Category Archives: blue

The Daily Blues: Special Cataclysm report

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Eyonix and Wryxian has been busy responding to questions about the just announced Cataclysm Stats and System Changes. We're going to do a special edition this afternoon of The Daily Blues and get you all the blue posts and surrounding questions/answers that are coming in.

We'll keep the latest blue post about the break. For a record of everything that's been said today, check after the break (there's already several there).

Eyonix
Eyonix,

So what's the point of being a tank anymore?

All other classes will have buffed hit points.... except tanks
All other classes will have bonus defensive capabilities.... except tanks
All dps armor will have more stamina ... except tank armor.

So why are tanks getting the big screw job?

Tanks will have much more health and armor with gear, enchants, gems, and talents. From gear they'll also be getting mitigation stats such as parry and dodge (when applicable). Don't worry tanks will still be tanks, and dps/healers wont be able to fulfill that role anymore than they are able to now.


Eyonix
Very nice changes overall. Only question I have is what is the point of calling plate armor plate armor if it has the same or nearly the same mitigation as cloth? Seems rather silly.

Plate will still possess much more armor than cloth, the difference just wont be as significant as it is now.


Wryxian
How does weapon skill chances affect for achievements such: Did Somebody Order a Knuckle Sandwich? Master of Arms I take you already know what I mean.

They may well become candidates for Feats of Strength, but I have no information on this right now.


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The Daily Blues: Special Cataclysm report originally appeared on WoW.com on Mon, 01 Mar 2010 14:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Daily Blues

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Each day WoW.com will take you through all the blue posts and other Blizzard news from around the internet. From Ghostcrawler's latest posts to the lowdown on StarCraft II and Diablo III, we'll keep you informed.

Ghostcrawler


Ghostcrawler -- 3.3.3 Mage changes
The Combustion change was to let its cooldown line up better with e.g. trinket cooldowns. It just felt awkward at 3 min.

The Fireball glyph change was because some Fire mages were getting such absurdly high crit rates that even more crit wasn't attractive. We weren't trying to make this particular glyph ridiculously powerful.

The actual dps increases are something more like adding Pyroblast to Torment the Weak and Empowered Fire. That may have missed the most recent patch notes.

I would also expect Arcane damage to fall overall with the Incanter's Absorption change. (Torment is also gratuitously overpowered, but that would be too big a change for now.) That should get Fire a lot closer to Arcane. Getting Frost up there too is harder, but we're still trying.

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The Daily Blues originally appeared on WoW.com on Wed, 24 Feb 2010 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Patch 3.3.3 PTR: Zarhym clarifies new holiday boss mechanics

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So one of the new changes coming in Patch 3.3.3 is that one will be able queue up using the dungeon finder in order to fight world event bosses such as the Crown Chemical Trio or the Headless Horseman. However, the actual extent of the changes is a bit more involved, as Zarhym clarified in a recent forums post. Here's the rundown:

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Patch 3.3.3 PTR: Zarhym clarifies new holiday boss mechanics originally appeared on WoW.com on Mon, 22 Feb 2010 23:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Zarhym: More content coming before Cataclysm patch

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In response to some complaining that we were going to run out of content to play before Cataclsym; Zarhym responded that there was still a lot of content for the average player and:
With that being said, we do have some additional PvE and PvP content and changes we plan to implement prior to the release of the big Cataclysm patch and subsequent retail release of that third expansion. We'll be discussing these new features in more detail in the coming weeks.
This pretty much dashes any hopes of the expansion being released before midsummer or fall, since they wouldn't be developing any new content otherwise. Zarhym goes on to tell us that ICC will be the last tiered progression raid before Cataclysm. So we probably won't be getting the raids in the Sunwell Plateau, but we may get another Isle of Quel'danas and some more PvP fun as well.

When asked if there was going to be any more tiered or higher level gear, Zarhym sidestepped the issue by admitting he was being ambiguous. So we may have other ways than raids to get better gear after ICC. Or we may not. Still this confirmation of more content before the big pre-expansion patch is news.

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Zarhym: More content coming before Cataclysm patch originally appeared on WoW.com on Thu, 11 Feb 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Trinkets: Hard to get, and Blizzard likes it that way

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Any caster worth their salt can remember the frustration involved in trying to nab the elusive Illustration of the Dragon Soul trinket from Sartharion in the Obsidian Sanctum. We tried everything we could to get it, from creating our own melee-heavy raid groups, to participating only in "3D zerg" runs hoping that participants would be too over-geared to want it, to participating in Less Is More achievement runs just so there would be less competition for it.

Towards the end of the Patch 3.2 days, people would run OS25 once a week just to try and get that one trinket. Most weeks, it wouldn't even drop. When it did, you'd have to beat a good twelve or thirteen people in a roll for it.

The Illustration was so valuable (1) because it was a darn good trinket with gobs of spell power, and (2) it seemed impossible get it -- or any good trinket, for that matter. You can still head to Dalaran and buy trinkets with emblems, like the Talisman of Resurgence, but their use is painfully specialized and their value is often less than trinkets you can find in lower level heroics.

It turns out that good trinkets are hard to find for a reason: Blizzard like it that way. Bornakk at the official World of Warcraft forums wrote today:
"Trinkets are really the one item (weapons are to a lesser extent) that we use to try and capture that old slot machine feel from the classic Molten Core days. Yes, completely random loot with huge loot tables can be frustrating but we are pretty far from being completely random these days. Trinkets however are still somewhat random, they can be hard to acquire, and there is often a lot of competition for them."

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Trinkets: Hard to get, and Blizzard likes it that way originally appeared on WoW.com on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Update on the Ghostcrawler situation

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We reported this weekend on Ghostcrawler's self-imposed break from the forums. The response by the majority of the so-called mature fans was quite negative. Many were furious, and rightfully so in my opinion. It appeared that a key source of information for the community was taking leave. Right on the cusp of the Cataclysm alpha/beta, this would have been a terrible time for that to occur. We'd likely be in the dark about changes until they were discovered on the beta/PTR, and even then there would be little to no definitive philosophical discussion about the reasons behind the new content.

Ghostcrawler was apparently touched by the fan support, which you can see both in our post and the forum thread in the role forums. He's come back out and said that he will only be responding to topics he wants, rather than allowing clamoring forum-goers to push him into responding (or not responding).

This has been evident lately in the Shadow Priest QQ going on. When he doesn't respond to what is clearly inappropriate discourse, people get really angry. They think Blizzard is ignoring them, which isn't the case. The role forums are about discussion between players with Ghostcrawler occasionally appearing to offer some insight. Designers read everything on those forums, blue tagged or not.

His exact words, after the break.

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Update on the Ghostcrawler situation originally appeared on WoW.com on Mon, 28 Sep 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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