Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Blizzard poster Ghostcrawler has made a rather detailed post on the official forums today listing upcoming changes to the Hunter class.
Hunters of all specs, and particularly Beastmaster, are doing too much damage in PvE.
We tested this a lot internally in beta and knew hunters were high but we hoped other classes would be able to catch up in a way they have as yet been unable to do.
He then goes on to list some of the proposed changes to the class:
1) Steady Shot – now only gains 10% of attack power as damage (down from 20%).
2) Volley – reduced the damage by about 30% for all ranks. Note that AE damage from many classes is very high right now and we are looking at all of them. Volley in particular had reached the point where some hunters were using it to the exclusion of most other attacks.
3) Readiness – no longer affects the cooldown of Bestial Wrath.
4) Deterrence – has been completely overhauled. It now allows you to deflect 100% of incoming melee or spell damage for 5 seconds, but prevents you from attacking while active. You still must be facing the attacker to deflect the damage (this is a limitation we are trying and might end up removing). 60 sec cooldown.
5) Kill Shot – cooldown reduced to 15 sec (from 35 sec).
6) Kindred Spirits – now only grants 3/6/9/12/15% pet damage.
7) Serpent’s Swiftness – now only grants 2/4/6/8/10% bonus attack speed to pet. (EDIT: Still grants the current bonus to the hunter.)
8) All hunter pet abilities with a cooldown longer than 30 sec have been moved off the global cooldown.
9) Growl— threat generation increased by 20% (same for Voidwalker Torment).
10) Call of the Wild – now benefits only the hunter and his or her pet.
11) Rake and Scorpid Poison – slightly nerfed to bring them into line with other pet abilities.
12) Spirit Strike – reduced the period on the dot so it will work better with Longevity.
Improved Tracking – now benefits damage to all included creature types as long as you are tracking one of them. You don’t have to swap around what you are tracking as much.
13) Aspect of the Wild – now raid-wide.
More details and 37 pages of QQ here.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Blizzard poster Zarhym has listed the up coming changes to the PvP Arena system for WotLK:
Upon the launch of WotLK all arena teams as well as ratings will be wiped and arena charter NPCs disabled.
Players will find they are still able to access the Arena system at level 70 for rated matches. However, we do not currently plan to offer new items or titles for this bracket.
Players who level past 70 will have their Arena points reset to 0 and be removed from all Arena teams in the level-70 bracket.
Two new skirmish brackets (71-75, 76-80) will be available for players who wish to hone their Arena skills while leveling in Northrend.
Those who reach level 80 will once again have the opportunity to create new Arena teams and play in rated matches once a new season starts.
the sets released for the Arenas in Wrath of the Lich King will no longer share aesthetic similarities with tiered raiding gear.
He then goes on to say that
New items, titles, and end-of-season rewards will be offered to the most successful teams at level 80. … Players at level 80 will also have the opportunity to compete in two new Arenas featuring challenging new layouts, terrain hazards, and moving obstacles.
You can read the full post here.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Blizzard poster Ghostcrawler has made a detailed post regarding DK tanking. Highlights include:
the death knight really suffers when attacks fail to land, especially opening attacks. Having a Plague Strike dodged or parried can throw off an entire rotation, eventually leading to bad Obliterates because both diseases weren’t up at the same time. Missing attacks is a fact of life for all tanks since it’s hard to stack +hit and +expertise along with mitigation stats. However, existing tank classes have mechanics to let them “burn off rage” (or mana) to make up for those bad strings. The DK plays more like a rogue who can’t get enough combo points in play. This had a deadly effect on DK threat generation, which just didn’t compete with that of other tanks.
He then goes on to list 5 key changes to DK abilities:
Blade Barrier now procs when your Blood Runes are inactive.
A bug where a naked, untalented death knight only had 2.5% dodge instead of 5% like warriors and paladins has been fixed.
Frost Strike can no longer be blocked, dodged or parried.
Rune Strike can only be used after you dodge or parry an attack. It affects the next swing, so it doesn’t compete with global cooldowns and can be spammed to some extent.
Bladed Armor went back to attack power and Death and Decay got a decent threat boost to get it closer to the realm of Consecration and the new Thunder Clap.
You can read the full post with some more explanations on the above changes here.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Blizzard poster Bornakk has announced that the previously mentioned wipe to PvP honor and points will no longer happen.
We had hoped that the introduction of some new Honor rewards in the upcoming patch would give players a great opportunity to spend any of their remaining Honor. However, many players would still be surprised by an Honor and token reset as it isn’t something we’ve done in the past. As such, we’ve decided to not reset Honor or tokens upon the release of Wrath of the Lich King.
You can read the full post here.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Blizzard poster Eyonix announced that Arena Season 4 will be ending when patch 3.0.2 goes live (Due any time now).
… the current arena season will end in respect to the ladder upon the release of our next major patch. What this means is, we’ll be taking a snapshot of the current season’s ladder just before the realms are taken down for patch maintenance, and our normal process will commence to determine who is eligible for the end-of-season rewards. Teams and ratings will not be wiped at that time, and will carry forward allowing players to earn points each week (and buy gear) until the launch of the expansion on November 13th
You can read the full announcement here.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Blizzard Poster Vaneras has stated on the official forums that Wrath of the Lich King will be available on DVD only. The previous 2 instalments have been released on both CD and DVD. Those without a DVD drive will either need to upgrade or wait for the digital download to become available after release.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Mmo-champion has a list of changes in the latest beta build.
You can read the full list here.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
As reported yesterday the list of new honor items has been announced by Blizzard poster Vaneras.
Along with the items is a change to Gems:
Please note that Gems that have been acquired through Honor will no longer be unique-equipped after the release of Patch 3.0.2. Also, they will no longer Bind on Pickup.
You can read the full list of new items here.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Blizzard Poster Thundgot has announced that there will be free character migrations for players on realms Burning Legion, Kazzak, Stormscale to realms Karazhan and Vek’nilash
The migration period is from September 24th to September 30th and as Thundgot points out:
Please note that this migration may be closed at any time should a destination realm’s population rise too high.
So get in quick if you’re looking for a new home.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Blizzard poster Tigole has given us some hints on further bag space reducing methods that are in the pipeline. Tabards will not be getting the same over haul as pets and mounts but a new Tabard vendor in Dalaran will be selling cheap replacements.
In his own words:
There really is no reason to hang on to them unless you’re wearing them.
Quest and attunement items from old world content are also being re-worked, albeit the changes will not be available when WotLK launches.
We have plans for these items (and getting them out of your bags). Unfortunately, we won’t be able to get to it in time for Wrath of the Lich King, but we do want to eventually address how these work.