Druid Cataclysm comments from Blizzard chat today
Posted 04/17/10 at 2:25 AM by Hamlet
Blizzard had a developer Q&A on Twitter today. Transcript here:
World of Warcraft - English (NA) Forums -> #BlizzChat Developer Chat on Twitter 4/16
Brief comments on Druid-related information.
This will largely have no effect on channeled spells with no cooldown, such as Hurricane. Haste will improve the tick rate, just as it does now. The fixed duration will make them more mana efficient.
The effect is more significant on channeled spells with a cooldown, such as Tranquility. The value of each cast is significantly increased, which matters in this case since you only get one cast per cooldown.
Hmm, Hurricane and Tranquility are actually our only two channeled spells. Moving on!
I don't like this. Here are the current benefits of spell-specific Relics:
1) They are more interesting and "fun" than having yet another blob of stats. At best, almost like a mini-trinket slot, in that they have a chance to actually qualitatively affect how you play. At worst, choice of Relic is still a decision based on which spell you think it's most important to buff, which has some interest to it.
2) Since they tend to give a large benefit centered on a specific spell, they are far more min-maxy than simple stats. Right now my Idol gives me 256 spellpower. My girlfriend, a Mage, has a Wand that gives roughly 240 stats in total ( Corpse-Impaling Spike - Item - World of Warcraft ), but that's mixed between spellpower, crit, haste, Int, and stam. As we all know, being able to stack one stat higher is stronger than obtaining a spread of stats (also, the Wand is 13 ilvls higher). And aside from the one specific example, Relics almost univerally focus their benefit in way that typical stat blobs do not.
Seeming cons of Relics are:
1) Can be hard to obtain exactly the right one (and for the above reasons, there tends to be only one good one at a time). But they seemed to solve this by putting them on Emblem vendors. Kind of boring to just buy the one one each tier? I guess. But no less boring to just wait for a drop the way I do every other item.
I can't think of any other, actually.
The asymmetry between Relics and boring ranged items seems like might be a balance problem. But classes with Relics seem to complain about it overall, even though it's a perk, I'm not sure that's a major factor here.
As per my comments on Relics above, I think this is wrong.
As I discussed in my last post about Druids in Cataclysm ( http://elitistjerks.com/blogs/arawet...e_preview.html ), Tree of Life is Resto's new spell, so it has to be good. Even though there still not a detailed mention of what it will do, this most makes clear that they're trying to change spells in interesting ways and not give a boring (and pointless) +% healing buff. So that's good.
Making Tranquility raidwide is a simple, obvious fix for a spell that was terrible all through WLK.
I don't like that most of the Resto healing preview still consists of:
"All Resto spells: made more interesting."
Balance is getting a new PvP spell they hadn't mentioned yet. Neat.
World of Warcraft - English (NA) Forums -> #BlizzChat Developer Chat on Twitter 4/16
Brief comments on Druid-related information.
Quote:
Q: How will haste affect channeled spells. Will it be similar to DoTs and HoTs?
A: They will channel faster but their duration will remain unchanged. You will get more ticks on the same cast.
A: They will channel faster but their duration will remain unchanged. You will get more ticks on the same cast.
The effect is more significant on channeled spells with a cooldown, such as Tranquility. The value of each cast is significantly increased, which matters in this case since you only get one cast per cooldown.
Hmm, Hurricane and Tranquility are actually our only two channeled spells. Moving on!
Quote:
Q: Will relics and wands be getting any new attention in Cataclysm?
A: With relics, the plan is to make them class agnostic. In other words, there might be a +strength relic that a death knight or paladin might want to equip. We think that will let us add more of them to the game without them being so specialized. They will feel more like wands.
How to make wands and relics a bigger part of gameplay is something we’ve had many, many discussions on. Ultimately though we’d rather see warlocks, mages and priests casting their spells, not zapping someone with a wand. In Cataclysm we don’t expect to see much wanding, even at lower level.
A: With relics, the plan is to make them class agnostic. In other words, there might be a +strength relic that a death knight or paladin might want to equip. We think that will let us add more of them to the game without them being so specialized. They will feel more like wands.
How to make wands and relics a bigger part of gameplay is something we’ve had many, many discussions on. Ultimately though we’d rather see warlocks, mages and priests casting their spells, not zapping someone with a wand. In Cataclysm we don’t expect to see much wanding, even at lower level.
1) They are more interesting and "fun" than having yet another blob of stats. At best, almost like a mini-trinket slot, in that they have a chance to actually qualitatively affect how you play. At worst, choice of Relic is still a decision based on which spell you think it's most important to buff, which has some interest to it.
2) Since they tend to give a large benefit centered on a specific spell, they are far more min-maxy than simple stats. Right now my Idol gives me 256 spellpower. My girlfriend, a Mage, has a Wand that gives roughly 240 stats in total ( Corpse-Impaling Spike - Item - World of Warcraft ), but that's mixed between spellpower, crit, haste, Int, and stam. As we all know, being able to stack one stat higher is stronger than obtaining a spread of stats (also, the Wand is 13 ilvls higher). And aside from the one specific example, Relics almost univerally focus their benefit in way that typical stat blobs do not.
Seeming cons of Relics are:
1) Can be hard to obtain exactly the right one (and for the above reasons, there tends to be only one good one at a time). But they seemed to solve this by putting them on Emblem vendors. Kind of boring to just buy the one one each tier? I guess. But no less boring to just wait for a drop the way I do every other item.
I can't think of any other, actually.
The asymmetry between Relics and boring ranged items seems like might be a balance problem. But classes with Relics seem to complain about it overall, even though it's a perk, I'm not sure that's a major factor here.
Quote:
Q: When you say you're going to make relics class agnostic, does it include druids' idols as well?
A: Druid, shaman, paladin and death knight. It’s possible we will still keep some that are very specific to certain classes and specs. Overall though we’re not happy with the current design where an ability procs a buff on you. If it’s an ability you don’t use often, then the item is terrible, so they end up feeling really passive already. At the same time, the fact that we have to offer so many prevents us from ever giving you the choice of which one to use. So we make the Resto druid or Enhance shaman version every new tier. It would be a more interesting decision if there was a crit + Intellect relic and a haste + Intellect relic, and you can choose which one to use.
A: Druid, shaman, paladin and death knight. It’s possible we will still keep some that are very specific to certain classes and specs. Overall though we’re not happy with the current design where an ability procs a buff on you. If it’s an ability you don’t use often, then the item is terrible, so they end up feeling really passive already. At the same time, the fact that we have to offer so many prevents us from ever giving you the choice of which one to use. So we make the Resto druid or Enhance shaman version every new tier. It would be a more interesting decision if there was a crit + Intellect relic and a haste + Intellect relic, and you can choose which one to use.
Quote:
Q. Why are Restoration druids the only spec in the game not receiving a new spell?
A. Restoration druids are actually getting a fair bit. For one, Tree of Life is getting a whole new model (think Ancients of War) and will also “morph” some of your spells to do crazy things while in the form, such as cause Regrowth to be instant, or Lifebloom to apply two applications at once. Tranquility will be raid-wide. We’re also touching nearly every Restoration druid spell to make sure each has a niche and feels good. In general, playing a Restoration druid should feel a lot different (better!) in Cataclysm than it does today.
A. Restoration druids are actually getting a fair bit. For one, Tree of Life is getting a whole new model (think Ancients of War) and will also “morph” some of your spells to do crazy things while in the form, such as cause Regrowth to be instant, or Lifebloom to apply two applications at once. Tranquility will be raid-wide. We’re also touching nearly every Restoration druid spell to make sure each has a niche and feels good. In general, playing a Restoration druid should feel a lot different (better!) in Cataclysm than it does today.
Making Tranquility raidwide is a simple, obvious fix for a spell that was terrible all through WLK.
I don't like that most of the Resto healing preview still consists of:
"All Resto spells: made more interesting."
Quote:
Q. What change are you most excited about?
A. Some of the new Balance talents for druids, like Solar Beam, which works like Freya’s spell where it instantly silences a target and they have to move out of the beam to get rid of the debuff.
A. Some of the new Balance talents for druids, like Solar Beam, which works like Freya’s spell where it instantly silences a target and they have to move out of the beam to get rid of the debuff.
Total Comments 0
Comments
Total Trackbacks 0
Trackbacks
Recent Blog Entries by Hamlet
- Balance Feedback MoP Beta (04/02/12)
- Theorycraft 101: Regen vs. Throughput Choices for Healers (08/09/11)
- Theorycraft 101: Haste Breakpoints, update. (08/06/11)
- StarCraft 2 Speedrun (07/28/11)
- Theorycraft 101: Haste Breakpoints and Rounding (07/18/11)
