August Blog Posts

We have a thread going on the StratFu Forums right now about how to do Yogg+0. I just wrote a lengthy essay on the thread responding point by point to some detailed questions.

If others out there are struggling with the fight, you may find the conversation useful. Feel free to post additional questions, Feist, a rogue in <Midwinter>, and I are both responding.

Read: Alone in the Darkness Questions

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As I mentioned in On Resource Systems, haste affects casters different from melee, in that it increases the regen rate of our resource (cast time) but only increases the rate of their autoattacks. This too is getting fixed in 4.0, haste will now affect melee autoattacks (and, oddly, the mana regen of enhancement shaman and retadins -- I don't even want to touch that one as far as speculation goes, I'm uncertain that design will last past the end of 4.0 alpha.)

The 4.0 design is to make haste more valuable for everyone and, in Ghostcrawlers words, to make it serve its original purpose: Haste lets you push buttons faster.

However, unless some changes are made, multiple classes will be left out of this brave new world: Shadow priests, Retribution Paladins, and Enhancement Shaman.

Note: this assumes there's an actual haste stat. We don't have the full and accurate list yet of what stats will still be around, but I love to speculate and think so I'm posting anyways. Nyah nyah.

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This is a much-needed change with some fascinating implications. To recap, hunters will no longer use mana, they will use "focus" instead, which is just another word for energy with slightly different regen mechanics. This was, of course, the original plan in WoW: Hunters used focus, which they only regenerated by standing perfectly still.

This has fascinating implications for hunter shot design (and perhaps pvp), and also helps highlight how movement impacts the different resource systems differently. This is the second time that they have explicitly limited hunter resource regeneration in a specific way, and it is certainly deliberate.

At the end of my post I actually look broadly at the different resources and how movement/interrupt affects them all.

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I sat down tonight to write my analysis/commentary on the Blizzcon changes. I realized it would be long, so I put in a table of contents at the top. By the time the post count hit 1500 words, I knew I needed to break it into multiple posts.

The big news for everyone was that Blizzard will be returning to a more WoW 1.0 set of stats, but one that actually gives mana-based classes DPS rather than just longevity (i.e. a higher total damage cap.)

Overall this represents a good direction for gear: the tension between plate having "four" stats and other gear having "five" stats will be relieved, and healer/dps gear will be somewhat separated again (it's been a rough expansion to be a caster trying to gear up.)

Unfortunately I don't understand enough of the tanking area to have a grasp on what it means to get rid of defense: I'm not a tank, and I don't gear up my character like a tank. Tanks are different from DPS classes in that they care about different stats in different situations and defense was one of them. Part of the minigame of tank gearing was picking the best piece for that boss and balancing considerations like threat versus mitigation. Dodge wasn't mentioned in either the "trash" list or the "keep" list -- my guess is it will still exist, like spirit will be an additional healer stat, but it's unclear.

The other big announcement in this area is that they won't be forcing DPS to try to shoehorn regen stats into their gear anymore. I'm especially curious about the PvP implications of the new designs in terms of the hybrid healer/caster classes.

More details below, click on the link to continue:

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Apparently it's much the same as the original class panel.

Notes are below, however:

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Contents:

• How do they do it?
• Cataclysm 5-mans
• Icecrown
• Icecrown 5-man
• Cataclysm raids
• Onyxia
• Cross-Server LFG (planned for 3.3!)
• Q&A

Details after the break:

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Thank you to the awesome bloggers at Blizzcon whose multiple updates are allowing me to condense them into one unified summary. Next year I may have time to go myself!

Contents

• Guilds
  • Leveling, talents, heirlooms
  • achievements
  • Other guild extras
  • Guild-wide information
• Mastery System
• Path of the Titans
• Q&A

Details after the break:

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My notes are below, Blizzard's summary is here: [BlizzCon 09] Classes, Items, and Professions

Details after the break:

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This has been on my personal wishlist for a very long time: Via their "Real ID" system, which links with your battlenet account, you'll be able to chat with your friends regardless of where they are by their "real ID" (spans games/realms/characters.)

To prevent, I assume, gold spamming and the like, you have to 'friend' someone in the RealID system before you can talk. It's a social network, mutual friends only can chat, and your RealID name has nothing to do with your character name, so it's something you have to share specifically.

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Contents

• Goblins, Worgens
• Guild advancement preview
• Archaeology preview

Details after the break:

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