BC items include Feral gear

[Warlock]

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d44/Maur...hatlootsry5.jpg

Found on the Bliz raid & dungeon forum, so salt to taste.
Comparing the Axe and Feral staff is interesting - identical stats and identical DPS (except that one gives that DPS to everything but Feral forms and one gives that DPS only to Feral forms and Moonkin). If this is the wave of the future my Druid will be very happy.

[Quark]

http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d44/Maur...hatlootsry5.jpg

Found on the Bliz raid & dungeon forum, so salt to taste.
Comparing the Axe and Feral staff is interesting - identical stats and identical DPS (except that one gives that DPS to everything but Feral forms and one gives that DPS only to Feral forms and Moonkin). If this is the wave of the future my Druid will be very happy.

Huh ... I guess this means feral AP is no longer "free"?

[oldmandennis]

Huh ... I guess this means feral AP is no longer "free"?

That was my first thought too. It will be interesting to see if the end of dreams and endless life get reitemezed with the new formula, or keep the old "free" cat and bear AP.

[Lissa]

That was my first thought too. It will be interesting to see if the end of dreams and endless life get reitemezed with the new formula, or keep the old "free" cat and bear AP.

From what Blue has said, they're not touching anything pre tBC, so all the gear that is in the game now stays the same.

[Warlock]

It's only one data point but my guess is that Feral AP won't generally be free. On a pure feral item like the staff shown it wouldn't be fair to other melee characters - adding a bunch of physical stats to the staff would make it simply better than the axe for melee DPS.

[Zarathustra]

I'm very curious to see whether the old items will include Moonkin form as well on the list of forms the attack power encompasses.

[oldmandennis]

On a pure feral item like the staff shown it wouldn't be fair to other melee characters - adding a bunch of physical stats to the staff would make it simply better than the axe for melee DPS.

Not really... if they bumped the staff up to 80 DPS, would it really hurt anybody? Moonkin will still be doing all of about 130 melee DPS.

You might misunderstand the "free" part of it - the staff has 20 less DPS then the axe to "pay" for the feral AP, whereas current items (EOD, endless) get it for free. If the feral AP was free I guess they could have used the points on more melee stats... but at 20 less DPS probably the item would be worse for melee.

[Hedon]

From what Blue has said, they're not touching anything pre tBC, so all the gear that is in the game now stays the same.

Does that mean, that stamina remains the same on the pre BC items, despite the fact, that these items should have much higher stamina values according to the post BC item value formula (stamina gets cheaper and items have therefore ceteris paribus higher stamina values )? If this is the case, that would mean a huge(!) nerf in ilvl to most current items after BC gets released. Not only they will be outdated because they were designed for lvl 60 in the first place, but they will also have much less stamina then they would supposedly have when designed with the new BC formula for item value allocation in mind.

Lots of Nexus Crystals incoming I guess.

[Zarathustra]

Item values aside, my big question is whether that's a NEW modifier that includes Moonkin form, or an alteration of the OLD modifier (which would be retroactive).

This change, coupled with the mana regen for melee in Moonkin (modified by attack power) make the End of Dreams a more than worthy upgrade over a Lok'amir. Currently for casting prowess it's just a bit extra damage.

[Kevin]

Does that mean, that stamina remains the same on the pre BC items, despite the fact, that these items should have much higher stamina values according to the post BC item value formula (stamina gets cheaper and items have therefore ceteris paribus higher stamina values )? If this is the case, that would mean a huge(!) nerf in ilvl to most current items after BC gets released. Not only they will be outdated because they were designed for lvl 60 in the first place, but they will also have much less stamina then they would supposedly have when designed with the new BC formula for item value allocation in mind.

Lots of Nexus Crystals incoming I guess.

It's my understanding that old items won't be changed with the exception of some of the hunter sets because of the big ways in which hunters DPS are being changed (1 agi = 1 RAP instead of 2, 1% crit = 33 agi instead of 52). So what I've read (and since I don't have a source take it for what you will) is that hunter sets will be the only sets revisited because hunters are getting bigger changes than other classes and it would break current itemization pretty badly.

I think they are intentionally not changing other items precisely to make it obsolete that much faster so that people get on an even footing faster. There's a portion of the population they've gotten hooked on the end game raiding now that is anywhere from slightly behind to way behind the gearing curve of some of the older raiding groups. Since even with 10 new levels of content and smaller sized raids, raiding is still going to be the end game of TBC if you can get more people in it together Blizzard wins. People who will be starting the game or picking it back up when the expansion comes out will be able to get back on even ground with the people that may be several major power steps above them. They want everyone back on the same playing field quickly. Making the new items that much better than the old stuff does that.

[Lissa]

It's my understanding that old items won't be changed with the exception of some of the hunter sets because of the big ways in which hunters DPS are being changed (1 agi = 1 RAP instead of 2, 1% crit = 33 agi instead of 52). So what I've read (and since I don't have a source take it for what you will) is that hunter sets will be the only sets revisited because hunters are getting bigger changes than other classes and it would break current itemization pretty badly.

I think they are intentionally not changing other items precisely to make it obsolete that much faster so that people get on an even footing faster. There's a portion of the population they've gotten hooked on the end game raiding now that is anywhere from slightly behind to way behind the gearing curve of some of the older raiding groups. Since even with 10 new levels of content and smaller sized raids, raiding is still going to be the end game of TBC if you can get more people in it together Blizzard wins. People who will be starting the game or picking it back up when the expansion comes out will be able to get back on even ground with the people that may be several major power steps above them. They want everyone back on the same playing field quickly. Making the new items that much better than the old stuff does that.

GG is correct. Outside of changes to Hunter items, there will be no change in pre-tBC items. How they are now is how they'll stay come tBC.

[Zarathustra]

GG is correct. Outside of changes to Hunter items, there will be no change in pre-tBC items. How they are now is how they'll stay come tBC.

That doesn't address the idea that the Feral AP modifier itself may be changed, which would indicate a slight change to all current items with that modifier. We don't currently know what the story is with Feral AP in the expansion.

Look at the new Critical Hit Rating system. Every old item in the game is going to be overhauled to line up in this system, getting a rating instead of its current %.