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[Retro]

WPL looks awesome!!

I wonder what Stratholme looks like in EPL.

Not like it should... :lol

Spoiler

I really am shameless

 

[McNei1y]

Not like it should... :lol

Spoiler

I really am shameless

Damn, I saw that thread when it was first created. The guy definitely did well on it. I'm hoping its changed atleast. Maybe civilization is making its way back in?

 

[Retro]

Damn, I saw that thread when it was first created. The guy definitely did well on it.

That guy was me, and thanks. All I can see when I re-read it nearly a year later are typos and flaws, but I think it was pretty decent considering I churned it out over a weekend. The North Lordaeron one looks so much better.

 

[McNei1y]

That guy was me, and thanks. All I can see when I re-read it nearly a year later are typos and flaws, but I think it was pretty decent considering I churned it out over a weekend. The North Lordaeron one looks so much better.

Oh wow! You're pretty good at this. The ideas are there, Blizz just needs to see them. I'd like to see that Northern Lordaeron one since it seems like such a waste of space. great job!

 

[firex]

Scholo being retuned so it's a low 40s instance makes sense. I bet stratholme also gets adjusted so it's either low 50s or high 40s.

I'm going to have to do all the tirion fordring quests one last time before cataclysm. That's actually a really cool quest chain and it goes away.

 

[Alex]

I'm looking forward to more of the talent revamps under the new system. I think they're early, but they're doing a good job really making them much more appealing, intuitive and interesting.

For Paladins... Paladins just need to be interesting. I don't think they've had any real problems with potency in any area for a good while now. But they are STILL so bland to play, Holy and Retribution at least.

 

[Retro]

For Paladins... Paladins just need to be interesting. I don't think they've had any real problems with potency in any area for a good while now. But they are STILL so bland to play, Holy and Retribution at least.

Prot isn't much better, to be honest. 969 until your fingers bleeeeeeeed :lol.

 

[notworksafe]

Scholo being retuned so it's a low 40s instance makes sense. I bet stratholme also gets adjusted so it's either low 50s or high 40s.

I'm going to have to do all the tirion fordring quests one last time before cataclysm. That's actually a really cool quest chain and it goes away.

I'm glad Scholo is getting a revamp as well. That and Kara are some of my favorite instances, because they're both cool "haunted house" type environments.

I've also got a huge backlog of things i want to get done before Cataclysm. Already picked up Tfury, now I'm working on Sulf. Working on some quest chains that might not be around as well. I was considering Loremaster, but I think it would drive me crazy.

 

[JesseZao]

I'm glad Scholo is getting a revamp as well. That and Kara are some of my favorite instances, because they're both cool "haunted house" type environments.

I've also got a huge backlog of things i want to get done before Cataclysm. Already picked up Tfury, now I'm working on Sulf. Working on some quest chains that might not be around as well. I was considering Loremaster, but I think it would drive me crazy.

If you want to keep busy with mindless quests...

Spoiler

Go for the Insane title I say!

 

[Bisnic]

Loremaster isn't so bad. Although i did it with a mage, so i might be biased. It was ridiculous before they nerfed it though. Having to do AQ pre-quests or some shitty Dire Maul quests just to get the Kalimdor achievement was fucking hell.

 

[Retro]

Loremaster isn't so bad.

The hardest part is just getting motivated to do it. I've been using Everyquest, and I knocked out Eastern Kingdoms over the course of a month (maybe playing for 4 or 5 hours a week), but I started off with only 200 or so to do.

Kalimdor, on the other hand, I need something like 400 if I remember right, and it's probably going to be in a lot of shitty places like Silithus. I just dunno where the hell I'm gonna find all of em. So that kind of killed my motivation and I haven't worked at it for a while now.

I haven't done Northrend or Outland either, but those aren't changing so I'm not too worried about them.

 

[JesseZao]

Loremaster isn't so bad. Although i did it with a mage, so i might be biased. It was ridiculous before they nerfed it though. Having to do AQ pre-quests or some shitty Dire Maul quests just to get the Kalimdor achievement was fucking hell.

I make my own cheese, thank you.

 

[firex]

I expect almost all the old instances get retuned a little bit. Not a full-on remake, but it's easy to adjust the levels of everything in an instance. Although I think they are going to put some extra effort into RFC, WC, VC and SFK since those are "classic" and they still want people to do those instances at least.

And to be honest, I like paladin tanking but it's mindless and repetitive. You don't have free GCDs until well into a boss fight, so I prefer warrior tanking by far right now. The only thing I hate about warrior tanking is those times when I get rage starved.

 

[Bisnic]

The hardest part is just getting motivated to do it. I've been using Everyquest, and I knocked out Eastern Kingdoms over the course of a month (maybe playing for 4 or 5 hours a week), but I started off with only 200 or so to do.

Kalimdor, on the other hand, I need something like 400 if I remember right, and it's probably going to be in a lot of shitty places like Silithus. I just dunno where the hell I'm gonna find all of em. So that kind of killed my motivation and I haven't worked at it for a while now.

I haven't done Northrend or Outland either, but those aren't changing so I'm not too worried about them.

I didn't have to do much of the Silithus quests with my alliance mage for Loremaster as far as i can remember. It's probably the only zone i didn't touch much for Loremaster Kalimdor with maybe Maraudon & Dire Maul quests. There was a few annoying quests in Azshara because some quest NPC decided it was a bright idea to set up a camp in the middle of the sea on some deserted island, just so i could kill some giant on the other side of the zone.

The only thing I hate about warrior tanking is those times when I get rage starved.

Don't worry, once your prot warrior is nicely geared, you will never be rage starved again. Unless you are an offtank who doesn't get hit much. :lol

 

[Garryk]

For people doing Loremaster and Seeker, download the Wowhead Client. Create a profile on Wowhead and once you have uploaded your data, it will show what quests you have and have not completed by zone.

 

[The Lamonster]

Not really looking forward to the crazy Hunter changes and having to re-learn how to play :/

 

[Parallax Scroll]

After a year break, I've been playing for about a week and having a pretty good time. I'm still relatively noobish (my main is a lv 44 human warrior). I tanked for the first time in a year today and didn't fuck it up too bad.

Any gaffers play on Stormrage?

 

[Flib]

The fact that Lightwell is still in the game for Cataclysm is mind-boggling.

 

[Belfast]

WoWathon 2, for a good cause:

http://www.wowathon.com/

All proceeds go to Child's Play, of course.

 

[Alex]

Man, those official WoW boards are way worse than I thought. People are whining up and down about the new talents and concepts, even when they come out and say like every fucking post that they're the first, rough draft and a lot is going to be rearranged and changed.

I mean, I am a customization person I love customization and character building lots, but I sure as hell will not miss all of those boring ass passive talents and legitimate filler as opposed to the good attempts they're starting to make with the overhaul.

There's just so much whining. If Blizzard reverted on this due to retarded forum feedback again, I'd honest to god not buy Cataclysm out of spite.

 

[Parallax Scroll]

Oh yeah, I dunno when they added that random dungeon finder, but it's pretty rad. Finding an instance group was way more of a hassle when I was playing a year ago. Hell, I don't even need to look up what dungeon is appropriate for my level or where it's located. Click, click, and 10 seconds later I'm in a party and at the dungeon entrance.

 

[The Lamonster]

Oh yeah, I dunno when they added that random dungeon finder, but it's pretty rad. Finding an instance group was way more of a hassle when I was playing a year ago. Hell, I don't even need to look up what dungeon is appropriate for my level or where it's located. Click, click, and 10 seconds later I'm in a party and at the dungeon entrance.

QFT

It's game-changing. It brought me back to WoW after many months of inactivity.

 

[Hixx]

Fuck people who cannot understand the ooze concept on Rotface. Fuck them in the arse. 3 times we wiped because people were running around aimlessly with their little oozes. 3 times we told them, 3 times they ignored it.

 

[davepoobond]

people are bored of failing thats why they keep failing

 

[Flib]

Fuck people who cannot understand the ooze concept on Rotface. Fuck them in the arse. 3 times we wiped because people were running around aimlessly with their little oozes. 3 times we told them, 3 times they ignored it.

One of the greatest personal challenges of ICC is being offtank on rotface, yelling at people who are failing yet being helpless in the face of terrible players who just can't understand a basic concept.

 

[Xabora]

Worgen Finale quest was bugged out until server restart. (Prince Dies wont progress)

 

[Xabora]

 

[Weenerz]

Stream is running, watch if you want.

http://www.xfire.com/live_video/theweenerz/

 

[J-Rzez]

Man, those official WoW boards are way worse than I thought. People are whining up and down about the new talents and concepts, even when they come out and say like every fucking post that they're the first, rough draft and a lot is going to be rearranged and changed.

I mean, I am a customization person I love customization and character building lots, but I sure as hell will not miss all of those boring ass passive talents and legitimate filler as opposed to the good attempts they're starting to make with the overhaul.

There's just so much whining. If Blizzard reverted on this due to retarded forum feedback again, I'd honest to god not buy Cataclysm out of spite.

What it boils down to is GC said "This shit's done, like it or not" and "We trimmed the fat, and allow you to get some extra cool stuff now", and it's obviously not done, nor is there any "cool shit" in any tree yet. "We're tired of seeing cooking cutter specs and people saying go to this fansite (elitistjerks) to do the proper spec for dps and rotation. Thus we're making the cookie cutter spec obvious as fuck, we'd put that shit in braille if we could now".

To be honest, if people didn't bitch lately, we'd all be fucked with that RealID shit. And if people just laid on their stomach and bit the pillow like they have in the past, those trees, the shitty one's in beta now, would probably get forced out of the door.

My thoughts on this is that each tier should have 4 different talents, perhaps one as a pvp thing, once as a fun thing, and two as primary role talents. That way you can really customize your toon. It should be like that in every tier.

 

[JesseZao]

My thoughts on this is that each tier should have 4 different talents, perhaps one as a pvp thing, once as a fun thing, and two as primary role talents. That way you can really customize your toon. It should be like that in every tier.

I've said this as well. They need to do it.

 

[Weenerz]

Taking a nap and then I will stream. Sorry folks.

 

[funkmastergeneral]

There was a few annoying quests in Azshara because some quest NPC decided it was a bright idea to set up a camp in the middle of the sea on some deserted island, just so i could kill some giant on the other side of the zone.

Shitty NPC? If we're thinking of the same guy, he's a badass demon hunter.

Man I wish that was a playable class :/

 

[Angry Grimace]

I didn't have to do much of the Silithus quests with my alliance mage for Loremaster as far as i can remember. It's probably the only zone i didn't touch much for Loremaster Kalimdor with maybe Maraudon & Dire Maul quests. There was a few annoying quests in Azshara because some quest NPC decided it was a bright idea to set up a camp in the middle of the sea on some deserted island, just so i could kill some giant on the other side of the zone.



Don't worry, once your prot warrior is nicely geared, you will never be rage starved again. Unless you are an offtank who doesn't get hit much. :lol

Technically, the more geared you are, the LESS rage you generate :lol

 

[JesseZao]

Technically, the more geared you are, the LESS rage you generate :lol

Not if you don't wear pants!

 

[firex]

What it boils down to is GC said "This shit's done, like it or not" and "We trimmed the fat, and allow you to get some extra cool stuff now", and it's obviously not done, nor is there any "cool shit" in any tree yet. "We're tired of seeing cooking cutter specs and people saying go to this fansite (elitistjerks) to do the proper spec for dps and rotation. Thus we're making the cookie cutter spec obvious as fuck, we'd put that shit in braille if we could now".

To be honest, if people didn't bitch lately, we'd all be fucked with that RealID shit. And if people just laid on their stomach and bit the pillow like they have in the past, those trees, the shitty one's in beta now, would probably get forced out of the door.

My thoughts on this is that each tier should have 4 different talents, perhaps one as a pvp thing, once as a fun thing, and two as primary role talents. That way you can really customize your toon. It should be like that in every tier.

I'd just do 3 talents like that, so you pick up utility stuff at every tier while improving the core abilities of your spec.

Mainly I say that because I'd like to be able to pick up Second Wind for my arms warrior and I don't really see any room for it now.

 

[Alex]

Bitching about RealID vs bitching about an unfinished product that's in testing that the developers are telling you is in heavy development every other post is a bit different though.

And I sincerely doubt they meant the content was done, arranged and balanced, if it was then cease the beta! They just have the systems they want in place now.

Constructive criticism is a great thing. Non stop posting of threads solely for crying and screaming and general doomsaying is another. I can't stand those boards, I don't even know why I give them a glance from time to time. It's like slowing down to look at the car in the ditch, I guess

 

[Retro]

It's like slowing down to look at the car in the ditch, I guess

... and there's a man being violently sodomized in the back seat by an angry badger with AIDS and comically enormous genitals, while a bus full of children watch and slowly begin to set themselves on fire, one by one, to burn out their scarred existence, as the hive of killer bees the car slammed into flood out and begin to swarm a truck load of puppies who begin to swell so violently that their eyes explode from their heads just before they break their adorable little puppy spines because they're spasming so hard from the bee stings, I guess.

Oh, and the ditch is filled with acid and raw sewage and there's a hundred turtles on fence posts all along the road clawing desperately at the air to get down. And there's meteors falling everywhere, except the meteors are actually babies that got sucked out of some kind of airplane that only transports infants, and they all soiled themselves on the way down, I guess.

:lol

Yeah, the Official forums are that bad. My cat types less stupidity when she curls up on the keyboard.

 

[Bisnic]

Posted from a blue in the official forums :

Q: Do you have any plans to allow players to not show their real name to friends of friends while using the Real ID system?
A: As with any new feature we add to our games, we've been evaluating how Real ID has been used since its release to identify new functionality that would help improve our players’ experience. The in-game Real ID “friends of friends” list is designed to give players a convenient way to populate their Real ID friends list with other players they know and trust in real life, allowing them to quickly and easily send Real ID friend requests to these people without having to enter their Battle.net® account names. However, we recognize that some players would prefer not to be displayed on friends lists in this fashion, so we plan to include an option that will allow players to opt out of appearing on their Real ID friends’ “friends of friends” lists. We're anticipating this feature to be available for StarCraft II shortly after release of the game, and World of Warcraft at around the same time -- we’ll have more information for you in the coming weeks.

 

[Cipherr]

Posted from a blue in the official forums :

And that there seals it for me. Im fine with the RealID as long as they do this. Ill opt out, and with it not invading the forums they can do whatever else they like and it wont bother me at all. Nice.

 

[mclem]

The fact that Lightwell is still in the game for Cataclysm is mind-boggling.

Hey, lightwell was great when it was the only healing we had for one side on Gothik / one pre-boss on Thaddius! Really made things exciting...

 

[Retro]

The Developer chat has begun, I'll go ahead and C&P everything to NeoGAF for you people on the west coast still stuck at work or in traffic. Not like I'm doing anything that prevents me from spamming F5 anyways. Here we go, will try to keep the info sorted as we go. Since people are probably going to be talking about it as it happens, I guess I'll probably be making multiple posts to keep the newest stuff visible.

Q. Will rend (sigh) be refreshed by Thunderclap on all targets used with Blood and Thunder?
A. Yes. The idea is that you Rend once and then Thunder Clap from then on. We still hope it’s an optional talent, not the only way warriors can AoE tank.

Q. Is there any intent to bring back the On A Pale Horse talent for Death Knights, possibly in a different tree?
A. Yes, On a Pale Horse is back as a sub-specialization-accessible Frost talent in our latest internal build.

Q. Will each Mage talent tree be on a level PvE and PvP footing, or do you plan to make them bias to specific modes?
A. The idea is to make them have equal footing. If that doesn’t work out, then we would prefer for one specialization to not be completely dead. But we want, for example, for players to choose Frost because they like Frost.

Q. With the 31-point tree, many talents still cost two or three points. Is this going to be changed, as it basically increases their cost?
A. For the most part, yes. There are some overpowered talents that don’t need the boost, but many of the others will have their effects increased.

Q. Slam's design is pretty archaic and not very fun. Is there any chance of Slam becoming an instant-attack baseline ability?
A. We think it makes the ability feel different. Slam as an instant attack isn’t very different from some of the other attacks. As it’s designed though, Fury shouldn’t use Slam at all without procs and Arms should only use it with the Improved Slam talent. We tried (briefly) making Slam a low-level ability, but weren’t happy with it.

Q. How will the Demon Soul talent work? Is it like a replacement for Demonology's Metamorphosis, another cooldown to pop, or...?
A. While Demonology has potentially two (with Metamorphosis and Demonic Empowerment), warlocks in general usually don’t have a power-up ability they can cast for burst damage in PvP or PvE. This is what it is intended to be.

Q. How do the mastery bonuses work now that they don't show up on the talent interface anymore?
A. The mastery bonuses will be trainable passive bonuses somewhere around level 75. Each talent specialization will have a different Mastery available on the trainer with a base potency with 0 Mastery Rating. The character sheet interface will have additional information on the additional potency gained from Mastery Rating.

Q. Why is Vampiric Touch being changed back after the 3.0 Replenishment revamp?
A. Talents like these are still in development flux. Players should expect most abilities to stay generally the same as they are today. For example, when revamping the trees we changed some ranks of talents down from five points to three, and didn’t re-balance the talent for three points. Most five-pointers that become three-pointers will be as strong as they were when they were five-pointers.

Q. Will druids finally get shapeshifting on a separate global cooldown like hunter aspects & warrior stances?
A. We have no plans to remove shapeshifting from the global cooldown. Shapeshifting can be used to escape Root and Polymorph mechanics, and so cannot have no global cooldown.

Q. Do you consider Primal Wisdom or Shamanistic Rage "required" so Enhancement shaman won't run out of mana? Is running out of mana intended to be a danger?
A. Yes, once high-level Enhancement shaman have all their abilities and are using them in sequence, Primal Wisdom will be required to sustain a rotation. We’d like to let shaman use Shamanistic Rage for survival or emergency situations, rather than assuming rotational use for mana.

 

[Retro]

Kicking this over to a new post to keep things organized easier and because it keeps the thread refreshed. I'll probably post 3 or 4 blocks of the chat in each post just to make things easier, I guess... I dunno why :lol

Q. Will mages get pets for Arcane and Fire specializations at any time?
A. No.

Q. With each expansion boss mechanics become more and more complex. Don't you think that bosses will be overcomplicated soon?
A. We have a lot of players who have been killing bosses for six years now. We think we need to keep it fresh for them. Having normal vs. Hard modes is our way of making sure the complexity doesn’t make those fights inaccessible for some players.

Q. Any thought to having Retribution paladins use spell power plate to help put Holy paladins on equal footing as other healers?
A. We think Retribution paladins needs to use strength plate. Changing this would require a lot of funky solutions, such as how we handle Crusader Strike damage, and trying to control Retribution from being too powerful a healer. We realize it’s odd to itemize spell power plate for one specialization, but we think all of the solutions to this issue are worse than just living with it.

Q. Have some of the old talents been made into new glyphs?
A. Usually when we cut a talent it’s because we thought it was a bad talent, but we might bring some talents that were so situational to fit in the new model back as glyphs. We are still designing glyphs. Players shouldn’t necessarily assume that any of their current glyphs are going to still be around. Some will, but many are changing.

Q. In general, do you expect mana-saving talents to be something all players take, or are they designed to be optional utility?
A. For healers, we expect players will take most of these talents (maybe not the ones related to taking damage or dealing damage though). For non-healers, we make sure all of them have reasonably reliable ways to restore mana, but these often come with the potential for damage-dealing loss. In that vein, the mana-saving talents can be thought of as damage-dealing talents, and nukers can take them if they think they impact their bottom line. After all, we all know that the only thing that matters at the end of the day is who won the meters.

Q. Will there be account-wide Achievements? If so, can we expect to see things like vanity gifts for having multiple characters?
A. It’s an idea we definitely want to do, but it’s pretty challenging technically, so it’s not on the immediate horizon. We can’t promise anything obviously, but I wouldn’t feel the need to get difficult Achievements on more than one character on the same account.

Q. I'm excited about the Smite mechanic in Disc. Are you going to do anything about hit so that mechanic can be effective?
A. We had a talent to give you a bunch of spell hit in a beta build, but spell hit on your offensive spells is a hard sell in the new talent model. But yes, we want to do something about spell hit for the Discipline Archangel specialization, possibly move up Twisting Faith to a tier that Discipline can obtain it in Shadow (so your spirit would convert to hit as Discipline/Shadow sub-specialization).

Q. If every specialization is intended to take their 31-point talent, why is it not baseline at the level you could acquire it?
A. Those talents are a good “brass ring” to work towards. They often change your character pretty dramatically when you get them, so it’s a fun moment. There is definitely an interesting philosophical discussion about talent trees and how many talents should be mandatory vs. optional. Some players would like a model where everything is on equal footing with everything else. Others want to make sure there are some safe decisions so that they don’t have to do tons of theory-crafting research every time they talent their character. We are trying to shoot for something in the middle where we have some expectation for how a particular spec will play (for example, we don’t want to have to develop and support the non-Chaos Bolt Destruction rotation) but players can still decide if say Blitz is something their Arms warrior will use or not.

Q. Are all characters getting 5% stun/fear reduction baseline since they are no longer talents?
A. We would rather adjust the crowd control durations to appropriate levels. Currently some crowd-control effects are so easy to get out of that only really layered (using crowd control effects of different diminishing returns) really matters. We don’t want all of PvP to be kiting each other around with instant nukes and heals. Knowing what average durations are (rather than having some classes with duration reducers and some without) will let us judge the baseline better. We think players are individually just looking at their own trees now and thinking that they were made less powerful without realizing how across-the-board all the changes are.

Q. Some of the new talent trees for healers seem to emphasize a style of "mana regeneration by dealing damage." Is that intentional? If so, why?
A. Yes. In almost any situation, there are periods where heals are not urgently needed 100% of the time. Today, you probably just cast heals anyway in case someone takes damage, since mana doesn’t matter much. But if mana did matter, the “right” thing to do would be to do nothing. Talents such as Telluric Currents provide an active way to recharge mana while contributing damage.

Q. How does Smoke Bomb help me take on a Frost mage? Isn't Blizzard a pretty trivial counter to keep me in combat?
A. Keep you in combat, perhaps. But Frostbolt you? Polymorph you to stop you from killing the stunned healer that you just shrouded in smoke? Nope!

Q. Please talk about Lightwell. There has been much wailing about it on priest forums. Are you intent on keeping it in?
A. Lightwell is complicated because it deals very much with the healing philosophy we’re trying to resurrect in Cataclysm. Remember when your raid would make a conscious effort to survive before doing damage, would bring stacks of bandages and use them throughout the fight to save their healers mana? Lightwell is very strong – if not overpowered – in that environment.

Haha, which one of you bastards asked the Lightwell question? :lol

Q: What about some class specific quests for Cataclysm? I enjoyed them in the early levels of WoW!
A: It’s very expensive to create class-specific raids given the literally thousands of new quests we are already adding for Cataclysm; however, we are going to have class-specific dungeon quests for everyone at levels 20 and 50. These won’t be as involved as, say, the old Benediction quest line, but they will give you a way to get some blue loot that isn’t otherwise available.

Q: Are Fury Warriors still going to see a new attack to fill the loss of Whirlwind? Any insight?
A. Yes! It’s called Raging Blow (at least for the moment), because we wanted to distance is a little from the old Enraged Assault. It's Fury-only and can only be used when Enraged, but does not consume the Enrage. It does indeed strike with both weapons (including the animation).

Q: Do you expect anyone, alts or new players, to level as a healer specialization? Do you think locking them to Holy or Restoration early is bad?
A. We expect leveling with as DPS will probably always be more efficient, just because killing things is faster than surviving longer while you kill things. Furthermore, we don’t want the healing specializations to be as good at killing things or the DPS specialization not to have a role. We do, however, think we can make leveling as a healer more enjoyable than it is today. Also, it will be a lot easier to use Dungeon Finder to level as a healer.

Q: What class are you currently most happy with how the talents are currently set up? Is there one you feel needs more work?
A. They all need more work!

 

[Retro]

Making a third post to break things up a bit... for some reason my browser likes to get pokey when I add too many formatting tags to a post...

Q. What is the intent and thoughts on changing the rune cost of Scourge Strike?
A. In Wrath of the Lich King, it is closer to being a clone of Obliterate with a slightly different feel than we’d like. We want to change that. We’re also very aware of the rotational problems inherent in decoupling the Unholy and Frost runes. Rest assured, our solution will not be expecting you to Icy Touch alongside each Scourge Strike.

Q. Can we finally have Soul Link baseline, or at least give each tree its own defense mechanic so that we aren't forced into Demonology for PvP?
A. It is a possibility, we’re still talking about it.

Q. Can Master Summoner become default for all warlocks? 6-second cast time is long enough for a pet.
A. But how often are you summoning a pet? You can also use a shard to summon one instantly. We want killing a warlock's pet in PvP to be a meaningful investment of time and effort, and likewise we want summoning/resurrecting your pet to be a meaningful investment of time and effort.

Q: Will Whirlwind still be a part of a Fury warrior's rotation on single mobs or will it be multi-mobs only?
A. Multiple mobs only.

Q: How much of an impact will the new medium glyphs have on the fun factor of choices in the new 31-point talent trees?
A. We hope it adds a lot. Part of the problem is that if there is, say, a Glyph of Mutilate, you feel like you have to take that as an Assassination rogue over anything else. The Medium glyphs are designed to let you customize your character a little more. They are the glyphs you would take if Mutilate didn’t exist.

Incidentally, the new tiers are called Prime, Major, and Minor. Majors are the new Mediums. Glyph of Mutilate would be a Prime.

Q: Concussion Blow is rarely used these days outside of PvP. Any plans for it? Will you unlink it from Vigilance?
A. It’s pretty useful on Mr. Lich King….

Q: Are there any plans to add Ghostcrawler in-game as a critter or elite crab?
A. Ghostcrawler would be very emo were he to gaze down from his Throne of Lies and behold the mass crustacean slaughter that would result in having more manifestations of his persona in the game.

Q. Where do you see priests fitting in the healing world? They seem very 'jack of all, master of none' with the new trees.
A. It’s difficult to judge healer strength right now, as all spells are still going to be tweaked with good mana cost/healing amounts. We will say we want both priest healing specializations to be unique, powerful and fun.

Q. You've stated warlock trees have a way to go. Any plans you'd like to share? Early Demonology in specific seems really boring.
A. The first two tiers of all specializations are intended to be what we call “scaling talents,” or general percentage modifiers on abilities. Consider them entry-level talents -- easy to understand for newer players and good sub-specialization candidates. That said, a lot of early Demonology talents have changed in an upcoming build.

Q. Will Holy priests get some fun talents, like Evangelism and Archangel in the Discipline tree? At the moment it will be expensive for Holy to take those.
A. While we still have a ways to go in design on the talents, we want Holy to be able to also do an Archangel sub-specialization if they wish. In some ways it may be stronger than the Discipline main specialization version.

Q: Are there plans to give more procs to some classes to make the rotations a little more interesting?
A. Yea, for classes or specializations that need them. Paladins are getting a few.

Q: Any plan to make "Crit Immunity" passive from choosing a tank tree instead of spending talents on it?
A. No, and you can blame the druids. We want a tanking specialization in Bear Form to feel different from a DPS specialization in Cat Form, otherwise it doesn’t feel fair to other classes when the Feral druid can do everything with the same talent specialization. We try to put crit immunity in talents you would normally take.

Q: I don't care about Real ID, new talent points, or ponies, but I must have a double rainbow in a city so all can bask in its glory!
A. Due to company policy, I’m afraid we must reserve all rainbows for our friends working on Diablo III.

Q: Let's talk fashion. Any chance we could get a tophat AND monocle to display at the same time?
A. Why, yes. Indubitably. Tut-tut, my good chap and cheerio!

Q. Death knight tanks in Cataclysm seem to be gaining a lot of defensive buttons. As a death knight I love it, but will those numbers be changing soon?
A. It’s possible that some of it may need to be scaled back, but we like the cooldown aspect of death knight tanking and would like to preserve it.

Q. Since implementing and receiving feedback on the new death knight rune system, have you made any changes to it you can reveal to us?
A. It still needs a lot of iteration. We don’t want there to be significant “dead time” in death knight rotations. Also, the Runic Empowerment ability has some bugs with displaying the current state of available runes, which complicate the situation. Look for more death knight changes in the near future.

Q. What's the plan to give Subtlety some pressure versus plate? A slow-ticking Rupture isn't going to cut it. Shadow damage during Dance?
A. That’s an interesting idea. Subtlety is probably going to end up as the lowest-damage of the three rogue specializations to make up for its superior mobility, but that doesn’t mean it's harmless, either. And no, Rupture isn’t intended to be the PvP solution to that situation.

 

[Retro]

And another post to keep things spaced out a little... for my sanity, not yours :lol

Q. Do you plan to give the Unholy tree a more centralized focus, instead of split between Scourge Strike, diseases, ghoul, auto-attack, Anti-Magic Shell?
A. In a sense, that IS a centralized focus. Unholy death knights are about diseases and Unholy pets. Frost is about icy attacks and runic power. Blood is about tanking and self-healing.

Q. With the new implemented Lava Surge, will Chain Lightning become useful for multiple mobs only?
A. It always has had, and will continue to have, some niche use as a gap-filler against single targets when Lava Burst has around a second left on its cooldown. Lava Surge won’t always proc, but it’s likely to be more of a multi-target ability, yes.

Q. Any plans to alleviate Affliction's target-switching woes? Bane of Havoc used to be in reach of all specializations. Now it's only for Destruction.
A. Maaaybe.

Q. Will the ability to run while shooting effect PvP or PvE battles more? What was the initial intention of the new ability?
A. With how encounters are today, damage-dealing while on the move is increasingly becoming important. You’ll see in a lot of classes we specifically are giving new ways for players to still do damage while on the move. That said, your damage while standing still casting or on a target in melee range should always be optimal.

Q. Is Moonfire designed to be a damage-over-time spell with an instant cast nuke, or the other way around?
A. Both. We want the instant nuke to be more meaningful in Cataclysm, especially on the move.

Q. Will we be seeing more talents that reward use of rarely used spells (i.e. Destruction now opens with Soul Fire, barely used before)?
A. Talents like this are intended to be used as openers for PvE, or for target-swapping in PvE and PvP. There are a lot of encounters where you have to kill newly spawned monsters as soon as possible, which these talents are great for. Or, when you need to change targets in PvP on a high health mob, boom instant critical with Improved Feral Charge, Careful Aim, or haste with Improved Soul Fire.

Q: How is Heroic Leap working so far? Is it progressing better than your last attempt at putting it in-game?
A. We’re pretty happy with it so far. The version we have right now lets the warrior target where they want to leap, so they can use it as an escape tool as well. We all know paladins would never retreat from a battle, but warriors have been known to do so.

Q: Will Leap of Faith get some sort of secondary buff? Pulling a high aggro target to a clothie healer seems dangerous
A. This ability is intended to save party and raid members from imminent danger,such as pulling someone out of a fire that would otherwise kill them. It does not need a secondary buff.

Q: What is the goal when re-designing the paladin class? How do you plan to change rotations, talents, etc?
A. All of the paladin specializations will make use of a new resource called Holy Power. Holy Power accumulates from using Crusader Strike, Holy Shock, and some other talents. Holy Power can be consumed to augment a variety of abilities, including:

• An instant mana-free heal: Word of Glory
• A buff to increase holy damage done: Inquisition
• A massive physical melee attack for Retribution paladins: Templar’s Verdict
• Holy Shield’s duration is now extended by Holy Power
• Divine Storm’s damage is now increased by Holy Power

We also introduced several new heals for Holy Paladins including Healing Hands (an AoE heal-over-time that is applied to all players standing near the paladin), Light of Dawn (a cone heal with a 30-yard range), as well as a new heal called Divine Light, which is similar to a priest's Greater Heal, and the new instant heal mentioned above, Word of Glory.

Q: Cat and Bear builds are only off by about 3 talent points. Why not just consolidate fully at that point?
A. This is definitely one of our concerns. We don’t want a player to be able to have an optimal DPS specialization in Cat Form and be able to tank. We will definitely engineer the Feral tree such that being a viable tank, or even off-tank, will have some cost in terms of lost DPS while in Cat Form. The druid talent trees currently in beta are very rough and need more polish.

Holy shit, a new paladin mechanic... oh... oh... new Paladin info all over my face!:lol

Q. A lot of Shadow priests' talents seem mandatory. Any chance for a trimmed down tree? We feel like we need to pick all of them.
A. Some changes are underway for Shadow priest trees.

Q. Is there a plan to support dual-wield tanking for death knights (something like Threat of Thassarian versus Might of Frozen Wastes)?
A. It will be technically possible to dual wield and tank, but it will not be optimal threat-wise.

Q. Dark Simulacrum for death knight has a pretty long cooldown. What's the reasoning behind that exactly? (just curious)
A. It’s been reduced to 1 minute in the latest build, but it’s also an extremely powerful ability with which we expect players to pull off fun and scary things.

Q. With Elemental Fury becoming a passive for Elemental shaman, will Enhancement be seeing more physical based damage?
A. Spells like Lava Burst and shocks will always be a big part of Enhancement’s damage, but yes, we’d like weapon attacks like Stormstrike and Lava Lash to be a larger part of Enhancement Shamans’ damage in Cataclysm. N.B.: Mental Quickness is getting a boost to help compensate for the loss of Elemental Fury.

Q. Are there plans to give more procs to some classes to make the rotations a little more interesting?
A. Sure, we want all specializations to have interesting rotations. There is a point though when you can be overwhelmed by the amount of procs going on and the gameplay becomes erratic and not very fun. So it’s a constant balance between the two.

Q. Will Spirit Link make a return after all? Ghostcrawler mentioned he'd like to bring it back, but no sighting of it yet.
A. Anything’s possible, but at this point it isn’t looking good for our beloved talent…. If we changed it to be an absorb or a different sort of mechanic, then it wouldn’t be the iconic Spirit Link that we all remember from Warcraft III. But that core damage-sharing mechanic poses major design and balance challenges (e.g. does a rogue really want to start taking damage suddenly because the shaman in his group decided to link him to the tank?).

Q. What is the design choice behind the focus recharge in Aspect of Fox, is it meant to replace Viper?
A. Aspect of the Fox is intended to be used for mobile damage or kiting. There is still some tuning to be done on Focus and this aspect, but that is the design goal.

Q. Can we expect more fun talents and maybe even shiny new abilities in further iterations of the new talent trees?
A. Yes, the current beta trees are still very much works in progress. As paladins in particular will see shortly, that ongoing work certainly can include fun talents and shiny new abilities.

Q. Are there any plans of making totems utility only (e.g. Earthbind, Grounding) and turning buff totems into auras or cast buffs?
A. Not at this time. We’re aware of the concerns regarding the use of buff totems among some shaman, but the positional aspect is something that we consider inherent to the nature of totems. By increasing totem durations, consolidating some buff totems, and introducing the multi-drop totem spells in Wrath of the Lich King, we’ve attempted to mitigate as much of the inconvenience as possible, while preserving the core gameplay of paying attention to where totems are being dropped.

Holy crap, there's been 19 updates and it's 9:10 EST, this thing has gotta be wrapping up soon or the community is going to have an information overload... Make that 20!

Q: Will we be seeing more talents that reward use of rarely used spells (e.g. Destro now opens with Soul Fire, which was barely used before)?
A. Given the scarcity of action bar space, rarely used abilities are generally becoming more appealing or being cut from the game entirely.

Q: Will Arcane spells do more damage with higher Lunar power on the scale? And will more Mastery increase that bonus damage?
A. Currently, the plan is for Mastery to increase the damage bonus of Eclipse (both Lunar and Solar).

Q: Will there be a "hard cap" for Mastery rating (to avoid having 101% chance of getting a critical block, for example)?
A, In the course of finalizing all of the Masteries for the various talent specializations, we will make sure that, in the expected gear a player can acquire from the final Cataclysm raid tiers, the player will not crash into a "hard cap" unless they go out of their way to stack Mastery more than is reasonable. This may require redesigning some of the Masteries as the rest of the class designs are finalized.

Q: How will pets scale with Mastery their masters' Mastery?
A. The talent specializations that rely heavily on pets (Beast Mastery and Demonology, for example) have a Mastery that makes Mastery rating also increase pet damage. Other specializations that have pets, but whose pets do not benefit from Mastery, will have their Masteries balanced accordingly, taking into account that pets will not benefit from them.

 

[firex]

That paladin change is pretty cool, even if ironically it seems like it makes them into the anti-DK (use one resource system to build up another).

Spirit link should be an automatic damage share among the characters with the highest armor. That way it only works on tanks.

 

[Retro]

21 updates now, looks like a lot of Warlock info, but quite a bit of Warrior and Paladin info too. Here's update #21;

Q. The Combat tree seems really lackluster; i was taking talents like +armor and Recuperate to fill up my tree. Any plans to buff it?
A. If you were able to spend all 41 points on nothing but increasing your damage, we’d consider that a failure in our current design, because those would be the only choices. But with “utility”; talents there’s no clear answer -- some rogues, even serious raiding min/max types, might have preferred to be able to use Sprint more often rather than taking Reinforced Leather, for example. In the end, we’ll make sure you’re able to do the damage you need to do, in order to have fun and feel competitive in all aspects of the game.

Q. Is your goal to not having to use a talent specialization solely for PvP? If so, please elaborate on how you plan to accomplish that?
A. This is almost impossible to “fix.” With the nature of talents min/max will always be possible. That said, we’re trying to move away from having purely PvP or purely PvE talents as much as possible, which will make the pure PvP specializations less painful to play in PvE and vice versa.

Q. Recuperate makes me feel like a tiny unkillable god of death. ...you aren't going to nerf this are you?
A. Wait, but it doesn’t make you hit harder, so how can it be overpowered?

Q. How do you optimize the sub-specialization choices for an Assassination rogue? Some needed talents are not reachable in the current trees.
A. Right now you have to spend too many talent points to get all the “essential” Assassination talents. You end up taking pretty much the entire bottom half of the tree. In the next build, things have been streamlined a little so that you should be able to credibly take spend 31 points there.

Q. Death knights are the only tanks without a stun, which is pretty key for a few things, like adds on Heroic Lich King. Any plans to give them one?
A. There’s a video of a death knight solo-tanking 10-player Heroic Lich King. Impressive stuff. But just like stuns are incredibly good on Lich King, there are a number of fights where mechanics like Death Grip, or the ability to pre-drop a Death and Decay to pick up spawning adds, are incredibly useful. That’s part of class and encounter diversity.

Q. Will Hunters be able to pet-tank through cata (even if just beast masters)?
A. What, you didn’t see that video where some guy tanked Marowgar with his Gorilla?

Q: Are Protection paladins still going to refresh Divine Plea on melee hit (via a talent or trained ability)?
A. Yes.

Q: What is the conversion rate for intellect to spell power for Cataclysm? Will it differ with each class?
A. Each point of intellect grants one point of spell power, excepting the first 10 points. This is vaguely similar to attack power, where each point of strength or agility gives two attack power, excepting the first 10 points.

We realize this slightly reduces the spell power per budget on items, so we also increased the amount of spell power granted by caster weapons, and that increase entirely makes up for the deficit. Those weapons will continue to have spell power as well as intellect, and the amount of spell power will be significantly larger than in 3.3.5.

Q: Ever thought of changing tiers to unlock with 3 Points instead of 5, now that 5 tier talents are gone?
A. We considered this idea, but ultimately decided against it.

Q: Are we going to be able to view the Mastery talent previews for Cataclysm soon as we can currently?
A. With the talent tree redesign, all the Masteries need to be re-implemented, and, in some cases, redesigned. This will require at least a couple of weeks before they will be available on beta.

Q. Last time I checked the Feral druid tree, there were only 5 points in the first tier which means NO choices. Is that getting fixed?
A. Still working on early Feral.

Q. Still "un-fun" talents in the 3-point trees like Spirit Tap. Are damage-dealing specialization mana regeneration talents that may feel mandatory staying in game?
A. Spirit Tap and other purely “leveling talents” are being re-evaluated.

Q. Power Infusion: not in beta talents. Coming back, or gone for good?
A. If it’s not in your build, that’s a bug! It’ll be back.

Q. It seems that our DPS with Runic Empowerment is very random, will that be changed?
A. Runic Empowerment is being changed to a trained ability so that all specializations can access it without feeling forced to, since we see it as a core part of death knight gameplay in Cataclysm. The way the talent is engineered, it should never disrupt your rotation, but rather give you bonus resources layered on top of your rotation. The proc rate is high enough that the actual variability in procs over time shouldn’t be excessive.

 

[Vigilant Walrus]

good stuff. Love the Paladin changes. Ret Paladin sounds more interesting than Arms Warrior in Cata so far..

 

[Retro]

Yeah, I'm seeing 3 entirely new spells, a new mechanic, and lots of little hints about reactive abilities. Good stuff, especially remarks like "As paladins in particular will see shortly, that ongoing work certainly can include fun talents and shiny new abilities." That actually makes my balls wet with anticipation :lol. Retro loves him some new shiny.

 

[ShallNoiseUpon]

Paladin stuff is so weird. Going to have to see this in action to have any sort of judgment. More heals is always good, though.

 

[Retro]

Kicking this over for the new page, scroll back to post #47143 for the start of the Developer Chat.

Q. How does Deep Healing work? Will it heal severely less at high health that it is difficult to keep a target at a safe level of health?
A. No, view it as a perk that boosts your heals when that extra healing is most needed. It’s a class-specific bonus, so healing overall won’t be balanced around the expectation that Deep Healing applies.

Q. How are you trying to separate the play styles of the hunter specializations? What makes Cobra Shot feel different from Steady Shot?
A. Cobra Shot is ideal for Beast Mastery and Survival hunters because they don’t really have any other way of keeping Serpent Sting up (Cobra Shot extends Serpent Sting’s duration), and also for Survival because it is “Elemental” damage. It's also useful in PvP or in some other niche situations, say, when a creature is immune to physical damage. Now you have a solution.

Q. What are you planning for Doomguard and Infernal? That Demonology talent is quite... strange.
A. Look now, they are now… Diamonds. I mean, guardians. The Doomguard does strong ranged damage and the Infernal is good for area-of-effect damage. They're shared cooldowns, so it's your choice which you want to use. 10-minute cooldown. No more stones or figurines!

Q: Can you give us a sneak peek at one or two of the new Retribution abilities or talents?
A. Templar’s Verdict: An instant weapon attack that causes a percentage of weapon damage. Consumes all applications of Holy Power to increase damage dealt:

1 Holy Power: 55% Weapon Damage
2 Holy Power: 125% Weapon Damage
3 Holy Power: 225% Weapon Damage

Word of Glory: Consumes all Holy Power to heal a friendly target for a specific amount per application of Holy Power (0 mana cost, 0 cooldown, instant cast).

Q: If Judgement of Wisdom is being removed from the game, are paladins getting a new Judgement so we don't all have to use Judgement of Light?
A. There will only be one Judgement spell. This spell places a single debuff on the target with the effects currently associated with Judgement of Light and Judgement of Justice. The Judgement of Wisdom effect has been retired completely.

Q: Last time I checked feral druid tree, there were only 5 points in the first tier which means NO choices. Is that getting fixed?
A. Yes.

Q: I PvP a lot in the level 10-19 bracket. What are some cool new abilities we'll see at level 10 in Warsong Gulch?
A. Since all players will be getting a signature ability like Mortal Strike, Summon Water Elemental, or Mangle when choosing a specialization at level 10, we think players will see a lot of new abilities in the level 10-19 Warsong Gulch bracket that have never been seen before.

Sounds like Paladins will basically spam Holy Shock / Crusader Strike / whatever else generates Holy Power, and either then blow their entire creamy righteous load all over the place with an instant heal (Word of Glory) self buff (Inquisition) or Melee attack (Templar's Verdict)... or keep saving up Holy Power to power up abilities that don't consume it, like Divine Storm or Holy Shield.

Sounds interesting, but I want to see it in motion before I decide if I like it.

Also, :lol at the Druid nerd rage about only having 5 talent points in the first tier. That's been asked twice already.