Pig & Whistle Tales - A World of Warcraft Podcast

Tales from Azeroth: UI Overhaul and PvP Rating Concerns

• Gabriel • Season 5 • Episode 13

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The World of Warcraft roadmap is accelerating faster than many players anticipated. An encrypted patch for 11.2.5 has been discovered on test realms, suggesting we're heading toward an expansion announcement potentially as early as August. With our current position in 11.1.5, and 11.1.7 on the immediate horizon, the pace of development indicates Blizzard has big plans for the remainder of 2024.

The base UI system remains a focal point of concern as Blizzard appears to be slowly moving away from add-on dependency. While the Dragonflight overhaul was impressive, high-level players still find themselves needing add-ons like WeakAuras, BigDebuffs, and arena-specific tools to track crucial information. The recent cooldown manager addition tracks abilities many don't need while ignoring critical buffs that experienced players want to monitor. If Blizzard truly wants to reduce add-on reliance, they need to allow for more comprehensive customization of the base UI, particularly for PvP and high-end PvE content.

Perhaps most frustrating for competitive players is the current state of PvP ratings. Many experienced players have noticed significant MMR deflation compared to previous expansions – achievements like 2700 rating in Shadowlands feel impossible now, despite improved skills. The disparity between Solo Shuffle (which appears to have MMR injection) and traditional Arena formats creates confusion and disappointment. What's missing is clear communication from Blizzard about these systems, something the PvP community desperately wants. While PvE content receives detailed attention and frequent updates, PvP players often feel left in the dark regarding the systems that impact their gameplay experience. As we head toward patch 11.2's "season rewards refresh," transparency will be key to maintaining player engagement in competitive WoW.

Hope you all enjoy and hope you relate to any of these stories. And I will speak to you all in the next episode!

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Speaker 1:

Music. Thank you, hello and welcome to the Pig and Whistle Tales from Azeroth. As always here at the Pig and Whistle Inn in Stormwind, I go through a variety of subjects with regards to World of Warcraft. A cup of bottle or a a pint? Sit back and enjoy this episode. We'll be going over a few bits and bobs. We're going to go over a variety of things. We're going to be looking at the roadmap for retail as well as, obviously, we're going to be. We're going to be going back to the pvp discussion as well as a couple forum posts, uh, of general sort of ideas and going to give my advice on if they're good, bad, indifferent, stupid, silly, funny. You know all of that stuff, but, um, I will try and do my best. Uh, it's still lingering, a bit like me being ill, but I will do my best, uh. So, yeah, let's jump into the weekly news. We have Shirai and the Gobfather as your weekly world bosses for the week. These are located within Hallow, not Hallowful yeah, hallowful. As well as the Undermine, you have Skirmishes and World Quests as your bonus event for the week. Skirmishes you get more honor when completing them, and World Quests you get more reputation when completing them, and world quests, you get more reputation when completing them. Cooking impossible is your brawl for the week. This is very much. You need 15 ingredients put into your cooking pot and you can do this quite effectively by taking the others cooking ingredients or simply just running back and forth between the ingredients and your cooking pot. Very simple. It's quite a good fun and quite chaotic sometimes, so I would definitely recommend trying it out. But, yeah, I'd definitely say it's one of the better brawls in my honest opinion, and with missa pandaria coming out like or being announced, it's probably a very good. Uh, it probably relates to it quite well, is what I would say.

Speaker 1:

So I'm going to start off with the roadmap. Now, the reason I'm talking about the roadmap is that there was a recent story that there is a encrypted patch on the test build. Now this encrypted patch is for 11.2.5. Okay, now to put this into context, we are currently sat in 11.1.5. Okay, now 11.1.5 and 11.2.5 are very far apart. They are very, very far apart. We currently know that 11.1.7, which is the next patch, will be out very soon I would have thought within the next sort of month or so and I will imagine that 11.2 follows that very quickly, quite quickly, I would say this is your next major patch. Okay, between 11.2 and 11.25, there isn't a 0.2 patch or 0.3 patch and they use or 0.03 patch or whatever. Um, which is unusual, and this means that we're going to be moving on to that next mid patch. Um, quite quickly now, before that, before the 11.2.5,. I know that there's a lot of numbers here, I'm trying to simplify it a bit more Before the encrypted patch, we are going to get an expansion reveal.

Speaker 1:

So, if they've already put the internal build on, like their WoW server, the WoW dev server, and what this internal build is, it is almost pre-alpha build or it's alpha build, but the devs are the only ones allowed to play it and test it, kind of deal, to make sure nothing is super groundbreaking, um, but this means that we are going to get an expansion reveal within the next few months. Potentially, I would even say possibly, august is when we're looking at an expansion reveal. Now, 11.2 is when we're going to get a new zone, new world events, new dungeons, new raids, all of that stuff. Okay, but it's also going to be in the summer of this year and the summer is going to be well, within the next couple of months, I would say. I would say July at the very latest, we would get it, but who knows? I would like to think it's July, but the thing is Mists of Pandaria is when that's going to come out, so it's tough to say. It is very, very tough to say.

Speaker 1:

We are currently looking at a lot of things that are going to happen within the next patches. Okay, so we'll start off with the next patch, which is 11.1.7. Okay, story and quests, new content and system updates, turbulent timeways Okay, turbulent time ways. Okay. Now for the new content and system updates. There is it says this on every single non-major patch. So a major patch is every 0.1. Okay, so 11.1, 11.2, 11.3, etc. Etc. Now that, yeah, yeah, so that is every major patch. Every sort of half patch has something called new content and system updates. The new content and system updates for 11.1.7 are very, very minuscule. Okay, I think this is when they're looking to implement very slight changes to the system updates, nothing major.

Speaker 1:

What I would like to see going forward, though, are big overhauls of the UI. They made this amazing edit system for the UI back in Dragonflight I believe it was Dragonflight anyway and it's allowed so many opportunities to actually better the UI throughout the years and it can be bettered. Now. If they are looking to take away add-ons or slowly phase out add-ons within World of Warcraft, they need to improve the base UI times before. But the base UI is good. But if you're looking to do higher content, such as maybe mythic raiding or pvp to a higher standard, you need a better base UI. If you're looking to take out some of the add-ons now, some of the add-ons that I use and I am someone who goes off of sound and audio cues a lot is weak auras very rarely I think I have a weak aura for maybe two things.

Speaker 1:

One of them is Earth and Wall Totem, which I need to stand in. It just tells me that I need to stand in it because it's a very tough visual to see. And the other is probably something like Death Mark, I think, for a rogue, because that's usually tough to see and there is no visual or sound element to it. When a rogue applies it to you, others you can quite clearly see. Well, I say clearly, it's easier for some more than others, but, um, I notice them a lot more.

Speaker 1:

But the thing is I also use stuff like big debuffs. I use stuff like S Arena to track diminishing returns, so these are things that need to be implemented within the game UI itself. The big debuffs if I want to know that someone is feared, please make it quite obvious that they are feared. Yes, I get that they are walking away from my character or that character, but it's very tough when you have so many things that are being popped on you as cooldowns. Wise, you have a wind walker monk that's popping their uh, what is it? Fire, wind and spirit or whatever it's called. You have a champion spear from a warrior. You got a blade storm happening around you. You've got 20 fists of furies and 20 spinning crane kicks happening. You might not be able to see the fear without big debuffs.

Speaker 1:

And the next one is diminution returns for pvp. And diminution returns are very important because if you are having to track just by yourself okay, how long has it been? Has it been 20 seconds since I last stunned? Okay, that's fine, I can stun them and you were off by one second suddenly you've ruined your entire sort of go and you're gonna diminish it almost the how effective and how perfect pvp can be, because if people mess up, then it's like, oh shit. Well, they've just got a massive opportunity right now and the thing is there are opportunities within pvp even with all of these add-ons.

Speaker 1:

The add-ons that need to be taken out of the game are the ones that tell you to press something when a defensive is used like weak horrors. It's like this guy's pressed ascendance oh shit, I should press ascendance. Oh shit, I should press bark skin oh shit, I should press die by the sword, because my healer's in cc and I'm gonna die if not. You know there's many different things that you can use because of a weak aura is telling you to use it, and I think that these are the ones that should go. But I think that the base UI if you're looking to take away S Arena or Gladius EX stuff that has very big impact but isn't telling you how to play your class these need to be looked at because diminishing returns and not on an arena frame.

Speaker 1:

They literally added an arena frame for PvP back in 11.1 or something and they added everything. That was fine, it was solid, it showed a cast bar, showed health, showed trinkets. It doesn't show diminishing returns. And CC within PvP is one of the biggest aspects and I know they want to reduce CC even further. But no matter what and how much you reduce CC by, it will be a big impact in PvP. It always will be. Even if it's a two second stun, even if it's a two second like disorientating roar, two second clone, two second fear, whatever it might be, it still has a big impact because it allows that opportunity to win the game in this cc. So they need to add this to the base arena frame ui and they need to do this with a lot of the base ui as well. They need to add certain elements to it that allow you to change it as freely as you want without using add-ons.

Speaker 1:

Okay, again, they added a cooldown manager in the last patch, literally in this patch I believe it was actually, and the thing is it's good, but there are some things that are being tracked that I don't need being tracked. I don't give a shit about, like, some of the things that do get tracked on that cooldown manager, but the things I do want tracked, it isn't tracking and that is a big problem. You should be able to customize what you want to track. Like if you are able to put in a cooldown manager, you should be able to pick and choose what you want to track as a cooldown, because, yes, I get some of these things are big cooldowns, but there are other things that are more niche, that more experienced people will understand, that want to be tracked. It's like, okay, I get a five second buff here and this is when I can output my best, like best healing, but I don't know when I have it because I need a week or to track that for when I do have that buff and I can't track it on this baseline UI, like cooldowns buff. So what do I do? And it, yeah, it's absolutely crazy that you can't customize what you want to be able to track and I think that the UI as a overall needs a overhaul before these things happen.

Speaker 1:

And hopefully, the new content and system updates in patch 11.1.7, 11.2.5 and 11.2.7, all of these have new content and system updates. I really hope that they gradually increase how efficient and effective the ui is throughout this time, because if they want to slowly we now like add-ons they need to update the base ui and I think what they've done so far with the like overhaul of the ui in dragonflight amazing 10 out of 10 with the overhaul with that. But you need to be able to fully customize it more, and I get that that's a big ask sometimes, but if you're looking to do higher end pvp or higher end mythics, you want to be able to track your more niche cooldowns, if people want to, because this means that they will be able to be more effective at their class if they really really want to. The baseline, like cooldown management, is great, for newer players, great. But if you want to be super effective in other forms of content late game then you need to be able to customize it more. But with regards to this, this means that all of these content and system updates need to show improvement throughout these middle patches, and I hope that they really really do.

Speaker 1:

The next thing I want to talk about is 11.2. We haven't had any info on it, and this means that we get a new zone, new world events, a new dungeon, a new raid, and no one really knows what that raid is. I think it's something to do with the ethereals, but I'm not too sure. I think that might be the next expansion, though. Um, so it might be that we are introduced into their world. I don't know, who knows, who knows, um, the ethereals don't have a world, though it was destroyed by I forget the name of it Demesia, demosius, demesius, it was a void lord. It was a void lord, um. So I don't really know what midnight's going to be about. I don't know if they can do a raid with that. I don't know how they sort of fit that in.

Speaker 1:

But the biggest thing in 11.2 is season rewards refresh, and this is the thing that intrigues me the most. So season rewards are something that you acquire at the end of a season for achieving certain things. Now this certain thing might be getting 3000 rating on mythic plus. It might be getting rank one in pvp. These are the season end rewards and if they're doing a refresh on them, or just season rewards in general, because it also can include getting 2500 to get your mount for mythic plus, or getting 2400 and winning 50 games to get Gladiator. So this is where it can change quite heavily and I really do hope that they completely changed the season reward stuff. I hope that they do a massive overhaul when it's like okay, for 1600 in pvp, you're gonna get this set, you're gonna get this set of pvp gear and that's the same for all classes, that's fine. I hope that with the lower rating. They're going to maybe look at 2200, at being gladiator and maybe something like that, but the thing is they've done 2400 all the time, so maybe it's something like we're keeping it at 2400, but we're gonna just have a baseline pvp system okay, and rating system, because the rating system and I will keep saying about this until I hear something different isn't great at the moment.

Speaker 1:

So, for example, I do solo shuffle and 3v3s Solo shuffle. I was sat at 2300 on my Monk for about a month. I played it sat at 2300, didn't touch it for a month, came back a couple of days from recording this, did two rounds and I immediately went to 24 65. That's fine. That's because either my MMR was already up there or they are injecting MMR into solo shuffle, which they do. They do inject MMR into solo shuffle and quite a fair amount of it, so it's easier to achieve that goal of what you want. With 3v3, however, did the exact same thing set a certain rating for a month. We all took a break.

Speaker 1:

My sort of team that I play with came back and we're set at kind of the same rating. We went up like maybe 50 rating and there really isn't and that is after like a real tough couple, grinds of like sessions and these aren't like plebs that we're playing. We're literally playing awc players, like when we last queued. We're playing like cassidy. We're playing oh my god, why do I forget gellu? That's the major's name. I don't know why I keep forgetting the major's name, but we're playing these sort of players and this isn't like your rank, one sort of level. This is 2100, 2200 MMR and it's ridiculous. And it's not like we're getting rolled. We are beating some of these players sometimes, but the MMR is just noticeably lower than what solo shuffle MMR is.

Speaker 1:

And it's kind of disheartening because back in when was it 2019, when Shadowlands came out I achieved 2,700 in season two of Shadowlands. Okay, now, this was six years ago 2,700. Very good, right? Well, for that season it was super inflated. I'm not going to lie, I'll still take the Gladiator mount, but it season it was super inflated. I'm not gonna lie, I'm I'll still take the gladiator mount, but it was very, very inflated. Okay, and this is the problem, because I thought this is really good. I can push on. And you know, more expansions came out.

Speaker 1:

The MMR dropped, slowly dropped, and I'm not getting worse. I really am not. I'm getting a lot better than what I was back in 2019. I got I was a lot worse in 2019. I was still trinketing saps like season one of Shadowlands okay, because it was absolutely ridiculous. I'm a lot better now and it's just disheartening because I've gone from 2,700 to 2,200 or 2,300, wherever.

Speaker 1:

I ended last season I think it was just below 23, high 22. I ended last season I think it was just below 23 by 22 and this is like a real. This is a very good rating, like for now. Like for now, because the MMR is so much lower than what it was back in these seasons, but it feels a lot more disheartening because it's like well, I got glad then, so how can I not get glad now? And you're having to put in rank one sort of awc performances to get that gladiator like mount, and it's ridiculous because I am a lot better than what I was back when I got my glad. But because the MMR is so weird and stupid, um, I'm not achieving that like number that I want to get to and it is very disheartening.

Speaker 1:

So either they have to make it so that it is a consistent like in terms of MMR, like this is the new norm and they have to let us know about it and say this is the new norm. Okay, 2400 or 2700 is now 2200. You know, if you're doing a comparison to that season and the new like 2k is now 1500. You know if you're doing a comparison to that season and the new like 2K is now 1,500. You know these are something that needs to be spoken about or addressed, but we don't get a lot of information on that based on us, just as PvPers people don't really have a.

Speaker 1:

We don't get a lot of PvP information from Blizzard and it's quite upsetting because there is a dedicated fan base to pvp. You look at absterge ven, rookie super tees, all of these players that do pvp, they do commentary, they do the um, like literally hosting of pvp. Even people who don't do pvp I know aya does like a bit of pvp, but not masses. Compared to other people that I mentioned absterge ven they've literally competed in awc and are constantly streaming pvp. But even aya, who doesn't do pvp, can still appreciate that side of the game because, like, she's literally hosting awc and stuff and I and there isn't many things spoken about when it comes to Blizzard and PvP, we don't get a lot of information and it is quite upsetting when you compare it to the likes of PvE, when it's like, oh okay, there's turbulent timeways, there's horrific visions.

Speaker 1:

Horrific visions are constantly being tuned, multiple things are constantly changing for horrific visions and these came out like a couple weeks ago, if that you have something to do with dastardly duos, dastardly duos being like a single player slash, like duo sort of thing, and it's quite upsetting because we don't get that sort of level of information and communication as pvp is, in my opinion, and that's kind of all we want. But I really hope that they switch the system, the pvp system, and I hope that they kind of I, I want a brand new system or I want information on the current system and what is happening If they want to keep it this way, if they want to lower the average MMR, if they want to average the sort of just MMR in general. Yeah, I don't know. I really hope that they can just give us some information, that's all we want, some information and for them to communicate with us what is happening. All I'm hoping for. But I think that is where I'll end it for today.

Speaker 1:

My throat's starting to go, I can feel it, so I do apologize. We should be getting into longer episodes next week. I just need to fully recover from this. My throat is still going a bit dry and I just need to give it a rest from time to time. But either way, thank you all very much for listening. Do check out all of the socials, constant stuff happening on there, as well as the etsy shop. Multiple things will be going back up, uh, from now on, just because I can actually do it now without being without dying. But yeah, thank you all very much once again and go with valafriend. Goodbye, dying. But yeah, thank you all very much once again. And go with valor, friend, goodbye, thank you.