Author Archive
September 3rd, 2008 | 
Author: Quote From Zarhym: Source
With the release of upcoming content patch players will see a change in the way we allow buffs and debuffs to stack exclusively in a raid. For the most part, what this change means is that many buffs and debuffs that were previously allowed to stack together no longer can, and that many buffs and debuffs that only a single talent specialization could bring can now be brought by multiple different specializations. The philosophy behind this change shows up in many of the changes we have made in Wrath of The Lich King, such as when we made almost all buffs raid-wide. We want players to be able to form raids and parties based on who they want to play with, rather than who has the correct talents and abilities to min-max their raid performance.
Raid composition will still matter to some extent, but without this change, it would have overwhelmed every other aspect of raid planning (as we added new capabilities to each of 30 different talent trees). You no longer need to rigidly control the melee/spellcaster balance of your raid, or make sure every group has all the critical buffing classes, etc. This change has many class balance implications.
IMPORTANT! Before we are done, we will thoroughly test the performance of every class. It should not be assumed that one class’ current performance relative to others in beta is final. Some classes (and specializations) will need to be reduced in power and some increased. Many may feel the change has more impact on class X than class Y. We will address all of those concerns via our internal testing and community feedback.
There are thirty or so different categories into which buffs and debuffs fit. Here you will find a comprehensive list of the changes made broken down by category and which spells/talents are in that category.
- Armor Debuff (Major): Acid Spit (exotic Hunter pet), Expose Armor, Sunder Armor
- Armor Debuff (Minor): Faerie Fire, Sting (Hunter pet), Curse of Recklessness
- Read the rest of this entry »
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This week with the new build some really good Leatherworker-Only item enchantments were released.
The enchantments are as follows:
- Fur Lining – Attack Power — Permanently enchant bracers to increase attack power by 120. Can only be used on the leatherworker’s bracers, and doing so will cause them to become soulbound.
- Fur Lining – Stamina — Permanently enchant bracers to increase stamina by 90. Can only be used on the leatherworker’s bracers, and doing so will cause them to become soulbound.
- Fur Lining – Spell Damage — Permanently enchant bracers to increase spell power by 70. Can only be used on the leatherworker’s bracers, and doing so will cause them to become soulbound.
- Fur Lining – Fire Resist — Permanently enchant bracers to increase your fire resistance by 60. Can only be used on the leatherworker’s bracers, and doing so will cause them to become soulbound.
- Fur Lining – Frost Resist — Permanently enchant bracers to increase your frost resistance by 60. Can only be used on the leatherworker’s bracers, and doing so will cause them to become soulbound.
- Fur Lining – Shadow Resist — Permanently enchant bracers to increase your shadow resistance by 60. Can only be used on the leatherworker’s bracers, and doing so will cause them to become soulbound.
- Fur Lining – Nature Resist — Permanently enchant bracers to increase your nature resistance by 60. Can only be used on the leatherworker’s bracers, and doing so will cause them to become soulbound.
- Fur Lining – Arcane Resist — Permanently enchant bracers to increase your arcane resistance by 60. Can only be used on the leatherworker’s bracers, and doing so will cause them to become soulbound.
Here is a post by Blizzard poster Gamnin on upcoming Warrior changes that will be launched with the next beta build.
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Hello Warriors,
I’ve got a sneak preview of things coming up in the beta for you to discuss. We still have lots of polish and bug fixing to do and we’re still wrestling with a few elements of the warrior abilities and talents so do not consider this an exhaustive list. As always, post any concerns or suggestions you have.
General
- Enraged Assault redesigned, now Enraged Regeneration: You regenerate 30% of your total health over 10 sec. This ability consumes all Enrage effects and prevents any from affecting you for the full duration. Must be enraged to use. Cost 15 rage, 3 min cooldown.
- Slam – We’re working to change this ability to suspend the swing timer when you are using the ability. In other words, if you’re .5 sec away from swinging your weapon when you start using Slam you’ll be .5 sec from swinging your weapon after Slam goes off.
Arms
- Improved Charge now generates 5/10 rage.
- Mace Specialization now ignores 3/6/9/12/15% of target’s armor.
- Sudden Death and Trauma swapped locations.
- Bladestorm now lasts 6 seconds, causing a whirlwind every second.
Post by the Blizzard Poster Gamnin on upcoming rogue changes that will be in the next WotLK Beta Build.
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Here’s a quick update on some additional changes we’ve made over the weekend. Most of these, but not all, will be in the next beta build.
General
- Cloak of Shadows cooldown changed to 1.5 min.
- Disarm Trap range increased to 20 yds, cast time reduced to 1 sec, now requires stealth.
- (NEW – Level 75) Tricks of the Trade: The current party or raid member becomes the target of your Tricks of the Trade. The threat caused by your next attack and all actions taken for 6 sec afterwards will be transferred to the target. In addition, all damage caused by the target is increased by 15% during this time. 30 sec cooldown. (Surprise! Yes, this is the new group/raid utility ability. We haven’t put any stacking protection on it yet but we’ll need one type of solution or other to prevent the need for 5 rogue Trick rotations. Note also that you cannot use this ability on yourself.)
GENERAL
- Several client crash and assertion error causes were addressed.
- The Noble Villas have been optimized. Some players should experience a noticeable increase in performance.
- Shield of the Risen will now be given to new characters when they reach level 5.
- Facial expressions have been added to a number of emotes.
- Female characters can now use the “pointdown” emote.
- The following emotes now work for both male and female characters:
cheer, excitedclap, excited (formerly jig_f), flirt, hugefish, lightheaded, pushaway, trance. - Players will now use the crawl animation when sprinting while swimming.CLASSES
- You may now have up to two Team Heal effects (Renewal, Healing Lotus, Emanation of Life, and Martyrdom) running simultaneously.Priest (General)
- Vindicator will now properly affect Soldiers who joined a group in Defensive Stance.Rogue (General)
- Quick Dismount will no longer go on cooldown if used while moving.
- Quick Dismount will now work even with weapons drawn.
- Using Quick Dismount while riding a mammoth or a rhino will now result in an actual dismount, rather than just an ability cooldownAssassin
- Assassination (2) buff will now properly appear in the Buff GUI instead of the debuff GUI.
- All Assassin combo damage and stamina costs have been rebalanced to match some newly adjusted animations.
- From the Darkness and Ambush should now occur correctly, when performed from stealth.Barbarian
- Cyclone of Steel II is now usable only with the correct weapon type.
- Ambidextrous will now increase off-hand chance by 2%/4%/6%/8%/10% per respective rank.Conqueror
- Rend Flesh’s bleed effect will now stack in the proper order.
- Changed the name of the feat ‘Improved Wrath’ to ‘Improved Fire Weave.’
- Changed the name of the feat ‘Lingering Wrath’ to ‘Lingering Fire Weave.’
- Changed the name of the feat ‘Skirmisher’ to ‘Fleet of Foot.’Dark Templar
- Invulnerable Soul now increases the amount of damage absorbed by Covenant of Invulnerability by 2/4/6/8/10 points per respective rank.Demonologist
- Fires of Gehenna will now have a 1 second cooldown applied to it after using Greater Flames.
- Chaotic Blast’s damage component can now perform critical hits.Guardian
- The Defiance heal effect will now use the proper icon in the buff GUI.
- Impale combo now has a squelchy fleshy sound when used.Herald of Xotli
- Tweaked the animation played for Pillar of Infernal Flame.
- Burn to Death I, Molten Steel Slash I, Pillar of Infernal Flame I now have new icons.
- The duration of the Flame Tongue buff has been increased from 8 seconds to 10 seconds.Necromancer
- Animal Handler (Beast Mastery): No longer increases speed while mounted, but now reduces the cooldown of your Master’s Call ability by 5/10 sec.
- Aspect of the Beast: Now increases your melee attack power by 10% for the hunter and the hunter’s pet.
- Bestial Swiftness is now a pet talent tree talent, and has been removed from the Beast Mastery Hunter tree.
- Disengage: This ability has been re-designed. Now leaps the Hunter backwards up to 13 yards. 30 second cooldown. Disengage now also only has one rank (rank 1).
- Distracting Shot: This shot now “taunts” the target onto the Hunter. The taunt effect will last 6 seconds. Distracting Shot now only has one rank (rank 1).
- Focused Fire (Beast Mastery): Now increases the critical strike chance of your Kill Command by 10/20/30% while Kill Command is active. This effect can stack up to 3 times, but diminishes for each charge of Kill Command. Read the rest of this entry »
PLAYFIELDS
- The Catacombs in Tarantia Nobel district offers a host of new quests and encounters to challenge you in this group instance.
CLASSES
MAGE (General)
- Dark Meditation will now properly expire.
- Dark Meditation should now be removed from the spell list after untraining feats.
- The description for the general feat Purge no longer refers to multiple targets.
- The feat “Purge” has been renamed to “Spell – Purge”.
- Mirrored Iron’s proc, Set’s Shield, now hits using the correct damage type based on the Magic Rating buff running.
- Mirrored Iron’s proc, Set’s Shield, has had its damage readjusted to the proper amount.
ROGUE (General)
- Ambush ability will no longer increase the damage of the next strike.
- Mountaineer feat’s decrease to the duration of the Bruised Body debuff has been changed from 50%/100% to 45%/90% per respective rank. Read the rest of this entry »
Priest
- Glyph of Lightwell 01 (Priest) (Class: Priest) – Increases the amount healed by your Lightwell by 1 to 6%
- Glyph of Renew 01 (Priest) (Class: Priest) – Increases the duration of your Renew by 3 sec.
- Glyph of Circle of Healing 01 (Priest) (Class: Priest) – Your Circle of Healing spell heals 1 additional target.
- Glyph of Psychic Scream 01 (Priest) (Class: Priest) – Increases the duration of your Psychic Scream by 3 sec.
- Glyph of Dispel Magic 01 (Priest) (Class: Priest) – Your Dispel Magic also heals your target for 3% of maximum health if it removes a damaging effect.
- Glyph of Fear Ward 01 (Priest) (Class: Priest) – Reduces cooldown and duration of Fear Ward by 30 sec.
- Glyph of Flash Heal 01 (Priest) (Class: Priest) – Your Flash Heal has a 50% chance to reduce the cast time of your next Greater Heal by 0.3 sec
- Glyph of Prayer of Healing 01 (Priest) (Class: Priest) – Increases the radius of your Prayer of Healing spell by 5 yards.
- Glyph of Mind Flay 01 (Priest) (Class: Priest) – Increases the range of your Mind Flay spell by 5 yards but it no longer reduces the target’s movement speed.
- Glyph of Shadow Word: Death 01 (Priest) (Class: Priest) – Targets below 35% health take an additional 5% damage from your Shadow Word: Death spell.
- Glyph of Holy Nova 01 (Priest) (Class: Priest) – Your Holy Nova spell heals for an additional 30% but deals 1 to 0% less damage. Read the rest of this entry »
Blacksmithing
Socket Bracer
Permanently add a socket to your bracers. Requires a level 60 or higher item.
Socket Gloves
Permanently add a socket to your gloves. Requires a level 60 or higher item.
Tailoring
Lightweave Embroidery
Embroiders a subtle pattern of light into your cloak, giving you a chance to cause an additional 800 to 1000 Holy damage when you damage an enemy with a spell.
You can only embroider your own cloak and embroidering your cloak will cause it to become soulbound.
Darkglow Embroidery
Embroiders a magical pattern into your cloak, giving you a chance to restore 300 mana when you cast a spell.
You can only embroider your own cloak and embroidering your cloak will cause it to become soulbound.
Swordguard Embroidery
Embroiders a magical pattern into your cloak, causing your damaging melee attacks to sometimes ignore 1000 of your target’s armor.
You can only embroider your own cloak and embroidering your cloak will cause it to become soulbound.
Herbalism
Wild Growth
Embrace the natural energies surrounding you, healing you for 2000 over 15 sec. (300/480/720/900/1200/2000 Depending on Rank). Instant, 5 min cooldown
