Late last night when the 2.4 Patch Notes were circling around, Drysc responded to a lot of QQing on the class forums about lack of buffs and nerfs. In particular, many shamans were upset (most of the threads have been deleted due to offensive language). The gist of what Drysc told everyone: The patch notes are not complete. More class changes to come. Nethaera also later confirmed.He gave us a little history lesson too. There are two types of patch notes: test realm patch notes, and live patch notes. Live patch notes reflect the changes to the live servers. Test realm patch notes reflect the changes that are on the test realm servers. Test realm patch notes are the basis for the live patch notes, but many change are made to them. As players are active on the test realm and balance issues are discovered, they tweak the patch notes. In the end, the final patch notes that went to the live servers were sometimes nothing like the test realm patch notes; a few things were added, a few things were removed. I wanted to check this out for myself so I found the old test realm patch notes for 2.2, and the live patch notes for 2.2. The following changes were made between the two different versions of the patch notes:
In the test realms, but not the live realms:
Rogues
- Blind duration reduced to 8 seconds, cooldown reduced to 1 minute, Blinding Powder is no longer required to use.
- Elusiveness now reduces the cooldown of Blind by 8/15 seconds.
In the live realms, but not the test realms:
Hunters
- Kill Command no longer affects the Hunter's current target.
- Hunter Pets: Raptors can now learn Dash.
- Auras: Changing auras will no longer trigger effects that occur when you cast a spell.
- Sanctified Judgement: This talent will now give the correct amount of mana when used in conjunction with Seal of Justice.
- Earth Shield is now canceled at logout.
- Death Coil: Immunity to Horror effects no longer grants immunity to the damage portion of this spell.
- Demonic Knowledge: This effect will no longer deactivate when the Warlock's pet is Banished.
- Unstable Affliction: This spell will no longer fail when a Warlock deselects their target midway through the cast.
So for Patch 2.4, Blizzard is going to work it a bit differently. Instead of saying a lot about class changes now, they're going to wait until they roll them out on the test realm. They're going to be doing this in small increments, and see what works and what doesn't. In the end we should see changes to each section of the live patch notes. From a development perspective, this makes a lot of sense. Roll out one change, make it great, and then roll out the next. Rinse and repeat until everything works the way you want.
Whether or not this is true in the weeks and months that follow during the 2.4 test phase remains to be seen. However, we will revisit this subject when 2.4 goes live on all the realms.
So for your classes, what do you want to see 2.4 deliver? What do you think of this new way Blizzard is rolling out class changes?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-09-2008 @ 12:45PM
Balasan said...
In before mage or shaman QQing!
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2-09-2008 @ 1:28PM
Arabelli said...
Hey now, we've been complaining FAR less than rogues lately.
2-12-2008 @ 11:45PM
hoviboy said...
I agree that between the hybrid classes the most underpowered is the shaman
2-09-2008 @ 1:17PM
Aticus said...
Fine by me. I'd rather not see it because things can always change before it hits Live. I don't see what the big deal is with this patch... There's not many huge changed with classes. I guess there's some people out there who need to complain about something and this is the easier to complain about. It's sad really.
-Aticus, http://www.paladintales.blogspot.com
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2-09-2008 @ 2:00PM
Lem said...
I dont understand what "balance issues" there are to discover in a patch that seems to be nothing more than tweaks and bug fixes.
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2-09-2008 @ 2:29PM
quaunaut said...
One of the posts they deleted basically said something like this in it:
"This has been going on for about 6 or 7 patch notes now, and as a member of the Shaman community I just thought it good to point this out:
First they told us every class gets a class review. Ours kept getting pushed back, further and further for more important classes. As more of our problems became apparent, we began pining for ours, and then, we ended up never getting a review.
People told us, just wait, these are just the test realm notes, not the live realm notes, they always have lots of changes between then and now.
Then they tell us, give Blizzard time, they are just trying to see where everyone is at after this patch so that they can finally address Shaman concerns once they are easily valid.
Then the patch notes for the next patch comes, and nothing is addressed. This has happened repeatedly now for quite a while, and were more than a little tired of it."
Another one came in, that I couldn't agree with more: "Just delete the Class Feedback thread, please. Its obvious you don't listen to it whatsoever, so stop adding insult to injury."
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2-09-2008 @ 3:07PM
quaunaut said...
Hey look, found both of the threads I was looking for.
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=4493329882&sid=1
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=4493449880&sid=1
2-09-2008 @ 2:48PM
Pucelle said...
I'd like to see the hunter Kill Command bug fixed... and I'd really like it if they'd ADD MORE STABLE SLOTS but that's never going to happen.
And as long as we're dreaming, I'd like a special ability for all pet classes.
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2-09-2008 @ 2:51PM
Thepitt said...
Put all fears on a 1 hour cooldown!
Make DoT's disappear when the warlock who cast them dies.
Hit Warlocks with a NERF bat so hard that their demons feel happy inside and finally crossover!
Anyone else hate warlocks?
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2-09-2008 @ 4:41PM
specs1832 said...
I don't hate warlocks, but I do think DoTs should drop off on the death of the caster.
And just to clarify, any bleed, poison, moonfire, w/e, should drop off when the person who did it died imo. So I'm not just hating on locks, they just have the most DoTs.
2-09-2008 @ 7:31PM
GreatLich said...
And while we're at it: also automatically undo the damage a warrior did when he is killed. Oh and when a priest dies undo all the heals he did as well as dispelling his buffs from his teammates. You know, to keep things fair...
2-09-2008 @ 7:58PM
Thepitt said...
Someone obviously doesn't get sarcasm....!
I do know that my pretty snakes die immediately when my hunter dies. They are basically a DoT in scaley form.
I was more or less parodying my hatred for being feared.
2-09-2008 @ 8:49PM
Seamus said...
I'm so sick of the meltdowns on the Shaman forums. Someone tell them to grow up and shut the hell up.
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2-09-2008 @ 8:57PM
Fel said...
Silly Shamans. Like you jack of all trades need more buffs.
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2-11-2008 @ 9:46AM
censorman said...
You must be talking about Druids.
Seriously tho, this wasn't a bad patch. Whew.
Might still switch to ele....was sweating an ele nerf.
As for jack of all trades. Roll a shaman, play to 70 on a pvp server, then you can talk about us. Otherwise, you're probably playing a roll-your-face-across-the-keyboard-easymoad class like huntards or locks. Haha.
2-10-2008 @ 8:17AM
Zarzuur said...
So basically, get your class complaints in now and they might change it for live .. hehe!
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