Thule
09-05-2008, 04:57
Level 80 Premade available on Beta servers !
That's it, level 80 premade characters are available on beta servers !
WorldofWarcraft.com Character Copy (http://beta.worldofwarcraft.com/)
WoW-Europe.com Character Copy (http://beta.wow-europe.com/)
All characters are level 80 with 4x22 or 4x20 slot bags depending on classes, PvP gear including full set of weapons, an epic flying and ground mount. Exalted with one or two faction depending on classes and friendly with the rest, maxed weapon skills and First Aid. Gear is also fully enchanted.
http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/news/2008/september/betacopypremade.jpg (http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/news/2008/september/betacopypremade2.jpg)
Naxxramas available for testing in an upcoming build
Naxxramas should be available for testing very soon on beta servers, and it will include loot ! As a reminder the known drops from Naxxramas are :
Naxxramas 25 Trash Loot 2H Mace (http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/news/2008/august/lootupdate/naxxramas_02.jpg) (2H Mace)
Naxxramas 25 Spider Wing Boss 3 Loot 1 2H DPS Mace (http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/news/2008/august/lootupdate/naxxramas_01.jpg) (2H Mace)
Nax 10 Badge Loot Tank Shield (http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/news/2008/august/lootupdate/naxxramas_04.jpg) (Shield)
Nax 10 Badge Loot Healer Shield (http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/news/2008/august/lootupdate/naxxramas_03.jpg) (Shield)
All these items have been datamined on beta servers recently but just like any item in the beta they obviously can change.
Quote from: Daelo (Source)
The trash has indeed been adjusted. Highlights include:
Longer trash sections between bosses ( to Patchwerk, to Razuvious, to Faerlina) have been toned down.
Heigan gauntlet is no longer a gauntlet, now there's a very small one AFTER Heigan.
A few new creatures have been added in a couple places.
Newer models for many of the creatures.
Some of the trash encounters have different numbers of creatures for 10 and 25 player modes.
One other thing...
Naxxramas should be available for beta testing soon in both 10 and 25 player flavors, including loot!
Upcoming Beta Classes Changes
Guess what ? The official talent calculator (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/talent-index/wrath.html) have been updated once again with upcoming class changes ! Below is the list.
Quote from Blizzard staff
http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/icons/24x24/deathknight.jpg Death Knight (Skills List (http://www.mmo-champion.com/index.php?page=650) / Talent Calc. (8885) (http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?deathknight))
Coming soon, will be updated in a few minutes.
http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/icons/24x24/druid.jpg Druid (Skills List (http://www.mmo-champion.com/index.php?page=700) / Talent Calc. (8885) (http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?druid))
Restoration
Nature's Focus now affects Wrath, Engangling Roots, and Cyclone - Gives you a 23/46/70% chance to avoid interruption caused by damage while casting the Healing Touch, Wrath, Entangling Roots, Cyclone, Nourish, Regrowth and Tranquility spells.
Tree of Life mana cost reduced from 978 to 684 Mana. Now increases healing received by raid members by 3% (instead of 25% of your spirit) - Shapeshift into the Tree of Life. While in this form you increase healing received by 3% for all party and raid members within 45 yards, and you can only cast Restoration and Barkskin spells, but the mana cost of your healing over time spells is reduced by 20%. The act of shapeshifting frees the caster of Polymorph and Movement Impairing effects.
Improved Tree of Life now reduces the mana cost of your heal over time spells while in Tree of Life Form by an additional 5/10/15%. (Old - increases the effect of your Tree of Life Aura by 5/10/15%.)
http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/icons/24x24/paladin.jpg Paladin (Skills List (http://www.mmo-champion.com/index.php?page=610) / Talent Calc. (8885) (http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?paladin))
Protection
Toughness now increases your armor value from items by 2/4/6/8/10% and reduces the duration of all movement slowing effects by 10/20/30/40/50%. (Didn't reduce movement slowing effects before)
Shield Specialization now Increases the amount of damage absorbed by your shield by 10/20/30%. (Old - Increases your block value by 10/20/30%.)
Avenger's Shield (Rank 4) has been added. 1142 Mana, 658-788 Holy Damage.
Blessing of Sanctuary has been changed - Places a Blessing on the friendly target, reducing damage taken from all sources by 3% for 10 min. In addition, when the target blocks, parries, or dodges a melee attack the target will gain 10 rage, 20 runic power, or 2% of the maximum mana. (Old - Places a Blessing on the friendly target, reducing damage dealt from all sources by up to 10 for 10 min. In addition, when the target blocks a melee attack the attacker will take 14 Holy damage.)
Crusader Strike doesn't refresh Judgements on target anymore.
Retribution
Vengeance now stacks up to 2 times instead of 3.
Judgement of the Wise now gives your Judgement spells a 33/66/100% chance to grant up to 10 party or raid members mana regeneration equal to 0.5% of their maximum mana per second. (Old - Your Judgement spells restore mana up to 3 group or raid members totalling 20/40/60% of the damage caused.)
http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/icons/24x24/warlock.jpg Warlock (Skills List (http://www.mmo-champion.com/index.php?page=680) / Talent Calc. (8885) (http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?warlock))
Affliction
Frailty now Increases the amount of attack power reduced by your Curse of Weakness by 10/20%, and increases the amount of attack power granted by your Curse of Recklessness by 50/100%.
Shadow Embrace now increases Shadow damage dealt to the target by 2/4/6/8/10%. (Old - Reduced physical damage caused by 1/2/3/4/5%)
Demonology
Demonic Empathy changed to When you or your pet critically hits with a spell or ability, the other's damage done by their next 3 spells or abilities is increased by 2/4/6%. Lasts 15 sec. (Old - the other has a 33% chance to have their casting or attack speed increased by 30% for 8 sec on critical hit.)
Demonic Pact mechanics changed - Your pet's criticals apply the Demonic Pact effect to your party or raid members. Demonic Pact increases spell by 10% of your Spell Damage for 12 sec. (Old - Same effect, but a debuff was applied to the mob)
Blue posts
Quote from Blizzard staff
http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/icons/24x24/druid.jpg Druid (Skills List (http://www.mmo-champion.com/index.php?page=700) / Talent Calc. (8885) (http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?druid))
Tanking in WotLK and Feral DPS
[...] Believe me, if we ever hit a brick wall where we just can't make druids work without parry, then guess what will happen. [...]
Agreed. As far as scaling is concerned, we've made great efforts to scale abilities so that upgrading your gear doesn't totally change their effectiveness. Here's the problem with Feral druids: because they have so few stats (in the sense that e.g. parry and spellpower aren't important to Feral), it's easy to focus on those stats. If those stats scale really well, then we run into problems where druids can either hit the caps or get such high numbers that the content starts to break. Once druids hit the armor cap in BC, they could start improving dps stats which would eventually have overshadowed other tanks in both mitigation and threat. When they stacked agility, agility and more agility, it just improved their tanking and damage really quickly.
Warlocks were in a pretty similar situation with spell damage. They wanted almost nothing else and kept stacking the same thing and pretty soon they outstripped similar classes.
From a design point of view, the challenge isn't making druids amazing tanks and dps. The challenge is preventing them from getting too good too easily. (Note, mean old Ghostcrawler is not saying we're trying to keep Ferals really weak. Just remember that while your goal as players is to get as good as possible, ours as designers is to keep you in proportion to other classes.)
Is Mother Bear as effective at level 80 as it is at level 70? Yes. Does it scale with AP or armor? No. Does getting AP and armor still make you a better tank? Yes. Will you spec out of Mother Bear when you reach a certain gear plateau? Unlikely. Until recently, Sunder Armor did not scale. It was just crappier the better your gear became and was less effective at generating threat as everyone else's threat increased.
As to cats, we don't know yet if their dps is too low or not. We should have a better idea soon. (More... (http://blue.mmo-cha...
[url=http://www.mmo-champion.com/index.php?topic=14944.0)
That's it, level 80 premade characters are available on beta servers !
WorldofWarcraft.com Character Copy (http://beta.worldofwarcraft.com/)
WoW-Europe.com Character Copy (http://beta.wow-europe.com/)
All characters are level 80 with 4x22 or 4x20 slot bags depending on classes, PvP gear including full set of weapons, an epic flying and ground mount. Exalted with one or two faction depending on classes and friendly with the rest, maxed weapon skills and First Aid. Gear is also fully enchanted.
http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/news/2008/september/betacopypremade.jpg (http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/news/2008/september/betacopypremade2.jpg)
Naxxramas available for testing in an upcoming build
Naxxramas should be available for testing very soon on beta servers, and it will include loot ! As a reminder the known drops from Naxxramas are :
Naxxramas 25 Trash Loot 2H Mace (http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/news/2008/august/lootupdate/naxxramas_02.jpg) (2H Mace)
Naxxramas 25 Spider Wing Boss 3 Loot 1 2H DPS Mace (http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/news/2008/august/lootupdate/naxxramas_01.jpg) (2H Mace)
Nax 10 Badge Loot Tank Shield (http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/news/2008/august/lootupdate/naxxramas_04.jpg) (Shield)
Nax 10 Badge Loot Healer Shield (http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/news/2008/august/lootupdate/naxxramas_03.jpg) (Shield)
All these items have been datamined on beta servers recently but just like any item in the beta they obviously can change.
Quote from: Daelo (Source)
The trash has indeed been adjusted. Highlights include:
Longer trash sections between bosses ( to Patchwerk, to Razuvious, to Faerlina) have been toned down.
Heigan gauntlet is no longer a gauntlet, now there's a very small one AFTER Heigan.
A few new creatures have been added in a couple places.
Newer models for many of the creatures.
Some of the trash encounters have different numbers of creatures for 10 and 25 player modes.
One other thing...
Naxxramas should be available for beta testing soon in both 10 and 25 player flavors, including loot!
Upcoming Beta Classes Changes
Guess what ? The official talent calculator (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/classes/talent-index/wrath.html) have been updated once again with upcoming class changes ! Below is the list.
Quote from Blizzard staff
http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/icons/24x24/deathknight.jpg Death Knight (Skills List (http://www.mmo-champion.com/index.php?page=650) / Talent Calc. (8885) (http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?deathknight))
Coming soon, will be updated in a few minutes.
http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/icons/24x24/druid.jpg Druid (Skills List (http://www.mmo-champion.com/index.php?page=700) / Talent Calc. (8885) (http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?druid))
Restoration
Nature's Focus now affects Wrath, Engangling Roots, and Cyclone - Gives you a 23/46/70% chance to avoid interruption caused by damage while casting the Healing Touch, Wrath, Entangling Roots, Cyclone, Nourish, Regrowth and Tranquility spells.
Tree of Life mana cost reduced from 978 to 684 Mana. Now increases healing received by raid members by 3% (instead of 25% of your spirit) - Shapeshift into the Tree of Life. While in this form you increase healing received by 3% for all party and raid members within 45 yards, and you can only cast Restoration and Barkskin spells, but the mana cost of your healing over time spells is reduced by 20%. The act of shapeshifting frees the caster of Polymorph and Movement Impairing effects.
Improved Tree of Life now reduces the mana cost of your heal over time spells while in Tree of Life Form by an additional 5/10/15%. (Old - increases the effect of your Tree of Life Aura by 5/10/15%.)
http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/icons/24x24/paladin.jpg Paladin (Skills List (http://www.mmo-champion.com/index.php?page=610) / Talent Calc. (8885) (http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?paladin))
Protection
Toughness now increases your armor value from items by 2/4/6/8/10% and reduces the duration of all movement slowing effects by 10/20/30/40/50%. (Didn't reduce movement slowing effects before)
Shield Specialization now Increases the amount of damage absorbed by your shield by 10/20/30%. (Old - Increases your block value by 10/20/30%.)
Avenger's Shield (Rank 4) has been added. 1142 Mana, 658-788 Holy Damage.
Blessing of Sanctuary has been changed - Places a Blessing on the friendly target, reducing damage taken from all sources by 3% for 10 min. In addition, when the target blocks, parries, or dodges a melee attack the target will gain 10 rage, 20 runic power, or 2% of the maximum mana. (Old - Places a Blessing on the friendly target, reducing damage dealt from all sources by up to 10 for 10 min. In addition, when the target blocks a melee attack the attacker will take 14 Holy damage.)
Crusader Strike doesn't refresh Judgements on target anymore.
Retribution
Vengeance now stacks up to 2 times instead of 3.
Judgement of the Wise now gives your Judgement spells a 33/66/100% chance to grant up to 10 party or raid members mana regeneration equal to 0.5% of their maximum mana per second. (Old - Your Judgement spells restore mana up to 3 group or raid members totalling 20/40/60% of the damage caused.)
http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/icons/24x24/warlock.jpg Warlock (Skills List (http://www.mmo-champion.com/index.php?page=680) / Talent Calc. (8885) (http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?warlock))
Affliction
Frailty now Increases the amount of attack power reduced by your Curse of Weakness by 10/20%, and increases the amount of attack power granted by your Curse of Recklessness by 50/100%.
Shadow Embrace now increases Shadow damage dealt to the target by 2/4/6/8/10%. (Old - Reduced physical damage caused by 1/2/3/4/5%)
Demonology
Demonic Empathy changed to When you or your pet critically hits with a spell or ability, the other's damage done by their next 3 spells or abilities is increased by 2/4/6%. Lasts 15 sec. (Old - the other has a 33% chance to have their casting or attack speed increased by 30% for 8 sec on critical hit.)
Demonic Pact mechanics changed - Your pet's criticals apply the Demonic Pact effect to your party or raid members. Demonic Pact increases spell by 10% of your Spell Damage for 12 sec. (Old - Same effect, but a debuff was applied to the mob)
Blue posts
Quote from Blizzard staff
http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/icons/24x24/druid.jpg Druid (Skills List (http://www.mmo-champion.com/index.php?page=700) / Talent Calc. (8885) (http://talent.mmo-champion.com/?druid))
Tanking in WotLK and Feral DPS
[...] Believe me, if we ever hit a brick wall where we just can't make druids work without parry, then guess what will happen. [...]
Agreed. As far as scaling is concerned, we've made great efforts to scale abilities so that upgrading your gear doesn't totally change their effectiveness. Here's the problem with Feral druids: because they have so few stats (in the sense that e.g. parry and spellpower aren't important to Feral), it's easy to focus on those stats. If those stats scale really well, then we run into problems where druids can either hit the caps or get such high numbers that the content starts to break. Once druids hit the armor cap in BC, they could start improving dps stats which would eventually have overshadowed other tanks in both mitigation and threat. When they stacked agility, agility and more agility, it just improved their tanking and damage really quickly.
Warlocks were in a pretty similar situation with spell damage. They wanted almost nothing else and kept stacking the same thing and pretty soon they outstripped similar classes.
From a design point of view, the challenge isn't making druids amazing tanks and dps. The challenge is preventing them from getting too good too easily. (Note, mean old Ghostcrawler is not saying we're trying to keep Ferals really weak. Just remember that while your goal as players is to get as good as possible, ours as designers is to keep you in proportion to other classes.)
Is Mother Bear as effective at level 80 as it is at level 70? Yes. Does it scale with AP or armor? No. Does getting AP and armor still make you a better tank? Yes. Will you spec out of Mother Bear when you reach a certain gear plateau? Unlikely. Until recently, Sunder Armor did not scale. It was just crappier the better your gear became and was less effective at generating threat as everyone else's threat increased.
As to cats, we don't know yet if their dps is too low or not. We should have a better idea soon. (More... (http://blue.mmo-cha...
[url=http://www.mmo-champion.com/index.php?topic=14944.0)