World of Warcraft - [Firepower Friday] Your weekly DPS thread |
- [Firepower Friday] Your weekly DPS thread
- Props to this Goblin for keeping the Northrend zepplin running since 2008
- Blizzard please give NE males eyebrows without facial hair. It's been like this for 12 years.
- New darker Blood elf background in BfA
- I gave the real hero of WoD real eyes...
- Xorothian Cultists: What the channeling actually means
- Christie Golden confirms that there are 2 books (35K words) with artwork included in the Collector's Edition.
- [BFA Spoilers] BFA has a back to basics feel and it's very refreshing.
- Death Knight Murloc
- Battle for Azeroth Class Design Suffers From Perennial Pruning, Awful Azerite Armor, Terrible Talents; Feedback and My Solution
- Ran with these guys the other day and it got a smile out of me.
- I tried to recreate Tyrande in Black Desert Online. I kinda like how she turned out.
- Why do you tease us Blizz?
- This is an emotional rollercoaster
- New BfA Allied race confirmed "Wood boi"
- The Horde doesn't need a Warchief...
- I cleared Antorus for the first time!
- I made a fan-art of BfA Jaina!
- You wouldn’t believe how excited I was to find out I was able to tame this monstrosity.
- How long has this been a thing?
- [BFA] Lord Stormsong's shoulders
- y'all can gush about dazar'alor all you want, but boralus has its own outdoor restaurant
- I gave Night Elves regular eyes
- I opened up the secret door to the Rogue order hall only to be blocked by another door
- [Healing] 4 Tips to Master Raid Healing
- BfA Rogue Appeal to the Devs: Class Fantasy Request
[Firepower Friday] Your weekly DPS thread Posted: 05 Apr 2018 08:06 PM PDT Please post any offers to help, questions, and logs in the appropriate class spot. Classes: Death Knight | Demon Hunter | Druid | Hunter | Mage | Monk | Paladin | Priest | Rogue | Shaman | Warlock | Warrior [link] [comments] | ||
Props to this Goblin for keeping the Northrend zepplin running since 2008 Posted: 06 Apr 2018 06:03 AM PDT
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Blizzard please give NE males eyebrows without facial hair. It's been like this for 12 years. Posted: 06 Apr 2018 05:25 AM PDT
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New darker Blood elf background in BfA Posted: 06 Apr 2018 09:32 AM PDT
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I gave the real hero of WoD real eyes... Posted: 06 Apr 2018 01:12 PM PDT | ||
Xorothian Cultists: What the channeling actually means Posted: 06 Apr 2018 05:44 AM PDT Summary of recent events Over the past several months, several users noticed that cultist mobs on the Broken Shore called 'Xorothian Cultists' had been channeling an extremely long spell. This spell was set to end January 16th, 2018, which at the time as a predicted potential release date of Patch 7.3.5. Patch 7.3.5 did release on this date (though not at the correct time), and many at this point took it for granted that the channeling of the cultists had real meaning. After Patch 7.3.5's release, the cultists were dormant. I assumed it was a bug that their long cast time was visible and that Blizzard had fixed the issue. Several weeks later, on approximately February 13th, 2018, it was again noted by several different sources that the Cultists had begun channeling again, and it was widely speculated that this would mean another significant event would occur. Despite the cast ending on the wrong day, this end time by the cultists (March 7th, 2018) was attributed to a change in the battleground rotation made on March 6th to add Seething Shore. Several weeks later, on approximately April 6th, 2018, it was again noted by different sources that the Cultists had begun channeling again. Finding a pattern I began to see the outlines of a pattern at this point ('channel', 'end cast', 'no channel', 'channel again', repeat). I wondered: how do the dates align in this pattern? These are the end times as written in Wowhead comments and various articles written around the time of the events.
(1) Rougher estimate than others; had to guess this one because using 'hours' from the date of the post whereas the others all had precision to the minute. (2) Note the time zone change from PST to PDT at this point. Daylight savings time has to be considered when calculating between ET2 and ET3 (consider it to be 7:30 PM PST). Between ET1 and ET2, there is a roughly 50 day interval. To be exact (based on the limited information I have), there are 4,287,600 seconds between the two times. Between ET2 and ET3 we see another roughly 50 day interval. To be exact, there are 4,295,100 seconds between the two values. As a programmer, these numbers immediately stuck out to me. If you multiply both by 1000 to turn them into milliseconds, they're both within 0.1% of the number 4,294,967,295. In particular, the difference between ET2 and ET3 is only 0.003% off the expected value, less than 6 minutes! Why is 4,294,967,295 important? It's the largest value that a 32-bit unsigned integer can hold. More on that in a minute. "Why is their channeling hidden sometimes?" So, at this point we've determined that the end times of their channeled casts are exactly 4,294,967,295 milliseconds apart (or 0xFFFFFFFF milliseconds apart if you prefer the hex version). But why do their channeled casts sometimes not have a duration displayed? Doesn't this indicate an active intervention on the part of Blizzard to change the times and make them display? There is another explanation. To look into this half of the problem, we need to understand more about 32-bit integers. To put it simply, 32-bit numbers in computing can be read in two different ways. One way to do this is to let the first 31 bits be the number and the last bit be the sign of the number (negative or positive). However, if you don't need negative numbers, you can let a value be unsigned. This lets you use the 32nd bit for the number directly as well, doubling the range of possible positive values. For the duration of the channeling time for the Cultists, Blizzard used 32-bit unsigned integers. However, consistency of reading integers the same way within the same code is not always required. I suspect that when checking to determine whether or not the value should be displayed to the user, Blizzard is actually checking the signed value of the cast duration. This would mean that when a Cultist finished their cast and started a new one with a duration of 4,294,967,295 milliseconds, the Blizzard channeling info API is actually reading it as '-1'. It then would not display the value to the user because a negative channel time doesn't make sense. After a Cultist finishes its cast and the counter starts back at 4,294,967,295 milliseconds, the channeling time would then not display to the player until the 'sign' bit changes to 0 (indicating a positive number). This would happen at 2,147,483,647 milliseconds into the channel, exactly halfway through it. So let's test this theory. Let's analyze the earliest dates of the comments written about the Cultist channel times and compare them against my calculations. Estimated start dates
(1) Based this calculation off of the time of ET2 instead of ET1 as ET1 had much less accurately. Dates of earliest comments posted
All of these sightings fall within 2 days of my estimated start times (the times after which the 32nd bit in the integer goes to 0 and the number becomes positive from a signed perspective). This is fairly convincing evidence that the same theory that explains the distance between the channel's ending times can also explain the distance between the starting time and the ending time. It also is a logical explanation why Blizzard would not need to do anything in order for this cycle to continue over and over. Past and future timeline for Xorothian Cultist channels Based on what we've learned here today, here is a timeline of the sightings listed in this post, plus guesses at the two next times. These predictions, if accurate, should thoroughly disprove that Blizzard is personally trying to show us something through these channeling times.
(1) I corrected this time by 2 hours and 3 minutes from the initial estimate, using ET2 as a base. This is probably a more accurate value than my original guesswork. TL;DR: The duration between the Cultists channel end dates is just the largest value of milliseconds the game can hold, and for exactly half of that time, the game masks the channeling cast from the player because it thinks the channeling time is negative. Blizzard is not directly controlling any of these values intentionally, as such any events "connected" to these casts is entirely coincidental, and the community shouldn't get hyped when they restart casting. [link] [comments] | ||
Posted: 06 Apr 2018 10:41 AM PDT
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[BFA Spoilers] BFA has a back to basics feel and it's very refreshing. Posted: 06 Apr 2018 06:33 AM PDT No longer are the leaders of my faction marching around me, no longer am I the Champion of the World battling demons who threaten to end the world and i'm Azeroths only hope! Today I took a rickety ass paddle raft, not a glorious imperial ship over to a spooky farm town where i battled ghost pigs and helped lift the small farm towns curse. Drustvar doesn't just resemble Duskwood, it has a small, rural type feel to it for questing as well. Stormsong Valley gave this same vibe to me as well. You're no longer seeing giant battles in every section of every zone anymore and you're it's only hope. It's back to a more to a small time fantasy feel. And I for one am enjoying it 100% [link] [comments] | ||
Posted: 06 Apr 2018 10:02 AM PDT
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Posted: 05 Apr 2018 03:58 PM PDT [I've put some time, thought, and high ilvl graphic design talent into this since seeing Azerite Armor yesterday, so would appreciate hearing thoughts from you guys in response and maybe helping push Blizzard towards something we can all get behind! Like many of you, I've been playing on-off since Vanilla and have experienced much the game has to offer. I've led a Mythic raiding guild, most recently to 4/7 Emerald Nightmare and PVP'd heavily when participation was high in BC & WotLK (only made it to Challenger, sadly). My Mythic +15 Achievement is timestamped 1/13/2017. That's not to brag, these achievements aren't close to the best in my guild, let alone this whole community. But hopefully it's enough to put some weight behind my words here] Quote from The BfA Class Design Overview Developer Watercooler (1/24):
One of the core criticisms of Legion (and WoD) has been that, for all the "class-fantasy" focus, ability pruning over the last 4 years has stripped a lot of the depth and engaging gameplay away from players in favor of passives, random procs, and sometimes just nothing at all. Some of this IS rotational, as some specs have lost core rotational class-defining abilities to the Great Pruning Crusade. I want Corruption back on all Warlock specs, for example. And some of this is more about "moments of glory" outside of core rotational abilities: think a Priest Life-gripping an ally (like the slo-mo video that made /r/wow front page this week), or a Ret/Holy Pally bubble-taunting to save a raid, or a Mage Iceblocking to eat a one-shot mechanic for the party and save the day. These are examples that are still in the game, but we used to have so many more. We used to have MULTIPLE per class. And yes, some classes had 3 and some had 2 and some had 7. But instead of pruning them all down to 1, Blizzard should've stopped to consider class fantasy and uniqueness — why people play the classes that they do, and ultimately the game that they do. The current state of class design in Legion is already OVER-pruned. Classes are lacking identity-defining flavor, moments of power, and even rotational abilities in many cases. The community has been saying this for a while. Nobody is excited about the idea of "pruning". It's become a meme in our community, and even though it's a meme we all still groan in horror at the idea that we could lose even MORE in the future. Blizzard themselves, in their Developer Watercooler from January (it's great, go read it!) acknowledged that this pruning has been a "miss" on the development front.
Now, I think Blizzard has ALSO overpruned core rotational abilities in Legion, but that's fine, we can leave that on the side for now and focus on the non-core stuff. One question that you might ask is: "where did all those pruned abilities go?" Take Anti-Magic Zone, for example, a DK class ability that added heroic moments to dungeon parties, raids, and PVP from WotLK onwards - a giant purple bubble that blocked magic damage (Demon Hunters managed to launch with something remarkably similar…). Or DK Auras! Providing party or raid-wide buffs that aided your team with Unholy, Frost, or Blood magic. These were both a part of the DK class fantasy from WotLK, removed in the name of "pruning". But they weren't removed completely. Oh no. They're still in Legion! Anti-Magic Zone, Auras, Dark Simulacrum, and Necrotic Strike, among others, were all taken from the baseline DK class and shunted into the horrendous "Honor Talent" system that was introduced in Legion. This saved Blizzard from needing to think of 5-10 interesting new abilities for every class and helped them ship the "Honor Talent" system in time for Legion. What sucks the MOST about this system is that core, class-defining heroic fantasy elements are GREYED OUT FOR 90% OF MY PLAYTIME. Exactly the sort of abilities that might, "… emphasize what makes each class unique and provide greater distinction among their various capabilities. " It's no secret that, for other reasons, PVP participation is down heavily in Legion. While some may enjoy Legion's instanced PVP systems, the majority of the community has turned away due to some mix of awful rewards, reduced gameplay options, unexciting micro-gameplay, and lack of clarity. That last one isn't something I see mentioned a lot, but honestly, how many of us know how hard our abilities would hit for in an Arena or BG? If you can't name every "Honor Talent" on your main two characters right now, what they do, and how hard they hit for or how they alter your playstyle (and even if you can, the majority of my 10/11 Mythic Raiding guild can't), the system is a massive failure. Today, Blizzard announced they were removing the "grind" associated with "Honor Talents" (after wasting an entire expansion), we'll now earn them by leveling up - just like normal talents - and making Honor Level account wide. This is an amazing first step on what I hope is a similar vision to mine.
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As it stands now, in Battle for Azeroth:
So how the hell can Blizzard fix all this in time for BfA? We've seen with WoD what a failed, rushed development cycle can lead to. Simple. Keep Azerite Armor, do whatever they currently plan to do with the system. The early look we're seeing now is getting a mixed response, but that's not necessarily because the system sucks! It's because Azerite Armor is trying to replace too many pruned things at once! So: Merge Artifact Weapons, "Honor Talents", and Talents into one shared Talent Tree. I call this solution the "Talent Merge" solution, and I swear to god it looks so much better than I first thought when I heard it. And I thought it sounded good. Certain "Honor Talents" might need numbers tuning by the balance team, but that's fine. This solution fixes:
What might this solution look like? Open up your Talent pane, your Artifact Weapon, and your "Honor Talent" window and take a look. No seriously, take a look at some of those "Honor Talents"! Shadow Priests have some great, thematic ones in particular that tie into the core class and spec fantasy. I put two together for Havoc and Vengeance Demon Hunters, and I can do the rest if there is interest. Level brackets are arbitrary. All Artifact Weapon Traits are granted one at a time upon leveling up in the intervening gaps between earning a regular Talent or an "Honor Talent". Take a look here: https://imgur.com/a/ECS9T TL;DR?
Is this a bad idea? Maybe. Is this a good idea? I think so! Could it be better somehow? Please, tell me (and Blizzard)! I'm just a long-time player who likes game design, varied gameplay, feel-good progression systems, being rewarded for anticipating actions in combat, and core class fantasy. And I'm hoping some of you in the community also really, really, really want to go back to a world where your whole kit made you feel like a [Your Class Here] 100% of the time you're playing it. edit: just want to say thanks for the great response and all the thoughtful criticism and discussion below, this is awesome and exactly what's great about the WoW community. To any Blizzard employees reading, I'm sorry I said Honor Talents were horrendous, but, well. Alliteration (and they kinda are). last edit of main post (I'm still in the comments!): Thanks for the tweet Agonius -- please retweet or uptwitter to get more eyeballs! Here's the link: https://twitter.com/agonius1/status/982129398051581953?s=21 Friday Lunch Break Edit Current Highlight-Reel Honor Talents in Every Spec
As has been pointed out many times in the comments, any Honor Talent based of a percentage value would likely need some reasonable tweaking to be re-added / un-pruned. I believe this is do-able, reasonable, fun, compelling, exciting, and ultimately aligned with Blizzard's / Ion's state Battle for Azeroth Class Design Philosophy (quoted in main body) [link] [comments] | ||
Ran with these guys the other day and it got a smile out of me. Posted: 06 Apr 2018 02:20 PM PDT
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I tried to recreate Tyrande in Black Desert Online. I kinda like how she turned out. Posted: 06 Apr 2018 01:07 AM PDT
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Posted: 06 Apr 2018 02:02 AM PDT
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This is an emotional rollercoaster Posted: 06 Apr 2018 03:22 AM PDT
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New BfA Allied race confirmed "Wood boi" Posted: 06 Apr 2018 12:43 PM PDT
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The Horde doesn't need a Warchief... Posted: 06 Apr 2018 06:17 AM PDT ... It needs a ruling Council. I think BfA can introduce a significant plot point for the current Horde; that the ideal of one Warchief as the ultimate, undisputed leader of the entire nation, including being Head General, may be a left-over from the past, and that a new, great Horde may have to relinquish leadership between each major leader within it. Sylvanas has undoubtly done some good for the Horde, and will continue to do so in the future - but maybe she's not fit to be the overall leader of the "nation". Saurfang is revered within the Horde and is well connected, but he's largely an old-fashioned warrior by now. Baine is an outstanding diplomat, Lor'themar is a brilliant statesman, I assume Vol'jin's wife is in tune with the spirits, Loa and otherwise and, hate him as you may, Gallywix is a savant when it comes to economy. So why not utilize that and break away from the "one shall rule them all" system (that only really worked with Thrall, who had the special position of being the Horde's founder) and split the power up? That would make the Horde much different from the Alliance as well and play up their "disparate outcast races coming together" theme. Only difficulty I could see would be naming conventions. So the general state leader is, what, the "Great Chief"? Warleader is "Warchief" now, or?... [link] [comments] | ||
I cleared Antorus for the first time! Posted: 06 Apr 2018 01:53 PM PDT I know it is not much, but I always was too scared to heal an entire raid. Today I said f* it and looked for a group to heal in Normal Antorus. We killed Argus! We only wiped twice! It was a great experience for me to heal a raid and I guess I will be doing it again next week in the hope of healing Heroic Antorus soon :) [link] [comments] | ||
I made a fan-art of BfA Jaina! Posted: 06 Apr 2018 11:04 AM PDT
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You wouldn’t believe how excited I was to find out I was able to tame this monstrosity. Posted: 05 Apr 2018 08:56 PM PDT
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How long has this been a thing? Posted: 06 Apr 2018 06:20 AM PDT
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[BFA] Lord Stormsong's shoulders Posted: 06 Apr 2018 11:18 AM PDT
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y'all can gush about dazar'alor all you want, but boralus has its own outdoor restaurant Posted: 06 Apr 2018 10:37 AM PDT | ||
I gave Night Elves regular eyes Posted: 06 Apr 2018 08:21 AM PDT | ||
I opened up the secret door to the Rogue order hall only to be blocked by another door Posted: 06 Apr 2018 02:13 AM PDT
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[Healing] 4 Tips to Master Raid Healing Posted: 06 Apr 2018 06:59 AM PDT | ||
BfA Rogue Appeal to the Devs: Class Fantasy Request Posted: 06 Apr 2018 06:04 AM PDT This expansion is all about bringing back class fantasy in skills/want for a group yes? If some perhaps a few requests: Lockpicking being useful again: Like Shattered Halls can we get some doors that can be picked for a slightly faster route or perhaps that lead to a different route at least? As well as some chests in the dungeon that cannot be opened normally? The loot doesn't have to be gear/more mythic drops but perhaps something worthwhile like some harder to find cosmetic drops/pets? Also on the subject of class fantasy: Saber Strike. Great ability, makes a wonderful slice/swoosh sound. Only problem is when we're using non swords, which is alot of the time. Maces/fist weapons are going to be favorites very soon again with the loss of artifacts, can we get it renamed to something/sound change when used by a blunt weapon? Fellow rogues, please feel free to add your own thoughts/requests! [link] [comments] |
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