Internet is a bit better today, just fixed the parry typo for tanks. Glad so many people find the guide useful...I found the item blog from the fall a bit confusing, and not everything was documented in the patch notes, so I thought this would be a great WoD topic to summarize.Also, we're aware that items with random enchantments (such as Timeless Isle pieces) are displaying pre-squish stats on the site/Profiler, we'll take a look at this bug during the week.
So much of this will depend on context it's hard to imagine how the removal/addition/squish of the stats will feel when actually put to use. Having a hefty stat investment of chosen stats (hit/expertise) being converted to unknown stats is a bit scary.I'm really wondering what will become of professions, though. Fewer enchants, fewer gem sockets, automatic glyphs, and no combat bonuses. Will there even be a point in learning a profession at that point?
I think the change to loot will kill LFR.After going through LFR a couple of times, with all your alts and stuff, is there any reason why you would keep doing it?I am not a raider and LFR provided me with the means for seeing the endgame. I am grateful for it, and getting something a bit different from questing keeps me running it.I don't mind getting LFR gears with inferior stats but the tier pieces and special trink procs are the only reason I keep running LFR - to collect 4-pc bonuses and the trinks with special procs.Now that these are being removed from LFR, I don't think I will be going through LFR too many times - just to get a piece of gear with marginally improved stats?I can see the logic of preventing people feeling the need to run LFR along with the other raids like they do now, I don't like it either - the over geared spoiled the experience for the gearing up and people AFKing, but there are other solutions. There was a suggestion that you simply have to make LFR and Flex (what will become Normal) share lock out and I think is completely valid.Making LFR gear not Normal raid worthy is also a possibility but retaining the attractions of tier pieces and special trink procs. Perhaps comparable stats to Heroics instance with those special "features".For example, how many people will keep running Heroics instances just for the fun? You see people, even relatively geared people, just rushing through it so that they can get the piece of gear that they need to progress.Also, not sure if I got it right but it seemed heroics instances are not meant for casual players anymore either...so no more LFD for heroics?No flaming please, just expressing my disappointment. Maybe just me.
Few changes I've noticed:1. Gems. JC-only gems from WoTLK and Cataclysm are more powerful than other gems and do not share unique-equip category with MoP gems. WoTLK and Cataclysm gems do share unique-equip category though. So after 6.0 patch jewelcrafters will get extra 3 JC-only gems to add on their gear.Gems of same quality from all expansions have same stats. Rare MoP gems have same stats ad rare BC, WoTLK and Cataclysm gems. Epic gems from any previous expansion are better than rare MoP gems.2. Enchants.Some old enchants are more powerful than MoP enchants. For example, stats on chest. MoP enchant gives +5 to all stats, TBC enchant gives +6 to all stats.There are inconsistencies between recipes and actual enchants. For example, Enchant Chest - Powerful Stats recipe shows +4 to all stats, but spell and scroll show +5 to all stats.Time to learn old school recipes? I think it would be cool if recipes stay that way. It will give reason to explore old forgotten content.
This is a good guide. I'm really hoping they continue to try to reduce to the burstiness of DPS. While some burst is good (WoL leaderboard people I'm looking at you), and certainly ability - proc timing (i.e. DOT snapshotting) adds some "depth", I still feel like it's way too random and bursty with all of these proc enchants/set bonuses/meta gems/trinkets/class-specific temporary buffs/pots/engineering abilities, etc. Having published ICDs still only does so much, the procs are still fairly random. While I certainly appreciate opener DPS with all of those things proc'ing at the same time...the number of procs has gotten kind of absurd. I think they are doing the right thing with the itemization.
Tried searching for bonus armor but wasn't having much luck.... doesn't seem to be "armor" or "additional armor." Also, should "additional armor" and/or "bonus armor" if that's the right term be listed in "defensive stats" instead of "miscellaneous"?
Many refer to the original WOW as the Vanilla WOW but it seems like every expansion they remove stats, talent trees or something else that makes the characters more and more alike. Is there really any difference in DPS monks besides the gear?I took a few years off of WOW after playing from day one of it opening and there are so many changes, some of the good some of them bad.GOOD- I like the LFR option. I have a busy life and cannot do a set raid schedule (which is why I quit WOW a few years). When I have time I can get into a raid and knock out some bosses.- Inscription glyphs are learned once. It was annoying having to make glyphs constantly from switching. The downside of this is that it completely ruined the market for glyphs on the auction house.Bad- The Timeless isles made all but the top end crafting items completely useless. It is depressing to get to 600 in a craft and have only a few items that you can make that are worth anything. - Inscription having no end game materials. You get a scroll of wisdom when learning glyphs but there is nothing to really use them on except gear that nobody wants.- The complete lack of variety in classes. With the talent trees you would have several different types of combat rogues, now there really is one kind which is boring. This includes the removal of armor piercing as an option.- The overwhelming bulk of the content is way way way too easy. I realize that Blizzard wants the majority of the players to have a good experience but another way of looking at it is that Blizzard is building a player base of bad players who never learn how to play their class. - The complete dismissal of crowd control from the game. Everything is AOE pulls now, it is ok to have some be but not EVERY single pull. I had to sheep something on my mage and could not find the button because it had been so long since I had used it.
I do not like any of it taking the fun out of the game. It looks like it is time to hang up my gear put the weapons away i have lost the love for this game with the gear down grade boo. so much for not all being the same Lmao. who ever had this bright idea fire them.
Man:(...I don't know about these new changes(like the gear squishing) sounds to me like they are trying to make the game more simple.I hope this is not the case.If i want simple I'll just play a console system.I love WoW.I'm just saying if something ain't broke,don't fix it...RIGHT?
Tanks receive an additional 3% reduction in chance to be parried.
You are correct, Saturasxc, about the misuse of "Parry" and some other terms. I spend a lot of time translating Blizzard-ese into intelligible English. Yet some of the linguistic gobbledegook seems to come from a group of people who are speaking of these concepts amongst themselves and twisting language into a private jargon without realizing that people outside the conference room may not understand their special usages. The process is a close relative of the reduction of everything into acronyms that we constantly encounter in game. When, for example, was the last time you saw a message in chat that referred to Throne of Thunder rather than ToT? Please don't let your prejudices and xenophobia color the critique. I'm sure that most of the people who are twisting language into nonsense are native English speakers whose familiarity with literature other than fan and fantasy fiction ended in 12th grade or thereabouts. The ability to write code and to write an intelligible English sentence aren't mutually exclusive but they aren't closely associated either regardless of the writer's primary language.
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It sounds a lot like Blizzard is handling the item squish correctly. Everything scales down, weapons, armor other gear, bosses, MOBs, EVERYTHING. What bothers me is the inexorable move to change item stats in WoW into Diablo or Chutes and Ladders. Up until Wrath we had intelligible statistics: Strength, Dodge, Parry, Spirit, Spell Power, Hit, etc. Even Mastery was a relatively intelligible stat as a factor that indicated one's proficiency and an amplifier to other pertinent stats. Now we are getting stats that are or seem to be moving toward some kind of portmanteau stats where we get the "only stat you need" as determined by someone desperate to reduce his workload sitting in a cubicle at Blizzard. The fact that we're getting special enhancements like "Warforged" and tertiary stats is, in itself, an acknowledgment that the rethinking of stats doesn't actually work. They are fudge-factors to make up for the dysfunction in removing more familiar stats.Complexity is what makes WoW the wonderful and attractive game that it is. Not everyone is deep into theory-crafting but we all benefit from it. There are plenty of sites (e.g. Ask Mr. Robot, Icy Veins, Elitist Jerks, etc.) that to one degree or another and with varying degrees of success translate the work of serious theory-crafters into practical terms that the rest of us can readily understand. That complexity is an asset to WoW, not a fault. Maintaining that complexity requires a lot of staff with a lot of imagination working carefully together to keep all the tiny "gears" that complexity entails meshing with one another so that the great, wondrous machine works smoothly. Constructing a great game like WoW is more analogous to watchmaking rather than operating a bulldozer.I know that at Blizzard people constantly hear complaints about complexity. Sadly they have taken these complaints to heart and keep trying to simplify the game. Unfortunately that is the quick route to destruction. The more we invest in anything the more we become invested in it. If it requires time, effort, research and thought to master a game we become invested in it. We assimilate it and are loath to give up on our investment. A difficult, complex game builds player loyalty and a lasting interest. Conversely, a game that's easy to get into, play and master except at some very rarified level is easy to leave when the next new game comes on the market.Instead of torturing language into a reference to some stat that used to be some couple of more readily understood stats let's keep the complexity as well as the clarity of stats and keep the game strong as well.
As someone rolling 7 alts to provide for my guild, this patch just looks like it's going to kill professions. Less enchants and gems means a less active auction house. The only profession I see being active in WoD is alchemy since flasks/pots will be the only things being consumed on a regular basis - and herbalism, to provide for alchemists.