Mists of Pandaria General Information & Discussion - Release Date 9/25/12

[valkry]

Is it just me... you swap out LB glyph (4% LB dmg) for Unleashed Lightning glyph (moving lightning bolt) and in MoP UL glyph will include an EXTRA 5% LB reduction? That's harsh!!

[jstanthr]

my biggest hope is they remove the "your group is not a viable dungeon group" BS so what if i want to take 5mages in a dungeon, i should get the same credit as a standard group if i can get it done. especially for the "challenge" modes

[Fat Tire]

Is it just me... you swap out LB glyph (4% LB dmg) for Unleashed Lightning glyph (moving lightning bolt) and in MoP UL glyph will include an EXTRA 5% LB reduction? That's harsh!!

Glyphs are changing. Prime glyphs are gone and the majors have a give and take usually some cool buff with a penalty of some kind.

As with talents, we want glyphs to be a choice. Stepping back a moment, we do think there is room in the game for very easy decision -- the kind that don't stress you out for fear of making the wrong one. We don't think glyphs need to be in that category though. We want you to think about them a little bit and not just look up the accepted glyphs for your character.

The old prime glyphs were not choices for anyone who cared much about their performance. We designed them to be no-nonsense throughput increasers, because we feared players would find the glyph system confusing if say a Ret paladin couldn't find a glyph that unequivocally increased DPS. But we didn't like how the glyphs actually felt. They were just a hoop to jump through -- something you might choose once for your character and never interact with again. We shoot for simple to learn and complex to master, and prime glyphs were the poster child for simple to learn, simple to master. The current glyph of Templar's Verdict increases damage by 15%. What Retribution paladin wouldn't want that glyph? (The answer is almost none of them.)

Now that primes are gone, we want all of the majors to be a choice. Some of these are decisions because they have a bonus and a penalty. In these cases, we thought that the glyph without a penalty would be a no-brainer. The glyph of Riptide removes the cooldown of Riptide, but also removes the initial heal. If it just removed the cooldown of Riptide, then every decent Resto shaman would want the glyph. Without the upfront heal though you have to treat Riptide more like Renew -- trading its initial heal for more healing over time. Some shaman will want that and some won't. Some may want it for some situations only. It is, in game designer parlance, an interesting decision.

Another category of major glyphs don't need this downside, because the glyph itself taking one of your precious three slots is sufficient downside. Consider the glyph of Spellsteal, which heals you when you Spellsteal. If you succeed in Spellsteal a lot, then it's a good glyph. But is it better than the glyph of Frost Nova (which lowers its cooldown)? Neither glyph may be exciting to a raiding mage, but both may feel pretty attractive to someone focused on PvP.

Minor glyphs have almost no affect on performance. They are there for convenience or increasingly just fun. They should help customize your character with almost no downside (except that again you can only have 3).

If we are successful with the glyph revamp, you'll see players with lots of different glyphs out there. Some players will love a certain glyph, while others won't care for it. If you still enjoy playing your character but feel you are stuck in a rut, you can try swapping out a glyph for a little variety in how you play. You won't see someone create a forum thread asking "What glyphs should I use for a Fire mage?" or at least if someone does create that thread, the response will be "Try them out and pick the ones you like."

As we continue with beta, letting us know of specific glyphs that you feel are mandatory for a particular type of player would be very useful feedback (not all in this thread, of course).

[valkry]

Glyphs are changing. Prime glyphs are gone and the majors have a give and take usually some cool buff with a penalty of some kind.

As with talents, we want glyphs to be a choice. Stepping back a moment, we do think there is room in the game for very easy decision -- the kind that don't stress you out for fear of making the wrong one. We don't think glyphs need to be in that category though. We want you to think about them a little bit and not just look up the accepted glyphs for your character.

The old prime glyphs were not choices for anyone who cared much about their performance. We designed them to be no-nonsense throughput increasers, because we feared players would find the glyph system confusing if say a Ret paladin couldn't find a glyph that unequivocally increased DPS. But we didn't like how the glyphs actually felt. They were just a hoop to jump through -- something you might choose once for your character and never interact with again. We shoot for simple to learn and complex to master, and prime glyphs were the poster child for simple to learn, simple to master. The current glyph of Templar's Verdict increases damage by 15%. What Retribution paladin wouldn't want that glyph? (The answer is almost none of them.)

Now that primes are gone, we want all of the majors to be a choice. Some of these are decisions because they have a bonus and a penalty. In these cases, we thought that the glyph without a penalty would be a no-brainer. The glyph of Riptide removes the cooldown of Riptide, but also removes the initial heal. If it just removed the cooldown of Riptide, then every decent Resto shaman would want the glyph. Without the upfront heal though you have to treat Riptide more like Renew -- trading its initial heal for more healing over time. Some shaman will want that and some won't. Some may want it for some situations only. It is, in game designer parlance, an interesting decision.

Another category of major glyphs don't need this downside, because the glyph itself taking one of your precious three slots is sufficient downside. Consider the glyph of Spellsteal, which heals you when you Spellsteal. If you succeed in Spellsteal a lot, then it's a good glyph. But is it better than the glyph of Frost Nova (which lowers its cooldown)? Neither glyph may be exciting to a raiding mage, but both may feel pretty attractive to someone focused on PvP.

Minor glyphs have almost no affect on performance. They are there for convenience or increasingly just fun. They should help customize your character with almost no downside (except that again you can only have 3).

If we are successful with the glyph revamp, you'll see players with lots of different glyphs out there. Some players will love a certain glyph, while others won't care for it. If you still enjoy playing your character but feel you are stuck in a rut, you can try swapping out a glyph for a little variety in how you play. You won't see someone create a forum thread asking "What glyphs should I use for a Fire mage?" or at least if someone does create that thread, the response will be "Try them out and pick the ones you like."

As we continue with beta, letting us know of specific glyphs that you feel are mandatory for a particular type of player would be very useful feedback (not all in this thread, of course).

I'll bet there will still be cookie cutter glyphs for each fight. it's annoying for me because I LIKE not having to go back and re-do my glyphs. Having to change them heaps when I swap around will be annoying, especially if it will become an alt tab exercise

[Shania]

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
That’s right -- we’re in the process of sending 250,000 additional beta-test invites to Annual Pass holders. Keep an eye on your email and Battle.net account for an invitation to come test Mists of Pandaria with us.

As with previous waves, it’s going to take a while for the invites to process, so we recommend checking your games list in Battle.net Account Management to see whether yours has arrived yet. Once it does, you’ll see the Mists of Pandaria beta client available for download from there. We expect this entire wave to take a day or so to complete.

We appreciate the enthusiasm of everyone who signed up for the World of Warcraft Annual Pass, and we’re working hard to get you into the beta. We know you’re excited to explore Pandaria and test the new content, and we’ll keep you posted here in the forums when we’re ready to send out another wave.

Thats a truck load !!!

[Shodokan]

Thats a truck load !!!

The more testers, the faster that bugs are found and the game can go live.

[JohnGabriel]

I think the graphics are getting too cartoony. It looks nice, but its almost like playing a disney movie or something.

The character creation is really streamlined, that looks nice. But seems like they are going for a much younger crowd now.

[valkry]

I think the graphics are getting too cartoony. It looks nice, but its almost like playing a disney movie or something.

The character creation is really streamlined, that looks nice. But seems like they are going for a much younger crowd now.

Maybe they are going for the same crowd as Vanilla but you are just 7 years older?

[luxlunae]

Maybe they are going for the same crowd as Vanilla but you are just 7 years older?

Haha my thoughts exactly.

[olibri1]

Atonement is not really like Chloro healing in Rift. You can literally spam a dps macro in rift without targeting another player and keep them full on boss fights.

Rift really did many things better than WOW...but WOW is still WOW and after raiding in Rift a bit, I came back. The more of the good ideas they can take from Rift and other MMOs, the more fun it will be.