MoP: War: is it really? Or is it fake?

[chaos5061]

Priest (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Power Word: Solace has been replaced with a new talent: Solace & Insanity
For Shadow, this ability causes Mind Flay to gain the Insanity effect on a target affected by Devouring Plague. Insanity increases the damage of Mind Flay by 33% per Shadow Orb consumed.
Glyph of Holy Fire has been redesigned. It now increases the range of Holy Fire, Smite, and Power Word: Solace by 10 yards.
Power Infusion now increases the Priest's damage by 5% in addition to current effects.
Psyfiend belonging to an individual Priest will no longer cast Psychic Horror on the same target twice.
Discipline
Penance damage and healing has been increased by 20%, now a cooldown of 9 seconds (was 10 seconds), and has a range of 40 yards for both friendly and hostile targets (was 40 yards for friendly and 30 yards for hostile targets).
Shadow
Shadowform now increases the Priest's Shadow damage by 25% (was 20%).
Tier-14 Holy/Discipline 4-piece set bonus now reduces the cooldown of Penance by 3 seconds (was 4 seconds).

Rogue (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Assassination
Dispatch now deals 15% more damage.
Envenom now deals 20% more damage.

Shaman (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Elemental
Elemental Focus now increases the Shaman's spell damage by 15% (was 10%).
Shamanism now increases the damage of Lightning Bolt by 70% (was 50%).
Enhancement
Spirit Walk now has a 1-minute cooldown (was 2 minutes).

Warlock (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Immolate now deals 20% more damage.
Shadow Bolt now deals 15% more damage.
Grimoire of Sacrifice now increases the damage of abilities by 15% (was 25%) for Destruction Warlocks and 35% (was 50%) for Affliction Warlocks. In addition, it now provides the spell Whiplash instead of Seduction when a Succubus is sacrificed.
Demonology
Hand of Gul'dan now deals 15% more damage.
Shadowflame now deals 15% more damage.
Soul Fire now deals 22% more damage.
Touch of Chaos now deals 15% more damage.
Wild Imp's Firebolt now deals 15% more damage.
Destruction
Conflagrate now deals 20% more damage.
Incinerate now deals 10% more damage.

Warrior (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Execute now deals 25% less damage.

[chaos5061]

Pet Battles
Players may now participate in pet battle duels while in the Throne of Thunder instance.
Brilliant Kaliri, Jade Tentacle, Tirisfal Batling, Firefly, Jade Crane Chick, Gilnean Raven, and Shore Crawler are no longer available in multiple breeds.
Anubisath Idol: Sandstorm and Deflection have swapped ability positions.

Raids, Dungeons and Scenarios
Throne of Thunder raid bosses in Normal and Heroic difficulties have a chance of dropping items with the Thunderforged designation. Thunderforged items are 6 item levels higher than their Normal or Heroic counterparts and will drop more frequently in 25-player raids. For a more in-depth look at this change, check out this discussion thread.

Professions
Archeology
Mantid Archaeology has been added. Players will be able to uncover common and rare Mantid artifacts.
Players can purchase a Mantid Artifact Sonic Locator to focus exclusively on Mantid digsites.
The Lorewalker's Map now randomizes all digsites in Pandaria, rather than just 1.
Updates have been made to the “museum” at the Seat of Knowledge.

Blacksmithing
New raid and PvP blacksmithing recipes have been added, and can be acquired through daily research of Lightning Steel Ingots.
Seasoned Blacksmiths will be able to find a way to create Lightning Steel Ingots once their realm has unlocked the Thunderforges on the Isle of Thunder. These ingots will allow blacksmiths to recreate powerful weapons from the past, updated for Mists of Pandaria. These power weapons will be bind-on-equip and making them will take a significant amount of dedication.
For blacksmiths who have lapsed in their trade (i.e., haven’t practiced blacksmithing since the Burning Crusade), there is a (not necessarily cost efficient) way to catch-up. Blacksmiths at your faction’s shrines in the Vale of Eternal Blossoms will be able to teach you training plans for crafting common household items using Ghost Iron.

Fishing
Players with a high fishing skill have a chance to fish up new pets. The Pet Journal has clues on where these elusive pets could be found.
Fish of the Day: On any given day, there is a location in Pandaria teeming with a type of Pandaren fishing pool.
Ben of the Booming Voice, located near the Halfhill Market area will inform players what the “Fish of the Day” is and mark the location on their map.

Jewelcrafting
Jewelcrafters may find the designs for Serpent’s Heart and uncut Primal Diamonds during the course of their adventures (world drops).
Serpent’s Heart is a daily cooldown that consumes several Serpent’s Eyes to create a random rare quality Pandaren gem. In addition, there is a small chance that a player will discover the design for the Sapphire Cub or Jade Owl.
The design for uncut Primal Diamonds requires Spirits of Harmony and large quantities of uncommon gems.

Leatherworking
Patterns for Magnificence of Leather and Magnificence of Scales could be found via world drops. These patterns allow the leatherworker to create Magnificent Hides more economically and share a daily cooldown. In addition to producing a Magnificent Hide, the leatherworker will learn a new 5.2 raid or PvP pattern.
A new 36 slot leather bag ( Magnificent Hide Pack) can now be created through Leatherworking.

Tailoring
New raid and PvP recipes have been added, and tailors can acquire these new recipes via the daily Imperial Silk cooldown.

[chaos5061]

Regarding Kalecgos, at this point we don't know if the developers have any plans to change him or any other bosses, but we'll ask them and share with you any news if that's the case.
Just a small update this, which should hopefully come as good news... A last minute fix was made to patch 5.2.0 that should allow players to solo the Kalecgos encounter in The Sunwell.

Reputation / Questing
ConsideringShado-Pan Assault rep can be obtained in Raid Finder, is there a cap of how much rep can be obtained this way?
Only Friendly via trash. Once you're doing bosses, only one kill per boss per week (so doing both N and LFR won't double rate). (Source)
Does HC grant more reputation?
I don't believe heroic gives more rep. (Source)

Is there any reason we still cant do quest while in raid groups? #WoW
We don't want players to feel obligated to join e.g. the Jade Forest raid while leveling up. Working on a solution though. (Source)

Current WoW questing/dailies are better without others. People ninja the node/mob/quest item is not fun. outdated!
Agreed. We want to make seeing others of your faction a bonus not a penalty. (Source)

Dailies are not for all specs - that is the greatest imbalance of this kind of content.
I've done a lot of dailies as a healer. The difference in time really isn't that much - you aren't in combat 100% of the time. (Source)

Sucks a bunch that daily quests are once again gating valor rewards. The double gate is too much for just dailies
You don't need to do dailies to do the non-raid rep, but it will be faster if you do. (Source)
If you're a raider, you'll earn the rep from raiding. If you're not a raider, then the non-raid rep is for you. (Source)

Is there any intention or desire to increase the rate at which class-specific quest chains get released?
We'd love to make more of them. It just means fewer quests that other players can enjoy.

[chaos5061]

Patch 5.2 PTR - Build 16634
Build 16634 will be deployed to the PTR realms soon. Nothing major in this patch, it is now confirmed that Reins of the Thundering Cobalt Cloud Serpent comes fromNalak and Reins of the Cobalt Primordial Direhorn comes from Oondasta.

[chaos5061]

Mounts

• Crimson Primal Direhorn is now Account Wide.

Item Set Bonuses

• Item - Warrior T14 DPS 4P Bonus Reduces the cooldown of your Recklessness ability by 90 sec, down from 150.

Death Knight (Forums, Talent Calculator)

• Blood Plague damage and AP scaling reduced by 12%.
• Frost Fever damage and AP scaling reduced by 11%.

Frost

• Howling Blast base damage was reduced by 13%.
• Icy Talons now increases melee attack speed by 15%, down from 30%.
• Might of the Frozen Wastes now causes all melee attacks to deal an additional 15% damage when wielding a two-handed weapon, down from 20%.

Unholy

• Scourge Strike weapon damage reduced to 135% from 140% and additional damage reduced by 9%.

Hunter (Forums, Talent Calculator)

• Dismiss Pet now has a 3 sec cast time, up from 2.

Marksmanship

• Chimera Shot now does 265% ranged weapon Nature damage, down from 315%. Additional damage reduced by 30%.

Survival

• Black Arrow damage and AP scaling reduced by 5%.
• Explosive Shot damage and AP scaling reduced by 4%.

Mage (Forums, Talent Calculator)

• Frostbolt base healing and SP scaling reduced by 13%.

Frost

• Frostbolt base damage and SP scaling reduced by 13%. Debuff now also causes the target to take an additional 5% damage from your Frostbolt and your Water Elemental's Water Jet.

Monk (Forums, Talent Calculator)

• Spear Hand Strike now silences for 2 sec, down from 4.
• Surging Mist now costs 8.8% of base mana, up from 8%.

Priest (Forums, Talent Calculator)
Holy

• Guardian Spirit no longer heals for over 9,000,000 thanks to a tooltip fix.

Shaman (Forums, Talent Calculator)
Enhancement

• Spirit Walk now has a 1 min cooldown, down from 2.

Warlock (Forums, Talent Calculator)
Talents

• Grimoire of Sacrifice (Affliction) now increases the power of many of your single target spells by 35%, down from 45%.
• Grimoire of Sacrifice (Destruction) now increases the power of many of your single target spells by 15%, down from 20%.

Warrior (Forums, Talent Calculator)

• Execute damage and AP scaling reduced by 25%.
• Recklessness now has a 3 min cooldown, down from 5 min. Now grants your special attacks an additional 30% chance to critically hit, down from 50%.

Major Glyphs

• Glyph of Recklessness now decreases the critical chance of Recklessness by 12%, down from 20%.

[chaos5061]

Patch 5.2: The Thunder King
The Patch 5.2 trailer is finally here!

Pandaria, her hills of gold
In dark and mournful times of old
Did once a hopeless horror hold

When from her sacred veil did spring
With storm and flash, a monstrous thing
His name Lei-Shen, the Thunder King

His thunder boomed across the land
And none who dared and fought could stand
Against the iron tyrant’s hand

A palace grand, a walled domain
Such mighty works born of his reign
Built by slaves, their hearts in chains

But seasons change and tyrants die
His fury spent in times gone by
The thunder slept beneath Kun Lai

By Zandalari hands he has been taken
By Zandalari voice he has awakened

Gather heroes, sound the drums
The Thunder King comes
The Thunder King comes

[chaos5061]

Isle of Thunder - Final Stage
The last stage of Isle of Thunder unlocked recently, bringing with it the final solo scenario. This unlocks Nalak and the final set of quest rewards. This set of rewards offers another Sunreaver Bounty, more Lesser Charms, and more reputation than the earlier stages did.

[chaos5061]

Throne of Thunder Preview
Blizzard made a nice post about the fights in Throne of Thunder, along with a little bit about each fight from Ion Hazzikostas.

NPC Sharing and Griefing
There was some worry about griefing with the upcoming Rare / Quest NPC sharing being implemented in Patch 5.2, and Ghostcrawler briefly addressed it today. It has been a popular topic on the forum! You can join in the discussion here.

[chaos5061]

Monk (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
We'd rather you try out Soothing Mist in a combat situation rather than try to predict how it will feel, but the chi proc chance is 15% plus 15% for each tick that it doesn't proc. The chance to generate chi increases with each tick that doesn't proc and resets when it does.

Could we get some clarification on how the "time since last chance to proc" variable in the RPPM equation interacts with ICDs?
For RPPM procs with ICDs, none of the attacks during the ICD are considered chances to proc. So if I have a 22 sec ICD, the first attack after the ICD ends will have the full capped 10 sec ICD. In other words, option “A”, as you have it working already.

Jabx2 - BOK costs 6% more mana (100% increase), requiring BOK to be preceded by jab to proc muscle memory. The cleave change is a nice mechanic change and will make BOK circumstantially less unviable.
Against a single target, you should pretty much never be using 2 Jabs in a row (at least when efficiency is a concern). To Blackout Kick, you’ll use a Jab plus the chi from Renewing Mist. In a 3+ target situation, you’ll likely want to use Spinning Crane Kick instead of Jab, which is considerably more efficient, and does more damage.

Surging Mist now costs 8.8% of base mana, up from 8%.
It already did cost 8.8% mana by default. The glyphed version was mistakenly still at 8%.

Water Jet is back on the Frostbolt tooltip. As much as I would dearly like this to indicate a return for Water Jet in some form, am I right in assuming this is just a result of a rollback to the tooltip of the version that buffed Frostbolt's damage? (Or, of course, just a datamining error.)
Unfortunately, that is just a persistent tooltip bug. We still are interested in the concept, but are not introducing Water Jet for now.

I would really like to know why Monk healers were given a dps increase and healing decrease?
Assuming you’re talking about fistweaving, that’s always been the intention (and always been the case). Fistweaving is an alternative that provides less HPS in exchange for very significant DPS.

Think about it like this:

Holy priest / Mistweaving monk: 100% healing
Combat rogue / Windwalker monk: 100% DPS
Atonement priest / Fistweaving monk: 50% DPS AND 50% healing at the same time

DPS Tuning
Standard, yes, this is a roller coaster. Our process is to try things out and iterate if we don't like them. If the churn offends you, just hang on for another week or two.
Undid the buff to Vitality for Combat. It's back to 30% AP.
Partially reverted the -25% nerf to Execute. It's now -15%. (As mentioned previously, we adjust the meta-gem.)
Rising Sun Kick now increases your damage to the target by +10%, down from +15%.
Sword of Light now increases damage by 15% up from 10%.
Haunt now increases damage to the target by 30% up from 25%. This is partially in compensation because we also nerfed Sacrifice for Affliction because it was looking too mandatory.
Partially reverted the buffs to Conflag and Immolate. They were +20%, and are now +15%.
We are concerned that fully geared Subtlety, Enhancement and Windwalker DPS are still too high. None of these are particularly easy specs to play, so it might be okay that given that players won't realistically be able to hit their theoretical maxima. Just wanted to let you know they are on our radar.

What I'm wondering, is how long it'll take you to notice/nerf/fix fistweaver monks using agility 2h weapons while fistweaving. Is that going to be intended game play?
Do you have some evidence or numbers of this? We've heard it a few times from the community, but we don't see how it would work.

[chaos5061]

On Wednesday, February 27, through Friday, March 1, we will be testing the 25-player Heroic raid encounters in the Throne of Thunder.

Each encounter should be available at approximately the listed times below for all Public Test Realms.

Wednesday, February 27
Jin'rokh the Breaker - 25 Player Heroic - 11:00 PST (14:00 EST, 20:00 CET)
Tortos - 25 Player Heroic - 13:30 PST (16:30 EST, 22:30 CET)
Ji-Kun - 25 Player Heroic - 15:00 PST (18:00 EST, 00:00 CET)
Durumu the Forgotten - 25 Player Heroic - 16:30 PST (19:30 EST, 01:30 CET)

Thursday, February 28
Council of Elders - 25 Player Heroic - 11:00 PST (14:00 EST, 20:00 CET)
Megaera - 25 Player Heroic - 13:30 PST (16:30 EST, 22:30 CET)
Primordius - 25 Player Heroic - 15:00 PST (18:00 EST, 00:00 CET)
Dark Animus - 25 Player Heroic - 16:30 PST (19:30 EST, 01:30 CET)

Friday, March 1
Horridon - 25 Player Heroic - 10:30 PST (13:30 EST, 19:30 CET)
Iron Qon - 25 Player Heroic - 13:30 PST (16:30 EST, 22:30 CET)
Twin Consorts - 25 Player Heroic - 16:00 PST (19:00 EST, 01:00 CET)

As always, this testing schedule is very fluid and subject to the realities of a beta environment. We might have to change the time of a testing session, change the boss being tested, or cancel a test entirely, due to bugs, server hardware issues, etc. Keep an eye on this forum for the latest information, and thank you in advance for testing and providing feedback.

[chaos5061]

PvP
I think its about time to remove 2v2 from the game. Too much player feedback is based off of it.
We have been tempted for sure. But in the end, a lot of people enjoy it (even if they do demand balance changes because of it.) (Source)

Would Blizzard ever consider making Arenas cross-realm? Battlegroups seem a little outdated with x-realm RBGs and all that.
We would in fact consider it. Also debating if teams are cool or a hindrance. (Source)

Dear Ghostcrawler, do you think that the add-on "Healers Have To Die" gives an unfair advantage in PVP, or is it reasonable?
It just marks healers, right? That's something you could do yourself manually in like one additional second. (Source)

I would like to share a frustration; leveling through BGs, so frustrating to be 82 and get 1-shot by an 84.
Have you experienced the new mechanics where low levels are bumped per bracket? (Source)

Which 1 is you guys' design concept: the players want world PVP or you THINK the players want world PVP.
A lot of players do want world PvP. Some don't. How to offer both (aside from the obvious: different realms)? (Source)

PVE trinkets looking better than PvP trinks in 5.2, are you gonna make this mistake for the third time?
Many PvE trinket effects are dispellable and have lower proc chances vs. players.

[chaos5061]

Patch 5.2 PTR - Build 16650
Build 16650 will be deployed to the PTR realms soon.

New Items
Almost all of these items are Oondasta's loot table!

90	Junk			Tome of Valor
522	Neck	Tank	Neck	Lootraptor's Amulet
522	Finger	Tank	Finger	Achillobator Ring
522	Neck	Melee	Neck	Overcompensating Chain of the Alpha Male
522	Finger	Melee	Finger	Ring of King Kangrom
522	Neck	Spell Spirit	Neck	Choker of Stygimolochy
522	Finger	Spell Spirit	Finger	Ring of Shamuru
522	Neck	Physical DPS	Neck	Necklace of the Hazillosaurus
522	Finger	Physical DPS	Finger	Forzarra's Last Meal
522	Neck	Spell DPS	Neck	Amulet of the Titanorex
522	Finger	Spell DPS	Finger	Eye of Oondasta
522	Cloth	Spell Spirit	Chest	Robes of Zalmoxes
522	Cloth	Spell Spirit	Hands	Gloves of Varsoon the Greater
522	Cloth	Spell DPS	Chest	Waistband of Elder Falcarius
522	Cloth	Spell DPS	Waist	Girdle of Dimorphodontics

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522	Cloth	Spell DPS	Waist	Terrorful Weave
522	Cloth	Spell DPS	Hands	Gloves of Tyranomancy
522	Leather	Spell Spirit	Chest	Fancifully Frilled Tunic
522	Leather	Spell Spirit	Waist	Belt of Crushed Dreams
522	Leather	Physical DPS	Chest	Vest of the Bordomorono
522	Leather	Physical DPS	Waist	Girdle of the Derrodoccus
522	Leather	Physical DPS	Hands	Gloves of Gastric Rumbling
522	Leather	Spell DPS	Hands	Gloves of Unliving Fossil
522	Mail	Spell Spirit	Chest	Mail of the Mosschopper
522	Mail	Spell Spirit	Waist	Belt of the Arch Avimimus
522	Mail	Physical DPS	Chest	Gorgoraptor Scale Chest
522	Mail	Physical DPS	Waist	Belt of the Dying Diemetradon

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522	Mail	Physical DPS	Hands	Therapsid Scale Gloves
522	Mail	Spell DPS	Hands	Orndo Mando's Gloves
522	Plate	Tank	Chest	Breastplate of the Iguanocolossus
522	Plate	Tank	Waist	Voolar's Bloodied Belt
522	Plate	Melee	Chest	Tyrant King Battleplate
522	Plate	Melee	Waist	Belt of the Tyrannotitan
522	Plate	Melee	Hands	Vulcanodon Gauntlets
522	Plate	Melee	Hands	Carnotaur Battlegloves
522	Plate	Spell Spirit	Chest	Scorched Spiritfire Drape
522	Plate	Spell DPS	Waist	Waistband of Furious Stomping
522	Plate	Spell DPS	Hands	Skullsmashing Gauntlets

[chaos5061]

Death Knight (Forums, Talent Calculator)
Frost

• Icy Talons now increases melee attack speed by 25%, up from 15%.

Mage (Forums, Talent Calculator)

• Arcane Missiles damage and SP scaling increased by 2%.

Arcane

• Arcane Blast damage and SP scaling increased by 3%.
• Arcane Missiles damage and SP scaling increased by 2%.

Fire

• Critical Mass now multiplies the critical strike chance of your Fireball, Frostfire Bolt, Pyroblast, and Scorch by 1.20, down from 1.3.

Monk (Forums, Talent Calculator)
Windwalker

• Rising Sun Kick debuff causes all targets within 8 yards to take an increased 10% damage from your abilities, down from 15%.

Paladin (Forums, Talent Calculator)
Retribution

• Sword of Light now increases the damage you deal with two-handed melee weapons by 15%, up from 10%.

Rogue (Forums, Talent Calculator)
Combat

• Vitality now increases your Attack Power by 30%, down from 35%.

Warlock (Forums, Talent Calculator)
Talents

• Grimoire of Sacrifice Affliction and Demonology now share a tooltip, with Affliction sacrifice increasing the power of many of your single target spells by 30%, down from 35%.

Affliction

• Haunt debuff now increases all damage done by your spells on the target by 30% for 8 sec, up from 25%.

Destruction

• Conflagrate damage and SP scaling reduced by 4%.
• Immolate damage and SP scaling reduced by 4%.

Warrior (Forums, Talent Calculator)

• Execute damage and AP scaling increased by 13%.