RSS Upcoming mage changes, blue posts [Archive]

Azel

08/10/2008, 19:39

Let's start the week with a few blue posts, as a reminder the <a href="http://www.blizzard.com/blizzcon/" target="_blank">Blizzcon 2008</a> will be held in Anaheim at the end of this week and we might hear a few interesting things ! Stay tuned ! <img src="http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/icons/24x24/mage.jpg" alt="" border="0" /> Upcoming Mage changes <div class="blizzquotewrap"><div class="blizzquoteinner"><div class="blizzquoteheader">Quote from: Ghostcrawler (<a href="http://blue.mmo-champion.com/4/10863437336-upcoming-mage-changes.html" target="_blank" style="color: white;">Source</a>)</div><div class="blizzquote">We think mages are still having mana problems and don't want to reduce Evocation's cooldown anymore. Nor do we want to buff mage armor too much more or using e.g. molten armor seems pointless. Instead, we reduced the mana cost on Fireball, Frostbolt, Frostfire Bolt, Arcane Blast, Arcane Missiles, and Arcane Explosion. </div></div></div> Blue posts <div class="blizzquotewrap"><div class="blizzquoteinner"><div class="blizzquoteheader">Quote from Blizzard staff</div><div class="blizzquote">Arena testing and bug exploits As to Arenas, yes we are getting much more testing now. Unfortunately it doesn't take much to derail that testing, such as the Typhoon bug, or the POM Pyro bug, or the current weapon multiplier bug. That's the kind of thing that happens in a beta, but it has a much harsher effect when players are trying to beat other players than it does when players are questing or doing raids. (<a href="http://blue.mmo-champion.com/3/10873897363-ghostcrawler-its-all-we-want.html" target="_blank">Source</a>) Pet balancing and GCD I would like to try a pet model at some point where the pets were sturdy and easily healed, but contributed much less of the total dps (like 15-25% instead of 30-40%). The GCD, as I've said, is a good deal trickier. If anything, we regret a little pulling some abilities off of the GCD because that opened the barn door for other requests to remove things from it. (<a href="http://blue.mmo-champion.com/3/10863436434-feedback-middle-ground-for-hunters-gc.html" target="_blank">Source</a>) Glyphs pass soon The glyphs weren't finalized until late, and we had already done a lot of testing and balancing then. They are also a little tricky to adjust because the intent is that they do change what you do slightly, instead of just buffing the buttons you'd already push. But we plan on doing a pass on them soon. (<a href="http://blue.mmo-champion.com/8/10871017014-gc--what-is-being-done-for-shaman-glyphs.html" target="_blank">Source</a>) Sorting mounts under the "Mounts" tab We'll try to get some improvements in over time. It's not our highest priority UI feature, however. (<a href="http://blue.mmo-champion.com/1/10873898539-feedback-unable-to-sort-mounts-under-tab.html" target="_blank">Source</a>) Class balance and WotLK release deadline The numbers aren't done. We changed an awful lot of combat mechanics and we're still adjusting things to get them right. Unholy death knights (I assume that's the spec you are talking about) have some nerfs coming (and I've already posted about them). Don't feel like Lich King is a deadline. If anything, it's only a beginning. Even if we had everything absolutely 100% perfectly balanced to our liking, some smart player would figure out that if you combine this talent spec, with this elixir and this trinket and use this set bonus, then bam, your dps goes up by 200 points. That sort of thing is going to happen, and we're just going to have to adjust when it does. Balance is a work in progress, not a destination. (<a href="http://blue.mmo-champion.com/7/10532602707-can-we-agree-that-were-all-pretty-worried.html" target="_blank">Source</a>) Raid diversity in WotLK I undestand your concern here. It's totally valid. But it's actually the "OMG we need X" mentality that we're trying to get away from. Even a 25-player raid stacked with healers is going to have ~15 slots for dps. Not every raid will have a rogue in one of those spots, but some will, and some will have 3 or 4. We want to restore flexibility back to the group. Our experience is that a lot of guilds are groups of friends, and it sucks when those groups have to sit out mage 3 and 4 just because "full on mages." If you have a group with exceptional rogues, great. Bring them. You shouldn't be punished for having too many good players. Now maybe you're worried that battle rez or battle shout or whatever is still too good and stacks so well that every guild is going to switch to stacking, oh I don't know, 10 Ret pallies for their dps. If that happens, and we're convinced it's really an issue not just players experimenting, then we'll squash it. Because the goal is you bring ~15 dps, not that you bring 10 ret pallies. That violates the "OMG we need X" situation. (<a href="http://blue.mmo-champion.com/7/10532602707-can-we-agree-that-were-all-pretty-worried.html" target="_blank">Source</a>) Cleaves in PvE in WotLK Assuming you are talking about PvE, a big part of that in BC was the boss cleaves that were so deadly to melee and the necessity for crowd control that could pretty much only be done by a mage or priest. That did suck and it wasn't fair and we changed it. You shouldn't be walking into that situation again. Now you can argue that your dps isn't up to par, which is a valid concern (in the sense that I understand why you'd be worried about it, not in the sense that we think it's true). But it is also a concern voiced by probably every class at the moment. (<a href="http://blue.mmo-champion.com/7/10532602707-can-we-agree-that-were-all-pretty-worried.html" target="_blank">Source</a>) <img src="http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/icons/ideathknights.gif" alt="" border="0" /> Death Knight (<a href="http://www.mmo-champion.com/index.php?page=650" target="_blank">Skills List</a> / <a href="http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?deathknight" target="_blank">Talent Calc. (9014)</a>) Black Ice and damage increase spells effects The Black Ice tooltip may very well still be wrong. Sometimes text doesn't get updated at the same time. But the spell effect should be that Black Ice only buffs Frost. Frost got some other buffs and Unholy got some other nerfs too. These might not all be in the build. I am also going off of memory here, so I may be mistaken. Tundra Stalker buffs Obliterate and Howling Blast. Adds double expertise. Acclimation buffs Rune Strike (in addition to its normal effects). Crypt Fever down to 10/20/30%. And the big one... when you miss, your runes activate in 1 sec instead of 2. This makes misses, dodges and parries a lot less painful. We are also getting reports of Tundra Stalker not causing extra damage as it should. I can't verify that, but keep it in mind. (<a href="http://blue.mmo-champion.com/18/10535473208-new-death-knight-changes.html" target="_blank">Source</a>) <img src="http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/icons/idruids.gif" alt="" border="0" /> Druid (<a href="http://www.mmo-champion.com/index.php?page=700" target="_blank">Skills List</a> / <a href="http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?druid" target="_blank">Talent Calc. (9014)</a>) Feral abilities With regard to abilities, we have been torn between giving bears (and cats) more unique abilities versus giving them tanking abilities that many players considered "core." We could have certainly come up with something more original than Last Stand for bears, but at the time, a lot of bears were comparing laundry lists of buttons and said bears wouln't be invited to raids because they didn't have an oh snap button like Last Stand. We put that functionality in Berserk, then later backed off of that so that we could make Berserk a more fun button to push as bear. (<a href="http://blue.mmo-champion.com/2/9956326946-snarfsnarf-speaks-help-save-feral-tanking.html" target="_blank">Source</a>) Typhoon I'm not aware of any changes to Typhoon's damage. If you're just talking about Rank 5, we had to just temporarily yank it to make sure it was becoming untrained -- despite the last hotfix, druids were still ending up with it when we added the rank back in. We should be able to add it back next patch. Also understand that if it hadn't been abused so much that we wouldn't have had to yank it. It's not terribly fair or helpful to complain about not having access to the ability when it was being used to overpower bosses and other players to such extremes. While the bug was ours (mine in all likelihood), we're not going to be able to get back all of those busted battles, yanno? (<a href="http://blue.mmo-champion.com/2/10638060733-typhoon-needs-to-be-buffed-not-nerfed.html" target="_blank">Source</a>) Predatory Instincts reducing AoE Damage by 30% instead of 15% Predatory Instincts is a huge nerf. You just haven't seen it yet. It only works in cat form. I hinted that this might happen before, but as it was, a druid was going to be the only tank people took for dragons like Malygos. That would have been particularly true for any encounter that was supposed to be a resist fight, because the druid could skip a lot of the resist gear. Your health pool should still make sure you handle those fights sufficiently. (<a href="http://blue.mmo-champion.com/2/10535473265-feral-tanking-nerf-actually-a-buff.html" target="_blank">Source</a>) Treants The Treant health appears to be too low. They aren't updating correctly from your Stamina or level or something. We'll get it fixed. (<a href="http://blue.mmo-champion.com/2/10638059228-i-have-askd-befortreants.html" target="_blank">Source</a>) <img src="http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/icons/ihunters.gif" alt="" border="0" /> Hunter (<a href="http://www.mmo-champion.com/index.php?page=620" target="_blank">[c...</a></div></div></div>

More... (http://www.mmo-champion.com/index.php?topic=19647.0)