Honestly with how huge the dps buffs and boss hp nerfs, not to mention boss damage nerfs and healing buffs which mean less healers and more dps per raid, I seriously doubt having the mana for living bomb will be a problem at all at lvl 70. Running ZA and Kara last night most boss fights were barely over a minute with the longer ones being around 2.5 minutes. Mana just really isn't an issue with JoW and replenishment at 70. Also the difference between the top specs at 70 seems to be so marginal that you should really just pick whatever is most fun or easiest for you and you will be fine.

Yeah but Im not worried about ZA and Kara. Im currently working on M'uru with my guild and would love to see KJ before the xpac so I want to make sure Im bringing the most DPS I can.

Right.. But EVERY boss has had its dps cut down and its hp cut by 30% which translates into needing lessing healers and being able to stack more dps that are already doing more damage thanks to the new talents. I seriously doubt mana will be an issue under any circumstance in tbc given these changes especially if you opt for using glyphed mage armor.

Alright that was pretty much all I was worried about. I guess I'll give 10/51 a shot and if mana is a problem just switch to 11/50. Thanks for replying.

After observing some of your guys level 70 fire specs... why don't any of you use burning soul anymore? Is threat really a non-issue anymore in 3.0? Are you guys relying on a paladins concentration aura for spell pushback?

Threat is a joke and pushback reduction is extremely situational and it has also been reworked so it isn't as big of an issue anymore. Just search the forums for pushback or burning soul to get an idea of what has changed.

I have to say that it really is nice that there are so many viable variations of specs for lvl 70 in 3.0. Variety is always nice.

Put it this way. I did Teron on the PTR and he died absurdly quick ... I sat at around 2800 DPS, never held back and didn't use invis. At the end of the fight, I was at 57% of the MT's threat.

(c) Q&A from Blizzcon

I hope this becomes a reality.

This gives me hope to not only finish off the counsel and illidan before WoTLK but at least have the guildies who have worked so hard up to this point get a chance to peek into Sunwell. Good stuff indeed.

He was just using those two classes as an example. They have also said that the best feral druid should be able to top meters. They're trying to balance out the dps so that no one is 20% ahead of anyone else, and that the best players are going to do the most dps, regardless of class.

I have not heard this mentioned (unless it was changed ages ago) but focus magic talent is working on melee crit on ptr and the tooltip says general crit and not just spell crit. When did that change? If it stays like this then which dps class gains the most from crit?

I also never did see a conclusion to what Manly proposed ages ago about casting a scorch before a hot streak pyroblast to reduce ignite loss or something along those lines.

And yet they also said that Hunters have always been and will continue to be the best sustained PvE DPS class.

And they've said that all classes will do similar DPS when specced for it.

To be quite honest, I really don't think they still know exactly what they mean.

They've said essentially the same thing to other classes, I'm not certain if even they know what their intentions are. Nothing in that statement made it seem as if they were recognizing that those classes are not currently topping the meters as they "should be". They also said yesterday that frost had comparable pve dps output to fire, so perhaps their number are a bit off :p

Right but it also sounds like the do want to give a slight advantage to the classes that can only dps regardless or spec. I think they are aiming for a small enough difference that skilled hybrids beat at bad-moderate pure dps but at the same time an equally geared and skilled pure dps should always have a slight edge.. At least that is how i have interpreted what they are aiming for. Whether or not they will accomplish is another issue and still open for debate.

I don't see how this is really possible or at the least wise because the sequence would have to go something like fireball (crit)->fireball (crit)->Hotstreak procs(already casting another fb)->fireball->scorch->instant pyroblast.

Unless I'm missing something you could definitely lose out on a lot of hot streak procs if the 3rd fireball and the scorch crit. Fb->fb->scorch->pyro is pretty much impossible to pull off because you are already half way through a 3rd fb when the second fb lands and procs HS.

With regards to the statement about hunters being the best pve dps.. The only time i actually heard them mention hunter dps being #1 was in a blue post a while back and it seemed more like it was simply recognizing that hunters were ahead of the curve that patch rather than saying that is how it always should be and hunter dps was at the time, and still is, but it seems to be more of that is just how the chips are falling right now than them actually intending hunters to be pve gods.

Don't forget that Illidan loses Shear as well, which is an added benefit!

Well, seeing as they changed Shield Block to a 30second cooldown, they'd pretty much have to remove it, or change it.

From the perspective of a bleeding edge raider, the dual talent stuff gives rise to the concept of a "trash spec." Speaking purely hypothetically, I could run a high-mobility, high-utility Arcane spec for trash in between bosses, then flip back to Fire/FFB when it's needed. Same argument with Frost, the general intent being that Fire is still bad for trash pulls and there's value in running a second spec where you aren't quite so limited. There's a ton of applications, of course, just thinking about other options besides the obligatory raid/pvp spec split.

Either way I'm excited about it, it's a welcome change.

Seems like they would need to make trash a LOT harder or make a lot more gauntlet type events for it to actually be worth speccing for trash.

Eh, for me it would mostly be a matter of variety and a change of pace during raids. Mashing Fireball/FFB/Frostbolt ad nauseam over a multiple hour raid gets repetitive, particularly during long trash hauls. Changing specs would make things more interesting. It doesn't have to be needed or "worth it", it's just a change of pace to help keep raids enjoyable.

My second spec will probably be a full frost spec for farming/grinding especially just after hitting 80. Would also be good for trash as most of the trash gets aoe'd down in beta raids, and imp. blizzard with fingers of frost, shatter, and frostbite is pretty sick for aoe. Would also be handy for chow kiting on Gluth.

I'm thinking something like this would be amazing for aoe, farming, and not half bad for pvp either. It sure would lock stuff down with fully talented blizzard's 90% slow, frostbite, and impact.

edit- Now that I look at that again, may want to take out frostbite for raiding to avoid getting people killed(unless you are into that sort of thing).

World of Warcraft - English (NA) Forums -> Existing Raid Content Changes