KamPa

Hopefully, this points at some real gear-check encounters way earlier than 5th last boss of the game, so we don't just blow through half of content with craftables and badge gear. Sure, there's Patchwerk, but that's pretty early, so I assume it's more of a general "you know how to spec properly and got some lvl80 blues" than actual gear check.

 

Daenerys

Personally I'm very pleased to see it shaping up this way. One of the things I disliked most in TBC was leveling to 70 without getting a single upgrade, and then having many of my Tier 2.5/3 pieces last well into Kara and Gruul/Mag farming (of course much of this was taken care of when they revamped all the raid epics in patch 2.1(?)). I would rather have meaningful upgrades in the level 70 dungeons despite dropping in item quality from purples to blues. It just feels wrong to be raiding a full 10 levels higher than the gear you're currently wearing. I'm sure it will still happen here and there with certain loot, but at least we can look at Naxx as being able to replace everything we have now, unlike Karazhan.

 

Ukerric

I think that's exactly why we're seeing ilvl 200 epics as entry level. Following the item revamp, entry-level epics were ilvl 115, just like end-dungeon blues were ilvl 115. That insures that the item budget of entry level epics is a static % above the last blues.

But that's not what's Akka was lamenting.

Post 2.1, Karazhan epics were ilvl 115. But heroic dungeons epics were lower. They were ilvl 110. Crafted, world drop and reputation were ilvl 105. However, in WotLK, every entry level epic is 200. They're all the same tier.

That's an illusion, of course. The stat spread strikes again: almost all crafted, faction and BoE epics have only 4 stats, where "normal" epics have 5. That alone, with the budget rules, ensures that those epics are slightly worse than raid epics. Only badge and heroic retain their "5-stat standard". But then, there's not that many heroic/badge, and I haven't seen (for me) an heroic that would be better than every Nax10. Better than some, yes. But there's at least 1 upgrade waiting for me in Nax in every slot.

 

Seratha

Part of the difference is that there's a much clearer defined idea of tiers between items in this expansion. Naxx-10 has all bosses dropping ilevel 200 epics with Kel'Thuzad dropping ilevel 213 epics, while Naxx-25 drops ilevel 213 epics and Kel'Thuzad drops ilevel 226 epics. Compare that to Serpentshrine Cavern where bosses dropped ilevel 128 epics for armor and 134 epics for weapons and Vashj dropped ilevel 138 epics for armor and 141 epics for weapons.

Another thing is that we were assuming the item level formula for epics was linear when a logarithmic formula fits much better. By being a logarithmic formula, they're able to offer a 1% increase in power for each increase in 1 item level. This means that each tier of items in WotLK is 13% better than the previous tier.

 

Sydane

The implications of Wintergrasp Commendation are pretty massive. This is the first indication that they are making it possible for you to use your best geared character to farm a resource other than just gold for your other characters. It will be interesting to see if they extend this to items that grant Exp or Badges.

Empathy does not imply approval.

 

Waywilder

I always thought that the raiders were comparing items gained from raiding to PvP-gear, and being disappointed in power of what they were getting from their efforts in comparison what they (would have) gained from PvP. Considering that currently the item levels for discovered PvP gear are 256 for higher set and 200 for the lower one, this trend might continue. Obviously we can't know at this point how Blizzard has planned the availability of PvP-gear - or ratings needed for it - and from what efforts, and it might well turn to be that the item level 256 set is planned in advance for season 6. In TBC it was mainly the weapons department which seemed to be lacking for raiders, but so far what I've checked on the loot lists of 25 men Naxx I wouldn't be worried of this being the case at least at start of this expansion.

 

Grungo

I'm intrigued by this. Is it bought with marks, as the first post suggests? I would much rather see it bought with honor at an even exchange (1000 honor for the mark that gives 1000 honor), but maybe that's asking too much. It would be nice, though, to be able to do the BG daily every day with multiple characters, and siphon all that honor to the character you're looking to gear.

Does anyone know how many marks this costs? Based on the Concerted Efforts quest, I would think 3 of each BG token? Or can you mix/match which tokens to use, because that would make it even better.

 

Sydane

Based on the name I'd assume obtaining it is related directly to Wintergrasp, so it may be you trade the item that drops off every boss when you control Wintergrasp for them. If that is the case, it would mean you could essentially farm honor out of instances and raiding as long as your faction controls Wintergrasp. This, and the addition of Wintergrasp in general, could finally mean the BGs won't be full of 90% people just wanting to farm honor as there will be better ways. Though that may just mean the BGs will be empty.

Empathy does not imply approval.

 

Akka

Mmh, I did understand the scaling method.
I was just not understanding the AMOUNT of uberness of the items, which is rather pointless in my view, five times more than what was generously necessary.

Seems that I did not miss any hidden mechanics, and it's just a willing Mounty Haul development from Blizzard.
In my opinion it's a very bad choice that was made, but it seems I'm in the minority and most people just don't care, so I guess I'll have to shrug and accept it.

If violence doesn't solve your problem...
... you simply haven't been violent enough !

 

PSGarak

For a lot of us, it's not that we don't care, it's that we have an active preference for this direction. As an affliction warlock, I can tell you that even if you raid for the content and not the shiny loot it gets a bit annoying that the shiny loot doesn't get replaced. It's also a matter of degree, raiding for a month just to get an upgrade is meh but getting an UPGRADE is more exciting and gives an incentive for entry-level raids.

In theory, entry-level raids is where you need the biggets jump in rewards. Getting people into raiding at all is the big hump to get over, once you've got them hooked the smaller upgrades are all it takes to keep them raiding. Even if we're comparing it to other raid gear, this is after an expansion, there's some inertia to overcome post-leveling.

http://sig.gamerdna.com/quizzes/INFL...erks/Garak.png

 

Tyrian

I love the way they are changing the ilvl upgrade path for WOTLK from TBC. It was frustrating levelling in TBC with a geared main, as a lot of things (from 61-70 early instances) were either downgrades or sidegrades-at-best (if you enchanted your quest green/blue they might comparable to your pre-tbc stuff, for example) or poorly itemised and not as desirable as their ilvl might imply.

I dont want 'generous upgrades' for a fresh expansion gear-reset, i'd much prefer the big ilvl gap from TBC->WOTLK and throw around my gear fast for compelling strong upgrades.

 

• Bluefish

I did some math on the Majestic Dragon Figurine. We assume 30% regen in the 5-second rule, 100% regen outside of it, trinket fully stacked. On the top of the table is your Intellect value, on the left is the percentage of the time while the trinket is proc'd that you spend in the FSR versus out of it.

Formula: f(x, y) = (5 * 0.0093271 * 180 * sqrt(x) * y) * 0.3 + (5 * 0.0093271 * 180 * sqrt(x)) * (1-y)
x is Int, y is time in 5SR. 0.3 is Spirit regen in 5SR.

Find your Intellect value across the top and your ratio in the 5SR / out of the 5SR on the left. The solution is the mp5 value of this trinket for you.

Keep in mind that unlike a pure Spirit accessory, this trinket is not benefiting you during "downtime" unless you're still casting spells. To find its benefit in a specific fight, take the number above and multiply it by the % of the fight where the trinket is up, ie, in a 5-minute fight with a single 30-second break, the trinket is active for 480 out of 500 seconds. 480 / 500 = 96% of listed value. We need to further reduce the value by an amount that takes the ramp-up of the trinket into account, but Haste gums that calculation up, so it's left as an exercise to the reader.

 

erragal

That trinket is going to be particularly interesting for balance druids and shadow priests if they are in need of additional mana. Both have talents that give them spell damage for Spirit now. Resto/Balance druids also gain a huge chunk of mana from innervate while that trinket is fully stacked (Or any healer/mage that could be the recipient of an innervate).

 

Rasputin

People in Sunwell gear will stilllevel largely without upgrades; the only thing I replaced on my way to 80 was a Shivering Felspine with the axe from the Amphitheatre of Anguish. Certain other group quest blues might have been upgrades if not for the sockets on my existing gear. So everyone getting excited about upgrading their gear in Northrend leveling may need to take a step back. Now, level 77-80 instances certainly will contain upgrades here and there, and it looks like Naxx will contain tremendous upgrades. However, I could certainly see a guild of powerlevelers skipping everything and jumping into Naxx at 80, particularly as a DPS class. Tanks may need to craft or farm up enough defense gear to hit cap, but as far as throughput stats go, Sunwell can and does take you to 80 with no problem.

 

Starfire

I really think that was their intention. And it makes sense from the perspective they don't want to have 25-man raiders get throttled with 5-mans. And it makes even more sense when they're aware of the the "ratio problem". (Namely, where 25-man guilds rarely have enough 5-man tanks, but tend to have too many healers or some such).

 

Chantinelle

Could one possible answer be that they're trying to make it easier for T6/Sunwell attired characters to give up their 4 piece bonuses? Certainly with regards to the Malefic set, it was always going to be painful to give that up for a minor series of upgrades that don't make up for the loss of that bonus. If they make everything far better than what comes before, it's far less of an issue, no?

 

Celebrindal

The problem with most 4t6 bonuses is they scale with gear, so balancing them can be a problem. If it turns out to be a major one (farming sunwell for t6 tokens well into t9) blizzard will make them a static value like t2 bonuses. I'm sure loads of you kept 3t2 for chainheals into t6 content, and the priest bonus was obvious enough to get nerfed in beta.

 

Centarion

They could just scale them down during leveling, as they do with feral t4-2pc bonus, which loses proccchance until it's totally dimished at 80.

 

Addled

New updates rolling out now, from WotLK Beta Build 8970

Among some other cool changes, the top tier shaman restoration talent is now:

And new mage polymorphs:

Big change to Dispersion:

Looks like this is a much less useful talent for PvE, unless there is significant raid damage.

 

Mikari

They finally made the legendary AQ mount work as a flying mount.

http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w...008_045413.jpg

 

Emeraude

It's that bug again(No pun intended).

I remember posting it here a few months ago when a patch went live, and the Scarab Lord on our server had his mount turn into a Flying Mount(Wasp). Gurgthock had a passing interest in it.

Unfortunately Tigole has confirmed it's not intended and is a bug.

WotLK Beta (US-English) Forums -> Scarb Lords being rewarded, again.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=CX81UJZ8
For the lurking Phoenix Wright faithful.
What is the most important thing to you? Won't you grant me the pleasure of taking it away.

 

Vaeys

That's apparently a bug.

MMO-Champion BlueTracker - Scarb Lords being rewarded, again.

Edit: beaten.

 

Jagiya

I was running around on my Prot Paladin Alt when I stumbled a bit too deeply into Icecrown and decided to do some exploring.

*NOTE* My paladin is only level 70. Badge/Kara gear.

I ended up having a bit of fun and wondering how i would go against a level 80 mob. Oddly enough, I wiped the floor with it. Strange. Decided to go exploring the North West coast of Icecrown (Valhalas), and wandered into Ufrang's Hall. Since I had now ended up aggro'ing 8 level 80+ mobs and had no method of escape, I figured, "Meh, might as well see how long I can last." Up went Holy Shield & Seal of Light.

15 minutes of spamming Consecrate & Judgement of Light later, I managed to AoE grind down the entire pack of mobs with 100% health and mana remaining. Kinda concerning. I really doubt any other class/spec has this kind of potential.

P.S. What's up with the giant eye ball at the top of The Shadow Vault? Sauron much?

EDIT: Added screenshot of Paladin domination.

 

Nakari

Protection paladins are somewhat broken right now, with the new Blessing of Sanctuary and 3+ mobs beating on you, mana regenerates faster than one can spend it, and Hammer of the Righteous proccing Seal of Light on all three targets heals for more than 1,5k every 6 seconds. A Protadins DPS isn't that high though since Blizzard hotfixed the insane damage of Shield of Righteousness (I'd say on a similar level as protection warriors), the "problem" is you are basically unkillable by non-caster mobs.

 

• Falk

HOLY COW, THE FOLLOWING IS THE BEST DAILY EVER MADE.

It's a Sons of Hodir quest, unlocked at Honored (Incidentally, I'll probably be writing rep guides for anyone interested). I'll spoiler it because it's somewhat like the BEM Dark Rune quest, although nowhere near as complex, and fun to figure out.