10-17-2005, 06:57 PM
(This post was last modified: 10-17-2005, 07:01 PM by Concillian.)
nobbie,Oct 17 2005, 02:44 AM Wrote:"Blizzard astonishes all carrying us to the Seventieth Level"
Which consequences will a new level-cap at 70 have for WOW and its balancing? Speculate away :)
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I think the largest concern is the abilities of melee players are significantly more improved from the extra talent points than casters, further pushing the divide between casters and melee types beyond what many say is already a signficant problem.
Thonk of this. A melee type deals ONE type of damage... physical. Talents 'synergize' naturally to increase that one type of damage.
Warriors with 10 extra points get Flurry, deathwish, and mortal strike... ouch.
Rogues could get Seal Fate and adrenaline rush or any number of pretty deadly combinations really (dagger specialization + seal fate + improved ambush is another).
Frost mages still have their Ice tree pretty much maxed out in utility. They'll get a few spell upgrades from the levels, but not much in terms of synergy. Sure they could add talents in another tree, but that doesn't work in the same way as in the melee classes, it gives more options, but not necessarily more DPS synergy.
Warlocks are fairly similar, they wouldn't really get anything major. Shadow priests would get a bump going 30 into discipline too (+5% dam and +5% crit to damage spells). Healing priest would get some good bumps, but as with healing in general, those bumps seem kind of small. Certainly nothing to the extent that would be necessary to overcome the extra damage the talents of the melee types provide.
I expect Blizzard will need to do more than simply change the level cap. Itemization changes and/or significant talent tree re-work will need to happen as well for balance to be at least as good as it is now. Given that it took almost a year to get where we are now, I wouldn't expect this to be the case on release.
Conc / Concillian -- Vintage player of many games. Deadly leader of the All Pally Team (or was it Death leader?)
Terenas WoW player... while we waited for Diablo III.
And it came... and it went... and I played Hearthstone longer than Diablo III.
Terenas WoW player... while we waited for Diablo III.
And it came... and it went... and I played Hearthstone longer than Diablo III.