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

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lupi

Lifer
Apr 8, 2001
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We know there are a lot of additional questions and we'll do our best to answer what we can. Keep in mind, this is merely a preview of things to come.
Q: Will Maelstrom Weapon include Lava Burst?
A: That’s the plan currently.
Q: How can Elemental Overload proc Lava Burst when Lava Burst already hits so hard in PvP?
A: We’re going to change almost every number in Cataclysm to adjust for everything from single ranks of spells to larger health pools to new combat ratings. With much higher health pools, hopefully burst damage will go back to being a tool and not the only way to win matches.
Q: What happens to the Lightning Overload talent?
A: It provides a bonus to Elemental Overload.
Q: Elemental doesn’t want to drop Searing Totem at range. We want to drop Magma Totem.
A: Searing Totem needs to so more single-target damage than Magma. That said, if we’re happy with the ability to occasionally place totems at range there is no reason it couldn’t apply to any totem. Imagine, “After using this spell, the next totem you drop will appear at the feet of your target.”
Q: Will Elemental have to spend talent points just to get the Spirit to hit conversion?
A: It will be bundled with another attractive talent, such as Elemental Precision.
Q: Will Unleash Weapon work with Frostbrand?
A: Yes. We just provided some examples.
Q: Is Healing Rain channeled?
A: No, it's not a channeled spell.
Q: Is Earthquake channeled?
A: Probably, but we’ll see.
Q: Will Unleashed Weapon consume your enchants?
A: No.
Q: Does the 10% spell power buff from Elemental scale with the shaman or the target’s spell power?
A: It will scale with the target the same as Demonic Pact and other buffs that bring the same benefit.
Q: Are you supporting two-handed weapons for Enhancement?
A: Once you start to get into the dual-wield talents, then Enhancement is a dual-wield tree.
Q: You didn’t address Enhancement survivability or mobility or X and Y!
A: This was just a preview and is not a comprehensive list of every change. Much more will be revealed in beta and much will change during beta.
Q: You didn’t answer the most important shaman question! What about Sentry Totem?
A: The Cataclysm is a time of great upheaval. Deathwing’s return to Azeroth tore a hole in the fabric of the universe that tragically resulted in the ultimate and irrevocable destruction of all Sentry Totems. Level designers are contemplating a shrine for the Sentry Totem near that of Uther the Lightbringer. We know shaman players will greet this news with grief, but as with all class changes we’ll have to get into beta before anything is final.
 

lupi

Lifer
Apr 8, 2001
32,539
260
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In World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, warlocks will receive changes to their class talents and abilities. Outlined below are some of these changes. Keep in mind that this is an early preview and that these modifications are still under development, so you may see further adjustments to the listed changes as we get closer to launch. That said, here is a first look at these new warlock spells and abilities!

New Warlock Spells

Fel Flame (level 81): Quick-hitting spell dealing Shadowfire damage. This is similar to the mage ability Frostfire Bolt, in that the lower of the two resistances (in this case shadow and fire) on your target will be used for calculating its damage. Additionally, Fel Flame refreshes the duration of Immolate and Unstable Affliction. Our goal for Fel Flame is to provide a spell that's good for mobility and for use by Destruction and Demonology specs. Also, did we mention it uses green fire? Yep. Instant cast.

Dark Intent (level 83): Increases the target's chance for a critical effect with periodic damage or healing spells by 3%. When the target lands a crit, you get a buff to your damage for 10 seconds. This effect stacks up to three times.

Demon Soul (level 85): Fuses the warlock's soul with his or her demon. This provides warlocks with a self-burst cooldown to use. The specific effects granted by Demon Soul depend on the demon chosen. Demon Soul lasts for a certain number of charges or until it expires (around 20 seconds), depending on the demon used. 2-minute cooldown.

Soul Shard Overhaul
This major change regarding Soul Shards was previously announced at BlizzCon 2009. Soul Shards will no longer be inventory items, but instead a new UI resource mechanic. Warlocks will have 3 Soul Shards that can be used during a fight and will not be able to gain additional shards during combat. Soul Shards will not be required outside of combat. Soul Burn will consume a Soul Shard resource, thereby allowing you to use the secondary effects of some spells. Soul Burn has no mana or health costs and is off the global cooldown.
Planned secondary effects are outlined here.
• Summon Demon + Soul Burn = summon the demon instantly.
• Drain Life + Soul Burn = Reduces cast speed by 60%.
• Demonic Circle + Soul Burn = Increases movement speed by 50% for 8 seconds after teleporting.
• Unstable Affliction + Soul Burn = Instantly deals damage equal to 30% of its effect.
• Soul Fire + Soul Burn = Instant cast.
• Healthstone + Soul Burn = Increases total health by 20% for 8 seconds.
• Searing Pain + Soul Burn = Increases the crit chance of Searing Pain by 100%, and subsequent Searing Pain spells by 50% for 6 seconds.

Next you will find a list of some of the warlock spell and talent changes for the release of Cataclysm. There will be further changes, but those revealed below should offer some insight into our goals. Changes to Abilities and Mechanics

• All warlock damage-over-time (DoT) spells will benefit from crit and haste innately. Haste will no longer act to reduce the DoT's duration, but rather to add additional ticks. When reapplying a DoT, you can no longer "clip" the final tick. Instead, this will just add duration to the spell, similar to how Everlasting Affliction currently works.

• Curse of Agony and Curse of Doom will be converted into Bane of Agony and Bane of Doom. Bane spells are considered magic instead of curses. This means you will be able to cast one Bane (e.g. Bane of Agony) and one Curse (e.g. Curse of Elements) on a single target.

• Hellfire will no longer deal damage to the warlock.

• Imps will lose Fire Shield, but will gain a new ability, Burning Ember, which is a stacking DoT.

• The succubus melee range will be increased. The succubus will no longer have Soothing Kiss, but will instead have Whiplash, which knocks back all enemies within 8 yards.

• Voidwalker Torment will do increased damage and generate a lot of area-of-effect (AoE) threat. Suffering will become a single-target taunt.

New Talents and Talent Changes
• Pandemic will now cause Drain Soul to refresh Unstable Affliction and Bane of Agony on targets below 25% health.
• The ability Fel Domination will be removed (because Soul Burn accomplishes the same effect).
• Demonology will gain a new direct-damage spell, Demon Bolt. Demon Bolt will add a debuff that improves the damage done by the demon to the target.
• We plan to add a new talent, Impending Doom, which will give certain spells a chance to reduce the cooldown on Metamorphosis and Bane of Doom.
• Metamorphosis will no longer be subject to demonic crowd control. Furthermore, abilities available only while under the effects of Metamorphosis will be altered to put more emphasis on the warlock's own spells.
• Shadowburn will now do additional damage to targets below 25% health.


Mastery Passive Talent Tree Bonuses
Affliction
Spell Damage
Spell Crit
Shadow DoTs

Demonology
Spell Damage
Spell Haste
Demon Damage

Destruction
Spell Damage
Spell Critical Damage
Fire Direct Damage

Shadow DoTs: The damage caused by Shadow damage-over-time spells is increased.
Demon Damage: The damage caused by pets and Metamorphosis is increased.
Fire Direct Damage: The damage caused by Fire direct damage spells is increased.

Well that concludes this Cataclysm preview for the warlock class. The development of these changes will continue to evolve in the coming months. Please be sure to provide any feedback and thoughts you might have on what was covered here
 
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Scotteq

Diamond Member
Apr 10, 2008
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My Warlock is Happy. Though she's confused that all the "Fix Threat, Plx" complaints appear to have fallen on deaf ears.


Sounds like a big nerf to aff haste scaling. :(


I'm not sure about that... You're gaining extra DoT ticks in the same timeframe. So scaling with haste is still there. Rather, I read this as "Haste no Longer Makes Your Rotation Stupidly Frenetic" We'll see, though.
 
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lupi

Lifer
Apr 8, 2001
32,539
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As I read that, more haste for dots mean you do more damage over the dot cycle while the length of the dot cycle remains unchanged.
 

invidia

Platinum Member
Oct 8, 2006
2,151
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So are Soul Shards going to be like runes?

What do they mean you cannot gain additional shards during combat? Does that mean they are like potions and their refresh cooldowns won't start until after combat?
 

lupi

Lifer
Apr 8, 2001
32,539
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That's probably a good comparison, like death runes, but they don't regen in combat. I'd assume they'd have no respawn time at all since for pve purposes it wouldn't really matter, but could see them given one since it could have an effect in pvp and as we all know pvp is srs buzness.
 

DangerAardvark

Diamond Member
Oct 22, 2004
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Restoration shaman and other healing classes will need to pay attention to mana more than they've had to during Wrath of the Lich King. Spirit will be the Restoration shaman's primary mana-regeneration stat.

Aren't Resto Shammys already one of the fastest ooming healers? Nerf Druid regen, if you want to nerf regen.
 

Soccerman06

Diamond Member
Jul 29, 2004
5,830
5
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Soccer why does like half your guild have similar names?

They are probably alts of the main?

And the way haste sounds to me is its going to add more ticks after the spell should have ended, not more into the same duration.
 
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Aikouka

Lifer
Nov 27, 2001
30,383
912
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Ugh... that's all I can say about the Shaman changes. They seem interesting and all, but the fact that I'll have to (most likely) put Lava Burst, this new Unleash Weapon on my bar just makes me ask, "where the hell do I have room to put it?" Shamans have an incredibly large tool box and unlike a lot of other classes, we typically use the entire thing during a fight.

I do like the fact that we will get an on use attack at a low level... that was sorely missing from Shamans and Paladins alike.

The negative aspect is that new Spiritwalker's Grace is practically useless to Enhancement's issues in PVE given that our problems are that we have to move out of melee range or the boss is moved out ever so often.

I'm thinking that Earthquake could become an incredibly good PVP ability for Elemental, but they'd have to do something like add a very slight movement impairing effect as long as the user is inside the quake zone. Then they could add a Major Glyph that maybe increased the reduction in speed or even add a snare.

I'm also curious if those changes to Warlock DoTs will also affect other classes (including Shaman's Flame Shock). If so, that would be a huge change and I'm surprised they're doing this because it simplifies DoTs now that you don't have to worry about cutting them short.
 

lupi

Lifer
Apr 8, 2001
32,539
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They are probably alts of the main?

And the way haste sounds to me is its going to add more ticks after the spell should have ended, not more into the same duration.

they couldn't be doing that, that would compound the locks problem in several ways.
 

nageov3t

Lifer
Feb 18, 2004
42,808
83
91
the lack of a 3.3.3 combat spreadsheet sucks... I can't figure out if I should be rupturing or not (and if so, if I should grab the rupture glyph because keeping both rupture and SnD up without either glyph is like impossible)
 

Aikouka

Lifer
Nov 27, 2001
30,383
912
126
So.... Bitter Balebrew Charm (Brewfest Trinket) vs Black Heart?

I don't have any personal uptime statistics, but on wowhead, someone reported that it only has a ~6% uptime. Given that number, TBH only gives an average of 423.36 armor. On Maintankadin, the idea is that at best, about 11 points of armor is "equivalent" to 1 point of stamina... this is of course in a physical only fight (hence the "at best"). So if I divide that by 11, I get ~38.48 stamina equivalence.

Now, the Brewfest trinket has 44 more stamina than TBH, so the proc would have to be around equivalent to 44 stamina to be equal to... does this all matter? :p I mostly tank Icecrown 10-man anyway.
 

lupi

Lifer
Apr 8, 2001
32,539
260
126
New Priest Spells
Heal (available at level 16): While priests already have a spell called Heal, the existing version becomes obsolete at higher levels, which is something we intend to change in Cataclysm. Introduced at a low level, the "new" Heal spell will functionally work much like a down-ranked Greater Heal did in the past, adding more granularity to your direct-healing arsenal. If you need to heal someone a moderate amount and efficiency is an issue (making Flash Heal the incorrect spell for the job), then Heal is what you want to use. Heal is intended to be the priest's go-to direct-healing spell unless they need something bigger (Greater Heal) or faster (Flash Heal). We will be following a similar philosophy with all the healing classes.

Mind Spike (level 81): Deals Shadowfrost damage and puts a debuff on the target that improves subsequent Mind Spike damage. The intent of Mind Spike is to fill a niche missing in Shadow DPS, though it may be occasionally useful for healers as well. Mind Spike provides a quick nuke to use in situations where the priest doesn't have time to set up the normal rotation, such as when adds are dying too fast or you have to swap targets a lot. Spamming Mind Spike will do about as much damage as casting Mind Flay on a target afflicted with Shadow Word: Pain. The idea behind the debuff is that when you cast Mind Spike, we expect you to cast a lot of them; we don't intend you to fit it into an already full Shadow rotation. It also provides Shadow with a spell to cast when locked out of the Shadow school. (School lockouts will no longer affect both schools for multi-school spells.) 1.5-second cast. 30-yard range. No cooldown.

Inner Will (level 83): Increases movement speed by 12% and reduces the mana cost of instant-cast spells by 10%. This buff will be exclusive with Inner Fire, meaning you can't have both up at once. Inner Fire provides a spell power and Armor buff; Inner Will should be useful on a more situational basis.

Leap of Faith (level 85): Pull a party or raid member to your location. Leap of Faith (or "Life Grip") is intended to give priests a tool to help rescue fellow players who have pulled aggro, are being focused on in PvP, or just can't seem to get out of the fire in time. Instant. 30-yard range. 45-second cooldown.

Changes to Abilities and Mechanics
In addition to introducing new spells, we're planning to make changes to some of the other abilities and mechanics you're familiar with. This list and the summary of talent changes below it are by no means comprehensive, but they should give you a good sense of what we intend for each spec.

• All HoTs and DoTs will benefit from Haste and Crit innately. Hasted HoTs and DoTs will not have a shorter duration, just a shorter period in between ticks (meaning they will gain extra ticks to fill in the duration as appropriate).
• We want to bring back Shadow Word: Death as an "execute" -- something you do when the target is at 25% health.
• While we want to keep the priest's role as a well-rounded healer, we also want to make sure the class is a viable tank healer, which is something priests moved away from a little in Wrath of the Lich King. Greater Heal will probably be the tank-healing spell of choice, though we've also discussed giving Discipline a second shield so that they have a small shield to cast on lots of different targets, and a big, more expensive shield to cast on a tank or anyone else taking a ton of damage.
• Divine Spirit and Prayer of Spirit will be removed from the game. As Spirit will be the primary mana-regeneration stat, we don't want it to vary as much between solo, small group, and raid play. Blessing of Kings and Mark of the Wild will not boost Spirit either.
• Mana will be a bigger consideration for all healers. We aren't trying to make healing more painful; we're trying to make it more fun. When the cost of a spell isn't an issue, then casting the right spell for the job is less of an issue because you might as well just use your most powerful spell all of the time. We are, however, getting rid of the five-second rule, because we don't want to encourage standing around doing nothing. We're also going to cut back on the benefits of buffs such as Replenishment so priests (and all healers) don't feel as penalized when those buffs aren't available.

New Talents and Talent Changes
• We want to improve Discipline's single-target healing capacity. One key is to make sure shielding isn't always a more attractive option than healing.
• We want to improve Holy for PvP healing. One way to do this is to make sure that Heal's throughput is similar between both specs.
• We want to improve Shadow for short fights and reduce its susceptibility to school lockouts.
• Discipline will finally be getting Power Word: Barrier as a talented ability. Think of it like a group Power Word: Shield.
• We want to make Holy a little bit more interesting to play. One new talent will push the Holy priest into an improved healing state when he or she casts Prayer of Healing, Heal, or Renew three times in a row. The empowered state varies depending on the heals cast.
• Since the Shadow tree has a lot of passive damage-boosting abilities -- something we're trying to avoid in Cataclysm -- we will need to replace several of the tree's talents. One idea is to play off of the new Shadow Orbs mechanic (see Mastery section below), possibly allowing you to consume an orb to increase damage from Mind Blast or reduce Mind Spike's cast time.
• Misery will no longer affect spell Hit chance. We want players to be able to gear themselves around a Hit cap that isn't variable depending on group composition.

Mastery Passive Talent Tree Bonuses
Discipline
• Healing
• Meditation
• Absorption
Absorption: Improves the strength of shields such as Power Word: Shield, Divine Aegis, and Power Word: Barrier.

Holy
• Healing
• Meditation
• Radiance
Radiance: Your direct heals add a small heal-over-time component to the target.

Shadow
• Spell damage
• Spell Crit
• Shadow Orbs
Shadow Orbs: Casting spells grants a chance for Shadow Orbs to be created that fly around you and increase your shadow damage. This will help lower-level characters feel more like "Shadow priests" before they obtain Shadowform.

We hope you enjoyed this preview, and we're looking forward to hearing your initial thoughts and feedback on these additions and changes. Please keep in mind that this information represents a work in progress and is subject to change as development on Cataclysm continues.[...]

A few quick clarifications:
Neither Inner Fire nor Inner Will has charges. The decision is on which armor you want up at the time.Preventing dot clipping is something we want to do in general. It obviously benefits Shadow priests just as much as warlocks.The idea behind Mind Spike is that you can't always settle into your normal, and high-ramp up rotation. It's also useful when you have to move or get school locked.The closest analogue to PW:B is the DK Anti-Magic Zone, but it has some important differences, such as a way to counter it in PvP (since it absorbs all damage, not just magical damage).The idea behind the Holy "cast three in a row" talent (it's called "Chakra") is that we've always positioned Holy as a versatile healer. This talent lets you shift into different modes. If you need to be a tank healer, cast three single target heals and your single-target healing is now better. Cast three area heals, and you can be a temporarily specialized group healer. We're going to try to play this mechanic up with a cool UI to try to get that "I'm almost in the zone" feel. We'll let it apply to as many types of spells as we can, perhaps even Smite for those times when nobody's taking damage.
We pulled Misery because we are pulling every group benefit that improves hit. It's annoying to have to swap your gear in and out depending on who shows up for your group. In general we're going to push even harder in Cataclysm for bringing people you like to play with, not bringing people who have awesome buffs. The answer to almost every question of "But why would they bring me?" should be "Because you know what the hell you're doing."
 

lupi

Lifer
Apr 8, 2001
32,539
260
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I haven't looked at him recently, but my 10main mt that also tanks for the 25 man had the stam ones equipped most of the time pre-icc.


Also, given the more in depth dot/haste explanation with priest; the same should be true for locks which would be thé way I expected the change to be done and not a nerf-orama.
 

smackababy

Lifer
Oct 30, 2008
27,024
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In general we're going to push even harder in Cataclysm for bringing people you like to play with, not bringing people who have awesome buffs. The answer to almost every question of "But why would they bring me?" should be "Because you know what the hell you're doing."

This particular quote worries me. I think it really means "In Cataclysm, good group make up will not be needed and everything will be easier."
 

Anubis

No Lifer
Aug 31, 2001
78,712
427
126
tbqhwy.com
n general we're going to push even harder in Cataclysm for bringing people you like to play with, not bringing people who have awesome buffs. The answer to almost every question of "But why would they bring me?" should be "Because you know what the hell you're doing."

Stupidest shit ever. Just like making hit rating harder to attain because retards can't balance their hit rating. It's not Tetris with huge blocks. It works fine right now.

If you remove the group buffs and make it bring the player not the class then certain classes would be getting sat every night because they suck dick right now. That's not fair at all. Going to that line of thinking people will just stack whatever class is the FotM.
 
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lupi

Lifer
Apr 8, 2001
32,539
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To a degree I think that point of the argument is somewhat meh. Just after blizz started reversing the trend and buffed dks while nerfing rogues, you see kill shots with over half a dozen unholy dks. Going into wrath they've been trying to minimize class stacking and while it has probably worked to some degree for the mass market guilds, the high epeeners will always do it.
 

smackababy

Lifer
Oct 30, 2008
27,024
79
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I have to ask all the shamans here: do all shamans come with really bad connections? It seems every shaman my guild trials have connection issues. They DC multiple times a night.
 
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