AT World of Warcraft Thread (Cataclysm, Where do you play, General BS and all that)

[Rhezuss]

can't you play while it applies the non-critical update?

I was applying non-critical updates for like 2 months but was able to play without incident

Yeah I know but wanted to wait anyway. Installe finished at 1215 so I could try the game a bit...nothing really changed after level 2 pwahahah.

Jokes aside, can't wait to see the changed world.

 

[lupi]

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Source)
General
•Human Illusion: This affect is no longer applied to worgen who travel into the Caverns of Time.

Guilds
•We have redefined the definition of a Guild Group for 5-player dungeons.
•If 3 out of 5 players in a group are members of the same guild, they will now be able to complete guild achievements and earn guild experience at 50% of the normal rate.
•If 4 out of 5 players in a group are members of the same guild, they will now be able to complete guild achievements and earn guild experience at 100% of the normal rate.
•If 5 out of 5 players in a group are members of the same guild, they will now be able to complete guild achievements and earn guild experience at 125% of the normal rate.
•Also note that Heroic dungeons offer a 1.5x multiplier on all guild experience earned.

Dungeons & Raids
Blackwing Descent
•The Dwarven Golem Council will now go berserk after 10 minutes in Heroic difficulty.
•Atramedes will now go berserk after 10 minutes in Heroic difficulty.

Deadmines
•Foe Reaper 5000's health has been reduced slightly. In addition, he now enrages at 40%, up from 30%.
•While in Helix's Nightmare during the Vanessa VanCleef encounter, Helix is now larger a little easier to see.
•The final rope swing while fighting Vanessa VanCleef has been removed. Players no longer need to swing off of the boat at the end of phase 3.
•The ship teleporter now activates when Ripsnarl is first engaged, rather than when he is defeated.

Shadowfang Keep
•Lord Godfrey should now face a random target when casting Pistol Barrage.

The Stonecore
•Ozruk
•He now does more melee damage.
•There is now a precast visual on the ground to make it clear how far away a player must get to be clear of Shatter.
•The cast time of Shatter has been increased to 3 seconds, up from 2.5.
•Shatter damage is now reduced by armor, but has been increased by 33.3% (repeating, of course) as a result.

Throne of the Tides
•Commander Ulthok now does more melee damage.
•Gilgoblin Poisoned Spear impact damage has been reduced slightly.

PvP
Tol Barad
•The weekly PvP quest "Victory in Tol Barad" now awards 200 Honor Points and 3 Tol Barad Commendations.
•Players can now see the status of Tol Barad on the World Map no matter where they are. The time to the next battle is displayed by zooming into the Tol Barad section of the map. The current controlling faction can be seen on the Eastern Kingdoms map.

Classes
Death Knight (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
•Death Coil damage has been reduced by roughly 10%.

Blood
•Heart Strike now deals 175% weapon damage plus 15% per disease, up from 120% plus 10% per disease.
•Improved Death Strike now increases the damage of Death Strike by 30/60/90%, up from 15/30/45%.

Unholy
•Dark Transformation now increases pet damage by 80%, down from 100%.
•The ratio of runic power return from Magic Suppression has been reduced by roughly one third.
•Rage of Rivendare now increases strike damage by 12/24/36%, down from 15/30/45%.
•Shadow Infusion now increases pet damage by 8% per stack, down from 10%.

Glyphs
•Glyph of Dark Succor (new glyph) raises the minimum healing done by Death Strike from 7% to 15% of maximum health, but only while in Unholy or Frost Presence.

Druid (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
•Shapeshifts: Entering or leaving a shapeshift no longer cancels root effects. It continues to cancel movement slowing effects.

Balance
•Typhoon mana cost has been reduced by 50%.

Restoration
•Tree of Life Polymorph immunity change reverted

Hunter (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
•Aimed Shot weapon damage has been increased to 200%, up from 150%. In addition, the base cast time has been reduced to 2.4 seconds, down from 3.
•Arcane Shot damage has been increased by 15%.
•Hunters can now use Auto Shot while moving.
•Cobra Shot change reverted (waiting on code change to make haste scaling more consistent with spell haste)
•Steady Shot change reverted (waiting on code change to make haste scaling more consistent with spell haste)

Beast Mastery
•Animal Handler now provides a passive 25% bonus to attack power, up from 15%.

Marksmanship
•Chimera Shot's overall damage has been increased by roughly 50%.

Survival
•Black Arrow damage has been reduced by 15%. (down from 25%)
•Explosive Shot damage has been reduced by 15%. (down from 25%)
•Serpent Spread change reverted

Mage (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
•Molten Armor, Frost Armor, and Mage Armor no longer cost mana.
•Mage Armor now reduces the duration of magic effects by 35%, down from 50%.

Paladin (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Retribution
•Seals of Command will no longer trigger twice on each swing with Seal of Truth.

Priest (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Discipline
•Improved Power Word: Shield change reverted
•Strength of Soul now also causes the priest to become immune to silence, interrupt, and dispel effects for 2/4 seconds after using Inner Focus.

Rogue (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
•Garrote now costs 45 Energy, down from 50.

Combat
•Blade Flurry is now a toggle that can be turned off by pressing the button again.

Subtlety
•Elusiveness now reduces the cooldown of Cloak of Shadows by 10/20 seconds, down from 15/30 seconds.

Glyphs
•Glyph of Garrote now increases the duration of Garrote by 1.5 seconds, down from 2.

Shaman (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
•Flametongue Weapon procs now deal roughly 20% less damage.
•The Windfury Weapon proc can now trigger 3 additional attacks, up from 2.

Elemental
•Lava Burst's damage has been increased by roughly 10%.

Restoration
•Earth Shield can no longer be dispelled.
•Mana Tide Totem has been redesigned. The totem no longer multiplies the Spirit of those affected by it. It instead gives a flat amount of Spirit equal to 400% of the casting shaman's Spirit, exclusive of short-term Spirit buffs affecting the shaman when the totem is dropped. In addition, its effects are now raid-wide.

Glyphs
•Glyph of Hex now reduces the cooldown by 10 seconds, down from 15.

Warrior (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
•Recklessness now increases special critical strike chance by 50%, down from 100%, but lasts the full 12 seconds instead of allowing only 3 charges.
•Slam change reverted (waiting on code change to make haste scaling more consistent with spell haste)

Professions
Enchanting
•Three new enchants are available. They increase Agility by 50, Strength by 50, or Intellect by 50 respectively. Item level 300 or higher required. These new recipes are rare world drops.
•Enchant Off-Handed - Superior Intellect now increases Intellect by 40, down from 100.

Engineering
•The Heat-Treated Spinning Lure buff duration has been increased to 15 minutes, up from 5. In addition, the recipe now creates 2 at a time.
•Volatile Air now has an increased chance of dropping from rich mining nodes and Pyrite with the Electrostatic Condenser.

Tailoring
•Illusionary Bag now has 26 slots.

Items
•Daybreaker Helm stats have been reallocated, lowering Strength and increasing parry rating.

 

[lupi]

After all these years and millions of wsg matches, they finally take away the druid root immunity.


And hunters can now autoshoot and move.

 

[bl4ckfl4g]

Blizzard is so confusing sometimes. Yeah I thought the hunter nerfs were too much but now they've reduced some of the nerfs, reverted some, and added some things that might have us end up doing more damage than we were before..

 

[1ceHacka]

Thanks Blizz for ruining Druid PvP. While instant roots were a bit OP this season, they were necessary since we can only have LB on 1 target at a time. Having done a bit of 3's so far this season, teams just need to do quick swaps for me to get behind on healing. They then can pretty easily CC me for a quick kill. Now they change shifting out of roots...perfect.

 

[Scotteq]

Heroic Cataclysm dungeons ARE NOT do-able at gear level 329 as stated in the LFD. You would need perfect timing, perfect skills, and perfect circumstances among 5 random people across umpteen # of servers to pull off completing heroics with an avg ilvl of 329. Ain't gonna happen, as a friend of mine once said. The short-term result is frustration and the long-term result is cancelled subscription.

Some are harder than others - True. But ignorance of game/fight dynamics on the part of the player is not Blizzard's fault. Prior to the release of Cataclysm, they said - and many times - that they wanted dungeons to be more challenging. That they wanted Crowd Control to be necessary. That they wanted Heroic Dungeons to 'Feel Heroic'. And that they wanted players to be rewarded for playing well.

Judging by your tone, I tend to doubt you'd be inclined to believe me.. But I'll reassert that the fights in Heroic dungeons are perfectly do~able (please note I said "Do~able", rather than "Easy") at the gear level that Blizzard set; provided players do their part.

You don't need perfect timing and ventrilo. You do need to take a few minutes to learn the fights. (i.e. CC the Purple Trogg, and get out of the way when the Boss turns to Charge you) You do need to play your class/character reasonbly well: Apply crowd control. Use your Interrupts. And pay attention to what is going on around you, rather than getting tunnel vision.

I do understand that there are a LOT of idiots out there. This is one of the reasons I try not to PuG (the others being Guild rewards/Rep for staying in-Guild, and playing with friends). But I do PuG when I have to, and I have "won" more often than not.


I won't pretend I'm not a long time raider. And you would be correct if you made the presumption that I have trouble understanding why Hunters are incapable of distracting/trapping a target. Or a Mage can't cast Sheep. Or people who can't shoot the F(%$king Skull.

But know that those things are not difficult to do, and make a HUGE difference. Merely CCing one mob out of 5 means 20% less incoming damage. Not to mention the huge benefit of being able to decide a kill order from most dangerous to least.

I hate using my 'Old Timer's Hat', because it can be annoying and the game has changed a lot since then... But... In the original game, you *had* to be able to do these things. Now, players often don't even know the abilities exist, let alone how to use them effectively. I think that's wrong; and if it takes some weeks/months of adjustment to learn them, then so be it. In the end, you'll be more effective and better at the game for having done so.

What they are, I believe, are time sinks in their current form. You wait 30 - 45 minutes in queue...this isn't as much of a time sink as you can be questing/doing dailies/watching sun set over Darnassus (if that's your thing). The time sink sets in once you get moving in the dungeon. Multiple wipes, multiple trips from graveyard back to instance back to scene of the crime, multiple people bail, etc. all contribute to anywhere from 1 - 2+ hours wasted with no dungeon completion. Few, if any, bosses down = no real gear drop from your time spent and utter and complete frustration.

Well - I would opine that playing an MMO and complaining about "Time Sinks" is rather silly. MMOs are time sinks by definition. Farming materials. Daily quests. Crafting. Running Dungeons. Running Heroic Dungeons. Raiding, and Heroic Raiding... All time sinks.

I will say it again...if heroics aren't meant to be do-able and completed within the framework of the LFD dynamic then they should be revamped and approached with a re-thinking in mind. If heroics are meant to be the elitist, massively-geared top-guild undertakings they once were, then make them that and take them off LFD....

Actually, elitist, massively geared Top Guild undertakings are Heroic Raids. Not Heroic dungeons.

***********


There's some things I would support Blizzard bringing back and improving upon: One of them are the Class Quests. As a player, in order to complete them you had to know your class' abilities and how to use them. I pick on Hunters a lot, because they can represent some of the best and worst.. So: It used to be that if you saw a Hunter with the Epic bow (Lok'Delar, was it??), you *knew* that individual could use his Stings, Trap and Kite effectively while laying down decent Damage (Jump/spin/shoot, etc). The Priest questline Staff took similar knowledge/skill, etc.

Now - For the Epics those quests rewarded, there were some fairly steep requirements and RNG to beat. That's something that could/should be changed. But I would definitely like to see Class Trainers giving a series of reasonably difficult Dailys or Weeklys based around class abilities. Receive some Tokens or Valor or parts that could be assembled into something nice the player can use as reward.

 

[Onita]

Well put on a few of the above posts, although I'll argue on the 329 ilvl requirement. It needs to be 329 equipped ilvl. I'm sick of seeing massive amounts of greens, ungemmed, unenchanted, not reforged gear. Seriously, if you can't put any effort into gearing and learning, you shouldn't be there.

 

[Anubis]

Well put on a few of the above posts, although I'll argue on the 329 ilvl requirement. It needs to be 329 equipped ilvl. I'm sick of seeing massive amounts of greens, ungemmed, unenchanted, not reforged gear. Seriously, if you can't put any effort into gearing and learning, you shouldn't be there.

This makes sense, and i agree with you. there are 333 greens tho so greens isnt always bad.

 

[bl4ckfl4g]

One thing that bugs me about all these difficulty complainers is that they don't have to click random.

There are several dungeons that are extremely easy on hard mode. When I hit 329, I started running just BRC and Vortex Pinnacle. Once I got those upgrades, I was at a perfectly acceptable iLvl to complete any of the others without feeling like I was being carried.

 

[lupi]

Don't forget back in the old days that things occured like not taking that rogue if he didn't have improved sap. Guess what happened to that.

Also let's not forget the new goal of bringing the player and not the class; now it's somewhat difficult to complete certain dungeon runs when it is designed around a certain type of ability being used when non in the group have that ability. Something compounded on by use of the LFG system when you have no clue of either the dungeon you will get or the class of the other 4 members of your group.

 

[Lamont Burns]

Tanked Heroic Grim Batol last night in a PUG. No matter how much I explain it, fights 2 and 3 just make people go retarded.

Yes I asked my guild first, yes it was my random for Valor points. The 3 DPS was guilded, so couldn't really win a kick vote. Watched Top Chef instead. Boo.

 

[Anubis]

Don't forget back in the old days that things occured like not taking that rogue if he didn't have improved sap. Guess what happened to that.

.

lol even with improved sap it still had a 10% chance to wipe your group

 

[Pens1566]

What's the order of difficulty on heroic 5 mans ... from easiest to hardest?

 

[Lamont Burns]

I'd say imo at least Vortex Pinnacle and Lost City are the 2 easier ones to grasp. Vortex will be easier after the patch as well.

Stonecore gives people problems, as well as Grim Batol(mechanic knowledge) and Deadmines. SFK if you don't have interrupts mebbe? Not sure.

Stonecore is getting tuned somewhat in the patch, but that's my 2p on the current state anyway. Rest are inbetween.

 

[bl4ckfl4g]

BRC is a joke
Vortex Pinnacle is a joke
Throne of Tides is a joke
TolVir isn't hard unless dps refuses to follow directions on the Barim fight
HOO is medium. Some groups have issues with one of the bosses you can skip
SFK is easy with interrupts. The need for multiple interrupters is being removed in patch

Stonecore is hard for LFD groups because there is a lot going on
Grim Batol is a nightmare for LFD groups

I've never gotten deadmines

 

[Pens1566]

Thx. Our 5th in group just hit ilvl for heroics and we jumped into deadmines without knowing about the fights. Wiped once on 1st boss, then looked it up and downed 2nd time. We only have a ~2hrs a week for group runs so an order to tackle them in is a big help.

 

[bl4ckfl4g]

I would definitely say start in BRC. You may have issues with CC on beauty until patch unless you can keep 2 of the pups CC the entire fight. Either way, the boss is skippable.

 

[Rhezuss]

I really like the overall changes compared to when I last played during WotLK. Same old game but with some enhancements, new world, new quests.

I started a new toon yesterday and I like it so far, sure i'm still at the beginning but the changes are quite welcome.

 

[Pantlegz]

BRC is a joke
Vortex Pinnacle is a joke
Throne of Tides is a joke
TolVir isn't hard unless dps refuses to follow directions on the Barim fight
HOO is medium. Some groups have issues with one of the bosses you can skip
SFK is easy with interrupts. The need for multiple interrupters is being removed in patch

Stonecore is hard for LFD groups because there is a lot going on
Grim Batol is a nightmare for LFD groups

I've never gotten deadmines

honestly all heroics are a joke. The only fight in stonecore that can be an issue is the 3rd boss who is simply a tank check. Grim can be difficult, normally I can make it without a wipe tho.

 

[Anubis]

grim is prob the hardest, has larger trash pulls as well as bosses with mechanics you cant ignore. had a warrior wipe us on the 3rd boss because he charged the flame add that had him targeted and blew us up. this was after a hunter thot raptor striking it was a path to victory

4th boss is also a DPS check when the adds come

people fail in deadmines on the nightmare part more then anything. mostly due to standing in fire

 

[rh71]

it's funny how I haven't gotten past the 1st Stonecore boss in a PUG yet I've healed Grim Batol to the end many times and think GB is easy. I also rarely get past 3rd boss in BRC... the fire core guy in pugs.

 

[bl4ckfl4g]

honestly all heroics are a joke. The only fight in stonecore that can be an issue is the 3rd boss who is simply a tank check. Grim can be difficult, normally I can make it without a wipe tho.

Yeah they are all a joke for me..in a guild group. In LFD some are hard because 85% of the wow population is horrible.

 

[bl4ckfl4g]

it's funny how I haven't gotten past the 1st Stonecore boss in a PUG yet I've healed Grim Batol to the end many times and think GB is easy. I also rarely get past 3rd boss in BRC... the fire core guy in pugs.

Yeah most pugs skip that guy.

 

[Soccerman06]

Ahh the good old days when heroics were actually harder than the regular instance, anyone miss shattered halls 45min runs for that FUCKING KEY?

 

[Hacp]

Ahh the good old days when heroics were actually harder than the regular instance, anyone miss shattered halls 45min runs for that FUCKING KEY?

No, I did the run. I don't miss it at all. Wow is not a job. Its supposed to be fun. I want to log in, mash buttons and collect epic loot. I don't want to spend half the time wiping then have the group fail because someone couldn't follow directions.