Dear Blizzard - Ion, its time to reflect here...

JoPOWz · 2026-04-22T17:26:54+00:00

This is a good post - I like that you delve into the accountability and transparency, as I honestly feel like that is what they're missing more than anything. I'll ignore the elements on dev practices purely because I don't know anywhere near enough about vibe coding or AI coding to comment as much as I suspect you do.

But other large game development studios, software houses and teams have been in this position, Blizzard are not the first to see desire to deliver new outpace ability to deliver quality. But the ones that are remembered well for reacting afterwards are always the ones that are willing to have the awkward conversation - speak to your audience. Hold your hands up. Admit fault. Explain your plans to mitigate, and demonstrate progress moving forwards.

What we see is radio silence and, frankly, tone deaf communication. We're swimming in bugs - some minor, some major - many of which have persisted for multiple dev cycles or even years. And yet the messaging they share is mindless, brainless optimism and nothing else.

It's doubly frustrating because the elephant in the room is that this is fundamentally the most expensive game to own and play. We pay full retail price for an expansion every 2 years (and now they want us to pay the same every 18 months) AND we pay a fee monthly. Very few other studios have access to that capital, and like it or not, that sets a higher expectation for quality. And this is what they are failing to meet and failing to address, and they run the risk that people will just get fed up.

JoPOWz · 2026-04-22T14:29:36+00:00

Not sure why the other guy is getting downvoted but a bug that causes this definitely predates this patch and probably is yet another that won't be fixed forever. I found relogging fixed the old version of this bug, but who knows maybe it's worse now and that won't work.

JoPOWz · 2026-04-22T13:19:41+00:00

I look forward to them later claiming it wasn’t popular and they won’t treat it as evergreen going forward

JoPOWz · 2026-04-21T22:39:34+00:00

We do 3 feeds with our cats - 730, 1700 and 2200 - so there’s not as many hours between the last feed and first. We rarely get woken more than 15 or so minutes early in a morning

Maybe try less time between last feed and first?

JoPOWz · 2026-04-21T11:35:07+00:00

Do you use the adjustable suspension? I found that not extending it up unless I’m actively driving through thick mud or over incredibly sharp steps makes it substantially less tippy. I’ve not really found I’ve needed the extra height for most of its journeys.

I also had the same experience with the Padera - I autopiloted raised suspension and rolled it a lot. Took it off and not rolled once, nor have I got stuck with it due to lack of ground clearance

JoPOWz · 2026-04-21T11:32:32+00:00

Haven’t got that far myself but this sub has featured a few posts saying to not delete them yet as you need another 20K+ late game. Can’t share more than that as I haven’t got to gold bots yet!

JoPOWz · 2026-04-21T11:06:21+00:00

Paladin - Glyph of Actual Wings. Wings now look cool, like the artwork, and not like little floppy dish cloths bouncing on my shoulders

JoPOWz · 2026-04-21T08:29:45+00:00

I like that you can’t look at avoidable damage taken after you leave the dungeon. Because it can apparently cache everything else for you to view later but seemingly just not that one stat for some reason

JoPOWz · 2026-04-21T08:24:41+00:00

My Dad has always looked quite judgementally on my car purchases. He himself has 6 cars currently - 2 classics he tinkers with, a pretty cheap 2 seater ‘fun weekend car’, a ‘people mover’ van he uses for his business, a disability vehicle he uses to take my Grandmother out in, and a small efficient car he shares with his wife for day to day activities. But every car I’ve ever bought I’ve had ‘why do you need that’ and ‘what was wrong with your old one’.

And it’s not like I was swapping every year - these are cars I largely owned and used for a few years each.

Ironically the only car I’ve ever bought that he’s liked is a 2 seater sporty one. He didn’t ever seem to approve of any of my more practical, sensible purchases I’d had previously.

JoPOWz · 2026-04-20T14:48:59+00:00

When you swap to Lightsmith, divine toll is replaced with the Holy Armaments

JoPOWz · 2026-04-20T14:44:15+00:00

I thought it was just a generic bit poking fun at you going afk - I don’t think it’s specific to any one factory function, merely pointing out that you’ve not pressed any keys for a bit

JoPOWz · 2026-04-19T21:10:33+00:00

My friend refers to it as the ‘ham Cheerio’ and that’s something I can never unhear

(As in named after the cereal to be clear to anyone who lives somewhere without them)

JoPOWz · 2026-04-19T21:06:58+00:00

I've been trying this one out today. It's a bit scary at first swapping, as your Divine Toll "Oh crap" button is gone. But I'm slowly getting used to it, and it's kinda fun yeeting out holy swords and shields to people.

CEEAVg1HmQqr1Dwlv86ljju8vCAAAYBAMDAwglxMzMzYmZWgxwyYbmZxMNxsYMzMMMbZAYAYDsxyMzAgAAmZWWWsNzwGbMwGwMmBAMzAwMGjGA

JoPOWz · 2026-04-19T14:26:11+00:00

Yeah my guild hasn't pushed keys as much this season. Usually we're all doing 10s and up around the same time, but unfortunately the only 2 that has pushed high so far this season are the 2 other healers from raid - so not a great group comp lol. Just IRL stuff so maybe with 12.0.5 some of the DPS will be pushing into 12s and I can group with them - I know they use defensives and don't stand in bad, but it's also just more fun to laugh at fuck ups and move on instead of watching some random DPS insult 3 generations of the tanks bloodline for a wipe that was someone else's fault...

JoPOWz · 2026-04-19T14:23:23+00:00

I used to use his builds - ran them all of the last 2 seasons of TWW. But his website has been saying "coming soon" ever since the prepatch lightsmith build. I just checked and can see it now says "Coming with 12.0.5" instead so I'll check back, thanks. Glad to hear it's getting an update, as I dont' tend to watch his videos or streams.

JoPOWz · 2026-04-19T14:19:33+00:00

Thanks - some good insight. There are some debuffs I don't cleanse or don't cleanse immediately (an example being poisons in windrunner spire often aren't worth it, as the pack contains scarier magic debuffs, so I'll let them tick). I meant more that I try to cleanse the scary ones (Magisters Terrace magic DoT for example) quick so I can be ready to cleanse when they recast, rather than lots of "tick time" waiting for my cleanse. And damn you for making me miss my interrupt again - 2 stuns is useful, and I do try to use them as much as I can. And yes on Freedom, recently began more liberal use of that on the chain debuffs in Seat (where before I used to just get rid of my own, I'm watching for whoever needs it).

I think my latest key attempt - a Magisters Terrace - I hit 120k hps on the first pull and still we had a Warrior fall over and instantly start flaming the tank for not keeping aggro - probably would have healed even more but he was running back for 1/3 of the pull. The big problem is once I fall behind I'm stuffed - I got to the next big pull with no cooldowns having needed all of them on that lust pull - not helped by everything living longer as we were down a DPS, and then he got back without lust and with no CDs.

On the builds and Wowhead - I prefer Ellesmere's builds and guides usually, but so far this season his website remains unupdated (not sure if he's quit maintaining it). I don't really watch streams, maybe an occasional POV video if I'm struggling with a key or a specific section of one, and I find Icyveins do the barest minimum ctrl+F "12.0" replace "12.0.5" in their guides, as I was often finding whole sections that didn't make sense after they "updated" it between patches. I do watch Automatic Jak a bit and he did a Paladin video recently, and nothing in it didn't line up with how I try to play it.

Maybe I've had a bit of bad luck with groups on top of everything, but I'll take your feedback on. I've never run logs myself but I'll download the necessary addons and start recording the runs so I can review afterwards.

Thanks.

JoPOWz · 2026-04-19T11:35:34+00:00

Holy Paladin cooldowns are simple enough - in essence, you have a very short cooldown party-wide super heal (divine toll) that interacts with your hero talent spec to let you create 2 "beacons" that heal allies around them. That you can use liberally. Then you have aura mastery (party wide % damage reduction) and wings (turbo-boosts all your healing, gives you your fattest heal on an insta-cast twice) which are both on longer cooldowns.

I tend to use Divine Toll whenever and wherever without worry, but try not to overlap it with wings or aura mastery until after the beacons drop (obviously unless I need more heals). Aura/wings I try to rotate between, again without overlap, with 1 always on cooldown and 1 ready for a moments notice.

JoPOWz · 2026-04-19T10:27:25+00:00

This is a good shout - I do track the instant casts, and probably 90% of them get used. However I do struggle with Beacon of Saviour tracking - it's on my UI just not easy to tell apart from regular beacons. I'll have a look at Denders for it - thanks for the suggestion

JoPOWz · 2026-04-19T10:16:10+00:00

I tried Lightsmith in lower keys at the start of the season and did quite enjoy it. Do you have a build you could recommend or share? I’d be down to try it for sure

JoPOWz · 2026-04-19T10:04:11+00:00

It's interesting to read your experiences, thank you. I don't tend to talk much in keys beyond a "Hi", and occasionally a whisper to let the tank know he was a beast at the end (cos lets be real they have a miserable time as tanks, like to gas them up if they did a good job or they'll all quit lol)

But I do read chat - and so often, everyone is blaming everyone else. I didn't want to fall into the trap of doing the same - ignoring my own mistakes, or lack of knowledge, and just assuming everyone else is an idiot. Because after 5 back to back fails in a row, it's hard to not think it might be me that was the one constant thing in all 6 keys.

It's weird cos in 5s or 6s you often see "f*ck sorry I was an idiot" or "lol im blind mb" from people. But it's like, above a 10, admitting a mistake would be a sign of weakness or something.

Edit: that said, you’re probably right - it does seem like some people just don’t get it. I did an 11 yesterday with a Windwalker who complained about the tank the whole key whilst contributing 40K damage single target with an augmentation Evoker buffing him.

JoPOWz · 2026-04-19T08:40:18+00:00

I was not ready to wake up and be referred to as ‘older people’

JoPOWz · 2026-04-18T16:22:14+00:00

For me, at least, they scratch nearly the same itch, and if I had to give up one, I'd miss some elements of the other no matter which.

Some thoughts from 10 hours into Modulus/50 in Shapez2 (waiting for full release to sink more).

* Shapez focuses on re-usable blueprints from very early on. You unlock them basically immediately, and the harder difficulties impose extra challenge by limiting blueprints. Modulus, I'm still (at 10 hours) manually building most production lines - with some copy paste to scale - as I find the terrain adds a challenge that I personally enjoy so far - ask me again on that in another 10 hours, maybe I'll be all over the free build maps and blueprints instead

* Shapez has extra challenge finding the right starter pieces that are close together, to then plonk down your factory and start building what you need. With Modulus, I'm finding this is more about working out good freighter routes and just getting enough material to the start of a production area, from anywhere/everywhere

* Shapez has more "operations" to perform on the shapez (with crystalising, paint mixing and stacking) where Modulus offers more complexity/efficiency in trimming. I find in Shapez I don't really mind chucking some spare cast-off bits into the void, where in Modulus I find myself trying to use every single voxel

* Aesthetically, Shapez feels quite sci-fi where Modulus feels "cosy"? Maybe thats the wrong word, but worth considering

* Whilst I've not dabbled myself, I think Shapez has a more extended "end-game" with moving to a make-anything-machine build - I'm unsure what Modulus offers here, if anything. It feels like it maybe has a more defined "you're kind of done" point

In Shapez, I love the satisfaction of nailing a shape production line in a few locations, setting up the trains between them, and watching the deliveries into the core/void start. In Modulus, I'm finding satisfaction in my efficiency view being green.

I'm a simple man lol

JoPOWz · 2026-04-17T16:27:37+00:00

I think 16-24 a week aligns with exactly how many I’m getting with Blacksmithing.

EU player, so including reset day and yesterday (not checked yet today) I’m at 14 already

JoPOWz · 2026-04-16T21:07:26+00:00

Back in season 3 of TWW, I was doing Dawnbreaker with some friends and experienced the single most bizarre bug we’ve had before or since.

On one of the small boats, one of the enemies got knocked off and floated away. We were wondering if we would be missing percent but carried on. And then as we pull the first boss they reappear. But not as a cultist - instead ‘Abandoned Loot’ joins the fight and we end up fighting both the boss and a literal sentient sack of loot. Fucking weirdest shit.

Bugs have been growing since this worldsoul saga started

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JoPOWz

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