Patch 5.4 PTR: More spell changes to facilitate warlock talent nerfs

Warlocks around the world have been weeping at the Patch 5.4 PTR intended nerf to Kil'jaeden's Cunning and Mannoroth's Fury. Blizzard Community Manager Lore had already posted an explanation for the tier 6 talent nerfs and some unseen PTR mechanics that were not in the patch notes to help aid warlocks in recovering DPS lost to movement.

CM Lore is back tonight with another post of spell changes in the next build for warlocks in the continuing discussion of the Kil'jaeden's Cunning and Mannoroth's Fury talent nerfs. After the break, you may read about a minor note about Rain of Fire generating less embers (specifics currently unknown), so that the developers can further discourage use of the spell in single-target situations.

Fel Flame is being reworked entirely: it will no longer extended DoTs and it has a 1.5 second cast time instead of being instant-cast. In return, Fel Flame will be castable while moving and has received a small damage buff. Haunt, in return, will go back to being interrupted by movement. Affliction is being further compensated for the loss of Malefic Grasp while moving by expectedly moving the damage done power back into Haunt and the three DoTs.

Finally, Kil'jaeden's Cunning and Mannoroth's Fury are both on a 1 minute cooldown (down from 1.5 minutes) but also a lowered duration of 10 seconds (down from 15 seconds). Mannoroth's Fury applies to only the main AoEs but it provides a 100% damage increase to the specific AoE spells as well as the expanded area.
LoreGot a few updates for you guys. Standard disclaimer applies that this is all still in early testing and subject to change.

Fel Flame has gotten a slight rework. It now has a 1.5 second cast time, but can always be cast while moving. Also, it no longer extends the duration of damage over time effects (and, as such, no longer causes them to lose their "snapshotted" stats) and has gotten a small damage buff. The intent here is that you should be able to use this to keep up some damage when you need to move, but you'll want to stick to your standard rotation otherwise.

Looking specifically at Affliction, we're lowering the bonus damage that Malefic Grasp provides and moving that damage over into Haunt and the DoT effects themselves to compensate. We still want Malefic Grasp to be your primary filler for single target DPS, but this will make it a bit less punishing when you can't afford to channel it (especially in PvP). Haunt will once again be interrupted by movement, in favor of the Fel Flame change.

There's been a couple adjustments to the level 90 talents as well. Both Kil'Jaeden's Cunning and Mannoroth's Fury have had their cooldowns and durations lowered to 60 and 10 seconds, respectively. Mannoroth's Fury now only applies to the core AoE damage spells (Seed of Corruption, Hellfire, Immolation Aura, and Rain of Fire), but increases their damage by 100% while active in addition to the range increase. Note that Rain of Fire is being changed to no longer generate enough Burning Embers to be worth using in a single target rotation (so, Destruction shouldn't feel forced into Mannoroth's Fury).

These should hopefully be hitting the PTR in the next build. Once again, please remember that we're very early in the 5.4 development process. Any or all of this may still change before the patch goes live.

Tags: breaking, featured, fel-flame, guide-to-locks, guide-to-warlocks, haunt, hellfire, immolation-aura, kiljaedens-cunning, lock-guide, lock-info, lock-talents, malefic grasp, MaleficGrasp, mannoroths-fury, patch-5.4, rain-of-fire, seed-of-corruption, warlock-guide, warlock-info, warlock-talents, wow-lock, wow-lock-info, wow-locks, wow-warlock, wow-warlock-info, wow-warlocks

Filed under: Warlock, Mists of Pandaria

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Patch 5.4 PTR: More spell changes to facilitate warlock talent nerfs

Warlocks around the world have been weeping at the Patch 5.4 PTR intended nerf to Kil'jaeden's Cunning and Mannoroth's Fury. Blizzard Community Manager Lore had already posted an explanation for the tier 6 talent nerfs and some unseen PTR mechanics that were not in the patch notes to help aid warlocks in recovering DPS lost to movement.

CM Lore is back tonight with another post of spell changes in the next build for warlocks in the continuing discussion of the Kil'jaeden's Cunning and Mannoroth's Fury talent nerfs. After the break, you may read about a minor note about Rain of Fire generating less embers (specifics currently unknown), so that the developers can further discourage use of the spell in single-target situations.

Fel Flame is being reworked entirely: it will no longer extended DoTs and it has a 1.5 second cast time instead of being instant-cast. In return, Fel Flame will be castable while moving and has received a small damage buff. Haunt, in return, will go back to being interrupted by movement. Affliction is being further compensated for the loss of Malefic Grasp while moving by expectedly moving the damage done power back into Haunt and the three DoTs.

Finally, Kil'jaeden's Cunning and Mannoroth's Fury are both on a 1 minute cooldown (down from 1.5 minutes) but also a lowered duration of 10 seconds (down from 15 seconds). Mannoroth's Fury applies to only the main AoEs but it provides a 100% damage increase to the specific AoE spells as well as the expanded area.
LoreGot a few updates for you guys. Standard disclaimer applies that this is all still in early testing and subject to change.

Fel Flame has gotten a slight rework. It now has a 1.5 second cast time, but can always be cast while moving. Also, it no longer extends the duration of damage over time effects (and, as such, no longer causes them to lose their "snapshotted" stats) and has gotten a small damage buff. The intent here is that you should be able to use this to keep up some damage when you need to move, but you'll want to stick to your standard rotation otherwise.

Looking specifically at Affliction, we're lowering the bonus damage that Malefic Grasp provides and moving that damage over into Haunt and the DoT effects themselves to compensate. We still want Malefic Grasp to be your primary filler for single target DPS, but this will make it a bit less punishing when you can't afford to channel it (especially in PvP). Haunt will once again be interrupted by movement, in favor of the Fel Flame change.

There's been a couple adjustments to the level 90 talents as well. Both Kil'Jaeden's Cunning and Mannoroth's Fury have had their cooldowns and durations lowered to 60 and 10 seconds, respectively. Mannoroth's Fury now only applies to the core AoE damage spells (Seed of Corruption, Hellfire, Immolation Aura, and Rain of Fire), but increases their damage by 100% while active in addition to the range increase. Note that Rain of Fire is being changed to no longer generate enough Burning Embers to be worth using in a single target rotation (so, Destruction shouldn't feel forced into Mannoroth's Fury).

These should hopefully be hitting the PTR in the next build. Once again, please remember that we're very early in the 5.4 development process. Any or all of this may still change before the patch goes live.

Tags: breaking, featured, fel-flame, guide-to-locks, guide-to-warlocks, haunt, hellfire, immolation-aura, kiljaedens-cunning, lock-guide, lock-info, lock-talents, malefic grasp, MaleficGrasp, mannoroths-fury, patch-5.4, rain-of-fire, seed-of-corruption, warlock-guide, warlock-info, warlock-talents, wow-lock, wow-lock-info, wow-locks, wow-warlock, wow-warlock-info, wow-warlocks

Filed under: Warlock, Mists of Pandaria

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Patch 5.3 PvP changes

From a PvP perspective, patch 5.3 is one of the biggest patches in a really long time. A really, really long time! WoW Insider has been covering the changes from a PvP angle to a pretty reasonable extent, from the first moment the resilience changes were announced, through the new arena and the new battleground, right up to the more recent alterations to tank damage and the like. All our coverage is collected in one easy place, so do check it out if you're searching for more information.

So we've struck upon a few changes already, but let's dig into the patch notes and provide some additional clarity. I've pulled out the PvP-specific items from the patch notes, but if you want to see them in full, that's absolutely fine too.

BlizzardAll characters now have a base Resilience of 65%.Battle Fatigue now reduces the amount of healing and absorbs by 45%, up from 30%.PvP Power conversion ratio to obtain 1% damage at level 90 has been changed from 265 to 400.PvP Power bonus to healing is now based on class and specialization.Healing specializations receive a 100% bonus to healing from PvP Power.Damage specializations for Druids, Monks, Paladins, Priests, and Shamans receive a 70% bonus to healing from PvP Power.All other specializations and classes (including tanking) receive a 40% bonus to healing from PvP Power.
These are the really big, key changes. What does it all mean? Well, your PvE gear is now essentially slightly underpowered PvP gear. It'll be downscaled inside instances, so its item level is on a par with that of PvP gear. However, PvP gear has a key advantage, and that advantage is PvP Power. While we won't be seeing the same increased damage levels of up to 60% as we're used to seeing on live servers, PvP Power will still be generating a huge chunk of extra damage over PvE gear, which is downscaled, as I mentioned.

Looking at the healing side of things, PvP power now contributes an extra 100% to healing. This is a lot higher than the patch 5.2 numbers, and Battle Fatigue, the debuff that lessens player healing on other players in PvP has been increased accordingly. The devs have aimed to maintain the same or similar levels of healing as we're used to on live servers, but a notable change is that hybrid classes will now have a boost from PvP power to their self-heals, and heals they can put on other players. It's important to note that this does also include tanking classes.

BlizzardPvP Items Season 13 Tyrannical gear had their item levels increased to ilevel 496, up from ilevel 493. Weapons and shields/off-hand items remain unchanged at ilevel 498.Season 13 Tyrannical Elite gear had their item levels decreased to ilevel 496, down from ilevel 512.Resilience has been removed from most PvP gear.Resilience gems and enchants will continue to be available and remain unchanged.4-piece PvP set bonus for all Season 12 and 13 armor sets that granted 1000 Resilience now grants 1000 PvP Power instead.PvP Power will remain exclusively on PvP gear.The amount of PvP Power and Resilience on gems and Mystic Cogwheel have been reduced by 50%.Tyrannical weapons no longer have a conquest-earned prerequisite to purchase them.Glorious Tyranny weapon enchantment now grants 600 PvP Power instead of 400 PvP Power and 200 Resilience.New weapon enchantment: Bloody Dancing Steel is functionally equivalent to Dancing Steel, shares the same visual effect as Glorious Tyranny, costs a scroll of the base enchant, and requires a 2200 rating.New weapon enchantment: Spirit of Conquest is functionally equivalent to Jade Spirit, shares the same visual effect as Glorious Tyranny, costs a scroll of the base enchant, and requires a 2200 rating.Tyrannical Gladiator's Tabard and Tyrannical Gladiator's Greatcloak are available as new prestige items at 2500 rating for 1000 Conquest Points.Big Zokk Torquewrench has returned from their leave of absence.Glorious Conquest Quartermasters (Acon Deathwielder, Ethan Natice) have returned after refitting their wares.
Taking this section of the patch notes in tandem with that above, you'll note that resilience is gone from PvP gear, after its long stay with us in WoW. This is because everyone now has 65% base resilience, as we mentioned earlier. Don't panic. It's also worth noting that this change does not carry on down through lower levels, so you'll likely still find your resilience gear there, along with the standard base resilience of 40%. It is worth noting that players do have the option to rework their resilience a little with gems and enchants, if they wish, but these have also been nerfed quite considerably. Consider what are traditionally PvE gems for PvP, and do keep an eye on the various theorycrafters for analysis of the new gems and enchants. Things may well change, and it's going to take PvPers a little while to shake off the old habits of years of resilience and PvP-specific gemming or enchanting.

As promised, conquest weapons no longer have a points-earned requirement for their purchase, and what's more the Catch-Up Cap for conquest is in place, meaning that players can earn up to 12,000, if they have earned no other conquest this season, from the first time they log in after the patch until they are caught up. For the high-end PvPers, there's both enchants and tabards to show the world that high rating! Item upgrades are also available for PvP gear, but only for season 12 gear. Players who have earned over the 25,000 conquest cap in the season will be able to purchase conquest gear for honor.

Battlegrounds and Arenas Battlegrounds, Rated Battlegrounds, and Arenas now have an ilevel cap. All gear will be scaled down to ilevel 496.To facilitate a more balanced team composition, players now need to select a role when queuing up for a Battleground or Rated Battleground.Picking up the Alliance or Horde flag while in a Rated Battleground now increases damage taken by 50% for characters in a tanking specialization, and increases damage taken by 20% for characters in a non-tanking specialization.Dalaran Arena: Masons of Dalaran have been hard at work installing steps in the two remaining corners of the arena.Eye of the Storm: The starting platforms have been lowered.
It is very important to note, as Brian Holinka clarified in an interview yesterday, that the role check is not likely to affect queue times, and therefore will not result in players queueing as heals when they intend to DPS. The way the system works is that, when there are enough players queued to create a battleground match, the system assesses how many healers are available, and allocates the same number to each team, with a tolerance of one. So, if there are seven healers in the queueing pool, one side will get three and the other will get four. If there are only two, then each side will get one healer. This system does not work like raid finder, where groups need pre-defined numbers of healers, tanks and DPS to start.

We've already discussed the scaling, as well as covering the tanking nerfs in a previous article, so if you're looking for more information on these or any other aspect of the patch notes, do check out WoW Insider's Patch 5.3 PvP coverage. Do you want to capture flags, invade cities, attack towers, and dominate the enemy for your faction? Do you dream of riding your War Bear with pride? We'll steer you to victory with secrets of Battlegrounds and Arena, prepping you with proven addons and keybindings that win! Send questions or comments to olivia@wowinsider.com. Tags: arena, arena-guide, arena-strats, arena-tips, arenas, featured, guide, how-to-play-battlegrounds, how-to-pvp, patch-5.3, patch-5.3-pvp, pvp-guide, wow-arena, wow-arena-guide, wow-guide

Filed under: PvP

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Patch 5.3 PTR patch notes and datamined changes

A new PTR build went up last night, but the notes didn't hit the Blizzard site until today, probably in an attempt to avoid the assumptions that their latest build was an April Fool's joke. The PTR notes have been updated, and highlights as well as full notes are below, but there was some more information posted on Wowhead about the latest build, which hasn't made it into the patch notes:Glyph of Mass Dispel: This has changed for the glyph to offer the usual "non-dispellable effect" benefit as something that you have to glyph for.. Ghostcrawler later confirmed on twitter that the cast time reduction is baked into Mass Dispel for Holy and Discipline.Glyph of Unleashed Lightning: Glyph of Unleashed Lightning has been replaced by Glyph of Lightning Shield, which reduces damage taken by 10%. This provides some additional mitigation for DPS shaman, and the ability to cast while moving is now baseline for elemental.Atonement now seems to heal for 80% of the damage dealt, down from 100%.There is a five-minute cooldown Void Shift for Discipline and Holy priests now, but also a new 10 minute version for Shadow Priests.Please note that the above is datamined, not patch notes, and should be treated as such. Hit the break for the new patch notes, which include:
A huge amount of pet battle additionsNew Brawler's Guild Bosses!More steps have been built in Dalaran Arena!More information on the Darkspear, Orgrimmar, and just exactly what's going on in the BarrensMore Legendary Quest Information!BlizzardWorld of Warcraft PTR Patch 5.3

General Please note: During the 5.3 PTR, not all the content listed may be available for testing, or may only be available during a limited testing window. Keep an eye on our PTR Discussion forum for details.New Battleground: Deepwind Gorge
In the new Battleground situated in the Valley of the Four Winds, the Alliance and Horde continue their war for Pandaria's precious resources. While the two factions battle for control over mines, they must also protect their own resources from being stolen and turned against them!New Arena: The Tiger's Peak
Gladiator hopefuls have a new location to test their mettle amidst the Kun-Lai mountain tops, in the training grounds of the powerful Shado-Pan. Players must make use of the looming tiger statues and fenced platforms to gain an advantage that will bring victory and glory!Heroic Scenarios Heroic scenarios require a pre-made group to join.Heroic scenarios offer bonus objectives that will reward additional valor if completed.An option to run a random heroic scenario has been added as a drop-down in the scenario tab in Dungeon Finder.Players can complete a normal or heroic scenario for bonus valor each day, but not both.Six heroic scenarios will be available in patch 5.3. Four are new and two are upgrades of existing normal scenarios.Battle of the High SeasBlood in the SnowDark Heart of PandariaThe Secrets of RagefireCrypt of Forgotten KingsA Brewing StormQuest Campaign: Escalation
The Darkspear Trolls are in open rebellion against the Warchief! Aid your faction in preparing to rout Garrosh Hellscream from OrgrimmarAlliance heroes will scout Orgrimmar's outskirts and engage in SI: 7 espionage to weaken Garrosh's power structure.Horde heroes will help Vol'jin's insurgency survive a Kor'kron assault and advance towards the Horde capital.Visit Lorewalker Cho at the Seat of Knowledge in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms to begin questing.Battlefield: Barrens
Put the stranglehold on Orgrimmar by undermining the Kor'kron supply chain in Northern Barrens.Collect resources by killing Kor'kron loyalists and their supporters.Get a group together to kill Kor'kron leaders for bonus resources.Escort your faction's caravans across the zone for even more additional resources.The Darkspear Rebellion will reward your efforts to undermine the Warchief by helping you upgrade Latent Kor'kron Armor into useable gear.Participate in the Escalation Quest Campaign to learn how to engage in the Barrens conflict.The Legendary Quest Continues
Journey with Wrathion to the four corners of Pandaria to speak with the August Celestials.Champions will have had to complete Wrathion's earlier tasks (including "Heart of the Thunder King") to continue.New Brawler's Guild Bosses
Test your might against two new tiers of bosses in the Brawl'gar Arena in Orgrimmar or Bizmo's Brawl Pub in Stormwind.New VIP areas are now accessible for brawlers at or above rank 8.Bizmo has raised the floor in his arena to hide the bodies. Or... maybe to improve the sight lines. We'll never know for sure.Special "Challenge Cards" can now drop from mobs or reward satchels, allowing you to summon and battle unique bosses.
Classes

Druid

Talents Force of Nature is no longer on global cooldown and summons a single Treant. The Treant no longer has a control bar, immediately uses its special abilities on the Druid's current target, and accumulates 1 charge every 20 seconds up to a maximum of 3 charges.Restoration version of the Treant now casts Swiftmend on the Druid's target when summoned. This version of Swiftmend does not require or consume a heal-over-time effect on the target.Glyphs Glyph of Solar Beam have been removed and replaced with Glyph of Omens.New Glyph: Glyph of Omens: While the Druid is not in a Solar or Lunar Eclipse, the following abilities will generate 10 Solar or Lunar Energy: Entangling Roots, Cyclone, Faerie Fire, Solar Beam, Faerie Swarm, Mass Entanglement, Typhoon, Disorienting Roar, Ursol's Vortex, and Mighty Bash.Balance Solar Beam is now more responsive when players enter and leave the beam's area-of-effect.
Hunter

General Hunters now have 50 pet stable slots, up from 20.
Mage

General
Teleport: Vale of Eternal Blossoms and Portal: Vale of Eternal Blossoms now have new icons.

Creatures

Oondasta Shiny Pile of Refuse now has a chance to contain a Primal Egg, and a number of Dinosaur Bones.Spitfire Beam no longer increases in damage with each jump, deals a flat 200,000 damage(up from 150,000 damage), and jumps to 99 targets (up from 20 targets).
Pet Battles

General Pet Battle Duels are now available in all dungeons and raids. Enjoy!Pet Battles in the wild and duels are now viewable by other players in the world.Hit Chance is now displayed for all abilities.Abilities no longer have a base chance to miss or be dodged by opposing pets of the same level.Reduced the chance to miss when fighting higher-level opponents from 5% per level to 2% per level.Blistering Cold had now deals 100% more damage.A series of new achievements and rewards have been added for max-level matchmaking PvP pet battlesWins for max-level, matchmaking PvP pet battles can now be tracked in statistics.Battle pets' recent ability loadouts will now be saved when pets are swapped in and out of battle slots.Species specific Flawless Battle-Stones are now Bind to Battle.net account.Battle Pets A number of new battle pets have been added to the Throne of Thunder and Isle of Thunder. Happy hunting!Whispers from pet tamers in the north have spread word of an elusive new battle pet that can be found in the frozen tundras of Northrend. The Unborn Val'kyr awaits.Battle Pet drops have been added to Burning Crusade raids. These new pets can be obtained from raid bosses in Karazhan, Tempest Keep and Serpenshrine Cavern. Obtaining all of these new pets will reward players with a new battle pet, Tito!Ethereal Soul-Trader has been returned to his original, larger size.Battle Pet Quests Beasts of Fable daily quest has been broken into three separate chapters. Players can now choose to do any or all of the chapters each day. Rewards have been modified to include a new consumable that will boost battle pet XP for a limited time.All Beasts of Fable and Spirit Tamer quests will now reward experience and lesser charms.Increased the difficulty of elite pets on the Beasts of Fable quest.A new weekly quest for max-level, matchmaking PvP pet battles has been added.

PvP Resilience gems and enchants will continue to be available and remain unchanged.4-piece PvP set bonus for all Season 12 and 13 armor sets that granted 1000 Resilience now grants 1000 PvP Power instead.Season 13 Tyrannical gear had their item levels increased to ilevel 496, up from ilevel 493. Weapons and shields/off-hand items remain unchanged at ilevel 498.Season 13 Tyrannical Elite gear had their item levels decreased to ilevel 496, down from ilevel 512.Glorious Tyranny weapon enchantment now grants 600 PvP Power instead of 400 PvP Power and 200 Resilience.New weapon enchantment: Bloody Dancing Steel is functionally equivalent to Dancing Steel, shares the same visual effect as Glorious Tyranny, costs a scroll of the base enchant, and requires a 2200 rating.New weapon enchantment: Spirit of Conquest is functionally equivalent to Jade Spirit, shares the same visual effect as Glorious Tyranny, costs a scroll of the base enchant, and requires a 2200 rating.Tyrannical Gladiator's Tabard and Tyrannical Gladiator's Greatcloak are available as new prestige items at 2500 rating for 1000 Conquest Points.
Battlegrounds and Arenas
Dalaran Arena: Masons of Dalaran have been hard at work installing steps in the two remaining corners of the arena.Eye of the Storm: The starting platforms have been lowered.

UI A new option to display pet tamers on the world map has been added. This should help players looking to find unlocked pet tamer daily quests.
Tags: breaking, featured, patch-5.3, patch-5.3-heroic-scenarios, patch-5.3-mounts, patch-5.3-ptr, patch-5.3-pvp-gear, patch-5.3-scenarios

Filed under: News items, Mists of Pandaria

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World of Warcraft: Class Changes Review Blogs

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Pet Battle Accuracy Changes in Patch 5.3

Updated: April 11, 2013

Greetings, trainers!

We wanted to take a moment to discuss some of the broad accuracy changes we’re making to Pet Battles in patch 5.3. The overarching goal behind these changes is to provide transparency to reduce the amount of uncontrolled randomness, where one miss often makes or breaks a match. Once patch 5.3 is live, you’ll see “hit chance” listed for all abilities, and this value will update if the pet is affected by abilities that increase or reduce the chance to hit.

In addition, we’ve removed the base 5% chance to dodge, and reduced the chance to miss opponents of higher levels from 5% per level to 2% per level. The end result should be that your attacks that should hit, will hit, and there’s greater incentive to get out there and fight higher-level pets for greater experience rewards.

In a turn-based game, randomness can be a lot of fun if handled correctly. Without a little randomness, the outcome of a match could be predicted to a high degree of certainty before the first swing, and that’s no fun. Randomness often works best when it is opt-in, often in exchange for greater attack power, longer duration, etc.  In fact, many higher-damage battle pet abilities already had a reduced chance to hit, which will now be visible.

With the removal of the base dodge chance, we were left with a large number of abilities that now had a 100% hit chance. We’ve made a handful of minor modifications to some of these abilities, giving them greater damage in exchange for a reduced chance to hit. It’s worth noting that every battle pet type (e.g. Dragonkin) have at least one ability that hits 100% of the time, allowing you to opt-out of the randomness if you prefer a less risky strategy. (Check out the full list of basic abilities that have gained additional damage in exchange for reduced accuracy below.)

Finally, we’ve left the base 5% chance to gain a critical strike (for 1.5x damage), and +/- 10% damage variance on all abilities, at least for the time being. We believe that getting a crit generally feels good, and the damage variance is often enough to make a match a bit less predetermined without swinging the match heavily in one player’s favor.

We also wanted to thank the community for the great feedback we’ve gotten so far about Pet Battles.  Keep it coming!

As noted earlier, the following basic attacks have had their damage increased by 10-30% and accuracy reduced by 5-15%:

Beam
Bow Shot
Breath
Broom
Burn
Chomp
Claw
Creepy Chomp
Crush

Diseased Bite
Emerald Bite
Feedback
Frost Breath
Frost Spit
Gauss Rifle
Holy Sword
Hoof
Infected Claw

Jab
Jade Claw
Metal Fist
Missile
Onyx Bite
Railgun
Scratch
Shadow Shock

Shadow Slash
Shadowflame
Smash
Snap
Stone Shot
Strike
Sulfuras Smash
Water Jet

View the original article here

Pet Battle Accuracy Changes in Patch 5.3

Greetings, trainers!

We wanted to take a moment to discuss some of the broad accuracy changes we’re making to Pet Battles in patch 5.3. The overarching goal behind these changes is to provide transparency to reduce the amount of uncontrolled randomness, where one miss often makes or breaks a match. Once patch 5.3 is live, you’ll see “hit chance” listed for all abilities, and this value will update if the pet is affected by abilities that increase or reduce the chance to hit.

In addition, we’ve removed the base 5% chance to dodge, and reduced the chance to miss opponents of higher levels from 5% per level to 2% per level. The end result should be that your attacks that should hit, will hit, and there’s greater incentive to get out there and fight higher-level pets for greater experience rewards.

In a turn-based game, randomness can be a lot of fun if handled correctly. Without a little randomness, the outcome of a match could be predicted to a high degree of certainty before the first swing, and that’s no fun. Randomness often works best when it is opt-in, often in exchange for greater attack power, longer duration, etc.  In fact, many higher-damage battle pet abilities already had a reduced chance to hit, which will now be visible.

With the removal of the base dodge chance, we were left with a large number of abilities that now had a 100% hit chance. We’ve made a handful of minor modifications to some of these abilities, giving them greater damage in exchange for a reduced chance to hit. It’s worth noting that every battle pet type (e.g. Dragonkin) have at least one ability that hits 100% of the time, allowing you to opt-out of the randomness if you prefer a less risky strategy. (Check out the full list of basic abilities that have gained additional damage in exchange for reduced accuracy below.)

Finally, we’ve left the base 5% chance to gain a critical strike (for 1.5x damage), and +/- 10% damage variance on all abilities, at least for the time being. We believe that getting a crit generally feels good, and the damage variance is often enough to make a match a bit less predetermined without swinging the match heavily in one player’s favor.

We also wanted to thank the community for the great feedback we’ve gotten so far about Pet Battles.  Keep it coming!

As noted earlier, the following basic attacks have had their damage increased by 5-15% and accuracy reduced by 5-15%:

Beam
Bow Shot
Breath
Broom
Burn
Chomp
Claw
Creepy Chomp
Crush

Diseased Bite
Emerald Bite
Feedback
Frost Breath
Frost Spit
Gauss Rifle
Holy Sword
Hoof
Infected Claw

Jab
Jade Claw
Metal Fist
Missile
Onyx Bite
Railgun
Scratch
Shadow Shock

Shadow Slash
Shadowflame
Smash
Snap
Stone Shot
Strike
Sulfuras Smash
Water Jet

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World of Warcraft: Class Changes Review Blogs

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Class / Game Changes

Hello, everyone!

Today, I'd like to post about a few changes I feel need made in-game, but couldn't pick where to post... So off-topic seemed fitting. Obviously, I'm only one person, so my opinion isn't the end-all be-all. Everyone is encouraged to chime in! Now, let's begin.

I think I'll start with Holy Paladins. My main being as such, I've tinkered with his healing quite a lot, and I must say... Holy Radiance is worthless! The mana cost to healing output is atrocious. It only heals for (roughly) 30K, and then splashes 15K to six targets within 10 yards, granting one HP and the Daybreak proc. But, right there is the problem. The range of the splash! If it were 30-40 yards, like that of other AoE heals, suddenly it's absolutely a viable heal. No buff to throughput necessary. Thoughts?

Next is something incredibly obvious. The secondary (green) stats on our gear can be (and should be) reforged to more desirable ones. The thing about that is, Blizzard is obviously putting less desirable stats on our gear, in order to force this mechanic into use. No more win and wear. Well, that's all fine and dandy, but I think we should be able to reforge 100% of the stat, instead of 50%. Charge me more gold to do so, I wouldn't mind, but this change would really give us more control of our play-styles, therefore making many happy. It would also allow for more flexibility and experimentation. Am I right? *braces for impact*

Although there are plenty of things worth a look at, I'll end this post talking about Druids. Blizzard, I have one question... Why on Earth did you take tree form away?! Yeah, we can buy or make the glyph, but why not leave the boost to healing? This also makes the incarnation Tree of Life feel pointless. You're not a tree already, so why turn into one? I even have a way to fix things, if they're honestly happy with Resto Druid performance as of now.

1) Make the Tree of Life have a 10% increase (-5) to healing, no other changes. Then make the regular tree form have a 5% increase to healing. That's it. Suddenly the underwhelming Resto performance get's a minor boost, and the incarnation has a logical outcome. Now, the answer to the people who want to look normal? Make a minor glyph that allows you to be seen as your standard form, or maybe even astral, like the boomkin minor glyph?

BAM! There you have a few of the things that have been eating at me for a while. Oh! One more, one more! Druid travel form should scale with your (ground) riding skill. That one's a duh!

Okay go! Please offer your opinions. Thank you for taking the time to read this post. Take care!

- Zokura / Xiongmushi

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Patch 5.2 PTR: Reputation gain changes

One change that's arrived with the latest patch 5.2 notes is one that has to deal with bonus reputation. Players have stated how grinding and repetitive the reputation can be. A suggestion that was offered was to bring back reputation tabards so players could continue to earn reputation while participating in dungeons. This would offer players two methods to earn reputation: Dailies and dungeons. Blizzard disagreed they didn't want players to double dip as dungeons already reward loot from bosses along with valor points. The developers mentioned sometime back in December that they were planning a way to include bonus reputation through dungeons. A suggestion was brought up by our own Matthew Rossi where players could represent a faction for a limited time.

That looks like the compromise solution we were looking for!

Patch 5.2 PTR and Patch NotesYou can now earn bonus reputation for your first dungeon and scenario of the day. You can select which reputation you choose to champion by selecting it from the reputation panel on the character screen. When you queue for a dungeon or scenario, the UI will remind you which reputation you are championing and allow you to change the reputation from there. (You cannot change that reputation once you are in the dungeon or scenario.)
The UI has changed so that the Reputation panel in the character screen displays which reputation they have purchased Grand Commendations for. That's great for people like me who've accidentally purchased the same reputation commendation twice.

How about it guys? What do you think of this alternative way to earn reputation? You can still knock out your dailies but between the commendations and the bonus reputation from dailies, I wager you'll be able to hit Exalted at a nice rate.

Tags: 5.2, daily, dungeon, faction, heroic, patch-5.2, PTR, reputation, reputation-gear, reputation-panel, scenario, UI

Filed under: News items, Mists of Pandaria

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Patch 5.2 spell changes and tier 15 for warlocks

Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Pact for affliction, demonology, and destruction warlocks. This week, Megan O'Neill thought the druid T15 was the warlock tier originally, and she thinks that the Season 13 warlock gear looks like a cross between Shannox and a Faceless mob.

My apologies, fel-slingers and fiendish friends. I stepped through the Dark Portal to visit family and when I returned, my hard drive had dead clusters, almost as if someone came by and Frost Nova'd the lot of it. Maybe dropped a few Nether Tempests while he was at it.

I blame the mages. I've already had my flu shot, so they must've realized they had to get at the latest Defender of the Dark Arts electronically. Silly mages -- I'm a warlock, so of course I backed up my stuff.

But Patch 5.2 wasn't going to wait for my new hard drive, so let's look at the changes so far.

Trimming the obvious

The aim of the new Mists of Pandaria talents and glyphs were to get away from cookie-cutter arrangements and to provide more personal choice and meaning. Everyone it seems was taking Glyph of Soul Shards or Glyph of Burning Embers, so those glyphs are becoming baseline and familiar glyphs that went away are taking their places.

I don't think the new glyphs are particularly exciting. Glyph of Soul Shards is becoming Glyph of Drain Life, which increases the healing gained from Drain Life. It might make a difference in Harvest Life use when I try out demonology, but I'm not particularly excited about the glyph.

Glyph of Burning Embers is becoming Glyph of Ember Tap, which significantly increases the healing from Ember Tap. That one would make a difference in PvP, possibly introducing the choice of letting your destro lock opponent fire off a Chaos Bolt or forcing him to heal himself to near-full. The datamined glyph, however, is not increased healing, but converting Ember Tap to a long HoT, much like the Glyph of Healthstone does to a healthstone.

Finally, everyone and their dog uses Kil'jaeden's Cunning passively, it appears. I really only kept the ability on my bars for Garalon, since triggering the movement penalty makes it difficult to move between legs in that DPS race. Every once in a while, I would fatfinger the ability and then later not understand when I couldn't cast while moving. So, Kil'jaeden's Cunning will be only a passive talent in patch 5.2.

Tier 15's resourceful bonuses

The tier 15 bonuses are different, but I'm not bouncing off the walls excited about them. Typically our set bonuses have been either buffing the filler spell or buffing the primary DoT (Corruption, etc.), and then maybe we get a burning imp posse or a cooldown reduction. This time, it's a little odd.

Tier 15 2-piece is Black Friday for warlocks. (Get it? It's Dark Soul + a decreased resource requirement?) Both demonology and destruction get a shopping markdown on their resources while affliction just gets a chance to gain more shards. I'd be more excited about Haunt not consuming a soul shard, since when I pop Dark Soul and do my normal malefic thing, I get more shards anyway due to the nature of haste on Corruption ticks. I don't want to end up in Dark Soul with more shards than I can burn.

Tier 15 4-piece is Pay Day for warlocks. The filler spells (including crits for Incinerate) for both demonology and destruction grant more of the secondary resource, but affliction just gets more damage done (both by Grasp and by the DoTs). I can't even think of what I would do in the place of more damage for affliction -- what would it be, Nightfall procs two shards instead of one? Nightfall has a slightly higher chance to proc?

Tier 15 just highlights the problem of Cataclysm warlocks, I think: soul shards are just a really awkward mechanic to do cool & different things with.

Balancing into tier 15

Of course, there's the usual nerfs and buffs to individual spells, as well as some quality of life changes. They wouldn't be patch notes without some, right?

We've had our honeymoon of the redesigned warlock, and now it's time to nerf Grimoire of Sacrifice by 5%. The devs have also finally realized that no one would want to sacrifice a succubus just so they can stand around all day seducing someone, so sacrificing a succubus will grant the small AoE knockback Whiplash, instead.

Sacrificial Pact has been adjusted. It appears like a double buff, but it's really just math magic. The datamined shield goes for 400% of the sacrificed health (up from 200%), but the pet's health sacrificed is 25%, down from 50%. You're still shielded for just your pet's health pool.

During Burning Rush, you won't run slower than 100%. I find it a bit of a relief considering the time continuum problem that is Burning Rush while slowed by Kil'jaeden's Cunning. I tested on the PTR that Burning Rush won't break a root, but if you are slowed, turning on Burning Rush will negate the slow enough so you run at 100% movement speed.

The question of why mages get crit in their 10% spellpower buff but warlocks do not came up and was answered with that stamina buff we can have. Now, the devs are realizing that the stamina buff doesn't happen if you aren't using an imp, so it's not really a second buff. Thus, Dark Intent with Fortitude packed into it may or may not be happening later.

Lastly, the minor spell changes are Fel Armor and the felhunter's Spell Lock. Fel Armor reduces damage taken by 10% instead of an armor increase, which makes more sense since the danger of melee isn't the fact that we're wearing cloth, it's more the interrupts and stuns that get us in the end. Speaking of interrupts, Spell Lock is the latest victim in the silencing of blanket silences, so it's just an interrupt now.

That's a pity. I guess I'll just have to kill those pesky healers now.

Mechanical changes

Fine, so Unstable Affliction isn't changing much, but the dispel damage is not only buffed but it will always critically strike. Sounds like the glyph, right? The most popular PvP spec choice by far is destruction, so I don't know if there was really a trend in PvP with the Unstable Affliction glyph. In patch 5.2, Unstable Affliction's dispel keeps its 4-second silence AND will always critically strike.

The glyph then changes back to the old fast cast Unstable Affliction, which left me puzzled. In my PvE raiding gear of average ilvl 490, I already have an Unstable Affliction cast time of ~1.2 sec when standing around with the 5% haste buff in raid. I had a clear WTF face on at reading the glyph change -- why would I even want that glyph? I'm not going to go into whether you would be hardcasting versus simply soulburning a Soul Swap. However, Ghostcrawler clarified that the glyph will not affect the GCD, just allowing the cast time to be faster against interrupts.

Blood Fear is the other PvP point being redesigned. Ghostcrawler mentioned that Blood Fear was meant to be a defensive ability, but was instead being used offensively too much. So the spell has been redesigned to a more passive shielding ability, keeping in line with the defensive intent. Now, melee striking the warlock while the Blood Fear shield is up will send the attacker running off in fear.

Blood Fear mentions 1 charge when cast, but when I tested a two-fold Blood Fear, the buff disappeared after one hit (disappointing!). So I imagine the change to 5% health was to compensate since stacking charges isn't going to be a deal.

The other shield ability we're getting is from Soul Leech. I first made a wonderfully confused face at this, because thematically Soul Leech providing a shield ability is weird. Soul Leech has always been a trickle heal, and typically the only things providing shields were through sacrificing. Of course, I realize that now we have things like Dark Apotheosis's Fury Ward and Dark Bargain. Cynwise queried Ghostcrawler about it, but I've yet to see a reply.

Typically the argument is that a lot of Soul Leech's trickle healing is overhealing. Turning Soul Leech into a shield would turn that previously wasted healing into possibly useful healing. Over a 6-minute fight like Garalon, I amassed about 1.1M healing through Soul Leech. That means it took me approximately a minute of constant PvE-style damage dealing to obtain 200k of Soul Leech healing. I doubt I could amass as big a shield in PvP with the many distractions like CC going on.

My other counterargument is the same as Cynwise's in the above linked tweet: Life Taps typically ignore absorbs or healing shields. In turn, I'd be curious to see how this Soul Leech shield interacts or possibly screws with the Life Tap glyph, which absorbs heals done instead of taking life away. The final question regarding "Shield Leech" is the obivous one: what's the cap on the shield, and is it fairly reachable?
Blood Pact is a weekly column detailing DOTs, demons and all the dastardly deeds done by warlocks. We'll coach you in the fine art of staying alive, help pick the best target for Dark Intent, and steer you through tier 13 set bonuses. Tags: 2-piece-bonus, 2-piece-tier-15, 2pc-tier-15, 4-piece-bonus, 4-piece-tier-15, 4pc-tier-15, blood-fear, burning-embers, burning-rush, demonic-fury, featured, fel-armor, glyph-of-burning-embers, glyph-of-drain-life, glyph-of-ember-tap, glyph-of-soul-shards, glyph-of-unstable-affliction, grimoire-of-sacrifice, guide-to-locks, guide-to-warlocks, kiljaedens-cunning, lock-guide, lock-info, lock-talents, sacrificial-pact, set-bonuses, soul-leech, soul-shards, spell-lock, tier-15, tier-set-bonus, unstable-affliction, warlock-guide, warlock-info, warlock-talents, wow-lock, wow-lock-info, wow-locks, wow-warlock, wow-warlock-info, wow-warlocks

Filed under: Warlock, (Warlock) Blood Pact, Mists of Pandaria

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Blizzard clarifies patch 5.2 item upgrade changes, upgrade NPC gone

To help alleviate the confusion about the absence of gear upgrades come patch 5.2, Lead Systems designed Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street recently tweeted the following:

@panterpe No gear. The NPC is gone.

- Greg Street (@Ghostcrawler) January 11, 2013

Naturally, this response prompted a flurry of tweets from players concerned about various aspects of the proposed changes. Ghostcrawler responded to several, with further explanation, and Blizzard Community Manager Bashiok subsequently posted a longer explanation on the US forums.

Players concerns related, understandably, to gear which had already been upgraded. Would it keep its upgrades? The response, reassuringly, from Ghostcrawler, was yes, it would. This fact itself brings other issues with it, particularly for PvP gearing. Upgraded Conquest gear is already so much higher than honor gear, with a maximum item level of 491 compared to honor's maximum of 466. The new honor gear arriving in 5.2 would have brought the two levels closer together, but it was then downgraded from 483 to 476.

There have been several posts from various Blizzard sources saying that PvP gearing would be totally revamped for 5.2, the outcome of which PvP players await with trepidation. And for PvE, the issue is pretty similar -- the pressure is now on to get gear upgraded before patch 5.2 arrives, when, currently, the ability to do so will be removed. From Ghostcrawler's follow-up tweets, it will return in patch 5.3, if it returns at all.

Ghostcrawler makes the not unreasonable point that the demand on valor points was high, with the choice players had to make between choosing to buy a new item and choosing to upgrace an existing item might have been stressful for some. But for others, like me, the choice to spend valor on something that required no rep grind was very welcome.

It is a surprise to some that the Voidbinders are not left in just for patch 5.2 gear, rather than removed altogether, particularly given how helpful this would be for players trying to level alts, who were able to grind out justice points to upgrade low level gear and get over the bar into heroics, allowing them to continue with progression without having to spend gold at the auction house. And much the same applies for the next progression bars into the Mogu'shan Vaults and Heart of Fear/Terrace of Endless Spring raid finders -- the item upgrade possibility is another option for characters to get over that hurdle.

BashiokEven Ethereals need a vacation, and the item upgraders (Voidbinders), are no exception. They're saying they need to go home to take care of business arrangements, but ... I'm not convinced. I think they're just homesick for their 'space mummy' families.

Ok ok, fourth wall broken, we're actually just temporarily removing them from the game for 5.2 due to the new raid tier. The idea with the item upgrade system is that it's a way to spend currency on upgrading items when buying new items isn't the clear path. Either you've bought everything, or at least most of them, and then spend currency to get that extra *oomph*. With a new raid tier coming, we don't want to create a trap where people are wondering what's more lucrative: spend currency on new items, or on the new gear appearing on vendors? (Hint: It's the new gear on vendors.) To help ensure we're not indirectly encouraging anyone to spend their currency somewhere they probably shouldn't, the item upgraders will be taking a break.

Right now we're planning for them to return in 5.3, which will not have a raid tier, and offer upgrades again as people will have likely have some currency to burn. We're not sure yet if we'll continue this cycle of having them take a break for raid patches and then come back in non-raid patches, but we'll continue evaluating as we go, absorb feedback, and let you know how these plans evolve.

I, for one, will miss the upgrade system, but Bashiok's post implies, not unexpectedly that there will also be new rewards to spend valor on. Hopefully the reputation grind will be less arduous than the current ones!
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, gear-upgrades, gear-upgrades-gone, item-upgrade-system, item-upgrades, item-upgrades-gone, mists, mists-of-pandaria, patch-5.2, patch-5.2-ptr, voidbinder

Filed under: News items, PvP, Mists of Pandaria

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Data suggests mage changes solved spec issues

GuildOx sends us interesting news of a change in the ratio of specs for raiding mages. Prior to hotfixes and patch adjustments that happened over the past couple months, raiding mages were overwhelmingly fire specd -- over 90% of the top mages were specd into fire. Now? According to GuildOx data, 45% of the top mages are arcane spec, and 39% are fire spec. Prior to the changes, arcane was around 3%.

While this change in mage spec might seem an oddity and not necessarily important, it does serve to illustrate an key fact: balance changes can and do work. All these small changes to the way that the game is played, be it through small hotfixes or modifications to the encounter designs; these changes eventually lead to an equalization of spec and greater player choice.

Of course in a perfect world these minor changes wouldn't be necessary to correct major deficiencies. But, given that the game is so fluid and changes are a natural part of WoW these days, it's encouraging to see that they have the desired effect.

Is there a method to Ghostcrawler's and his team's madness? Yes, and it appears to be working.
Tags: arcane-spec, breaking, fire-spec, guildox, mage, mage-arcane-spec, mage-fire-spec

Filed under: Mage

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How We Learned To Love WoW’s Changes

Happy New Year, one and all!

It’s safe to say that in the 8 years (!) I’ve been playing MMORPGs, we’ve seen a lot of changes – but the last few years may have seen the most dramatic, and controversial, changes of all, particularly for WoW.

From LF* to quest difficulty to the Daily Quest Revolution, the game’s changed almost beyond recognition.

And so, today we have four bloggers each looking at how the game’s changed, and how – and if – they’re coping with it:

Big Bear Butt thinks that the new mass of Daily Quests is massive paradigm shift we need to adjust to, not a small change – “I think the core gameplay in World of Warcraft is now being built around daily quests, and if you’re still stuck thinking of dailies as something we will someday get past, good morning Mr Phelps it’s time for your 6:00 AM wakeup call.”Tzufit offers a series of tips on how best to cope with LFR if it’s a part of the game you don’t love – “I would say that I have been lucky to have relatively few bad experiences in LFR since this expansion was released, but I truly believe that it’s more than just luck.”Redbeard explains how he managed to stop stressing about newer classes being hugely overpowered – “Unless your toon is being picked on by the OP ones, is this really that much of a problem that it requires a Dev to get out the nerfbat? “And The Grumpy Elf asks whether WoW in 2013 is a game any newbie would enjoy – “The leveling speed is way too fast that it would never allow people to get in touch with the characters, to get a real feel for how they play. “

Talking of changes – the Melting Pot’s going through a couple too. I’ll write more about that next week!

What do you think? Has WoW changed beyond recognition?

Tagged as: changes, daily quests, LFR, wow

If you enjoyed this article, check out our other posts from these categories: World of Warcraft

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TradeChat on Patch 5.2's changes

In a video released last night, mere moments before patch 5.2's PTR went live, Panser sums up all the best bits that can be found in the PTR, drawing from the full current notes that WoW Insider recently published.

Among Panser's highlights were the following:

The new daily quest hub, the isle of the Thunder King, will bring new quest lines, including dailies, quests that focus on either PvP or PvE, along with events and access to the mysterious "Treasure Room".Two new world bosses are added, Nalak the Storm Lord only being available after the defeat of Lei Shen, and Oondasta. These world bosses tap to faction.Pet Battle Changes: bandages stack to 25 and bind on account. PvP pet battle victories can award pet battle stones, and XP and lesser charms can be awarded from wins in PvP or PvE pet battles, depending on level.New pets on the Isle of Lightning, from wild pet battles, even from raid drops. Elite pet battles will take on your entire team, and defeating them will award an adorable red panda cub!New mounts, including a Spectral Charger, a Triceratops and PterodactylNew hearthstone item called a Dark PortalHeirlooms will scale to 85.Darkmoon top hat offers 10% increased XP and reputation gain.If you enjoyed the video, don't forget to head over to Panser's channel and subscribe, and check back for her weekly recaps every Friday.
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: featured, movies, panser, patch-5.2, tradechat, weekly-recap, world-of-warcraft-videos, wow-created-movies, wow-fan-movies, wow-guide, wow-movies, wow-videos

Filed under: News items

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Big changes coming to Sunsong Ranch in 5.2

There's been plenty of talk over the last couple of months about Sunsong Ranch, the farm that players can adopt and use to grow various crops of their own. A lot of that talk revolved around whether or not Sunsong Ranch was the first step towards player housing, a feature that a lot of players have been wistfully wishing for since the days of vanilla. Earlier this month, we asked Cory Stockton and Dave Kosak if this was indeed the case, and the response was that while the ranch could be interpreted that way, player housing wasn't something intended for the future.

However, both Stockton and Kosak were excited with how well the farming feature had been received, and with how well it integrated with other features in the game. As a new feature, the farm works seamlessly with other professions in the game. Being able to grow your own resources has been a tremendous boon for players, but the question still remained -- how could the farming feature be improved even further?

Well ... how about as an additional means to gather reputation?

Farm improvements in 5.2

Patch 5.2 will see a few new features added to Sunsong Ranch, the most important being the option to purchase it. Technically, while players are able to use the farm, it still belongs to Farmer Yoon -- he's just allowing players to use the farm because they've been such a tremendous help in getting the farm cleaned up, and getting Yoon in with the Tillers to boot. Even though players have earned the favor of everyone in Halfhill, the farm still isn't really their property.

With patch 5.2, you'll be able to purchase the farm from Yoon and own it outright. This means that the farm will turn into a rest point like an inn, and players will be able to bind their hearthstones to their farms and instantly log out at that location. As far as requested improvements go, this was at the top of the list for many players. As for how much that farm will cost you ... well, we'll have to wait and see. The new Sunsong Ranch features will not be available on the PTR, but they will be coming soon.

But purchasing the farm does more than give you a new hearthstone option. If you own the farm, you'll begin to get work orders from the various factions scattered across Pandaria. Filling out those work orders will give you a reputation boost with the issuing faction. This additional feature does two things -- makes that reputation grinding a little easier, and further cements that integrated nature of the farm that the developers seem to be so fond of.

We don't currently know what form that reputation boost will take -- whether it will be a flat amount of reputation rewarded, or a buff that increases reputation gain with a faction. But any bonus to reputation gain is apt to be well-received, and it's a purpose for the farm that goes beyond the usual helpful boost to professions.

Quality of life improvements

But that's not all we'll be seeing out of Sunsong Ranch. Along with the option to purchase the farm, several quality-of-life improvements will be added as well. Players that are tired of planting 16 seeds one at a time will be glad to hear that seed bags will now be available, allowing you to plant four plots worth of crops at a time.

Special crop seeds have been in since Mists of Pandaria's launch. While you can use these special crop seeds to gather materials like fabric, cloth, leather, and enchanting materials, the yield on these special crop seeds was pretty low. In 5.2, the yield has been improved to make farming more competitive with gathering these items out in the world -- making the seeds a much more useful purchase.

Planting seeds has always resulted in crops that need to be tended to. Players have to water the plants, pull pesky weeds, spray for bugs, or murder encroaching wildlife. But there was a dual-layered nature to farming that got tiresome -- if you picked a plant, you'd either end up with soil that needed to be tilled, a weed that needed to be pulled before the soil could be tilled, or occupied soil with a virmen that needed to be killed before the soil could be tilled.

If you've reached exalted with the Tillers and purchased a Master Plow, in 5.2 it will now do something about those annoying virmen living in the soil. Running the Master Plow over the offending soil will pop the virmen out of the ground stunned and at 30% health, making them far less of a nuisance. In addition, Wild Crops -- the swinging vines that require players to hop on and wrestle for a minute or so -- will now occur less often.

It's really nice to see that this useful new feature is still being worked on and improved over time, and in ways that are genuinely useful to players. The ability to use the farm as an additional means to gain reputation is a really good move. And even though Sunsong Ranch really can't be considered player housing, it's still nice that we'll be able to buy the place, bind our hearthstones, and call it a far more personal home than any inn in Pandaria.

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: chee-chee, cooking, ella, farm, farmer-yoon, farming, fish-fellreed, gina-mudclaw, halfhill-market, haohan-mudclaw, jogu-the-drunk, mists-of-pandaria, old-hillpaw, patch-5.2, patch-5.2-ptr, reputation-rewards, sho, sunsong-ranch, the-tillers, tillers, tina-mudclaw, wow-farming

Filed under: News items, Mists of Pandaria

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