Patch 1.7 Test Realms Are Up!

[Quark]

Worked it out. Blizz is bestowing me with the gift of -1.64% to dodge/parry/block, changing my chance to be crit by MC mobs from 0.6% to 2.24%. I am aslo 14x more likely to be double crit.

Please forgive me if I'm not ecstatic about this change.
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Well, maybe I'll be able to duel my MT without getting /laughed at. That's about the only positive I can think of. I'm worried about guilds new to MC now, and we're still relatively new. Overnerfing this can leave dire consequences ...

[Zarathustra]

The targeting circles for area effect spells will no longer be cancelled when the caster moves.

Thank god. Hopefully they've done the same with other spells that can be clicked and then targetted. I'll often use indirect targetting to heal rather than having the person's portrait next to mine.

You can no longer unequip weapons while they are disarmed.

Quick fix for the weapon swap exploit. I'm still waiting to see if they're going to make sure weapon chains on the offhand don't affect the main.

Druids should now be able to shapeshift back into caster form while Feared.

Good fix. Druids that use forms frequently will have a use for the PvP trinket now.

Trueshot Aura - Attack Power and Ranged Attack Power bonus increased, mana cost decreased, area of effect increased.

Interesting incentive to ensure every hunter out there won't give up Marksmanship.

Mace Specialization - The stun effect can now be resisted.

Okay, I'll put aside the fact that any of the bosses in the game are generally immune to stun, making this a waste of 5 talent points while facing them. But still, when I'm getting a "target is immune" on half the enemies I face with my Warrior, why does Mace Specialization need a nerf? I can understand if this change was based on the principle that it IS indeed a bug and needs to be fixed, but still.

The Argent Dawn quest "The Active Agent" now offers a choice of rewards: Seal of the Dawn and Rune of the Dawn. Both may be used just like an Argent Dawn Commission.
Players seeking to replace their Seal of the Dawn (or get a Rune of the Dawn instead) once they've finished "The Active Agent" quest should speak with Betina Bigglezink in Eastern Plaguelands

Rune of the Dawn.... caster trinket?

You can now disable the slow scrolling of text when you are receiving a new quest.

Wonderful.

[Darian]

Well, maybe I'll be able to duel my MT without getting /laughed at.  That's about the only positive I can think of.  I'm worried about guilds new to MC now, and we're still relatively new.  Overnerfing this can leave dire consequences ...
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If I notice that our tanks are taking a massive damage hit as a result of this, I'm done. I have absolutely zero desire to go farm for two months just so we can go back to making progress.

That said... after seeing the difference between the pre-You-Know-Who days and now, I'm thinking all that extra defense wasn't as important as people like to think it was. It's easy to forget just which tank it was on our raids that had a tendency to crumple like tissue paper when thrown into the breach. It may end up just being slightly inconvenient rather than dire.

[Kevin]

Well, maybe I'll be able to duel my MT without getting /laughed at.  That's about the only positive I can think of.  I'm worried about guilds new to MC now, and we're still relatively new.  Overnerfing this can leave dire consequences ...
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Ding Ding Ding! We have a winner. PvP was getting too annoying with +def gear for people. Remember the really high end gear had good +def and good +str and good +stam so that you could upgrade your defense along with everything else. That and they want people to spend more time collecting the set pieces. Valor becomes more valuable if +def is weakened a lot and you might get more tanky types spending time going after it. Neither Galreth or I bothered to go after it because for tanking it wasn't really the best choice. Now that high stam and some of the agi on it makes it more valuable for tanking. So this jives with what Blizzard said they want the choices for tanks to be less clear cut. But I'm still not happy with it. Some people suggested that this makes the anticipation talent more valuable. It does but it still isn't worth 5 points to me.

[Pesmerga]

That said... after seeing the difference between the pre-You-Know-Who days and now, I'm thinking all that extra defense wasn't as important as people like to think it was.  It's easy to forget just which tank it was on our raids that had a tendency to crumple like tissue paper when thrown into the breach.  It may end up just being slightly inconvenient rather than dire.
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This was the first thing that popped into my head when I read that. I don't think it will be as big of a deal as it may get made out to be.

Might make MC more challenging, but not game breaking.

::shrugs:: 2 cents from a guy without a tank.

[Darian]

Some other things I noted which could be interesting, and I haven't seen anyone touch on:

# Black Lotus is no longer soulbound.
# The Effects of Flasks will now persist through death.

Two moves which actually make flasks Not Useless, although the farming still blows.

Significantly more Stranglekelp has started washing ashore to the beaches of the world.

Baby herbalists rejoice.

The original Hakkar quest (the one that involved killing Hakkar's Avatar in the Sunken Temple) has been extended, and now offers a reward.

Hrrrrmmmm... must investigate, eh?

Spell effects that stack multiple times on a character will now display a number in the bottom corner indicating how many times the effect has stacked. For example, if a player has had the Sunder Armor ability used on them three times, the Sunder Armor effect icon will display a 3 in the corner.

I can only hope this applies to your opponent, too; be nice to be able to see how many sunders the main tank has dropped on a mob without having to repeatedly mouseover the icon.

[Olon97]

This was the first thing that popped into my head when I read that.  I don't think it will be as big of a deal as it may get made out to be.

Might make MC more challenging, but not game breaking.

::shrugs:: 2 cents from a guy without a tank.

Even if your tank only has 15 skill defense (5% crit from a 63 boss) you'll only run into double crits about 2.5/1000 incoming hits. Likely to not get double crits on many attempts. On the other hand, 1000 hits on the MT comes around more quickly than you might think.

What it boils down to is lost time & repair gold at the expense of a cruel random number generator. Either that or healers getting in the habit of keeping the tank above 4k health at all times. Bye bye greater heal.

[Shriek]

Similar to talents, untraining a specific pet scales up as you do it more times: 10 silver, 50 silver, 1 gold, 2 gold, 3 gold, etc., eventually stopping at 10 gold.

I really thought it was expensive enough to be a hunter already...

Proficiency Bonuses have been added to the game.

I wonder how this is going to work--Herbalists get +3 Str when equipping an Argent Dawn Commission?

Reputation gains given to a player on the Alliance, Horde, or Steamwheedle Cartel factions directly will now cascade down to member factions through the middle of the Exalted reputation level.

Wow, that's a lotta rep we've now missed out on :(

* The targeting circles for area effect spells will no longer be cancelled when the caster moves.
* New "Dressing Room" Interface now available!
* Need Before Greed and Group Loot options have been improved.
* The overhead map now displays a directional icon for your character.
* Spell effects that stack multiple times on a character will now display a number in the bottom corner indicating how many times the effect has stacked.
* Using /random will now send the text to your party or raid wherever they are instead of the local area around the player that used /random.
* A new inn has been added to the Grom'gol Base Camp in Stranglethorn Vale at the base of the zeppelin tower.

These are good wins for Blizz. Little stuff that's been long requested. I've complained about not being able to bind to Grom'gol for months!

[Quark]

I've seen various links to the Zul'Gurrub and Arathi Basin loot/rewards (sorry didn't save any links), and all I can say is way too much +hit% gear.

I want as much agility, attack power / strength, crit, stamina, and resists as I can possibly get. I only really want about +5% to hit.

Edit: Oh, that great new Rogue quest?

[Pesmerga]

I've seen various links to the Zul'Gurrub and Arathi Basin loot/rewards (sorry didn't save any links), and all I can say is way too much +hit% gear.

I want as much agility, attack power / strength, crit, stamina, and resists as I can possibly get.  I only really want about +5% to hit.

Edit:  Oh, that great new Rogue quest? 
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All I know about Zul'Gurrub, is that I wanna collect my 5 piece Hunter set :)

[Rinnhart]

Anyone know what the ramifications of this are?
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PW:S is even more useless on tanks. Yay!

[Lissa]

All good things.

Actually, pretty much the whole patch looks really good.  I'm looking forward to it!
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Not sure I would call it all good things. It looks like Warriors took a severe beating with the Nerf stick (+Defense changes, Maximum number of hits during Retal, PW:S now going down in a single hit instead of two or three, and a few others I noticed last night, but can't remember now).

There are definitely some nice changes though (like the Flarecore Gloves and a couple Rogue items are now BoE not BoP anymore).

[lemekim]

Apparently some of the new sets (crafted sets from patterns bought from Zul'Gurub vendor) require a profession to activate the set bonuses. That's what the "profession bonuses" is all about.

Refer to picture:

http://www3.telus.net/public/mehwulfe/kyan...lar_Recipes.jpg

For example, you can see on the plate Darksoul set, the set bonus part has Requires Blacksmithing (300) in red.

[Pesmerga]

Apparently some of the new sets (crafted sets from patterns bought from Zul'Gurub vendor) require a profession to activate the set bonuses. That's what the "profession bonuses" is all about.

Refer to picture:

http://www3.telus.net/public/mehwulfe/kyan...lar_Recipes.jpg

For example, you can see on the plate Darksoul set, the set bonus part has Requires Blacksmithing (300) in red.
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That looks to mean you need 300 blacksmithing to learn the pattern, not to use.

I could be wrong, but that's what I think.

[lemekim]

An arrow is worth a thousands words.

[Pesmerga]

An arrow is worth a thousands words.
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See, that's why I ended my post with "I could be wrong, but that's what I think"

:P

[Gorthag]

Some other things I noted which could be interesting, and I haven't seen anyone touch on:
Two moves which actually make flasks Not Useless, although the farming still blows.
Baby herbalists rejoice.
Hrrrrmmmm... must investigate, eh?
I can only hope this applies to your opponent, too; be nice to be able to see how many sunders the main tank has dropped on a mob without having to repeatedly mouseover the icon.
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Download SunderThis... soblem prolved.

(Seriously, this is one of the simplest and most useful addons around)

[MongoJerry]

I've seen various links to the Zul'Gurrub and Arathi Basin loot/rewards (sorry didn't save any links), and all I can say is way too much +hit% gear.

I think Blizzard's on the right track with this, but it depends on how it's implemented. Assuming it's reasonably and usefully implemented, I think this is a good idea for two reasons:

1. The alternative to adding +hit% would be to add more damage or crit%. The trouble is that the game is already getting to the point where offense is overbalanced over defence. When one of our hunters in guild chat was bragging about getting a 3k crit aimed shot on a priest in Alterac Valley, we're getting to the point where people are getting one-shotted or two-shotted. That does not make for a fun PvP system. By adding +hit%, you make an item offensively useful, but you don't make the damage dealt on any particular shot higher, so it avoids the one or two-shot dilemma.

2. At the same time, defense is slowly getting better with people getting +dodge%, +parry%, and +defence (yes, I know it's being nerfed) and better resistances to spells. It's good to have a way to counter that.

[Pesmerga]

Patch notes here
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One of the neatest patch notes I saw was the Need before Greed one.

Need Before Greed and Group Loot options have been improved. The rolling window that appears when an item of the threshold and above is looted now has three buttons: a Need button (the dice), a Greed button (the coin), and a close button. Any players who select Need will get a chance to roll first for the item, with the high roller winning. If no one selects Need, all characters who selected Greed will then roll, with the highest roll winning the item. If everyone closes the window, the item becomes lootable by anyone in the group.

[lemekim]

Personally I think +hit on the whole set is a bad idea, as someone posted on the test forums, it looks like someone vomited +hit on all those sets.

The most important counterargument to new +hit gear is simple - there is a soft cap at +5% hit. A lot of items already give +hit, so making a set which together gives +4% hit will quickly push you over the cap. Consider also the fact that some classes have +hit talents, and so for them any +hit is fairly worthless.

I suppose the +hit on spells is neat, as there isn't already abundance of such items, and +hit here and there on an item is good, since you do want to reach the 5% cap. But the amounts on some of those sets are silly.