Blizzcon predictions?..

[Klaudandus]

Yeah, and remember, there was the whole Varian, Thrall and Garrosh fighting when summoned by Rhonin or whatever his name is spelled.

So at least shows the faction leaders were "what? why are we diverting from arthas?"

[fuzzygeek]

So, they've said they're moving Heroic 5 mans back to a WotLK-level difficulty, how do people feel about that? The Challenge Modes are meant to be the way they're giving people challenge instead of the Heroics themselves, but personally I don't care for speed runs of instances, I find that kind of pace a bit frustrating.

I've been saying they need to make better use of their assets since TBC. I've been wanting dungeons that scale to current level -- they can drop vendortrash for all it matters, as long as it meets the daily VP requirement -- but to have the *option* to do something different than the current X dungeons would be amazing. They have so much 5 man content lying idle it is a shame.

I don't know where you got the idea that heroics would be back to WotLK-level difficulty and that Challenge Modes are the "instead" -- do you have a reference for that? I was under the impression the challenge modes were "in addition to" the heroic 5s.

And it is completely optional: you don't need to do challenge modes for gear. The rewards are purely cosmetic (again, contradicting anyone who thinks transmog is Blizz' way of just getting rid of artists so they can be lazy forevermore and just recycle everything).

I personally loved the 45m baron run. Doing it with people at gear level was an amazing rush, and I did it dozens of times. It helps that people were buying runs for hundreds of gold, back when gold meant more. I think it does put a huge strain on the tank, but some of us enjoy that. For those that don't, again, this is optional. I like that Blizz is giving more options.

[KysenMurrin]

From the official dungeons and raids panel write up.

In Cataclysm, Heroic dungeons were intentionally designed as gear and difficulty checks on the progression to raiding. In Mists of Pandaria, the Raid Finder will be the appropriate transition from running dungeons to Normal raids. Heroic dungeons will largely be tuned to be about as difficult as they were in Wrath of the Lich King, allowing players to fairly quickly down bosses in PUGs and hit their Valor Point caps. Valor Points will follow a new philosophy with 4.3, as a parallel way to gear up alongside the Raid Finder, but not as a fill-in for boss drops.

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/3759858

I wasn't intending to complain, just saying that this move leaves the only challenging 5-man content as speed running instances, and that it means there's nothing at 5 man level that will appeal to me personally. I don't mind that, I can happily play just as a raider and nothing else.

[Ocin]

So, they've said they're moving Heroic 5 mans back to a WotLK-level difficulty, how do people feel about that? The Challenge Modes are meant to be the way they're giving people challenge instead of the Heroics themselves, but personally I don't care for speed runs of instances, I find that kind of pace a bit frustrating.

I wouldn't mind if the challenge modes didn't feel like vehicle-type fights bolted on like a mini-game. From what I understand your character's progression doesn't have any effect on the outcome of the timed runs since the gear you're forced to wear will be normalized. For me it will just be a time-sink if I participate at all, much like PvP.

[fuzzygeek]

I wasn't intending to complain, just saying that this move leaves the only challenging 5-man content as speed running instances, and that it means there's nothing at 5 man level that will appeal to me personally. I don't mind that, I can happily play just as a raider and nothing else.

Ah, I haven't read the recaps yet (we've been watching the stream and eating, mostly). That's somewhat disappointing, but I never saw the heroics as particularly challenging, even on launch night at -- or under -- geared.

Thanks for the cite; I'll have to take a closer look.

[mavfin]

I wasn't intending to complain, just saying that this move leaves the only challenging 5-man content as speed running instances, and that it means there's nothing at 5 man level that will appeal to me personally. I don't mind that, I can happily play just as a raider and nothing else.

Ah, I haven't read the recaps yet (we've been watching the stream and eating, mostly). That's somewhat disappointing, but I never saw the heroics as particularly challenging, even on launch night at -- or under -- geared.

Thanks for the cite; I'll have to take a closer look.

Actually, I'm cool with the challenge mode stuff. People have bitched on MTadin and other forums for years about heroics being too easy once you've overgeared them. Well, guess what, you can't overgear a dungeon that normalizes your gear when you step in. So, those who want to show their skill can show it off, w/o gear being a factor. But, otoh, heroics are back to LK, so you can pug them w/o ripping your hair out; i.e. you can carry an idiot or two. Guilds can do challenges, pugs can do heroics, as well as people needing gear can do heroics.

[Flex]

So, they've said they're moving Heroic 5 mans back to a WotLK-level difficulty, how do people feel about that? The Challenge Modes are meant to be the way they're giving people challenge instead of the Heroics themselves, but personally I don't care for speed runs of instances, I find that kind of pace a bit frustrating.

They also mentioned in the Q&A that they won't have level 90 normal mode dungeons which means there needs to be a slight downward adjustment of heroics to account for that.

LK at least had you encounter the LK in several quests, and the LK would actually do something that would piss off both factions and, and also draw in outside factions too, into pooling their resources together and bring down the LK.

You certainly encounter Deathwing, Cho'gall and the Twilight Hammer all through leveling 1-60 and 80-85. The alliance and horde seem to be mostly focused on the Twilight Hammer because they don't quite understand how much of a threat Deathwing is, however the Dragon flights are the ones tending to Deathwing issues.

[fuzzygeek]

I am wondering how they will normalize tanking gear. If I am blockcapped, will I no longer be capped once normalized?

[Worldie]

Most likely "normalizing" should mean the amount of rating an item has will be lowered to a predefined ilvl.

Imagine they took all your 391 gear and lowered the ratings until they match ilvl 300.

In that case, maybe you'd still be block capped if you are wearing say, all gear with mastery rating?

[Treck]

They also said they arnt sure if they wanna do that, cuz then your running in there with full t15 feeling epic and stuff, and then your hitting shit as if you were freshly dinged.
Wierd stuff happends trying to balance stuff at different levels.
Another option was to increase mobs HP depending on your ilvl, but same goes there tbh.
Should just make a "dungeon" set you have to wear with a few different items depending you can choose (like different trinkets and stat distribution.
Since Transmogrification is in, it doesnt matter how it looks as you can make it look however you want.
And you can only use this gear inside dungeon challanges.

[degre]

Most likely "normalizing" should mean the amount of rating an item has will be lowered to a predefined ilvl.

Imagine they took all your 391 gear and lowered the ratings until they match ilvl 300.

In that case, maybe you'd still be block capped if you are wearing say, all gear with mastery rating?

There is no way a tank can be block capped while wearing lvl 300 gear, I'd say that if your gear is normalised you are surely going to miss the cap, and is definitely intended as an overgeared tank is the first step to facerolling anything.

[Kuripari]

They also said they arnt sure if they wanna do that, cuz then your running in there with full t15 feeling epic and stuff, and then your hitting shit as if you were freshly dinged.
Wierd stuff happends trying to balance stuff at different levels.
Another option was to increase mobs HP depending on your ilvl, but same goes there tbh.
Should just make a "dungeon" set you have to wear with a few different items depending you can choose (like different trinkets and stat distribution.
Since Transmogrification is in, it doesnt matter how it looks as you can make it look however you want.
And you can only use this gear inside dungeon challanges.

This is more or less what I was imagining. Not that there'd be a special set of armor you acquired, since that would present a potentially large obstacle to starting (unless they were just purchased) but rather, you'd more or less get stuck in a homogenized gear set when you enter. It might be automogged into your current gear, but every pally would walk in, in the same gear. That could also potentially allow them to stack the gear in a certain way to increase challenge, or present certain challenges.

[Worldie]

Most likely "normalizing" should mean the amount of rating an item has will be lowered to a predefined ilvl.

Imagine they took all your 391 gear and lowered the ratings until they match ilvl 300.

In that case, maybe you'd still be block capped if you are wearing say, all gear with mastery rating?

There is no way a tank can be block capped while wearing lvl 300 gear, I'd say that if your gear is normalised you are surely going to miss the cap, and is definitely intended as an overgeared tank is the first step to facerolling anything.

It was just an example, obviously

We don't know how our stats will look in new-90 gear, nor do actually know if our mastery will stay the same (which i doubt).

[Fridmarr]

Normalizing peoples gear by percentage reductions could prove annoying just because stats can have different relative values based on how much you have. If they go that route for normalizing, you'll want a broad range of gear when you attempt a challenge so you can react. Of course if they used fixed values, then they create a new balance point.

Then again, these challenges are just one aspect of play and you don't have to participate in them if you aren't a fan of the way they are handled. Certainly some folks will like the feel of normalized gear, some won't like their power reduction after earning top end gear, and some will enjoy the rewards knowing that they accomplished it on a narrow context of equal footing to others, while some couldn't care less.

[KysenMurrin]

Looking at MMO Champ's coverage of the Q&A, someone asked about getting 11 character slots to make room for the new class, and they've suggested they might look at having the current 50 character cap apply without realm restrictions (so you could have all 50 on one realm).