Holinka let a cannon off earlier this week with the announcement of a new PvP season in Patch 5.4. This surprised some, and didn't surprise others as expected. There's a first time for everything, and this is the first time that Blizzard have released two arena seasons in one tier of content. The gear has been datamined previously, clocking in at iLevel 540 (Flexible level gear, non-upgraded), and the achievements have been in place since 5.4's launch, though it was suggested by the Blues that the achievements were only there "just in case" a new season was needed.
For the most part, I don't have an issue with this. 5.4 is dragging a bit now and content is stale, people will of course need something new to keep them on their toes. I do, however, have an issue with it pushing back the Warlords of Draenor Beta, and subsequent release date. I've cleared Siege of Orgrimmar on Normal mode, killed a few bosses on Heroic too, got my 100 3v3 wins Skeletal Warhorse, grinded out the 27k Conquest for the Grievous Gladiator achievement. Realistically I am done with this patch, but if Blizzard add in a new season, it's more content which, personally, I will happily chew up. I'm probably always going to be playing this game until it's completely broken or way too easy for my tastes, but as long as Blizzard keeps supplying me with content, I'm perfectly happy to shell out the £8.99 a month subscription fee.
In a similar vein, a few hotfixes have come through this week, with changes to Hunters, Shadow Priests, Boomkins, Elemental Shamans and Death Knights, which are as follows:
Here's where I start getting ranty.
First, why in the name of all that is sacred are Hunters getting a damage buff. Please someone explain to me why. It was perfectly possible for a Marksmanship Hunter to kill 150-200k of your health in the opener due to lining up Chimaera Shot and Aimed Shot, providing they both crit. Now they're going to do even more damage. I've seen screenshots of Orc Deathknights with 100k attack power selfbuffed + trinkets + racial since this hotfix. These are changes that should not be suddenly dropped on people. Much like the change that got dropped onto Mortal Strike, giving it a bonus 25% damage, less than 24 hours before Patch 5.4 went live. These changes need time to tweak on PTR before being shipped to live, else what is the PTR even for?
The changes to Shadow Priest and Balance are, in my opinion, needed. Playing a Warrior, it's remarkably easy to kill a Shadow Priest or Boomkin that doesn't know what they're doing. You jump on them, pop your cooldowns, stun them, and Slam them into their graveyard. Against one that knows what they're doing, they'll survive, but still not for long in a game where the current meta seems to revolve around burst damage and burst healing. You either heal yourself for 20%+, or you die. No middle ground. I believe (no testing done yet) that this change will be useful to aid the survivability of these two classes, though in the case of Balance Druids, they need to have their healing toned down in one way or another. It's still way too strong for a non-healer class.
It does seem to me that I'm going to end up writing two blog posts a week, as apparently I've slipped into a Thursday/Monday rhythm. Provided there is something to talk about, I'll do my best to entertain you all, but until next time, seeya!
Exhil MD.
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