Blizzcon tidbits

Versus · Post by **Versus** » 11 Oct 2008, 07:40

http://www.mmo-champion.com/

Quote from Blizzard staff
Dual-Spec system

* The dual-spec system will be introduced in a content patch. The goal is to let you switch specs very easily in raid, even between fights ! However it won't be possible to switch specs in the middle of an arena match.
* With dual-spec introduced in the game, there are also discussions about an Itemrack-like mod being introduced to the default UI

Look fanboys! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4D5X6WicdY

Upcoming patches

* Patch 3.1 - Patch 3.1 will be the first content patch of the expansion and is already done. It will include Ulduar raid instance (10 and 25 Man) (Source)
* Patch 3.2 - Patch 3.2 will add a new and still unknown raid instance to the game. (Source)
* Patch 3.3 - Patch 3.3 will introduce Icecrown Citadel and should also resolve the storyline of Ashbringer. (Source)

Group Flexibility

* There are 30 specs but only 25 spots in a raid. The class choice should be very flexible and the buff/debuff system overhaul was done to help with that. Cancelling a buff because a class wasn't available (like Shamans for Bloodlust) was not desirable.
* Most buffs now affect the whole raid and multiple classes can give them, however none of them will stack. You should get more types of buffs by bringing a fewer number of players and will be able to optimize them by bringing the right spec but it definitely won't be as necessary as it was in TBC. (Note : See Raidcomp !)

Tanking

* All the tanking classes are now suitable as a main tank and their threat has been greatly increased to make fights more fun, fights are now more about skills than dying because of a random aggro.

Death Knight (Skills List / Talent Calc. (9061))

* The original idea behind the rune system was a totally customizable rune pool (like, 6 Unholy runes) but "it sucked". They changed it to what is it today (2 Runes of each type)
* Death Knights shouldn't be played like a metronome and is intended to be an interactive and reactive class.
* As a death knight, your talent trees are a good way to define "your style, but not your role". Devs want to bring this philosophy to other classes.

Druid (Skills List / Talent Calc. (9061))

* Balance druids have been greatly improved and you shouldn't see a lot of OOMkins anymore. Their DPS is now on par with other DPS classes.
* Balance DPS looks pretty good now but developpers are keeping an eye on the survavibility
* Entangling roots was allowed indoor to give druids more crowd control ability in instances.
* Restoration were stuck in the HoT niche and were very limited in 5-mans or raids. Nourish is new flash heal-like spell added to solve this problem on single targets and Wild Growth was added to give them an AOE Heal.
* Druids were also given an OOC resurrection spell.
* Feral druids were decent at tanking and DPSing, but couldn't master any of these fields. In WotLK you can take all the bear talents to become a very good main tank, or all the cat talents to have a very high DPS.
* Feral mana is a known issue, and developpers don't want intellect on feral gear. This is being looked at

Hunter (Skills List / Talent Calc. (9061))

* The hunter pet system was overhauled because it was "clumsy for new players".
* The shot rataion has been cleaned to make things easier for hunters and make them less reliant on mods or macros.
* Freezing shot was introduced to make pulls faster without having to deploy your traps on the ground each time.

Mage (Skills List / Talent Calc. (9061))

* Frostfire Bolt is a way to achieve an elemental tree with mages, they should be able to deal both fire and frost damage
* Mage DPS looks pretty good now, there are still a few mana issues getting fixed very soon
* Living Bomb base damage will most likely be increased and the spell mechanics might be modified slightly. Overall, the 51-points talent weren't meant to be spammed and developpers want them to be situational
* Frost and Fire looks pretty balanced now, but Arcane needs a few more tweaks. Arcane needs to be more "mobile"

Paladin (Skills List / Talent Calc. (9061))

* Paladins were decent off-tanks but not great main tanks, this is fixed in WotLK. Paladins should focus on protection gear instead of spell power.
* Holy Paladins were good healers but couldn't do much in encounters where players are required to move a lot, however they definitely don't want them as a HoT class.
* Retribution paladins are supposed to deal a decent amount of DPS without running out of mana.
* Retributions paladins have to be in control of their damage and shouldn't have to rely on lucky critical strikes to deal most of their damage

Priest (Skills List / Talent Calc. (9061))

* The goal with Shadowpriest is to make them a DPS class, not just a mana battery.
* Discipline priests should be viable raid healer.
* Mind sear was introduced to give priests another viable DPS ability.
* Class-specific racial abilities were cool, but the idea became got "old" with time. That's why racials have been revamped

Rogue (Skills List / Talent Calc. (9061))

* AoE DPS was really needed and Fan of Knives was added to the game.
* Purchasable poisons and the buff of the dagger spec should help "reintroducing" them to the game.
* The goal is to have end-boss less immune to poisons and rogues less dependant of Windfury

Shaman (Skills List / Talent Calc. (9061))

* Totems are now physical and harder to dispell, have more life and last longer.
* Hex was added to give Shamans more crowd control ability, Riptide to improve their healing, and Lava Burst their spell DPS.

Warlock (Skills List / Talent Calc. (9061))

* Warlocks pets have been made more useful.
* The warlock rotation shouldn't be restricted to a shadowbolt spam, that's why Chaos Bolt was added.
* Affliction Tree is still too complicated and developpers are working on it. Developers definitely want it back as a raiding spec
* Pets should be easier to summon/switch and use.

Warrior (Skills List / Talent Calc. (9061))

* Protection spec has been revamped to make it cooler to play, mitigation talents now take a lot less points and will let you invest in a few other nice tools.
* In TBC, Arms was PvP and Fury the PvE spec, this will change in WotLK : Battle Stance, Overpower, and Rend have been improved. New fun abilities have been introduced like Bladestorm and Sudden Death, Fury obviously have Titan's Grip.

Sazu · Post by **Sazu** » 12 Oct 2008, 16:04

Awesome, finally a change we can appreciate

Kingeling · Post by **Kingeling** » 13 Oct 2008, 15:06

When I read the druid changes for example I think it's strange they can be awesome at healing, tanking AND dps.
Isnt it strange that a hybrid can do just as much damage as a class that is meant for a specific role? Or tank just as good etc..

Toenibbler · Post by **Toenibbler** » 13 Oct 2008, 15:15

Kingeling wrote:When I read the druid changes for example I think it's strange they can be awesome at healing, tanking AND dps.
Isnt it strange that a hybrid can do just as much damage as a class that is meant for a specific role? Or tank just as good etc..

it is

according to peeps i talking to who are playing beta...moonkin druids out dps locks and hunter. the feral druids are on par with some classes for dps and tanking is equal..lets not get started on resto (pvp wise). pve they are equal

Raniz · Post by **Raniz** » 13 Oct 2008, 15:57

Kingeling wrote:When I read the druid changes for example I think it's strange they can be awesome at healing, tanking AND dps.
Isnt it strange that a hybrid can do just as much damage as a class that is meant for a specific role? Or tank just as good etc..

Not really, the thing is that every class/spec should be a viable alternative. You shouldn't lose DPS just because one on your team prefers to play feral druid instead of frostmage.

The philosophy behind all the changes in LK seems to be that to be a good player you need skill, not the correct class.
So in the future there won't be any discussions like:
"Should we bring Satanic or Akuro as DPS?"
"Well, retardins are bad DPS so let's go with Satanic"

Instead, they will be like this:
"Should we bring Satanic or Akuro as DPS?"
"Well, Akuro is the best player out there and Satanic is just pure suck, so let's go with Akuro"

Lateralus · Post by **Lateralus** » 13 Oct 2008, 16:09

Raniz wrote: "Well, Akuro is the best player out there and Satanic is just pure suck, so let's go with Akuro"

Ithelia · Post by **Ithelia** » 13 Oct 2008, 16:25

Raniz wrote:
Kingeling wrote:When I read the druid changes for example I think it's strange they can be awesome at healing, tanking AND dps.
Isnt it strange that a hybrid can do just as much damage as a class that is meant for a specific role? Or tank just as good etc..
Not really, the thing is that every class/spec should be a viable alternative. You shouldn't lose DPS just because one on your team prefers to play feral druid instead of frostmage.

[/i]

Well the "faer" is that normal dps classes will be scrapped since hybrids now bring the buffs for the dps as well as the pure dps. World of hybridcraft!

Raniz · Post by **Raniz** » 13 Oct 2008, 17:56

Ithelia wrote:Well the "faer" is that normal dps classes will be scrapped since hybrids now bring the buffs for the dps as well as the pure dps. World of hybridcraft!

Well, not really.

The pure DPS classes will bring the buffs aswell, so DPS-specced hybrids will now match the pure DPS classes instead of being inferior and just brining buffs.

I think the idea behind all of this is that if you enjoy playing a mage you should be playing a mage and not a druid because the raid needs your boomkin aura.

And as a paladin I really like being able to choose what I should play as instead of being forced into healing since paladin tanks are slightly inferior on bosses and retribution DPS sucks.

Blahran · Post by **Blahran** » 13 Oct 2008, 18:15

Raniz wrote:I think the idea behind all of this is that if you enjoy playing a mage you should be playing a mage and not a druid because the raid needs your boomkin aura.

but then there will be the problem that for raids we will get 30 mage signups

Raniz · Post by **Raniz** » 13 Oct 2008, 18:30

I don't really think so... I for one do not enjoy playing mage, so I'll be healing on my paladin.

As long as there are enough people playing tank, healer and DPS the class composition won't matter as much as it did in TBC.

Ithelia · Post by **Ithelia** » 13 Oct 2008, 18:46

Raniz wrote: The pure DPS classes will bring the buffs aswell, so DPS-specced hybrids will now match the pure DPS classes instead of being inferior and just brining buffs.

What buffs do normal dps classes bring, well poisons will be active for rogues now, but a mage brings intellect, and now that mages and boomkins dps are in the risk of being same base dps, why would you bring more than one mage when you can settle for a boomkin who brings raidbuffs or an elemental shaman with all the totems.

Raniz wrote: I think the idea behind all of this is that if you enjoy playing a mage you should be playing a mage and not a druid because the raid needs your boomkin aura.

Yea, but thats how it is now. If you enjoy your mage, you can bring it, because its a real dpser. You wont see any mage today say "Oh but I must reroll moonkin to be important for dps". Though that might be the effect in case the hybrid dps is on par with the mage in which case the mage might very well go as you said, go moonkin cause the dps is just as good, and they bring both Motw and moonkin aura to the raid, with the option to respec healing on bosses or hard trash just like that!

Raniz wrote: And as a paladin I really like being able to choose what I should play as instead of being forced into healing since paladin tanks are slightly inferior on bosses and retribution DPS sucks.

Yet you say " I for one do not enjoy playing mage, so I'll be healing on my paladin." Have you even seen retri DPS? It's not sucky, thats for sure. And the way they evened out tanks a paladin tank is not inferior on some bosses, or thats at least the devs. aim I cant say anything since I havent tried anything out myself, but the goal is that all tanking classes should be able to tank the same bosses w/o differences.

psythe · Post by **psythe** » 13 Oct 2008, 19:07

ith, int buff isnt the only thing a mage brings though

Ithelia · Post by **Ithelia** » 13 Oct 2008, 19:32

psythe wrote:ith, int buff isnt the only thing a mage brings though

But they dont bring 5% spellcrit either, unless they adding something new that I dont know of yet

Or the possibility of respeccing to healing in case thats needed in the mid of the raid.

manstrale · Post by **manstrale** » 13 Oct 2008, 21:33

This changes actually makes me think about not playing WotLK at all, since well mages will only be good for water and then you can have someone outside the instance making water before the raid.

Why bring a pure DPS class, when you can bring a hybrid making the same amount of dmg? Especially if the hybrid are able to change between specs, so when 7 healers needed, well then the hybrids dps and when 10 healers needed they just push a button and are turned into a healbot.

I actually see no need for any nonhybrids to raid at all or to even be in the game if this happends.

Ithelia · Post by **Ithelia** » 13 Oct 2008, 21:59

manstrale wrote:This changes actually makes me think about not playing WotLK at all, since well mages will only be good for water and then you can have someone outside the instance making water before the raid.

Why bring a pure DPS class, when you can bring a hybrid making the same amount of dmg? Especially if the hybrid are able to change between specs, so when 7 healers needed, well then the hybrids dps and when 10 healers needed they just push a button and are turned into a healbot.

I actually see no need for any nonhybrids to raid at all or to even be in the game if this happends.

Exactly!