Aspects, auras, Survival Instinct off GCD; new aspect
by Eliah Hecht 
Oct 16th 2008 at 11:00AM
Yes, it's true. The following will now be off the global cooldown in Wrath of the Lich King, but will have a 1-second cooldown of their own to switch between them:
The new Druid talent Survival Instincts is also being taken off the GCD, which I can really appreciate - tanking gets quite frenetic.
But that's not all! After putting aspects off the GCD, the devs decided they weren't happy about how it made you feel like you had to "stance-dance" to Monkey every time someone came into melee range. So they're introducing a whole new aspect: Aspect of the Dragonhawk, which combines the benefits Monkey and Hawk into one aspect. This spell will be learned at level 75 and 80, instead of learning new ranks of Hawk. The idea, says Ghostcrawler, is that you'll never cast Hawk or Monkey again after 75; you'll just use Dragonhawk for fighting and Viper when you need some mana back.
I have mixed reactions to this change. It'll be nice for hunters, who already have enough spells to deal with between shots, melee, traps, pet skills, etc. However, it seems like they might as well just make +AP and +dodge built in to Hunters, remove Monkey, Hawk, and Dragonhawk, and put a penalty on Viper corresponding to the now-innate +AP/+dodge. The whole Aspects system has always felt a bit half-baked to me, to be honest. Also, I'm not quite sold on the Dragonhawk name, but I guess it's better than "Monkeyhawk."
Filed under: Druid, Hunter, Paladin, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Pantyraider Oct 16th 2008 11:10AM
Monkeyhawk would have been better.
lechium Oct 16th 2008 11:12AM
so does this mean the Glyph of Aspect of the Monkey will be changed to accomodate the new aspect? Or will there be a new glyph? I hope they change it cuz i just paid 200g for the Glyph and now it will be worthless at level 75
Calamus Oct 16th 2008 11:18AM
According to Ghostcrawler in OP, "Any talent or glyph that affects either Hawk or Monkey also affects Dragonhawk the same way" so its all good.
Caustik Oct 16th 2008 12:04PM
200g for a glyph?
I've prefered to wait a few weeks before buying some \o/
Lemons Oct 16th 2008 2:43PM
for me, I can make 200 gold in about 2 hours so I will not be waiting to get my glyphs.
PeeWee Oct 16th 2008 8:20PM
2 hours for 200 gold?
Well, some people do fall asleep when they do their dailies. That might be the cause of the slow money generation. =P
Nirtxed Oct 16th 2008 11:17AM
Hope they give it a decent animation.
Xero Oct 16th 2008 11:16AM
WTF... Seriously, take Water Shield of of GCD as well. Instant shots, No GCD Aspects (some of them), pally auras... Water shield should be just the same as a Pally aura with no GCD especially because we have to recast it every 4-5 heals since it now consumes on crits.
Farfromout Oct 16th 2008 11:19AM
WoW Insider?
More like Hunter Insider...
G Oct 16th 2008 1:56PM
I don't even know her!
(And fail.)
BooDizz Oct 16th 2008 6:46PM
agreed, wowinsider is kinda turning into a hunter blog
Kyudo Oct 16th 2008 11:19AM
Agreed, Eliah.
Aspects are almost a pointless necessity. I second your idea of innate AP/Dodge!
Let's get a blue post in here. ;-)
P.S. Trueshot Aura passive once attained? :P
Nick S Oct 16th 2008 11:25AM
"The whole Aspects system has always felt a bit half-baked to me, to be honest."
I'm glad I'm not the only person who feels this way.
At least 2 of my Aspects only get used on single boss fights (Wild and Monkey, on Hydross and Bloodboil, respectively.) If they scrapped the whole system and did something else, I wouldn't be too upset.
Taking Aspects off the GCD was a good call. Now let's see something to make Disengage worthwhile... (hint: slow the target you're bouncing off of?)
gesslar Oct 16th 2008 2:20PM
wingclip, disengage
will all-in-one abilities would be cool, i think creative uses (of which this isn't one) of existing abilities should be explored, first. or lay a frost trap.
or disengage into lava, whatever! :D
Nick S Oct 16th 2008 5:41PM
Wing Clip (1.5 seconds of Rogue DPS)
Disengage (Neatly in Shadow Step range.)
You are dead.
zappo Oct 16th 2008 11:25AM
It's sort of sad to see how many paladins NEVER switch auras. If you're all fighting a fire elemental then why wouldn't you turn on the FR aura? I've also seen two paladins in a group with the same aura turned on a few times. I think a lot of people give up some of the versatility that a paladin offers and just go on autopilot. They just turn on devotion aura (which used to be rather bad) and give everyone kings. Doubt the GCD will change anything, but I'm fairly happy about it.
Malkeior Oct 16th 2008 11:39AM
Auras aren't worth the GCD hit so long as you're DPSing in PvP and 2 paladins having the same aura in a BG are most likely going to wind up out of range of each other.
Athary Oct 16th 2008 11:54AM
This is probably due to the number of buffs we have to handle. If you don't have an add-on to help out, and you're just running a quick 5-man, sometimes its easier to throw up Kings and leave a default aura on, especially if you have more than one pally, and then it becomes the dance of the who-buffs-who with what. It can become a headache. It doesn't help that prior to 3.0.2 the main auras (devo and ret) didn't scale brilliantly, and only occaisonally were the others useful.
Not that I agree with not using your class to its fullest extent, or being aware of strategy. Just saying, sometimes it is a headache:( . And now we have Hands! Eeep.
NoTomorrow Oct 16th 2008 11:27AM
Can warriors get stances off the GCD? Plz?
Kthxbai.
NoTomorrow Oct 16th 2008 11:35AM
Ack, just remembered they already are. Sorry fir me stupid comment. Please -1 my first post :-)