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

Page 100 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.
Status
Not open for further replies.

lupi

Lifer
Apr 8, 2001
32,539
260
126
We are planning a lot of exciting content for patch 3.1.0, and we are doing a three-part preview series on upcoming class changes. This is the third in the series: Mages, Paladins, Hunters, and Death Knights. Please keep in mind, that this list is not at all comprehensive, and subject to change.

Mage (Skills List / Talent + Glyph Calc.)

? Improved Water Elemental ? this talent has been removed and replaced with a new talent that grants Replenishment (similar to Shadow priests).

? We are also working on a way to give frost mages Ice Lance ?Shatter combos? in PvE.

? We are also working on more survivability for Fire spec in PvP.

? We are also working on making Spirit a more useful and interesting stat for all mages.

Paladin (Skills List / Talent + Glyph Calc.)
? Blessing of Kings ? this spell is now a base ability trainable by all paladins.

? Exorcism ? this spell now causes damage to all types of enemy targets. However, it always critical strikes undead or demon targets. This change should make sure paladin damage doesn?t drop when going from Naxxramas to later tiers of content.

? Shield of the Templar now causes your Avenger?s Shield and Shield of the Righteousness to silence targets for 3 sec. The old damage bonus of this talent has been folded into Holy Shield, Avenger?s Shield, and Shield of the Righteousness.

? Ardent Defender, Improved Hammer of Justice, One-Handed Weapon Specialization and more have had their ranks reduced.

? Guarded by the Light ? no longer reduces the mana cost of shield spells, but now has a 50/100% chance to refresh Divine Plea duration.

? Judgements of the Just ? now also reduces the cooldown of Hammer of Justice by 10/20 seconds and increases the duration of the Seal of Justice stun effect by 0.5/1 second.

Hunter (Skills List / Talent + Glyph Calc.)
? Consumable ammunition has been removed from the game. Arrows and bullets no longer stack, but are not consumed. Ranged attack speed bonus gained from quivers and ammo bags will be preserved in a different capacity.

? A new tier of hunter pet talents have been added. In particular, this allows Beastmaster hunters to improve their damage per second (DPS) with their 51 point talent.

? Hunting Party ? this talent has been reduced to 3 ranks and also grants a passive bonus to the hunter.

? Piercing Shots ? this talent has been changed. Your Aimed, Steady and Chimera Shots cause the target to bleed for 10/20/30% of damage dealt for 8 sec.

? Sniper Training ? this talent has been changed. After standing still for 6 sec, you gain a 2/4/6% damage bonus to Steady, Aimed and Explosive Shot.

? We are also looking to add additional trap functionality to Survival.

Death Knight (Skills List / Talent + Glyph Calc.)
? Gargoyle and Unholy Blight have swapped talent positions. Gargoyle?s damage has increased and runic power cost per time has decreased.

? Pestilence ? this spell no longer causes damage but just spreads diseases. Blood Boil is intended to be the general area attack, and has been changed to be castable on targets with no diseases on them, but does extra damage if diseases are present.

? Unbreakable Armor now absorbs a flat amount of damage that increases as your armor increases. It no longer boosts armor.

? The Frost tree has been shuffled. Among other things, PvP talents such as Endless Winter are closer to the top of the tree where Blood and Unholy death knights can access them.

? Sudden Doom ? this talent now procs a Death Coil rather than requiring an additional button click. It works similarly to shamans? Lightning Overload.

? Magic Suppression and Blood of the North have been reduced to 3 ranks for the same benefit.

? Blood Gorged now grants armor penetration instead of expertise.
 

lupi

Lifer
Apr 8, 2001
32,539
260
126
Hunter changes seem nice, as does the pally stuff. Can't really comment on DK. Not sure why they bothered to post mage items.

Also let me be the first to add that hunters losing ammo stacks and quivers is pretty sweet; and there will be one massive QQ convention if locks still get screwed with the current incarnation of shards and shard bags.
 

Chimley

Senior member
Jan 28, 2008
383
0
0
Ya know.. how hard would it be for Blizzard to make Soul Shards part of the currency tab?


finished 8 Man Maly last night. I'm now the proud owner of the 310% speed green pukey proto drake mount.
 

Harabec

Golden Member
Oct 15, 2005
1,369
1
81
Originally posted by: Chimley
Ya know.. how hard would it be for Blizzard to make Soul Shards part of the currency tab?


finished 8 Man Maly last night. I'm now the proud owner of the 310% speed green pukey proto drake mount.

why not just get rid of them?
 

Anubis

No Lifer
Aug 31, 2001
78,712
427
126
tbqhwy.com
Originally posted by: Chimley
Ya know.. how hard would it be for Blizzard to make Soul Shards part of the currency tab?


finished 8 Man Maly last night. I'm now the proud owner of the 310% speed green pukey proto drake mount.

yea i knew the moment i read that Hunter change last night that the incomming lock QQ about shards was gonna be massive


personally i dont really care
 

lupi

Lifer
Apr 8, 2001
32,539
260
126
If all they do is change them so they could stack in quantities of 20 or more, I'd be happy about getting rid of a shard bag and getting 16+ slots of inventory back I could use.
 

DirthNader

Senior member
Mar 21, 2005
466
0
0
Originally posted by: Anubis
yea i knew the moment i read that Hunter change last night that the incomming lock QQ about shards was gonna be massive

personally i dont really care

I'm in the same boat. Honestly if they just took the soul shard req off of Soul Fire I'd be happy.

I usually go into a raid with a full 32 slot bag. Only time I've had problems is on our Sarth3D nights, since I'm the only one with talented healthstones which means a soulwell on each attempt.

Inventory space doesn't bother me either. Granted I don't do much farming, but it takes chain heroics for me to fill up my bags.

 

Jax Omen

Golden Member
Mar 14, 2008
1,654
2
81
I think the key difference is that Hunter ammo is a gold drain above and beyond repairs. Hunters pay higher (repair + ammo) costs than any other non-plate class, and unless wipes are frequent they often pay higher costs than the tanks.

Soul shards are essentially free as long as you drain soul on dying mobs.

Oh, and Hunters have no way of replenishing ammo during a raid besides hearthing/getting ported back to town and buying more, then getting summoned back. That stinks.
 

Tremulant

Diamond Member
Jul 2, 2004
4,890
1
0
I hope the survival 41-point talent makes traps "shootable" at mobs. Either like freezing arrow, where you shoot it at the ground, or like any other shot, where it's shot at your target and hits them with the effect of the trap.

Actually, I'd prefer that the AoE traps are shot at the ground and the single-target traps go directly to your target.
 

rivan

Diamond Member
Jul 8, 2003
9,677
3
81
Originally posted by: Jax Omen
I think the key difference is that Hunter ammo is a gold drain above and beyond repairs. Hunters pay higher (repair + ammo) costs than any other non-plate class, and unless wipes are frequent they often pay higher costs than the tanks.

Soul shards are essentially free as long as you drain soul on dying mobs which grant honor or experience.


Oh, and Hunters have no way of replenishing ammo during a raid besides hearthing/getting ported back to town and buying more, then getting summoned back. That stinks.

Fixed. That's what really makes it a pain in the ass to me.
 

Aikouka

Lifer
Nov 27, 2001
30,383
912
126
Ugh, I don't like that Blood Gorged change. I'd estimate that it'll probably be 10% ArP at 5/5. Sunder Armor is going to be 20% ArP now, but the amount of mitigation that 10% will give past 20% isn't very large... most likely around 3-4%.

I finally got the helm off Eck last night and gemmed that sucker up. Now I just need the belt from UK (loads of Expertise), the cape from either H-VH or HoS and the pants from H-HoS. I believe the cape alone is enough to put me back over the hit cap (fell a little bit changing some gear around). But I also haven't used any prismatic gems yet (no blue slots which are the best candidates).

But right now I'm sitting at...

* Damage: 840 - 1078
* Speed: 2.50
* Power: 2872
* Hit Rating: 311
* Crit Chance: 23.06%
* Expertise: 17

So I'm about 30 off on hit rating, about 67 off on Expertise. I wouldn't mind getting over 25% crit and more than 3000 AP.
 

Jax Omen

Golden Member
Mar 14, 2008
1,654
2
81
Originally posted by: rivan
Fixed. That's what really makes it a pain in the ass to me.

Not an issue in current raid content, although definitely a MAJOR issue when you go clear old world content for fun >_>
 

rivan

Diamond Member
Jul 8, 2003
9,677
3
81
Originally posted by: Jax Omen
Originally posted by: rivan
Fixed. That's what really makes it a pain in the ass to me.

Not an issue in current raid content, although definitely a MAJOR issue when you go clear old world content for fun >_>

Exactly. Or dual-boxing your alts up.
 

Anubis

No Lifer
Aug 31, 2001
78,712
427
126
tbqhwy.com
Originally posted by: lupi
If all they do is change them so they could stack in quantities of 20 or more, I'd be happy about getting rid of a shard bag and getting 16+ slots of inventory back I could use.

stacking in 20s would be stupid, i dont need or want to carry around 620 shards

stacking in 2s would be more then fine if they wanted to make them stack, 64 in a 32 slot bad would be nice
 

lupi

Lifer
Apr 8, 2001
32,539
260
126
Since I usually save one stack of everything ever added to the game (particularly since several alts haven't level up in main or profession levels yet), inventory space is a concern for me.

Last night I went and cooked a bunch of 1 unit NR recipes trying to finish the half of the achievement I didn't have. I went from about 16+slots normally open to 2; admittedly most of those will be opened up quickly once I do a little grinding and consume the stuff, but would be nicer if I didn't have that worry.

I've upgraded a couple items with vault and WG/honor purps; not really big upgrades as it only added about 100 to my overall spellpower but it seems to have crossed a line along coefficient math as it did increase my dps by 200-400 depending on the encounter. I'm still well below 2000 on average, but it's pretty funny now watching the other scrubs output down where mine used to be. :)


And one dungeon to go and my elders are done. On UK last night the ring dropped from the last guy, another lock was in the group and apperantly the idiot already had it and was trying to figure if it would be unique for him to get another. The "unique-equipped" in the item description must have been a stumper for him.
 

Xavier434

Lifer
Oct 14, 2002
10,373
1
0
Originally posted by: Anubis
Originally posted by: lupi
If all they do is change them so they could stack in quantities of 20 or more, I'd be happy about getting rid of a shard bag and getting 16+ slots of inventory back I could use.

stacking in 20s would be stupid, i dont need or want to carry around 620 shards

stacking in 2s would be more then fine if they wanted to make them stack, 64 in a 32 slot bad would be nice

I think they should just give all Warlocks an artifact or something that they keep in their regular bags. This artifact would be used to store the essence of souls that is normally kept inside of soul shards, but there is a cap to number it can hold and that number should be 60 or something.
 

lupi

Lifer
Apr 8, 2001
32,539
260
126
Oh, forgot to mention add another realm transfer to the skullcrusher tally. ;)


It seems some must finally be taking it as the queues aren't quite as frequent and worst I've seen in early evening is only about 200.

Lag in WG is still terrible and NR in general below average.
 

Juddog

Diamond Member
Dec 11, 2006
7,851
6
81
It looks like more information has been released in regards to Ulduar. Not sure if Blizzard let it slip on purpose or not, but apparently there will be another wing in Archavon with a tougher boss that drops the next level of gear (PVP gear, one set above Deadly called "Furious), and another set of badges will be in the works for Ulduar.

Since there is only one set coming out of Ulduar and not two, that would seem to indicate that the ten man version of Ulduar will drop the Emblem of Valor, and the 25 man version will drop a new token called Emblem of Conquest.

Here is the blue post where he mentions the new PVP gear and the new wing of Archavon:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft....788&sid=1&pageNo=7#132

There's still plenty of room for some items to be pretty hard to get without causing most players to be left out of good gear. As I mentioned earlier, with the start of the next season we expect new teams and personal ratings to start much lower than they have before (not 1500). That way, everyone's experience is to climb toward the rating they're successfully playing at. So, knowing that, here's what our current thinking is on rating requirements for season 6.

Disclaimer: all of this is subject to change!
Other notes/caveats:
- items with no rating listed would have no rating requirement

- it won't be quite as easy to get deadly items via emblems of conquest as hateful items currently are via emblems of valor

- the new Archavon boss (a new boss located in another wing of the Vault of Archavon), will have slightly different drops than the current Archavon (he can drop Furious Gloves/Legs, or any possible random honor item in addition to tier 8 pve set items similar to Archavon's t7 pve set drops, but cannot drop the Furious Chest piece)

- honor/arena costs aren't listed but Hateful costs would be similar to current Savage, Deadly costs similar to current Hateful, and Furious costs would be similar to current Deadly

- you might note that the Furious weapon is still at a high requirement, 2k, the thinking being that most players are encouraged to get their weapon upgrade through pve, although hardcore arena competitors have an outlet to get an equivalent weapon through arenas (if you're hardcore enough for 2k, you can forego raiding for a weapon)

- additional note, "deadly trinket" refers to the current battlemaster's trinkets, "furious trinket" refers to an upgraded medallion of the alliance/horde


Hateful Gloves
Hateful Legs
Hateful Chest
Hateful Helm
Hateful Shoulders
Hateful Ring
Hateful Trinket

Deadly Bracer
Deadly Belt
Deadly Boots
Deadly Neck
Deadly Ring
Deadly Cape
Deadly Trinket

1300+: Deadly Relics/Idols/Librams/Totems
1350+: Deadly Gloves
1400+: Deadly Legs
1450+: Deadly Chest
1500+: Deadly Helm
1550+: Deadly Shoulders

1400+: Furious Bracer (honor)
1450+: Furious Belt (honor)
1500+: Furious Boots (honor)
1550+: Furious Neck (honor)

1600+: Furious Gloves
1650+: Furious Ring (honor)
1700+: Furious Legs
1750+: Furious Chest
1800+: Furious Trinket (honor)
1850+: Furious Helm
1900+: Furious Cape (honor)
1950+: Furious Wands/Relics/etc
2000+: Furious Weapon
2100+: Furious Shoulders
2300+: Furious Tabard (purely cosmetic and awesome looking)
 

Juddog

Diamond Member
Dec 11, 2006
7,851
6
81
In regards to the progression line, from the blue post it would seem to indicate then that the 10 man version of Ulduar will be dropping ilevel items similar to this:
Naxx 10 - 200 ilvl - end boss 213
Naxx 25 - 213 ilvl - end boss 226
Ulduar 10 - 213 ilvl - end boss 226
Ulduar 25 - 226 ilvl - end boss 239

So people that are already Naxx 25 geared will find a natural progression towards Ulduar 25 man, where the average loot dropped will be the same level as Kel'Thuzad or Malygos loot, and the boss loot will be either 239 or some rumors point to ilevel 252 loot. I'm looking forward to the Ulduar loot in hopes that there is more +hit items, so that I can start boosting up my spellpower. As it stands now I had to sacrifice other stats to get to +hit cap.
 

ModerateRepZero

Golden Member
Jan 12, 2006
1,572
5
81
:boggle; uh, considering that soul shards helped balance spells (ie soul fire), eliminating them will pretty much entail overhauling the class....
 

ggnl

Diamond Member
Jul 2, 2004
5,095
1
0
Originally posted by: Juddog
It looks like more information has been released in regards to Ulduar. Not sure if Blizzard let it slip on purpose or not, but apparently there will be another wing in Archavon with a tougher boss that drops the next level of gear (PVP gear, one set above Deadly called "Furious), and another set of badges will be in the works for Ulduar.

Since there is only one set coming out of Ulduar and not two, that would seem to indicate that the ten man version of Ulduar will drop the Emblem of Valor, and the 25 man version will drop a new token called Emblem of Conquest.

Here is the blue post where he mentions the new PVP gear and the new wing of Archavon:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft....788&sid=1&pageNo=7#132

There's still plenty of room for some items to be pretty hard to get without causing most players to be left out of good gear. As I mentioned earlier, with the start of the next season we expect new teams and personal ratings to start much lower than they have before (not 1500). That way, everyone's experience is to climb toward the rating they're successfully playing at. So, knowing that, here's what our current thinking is on rating requirements for season 6.

Disclaimer: all of this is subject to change!
Other notes/caveats:
- items with no rating listed would have no rating requirement

- it won't be quite as easy to get deadly items via emblems of conquest as hateful items currently are via emblems of valor

- the new Archavon boss (a new boss located in another wing of the Vault of Archavon), will have slightly different drops than the current Archavon (he can drop Furious Gloves/Legs, or any possible random honor item in addition to tier 8 pve set items similar to Archavon's t7 pve set drops, but cannot drop the Furious Chest piece)

- honor/arena costs aren't listed but Hateful costs would be similar to current Savage, Deadly costs similar to current Hateful, and Furious costs would be similar to current Deadly

- you might note that the Furious weapon is still at a high requirement, 2k, the thinking being that most players are encouraged to get their weapon upgrade through pve, although hardcore arena competitors have an outlet to get an equivalent weapon through arenas (if you're hardcore enough for 2k, you can forego raiding for a weapon)

- additional note, "deadly trinket" refers to the current battlemaster's trinkets, "furious trinket" refers to an upgraded medallion of the alliance/horde


Hateful Gloves
Hateful Legs
Hateful Chest
Hateful Helm
Hateful Shoulders
Hateful Ring
Hateful Trinket

Deadly Bracer
Deadly Belt
Deadly Boots
Deadly Neck
Deadly Ring
Deadly Cape
Deadly Trinket

1300+: Deadly Relics/Idols/Librams/Totems
1350+: Deadly Gloves
1400+: Deadly Legs
1450+: Deadly Chest
1500+: Deadly Helm
1550+: Deadly Shoulders

1400+: Furious Bracer (honor)
1450+: Furious Belt (honor)
1500+: Furious Boots (honor)
1550+: Furious Neck (honor)

1600+: Furious Gloves
1650+: Furious Ring (honor)
1700+: Furious Legs
1750+: Furious Chest
1800+: Furious Trinket (honor)
1850+: Furious Helm
1900+: Furious Cape (honor)
1950+: Furious Wands/Relics/etc
2000+: Furious Weapon
2100+: Furious Shoulders
2300+: Furious Tabard (purely cosmetic and awesome looking)

Cliffs:

It will be impossible to get the best PVP gear unless you gear up through PVE first.
 

Anubis

No Lifer
Aug 31, 2001
78,712
427
126
tbqhwy.com
Originally posted by: ModerateRepZero
:boggle; uh, considering that soul shards helped balance spells (ie soul fire), eliminating them will pretty much entail overhauling the class....

no not at all
 

Soccerman06

Diamond Member
Jul 29, 2004
5,830
5
81
Originally posted by: Juddog
In regards to the progression line, from the blue post it would seem to indicate then that the 10 man version of Ulduar will be dropping ilevel items similar to this:
Naxx 10 - 200 ilvl - end boss 213
Naxx 25 - 213 ilvl - end boss 226
Ulduar 10 - 213 ilvl - end boss 226
Ulduar 25 - 226 ilvl - end boss 239

So people that are already Naxx 25 geared will find a natural progression towards Ulduar 25 man, where the average loot dropped will be the same level as Kel'Thuzad or Malygos loot, and the boss loot will be either 239 or some rumors point to ilevel 252 loot. I'm looking forward to the Ulduar loot in hopes that there is more +hit items, so that I can start boosting up my spellpower. As it stands now I had to sacrifice other stats to get to +hit cap.

Well Blizzard stated that they will make gear more of an upgrade each tier set, unlike ssc/tk where gear was a marginal upgrade. Since 213 loot is barely upgraded over 226 (minus weapon), 13 ilvl isnt enough to warrant an upgrade unless its a major stat change, ie crit > dmg. Such a small upgrade led to people not even wanting upgrades from kara/mag/gruul over ssc/tk because it was so minimal, woot an extra 2 hit 2 crit 3 damage... barely helps anyone. I see something more like every boss dropping 239-252 ilvl gear but that wouldnt follow blizzard's usual processes so well just wait and see.
 

lupi

Lifer
Apr 8, 2001
32,539
260
126
Originally posted by: Anubis
Originally posted by: lupi
If all they do is change them so they could stack in quantities of 20 or more, I'd be happy about getting rid of a shard bag and getting 16+ slots of inventory back I could use.

stacking in 20s would be stupid, i dont need or want to carry around 620 shards

stacking in 2s would be more then fine if they wanted to make them stack, 64 in a 32 slot bad would be nice

you wouldn't have to carry around 620, and since stacking would allow removal of the shard bag you could carry as many or few as you'd like.
 

rivan

Diamond Member
Jul 8, 2003
9,677
3
81
Originally posted by: Anubis
Originally posted by: ModerateRepZero
:boggle; uh, considering that soul shards helped balance spells (ie soul fire), eliminating them will pretty much entail overhauling the class....

no not at all

Anubis is right.

- soul shard
+ cooldown



Problem solved. Another possible solution, if CDs prove unwieldy, add a new item - a Demonic Shard or whatever, that is used when summoning pets. Add another, a Fel Shard, is sued for summoning various stones - healthstones, soulstones, firestone, etc.

The remaining shard would still be needed to drive things like soulfire, etc but you're not tethered to a source of 72+ mobs for simple utility like summons and healthstones.

Another thing I'd like to see is a scaling healthstone, so they can remain a utility to lower levels I'm helping out.

All of these things (except perhaps the cooldown) would be REALLY easy to implement.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.