I like that they have confirmed a new Healing spells for Paladins, and removing Loyalty from hunter pets.

You mean the ones where you -can't- get exalted, right? Add Syndicate to that list.

Shen'dralar, as well, unless you are completely insane.

I expect that it will be something like "Exalted with all Outland factions" "Exalted with all old-world raid factions" etc.

What, there's nothing insane about Shen'dralar rep compared to some of the others. Not by a long shot.

I'm not surprised at the removal of Loyalty, since with the removal of training points, all it would govern is whether the pet runs away or not. I'm also not quite clear on how the new pet trees will work, do all pets have 3 trees like a player or is it 1 per pet, according to type?

On to the Paladin side of things, if they want the "Main tank and occasional rescue of an injured player" theme to keep going, an instant heal with a short cooldown is going to be a necessity, probably also a buff of some kind on-crit. Adding a healing component to Consecrate (talented, perhaps?) might also be a good move, and would certainly give their priorities a shake-up.

It makes me weep that they think pet happiness is a good mechanic. That is the single worst thing about playing a hunter (BM variety the most), even worse than having to buy ammo and losing an entire bag slot. Having your beastmastery pet die in a fight, sometimes well outside your own control, is just so fucking frustrating. One death is all it takes for it to go to neutral and do less damage. How can they seriously think that's flavor?

I'll take loyalty over happiness any day of the year.

They said pets would have three trees (generic names):

Survivability
Utility
DPS

No details on how deep trees go, or differences in trees between pets.

DK.info got some other screenshots from the guy who leaked those blue posts:
http://deathknight.info/wp-content/u.../enhshaman.jpg
http://deathknight.info/wp-content/u...nformation.jpg
http://deathknight.info/wp-content/u.../07/dkmore.jpg

I'll just post the links since I'm too lazy to reupload and don't want to rape their bandwith with an embed.

Shaman changes look interesting, they're getting a proc talent that stacks to five, and will grant you an instacast on the fifth stack (5 point talent). This talent will replace weapon spec, if it makes it to the game.

Tanks will be getting more AP and therefore more AP so warriors won't feel left alone when they're surrounded by DPS-tanking Death Knights.

Trees appear to be quite deep

I'm wondering if rewards for achievements are going to offer anything for raiders beyond titles, tabards, vanity pets, etc... It just seems like that with this big complex system they would offer more tangible rewards. Especially for completing hard raid oriented achievements.

With almost 2 years between expansions & 11+ months between new 25 man raid zones they really need to do a better job at giving raiders something to do once they hit max level. I don't find alts or PVP appealing and Everquest was definitely good at that with AA points.

I'm also wondering if they could expand the system to Guild Achievements. Something like guild kills Illidan 32 times and unlocks the door to mother so you could just immediately port up and only have to clear the last 3 bosses in BT. Maybe even offer a direct port to illidan after a certain number of kills.

I very much doubt the achievements will provide any permanent benefit beyond vanity. That's just not something that fits with Blizzard's design. Unfortunately I have a feeling that'd also exclude any "Teleport to the last boss of an instance because you farmed the place for 6 months already" achievement rewards.

Giving tangible rewards would make them less fun, in all honesty. I like grinding for vanity rewards (tabards, pets, mounts) and hate the idea of doing grinding for tangible rewards (marks for flasks rep or shoulder enchants, for example).

In the first case, it's something I'm doing for myself and because I choose to do it. In the second, I feel like I'm letting down other people when I only have the Honored shoulder enchants or have to go grind for flasks.

I completely agree with this. You shouldn't have to feel obligated to go through a huge list of checkboxes from all different aspects of the game because it offers some incredible benefit. There's certainly no need to reward high-end raiders for raiding beyond the rewards already offered by the game. It should just be a "personal reputation" indicator that players can show off to others to demonstrate things they've done.

Beta should start tomorrow unless there are unforeseen problems on Blizzard's end to delay it.

Keep your emails open.

Pardon my ignorance, but what makes you say that?

No, I'm going to feel obligated to go through a huge list of checkboxes from all different aspects of the game because my OCD isn't going to let me off the hook.

I was pleased to see that it seems the barber shop will be charging completely nominal fees for their services, at least according to this screen shot:



In discussions of what will be the next big goldsink in WotLK, it's been often suggested that the barber shop might charge large amounts of gold, but I'm glad to see that's not the case. Having a rather neglible cost associated with it lets it remain fun, which is certainly the intent, instead of being something players agonize over, i.e. "Do I really like this haircut enough to spend 50g on it? Or will I be unhappy with it in a couple hours and want something else? Gah, too much pressure!"

I see also there is an acheivement for "Town Crier". I'll be quite chagrined if players are in any way encouraged to /yell a certain number of times in cities to unlock that one.

Now blizz just need to introduce housing so achievement rewards could be e-peen stuff for those rather than just tabards etc.

"Grats you killed Kiljaeden in X min, here is his head for your wall"... kinda stuff.

So what exactly do people do once they hit max level to improve their character. Blizzard has done a horrible job at rewarding raiders or providing new things for them to do beyond PVP or level alts. And tangible rewards certainly doesn't mean that it would be required or a grind.

What if killing Kil'Jaeden made the portal on the isle 2-way so anyone in the guild could port to shatt from the island? What if there were raid achievements that unlocked things like giving additional guild bank slots or gave discounts for certain vendor items. What if your guild completed every achievement in Sunwell for example shouldn't there be some sort of reward that would benefit the guild. What if the GM could buy an instant cast AE res stick with charges from a vendor for faster wipe recovery. I'm sure people could think of rewards that would be useful without fundamentally changing game balance like world buffs and consumables did where future encounters would be affected by them.

Not to mention are there any raiders that don't do dailies for gold for consumables? The reality is that raiders are already forced to grind out daily's or do PVP for gear. There are no rewards for raiders beyond kill mob for the 25th time and hope an item that someone wants drops. If you play this game to raid the rewards for completing raid oriented achievements should reflect that. The way the game is now people that enjoy 5 mans, leveling alts, or PVP have much more rewards and much more to do than those that enjoy 25 man raid content.

Honestly if an achievement was to kill Brut in under 5 mins and the reward was a tabard would anyone care? The rewards should be tailored to the audience. I'm really baffled how blizzard has handled raid design considering how many people on the design team raided in EQ. They really have done a horrible job at giving raiders something to do.

I dont :P using my pile of gold. Which I'm sure Ill regret when I see the goldsinks in Wotlk.

I agree though, portals, Illidan-style trinkets and such would be nice rewards for raid achievements.

Prices could scale with level since the character in that screenshot appears to be low level. I doubt it will be that cheap anyhow.

That's because I think Blizzard sees raiding as a reward within itself. Best loot, exclusive content, hardest difficulty.

Whether or not these remain true in the WoW of today can be debated.