Hey there everyone, I’m Steve Aguilar, lead animator for the World of Warcraft animation team. Today we’re showing off the male Tauren, and with some help from the rest of the animation team, we’re going to give you a look at the animation processes we use to bring this big guy to life.

Before we even started animating him, we already knew the Tauren was going to be a blast to work on based on all of the detail the character art team added.

As we begin applying animations, we’re extra careful not to stray too far from the original. It’s important to us to retain the essence of the original animations, because how a characters walk, move, and carry themselves help to define their personality. We use all of the original animations as a starting point, and then go through the process of cleaning them up and adding additional articulation. Let’s delve into what that process looks like.

The Re-Animator(Steve Aguilar)
The normal “stand” animation is one of the most important animations because this is what you, the player, see the majority of the time. When you stop moving or walk up to an NPC, the stand is the key pose that is being used. A huge chunk of animations also rely on this pose so they can easily transition into and out of it.

When we import the original stand animation onto the new model, we then look to see if there are any weight shifts, odd rotations, or hitches that we need to fix. After we’ve cleaned up the pose, it goes through another sanity check to see if other animations will still be able to transition into and out of this new stand pose. If we happen to change the pose too much, it can cause a domino effect and possibly harm all the existing animations.

After touching up the pose, we move on to re-animating the standard idle motion. Slight changes on how muscles move, limbs are carried, or feet hit the ground can get across a better sense of weight for whatever creature it is we’re animating. Tweaking the male Tauren was a lot of fun because we were able to add a lot more weight than the previous model had and make the Tauren feel bigger and beefier. Another thing that stood out was the lack of motion on the nose ring, braids, and especially the face. With the addition of a facial rig, we were able to get his brows, nostrils, ears, and cheeks to react with his breathing motion. Getting these subtle motions to work added so much to the simple standing pose, I imagined the Tauren looking up at me and saying "thank you."

Here’s a side-by-side comparison of the old and new models.


Next up is Kevin to talk about the face rig and what that process entails.


Face Off(Kevin “Snap ‘n’ Point” Rucker)
Since the facial animation system worked so well with the Pandaren in Mists of Pandaria, with the updated models we wanted to add the same life and emotion they deserved. In the past the character models only had a jaw bone that could be animated, but now we’re able to add movement to the brows, eyes, cheeks and mouth. We’re able to properly make them smile, look angry, and talk.

We start with a base mesh and add joints to specific spots that will allow us to mold the face. We then add influence, or “skin” the mesh to those joints and shape them into poses: jaw open, eyebrows down or furrowed, for example. We hook up those poses to main controls to make the process of animating the face faster and more cohesive between several animators. For instance, instead of having to move 9 individual joints to shape the eyebrows, we just need to touch 2 controls which include a sub-set of attributes for more detailed shaping. After that if we still need to tweak the poses, we can always go back to the original sub controls for additive fine tuning.


We also create a “face file” with several preset expressions the animators can use while working. It’s a lot faster than creating a new pose from scratch. If they need a sad or angry face, they can start from the preset ones, and then adjust from there to make it more unique.

We also create several mouth shapes, or phonemes, for use in talking animations. Again, posing the face is time consuming, so having a jump start is extremely helpful. It also makes the character feel like it was animated by one person, when there’s actually a big group of us working on them at one time.



Body Movin’(Jeremy “Goonies never say die” Collins)
On a certain level, how you move in the game is one of the most important things you experience as a player. It’s your main interaction with the world around you. For Warlords of Draenor, we wanted to improve the locomotion of WoW’s player characters with brand new rigs. These new rigs are capable of doing so much more in terms of fidelity of motion for our characters, and we wanted to showcase that as much as possible.

Everyone who plays WoW is familiar with their character’s idle and run animations—those are the two you see the most. We wanted to really take a look at what made the old player model animations successful, and what made them so iconic. Our job was to then retain the spirit of the old animations, but clean them up so they would look epic on the new rigs. That proved to be a really fun task. Part of the joy of cleaning up an animation like the Dwarf male’s run is going back and seeing what the original animators were thinking about when they first worked on these characters. Some of these runs and walks were animated over 10 years ago!

The first thing we did when we cleaned up an animation was ask ourselves a series of questions. What are some of the areas that could use touching up? Does the center of gravity on the character feel skewed? Is the character leaning appropriately when moving in a direction? How can we shift the timing to give this animation a greater sense of weight?

All of our rigs are manipulated with the use of controllers. Controllers are curves that drive the joints the tech artists have placed that ultimately deform deform the model you see. When we open an older animation, we’re manipulating what is called "baked data." Baked animations have keys on every attribute on every frame. In some cases, it’s necessary for us to delete some keys to make the animation curves easier to manipulate. Here’s what we see inside of Maya. Every one of those colored curves represents rotation or translation of that foot controller.

Once we had identified what needed polishing we went straight into Maya and got to work. A popular method of cleaning up locomotion animations would be saving the contact poses, major breakdowns, deleting the in-betweens, and smoothing out the motion from there.


Emotes were also super fun to work on. We would often times shoot video footage of ourselves acting out emote animations for reference—and no you don’t get to see them. We’d then use that reference as a jumping off point for setting key frames in Maya.



Glass Case of Emotion: Part I(Carman“Boba Muscles” Cheung)
For the majority of the character cleanup phase, the team focuses on three main things: cloth, hair and the face. Cloth includes a front and back tabard and a cape. Hair can be anything from a back ponytail, a front ponytail, pig tails, beards of varying sizes and shapes, or a combination of all of these. We also add facial animation, which adds a lot of character and life to the model. Occasionally, we will also fix minor posing issues or any errors, like jittering.


All of our character animations are hand keyed, and not dynamically simulated within the game engine or created through motion capture. This allows us to have complete control in shaping the movement and style for each character, and it adds a unique life to the characters you can’t really get any other way.




Glass Case of Emotion: Part II(David “Coffee Corn” Edwards)
My favorite part of the entire process is adding the facial expressions, or fixing up the timing or posing of a character. It is astounding how adding a simple facial expression can instantly bring a character to life. It’s always incredibly rewarding to take an old animation and see what even small changes can do to vastly improve it.

As a contrast, the most difficult part of the process, at least for me, is having to hold myself back from wanting to fix or adjust every little thing for every single animation. Due to the sheer volume of animations that exist for player characters, our goal of having updated models in time for Warlords of Draenor, and the need to animate all the new creatures and objects going into the expansion, we have to prioritize our time. We’ve broken the cleanup passes on character revamp animations up into phases. Phase 1 has all of the locomotion animations (walk, run, etc.) as well as all the emotes and spell casts. Phase 2 deals with the combat animations (attacks, stuns, etc.), and phase 3 is a catch-all for the remaining animations (swimming, fishing, etc.). Regardless of the phase, every animation is touched in some form or fashion, but phase 1 gets the most love since those are the animations are seen the most.

At the start of each animation we always focus on cleaning up the body first, since this motion drives all of the secondary animation. Below is a video showing the finished product after it has gone through the cleanup process.



That’s All For Now(Steve Aguilar)
Thanks for reading and letting the animation team share this part of their process with you. I hope we’re doing justice to one of your beloved characters, and that you can see the amount of love we’re applying to not only the male Tauren, but the animations for all of the characters in the game. Have a great day, and you stay classy WoW players!

Hello again! I’m Senior Art Director Chris Robinson, and today we wanted to give you a super quick look at our current progress with the new female Draenei.

After the April Fools’ joke we wanted to ensure you weren’t waiting too long to see where we’re at with her actual character model update. Keep in mind that she’s still in-progress, and doesn’t have any animation to pose her body or face.

Animation is a big factor for the female Draenei specifically, so it’s important to keep it in mind when comparing the two. The original female Draenei has some fairly extreme posing that happens when she’s animated. If you were to see the static model of the original without any posing you’d see that it looks very similar to the new one. With her pose applied her shoulders stretch backward, her pelvis rotates forward, and her chin lowers—causing her head to angle downwards. The curvature in her lower back, and why the head shape looks slightly different, are also due to the new model not having the same posing applied yet. She also looks a lot taller! Ultimately all of those things will be addressed when we animate the new model, they just don’t take place until she’s rigged and sent on to the animation team.

We hope you enjoyed this super quick look at where we’re at right now, and we’ll continuing sharing more in-progress art as we go forward. The next article in the Artcraft series we’re planning is a look at the creation of the Spires of Arak, a new zone coming in Warlords of Draenor. Thanks for stopping by!

Senior Character Artist Joe Keller did the majority of the work on this revamp, with direction from our Lead Character Artist Tyson Murphy (@tysmurph), and myself (@artofcgrobinson).

Classes
Hunter (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
Am I just stupid or bad at hunters or do they seem focused starved 90% of the time?
Starved? No... It's a resource that they build and spend. They have a no-CD builder, so it's impossible to be 'starved'. (Celestalon)

does marksmansnip mastery has cd? my barrage got 40shot under 62%mastery and got less than 10 wild quiver hit
Wild Quiver has a reduced chance to proc from individual Barrage hits since the ability hits so many times so quickly. (WatcherDev)
so,thats mean there a input cd (or something else) like arms sweeping strike
No cooldown, just a lower chance to proc. It's possible that it could proc from every Barrage hit, just very unlikely. (WatcherDev)

I can't right click off the MisDirection buff anymore to recast on a different target :< . Intended? (please say no)
Intended, as a bandaid for an exploit that we didn't have any other way to fix. Hope to allow you to cancel it again in the future. (Celestalon)

Mage (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
I've taken another stab at the frost math and really hope you'll take a look: http://t.co/Jt1YR143oE
You're using one set of ET% for all builds. That's obviously flawed, since the ET% are based on your stats. (Celestalon)
(Mostly by haste. The more haste you have, the more Fb you're going to fit between each LB, for example) (Celestalon)
Keep it up. This peer-review part of theorycrafting is super important, and to me, fun. (Celestalon)
It can be hard; it's not easy posting your work for all to see, and having people point out how you're wrong. (Celestalon)
But I think the process of peer-review is one of the most important parts of theorycrafting, that many specs' communities have been lacking in lately, leading to bad theorycraft spreading and becoming trusted. (Celestalon)
If you guys delivered us an operating manual for each spec, we wouldn't have to guess so wildly
That's neither needed, or the problem. Bad math for the optimal rotation is bad math. (Celestalon)

Monk (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
becuase surging mist cost so much mana that its not worth it
We'll be adjusting mana costs, don't fear. (Celestalon)

Healing Spheres being removed for WW? I agree that if feels odd but removing it feels like a loss of a good backup heal.
They're being compensated for that loss elsewhere. (Celestalon)

Paladin (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
I think the issue is a slow rotation filled with pauses is considered less "fun", even if it's equal DPS statwise
Right, and I understand that concern, and am informing you that we are keeping that in mind, and not changing it. (Celestalon)
Even so, having limited access to haste will affect how ret feels/play due to not being able to get haste through gem/reforges..
Again, you won't have limited access to haste. You *will* be able to customize gear. You *will* be able to get gear that has... (Celestalon)
...the stats you want. I understand that it's hard to convey through 140char, but your concerns aren't being ignored. (Celestalon)

curious about hopo generation tbh. Feels really good on live, dont want to go back to only 1 hopo generator. Thanks 4 reply
No plans to change HoPo generation significantly. (Celestalon)
Will there be any changes to SoB? Ret will struggle extremely with its current model once gems/reforges are gone.
Sanctity of Battle? No... Why would it? (Celestalon)
Without reforging and gems, the ret rotation will feel very slow and filled with gaps cause of little to no haste.
That's definitely false. Gems are part of items' budgets, and Reforging just moves stats around; no significant change there if... (Celestalon)
...you care about and stack haste. Overall, negligible impact, if any. (Celestalon)
...will make crit/mastery items even more unattractive over a haste+X counterpart, X being crit or mastery.
If you love haste, yes, haste/Anything beats crit/mastery; aim for getting haste items. Regardless, all of the secondary stats... (Celestalon)
...will be useful, and closer in value. (Celestalon)
So SoB & Ret rot. design the same, but we're over-exaggerating how "TAKE IT & SHUT UP" we're imagining stat options?
Very much so. (Celestalon)

Priest (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
If you remove the healing from Divine Star for Shadow, that talent will stop being used by SPriests. Is that the intent?
No, and we don't think it will do that. (Celestalon)

Shaman (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
That's the sort of answer I was hoping for, thanks. What about cd stacking? Enh is a big transgressor there, esp in pvp.
Yeah. Enh is one of the worst, because the strength of their big CD scales with gear. +20%dmg in blues, +100%dmg in 580s. (Celestalon)
Err, big CD*s*. That describes both Fire Elemental and Ascendence. (Celestalon)

No-- enh skill cap is tiny. Simcraft predicts 1.3% difference btw (over)optimized and (very)simplified priorities.
That says nothing about how high the skill cap is, just how valuable high skill is. We want to raise that value. (Celestalon)

should we expect any big changes to the Enh Shaman rotation / priorities?
Kind of. Enh suffers from a major case of "thirty-different-damage-sources-so-all-of-them-feel-meh"-itis. (Celestalon)
We're generally happy with Enh's gameplay (which is whack-a-mole at base skill levels, but does have a high skill cap). (Celestalon)
However, we're going to try to maintain that gameplay, while removing or combining many of the damage sources. (Celestalon)
For example, compare http://t.co/AiVKyUn9sS (12 dmg sources)... to http://t.co/dPrdUe81JC (34 dmg sources). Are they all... (Celestalon)
...really needed? Can we combine some? Some are MH vs OH of the same strike, so that's naturally inflating things, but even... (Celestalon)
...still, that's a ton. Anyway, point is, we're going to try to maintain the same gameplay, but fewer, more impactful sources. (Celestalon)
That's the same mentality for most classes moving into WoD, right? Maintaining gameplay, more impactful choices?
Yes, but I think Enhancement exemplifies that most of anyone. (Celestalon)
I'm concerned because the spec is currently fast/full of choice because of all the buttons, is it being dumbed down?
No. (Celestalon)
How so if half the possible choices for every given gcd are removed?
I definitely did not say that half the possible choices for every GCD are being removed. (Celestalon)
It was hyperbolizing for the sake of illustrating my concern.
I said nothing of the sort, though. (Celestalon)
Fair enough, you did not; so what sort of damage sources would be removed if not buttons?
Just Example, not Announcement: Unleash Wind does a pittance of damage, and a useful buff. Could we cut the damage, buff the buff? (Celestalon)
Remove the spell as enh, and replace it with a new melee ability (medium damage)with a smaller cooldown = fun + useful
Do you really want *another* meh-dium damage ability? (Celestalon)

Warlock (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
Dear Cele, never gets old, but why be any other dps when you can be warlock? And why did you guys stop game balance hotfixing?
There's a huge conversation to be had about *when* to nerf. Short answer is that nerfing warlocks would also nerf *guilds*. (Celestalon)
Instead, we think the right call is to leave them until Warlords, then fix them there. We agree that they're too strong now (Celestalon)
I think it's better to balance the class, then nerf content as needed based on the class rebalance.
Requires making an assumption about how many Warlocks guilds were using. (Celestalon)
No need for assumptions, you have the numbers.
...but it varies by guild. That's the point. (Celestalon)

T14 beta, Demo Tank preformance similar to other tanks. Nerfs came. Revert nerfs, rebalance, Demo tank live?
UI support, Active Mitigation skills, multiple cooldowns, talents with defensive benefit, glyphs with defensive benefit, an interesting defensive rotation, defensive value for all stats (that's gigantic), Vengeance, DPS tuning, mob control abilities, defensive mechanics that scale at the right rate, community understanding, etc. Warlocks are/were nowhere close to being full-fledged tanks. Sorry, it's just not the same thing. (Celestalon)
feel like there's a similar argument for making prot a dps spec that goes beyond what one talent can do.
On the contrary, Prot Warriors have all of the DPS equivalents of those, or are getting them anyway for other reasons. (Celestalon)

That's great, but when raid needs a tank, Warrior can hit a button and be one, while I have to switch to my alt DK.
That's something you signed up for. We don't treat "ability to respec to a different role" as something we balance. (Celestalon)
No, I didn't. When I signed up as a Warlock, they could only DPS, Warriors could only tank, Paladins and Druids could only heal.
Pretty sure that's objectively false. (Celestalon)
It definitely is. I played vanilla wow. As a fury 2h spec warrior, top dps through BWL and AQ40. Quit lying.
I also played one of those specs widely considered unviable as well, back in vanilla, to great effect. (Celestalon)

Warrior (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
Will something be done to the "gotta wait till I got colossus smash up" class?
Focusing your rage spending inside Colossus Smash windows, without wasting rage, is very much an intended gameplay element. (Celestalon)

Art
Can the dwarven face beard clasp on the new models be on the larger beard seen on the dwarf in the WoD anouncement trailer
This is the kind of thing we would like to add with future customization. Not part of initial PC revamp. (artofcgrobinson)

Does the toucan exist outside concept art? If so, that, please! Plus clefthooves as the rhino family is tiny and needs friends
It does! And it's surprisingly, and awesomely, savage. (Muffinus)

is there a reason that Vale and Shatt Portals have the same portal animation? Or was one just never made for Vale?
Well I'll be... whoops. Fixed for 6.0! (Celestalon)

Warlords of Draenor Stats
All this talk about base health and base damage; why not exponential scaling, Would make these considerations irrelevant.
We do use exponential scaling, and while the pros drastically outweigh the cons of doing so, needing to squish is the big con. (Celestalon)
I think he also meant zero base value, all value from stats. Which is happening with damage. Useful for health too?
...That /is/ happening for health. (Celestalon)
I misinterpreted something then. Thought base health drastically reduced, not eliminated. Sounds good to me then.
Base health is gone. A naked character has only a bit of health from their base stamina. (Celestalon)
So is Ironman leveling dead?
It's certainly much harder. Likely possible still on specs that can kite. (Celestalon)

since dodge is removed from the game, how guardian druids gonna survive bosses?
Dodge is not removed from the game. Dodge is removed *from gear*. You already had no dodge on your gear. (Celestalon)
so still there dodge gems?
No. It won't be a stat you find on gear, even through gems. (Celestalon)
then how shall a guardian tank now?
Things like Savage Defense will still give Dodge. (Celestalon)

will WoD (tertiary stats?)random attribute have a RNG factor to number/percentage it gives? (like imperfect % drops in diablo,)
Nope. (Celestalon)

Earlier today, we announced the Azeroth Choppers head-to-head match-up between the Horde and Alliance, and we’re very excited to share the upcoming episodes and final bike creations with you. We saw a few questions following the announcement and wanted to take a moment to clarify things.

First, we want to make it clear that players globally will be able to vote for their favorite faction bike—either Alliance or Horde. Second, the bike that receives the most votes will then be made into a faction-specific-only mount and be available FREE to all players (usable when playing characters of the winning faction, of course). Your vote will be very important and could just be the one that lands your favorite faction a shiny new mount. If you haven’t watched the trailer yet, check it out here and stay tuned to Azerothchoppers.com for more details!

Led by legendary chopper builder Paul Jr., Team Horde will face off against Team Alliance to determine which epic custom-built bike will come out on top in the ultimate showdown. When the dust settles and the final designs are revealed it will be YOUR vote that decides which of these mechanical marvels will be recreated as an in-game mount.

Meet the Blizzard Teams

Horde

• Sam Didier
• Jason Hutchins
• Gary Platner

Alliance

• Chris Metzen
• Terran Gregory
• Monte Krol

Don’t miss out on all of the action! Azeroth Choppers premieres 4.17.14 on http://www.AzerothChoppers.com

PvE
Any indication of what a mythic roster looks like, role-wise? An inkling would sure help me go from 10-man to mythic.
2-3 tanks (mostly 2), 4-6 healers (mostly 5), ~13 DPS. (WatcherDev)

I'd say that an unwritten law is that if an encounter is designed for X healers, top guilds will X-1 heal at least
It may be nearly unavoidable at the very cutting edge. It's a problem when people are still underhealing months later. (WatcherDev)
When you're undergeared the first weeks, better to wipe 90% of the time to lacking heals than 100% of the time to lacking DPS (WatcherDev)

Do you consider the fact that most raids 'reset' Dark Shamans so they spawn outside the room a design mistake?
Not ideal; was a band-aid late in the PTR cycle for the fact that pulling them out to begin the pull was awkward. (WatcherDev)

WHY do you enable cross realm on heroic mode when there are still realm first on the table??
Realm Firsts aren't removed by this. You still need a guild group to achieve a realm first. (Celestalon)
But 3 people can get to our server and help kill garrosh and the guild get the realm first?
Yes, you could have 3 xrealm people help your 25man group kill Garrosh. That's still 22 players from the guild; they earn it. (Celestalon)
In my opinion that's not fair at all I have been fighting to get to the top guild... to some random people come and take it away
But that's the point; it wouldn't be some random people coming to take it away. They can't do that. (Celestalon)
Some people (and we have proff) are selling us the kill of garrosh with our accounts. Ofcourse we didn't accept it...
That's totally against our ToS, and we are staunchly against that. And, it's completely unrelated to this change. (Celestalon)
For a ToS clarification, what sort of kill/achievement sales go against it? (Obviously playing other accounts would).
I believe can answer that. I was just immediately responding to the "playing others' accounts" part, which is obvious (Celestalon)

Any eta on when heroic/normal no longer shares a lockout. AKA can we do both a normal and a heroic run in the same week?
The pre-Warlords patch 6.0. That's a much more fundamental change to how raids are structured. (WatcherDev)

Also, what would it do if the printed to file combat log saw EVERYTHING. Including things in other phases (like Norushen).
Working on getting the combat log to do exactly that - couple of issues to sort out but nothing insurmountable. (WatcherDev)

PvP
did you ever test 4v4 arena games? I feel 5v5 is too much of a zerg fest, curious about how 4v4 would feel...
2 healers 2 dps is not fun (holinka)
I was thinking of it as a 2heals+2dps and 1heal+3dps mix, kinda like 2s with heal+dps and double dps...
We could always enforce role compositions but that feels very heavy handed. Better when a meta emerges. (holinka)

Any plans on allowing Vicious Skeletal Warhorse (and other Vicious Saddle mounts) account-wide ?
Nope. They are character bound to encourage repeat accomplishment. (holinka)

do you think removing 2v2 could improve pool and focus of arenas more?
tricky question. I think it would improve 3v3 participation but reduce arena participation overall. (holinka)

Any chance to make cross-spec gearing for Hybrids easier? Currently you're stuck with one spec until the near end of season.
In warlords, the primary stat on gear changes based in your spec. Lots of info out there about it. (holinka)

Many news sites are reporting a vulnerability (dubbed the Heartbleed bug) discovered in OpenSSL, an encryption technology used by a majority of websites and online services—including banks, email providers, and social media sites—to protect sensitive data as it’s transmitted from users to web services.

We want to emphasize that Battle.net’s encryption was not affected by this vulnerability. However, if you use the same password on Battle.net that you use elsewhere, your Battle.net account could be at risk if those sites were affected by this bug.
If the above situation applies to you, we recommend changing your Battle.net password to a new, unique password. As always, we recommend that you maintain separate login credentials for each online service you use. Using the same email or password across multiple services greatly increases the potential impact of any compromise.

More information about the Heartbleed vulnerability can be found at http://heartbleed.com, and you can find additional information on how to protect your Battle.net accounts at http://www.battle.net/security.

At PAX East in Boston this weekend we’re handing out Beta keys to those who wait in line and play the Warlords of Draenor demo at the show. As the expansion is still in an internal Alpha, the keys we’re handing out are inactive, with the intention that they are redeemable for a future test phase. However, yesterday we discovered that a small amount of people were actually able to claim their keys and log in to the Alpha.

We’ve resolved the key claim issue and no further key claims should be possible. Those who were able to claim a key will need to redeem it again once the proper Beta phase begins.

We’re not looking to take action against accounts or content involved in this unintended access. We know everyone is excited to play Warlords of Draenor, is looking forward to additional information about the expansion, and we hope you’ve enjoyed what you’ve seen thus far—keeping in mind, of course, that we are still at an early testing phase.

Classes
How do you feel about warriors/pallies/bears being able to tank by just macroing in SD or Shield Block/Barrier/of the righteous?
It's probably a little too good to do that, but not much. However, simultaneously, I wouldn't say that the difference between an unskilled tank and a skilled tank is the wrong size. It's big, but that's good. (Celestalon)

with haste breakpoints being removed why would aff locks want any haste?
You probably misunderstood what removing haste breakpoints means. It still makes DoTs tick faster and spells cast faster. (Celestalon)
That confuses me, so we still get extra dot ticks?
Yes, absolutely. It's just smooth, not with breakpoints. (Celestalon)

Death Knight (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
wondered why DKs haven't been designed like monks for DW vs 2h
You mean having different rotations/priorities/strengths/weaknesses, but still balanced, like Frost DKs? Just different classes. (Celestalon)
Frost DKs having two different subspecs was an evolutionary thing. Masterfrost was an accident, but cool, so we formalized it. (Celestalon)
He was probably talking abt basing abilities on wpn DPS rather than dmg so 2H/DW are balanced and play identically.
We want 2H vs DW monks to play identically. We *don't* want 2H vs DW Frost DKs to play identically. (Celestalon)
How can you say that? One of the two will always be inferior. Historically, that is usually 2H Frost.
How inferior and in what situation? There have been many times they've balanced enough that it varies by fight/gear (Celestalon)

Paladin (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
Is there a chance seal of faith will make it into the game? Was looking forward to paladin melee healing
Maybe at some later point. It's on our "Shelf of Ideas That Have Potential But Aren't Ready Yet". (Celestalon)

Priest (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
outside of Divine Insight, is there a way for Shadow Orb generation to scale with haste? Only resource not to, seems off.
Haste already has high value for you, and you get more value per orb with more haste (haste = more DP ticks). (Celestalon)

Warlords of Draenor Stats
Are you concerned that without enough Readiness to get in an extra CD usage, Readiness Rating is wasted for the most part?
It'll effect more that just 3min CDs, and CDs earlier are always better. There'll be breakpoints, but they'll be really soft. (Celestalon)
(But to more directly answer, yes, it's a concern, but it's one we think we can mitigate and handle) (Celestalon)
Are you worried about people gearing around encounter specific breakpoints? For example-major CD for every belt.
It's a concern, sure, like I said. We actually don't mind if you end up in a situation where you keep a few (FEW, not 30)... (Celestalon)
...pieces of alternate gear around, and swap based on the encounter. (Celestalon)

PvE
Hey, are there going to be some 1-2 boss raids like in tbc? or did you scrap that concept? (or onyxia etc.)
None is planned for 6.0 - I wouldn't say we've scrapped the concept, though. (WatcherDev)

PvP
Thoughts on Tarren Mill vs Southshore BG?
certainly an idea we've tossed around a number of times. (holinka)

Professions
Well, in the interest of crafting having a more prevalent role. Instead of items primarily being on rep or currency vendors.
What would you want the role of rep/currency items to be in that world? (hwoome)
Perhaps reputation accesses content and narrative, instead of another item faucet?
You'd prefer no item rewards from reputation? (hwoome)

Reputation / Questing
WoD will have quests that "pop up" when you're around, will these scale up/down like we've seen with Public Quests in other games?
Rare spawns on IoT/TI scale with # of attackers, improving this in WoD so they don't blow up so fast. (Muffinus)

Garrisons
I disagree. I see “farm on 11 chars per day” as negative. Most players would agree. Doesn’t make your opinion invalid.
When doing things on an alt is a fun/different experience, it's good repeat gameplay. When it's not, questionable. (Muffinus)

Classes
Is there any difference for "melee range" for EnhShaman vs FeralDruid? Just my misperception? Shaman seems to hit from farther.
Nope. Same range. (Celestalon)

Wait, so if you have 100% uptime on your dot until the mob dies u never get the partial ticks?
You get the duration of it. Partial ticks are the 'remainder'. It's like saying you get 6.2 ticks per cast. If you just... (Celestalon)
...cast it once, you get 6 ticks and a 0.2 partial tick. If you chain 9 of them together, you get 55 ticks and a 0.8 partial (Celestalon)
or did I misread and the duration per cast just keeps increasing by the partial amount with ticks always at fixed intervals?
Duration per cast remains fixed; doesn't change with haste. That's the point. (Celestalon)
ok I think the part I was not getting was this extra damage is handled on refresh of the dot. Correct? Thank you for the replies
The extra damage is a constant thing. Haste makes your DoTs tick faster, but doesn't change their duration. (Celestalon)
And with enough clip-chaining will 'partial' ticks ever become an extra 'full' normal tick, or are they...
Perhaps this will help: don't think of DoTs as doing X ticks. Think of them ticking at Y rate for X sec. (Celestalon)

will channels have partial ticks too? (sorry if that got asked before)
No; channels get shorter with haste, just as before. Channels are more like cast times with partial credit. (Celestalon)

Art
Is there going to be an update to the race dances? Aka. longer and smoother?
not longer, but with new rigging and animation clean up - dances should feel smoother. (artofcgrobinson)

You mean model? That is pretty much certain. There will be winged arakkoa, which already necessitates new one
new Arakkoa model for sure, not definite on Kaliri - it's on wish list right now. (artofcgrobinson)

Warlords of Draenor Stats
Wait...does Multistrike not trigger on SEF hits? Like you would do it, but your clones wouldn't?
Your SEF clones can multistrike, independently from you. (Celestalon)
So we have 3x chance to multistrike, but for 1/3rd the damage. Evens out in long run.
Well, they're separate units. You could Blackout Kick, which your clone would mimic, and it may multistrike for clone, but not you. (Celestalon)
Okay: Clarify please: 5.4: SEF clones multistrike or not? (I understand they will in 6.0)
I don't believe they do, but should be easy for you to test. (Celestalon)

Do you think making Mulistrike a tank stat is going to be a problem? 25 people rolling on the same BIS Ring, Neck, Cloak =/= fun
There won't be 25 people rolling on the same Ring, Neck, or Cloak. Tanks want Bonus Armor and Healers want Spirit, for example. (Celestalon)

Your assumptions are wrong. It's not that skewed. Budget-wise, 0.3% Crit = 1.0% Multistrike. (Celestalon)
Also, while PvE/PvP crit 200/150 crit multi 160/130 balance w/ each other, PvP they devalue vs haste or readiness, no?
You're misunderstanding the PvP vs PvE difference of Multistrike. Same average, more consistent, in PvP. (Celestalon)
Well you'd know better than me so I'll take your word for it Any news on if/how Multistrike will interact with Healing??
It will, just as with damage. (Celestalon)

Can an ele shaman's overload trigger a multistrike? Can a multistrike trigger an overload?
Yes. No. (Celestalon)
Do multistrikes get a visual spell animation like overloads do? Would be fun to be a lightning bolt machine gun
Yep. (Celestalon)

can multistrikes crit? and would getting A fireball crit followed by a Fireball Multistrike Crit proc Pyroblast!...?
Yes. No. (Celestalon)

Thanks for the answer. So would death strike MS trigger the effects twice?
Nope. (Celestalon)

How does multistrike appear in the combat log? As "Multistrike" or the spell that triggered it?
As the spell that triggered it:You Fireball Murloc for 100.You Fireball Murloc for 30. (Multistrike) (Celestalon)
How does multistrike interact with talents/passives that proc off abilities? Lava Surge, FDCL, Spell Reflected stuff?
Ones that can trigger from multistrikes will call it out specifically. (Celestalon)
Deathstrike won't heal twice off of MS? So what is the benefit to a blood dk? Seems bad.
There are other (better) benefits. It's not bad. (Celestalon)

PvE
Curious if devs feel WoW has become too difficult to play at endgame for the average player? A need to do "homework" to play.
We don't think so. No matter what we do, perfect performance will require extra effort. Takes less than before to do 90%. (Celestalon)

If healing won't be more difficult, how will more cast time on more heal not be more difficult. Like Thok HC?
Thok wouldn't exist in its current form. We design encounters to fit players' toolsets. (WatcherDev)

Does "no more dynamic difficulty swapping" mean no skipping mythic bosses by dropping down to heroic?
Yes, each difficulty will be a self-contained experience. But with less linear layouts, you can choose somewhat. (WatcherDev)
Depending on raid layout, understood. Still loot only once per lockout per boss at the Heroic/Mythic level?
Yeah, loot once per lockout. Heroic and Mythic are separate lockouts; Mythic is a fixed ID like Heroic is today. (WatcherDev)

flex N/H going live at WoD or 6.0? Roster realigns suddenly places us at needing to test how some ppl's PC can handle 20 man.
6.0. There will be a few weeks of 20-player Mythic SoO (along with flexible N/H) before Draenor unlocks. (WatcherDev)
You guys are fully retuning all of the current-tier raids to be compatible with class changes in 6.0? (Or only heroic/mythic?)
Siege of Orgrimmar, all difficulties. Prior zones aren't changing in structure or tuning, but they're trivialized by gear. (WatcherDev)

No loot from bosses in 8 weeks.. Hope you won't call me a liar after 10+. Is this your idea of loot progression in WoD?
No loot at all, or just not the specific items you need? We do have plans to limit the impact of bad luck streaks like that. (WatcherDev)

Leader can change loot option in combat when boss is low hp in order to take the loot to himself. Plans to stop this behavior?
Yes. (WatcherDev)

I get that, just thought old content would be added to the new system.
Old raids were built around the other system; not a trivial conversion, and the time is better spent on new content. (WatcherDev)

Why is that? Also, I've noticed old lockouts don't always work the new way, such as Kara. Intended?
That's how raid lockouts have worked literally since Molten Core. "Flexible" lockouts added in Cata, for Normal mode. (WatcherDev)
And the "Why" was more "why not include heroic in the new awesomeness?" Like, what made you (the team) hold back?
Flexible locks permit loot abuse by organized groups. System makes it easier to PUG, but that's not the audience MoP Heroic raids. (WatcherDev)

Any chance on revisiting KT in Tempest Keep? Perma-cc is pretty annoying. KT never heard of DR
There are mechanics in the fight to help with that. The goal isn't to make old fights trivial to solo; just doable. (WatcherDev)

What will happen to the CM teleport spells after they're removed?
Like other rewards, players who earned those teleport spells will retain them. (WatcherDev)

Why are realm first CM titles character specific instead of account-wide?
Because they reflect a skilled accomplishment with a specific class; same reason Gladiator titles aren't account-wide. (WatcherDev)

PvP
1. We'll keep an eye on the number of CC breaks in the game throughout beta. The widespread complaint was too much crowd control. (holinka)
If no one is dying because crowd control is ineffective, it's an issue. Often those breaks support a specific class kit. (holinka)
2. RBG cap is higher than arena cap. Source of major complaint and we aren't really happy with that system from a readability angle (holinka)
There are few things in the game as complicated as rating and conquest cap calculations. Should be simpler. (holinka)
3. Not really sure about what you mean by tremor totem + totem reset. Call of the Elements? (holinka)

ever thought about an underwater BG?
I think it would be awful and don't ever plan on making one. Floating combat is not fun. (holinka)
What if the game focuses on it? Aren't spaceship games (e.g. Wing Commander) basically floating combat?
But you're forced to always be moving forward. I do think those games suffer from everyone flying around in circles though. (holinka)
Well, many of them allow you to full-stop, but point taken. Sense of scale/movement/strategy is tricky in wide open 3D.
I think the average player can get very disoriented in a space game. It's helpful to have a horizon line. (holinka)

Wouldn't pvp be better if all the addons were disabled? I feel kind of cheated for not using them. Some maybe don't know them.
It depends on perspective but macros and addons have value. It's a way to tinker with your setup and improve performance. (holinka)

About Ashran, due to the limited players of RP-PVP servers, will we see people from PVP servers too? Please, don't want empty zone.
Possibly. We'll try to avoid it if possible. We'll see what the numbers look like. (holinka)

if eu has majority of players pvping as ally and the new nerf to horde and buffs to ally wont it mean horde are a dying breed n pvp
I doubt it. Globally the Horde is overrepresented. High end arena players just tend to all pick one side to be together. (holinka)

PvPers would most likely sacrafice a bit of lore for quicker same-faction BGs.
Just to be abundantly clear, same faction BGs is not on the table. (holinka)

What about allowing free, or half off, transfers from Horde to Alliance (only) to help the imbalance and queue times?
it's something we're exploring. It is A LOT more complicated than you'd think. (holinka)

Hey! Will it be possible to use [Alliance/Horde Battle Standard] in the new PvP zone Ashran?
There will be an Ashran specific version (holinka)

Professions
Any chance Spirits of Harmony ever become BoA or BoE? Don't see what the harm would be in making it so in 6.0.
No harm in 6.0? I agree. Maybe even a little earlier. (hwoome)

Reputation / Questing
Has to be TRULY different though, like leveling thru PvP vs LFD vs questing. Remember lesson from Golden Lotus dailies!
5.1-5.4 let us try out various things, 5.1 had great story unlock, 5.2 had epic treasure/raid fit, 5.4 gameplay/items (Muffinus)

World
And try to make rare mobs really rare, please. On TI, mainly, they are like the grass/ruppes on Zelda games.
Rarer mob can have higher drop chance, but less chance of you seeing it. What's ideal for you levelling/endgame? (Muffinus)

Garrisons
I noticed a "Dance Studio" on a picture of the garrison UI. Care to shed some light on its purpose? Moral?
Just the UI guys having a little fun Not to say that there won't be dancing with your troops... (Muffinus)

How mandatory will garrisons be? They do NOT interest me at all. I'm starting to worry they won't be optional content.
Do you consider the farm mandatory? Why or why not? (Muffinus)
Doesn't garrison have something to do with professions? Sounds more mandatory than farm's cooking items.
What elements of your professions are a "must do" for you? Does that change over the course of the expac? (Muffinus)

Can we rearrange buildings after we built it for garrisons?
Yep, this was in the Blizzcon Q+A (Muffinus)

With development on World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor well underway, the Screenshot of the Day section on the World of Warcraft community site will now feature unique Warlords of Draenor images every day, showcasing a variety of new creatures, characters, and environments from the upcoming expansion. Be sure to stop by daily for the latest look at what’s waiting within Draenor.

Since we are being blessed with new character models (Which can be disabled? Yes, no?)
Yes.

However, I am quite useless on Ordos and Sha since my frame rates dips to 1-10 FPS. Will the new models cause even more problems in world bosses and even in regular raids?
It's hard to say exactly, many things can influence performance.

Remember that characters aren't (usually) naked inside raids, which means that most of the polygons and textures being drawn and rendered aren't exclusively attributable to player models, but also to armor.

On top of that, raids have their own surrounding geometry, bosses, etc... and all that adds up in the end. Obviously, new (more detailed) models means slightly more processing power is required, but new models aren't the only big change coming to WoD.

We are also applying a squish to anything related to stats; this means that in certain situations, there might be some performance improvements, especially when it comes to addons that process combat data.

More importantly, we are reducing the amount of visual clutter that currently fills every fight where a lot of players are involved.
Less sparkly stuff flying around means better video performance for everyone.

Client performance is something we care about a lot. It doesn’t matter how well-designed an encounter is: you aren’t going to have fun raiding at 8 FPS. We want everyone to be able to enjoy playing with the new models, and our dev team is working hard making sure that WoW is as resource efficient as possible in order for that to happen.

Shall I start looking for a new computer or should I stick with the one I have?
That's a hard question to answer. I'd say that you shouldn't be worried about any big drop in performance; things will most likely remain very close to what you are experiencing right now. So if you're satisfied with what you have right now, then there shouldn't be any need to change anything.

This is false, according to current alpha you DO have option to disable and enable new models.
And the frame-rate wasn't noticeable in dropping when swapping either. That may vary to individual's pc however.
That's correct, thanks for pointing that out and sorry for the inaccuracy. I've fixed the original post.
I'd just like to point out that we've only added this option with the intention of helping out players running the game on (very) old systems.

We want everyone to experience the game with the new models, they're all sorts of amazing and the end result to the player's experience is phenomenal; we definitely don't want anyone to miss out on that.

The new models are central to gameplay, every nuance in the detail, movement, pose, and facial expressions will be noticed by you, even unconsciously, because your character is always standing in front of you.
But of course we also want to keep the game playable for everyone, so if you're in a situation where your game isn't playable at all with the new models, then it's still better to disable them than not being able to play at all.

Racials
"Undead can no breath underwater indefinitely" Was that really needed?
Absolutely. Definitely the most important (and time-consuming to make) change in all of Warlords. #sarcasm (Celestalon)

Whatever happened to Touch of the Grave rescaling? Must Undead really be the worst PvE race?
No -- we'll tweak as needed to make sure their throughput is on par with other races'. (WatcherDev)

Classes
Death Knight (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
I understand you want to tone down blood's reactivity (that's now a word), but be warned that you could ruin why we love it.
There are significant changes; we're taking it very seriously and are eager for feedback about how it feels. We know the risk. (Celestalon)

So DKs will have no zero ranged abilities with removal of Death Coil? Or, Rune&Frost Strikes can be used at range?
Icy Touch, Howling Blast, Death and Decay, Death Siphon, etc. (Celestalon)

Druid (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
The hurricane/Shroom combo is horrible. we need something powerful and immediate, not 3 casts praying the mobs won't be moved.
You can pre-water your Shrooms if you want. That's *extremely* powerful and immediate. (Celestalon)

I can think of a half-dozen spells to remove (mostly Balance >.>) Innervate? :|
In many ways Innervate (and Divine Plea as another example) was just something you could amortize into a passive mp5 effect. (WatcherDev)
Wouldn't it make sense to remove MTT as well given that 75% nerf to others effectively makes raid benefit marginal?
MTT is more iconic, and homogeneity isn't great either. Keeping MTT suits the ideal of shamans' bolstering their allies. (WatcherDev)

where is balanced in the Druid section?
No direct changes, but some changes via talents and perks. See the talents and perks on MMO-C and Wowhead. (Celestalon)

Hunter (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
now that Hydras are tameable, how about tame the most ugly hydra in the world? http://t.co/KxIQhbB3E1
Most base crieterion for tameable bosses is "can you solo it?" Eagerly awaiting hunter videos (Muffinus)

Mage (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
.Also, it seems as if the redesigned Brain Freeze would make Glyph of FFB mandatory for Frost. Do we expect a change to glyph?
That glyph is Fire-only. (Celestalon)

Just read the current WoD patch notes. Not a word about changes to mages' fire spec. Still working on it?
Several talents changed. We like Fire's core rotation, though there are a couple tweaks to it in the Draenor Perks. (Celestalon)

Monk (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
Will surging's mana cost be reduced in light of soothing not generating chi anymore?
We'll be extensively changing mana costs so that things work out, don't worry. We know that with current state it wouldn't work. (Celestalon)

Surging Mist in WoD, cast time or instant for Windwalkers and Brewmasters? Instant please
Cast time. Not intended to be used mid-rotation with no DPS loss. (Celestalon)

Any reason why SoTWS doesn't cause eminence? Xuen is going to be kinda awful for mistweavers
Xuen always Eminences, regardless of your own stance. (Celestalon)

So if SOOM doesn't generate Chi, what does?
Surging, Renewing, Expel, Chi Brew, Spinning Crane Kick, Jab. I think that's it. (Celestalon)
I see, with the scarcity difference will it not be a concern if Monks switch to crane specifically to build mana tea?
We are 100% committed to making sure that there's no cherry-picking between Serpent/Crane. We'll adjust as necessary if so. (Celestalon)
Also, is Muscle Memory now passive? It makes no sense to have it activate on Jab anymore with it being only in crane stance
See the Muscle Memory note in the patch notes. Merged into one passive. (Celestalon)

Priest (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
Reassure me: the plan is still Shadow loses utility, but gains damage, yeah? No more being the last people paying hybrid tax?
Yes. (Celestalon)

Rogue (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
I also... I... Subtlety rogues using FoK will be DROWNING in combo points. I don't even.
Yep. That'll be an interesting change to see how it plays out. We'll pull back on it if it ends up too strong, but trying it. (Celestalon)

You're overloaded right now, but a gentle nudge on this q if you're able: Is Blade Flurry undergoing a new round of changes?
May let it trigger poisons; still evaluating. Nothing to announce yet. (Celestalon)

Shaman (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
Will Resto Shamans keep the stacked healing niche going into WoD?
They'll certainly be good at stacked healing, but they need a well-rounded toolkit to complement that strength. (WatcherDev)
Shamans rock at stacked, but too few strats use stacked groups :/
Stacking is the default strat on pretty much every fight unless we add mechanics to make you not do so. (WatcherDev)

Haven't been at Blizz long huh? I guess you don't remember what ele was like before LB was changed to allow casting while moving
I've been here longer than Unleashed Lightning existed. You now have several spells that you can cast while moving. (Celestalon)

"Restoration Shaman..with buffs elsewhere to keep them competitive." Why are none of these buffs mentioned in the blog?
Because we didn't mention most of the -/+X% Healing Done or -/+X% Mana Cost changes. (Celestalon)

Will Improved Lightning Shield mean 8 charge Fulminations, or are you capping that at 6?
8 charge. (Celestalon)

LB on the move was a much more reliable source of damage, we're already one of the weakest casters, this doesn't help at all.
You won't be one of the weakest casters. We'll be tuning your damage (hasn't happened yet) to equal other casters. (Celestalon)

Will Elemental still be able to cast LB while moving? It's critical for Elemental's pvp, without we will have no dmg output.
No, but we're balancing around that, don't worry. There are actually several spells you can cast while moving (instants). (Celestalon)

Warlock (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
is a 5% buff to nightfall going to be enough to offset the loss of drain soul?
It's intended to make gameplay more similar between cases where you have adds to kill (way too strong) and you don't. (Celestalon)

Warlock: "Soulshatter has been removed" I rely on this a LOT to give aggro back to my demons which are designed to take my aggro
We'll adjust their aggro generation to compensate, so that you don't need it. (Celestalon)

sorry for the bump, need to ask... what will be mechanic for dot-heavy classes (Aff)? Timing my DoTs is all I do today
You'll still want to time your Haunts. Will be less important than before, but still important. (Celestalon)

Curious about the Shadowburn change to not generate mana. Without a cast time there's no mana regeneration like with Chaos Bolt.
Cast time isn't really mana regeneration. It was unnecessary complication. (Celestalon)

Warrior (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
can we get an update on gladiator stance? and does berserker rage still generate RB charges?
See Wowhead/MMO-Champion's talent calculators for Gladiator Stance info. We're still considering Berserker Rage. (Celestalon)

PvE
Celestials not being tap-to-faction... bug or intended?
Intended. (Celestalon)

PvP
id say it has something to do with Role selection for bg's! it would use the same system as dungeons and that is why long queues
We disabled that system for a short period to see if it had any effect on queue times. It had no effect. (holinka)
interesting!! cause when they were implemented that's when I noticed longer queue times.
They were bugged when we first introduced them, but it was fixed. (holinka)
do you think the reason most people don't blacklist BGs is due to not wanting to blacklist any, or not knowing about the feature?
Not knowing about the feature. (holinka)

For WoD, gear changes stats based on spec? Does that include pvp gear or only pve set raid gear? Want to gear feral+resto in arena
includes PvP gear (holinka)

In the WoD "instanced" world PvP zones, Will we still be able to use things like engineering glider/rocketboots?
We generally try to keep those things out of rated play, but there has to be a place in PvP where toys work. (holinka)

Regarding WoD: Will heroic/mythic gear be stronger for PvP than PvP gear with the planned elimination of resilience?
No and we'll explain why soon. (holinka)

seems like you have adjusted one side of the pvp armsrace. Melee mobility and cc breaks remain unchanged. Thoughts?
We have a lot of work ahead of us. We'll see how it goes. Looking forward to hearing feedback when folks play. (holinka)

Pets and Pet Battles
What about making things like the Celestial Tourney a bit easier for us that can't seem to finish it this exp?
.What are you having trouble with? Tons of suggestions on the Pet Battles forums! (Muffinus)

Stat Squish
We've also streamlined the multitude of various types of Haste % and Crit % bonuses.

• Spell Haste %, Melee Haste %, and Ranged Haste % have been merged into a universal Haste %.
• Spell Crit %, Melee Crit %, and Ranged Crit % have been merged into a universal Crit %.

Itemization Changes (New Section)
We’re making a number of changes to itemization based on a single philosophy: We want to increase the chance that any given item drop is useful to someone in your group.To support this philosophy we’re making a few changes to stats. Most items found in Draenor will work for all specializations within a given class, so that you never have to grumble when you see, for example, Intellect plate drop in a group that lacks a Holy Paladin.

We’re also reducing the number of role-specific stats: Hit and Expertise are gone, as are Dodge and Parry as stats on items, replaced with a single tank stat of Bonus Armor. Armor and Spirit will be specific to tanks and healers respectively, but all other secondary stats will have universal appeal.

Because of the magnitude of this change, we’re retroactively applying this philosophy to items in Mists of Pandaria. After the pre-expansion patch you may find that some of your items contribute different stats, but they should still be good for your class.

General

• New secondary stats added:
  
  • Bonus Armor: Increases armor.
  • Multistrike: Grants a chance for spells and abilities to fire an additional time, at 30% effectiveness (both damage and healing).
  • Readiness: Reduces the cooldown of several class abilities with long-cooldowns.
• Hit and Expertise on all items have been replaced with a universally useful secondary stat.
• Stats that are not useful to your current class specialization will be grayed out in the tooltip rather than green, and will not be counted on your character stat sheet.
  
  • Spirit for non-healing specializations
  • Bonus Armor for non-tanking specializations
  • Strength for Agility/Intellect-users
  • Agility for Strength/Intellect-users
  • Intellect for Strength/Agility-users
  • For example, Intellect on a cloak will be greyed out for all Warrior specializations and they will not receive an increase to Intellect if equipped. However, if the same cloak is equipped by a Mage, Intellect will show up as green and they’ll receive the increase to their Intellect.

Mists of Pandaria and Future Items

• Dodge and Parry have been replaced with Bonus Armor. If an item had both Dodge and Parry on it, it has been replaced with an additional useful secondary stat.
• Head, Chest, Hand, Wrist, Waist, Leg, Feet, Weapon, Shield, and Off-hand items that had tanking stats (Dodge, Parry) or healer stats (Spirit) have been replaced with a different universally useful secondary stat.

Warlords of Draenor Items

• Plate Armor pieces will always have Strength and Intellect on it.
• Mail and Leather Armor pieces will always have Agility and Intellect on it.

Ability Pruning

• Priest
  
  • Shadow Word: Death is now available only to Shadow Priests.
    
    • Discipline and Holy Priests can add a self-damaging utility to Holy Fire through a new Major Glyph.
• Shaman
  
  • Flametongue Weapon is no longer available to Restoration Shaman, and only causes damage on weapon swings for Enhancement Shaman.
  • Frostbrand Weapon has been removed. is now available only to Enhancement Shaman.
  • Healing Tide Totem is now available only to Restoration Shaman. (Moved to the Stackable Raid Utility section.)
  • Stormlash Totem has been removed. (Moved to the Stackable Raid Utility section.)
• Warlock
  
  • Demonic Breath has been removed.
    
    • Howl of Terror is now a Level-30 talent, replacing Demonic Breath.
• Warrior
  
  • Shield Wall is now available only to Protection Warriors.
  • Skull Banner has been removed. (Moved to the Stackable Raid Utility section.)

Crowd Control and Diminishing Returns
Additionally, we've significantly reduced the number of throughput-increasing cooldowns and procs, in order to further reduce burst damage. Please keep in mind when reading the specifics of the patch notes that some classes may have lost abilities, or had the power of select abilities reduced. These changes were made in the context of the above goals. Other classes have a reduced crowd-control ability overall. We believe that this entire package of changes will make PvP a more enjoyable experience for everyone.

• Death Knight
  
  • Rune of Swordbreaking has been removed.
  • Rune of Swordshattering has been removed.
• Druid
  
  • Cyclone now shares Diminishing Returns with Fears, and can be canceled by immunity effects (i.e. Divine Shield, Ice Block, etc.), and can be dispelled by Mass Dispel.
  • Disorienting Roar has been renamed to Incapacitating Roar, incapacitates enemies instead of disorienting them, and its effect now shares Diminishing Returns with other Mesmerize effects.
• Priest
  
  • Psyfiend has been removed.

Movement Speed (New Section)
Moving quickly has always been a powerful bonus in World of Warcraft; however, the logic of how various movement speed bonuses stack (or don't) has generally been inconsistent and poorly explained. Under the old set-up, each movement speed bonus would become more powerful when combined with another, so we would limit what can stack with what, and prevent certain abilities from being used when another one is already in effect. We decided to change the movement speed system to make it more transparent, with rules about stacking that are easier to understand, and with fewer restrictions.

Previously, multiple movement speed modifiers on you were multiplicative, meaning that if you had two different +25% movement speed bonuses, they resulted in a total movement speed of 56% (1.25*1.25 = 1.56).

Movement speed bonuses have been changed to be additive. The previous example with two different +25% movement speed bonuses would result in a total movement speed of +50%. The logic governing which bonuses stack with others has been simplified as well.

• If a bonus is self-only and passive, it now stacks additively with everything.
• If a bonus is temporary or applies to other players, it's considered exclusive, and the character only gains the benefit of the highest exclusive bonus.

Additionally, restrictions that prevented a player with a temporary speed bonus from receiving or activating a second temporary speed bonus have been removed. Both bonuses will now apply to the character, but only the one with the highest magnitude will have any effect.

Examples of self-only passive bonuses: Cat Form, Movement Speed enchants, Quickness racial for Night Elves, Unholy Presence

• These will all stack additively with each other.

Examples of shared or temporary bonuses: Angelic Feather, Sprint, Stampeding Roar

• All of these effects can now be applied simultaneously, but only the strongest one will have an effect.

Raid Utility Balance (New Section)
Various classes bring various abilities that provide utility to parties and raids. We talked about one type of utility in the Buffs and Debuffs section, above. However, there are other types of raid utility, and it’s been in need of more attention. In general, raid utility, especially raid-wide defensive cooldowns, had grown too strong. So many classes and specializations had defensive cooldowns that we had to make raid damage extremely high, as raids would be stacking or chaining together multiple cooldowns. We'd like to return to a system where it's the healers who heal through the scary moments, not the damage dealers, for example.

To do so, we’ve established a new baseline level of raid utility that a specialization should bring, and brought everyone to that new standard by reducing the effects of some abilities, or removing some abilities altogether.

Death Knight

• Anti-Magic Zone now reduces magic damage taken by 20% (down from 40%).

Druid

• Tranquility is now only available to Restoration Druids.

Mage

• Amplify Magic is a new spell available to Mages.
  
  • Amplify Magic amplifies the effects of helpful magic, increasing all healing received by 20% for all party and raid members within 100 yards, and lasts 6 seconds with a 2-minute cooldown.

Monk

• Avert Harm has been removed.
• Stance of the Fierce Tiger’s movement speed increase now affects the Monk and all allies within 10 yards.

Paladin

• Devotion Aura is now only available to Holy Paladins.

Priest

• Hymn of Hope has been removed.

Rogue

• Smoke Bomb now reduces damage taken by 10% (down from 20%).

Shaman

• Ancestral Guidance now causes 20% of damage or healing to be copied as healing to nearby injured allies (down from 40% of damage or 60% of healing).
• Healing Tide Totem is now available only to Restoration Shaman.
• Stormlash Totem has been removed.

Warlock

• Each player can use a Demonic Gateway only once every 90 seconds.
• Healthstones now share a cooldown with Health Potions, separate from other potions.

Warrior

• Rallying Cry now increases health by 15% (down from 20%), and is no longer available to Protection Warriors.
• Skull Banner has been removed.

Periodic Effects (New Section)
There are many effects in the game which deal periodic damage over time (DoT) or healing over time (HoT). Historically, these have typically done something called “snapshotting”; they were based on your stats at the time that they were cast, and that was used for calculating their effect for their full lifetime. In Mists, if a warlock casts Corruption on an enemy while Heroism is active, that DoT will continue to tick rapidly based on the temporary haste effect, even after Heroism fades. This has led to some gameplay that has both good and bad sides.

Snapshotting encourages refreshing those periodic effects when your stats are high, such as when a temporary buff procs. On the upside, there's a high amount of skill involved in maximizing that. On the downside, it's not intuitive, and the skill ceiling is so high that few can reach it without the use of specialized add-ons. To make matters worse, the benefits of maximizing periodic snapshotting is so high that it creates a balance problem. Players maximizing periodic snapshotting (primarily through the use of add-ons) do drastically more damage than intended. If we balance around taking full advantage of snapshotting, then the players who aren’t doing so would fall unacceptably far behind in damage output.

Ultimately, we've decided that snapshotting isn't a productive mechanic for the game. The vast majority of periodic effects in the game that snapshotted no longer do so. The only exceptions are ones that do damage based on a percentage of a previous ability's damage (such as the Ignite from a Fire Mage's Fireball, or the periodic damage on a Windwalker Monk's Blackout Kick), as they inherently act as a delayed damage multiplier to those abilities.Temporary effects which buff the damage or healing of other spells specifically will continue to do so for their lifetime; for example, Unleash Flame (which increases the damage of the shaman's next fire spell by 40%), when used on a Flame Shock, will continue to increase the damage of the periodic effect for its entire lifetime, despite being consumed when the Flame Shock is cast. We still of course want skills and their use to embody interesting choices, and intelligent and skillful use of abilities.

• Periodic damage and healing effects now dynamically recalculate their damage, healing, Critical chance, multipliers, and period on every tick.

Skilled players will still be able to take advantage of temporary power buffs like trinket procs, and you'll still want to cast your hardest hitting spells within those proc durations. The benefits just won't extend outside the trinket procs’ duration. As such, this high-skill gameplay is there, it's just rewarded more consistently. For example, a Priest’s trinket procs and an already active Shadow Word: Pain will begin dealing more damage the instant the proc effect occurs, but will return to normal when the proc duration ends. Skilled players will be able to play within these proc durations to maximize effect, but it won’t be as detrimental to output to anyone who isn’t actively and skillfully using them to their full extent.

We also made another change to periodic effects. Haste has long affected the tick rate of periodic effects, and their duration has been rounded to whole numbers of ticks, in order to mostly preserve the original duration of the spell. This lead to Haste breakpoints where having specific amounts of Haste would cause certain periodic effects to gain an extra tick. Part of gearing your character involved trying to reach those Haste breakpoints, but not go over by too much. This was a fairly tedious number to manage, which was again mostly handled by add-ons and guides. With some new tech we’re now able to calculate the effect of Haste on tick time dynamically. Any fraction of a full period left at the end of an effect will do a tick of damage or healing in proportion to the remaining time. In other words, there are no more Haste breakpoints; Haste now smoothly and accurately affects periodic effects for the entire duration.

This also opened up the opportunity to revise how we handle refreshing periodic effects. For the vast majority of spells and abilities, we had a standard rule that any refresh would add the new cast's duration after the next tick of the existing effect. In simpler terms, you can refresh anywhere between the last and second-to-last tick of a DoT or HoT with no loss. Warlocks had a special passive that changed this logic to allow refreshing with no loss anywhere in the last 50% of a DoT. We liked the flexibility that this provided; though felt it was a bit too powerful. No longer tied to whole tick times, we chose to extend the mechanic that Warlocks had to all classes, but reduce it to 30%. Everyone can now refresh their periodic effects anywhere in the last 30% of the duration for full benefit, and no lost tick time.

• Recasting periodic damage over time and healing over time effects that are already on the target now extends those effects to up to 130% of the normal duration of the effect.

Tank Vengeance and Resolve
The changes to tanking made in Mists of Pandaria turned out quite well, overall. But there were a few rough parts that we're going to smooth over. The biggest one is the offensive capabilities of Vengeance. We like that tanks can provide meaningful DPS to their group, however, it swung wildly based on the fight, even surpassing the dedicated damage dealers occasionally. To solve this, we're going to remove the offensive value of Vengeance, but preserve the defensive value, by making it increase the effect of your active mitigation buttons, instead of Attack Power.

Then, to keep tank DPS meaningful, we'll be raising their damage, since it would be meager with no Vengeance Attack Power (Vengeance accounted for 70-90% of a tank's damage on high-tank-damage fights in Mists). To do that, we're increasing the damage of several prominent tank abilities, as well as having tanks also gain increased Attack Power from Mastery, in addition to the stat’s existing benefits. That also helps keep secondary stats balanced in offensive value for them.

• Death Knight
  
  • Mastery: Blood Shield now also passively increases Attack Power by 8% (percentage increased by Mastery), in addition to its current effects.
• Druid
  
  • Mastery: Primal Tenacity now also passively increases Attack Power by 8% (percentage increased by Mastery), in addition to its current effects.
• Monk
  
  • Mastery: Elusive Brawler now also passively increases Attack Power by 8% (percentage increased by Mastery), in addition to its current effects.
  • Brewmasters no longer deal 15% less damage.
• Paladin
  
  • Mastery: Divine Bulwark now also passively increases Attack Power by 8% (percentage increased by Mastery), in addition to its current effects.
• Warrior
  
  • Mastery: Critical Block now also passively increases Attack Power by 8% (percentage increased by Mastery), in addition to its current effects.

Facing Requirements
Strict facing requirements can be frustrating to deal with, especially in hectic Raid combat or PvP environments. In order to ease this frustration, we decided to remove or significantly loosen the facing requirements of all attacks that required the player to be behind their target.

• Druid: Ravage no longer requires the Druid to be behind the target.

Reforging (New Section)
The original intent behind Reforging was to offer a way for players to customize their gear, but in practice it offered little in the way of true choice. Players attempting to optimize every piece of gear were well advised to look up how they were supposed to reforge an item in an online guide or tool that had already determined the optimal choice. It added yet another step to the list of things that must be done to a new item before it was ready to be equipped, reducing the joy of getting an upgrade into a chore.

If an upgrade drops, we want you to be able to equip it with a minimum of fuss. It is for those reasons that we’re removing Reforging from the game.

• The Reforging system and associated NPCs have been removed from the game.
• All existing items that were reforged have been returned to their original un-reforged state.

Combat Resurrections (New Section)
Combat resurrections are an extremely powerful tool that players have while in combat. Naturally, we apply some limitations. In Mists of Pandaria, that limit was 1 resurrection during a given raid boss encounter for 10-player modes and 3 for 25-player modes. With Flexible difficulty introduced in Patch 5.4, we erred on the forgiving side, and gave Flexible Raids 3 resurrections regardless of raid size.

In Warlords of Draenor, the Flex tech has expanded to more difficulty levels, and we needed a new system to handle combat resurrections more fairly. We knew that continuing with a constant 3 would encourage using the smallest possible raid sizes, while scaling with hard breakpoints would discourage specific group sizes just under those points. Additionally, the limit is not shown anywhere in-game, so it can be easy to lose track of how many resurrections the raid has available (or even know that the limit exists).

So we’ve built a new system to be more transparent, and improve usability.

• During a boss encounter, all combat resurrection spells now share a single raid-wide pool of charges that’s visible on the action bar button.
• Upon engaging a boss, all combat resurrection spells will have their cooldowns reset and begin with 1 charge. Charges will accumulate at a rate of 1 per (90/RaidSize) minutes.
  
  • Example 1: A 10-player raid will accumulate 1 charge every 9 minutes (90/10 = 9).
  • Example 2: A 20-player raid will accumulate 1 charge every 4.5 minutes (90/20 = 4.5).
• A charge will only be deducted when a combat resurrection is successful (when the target accepts the resurrection).
• Raid frames now show a debuff indicating that a dead player has a pending combat resurrection available.
• Outside of raid boss encounters, combat resurrection spells retain their normal cooldown behavior.

Glyphs
We made several improvements to the Glyph system. While leveling, characters unlock Glyph slots at several specific levels. However, in order to get glyphs, characters need to visit an Auction House (and potentially pay way more gold than an average character of that level has yet), or know a Scribe from which to request them. To solve this, we've made characters learn some Glyphs automatically as they level. Additionally, we now have the ability to make some glyphs exclusive with each other, or require specific specializations.

• Many glyphs have been removed, and many new glyphs have been added.
• Exclusive categories have been added for some glyphs. Other glyphs from the same category cannot be applied at the same time.
• Some glyphs are now exclusive to a specialization.

Professions

• Movement Speed enchants now increase Movement Speed by 10% (up from 8%).

Death Knight
We removed Dodge and Parry from gear, and expect Blood Death Knights to value Haste and Crit as important secondary stats. In order to achieve that, we made Riposte give defensive value to Critical Strikes, and Scent of Blood give defensive value to Multistrike. auto attack and Rune Strike crits. To solve GCD-capping issues and increase the value of Haste, we also removed the passive rune regeneration increase from Improved Blood Presence. Finally, we tweaked the targeting AI of Dancing Rune Weapon, and fixed it up to properly copy most Talents that you know.

• Riposte has been redesigned.
  
  • Riposte now gives the Death Knight Parry equal to their Critical Strike bonus from gear. After getting a Critical Strike with an Auto Attack or Rune Strike, you gain +100% Parry chance until you Parry an attack. This can stack up to 2 times.
• Improved Blood Presence no longer increases rune regeneration rate.

There were also a few other miscellaneous changes. The Runic Power generation of Anti-Magic Shell was standardized, to make it more understandable and balanced. Level-60 and Level-75 talent rows have swapped places, so the important rune regeneration talents could be acquired earlier.

• Level-60 and Level-75 talent rows have swapped places.

Druid
Note that Primal Tenacity's calculation uses the damage before any other absorbs you have, and before Tooth and Claw's effects, so that it isn’t negatively affected by any of those. Note that Primal Tenacity's calculation uses the damage before any other absorbs you have, and before Tooth and Claw's effects, so that it isn’t negatively affected by any of the changes. We also slightly reduced the power of Primal Fury, in order to better balance secondary stats for Guardians.

• Tooth and Claw can now accumulate 2 charges, and its effects stack on the target. Its effects are affected by Resolve.
• Ursa Major is a new passive ability for Guardian Druids:
  
  • Ursa Major: Multistrikes from auto attacks and Mangle grant the Druid Ursa Major. Ursa Major increases maximum health by 5% for 15 seconds. When this effect is refreshed, the remaining portion is added to the new effect.

Feral Druids received one major change, and few tweaks beyond what's been mentioned above in Ability Pruning and Facing Requirements. Combo Points are now stored "on the player", meaning that when you switch targets, any accumulated Combo Points remain with you. Pounce was buffed significantly, in order to bring it up to par with Ravage. Primal Fury was changed to let it affect area attacks as well. Glyph of Savagery was reworked to better achieve its intended effect.

• Combo Points for Feral Druids are now shared across all targets, and are no longer lost when switching targets.

Overall, we are happy with Balance's rotation, however there are a few tweaks coming through Draenor Perks. With the changes to Periodic Effects, we're slightly modifying Eclipse to allow it to retain the gameplay it had before.

• Eclipse now increases the damage of all Nature spells (or Arcane, depending on which Eclipse state is active) cast while it is active. This means that for example: a Moonfire cast during Eclipse will receive the Eclipse benefit through its whole duration, even after leaving Eclipse. The reverse also holds true; a Moonfire cast before entering Eclipse will not benefit from that Eclipse until it is recast.

And the Druid changes are capped off by merging Glyph of Stampede's effects into Glyph of Stampeding Roar.

• Glyph of Stampede has been removed. Its effects have been merged into Glyph of Stampeding Roar.

Hunter
We did a comprehensive pass on Hunter pet abilities. As mentioned above in Crowd Control and Diminishing Returns, all full crowd-control abilities have been removed from Hunter pets and replaced those with new abilities, including spreading some that were previously restricted to exotic pets. Additionally, Hunters can now tame beasts from new pet families.

• Hunters may now tame beasts from 3 new pet families.
  
  • Hydra
  • Riverbeast
  • Hook Wasp (Exotic)
• Abilities unique to each hunter pet family have been revised to provide a standard buff, debuff, or ability.
  
  • Combat Resurrection ability: Crane, Moth, Quilen
  • Mortal Wounds debuff: Carrion Bird, Devilsaur, Riverbeast, Scorpid
  • Increased Spell Power buff: Serpent, Silithid, Water Strider
  • Increased Strength/Agility/Intellect buff: Dog, Gorilla, Shale Spider, Worm
  • Increased Critical Strike Chance buff: Devilsaur, Quilen, Raptor, Shale Spider, Water Strider, Wolf
  • Temporary Haste buff: Core Hound, Nether Ray
  • Increased Haste buff: Hook Wasp, Hyena, Sporebat, Wasp
  • Increased Mastery buff: Cat, Hydra, Spirit Beast, Tallstrider
  • Increased Stamina buff: Bear, Goat, Hook Wasp, Silithid
  • Increased Magic Damage Taken debuff: Basilisk, Bat, Chimaera, Core Hound, Dragonhawk, Rhino, Wind Serpent
  • Increased Physical Damage Taken debuff: Bird of Prey, Boar, Porcupine, Ravager, Rhino, Worm
  • An ability that increases dodge chance of the pet by 30% for 10 seconds: Fox, Monkey
  • An ability that reduces damage taken by the pet by 50% for 12 seconds: Beetle, Crab, Quilen, Rhino, Shale Spider, Turtle
  • An ability that Reduces the movement speed of the target by 50%: Chimaera, Crocolisk, Silithid, Spider, Warp Stalker
  • The following pet families provide an ability that puts the pet in stealth mode, but slows its movement speed by 50%. The first attack from stealth receives a 20% bonus to damage: Cat, Spirit Beast
  • The following pet families also provide an additional ability.
    
    • Chimaera - Froststorm Breath: Causes Froststorm damage to all targets in front of the Chimaera over 8 sec.
    • Core Hound - Molten Hide: Causes Fire damage to attackers.
    • Devilsaur - Feast: The devilsaur feasts on a nearby Humanoid or Beast corpse within 5 yards, healing it for 20% of its maximum health and restoring 20 focus over 5 sec.
    • Direhorn - Reflective Armor Plating: Deflects all spells cast in front of the Direhorn for 6 seconds.
    • Hook Wasp - Flutter: Slows the fall speed of both itself and the hunter for 30 seconds.
    • Spirit Beast - Spirit Mend: Heals the target ally instantly, and additional healing over 10 seconds.
    • Water Strider - Surface Trot: Allows the Hunter and the Water Strider to walk across water.
    • Worm - Burrow Attack: Deals Nature damage to nearby enemies over 8 seconds.

There were also a few other changes, primarily for quality of life and rotational consistency.

• Aimed Shot now deals 20% more damage and can be cast while moving. no longer interrupts Auto Attacks.
• Growl now has a 30-yard range.
• Several raid buffs provided by pets have been changed into auras that are automatically applied to the Hunter's party or raid.

Mage
In order to solve all of these problems, we decided to merge the 3 current Bomb Talents into one that changes based on spec. That allows us to reintroduce spec-specific perks to each Bomb, and makes room for some non-DoT alternatives.

• Frost Bomb has been redesigned. It now lasts 12 seconds, has no cooldown, and explodes every time the target is critically hit by the Mage's Ice Lance while frozen. The damage per explosion has been reduced by 75% to compensate.
• Glyph of Mirror Image has been removed and its effects have been incorporated into Mirror Image.
• Glyph of Frostfire Bolt is now available only to Fire Mages.

Monk

• Stance of the Spirited Crane is a new ability for Mistweaver Monks, which replaces Stance of the Fierce Tiger.
  
  • The Spell-Power-to-Attack-Power Conversion effect has been moved from Stance of the Wise Serpent to Stance of the Spirited Crane.
  • The Eminence effect has been moved from Stance of the Wise Serpent to Stance of the Spirited Crane.
    
    • Eminence now a nearby target to be healed for 35% of all damage caused by the Monk and includes auto attacks.
• Serpent's Zeal has been removed. Eminence now always includes Auto Attacks.
• Muscle Memory, Serpent's Zeal, and Vital Mists have been replaced with a new passive ability, Crane Style Techniques. Crane Style Techniques enhances several of the Monk's combat abilities while in Crane Stance. merged.Muscle Memory now requires Stance of the Spirited Crane, and passively increases the damage of Crackling Jade Lightning by 100%, causes Tiger Palm to trigger the Vital Mists effect, and causes Blackout Kick to hit 4 additional nearby targets for 50% damage.
  
  • Crackling Jade Lightning channels 150% faster, generates 1 Chi each time it deals damage, but costs 300% more mana.
  • Blackout Kick grants Crane's Zeal, increasing Critical Strike chance by 20% for 20 seconds.
  • Blackout Kick causes Eminence to heal 5 allies instead of 1, but heals for only 15% of damage dealt instead of 35%.
  • The Monk gains a stack of Vital Mists for every Chi consumed.
• Rising Sun Kick is now available to Mistweaver and Windwalker Monks. However, it does not cause Mortal Wounds for Mistweavers.
  
  • The Windwalker passive ability, Combat Conditioning, now causes Rising Sun Kick to cause Mortal Wounds, instead of causing Mortal Wounds naturally.
• The following abilities now require Stance of the Spirited Crane for Mistweavers:
  
  • Blackout Kick, Jab, Rising Sun Kick, Tiger Palm

We also did some polishing on Brewmasters and Windwalkers and made Storm, Earth, and Fire, Transcendence, and Touch of Death easier to use. Fists of Fury has also been improved; sometimes brute force is the right answer. Gift of the Ox was changed to give value to the new Multistrike stat for Brewmasters. Lastly, Tiger Strikes was improved considerably, and made available to all Monk specializations.

• Gift of the Ox now has a chance to trigger only from auto attack Multistrikes, instead of from all auto attacks. It has a 100% chance to trigger while using a two-handed weapon, and a 62.5% chance to trigger while dual wielding.
• Fists of Fury now deals 100% increased damage, and always deals full damage to your primary target; additional targets are still affected by the damage split.
• Tiger Strikes is now available to all Monk specializations, and has a chance to trigger on successful auto attacks and their Multistrikes. It has an 8% chance to trigger while using a two-handed weapon, and a 5% chance to trigger while dual wielding.
  
  • When triggered, Tiger Strikes now grants +50% Multistrike for 8 seconds instead of +50% attack speed and double attacks for 4 attacks.

Paladin
We made several changes for Holy, to go along with other larger system changes to compensate for the removal of Guardian of Ancient Kings from Holy, and merged its benefits into Divine Favor. In order to follow through on our change to merge all types of Haste %, we removed the Spell Haste % from Seal of Insight to a Holy-only passive, so that it didn't also increase Protection's baseline Haste by 10%. Our changes to healer mana and mobility also indirectly increased the value of Selfless Healer by a large amount, so we brought it back down to be even in power with the other talents on its row. We also raised the range of Denounce to be consistent with other spells.

• Infusion of Light now also passively increases Haste by 10%.
• Seal of Insight no longer increases spell Haste by 10%.
• Selfless Healer for Holy no longer causes Judgment to grant Holy Power. It also is only usable on Flash of Light, no longer on Holy Light or Holy Radiance.

For Protection, we tweaked Eternal Flame in order to reduce its massive self-healing amount, and provide better balance between talents on that row. We also added a new passive, Shining Protector, in order to give defensive value to the new Multistrike stat.

• Bastion of Glory no longer affects the periodic healing of Eternal Flame. It still affects the direct healing portion of the ability.
• Shining Protector is a new passive ability for Protection Paladins.
  
  • Shining Protector: All heals you receive have a chance equal to your Multistrike chance to trigger Shining Protector, healing you for an additional 30% of the triggering heal.
• Eternal Flame now deals 100% of the direct healing of Word of Glory (up from 70%), but only 50% as much periodic healing as before. Additionally, Bastion of Glory no longer affects the periodic healing.

We made a few additional changes to Paladins. We revised the functionality of Hammer of the Righteous a bit, such that its performance is about the same, but its tooltip is much clearer. We also made Stay of Execution much more attractive to use as an emergency button. One big change for Retribution that isn't mentioned here is the removal of Inquisition (see Ability Pruning), which will have a notable effect on their rotation.

Priest

• Angelic Feather, if cast on players, will always prefer the casting priest over others, then pick the player closest to the targeted location. If there are no players where it is targeted, it will still create a feather that can be picked up, as before. Additionally, when collecting multiple feathers, the duration will be extended instead of replaced; up to a maximum of 130% of base duration.
• Inner Focus: No longer provides immunity to Dispels, Interrupts, and Silence. This effect will be returning as a Major Glyph.
• Purify, Halo, Cascade, and Divine Star can now be cast while in Spirit of Redemption form.
• Shadowfiend no longer restores mana.
  
  • Mindbender now restores 0.75% mana per hit (down from 1.75%).

Rogue
There are a number of Rogue changes listed under Ability Pruning, but there are a few additional changes to note. The biggest of which is a fundamental change to how Combo Points work. They're now shared across all enemies; you can swap targets and you won;t lose your Combo Points.

• Combo Points for Rogues are now shared across all targets. You no longer lose your Combo Points when switching targets.

Shaman
In Warlords of Draenor, we're pulling back on the ability for many casters to deal damage while moving, and that includes Elemental. They will still have some ability to deal damage while moving, through Shocks, Unleash Weapon, and instant Lava Bursts. For Chain Lightning, we wanted to reduce the impact of Haste soft capping, and so changed Shamanism to increase damage instead of reduce cast time. Additionally, we simplified Wind Shear by removing its impact on threat, which no longer matters.

• Ascendance for the Enhancement specialization now changes the Shaman's auto attacks and Stormstrike to deal Wind-based physical damage that bypasses armor.
• Earthquake damage has been increased by 36%.
• Echo of the Elements has been redesigned. The Shaman's spells and abilities have a chance to trigger Echo of the Elements, causing their next short-cooldown spell or ability to not trigger a cooldown.
  
  • Elemental: It may be used on Earth Shock, Flame Shock, Frost Shock, Earthquake, or Lava Burst.
  • Enhancement: It may be used on Earth Shock, Flame Shock, Frost Shock, Fire Nova, Lava Lash, or Stormstrike.
  • Restoration: It may be used on Healing Rain, Purify Spirit, or Riptide.
• Using Unleashed Fury with Windfury Weapon imbue active now increases Multistrike chance by 10%.

Warrior

• Sudden Death can no longer trigger from Opportunity Strike.

Protection Warriors have received a few notable changes. First, we removed Dodge and Parry from gear, and expect Protection Warriors to value Haste and Crit as important secondary stats. In order to achieve that, we made Riposte give defensive value to Crits. The aforementioned Headlong Rush also helps for valuing Haste.

• Blood Craze is a new passive ability for Protection Warriors.
  
  • Blood Craze causes Multistrike auto attacks to trigger a Blood Craze, which regenerates 3% of the Warrior's health over 3 seconds. When this effect is refreshed, the remaining duration is added to the new effect.
• Riposte has been redesigned.
  
  • Riposte now gives the Warrior Parry equal to their Critical Strike bonus from gear. gives the Warrior +100% to Parry chance until they Parry an attack after getting a critical strike with an Auto Attack.

Classes
One thing that confuses me is all the +20% damage increases. Surely damage increases are meaningless due to balancing?
Some of them are transformative. Some are just something to make dinging 93 a bit cooler. (WatcherDev)

So why are the Draenor perks random order? It's unbalanced and lacking customization, what's the pro?
It's a reward for leveling, not character customization. With choice, people can become paralyzed about what's 'right'. (Celestalon)

Will there be new glyphs?
Yes. Currently about 80, give or take. (Celestalon)

Death Knight (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
For Unholy Death Knights You are knocking down the Unholy Might cause of better secondaries any chance at a deeper explanation?
That's heavily tied to our damage balancing pass, which hasn't started yet. (Celestalon)

Is the goal with AMS soaking to only allow a maximum of 100 RP to be possible from a fully absorbed shell? Big nerf to soaking.
Yes, intentionally. (Celestalon)
Is the rationale because you'd like to reduce GCD locking by DKs, or because you don't like balancing us around AMS soaking?
Both. (Celestalon)

Druid (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
Why aren't balance druids bringing CoE? looks like they get fewest buffs/debuffs w/ motw and spell haste
They bring Haste, Stats, and Physical Damage Vulnerability. (Celestalon)

Why is starfall hitting more targets? stars are capped at 20? why ever use insect swarm? does it a insane amount of dmg?
Stars are capped at 30 with that. Insect Swarm accelerates your rotation, and does a lot of damage. (Celestalon)

Insect Swarm could be made spellstorm damage as well.
Since it's only cast outside of Eclipse, it doesn't actually matter to gameplay, just matters for kit. (Celestalon)

Does the Balance version of DoC give you a Starsurge from hitting Eclipse or casting the instant Healing Touch?
Casting the instant HT. (Celestalon)

So Dream of Cenarius talent is just +20% Healing Touch? Seems pretty lackluster honestly
It's not intended to be a DPS gain anymore. It's for better off-role ability. (Celestalon)

Hunter (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
Hunter's Distracting Shot removed, possible to see it as a minor glyph? I'd be very sad to see the clutch plays go ;_;
Raised the range of Growl so that you can use it in that way, for the majority of cases. (Celestalon)

Losing Widow Venom while other classes are keeping their MS debuffs- is the effect going to be baked into another ability?
Pets (including non-exotics) can apply it. (Celestalon)

why no Execute mechanic for Surv hunters, not Kill shot, but smthg else? 1 extra charge of "LnL" from BA when target below 30%?
Not every spec needs to have an execute. In fact it's a pro that you have an option that doesn't. (Celestalon)

Mage (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
.Is the idea with the redesigned Frost Bomb that we cast it only when we have FOF charges?
Yes. May not be mentioned in the patch notes but it only triggers from FoF'd Ice Lances. (Tried all crits early in testing, was OP) (Celestalon)
So Basically, pattern is now FOF proc -> Frost Bomb (if you have the talent) -> Ice Lance -> Ice Lance
And it lasts 12sec, so keep using FoF procs while it's up, yeah. For min/maxing, you can leave FBomb down, and pool FoFs. (Celestalon)

If Incanter's Flow is on average 15% increased damage, why would I want to spec into Rune of Power?
Valid point; just haven't tune a precise tuning pass yet. (Celestalon)

Could Nether Tempest have a chance to generate arcane charges? Increased cast time on blast looks like a pain for PvP.
See Perks. It becomes faster with charges. (Celestalon)
NT multi dotting was way to proc missiles, hence charges in PvP, now NT 1 target only = less procs, less charges.
Only the most recent NT ever proc'd missiles. Your multidotting wasn't giving you any additional AM procs. (Celestalon)

Brain Freeze has to make FFB instant cast or the spec will be ruined IMO.
Frost's rotation was overwhelmingly instants, which caused numerous problems. Turning one of them into a cast time may feel... (Celestalon)
...like a nerf, but actually is better in the end. Encounters demand less movement, casting can be a thing in PvP, Haste valued. (Celestalon)

Monk (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
So will eminence still be tied to a crappy range and statue?
Yes, but that's good for you, you can use it to your advantage. (Celestalon)

Why Clash? Dealing with casters will suck so much without it. It's one of the more fun BrM tanking abilities.
We cut Clash because it was redundant with their other stuns and Roll. We'd rather you Roll more (see Draenor Perks). (Celestalon)

Last Q/comment, and least. RE: Mistweaver: why no chi gen from SoM and CJL now?Don't understand the intent
Several reasons. Biggest is to fix mana for Mistweavers. Now, more mana = more chi gen, by a significant degree = more chi ... (Celestalon)
...spenders. That means spirit increases all parts of your healing, which is a good thing. (Celestalon)
You can get some baseline amount of Chi from cheap sources (ReM, EH), still, so you won't be chi-starved. (Celestalon)

Paladin (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
Will holy pally still be just absorb healing like currently ? and disc priest aegis. with the nerfs hope this is nerfed
No, we're aiming to significantly tone down how much of Healadin throughput is absorption. We'll balance Disc and Healadin power. (Celestalon)

Retribution's passive perks are a bit passive, mostly just damage increases. Any chance we can see more interesting effects...
We tried to strike a good balance of interesting vs simple, but I agree, Ret is more on the simple side. (Celestalon)
.Commonly, we used the Draenor Perks as a place to make tweaks to rotations that we wanted to make anyway. Better to... (Celestalon)
....ease into those rotational changes that way. In some cases, such as Ret, we were happy with their rotation as is. (Celestalon)

Will seal of insight still provide 10% spell haste?
No; Seal of Insight no longer provides any haste, but a Holy passive (don't recall which one offhand) does instead. (Celestalon)
(Reason being that we are only doing full Haste, not Melee Haste or Spell Haste anymore, but only want Holy to benefit from it) (Celestalon)
And will haste work the same for all classes now or still no haste for melee dots?
Still no haste for melee DoTs because they're not spells, you get increased resources from haste instead. (Celestalon)
Will that include the haste buff now that its nerfed to 5%?
Yes. The 10% Attack Speed raid buff has been replaced with 5% Haste. (Celestalon)

If seraphim depletes all the runic power we have, how will we build up enough to get a Verdict or SoR off before it expires?
It's long enough that you'll be able to. Don't forget Haste! (Celestalon)

Rogue (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
Combat FoK bonus seems underwhelming compared to Sub/Mut. Chance of changing it?
They have Blade Flurry on top of that. (Celestalon)

interested in the thoughts behind fist/swords being able to be used for dispatch and daggers for sinister strikes? No compliants
Intended to be 'okay' to use in case you are over a tier behind on the optimal weapons, but not optimal. (Celestalon)

Hey. Hey you. Hey. I don't see several key major rogue glyphs in the auto-learn list.
Auto-learn glyphs were chosen based on usefulness while leveling. (Celestalon)

Read as back front and 2 sides.so no back stabbing from the front. which makes a certain sort of sense
Backstab is usable from the left, right, and back. Not the front. So 270degree usability radius. (Celestalon)
On the topic of Rogues: woo for making Assa viable with other weapons than daggers! Awesome!
Kind of. It's *possible*, but not *optimal* to play Assassination with non-daggers. (Celestalon)

With Mind-Numbing and Paralytic gone, can we rogues have another poison? So there's, y'know, a choice?
We're considering the limited poison situation. Instant Poison does work for Venom Zest at least, BTW. (Celestalon)
So again why is it a conditional worse version of a level 45 Monk talent as our ultimate mega one?
Because different classes are different. They're weaker than you are without it. We balance the... (Celestalon)
...power of characters *with* talents. Talents don't need to be balanced cross-class. (Celestalon)

Shaman (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
No mention of Earth Shield in the patch notes. Surely you are scrapping that, it's such a pain with multiple Shamans!
Multiple Earth Shields can stack, not a pain. (Celestalon)
So you are changing Earth Shield so 2 can be on the same target at a time finally?
Yes. (Celestalon)

No Healing Tide Totem and no Unleashed Lightning. Can we expect elemental shamans single target to be bought significantly up?
Yes. (Celestalon)

Is the ULE-Healing Rain buff being built into the baseline spell, or is HR just effectively getting nerfed 30% from that change?
Do you not think Healing Rain needs a nerf, compared to live? (Celestalon)

Also Unleash Weapon was listed in mobility damage skills. But Unleash Fire/Frost/Wind no longer deal damage so uh... wat?
They don't *directly* do damage, but they are a significant net damage gain. (Celestalon)

Any chance elemental could retain moving lightning bolt? Would be good to know now if I need to reroll for WoD Progression.
You don't need to reroll. Elemental will be balanced around that change. Yes, we know it's a huge change. Sky isn't falling. (Celestalon)

Warlock (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
Have there been any changes to the planned non-interaction between GoSacrifice and Demonic Servitude?
Planning to indeed make it a bad idea to Sacrifice your Big Demon. However, we're working on new abilities for the Doomguard/Infer. (Celestalon)

Just read that Drain Soul is being removed from warlocks, but no mention of how Soul Shards will be replenished. Clarify?
Nightfall. (And there's a Draenor Perk that increases Nightfall rate) (Celestalon)

Warrior (Forums / Skills / WoD Talent Calculator)
The way that Gladiator Stance and the talent is worded, it seems like prot warriors who take it will still be able to tank
We did that so that tanks still have 3 talent choices when tanking. If you goto Gladiator Stance, you can no longer tank. (Celestalon)
If you take the Gladiator Stance talent, you can still tank, with 5% extra DR, but none of the offensive benefits. (Celestalon)
Correction: When you take the Gladiator's RESOLVE talent, you get 5% DR in Def Stance, for tanking, and the OPTION to... (Celestalon)
...switch to the Gladiator STANCE to become a DPS, and NOT a Tank. (Celestalon)
Doesn't that lead to tanks going Gladiator Stance when not their turn to get hit, swap back in when their turn?
Can't swap into or out of Gladiator Stance in combat. (Celestalon)

With warrior shouts no longer generating rage, it appears the only way to start a fight with rage is Charge. Is that accurate? @Celestalon
Yes. Charge in to start with Rage. (Celestalon)

Will the Warrior Haste bonus modifier remain, and how will Headlong Rush scale haste with CD/GCD? 50% Haste = 50% reduction?
No, the +50% haste from gear buff on warriors will be removed. Scales just like everyone else. 25% Haste = 1/1.25 = 80% GCDs. (Celestalon)

is gladiator locked out of unwavering sentinel and bastion of defense. also is block being removed or reduced in glad?
Unwavering Sentinel is Defensive Stance only. If you still find that you're able to tank in Gladiator stance, we'll adjust. (Celestalon)