Video clips at Ustream
This will be up when ever I’m playing in the beta so either book mark this page or the ustream page :)
A.
Watching the Alagon fight videos this week I was some what disheartened to see that after 5 years “Don’t stand in the fire”(DSITF) is still a core boss mechanic.
Just how prevalent is it and where did it begin though?
To being let me be clear in what I mean by DSITF. I’m referring to any boss encounter ability that causes damage to the player if they fail to move out of its area within a short period of time.
Ignoring the early leveling 5 mans where boss fights were trivial the 1st time players encounter this is in Upper Blackrock spire. General Drakkisath, the final boss in the zone has a Flame Strike ability similar to that of a mage.
This encounter was introduced to the game over 4 years ago! Even with the change to vehicles and “hard mode” encounters this basic game mechanic is still being used today.
Whilst initial versions of this mechanic simply involved the player taking a bit of extra damage, Blizzard have now changed it so that (in some fights) it is basically “you have 2 seconds to move or die”.
Although they do try and mix it up a little bit. In the Razorscale encounter they try and trick players with this effect. Not only does he have the classic version of this but he also has a similar ability which looks like DSITF but just does damage to the player (No on going effect). The result is players either move when they don’t have to, or get so used to being “hit” by the effect that when a real DSITF hits them they dont move. Sneaky!
So come on blizzard, how about some new mechanics? What about making healers have to “heal” the boss to do damage. “My rolling lifebloom did 600dps!” or making dps classes have to stand in the fire, i.e. if they stay at 100% health for more than a few seconds they explode (See what I did there?)
Wowinsider is reporting that the “Fragment of Val’anyr‘ has been found on the PTR. It appears to be a mace with a class restriction for Paladins, Priests, Shamans and Druids.
Given the class limitations it is most likely a healing orientated mace however with universal spell power now shadow priests, boomkins and elemental shamans will also want a piece of it.
I know my Elemental shaman will :)
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Blizzard poster Daelo has announced a couple of changes to old world instances to aide those that want to complete them on their lonesome.
We’ve made some changes to several dungeons to allow easier access for players in the upcoming patch.
The ritual objects that used to require 3 players to activate in Blackrock Spire and Uldaman now only require 1.
You no longer need quintessence to summon Majordomo Executus.
You no longer need the Scepter of Celebras to teleport to the final section of Maraudon.
You no longer need the Mallet of Zul’Farrak to summon Gahz’rilla.The Scepter and Mallet both turn into actual weapons.
Thread here.
Public test realm is up and both WowInsider and mmo-champion have a list of all documented and undocumented changes in the build.
Highlights include:
Mmo-champion has come across an interesting FAQ article on blizzards support site.
Customisation will cost $15 and does not include race or class it does however include the characters name. So in effect instead of just changing the name of a character now, you can also change the race and facial features.
More details in the FAQ here.
Various sites are reporting on a couple of posts from Blizzard poster Ghostcrawler on both the Death Knight and Mage classes.
Ghostcrawler explains the philosophy behind the DK changes as:
* Making tanking still rely on cooldowns, but rely on them a little less.
* Make Blood a more attractive spec, and particularly for tanking.
* Chill out some of the defensive capabilities all DKs have in PvP.
* Avoid having to use Death and Decay as an out-of-combat runic power generator.
You can read the full list of planned changes here.
Blizzard poster Nerimash explains that the Mage changes:
are designed primarily to make Arcane more competitive with Fire / Frostfire builds in PvE. Because they could end up buffing Arcane in PvP, we are prepared to adjust the damage of say Arcane Barrage if needed, but we want to see these in action on the PTR first.
Highlights include:
Evocation – cooldown reduced to 4 min.
• Arcane Flows – now also reduces the cooldown of Evocation by an additional 1 / 2 min.
• Arcane Blast – overhauled. Will now increase the damage of your next Arcane spell by 30%. However using Arcane Blast itself does not consume the charge, but instead increases the mana of your next Arcane Blast, up to a maximum of 3 stacks. You can alternate Blast and Barrage to keep buffing Barrage, or you can build Blast up higher for a heavy mana cost.
• Torment the Weak – now works with Arcane Blast and does bonus damage to targets afflicted by any kind of slowing effect (e.g. Thunder Clap).
• Elemental Precision – renamed Precision and now works on all spells.
• Improved Blizzard – snaring effect reduced to 20/40/50%.
Official Mage post is here.
Official Death Knight post is here.
WowInsider is reporting that European guild Die Uberspitzen has successfully killed him using just a Pally and Warrior.
You can watch the video and read wow insiders take on the encounter here.
Wowinsider have just put up an excellent article on where to get the equivalent of BC motes/primals.
You can read it here.