February News/Discussion

[Lissa]

The last patch rather neatly flipped how hunter dps worked. Pre-patch, it was BM, MM, Surv. Post-patch it's Surv, MM, BM. And that's even still after Surv has taken a stealthy hotfix for a bit of nerfage.

They were more even pre-patch, I know I was easily keeping up or topping other Hunters on Lissanna with similar gear levels.

[Warlock]

Pures do still have advantages over hybrid classes that don't show up on the DPS meter. Even if hybrids did exactly the same damage (which is not the design intent) raids will still want a decent number of pures. For instance if a player asks whether you'd prefer him to bring Feral #2 or Rogue #4 then the Rogue is a better choice if you need interrupts or it's a threat sensitive fight.

[Taelas]

That's hardly a "pure" benefit -- some of the hybrid classes have interrupts too (and Ferals can Cower, which is the same thing as Feint, so on the threat front, rogues don't have any advantages over Feral druids... well, at least not over Alliance Feral druids.)

[Warlock]

That's hardly a "pure" benefit -- some of the hybrid classes have interrupts too (and Ferals can Cower, which is the same thing as Feint, so on the threat front, rogues don't have any advantages over Feral druids... well, at least not over Alliance Feral druids.)

Kick is one of the best though (and hardly the only trick up a Rogue's sleeves). I was thinking specifically of the Rogue/Feral comparison; if picking between Rogue/Warrior the Warrior does have the interrupt but doesn't have the threat control. Speaking of which is Shadowmeld actually a full threat wipe? I thought threat was returned when ending the Shadowmeld if the mob hasn't reset, making it inferior to Vanish.

[Frag]

Why is threat concern even part of a conversation at the moment?

3 puddle Malygos is the only time someone has remotely come close to one of our tanks under the circumstances we've seen so far.

/shrug,
~FragB)

[Swiss Mercenary]

So those are my thoughts. There are still Hybrids in the game, and they are 'dangerous' to the pures. This problem will exacerbate when dual specs (finally) make it into the game. What do you think?

Hybrid or pure doesn't matter, as long as the classes are competitive. Let's assume that say... Enhancement shamans did rogue DPS. Sure, you could claim that there's no reason to bring rogues... Except that all the leather loot will go to complete waste, and your hunters and shamans will all be undergeared. And if you want one of those shamans to respec resto for a specific fight, well, don't expect his offset to be any better.

Player capability, and the unique things that each individual class brings to the encounter (Rogues are key for de-enraging 3D Sarth adds, shamans bring heroism, warlocks can use Demonic Circle to out-dps Mages on Malygos, Hunters have Misdirect) are vastly more important then whether or not such and such class does 5% more damage then another.

If we lost a raiding Mage or Warlock, I would probably replace them with a raiding Mage or Warlock.

Spot-on.

Viable specs...

To my understanding, with the 3.0.8 buffs, destro is actually quite competitive with Affliction, and provides excellent utility (Shadowfury).

[Lissa]

That's hardly a "pure" benefit -- some of the hybrid classes have interrupts too (and Ferals can Cower, which is the same thing as Feint, so on the threat front, rogues don't have any advantages over Feral druids... well, at least not over Alliance Feral druids.)

To quote the rogue trainer in Shattrah: "Real rogues don't feign" :P

[Quark]

To my understanding, with the 3.0.8 buffs, destro is actually quite competitive with Affliction, and provides excellent utility (Shadowfury).

You know, when someone provides a bunch of numbers to argue one point, saying "I believe this, though!" isn't exactly a counterpoint.

To quote the rogue trainer in Shattrah: "Real rogues don't feign" :P

Well, I guess Blizzard wants us to use Feint with the AoE damage reduction they gave us. Too bad that it requires you to be in range of the target, takes 20 energy, and is on the GCD so that half the time you actually try using it, it doesn't go off and you were better off just running away like you did before 3.0.8.

[Lissa]

To my understanding, with the 3.0.8 buffs, destro is actually quite competitive with Affliction, and provides excellent utility (Shadowfury).

It got a buff, but it wasn't enough. Destro still lags behind Affliction, but that was true at this point in tBC as well. I expect to see Demo and Destruction to start being more competitive come Uldaur when more haste and crit is put into the items. The reason being is that Affliction does not scale well at all with crit and haste where as Demo and Destruction do. Now, if Blizzard makes DoT ticks start critting, Afflcition will be the high DPS tree for bosses while Destruction will be the high DPS tree for trash (I regularly top 11k DPS on trash when dealing with 5 to 6 trash mobs and even higher with more trash, there's nothing like seeing a Rain of Fire tick for 30k damage due to the sheer number of mobs).

[Concillian]

And Hunters everywhere seek out their pitchforks and torches:

In our 3.1.0 class updates post, we had announced plans to remove consumable ammunition from the game upon the release of the next major content patch. Our original plans were to change ammunition so that hunters would no longer need to utilize bag space, while adding some new functionality that would continue to make ammunition a compelling element of gameplay. Unfortunately, this intended change will not be completely ready in time for patch 3.1.0.

We still fully intend to move forward with this change when the additional functionality becomes available, and for 3.1.0 we still intend to remove the need for pouches/quivers by greatly increasing the stack sizes on arrows and bullets, and the haste bonus from the bags will be preserved in another fashion. We’ll be sure to inform our players with further updates once they become available.

[NiteFox]

...and for 3.1.0 we still intend to remove the need for pouches/quivers by greatly increasing the stack sizes on arrows and bullets, and the haste bonus from the bags will be preserved in another fashion. We’ll be sure to inform our players with further updates once they become available.

...

How?

I'm pretty sure that WoW itself cannot handle item stacks of more than 250. This is, I'm sure, a game code issue. As it stands, there isn't a stackable item in the game that has a size more than 250.

So let's take the comment about removing the need for pouches/quivers at face value and assume that, as soon as 3.1 is live, all such items are removed from the game. You still have to buy a new bag to stash your ammo in, just that the haste bonus is baseline.

The largest bags in the game are 22 slots. If I went out and bought a Gigantique (with cash I don't actually have anymore. Damn Massacre enchant), and then filled it up with ammo at 250 rounds a stack, I'd be able to carry a total of 5500 rounds. Still, I'm not rich, so I'll probably replace my quiver with a 20 slot bag (5000 rounds).

With an ammo pouch of 28 slots, and the current stack size of 200, I can carry 5600 rounds. About the only benefit I can think of with this change is that, once I burn a stack of ammo in my new, expensive bag, I can put another item in it.

But... Well, that's not exactly removing the dependency on storing ammo. If quivers are still in the game, then this is a tremendous boost to hunters until non-consumable ammo comes into the game. If quivers aren't, then... Wow, someone at Blizzard better redo the math, because we'd either be filling up more bag space than we would normally be doing with ammo, or going into situations with drastically less ammo than we had before.

And if they are pushing stack sizes beyond the 250 limit, then that would be requiring a lot of coding effort. Coding effort that could be spent on, oh I don't know, non-consumable ammo relics.

[Mavfin]

I'm pretty sure that WoW itself cannot handle item stacks of more than 250. This is, I'm sure, a game code issue. As it stands, there isn't a stackable item in the game that has a size more than 250.
o, or going into situations with drastically less ammo than we had before.

I think they've already pushed the stacking past 250 in 3.0. Pretty sure I've seen items that go higher than that now. Then again, I might be imagining things.

[Taelas]

There are ways around it. They could implement a "secret" bag (like with currency) for ammo that would still stack it in 200s each "slot" and simply create a dummy slot (like the one you currently have in your paper doll next to the ranged weapon) where you see how much ammo you have.

[Mirajj]

Feb 15 News

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When someone says that, I think about tractor-trailors, as that's what my dad used to call them. However, related to WoW, it means the ability to dual spec. A lot of news was released this week about how dual specc'ing will work. PapaSmurf has started up a topic on it on our forums, and there is a lot of good stuff to read there.There is some debate raging though, as ever. Are two specs enough? Should someone have a sort of 'book' of specs to flip through? Someone on the boards has also claimed that he'd like/use up to 5 specs available to swap around to at a time. How much is too much? Or is this reasonable? If you could have more than 2 specs, would you? Realistically? Is three specs the magic number? One spec for each tree? Blizzard has stated that they still want a spec to be considered something special and not taken lightly. So it doesn't seem likely that they'll give characters a "Respec" button at the bottom of their talents list. But should they? Is providing something like that the 'ultimate' step towards "Take the player, not the class?"

The discussion rages on.

[Warlock]

There are ways around it. They could implement a "secret" bag (like with currency) for ammo that would still stack it in 200s each "slot" and simply create a dummy slot (like the one you currently have in your paper doll next to the ranged weapon) where you see how much ammo you have.

Speaking of which Currency will need a larger stack or a workaround soon. More and more people are hitting the cap - it does take effort but it's a lot easier to reach than it once was.

[Mirajj]

Feb 27 News

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Is this thing still on? Yes, I'm sorry folks. I've been very busy lately, and sadly this wonderful job had to take a backseat to a few other things. I hope to pick up the pace of updates (thanks for sticking around!) and maybe even introduce a new face or two around here!

So, what's been happening in WoW of late? Nothing much, really. Just this insane PTR of a little, teeny Patch 3.1. Good lord, the sheer amount of changes, additions, fixes, and everything else make this patch the talk of the town. It's impossible to pin down any one thing to talk about here, or I'd be here all night! So here's a good link to a good summary/starting place for things Patch 3.1 related.

For the Achievement hound out there, I found a breakdown of a long and involved Achievement. Lil'Game Hunter. This one requires you to acquire 75 non-combat pets. My head boggled at that number. Were there even that many IN the game? Turns out there is...and a lot more, besides. There are over 80 currently, and the aforementioned Patch 3.1 is bringing an additional 21 along as well. So, how where does one go to find 75 non-combat pets? All over the place!

Almost everyone I know has a special fondness for that trainset you get that when you put it down, everyone in the vicinity starts to do /train. Yeah...seems Blizzard agrees, and provides folks with a new toy, a Wind-Up Train Wrecker...