Daily Blue, WoW in China, Fan Art

Daily Blue

Raid ID and new LFG tool
We are working on making a more inviting interface to handle the Looking for Raid system (we know anything is better than trade chat, heh) but it won't be cross-server like the new Dungeon System.

Can we expect a cross-realm version eventually? Cataclysm?
I know some people have already pointed it out, but raids are a bit different and trickier to handle than normal dungeons. That said we are focusing on the 5 player Dungeon System in patch 3.3 and can consider other changes in the future. (Source)

Hybrids and balance problems
On the one hand, yeah it's cool if a hybrid class can make use of their ability regardless of role. However some of our balance problems currently are caused by hybrids being able to do too many things to well with the same spec. If the tool is good for the role that's intended to use it, there's a good chance it's going to be too good for the other roles. That's why we often prop abilities up with spec-specific talents. One of the problems with the Holy paladin tree is it doesn't grant enough healing focus for investing in the tree. At the same time, paladins can heal very well so it's not as simple as just going into the deep tree and smearing a bunch of +healing effects on existing talents everywhere. (Source)

Paladin
Paladins in PvP
I'll add it's also a problem where paladins as a whole are too defensive and not just the Protection spec ones. You see people describing fighting a Retribution paladin as a three phase boss fight. You might get them down, but then they can reset the fight with Lay on Hands. You get them down again and they bubble and heal. Compare this to an Arms warrior -- do they do great damage in PvP? Yes. Are they invulnerable? No. It's cool for paladins to care more about healing than do warriors, for I hope obvious reasons. However, if you are up against a Holy paladin, you should know that one of your greatest challenges should be dealing with their capacity to heal. If you are up against a Prot paladin, you should be concerned with their capacity to take hits. If you are up against a Ret paladin, you should be concerned with how much damage they should deal. You should not, generally, be nearly as concerend about the Prot's ability to self-heal or the Ret's ability to tank you.

I said this recently, but to reiterate, for most of the other hybrids, picking a role in a fight is much more of a commitment. Sure the Arms warrior can go Defensive Stance and put on a shield, but that doesn't turn them into a Prot warrior. Nobody is super concerned about Feral druids shifting out to heal. We had big problems with DKs earlier being able to tank and deal damage with the same set of tools, but that's in a better place now. Shaman maybe the only other class besides paladins that are able to shift on the fly from dps to healing, but with their mail armor and lack of major defensive cooldowns they just don't feel as hard to kill. (Source)

Dual balancing
I said in the other big paladin thread that we are specifically *not* singling out paladins for duel balancing but that I was sure it would get quoted into perpetuity that we said we single out paladins for duel balancing, much like my other examples of things we are *not* doing that then get quoted as things we are doing. (Source)

China regulator says WoW's new version lacks approval

Reuters is reporting that a chinese regulator didn't approve the WoW's new version.

Quote

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 2 (Reuters) - A Chinese regulator has suspended approval for NetEase.com Inc (NTES.O) to operate Activision Blizzard's (ATVI.O) World of Warcraft online game, putting the future of the recently-launched and high-profile title in question in China.

Citing "gross violations" of regulations, the General Administration of Press and Publication said it had halted and returned NetEase's application to operate "Burning Crusades" -- the latest version of the game licensed from Activision.

The regulatory body posted a statement on its Web site that demanded the NetEase affiliate company that operates World of Warcraft to suspend charging users to play the game, and disallow new account registrations.

You can read more about this story on Reuters.

Fan Art
Another cool piece of art by Azazel.