2.3 PTR patch notes

[Taelas]

"Creature AI has been changed to no longer prioritize attacking unfeared targets over feared targets."

In other words, no more need for Fear Ward, Tremor Totems or Berserker Rage.

[Kevin]

"Creature AI has been changed to no longer prioritize attacking unfeared targets over feared targets."

In other words, no more need for Fear Ward, Tremor Totems or Berserker Rage.

Yes and no. Having the warrior/palading tank feared and then being crushed from behind twice in a row because they can't block is still a bad thing. Not as bad as the boss running off because you missed a stance dance and it eating a healer, but it could still be a wipe and having tremor totem/dance/nerfed fear ward will still be helpful.

[vor_lord]

But it probably means it is time to spec out of wand spec and back into Unbreakable Will.

[Kevin]

But it probably means it is time to spec out of wand spec and back into Unbreakable Will.

Yeah, resisting a fear that no one else does shouldn't get you completely munched anymore.

[Taelas]

Yes and no. Having the warrior/palading tank feared and then being crushed from behind twice in a row because they can't block is still a bad thing. Not as bad as the boss running off because you missed a stance dance and it eating a healer, but it could still be a wipe and having tremor totem/dance/nerfed fear ward will still be helpful.

The chance to be crushed from behind isn't any greater than the normal chance to be crushed.

That is not really going to be much of a problem.

[Kevin]

The chance to be crushed from behind isn't any greater than the normal chance to be crushed.

That is not really going to be much of a problem.

You can't block with your back turned. So you go from uncrushable to the 15% chance. You can't parry attacks from behind either so that just ups the chance of the hit landing. It's not a huge problem but it's a problem that a lot of people aren't going to think about. I've actually died to Nightbane because of this. Everyone took the fear he stayed on me, 2xcrushed me from behind, tank dead. I don't take 2x crush from the front because of shield blocks and parries.

[Taelas]

You can't block with your back turned. So you go from uncrushable to the 15% chance. You can't parry attacks from behind either so that just ups the chance of the hit landing. It's not a huge problem but it's a problem that a lot of people aren't going to think about. I've actually died to Nightbane because of this. Everyone took the fear he stayed on me, 2xcrushed me from behind, tank dead. I don't take 2x crush from the front because of shield blocks and parries.

Except now the healers won't have to be feared so they can keep you up through the crush.

And parry doesn't affect the chance to be crushed in any way prior to 87.4% avoidance+block (which is when you begin pushing them off the table). The only thing it can do to affect CBs is extend the charge of Shield Block.

[Kevin]

Except now the healers won't have to be feared so they can keep you up through the crush.

And parry doesn't affect the chance to be crushed in any way prior to 87.4% avoidance+block (which is when you begin pushing them off the table). The only thing it can do to affect CBs is extend the charge of Shield Block.

Please read this: http://evilempireguild.org/guides/avoidance.php

It explains why avoidance is so valuable.

Crush is 15% of the table, yes but the real danger is back to back hits. That is way way way more likely to happen if you can't block or parry.

Edit: And yes I was saying 2xcrush but it's not just the crushes, it's the cleaves, crushes and regular hits that you are just going to take way more of. I wasn't clear you probably do understand the full deal. I was not clear. Even with healers up, the damage is going to spike and you still run a much higher risk of dying.

[Icebird]

My priest is now excitedly looking forward to becoming a Mad Alchemist. A new potion has been added thats functionally equivalent to a Super Rejuvenation Potion (with side effects...) but can only be used by alchemists with skill 315 and above. It only requires 2 Ragveil (currently Outland's most useless herb - woot!) and a crystal vial. I can see myself replacing all of my Super Mana / Super Rejuv pots with these. (Time to get cracking on that Alchemist's Stone).

Chris

[Quark]

You can't block with your back turned. So you go from uncrushable to the 15% chance. You can't parry attacks from behind either so that just ups the chance of the hit landing.

Players cannot dodge from behind either (though mobs can). When you're turned around, your avoidance means crap.

[Monkey]

From the latest PTR notes:

If you are in a shapeshift form and try to use an ability that may only be used in caster form, you will leave the form and use that ability. This means that you can shift from one form to another in one action. If you don’t have mana to shift form, you will get an error message and remain in your current form. This can be disabled with /console autoUnshift 0

Carefully-timed potions is a nice possibility, but I think this also makes hybrid playstyles more interesting. I wish we had the old Nurturing Instinct back to go with the above and this:

Tranquility now gains additional benefit from spell damage and healing bonuses.

[Taelas]

Please read this: http://evilempireguild.org/guides/avoidance.php

It explains why avoidance is so valuable.

Crush is 15% of the table, yes but the real danger is back to back hits. That is way way way more likely to happen if you can't block or parry.

Edit: And yes I was saying 2xcrush but it's not just the crushes, it's the cleaves, crushes and regular hits that you are just going to take way more of. I wasn't clear you probably do understand the full deal. I was not clear. Even with healers up, the damage is going to spike and you still run a much higher risk of dying.

I have read it.

And yes, of course you're going to be hit. But it honestly is not going to be that big a problem -- a lot of Horde guilds deal with Nightbane's fear by having everyone affected by it, which also means you won't have any healers.

I'm pretty sure Nightbane's fear breaks on damage, anyway, which almost completely nullifies the danger of back-to-back hits. The biggest danger here WOULD be a double crush.

[Delc]

And yes, of course you're going to be hit. But it honestly is not going to be that big a problem -- a lot of Horde guilds deal with Nightbane's fear by having everyone affected by it, which also means you won't have any healers.

Its a lot safer to just have the warrior stance dance all the fears. Casters getting feared has a nasty habit of leading to casters getting cleaved. Nightbane also tends to run around a bit if everyone is feared, which can sometimes leave him out of position.

The two places I see this making the biggest difference are kael, so sanguinar doesn't run around after the tank misses a fear, and AV, fearing the tank who is on a marshal is a great way to get some casters owned.

[oldmandennis]

And yes, of course you're going to be hit. But it honestly is not going to be that big a problem -- a lot of Horde guilds deal with Nightbane's fear by having everyone affected by it, which also means you won't have any healers.

The issue isn't Nightbane, who is pretty trivial right now. I'm not sure about the guy in Hyjal, but at somepoint they will have Deathwing or another end-game dragon with standard dragon abilities. Not only are extra crushes a big deal for that, but if the dragon wiggles and flames the raid, many will die.

You will still need to keep the tank fear free, or you are rolling the dice. Between stance dances and all priests having FW, there is no reason not to.

[Skandranon]

The issue isn't Nightbane, who is pretty trivial right now. I'm not sure about the guy in Hyjal, but at somepoint they will have Deathwing or another end-game dragon with standard dragon abilities. Not only are extra crushes a big deal for that, but if the dragon wiggles and flames the raid, many will die.

You will still need to keep the tank fear free, or you are rolling the dice. Between stance dances and all priests having FW, there is no reason not to.

Where Archimonde in Hyjal is concerned, getting feared post patch will be just as lethal as being feared pre patch. Usually, the tank on Archimonde is standing near a number of Doomfire streams, which deal 2400 damage per second to anyone standing in them and also inflict a DoT that ticks for 4500 fire damage at the start. These streams start outside melee range and generally head outward, but also loop back so that there's generally a lot of fire near Archimonde's base. A feared tank runs into one of those, and the fire damage on top of Archimonde's 9-10k hits means game over.

[Kevin]

I have read it.

And yes, of course you're going to be hit. But it honestly is not going to be that big a problem -- a lot of Horde guilds deal with Nightbane's fear by having everyone affected by it, which also means you won't have any healers.

I'm pretty sure Nightbane's fear breaks on damage, anyway, which almost completely nullifies the danger of back-to-back hits. The biggest danger here WOULD be a double crush.

Others have covered it. Nightbane isn't the real issue I just brought him up because I had personal experience with it and I am horde and missing the stance dance got me killed making the dance and not having healers is fine because I won't take that much damage as he doesn't often land 2 hits in a row and never a double crush, but when every is feared, including the tank, the tank can die. I don't have personal experience with the other raid fights where fears happen, but as I suspected, you don't want the tank getting feared you'll still want to use all the anti fear stuff you can use, which for horde will include the nerfed fear ward.

[mandydax]

Sporebat companion pet!

"You can now obtain a tiny Sporebat pet with exalted Sporeggar faction." I just found this out from one of the girls squeeing at wow_ladies on LJ. I think I may need to make a few more stealth runs through the UB for Hibiscus. <_<

Now if only that Consortium guy at the outpost in the Netherstorm would sell a miniature Fleshbeast, and the Mag'har would sell a baby Talbuk, I'd have good reasons to get exalted with those factions, too. :lol:

[Bolty]

I heard something about the latest PTR limiting your tab targeting range to 50 yards.

As someone who has thoroughly enjoyed the convenience of having a tab target range of 200 yards by setting:

SET targetNearestDistance "200"
SET targetNearestDistanceRadius "200"

in my config.wtf, this change sucks. I'm not sure what the point is in limiting this range. Blizzard may be concerned that it provides some advantage in PvP, but all serious arena players that I know use a mod like Proximo anyway that allows you to click-target an enemy no matter where they are. Good luck trying to tab-target to find that Paladin standing on the far side of an arena...

At least Chastise is still radically OP. :) Rogue on me? Fear. Immune? Chastise. Stoneform. Commence kite. Good game.

-Bolty

[Swiss Mercenary]

I heard something about the latest PTR limiting your tab targeting range to 50 yards.

Probably to make it harder for bots.

[Bolty]

New 2.3 changes:

- 5 new PvP trinkets, available for 30k honor plus 40 AV marks from the honor vendors, or for 75 Badges of Justice from G'eras.
- A new Priest talent in Discipline, called Focused Will. It sits right next to Power Infusion, and has no specific prerequisite.
- The Retribution Paladin season 3 arena set, Gladiator's Vindication, has had its spell damage stats replaced with physical damage stats.
- The Restoration Druid season 3 arena set, Gladiator's Refuge, has had its recently-added spirit reverted back to mp5.
- "The new pvp daily quest now rewards 11g99s and 4192 honor (up from about 2000), but it no longer rewards marks of honor."
- Zul'Aman's starting event "improved"
- It is no longer possible to have both a PvP title and a PvE title at the same time.
- The fish-tracking manual has been found (fished up), as well as an item that starts a (currently bugged) fishing quest.
- Many ZA weapons and armor pieces have been recolored.
- Hardware sound is back! Yeesh, thank goodness.
- Patch 2.3 and season 3 may not start on the same date, Blizzard plan to give a two week notice on the start of season 3.

My notes:

1) Oh noes, now we can't have a Horde character named Champion Champion, Champion of the Naaru.

2) Focused Will sucks. Blizzard hasn't thought it through. For one thing, reports are that it doesn't proc off of white hits like the other Priest defensive talents do (Blessed Resilience, Blessed Recovery, Martyrdom). Secondly, its effect is silly. The cap of reduction of crit damage is ~25% (493 resilience), so a talent that reduces crit damage by 30% does nothing. If you're geared for PvP, you already are at or near the cap as a Priest in order to survive more than 6 seconds against a Warrior or Rogue.

3) 2.3 is looking to be a heck of a huge patch. Blizzard just keeps adding more stuff, and I hope they just end Season 3 soon. It's getting up to, what, 6 months? All serious arena players have a full set of Merciless Gladiator gear by now and are just sitting around waiting.

-Bolty