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[ghoselle]

Ghostcrawler posted in a followup:

You get a small mastery bonus for wearing the highest-armor gear capable for your class. Hunters in mail get a bonus. Hunters in leather do not.

So now we know how they're going to penalize downgearing.

Wow. I won't lie, this annoys me since it's been years and they still don't seem to get how to properly itemize for classes they make and manipulate (cough, moonkin). A lot will have to change in terms of that getting straight for me to feel confident that this won't anger me at a later date. And I am not sure the spirit to hit thing will be enough.

Yeah.  It makes me a bit nervous too.  With that said, assuming they have 1 spirit->1 hit, it seems likely that we'll be able to wear spirit gear like we wear hit gear now.  Now if they make it so that it isn't 1:1 spirit->hit, we'll be having the problem that we'll effectively be "losing" item budget for wearing spirit, which will make it about as useful to have on our gear as it is now -- ie, something you avoid as much as is possible because its effectively lost itemization.  And taking a small hit to mastery to get full use of the itemization budget on a piece of gear will be a much smaller loss than wearing spirit gear.  At the moment, there is the problem that blizzard still hasn't shown itself willing to generate gear for moonkin.

But really, its way to early to tell anything.


In ICC10, there are 7 leather drops.  3 are itemized for resto druids, 1 for boomkin, 4 for neither*.
In ICC25, there are 8 leather drops.  4 are itemized for resto druids, 0 for boomkin, 4 for neither*.

*  Boomkin itemization is spellpower/haste/crit.  Resto druid itemization is spell power/haste/spirit.  Neither really want spellpower/crit/spirit - though very high geared resto druids might be able to make use of crit as a lesser stat.  Crit is a decent resto stat with 4T9 which I suspect confused blizzard when they saw resto druids wearing crit.


It occurs to me that if blizzard had just made "boomkin get spirit->crit at 1:1" as a talent, they'd have only needed one set of gear for both boom & tree.

[Marco]

Preview of the new mastery stat: http://blue.mmo-champion.com/1/23614404862-mastery-system-preview.html

Mostly a reiteration of what we've already been told.  It contains a few select examples of what the mastery stat will buff, but only for three of the thirty specs, and I bet they're subject to change anyway.

[Andy]

Axes?  I don't think we can even speak anymore.

NO ONE TELL GIMLI

[Marco]

http://blue.mmo-champion.com/27/24038459143-how-will-mana-be-an-issue-in-cataclysm-late.html

Ghostcrawler comments on how content will adjust for higher mana regen (via spirit) in later tiers.

Basically, it comes down to "later fights will require you to heal faster at times, using less efficient spells to do so."

(Edit: fixed link.)

[Marco]

http://blue.mmo-champion.com/26/24038740387-rage-normalization-in-cataclysm.html

1. Rage from white swings no longer dependent on damage done (crits still generate double rage)
2. Rage from incoming attacks is based on your health, and is calculated before avoidance/mitigation
3. More rage-generation abilities (e.g. battle shout)
4. Heroic Strike/Maul will be an instance attack which consumes a variable amount of rage.

[Deren]

So they turn Heroic Strike into Execute....

Nothing about cleave tho.

[Marco]

I think GC said at some point that Cleave could stay as an on-next-attack because it's situational.

Making rage from incoming damage vary based on the tank's health doesn't seem quite right.  You'll still get less rage tanking a heroic in raid gear since you'll have more health.  It should probably depend on the enemy, not on the tank.  (In Wrath terms, an average hit from Patchwerk should generate about the same rage as an average hit from Festergut, even though the hit from Festergut is harder--but that should be a function of Patchwerk vs. Festergut, not of the better gear you have when you fight Festergut.)

On the other hand, it does give a reason to gear for avoidance instead of just EH.

[Deren]

Since they said the plan to do another stam Hike, lets say a 85 heroic tank hitting 100k hp, and a full raid buff hitting 125k.   In terms of rage, say we get .005% for a hit as rage, you get 5 rage, you get 6.25 rage, Because HP will be a large magituted small changes we get from gear really wont effect it much, and large swing 20k from a heroic mob to 100k end guy, means we see about the same rage.

The biggest things is really slpash damage that causes rage. say splash damage form Loath, to splah damage from Festergut, for DPS this really wont change. As it is now, Festergut adds a ton more to warriors dps/tanks damage.

   

[Gwyddyon]

Since Maul is the #1 generator of Bear threat right now, I expect they'll have to make some drastic modification to bear rotations.

[Marco]

http://blue.mmo-champion.com/26/24038610431-stamina--rage.html
http://blue.mmo-champion.com/26/24038830344-what-about-rage-when-offtanking.html

Some GC responses addressing the question of rage starvation as tank health gets higher.  Basically, "yeah, some, but it won't be as bad as it is today."

[Deren]

Yeah i read it backwords before, or they needed to explan it differently.

I think it will fix most the Heroic problem of overgearring.

If the mob swings you gain rage, no matter of the outcome, means tank 1 mob you N-rage/sec. Undergeared in a 4 pack you may tank 2 and CC 2. so tanking 2 mobs means you getting 2 time the rage coming in. IF you over gear you make get 1/2 the rage but you can stop CCing and tank all 4 mobs and get the same rage as before.

I still worrry about cleave. They will probly have to change it so it doesnt add damage to the main target so it doesnt get spam on Singal targets at all. and only when you get extra rage from tanking more targets.

[Marco]

http://blue.mmo-champion.com/27/24038610691-upcoming-cataclysm-dispel-mechanics.html

New dispel mechanics for Cataclysm.

Shamans will notice the largest difference, getting defensive magic cleansing but losing poison and disease cleansing as well as cleansing totem.

[Gwyddyon]

I am hopeful that the statement about combining spells applies to priests but I don't really expect them to do that with the offensive use of dispel magic.

[Marco]

http://blue.mmo-champion.com/26/24038461060-death-knights-will-tank-as-blood-in-cataclysm.html

So... a lot like warriors in the general outline, I guess.  A DW tree, a 2H tree, and a tank tree.

[Marco]

Cataclysm class previews are going to be coming in fast--three a day for the next three days, and paladins on April 16.  (Because they know I don't play a paladin, so really, who cares?)

First up, Shamans: http://blue.mmo-champion.com/t/24038611737/cataclysm-class-preview-shaman/

There's a lot here.  A very rough summary:

  * New ability Primal Strike at level 3 to make enh levelling more interesting before level 40.
  * Direct heals will be expanded from two to three (Lesser Healing Wave/Healing Wave/Greater Healing Wave), with the middle one being the most generally useful.
  * 15-second cooldown called Unleash Weapon at level 81, effect varies by weapon enchant.
  * Targetable AOE heal called Healing Rain at level 83.
  * 2m cooldown at level 85 called Spiritwalker's Grace which lets you cast while moving for ten seconds.
  * They're looking into adding Spirit Link to the resto tree, which lets you make two targets share damage.
  * Changes to Flametongue Totem/Totem of Wrath to allow elemental shaman to use damaging fire totems in more situations.

There's more in there about mastery bonuses and talent changes.