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.
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