The new patch is here

[Saxywoo]

Wohoo! Servers aren't up yet to download, but when that happens, I'm getting it. Warlocks, looks like you have some changes coming!

[MongoJerry]

The new patch notes

Keep in mind that this is a minipatch, so don't expect many big changes. But warlocks should be happy, since they get two of their talent trees and it looks like a host of new spells and skill changes. It should be interesting to see what happens to them. However, soulstones are temporarily disabled due to some technical changes and won't return until the next patch (ouch!).

The new loot methods sound neat.

[Brother Laz]

Well, vee-dubs now have an AoE taunt. If it actually works and is not so ineffective [for 'balance' reasons] that it is useless, I foresee warlocks replacing warriors as Most Wanted Class in groups... which is a GOOD thing. I never considered warriors 'taunting tanks'... it would hurt to get hit on the head with a fireball, but it would hurt more to have said head chopped off with an axe. Warriors should == DPS and mages == CC, not the other way round kthx. <_<

The only problem would be that multiple warlocks, or a warlock and a warrior, would end up overwriting each other's taunts and wasting mana. B)

That said, the warlock seems to turn into more and more of a one trick pony. Why ever use the imp, succubus or even the future infernal when you can have your personal archon chain taunting everything [while the warlock steals life with life drain or death coil, & gives it to his vee-dub, giving it infinite life]?

Oh yeah, when I saw the stats on curse of exhaustion I was LOL. This amazing new curse reduces monster movement speed by a stunning ten percent, unless you get the talent and increase it to a godlike -30%.

Many of the new spells are just mundane dd, and many of the talents are mundane damage enhancers, cooldown reducers, cast time reducers and mana cost reducers. Shadowburn is a more unique dot, it takes a soulshard but also gives a soulshard back if it kills. Too bad it is a talent skill, otherwise it would have been useful. Death coil looks fun, but I wonder if it won't end up rendering life drain obsolete...

[Edit: nope. 10 minute cooldown. Yay.]

Anyway, looks like warlocks are back in the game. :) If only as chain taunting machines. What they need now is a spell that takes their hp and gives it to a target ally, so they can be backup healer too. :rolleyes:

[MongoJerry]

As Bolty predicted out loud multiple times and I suspected more privately, Blizzard again took a weak class, in this case the warlock, and boosted it all out of proportion. The warlock will for a few weeks at least be the godly class in the game until the inevitable nerfs come along. I experimented with a warlock friend and it's just insane what they can do now. AoE stun effects, create an off-hand item (bind-on pickup) that let the warlock clear all magic debuffs and absorb 600 magic damage, create an off-hand item that boosts their melee damage significantsly, a new pyroblast-like 6-second cast spell that when boosted by talents can deal 2k crit damage, a bunch of improvements to fear, some improvements to pets, wild overpowered curses... Oh, man, the damage and the crowd control that warlocks are going to be able to deliver for a few weeks will be insane. They will certainly be the kings of PvP until the nerfs come along. Enjoy while you can, warlocks!

[Brother Laz]

...boost them all out of proportion, then nerf them more and more with each patch. The good news is, warlocks are one of the last classes to receive talents so they'll get nerfed less than the first classes. Good, because weak direct damage characters (mage) can be fun, but weak indirect damage classes (former warlock) aren't. You don't really do much, you use minions/dot to kill, and it doesn't even go fast?

Blizzard cannot balance anything (Warcraft 1: both races were the exact same except for *2* spells. And still they managed to unbalance them), but I'd rather see the more passive classes overpowered than the more active ones.

PS: "kings of PvP" alright, except against undead. Because we all know no one ever plays undead, so they gave 'em the small bonus of being totally immune to the warlock's and mage's main means of crowd control.

[MongoJerry]

PS: "kings of PvP" alright, except against undead. Because we all know no one ever plays undead, so they gave 'em the small bonus of being totally immune to the warlock's and mage's main means of crowd control.

Well... let's keep in mind that undead are especially vulnerable to priests and paladins, so in this sense, the undead race abilities are balanced.

[Magicbag]

Blizzard cannot balance anything (Warcraft 1: both races were the exact same except for *2* spells. And still they managed to unbalance them), but I'd rather see the more passive classes overpowered than the more active ones.

Geez, this is a bit harsh. WC1 was how long ago? It was an amazing RTS when the genre had 2 titles. WC2 was more complex, etc. I think Diablo had good balance, same with D2. WC3 and SC are some of the best balanced games in the genre.

WoW is very much still in Beta. I hope they don't rush it, but even if they do, it'll be better balanced at release than any other MMO out there.

It's easy to forget WoW is in beta because it's so fun, but give the game a little more time (release) before saying that it's broken.
-MB

[Bolty]

WoW is very much still in Beta.&nbsp; I hope they don't rush it, but even if they do, it'll be better balanced at release than any other MMO out there.
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That won't excuse it being rushed. Although Blizzard has not given an official release date, stores are now offering "pre-purchase" boxes, and almost every major outlet is predicting a November release date.

WoW will not be ready in November.

If the game is released in November, I hope that the gaming populace, for just this once, chooses to send a message to the gaming industry and keeps their money in their wallets. But we all know that has no chance of happening, as thousands of lemmings will happily purchase a buggy, unfinished product, thus continuing the cycle of buggy, unfinished MMORPGs because the companies know they can get away with it. The very fact that you hear "but it's much more polished than OTHER MMORPGs when they were released, even if it's buggy as hell" as an actual argument shows how bad things have degraded.

All I can do is my part. If the game's released in November, I'll be happily sitting this release out. If it's released in March/April, as it should be considering its current state, things might go differently.

-Bolty

[nobbie]

WoW will not be ready in November.

While the Amazon.com site lists a release date of November 2004, the German Amazon.de says January 2005. I bet WOW will for sure not be ready before spring/summer 2005, and if it is out earlier because of Christmas, I'd recommend not to buy it before spring/summer 2005.

[Roane]

stores are now offering "pre-purchase" boxes, and almost every major outlet is predicting a November release date.

Not arguing your point regarding readiness, but just pointing out that site dates, no matter how consistent, and pre-purchase ability is not an indication of imminent release. I had Fable pre-ordered back in March, with everything saying release in April, and it was delayed until September (as an example).

[MongoJerry]

While the Amazon.com site lists a release date of November 2004, the German Amazon.de says January 2005.

Blizzard has always said that the European launch would be later than the American/Korean launch, so this is consistent, whether the actual dates are right or not.

My primary issue with the game at this point is the completion and balancing of the character classes. Additional high-end content, PvP upgrades, battlegrounds, minigames, and all other such things can come after release as far as I'm concerned. However, all character classes need to have their talents and skills completed, tested, and polished well before release. And I'm not talking about just paladins, hunters, and warlocks, who are still waiting for their talents to be implemented. (The current warlock talents are a rough draft joke. I don't consider them implemented). Classes that already have their talents implemented still need some tweaking and perhaps some additional high level spells and skills added to make those classes more interesting and fun to play at the high levels. I've posted some ideas for priests on the Blizzard forums to make them less one-dimensional in high level raid groups. These kinds of things absolutely need to be looked at, polished, and tested before the game is released.

[Jarulf]

Blizzard has always said that the European launch would be later than the American/Korean launch, so this is consistent, whether the actual dates are right or not.

One thing that I just recently saw that bother me so much that I it will be the definate "no buy" reason for me (although I would be sceptical anyway for a game that cost money each month regardless of if I play or not) is the fact that you can't chose what server to play on. I would be forced to play on an European server, despite for example most people I know (from here and other places) will probably be (forced to) play on an american server. I really can't see ANY reason for that. Sure, they can encourage players to pick Blizzards prefered choice, but not even allowing is to me just rediculous. And so far I have not really seen any solid or good argument for this kind of lock in.

[Guest]

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$



Money is probably the real reason. IT was probably in the contract with who ever runs the Euro servers that they would have exclisive rights to the Euro cutomer base.


Yes it does suck.

[Brother Laz]

And so far I have not really seen any solid or good argument for this kind of lock in.

The American release is half a year before the European release. So there would be a lot of smart Europeans who'd import an American copy, thereby circumventing whoever distributes the game in Europe and costing them €€€. Thusly...



Also, that way they can increase the monthly fee in Korea to Lineage-2 levels without upsetting the Lineage-less European and American playerbase.



Somehow the majority of the South Korean population has a computer and bought Starcraft and Diablo 2, and they can afford the monthly fee for Lineage-2, so Blizzard would be stupid if they didn't shake the largest possible amount of money out of the Koreans' pockets knowing they'll play it anyway, en masse.

[Jarulf]

The American release is half a year before the European release. So there would be a lot of smart Europeans who'd import an American copy, thereby circumventing whoever distributes the game in Europe and costing them €€€. Thusly...

This I don't buy, it is completely irrelevant to Blizzard.

Also, that way they can increase the monthly fee in Korea to Lineage-2 levels without upsetting the Lineage-less European and American playerbase.

This is actually one possible explanation, although cynical.

[Guest]

I think my guess is more reasonable. Other games have followed the same model.

[apandapion]

One thing that I just recently saw that bother me so much that I it will be the definate "no buy" reason for me (although I would be sceptical anyway for a game that cost money each month regardless of if I play or not) is the fact that you can't chose what server to play on.

I think this one issue is getting blown way out of proportion by a lot of people. There is a lot of good sense in having WoW pick a server for you. This means that two people who know nothing about MMORPGs, or online games, will be on the same server automatically if they know each other. I *never* met someone locally who played on the same UO server as I did back when I played UO. Everyone seemed to be playing on a different server.

I believe, along with everyone else with two brain cells to bang together, that this behavior should be overrideable. But I have no problem with you being silently directed to your local server if you don't override it.

[Guest]

Too bad you have no idea how it works. Its rather rude tell tell people they are taking something and "blowing it out of proportion" when you dont even know know the details of what they are speaking on.

[Saxywoo]

Not arguing your point regarding readiness, but just pointing out that site dates, no matter how consistent, and pre-purchase ability is not an indication of imminent release.&nbsp; I had Fable pre-ordered back in March, with everything saying release in April, and it was delayed until September (as an example).
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I agree that pre-purchase boxes are signs of emminent release, but as you pointed out, you had ordered something in March that was supposed to come out in April, and it *finally* came out 6 months late.

I don't think that the game is anywhere near ready to be released. There's too many things that need work. Specifically my class.... the forgotten ones... Paladins. There are also a lot of crashes on startup, where you log into the game, and get fully in, you can still crash for no reason, not to mention that flights will cause crashes as well.

It will be released. This isn't going to be a Sam & Max II or Full Throttle II experience.

-SaxyCorp

[apandapion]

Too bad you have no idea how it works. Its rather rude tell tell people they are taking something and "blowing it out of proportion" when you dont even know know the details of what they are speaking on.
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I was about to write a detailed response, but it seems to me that you are blowing this out of proportion.