Details about patch 2.3 released

[PapaSmurf]

Some details about changes in 2.3. Some big improvements for enh shamans and healing priests.

http://elitistjerks.com/f15/t16305-2_3_discussion/

I specifically like the boost of meditation from 5/10/15 to 10/20/30

D

[Quark]

I read this stuff and I really think I have no reason to come back. They're making Arena Rewards more (too) restrictive, and are being completely obtuse about Rogue mobility issues. As it stands, on some battlegroups you would be lucky if 30 people obtained shoulder pieces. Lame.

20 bucks also says the Ruthlessness change affects Slice and Dice, intended or not.

Also, MMO-Champion has a great summary post.

[Mavfin]

From MMO-Champion's collected changes post for 2.3.

For the Elemental Shaman, some changes coming...

Lightning Overload now has a 4/8/12/16/20% chance to proc
Lightning Overload damage has been decreased by 50%
Lightning Overload now causes 0 threat

0 threat!:wub: more procs, for a bit less damage, probably balances out...

Lightning Mastery reduced to .1/.2/.3/.4/.5 second
Lightning Bolt casting time reduced to 2.5 seconds, and mana cost decreased
Chain Lightning casting time reduced to 2 seconds, and mana cost decreased

hmm, net effect of this may be a stealth-reduction of +dam effects, since the base cast time is decreased,
but the talent is changed to make talented cast time the same....


Mana Spring Totem now restores mana at a rate of 20 mana every 2 seconds
Elemental Focus will now reduce the mana cost of your next two damage spells by 40%

these are other good effects, although I'll take someone else's word that the 40% thing is better than current. The math makes my brain hurt :w00t:

[Taelas]

I like the warrior changes so far. The Devastate change was a surprise.

Also, Remove Curse in Moonkin, Cure Poison and Abolish Poison in Tree... At long friggin' last.

Rebirth cooldown being 20 minutes... Meh, I don't really care either way. It's a neat change, but it's still too long to be used as a 5-man res spell.

Oh, and, might I add...

Absolutely LOVE the mage changes. <3

[Bolty]

They finally did it. Everyone's getting Fear Ward.

The only thing that really upsets me about this is that it is yet another nerf to Priest fear. Psychic Scream becomes less and less useful as the years go by, with an increasing number of fear immunities/resistances/ways to break put into the game. Priests have no escape abilities whatsoever except for Psychic Scream - if we can't use that, we're dogmeat. We already can't use it against Warriors and undead.

Having a 2 second incapacitate added to Cleoboltra's arsenal ain't something I'll complain about, though. Finally something to interrupt a spellcast or attack, or just slow down a Warrior's usual wafflestompage.

Obviously, the 3-minute cooldown impacts PvE.

Edit: amusingly, watch the Priest forums explode.

-Bolty

[oldmandennis]

Rebirth cooldown being 20 minutes... Meh, I don't really care either way. It's a neat change, but it's still too long to be used as a 5-man res spell.

I disagree. 20 min means it will probably be up on most attempts. With the wide variety of ways to get yourself killed in a TBC raid, it is a big reason to bring more druids.

[Taelas]

I disagree. 20 min means it will probably be up on most attempts. With the wide variety of ways to get yourself killed in a TBC raid, it is a big reason to bring more druids.

"5-man res spell". I'm not talking about raids (I'm not currently raiding).

[Taelas]

BIG change for druids: /cancelform is now instant. This means instant shapeshifting.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.h...058320&sid=1#16

and post #19 in the same thread confirms that it's intentional.


To put things into perspective, this means that instantly shifting between forms is possible, AND you can use non-CD-activating items in the interim.

For instance,

/cancelform
/use Super Healing Potion
/cast Dire Bear Form

... with one keypress.

Or while prowling, instantly shifting to Dire Bear Form.

/cancelform
/cast Dire Bear Form

Or powershifting for energy.

/cancelform
/cast Cat Form

This is a HUGE change for druids.

[Lissa]

I bet /cancelform invokes the global cooldown, so you can't use the macros as you've stated them. What you would need to do is use /castsequence instead with the cancelform dire form with the /use command after the /castsequence and then hit the button twice.

[Artega]

The rating will not be required to continue using the item, only to initially purchase it.

I don't see why this is a problem. I've seen rogues perform well in 2's and 3's.

[Warlock]

Supposedly the single keypress macro works (I don't have an active account to test it with).

In other words: [Blue] We decided to allow Druids to use potions in Bear and Cat form but only if they read the forums and write a macro.

[Quark]

I don't see why this is a problem. I've seen rogues perform well in 2's and 3's.

The two issues are completely seperate.

They're listing shoulder reqs as 2000. Check out Emberstorm vs. Bloodlust.

The changes will knock down rankings, because less people will be inclined to play. Emberstorm might not have shoulders - period. Fair?

[Bolty]

The changes will knock down rankings, because less people will be inclined to play. Emberstorm might not have shoulders - period. Fair?

Agreed. They've put little thought into this. Rewards should be percentage-based, not ratings-based. e.g. if you're in the top X% of the teams in your battlegroup, you can buy shoulders. But that's harder to code.

Then of course there's the other issue that Quark mentioned. As soon as you tell players "there's no way you're going to get X item from arena," which is what these rating requirements do, they're going to stop playing. The reason why many, many casual pvp'ers arena is to get the weapons. They will stop playing now, because 1850 is an impossible goal for casual pvp'ers. This in turn lowers the total number of arena'ers, which lowers the ratings you can get. Competition increases and the average score goes down, which in turn makes it harder and harder to get the required rating, and more people give up...see where this goes? Remember that for every team rated 2000 out there, there needs to be a team that can't even keep up 1500. The points have to come from somewhere.

They already had e-peen measurements - the player titles Rival (top 10%), Duelist (top 3%), Gladiator (top 0.5%). Putting this in will just hurt the arena system.

-Bolty

[Taelas]

I bet /cancelform invokes the global cooldown, so you can't use the macros as you've stated them. What you would need to do is use /castsequence instead with the cancelform dire form with the /use command after the /castsequence and then hit the button twice.

No. /cancelform doesn't invoke the global cooldown now and it won't do it in the patch.

What they've done is make shifting out of a form instant in that the server doesn't wait for client confirmation.

These macros WILL work. Click the link; Slouken confirms it.

[vor_lord]

Having a 2 second incapacitate added to Cleoboltra's arsenal ain't something I'll complain about, though. Finally something to interrupt a spellcast or attack, or just slow down a Warrior's usual wafflestompage.

Hands down the best priest racial now. I'd kill for something like this -- and I don't even PvP. Mob coming to squish you in a heroic? I just bought the tank two seconds to save my squishy butt. A spell interrupt for holy priests that is targetable (psychic scream is our only one currently and it has some undesirable side effects in PvE...).

As a PvE holy priest and undead, I don't even have my priest racials on the bar. And mine are quite a bit better than some others.

Even the nerfed form of fear ward is going to be nice for me though.

Edit: amusingly, watch the Priest forums explode.

Priest racials are a failure. Eliminate them entirely, and do it now. Stop the inequality! Stop the insanity! Stop the whining!!!! :P

[Klaus]

I love the "Blizzard has decided that Paladins and Druids aren't meant to tank encounters with fear in them" complaint.

Um.... It makes it harder, but the Horde has figured it out, and we do it. What's -your- problem? :)

[Jester]

It's going to be okay, even with the new nerfed fear ward.

Why? Because fear is just not going to be a big part of this expansion. Period.

-Jester

[Warlock]

Agreed. They've put little thought into this. Rewards should be percentage-based, not ratings-based. e.g. if you're in the top X% of the teams in your battlegroup, you can buy shoulders. But that's harder to code.

Then of course there's the other issue that Quark mentioned. As soon as you tell players "there's no way you're going to get X item from arena," which is what these rating requirements do, they're going to stop playing. The reason why many, many casual pvp'ers arena is to get the weapons. They will stop playing now, because 1850 is an impossible goal for casual pvp'ers. This in turn lowers the total number of arena'ers, which lowers the ratings you can get. Competition increases and the average score goes down, which in turn makes it harder and harder to get the required rating, and more people give up...see where this goes? Remember that for every team rated 2000 out there, there needs to be a team that can't even keep up 1500. The points have to come from somewhere.

They already had e-peen measurements - the player titles Rival (top 10%), Duelist (top 3%), Gladiator (top 0.5%). Putting this in will just hurt the arena system.

-Bolty

Season 3 is tier 6 equivalent gear and there are plenty of servers where no-one has access to all of tier 6. So I don't see the inability to get all five pieces of Season 3 is as that big a deal. An 1849 rating won't quite get you access to the best gear in the game but it beats Heroic drops by a mile.

[Swiss Mercenary]

Um.... It makes it harder, but the Horde has figured it out, and we do it. What's -your- problem? :)

You don't understand. Nightbane is unbeatable without perma-Fear Ward on the tank!

[Kevin]

You don't understand. Nightbane is unbeatable without perma-Fear Ward on the tank!

I know what you mean our kill of him horde side with a druid as MT was really just a fluke! ZOMG need fear ward!!!111!!!one!!!!1!!! :)


OK in seriousness we did bring in my shaman alt so we could have a tremor totem and I respeced him resto instead of his normal enhancement so we could have a bit more healing power, but it was just as simple with a druid as it was with warrior on that fight. So I got a nice chuckle from your sarcasm too. Sure fear ward makes some of these fights easier, especially for a druid and pally tanks but we've had pallies and druids tank nightbane just fine. I can't actually think of another boss we've dealt with in raids that fears though. I think the biggest hit would be on learning runs, no fear ward does make having a pally or druid MT a learning run add another layer of complexity to the learning if there is fear involved. But to read forums about it, the sky is falling!


Of course I get great pleasure in bringing up the "fear will not play a major roll in the expansion" whenever I can. :)