Method Jdotb Q&A #7Blizzard has announced a currency system for Azerite Armor from Mythic+ chests which will allow you to purchase a random piece of Azerite with higher Item Levels or a specific piece of Azerite (at a premium price). Do you think is “enough” of an improvement from the current situation?It’s tough to say how much this will help until we see actual numbers, but that’s almost beside the point. The real takeaway from this announcement is that Blizzard agrees that the M+ Azerite situation is a problem and that Blizzard is actively looking for solutions. This is fantastic news, both in the micro and macro sense.

From a narrower perspective, this change will help with Azerite situation that many players have found themselves in where there simply aren’t enough repeatable sources of high level Azerite in the game, and the sources that DO award Azerite are mostly random. This isn’t as big of a deal in raids, where bosses will reliably drop Azerite pieces each week that can be traded among the raid, but it’s become a real pain point for anyone trying to earn Azerite through M+. Not only is it unlikely that you’ll get Azerite from your weekly cache, you’ve also got to contend with the fact that there about a dozen different pieces for each Azerite slot (helm, shoulders and chest) on the M+ loot table. So not only is it hard to get Azerite in general, you’re also having to get very lucky to get the “correct” traits on your pieces when you do get the Azerite. The recent bump on emissary cache Azerite from 340 to 370 has helped a bit, but that system is also incredibly random, and it hasn’t been out long, so lots of players still haven’t gotten much help from it. Being able to target specific traits on high ilvl Azerite (even if it takes several weeks to earn the necessary currency) will do a lot to solve this problem, but more importantly it will FEEL GOOD to know that your Azerite fate is in your own hands. And BFA has had a real perception issue with feeling good, so this is welcome news.

From a broader perspective, this change is even more exciting for a few reasons. First, it indicates that Blizzard does seem to care about loot parity between raiding and M+, and this change will make it easier for the M+ crowd to stay on pace with raiders. Virtually all mythic raiders have several pieces of 385 Azerite by now and many have full 385 (or at least the option to have had it), yet it isn’t uncommon for people to have received only one Azerite piece from their weekly M+ cache even after a month and a half. So this system is very encouraging for those that would like to focus on M+.

But this news is also encouraging in the sense that it seems like Blizzard is listening to the player base. For whatever other issues might be present in BFA at the moment, I think the one that has felt most prevalent (and maybe most concerning) is the sense that player feedback is being missed or outright ignored. Maybe that isn’t case, but that’s certainly the way it feels and the way it’s perceived by the community. Titanforging and Azerite have been hot topics throughout the launch of BFA, and the common theme of those discussions is that WoW has become too driven by RNG and that all the loot systems in the game have been reduced to slot machines with very little ability by the player (at least when compared to historical loot systems) to target specific pieces of gear. The return of a currency system is a dramatic about-face in this expansion where it seemed like Blizzard was fully committed to RNG. Whether this was because Blizzard was influenced by the outcry from players or from its own internal evaluations is unclear, and while I’d like to believe it was the former, in the end it doesn’t really matter. In the meantime I’ll be anxious to see how the currency system is going to work and hope that it’s the first in a series of changes to loot in BFA that put more power back in the players’ hands.What is your stance on the unique debuffs monks and DHs bring in M+. While buffs for yourself can be buffed via scrolls if you don’t have a warrior, mage or priest in your group, these debuffs cannot be applied without the respective class. Do you think this will have an impact on how groups for the MDI will be comprised?Anyone that has kept track of my sensibilities regarding M+ knows that (from a competitive perspective) I’d like to see all the classes more rather than less homogenous. Class identity is nice and fun, but it ruins the esports side of M+. I’m aware that most people aren’t playing WoW as an esport, and the average M+ consumer just wants to have fun, and it’s nice to have fun things that only your class can do. I get all that.

But class-specific buffs are bad for esports, and also (in my opinion) lazy. “How do we get raids to bring one of every class? Simple, make each of them bring one indispensable group buff.” Which is why I was at least glad to see that Inscription was given the war-scrolls that replace most of the effect class-specific buffs. Sure they’re only 70% as effective, but at least it gets you close.

And then you have DH and monk, who each bring 5% damage buffs (magic and physical, respectively) that cannot be replaced (even imperfectly) by any consumable. Why? Who knows. It makes them mandatory for raids, but it’s not like these two classes lacked for representation in high level raiding, M+ or PvP last expansion. So these damage auras are a bit of a head-scratcher.

Will the auras impact group comps for MDI? Probably not. 5% magic or physical damage doesn’t rise to the level of making either class a must-pick. DH would end up on a lot of teams right now even without the buff, as would monk, but you wouldn’t bring a Windwalker just for the buff.

So realistically these damage auras probably aren’t affecting group comp much for small scale content, but why are they even in the game?
Grievous seems to be causing a lot of angst in the M+ community. Lots of players complain that it needs to be nerfed, but it looks like top teams are still doing well in spite of it. What’s the deal?This week marked the first time that Grievous has shown up as an affix in BFA, so most of the players in the game (i.e., anyone who didn’t experience it in beta) are getting their first taste of it in the new expansion. And at least initially, it feels more difficult than I remember it in Legion. I’d attribute this to a few things: classes, especially tanks, aren’t doing as much self-healing (with one notable bright red exception); we’re in the early stages of the ilvl power curve; the introduction of gear locking in M+. I think a combination of these things is exacerbating the effect of Grievous.

Self-healing was a big thing in Legion, and several of the most-played specs in Legion managed their own health pretty well. Tanks, or at least the meta tanks (DK, DH, paladin) could top themselves off almost at will, which made Grievous on the tank a non-issue. Now tanks are for the most part reliant on healers, and it isn’t uncommon for a tank to instantly jump to five stacks of Grievous and struggle to remove it outside of cooldowns. And tanks have proportionately more health than other classes, so a five stack of Grievous equates to several thousand more damage taken per second on a tank than on a DPS. But tanks aren’t the only class affected. Warlocks were the most popular DPS in Legion dungeons, and Drain Soul let them heal to full just by doing their usual rotation. DH was another common pick, and its leech was in similar albeit less powerful situation. But in BFA all DPS self-healing was pruned so a healer isn’t getting much help these days when clearing Grievous, thus requiring more effort from the healer.

And ilvl may be playing a role. It’s tough to tell exactly how stats will scale as the expansion progresses, but players are always going to feel more powerful at the end of an expansion than at the beginning. Grievous was a mid-expansion addition to the M+ affix pool, so players never had to deal with it early in Legion. They already had full tier sets, lots of legendaries, and leveled up artifacts that provided a lot more throughput on their heals by the time Grievous made its debut. So when comparing Grievous at this stage of BFA to how it felt in Legion, it’s almost unavoidable that Grievous would seem to have a more dramatic effect now.

Lastly, the removal of the ability swap gear inside of a M+ dungeon has no doubt had some impact on Grievous. Not only did gear swapping give healers the ability to play around with legendaries or trinkets for particularly tough fights, it also gave DPS some options as well. Prydaz was a common choice for rough bosses, and there were some defensive trinkets that DPS could opt to wear in extreme circumstances. Taking those choices away from players wasn’t necessarily a good or bad thing, but it most certainly changed the way that groups could adapt to Grievous mid-dungeon.

When you add up all these factors, it becomes obvious that Grievous was going to feel worse right now than in late Legion. So then the question is: does it need to be changed? And this is where things get tricky. PUGs and casual groups seem to struggle tremendously with Grievous, while top groups don’t appear phased by it at all (in terms of the level of keys being completed). I’m of the opinion that it doesn’t need to be nerfed, per se, but it could probably use a rework.

The biggest issue with Grievous in my mind is that it disproportionately weighs on a group’s healer. The threshold for Grievous is so low (90% HP) that virtually any damage taken is going to trigger it, and Grievous doesn’t scale with key level so a five stack is doing just as much damage in a +2 key as it is in a +20. This means that Grievous is a pain in the butt at all levels, and the responsibility of removing it falls in the healer’s lap. This is frustrating enough, but it can quickly spiral into toxicity when group members take avoidable damage. Having a teammate stand in a Bad Thing to finish a Glacial Spike cast might be worth it in the grand scheme of the key, but boy is it tilting when they aren’t the ones that have to deal with the consequences. For healers, Grievous week can feel like being a parent of four toddlers on a trip to Target where your kids keep knocking expensive stuff off the shelves. You love them, so you pay for the broken stuff (heal off their stacks), but sometimes maybe you secretly wish that you’d just opted for a backrub on that fateful night.

And Grievous is a bit of a misnomer in its current form. Being sneezed on causes Grievous. Stubbing your toe causes Grievous. If the idea is that a player should get a DoT when being grievously injured, then lower the trigger point to 30% or 40%. A player at 85% HP is not grievously injured. Part of what makes Grievous so aggravating is just how ever-present it is. You have to be mindful of it 100% of the time you’re in combat, and it gets exhausting seeing that DoT pop up over and over and over. And while Necrotic got a nice little quality of life change change so that it drops after combat, Grievous wasn’t so lucky and stays on the target until you heal it off. So now you have to pick between blowing your mana spamming heals between packs topping your group off or being repeatedly nagging your group to sit down and eat to heal themselves.

Mostly Grievous just isn’t fun. It sucks the joy out of keys. It makes you consider playing DPS for an entire week even though your DPS traits suck and you have no DPS trinkets. Does it stop teams from pushing at the highest levels? No, but it does make every key a struggle.Week of Oct 23 AffixesDungeons Most Affected by TyrannicalTemple of Sethraliss - Aspix and Adderis will be rough. Aspix’s Static Shock will drop the entire party’s health fairly low on Tyrannical weeks, and Conduction is going to leave someone at low health right before Static Shock goes off. Galvazzt will ramp in difficulty the longer the fight goes on, and if his Consume Charge goes off it will probably kill at least a few people. Avatar of Sethraliss is already a marathon fight, and now Pulse will squeeze healer mana that much more.

Freehold - The Azerite Powdershot from Skycap’n will deal mega damage on Tyrannical, so make sure everyone is topped off before he casts it. Council of Captains has three bosses, one of which will be friendly depending on the week (it rotates each week). If Eudora is one of the two enemy bosses, this fight becomes very dangerous. Eudora’s Grapeshot will heavily punish bad positioning, and the RNG nature of Powdershot means it will inevitably pick the same person two or three times in a row and kill them if they aren’t healed up very quickly. Shark Puncher’s sharks start dealing ridiculous damage on higher keys, and standing next to them for one or two ticks will get you killed. Once both sharks are out, you need to be very diligent about kiting them.

Waycrest Manor - The Triad gets infinitely more dangerous when it’s allowed to use its abilities multiple times, which is almost assured on Tyrannical. Immunities will be a big help on this boss. Goliath will hit the tank extremely hard, and resetting your stacks will do quite a bit of group damage. Lord and Lady Waycrest will also rough up the tank, and Lady Waycrest’s Wracking Chord will do an annoying amount of party damage. Gorak Tul’s adds start to become an issue the longer he lives, so your party will need to stay on top of using the Alchemical Fires at appropriate times throughout the fight.
Dungeons Most Affected by BolsteringWaycrest Manor - Waycrest has its share of pulls featuring lots of small mobs with a few big ones, such as any of the pulls with Devouring Maggots, Jagged Hounds or Blight Toads. You’ll need to be careful not to burn down all the fodder. Even the pulls with mobs that are closer in health still have mobs that are different enough in health that it will be hard to kill them simultaneously.

Siege of Boralus - Lots of pulls in Siege with small mobs that can quickly bolster bigger adds. Be especially careful around the Footmen and Gutters as they can easily make another mob unkillable, and try to burn down Demolishers in the Bilge Rat area so that they don’t get unnecessary Bolster stacks from the rest of the trash.

Shrine of the Storm - The Tidesage Initiates and Dredged Sailors can Bolster another mob very easily, so pay attention when pulling them. Abyssal Eels should be burned down evenly as they have a DoT they put on anyone in melee, and one mega Bolstered eel can shred someone if the DoT is already up.Dungeons Most Affected by ExplosiveShrine of the Storm - Shrine features a lot of trash pulls with high mob count which will obviously spawn a lot of orbs, but the boss fights are where this affix is the most dangerous. When Aqu’sirr splits into his smaller Aqualing forms, you will need to keep an eye on three different mobs that are spaced around the room. Council and Stormsong aren’t terrible, but then you’ll have to deal with Vol’zith. Vol’zith becomes incredibly frustrating on Explosive because each of his adds can spawn Explosives, and they will be spread out across the room. If you’re trying to keep the Whispers of Power debuff for the whole fight (as you should be), any one of the Explosive orbs going off will kill you, so Explosive makes this fight incredibly stressful.

The Underrot - Most of Underrot is actually not terribly affected by Explosive, but Unbound Abomination is a doozy. Each Rotting Spore on this fight can spawn an Explosive orb, and the Spores will be spread out all across the room since they spawn from the Vile Expulsion puddles. This fight already requires a fair bit of healing, so having orbs detonate (and you’re likely to have at least a few that do) will make the healer’s job a lot more difficult.

Temple of Sethraliss - Another dungeon where Explosive is only an occasional issue, but it can easily wipe you on some of the bosses. Aspix and Adderis will each spawn Explosive orbs, and this can be extremely dangerous because a lot of classes have incidental cleave abilities that will chain to the boss if you target the orb. If that boss happens to be the boss with Lightning Shield, you’ll get zapped. Adderis also melees players near him while Aspix is active, so any melee trying to kill orbs near him might get whacked. Avatar is the real headache in here, though, as each add on the fight can spawn orbs, and the adds are always spread out around the room. But the real kicker is that the toads ALSO spawn orbs, so when those start raining from the sky you’d better kill them as quickly as possible.
Dungeons Most Affected by This Week’s AffixesShrine of the Storm - Explosive will cause issues both on trash and on bosses in here, as many of the pulls are big and several of the bosses will spawn orbs around the room. Bolstering will further punish you for pulling big, so it’ll be tough to go fast. Adding Tyrannical into the mix means you’ll have to stay sharp with Explosives for long periods of time on boss fights.

Temple of Sethraliss - Temple’s bosses are some of the scariest in M+, and Tyrannical makes healers chew through their mana. Explosive will punish you on Avatar, and it can cause someone to accidentally tag a Lightning Shield on Adderis and Aspix. The trash packs aren’t huge so Bolstering won’t get wild, but the mobs tend to have different health values so you’ll likely end up with a Bolstered mob with a fair bit of health left if you aren’t careful.

Waycrest Manor - The trash around Raal’s room will be a pain with Bolstering and Explosive, and Triad, the Waycrests and Goliath will all hurt. Thankfully none of the bosses are overly affected by Explosive, but this place will be frustrating.Dungeons Least Affected by This Week’s AffixesKing’s Rest - This isn’t to say King’s Rest will be easy, but the bosses aren’t really affected by Explosive and most of the trash pulls are five or less mobs so Bolstering can’t get out of hand. Tyrannical Serpent will hurt, and as will Council, but this will be one of the better weeks to run King’s Rest.

Atal’Dazar - You’ll have to be careful with Bolstering on the Saurid packs, but otherwise most of the pulls don’t have a ton of mobs, and the health values of the mobs you’re pulling will be similar. None of the bosses are much affected by Explosive, and Yazma is the only boss in here that gets noticeably more difficult on Tyrannical.

Siege of Boralus - If you drag Spotters around and use Sighted Artillery to clear trash packs, this dungeon can in some ways actually get easier on Bolstering week. There are some bigger pulls in here that can make Explosive an issue, but most of the trash dies fast. Viq’Goth will take a while on Tyrannical, and you’ll need to have good rotations on the tentacles, but otherwise the bosses aren’t terrible on Tyrannical.

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Comentado por Zoeilacompletely lost respect for the guy when he said classes should be homogenousComentado por Cozzenecompletely lost respect for the guy when he said classes should be homogenousComentado por BabamukuruI don't like the idea of classes being homgenous but I agree with him that those damage amplifiers aren't that great for a 5-man-group. I think they could also put in a scroll like the stat scrolls in Vanilla/BC (like Scroll of Intellect or something like that) which can be used by one player to debuff the enemy with like +3% magic/physical damage taken but with the restriction of only one scroll per char and Monks/DHs are excluded so none can apply both debuffs at the same time. Maybe not working in PvP although I don't know much about the PvP Meta.

Grievous is so frustrating, for me, as a tank player, it's not as frustrating as for the healer but I hate seeing to be at 85% with 5 stacks because I dropped low before and not getting rid of it.
I also agree with him that the treshold is way too low but I really believe that the concept of Grievous is a bad design. I like the debuff in non-Pug-groups because it's about evading unnecessary damage but I think it should scale both ways: if you drop low you get more stacks of it (like it is right now) but even if your healer is occupied by healing the whole group he "dispells" some stacks (e.g. every 10% healed remove one stack - so if you're at 5 stacks and get healed from 40% to 50% you're at 4 stacks and so on) - this way, healing wouldn't be so tremendously exhausting. Maybe top groups don't struggle with this affix and I'm fine with it all being balanced around E-Sports but I don't like the idea of being, like he said, grievously wounded at 5 stacks when I'm at almost 85% or more.Comentado por Arwic6Classes should be more homogeneous. You only ever play one class at a time. It’s not fun being completely useless at 90% of things, that is unless you play one of blizzards favourite classes. Sure it looks good from a birds eye view but when you’re actually playing the game it just feels horrible.

This is even more frustrating when you have classes like monks and DHs that seemingly have the niche of “useful in every endgame situation” and other classes that are just crap at everything important like dps shamans and shadow priests.

Why do monks and demon hunters have raid buffs, aoe stuns, super good mobility, good aoe dps, good st dps, sheeps that don’t pull aggro, etc? Monks also have their cooldown on a charge system and demon hunters have an immunity. The only downside to these classes is that they are melee.

The most insane change they made going into BFA was changing shadow priest aoe stun to a disorient. As if shadow priests where being brought to mythic plus too much.
No, we needed to give monks and demon hunters more. We barely ever saw them at the last MDI so here’s a raid buff that you can’t gain from a consumable and let’s also prune all the other aoe stuns from the game.

The only way the game will ever be balanced with these dehomogenised classes is if these specs with OP utility do noticeably less dps than those without. But blizzard and the community are determined to have perfect dps balance no matter what.Comentado por kremdesyou don't need homogenisation if you atleast allow players to be proactiv about it. The last time we had simple buff and debuffs, they wheren't simple on or off. You could decide which class/specc can bring the same buff and interchange between them. Also hunters where allowed to bring nearly any buff and debuff in the form of a pet - sometimes also only in a reduced form. That niche and interchangeability between different speccs in the focus of buffs and debuffs is also sadly gone...Comentado por AceiusClasses should be more homogeneous. You only ever play one class at a time. It’s not fun being completely useless at 90% of things, that is unless you play one of blizzards favourite classes. Sure it looks good from a birds eye view but when you’re actually playing the game it just feels horrible.
Why do monks and demon hunters have raid buffs, aoe stuns, super good mobility, good aoe dps, good st dps, sheeps that don’t pull aggro, etc? Monks also have their cooldown on a charge system and demon hunters have an immunity. The only downside to these classes is that they are melee.Class identity is nice and fun, but it ruins the esports side of M+. I’m aware that most people aren’t playing WoW as an esport, and the average M+ consumer just wants to have fun, and it’s nice to have fun things that only your class can do. I get all that.

But class-specific buffs are bad for esports Comentado por SwordyThat's a very nice post and all but there isn't even a single reference to the baconator sandwich at Wendy's?Comentado por NikolinaLol, even decided to login for first time to leave a comment.
These guys, saying classes dont need to be "homogeneous" must be playing rogues or smthg like that.
Srsly, its not like he said "completely equal". Classes do need to have some kind of similarity in dmg and cc available to each one. Otherwise, we end up right at the point we are at now: dh and monk have locked spots in raids while shamans are... well, shamans in bfa nowadays.
Not to mention m+ squad sets. Rogue gives a whole bunch of cc and utility. At the same time, for example, ferals (so it wouldnt be only about shamans) are not really playable.Comentado por makuta2completely lost respect for the guy when he said classes should be homogenousComentado por docseuzzhrm - what if they supplemented the %5 debuff from the two classes with weapon enchants and/or verantus runes?Comentado por erilynSrsly, its not like he said "completely equal". .Comentado por Fixicompletely lost respect for the guy when he said classes should be homogenousComentado por Snowshoes"For healers, Grievous week can feel like being a parent of four toddlers on a trip to Target where your kids keep knocking expensive stuff off the shelves. You love them, so you pay for the broken stuff (heal off their stacks), but sometimes maybe you secretly wish that you’d just opted for a backrub on that fateful night."

Greatest thing I've read in a very long time. :DComentado por Galera
Jdotb said he wants more homogeneity in the context of ESPORTS. How much fun would watching a football game be, when one of the teams have actual bears and gorillas as their quarterbacks.Comentado por livieIn all games, but particularly in the healer role in this game, a lot of the *fun* comes from making interesting, informed decisions and pushing one's self to their limits by making and executing those decisions in a short time frame. On paper, Grievous does that. You're healing people? Ok, heal more with a greater emphasis on the priority of the triage process, oh and do it before stacks get out of hand.

In practice, Grievous does none of this. As JB said, and as all healers know, we typically are the ones punished for others' "oopsie" mistakes or sometimes intentional damage taking. Sometimes those are justified, and we can deal with it, no problem. But when the tiniest misstep by your team is met with an increasingly severe punishment that, at least in combat and most of the time, only the healer can correct...that's a lot to put on ONE role, in addition to the existing healing requirements let alone any other affixes.

At some point I just accepted the fact that my tank would always have 5 stacks, no matter what I did. That feels bad, because since they are obviously a DK I just tended to let them heal themselves. How boring is that? Sure, you're experiencing the ultimate triage, and deciding whether to heal myself with 3 stacks at 70% vs a "sturdy" dps at 40% with 4 stacks was certainly an interesting decision. But that was rarely the whole decision, as usually the rest of the group also had 1-2 stacks and you were going to be in the pits regardless of the decision you made.

So was it FUN? No, not really, because the consequences for making the wrong choice are so severe, falling behind is nearly unrecoverable, and on some level it always feels like you're making the wrong choice.

Things I would like to see changed:

Make Grievous drop when out of combat, for the love of god (literally tranq'ing on trash out of combat is the antithesis of fun or fun decision making)

Lower the threshold for it to trigger - 90% is absurd for the amount of UNavoidable damage that can go out to the whole group all at once

Slow the stacking rate, or remove the stacking mechanic. Some classes are good at single target burst healing...some of us are not so lucky, and others still are rendered nearly unplayable (*cough* Disc) this week as a result."falling behind" happens far too fast and is far too punishing

Comentado por sleepyHe's not wrong when referring to "classes more rather than less homogenous" is better for esports. I don't agree that classes should be more homogenous though. I feel like that's part of the choices you make in competition. Play the class that you find most enjoyable. If you garner joy from being competitive in M+ and pushing keys, then you'll likely do whatever you can to perform better at that, even if it means playing a different class, right? Min/maxers are going to min/max; just look at the amount of blood-elves in the team comps for M+ leaderboards.

If you remove what makes Class X different from Class Y, then you might as well just get rid of classes altogether, and change the character creation screen to "which role would you like to play? Tank, damage dealer, or healer?"Comentado por danielmsoliveira Play the class that you find most enjoyable. If you garner joy from being competitive in M+ and pushing keys, then you'll likely do whatever you can to perform better at that, even if it means playing a different class, right?Comentado por sleepy
You dont just walk around with the class you like, you have to be able to do the content you like with the class you like...
The class i find most enjoyable is the Shaman. The content i find most enjoyable is M+.
Can you see now that i couldn't enjoy that much lately...Barokoshama

M+19 Waycrest Manor

M+17 Underrot

M+16 Freehold

Comentado por SeganoI think class should NOT be homogenized. I like where they are now in terms of buffs; they help but aren't required like they were back in TBC. As for the +5% from Monks/DHs, literally NO ONE is getting a Monk/DH for M+ because they offer that buff. It's a nice perk, but it's not a reason to get them UNLIKE Rogues which are a MUST on some dungeons or Locks which are a MUST in some dungeons. If you want to homogenize something, homogenize Shroud or Gate.

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Jdotb BFA Q&A #7 - Mythic+ Currency System, Class Buffs in Mythic+, Grievous Affix

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