May News/Discussions

[NiteFox]

Even with 800 AGI, or less, the crit bonus results in a lot of damage - and more procs of Go For The Eyes.

Throat, maybe? It's Guild Wars with the Minsc reference, not WoW:)

[LochnarITB]

But don't underrate an extra 700-1000 hit points

Yep, dead = 0 dps. Other small benefits are an extra half percent or so of spell crit from the int boost and a small addition to mana regen from the spirit bump. Even salv isn't always the priority, but for an overall preference for the majority of encounters, the preferred order is Salvation, Kings, Wisdom for myself and, from what I hear, the mages I raid with.

[Mordekhuul]

I fight for increased stamina levels in our raids as well. Even early Tier 6 encounters are greatly simplified by stamina, except for pure burn fights with no incidental damage done to the raid to speak of (Kaz'rogal).

I love that some of our mages churn out 1500-1550 DPS regularly, but that overall DPS drops significantly when they die early and end up with 50% DPS time in WWS instead of 100% =)

[Mavfin]

I fight for increased stamina levels in our raids as well. Even early Tier 6 encounters are greatly simplified by stamina, except for pure burn fights with no incidental damage done to the raid to speak of (Kaz'rogal).

I love that some of our mages churn out 1500-1550 DPS regularly, but that overall DPS drops significantly when they die early and end up with 50% DPS time in WWS instead of 100% =)

<cough>Higler<cough>? :wub::shuriken:

[Mordekhuul]

<cough>Higler<cough>? :wub::shuriken:

I can't believe you'd equate high DPS and low survivability with Higler. Whatever could you be thinking of? :whistling:

[Kevin]

I can't believe you'd equate high DPS and low survivability with Higler. Whatever could you be thinking of? :whistling:

I think he had it confused with Tris. :) I don't know if Tris ever raided with Higler, but he sure seems to follow the Higler method. :)

[Lissa]

I think he had it confused with Tris. :) I don't know if Tris ever raided with Higler, but he sure seems to follow the Higler method. :)

Maybe they should follow the Taha method of high DPS and high health... :whistling:

[Kevin]

Maybe they should follow the Taha method of high DPS and high health... :whistling:

They play mages a class that isn't currently overpowered and hasn't been overpowered the whole time the game has been out like a warlock. :):P

[Lissa]

They play mages a class that isn't currently overpowered and hasn't been overpowered the whole time the game has been out like a warlock. :):P

I see you don't remember the time before 1.6...

[Kevin]

I see you don't remember the time before 1.6...

No I do. They were still overpowered then and we had that argument back then too. I've always felt locks were overpowered.

[Mirajj]

May 9 News
~~~

There is some amazing news on the next expansion coming out of a Gamespy article with some of the developers. Some of the highlights?

The Death Knight explained.

In a move that is already creating debate and controversy...Raiding will be undergoing some big changes. There will be no attunements to any 10/25 man raid in WotLK, and any 25man raid will have a 10 man version. This is HUGE news, and seen by many as a 'step in the right direction'. Others feel that Blizz is way off base here. Time will tell.

There are also a few more tidbits that have come out.

[Mordekhuul]

May 9 News
~~~

There is some amazing news on the next expansion coming out of a Gamespy article with some of the developers. Some of the highlights?

The Death Knight explained.

In a move that is already creating debate and controversy...Raiding will be undergoing some big changes. There will be no attunements to any 10/25 man raid in WotLK, and any 25man raid will have a 10 man version. This is HUGE news, and seen by many as a 'step in the right direction'. Others feel that Blizz is way off base here. Time will tell.

There are also a few more tidbits that have come out.

10-man and 25-man versions of every raid dungeon, and the 10-man version's raid lock won't interfere/overlap with the 25-man version.

I forsee a lot of agonizing among raid leaders over what to hit first and how often =)

Hopefully the 10-man versions will be easy enough compared to the 25-man version that you can focus scheduled raids on the 25-man lock and folks can just guild-PUG the 10-man version on off-nights.

EDIT- I also read that the tiered sets dropping in a 10-man version will use the same art/textures as the 25-man version, but with different coloring (similar to current arena gear). More importantly, much like multiple seasons of arena gear, the 10 man set pieces will mingle with the 25-man set pieces for purposes of aquiring the 2 and 4 piece set bonuses.

So you can pick up 10-man set pieces to compliment the 25-man pieces you've aquired and obtain those set bonuses earlier, perhaps.

[RTM]

Huge fan of the WotLK raiding change and looking forward to it. I think it caters nicely to guilds like ours where we struggle to just barely hit 25 signups on a good raid night. We can still push content and see what the "end-game" has to offer, and hit up the 25-man version when we have the folks to do so.

[Monkey]

Huge fan of the WotLK raiding change and looking forward to it. I think it caters nicely to guilds like ours where we struggle to just barely hit 25 signups on a good raid night. We can still push content and see what the "end-game" has to offer, and hit up the 25-man version when we have the folks to do so.

Yeah, it's almost enough to make me want to raid again.

[Taelas]

Huge fan here as well. Sure, it won't be the "big leagues", but just the opportunity to see Arthas is tantalizing.

Of course, apparently it's still not going to be easy. Time will tell how it goes.

[Warlock]

Woohoo! I'll actually get to see the whole story!

Pretty excited about WOTLK now. That's a HUGE step. With AOC going the other way it looks like I'll be staying with WOW for a long time to come.

[Mavfin]

Yes, 10 and 25 being more or less equal makes me happy. The 25-man people get loot a tier higher to make them feel special so they don't gripe too much, while we can still see the content in smaller guild groups. I like it.

[Kevin]

Yes, 10 and 25 being more or less equal makes me happy. The 25-man people get loot a tier higher to make them feel special so they don't gripe too much, while we can still see the content in smaller guild groups. I like it.

Yeah, I like it. You do have to deal with more organization crap and potential drama to get a 25 man going. I like that you get rewarded more for that.

The other thing that I hope this means is less nerfing. Fixing bugs, small reblancing if something is way out of line etc is fine. But continually dumbing everything down just so more people can see it shouldn't be needed. They can 'see' it a lot easier in the 10 man size so you don't have to nerf the 25, just fix it so it is balanced how you want. What that means is that for the crazy people like a lot of Lurkers on Terenas that when we have the time to get around to it, we can actually still see it pre nerf and get that same damn rush as everyone else who can raid 5 nights a week to our 2 when we beat it. It won't be, yeah, well we got it, but it's not the same encounter anymore, whoopee that I feel sometimes. Some content I got to see pre nerf some I didn't. But know Blizzard doesn't have to nerf it just so people can see it. Skilled players with less time can potentially benefit from this as well.

[Mirajj]

May 13 News
~~~

As mentioned earlier, it looks very much like Patch 2.4.2 is going to drop today. Those are the most up to date notes from the PTR

Blizzard has also announced BlizzCon 2008. There look to be a lot of contests this year, as well as a silent auction.

More Wrath tidbits continue to surface. Things such as mounts that can carry passengers, the Trainers and AH crew staying put and not venturing into the new lands (again), and in another bit sure to stir things up, it seems the devs felt that they didn't reward PvE enough in TBC, (as the focus was heavily on PvP) and will look at adjusting that in WotLK.

Tigole drops a few bombs by announcing that the Zul'Aman Bear Mount will not be available after WotLK hits. They want to maintain the prestige of having done the zone "at an appropriate level". They are also looking at changing some of the titles, such as "Hand of A'Dal" and "Champion of the Naaru".

In a "Rust Storm" style move, Blizzard has taken action against Arena Teams that practiced Win-Trading. Several folks received 72 hour or even permanent bans, while every one caught had their Arena gear stripped off and their Arena Points total reset. Why folks think that they'll get away with cheating is beyond me anyhow, but it's nice to see Blizz crack down on this, as it was making Arena irritating for those not doing it.

[Mordekhuul]

In a "Rust Storm" style move, Blizzard has taken action against Arena Teams that practiced Win-Trading. Several folks received 72 hour or even permanent bans, while every one caught had their Arena gear stripped off and their Arena Points total reset. Why folks think that they'll get away with cheating is beyond me anyhow, but it's nice to see Blizz crack down on this, as it was making Arena irritating for those not doing it.

This is great. The thread linked at the top of that article is a real win as well.

Here's a great quote from someone trying to justify their win-trading by using the "but someone else did it while they were using my account" defense:

Idc either. It wasn't me who even did this. I honestly think, once they stop this mass banning Blizzard will give me all my gear back. Once they check the different IP's when the win trading occured.

Brilliant!