I’ve been sitting on a number of news snippets for a day or two waiting until I have enough of them to make a complete post. And none of these are exactly breaking material in their own right.
Harvest Festival
The Harvest Festival has started! Make sure to visit a capital city for your faction and pick up the free pet food! I mean … err .. tasty harvest feast.
Beta Balance Pass
Nethaera updated the beta patch notes for build 8905. The most interesting addition to me is the line that reads:
All classes are currently undergoing a balancing pass of all talent trees.
I was unaware of that, but I’m glad to see it. For one thing, getting the talent trees straightened out is probably a prerequisite for the pet ability balance pass and the pet threat pass, and I am anxiously awaiting some final numbers on those.
But keep in mind that the numbers you see on beta right now are also not the end of the balancing pass. According to our favorite blue poster Ghostcrawler:
No, we didn’t finish the numbers pass before data went out. And some of the numbers you’re seeing that look strange are the result of bugs anyway.
Beta Hunter Answers
Speaking of Ghostcrawler, she appeared briefly on the WotLK Beta Hunter forum last week with a couple of important comments.
This is in the plan. It may not be available right at release, however.
On pet health:
What kind of health numbers are you seeing for your pets? Please specify if you maxed out Great Stamina or not. Thanks!
And:
We’re paying attention to it. How easy or hard it is to kill the pet is a very important dial to get tuned right. We’re trying to figure out if pet hit points are high enough, which I referenced in another thread (so post them there, not here).
PTR 3.0
And things are (slowly) coming around with the Public Test Realms as well. When asked if the PTR would be up soon, Zarhym responded:
Yes.
Unfortunately that’s all he could give us:
I’m not permitted to provide more than one direct answer a day, sorry.
Racial Abilities
Kalgan was able to be a bit more forthcoming about another important change — to the racial abilities in Wrath of the Lich King. I’m not going to repeat the entire list here (except to say that my dwarven hunter Kaet will be disappointed with her new Mace Specialization) but check out Kalgan’s posted list or the (slightly easier to read) summary at WoW Insider.
If the nurfed racial abilities go live they better give free race change to all you characters. Its ridiculous to remove and nurf racials at this point, only adding to them can be fair. Everyone picks their class/race for a reason and now bliz has @#$!ed it up for us.
side note: pets need more health or a major boost to improved mend pet so it heals a greater percentage. pets die to quickly with just plane mend pet on them alone. Maybe pets should have the same hit points as their lvl equivalent in the wild; that would make sense.
ROFL at vodo shuffell, guys at blizz must have been high when they came up with that ridiculous racial. If any thing trolls should be getting perception, after all they have heightened senses from living in the jungle. Humans should get an intellect buff or passive %mana/rage/energy regenbuff. I know its not a FD for humans but its basically the same thing. wtf humans cant even be hunters why should they be allowed a similar ability? ~FD for humans makes no sense what so ever, how is that a racial and how can it possibly tie into any kind of human lore what so ever?
Hantindash -
err… most changes are buffs… free race change?….how about no?
Vodoo Shuffel is quite amasing….regen buff for humans= yeah…not op at all *sarcasm*
Most ppl choosed race for looks first, racials second.
Shoo, go away troll
Ansawa: Agreed. Whether Death Knights are truly ‘Undead’ or not doesn’t change the fact that you really can’t call them normal members of their race (Since all races can be death knights).
Arthas for instance, may or may not be undead, but in my original posting to this blog page I said he wasn’t human, which he arguably isn’t.
Mania, just to warn you, incoming hunter nerfs, including pet skills damage being nerfed down a bit.
Ah, good — maybe they were able to get started on the pet damage and threat pass.
(The pet ability numbers were placeholders, so you can’t reasonably consider changes to them to be a nerf. Anyway, it looks like they are going up as well as down.)
im still really hopeing for kodos to count as rhinos because it shouldnt be unlocked at lvl 60 if you cant tame them till lvl 68 (if only northrend rhinos) im just saying
oh ya and i want taurens to get liek som new racial on top (sorry fergot till after i posted) thats somthing… well somthing good a bit better then a 3 sec stun when humans get somthign like “the fall of humanity”
MyhealthisOPlol – I can answer your question. If you spec for BM and get the exotic pet skill, yes (and you already know) you can train exotic pets. Whenever you wipe your talent tree clean, the pet disappears. When you respec into another tree (MM for instance) you can’t call your pet. It will give you a message along the lines of “You do not possess the required skills/talents for an exotic pet.” BUT, if you go look in your stable, your pet is still there. You just can’t use him/her until you respec back to BM, exotic pet talent.
Hope this helped.
Petrinka
Ok thanks so much for that reply Petrinka because i’m mm like all the time and keep thinking that one question so I look at both pets and just pick out the coolest looking one out of the tree (I’m looking at cunning because once feeding frenzy pops it’s like a pet under BW w00t) so I’m still curious about the other racials…”the fall of humanity” I completely agree is a complete rip off of FD, I’m mainly concerned about my racial ability…as stated above everyone selects their race and class for a specific reason.Now what’s all this talk about AotV being nerfed! I mean seriously wtf? that’s helped me win an arena match or whatever numerous times and now bliz is ruining our class! GG for screwing your game up blizz.
Hantindash: Please remember to keep your comments respectful of others here.
(I normally wouldn’t delete your comment wholesale, but it’s 5:45 am and I’m really tired and cranky.)
Messyah:
I do not want to turn this into a “best” tank thread, but please look at the other classes before deciding which is the clearly the “best tank” class in the game. You may find the results suprising.
1. Shield Block – increases chance to block by 75% for 2 attacks over 5s when talented. Now what happens when the boss dual-welds or has other abilities that can be blocked, causing more than 2 attacks over 5s? It opens the warrior up to being crushed. Crushes are bad, since they do 1.5x the damage of a normal attack and spike damage is the #1 killer of tanks in boss fights.
Paladins currently have Holy Shield. Increases chance to block by 30% for 10s. 8 charges (talented). There are no bosses in the game that use more than 8 attacks in 10s. And yes, there is a maximum block% you can reach so it is possible to be “capped” and ensure you block every attack
2. Parry (passive) – Allows the warrior to parry melee attacks (no cooldown). Paladins can also parry
3. Last Stand (Talent) – Grants the warrior 30% more health for 20 sec. (has a cooldown)
I will admit paladins do not have a talent *quite* as good as this. Instead, they have Ardent Defender. Reduces damage taken by 30% when the paladin is under 35% health. While not as good, it has saved my ass more times than I care to count.
4. Shield Wall – Reduces melee, ranged and spell damage by 75% for 10 sec (16 sec w/talents)
In LK (where the original topic of 2% free avoidance for nelfs comes up), this is reduced to 50% damage reduction. Paladins also gain this ability.
In addition to avoidance, they also get a spell interrupt and a stun (yes, bears get a stun too.) Aside from the stun, if you take all of those abilities into account, you can understand why Warriors are noteably the best end-game Boss tanks in the game.
- spell interrupts and stuns do not matter against bosses since they cannot be stunned and 90% of their spells cannot be interrupted. Spell reflect is handy, yes. But know paladins also have a stun. Infact, the best stun in the game atm. It lasts a whole 6s.
currently in end-game, paladins and warriors have similar levels of total avoidance, with paladins being your best choice against fast-attacking bosses (prince, brut, arguably illidan due to shear). Warriors are the best choice against magic-damage bosses due to their slightly superior magic damage reduction. However both can tank any boss just fine, and it is people with an attitude like yours that truely prevents part of the paladin potential from being fully realized. In LK, all this will change. You will surely see more and more paladins as MT of guilds until warriors and paladins are represented in equal numbers.
On a side note, paladins are also your best bet for threat-sensitive fights due to their large front-loaded threat. and incase you weren’t aware, paladins regen mana when they receive heals. Their mana pool is nothing more than a blue rage-bar that simply starts full.
Messyah,
You do realize that Night Elves can be Warriors too, right?
So that being said, wouldn’t this ability be a huge 1-up over other warriors?
Also, doesn’t a lower chance to be hit translate into less defense rating needed, and therefore allow you a bump in other stats?
um wtf… so what Teika typed to me is “respectful of others”? Teika has attacked me and I am defending myself… Im not allowed to defend myself? Why am I even having to defend myself? If your going do delete peoples comments under this motto,["keep your comments respectful of others here"]then why is his comment not deleted? He is clearly bashing what I put out as my own personal opinion; yes only an opinion, not slander, lies, ultimatums. I never demanded anything, or pushed anything onto others. Why are you letting people bash other peoples opinions. Mania were is you social justice?
Big sigh to the wow community for its lack of continuity and fairness. I have never had any problems with your site till now. It’s a great read. Mania /facepalm
What did he typed that got deleted?
Yea he’s right, Teika was “bashing” what he typed.
Wow what did he typed that needed deleting? LOL
Lawl I want an undead death kight now :) the forbidden fruit.
ROFL people picking fights in Mania. What round is it? Hahaha
Hantindash: With the exception of calling you a troll, I am not seeing Teika post anything that attacked you personally. Attacking what you said is a different matter. I have no problem with people disagreeing, but I won’t have personal attacks. Much of what you posted constituted personal attacks. Now I would normally try to sort that out and just edit your comment, but I wasn’t in the mood to deal with that at 5:45am.
Now if I remember, the actual content of your response went something like this:
“Real players pick for abilities, not how nice their character looks dancing in underwear. Most ally changes are buffs, most if not all horde changes are major Nerf bats. Abilities need improved all around for Allys, but that does not mean Nerf the crap out of horde racials in the process. Leave them bee and you can have your new ally buffs. Horde = pvp, Ally = pve; you cant have both! If you want more pvp ally racials give the horde some pve racials.”
Feel free to continue the discussion where it left off, but please watch the personal attacks.
OK, im an undead player and i am a bit peeved about the nurf or “will of forsaken. Did they nurf the human ablility of breaking movement impaering effects? Undead only have 3 racial abilities unlike humans and other races.Now my “will of forsaken shares a cooldown with my insignia of the horde. this is just unfair. Will of the ofrsaken is the only real benefit to playing an undead.
First blizz introduces the deathknight, makeing warriors all but worthless, till they finaly nurfed it. now they are taking aim at my undead race instead of my class, What the hell blizz? GO pick on some overpowered class instead of picking on my races one usefull ability. undead dont have toughness like orcs, or wapon specializations like humans or ttracking abilities like gnomes or dwarfs> LEAVE MY UNDEAD ALONE!