Xarpolis
RealPoor Guru

Joined: 15 Oct 2002 Posts: 2884
Location: Philly, PA
|
Posted: 08/18/05 - 17:01 Post subject: Interesting game-altering changes going in. BWL & BoS:
|
|
|
2 links here. The first is about changes to BWL, for the better.
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-dungeons&t=116716&p=1&tmp=1#post116716
The second is about Blessing of Salvation, the very contriversial pally spell. Figured both are worth a read.
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-dungeons&t=116961&p=1&tmp=1#post116961
We've made the following hotfixes to Blackwing Lair:
--Fixed a bug with Vaelanstrasz's Burning Adrenaline spell. Guilds will find that secondary tanks are hit with the spell less frequently now.
--Fixed a bug with the Shadow of Ebonroc spell. The spell was working on the closest target rather than the current target. The spell will now work correctly.
--Firemaw, Ebonroc and Flamegor are no longer immune to Taunt. The three drakes were previously more difficult than was intended for the dungeon. With the fix of Shadow of Ebonroc, the taunt immunity needed to be removed. The drakes were serving as gateway mobs and this is not our intention. Mobs such as Razorgore, Vaelanstrasz, Chromaggus and Nefarian are where the true difficulty of the dungeon can be found.
--Chromaggus's breath attacks should now work correctly. If you find that Chromaggus is not using his breath attacks, please let us know.
Known bug:
--It's been reported that the Nefarian encounter can only be attempted once per week. This is a bug we are currently investigating. We have a fix in place for 1.7.0 that will allow the encounter to be attempted once per day. We're looking for a way to hotfix this as well but currently do not have a feasible solution. For patch 1.8.0 we will be introducing new technology that will allow players to attempt the encounter as much as they like until they get it to "PHase Two" at which point they will have to wait until the next day for their next attempt.
===============================================
===============================================
===============================================
===============================================
Blessing of Salvation is an interesting spell. It's completely and totally meaningless in PvP. It's completely useless for a soloing Paladin. It's a minor (at best) imrprovement in a 5-man, PvE encounter.
For a raid encounter, where Aggro management can determine the outcome of a fight, it's an extremely powerful and advantageous spell.
As more and more raid encounters enter the game, and as aggro management plays a larger role in these encounters, it's obvious that spells like Blessing of Salvation need to be evaluated.
Now, the core of the controversy surrounding this spell is, of course, that the Alliance has it and the Horde does not. Let me take a moment to state that we do *NOT* expect all encounters to play the same for Horde and Alliance. In a perfect world, an *occassional* encounter will be easier (or more difficult) depending on whether or not you are Horde or Alliance. A good example of this is Magmadar. Some might argue that Magmadar is easier for the Alliance because of Fear Ward. Some might argue that he's easier for the Horde because of WotF. At the end of the day, both Horde and Alliance can beat the encounter. And it's not a drastic difference in difficulty. It is ok that sometimes the two sides are different -- if this wasn't ok, Starcraft wouldn't exist =P
But Blessing of Salvation is a different case. The spell translates through to any encounter where Taunt does not work (and to some degree, even encounters where Taunt does work).
We are aware that Blessing of Salvation is causing a sense of imbalance between the two factions. The recent addition of Taunt to the drakes in Blackwing Lair was *NOT* a solution for this problem. The Drakes needed Taunt (with the exception of Flamegor) because they have inherent anti-tank abilities to begin with.
But in the long run, we are analyzing Blessing of Salvation's overall impact on the Raid Game. At this point, the raid and dungeon designers are consulting directly with the Class Spells & Abilities team to determine what the next step will be. We will evaluate if BoS is too powerful or too weak. We will evaluate if the Horde has adequate aggro management solutions to match that of the Alliance. But it will take some time before any change is made. I will keep you informed of any developments that arise.
Our goal is not to favor Horde or Alliance here. Our goal is to provide our players with a fun experience, regardless of what side they chose at the Character Create Screen. Equally, our goal is to keep our raid encounters as fun and challenging as possible.
|
|