The Blizzcon Thread: Let there be PandasFollow

If we were talking about actual beatings, I'd volunteer. Verbal beatings aren't quite so much fun.

I definitely have to admit to being more vocal about aspects of the game which I feel are turrible than those that I enjoy.

I do have my posts talking about aspects of WotLK that I liked such as the lore, the leveling, Ulduar, the change to spell rotations to stop simple 111112 type spamming. Of course there are more posts talking about T7 or how T9, while excellently designed in terms of encounter mechanics, was just too short to be a tier.

With Cata I agree with your "Villain of the Month" club paragraph. We had finished a story arc that started in WCIII back in 2002, Blizzard was worried that people would feel that they had beat the "end boss" of WoW and if you go back and read the release and build up for "Deathwing" in the period when 4.0 was in development to Cata going live it is clear that they were trying to lessen that by minimizing Arthas and stating "you think he was bad guyt, this new guy is going to break the world". Which really is a shame because WotLK really felt like it had built the Horde/Alliance grudge match up (even though at the ICC there is some resolution). So I am glad they are moving to a Horde/Alliance dynamic because if anything that is a better jumping off point because the conflict has hindered both sides against the true enemy for a long long time and eventually I would like to see a unified force going toe to toe with Sargeras.

Cata at release was rough, but thankfully the PvE content was well designed. However I did leave because I did not enjoy where healers were at in T11. Since I have come back I have gone into HM's with my Holy Paladin and Resto shaman and I have enjoyed Firelands even though the instance has taken some heat (pun intended) on the fact that it is too short.

WotLK I had my gripes but I enjoyed the over all experience. Cata did kill the game for me and I did leave for the summer but got roped back in because I am an addict and they had made enough changes in my absence to make the game playable. I can definitely say that as one of the mass of people who left and came back, or left and was thinking of coming back the announcement of what is in details so far known appears to be a lackluster expac with asian fever really doesn't speak to me. Right now I am mainly feeling out whether I am committed enough to down Deathwing or if I just cash out now and wait for D3.

I'm fine with most of Cataclysm now. The initial "woopsie, broke your class" thing was annoying, but they sorta, kinda fixed it.

My only issue with the game right now is that healing is like playing whack-a-mole, just like it was in WotLK, only they completely changed Druid healing to a point where I'm no longer finding it fun.

I see no reason, at all, why anyone would want to play a Resto Druid over a Resto Shaman (or Holy Paladin or Priest if that's your thing). Resto Shaman have better AOE healing, better burst healing and better mp5.

GG

Edited, Oct 23rd 2011 4:26pm by Mazra

Why would Worgen need to use a Travel form when they run faster on their own? Why would Worgen need to switch to a Cat form to Rake, Rip and Shred an opponent when they've got bigger claws in their Worgen form??

They already passed that line of "why would they...?" when they made Worgen Druids.

Edited, Oct 23rd 2011 6:29pm by Mazra

I'm having a lot of trouble wrapping my head around this new talent thing.

I have to choose between Feline Swiftness and Dash now?

Are you @#%^ing kidding me, Blizzard?

Oh, and final tier for Druids looks absolutely terrible from a tank's point of view. 6-minute cooldown on an ability that doubles my armor and regenerates my MANA?! Seriously?

Also, Shaman's first tier abilities are completely useless for PvE.

Basically, they're taking existing core and talent based abilities, removing half, adding a cooldown to the rest and forcing us to choose between them.

Yay for less choice?

Edited, Oct 23rd 2011 9:58pm by Mazra

They sure are making leveling up a lot less exciting. Now I have to wait a good 15 levels between choices. Wowee.

But they'll be fun choices!

Well, obviously it's an early alpha version. I'm sure there will be lots of changes made during the beta. They made quite a few changes to talents during the Cata beta.

Technically, it's an improved version of Dash that also breaks roots and snares. Also, of all people, I thought you would be happy with the idea of the level 90 talents, since it encourages switching forms to something you aren't specced for for a short time. The numbers and exact effects are still pre-alpha. Heart of the Wild only lists 2 examples of effects. Since Bear and Cat are being split into Feral and Guardian (I think that's what they're called), that's actually the talent bonus for kitties. In other words, for 45 seconds every few minutes, you can go bear and do a decent job of it, or heal and not OOM immediately (bunus intellect and MP/5, instead of just Agi as healing power).

As for Shamans... I'm thus far not impressed. Some of the others seem a lot better, so I'm thinking that all classes will have their trees changed a lot between now and release. I'm hoping that Blizzard's main idea for BlizzCon was to show there's a theme for each level, and you can choose from one of three abilities in that theme.

The main issue with these talents is that some are awesome, and some are just ****. As long as they have abilities that deal damage/healing, there's going to be theorycrafting and a cookie cutter spec. If that's what they want to avoid, then they need to make it all utility. That means movement speed, stuff like Void Shift in the Priest tree, etc. Not making Blast Wave a level 90 talent in the Mage tree.

These have a lot of work to be done.

I assume what they'll be doing is baking a lot of the spells into the specs, rather than make them baseline. They mentioned, for example, that Circle of Healing will be baseline for Holy Priests, so it won't show up in talents but still be there.

But I'm guessing it won't just be one spell per spec, rather a whole slew of spells. so Circle of Healing, Guardian Spirit, Chakra, Holy Word: Chastise, Lightwell, etc. Seems obvious to me, but it never hurt to state the obvious.

This isn't going to stop cookie cutter builds, if anything it will make it stand out more. This water down version only makes it idiot proof. Seriously, MMO and cookie cutter builds go hand in hand.