Class Q&A Series

Class Q&A Series is extended feedback Blizzard is giving before the release of patch 3.2.0 about each class.

• Posted on the forums 25 June 2009:

blizz

Community Team: blizz

Q: Where do death knights fit into the larger scope of things currently and where do you see them going from this point forward?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz
• blizz

• blizz

• blizz

• blizz

Q: What is it that makes them unique compared to all other classes?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

• blizz

• blizz

• blizz

• blizz

• blizz

Community Team: blizz

Q: ''How do we feel about the current viability of dual-wielding? Are there plans to improve it or have it fit a specific role for the class?''

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

• blizz

• blizz

Community Team: blizz

Q: Do we have plans for any changes or improvements to Dancing Rune Weapon?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

Community Team: blizz

Q: What are our current thoughts on the status of death knight tanks and do we have plans for further changes?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

Community Team: blizz

Q: Are we satisfied with stats such as Armor Penetration, Haste, and Hit having very different values depending on which talent spec a death knight is using?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

Community Team: blizz

Q: Would it be possible to save runeforge enchants to primary and secondary talent specializations or add rune forges to more convenience places than Acherus?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

Community Team: blizz

Q: Are there plans to change or improve the Frigid Deadplate talent?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

Community Team: blizz

Q: Is there any plan to improve Will of the Necropolis?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

Community Team: blizz

Q: Is this a bug or something in particular we are investigating?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

Community Team: blizz

Q: Do we have plans to change any of the death knight's self-healing abilities?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

Community Team: blizz

Q: Would you consider adding a Mortal Strike-like ability to death knights in the future?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

Q: Will Chains of Ice ever be subject to diminishing returns?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

Q: Will ghouls ever get their voices back?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

• Posted on the forums 15 July 2009:

blizz

Community Team: blizz

Q: Where do druids fit into the larger scope of things currently and where do you see them going from this point forward?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

• blizz

Q: What is it that makes them unique compared to all other classes?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

• blizz

• blizz

Community Team: blizz

Q: What are our thoughts on how Eclipse is functioning and do we have any plans to change how this talent works?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

Community Team: blizz

Q: How do we feel Moonkins are doing in PvP and do we have plans to improve their survivability?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

Community Team: blizz

Q: Are there plans to make any changes to the general spell rotation for deep Balance/Moonkin Druids?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

Community Team: blizz

blizz

Q: What are our intended goals for the playstyle of Feral druids?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

Community Team: blizz

Q: What are our thoughts on the complexity of the Feral druid damage dealing rotation?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

Community Team: blizz

Q: Do we have plans to provide more utility for Feral druids such as a more reliable interrupt?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

Community Team: blizz

Q: How do we feel druid tanks are doing and do we have any immediate changes planned?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

Community Team: blizz

Q: Do we have any plans to change and/or improve Savage Defense?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

Q: Are there any plans to change the functionality or cooldown of the Cat form charge to better align it with the Bear form version?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

Q: Can you give us the reasoning behind why the Bear form swipe is 360 degrees while the Cat version is only 180 degrees?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

Community Team: blizz

Q: Can you describe for us what the intended identity and versatilities of the Tree of Life druids are supposed to be?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

• blizz

• blizz

• blizz

• blizz

• blizz

Community Team: blizz

Q: Do we have plans to improve Healing Touch or Tranquility?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

• blizz

• blizz

Community Team: blizz

Q: Do we have plans to improve the usefulness of critical strike rating for Restoration druids?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

Community Team: blizz

Q: Do we have plans to make these statistics more helpful for them since they are on a wide variety of tanking gear?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

Q: Have we considered providing more tanking leather and to prevent extra loot clutter possibly finding ways for Balance and Restoration druids to use solely cloth item since they often use them already?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

• blizz

Community Team: blizz

Q: Do we have any plans to improve how players obtain relic items such as a relic token?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

Community Team: blizz

Q: Are there any plans for a 310% speed flight form?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

Q: What do we think about making spells like Warstomp and Innervate usable while in forms?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

Q: Do we plans to alter how the GCD works for form changing so that shifting into a form is as easy as shifting out of one?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

Q: For the official word, do we have plans to update more druid form models at some point in the future?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

• Posted on the forums 19 June 2009:

Community Team: blizz

blizz

Q: Where do mages fit in the current scope of things, and where do you see them from this point going forward?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

• blizz

• blizz

• blizz

Q: What is it that makes them unique when compared to other classes?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

• blizz

• blizz

Community Team: blizz

Q: ''In particular, a lot of the newer PvE and PvP mage or caster items seem to favor Fire spec and, to a lesser extent, Arcane. Do you feel as though mages are being forced to focus too much on critical strike rating (crit) over stacking more haste, spell power, and intellect, stats that are much more beneficial to the Frost mage?''

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

• blizz

Community Team: blizz

Q: Even so, will mages get robes, or at least the option of choosing robes, over tunics going forward?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

Community Team: blizz

blizz

Q: How do you view these mechanics, and are there any intentions of updating mana recovery capabilities for mages in the future?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

Community Team: blizz

Q: Do the developers feel that the cost to mages of doing AoE damage is appropriate?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

• blizz

Community Team: blizz

Q: Are there any plans to reevaluate the mana cost and functionality of this spell?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

Community Team: blizz

blizz

Q: How do you feel about revitalizing the Arcane tree to thin out some of these five-point talents?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

Community Team: blizz

Q: Are you concerned at all that Torment of the Weak is considered to be so important to mages, regardless of specialization, that a minimum of eighteen talent points must be spent in the Arcane tree to reap its full benefit?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

Q: Are there plans on the horizon to improve Fire mage representation in PvP?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

Q: Is threat generation from Fire mages a concern at all given their burst damage is controlled mostly by proc talents and critical chance?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

Q: Do the developers still consider it an objective to improve Frost damage for PvE?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

Community Team: blizz

Q: While mages do recognize this issue, has there been any discussion about reworking Blink so it's more intuitive and could recognize a mage failing to teleport any distance forward, wasting only a global cooldown rather than the mana and spell cooldown?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

• Posted on the forums 9 July 2009:

Community Team: blizz

Q: Where do paladins fit into the larger scope of things currently and where do you see them going from this point forward?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

• blizz

• blizz

Q: What is it that makes them unique compared to all other classes?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

Community Team: blizz

Q: ''Specifically, how do we feel about the healing itemization for paladins thus far? Do we still feel MP5 is as important as other stats such as Int, Crit, Haste, and Spell Power? Are there plans to incorporate more of these other stats in later tiers of paladin healing gear?''

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

• blizz

• blizz

Community Team: blizz

Q: How do we feel about raid-wide paladin buffs instead of limiting the buff applications per class, only?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

Q: Blessing of Sanctuary (Classic) is designed around providing buffs for tanks; are there plans to re-work its design to provide added benefits for more than just tanking?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

Q: ''Do we feel Flash of Light and the changes in store for it will allow for additional diversification for the existing healing spells available? Aside from Holy Light (Classic), Flash of Light, and Holy Shock, are there any plans to provide paladins with other interesting healing spells later down the road?''

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

Community Team: blizz

Q: ''All classes vary in dps from one encounter to another; however, some paladins may feel their dps can be less competitive at times in comparison to other classes, more so in straight stationary single-target dps encounters. How do we feel paladins are doing in terms of dps across the board?''

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

Q: Exorcism will be usable in both PvE and PvP once more which is great; aside from allowing this ability to be used against other players, what were the reasons to go down this route in redesigning this attack?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

• blizz

Q: Consecration seems to utilize a sizable portion of mana per application of this spell; do we have plans on making this a bit more mana-efficient?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

Community Team: blizz

Q: Do we feel Divine Shield is fine in its current rendition versus other abilities such as Shattering Throw and Mass Dispel?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

Q: ''Will it be possible to prevent Avenging Wrath from being dispelled as well? This ability is the means to allow for on-demand maximum dps output for a brief period of time and only affects the paladin.''

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

Q: Do we have plans to introduce a stand-alone interrupt ability for paladins?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

Q: ''With the slew of options to either "jump into" or "jump out of" PvP encounters for either offensive or defensive purposes many classes receive, do we have any plans to incorporate special abilities for paladins to either help them escape tough situations or quickly get into pvp battle (i.e. Death Grip, Typhoon, Summoning Circle, Disengage, etc.)? It seems paladins are the only class without a short cool-down ability on the same scale.''

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

Q: ''Ranged attacks are extremely limited for paladins and are not considered a primary form of dps. However, players feel they would like an ability that will aid them in bridging the gap between melee vs. ranged. Do we have any plans to implement something to this extent?''

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

Community Team: blizz

Q: Do we have plans to incorporate a larger variety of Librams?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

Q: ''Do we have plans to incorporate Librams as a more prominent aspect of the paladin class? Also, can we expect to see Librams as a physical aesthetic item on the paladin? Much like the quiver is for the hunter (except only the hunter can see their own quiver mounted on their back).''

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

• Posted on the forums 19 June 2009:

blizz

Community Team: blizz

Q: Where do shamans fit into the larger scope of things currently and where do you see them going from this point forward?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

• blizz

• blizz

• blizz

• blizz

Q: What is it that makes them unique compared to all other classes?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

• blizz

• blizz

• blizz

Community Team: blizz

blizz

Q: Are there plans to look at totems in general, the way they are managed, their uses, and their benefits in the future?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

• blizz

• blizz

• blizz

Q: And, what are the possible impacts of considering changes to a system like this?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

• blizz

• blizz

Community Team: blizz

Q: Is there any plan to look at the way totems are being used and either update little-used totems or consolidate totems that don't seem to be of a particularly great strategic value individually?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

• blizz

Q: ''In addition, many valued enhancement totem relics are only available via random drops, which has been voiced as something that we've wanted to avoid in the past. Are there any plans to change this?''

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

Community Team: blizz

Q: Is there any reason that they start this way or is there any future change in store to address this disparity between their base health and that of other classes?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

Community Team: blizz

Q: When itemizing for the shaman class, what are the aspects that are looked at, and are there plans to make additional improvements to the way itemization is done for the class or for specific talent specs?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

• blizz

• blizz

• blizz

Q: What is the expectation for how shamans choose the gear they use?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

• blizz

• blizz

• blizz

Community Team: blizz

Q: Where do we feel the role of the shaman is in raids now and where do we see that going in the future?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

Q: Is the change in how shamans are used situational only as we move forward into the next encounters, or is this a shift in philosophy as to the role of the shaman in raids?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

• blizz

• blizz

• blizz

Community Team: blizz

Q: Are there any other considerations in store for improving overall performance for shaman in PvP encounters (whether in Arena or in Battlegrounds)?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

• blizz

• blizz

• blizz

• blizz

Q: What considerations are being made for combating the use of totem-killing macros in PvP, and is this seen as a problem currently?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

• Posted on the forums 16 July 2009:

blizz

Community Team: blizz

Q: Where do warriors fit into the larger scope of things currently and where do you see them going from this point forward?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

• blizz

Q: What is it that makes them unique compared to all other classes?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

• blizz

• blizz

Community Team: :blizz

Q: What is the reasoning behind this and do we have any plans to change that type of gameplay?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

Q: What would be the impact of changing those class mechanics?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

Community Team: blizz

Q: What is the overall purpose of stances and how are stances intended to be used?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

• blizz

Q: Has there been any thought on moving away from restricting abilities based on the stance a player is in?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

Community Team: blizz

Q: What are our thoughts on the overall damage for warriors in each of the three specs?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz blizz blizz

Community Team: blizz

Q: What is the reasoning behind their short duration and do we have plans to improve the duration similar to the buffs other classes already provide?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

Q: Demoralizing shout tends to have a very minimal impact in most situations, are there plans to improve this ability?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

Community Team: blizz

Q: Are there any considerations in store for improving this mechanic and allowing more rage generation in these situations?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

• blizz

Q: Where do we feel warriors fit into the current raid environment and where do we see them progressing in the future?}}

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

• blizz

Community Team: blizz

Q: We have expressed an interest in improving Block Value for tanking warriors in the past; do we have any definite plans to update this?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

Q: With strength on tanking gear currently providing a very minimal benefit and still using up a lot of stats on items, do we have plans to improve how this stat works for tanks?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

Community Team: blizz

Q: Do we have any plans to make warriors less reliant on healers in PvP conflicts?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

• blizz

Q: With strength being the stat that provides the most benefit in dps scenarios, do we have plans to implement PvP gear like cloaks and rings that have strength instead of attack power?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

Follow-Up Questions:

Community Team: blizz

Q: Do we currently have any plans to change Heroic Strike to make it no longer necessary to hit that button on every weapon swing?

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz

Community Team: blizz

Q: ''Is this an issue that we have seen in the Warrior class? If so, do we have any plans to accommodate those players who do not have best in-slot items, while still keeping those with the very best equipment from being too powerful?''

Ghostcrawler:

• blizz