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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From another part of the GC explanation from it, any non-melee ability would receive an error message when you tried to use it against the "obscured" rogue or hunter.
 

lupi

Lifer
Apr 8, 2001
32,539
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In World of Warcraft: Cataclysm we’ll be making several changes to class talents and abilities. Here you will get a glimpse into some of the changes we have in store for the druid. The information you’re about to read is certainly not complete, and is only meant to act as a preview of some of the exciting new things to come. Let’s kick things off by checking out some of the new druid spells and abilities!

New Druid Abilities

Thrash (Level 81): Thrash deals damage and causes all targets within 10 yards to bleed every 2 seconds for 6 seconds. The intent here is to give bears another button to hit while tanking. Talents will affect the bleed, such as causing Swipe to deal more damage to bleeding targets. 5-second cooldown. 25 Rage.

Stampeding Roar (Level 83): The druid roars, increasing the movement of all allies within 10 yards by 40% for 8 seconds. Stampeding Roar can be used in cat or bear form, but bears might have a talent to drop the cooldown. The goal of this ability is to give both bears and cats a little more situational group utility. 3-minute cooldown. No cost.

Wild Mushroom (Level 85): Grows a magical mushroom at the target location. After 4 seconds the mushroom becomes invisible. Enemies who cross the mushroom detonate it, causing it to deal area-of-effect damage, though its damage component will remain very effective against single targets. The druid can also choose to detonate the mushroom ahead of time. This is primarily a tool for the Balance druid, and there will be talents that play off of it. No cooldown. 40-yard range. Instant cast.


Changes to Abilities and Mechanics

In addition to the new abilities listed above, we intend to make changes to some of the other abilities and mechanics with which you’re already familiar. This list and the summary of talent changes below it are by no means comprehensive, but they should give you a good sense of our goals for each spec.


All heal-over-time spells (HoTs) will benefit from crit and haste innately in Cataclysm. Hasted HoTs do not reduce their duration, but instead add additional HoT ticks. Haste will also benefit Energy generation while in cat form.
Unlike the other healers, Restoration druids will not be receiving any new spells. They have plenty to work with already, and our challenge instead is to make sure all of them have a well-defined niche. A druid should be able to tank-heal with stacks of Lifebloom, spot-heal a group with Nourish and Regrowth, and top off lightly wounded targets with Rejuvenation.
We want to add tools to cat form and depth to bear form. If a Feral cat is going to fill a very similar niche to that of a rogue, warrior or Enhancement shaman, it needs a few more tools -- primarily a reliable interrupt. Bears need to be pushing a few more buttons just so the contrast between tanking and damage-dealing is not so steep.
Barkskin will be innately undispellable.
We will be buffing the damage of Mangle (cat) significantly so that when cat druids cannot Shred, they are not at such a damage-dealing loss.
Druids will lose Abolish Poison with the dispel mechanics change, but Restoration druids will gain Dispel Magic (on friendly targets) as a talent. All druids can still remove poisons with Cure Poison and remove curses with Remove Curse.


New Talents and Talent Changes


Tree of Life is changing from a passive talent to a cooldown-based talent, similar to Metamorphosis. Mechanically, it feels unfair for a druid to have to give up so much offense and utility in order to be just as good at healing as the other classes who are not asked to make that trade. We are exploring the exact benefit the druid gets from Tree of Life. It could strictly be better healing, or it could be that each heal behaves slightly different. You also will not be able to be banished in Tree of Life form (this will probably be true of Metamorphosis as well). Additionally, we would like to update the Tree of Life model so that it feels more exciting when you do decide to go into that form. Our feeling is that druids rarely actually get to show off their armor, so it would be nice to have at least one spec that looked like a night elf or tauren (and soon troll or worgen) for most of the time.
We want to make the Feral cat damage rotation slightly more forgiving. We do not want to remove what druids like about their gameplay, but we do want to make it less punishing to miss, say, a Savage Roar or Rake. The changes here will be on par with increasing the duration of Mangle like we did for patch 3.3.3.
Balance druids will have a new talent ability called Nature’s Torrent, which strikes for either Nature or Arcane damage depending on which will do the most damage (or possibly both), and moves the Eclipse meter more (details below). The improved version of Nature’s Torrent also reduces the target's movement speed. 10-second cooldown.
Restoration druids will have a new talent called Efflorescence, which causes a bed of healing flora to sprout beneath targets that are critically healed by Regrowth.
We plan on giving Feral cats and bears a Kick/Pummel equivalent -- an interrupt that is off the global cooldown and does no damage. We feel like they need this utility to be able to fill the melee role in a dungeon or raid group, and to give them more PvP utility.
We want to make sure Feral and Balance druids feel like good options for an Arena team. They need the tools to where you might consider a Feral druid over an Arms warrior, or a Balance druid over a mage or warlock. Remember that the PvP landscape will probably look pretty different for Cataclysm with a focus on rated, competitive Battlegrounds.


Mastery Passive Talent Tree Bonuses

Balance

Spell Damage
Spell Haste
Eclipse

Eclipse: We are moving Eclipse from a talent into a core mechanic of the class and making it less random. Balance druids will have a new UI element that shows a sun and a moon. Whenever they cast an Arcane spell, it will move the UI closer to the sun, and buff their Nature damage. Whenever they cast a Nature spell, it will move the UI closer to the moon, and buff their Arcane damage. The gameplay intention is to alternate Arcane and Nature spells (largely Starfire and Wrath) to maintain the balance.

Feral (Cat)

Melee Damage
Melee Critical Damage
Bleed Damage

Feral (Bear)

Damage Reduction
Vengeance
Savage Defense

Bleed Damage and Savage Defense: Feral druids will receive two sets of passive bonuses depending on whether the druid is in cat or bear form. Bleed Damage will be improved for cats. Savage Defense is the current bear mechanic for converting crits into damage absorption and will be improved for bears.

Vengeance: This is a mechanic to ensure that tank damage (and therefore threat) doesn’t fall behind as damage-dealing classes improve their gear during the course of the expansion. All tanking specs will have Vengeance as their second talent tree passive bonus. Whenever a tank gets hit, Vengeance will give them a stacking attack power buff equal to 5% of the damage done, up to a maximum of 10% of the character’s unbuffed health. For boss encounters we expect that tanks will always have the attack power bonus equal to 10% of their health. The 5% and 10% bonuses assume 51 talent points have been put into the Feral tree and the druid is in bear form -- these values will be smaller at lower levels. Remember, you only get this bonus if you have spent the most talent points in the Feral tree and are in bear form, so you won’t see Balance, Restoration, or Feral druids in cat form running around with it. Vengeance will let us continue to make tank gear more or less the way we do today -- there will be some damage-dealing stats, but mostly survival-oriented stats. Druids typically have more damage-dealing stats even on their tanking gear, so the Vengeance benefit may be smaller, but overall the goal is that all four tanks do about the same damage when tanking.

Restoration

Healing
Meditation
HoT Scale Healing

HoT Scale Healing: HoTs will do increased healing on more wounded targets. The mechanic is similar to that of the Restoration shaman, but with HoTs instead of direct heals. In Cataclysm, we anticipate druids using a greater variety of their spells so there is a distinction between healing and HoT healing.

We hope you enjoyed this preview, and ask that you provide your initial thoughts and feedback on what was presented here. Please keep in mind, what you’ve just reviewed is a work in progress and as we move closer to the Cataclysm beta, you’ll see these changes as well as others continue to develop in response to testing and feedback.
 

lupi

Lifer
Apr 8, 2001
32,539
260
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wow, totally glossed over the first time that resto is no longer sitting in tree.
 

Aikouka

Lifer
Nov 27, 2001
30,383
912
126
I think it could be interesting with the new ToL meta ability. Although, I'm really used to my druid being a tree.
 

dougp

Diamond Member
May 3, 2002
7,909
4
0
I wish they would have said what's going on with boomkin for surivability, especially in PvP. I wish we didn't have to use that form since it's a huge freaking "target me" sign.
 

Anubis

No Lifer
Aug 31, 2001
78,712
427
126
tbqhwy.com
yea but they share the exhaustion buff so it only really helps 10 mans and mages in PVP

the rest of the mages changes are pretty bad
 

lupi

Lifer
Apr 8, 2001
32,539
260
126
Quote from: Bashiok (Source)In World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, we’ll be making lots of changes and additions to class talents and abilities across the board. In this preview, you’ll get an early look at what's in store for the mage class, including a rundown of some of the new spells, abilities, and talents, and an overview of how the new Mastery system will work with the different talent specs.

New Mage Spells

Flame Orb (available at level 81): Inspired by Prince Taldaram’s abilities in Ahn'kahet and Icecrown Citadel, this spell allows the mage to cast a flaming orb that travels in front in a straight line, sending beams that cause fire damage to passing targets. Once it’s cast, the mage is free to begin casting other spells as the Flame Orb travels. While the spell will be useful to any spec, Fire mages will have talents that improve it, possibly causing the Flame Orb to explode when it reaches its destination.

Time Warp (level 83): Grants a passive Haste effect much like Bloodlust or Heroism to party or raid members. It also temporarily increases the mage's own movement speed. Time Warp will be exclusive with Bloodlust and Heroism, meaning you can’t benefit from both if you’ve got the Exhaustion debuff, though the movement-speed increase will still work even when under the effects of Exhaustion.

Wall of Fog (level 85): Creates a line of frost in front of the mage, 30 yards from end to end. Enemies who cross the line are snared and take damage. The mana cost will be designed to make Wall of Fog efficient against groups, not individuals. This spell is intended to give mages a way to help control the battlefield, whether the mage is damaging incoming enemies (Blizzard can be channeled on top of Wall of Fog) or protecting a flag in a Battleground. 10-second duration. 30-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.


Arcane Missiles is being redesigned to become a proc-based spell. Whenever the mage does damage with any spell, there is a chance for Arcane Missiles to become available, similar to how the warrior’s Overpower works. The damage and mana cost of this spell will be reworked to make it very desirable to use when available. This change should make gameplay more dynamic for the mage, particularly at low levels.
We are planning to remove spells that don't have a clear purpose. Amplify Magic, Dampen Magic, Fire Ward, and Frost Ward are being removed from the game, and we may remove more.
The ability to conjure food and water will not become available until higher levels (likely around level 40), as we're making changes to ensure mages generally won’t run out of mana at lower levels. Once mages learn how to conjure food and water, the conjured item will restore both health and mana.
Scorch will provide a damage bonus to the mage's fire spells. Our goal is for Scorch to be part of the mage's rotation and a useful damage-dealing ability, even if someone else is supplying the group with the spell Critical Strike debuff. Scorch will provide the mage with more specific benefits, which can also be improved through talents.


New Talents and Talent Changes


Arcane Focus will now return mana for each spell that fails to hit your target, including Arcane Missiles that fail to launch. We want Arcane mages to have several talents that play off of how much mana the character has and give the player enough tools to manage mana.
The talent Playing with Fire will reduce the cooldown of Blast Wave when hit by a melee attack, instead of its current effect.
Pyromaniac will grant Haste when three or more targets are getting damaged by the effects of your damage-over-time (DoT) fire spells.
The Burnout talent will allow mages to cast spells using health when they run out of mana.


Mastery Passive Talent Tree Bonuses

Arcane

Spell damage
Spell Haste
Mana Adept

Mana Adept: Arcane will deal damage based how much mana the mage has. For example, Arcane mages will do much more damage at 100% mana than at 50% mana. If they begin to get low on mana, they will likely want to use an ability or mechanic to bring their mana up to increase their damage.

Fire

Spell damage
Spell Crit
Ignite

Ignite: All direct-damage fire spells will add a damage-over-time (DoT) component when cast. The flavor will be similar to how Fireball works; however, the DoT component will be much stronger.

Frost

Spell damage
Spell Crit damage
Deathfrost

Deathfrost: Casting Frostbolt places a buff on the mage that increases the damage for all frost, fire, and arcane spells. The only damage spell that won't be affected by this buff is Frostbolt.

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.
 

Aikouka

Lifer
Nov 27, 2001
30,383
912
126
yea but they share the exhaustion buff so it only really helps 10 mans and mages in PVP

the rest of the mages changes are pretty bad

Yeah, but now you don't need us Shamans as much anymore :(. No more worrying about fail 40 yard totem ranges in large area fights!

EDIT:

Oh and I can see Flame Orb being a massive bunch of fail... "Hey guys, line up the trash for my orb!" They also never defined what its "destination" is in regard to the possible fire talent that makes it explode.
 
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Soccerman06

Diamond Member
Jul 29, 2004
5,830
5
81
Yeah, but now you don't need us Shamans as much anymore :(. No more worrying about fail 40 yard totem ranges in large area fights!

EDIT:

Oh and I can see Flame Orb being a massive bunch of fail... "Hey guys, line up the trash for my orb!" They also never defined what its "destination" is in regard to the possible fire talent that makes it explode.

Id assume it would be like dropping a flame strike, cast it and it goes to the destination. (or frost orb from d2?)
 
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nageov3t

Lifer
Feb 18, 2004
42,808
83
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the only use I can think of for flame orb is WSG... lob it at a flag carrier and have it tear apart his support train along its path.
 

Aikouka

Lifer
Nov 27, 2001
30,383
912
126
Hmm I'm assuming we have some nerdy gamers in here that might be able to help. So, I'm considering raising my nerdity by 1 and purchasing a mini fridge or similar thing now that I'm moving my PC to my other room.

At first, I was considering purchasing this "fridge" from ThinkGeek:
http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/gear/6ad2/

The reason is that the new desk I bought has a cubby hole thing for a PC tower, and as we all know... any PC that has some cahones will never fit in one of those holes. However... that fridge from ThinkGeek does happen to fit in the cubby hole! The bad ass-ness could be quite high on that setup, but then you have the negative aspects... it's not a true fridge (more of a peltier setup?) and it has some negative reviews on it saying that they break down after a few months or the power supply (which no one sells replacements for) will die.

Or, there are simply normal mini fridges. I'm thinking something around 1.5-1.8 cubic foot.

Any thoughts by someone that owns something similar? I figure it might make it easier to grab something quickly while raiding ;).

EDIT:

Heh, on a totally unrelated and actually on topic note... my Paladin, who has tanked ICC quite a few times without any problems finally got his epic achievement >_>.
 
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lupi

Lifer
Apr 8, 2001
32,539
260
126
reseeded the lawn today and watched my star trek Blu disc so finally getting around to playing for the night. And other than a distinct possibility of the original time line being left to wither on the back burner, that was a pretty kick ass movie.
 

Soccerman06

Diamond Member
Jul 29, 2004
5,830
5
81
reseeded the lawn today and watched my star trek Blu disc so finally getting around to playing for the night. And other than a distinct possibility of the original time line being left to wither on the back burner, that was a pretty kick ass movie.

This isnt your personal twitter account... its Anubis'
 

Bryf50

Golden Member
Nov 11, 2006
1,429
51
91
First, I was a bit worried about the arc mage mastery. Then I thought more about it and read this comment

I'm afraid I have to disagree concerning your ideas of the rotation. You obviously haven't heard of the Mana Adept mastery, which will grant you a spell damage buff that increases with your mana level. People are going to want to stay as close to 100% as possible for as long as possible, even if this means using a less mana intense (and hence lower DPS rotation), counting on the Mana Adept buff to increase their dps overall. Depending on the proc rate for the new Arcane Missiles, this will probably involve dropping the Blast after 2 stacks or thereabouts with a Barrage, or if the proc rate is high enough just casting Missiles every time it's up - obviously we need numbers before we can know for sure.

Once you're out of that top damage buff zone, you're going to switch to your best DPS rotation in order to burn down to 40% mana as fast as possible so that you can evo back up and get the 100% buff again. This rotation will probably just be an Arcane Blast spam; that or the one we have at the moment.

The point being that we're going to have different rotations depending on our mana levels. It might only be a 2 or 3 button rotation, but it's going to require a lot more thought than such a derogatory nominer might imply.

If they do it right they could actually make playing an arcane mage pretty involved which is good.
 

smackababy

Lifer
Oct 30, 2008
27,024
79
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Paragon released their Heroic LK kill video. I haven't had a chance to watch it yet, but from what I've been told, they pushed him right as he enraged and everyone had an average 12k dps.
 

Jax Omen

Golden Member
Mar 14, 2008
1,654
2
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Yeah, but now you don't need us Shamans as much anymore :(.

Good. Earn your raid spot by being a good player, as it should be.

Now I just want to see Kings, motw, and Fort go to a second class each, the drum/scroll solution is silly.
 

invidia

Platinum Member
Oct 8, 2006
2,151
1
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Paladin preview this week. Blizzard stated that Paladin development as "late" while the true fact is that they are saving the best for last with ridiculous changes.
 

dougp

Diamond Member
May 3, 2002
7,909
4
0
Good. Earn your raid spot by being a good player, as it should be.

Now I just want to see Kings, motw, and Fort go to a second class each, the drum/scroll solution is silly.

They should just remove buffs from the game ...
 
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