How are the quest rewards from early 70 zones in wotlk? Would you compare them to T4/T5 level? I most likely won't be going into wotlk with amazing gear so hopefully I can get some substantial upgrades fairly early on.
- Status
This info can be found in some amounts at wowhead, worldofraids, mmochampion. They're not quite the massiveness of BC upgrades, mainly b/c there isn't a change to the relative value of stamina... but they are substantially better than BC lvl 70 quest greens, iirc.
You get the ITA effects on greens now and shizzle.
I am gaining rep as I level. So far there seems to be 2-3 factions in every zone. Some of the factions overlap between zones too. The strange thing that I have noticed is that there is no rep reward for killing anything inside of instances that are set to normal difficulty regardless of your current standing. I have not tried any heroics yet though.
Yes, they are improved. In terms of detail, I would say that the improvements are minimal. In terms of how well they have creatively designed the zones and instances, I will say that the improvements are incredible. They really spared no expense when it came to their design. Each zone so far feels like everywhere I turn I see something unique and very interesting. There is endless amounts of inspiring eye candy. In TBC, they had a good amount of this kind of thing too but most of the zones felt like there could have been more flare. The base that they created for each zone was excellent, but each subsection within the zones looked the same for most of that zone. This is not anywhere near the case in WotLK.
In terms of most quest rewards, the best way to describe them would be something between T4-T5 but not as valuable as T4-T5. What I mean by that is the stats which are on the quest reward greens in these zones are about equivalent to T5, but the difference between them and the T5 gear is that the greens and even the blues are missing a stat or two such as MP5 where all of your desired stats on your T5 gear for the most part. Thus, making your T5 gear a much better choice. The exception that I have found so far is an occasional ring and Howling Fjord has two quests which reward the player with a choice of very fine blue trinkets.
Overall, I would say that you do not need to worry about gear going into WotLK. Even if your gear is not amazing (including below the new badge gear standards) you will be able to hold your ground just fine in the beginning zones.
I will say two things. One is a reiteration from a previous review.
1. The major curve in WotLK coming from TBC is how powerful a certain level mob is in comparison to TBC. The mobs in WotLK hit harder and they have more health. For example, the average level 68 mob in WotLK will have more attack power/spell power and health than the average level 68 mob in TBC. Regardless of the curve, it will not stop anyone from progressing steadily or having fun. It is noticeable, but not that large and the talent changes alone make up for a lot. Without the talent changes, it would be considerably more difficult.
2. Stat taxes as you level are kind of harsh in some cases. To clarify, in TBC we entered Outlands with level 60 gear and as we leveled that gear's stats were worth less and less. For example, 10 crit rating on level 60 gear in vanilla wow did not result in the same amount of crit % as you gained levels. The result was a gradual decrease in crit %. The same tax exists going from TBC to WotLK. This tax alone will make even those with the best gear desire to switch out almost everything by level 76-77.
lupi
Lifer
- Apr 8, 2001
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The latest beta buildnotes are up on mmo champ. mostly it revised DK and mage stuff with a couple shammy and lock notes.
also saw someone linking to this repose in another thread
Currently the first quests in wotl give you greens that are equivalent to heroic epics and early kara gear.
the blues from first instances lvl 70-72 is aprox S3 quality.
If you have a full T6+ or Brutal set of gear. You will replace it with greens at 80 aprox.
OR
Replace it with blues from instances/chain quests at 75+.
also saw someone linking to this repose in another thread
Currently the first quests in wotl give you greens that are equivalent to heroic epics and early kara gear.
the blues from first instances lvl 70-72 is aprox S3 quality.
If you have a full T6+ or Brutal set of gear. You will replace it with greens at 80 aprox.
OR
Replace it with blues from instances/chain quests at 75+.
Aikouka
Lifer
- Nov 27, 2001
- 30,383
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http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?item...=3537:495;crv=0:0;ma=1
That's a link if you want to see the items rewarded from quests in Borean Tundra or Howling Fjord. There are some really nice items in here.... The stats on some of the weapons put them around S1 from what I can see, which puts them at a T4 level.
EDIT:
Also, I saw those mage and DK changes the other day... let me say that mages are definitely looking a lot better now (Burn Out is a lot more useful). But Living Bomb still sucks.
That's a link if you want to see the items rewarded from quests in Borean Tundra or Howling Fjord. There are some really nice items in here.... The stats on some of the weapons put them around S1 from what I can see, which puts them at a T4 level.
EDIT:
Also, I saw those mage and DK changes the other day... let me say that mages are definitely looking a lot better now (Burn Out is a lot more useful). But Living Bomb still sucks.
ViviTheMage
Lifer
Aikouka
Lifer
- Nov 27, 2001
- 30,383
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Oh and as for the stat:rating ratios... they're going to double come level 80. There's an article on it at curse right now. Essentially, if you need 14 crit rating to get 1 crit, you will need 28 at level 80 (I believe they weren't all 2x, but that was the closest correlation I could make between them).
Just to clarify, the "double" thing only applies to level 70 gear. In other words, 28 crit rating on a level 70 piece of gear is worth about 14 crit rating once you hit 80. I know that's what you meant but I got confused at first so I figured others might too. That or I am just dumb. :laugh:
One other thing that I forgot to mention over the weekend.
They changed Dalaran...or rather, they changed how you enter Dalaran. There is a crystal below the city on the ground which you touch and it warps you to the top (the city floats high in the air for those who are not aware). Likewise, there is a matching crystal in the city which takes you down. Previously, anyone at anytime could go to this crystal on the ground and use it to warp to the city. That has changed.
Now, there is a quest located at Dalaran inside of the room where the crystal on the ground warps you to. I was able to receive this quest at level 72 because I went to the city before this restriction was put in place and I got the flight point while I was there. This quest is simple and involves you using the crystal in the city to warp you to the ground and then use the crystal on the ground to come back. The catch is that until this quest is obtained, the player cannot use the crystal on the ground to warp to the city. That means that in order to reach Dalaran without the help of anyone else, one must fly there on their mount. This means you need to at least be level 77 so that you can learn how to fly in Northrend before you first step foot into Dalaran.
Possible exceptions:
1. There is another way to access the city earlier that I am not aware of (I doubt it though).
2. Someone who is level 77 flies up there, gets the quest, and shares it with you.
3. A lock who is level 77 along with some buddies flies up there and ports you to the city.
In regards to #2, I successfully shared the quest with a guildie of mine who is also in beta. However, he has not tried to complete it yet so I don't know if that way will work. The error I got when I used the crystal on the ground before I obtained the quest said something about needing to use the crystal in Dalaran first so sharing might not working being that the person who gets the quest by sharing still will not be able to get to Dalaran to use their crystal first.
I will report more info on this change as I find it. Has anyone read additional info about this change on the net?
They changed Dalaran...or rather, they changed how you enter Dalaran. There is a crystal below the city on the ground which you touch and it warps you to the top (the city floats high in the air for those who are not aware). Likewise, there is a matching crystal in the city which takes you down. Previously, anyone at anytime could go to this crystal on the ground and use it to warp to the city. That has changed.
Now, there is a quest located at Dalaran inside of the room where the crystal on the ground warps you to. I was able to receive this quest at level 72 because I went to the city before this restriction was put in place and I got the flight point while I was there. This quest is simple and involves you using the crystal in the city to warp you to the ground and then use the crystal on the ground to come back. The catch is that until this quest is obtained, the player cannot use the crystal on the ground to warp to the city. That means that in order to reach Dalaran without the help of anyone else, one must fly there on their mount. This means you need to at least be level 77 so that you can learn how to fly in Northrend before you first step foot into Dalaran.
Possible exceptions:
1. There is another way to access the city earlier that I am not aware of (I doubt it though).
2. Someone who is level 77 flies up there, gets the quest, and shares it with you.
3. A lock who is level 77 along with some buddies flies up there and ports you to the city.
In regards to #2, I successfully shared the quest with a guildie of mine who is also in beta. However, he has not tried to complete it yet so I don't know if that way will work. The error I got when I used the crystal on the ground before I obtained the quest said something about needing to use the crystal in Dalaran first so sharing might not working being that the person who gets the quest by sharing still will not be able to get to Dalaran to use their crystal first.
I will report more info on this change as I find it. Has anyone read additional info about this change on the net?
lupi
Lifer
- Apr 8, 2001
- 32,539
- 260
- 126
Latest beta changes, most is just talking about previous or upcoming. Only lock stuff seems to be new hard details.
Quote from Blizzard staff Warlock
Affliction
Curse of Exhaustion range increased from 30 yards to 36 yards.
Haunt casting time reduced from 2 seconds to 1.5 seconds.
Demonology
Demonic Empathy reworked: When you or your per is critically hit, the other has a 33/66/100 % chance to have their casting or attack speed increased by 30% for 8 sec. (Previously gave 2/4/6 % increased damage for the next 3 spells or abilities when you or your pet critically hit with a spell or ability
Metamorphosis cooldown increased from 3 minutes to 5 minutes. You transform into a Demon, with full health and mana. While in Demon Form, you gain Demonic abilities and your armor is increased to 360%, but your pet is no longer summoned. When leaving Demon Form, your health and mana is returned to normal and your pet is re-summoned. Lasts 45 seconds. (Previously transforms you into a Demon, increasing your armor by 360% and reducing the duration os stun and snare effects on you by 50%. While in Demon Form, you cannot cast spells, but you gain unique demon abilities.)
Destruction
Bane no longer reduces casting time of Haunt.
Eternal Flames reworked: Now called Fire and Brimstone. Increases the damage of your Immolate spell by an amount equal to 5% of your spell power, and the critical strike chance of your Conflagrate spell is increased by 5% is the immolate on the target has 5 or fewer seconds remaining. (Previously increased the damage done by your immolate on your target by 1%, and your Searing Pain and Incinerate spells increase the damage of your Immolate on the target by and additional 1/2/3/4/5 %, up to a total of 20%.
Chaos Bolt cooldown reduces from 12 seconds to 8 seconds. Sends a bolt of Chaotic Fire at the enemy, dealing 1012 to 1278 Fire damage. Chaos Bolt cannot be resisted, and pierces through defensive immunities. (Previously sends a bolt of chaotic fire at the enemy, dealing 990 to 1256 Fire damage. Chaos Bolt cannot be resisted, and pierces through all absorption effects.)
Achievements
We're making all of the old keys obtainable if you deleted them. Same goes for pets and tabards. For keys, talk to a Locksmith. For Pets, talk to a stable master. For tabards, go to the tabard vendor. It's important to note that this ONLY works for pets/tabards/keys that cannot be obtained again by the player. This means that if a pet was a rare drop and you deleted it, you'll need to farm for it again. (Source)
A guildmaster can set up the chat broadcasts however he/she wants. They could turn off broadcasts for an entire guild or set it up by ranks. Personally, I think you're better off leaving achievement broadcasts enabled and letting individuals decide if they want it on or not through their chat settings. (Source)
Death Knight
The old Heart Strike was interesting but very confusing (though pehaps not as confusing as Degeneration as it turns out). It would have worked on bosses, but at a fraction of what it could to do non-elite mobs or other players. It also gets pretty confusing when you have to reapply Heart Strike. Did the target's bar go up or down? Did I actually do any damage? Would it have been better if it had fallen off or if I had reapplied it?
We liked the new mechanic because it's also something we haven't done before, because it's easy to understand, and because it has excellent PvE and PvP use. And, like Scourge Strike, if you don't care for the debuff, Heart Strike is still a nice talent because it does exactly what Blood Strike does but with bigger numbers. (Source)
---------
This is fun: Frost Fever, Pestilence, Howling Blast. The problem with Howling Blast before was you either had one target with Chains of Ice or many targets with Hungering Cold, but more infrequently. Because Pestilence can now smear Frost Fever to 3 additional targets, you can Howling Blast a group for bonus damage virtually on demand. If you are facing one enemy, then you can Obliterate instead of Howling Blast for the same cost. If you are facing a lot of enemies or get freaked out for some reason, it's time for Hungering Cold.
Obliterate is a fun ability, but because of that talents to improve it were popping up everywhere. Since it is technically a Frost attack (by which I mean it's on your Frost spell page, not that it does Frost damage) we tried to put synergy with Obliterate into Frost. Because only Unholy can have more than 2 diseases, the Unholy DK really likes Oblit too. The Blood DK can still use it, but we tried to work in some more Death Strike synergy into Blood since it is a healing tool.
I posted this elsewhere, but Death Strike is 1U, 1F. It isn't a hard hitter (i.e. Oblit is always a better choice when you want big numbers), but you are healed by a percentage of the damage per disease. With two diseases, you can be healed for 100% or more of the strike's damage. It has no mechanic tied to killing an enemy or hitting them when wounded any longer. You use it when you are feeling a little hurt. Hint: Use it when you fall below Blood Gorged's threshold. Fun ensues. (Source)
Druid
The design is for bears to be viable, end-game main tanks. The design is for cats to be viable, end-game melee dps. In both cases you are going to need the right talents, good gear, skill and companions who can back you up -- I don't mean to imply raiding will be easy.
If you want to do a little tanking and dps, you probably won't be as optimal at either, though you'll probably always be better at switching between the two than other classes. In order to be as good at tanking as the other classes, you might have to give up a few talents that maximize your dps, and vice versa. This is a good thing -- it lets you choose to actually be a main tank.
We are adding a new class to Lich King, as well as improving the raid viability of specs such as Arcane mage, Survival hunter and Balance druid. That means you have 30 available specs for 25 slots. There are two ways to design around this problem. One is that there are 25 mandatory specs and 5 that shouldn't be raiding. Boo. A more fun, interesting and ultimately fair direction is that you actually have some choices in who to bring. Imagine running a raid with no warrior tanks at all.
Don't worry about your bears. The armor and other changes were done to fix itemization issues, not to nerf druids. You've already gotten the ability to drink pots in bear form and benefit from weapon enchants and windfury. We have plenty of knobs to turn to make sure you can do your job even better than you could in LK. (Source)
Hunter
Wolf's skill "Call of the Wild" generating a heavy amount of aggro is a bug. (Source)
I really hate to mention this, but there is currently a single chimera that is tamable and he might even be a rare spawn. I feel bad making you run all over the world trying to find him. Next patch there will be many more. (Source)
We might try something where the talent (Heart of the Phoenix) still auto-rezzes the pet, but takes a few seconds longer so that hopefully whatever gibbed Fluffy in the first place isn't going to just do it again. It's a tricky balance because if the delay is too long, hunters will just use their own rez and the talent is a lot less attractive. An alternative is a shaman-like self-rez, though it would have to be on the pet bar, not the hunter's. Even then it is yet one more button you have to find room for, so I think the current implementation still might be cooler with some polish. (Source)
Some changes to Silencing Shot will be made before... the end... (Source)
We're still going to do a consolidation on the "trap talents" in the Survival tree, and we'll also add some synergy with Bear Trap in there too. (Source)
Warrior
Warriors need to be better AE tanks without eclipsing paladins. Thunder Clap is a good place to address that problem. If Shockwave becomes the ultimate tanking ability than we're concerned nobody would want to run a 5-player dungeon without it. That's not the goal. We don't want to hand out Consecrate to every tank, but we want you to be able to tank groups better.
I didn't want to imply that all tanking gear would be strength and stamina with no other stats. But compared to what you are used to, expect more strength and expect strength to benefit you more. Let me also clarify a couple of previous comments. I can't always spend as much effort analyzing every word I type as the community ends up doing, or else I would never get to post. For that I apologize.
I understand the value of defense and Anticipation, though you must agree that volumes have been written about how well defense scales and its value at various points in progression. Tanks have debated about whether it was always worth 5/5 in Anticipation, even if they ultimately concluded that it is. That was the point I garbled.
I also acknowledge that hit and expertise are great threat stats, and expertise can offer a little mitigation to boot. The point I was trying to make is that putting strength on tanking gear solves a lot of problems in the game -- it can improve dps and threat (and mitigation if we build the talents correctly) without us having to worry about whether plate-wearing tanks are already capped in some other stat. Defense means something different for warriors and paladins than it does for death knights, and unless we build different gear for each class we can't count on defense as always being desirable above everything else. The last thing we want is for some classes to feel that they don't have access to the gear to do their jobs properly. Make sense?
Sorry for any confusion. It's never going to bother me when players point out errors I may make in my posting or that we make in our design decisions. It makes the game better. The fact remains that we want warriors to keep tanking. If they aren't there yet, we'll get them there. (Source)
Quote from Blizzard staff Warlock
Affliction
Curse of Exhaustion range increased from 30 yards to 36 yards.
Haunt casting time reduced from 2 seconds to 1.5 seconds.
Demonology
Demonic Empathy reworked: When you or your per is critically hit, the other has a 33/66/100 % chance to have their casting or attack speed increased by 30% for 8 sec. (Previously gave 2/4/6 % increased damage for the next 3 spells or abilities when you or your pet critically hit with a spell or ability
Metamorphosis cooldown increased from 3 minutes to 5 minutes. You transform into a Demon, with full health and mana. While in Demon Form, you gain Demonic abilities and your armor is increased to 360%, but your pet is no longer summoned. When leaving Demon Form, your health and mana is returned to normal and your pet is re-summoned. Lasts 45 seconds. (Previously transforms you into a Demon, increasing your armor by 360% and reducing the duration os stun and snare effects on you by 50%. While in Demon Form, you cannot cast spells, but you gain unique demon abilities.)
Destruction
Bane no longer reduces casting time of Haunt.
Eternal Flames reworked: Now called Fire and Brimstone. Increases the damage of your Immolate spell by an amount equal to 5% of your spell power, and the critical strike chance of your Conflagrate spell is increased by 5% is the immolate on the target has 5 or fewer seconds remaining. (Previously increased the damage done by your immolate on your target by 1%, and your Searing Pain and Incinerate spells increase the damage of your Immolate on the target by and additional 1/2/3/4/5 %, up to a total of 20%.
Chaos Bolt cooldown reduces from 12 seconds to 8 seconds. Sends a bolt of Chaotic Fire at the enemy, dealing 1012 to 1278 Fire damage. Chaos Bolt cannot be resisted, and pierces through defensive immunities. (Previously sends a bolt of chaotic fire at the enemy, dealing 990 to 1256 Fire damage. Chaos Bolt cannot be resisted, and pierces through all absorption effects.)
Achievements
We're making all of the old keys obtainable if you deleted them. Same goes for pets and tabards. For keys, talk to a Locksmith. For Pets, talk to a stable master. For tabards, go to the tabard vendor. It's important to note that this ONLY works for pets/tabards/keys that cannot be obtained again by the player. This means that if a pet was a rare drop and you deleted it, you'll need to farm for it again. (Source)
A guildmaster can set up the chat broadcasts however he/she wants. They could turn off broadcasts for an entire guild or set it up by ranks. Personally, I think you're better off leaving achievement broadcasts enabled and letting individuals decide if they want it on or not through their chat settings. (Source)
Death Knight
The old Heart Strike was interesting but very confusing (though pehaps not as confusing as Degeneration as it turns out). It would have worked on bosses, but at a fraction of what it could to do non-elite mobs or other players. It also gets pretty confusing when you have to reapply Heart Strike. Did the target's bar go up or down? Did I actually do any damage? Would it have been better if it had fallen off or if I had reapplied it?
We liked the new mechanic because it's also something we haven't done before, because it's easy to understand, and because it has excellent PvE and PvP use. And, like Scourge Strike, if you don't care for the debuff, Heart Strike is still a nice talent because it does exactly what Blood Strike does but with bigger numbers. (Source)
---------
This is fun: Frost Fever, Pestilence, Howling Blast. The problem with Howling Blast before was you either had one target with Chains of Ice or many targets with Hungering Cold, but more infrequently. Because Pestilence can now smear Frost Fever to 3 additional targets, you can Howling Blast a group for bonus damage virtually on demand. If you are facing one enemy, then you can Obliterate instead of Howling Blast for the same cost. If you are facing a lot of enemies or get freaked out for some reason, it's time for Hungering Cold.
Obliterate is a fun ability, but because of that talents to improve it were popping up everywhere. Since it is technically a Frost attack (by which I mean it's on your Frost spell page, not that it does Frost damage) we tried to put synergy with Obliterate into Frost. Because only Unholy can have more than 2 diseases, the Unholy DK really likes Oblit too. The Blood DK can still use it, but we tried to work in some more Death Strike synergy into Blood since it is a healing tool.
I posted this elsewhere, but Death Strike is 1U, 1F. It isn't a hard hitter (i.e. Oblit is always a better choice when you want big numbers), but you are healed by a percentage of the damage per disease. With two diseases, you can be healed for 100% or more of the strike's damage. It has no mechanic tied to killing an enemy or hitting them when wounded any longer. You use it when you are feeling a little hurt. Hint: Use it when you fall below Blood Gorged's threshold. Fun ensues. (Source)
Druid
The design is for bears to be viable, end-game main tanks. The design is for cats to be viable, end-game melee dps. In both cases you are going to need the right talents, good gear, skill and companions who can back you up -- I don't mean to imply raiding will be easy.
If you want to do a little tanking and dps, you probably won't be as optimal at either, though you'll probably always be better at switching between the two than other classes. In order to be as good at tanking as the other classes, you might have to give up a few talents that maximize your dps, and vice versa. This is a good thing -- it lets you choose to actually be a main tank.
We are adding a new class to Lich King, as well as improving the raid viability of specs such as Arcane mage, Survival hunter and Balance druid. That means you have 30 available specs for 25 slots. There are two ways to design around this problem. One is that there are 25 mandatory specs and 5 that shouldn't be raiding. Boo. A more fun, interesting and ultimately fair direction is that you actually have some choices in who to bring. Imagine running a raid with no warrior tanks at all.
Don't worry about your bears. The armor and other changes were done to fix itemization issues, not to nerf druids. You've already gotten the ability to drink pots in bear form and benefit from weapon enchants and windfury. We have plenty of knobs to turn to make sure you can do your job even better than you could in LK. (Source)
Hunter
Wolf's skill "Call of the Wild" generating a heavy amount of aggro is a bug. (Source)
I really hate to mention this, but there is currently a single chimera that is tamable and he might even be a rare spawn. I feel bad making you run all over the world trying to find him. Next patch there will be many more. (Source)
We might try something where the talent (Heart of the Phoenix) still auto-rezzes the pet, but takes a few seconds longer so that hopefully whatever gibbed Fluffy in the first place isn't going to just do it again. It's a tricky balance because if the delay is too long, hunters will just use their own rez and the talent is a lot less attractive. An alternative is a shaman-like self-rez, though it would have to be on the pet bar, not the hunter's. Even then it is yet one more button you have to find room for, so I think the current implementation still might be cooler with some polish. (Source)
Some changes to Silencing Shot will be made before... the end... (Source)
We're still going to do a consolidation on the "trap talents" in the Survival tree, and we'll also add some synergy with Bear Trap in there too. (Source)
Warrior
Warriors need to be better AE tanks without eclipsing paladins. Thunder Clap is a good place to address that problem. If Shockwave becomes the ultimate tanking ability than we're concerned nobody would want to run a 5-player dungeon without it. That's not the goal. We don't want to hand out Consecrate to every tank, but we want you to be able to tank groups better.
I didn't want to imply that all tanking gear would be strength and stamina with no other stats. But compared to what you are used to, expect more strength and expect strength to benefit you more. Let me also clarify a couple of previous comments. I can't always spend as much effort analyzing every word I type as the community ends up doing, or else I would never get to post. For that I apologize.
I understand the value of defense and Anticipation, though you must agree that volumes have been written about how well defense scales and its value at various points in progression. Tanks have debated about whether it was always worth 5/5 in Anticipation, even if they ultimately concluded that it is. That was the point I garbled.
I also acknowledge that hit and expertise are great threat stats, and expertise can offer a little mitigation to boot. The point I was trying to make is that putting strength on tanking gear solves a lot of problems in the game -- it can improve dps and threat (and mitigation if we build the talents correctly) without us having to worry about whether plate-wearing tanks are already capped in some other stat. Defense means something different for warriors and paladins than it does for death knights, and unless we build different gear for each class we can't count on defense as always being desirable above everything else. The last thing we want is for some classes to feel that they don't have access to the gear to do their jobs properly. Make sense?
Sorry for any confusion. It's never going to bother me when players point out errors I may make in my posting or that we make in our design decisions. It makes the game better. The fact remains that we want warriors to keep tanking. If they aren't there yet, we'll get them there. (Source)
Aikouka
Lifer
- Nov 27, 2001
- 30,383
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- 126
Why don't they just make that heart of the phoenix grant the Hunter a 10 second buff that makes their Revive Pet ability cost 0 mana, have no cast time and remove any negative happiness caused by the death/rez (I'm not sure if the original idea does the happiness thing... but if so, they'd want that 
).
).
lupi
Lifer
- Apr 8, 2001
- 32,539
- 260
- 126
Originally posted by: Aikouka
Why don't they just make that heart of the phoenix grant the Hunter a 10 second buff that makes their Revive Pet ability cost 0 mana, have no cast time and remove any negative happiness caused by the death/rez (I'm not sure if the original idea does the happiness thing... but if so, they'd want that
I thought one of the earlier notes talked about them dumping the enitre happiness aspect to pets?
Aikouka
Lifer
- Nov 27, 2001
- 30,383
- 912
- 126
I don't remember... I'd have to look
. It would be nice though, but then again, there'd be no consequence to letting your pet die.I was actually thinking a bit yesterday after looking at all the WotLK look and I think my priorities aren't in the best of places. My goal was gearing up all these characters as they get near/to 70, but that's probably a poor goal. At this point, that gear may last until 75 or so, but I think the more important goals should be (1) epic flying mount (2) (trade)skills to max. Epic flying mounts aren't required if you have a normal one, but I think anyone that's used one will tell you that it's required to keep you from dying of boredom. As for tradeskills... you obviously need to level them in order to go up in WotLK. Based on how bad Thorium is at this point price-wise, I think it may be better to start now before Adamantite skyrockets once people settle into the WotLK way of things.
I also have one more character to level after my Paladin and Warlock: my Druid. One thing I was thinking about doing was stopping him at 58 and waiting for WotLK so I could make a Death Knight and have the two level together (58, because Death Knights essentially get up to 58 after leaving "their own little world"). But then I thought about this again... you know, it's fantastic having assistance and helping mitigate some of the tough parts of being a dps and leveling (namely, the health portion). But the problem is... sometimes you don't really get to learn all the fancy tactics because you literally have an easier time. I'll shamefully admit that I didn't know that Voidwalkers have an AoE taunt until I made my second warlock (that plays alone... my first lock mentioned in the first sentence played with my Paladin for quite a long time). I simply never used the blueberry to even see it (Paladin > VW). Although this case is somewhat minor, I could see a lot worse with the more intricate Death Knight class.
They should keep the pet happiness thing. I see nothing wrong with it. I think it makes the pets more fun.
rh71
No Lifer
- Aug 28, 2001
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- 1,049
- 126
It's not, from an entire guild's standpoint as progression is still something to shoot for. But for an individual like myself with 2 dps classes who raids just to get gear, having all the hard work replaced only 3 months from now is not my idea of time well spent. In 3 months I doubt my guildmates will get Leo down - some people just don't make the same efforts (only 4 of us anywhere above 800dps last night in SSC) - and thus we're not a hardcore guild (and that's fine as I'm not a hardcore player - though last few days I've been raiding with a 3-week old on my lap just so I can raid at all). Like I said, I'm just gonna go to earn DKP for the next rounds where I can get gear that will last. Raiding for gear right now... I'm not even all that excited about DST from last week anymore. Different story if I had gotten it in January or something, don't you think?
lupi
Lifer
- Apr 8, 2001
- 32,539
- 260
- 126
Sounds like another email batch just went out with beta codes.
And here is today's snippets from blue.
Druid
Feral Concerns in WotLK
The changes made to things like armor were done mostly to solve itemization problems. We didn't make them to nerf Ferals (or anyone). We did them because we started to consider bosses who needed to drop 30 different pieces of armor (or tokens to trade for them or whatever) because classes and even specs were heading off into distinct niches. You'll get something to make up for it. No, you aren't there yet.
We're not entirely happy with the way the Feral ended up in BC. The idea was that you could be a decent tank and a decent melee dps class, so Ferals were something you wanted to bring if you weren't the kind of guild that swapped different people out for every boss. But I don't think "convenience factor" is ultimately a great value to bring to a raid. The problem was we were kind of stuck because if we made Ferals end-game tanks and amazing melee, then the rogues were screwed, because they couldn't go respec to tank or heal.
But now we have a chance to add some new talents, and we'd like for some of them to be the kind that let a druid declare that she is more of a cat or more of a bear. It doesn't have to be shoehorning two whole talent trees into one, but even offering a few choices would go a long way.
I didn't mean to sound condescending. The pot example was to offer that we haven't forgotten about bears. My point was NOT: hey, you lost armor but gee you got health stones, so why all the QQing? It was cool to see those big armor numbers on bears, and we have some plans for how to replace them (and not just with pots).
The DK gets a lot of attention because it has a lot of catching up to do. There were no DKs in UBRS or MC or TK or even Arathi Basin. Nobody knows how their abilities and power system are going to work so we feel like we have to cover a lot of the ground that was explored literally years ago for some of these other classes.
We will be really disappointed if there aren't bears main tanking Naxx and later raids, and cats that if not consistently as high as rouges, are at least a lot closer than they are now. (Source)
Allow Feral Swiftness IndoorSeems reasonable to me. Done. (Source)
Hunter
[*]The mana cost of new ranks is not just an issue for Hunters. We're looking at lowering the mana cost of all new ranks among all classes. We also intend to do some improvements to Aspect of the Viper. Not to mention mana return mechanics in each of the tree's (Invigoration, Rapid Recuperation, Hunting Party etc.) (Source)
[*]We'll be doing some improvements to Chimera Shot. We'll experiement with it refreshing the duration of the sting instead of consuming, and adding some base damage to the shot as well. It should act as an Arcane Shot replacement, doing significantly more damage (especially if serpent sting is on the target). (Source)
[*]Regarding Serpent Sting, we'll bump the damage bonus you get from this effect up. We also want to make Serpent Sting more usable for Hunters. (Source)
[*]Tranq Shot will soon be able to dispel enrage mechanics (i.e. Warrior Enrage, Rogue's Hunger For Blood, etc.). It should also be able to dispel Druids' "Owlkin Frenzy" effect. Also going to lower the cooldown. (Source)
[*]In addition, Tranq Shot will also be able to dispel magic effects, and we're removing that from Arcane Shot. (Source)
[*]Explosive Shot is intended to be three shots in one cast. Imagine Arcane Missiles, but not having to channel it. The spell isn't quite there yet, we're still not sure if it needs the AOE or not. It's not intended to really be AOE utility. (Source)
[*]We haven't given up hope of fixing up your existing low-level pets. (Source)
[/list]
Shaman
[*]In a future build your Stoneclaw Totem will "protect" your other totems, virtually increasing their HP by a value. We haven't decided how much it will give your totems, but it should be enough to protect them from being one shotted. Totems are intended to be as fragile as they are, it's what balances out their power. If we gave Totems base increased survivability, we would have to give them increased cooldowns, mana costs etc. (Source)
[/list]
Warlock
[*]We plan to give all pets the master's +hit%. (Source)
[*]We have yet to do number testing, we'll balance the tree's so that their damage is closer together. That said, Destruction has less group utility than Affliction or Demonology has, which can warrant a slight DPS advantage. Even though you'll be casting DoTs as affliction, you'll still be casting Shadow Bolt's in your rotation. Thus haste/crit/death's embrace all benefit you. (Source)
[*]Molten Core was more designed for Demonology, as that spec you have the freedom to switch between Shadow and Fire, or for more hybrid builds. (Source)
[*]We haven't yet tested Shadow Bite extensively to see if it's working as we intend, we'll be doing that soon. Not yet finished on Doomguard, but he's intended as niche pet for group situations. (Source)
[/list]
WarriorBlood FrenzyThis issue (who gets into the raids?) is something we are spending a lot of time on right now. Blood Frenzy is the kind of talent that could definitely present a problem if it means Arms warriors are really valuable for their debuff potential and Fury warriors have to compete for raid slots mostly on the merit of their dps. At least Fury still has PvP... oh, wait.... (Source)
Death Knight
Tanking Talent Changes
After further discussion, and lots of feedback from various forums including this one, we're going to make the following changes:
Vampiric BloodOne Rank1 Blood, Instant (no GCD), 2 min cooldownIncreases the amount of health generated through spells and effects (i.e. your own or heals from other players) by 50% for 20 sec.
Unbreakable ArmorOne Rank1 Frost, Instant (no GCD), 2 min cooldownIncreases your armor by 25% and your total Strength by 5% for 20 sec.
With these changes, the mechanic ends up being pretty similar, where you have to sacrifice dps or other abilities for a mostly defensive one. However you don't feel like you're wasting Blade Barrier and overall it's easier to understand how you'd use these abilities. The cooldown still needs to be reasonably long in order to save these for the right moment rather than spamming them constantly (we want them to work like new Shield Block, not old Shield Block). You might still sometimes end up having to sit on a Rune for a bit, but probably no longer than a few seconds, and at least you won't have to worry about the ability going off when you don't want it to.
Anti-Magic Shell at the very least can no longer be dispelled, and we're looking at it preventing dots and possibly all magical debuffs while it's up.
We'll continue to massage the numbers to try and achieve rough parity among Vampiric Blood, Unbreakable Armor and Bone Shield (Bone Armor) so that nobody feels compelled to go down one tree just because its talent is so much better than the others. Though obviously the 3 talents will still fulfill slightly different niches.
We'll continue to adjust mitigation and threat numbers in general to achieve rough parity among DKs, warriors, paladins and druids, while still trying to give each a certain type of battle they excel at. (Source)
Deathstrike Effect ClarificationsA deadly attack that deals 60% weapon damage plus X (where X varies per rank) and heals the death knight for 100% of the damage done for each of her diseases on the target. (Source)
Bone Armor and Unholy TalentsBone Armor has always had an internal cooldown of 2 sec. We just changed it to 3.5 sec, same as a shaman. There is enough theorycrafting on Bone Armor right now and at least some people conclude it's a really potent ability. If it turns out to offer less protection than we thought, we'll buff it.
As per another thread, we did prune down some of the talents in deep Unholy and we're hoping to be able to fit another tanking or tanking / dps talent down there to compete with Will of the Necropolis and Acclimation for the other trees. (Source)
Bone Armor / Blood-Caked Blade and Crypt Fever ChangesWe took Blood-Caked Blade and Crypt Fever down to 3 ranks each. We need to see if deep Unholy has enough talents now. Bone Armor (we call it Bone Shield now) is only 1 Unholy. I'm not sure where the Frost cost came from. I may have erroneously stated as such when typing fast, or the talent trees show it wrong. It's 1 Unholy though. (Source)
Increased breath duration underwater
We are experimenting with increased breath duration underwater. Currently, in the beta, most players can stay under for three times as long. Forsaken can stay under 10 times as long as an old, normal character (used to be 4). (Source)
Addition of a Quest Giver Tracker to the Radar (Including low level quests)Yes. This is in the next build (albeit not very polished yet). (Source)
Account Achievements
Account achievements are in the works. They won't be in for the launch of Lich King but they are on the horizon. (Source)
Guild Bank Tax
This is an interesting idea. We won't be able to get to this for the WotLK launch, but we are compliling a list of future guild improvements that we'd like to make in WoW. (Source)
Class changes deployment frequency during Beta TestSeriously though, it's easier for to focus on only a couple of classes at a time. We find that way we are more in sync on the direction of the class and its problems. We don't work in an environment where each person goes to their desk, throws in the talents for one class, and then we pour them all into the game. A lot of the time it's 10% actual talent implementation and 90% brainstorming and discussion.
Mages recently got a fair amount of attention and death knights always do, just because they have the most catching up to do to the years of analysis and design that's been done on the other classes.
But even then, you're more likely to see ability changes than number adjusting. We need to feel like the abilities have a chance of working out before we go into the mode of comparing everyone's dps and threat and survival in a variety of situations. The encounter design and item design need to be at that level too. We're still debating things like encounters and raid stacking will work. Think about all the changes: many stats are universal now (meaning melee hit and spell hit are the same as far as items are concerned), most buffs affect the entire raid, we're trying to offer fewer very specialized items as random drops, etc. etc. It ends up being a lot of changes all with ramifications for every class. (Source)
Raid Composition in WotLK
Class design isn't done. We are shooting for more parity. Nobody should get a raid spot because their one talent brings a huge dps (or mana or healing or health) benefit to the raid that no other spec can provide. (Source)
And here is today's snippets from blue.
Druid
Feral Concerns in WotLK
The changes made to things like armor were done mostly to solve itemization problems. We didn't make them to nerf Ferals (or anyone). We did them because we started to consider bosses who needed to drop 30 different pieces of armor (or tokens to trade for them or whatever) because classes and even specs were heading off into distinct niches. You'll get something to make up for it. No, you aren't there yet.
We're not entirely happy with the way the Feral ended up in BC. The idea was that you could be a decent tank and a decent melee dps class, so Ferals were something you wanted to bring if you weren't the kind of guild that swapped different people out for every boss. But I don't think "convenience factor" is ultimately a great value to bring to a raid. The problem was we were kind of stuck because if we made Ferals end-game tanks and amazing melee, then the rogues were screwed, because they couldn't go respec to tank or heal.
But now we have a chance to add some new talents, and we'd like for some of them to be the kind that let a druid declare that she is more of a cat or more of a bear. It doesn't have to be shoehorning two whole talent trees into one, but even offering a few choices would go a long way.
I didn't mean to sound condescending. The pot example was to offer that we haven't forgotten about bears. My point was NOT: hey, you lost armor but gee you got health stones, so why all the QQing? It was cool to see those big armor numbers on bears, and we have some plans for how to replace them (and not just with pots).
The DK gets a lot of attention because it has a lot of catching up to do. There were no DKs in UBRS or MC or TK or even Arathi Basin. Nobody knows how their abilities and power system are going to work so we feel like we have to cover a lot of the ground that was explored literally years ago for some of these other classes.
We will be really disappointed if there aren't bears main tanking Naxx and later raids, and cats that if not consistently as high as rouges, are at least a lot closer than they are now. (Source)
Allow Feral Swiftness IndoorSeems reasonable to me. Done. (Source)
Hunter
[*]The mana cost of new ranks is not just an issue for Hunters. We're looking at lowering the mana cost of all new ranks among all classes. We also intend to do some improvements to Aspect of the Viper. Not to mention mana return mechanics in each of the tree's (Invigoration, Rapid Recuperation, Hunting Party etc.) (Source)
[*]We'll be doing some improvements to Chimera Shot. We'll experiement with it refreshing the duration of the sting instead of consuming, and adding some base damage to the shot as well. It should act as an Arcane Shot replacement, doing significantly more damage (especially if serpent sting is on the target). (Source)
[*]Regarding Serpent Sting, we'll bump the damage bonus you get from this effect up. We also want to make Serpent Sting more usable for Hunters. (Source)
[*]Tranq Shot will soon be able to dispel enrage mechanics (i.e. Warrior Enrage, Rogue's Hunger For Blood, etc.). It should also be able to dispel Druids' "Owlkin Frenzy" effect. Also going to lower the cooldown. (Source)
[*]In addition, Tranq Shot will also be able to dispel magic effects, and we're removing that from Arcane Shot. (Source)
[*]Explosive Shot is intended to be three shots in one cast. Imagine Arcane Missiles, but not having to channel it. The spell isn't quite there yet, we're still not sure if it needs the AOE or not. It's not intended to really be AOE utility. (Source)
[*]We haven't given up hope of fixing up your existing low-level pets. (Source)
[/list]
Shaman
[*]In a future build your Stoneclaw Totem will "protect" your other totems, virtually increasing their HP by a value. We haven't decided how much it will give your totems, but it should be enough to protect them from being one shotted. Totems are intended to be as fragile as they are, it's what balances out their power. If we gave Totems base increased survivability, we would have to give them increased cooldowns, mana costs etc. (Source)
[/list]
Warlock
[*]We plan to give all pets the master's +hit%. (Source)
[*]We have yet to do number testing, we'll balance the tree's so that their damage is closer together. That said, Destruction has less group utility than Affliction or Demonology has, which can warrant a slight DPS advantage. Even though you'll be casting DoTs as affliction, you'll still be casting Shadow Bolt's in your rotation. Thus haste/crit/death's embrace all benefit you. (Source)
[*]Molten Core was more designed for Demonology, as that spec you have the freedom to switch between Shadow and Fire, or for more hybrid builds. (Source)
[*]We haven't yet tested Shadow Bite extensively to see if it's working as we intend, we'll be doing that soon. Not yet finished on Doomguard, but he's intended as niche pet for group situations. (Source)
[/list]
WarriorBlood FrenzyThis issue (who gets into the raids?) is something we are spending a lot of time on right now. Blood Frenzy is the kind of talent that could definitely present a problem if it means Arms warriors are really valuable for their debuff potential and Fury warriors have to compete for raid slots mostly on the merit of their dps. At least Fury still has PvP... oh, wait.... (Source)
Death Knight
Tanking Talent Changes
After further discussion, and lots of feedback from various forums including this one, we're going to make the following changes:
Vampiric BloodOne Rank1 Blood, Instant (no GCD), 2 min cooldownIncreases the amount of health generated through spells and effects (i.e. your own or heals from other players) by 50% for 20 sec.
Unbreakable ArmorOne Rank1 Frost, Instant (no GCD), 2 min cooldownIncreases your armor by 25% and your total Strength by 5% for 20 sec.
With these changes, the mechanic ends up being pretty similar, where you have to sacrifice dps or other abilities for a mostly defensive one. However you don't feel like you're wasting Blade Barrier and overall it's easier to understand how you'd use these abilities. The cooldown still needs to be reasonably long in order to save these for the right moment rather than spamming them constantly (we want them to work like new Shield Block, not old Shield Block). You might still sometimes end up having to sit on a Rune for a bit, but probably no longer than a few seconds, and at least you won't have to worry about the ability going off when you don't want it to.
Anti-Magic Shell at the very least can no longer be dispelled, and we're looking at it preventing dots and possibly all magical debuffs while it's up.
We'll continue to massage the numbers to try and achieve rough parity among Vampiric Blood, Unbreakable Armor and Bone Shield (Bone Armor) so that nobody feels compelled to go down one tree just because its talent is so much better than the others. Though obviously the 3 talents will still fulfill slightly different niches.
We'll continue to adjust mitigation and threat numbers in general to achieve rough parity among DKs, warriors, paladins and druids, while still trying to give each a certain type of battle they excel at. (Source)
Deathstrike Effect ClarificationsA deadly attack that deals 60% weapon damage plus X (where X varies per rank) and heals the death knight for 100% of the damage done for each of her diseases on the target. (Source)
Bone Armor and Unholy TalentsBone Armor has always had an internal cooldown of 2 sec. We just changed it to 3.5 sec, same as a shaman. There is enough theorycrafting on Bone Armor right now and at least some people conclude it's a really potent ability. If it turns out to offer less protection than we thought, we'll buff it.
As per another thread, we did prune down some of the talents in deep Unholy and we're hoping to be able to fit another tanking or tanking / dps talent down there to compete with Will of the Necropolis and Acclimation for the other trees. (Source)
Bone Armor / Blood-Caked Blade and Crypt Fever ChangesWe took Blood-Caked Blade and Crypt Fever down to 3 ranks each. We need to see if deep Unholy has enough talents now. Bone Armor (we call it Bone Shield now) is only 1 Unholy. I'm not sure where the Frost cost came from. I may have erroneously stated as such when typing fast, or the talent trees show it wrong. It's 1 Unholy though. (Source)
Increased breath duration underwater
We are experimenting with increased breath duration underwater. Currently, in the beta, most players can stay under for three times as long. Forsaken can stay under 10 times as long as an old, normal character (used to be 4). (Source)
Addition of a Quest Giver Tracker to the Radar (Including low level quests)Yes. This is in the next build (albeit not very polished yet). (Source)
Account Achievements
Account achievements are in the works. They won't be in for the launch of Lich King but they are on the horizon. (Source)
Guild Bank Tax
This is an interesting idea. We won't be able to get to this for the WotLK launch, but we are compliling a list of future guild improvements that we'd like to make in WoW. (Source)
Class changes deployment frequency during Beta TestSeriously though, it's easier for to focus on only a couple of classes at a time. We find that way we are more in sync on the direction of the class and its problems. We don't work in an environment where each person goes to their desk, throws in the talents for one class, and then we pour them all into the game. A lot of the time it's 10% actual talent implementation and 90% brainstorming and discussion.
Mages recently got a fair amount of attention and death knights always do, just because they have the most catching up to do to the years of analysis and design that's been done on the other classes.
But even then, you're more likely to see ability changes than number adjusting. We need to feel like the abilities have a chance of working out before we go into the mode of comparing everyone's dps and threat and survival in a variety of situations. The encounter design and item design need to be at that level too. We're still debating things like encounters and raid stacking will work. Think about all the changes: many stats are universal now (meaning melee hit and spell hit are the same as far as items are concerned), most buffs affect the entire raid, we're trying to offer fewer very specialized items as random drops, etc. etc. It ends up being a lot of changes all with ramifications for every class. (Source)
Raid Composition in WotLK
Class design isn't done. We are shooting for more parity. Nobody should get a raid spot because their one talent brings a huge dps (or mana or healing or health) benefit to the raid that no other spec can provide. (Source)
QuantumPion
Diamond Member
- Jun 27, 2005
- 6,010
- 1
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