This is the February 14th edition of Blue Watch, covering General, Profession, and Raids & Dungeons posts by Blizzard employees. Take a look below for links to the various threads they've responded in, as well as answers to the pertinent questions.

General Forum Information

Still no ban or solution to twinks?

In this thread, Drysc responds to concerns about twinked characters, and the perception of some players that they're ruining the fun for most players in the battlegrounds at lower levels:

If I were to get lucky and find two blue pieces, a couple really nice greens, and someone was nice enough to give me a couple enchants for free, should I then have to restrict myself from entering the battlegrounds as I know other players may not be on the same level gear-wise?

Obviously there's a moral difference between getting lucky and feeding achievements, but we then can't exactly police or put regulations strictly on a person's morals unless they're breaking the rules. It might border on shady, but minimizing gray areas is important in this regard and it isn't crossing any lines.

I also know there to be players that engage in these practices for specific encounters against other characters/groups/guilds that are attempting to achieve the same ends. They enjoy the limitations of the characters at lower levels, the quest to find the perfect items, and matching their skill against similar opponents. Now do they make up the majority? I could with almost certainty say no, they're probably mostly players who have found an outlet for them to remove most of the challenge from PvP and ensure their victory far more often. It's a mentality that I think many of them will find they will grow out of, or when dealing with the cause of this type of need to feel superior, will move on and begin to enjoy the limitations and challenges games provide.

In any case, the battleground matching system is currently still on target for release with the next major content patch. The system is intended to match players by gear and organization, and while it's not going to perfectly match all teams so that you'll never see a twink or premade again, it should work towards separating players fairly well.

What is the point of daze?

In this thread, Tseric answers the question posed by players about the daze mechanic, and why it exists:

To stop you from being a scrub. :P

Or, more importantly, to prevent explotation of mobs by having players engaging freely with mobs with no consequence.

I've seen many folks comment on daze. In almost all cases, they are running away from mobs that are dazing them. The mechanics are no different than they have ever been. It is simply player behavior that brings the daze mechanic back in to common play. Be it land mass, spawn points or player traffic.

Does the Riding Crop stack with other mount speed modifying items?

In this thread, Drysc responds to the question with an answer:

There's not any current intention to allow either on-foot or mounted travel to be increased by items beyond 10% that each type of travel already allows. So regardless of what you have equipped you're not going to get above 10%. The riding crop is really just a one stop replacement so you can clear out some space you might have been using for other speed increases. Hey, there's the bag space solution you've been wanting! Enjoy. ;)

Will Azeroth ever be updated to accomodate flying mounts?

In this thread, Nethaera answers the question:

As much as people keep trying to convince us we need to do this there are reasons for things being the way they are. For one, Outland was created specifically with flying mounts in mind. From the ground up to the sky, we worked on the technology involved to make this happen. For another, by keeping them a part of Outland, it makes them unique to the new land and relays a sense of 'ooh and ahh' that they aren't commonplace all around Azeroth too. Also, to retro-fit Azeroth to allow for them would take a lot of time and it's time we'd much rather dedicate to moving forward towards new content than trying to rework something.

Time and resources are two things we are very careful about and as you can see from reading the forums, a lot of people believe we should be doing more with it no matter how much we actually do. We do the best we can to put out fixes and content as quickly as possible but we have a constraint we've put on ourselves as well that if we are going to put something out there, that we should do it well and with Blizzard quality in mind. This is something that will always be at the top of our list to strive for.

Why was the Imp changed in 2.0.7?

In this thread, Tseric explains about spell coefficients being removed from the Imp, and why:

The coefficient has been removed until we can get the proper spell damage fix into the game. When the coefficient was being applied incorrectly, utilizing talents created a dps output for the Imp which simply could not exist in the game without being a large and unintended advantage.

While the removal of the coefficient is somewhat extreme, it is a temporary measure. In a game state, it is no different than having your Imp on passive, so we are settling with that for now until we get the proper fix in.

Profession Forum Information

So uh, what exactly is spellfire cloth?

In this thread, players point out the discrepency between a cloth required in Engineering, which is not implemented, and a similarly named cloth currently available. Tseric responds to let them know that a fix is coming:

There has been a fix established, but as many have seen it has yet to be implemented. It'll go in to a future patch.

Raids & Dungeons Forum Information

Mechanar Hotfix Applied

In this thread, Eyonix announces a hotfix to The Mechanar to fix some issues with elevators and doors there:

We've applied a hotfix to the Mechanar wing of Tempest Keep. The door at the top of the elevator was remaining closed after a group would wipe to Pathaleon, preventing players from completing the instance. The door now properly opens after a group wipe, letting players travel to Pathaleon and kill him.

Additionally, we've applied a hotfix that removed the Bloodwarder Protectors in the Botanica wing of Tempest Keep, prior to the Laj encounter.

Happy hunting.

Karazhan changes intended?

In this thread, Tigole responds about some undocumented Karazhan changes in the recent patch:

1) Yes, the encounter wasn't up to par 2) Illhoof was way too easy 3) Of course not. We would not deliberately break content. We'll try to get this fixed ASAP

Regarding 1 and 2, I'm looking into where the communication breakdown happened that prevented this information from making the patch notes. Apologies for that.