It’s patch day. Literally. The servers have been down the entire day and barring a 4th extension, we might get to play in the next thirty minutes. This is one of the big pre-cataclysm patches because it introduces many interface, class, stat, tradeskill, skill, and other changes. This is the day when all of your stats are reset; when hunters no longer use arrows or mana, “defense” is no longer on gear but capped by talents automatically, and Reforging allows players to alter secondary stats on an item. Safe to say it’s pretty big and that most of the Cataclysm files are now on our systems.
When the servers come back up I plan to specialize my Druid to be a tank again with the tanking mastery. I have a spec all picked out and I’m anxious to experience the new and more difficult tanking that focuses much less on AE. No more swipe spam for me — both a good and bad thing since I do love my swipes.
I’m expecting the current content to be much, much more difficult. There is bound to be discrepancies between the new stats system and the current mobs and encounters. I’m not going to raid anything like ICC anymore, but I expect it to be much more difficult with mechanics like “rage normalization”.
Want to know what I’m most excited about? The graphical improvements.
– Improved water and lava rendering system (Video Options – Liquid Detail on the Graphics Panel)
– Dynamic Sunshafts effect (Video Options – Sunshafts on the Graphics Panel)
– Experimental support for DX11
If you’re thinking about coming back, now seems like a good time to me. Our community is always open.
I’ll update this tonight with more of my thoughts on how specific changes have turned out. Look for them in the comments section.
After a 10 month absence the deluge of Beta footage (Dungeons plays, Talent analysis etc) I think my resistance finally broke today and I will be giving Cataclysm a go.
No more Hardcore Raiding for me though: this time I want to play it casually with friends….let’s see how that goes!
Really interested to see how much harder it really is, and if it’s significantly harder, how long that lasts. Going to be interesting to see how many folks who are used to facerolling heroics have the patience to put in 2 hours to finish a heroic now.
Well we’re all friends that play casually and STILL (albeit also casually) raid! AHA!
Oh and this change that I saw just today made me both smile and say “About damn time”: Weapon Skill – This stat will be removed from the game completely. Classes will start with all the weapon skills they need to know and will not need to improve them.
Spending ages grinding away just to learn how to use your latest weapon was a real annoyance for Physical Classes!
(sorry for the double post)
@Jadawin Well right now Wrath content probably won’t be any harder than it is now. If you’re talking about the future content in Cataclysm, then yes. Those are absolutely more challenging compared to now.
The big game changing patches before expansions rarely make WoW harder. In fact, they almost always abnormally buff characters. So I doubt you’ll see an actual difficulty increase over current content. If anything, it will most like make things MUCH easier.
I let my account expire at the end of september because after my vacation I just couldn’t get back into it. I’m tempted to come back this weekend too experience all of the class changes and hopefully run dungeons with everyone who is also coming back.
Tanking is much harder. I can’t hold AE threat anymore because swipe is on a cool down and my new AE bread and butter threat ability isn’t until level 81.
I’m having to do the oldschool tab target approach.
A few bugs, but in general the patch has been smooth.
The conversion to Justice points is working out in my favor big time. Frost badge gear has reached the pinnacle of accessibility. An average piece is 350-600. I received ~100 points for doing Utgarde Pinnacle (16 per boss, 25’ish for finishing). So for ONE heroic I earned 1/3 or 1/5 a frost piece. That’s ridiculous, but I guess that’s good since we’re about to transition up.
Tanking would not be nearly as hard if the DPS wasn’t still in zerg rush mode. Absolutely none of them understand the fundamental changes that were made to ALL tanks.
But it could be worse you could be a feral DPS like me and see a good %30 of your damage just go away through no fault of your own. Basically my druid is on the back burner while i mess around with my DK and Hunter.
Sounds like theyre dumbing down quite a bit. Just following on with the masses i guess.
Let me say this, being in the Beta has definitely brought alot of surprises to the groups I hav been running dungeons with. Alot more coordination is required by the members of the party as well as an awareness of what’s going on around you. Threat has been a big issue during the beta and with the new tanking system in place, people need to watch their threat levels. No more zerg rushing thinking the tank has adequate threat. Healing has also been a big issue with healers being OOM fairly early in the fights. Not so much in regular dungeons but Heroics especially. Alot of people are going to have system shock if they play the way they used to.
I wouldn’t say they dumbed it down so much as removed crappy talents and extraneous spells.
My biggest gripe is that they renamed all my demons on my Warlock and I’m not crazy about the new ones.
My biggest adjustment is learning the new rotations and trying to redo my macros. And I’m hoping add-ons are updated as soon as possible.
This is not dumbed down at all. This is back to the vanilla style for sure. If DPS was stupid pre-patch they just wouldn’t do a lot of damage. If DPS is stupid now, they die and probably take everyone with them.
Tanking threat is much harder to obtain and sustain. DPS rotations are different and require thought and paying attention. Healing is harder for some and maybe the same for others, but overall attention to mana feels more important than it was.
I no longer faceroll through everything. I was facerolling ICC 10 pressing 1 button for 90% of the raid. I can’t even do that in a 5-man anymore.
Re: Graphics: I’ve noticed by forcing DX11 that things do look better. Also, the water and lava improvements are very nice. My system still performs well with everything on “Ultra”.
Actually as a Holy priest I haven’t run OOM in any heroics yet. Maybe it’s because I don’t spam heals to the extent that people did most times… I was almost always lowest or next lowest on Overhealing, because I was brought up in Vanilla WoW where OHeal = you go OOM = Tank Die = Repair Bill.
The biggest challenge for me was going back to the old addon-free healing like in Vanilla. Having to do away with Healbot (even if it’s only for 1-2 days while the developers modify it for Cata) was a refreshing change of pace… I actually got that “oh poop” feeling in my stomach when I couldn’t do every heal with 2-3 button/mouseclick combinations.
Guild’s doing TOGC 10 tonight – that’ll be the first big test.
must…resist…
Adam you bring up a great point. I wonder if the game would be better without addons sometimes. I know this has been talked about before. But I can’t help but think that a big @$$ “Get Ready for X attack” on the screen wasn’t really what they intended. I kinda of get it when you had 40 folks in a raid, but for 5-10 man raids..come on!
I’m not a huge PvE er so I may not fully understand.
So far love the patch. Mail system is SMOKING fast now, and I love the rumbling patches in ORG, aahhaha.
The problem is WoW was developed with add-on support, and add-ons are so readily available and widely used now.. that Blizzard actually takes steps to accommodate. Look what they did to add-ons like Decursive for instance. So add-ons have basically become a part of the core game. Just like any other game mechanic, when they need to be balanced, Blizzard takes steps to do so. So, I think, going without them.. would probably provide a higher level of difficulty than intended in content. Since the content really is tuned around the use of add-ons now.
@Shadrah excellent point. But that is where I wonder if that reasoning is now not nearly as important now that you don’t have 40 folks in there.
Now don’t get me wrong I LOVE the addon support. I use the Hell out of Power Auras, but mostly for a “cool looking” perspective.
It just seems odd that they give access to the addons to tell you when a boss is about to attack. I know Blizz can’t pull it out, because sheot would not only hit the fan, but knock it clean off the ceiling. Part of me just feels the game would be better now without it.
Again, not a huge PvEer, but I think that is part of the reason why I like PvP more. Combat isn’t nearly as scripted. yet with the changes folks are describing it looks like a step in a direction that would make me want to PvE more. I like the fact I will need to “think” a bit more now. Can’t wait to try it out.
@Howdy I honestly don’t think the number of people changes the utility of add-ons too much in WoW current. It’s more the sheer amount that goes on in a fight. Look at it this way. In Vanilla WoW, you didn’t have add-ons to tell you when a boss was about to rape your face. You had visual effects to warn you about it. Now, you don’t have those so much. Now we actually have bosses, who without add-ons, would literally come out of the blue with attacks.
I think Ragnarok is a very good example of old bosses. When his sons released, you knew it was coming because he wasn’t there anymore. Now, let’s look at a ToC boss. The twin Valkyries. Without an add-on telling you which color to actually get, then you would be kind of lost unless you were really paying attention. Because, to my knowledge, it doesn’t tell you any other way. Not until it’s already happened, at least. Which puts you behind.
Not to mention the staggering numbers of buffs/debuffs that go in in a fight now. Add-ons make it much easier to keep track of them. Without them, it would be almost impossible to keep track of everything going on in a raid. They don’t do it for you anymore like Decursive used to, but they’re still almost a necessity for a healer to stay ahead.
Ragnaros* wru edit feature?
@shadrah You triggered something that now makes a bit more sense. Now that Blizz is kind of coding for you to be using a Raid Boss Mod, I guess you can kind of look at the mod as a “Perfect Raid Leader”. Looking at it that way it doesn’t bug me so much now. Because you are right, I forgot about the “NES Mike Tyson Punch Out Clues” that used to be there for boss fights, which I didn’t notice till now, are kinda gone.
Thanks I needed that,
Doody
@Howdy Not a problem. Do I think add-ons are a crutch? Most of the time, yes. Do I think it’s beneficial not to use them the way current content is designed? Not so much. Simply because content actually is designed around the use of add-ons. If we were TRULY going back to Vanilla, add-ons might not be so needed. However, the mod community is too large for that kind of game-play to ever fully return.
@howdy
Dude, i totally agree in most circumstances. Now i do believe add ons can be awesome and expand the game and be helpful.
But i see so many people complain about how easy the game is nowadays compared to Vanilla… now is it me or do we have a Add-on for everything.
1.Are you good ? let me check with GS (Stupid and doesnt work… i know not everyone likes/dislikes GS)
2.Where do we hand in the quest ? Oh were quest help tells us to directly go without having to read or know anything..
3.I mean even tanks know when they are goign to lose aggro
to me they should leave some in and leave some out