PTR 2.1 Questions and Top Concerns

04/23/07

Shadow Weaving Reduction-

The reason for the change to Shadow Weaving is two-fold. First, we felt that Shadow Priest dps damage output was still higher than what we wanted it to be. Second, it was changed to reduce the synergy between Shadow Priests and Warlocks in raids and the amount of damage and mana generated.
Priest Racials-

Priest racials are going to be looked at sometime in the future. We do not have immediate plans to make changes at this point in time.

Shadow Word Death Change-

Players were using this ability frequently in raids and the return on health and mana (particularly with shadow priest abilties) was a bit higher than intended. We believe it's been adjusted to a better level with the patch.

Not Moving Divine Spirit to Holy-

It only takes one priest in a raid to have it for players to get the benefit. We feel that having these sorts of decisions available to players is optimal for how we want it to be. While players have expressed a desire for this ability to be moved to the Holy tree from Discipline, we have no plans to do so.

04/20/07-

Shadowfiend AI Concerns-

The Shadowfiend is a guardian and not a full-fledged pet so will be limited in the amount of control that a priest can have with them. The way the AI works currently is that it prefers to go after non-CCd monsters first given the option to do so. It is important to gauge when and where it is best to use the Shadowfiend before doing so and takes a bit of strategy. Please feel free to report any bugs that may exist outside of normal Shadowfiend behavior. (A fix is currently on the PTR for the Shadowfiend attacking shackled targets. )

Circle of Healing and Lightwell Concerns-

We have made some changes in the recent patch to Circle of Healing and are still waiting to see the results of changes. We are taking things in baby steps and making changes a little at a time so that we can build on changes as we feel they need to be made. Lightwell is also still within this vein of thinking as well.

Priest Healing Concerns-

We're fairly happy with where healing is at current. We've made some recent changes to things like Binding Heal and Circle of Healing and will continue to assess the impact of these changes as we go.

Please note- The Symbol of Hope note in the patch notes was removed due to the fact that this change was implemented in the prior patch (2.0.12) and was only duplicated in error for these patch notes. There was no additional change.

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Please post your questions or concerns in this thread. We will do what we can to compile them and answer what we can over the duration of the testing of the new patch. Please be aware that we may not get to every question, but we will do what we can. We would like to encourage everyone to please test the patch prior to posting when possible so that we can get the best possible feedback.

I've cleaned out some of the more "colorful" comments and trolling banter in this thread and have been reading through what everyone has said. Keep in mind a few things, however.

1. There are no class CMs. Any one of us can be back with any answers that we get. We work as a team to get answers.

2. For those expecting an answer on the weekend, I'm sorry but I do not work 24/7 though generally do still check in even on my days off. Weekends aren't generally the best times to get answers either.

3. There are many people on many forums looking for particular answers to their questions. As I noted, we will do our best to address as much as we can but it's going to take time.

The best feedback possible will be test experience on the test realms. If you have gotten the time to test, please either post in the Test Realm Forum or in this thread so we can keep an eye on feedback.

We're still reading the thread and compiling feedback based on the top issues and concerns players are having. This information is being forwarded on and the development team is aware of this thread. We appreciate everyone that has taken the time to respond with their experiences, observances and suggestions.

Q u o t e:


I do appreciate seeing a blue post in here, even if it is the same "forwarding info to the devs" reply. Would it be possible to give us some feedback regarding what the devs are thinking in terms of specific changes? It'd be nice to know that hundreds and hundreds of nifty bullet points were not ignored. I mean c'mon, everyone likes bullet points.

We are working to get some answers to you (and various other classes that have had questions)on some of the top questions that you have but I want to err on the side of caution about bullet points. The reason I say this is because it's very easy for one of us to post bullet points of top concerns only to have people believe it means we agree that those are valid concerns. I'm not trying to be dismissive at all, but as people have said, when we've said "we are looking at it" in the past, people have taken that to mean that something would be done.

As I've also said previously, we are sifting through the immense amounts of posts and threads to pull out the top issues that players seem to be agreeing on the most and getting them into the hands of the developers. We are also sifting through the posts that are based on theory vs. Test Realm experiences so that we know how to gauge them. Posts based on Test experience tends to be given more weight for obvious reasons.

As we're able to answer things (if we can) we will. I realize people are impatient for more solid answers or responses and without being commital to things I can't be, there's not much I or any of the rest of the team can say just yet but hopefully we can change that for you before too much longer.

We have posted a few responses to some concerns on the original post. We will add to it if we get more that we can share with you. We appreciate people taking the time to post their thoughts.