Posts with tag wow-4.0

Cataclysm tanking cooldown feedback wanted

by Alex Ziebart Mar 19th 2010 at 2:00PM

Nethaera hit the forums this morning, asking for feedback from tanks around the globe. Ghostcrawler has been having a lively discussion with tanks (most specifically protection warriors) recently, and now they seem to be formalizing the discussion for the wider audience.

Nethaera

We're currently working on the tanking cooldowns for tanks in Cataclysm. We're interested in feedback from the community on what makes cooldowns fun and useful. For example, what is the sweet spot in cooldown duration between an ability with such a short cooldown that you must mash it constantly versus an ability with such a long cooldown? Which current abilities are fun? Putting aside any rose-colored glasses, were there cooldowns in Burning Crusade or classic WoW that you miss in Lich King? What, in your minds, should the role be for talents and glyphs. For example, if glyphs shouldn't reduce cooldowns, what can they do?

source

Nethaera goes on to remind people that this thread isn't the place for balance discussions necessarily, and certainly not a place to debate who's overpowered. This feedback also won't dictate exactly what the developers will do, it will simply help them make the right decisions. Do you have an opinion? Then head on over to the forums and make it known! Politely, of course.

Filed under: Blizzard, Cataclysm

The Queue: The dating game

by Alex Ziebart Mar 18th 2010 at 11:00AM

Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today.

Today's edition of The Queue is one part off-topic and two parts on-topic, but each and every part is worth it. Trust me on that one. Oh, and there's a couple more bad words than usual. You have been warned. I hope none of you are too scandalized by it.

Windswept asked...

"There is this girl I like that works at the mall, I want to ask her out but I don't know how. What would YOU do?"

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, The Queue, Cataclysm

Blizzard releases official Gnomeregan and Echo Isles Cataclysm information

by Adam Holisky Mar 17th 2010 at 1:53PM

Blizzard has released a series of background information pages on the Gnomeregan and Echo Isles campaigns to be happening with the coming Cataclysm expansion. We've known for a while that this pre-cursor world event will be happening, and it's nice to see some official information come out about it.

For those looking for the datamined material, check out the following heavy spoilers:

Of course, it's important to remember that these transcripts were taken from the PTR and could easily be changed in upcoming patches. Nothing is set in stone until it happens.

The full Blizzard announcement is as follows:

Nethaera -- An Assault on Two Fronts

High Tinker Mekkatorque, betrayed by Mekgineer Thermaplugg and forced to flee the irradiated city of Gnomeregan with the few of his fellow gnomes who managed to survive, is preparing to reclaim his once glorious city. Meanwhile, in distant Durotar, Vol'jin of the Darkspear trolls is determined to exact revenge upon the witch doctor Zalazane for dividing the Darkspears and seizing the land bestowed to them by Thrall: the Echo Isles. Read more about the ongoing struggles of the gnomes and the trolls... and their plans to seek redemption.

Gnomes: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/3p9/gnomeregan.xml
Trolls: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/3p9/echoisles.xml

source

Regarding "Patch 3.9": The URLs above point to these events happening in patch 3.9. It is possible there will be a patch 3.9, however it is also possible the "9" simply stands for "the very last patch before 4.0" (patch 4.0 is the Cataclysm content patch). No one outside of Blizzard knows the right answer, and don't read too much into URLs.

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will destroy Azeroth as we know it. Nothing will be the same. In WoW.com's Guide to Cataclysm you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion. From Goblins and Worgens to Mastery and Guild changes, it's all there for your cataclysmic enjoyment.

Filed under: News items, Cataclysm

Lichborne: Rune cooldowns, tank mastery, and Cataclysm

by Daniel Whitcomb Mar 16th 2010 at 9:00PM

The devs have been speaking a little a bit about the new mastery system coming with Cataclysm, and while they've kept most of the specific numbers vague, there's been a surprising amount of information one can read between the lines about death knights. Of course, it started with the frost death knight stats. The stats were solidly DPS oriented, providing damage, haste, and runic power generation. This lead to two major concerns: What would frost tanks do for mastery? And for that matter, even DPS don't need runic power generation that much, considering we can only use so many frost strikes (or death coils for other specs) before we need to spend our runes anyway.

The Blues actually gave answers to these questions, answers that managed to both answer the question and provide a whole new level of speculation and questioning. On the question of the new runic power bonus, Ghostcrawler and Eyonix revealed that death knights would find their rotation less constrained by the global cool down and rune cool downs, and that changes such as that would make the runic power generation more desirable. On the tank front, they're actually being deliberately coy about what they have planned for death knight tanks, but they at least seem to know the issue's on the table.

This week, I figure it might fun to take a look at these statements and mull over some possible ways they might implement them.

Filed under: Death Knight, (Death Knight) Lichborne

PC Gamer UK gives you 50 reasons to play Cataclysm

by Anne Stickney Mar 12th 2010 at 6:00PM

WARNING: This post contains spoilers for Cataclysm, the upcoming expansion to World of Warcraft. If you'd like to keep everything a surprise, don't read any further. If you'd like to know more about the upcoming content, read away!

Issue 212 of PC Gamer UK has hit the stands, and includes a fascinating six-page article with fifty reasons why lapsed subscribers should probably return to Azeroth. Forget the lapsed subscribers, there's enough information in here for current subscribers to drool over with unbridled glee. For those of you on this side of the pond, some highlights from the article. We requested comment from PC Gamer as to whether this information came directly from Blizzard, but we haven't yet received a response, so keep that in mind as we cover the highlights:

Reason number twelve: Cataclysm chooses fun over efficiency. The talent trees will be completely redone, something we've covered a little with previous posts on the new mastery system that will be made available. A quote from Tom Chilton states "I'd expect to see a further pruning of critical class buffs and debuffs, because it's still a little more restrictive than what we'd like to see. A lot of what Mastery and the talent changes are about is making sure that the choices players make about their character are interesting. Hopefully that will add character depth without making the game more complex."

Filed under: News items, Cataclysm

Mastery System Preview

by Adam Holisky Mar 8th 2010 at 9:18PM

Blizzard has released a rather detailed look into a new feature coming in Cataclysm that we first heard about at BlizzCon 2009 -- the mastery system. The system will "allow players to become better at what makes their chosen talent tree cool or unique." Mastery bonuses are passive and are tied to each talent tree for every class. The more talent points you put in the tree, the more your mastery for that tree will increase. Each talent tree will have three mastery bonuses:

Bonus 1: Increase to damage, healing, or survivability
Bonus 2: Increase to a stat that's relevant to the given talent tree
Bonus 3: A completely unique effect to the given talent tree

The mastery statistic on gear you'll get from 80 to 85 will increase the effect of bonus #3. Mechanically, the point of the mastery system is to remove talents like "6% more damage" and regulate those effects into the entire tree.

The entire announcement from Blizzard after the break. This includes some examples of the mastery bonuses for a few talent trees.

Filed under: News items, Cataclysm

WoW.com Guest Post: What Cataclysm might mean for guild alliances

by Nico Deyo Mar 4th 2010 at 3:00PM

In this installment of WoW.com's ongoing guest post program, we welcome Nico Deyo. Nico is a sometimes mage blogger and all-around nice gal who writes at Empowered Fire.

It's no secret that Blizzard is going to be changing the face of guilds in Cataclysm with guild talents, perks from being a collective entity, and rewards for using their new tools. While this benefits the majority of groups, what about those who have created something outside of the standard? They might not be a large chunk of the WoW playing population, but for the people who raid and socialize differently than the average player, the systems raise some new and troubling questions. Blizzard's particular idea of a guild is becoming the predominant social unit in Cataclysm, and those who don't fit into it might be all but left in the dust when it comes to new mechanics and rewards.

So who doesn't fit? I'm talking about two groups, mostly -- guild collectives/coalitions (several guilds who have banded together for a common purpose) or raid alliances (a very specific coalition or mixed group of people formed into a team for content). Both are two structures that have emerged socially and pragmatically to fill gaps that the traditional guild structures of yore haven't met.

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Guilds, Cataclysm, Guest Posts

Cataclysm: Stat and system changes for DPS death knights

by Daniel Whitcomb Mar 3rd 2010 at 9:00AM

We've known for a while that we were getting some pretty sweeping stat and gear changes in Cataclysm. The other day, the blues over at Blizzard put together a nice little post that outlined all the big points of the revamp. As you might expect, there are a few changes that DPS death knights are especially going to want to watch out for. Let's take a closer look at the changes that are most likely to affect the DPS death knight.

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, News items, Death Knight, Cataclysm

Cataclysm: Stat and system changes for tanking death knights

by Daniel Whitcomb Mar 3rd 2010 at 5:00AM

We've known for a while that Cataclysm was going to feature some extensive changes to the stat and gear systems, and while we'd gotten bits and pieces of the whole picture before, the blues recently posted a massive breakdown of many of the changes. Death knight tanks will see a few things affect them as well, such as the complete removal of defense and a change to the workings of parry. Without further ado, let's break down the major changes that affect death knight tanking.

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, News items, Death Knight, Cataclysm

Cataclysm: Stat and system changes for enhancement shaman

by Rich Maloy Mar 2nd 2010 at 11:30PM

Breaking news: enhancement shamans get the dumb in Cataclysm. Intellect is gone! Are we becoming rogues with mana?

No doubt you've read the big changes coming in Cataclysm. At this point there are a few confirmed points with the rest falling into the "confirmed they'll be changing" category. What do these changes mean for enhancement shamans? Read on.

Filed under: Shaman, Analysis / Opinion, Cataclysm

Cataclysm: Stat and system changes for retribution paladins

by Gregg Reece Mar 2nd 2010 at 7:30PM

Well, the devs have recently announced the stat changes for all classes in Cataclysm. Surprisingly, retribution paladins are going to be the model to which some other specs are being changed. Being the model for something like this also means that not much about our spec is changing as far as gear goes.

Overall, the ret paladin gearing method has worked fairly well in Wrath. We no longer worry about wearing things like spell plate, we don't worry about intellect, and we get to wield big two-handed weapons just as Uther intended. Occasionally, we run into gearing issues where a couple pieces of attack power leather end up being better for us than what our plate gives us, but generally that's not the case.

Let's take a look at some of the specifics after the break and see what changes there are.

Filed under: Paladin, Analysis / Opinion, Cataclysm

Cataclysm: Stat and system changes for shadow priests

by Fox Van Allen Mar 2nd 2010 at 4:00PM

Fire! Brimstone! Dragons! Heroic Van Cleef! The world is going to get turned upside down when Cataclysm hits, and the shadow priest spec is going to get turned upside down right along with it.

You've no doubt already read a bit about the upcoming stats changes with Cataclysm. As you can guess, a lot of these changes are going to hit shadow priests like a hammer to the face. The conventional wisdom of holding spell power in higher regard than all other stats is out the window, along with the spell power stat itself. And we may be facing a serious nerf to our legendary survivability.

Blizzard's given us a delicious sneak peak into the future of shadow priesting -- there's some good stuff, some bad stuff, and some who-the-hell-knows-yet stuff. Follow me after the break to get a glimpse of "Shadow Priesting 4.0."

Filed under: Priest, Cataclysm

Gnome and troll starting zones to be revamped

by Zach Yonzon Mar 2nd 2010 at 3:00PM

After five years of squatting in other races' capital cities, gnomes and trolls will have their starting zones revamped, developers confirmed through the recently concluded chat over Twitter. It probably isn't much of a spoiler now after the developers talked about it, but discovered among the files in Patch 3.3.3 were quests and Achievements related to the retaking of Gnomeregan and Echo Isles.

It's been a long time coming for two of the game's original races who got the shaft when Burning Crusade introduced two new races with their own capital cities while gnomes and trolls continued to squat in Ironforge and Orgrimmar, respectively. Over the chat, developers mentioned that they were looking at revamping all the original starting zones, with particular focus on the two races. Now that Cataclysm is on the horizon and Blizzard plans to introduce two more races with the worgens and goblins, it only seemed fitting that gnomes and trolls get their due.

However, the developers were quick to point out that the zones won't get as "epic" a feel as the two new races in Cataclysm. They did reveal that they have "big plans" for the two races, hinting at the events set to come in a future patch, if not Patch 3.3.3. Blizzard also reminded everyone that they planned to overhaul all the starting zones with Cataclysm, which improves gameplay, quest flow, and overall experience. Now that these squatter races are finally getting equal status with the others, maybe Blizzard will finally let us see a gnome in the Cataclysm cinematic?

Filed under: Blizzard, Cataclysm

Cataclysm: Stat and system changes for warlocks

by Dominic Hobbs Mar 2nd 2010 at 11:00AM

No doubt you've seen various articles about the changes to stats in Cataclysm. I'm sure everyone has been wondering what this will mean for warlocks. It doesn't matter whether you play a warlock right now or not, you know full well that you're going to level a worgen warlock sooner or later.

With that in mind you will want to know what gear to aim for, what stats give the best for each talent build and who else is going to try to deny you the items you know to rightfully be yours -- "The name is in purple - everybody knows that means the warlock gets first choice!". Well, I'm certainly not about to tell you, I have no idea. Frankly Cataclysm is still too far off to know. That said, we are starting to get some real good clues, so we'd better start investigating.

Filed under: Warlock, Cataclysm

Cataclysm: Stat and system changes for rogues

by Chase Christian Mar 2nd 2010 at 9:30AM

I can't say that I didn't see this one coming. The Blizzard developers announced at the last BlizzCon that we'd seen the last of armor penetration and attack power, with the focus in Cataclysm being the simplification of stats. Eyonix recently posted a complete summary with all of the expected changes, and there's a lot to be digested. A few of our offensive stats are disappearing, the remaining stats are having their effect shifted, and all of our critical strike-based talents will see a nice bonus in PvP.

To top of all of these changes, Blizzard's throwing us a few bones that will have us excited regardless of what happens. The idea of 'weapon skill' is going away, so we'll be able to use any allowed weapon right from level 1, and we no longer need to grind up each weapon skill as we shift our focus. This should make swapping weapons while leveling quite a bit less painful, and will ensure that all weapon upgrades are usable right out of the box. Read on for details on the stat changes.

Filed under: Rogue, Cataclysm

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