This friday Lead Game Designer Ion “Watcher” Hazzikostas will be answering questions about dungeons and raids on twitch! Check out the announcement below to find out how you can ask questions.
This Friday, I’ll join Lead Game Designer Ion “Watcher” Hazzikostas to answer your questions live on Twitch. We’ll be focusing on the topic of Raids and Dungeons in Warlords of Draenor — from Bloodmaul Slag Mines to Blackrock Foundry, and beyond!
When: Friday, February 27, 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM Pacific Standard Time (check here to convert that into your local time!) Where: The World of Warcraft channel on Twitch.tv/WoW
You can submit your questions via Twitter by using the hashtag #WarlordsQA, or simply by replying to this forum thread. As we’d like to get to as many questions as possible, we’ll only consider forum questions that use 40 words or less, and all questions must be submitted before 12:01 AM PST on Friday, February 27. Keep in mind that we’re focusing on Raids and Dungeons for this Q&A session — questions on other topics will not be answered.
Here you’ll find a list of hotfixes that address various issues related to the recently released World of Warcraft patch 6.0.3. Hotfixes are updates we make on our end without requiring you to download a new patch. Some of the hotfixes below take effect the moment they were implemented, while others may require your realm to be restarted to go into effect. Please keep in mind that some issues cannot be addressed without a client- side patch update. We will continue to update this list as additional hotfixes are applied.
Hotfixes have been listed by the date they’ve been implemented.
Refreshing or expiring Ruptures, Garrotes, Crimson Tempest, and Hemorrhages should no longer incorrectly remove other Rogues’ Sanguinary Veins.
Raids, Dungeons, and Scenarios
Blackrock Foundry
Oregorger
Oregorger’s health has been reduced by 10% on Normal difficulty.
Oregorger’s Rolling Fury ability now deals less damage on Normal difficulty (135,000 damage) and on Heroic difficulty (200,000 damage).
The Blast Furnace
Heart of the Mountain should no longer spam raid warnings for Blast whenever it reaches 100 Energy.
Mind Controlled Firecallers should no longer be able to cast Reactive Earth Shield on injured Primal Elementalists.
Kromog
Kromog’s Reverberations should now be easier to dodge with a 3-second delay before the ability starts dealing damage (up from 1.75 seconds) and the effect’s radius has been decreased.
Beastlord Darmac
Beastlord Darmac’s Call the Pack now has an increased cooldown of 40 seconds (up from 30 seconds) on Normal difficulty.
Fixed an issue where the doors to Beastlord Darmac may not always reopen after the encounter has been reset.
Operator Thogar
Enrage mechanic for the encounter is now more lethal.
Iron Maidens
Admiral Gar’an: Dominator Turret’s Dominator Blast no longer deals damage to player pets, minions or guardians.
Enforcer Sorka’s Convulsive and Lingering Shadows are no longer incorrectly removed when the targeted player dies.
Marak the Blooded’s Blood Ritual still only targets a player within 45 yards but the damage cone now has a range of 100 yards.
Fixed an issue where Iron Maidens not on the Dreadnaught may instantly cast their spells and abilities at the end of the boat phase.
Fixed an issue where Marak the Blooded was incorrectly gaining Sanguine Strikes at 75 Iron Fury on Mythic difficulty.
Blackhand
Rubble Piles should no longer appear after the transition to stage two.
Fixed an issue where a player may not be correctly protected from Blackhand’s Impaling Throw when multiple players were taking cover behind the same Rubble Pile.
Before the weekend the latest hotfixes were put on the hotfix blog and the 6.1 PTR patch notes were updated as well! The latest PTR build has been marked as a release candidate, so be sure to check out all the changes coming when the patch does get released!
Here you’ll find a list of hotfixes that address various issues related to the recently released World of Warcraft patch 6.0.3. Hotfixes are updates we make on our end without requiring you to download a new patch. Some of the hotfixes below take effect the moment they were implemented, while others may require your realm to be restarted to go into effect. Please keep in mind that some issues cannot be addressed without a client- side patch update. We will continue to update this list as additional hotfixes are applied.
Hotfixes have been listed by the date they’ve been implemented.
Tier-17 2-piece bonus for Unholy Death Knights in addition to its current effect also causes Dark Transformation to apply an additional 40% damage bonus to the ghoul, increasing total pet damage by roughly 20%.
Raids, Dungeons, and Scenarios
Blackrock Foundry
The Blast Furnace
Reduced the health of Primal Elementalists on Mythic difficulty.
Primal Elementalists are now immune to knockback effects.
Fixed an issue in Phase 2 where Slag Pools may fail to heat up Heart of the Mountain.
Fixed an issue where if the encounter is reset at the beginning of Phase 2, then Phase 2 adds would incorrectly spawn in during Phase 1 on the next attempt.
Kromog
Kromog’s Stone Pillars now persist for 60 seconds or if they are hit by Rippling Smash, whichever comes first.
Kromog’s enrage timer is now at 9 minutes (up from 8 minutes) across all difficulties.
Beastlord Darmac
Dreadwing’s Inferno Breath and Spirit of the Rylak’s Superheated Shrapnel no longer deals damage to player pets or guardians.
Fixed an issue in Stage Two where Beastlord Darmac may sometimes be unaffected by Cruelfang’s Savage Howl.
Operator Thogar
Train schedules after the 7.5 minute mark have been adjusted to be less difficult on Normal and Heroic difficulty.
[Requires a realm restart.] Fixed an issue that could cause reinforcements from trains to appear to be standing still while still moving around.
Iron Maidens
Fixed an issue that could cause Enforcer Sorka to become stuck in the railing after using her Blade Dash ability.
Fixed an issue that could cause the Iron Maidens encounter to reset prematurely.
Fixed an issue where Iron Maidens were incorrectly only dropping Normal difficulty quest items for Sigil of the Black Hand on all difficulties.
Battlegrounds and Arenas
Arathi Basin: Completion criteria for the Resilient Victory achievement should now be tracking correctly and be obtainable.
Eye of the Storm (Rated): Fixed an issue where defending a capture point at Mage Tower and Blood Elf Tower displays the wrong tower in the chat window.
We have a new feature coming in Patch 6.1 that’ll allow you to send out Tweets directly to your Twitter feed while playing World of Warcraft. It includes the ability to send out text-only Tweets; easily take, crop, and Tweet out in-game screenshots; and let your friends know about your recent accomplishments.
It’s easy to get started; all you need is a Twitter account! Under the Social section of the in-game Interface options, just check the Enable Twitter Functionality option, and then the Sign In button. You’ll be taken to a standard app approval page that will allow you to send out Tweets using the in-game UI.
Once you’ve authenticated the app, you can initiate a new Tweet by typing /share into chat, or by clicking the small share icon that’ll appear in-chat next to Achievement and item drop notifications. You can also add an Achievement or item directly to a Tweet with the Twitter UI open by shift+clicking the Achievement or item.
Tweets from within World of Warcraft are only ever initiated by you, and we will never automatically send out Tweets on your behalf—we’ve disabled Addons from sending them too. Our goal is to make it easier for you to Tweet while playing World of Warcraft, and more convenient to share fun moments with friends.
Of course if you don’t use Twitter or don’t want to see any of this stuff, just don’t check the ‘Enable Twitter Functionality’ box and it’ll stay out of your way.
We’re excited to see how people enjoy this new feature, and encourage everyone to jump on the 6.1 PTR to test it and provide feedback.
FAQ
Q: When authorizing the World of Warcraft app it says authorizing it will let you see who follows me, allow you to change my profile, and some other things; why do you need access to do all that? A: The Twitter app authorization system only has a few tiers of access that we as app developers can choose from, and the one we chose was the most basic with the least access required. It will list out a bunch of features this integration does not use, and have no plans to use, like those mentioned. The World of Warcraft Twitter app only exists to allow you to Tweet while playing WoW if you want to, and only you can initiate and send out a Tweet.
Q: So I’m going to see a bunch of Tweets in-game now? A: No, there’s no in-game Twitter feed; this feature just sends Tweets outside of the game.
Q: What if I don’t want to see anything related to Twitter in-game? A: If you don’t authorize a Twitter account through the Interface option you won’t see anything related to the feature.
Q: Are you going to start requiring Twitter use for in-game activities? A: No, we just think it’s a cool convenience feature for those who do like sharing their gaming activity on social media—if you don’t like doing that, no problem.
Q: Isn’t this going to cause a lot of spam, or issues with people sending out inappropriate content from the game? A: This doesn’t add any functionality that isn’t already achievable through Twitter. This simply makes it more convenient to link items and share achievements and screenshots while playing.
Q: Is there a separate login per-character, or is this account-wide? A: Your Twitter authorization is Battle.net account-wide. Any WoW license (as well as any characters) within the same Battle.net account will be able to Tweet from an authorized Twitter account. You’d want to sign out of Twitter through the Interface options before logging out of the game if you don’t want the authorization to persist between logins.
Q: My child uses my WoW account sometimes; will they have access to Tweet from my Twitter account? A: The Twitter authorization will remain active until you log out of it through the Interface options.
Q: I don’t use Twitter, but I do use some other social platforms, when could this be implemented for those? A: We’re starting with Twitter, but the /share functionality certainly could be expanded to other social platforms if you would find it useful. We’d appreciate your feedback and ideas on where we could go next.
Q: This seems cool but I haven’t tried Twitter yet, how can I get started? A: Twitter has a helpful guide to get you started, and we maintain a list of official and employee accounts right here that you can follow to start building your list.
Q: How moddable is this by Addons? A: The UI is fairly locked down to keep access to sending Tweets secure, and ensure that you—and only you—are choosing when to send them. Addons may still perform some light functions, such as helping to populate the chat field in customizable formats.
Game Designer Ion Hazzikostas, or Watcher, has taken to the forums to talk about the BRF tuning, which some players are experiencing as overtuned later into the instance.
At this point, the terms “overtuned” and “undertuned” are mainstays on the forums in the days and weeks following the release of each new raid zone. My best definition for “overtuned” is “harder than it should be”; inversely, “undertuned” means “easier than it should be.” But of course everyone has a different idea of should — of what the tuning target is for a given boss. Some are voicing their own opinion as players, while others are guessing at the developers’ intent based on our past history and comments. Unsurprisingly, this lack of context and common ground all too often leads to people talking past each other, accusations of trolling, and other fun forum interactions. To help ground the conversation, I’d like to share a few thoughts and goals about how we approach the difficulty and complexity of our raid bosses.
Tuning in general is a very interesting topic, and one that sees a huge amount of discussion around the office, whether in formal planning meetings early in the design process, or yesterday morning when a coworker stopped by our office to offer a stern glare and some choice words about Oregorger.
As background, Blackrock Foundry itself is a bit of an experiment with a significant split-release initial raid tier. In Cataclysm, the initial 4.0 patch had three raid zones that opened immediately, with a total of 13 bosses (14 on Heroic), and the amount of content felt overwhelming to many. In response, in Mists we partitioned 16 bosses into two separate releases, with Mogu’shan Vaults opening the second week of the expansion, and Heart of Fear and Terrace following a month later. While this helped somewhat, many players still felt rushed, with new bosses unlocking far faster than they could keep up.
And so for Warlords, we added a more significant two-month gap between Highmaul and Foundry, allowing a significant portion of the playerbase to make real headway in Highmaul before we unveiled the remainder of the initial raid content. But that larger gap, while offering what we consider improved pacing, also made Foundry feel like a whole separate tier, which changed expectations slightly. If you quickly cleared half of Normal Highmaul the week of release, would you be able to clear half of Foundry just as quickly? If you had finished working your way through Normal Highmaul and had moved on to Heroic Highmaul when Foundry opened, would Normal Foundry be comparatively easy since you’ve now been raiding Heroic content?
In several ways, we intended Foundry to complement, rather than supplant, Highmaul. If we had wanted Foundry to be a fresh start and a clean slate, we would have had it completely obsolete all Highmaul gear, the way Normal Jin’rokh dropped items that were 13 item levels better than loot from Heroic Sha of Fear. But Highmaul remains relevant, and Foundry exists as a direct continuation of that progression. While Normal Highmaul was designed with the expectation that players would arrive with dungeon items, Normal Foundry expects players who are mostly Highmaul geared. Thus the numerical targets, in terms of healing and damage throughput, for even an early boss like Gruul or Beastlord Darmac, are comparable to what Ko’ragh demands in Highmaul. So just because you now find Kargath to be simple, does not mean that Oregorger will be equally easy prey. But players who had success in Highmaul should all be able to continue into Foundry, stake a foothold there, and continue to progress in their difficulty of choice. And those who are still working their way through Highmaul will continue to find invaluable items there, which will help them eventually delve deeper into the Foundry.
As for the structure of the zone, Foundry is a winged instance, in the style of Naxxramas or Icecrown Citadel in the past, and we intend for bosses to become more challenging the deeper into a given wing you go, but for the different wings to be largely equal in overall difficulty. Groups who jumped right into the Blast Furnace encounter after downing Gruul and Oregorger likely found themselves in over their heads, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the Furnace encounter is “overtuned” — rather, in essence, you were skipping from bosses 1-3 all the way to bosses 7-9. The early bosses of other wings will offer a more suitable challenge, and will offer valuable item upgrades to help prepare you for the end bosses of each wing, and of course for Blackhand himself.
Over the course of Blackrock Foundry’s testing, we’ve made a handful of changes to encounter mechanics that are not currently being communicated in the Dungeon Journal. The Dungeon Journal will be updated with those changes in Patch 6.1, which is currently on the PTR, but we’d like to share those changes to minimize confusion.
Changes to the encounters that are already live, but not in the Dungeon Journal:
On The Blast Furnace encounter, Slag Pool is used on all difficulties; but the journal currently incorrectly suggests that it is Mythic only. In 6.1 the journal will accurately reflect that Slag Pool affects the Heart of the Mountain during Phase 2.
Hans’gar and Franzok’s Crippling Suplex ability no longer deals damage based on maximum health of the tank who was picked up. It deals a flat amount of Physical damage to both tanks who are thrown together. (200,000 damage on Raid Finder, 450,000 damage on Normal, 600,000 damage on Heroic, and 700,000 damage on Mythic)
Gruul will instantly regain 50 Rage if his Inferno Slice fails to hit at least 4 targets on Mythic difficulty.
Blackhand will regain energy after using Massive Shattering Smash if it fails to hit at least 4 targets.
Known issues that will be fixed in Patch 6.1:
When grabbed by Hans’gar or Franzok in advance of Crippling Suplex, tanks are currently unable to use abilities. They will be able to use abilities while grabbed in 6.1.
Flamebender Ka’graz’s Singe debuff currently appears as a dispellable magic debuff on unit frames. It is not intended to be dispellable; this display issue will be fixed in 6.1.
6.0.3 Hotfixes: February 5, 4
There is also a new round of hotfixes in, check them out below!
Here you’ll find a list of hotfixes that address various issues related to the recently released World of Warcraft patch 6.0.3. Hotfixes are updates we make on our end without requiring you to download a new patch. Some of the hotfixes below take effect the moment they were implemented, while others may require your realm to be restarted to go into effect. Please keep in mind that some issues cannot be addressed without a client- side patch update. We will continue to update this list as additional hotfixes are applied.
Hotfixes have been listed by the date they’ve been implemented. The hotfixes have also been compiled by category for those wanting a quick summary of all hotfixes that have been applied since Patch 6.0.3.
Resolved an issue where Slagshop Brutes may sometimes not reset correctly if the raid wipes while they’re casting Death Howl.
Hans’gar & Franzok
Hans’gar and Franzok’s Crippling Suplex now deals 30% less damage (200,000 damage on Raid Finder, 450,000 damage on Normal, 600,000 damage on Heroic, and 700,000 damage on Mythic).
Blackhand
Blackhand’s Impaling Throw damage dealt to Siegemakers should now properly scale up based on the number of players in the Raid.
Visuals for Marked for Death and Slag Eruptions should now be easier to see.
Players should now only receive a single debuff that refreshes when running through Blazes created by Siegemaker Mortar attacks.
Resolved an issue that could cause some Hunters or Warlocks to suffer fatal falling damage during the transition to Stage Three: Iron Crucible.
Battlegrounds and Arenas
Faction flags should no longer appear for players in an Arena or Arena Skirmish match.
February 4
Classes
Druid
General
[Hotfix in testing] Mangle’s damage has increased by 27%.
Raids, Dungeons, and Scenarios
Blackrock Foundry
Gruul
Gruul now uses Petrifying Slam against 5 targets in a 10-player raid, scaling up to 10 targets in a 30-player raid (used to be 8 targets for all raid sizes).
Hans’gar & Franzok
Mages should no longer be able to incorrectly Blink through the ramp at the end of the room.
Beastlord Darmac
Fixed an issue that could cause Beastlord Darmac despawn immediately once defeated.
Operator Thogar
Operator Thogar should now be immune to damage during the start of the encounter until he jumps down onto the tracks.
Iron Maidens
Admiral Gar’an should no longer interrupt herself while using Deploy Turret.
Blackhand
Players should no longer be able to avoid Incendiary Shot on the balconies in Stage Two.
that’ll appear in-chat next to Achievement and item drop notifications. You can also add an Achievement or item directly to a Tweet with the Twitter UI open by shift+clicking the Achievement or item.
