World of Warcraft

[luminaire23]

Still not sure what I think about the paladins changes. Seems more like nerfs than anything else... Sure' date=' the new Holy Shock is nice, but why is BoK still 31 Ret?

Ugh... What does everyone else think about the "new" Pally. Everyone on the WoW forums is going nuts(in a bad way)[/quote']

The official talent preview is not out yet.

No, but the test realms are. You can't copy characters yet, but you can still see the new talents if you level to 10 on a pally. Things rarely change much between test realm and the patch(at least with druids, anyway). The new talents seem more like a joke than anything else.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/board.aspx?fn=wow-paladin&pageno=1

[zircon]

The "new" Paladins are no worse than the old ones, which were very powerful already. The only reason you'd complain about them is if you try to play them like a Warrior. They are combat healers in PvP, and, if you have BWL-level gear, can pump out fairly nice damage as a bonus. But they're at not Warriors first, Priests second.

[gleipnir binds]

I downloaded it... and completed registration... almost -- the stupid thing needs a credit card to verify age or something so I have to wait till my dad gets up in the morning... FUX >_<

[ILLiterate]

Yay, started my first real character. Undead Mage, at 10 right now, I found a guy who knows all the quest so I'm blowing through them not to mention i'm about to get in my friends group and i'll fill the missing class so we will pwnt

God the horde is alot more fun than the alliance

[suzumebachi]

yeah i tried playing an alliance alt... i just can't get into the whole ally groove. everyone seems friendly as hell at first, until you actually need help with something, then it's like you don't exist. plus they get off on ganking low levels, and bitch bitch bitch bitch when the same thing happens to them.

[gleipnir binds]

iu want a tauren shaman once I start... had that picked out for months

[The Author]

Still not sure what I think about the paladins changes. Seems more like nerfs than anything else... Sure, the new Holy Shock is nice, but why is BoK still 31 Ret?

Ugh... What does everyone else think about the "new" Pally. Everyone on the WoW forums is going nuts(in a bad way)

They need it. Paladins never seem to realize how overpowered they are, and Blizzard has just been giving them buffs 'til now. They're like warriors, with healing abilities that outdo any priest. If one level 60 Paladin can take on a level 56 hunter, a level 45 mage, a 43 druid, and a level 30 warrior all at the same time (trust me, I've seen this happen multiple times with slightly varying numbers), you definitely know you need a bit of fixing there.

'Sides, it's not just Paladins getting nerfs. Every class has been getting them lately... it's part of Blizzard's "balancing" campaign (though they did buff the hell out of hunters and druids in the process).

Play a pally. A green mob can take up to one minute to kill...

[zircon]

How powerful your class is has nothing to do with how fast you kill a mob. Shamans actually take a very long time to kill mobs as well, unless they blow most of their mana bar. The power of Paladins is their defense and healing abilities.

[weggy]

Its not entirely based on DPS, however that is a big (read half) of a class's power.

Shamans and pallys are both overpowered by a slight amount. I'm not saying this as some newb whos been killed by one and shouted "OMG NERF!", ive played both classes quite extensively.

There is a rock to every scissor. And your class might not even have it. But its all balanced.

[zircon]

I disagree that DPS is a big part of a class' power. I would also say that Shamans are not particularly overpowered. They are balanced, as Blizzard says. They lack significant defensive abilities, and they are highly mana-inefficient. In PVE, their totems are generally inferior to Paladin blessings (particularly the aggro one). In PVP, they can pull off relatively good burst damage, but their totems can be easily killed with a 1.3s wand shot from a single caster, reducing their usefulness somewhat. They ARE fairly good in Warsong Gulch but Paladins have their strengths there as well - and they REALLY dominate Arathi Basin.

[Juicebox Dragon]

Wait..do you play Warlock?

Yes.

What level are you and what area are you in?

I can give you some basic strategies, though.

- Use your Damage Over Times. Shadow Bolt is nice, but pile on the DoTs as well.

- Kill "Beast" type monsters. Most types of this mob won't pull more back to you when you fear them, and if you've taken up skinning, you can skin them and sell their parts in the Auction House.

- Put your first five talent points into the talent that reduces the cast time of that one DoT (You'll know what I mean when you see it).

- At level 10 you'll get a Voidwalker pet. This will act as your tank and make leveling a million times easier.

- When you get to (roughly) level 13 or 14, head to westfall and grind there. It's very wide-open, and you won't have a problem if you need to fear a mob.

- Check back with your trainer every two levels, use Soul Drain when monsters are near-dead, and stock up on Soulshards. You can use those to make Health Stones, which act as Healing Potions.

That's all I can help you with -- I never got my Warlock past level 14, so I don't know if you will find any of this useful. Good luck, though. Warlocks are severly overpowered once you get Death Coil.

[The Author]

AQ loot is being linked more and more:

http://mammae.org/images/1.9/1.9Loot_page1.jpg

change the pages to look around.

[zircon]

Wow. Talk about unbelievably good loot for casters..

[ellywu2]

Yeah. Also, new ranks of skills and spells drop in AQ. Which is a big slap in the tits to PvPers/non-raid orientated players.

[The Author]

Kinda primed about that 58dps swords...

And that mace for druids on page 7 is abusively good.

[zircon]

Looking at some of this shit, Blizzard is out of their minds. A 2h axe that has a 3 second Blind proc, ridiculous stats and 86+ DPS? This is better than Sulfuras and the rank 14 pvp weapons combined. 66.6 DPS dagger with massive attack power, AND stamina, AND +skill to daggers? A priest set that destroys even Warlord's gear in terms of pvp? What the fuck are they doing?

[The Author]

Looking at some of this shit, Blizzard is out of their minds. A 2h axe that has a 3 second Blind proc, ridiculous stats and 86+ DPS? This is better than Sulfuras and the rank 14 pvp weapons combined. 66.6 DPS dagger with massive attack power, AND stamina, AND +skill to daggers? A priest set that destroys even Warlord's gear in terms of pvp? What the fuck are they doing?

Backstab rank 9 before a new SS rank...

[ellywu2]

i kind of agree. On the one hand, i'm glad that caster itemization is finally coming in. On the other one..JESUS stop making stupidly high DPS weapons. Its bad enough that warriors are running around two-shotting clothies at the moment, god forbid what happens when they get hold of some of this stuff.

[zircon]

The fact that they made stuff better than Rank12-14 pvp gear (and Rank12-14 takes hundreds to thousands of hours to get to of VERY INTENSE PLAYING) is a massive blunder. Also, now there is really no incentive to do BWL, where the loot is barely better than MC, which is vastly easier.

[ellywu2]

Yup exactly. Its forcing a playstyle on people plain and simple. One small blessing is that being on a european server means it will be months before people get to AQ. On my server nef hasn't even been attempted.

[Russell Cox]

The fact that they made stuff better than Rank12-14 pvp gear (and Rank12-14 takes hundreds to thousands of hours to get to of VERY INTENSE PLAYING) is a massive blunder. Also, now there is really no incentive to do BWL, where the loot is barely better than MC, which is vastly easier.

Four months from now, put up a new PvP rank with matched rewards. Problem solved.

People want their gear to last forever and it's not going to happen. Rank 14 crap's been out since Battlegrounds first came in, so the gear itself has had nearly 6 months to sit at "supreme" at the top of a lot of people's lists. I'm surprised nothing's knocked it down already, and with Ahn'Qiraj loot it's about time.

Also, notice the Druid mace on that list of weapons. Nice fuckup on their part; needs to be 2 handed. Ironically, MC = BWL loot, ZG epics > BWL epics, and AQ > * -- the ZG part's kinda fubared. The fact that Blackwing Lair's loot is on par with Molten Core actually makes sense. Both are set designs that boost different attributes in your role; Nightslayer's about improving your raw stats and buffing Vanish whereas Bloodfang is about improving your crit percentage and chance to hit (where later bosses in BWL get up to level 66, that *IS* a big deal) -- Cenarian is built around a balance of mana regen and +healing and making your group spells better, while Stormrage is designed for solo play and stats are all focused on raw +healing. Molten Core has the better neck and ring items, BWL has better wands, trinkets, and weapons (for the most part).

Grats on Ragnaros finally zircon (Sorry I didn't say so earlier; we moved into a new house and I developed pneumonia, hooray!) It's pretty sweet when you get that fight that just clicks and everyone's on a high. One thing I've noticed is that you either win with most everyone alive or you wipe -- due to the nature of all the PvE encounters usually trying to salvage a situation is pointless most of the time.

(and I was conked out on medicine when I posted under you on Bloodlord strats -- you said 30 yards so I guess you meant be near the entrance; a berserker spawns in the little 'village' part when you engage Bloodlord and wanders nearby, so I don't usually reccommend people standing there).

[zircon]

The problem is that it is so ridiculously hard to get to rank 14 that only a handful of players typically do on any given server. You have to play for at LEAST 8 hours a day, every day, for weeks to months at a time to even have a shot at it. I've heard of people skipping school and taking vacation days from work just to get closer. To suddenly introduce some PVE content that is (apparently) not THAT difficult that easily beats out their hard work is bs. The PVP gear all needs to be scaled better. The nature of the PVP gear is that it is absolutely the best, or very close to it, for PVP. And with AQ, it's not even going to be close to the best. That's ridiculous.

[The Author]

The problem is that it is so ridiculously hard to get to rank 14 that only a handful of players typically do on any given server. You have to play for at LEAST 8 hours a day, every day, for weeks to months at a time to even have a shot at it. I've heard of people skipping school and taking vacation days from work just to get closer. To suddenly introduce some PVE content that is (apparently) not THAT difficult that easily beats out their hard work is bs. The PVP gear all needs to be scaled better. The nature of the PVP gear is that it is absolutely the best, or very close to it, for PVP. And with AQ, it's not even going to be close to the best. That's ridiculous.

Most of that content was found by sifting through databases.

Also test realms are usually populated with hardcore gamers who probably have been farming BWL for a while and want to see the next challenge.

The elite of all servers grouped into one spot, all wanting to complete the instance to have a strong strategy wor when it becomes live.

I think that's why they went through it real fast.

[Wizards Bane]

I played Guild Wars mostly through all the betas and events and was hooked for the time being.

Yes, someone else who plays the game of the gods.

[Russell Cox]

The problem is that it is so ridiculously hard to get to rank 14 that only a handful of players typically do on any given server. You have to play for at LEAST 8 hours a day, every day, for weeks to months at a time to even have a shot at it. I've heard of people skipping school and taking vacation days from work just to get closer. To suddenly introduce some PVE content that is (apparently) not THAT difficult that easily beats out their hard work is bs. The PVP gear all needs to be scaled better. The nature of the PVP gear is that it is absolutely the best, or very close to it, for PVP. And with AQ, it's not even going to be close to the best. That's ridiculous.

The 20 man AQ is on par with ZG, the 40 man starts off as hard as BWL and eventually gets as hard as Nefarian fights halfway through, with the final boss being 'twice as hard as Nefarian'. I seriously doubt it's as easy as you're thinking. Hardly anyone calls BWL 'easy' even though the first two fights are as hard as Ragnaros/Majordomo.

Uh, and where did Blizzard state that PvP gear is supposed to be 'the best' for PvP? They never did. They DID, however, release a statement that it's not a replacement for high endgame raid content gear -- it's an alternative, nothing more. It's fine. Not everyone's going to get into a guild that kills Ragnaros, Emerald Dragons, Nefarian, and other raid content, but everyone CAN PvP solo.

It's why they're moving away from the drop system for set pieces in the future and instead doing them via quests for people that don't have stable guilds and don't want to leave them -- to prevent item rotting and for casual players; Nexus Crystals are one part, the token system for sets is the other. One part you have to be in the instance for, the rest are able to be bought on the AH if you can't find a PUG (dunno about your server, there's usually 1 ZG PUG a week, at least).