door – I designed a scenario for Age of Empires that was eventually included in a shipping product.) Fourth is to be involved in the game community. You can host an awesome fansite, write a gaming blog, or make your own podcast. It might not illustrate your design cred, but it can get you noticed. If all else fails, try to be involved in beta testing. It's tricky but possible to detect a good design sense from beta feedback. In all of these cases, what you're trying to do is to develop a portfolio – something you can send to a company to show your chops. Artists can show their art. Programmers can submit sample code. A designer needs to somehow prove that he or she can design.

If you want to be a game designer, you'll do more than just make games – you will be a member of the game-making industry. Try and keep up with industry news. Understand the upcoming platforms and the hot new genres and technology everyone is talking about. This is much easier in the internet age than it was a dozen years ago. It's not always feasible, but attending game conventions can help. Companies often use those events for recruiting and you can ask a lot of questions and get a lot of information once you're talking to someone face-to-face. Advice I give for anyone in any industry to get a job is networking. We are much more likely to go to bat for a candidate we know, especially if we have some idea of their design skills. This doesn't mean cold-calling or emailing folks in the industry – that risks just annoying them. It's not easy to get to know people, but it can open doors. Here is where being a game journalist, famous player, or website designer can come into play.

Keep in mind that game studios are businesses. They have budgets and headcounts like any company. To get a job, you're generally going to be applying for an existing open position. It takes the truly one-in-a-million candidate that can get a position created for them. Don't blanket email companies; I don't think I've ever seen that tactic work. Apply for specific positions, and if none are available, consider contacting the company HR representative to inquire if some might open in the future. That HR rep can be your greatest advocate, so don't badger him or her. We have hired people who had off-and-on email conversations with our human resources team members for years before the right position came along.

That's the hard part. The fun part is playing a lot of games. Don't just play them though – devour them. Understand why they're fun. Think about what you'd change if you designed the game. One question we frequently ask in interviews is: what is the worst part of your favorite game and how would you fix it? One of the quickest ways to fail an interview for the WoW team is when we ask "What would you change about WoW?" to answer "Gee, I hadn't really thought about that before."

I'll close this monologue by talking about some of the traits that Blizzard looks for in game designers; other companies may place values on different traits.

A good design sense. Analyze systems as a game designer, not just a player. A player might look for the most efficient way to progress through a game or search for the most powerful choices for their character. A designer understands why a certain way is more powerful or efficient and if that's even a good thing for the game (and again, how to fix it).Creativity. This is less important than a lot of folks outside the industry think, but it's still important. Creative problem solving is often more important than creativity in naming creatures or coming up with good stories.Implementation. We spend 5% of our time brainstorming and 95% of the time sitting at a keyboard trying to get things to work. (We use our own proprietary tools, but also a lot of Photoshop, Excel and Visio.) We want people who can handle bugs, manage their time, solve roadblocks, survive pressure, handle critical feedback, know when to quit and when to soldier on, and overall just not get distracted. This is one reason why seeing finished work in a resume is so valuable.Communication. As I said, we talk to each other, other members on the team, other people at Blizzard, and the community of players. Constantly. Designers need to be able to think on their feet, criticize ideas without causing hurt feelings, accept feedback, and understand what other people are saying. The best designers make you feel like you are being heard. We do have introverts on our staff, but it's probably more challenging for them.Passion. This is probably the easiest one. It's important though. You need to love games to do this job. I'm not sure what the most surefire career is for making millions, but this isn't it. You'll be asked to work long hours. You'll be asked to playtest a game long after you're sick of it. You'll be expected to play new games as they come out to see what you can learn from them. You'll be asked to cut your favorite feature. Passion for games is the reason most people want to get into the industry in the first place though, so you're probably fine here.
I hope that's helpful. It's a good gig if you can get it. I walked away from a previous career in another field and never looked back. The biggest challenge for folks breaking into the industry is making themselves stand out. Saying "I love games" is important, but it's not enough, because thousands of players will say the same thing. You have to demonstrate that you love games *and* know how to make them without actually being able to talk to anyone, because you haven't gotten the interview yet. I invite anyone who makes it to let me know so I can personally congratulate them. It's hard and it's worth it.

Good luck!

There's a lot of useful information in there for people looking to get started, even if it's just to get a sense of how one game company approaches the topic. The emphasis on communication and completing tasks was definitely something I think we could all stand to keep in mind, whether or not we're trying to get a job in game design. Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.
Tags: blizzard, Daxxari, game-design, Ghostcrawler, peratryn, wow-forums

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, News items

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Encrypted Text: Santa Ghostcrawler kills Blade Flurry

Every week, WoW Insider brings you Encrypted Text for assassination, combat and subtlety rogues. Chase Christian will be your guide to the world of shadows every Wednesday. Feel free to email me with any questions or article suggestions you'd like to see covered here.

Apparently rogues haven't been getting the message. Year after year, as punishment for our evil deeds and shady dealings, we've only received coal in our Winter Veil stockings. We were not deterred, as we simply pickpocketed good presents from everyone else. A frustrated Greatfather Winter, tired of our shenanigans, finally turned to his manager. Santa Ghostcrawler, with the rumored Naughty List tight in his grasp, set about enacting a Winter Veil surprise that rogues would not be able to ignore. A 75% nerf to Blade Flurry in patch 5.2 did the trick.

Melodrama aside, Blade Flurry was broken. While I would've preferred to see the ability spread to all three rogue specs and balanced appropriately (back to a cooldown?), Blizzard went in a different direction. Blade Flurry remains firmly a combat-only ability, but the edge it held over assassination and subtlety has waned significantly. Combat is no longer shackled to purely two-target gimmick fights, and assassination and subtlety rogues no longer need to respec and reforge multiple times per night to flex for Blade Flurry. The net effect is incredibly positive for rogues as whole, and we should be embracing this change.

Combat can actually be viable again

In the old days, rogues had to spec combat for all two-target fights. We've seen it for almost as long as Blade Flurry has existed. The ability to nearly double our damage simply could not be overlooked. Unfortunately, this discrepancy allowed combat rogues to fall behind on single-target and multi-target encounters. Who cared if combat did competitive single-target damage if it was the mandatory spec multiple times per tier?

The first tier of Mists of Pandaria drives this point home. Combat was the spec of choice for encounters like the Stone Guard and Garalon, but wasn't competitive on simple single-target fights. By removing combat's dependency on Blade Flurry, it can be balanced against the other specs fairly. The upcoming buffs to Vitality and Sanguinary Vein prove that Blizzard is aiming to achieve parity for all rogue specs.

Combat won't be crippled

@josephdelage1 They may need a better AE mechanic for larger groups.

- Greg Street (@Ghostcrawler) December 22, 2012

Ghostcrawler confirmed on Twitter that combat's ability to effectively AoE targets might need a tweak to ensure that the spec doesn't fall behind after Blade Flurry's nerf. The fact is that the majority of raid encounters don't favor Blade Flurry. On single-target fights like Feng and Blade Lord Ta'yak, Blade Flurry is never even activated. Even though there are more than a dozen encounters encounters in the first tier of MoP raiding, only one of them even requires significant AoE damage.

Single-target damage is the golden standard by which all classes are judged. While the DoT classes always win the multi-target spread out gimmick encounters, single-target fights always make up the majority of a tier's bosses. Nerfing Blade Flurry allows combat rogues' single-target damage to be balanced competitively without worrying about making them even more overpowered on two-target fights. Combat rogues are going to be better equipped on more encounters per tier than they ever have been before.

Fewer mid-raid respecs

I know I'm not the only rogue that had to visit a capital city in the middle of a raid night to respec and reforge into combat for a two-target fight. I felt like I was doing my raid a disservice by not abusing Blade Flurry against the Stone Guard and Garalon. Combat's stat priorities clash with assassination's, which had me reworking my gear multiple times per night. It wasn't a fun mechanic, and I didn't enjoy being forced into a different spec for a single ability.

While it still remains to be seen how effective Blade Flurry is in the upcoming patch, my bet is that assassination and subtlety rogues will be better served simply sticking with their existing spec. I'm not saying that rogues looking to absolutely maximize their damage won't still be juggling specs on a per-encounter basis, because that will still be happening. My hope is that the damage difference will be so small that the majority of rogues will be able to happily ignore it.

Better encounter balance

I remember how powerful Blade Flurry was when facing the Twin Val'kyr in Trial of the Crusader. It was the perfect environment: two stacked targets with a shared health pool and a massive damage buff. Nobody else even came close to matching my damage. How could you beat combat on its ideal encounter?

By trimming combat's overwhelming lead on two-target fights, it allows Blizzard to be more creative with encounter design. Balance doesn't happen in a vacuum, and now we might see more interesting encounters without the developers worrying about how badly rogues can break them. It wasn't as if we were actually being respected for winning on two-target fights anyway. Everyone else just chalks it up to an overpowered ability instead of our amazing skill.

Time to take our medicine

Blade Flurry has been broken for a long time, and quite honestly I'm surprised it went unscathed for this long. Rogue class balance is going to be better with Blade Flurry brought back down to Azeroth. It was fun being overpowered a few times a tier, but I'd rather see our three specs more evenly balanced. Blade Flurry's nerf is one we're going to have to stomach. It's in our best interests.

Rogues don't need to be the best cleaving class because of a one-button ability. We don't need to be the best AoE class. We just need to be reasonably balanced with the other classes, and we can let our effort and skill do the rest.
Sneak in every Wednesday for our Mogu'shan Vaults guide, a deep-dive into the world of rogue rotations -- and of course, all the basics in our guide to a raid-ready rogue.
Tags: 75-percent-nerf, assassination-rogue-encrypted-text, blade-flurry, blade-flurry-change, blade-flurry-is-broken, blade-flurry-nerf, combat-cleave, combat-rogue-encrypted-text, combat-rogue-nerf, featured, guide-to-rogues, mists-of-pandaria-patch, patch-5.2, patch-5.2-ptr, rogue-assassination-encrypted-text, rogue-cleave, rogue-combat-encrypted-text, rogue-guide, rogue-info, rogue-subtlety-encrypted-text, rogue-talents, subtlety-rogue-encrypted-text, two-target, wow-rogue, wow-rogue-info, wow-rogues

Filed under: Rogue, (Rogue) Encrypted Text

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