Blue Post 2009-03-17

New User Interface Updates

Quote from: Zarhym (Source)

There are many new additions and changes coming in the near future for World of Warcraft. Alongside the hotly anticipated raid dungeon Ulduar (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/3p1/ulduar.xml), several new user interface features will be debuting, and we’ve put together a preview of them to let you know what to expect when the patch arrives:

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/ui.html

Patch 3.1 PTR Ulduar damage analysis

Quote from: Ghostcrawler (Source)

As another experiment, we are creating this thread for posting and analysis of PTR raid damage parses. If you don't understand what that means, you probably don't need to be posting in this thread.

I am going to be keeping a low profile in this thread. Please do not use it to ask questions or make demands. Please do not include any pre-3.1 numbers unless they are solely for comparative purposes. Please do not make definitive statements unsupported by data. Please do not derail the thread. We will try to delete off-topic responses.

For an example of what we would like to see, you can refer to the better parts of this thread:

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=15661687838&sid=1&pageNo=29

Blue posts

Quote from Blizzard staff

Ulduar - Itemization
Ulduar has more items than all of BC's raids put together, and that's with gear consolidation. Bring the player not the class was to allow groups more flexibility in inviting their friends and to make room for say Demonology warlocks, Balance druids, Marksman hunters and other specs that couldn't be fit into a Sunwell raid because of the inflexibility of the mandatory buff jigsaw puzzle. (Source)

Ulduar - Difficulty
We had to fix some problems, and very rapid mana regeneration was one of them. Another big one was amazing tank cooldowns (mostly from the DK). However we stepped up the difficulty on the encounters too. There is no “just burn him down” boss like Noth. The trash will require crowd control on some pulls. Ulduar is not Sunwell. It is not a huge leap up in difficulty from Naxx, but it is a step up. If that isn’t enough of a challenge for you, then I suggest you try the hard modes and pay a visit to Algalon. (Source)

lduar - Hard Modes
Hard modes are designed to give very skilled groups something to do while still allowing more casual groups to see the content. Ulduar has 14 bosses. We haven't done an instance of that size since the original Naxxramas, and Ulduar has a lot more unique content than Naxx had. You are imagining a world in which if we had not done hard modes, you would have gotten another entire raid. That is a bad assumption. You would have gotten Ulduar, cleared it quickly, and then been bored again.

Yes, we know players given the choice will always want more content. If we offered 6 levels of raid content, there are still players who would clear it quickly and be looking for something new. Welcome to the challenges of MMO design. (Source)

Argent Tournament on PTRs
Thanks for the reports about being unable to champion for a third faction; we found an issue with it and corrected it. You should see it in the next update.

I believe the next time the PTR is updated I'll be making a post calling for focused testing on the Tournament. Obviously we've still got an eye on the relative difficulty of the valiants and the champions, and I do appreciate the feedback you've given thus far. (Source)