Blizzcon/Cataclysm Info @ 19

[Diiesel]

oohhh, looks like now people are realizing what i did hours ago when i was qq'ing. yes, this expansion will change everything, and we all know blizzard doesnt cater to the twinks. id be willing to bet people with spell power sets, mp5 set, and ap sets lose everything they worked so hard to find.

 

[Felshot]

Wow this new expac pisses me off... Spent a ton of time collecting intellect gear for my hunter, and now they remove mana as something used for hunters. In fact I just traded my Wrangler's Wristbands of the Monkey for a Tree Bark Jacket. Basically screwed myself doing that. I guess I should enjoy it while I can then just play my warrior...

 

[Omgimarogue]

I doubt you'll even be able to fish in the expansion for your hat.

i doubt your doubts



there are a lot of things that we need to watch develop. The stat changes, new quest rewards, removal of ap, int changes (glass cannon cc mages omg). So much juicy new theorycrafting.....

 

[Spooksters]

also, lol@all the people whining about losing their sets, the expansion is like 9 months away...if you can't have enough fun on a hunter you made with an int set in 9 months - you build too many twinks and don't play them enough



it's much too far away to start whining about stupid shit like this imo :3

 

[Omgimarogue]

also, lol@all the people whining about losing their sets, the expansion is like 9 months away...if you can't have enough fun on a hunter you made with an int set in 9 months - you build too many twinks and don't play them enough



it's much too far away to start whining about stupid shit like this imo :3

this this this!

half of it will change for balancing purposes anyway

 

[Conrose]

Guys, you still have plenty of time to enjoy your Hunter Int gear and your various melee AP sets. Just need to not purchase more now that you know what's coming down the tubes in half a year or so.



I'm set to go up to 415 melee AP unbuffed, 405 ranged AP with Hawk, and this is without calculating AP to Agi changes on gear with AP.



172 - 203 on my BAR.



110 - 135 on my Charmed Ancient Bone Bow.



108 damage from Mongoose Bite before accounting for buffs and the new abilities ranking system.



83 damage Arcane Shots with same considerations as Mongoose Bite.

 

[Twinkytoes]

Guys, you still have plenty of time to enjoy your Hunter Int gear and your various melee AP sets. Just need to not purchase more now that you know what's coming down the tubes in half a year or so.

What are these tubes and how can I find them?

 

[Omgimarogue]

What are these tubes and how can I find them?

its blizzard's intestines. I would say cataclysm has just moved from the stomach to the small intestine. It takes 7-8 months for blizz to digest their content, so expect cataclysm to be pooped out some time in april

 

[Lally]

april makes sence from competitors standpoint so ill have to agree prolly then, seems like they are pretty far along. blizz said they started before wrath was finished

 

[Grabco]

I like the comment from WSG about reforging engineering goggles! This is very interesting. could i take some stam off the fishing hat and reforge it for something else like agi or str? or is this only for crafted items? Lots of questions should be interesting.

 

[WSG]

I like the comment from WSG about reforging engineering goggles! This is very interesting. could i take some stam off the fishing hat and reforge it for something else like agi or str? or is this only for crafted items? Lots of questions should be interesting.

Yeah, I've been thinking about that more and I am pretty sure I am wrong.



They have stated specifically that the Attack Power and Agility changes will make leather unattractive to plate users. How could this be the case if the plate users could just reforge the Agility on leather into Strength? Furthermore, what would stop physical DPS from taking a ring that has Stam, Int, Hit, and Crit and just reforging the Int into their stat of choice?



My guess is that base stats will not be reforge-able. If it has spirit, it goes to healers, Int goes to magic damage, Agility to leather/mail physical, strength to plate physical.



The reforge-able stats will likely be the stats in green text. It allows them to ignore issues like the current mail itemization. Hunters hard cap Hit Rating at 263 (i.e. they gain 0.000 DPS for stacking hit past that point). Haste is also a horrible, horrible stat for them. High end hunters stack ArP. Meanwhile, Shamans SOFT cap Hit at 367. Hit past the soft cap is still better than ArP. Haste is also better than ArP. And don't even get me started on how much expertise they need while expertise is a absolute zero stat fro hunters.



Thats still just a guess. All in all, reforging will probably determine the new BiS melee weapon for 19 hunters as all their current weapons have Int. With what we know now, the green "of the Monkey" axe would be BiS.

 

[Twinkytoes]

Green tinted goggles reforged with All Stam or All Agi would be amazing.

 

[WSG]

Green tinted goggles reforged with All Stam or All Agi would be amazing.

"It lets you reduce one stat for another. Some restrictions will apply, you can't put the extra stat on something that is already on the item. "

 

[Lally]

i think they also said "some" of the points so you wont be able to change +15stam on fishing hat to +15 agi especially at our low levels. maybe like 2 agi and 13 stam or something

 

[Conrose]

I wonder if BoAs will be reforgable... My axe turning even some Str into Agi would make it more potent for my play style.

 

[builtokill]

I wonder if BoAs will be reforgable... My axe turning even some Str into Agi would make it more potent for my play style.

I doubt they would let that work on boa's. that means that the amount of changed stats would have to scale aswell, (for non-levling chars), and I honestly can't see blizz doing that

 

[Conrose]

I doubt they would let that work on boa's. that means that the amount of changed stats would have to scale aswell, (for non-levling chars), and I honestly can't see blizz doing that

If it's set amounts, such as different ranks of an enchant, it's hardly an issue. If it were based on total amounts, again not too much of an issue still. The only issue I figure there will be is if a BoA doesn't have a particular stat/attribute until a certain level.

 

[Lawlpurge]

how are 199 cc mages gonna work after this? rank 1 frostbolt is an important part of casting rotation, if ranks are removed.....

 

[Evocate]

Same thought. Goodbye mages.. =/ This is getting retarded, especially for endgame. Its making this game into like the SIMS, especially with this patching, reforging and stuff. The fun part of this game was grinding for the good loot and then the amazing feeling once you get it. People were talking about Blizz mailing you t10 to your mailbox. Looks like they just did

 

[Lally]

Reforging

Imagine reforging could work like enchanting, where there are specific recipes that everyone knows. Example: "Converts Spirit into 50% equivalent hit rating on gloves."



I'm not saying it would work like this, but something along those lines would be pretty comparable to existing features.



looks like titans path is for lvl 85s only as expected



Reasons behind the item stats changes in Cataclysm

I find many of these arguments to be elitist. This is not a "catering to the casuals" issue. This is an issue that even some of our most educated and math-savy players could not make gear decisions without the help of external tools. We're much less concerned about more casual players because the specific choice of upgrade will mean less for them (skill outweighs the contribution of stats for all but the absolute best players) and they often choose pieces based on things like art over stats.



I'm talking about very hardcore raiders who no longer could eyeball a piece of gear with any degree of authority. I might believe that some very few of you are so proficient with the math as to be able to eyeball the stats, but I think you are vastly overestimating the number of players who can or do. Remember, the formula to convert armor penetration into damage was so complicated that we had to take the unusual step of actually spelling out how it was calculated.



With this change will you still have to make hard choices about upgrading? Absolutely. Will there still be quasi-religious debates about which neck is best in slot for a given spec? Of course. Will you still need to understand the mechanics to make the best choice for your character? We think so. One of our overall design philosophies for WoW (and Blizzard) is to be simple but have a lot of depth. Some people mistake needless complexity for depth.



Meanwhile, we think there is a lot of benefit of getting rid of problematic stats like defense and accomplishing things like letting casters improve by focusing on throughput over mana pool.