Devouress

http://i37.tinypic.com/4kg30l.jpg

This was the invitation I got today, differs from that posted before

 

splidge

You need 3 points in Sheath of Life to max it out, meaning you have to give up 2 points in Judgements of the Pure (i.e. 4% spell haste) as well as Beacon of Light to get it. If you want Sanctified Retribution as well that's another point. I think the resulting 47/0/24 build will be quite gimped, especially since you need to spend a lot of points on Retribution talents which are of no value whatsoever to a Holy. On top of this I can see at least 60 points worth of talents in the Holy tree which may turn out to be useful (depending on the value of Sacred Cleansing, Imp. LoH and Imp. Concentration Aura, which will largely depend on encounter design).

The 51/20/0 build looks a bit more viable to get a lot of the Protection tree utility in a Holy build. But I still think there will be some amount of compromise squeezing Holy down to 51 points, and a lot of the Protection talents you are getting in exchange in order to get to Tier 4 Protection are of very little value to a Holy.

It does look like Touched by the Light and Sheath of Light are intended to make offhealing out of Holy spec more viable (and this goes some way to answering your question about what Protection paladins do on fights when they don't need to tank). But I'd rather Sheath of Light was moved down a bit to make it truly out of reach of Holy builds (like Touched by the Light is).

 

Norfair

So I take it this is a fake? As the subject of the mail is "FW: ...", meaning it's not sent directly to you while the recipent says it's from "WoW Expansion Beta"? Also a link to the US forums at the bottom of the e-mail, while this is meant for a EU account?

Edit: Nvm, just noticed that the info on top of the e-mail is inserted by the e-mail client who forwarded it. Still don't trust that link though.

Keep f**king that chicken.

 

bellator

I agree there is a degree of gimp in the 47/0/24 build, but if you look at the 24 points, there are 5 spent in imp BoM, 5 in benedition, 3 in heart of the crusader, 2 in imp ret aura, 1 in sanctified retribution and 3 in sheeth of light. All of which are useful to the paladin/raid if a Ret paladins isn't present, so this means only 6 points are wasted.

All you would lose is the AoE HoT, 6% spell haste and 1 point in bastion of light. Yes you wouldnt have imp conc aura (but you would be using ret aura). You wouldnt have sacred cleansing, pure of heart etc etc, but these are more situational talents.

The gain seems far greater than the loss. With holy light crits perhaps reaching 12k in wrath, this would be a 600hps HoT on the tank.

This is all ofc just my opinion, and i agree, sheath of light should be way down the ret tree not a viable holy talent

Edit: thinking more about the potential power the of the AoE HoT considering the nerf to CoH being 5 persons only, I can see it being a tough one to give up

 

Devouress

Sure dont trust, will give a screen when i finished updating beta client

 

Maax

Looking through the data on wowhead I found some new stuff:

Passive bonuses for skinning and mining (nothing for herbalism yet):
Master of Anatomy
Toughness

Pet Skills: Pet Skills - Spells - World of Warcraft (change the pet family on top to see other families)

Generic Pet Skills: (presumably from talents)
Bullheaded
Call of the Wild
Carrion Feeder
Dying Bite (NYI)
Heart of the Phoenix
Intervene
Last Stand
Lick Your Wounds
Rabid
Roar of Fortitude
Roar of Recovery
Wolverine Bite

Family Specific Skills:
Bat: Sonic Blast
Bear: Swipe
Boar: Gore (don't have charge anymore)
Carrion Bird: Demoralizing Screech (also Swoop which appears to be a new avian form of charge)
Cat: Keep the old Prowl and also get Charge
Crab: Pin and also get Dash
Crocolisk: Bad Attitude (wow)
Dragonhawk: Fire Breath still
Gorilla: Thunderstomp still, but bite is replaced with Smack also get Dash
Hyena: Tendon Rip also get Charge
Nether Ray: Nether Shock
Owl: Snatch
Raptor: Savage Rend
Ravager: Ravage and Gore is gone
Scorpid: Scorpid Poison still
Serpent: Poison Spit still
Spider: Web and Dash
Tallstrider: Dust Cloud and Charge
Turtle: Shell Shield still
Warp Stalker: Warp
Wind Serpent: Lightning Breath
Wolf: Furious Howl still and Charge

Also noticed a new Fel Hunter ability while I was digging in there: Shadow Bite

edit: cleaned up links

Devs: Our nerfs will block out the sun!
Druids: Then we will tank in the shade.

 

Ambika

So i was digging through MMO-champion's list of sample WOTLK loot. Did anyone notice a complete lack of tanking gear? Everything had +CRIT on it or +STR. I understand blizzard is changing the way warrior tanks work but did I miss a memo stating no new tanky type gear in first few instances?

 

Maax

New level 75 & 80 abilities (according to wowhead's latest update)

Paladin:
Shield of Righteousness (Level 75)
Sacred Shield (Level 80)

Hunter:
Bear Trap (Level 75)
Kill Shot (Level 80)

Priest:
Mind Sear (Level 75)
Divine Hymn (Level 80)

Shaman:
Lava Burst (Level 75)
Hex (Level 80)

Druid:
Savage Roar (Level 75)
Nourish (Level 80)

Rogue:
Dismantle (Level 75)
Fan of Knives (Level 80)

Mage:
Frostfire Bolt (Level 75)
Shatter Shield (Level 80)

Warlock:
Shadowflame (Level 75)
Demonic Circle: Summon (Level 80)
Demonic Circle: Teleport (Level 80)

Death Knight:
Anti-Magic Shell (Level 75)
Army of the Dead (Level 80)

Warrior:
Shield Break (Level 75)
Couldn't find the level 80 skill for warriors.

Devs: Our nerfs will block out the sun!
Druids: Then we will tank in the shade.

 

Ziggurat

A blue poster during alpha stated most tanking gear would be from higher level instances and player crafting

 

splidge

Actually, Conviction is now 5% on "all spells and attacks" which makes it look like an extremely useful talent for a Holy. So all 24 points are pulling their weight to some extent, although I'm not sure that Benediction is really all that useful.

This means even for a "pure" holy build the Ret tree is a useful points dump, I can see 56/0/15 as being the conventional Holy spec with a good selection of Holy utility talents and then Imp. BoM, Conviction and 5 at least semi-useful other talents (perhaps Benediction, perhaps something else) from the ret tree.

Having said that I think a more useful Holy Power duplicate appearing in Tier 3 of retribution doesn't seem right, so they are quite likely to change this.

But looking at the protection tree, you have to basically waste 5 points to get past Tier 1 if you are intending to be a pure healer, which makes it less attractive as a points dump than it is now. This means if they don't change Conviction it will be far more of a sacrifice for a Holy to take 11 points in Prot in order to get Kings than it is now.

Indeed, as I posted it depends on encounter design whether these talents are useful or a waste of points. To me it seems you can get a good setup with one paladin of each spec with the three improved auras all up, with enough flexibility to run a holy with a slightly gimped spec if one of the others doesn't turn up and you really need that particular aura. Looking at current encounters I have to say that the Holy aura (Imp. Conc) would be the least useful of the three though, or at least the most situational (who doesn't want +2% damage and +3% healing on everyone?).

But how much is 600hps really going to mean in a raid situation where you have other healers' HoTs ticking? And don't forget the Beacon of Light itself which you gave up would probably tick for at least 300hps (assuming 3000 +heal equivalent in spellpower and Beacon getting 100% over its duration on each target that's 333hps), plus whatever hps gain you get from the haste. Beacon isn't cheap but neither is spamming max rank HL until you get a crit in order to proc the HoT.

Of course, it's all just opinion at this point, but it's certainly an interesting possible spec that's worth weighing up.

Yes, and also I can see Beacon being a very valuable spell for 5/10 mans when you might need the flexibility it offers. Of course there's the second spec (I haven't seen any definite confirmation of this but I assume it is still there) but I'd rather use that for a PvP, Prot or Retribution build than a second holy PvE spec.

 

Sando

From what i saw the MMOChamp stuff was levelling gear and very early 70 gear, and they tend not to give tanking gear to players while levelling, as it doesn´t really help with solo content, which accounts for a very significant part of levelling for most people. Until you start seeing epics i don´t think we can draw many conclusions in regards to tanking gear.

 

Ambika

Of course it would have to be that way. Watch all the good stuff be BoP and make it next to impossible to get.

Ah well, many months to go, i'm already planning my MUST do quests as there is some interesting weapons that make my brutalizer look like cheap trinkets...sad..so sad.

Here's another question: Is haste going to be good for tanking warriors? I see allot of gear on there that COULD be useful to tanks but it's all gobbed up with +Haste on it. Figure get that 1.7 weapon down to 1.4 or something. Faster hits=more threats? Yes?

 

Valerian

Didn't notice any feral druid weapons either (notably from quest that seems to give everyone else a decent weapon). This probably isn't the full loot list from these instances I'd guess.

 

Cranberry

There is one item with defense, the placeholder 70 ring.

 

Malan

Don't worry there are plenty of Feral weapons scattered around in the quests in first 2 zones. As in, more than 1.

Shitting up every single thread on EJ since '06

 

Maax

Deathknight versions of Arcane Torrent and Berserking.

Devs: Our nerfs will block out the sun!
Druids: Then we will tank in the shade.

 

gia

I would assume Bloodbath to be the other new warrior ability, it's marked as level 60 instead of level 80 though so I might be wrong.

I dont quite understand how Sacred Shield is supposed to work though, any info on duration/cooldown/casting time etc?

 

Alerian

Wowhead has it listed with a 30 second duration and no cooldown.

 

Ambika

I've found a bunch of it..sorta.

[Amberplate Headguard]
[Amberplate Waistguard]

digging through plate there's some early green quest gear that can be sorta tanky types. +STR and +STA are our new best friends.

PS item won't be found it's a link to wotlk wowhead stuff. names are Amberplate X

 

Exewut

If I had to guess, earthshield but with damage mitigation instead of healing, but I wouldn't mind seeing some confirmation on that.

 

Glanzick

It's going to be interesting to see how this is used. As a DPSer I wouldn't want it on me when I'm "trinketing" (-10% damage is bad news). Maybe it could be thrown on a DPSer at the beginning of the fight, to let you be a little less careless right at the beginning. It'll probably end up being a more reactive thing since no one is going to want to limit their DPS unless they're threat-capped. If you're at 120% threat, then you /w a pally to put it on you.

 

Humbaba

Staves - Items - World of Warcraft

None of them are nearly as good as [Stanchion of Primal Instinct]

 

Stopokingme

And isn't that a good thing? Would be rather sad if something from the Twins was replaced that fast in WotLK.

 

Sydane

Raiders don't need something to do at max level, they raid. Seems basic enough, but that's pretty much the deal. It's non-raiders that need something to do at max level, because the long standing complaint in vanilla and even to a certain extent in BC is once you hit max level, you raid or reroll. Raiders get the best, most interesting, newest content, with the best rewards. While I agree it would be great to see achievements tied to that, I hardly think you can say "Blizzard doesn't give raiders anything to do" because that's just silly.

The screencaps for achievement show things like "exalted with all BC instance factions." There will probably be quantity ones as well like "exalted with 25 factions." But there would probably never be an "exalted with all factions" because they continually add them and from what I can tell, achievements aren't going to be something you can lose.

Regarding haircuts and looks changes, I'd expect changes to the "baseline" styles that you can currently choose from to be quite trivial to change between, but I fully expect rarer and more expensive ones, perhaps even a "haircut of the month" that is available for a limited time only.

Achievements are going to eat a lot of my life. My alts are going to be level 70 for a very long time.

 

Valerian

None of them are even on par with the badge staff. Which is kinda nice seeing as it'd feel a tad bad replacing that with a green right when you step into the new zones. I suspect the people who are in top tier (or even all badge gear) will at least get a couple level reprieve from replacing items (except of course the rare super well itemized dungeon or quest piece).