One of my firsts posts talked about how Blizzard wanted to expand the use of all the talent trees of all the classes. Make Frost Mages and Affliction Locks viable in PvP. Bring back daggers as useful weapons for Rogues. Stuff like that.
And in my mind, this was never going to reach the Protection trees. Why would Blizz ever want Prot Warriors/Paladins PvPing? But hey, I guess they do. Ghostcrawler's words:
"It would be awesome if some day Arms was the 2H tree, Fury was the DW tree, and Prot was the sword and board tree." (source)
In the same post, GC talks about how Prot PvP is an opportunity to use your shield as a weapon:
"One of the designers mentioned the movie Gladiator the other day. Watch how Maximus uses his shield -- he isn't cowering behind it -- he's bashing people in the face with it. Shields should be a viable form of combat, not the option to avoid combat."
We know based off reports from beta Warriors that Prot definetly has gotten a damage boost in Wrath, and we all have seen first-hand the absurdity of Prot Paladins AoE grinding their Hemet Nessingwary quests and SSO dailies.
So, Prot in PvP. There's a potential problem in having the tanking classes doing the PvP, and it's a problem that Blizzard is definetly aware of and is taking care of to make the Prot trees more viable in Arenas and such. Now, if in Burning Crusade, you were to drag a Prot Warrior into your 5s games, he would serve you no purpose. When the other team knows you're just this guy with a shield that soaks up damage but poses no real threat, suddenly you're the last one to die, because nobody cares.
While Protection players may be doing more damage, they're never going to let them do as much damage as a proper DPS class; we all know that. So how does one go about making a talent spec like this work in PvP?
Simple: make Prot Warriors/Paladins super annoying. Give them tools that protect their allies. Give enemy players a reason to kill them other than the fact that they're doing wicked burst damage or they're a Resto Druid. And we know that the devs are thinking about this. From the same post GC made on Prot Warriors:
"Prot has a long way to go before it's more PvP viable, but maybe, just maybe there could be a tree where control and survivability were an alternative to just bigger damage. It may not happen this expansion, but it's a step in that direction."
In Wrath, the Prot tree for Warriors saw a lot of new talents that give it a PvP side. I don't know a lot about Warriors, but I can pretty clearly pick out talents that look like they're strictly for PvP rather than PvE. Let's go through some of those right now:
Improved Spell Reflection: this is an interesting one, because to me it implies that if in a group, you may have to give up using SR on yourself, which can be a good or a bad thing. Depends on the situation. It sounds great though; imagine SRing a Shatter Frostbolt headed for a teammate. That could add an interesting dynamic for casters who like to do the wicked burst crits and such, when they know that their target has a Prot Warrior buddy nearby.
Concussion Blow: this ability has always been in the game, but to me it looks like it never would have had use in raids anyway. And now it has a damage component to make it better. *coughDeepFreezecough*
Gag Order: Heroic Throw is the Warrior's Level 80 ability; a free weapon throw based on AP on a one-minute cooldown. So provided the cooldown is up (and it's not too long), that's a free spell interrupt when stuck at range, or any time you want.
Vigilance: I've decided this gets its own post, because I have many much thoughts about it.
Safeguard: sounds good in both a PvP and PvE context.
Warbringer: I've dueled Warriors with this on the PTR, and its insane. It's exactly what Warriors have always needed; a way out of roots. Fury is getting a similar skill in the form of Heroic Fury, which breaks roots and allows you to immedietly Intercept.
Shockwave: Shockwave is an AoE tanking solution for Warriors in Wrath, but to me it sounds like a wicked PvP stun as well.
--------------------
Like I said before, I don't know a lot about Warriors; I know how a lot of their skills work but I don't have firsthand experience with the class. Well, I do up to level 11 or so. Maybe 12. I'm not really into melee classes, although I do have the Enhancement Shaman at 45.
That being said, I think Protection Warriors could be wicked in Arenas. Oh, and Protection Paladins? Man, who knows. Let's take a gander at their tree for a sec.
Divine Guardian: that's pretty cool, considering it comes at no cost to the Paladin.
Hmmm.... what else....
HMMMMM......
Improved Hammer of Justice? Touched by the Light?! Dude, I don't know. I once dueled my brother, who is a really good Tankadin, on my Boomkin, and I kicked his butt. Obviously it wasn't really a fair fight, since he's tank spec and all. I don't actually see much here compared to the Warrior side of things. Call me unfit to write a blog about classes I haven't played.
Showing posts with label paladins. Show all posts
Showing posts with label paladins. Show all posts
Monday, October 13, 2008
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
You won't like these changes
Says Mr. Jeffrey Kaplan on the beta boards. I guess they pulled down the servers without the fifteen-minute warning. Whoops! From part of his post on what's in this build (and what will be in future builds):
"You won't like the ones [class changes] made to your own class but you'll think the changes made to the 9 other classes are all overpowered."
Luckily I don't see much in the way of wild sweeping changes. Here's what I found.
Druids
Typhoon range has been extended from 20 to 30 yards.
Insect Swarm hit chance reduction lowered from 5% to 3%. Damage increased. (1050 to 1290 for Rank 7, 792 to 1032 for Rank 6, etc ...)
Wrath damage has been increased. (489-551 to 553-623 for Rank 12, 414-466 to 504-568 for Rank 11, etc ...)
Stafire damage has been increased. (670-790 to 1028-1212 for Rank 10, 562-662 to 854-1006 for Rank 9, etc ...)
Great, great, great, and great. I'm fine with the tradeoff on Insect Swarm, especially when we get what looks like roughly a 20% damage increase.
Eclipse now increase your critical strike chance with Starfire by 15%. (up from 10%)
Oh, wait, Eclipse still sucks!
You can now cast Innervate while in Tree of Life Form
Good for Drooood healers. I didn't know it wasn't castable in Tree form, but it's something Tree Druids use, so that's great.
Mages
Arcane Blast cost is now increased by 200% for each cast. (Down from 300%)
As it turns out this ain't no typo. They don't want people spamming Arcane Blast. Here's the thing though: if they're going to make the principle mechanic of the spell useless, why don't they just remove it? Give the spell a 3 second cooldown.
Paladins
Hammer of Justice now also interrupts the spellcasting for 3 seconds on all ranks.
Hmmm.... this seems.... useless? The only scenario where I can think of this being useful is if you were to HoJ a Mage out of his Arcane tree, preventing him from Blinking out of the stun. But because the stun is longer than the lockout, unless you're going to trinket/EMFH/etc out of the stun, what good is it going to do? Even if you were to escape the stun early, it's a super-short lockout.
Rogues
Opportunity now works all the time. (Old - Only increased the damage of attacks from behind)
That's a pretty wicked boost for Assassination builds now that Mutilate doesn't require you to be behind your target.
Shaman
Stoneclaw totem also protects your other totems, causing them to absorb damage.
The highest-rank Stoneclaw Totem has over 1600 health on it, and coupled with the stun chance that makes for a longer-lasting totem. Only problem: using it in PvP locks out the use of SoE+GoA and the new talent-able Earthbind. But hey, at least it prevents stuff from being one-shot, and the more time someone's pet spends hitting your Stoneclaw Totem and getting stunned, the less time they spend on you. And you can drop it every 30 seconds!
I wonder if all this goes up on the PTRs. Last I checked it did, sans the Northrend content obviously. Still haven't renewed my subscription. I'll get to it eventually...
"You won't like the ones [class changes] made to your own class but you'll think the changes made to the 9 other classes are all overpowered."
Luckily I don't see much in the way of wild sweeping changes. Here's what I found.
Druids
Typhoon range has been extended from 20 to 30 yards.
Insect Swarm hit chance reduction lowered from 5% to 3%. Damage increased. (1050 to 1290 for Rank 7, 792 to 1032 for Rank 6, etc ...)
Wrath damage has been increased. (489-551 to 553-623 for Rank 12, 414-466 to 504-568 for Rank 11, etc ...)
Stafire damage has been increased. (670-790 to 1028-1212 for Rank 10, 562-662 to 854-1006 for Rank 9, etc ...)
Great, great, great, and great. I'm fine with the tradeoff on Insect Swarm, especially when we get what looks like roughly a 20% damage increase.
Eclipse now increase your critical strike chance with Starfire by 15%. (up from 10%)
Oh, wait, Eclipse still sucks!
You can now cast Innervate while in Tree of Life Form
Good for Drooood healers. I didn't know it wasn't castable in Tree form, but it's something Tree Druids use, so that's great.
Mages
Arcane Blast cost is now increased by 200% for each cast. (Down from 300%)
As it turns out this ain't no typo. They don't want people spamming Arcane Blast. Here's the thing though: if they're going to make the principle mechanic of the spell useless, why don't they just remove it? Give the spell a 3 second cooldown.
Paladins
Hammer of Justice now also interrupts the spellcasting for 3 seconds on all ranks.
Hmmm.... this seems.... useless? The only scenario where I can think of this being useful is if you were to HoJ a Mage out of his Arcane tree, preventing him from Blinking out of the stun. But because the stun is longer than the lockout, unless you're going to trinket/EMFH/etc out of the stun, what good is it going to do? Even if you were to escape the stun early, it's a super-short lockout.
Rogues
Opportunity now works all the time. (Old - Only increased the damage of attacks from behind)
That's a pretty wicked boost for Assassination builds now that Mutilate doesn't require you to be behind your target.
Shaman
Stoneclaw totem also protects your other totems, causing them to absorb damage.
The highest-rank Stoneclaw Totem has over 1600 health on it, and coupled with the stun chance that makes for a longer-lasting totem. Only problem: using it in PvP locks out the use of SoE+GoA and the new talent-able Earthbind. But hey, at least it prevents stuff from being one-shot, and the more time someone's pet spends hitting your Stoneclaw Totem and getting stunned, the less time they spend on you. And you can drop it every 30 seconds!
I wonder if all this goes up on the PTRs. Last I checked it did, sans the Northrend content obviously. Still haven't renewed my subscription. I'll get to it eventually...
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Pushback talents suffer
There's a widespread change happening to the way pushback talents work. We already know about the change to continued spell pushback; while casting a regular spell (Frostbolt, Arcane Blast), the first two hits against you will increase the spell's cast time by 0.5 seconds. However, after the second hit, every other hit after that will be pushback-free for the remainder of the cast.
While channeling a spell (Blizzard, Arcane Missiles), damaging attacks will cut the total time channeled by 25% (that would be 2 seconds per hit while channeling Blizzard, and 1.25 seconds off your Arcane Missiles, effectively removing one missile from your spell). Like regular spellcasting, you will only suffer pushback twice while channeling a spell.
Now, another change has been made to talents that offer[ed] pushback resistance. Pretty much every caster class has talents that increase your chance to resist spell pushback; many of these spells give you a 70% resist chance. Obviously these talents are very useful, especially in PvP. However, all of these talents have been changed; instead of giving you x% chance to fully resist pushback, instead they reduce the amount of pushback suffered by x%. I suppose that means if normally an attack would increase a spell's duration by 0.5 sec (for a total of 1 extra second of cast time), 70% less pushback would mean only 0.15 sec added to the cast time (for a total of 0.3 sec).
Talents affected by this change include:
Nature's Focus for Balance/Resto Druids
Improved Barrage for Marks Hunters
Arcane Stability for Arcane Mages and Burning Soul for Fire Mages; note that because Arcane Stability is 100% anyway, there's no real change to how the talent works when maxed out.
Spiritual Focus for Holy Paladins
Healing Focus for Holy Priests and Improved Shadowform for Shadow Priests
Eye of the Storm for Ele Shaman and Healing Focus for Resto Shaman; note that EotS didn't offer pushback resistance in Burning Crusade.
Fel Concentration for Affliction Locks and Intensity for Destro Locks
When I first heard about the changes to spell/channeling pushback, my intial thoughts were this: if you're casting a fast spell, it won't matter because you won't get to three hits anyway, and if you're casting a slightly slower spell, it won't matter because by the time you reach pushback immunity at three hits, whatever melee class is beating on you is going to find a way to interrupt your spell or otherwise screw you.
I'm sure the changes to pushback talents exsist because Blizzard is hesitant to grant casters nearly complete pushback immunity: with a 70% chance to fully resist pushback, and only two chances to be pushed back per cast, that's a really good chance to experience no pushback on most of your spells. So instead, with talents you only get 0.15 seconds per hit on your spells, which really doesn't sound bad.
I have a caster Druid with Nature's Focus, and I have a Mage I could spec back into the Fire tree and Burning Soul. I need to get on the PTR and do some random soloing and try this out. Theoretically I'm against the change to pushback talents, but maybe I'll find it doesn't actually mean much anyway.
But before I can do that, I need a new card. Account expired on Friday. Gotta see that Brewfest! I let my account expire during Children's Week, which made me sad :( No mini Elekk for me.
While channeling a spell (Blizzard, Arcane Missiles), damaging attacks will cut the total time channeled by 25% (that would be 2 seconds per hit while channeling Blizzard, and 1.25 seconds off your Arcane Missiles, effectively removing one missile from your spell). Like regular spellcasting, you will only suffer pushback twice while channeling a spell.
Now, another change has been made to talents that offer[ed] pushback resistance. Pretty much every caster class has talents that increase your chance to resist spell pushback; many of these spells give you a 70% resist chance. Obviously these talents are very useful, especially in PvP. However, all of these talents have been changed; instead of giving you x% chance to fully resist pushback, instead they reduce the amount of pushback suffered by x%. I suppose that means if normally an attack would increase a spell's duration by 0.5 sec (for a total of 1 extra second of cast time), 70% less pushback would mean only 0.15 sec added to the cast time (for a total of 0.3 sec).
Talents affected by this change include:
Nature's Focus for Balance/Resto Druids
Improved Barrage for Marks Hunters
Arcane Stability for Arcane Mages and Burning Soul for Fire Mages; note that because Arcane Stability is 100% anyway, there's no real change to how the talent works when maxed out.
Spiritual Focus for Holy Paladins
Healing Focus for Holy Priests and Improved Shadowform for Shadow Priests
Eye of the Storm for Ele Shaman and Healing Focus for Resto Shaman; note that EotS didn't offer pushback resistance in Burning Crusade.
Fel Concentration for Affliction Locks and Intensity for Destro Locks
When I first heard about the changes to spell/channeling pushback, my intial thoughts were this: if you're casting a fast spell, it won't matter because you won't get to three hits anyway, and if you're casting a slightly slower spell, it won't matter because by the time you reach pushback immunity at three hits, whatever melee class is beating on you is going to find a way to interrupt your spell or otherwise screw you.
I'm sure the changes to pushback talents exsist because Blizzard is hesitant to grant casters nearly complete pushback immunity: with a 70% chance to fully resist pushback, and only two chances to be pushed back per cast, that's a really good chance to experience no pushback on most of your spells. So instead, with talents you only get 0.15 seconds per hit on your spells, which really doesn't sound bad.
I have a caster Druid with Nature's Focus, and I have a Mage I could spec back into the Fire tree and Burning Soul. I need to get on the PTR and do some random soloing and try this out. Theoretically I'm against the change to pushback talents, but maybe I'll find it doesn't actually mean much anyway.
But before I can do that, I need a new card. Account expired on Friday. Gotta see that Brewfest! I let my account expire during Children's Week, which made me sad :( No mini Elekk for me.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Build 8962 notes
Problem: I have the first article in a series of articles about my Balance Druid talent tree, but there's been probably 4 or 5 builds worth of changes to that tree, many things I'd like to stick in mine. So I might as well just throw out that post, update my tree (with my new ideas and what Blizz has done), and start over. THAT will sure be fun.
Let's talk Boomkins, and then anything else that catches my interest. All of this comes from MMO-Champion.
Druid: Balance
Earth and Moon (Tier 10) changed so your Wrath and Starfire spells have a 100% chance to apply the Earth and Moon effect. It now also increases your spell damage by 1/2/3/4/5%. (Previously had a 20/40/60/80/100% chance to apply the Earth and Moon Effect)
We like more spell damage, but the spell damage was probably added to incentivize going 5/5 in the talent; previously most people probably would have saved 2 talent points by going 3/5 for a 60% proc rate.
Eclipse (Tier 9) changed so when you critically hit with Starfire, you have a 33/66/100% chance of increasing damage done by Wrath by 10%. (Previously 20/40/60% chance)
Eclipse still sucks, and that's all. I might give this talent its own post, because I have ideas for how to make it better.
Improved Moonkin Aura (Tier 7) gives 3% spell haste for all ranks and now you gain 5/10/15% of your spirit as additional spell damage.
I was hoping for Spirit to Spell Crit, but a blue post on the Druid boards says that they think that's too much crit, dangit. But only fifteen percent? If Druids have 400 Spirit, that's only 60 spell damage. Maybe they'll have more than that, but give them 100 more Spirit and the damage increase still isn't much.
Improved Faerie Fire (Tier 7) increases your critical strike chance against targets afflicted with Faerie Fire by 1/2/3%.
We like crit, but I'll leave it to the theorycrafters to determine if the mana and global cooldown lost on keeping FF up will justify the additional crit. And is it your personal crit chance or is it the crit chance for the whole raid? They should clarify the tooltip.
Nature's Splendor (Tier 3) changed to - When you cast Moonfire, Insect Swarm, Rejuvenation, Regrowth or Lifebloom you have a 33/66/100% chance to increase it's duration by 3 sec.
Makes more sense than the old way, considering most periodic spells tick every 3 seconds, except Lifebloom.
Druid: Restoration
Gift of the Wild now affects the whole raid.
We like this; less reagents when buffing the raid. Not that uh, I've ever been in a group larger than five people.
Lifebloom healing reduced. Mana cost increased. (Check Skill list for details)
Oh noes! More nerfs to Lifebloom. Yet Another Blue Post I may need to talk about is the one about the shift Blizz wants to make in Druid healing. They want it to be less reliant on Lifebloom; they want to get Druids out of the "roll LB + place HoTs in between" thing. Also, apparently the healing coefficients on Lifebloom when BC launched were too high. So it's a total accident that Druids are good healers, basically.
Flourish renamed Wild Growth.
Whhhaaat? That's my sweet Herbalism heal. That I can use in Moonkin Form.
Wild Growth renamed Lifeblood. Lame! That's a name that is dumb I think.
Druid: Feral
Glyph of Swipe has been removed.
IIRC (and hey, who checks facts these days?), Glyph of Swipe upped the number of targets hit by a Swipe from 3 to 4, which sounds really good. Instead, we get this...
Glyph of Maul has been added - Your Maul ability now hits 1 additional target.
I don't get it. I haven't Bear tanked on my Druid since Zul'Farak, but I'm pretty sure I spammed Swipe most of the time. Which, you know, may or may not be how you "AoE tank," but it worked good enough for me. So why are they giving the Bear tanks two methods of hitting more than one dude? Like I said, maybe I'm out of my mind, but I would think most Ferals would rather have a 4-target swipe than a 2-target Maul.
Mage: Arcane
Arcane Blast changed. Each time you cast Arcane Blast, the damage is increased by 15% and mana cost is increased by 300%. (Previously 25% damage increase and 75% mana increase, but the 300% is most likely a typo and should be 30%)
Ha ha. I wonder if that typo reflects in-game? Probably not, but I would like to see the numbers for that.
Mage: Fire
Flamestrike mana cost reduced and is now a 2 sec cast. (Previously 3 sec cast)
This might make the Firestarter talent more attractive.
Mage: Frost
Frozen Core (Tier 5) now reduces damage taken by all spells. (Previously only affected fire and frost)
This seemed like a useless talent before, when it only mitigated Fire and Frost damage.
Shatter (Tier 4) is now 3 ranks. It increases the critical strike chance of all your spells against frozen targets by 17/34/50%. (Previously 5 ranks and increased by 10/20/30/40/50%)
Ice Shards (Tier 2) is now 3 ranks. It increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Frost spells by 33/66/100%. (Previously 5 ranks and increased by 20/40/60/80/100%)
We like the condensing of talents, especially the "necessary" talents that Blizzard is trying to cut down on. Simply cutting down on the point cost works great.
Paladin: Glyphs
Glyph of Turn Evil now Reduces the casting time of your Turn Evil spell by 100%. (Old - Reduces the cooldown on Turn Evil by 5 sec.)
Chain-fear those dang Metamorphisizeded Warlocks!
Priest: Shadow
Dispersion (Tier 11) changed to - You disperse into pure Shadow energy, reducing all damage taken by 90%. You are unable to attack or cast spells, but you regenerate 6% mana every 1 sec for 6 sec. Dispersion can be cast while stunned, feared or silenced. If Dispersion runs its full duration, and you are not the victim of any damage or harmful effects during its duration, your spells gain 25% damage for 1 min.
So it's like Barkskin now, but way better in terms of damage reduction. And the spell damage will make it better for grouping, since 6 sec. without damage is probably 6 sec. too much for a lot of people.
Rogue: Assassination
Ambush damage increased. (Check skill list for details)
Rogues rejoice!
Focused Attacks (Tier 8) gives your melee critical strikes 100% chance to generate 1/2/3 Energy. (Previously 30% chance)
Still doesn't sound good; it should be at least 10 energy. Rather, 10 energy with a low proc rate.
Rogue: Combat
Backstab damage increased. (Check skill list for details)
Rogues continue to rejoice...
Shaman: Enhancement
*New Talent* Earthen Power (Tier 9) - Your Earthbind Totem has a 50/100% chance to also remove all snare effects from you and nearby friendly targets when it pulses.
That's pretty neat.
Warlock: Glyphs
Glyph of Unending Breath - Increases the swim speed of targets affected by your Unending Breath spell by 20%.
Why do Shaman still have to spend a reagent for the same effect?
Warrior: Fury
*New Talent* Heroic Fury (Tier 9) - Removes any Immobilization effects and refreshes the cooldown of your Intercept ability. (45 Sec Cooldown)
This makes casters sad, but it's something PVP Warriors have really needed.
Warrior: Protection
Tactical Mastery has been moved to Tier 2 Arms.
Makes more sense there.
Well, that's all I see that's interesting. Because, you know, I just kinda skimmed it.
WHAT'S THIS?!
*New Skill* Freezing Arrow (Level 80) - Fire a freezing arrow that places a Freezing Trap at the target location, freezing the first enemy that approaches, preventing all action for up to 20 sec. Any damage caused will break the ice. Trap will exist for . Only one trap can be active at a time. (3% of base mana, 40 yd range, Instant cast, 30 sec cooldown)
That's pretty neat. That's really neat. Based on some forum browsin', the only problem is you have to use the target cirlce. And as we all know, aiming a targeting circle in PVP is usually coupled with fail, as you're either standing still while you aim it or your running backwards useless or something like that. I'm sure they won't make it a direct target; that would be too easy.
Let's talk Boomkins, and then anything else that catches my interest. All of this comes from MMO-Champion.
Druid: Balance
Earth and Moon (Tier 10) changed so your Wrath and Starfire spells have a 100% chance to apply the Earth and Moon effect. It now also increases your spell damage by 1/2/3/4/5%. (Previously had a 20/40/60/80/100% chance to apply the Earth and Moon Effect)
We like more spell damage, but the spell damage was probably added to incentivize going 5/5 in the talent; previously most people probably would have saved 2 talent points by going 3/5 for a 60% proc rate.
Eclipse (Tier 9) changed so when you critically hit with Starfire, you have a 33/66/100% chance of increasing damage done by Wrath by 10%. (Previously 20/40/60% chance)
Eclipse still sucks, and that's all. I might give this talent its own post, because I have ideas for how to make it better.
Improved Moonkin Aura (Tier 7) gives 3% spell haste for all ranks and now you gain 5/10/15% of your spirit as additional spell damage.
I was hoping for Spirit to Spell Crit, but a blue post on the Druid boards says that they think that's too much crit, dangit. But only fifteen percent? If Druids have 400 Spirit, that's only 60 spell damage. Maybe they'll have more than that, but give them 100 more Spirit and the damage increase still isn't much.
Improved Faerie Fire (Tier 7) increases your critical strike chance against targets afflicted with Faerie Fire by 1/2/3%.
We like crit, but I'll leave it to the theorycrafters to determine if the mana and global cooldown lost on keeping FF up will justify the additional crit. And is it your personal crit chance or is it the crit chance for the whole raid? They should clarify the tooltip.
Nature's Splendor (Tier 3) changed to - When you cast Moonfire, Insect Swarm, Rejuvenation, Regrowth or Lifebloom you have a 33/66/100% chance to increase it's duration by 3 sec.
Makes more sense than the old way, considering most periodic spells tick every 3 seconds, except Lifebloom.
Druid: Restoration
Gift of the Wild now affects the whole raid.
We like this; less reagents when buffing the raid. Not that uh, I've ever been in a group larger than five people.
Lifebloom healing reduced. Mana cost increased. (Check Skill list for details)
Oh noes! More nerfs to Lifebloom. Yet Another Blue Post I may need to talk about is the one about the shift Blizz wants to make in Druid healing. They want it to be less reliant on Lifebloom; they want to get Druids out of the "roll LB + place HoTs in between" thing. Also, apparently the healing coefficients on Lifebloom when BC launched were too high. So it's a total accident that Druids are good healers, basically.
Flourish renamed Wild Growth.
Whhhaaat? That's my sweet Herbalism heal. That I can use in Moonkin Form.
Wild Growth renamed Lifeblood. Lame! That's a name that is dumb I think.
Druid: Feral
Glyph of Swipe has been removed.
IIRC (and hey, who checks facts these days?), Glyph of Swipe upped the number of targets hit by a Swipe from 3 to 4, which sounds really good. Instead, we get this...
Glyph of Maul has been added - Your Maul ability now hits 1 additional target.
I don't get it. I haven't Bear tanked on my Druid since Zul'Farak, but I'm pretty sure I spammed Swipe most of the time. Which, you know, may or may not be how you "AoE tank," but it worked good enough for me. So why are they giving the Bear tanks two methods of hitting more than one dude? Like I said, maybe I'm out of my mind, but I would think most Ferals would rather have a 4-target swipe than a 2-target Maul.
Mage: Arcane
Arcane Blast changed. Each time you cast Arcane Blast, the damage is increased by 15% and mana cost is increased by 300%. (Previously 25% damage increase and 75% mana increase, but the 300% is most likely a typo and should be 30%)
Ha ha. I wonder if that typo reflects in-game? Probably not, but I would like to see the numbers for that.
Mage: Fire
Flamestrike mana cost reduced and is now a 2 sec cast. (Previously 3 sec cast)
This might make the Firestarter talent more attractive.
Mage: Frost
Frozen Core (Tier 5) now reduces damage taken by all spells. (Previously only affected fire and frost)
This seemed like a useless talent before, when it only mitigated Fire and Frost damage.
Shatter (Tier 4) is now 3 ranks. It increases the critical strike chance of all your spells against frozen targets by 17/34/50%. (Previously 5 ranks and increased by 10/20/30/40/50%)
Ice Shards (Tier 2) is now 3 ranks. It increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Frost spells by 33/66/100%. (Previously 5 ranks and increased by 20/40/60/80/100%)
We like the condensing of talents, especially the "necessary" talents that Blizzard is trying to cut down on. Simply cutting down on the point cost works great.
Paladin: Glyphs
Glyph of Turn Evil now Reduces the casting time of your Turn Evil spell by 100%. (Old - Reduces the cooldown on Turn Evil by 5 sec.)
Chain-fear those dang Metamorphisizeded Warlocks!
Priest: Shadow
Dispersion (Tier 11) changed to - You disperse into pure Shadow energy, reducing all damage taken by 90%. You are unable to attack or cast spells, but you regenerate 6% mana every 1 sec for 6 sec. Dispersion can be cast while stunned, feared or silenced. If Dispersion runs its full duration, and you are not the victim of any damage or harmful effects during its duration, your spells gain 25% damage for 1 min.
So it's like Barkskin now, but way better in terms of damage reduction. And the spell damage will make it better for grouping, since 6 sec. without damage is probably 6 sec. too much for a lot of people.
Rogue: Assassination
Ambush damage increased. (Check skill list for details)
Rogues rejoice!
Focused Attacks (Tier 8) gives your melee critical strikes 100% chance to generate 1/2/3 Energy. (Previously 30% chance)
Still doesn't sound good; it should be at least 10 energy. Rather, 10 energy with a low proc rate.
Rogue: Combat
Backstab damage increased. (Check skill list for details)
Rogues continue to rejoice...
Shaman: Enhancement
*New Talent* Earthen Power (Tier 9) - Your Earthbind Totem has a 50/100% chance to also remove all snare effects from you and nearby friendly targets when it pulses.
That's pretty neat.
Warlock: Glyphs
Glyph of Unending Breath - Increases the swim speed of targets affected by your Unending Breath spell by 20%.
Why do Shaman still have to spend a reagent for the same effect?
Warrior: Fury
*New Talent* Heroic Fury (Tier 9) - Removes any Immobilization effects and refreshes the cooldown of your Intercept ability. (45 Sec Cooldown)
This makes casters sad, but it's something PVP Warriors have really needed.
Warrior: Protection
Tactical Mastery has been moved to Tier 2 Arms.
Makes more sense there.
Well, that's all I see that's interesting. Because, you know, I just kinda skimmed it.
WHAT'S THIS?!
*New Skill* Freezing Arrow (Level 80) - Fire a freezing arrow that places a Freezing Trap at the target location, freezing the first enemy that approaches, preventing all action for up to 20 sec. Any damage caused will break the ice. Trap will exist for . Only one trap can be active at a time. (3% of base mana, 40 yd range, Instant cast, 30 sec cooldown)
That's pretty neat. That's really neat. Based on some forum browsin', the only problem is you have to use the target cirlce. And as we all know, aiming a targeting circle in PVP is usually coupled with fail, as you're either standing still while you aim it or your running backwards useless or something like that. I'm sure they won't make it a direct target; that would be too easy.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Establishing Goals
News flash: I had a really, really, long post going, and then it vanished. See, I didn't have the foresight to periodically save my Notepad, especially while writing it on a frequently unstable laptop that wasn't plugged in. Usually it warns me the battery is about to run dry, but its day came to screw me over... sort of. I guess I screwed myself over. I'll get back to that topic later.
But, before I write anything more about talent philosiphy, I might as well take it back to square one. Eventually I'll be getting into the what, but I'd best start with the why. Why ever would Blizzard be rethinking the way they change the way they think about talent design?Let's look at some of their primary goals with Wrath and beyond in terms of talent trees. A lot of these points work together in some way. Blizzard wants to...
1. Try and make talent specs less cookie-cutter, and thus
2. Make talents more about customization and less about
3. Necessity. So they want to cut down on the amount of talents popularly deemed "necessary."
4. Make more talents that are "active" rather than "passive."
5. Make all trees viable in PVE and PVP.
I'll talk about these one by one, with blue posts that discuss the same topic. Provided I can find them...
--------------------
I think in many ways, all emerging talent tree design changes go back to the first point. Blizzard really wants players to do interesting things with talent specs. Is that going to stop min/maxing? No. And min/maxing isn't really a bad thing by any means.
Blue poster Koraa on "talent bloat:"
"Bloat: Bloat is another word for "I can't have everything I want!". We want every class to feel their tree is "bloated" to a degree. We want classes to have to make choices and sacrifices over good talents, because that is ultimately what makes talents interesting. If it weren't that way, we would just make it a linear progression without any choices. That said, if you feel the flow of the talents makes you spend points in something that doesn't necessarily benefit you what that build is for (i.e. spending too many "PvE" talents for a PvP build), then that can be addressed." (source)
--------------------
In wanting to make talent trees more about customization, the devs feel they need to cut down on the number of "necessary" talents. In a PVE setting, you'd call a necessary talent generally one that boosts whatever it is you do: damage, tank, or heal. Every tree has these talents; a lot of them come in 10%s. It's those chunky five-point talents that everyone needs for their build.
On the Paladin boards, Ghostcrawler has set up dedicated threads for all three of the Paladin trees, asking for feedback on all talents in that tree. Which talents do people feel are necessary? Which talents do people skip every time in any scenario?
A tanking tree obviously helps you tank better; we all know that. What Blizzard doesn't want is a tree full of different talents that all basically amount to "mo' mitigation." More healing. More damage. Whatever. All them passive talents that just give you number-ey benefits, if such a term exsists. They want more interesting, more "active" abilities in trees that make whatever it is your doing, indeed, more interesting.
Emphasis could be placed on PVE, where in many cases you're pressing a lot of the same buttons.
From the first part of the Prot tree feedback thread:
"We are about ready to do our next major pass on the Paladin trees.
We think Prot does have too many mandatory talents, and too many talents that offer passive mitigation without other interesting mechanics or even dps. This thread is a great opportunity to discuss the tree and offer your feedback.
For purposes of this thread, the kinds of feedback that are useful:
-- Which talents are fun vs. which ones aren't
-- Areas in the tree that tie up too many talent points vs. areas that feel barren
-- Talents that feel mandatory vs. talents that feel fun but optional vs. talents you'd never get" (source)
For a later post, I'm going to get into active vs. passive talents, and what the difference is in PVE and PVP. Like, in PVE you can guess pretty easy what "essential" talents might be, but is it as quantifiable in the PVP environment?
--------------------
There's a few problems with my writing "style." One is I tend to start paragraphs with words like "also" a lot. Also, I tend to not know how to organise my thoughts when writing a post. And as I just did, I tend to not know how to conclude a post, and just end it abruptly. So... bye.
But, before I write anything more about talent philosiphy, I might as well take it back to square one. Eventually I'll be getting into the what, but I'd best start with the why. Why ever would Blizzard be rethinking the way they change the way they think about talent design?Let's look at some of their primary goals with Wrath and beyond in terms of talent trees. A lot of these points work together in some way. Blizzard wants to...
1. Try and make talent specs less cookie-cutter, and thus
2. Make talents more about customization and less about
3. Necessity. So they want to cut down on the amount of talents popularly deemed "necessary."
4. Make more talents that are "active" rather than "passive."
5. Make all trees viable in PVE and PVP.
I'll talk about these one by one, with blue posts that discuss the same topic. Provided I can find them...
--------------------
I think in many ways, all emerging talent tree design changes go back to the first point. Blizzard really wants players to do interesting things with talent specs. Is that going to stop min/maxing? No. And min/maxing isn't really a bad thing by any means.
Blue poster Koraa on "talent bloat:"
"Bloat: Bloat is another word for "I can't have everything I want!". We want every class to feel their tree is "bloated" to a degree. We want classes to have to make choices and sacrifices over good talents, because that is ultimately what makes talents interesting. If it weren't that way, we would just make it a linear progression without any choices. That said, if you feel the flow of the talents makes you spend points in something that doesn't necessarily benefit you what that build is for (i.e. spending too many "PvE" talents for a PvP build), then that can be addressed." (source)
--------------------
In wanting to make talent trees more about customization, the devs feel they need to cut down on the number of "necessary" talents. In a PVE setting, you'd call a necessary talent generally one that boosts whatever it is you do: damage, tank, or heal. Every tree has these talents; a lot of them come in 10%s. It's those chunky five-point talents that everyone needs for their build.
On the Paladin boards, Ghostcrawler has set up dedicated threads for all three of the Paladin trees, asking for feedback on all talents in that tree. Which talents do people feel are necessary? Which talents do people skip every time in any scenario?
A tanking tree obviously helps you tank better; we all know that. What Blizzard doesn't want is a tree full of different talents that all basically amount to "mo' mitigation." More healing. More damage. Whatever. All them passive talents that just give you number-ey benefits, if such a term exsists. They want more interesting, more "active" abilities in trees that make whatever it is your doing, indeed, more interesting.
Emphasis could be placed on PVE, where in many cases you're pressing a lot of the same buttons.
From the first part of the Prot tree feedback thread:
"We are about ready to do our next major pass on the Paladin trees.
We think Prot does have too many mandatory talents, and too many talents that offer passive mitigation without other interesting mechanics or even dps. This thread is a great opportunity to discuss the tree and offer your feedback.
For purposes of this thread, the kinds of feedback that are useful:
-- Which talents are fun vs. which ones aren't
-- Areas in the tree that tie up too many talent points vs. areas that feel barren
-- Talents that feel mandatory vs. talents that feel fun but optional vs. talents you'd never get" (source)
For a later post, I'm going to get into active vs. passive talents, and what the difference is in PVE and PVP. Like, in PVE you can guess pretty easy what "essential" talents might be, but is it as quantifiable in the PVP environment?
--------------------
There's a few problems with my writing "style." One is I tend to start paragraphs with words like "also" a lot. Also, I tend to not know how to organise my thoughts when writing a post. And as I just did, I tend to not know how to conclude a post, and just end it abruptly. So... bye.
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