Category Archives: druid

The New Class: Monks and class balance

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I've wanted to talk about this for a while. The game's hybrid vs. pure debate is about to swing into high gear. With the monk, not only will there be a third class that can tank, heal or DPS, but it will be doing these things with entirely new mechanics. What does the monk mean for everyone, both those who will adopt and love it and those who will have to compete against it?

The first change the monk brings along with it is simple: the class numbers game. Not only will we have 11 classes now, but all sorts of other numbers change as well. For instance, there will now be five classes capable of tanking and five capable of healing. We'll have four pure DPS classes and seven hybrids that can DPS. There will be a total of 33 specializations (although it may be easier to balance with talents shifting to the new system) to design around.

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The New Class: Monks and class balance originally appeared on WoW Insider on Tue, 01 Nov 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BlizzCon 2011: Screenshots of the new Pandaria talents for all classes

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If you wanted to look at the new talents that will be debuting in Mists of Pandaria, I would hope you followed our liveblog of the talent system overhaul. The short version is you get to pick 1 talent from a pool of 3 talents every 15 levels. By the time you hit the new level cap of 90, you will have 6 talents. Each set of talents does the same thing, more or less, in different ways.

Now, for your perusal, we present a class by class gallery of the new talent system as it stands today. Remember this is subject to change, alot, before Pandaria, launches.
Make no mistake, this is a significant game changer for everyone. This is the dawning of unparalleled flexibility in personal customization choice. Arms warriors with Shockwave, fury warriors with Bladestorm. This is the biggest change to the game since reforging.

There are no tree examples for the upcoming Monk class yet. Galleries of each class's talents after the cut.

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BlizzCon 2011: Screenshots of the new Pandaria talents for all classes originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 21 Oct 2011 19:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BlizzCon 2011: Screenshots of the new Pandaria talents for all classes

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If you wanted to look at the new talents that will be debuting in Mists of Pandaria, I would hope you followed our liveblog of the talent system overhaul. The short version is you get to pick 1 talent from a pool of 3 talents every 15 levels. By the time you hit the new level cap of 90, you will have 6 talents. Each set of talents does the same thing, more or less, in different ways.

Now, for your perusal, we present a class by class gallery of the new talent system as it stands today. Remember this is subject to change, alot, before Pandaria, launches.
Make no mistake, this is a significant game changer for everyone. This is the dawning of unparalleled flexibility in personal customization choice. Arms warriors with Shockwave, fury warriors with Bladestorm. This is the biggest change to the game since reforging.

There are no tree examples for the upcoming Monk class yet. Galleries of each class's talents after the cut.

Continue reading BlizzCon 2011: Screenshots of the new Pandaria talents for all classes

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BlizzCon 2011: Screenshots of the new Pandaria talents for all classes originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 21 Oct 2011 19:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Patch 4.3 PTR: New druid Hurricane animation

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Patch 4.3 has been updating many player spells including Wrath, Shadow Bolt, and Lightning Bolt. Another spell in the druid's arsenal, Hurricane, is getting a visual upgrade. Now, the spell actually calls down tornadoes in the area of effect zone, with a cool sound associated with it. The new animation looks pretty neat, and you should definitely check out the video of the new effects at Blizzplanet.
Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Review the official patch notes, and then dig into what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back!

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Patch 4.3 PTR: New druid Hurricane animation originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sat, 08 Oct 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Patch 4.3 PTR: New druid Hurricane animation

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Patch 4.3 has been updating many player spells including Wrath, Shadow Bolt, and Lightning Bolt. Another spell in the druid's arsenal, Hurricane, is getting a visual upgrade. Now, the spell actually calls down tornadoes in the area of effect zone, with a cool sound associated with it. The new animation looks pretty neat, and you should definitely check out the video of the new effects at Blizzplanet.
Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Review the official patch notes, and then dig into what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back!

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Patch 4.3 PTR: New druid Hurricane animation originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sat, 08 Oct 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Patch 4.3 PTR Video: New spell effects for shaman, warlocks, druids

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Lightning Bolt, Shadow Bolt, and Wrath, three staple spells for the shaman, warlock, and druid classes respectively, all have new animations on the Public Test Realm. You can check out the new spell animations in the video above. Lighting Bolt's effect now leaves a blue trail and has more oomph than just the small blue ball that was fired from the shaman beforehand. Shadow Bolt's skull-headed projectile now leaves a greenish wake. Wrath looks completely different, eschewing the green lightning bolt effect for a more nature-based zap.

[Edit]: Video was re-shot for some better angles/views of the spells. Sorry about that, guys and gals.
Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Review the official patch notes, and then dig into what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back!

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Patch 4.3 PTR Video: New spell effects for shaman, warlocks, druids originally appeared on WoW Insider on Thu, 29 Sep 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Is it time to kill pure DPS?

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Hi guys, you may remember me from last week when I threw a rock into a hornet's nest. I was frankly blown away by the responses, some of which were very well thought-out, that supported, refuted, or elaborated on the issue of tanking and if it is here to stay or on its last legs. Since I find that kind of discussion valuable, I thought, "Well, I can always find another rock, right?" And so here we are.

The DPS classes in World of Warcraft present us with a conundrum. If we consider the holy trinity of tanking, damage dealing and healing to be a pyramid that the game relies on, then the base of the pyramid is most easily envisioned as cornered by the tanking and healing classes and the apex occupied by the DPSers. The issue is, only four classes can hold up the tanking corner, only four can hold up the healing corner (and two of those classes are also in the tanking corner), and absolutely every single class in the game can stand on the top of the pyramid. This results in a pyramid that's metaphorically heavier on top than at the bottom.

Furthermore, of the game's 10 classes, four of them (the rogue, mage, warlock, and hunter) can only stand at the top. Whether or not they want to do something else is immaterial (although one assumes that they do not, elsewise they might have chosen a different class), because they simply cannot do so -- at least if we continue to visualize the game as based around the tanking/damaging/healing triad. So what to do?

Well, we can get rid of DPS classes entirely.

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Is it time to kill pure DPS? originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 02 Sep 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Is it time to kill pure DPS?

Posted on by
Hi guys, you may remember me from last week when I threw a rock into a hornet's nest. I was frankly blown away by the responses, some of which were very well thought out, that supported, refuted, or elaborated on the issue of tanking and if it is here to stay or on its last legs. Since I find that kind of discussion valuable I thought "Well, I can always find another rock, right?" and so here we are.

The DPS classes in World of Warcraft present us with a conundrum. If we consider the 'holy trinity' of tanking, damage dealing and healing to be a pyramid that the game relys on, then the base of the pyramid is most easily envisioned as cornered by the tanking and healing classes, and the apex occupied by the DPSers. The issue is, only four classes can hold up the tanking corner, only four can hold up the healing corner (and two of those classes are also in the tanking corner) and absolutely every single class in the game can stand on the top of the pyramid. This results in a pyramid that's metaphorically heavier on top than at the bottom.

Furthermore, of the game's ten classes, four of them (the rogue, mage, warlock and hunter) can only stand at the top. Whether or not they want to do something else is immaterial (although one assumes that they do not, elsewise they might have chosen a different class) because they simply cannot do so, at least if we continue to visualize the game as based around the tanking/damaging/healing triad. So what to do?

Well, we can get rid of DPS classes entirely.

Continue reading Is it time to kill pure DPS?

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Is it time to kill pure DPS? originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 02 Sep 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Is it time to kill tanking?

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Please note I said "tanking" and not "tanks." If you know a tank, give him or her a hug. He or she isn't clad in cold metal or an angry bear that will tear off your face because of you; it's those pesky mobs.

The tanking system has long been somewhat problematic in World of Warcraft. While it scales to some degree, from 5-man dungeons to 10-man raids, the scaling falls apart when we get to 25-man raiding, which currently demands about the same amount of tanking as 10-man. You can get through most of Firelands with two tanks, no matter your raid size. Majordomo Staghelm only requires one tank, again, no matter your raid size. This means that the scaling from five to 10 works, but as soon as you go from 10 to 25, instead of needing 2.5 times more tanks, you need no more tanks.

The other problem is simply that there already aren't enough tanks for every 5-man group. When the Call to Arms feature was announced for the Dungeon Finder tool, it was created out of the simple fact that we're not seeing the distribution we'd expect in the playerbase. In order for the Dungeon Finder to work without significant group queues, we would need 20% of the people queuing up to be tanks (1 in 5 = 20%). This is not the case.

People simply don't want the perceived group responsibility of tanking. It's why changes were made to CC mechanics that allow groups to CC on the fly without pulling. It's why Call to Arms exists. And yet, despite both of these changes, tanking was still so unattractive to players that threat itself needed to be redesigned. All of this work to try and get people to tank. Maybe the problem isn't the players here, though. Maybe it's the role.

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Is it time to kill tanking? originally appeared on WoW Insider on Thu, 25 Aug 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Patch 4.2: Fandral’s Flamescythe turns feral cats fiery

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Feral druids, rejoice! Majordomo Staghelm turns into a pretty cool-looking flame cat during his encounter in patch 4.2's raid, The Firelands. Druids have been clamoring for Blizzard to in some way or another give feral cat druids that awesome flaming cat form. Well, your hopes and prayers were answered -- Fandral's Flamescythe, a drop from Majordomo Staghelm, will shift you into flame cat form when in cat form as long as it is equipped.

This is wonderful news for druids, as more customization is always welcome. Blizzard's design philosophy of You went to the Firelands and came out looking like the Firelands is in full swing. Feral druids went to the Firelands, looked Fandral Staghelm in the eyes, and left with a tangible reward -- a sweet new form. This also paves the way for other items to also change players' forms, much like Deathbringer's Will from Icecrown Citadel in Wrath.
The news is already rolling out for the upcoming WoW Patch 4.2! Preview the new Firelands raid, marvel at the new legendary staff, and get the inside scoop on new quest hubs -- plus new Tier 12 armor!

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Patch 4.2: Fandral's Flamescythe turns feral cats fiery originally appeared on WoW Insider on Thu, 09 Jun 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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