MoP Nerfs, Buffs, and other stuff - Master Thread

[Chubtohd]

With the changes in MoP being announced and the open alphas and closed betas starting soon, It's time once again to post changes that a new expansion brings. I thought it'd be prudent this time to try and keep things neat and tidy in one master list. So anytime you hear of a new change, please check this list, post if its not on it (including the appropriate reference link), and we'll make this the one stop shop for all things Panda!

CLASS CHANGES

Class	Spell Changes	Announced Changes
Druid	Wrath mana cost reduced to 8% (down from 9%) damage appears to be increased approximately 25% casting time reduced to 2 sec (down from 9%) So far a decent buff from a underperforming class at level 1
Hunter	Arcane Shot damage reduced to 50% weapon damage (down from 100%) arcane damage component appears to be decreased by approximately 50% So far a pretty major nerf to one of the most popular classes	dead zone is gone This is how it always should've been! can only use ranged weapons, no melee anymore but will be able to equip melee weapons, "if only for looks" This would be another huge nerf to hunters at level 1. Weapon enchants would not work, meaning no 20 haste or 25 agility ranged attacks can be dodged another big blow to hunters dps by adding another combat table roll
Mage	Fireball no longer a level one ability Frostfire bolt new level one ability mana cost is currently only 2%! (down from Fireball's 9%) damage appears to be approximately 250% of Fireballs reduces movement speed by 40% So far one of the most exciting class changes. The addition of the slow will add them as another viable kiting class along with Hunters.	removal of ranged slot, moving wands to main hand This could mean more weapon options coming for casters
Paladin	Crusader Strike damage reduced to 100% of weapon damage (down from 135%) mana cost increased to 11% (up from 10%) Parry new level one ability (used to be level 10) While the damage reduction is a big blow, the ability to parry gives us new things to think about in MoP and possibly another way to be non-hittable with 10 parry to shield enchant
Priest	Smite mana cost reduced to 4% (down from 15%) damage appears to be increased by approximately 25% Dark Thoughts / Holy Focus reduces spell pushback by 70% So far a decent buff for the most underperforming level one class	removal of ranged slot, moving wands to main hand This could mean more weapon options coming for casters
Rogue	Sinister Strike initial damage reduced by approximately 25% weapon damage reduced to 75% (down from 100%) Parry new level one ability (used to be level 10) The damage reduction is a pretty big nerf, but should still outperform other melee classes. While parry has less of an effect on Rogues, another CTC reducer is always a good thing	removal of ranged slot, throw melee weapons for ranged attack No real advantage/disadvantage here
Shaman	Lightning Bolt mana cost increased to 7% (up from 6%) damage appears to be increased by approximately 25% Ancestral Focus reduces spell pushback by 70% Middle of the road stays middle of the road
Warlock	Shadow Bolt mana cost reduced to 6% (down from 10%) cast time decreased to 2.5 sec (down from 3) damage appears to be increased by 400% generates 25 demonic fury Summon Imp mana cost reduced to 20% (down from 64%) cast time decreased to 5 sec (down from 6) Demonic Tactics Imps now behave more intelligently The highest damage class just got higher! By far the biggest buffed class in MoP. Finally glad the imps are less stupid.	removal of ranged slot, moving wands to main hand This could mean more weapon options coming for casters
Warrior	Strike no longer available at level one Heroic Strike new level one ability rage cost is increased to 30 (up from Strike's 20) damage is increased to 100% weapon damage (up from Strike's 10-15) cooldown decreased to 1.5 sec (down from Strike's 3 sec) Parry new level one ability (used to be level 10) The damage increase is a nice buff to the least utilized level one melee class, although the high rage cost will limit its ability to be spammed a little.. The ability to parry gives us new things to think about in MoP and possibly another way to be non-hittable with 10 parry to shield enchant	removal of ranged slot, throw melee weapons for ranged attack No real advantage/disadvantage here

BLIZZCON ANNOUNCED CHANGES

• Resilience will be incorporated as a base stat - this could be huge depending on how it is implemented, especially at low level PvP

• Cooking: Different specializations of cooking added, but players can learn them all. Example only is Grilling spec might give +Str food - depending on how it's implemented, this might have a level one advantage

• Pet Battle System (aka pokemon)

a. General info​

- can disable invites to battles, similar to how we can for duels​

- looking at possible spectating for battles​

b. Acquiring pets​

- hope to function with the majority of non-combat pets already in the game, adding many more​

- can also obtain wild pets, which are gained by having your NCPet fight and defeat the wild pet​

- Wild pets might have some sort of unique spawn component, such as appearing only during certain seasons, certain weather conditions, times of day, or a combination of all three; intended to be a little rare​

- plan to have pets become account-wide and tradeable​

c. Leveling pets​

- get NCP experience by pitting your team of three pets against another player’s team of three pets​

- have as many pets as you want, but each of your teams can only have six, and each time you fight you have to choose three from that team​

- pets will learn abilities as they rise in level; special abilities can be learned by defeating certain NPC “Masters”​

- there are plans for a queing system​

- fighting is turn-based​

- will earn nominal XP for battles, similar to gathering profs​

d. Customizing​

- will be able to name your NCPs, play around with abilities, and may even be able to equip certain pieces of gear


​

• PvE Scenarios - initially it looks like there's no level requirement so that's why I'm posting, but that is likely to change

a. General​

- described as short “instances” that require only a few players, very goal-driven​

- no role requirements, so short que times​

- plans on being available via the Dungeon Finder​

- plan on allowing queing where scenarios are located and not in major cities


​

• Achievements - shared among all characters on the same account, with some new achievements requiring multiple characters to complete ... or to put it in another way, "give me 10 min alone in a room with the devs who came up with this idea and lets see if it changes back"

DEV WATERCOOLER ANNOUNCED CHANGES (Dev Watercooler)

• Spell resistance is gone - no more dmg reduction vs casters in PvP. On the plus side, it minimizes the number of cloaks we have to carry around

• Hit and spell hit will no longer be separate stats. The hit stat negates melee miss and spell miss. - casters may miss more?

• Expertise will negate dodge and spell miss, then parry. - This might make Human, Orc, Dwarf, & Gnome racials a little more important

• We are normalizing melee and spell hit, so that spell hit is equal to miss plus dodge.Against an equal level creature: 6% spell miss, 3% melee miss, 3% dodge, 3% parry (from the front only), 3% block (from the front only). - it then goes up 1.5% per level for melee and 3% per level for spells. - This means we should be able to hit higher levels. Currently you'd need 80% to hit a lvl 40, these changes will bring that down to 61.5% (granted this is more than we can get, but you get the idea)

• All spells and abilities will crit for double damage, baseline. There are a few exceptions where crits can get larger, but the default is x 2.0 for everyone. - Non Mage and Lock casters rejoice!

• Resilience - All players will have 30% base Defense, the same way all characters have some base Stamina. - PVP gets harder it seems, depending on how low lvl BoA gear changes

MoP PRESS TOUR CHANGES (Press Tour 1) - (Press Tour 2)

If titles become account wide, you will be able to use it at the level you could have earned it at. - this is nice to know, there won't be random level 1 Lightbringer's running around
It still isn't clear if the final version of MoP will raise the guild level cap or not. However, the guild experience caps will be removed - Faster leveling for our guilds!
Green level difficulty and harder quests may give a flat amount of guild experience in order to allow lower level players to contribute to guild leveling. - We get to help level?!

ENCHANTS (MMO-Champion)

Enchant Cloak Superior Stats - +9 (no requirement yet, but uses Wrath mats so probably not usable at level 1)
Enchant Cloak Greater Stats - +7 (no requirement yet, but uses TBC mats so probably not usable at level 1)
Enchant Cloak Stats - +5 (no requirement yet, uses Vanilla mats so this will probably be the one we get)
Enchant Cloak Lesser Stats - +3 (if we don't get the above one, this is the one)

ITEM CHANGES

• Fast weapons seem to have been slowed down, but damage has been increased

• CURRENT	MoP CHANGE
  Deadman Dagger	Deadman Dagger
  Trogg Dagger	Trogg Dagger
  Sharpened Scarlet Kris	Sharpened Scarlet Kris

• Frog Leg Stew - now requires level 25 to use making Scorpid Surprise the new best food for level 1 ... at least it's easier to farm

NEW ITEMS
BoA Legs implemented. Click here to see them. They are a guild perk for achieving Working Better as a Team
BoA armor looks to be getting buffs across the board. Click here

 

[BoudThe1Twink]

Sad to see rogues being nerfed, I always liked my dmg
Glad to see a hunter nerf...
Warlocks! Are they gonna be better than rogues now or?... 200 crits inc!
Frostfirebolt at level one, cheers!

Another successful thread, Chubs! Keep em coming, because this definitely makes spam-refreshing twinkinfo a bit more interesting!

Edit: Do you use the "insert image" tool for the class-specific images?
If that is the case, where did you get each image from?

 

[Erizel]

So my mage doing 60-firebolts will now be doing 150 non-crits?

 

[Chubtohd]

Glad to see a hunter buff...
Warlocks! Are they gonna be better than rogues now or?... 200 crits inc!
Frostfirebolt at level one, cheers!

Edit: Do you use the "insert image" tool for the class-specific images?
If that is the case, where did you get each image from?

1) Hunters did not get buffed
2) Yeah, Warlocks are gonna be sex in MoP
3) Frostfire is interesting, I'm going to have to make a mage now
4) For the images, I copy and past the link in the insert image box. I use the wowpedia.org icons, although you could use the ones from wowhead too.

So my mage doing 60-firebolts will now be doing 150 non-crits?

Looks that way!

 

[BoudThe1Twink]

Whooopsie! Ment nerf -.-

 

[notoriousthf]

My worgen warrior will not go to waste after all. Good to know.
What to make now...

 

[Squeakyjack]

I like these changes :3 good job chubs

 

[Nyzora]

Noice changes, and good list..Thanks Chubs <3

 

[Chubtohd]

added some info from Blizzcon conversations...expecting a lot more info in the next couple of weeks

 

[Eriwen]

Lvl 1 Parry warr inc ^^

 

[Galliwix]

Im happy that warriors are getting a buff strike is shit atm

 

[Chubtohd]

Yeah, their damage looks to be higher than a Paladins initially. I'm assuming that rage isn't a big deal for warriors at level 1, but the resource cost of Heroic Strike is really high. Basically a Paladin can Crusader Strike 3 times for the equivalent resource cost, but the Warrior can get 3 Heroic Strikes for every 1 Crusader Strike.

Depending on how they change the rage mechanic, that could mean a LOT of extra weapon procs off of specials...and if thats the case, they may even outdps Rogues with the nerf to Sinister Strike

 

[Fizzfizz]

oh man, mcbanksauce's time to shine, finally. lol

i HAAAAAAAAAAAATE the account wide achievements. i need more info on how this works, stat. achievements are really the only reason i play this game anymore, and my main has most of them. if i can't achieve on alts, wtf is there to do for people like me?

 

[Galliwix]

oh man, mcbanksauce's time to shine, finally. lol

i HAAAAAAAAAAAATE the account wide achievements. i need more info on how this works, stat. achievements are really the only reason i play this game anymore, and my main has most of them. if i can't achieve on alts, wtf is there to do for people like me?

I think its just going to be certain achievments

And im hoping warriors can out dps pallys

 

[notoriousthf]

*All spells and abilities will crit for double damage, baseline. There are a few exceptions where crits can get larger, but the default is x 2.0 for everyone.

This means druids, shaman, and priests will stand a better chance.

Spell resistance is gone. Now we wonder what the 1-3-5 resist enchant on cloak will turn into.

Resilience

• We are renaming this stat to “Defense (PvP)” or possibly “PvP Defense.” All players will have 30% base Defense, the same way all characters have some base Stamina.

• PvP gear will have Defense on it, as well as a new stat, “Power (PvP).” Power increases the damage you do to other players as well as the healing you do to other players in PvP situations.

• If you have a lot of Power, you’ll do more damage to other players, but they likely have Defense as well. If you fight players in lots of PvE gear, they’ll take more damage. Likewise, a player in PvE gear won’t have enough Power to effectively penetrate your Defense.

• The names PvP Power and PvP Defense may not be final, but we’re leaning towards going with stat names that are obviously PvP-related, rather than “fluffier” names that might not be as easy to grasp. We want it to be clear to players that neither Power nor Defense have any relevance when fighting creatures, such as in dungeons or raids.

• PvP gear will be lower in item level than PvE gear of an equivalent tier, however the Power and Defense stats will make sure that PvP gear is more powerful in PvP (both offensively and defensively) than PvE gear. In our budgeting system, the PvP stats will be free rather than causing other stats, such as Strength or haste, to be smaller as a result of including Power or Defense.

• The goal of this change is to make it easier for a PvP player to participate in PvE, or for a PvE player to get started in PvP. Currently, we feel it is too large a barrier to go from one to the other, and the result has been that we see more and more players choosing to focus exclusively on only PvP or PvE. In earlier expansions, it was more feasible to use PvE gear in Arenas or Battlegrounds until you acquired the more useful PvP gear. The same was true of being able to use your PvP gear in a dungeon or raid until you acquired something better. In Cataclysm, stepping into PvP with no PvP gear would result in a player being so ineffective that it was difficult to even make progress towards acquiring PvP gear.

• For the higher-end of PvP or PvE (say Gladiators or heroic raiders), we believe those players will still gravitate towards the dedicated PvP or PvE gear. It is the players who are working towards those two end games that will benefit more from some cross over.

This means resilience gear (or whatever they will call it) is a must for PvP.

 

[Chubtohd]

Thanks notoriuos, I heard about the blog post made today about all the new stat changes, so my post will need updating. I'll post up the ones in abbreviated form that will effect lvl1's, so when I get it up, make sure you go over it to see if I missed something.

I'm sicker than crap today though so I'll do it this weekend sometime

 

[notoriousthf]

Also, i think demonic fury only applies to demo locks

 

[Galliwix]

*All spells and abilities will crit for double damage, baseline. There are a few exceptions where crits can get larger, but the default is x 2.0 for everyone.

This means druids, shaman, and priests will stand a better chance.

Spell resistance is gone. Now we wonder what the 1-3-5 resist enchant on cloak will turn into.

Resilience

• We are renaming this stat to “Defense (PvP)” or possibly “PvP Defense.” All players will have 30% base Defense, the same way all characters have some base Stamina.

• PvP gear will have Defense on it, as well as a new stat, “Power (PvP).” Power increases the damage you do to other players as well as the healing you do to other players in PvP situations.

• If you have a lot of Power, you’ll do more damage to other players, but they likely have Defense as well. If you fight players in lots of PvE gear, they’ll take more damage. Likewise, a player in PvE gear won’t have enough Power to effectively penetrate your Defense.

• The names PvP Power and PvP Defense may not be final, but we’re leaning towards going with stat names that are obviously PvP-related, rather than “fluffier” names that might not be as easy to grasp. We want it to be clear to players that neither Power nor Defense have any relevance when fighting creatures, such as in dungeons or raids.

• PvP gear will be lower in item level than PvE gear of an equivalent tier, however the Power and Defense stats will make sure that PvP gear is more powerful in PvP (both offensively and defensively) than PvE gear. In our budgeting system, the PvP stats will be free rather than causing other stats, such as Strength or haste, to be smaller as a result of including Power or Defense.

• The goal of this change is to make it easier for a PvP player to participate in PvE, or for a PvE player to get started in PvP. Currently, we feel it is too large a barrier to go from one to the other, and the result has been that we see more and more players choosing to focus exclusively on only PvP or PvE. In earlier expansions, it was more feasible to use PvE gear in Arenas or Battlegrounds until you acquired the more useful PvP gear. The same was true of being able to use your PvP gear in a dungeon or raid until you acquired something better. In Cataclysm, stepping into PvP with no PvP gear would result in a player being so ineffective that it was difficult to even make progress towards acquiring PvP gear.

• For the higher-end of PvP or PvE (say Gladiators or heroic raiders), we believe those players will still gravitate towards the dedicated PvP or PvE gear. It is the players who are working towards those two end games that will benefit more from some cross over.

This means resilience gear (or whatever they will call it) is a must for PvP.

This will make my druid much more viable since i actually am going to get good crits

 

[Chubtohd]

Added the dev watercooler changes ... let me know if I missed something that pertains to lvl1s or misrepresented something

 

[notoriousthf]

You misunderstood the hit part. This means that casters will require 8% to hitcap in bosses similar to melee, now that they will require expertise. This is a big nerf to hunters unless the dwarf and troll racials provide expertise rather than crit.