MMO-Champion - Patch 5.3 - Deepwind Gorge Battleground, PvP Power Change, Blue Tweets, TCG Art
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Patch 5.3 - Deepwind Gorge Battleground
Patch 5.3 adds a new battleground, Deepwind Gorge. This battleground is placed in the western part of the Valley of the Four Winds, in a gorge that is only present in the battleground, not in the regular world. This is a 15 player battleground for level 90 players.


The second objective is the cart of gold placed at each faction's base. You can click the cart to attach it to yourself, and then walk back to your base to capture it. You do not need your own team's cart to be present to capture, unlike the normal battleground flags. Holding the cart limits your movement speed to normal running speed, with only things like Blink allowing you to get there faster. If you kill the enemy cart holder, you must click on the cart to return it to your base before someone on the other team clicks to pick it up.

Capturing the cart rewards you with 20 bonus honor, 200 resources, and the message that your faction has stolen gold from the other. Currently it doesn't seem to take any gold from the other faction.

As far as gameplay goes, the map seems a bit large for only 15 players, so be sure to test it and provide feedback!

Patch 5.3 PvP Power Change Confirmed
On Friday we mentioned that on the PTR you now needed 400 PvP Power rating to get 1% more damage, rather than the 265 needed on live. Holinka confirmed that this was a real change over the weekend.

Blue Tweets
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
so your saying that they are in line with other healers now? Because that is totally false. Representation dropped
Buffing rogues also brought up priests. Nerfing warriors also brought down paladins. And so on... (Source)
Just for clarification, you're not inclining that buffing the Rogue class also buffed Priests right? Your talking rep % total?
Some players tend to equate Arena 3s representation as a proxy of "spec power." Many factors drive rep. (Source)
Another example is when team X is popular, then the teams that counter X also tend to be popular. (Source)

Can, uh, you explain the Divine Hymn/Tranquility PTR patch notes? Did you guys just make those CDs scale via raid size?
Yes. They were disproportionately stronger in 10s than 25s. (Source)

Death Knight (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
What about Death Grip? Has no minimum range and would make sense if it did. DK's are strong so would be sensible.
One difference (not that there needs to be one) is Heroic Leap does damage and Death Grip does not. (Source)

Druid (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Our Mushroom patch note is confusing people. It now heals for double (+100%) what it does on live, which includes Rejuv overhealing. (Source)
Mushroom also has a larger radius. Remember, this is just on PTR. It may or may not go live. (Source)

Hunter (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Aren't talents supposed to be CHOICES? Silencing Shot is not a choice, it is a necessity.
We are worried that's the case. If we can't make other choices compete with it, then we'll have to consider other options. (Source)

The whole pvp community has cried out for hunter nerfs, and what do you do!? buff them... Plz just you try beating one in pvp!
What buff? Hawk? We nerfed Blink Strike burst and Intimidation at the same time. (Source)

Monk (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Why are fist weapons not displayed on monks?
It's a technical limitation because fist weapons are the same as fighting unarmed to the code. (Source)

"We don't think there's too much CC" Then why was Nimble brew implemented?
To buff Windwalkers. (Source)

Paladin (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
I dont get the "Devotion Aura can now be used while silenced" change... I can already do that on live. Lol.
With the 5.3 change, using Devotion Aura will remove the silence effect on you. We will clarify the patch note. (Source)

Currently Glyph of Inquisition is totally worthless. Any chance we will see it changed to something more like Savage roar?
Nearly every Feral takes Savagery. Very few Ret take Inquisition. Neither glyph is therefore meeting our design. (Source)
I like the idea behind inquisition, but even the players who should take it simply won't in today's WOW environment.
Agreed. We hoped players would evaluate their own performance and decide what works best for them. But lists are easier. (Source)
I don't know if that's fair... you don't need a list to know that glyph is a damage loss.
It's not a damage loss if you are constantly flubbing Inquisition up time, which we know is a thing. (Source)

Don't you feel SR and Inq are too design-lazy? Spec not enough buttons, nerf damage by x% and give ability increasing by x%.
Actually the contrary. They ask for management of resources besides just "hit X on cooldown." (Source)
In turn, resource management allows for more skilled players to achieve better performance as their reward. (Source)

Priest (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Remember when I said we'd go back to bubble spam? We're there. 40% of healing from one spell. This is soul-killing. Angry.
Even if that's true, I'd still argue it's better than 80% from Prayer of Healing. PW:S requires a little more finesse. (Source)

You guys know how often Spirit Shell gets used as a single target solution, instead of as a raid wall? Doesn't seem very often
Group healing as a whole just dominates single-target healing in raids, especially in 25s. (Source)

Atonement is only overpowered in ToT because many of the bosses have damage buffs. Outside ToT and it's not that OP.
We disagree. (Source)

Rogue (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
No more so than Rogues. And rogues are hardly being touched. Don't you think rogues have an over-the-top toolset?
Rogues have several nerfs in 5.3. The intent is not to nerf them back to 5.0 levels but somewhere in between. (Source)

Shaman (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Do you have anything in the works for elemental shamans in either of the upcomming pathces as we cannot keep up with ench atm?
In PvE? I think Elemental is ahead on most fights... (Source)

Wondering if you forgot Shaman HTT in the latest raid CD buffs? This will hurt them.
Debating it, but shaman have the opposite problem where they are proportionately stronger in 25s. HTT is also a talent. (Source)
HTT is a talent but it's not really optional for Resto. It should be considered baseline in terms of balance
We don't think Resto needs the buff in 25s, and we are loathe to make a popular talent even more popular. (Source)

Yet nothing is done to help Shamans in 10. Do you not realize how core HTT is to resto? This isn't our bed.
I see where you're coming from, but arguing us to buff a talent everyone already takes is going against our design intent. (Source)

Warlock (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Locks are fine in pve with heroic gear/ legendary head gem. Before that they are trash.
Locks in PvE are fine even in LFR gear in our opinion. (Source)

Warrior (Forums / Skills / Talent Calculator)
Enrages have no real tangible results for Arms Warriors dps wise unlike for fury.Any plans to make them more tangible for Arms
Enrage does increase Arms damage non-trivially. It doesn't change your rotation. (Source)
But that Raging Blow is one of the elements that makes Arms and Fury feel different instead of carbon copies. Hopefully. (Source)

the annoying thing about the zerker regen change is now its another thing to track. is it 5% with rage? shit better not use.
To be fair, tracking Enrage was always the intent. It just has a consolation prize if you really need healing ASAP sans Enrage. (Source)

Do you think it's possible to make War Berserker Stance more like a glass cannon thing? Dmg bonus but less survival?
In PvE that ends up being a healer problem and not a warrior problem. (Source)

Reputation / Questing
Why was the daily cap removed when the amount of dailies was increased substantially?
Mostly because players didn't want older (lower-level) dailies to count against the cap. (Source)

Are you happy with 5.2 up to now? especially daily quest participation.
Overall, yes. One challenge is people are hitting exalted well before the island is unlocked, and then participation drops off. (Source)

Is the legendary Valor quest change retroactive? If I have 3000/6000 or more, will it complete as of 5.3?
It should. It's possible you will have to earn 1 more Valor register that you've crossed the threshold. Looking at it. (Source)

Is it intentional that you can champion MoP faction reps at level 17? Cause I def can.
Not sure it really hurts anything. (Source)

With PTR changes to SPA rep, is there just nothing at Revered? Seems kind of odd.
Talked about the commendation at Revered. (Source)
Ah, alright. Most of your tweets seem to be replies, so unless I look at you specifically or someone RTs, I don't see them.
The developers have discussed adding a Shado Pan Assault commendation at Revered. Not 100% sure if we will yet. (Source)

Weekly News Recap
Lots of news this week, so here is your chance to catch up if you missed a day of news!

TCG Art Update

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