◊ Praetorian

There are numerous WoW news sites live-blogging WWI and providing summaries of announcements in formats that are far, far friendlier than a mish-mash of forum posts in a thread here. Like Kaubel just said, use this thread to discuss WWI and announcements at WWI, not as a live-blog.

I understand that threads of this nature will tend to be a bit "chattier" than threads focused around a specific topic or question, but remember that this isn't IRC.

 

Tacitus

Should be, alongside Felguards, since they already benefit from battle shout and raidwide totems will make them actually get the buffs. This alongside the condensed totems will make it fairly interesting for warlock pets.

Brotherhood, Peace, Unity

Welcome back, Comrade

 

Xelios

I wonder if it means that hunters themselves will be afected by it?

 

Tacitus

Doubt it, unless they rework WF to enchant ranged weapons aswell. Especially doubtful since they said they wouldn't be changing the mechanics of WF itself.

We've got Nihilum raiding KJ again in 15 minutes and an all WOW Q&A session after that, one hour from now.


E: Q&A starting WWI '08 Notes from the Q&A Dev Panel - WOW Insider

Dynamic LOS for arena, example being pillars moving up and down.

I don't know what to think about this change, personally I hate the LOS crap going around, but this might be interesting.

Also some (but not all) partybuffs will be raidwide. Totems and unleashed rage, battleshout mentioned.

But what about auras or shadowpriests? Making VT raidwide would increase the output of one spriest, but would discourage stacking them. Now that I think more about it, auras like LotP and Moonkin Aura and pally auras will propably be raidwide but VT will not.

Brotherhood, Peace, Unity

Welcome back, Comrade

 

Dollar

I'm not sure if they said it during the class panel but they just said that Unleashed Rage is going to affect nearby raid members. They really seem to agree that stacking shaman is out of line which is a very good thing for all the non shaman. With these changes it seems like you could get away with 2 shaman which is as of now unheard of for SW.

"Oh he's a sad little man? He's thrown a kettle over a pub, what have you done?"

 

flyingtoastr

With the consolidation of crit and hit ratings I could see a few auras/totems that will pretty much have to be group only. I could be mistaken, but if LotP, Moonkin Aura and ToW were all raidwide it would result in a massive increase in RDPS (3% melee and spell hit, 13% melee and spell crit) which would force encounters to be balanced around having at least one of each of those supporting classes without otherwise trivializing them.

Pally auras might work as raid wide, but they might not. Raid wide Sanctity would be a good reason to bring a ret pally, but raid wide Concentration would be somewhat broken (every caster except Boomkins and Frost Mages would be at 100% pushback resistance). It could work, but I would rather see something else in the form of raid utility.

And on another side note, Blessing of Sacrifice no longer overwriting other blessings is a wonderful change. The spell could easily see use in rotations for any spec of paladin for something other than breaking CC.

Divine Favor still costs mana.

 

North101

You have to remember that they are combining melee & spell hit/crit/haste on ITEMS and not everything, therefore those 3 auras would give 3% spell hit, 8% spell crit and 5% melee crit.

 

ebbv

Ratings are being combined, LotP, Moonkin Aura, Totem of Wrath, etc. do not use ratings.

 

Smurrf

My immediate thought: Replaces Holy Shield in an OT role, to have more damage coming in as deflected from the MT onto the pally...more damage in means more mana back from SA, means able to do more stuff to keep high up on the threat meters.

 

• Arikah

That is exactly what i was thinking toastr, but when you say raid wide auras could break encounters i do not think so. Spell pushback is (imo) one of the few game wide mechanics that needs to be reduced/go away entirely; having conc aura running on a holy paladin that benefits 24 other people would be fantastic. The same goes for raid-wide sanc aura, devo, and any resist aura.... but i doubt that they will make our auras work for the raid. I hope so, though.

Yes the BoSac change will indeed be great - BoSac on cooldown, use the mana you get back from SA to hand of purity the tank (assuming HoP isn't a ridiculous cost).

 

Tacitus

Maybe druid auras, but if WF will be made raidwide, ToW will have to be made also.

Also agreeing with the above poster on spell pushback. It's one of the most retarded mechanics still in the game.

Also, why on earth those MCs they use mistook the T5 for T6, don't they have que cards or something?


Daaamn, that Warcraft 2 music is getting me nostalgic I think I still have the battle.net edition CD hidden somewhere...

Brotherhood, Peace, Unity

Welcome back, Comrade

 

Zoriaan

Stacking will be reduced provided Heroism/Bloodlust is raid-wide, which hasn't been stated yet. With the totem consolidation, I wonder what will become of Tranquil Air.

 

flyingtoastr

Ahhh that makes sense then.

Still, a raidwide boomkin aura, combined with the new haste proc, is going to be incredible to the point of overpowered. I would rather they keep things like Auras, Unleashed Rage, etc. group buffs so encounters don't specifically have to be tuned assuming you will always have that boomkin in the raid.

Divine Favor still costs mana.

 

Eledorian

If they make it work like a zone buff with a range it would bring intresting new things to raid positioning.

 

◊ manly

Personally I'd rather know what happens of ferocious inspiration. The more BM hunters you stack, the more dps the raid does ?

edit: also, stacking totem of wrath?

Log on with different model:
1- Create a character of the desired model. Log on/off.
2- At character selection screen, select your actual character; mouseover the new, desired model character, and hold down left click; hit enter and release left click at the same time.
bug Arcane Potency only applies to the first Arcane Missile bolt.

 

Pitbuller

1 + .03 * 16 = 1.48
So they fix shaman stackking and replaced it with bm hunters.
Top bm hunters do now 3000dps on Bruta. I hope this will be fixed some good and intteligent way.
Even if ferocious inspiration is party only you can put 5*Bm for +15% dps in one group and they get totems and maybe Lotp.

Slow, slower, shaman weapon.

 

bv728

My guess is a blend; some abilities will be party only. Pally Auras, Ferocious Inspiration, Boomkin Aura.

If FI goes Raid Wide, it'll get a shortish range put on it - 10-15 yards or so. I think the idea may be instead of stuff being party only, they'll redefine it on short range, so your Melee Group gets Unleashed Rage no matter which Party they're in, but not your Hunters, even if they're in the same Party. FI will be the Ranged Group On-Crit Buff, while UR will be the Melee Group On-Crit Buff. This way there's an element of stacking similar to what already exists, but it doesn't require you to mess with your groups, just your positioning, and bringing more than one of a specific buff doesn't expand your ability to gain it (assuming FI won't stack in this situation).

 

Nite_Moogle

Be careful what you wish for here. Windfury's power is pretty over the top for classes that can use it, and I would not be at all surprised to see a reduction in its power to bring it more in line with other buffs.

 

Kiryojo

Q: Will druids get male or female optional forms to choose from?
A: There is plan for a new dire bear form model and the introduction of the dire cat

That's new isn't it? I haven't seen any mention of dire cat on any sites yet, though I haven't been paying a lot of attention recently. Anyone have any insight into this?

 

Jubling

It only got mentioned in passing as part of that answer. Maybe we'll hear more about it tomorrow in the PvP panel?

 

◊ Cathela

Between this and the CoE/CoS change, I think Blizzard owes Gurgthock some royalties.

My comrades are my weapons, and I am their shield.

 

◊ manly

I could be off, but as far as I'm aware it's more like 1.03 ^ 16 = 1.60

Log on with different model:
1- Create a character of the desired model. Log on/off.
2- At character selection screen, select your actual character; mouseover the new, desired model character, and hold down left click; hit enter and release left click at the same time.
bug Arcane Potency only applies to the first Arcane Missile bolt.

 

Ragnor

I wonder if they will go as far as extending that to auras and shouts eliminating the current ridged group makeups

The universe is run by the complex interweaving of three elements. Energy, matter, and enlightened self-interest.

www.retpaladin.com

 

Lithose

He was very cautious during the question to mention that some buffs were being looked at. My guess is only buffs that don't stack upon themselves will be made raid wide..So.

Shaman totems, Warrior shouts, Paladin Auras, UR ect ect.

Things that do stack with themselves, my guess would be, will stay group.

VE, VT, Ferocious inspiration ect ect.

Certain buffs right now are limited by the system already to prevent stacking, there is very little reason why these buffs should be group only, as they work more akin to paladin buffs than, say, ferocious.

Edit** I have a feeling with all the new abilities, the appeal of group stacking a single class will diminish. The synergy between frost mages/DK's for example is extremely powerful from what we have seen on alpha. Also, for example, the synergy between warrior bleeds/druid bleeds/rogue bleeds could prove to be quite ridiculous depending on how they scale, because they will be affected by multiple +% damage mods from the warrior and druid (not to mention warrior bleeds will be extremely large now.)

So, you have a lot more synergy to think about now beyond group comps.

 

Vodrin

Maybe they could name an NPC after him.

The melee group looks very open now atleast, doesn't need a warrior or enhancement in that group they can fit anywhere. It's going to be interesting to see what does stick as party buffs for melee; heroism, ferocious inspiration, leader of the pack, sanctity aura?