7:55pm EDT: Sheesh. I feel like I’ve spent most of today blogging. But the WoW Class Panel is about to begin and I am hoping to learn more about upcoming hunter changes. Be aware, I will probably phase out during the non-hunter bits, but I’ll try to grab anything that sounds particularly interesting.
7:59pm EDT: The live stream is taking their time switching to the class panel. They are still interviewing Samwise Didier (I think). Which is neat, but not about hunters.
Speaking of which, I would love to get more information about possible creatures to tame in the new starter areas. I’ve seen a few quick takes on the new race areas, but nothing in depth and nothing about beasts. So if you see something, please let me know!
8:01pm EDT: Ahh, here we go! Ghostcrawler is up on stage, along with the people in charge of item design and profession design.
He’s starting with the racial abilities for the new races. Goblins have some nice stuff: a passive 1% boost to attack/casting speed, the best possible faction discounts all the time (regardless of their actual faction level), and a pack hobgoblin that let’s them get at the bank once every half hour. (This isn’t all of them, just the ones I happened to grab as they went by.)
Worgen get a sprint ability, a passive bonus to damage, a skinning bonus (and no need for a knife!), and worgen form. Worgen can be in human or worg form when they are not in combat, but always switch to worg form when in combat. (The forms have no gameplay effect.)
8:06pm: GC is going into detail about Warlocks – namely the promised Soul Shard revamp. Soul Shards are leaving inventory and becoming part of the warlock UI, kind of like a rogue combo point mechanic. I don’t know enough about warlocks to follow everything he is saying, so if this is what you were waiting for … well, I think you may be on the wrong site. *grin*
8:10pm EDT: And now he’s going into detail on hunters.
Hunters will no longer use mana. No more Intellect. No more Aspect of the Viper. We will use focus instead. Focus will come back on its own, steadily, but Steady Shot will help it come back a bit faster.
Also, there will be fewer cooldowns on our abilities. And finally, they still plan to switch ammo to equipment, not a consumable.
And not a single word about pets. Ah, well.
8:12pm EDT: And on to items. Mana per 5 is gone (in terms of appearing on equipment), replaced by something or other. Attack power is also going — it will be replaced by Agility. Defense and armor penetration are going away (on items). I can’t keep up with this section — in part because I don’t pay any attention to stats — so I’m going to stop trying now. Sorry about that.
Ooh! There was a mention of the Mastery System in terms of pets, though — apparently one thing you can use it for is to make your pet better. We’ll learn more about that at the System Panel tomorrow.
The next Legendary weapon will be Shadowmourne — a two-handed axe.
8:17pm EDT: Professions! The new profession is Archaeology. It’s a secondary, like cooking, so everyone can take it. With Archaeology you can collect Artifacts throughout the world.
In addition to unlocking paths for Paths of the Titans, Archeology may also give you access to mini pets, instant travel, recipes for other professions, etc.
Archaeology is a gathering skill, but the things you gather go directly into your Archaeology Journal, not into your inventory. Once you get enough fragments of info, you .. do something. They don’t know exactly what yet, but it might even be a little mini-game. And that gives you the rewards! Or something … it’s a bit vague yet.
Hey, and here’s something new: reforging! This is something that Blacksmiths, Leatherworkers, Tailors, Jewelcrafters, and Engineers will be able to do to customize equipment. For example, Engineers can reforge trinkets while Blacksmiths can reforge plate. Reforging let’s you cut one stat bonus on the piece and put those points into another stat — but not one that’s already on the piece.
They are also introducing multi-gains — that is, items that give you more than one skill-up for creation, maybe based on what materials you need.
They also want to customize the gathering skill bonuses a bit, and they will be trying to take Engineering back to it’s “fun” roots.
There are also big changes coming to fishing to make it more fun.
8:25pm EDT: Now they are starting the Q&A. Egad, are my fingers tired. These are all paraphrased, of course. And I’m skipping the boring ones that I don’t personally care about. Sorry! :>
Question: Racial bonus changes for the older races?
Answer: Almost certainly. They want to catch them up to the newer level of cool.
Question: Are professions going up by another 75 points? And what’s the new title?
Answer: Yes, and “Illustrious”.
Question: Why Worgen and Goblin Death Knights? It makes no sense with the lore!
Answer: Yeah, but it’ll be fun!
Question: Something about abilities. I missed the question.
Answer: They are getting rid of Ranks with abilities. Instead abilities will scale smoothly as you level.
Question: How will hunter mana-related talents change with no mana?
Answer: They’ll be changing talent trees a lot.
Question: Is reforging profession-only? And what are the limits?
Answer: No, other people can reforge items for you — they aren’t soulbound to the crafter. There will be limits, but they haven’t worked everything out all the way yet.
Question: Can we have more than two professions please? Maybe one gathering and two production professions?
Answer: No. They want to make the gathering professions better instead. But you will be able to track two things (or all things?) at once. This was a little unclear.
Question: Dual spec is nice. How about three or four specs?
Answer: Maybe someday, but not too soon.
Question: Make the backpack bigger!
Answer: Maybe when they revamp the leveling experience.
Question: Tell us more about non-consumable ammo!
Answer: They’re not sure they want to drop it off of bosses. They may put it on badge vendors. Hunters may upgrade ammo as they level or possibly drops. It’s still unclear.
Question: Will be there any mutil-passenger flying mounts or +310% profession mounts?
Answer: Multi-passenger flying mounts: quite possibly. But +310% profession mounts: not unless it’s tied to an existing achievement that already gives a +310% mount.
Question: Are there any plans to let professions repair the sort of equipment that they can make? Or possible get rid of repair entirely …
Answer: Nope. They’ve talked about it, but think that the Engineering repair bots cover everyone well enough.
Question: Dwarves have an amazing ability called Find Treasure. What happened to all the treasure in the world?
Answer: They found it all! Seriously, they have plans to make chests on the landscape are cooler and less exploitable.
Question: If you have a +310% mount, can your really cool looking +280% mounts please go +310%?
Answer: They’ve been talking about it and think they want to do something there, but it’s not certain what they will do yet.
Question: Something about shadowpriests. I missed it.
Answer: The new skills will probably come at 81, 83, and 85. They haven’t talked about what those will be yet (and this part tied back into the question, but I just wanted to grab the skill levels).
Question: Is there any plan to allow crafting staves, bows, or crossbows?
Answer: There isn’t enough there for a whole tradeskill. They may add bows to Engineering, and the others may be found through Archaeology.
8:55pm EDT: And the panel is over! Thank goodness — I need to pee!
More Info
Blizzard posted a wrap-up from the class panel on the forums.
Kaliope from Crafter’s Tome has more detail on the new profession stuff.
indeed, precisely my thoughts too – lots of changes, but what new critters to behold?
I’ve been here refreshing your page just to see what you post :)
I have to say…if they’re taking away mana and INT, that means hunter gear will be entirely revamped, correct? That seems like an excessive change to the game. Using focus is going to essentially make us exactly like our pets, which could be interesting.
Still crossing my fingers for worgen hunters!
The itemization team a Blizzard must have gotten a massive pay raise. Can you imagine the amount of work this stat overhaul will involve?
The change to focus worries me. I’ve never had much luck leveling a rogue or a feral druid, and it sounds like thats the resource system we’re getting. I’ll wait until I see it in action before deciding anything, of course, but it isn’t the best news for me by any means.
I wonder if hydras will be tameable.
Worgen hunters I hear have been CONFIRMED. :D
Bye-bye mana. I might see you again some time, y’know, hanging out on an alt, but it looks like we’ll have to part soon. Let us spend our final months and/or one year together in peace and happiness.
Other thought-
Archeology stuff will be impossible to find since EVERY SINGLE PERSON will be looking for it.
sigh…
Spears/Polearms, Staves, Shields should be added to Blacksmithing.
Bows and Crossbows should be added to Engineering.
For making Spears/Polearms and Staves, the wood could be bought from trade vendors the same way that Enchanters do for wands.
True that, but it’s just like every other expansion.
BC – questing in the new starter areas was almost impossible. As well, you could not spit without hitting a BE Pally or Draenei Shaman.
Wrath – being a DK trying to get a group was damned near impossible, unless you managed to get an all-DK group and face-rolled an instance (I loved when DKs were that powerful. /sigh) Trying to herb for inscription was impossible, because almost everyone picked it up as soon as it came out.
Eventually it will cool down. As long as you’re not one of those “I have to have it as soon as possible!” people, just wait for the mad rush to be done with before bothering.
Rayquaza7996,
Worgen can be DK, Druid, Hunter, Mage, Priest, Rogue, Warlock and Warrior.
Goblins can be DK, HUNTER, Mage, Priest, Rogue, Shaman, Warlock, Warrior.
Orcs can now be Mages.
Forsaken can now be HUNTERS.
Tauren can now be Priests and Paladins.
Trolls can now be Druids.
Blood Elves can now be Warriors.
Humans can now be HUNTERS.
Dwarfs can now be Mages and Shaman.
Night Elves can now be Mages.
Gnomes can now be Priests.
Do not be surprised if the Alliance get something like Gnome Paladins since they’re one short compared to the Horde.
Sorry for double post, just had a thought.
You know, I seriously can’t understand why Worgen would have any need for weapons. I mean, those sharp claws should do the trick for melee classes just fine! Give them stat-sticks or something, but to me, they have no need for silly human weapons!
Hopefully they’ll give some better lovin’ to fist weapons. There are almost ZERO pre-BC, and most of the post-BC ones aren’t the easiest to get.
the reforging skill looks interesting, very interesting. could make quite useful trinkets, for example, trinket gives stam and AP, could change to Str and ap, just a thought, course now that i think about it, ap is dead, but its still intriguing.
double post, but i realised it says that the 2h legendary axe is for HUNTERS and deathknights only =) my only chars at 80 are those 2, so im happy.
Dang it, they only (so far!) say 1 thing for pets! I want pet information! But I am glad that there is a Talent Tree-like thing (whatever) for making pets better. Fantastic! I am going that route with the 5 Points that I get!
For Worgren, I think they should get an innate bonus to Fist Weapons, and maybe let their unarmed attacks scale as they level.
Don’t know how I feel about us going from mana to focus, but it will be interesting to see. The talent tree changes have me a bit worried, though. But, I’d be happy if they made the Beast Mastery better somehow.
The change they plan to make to Attack Power is going to hurt, a lot. All that armor “of the Bandit” stuff is going to be sorely missed, though maybe they’ll end up making it better.
At any rate, I guess I’ll start collecting Engineering recipes from around the world before the Cataclysm starts :)
I’m so pleased they’re getting rid of mana on hunters! I’ve always hated that. I stopped playing my level 72 hunter because it was just too annoying for me. I know some don’t mind it, and others do but let’s see how focus works for us. It makes more sense anyway.
Very, very cool info. Thanks Mania.
I hate this upcoming system. I’ll admit it right now though, if it turns out great, fantastic. However, I loathe the resource system of rogues (and occasionally kitty druids) to a super high degree. It’s not unlimited like mana, it’s very constrained.
Sigrah:
Don’t miss AP too much ;) If I’ve heard correctly, BM will now be like the other Hunter specs (aka we finally want more AGI!) so you’ll actually be able to dual spec and enjoy it without re-gemming if you like. I also thought I heard in the class panel that pets will be scaling much much much better with their owners. So in other words, taking AGI over AP won’t be a punishment for BM hunters.
For the trailer of the worgen starting area i noticed a dog, looked like a bulldog or bullmastiff. Not sure if its just for looks, or if its a critter or a new tameable beast, but thought that’d be interesting to let you know :)
Its kind of hard to see, but its about halfway through the video, keep looking at the bottom left side of the screen, hes only there for a second.
As for new pets in the starting ares:
1) Gilneas:
That weard dog looking thing!?!
2) Lost Isles:
Spiked Raptors, Dodo Birds and a weard Ankylosaurus creature…
Those are the only beasts discovered so far.
Oh and i also saw a pterradactyl flying around the goblin starting area, god i hope its tameable
Rikaku:
I’m hoping that will be the case, but the other part of the equation will be how they alter the Beast Mastery tree and how they have pets scale to their owners.
On a side note, did anyone else notice that Gilneas looks a lot like 19th Century London? At least that’s the impression I got between the buildings and the way the residents were dressed.
Yes Gilneas does look like 19th Century London…and the Lost Isles look like, tropical isles?
Anyway there is a lot of new pet potential in this xpac with zone themes rangeing from prehistoric and horror movies to elemental plane’s and ocean floors!
alittle concerned about teh focus change, though it’s too early to tell. Mainly, I wonder if this will mean the end of long kiting and jump shots if skills like explosive end up taking large amounts of your available energy. I didn’t play hunter back in the holy steady shot macro days, and I hardly use it now in SV (I do use it, but just by having a channeling bar, can’t stand being tied to it.)
Between more stamina on gear (caster gear too) in general and reforging not stacking more of a stat already available on the piece, will this mitigate min/maxing? Will Path of the Titans become that outlet?
Will haste effect focus regeneration minutely?
Wouldn’t it be cool if reforging allowed you to improve the item level on older gear to bring it comparable to heirlooms (prolly for a hefty price?) That would add a needed layer of customization right there in a meaningful way.
Changeing mana to focus isnt a bad thing…
Hopfully the MASSIVE changes to Hunters will make them Viable, instead of useless…
I’m still getting used to the idea of using focus. It will keep downtime to a minimum, but I’m worried about the regen rate.
So AotV will be removed completely? Or maybe it will stay and when it’s on our focus will generate faster at the cost of damage dealt?
There are several new (or new to being low level) beast models in the goblin starting area. Besides those already mentioned by others, there’s also a new monkey model — one of the first quests involves getting rid of some via explosive bananas.
It’s hard to get to level 10 in the 20 minutes they give you at a demo station (even though the demo starts at level 6), so who knows about tamability.
Did nobody play a Goblin/Worgen Hunter at Blizzcon to try and tame some beasts?
What about the lvl 10 Hunter class quest witch makes you go tame 3 regional beasts?
BloodGod22, as Gazmik stated before you, the limited playtime makes even getting to level 10 hard, let alone making a series of class quests that tend to need lots of running around.
# Rogue energy comes back at a 10 / sec rate, Hunter focus comes back at 6/sec (12/sec with steady shot)
# A shot costs 30 to 60 focus.
ok assumeing we get 100/100 energey am i the only one who thinks this is a bad idea?
if i wanted a focus bar i woulda rolled a druid or a rogue
I have a druid, and I have tosay, half the time I sit there spamming buttons, occasionally pressing Tiger’s Fury, which I improved to increase damage and give me 60 plus energy. The best thing is things die!
And besides, look at it this way, folks. If a huge mana bomb exploded all over the already-Cataclysmic world, we’ll live. :D
FOr the staves, polearms, bows, and crossbows they should make a carpenter class, where you can chop wood and use it to make those, along with totems used in combat and maybe some other stuff that I can’t think of right now :P
Worgen should be fun… I won’t be spending much time in human form, though…
I am extremely excited by this. I’ll admit, the focus thing scares me a little not because of a new resource, but because of the major changes they’ll have to make to the Hunter talent trees. And yeah, I plan on rolling a Worgen Rogue, so I’m gonna need to see a lot more fist weapons.
On the subject of Lost Isle and Gilnaeas pets.
I noticed something important and interesting. Both start zones will be phased. That is, you will start playing in the new zone, and it is possible that others will have access to those zones at a higher level as well. I think that they’re doing this to put an end to griefing in the start zones.
That means that, if an Alliance can get to Lost Isles, they may be able to get the new pets that are there.
I’m sorry for the double post. I just realized how horribly mangled that sounded.
The new start zones are phased apparently. What this may mean is that the new zones will be accessible to people at higher levels without impacting the lower level’s play. Thus, if an Alliance Hunter can get to the Lost Isles, they may be able to tame these new pets without impacting or griefing the low level players. I have to wonder if they may be aiming to do that with all start zones in Cataclysm.
OMFG! WORGEN CAN BE DRUIDS!! I am so rerolling my Nelf. I hate the look of the males.. incredibly ugly and not attractive in anyway.
I’m not sure about them changing mana to focus. I hope we won’t become focus starved now…
@Seidouyumi
Wouldn’t it be possible, though, that with the phasing a lot of the pets will be lost? If you’ve played a DK then you’d know that the Horses, hyenas, and even the villaghers at the foot of the cliff you start off near dissapear. Can this also happen to the tameable beasts?
@Rottingham,
That is possible, but also remember that the purpose of the Death Knight starting quests was to wipe all life from that area. Thus, all those horses, hyena, and people had to be either driven away or killed. A lot will depend upon the whether or not the Goblins will be destroying everything in sight.
“Will haste effect focus regeneration minutely?”
Supposedly, yes. For melee. Im not sure about Hunters.
“Wouldn’t it be possible, though, that with the phasing a lot of the pets will be lost? If you’ve played a DK then you’d know that the Horses, hyenas, and even the villaghers at the foot of the cliff you start off near dissapear. Can this also happen to the tameable beasts?”
This is a possibility, no matter what. Gilneas ill be using phased technology to show what happened to *you as a player) after the doors of Gilneas were shut all the way up to “OMG we need to re-join the Alliance”. So phasing, yes. I’m willing to bet though, that that is a critter we can own, not necessarily tame. But far far to early to tell.
Well its easy if someone really wanted to find out. Someone at Blizzcon….WHACK IT!!! If it dies in 1 hit and has like 1-5 hp, it’s a critter. If it lives and fights back, it could be a tameable beast.
ASFHJKSAFHKSJGHASEDGHAKGH I didn’t know cataclysm would be playable there!!!! aaaaaaaaaaugh I want to be at Blizzcon. It’s driving me nuts that they’re literally in the next city over from me and I can’t be there &cry*
Well, I wonder what kinds of pets we’ll see for these two new starting zones. Most likely crabs, tigers (or other jungle cats), and raptors for the Lost Islands, and bears, wolves, and bats for Gilneas. Maybe the Lost Ilsand beasts will have a certain jungle look to them, and the Gilneas beasts a more feral look then the others. I just hope that something good will come out of this, and maybe even a new tamable beast! Stag FTW!
I’m thinking new cats, raptors, birds, turtles, and that’s just Lost Islands. New boards, bears, and wolves for the area of Gilneas (if it isnt a huge phase). I hope this comes out as early as all these rumored datelines show at early 2010. That would be so sweet…
I’m already saving up emblems (I need like 245 more) and stone keeper shards (for the free honor) to transfer to my worgen when the day finally arrives…
Yeah I know. I have alot of time but, being prepared never hurt.
@Rikaku
I’m doing the same thing. No worries mate.
as a hordie, i will DEFINITELY be rolling and leveling a worgen, i wish heirloom items could be sent to chars on the opposite faction tho….i think itl also be fun to roll a goblin shaman and steamroll people with lava burst….
OMG!
“Hunters might be able to choose the talent tree of their pet to let them pick the pet that looks best to them. Zhevra is a possibility for Cataclysm.”
That’s exactly what I was calling for back during the Hunter Q&A! Glad to see that might actually happen.
” * In Patch 3.3, pets will scale of all of your stats and allow buffs from raid encounters to affect them.
* In Patch 3.3, there will be changes to make sure that pets can’t be hit by AOEs from bosses but others (PvP) will be able to affect them.
* Pets classes might get a “move to this location” command for their pet, long cooldown abilities that let your pet teleport to you to get out of trouble. This would be good feature since developers can’t make pet AI as smart as a player. ”
Interesting….
Rikaku, that’s some great news. :D I’d love being able to command my pet to go to an exact spot instead of first going out there myself, putting the pet on stay and then going back. Also the teleport thing sounds excellent, I hate it when my pet gets stuck in something in the middle of combat, leaving me to handle everything by myself. Seeing my faithful pet just stand behind a branch while I’m fighting for my survival is just sad. :(
Zhevra’s, dodo’s, and new raptors are likely so far
Hope the thunder Lizards are tamable, too.
After hearing about a new “The Beast” still lurking in the new Blackrock, I bet there’ll be some new corehounds to tame.
But if our pets are as smart as us, what will stop them from rising against their master and taming us O_o
…..I just realized something. Pre-TBC, hunters got 2 AP per agility. With the heavy introduction of AP during TBC, that was dropped to 1 AP per agility. And now….it’s…..being returned to 2 AP per point. *Facepalm*
Does Blizzcon continue today with more info, or was it all just yesterday?