Others have said it, and I’m sure this kind of post takes a lot of energy to make.
but man this is a good post. So much great info and communication here. Thank you.
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Putting more responsibility onto dps players seems like a good idea, but most of the time it only makes things worse for tanks and healers. Dps can’t handle the damage check? Healers end up paying for it. Dps don’t prioritize the right mob? Tanks end up getting smashed.
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This brings me no confidence in Season 2. There were/are so many bugs that lasted basically the entire season that it has been frustrating to play. Class tuning has been extremely frustrating and some classes still haven’t been fully addressed. This has been the most infuriating news to drop about season 2, the M+ dungeon pool choice. Any dungeon that has an RP component should not be in a competitive space. I’m not sure why that’s so difficult for the balance team to understand.
What would have me interested in playing Season 2 is a completely new dungeon pool selection that doesn’t not include any of WoW’s most hated dungeons of all time. Classes need to be properly balanced. For example, the affliction warlock tree completely segregates single target and AoE in season 1. Meanwhile, demonology had 2 cycles of significant buff to both their AoE and single target making them the best spec to play for warlock. I’m sure there are more classes who experienced that but it infuriating when the season starts significantly off balanced and then players have to do the most hated dungeons of all time.
Really disappointing.
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Solid communication that is appreciated despite some of the melodramtic replies you’re going to get.
I personally was happy with the dungeon pool when it was announced, bit odd given the echo chamber outrage but with changes to some of the poorer parts like you’ve outlined it sounds like it’ll be a fun tier.
I do want to say one thing though, if you’re putting more onto dps for S2 you need to balance them appropriately otherwise you’re going to have some rough experiences in higher keys not playing on the meta comp. None of this waiting till RWF nonsense or HoF closure, gear is easy enough to obtain that if changing specs for progression is needed due to an underperforming build being buffed then so be it, if it means that players have more options to push M+.
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Are there really no plans to revisit the racial abilities of Dwarves and Night Elves?
In high keys and especially at the very top end of Mythic+, these two races—particularly Dwarves—completely overshadow the rest. This season has an unusually high number of bleed and poison effects, making Stoneform and Shadowmeld more valuable than ever.
At this point, racial choice feels less like a flavor decision and more like a gameplay requirement for anyone pushing difficult content. The gap is simply too large compared to other races.
Either consider rebalancing these racials or disable racial abilities in Mythic+ altogether. It’s getting frustrating to see almost every high-key group stacked with Dwarves and Night Elves because their racials are just too powerful to ignore.
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This is great but there is already new content that does not follow these design principals. Azta’rec, the new ?? delve boss has a core cone mechanic as well as a line mechanic that do not have clearly defined edges. Is the plan to only do this in dungeons or everywhere? If not everywhere, why?
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No. Please no. There’s a reason many DPS players play DPS and not tank/heals, and doing this will just make our job harder because DPS players will not rise to the challenge. Also, give healers back our interrupts!
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Even with the changes, I can’t help but dread most of the S2 dungeon pool.
Increased health pool means more time to kill a boss, more damaging abilities go out and if DPS players don’t meet their check, the healer has to pay for it.
Trading raw damage for a mobility penalty also becomes a healer problem.
Wrong priority from DPS players means both tank and healer will have to pay.
Tanks and healers will have more to manage yet again.
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If you guys ever wonder why nobody plays PTR - this complete throwing away of feedback is why. “Blizzard knows best. We heard you guys but we don’t care lol”
If you guys ever wonder why M+ participation consistently falls off a cliff in recent years a month in and never recovers, this is why.
Putting more emphasis on the DPS role for the success of a key just means the meta becoming more strict and more people adhering to it.
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Nice!..
…but I still wont play M+
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None of this is true. PTR is being tested more than ever and M+ participation is at an all time high.
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You lost all credibility making a statement that you can’t prove with anything other than “ptr feels more populated”
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I like everything I see here. I am not active (or introspective) enough to know if anything has been missed, but everything that was identified is a welcome change - as is being forthcoming with these news. Transparency <3
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There’s PTR rankings on WCL. The numbers are fairly established.
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m+ is a meme mode
how do you even get better? seems like you parse better if the tank pulls more
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If by “not marked” you mean the game didn’t give you written or colorized indications then sure, but both of these abilities have very clear tells and I actually think they did a good job with them. The hulking juggernaut’s tell is auditory: it charges up a big roar that is distinctly different than its other noises while it casts deafening roar. As for the phalanx breaker, these create a large distortion which practically surrounds the entire mob as it inhales the air before screeching. These tells are not only expressively unique to the mob AND ability type, but they are an example of ways that Blizzard is integrating tells directly into the game – rather than the player relying on a text interface element, they’re being asked to observe the actual mob in game. If you ask me, that’s a step in the right direction.
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I’ve done probably a hundred caverns and have never heard an auditory clue for the Hulking Juggernaut. If that’s the design goal, then it failed.
Phalanx screech goes under because there’s 12 nameplates overlapping the unit + you need to stare at your feet because of the archers. Probably works without nameplates enabled but that is not how the game is played.
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They do not have clear tells. I’ve maxed the audio channels, and there’s so much different audio going on that I don’t notice anything, and I usually play by audio to notice things because visually they are really bad.
I’ve also never seen any animation for the phalanx breaker. It doesn’t help that other mobs and their nameplates are literally hiding the mob and its surroundings.
If they really want to keep those abilities, they need to add a huge indicator on the floor around the mob to show where the silence will take place, otherwise there’s just no way to see it without staring at the nameplates while turning your camera in a way it doesn’t actually get hidden by other nameplates.
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This level of communication is good and all, really. We appreciate the insight.
The best thing you can do going forward is not to bring back dungeons that absolutely no one enjoyed. King’s Rest is like a top 5 all time terrible dungeon, I don’t see how it can be salvaged even with the changes listed. Topping that off with RLP (probably the worst dungeon of DF outside of Nokhud) and Temple which is…controversially remembered to say the least, please stop using M+ seasons as a way to attempted to redeem dungeons no one liked unless they’re going to be ripped down to the bare metal and redone from the ground up. Bring back stuff people like, or forward port stuff that was never M+ (but don’t make it excessively punishing like you did with Jade Serpent, Grim Batol, Vortex Pinnacle - someone working on the forward porting is going overboard on the tuning there big time, VP was a huge miss).
If you guys bring back Sanguine Depths, De Other Side, or Spires of Ascension, you’ve lost the plot entirely.
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I like RLP a lot
1 Like