10-11-2004, 11:15 PM
(This post was last modified: 10-11-2004, 11:27 PM by MongoJerry.)
With the caveat that all we have to go on at this point is what's stated in the patch notes, this patch looks suspiciously like a patch filled with a lot of "finishing touches" tweaks and bug fixes rather than filled with new features and/or content. Still, there are some tweaks mentioned that are making me sing, "Hallelujah!"
Goblin guards will attack players who are fighting each other and not dueling - it's bad for business.
YES! YES! YES! Lemekin knows how much I've been complaining about this. Those of you who have spent little or no time on the PvP server can only imagine the war zone/slaughterfest that Booty Bay, Ratchet, Gadgetzan, and Everlook were. Booty Bay, especially, was covered with the skeletal remains of the ganked 24/7. I find the comment "it's bad for business" interesting, because of the number of /suggests and posts I've made on the official forums where I've included the line, "The constant fighting in goblin towns is bad for business, and the one thing goblins care about is goblin business!" I'd like to think I had some influence. Ah, heck, I'll take credit even if I had no real effect. Self-deprecation has never been my strong suit.
Neat! So the five-man instance group may make a resurgence. I always refused to join any raid groups that didn't involve the highest level instances (Stratholm and Blackrock Spire).
Ouch! This'll hurt priests more than people may appreciate. SW: Pain and Mind Blast didn't require facing one's target and this was a very convenient feature in many occations. I assume this note means these spells require targeting now.
Sounds fine to me, despite my always having a lot of spirit. The whole Spirit affecting proc rates thing always seemed strange. I hope this means that items will show their proc rates directly now.
Ah, nice. So a little bigger radius now. This should fix an "argh" factor.
Very nice. I sent in a lot of /suggests on Darkshore and Ashenvale and posted a few ideas on the official forums. They're kind of pet areas for me. Still, I didn't think of this one, and I give props to whoever thought of that and to the design team for implementing it. It just didn't make sense to have this mid-20's level instance sitting in the middle of a mid-teen's level zone. It made it very difficult to organize a BFD group, since chances were that people of the right level weren't in the zone. If Ashenvale, a 20-30's level zone, has indeed gotten a good makeover that will encourage people to stick around, then moving BFD there makes a lot of sense. I hope this means many more people will get to experience BFD. It's a good instance.
(Hmmm... this also moves it closer to Horde territory and into a technically contested zone. I wonder if the Horde will have some BFD quests to do now).
Yay!
Interesting stuff. This should have a massive effect on PvP. The devil's in the details with this sort of thing, so it's too early to say what's a good idea and what's not.
Unless there were significant changes made to the talent tree, priests got no love in this patch. Still, from a balance point of view, I can understand this change. Looking at it objectively, the range on resurrection was a little ridiculous.
Wierd change, and 5 seconds seems really short. I suppose I should experience this in action before making too many comments, but I would think that a 10 second timer would accomplish whatever balance changes Blizzard wants and yet allow the soulstone to be more useful. With 5 seconds, I'm not sure a priest with combat resurrection (which has no resurrection sickness) could react in time to rez a group's tank before the tank's soulstone kicked in. Oh, well, we'll see. Heck, there might be a new warlock talent to extend the time for all we know.
Woohoo!
Goblin guards will attack players who are fighting each other and not dueling - it's bad for business.
YES! YES! YES! Lemekin knows how much I've been complaining about this. Those of you who have spent little or no time on the PvP server can only imagine the war zone/slaughterfest that Booty Bay, Ratchet, Gadgetzan, and Everlook were. Booty Bay, especially, was covered with the skeletal remains of the ganked 24/7. I find the comment "it's bad for business" interesting, because of the number of /suggests and posts I've made on the official forums where I've included the line, "The constant fighting in goblin towns is bad for business, and the one thing goblins care about is goblin business!" I'd like to think I had some influence. Ah, heck, I'll take credit even if I had no real effect. Self-deprecation has never been my strong suit.
Quote:Raid groups will no longer receive quest bounties and collections. In the future, we plan to have raid-specific quests that will be possible to complete in raid groups.
Neat! So the five-man instance group may make a resurgence. I always refused to join any raid groups that didn't involve the highest level instances (Stratholm and Blackrock Spire).
Quote:All enemy targeted spells should now require the target to be in front of the caster.
Ouch! This'll hurt priests more than people may appreciate. SW: Pain and Mind Blast didn't require facing one's target and this was a very convenient feature in many occations. I assume this note means these spells require targeting now.
Quote:Spirit no longer affects item proc percentage. Item proc percentages are now independent of stat attributes.
Sounds fine to me, despite my always having a lot of spirit. The whole Spirit affecting proc rates thing always seemed strange. I hope this means that items will show their proc rates directly now.
Quote:Looting range is now the same as melee range.
Ah, nice. So a little bigger radius now. This should fix an "argh" factor.
Quote:Blackfathom Deeps has been moved to the Zoram Strand in Ashenvale forest near the border of Darkshore.
Very nice. I sent in a lot of /suggests on Darkshore and Ashenvale and posted a few ideas on the official forums. They're kind of pet areas for me. Still, I didn't think of this one, and I give props to whoever thought of that and to the design team for implementing it. It just didn't make sense to have this mid-20's level instance sitting in the middle of a mid-teen's level zone. It made it very difficult to organize a BFD group, since chances were that people of the right level weren't in the zone. If Ashenvale, a 20-30's level zone, has indeed gotten a good makeover that will encourage people to stick around, then moving BFD there makes a lot of sense. I hope this means many more people will get to experience BFD. It's a good instance.
(Hmmm... this also moves it closer to Horde territory and into a technically contested zone. I wonder if the Horde will have some BFD quests to do now).
Quote:The herbs needed to support high end alchemy have been added to the world.
Yay!
Quote:(Lots of changes to skills to break stuns, roots, snares, etc...)
Interesting stuff. This should have a massive effect on PvP. The devil's in the details with this sort of thing, so it's too early to say what's a good idea and what's not.
Quote:Resurrection and Combat Resurrection range reduced.
Unless there were significant changes made to the talent tree, priests got no love in this patch. Still, from a balance point of view, I can understand this change. Looking at it objectively, the range on resurrection was a little ridiculous.
Quote:Soulstones have been changed to now resurrect the soulstone holder automatically 5 seconds after death.
Wierd change, and 5 seconds seems really short. I suppose I should experience this in action before making too many comments, but I would think that a 10 second timer would accomplish whatever balance changes Blizzard wants and yet allow the soulstone to be more useful. With 5 seconds, I'm not sure a priest with combat resurrection (which has no resurrection sickness) could react in time to rez a group's tank before the tank's soulstone kicked in. Oh, well, we'll see. Heck, there might be a new warlock talent to extend the time for all we know.
Quote:Fishing catches fish again, provides skillups, and doesn't leave bobbers around.
Woohoo!