Ask a Beta Tester: PvP questions and random things

Does Bone Shield stack with Earth Shield? If so can I see a screenshot?
Yes and yes.
There's been an idea going around about using a large group of Death Knights to continuously use "Death Grip" to lock players and keep them from running. Does this work?
I'm not able to convince enough Death Knights to try out this silly little trick, but it could work in theory. Death Grip is currently of the Physical school and does not suffer diminishing returns. It's like having several Warriors alternating Hamstring for a permanent snare, except more evil.
What's with the presences and auras? Do they count separately? Stack? Passive?
As of the current build, presences and auras are no longer connected (e.g., you no longer have to have Blood Presence up to have Blood Aura) and thus count separately. However, neither presences nor auras currently display as buffs (unlike Paladin or Hunter auras) which can be a little confusing, although Blood Aura has the Death Knight emanate an inappropriate green gassy mist [EDIT: Discograndpa correctly points out that this is a bug from the Bloodworms talent, and not Blood Aura. Thanks for the correction!]. Presences and auras stack and are passive effects.
Montius asked...
How do the new warlocks feel in pvp? Our main ability of survival was our stamina and +20% extra healing from our fel armor. Now that we will be sharing gear with priests and mages and get more spirit and less stam, are we underpowered in survival?
This is a good question that's difficult to answer. The best representation of PvP would be at Level 80, but right now there just aren't enough Level 80s to test this. Furthermore, itemization for Wrath of the Lich King is far from finalized, so we may or may not see Stamina-heavy cloth. At any rate, Koraa recently said that "considerable work" will be done on Warlocks before Patch 3.0, so it's too early to give anything conclusive.
It's important to note, however, that Soul Link is now just 11 points into Demonology, and although Demonic Embrace's numbers were nerfed, the Spirit penalty was removed. This means that PvP-oriented Warlocks might want to pick up some talents in Demonology and there's a possibility that Spirit might actually become a useful stat for Warlocks. We'll have to wait for Blizzard to make another pass at Warlocks and see what happens.
Atheira asked...
This is a question I've always wondered, does Beacon of Light attribute threat to the paladin or its target? And also with Divine Guardian, does it turn Divine Shield into an absorption bubble like some think it mentions, or how does that work, exactly?
As mentioned in several articles before, threat from Beacon of Light is generated by its target as it is applied as a buff. Divine Guardian does not turn Divine Shield into an absorption, rather, all damage sloughs off the immunity. You should see the following message in the combat log: "<raid member name>'s Divine Guardian deals 0 damage to <your name>." Essentially, it becomes a 30% damage reduction for the raid for the duration of the spell.
Uncaringbear asked...
One of the major complaints about TBC is the lack of uniqueness in the design of armor sets. For example, in TBC, PvP and PvE sets share the same models, even going as far as different classes sharing the same armor models (S4 anyone?). Has Blizzard addressed this in the WOTLK beta? Personally, I would love it if Horde and Alliance had their own unique armor, similar to the way it was in pre-TBC.
This isn't answered in the Beta, where armor models haven't been implemented (e.g. the PvP sets use Season 4 skins). However, Blizzard has stated on multiple occasions that PvP and PvE gear will look distinctively different from each other in Wrath of the Lich King, so I wouldn't worry too much about that. On the other hand, because classes will now share the same itemization (e.g. Warriors, Death Knights, and Ret. Paladins), we might see homogenous armor sets between classes -- so that's a concern. They have not expressed if Horde and Alliance will have different armor sets.
That's all for today! Keep those questions coming. Please note that if your question hasn't been answered here, it's because 1) it has a good answer from one of our readers in the comments, and 2) we might not have the best answer for you at the moment. We'll try to cover all the questions that we humanly can every day.
Filed under: Wrath of the Lich King






Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Blayed Aug 29th 2008 11:06AM
Has "The Hog" been linked to engineering? If not, do we know any more about it?
Darthregis Aug 29th 2008 11:34AM
Currently, I believe the "Hog" is open to any level 80 characters.
http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?spell=55531
Fancy Rat Aug 29th 2008 6:17PM
God DAMN! I love that tooltip, not just because it's a badass hog, but because it summons and parks.
DontTaseMeBro!! Aug 29th 2008 1:19PM
My question is regarding Warlocks. I know "Work is being done as of right now" but there has been a panic of sorts in the warlock community. With our utility being shot down (CoE, CoR, and Blood Pact not stacking with other similair class buffs...along with Imp shadow bolt and shadows embrace only affecting the caster) and the affliction tree scaling terribly.......is there even hope that Blizz can help locks be viable in WOTLK?
andyjay220 Aug 29th 2008 11:24AM
So does divine shield still drop aggro? It's use for a tankadin is going to be much more limited if it causes an aggro dump.
Malkeior Aug 29th 2008 7:38PM
Divine Shield doesn't drop aggro( it has no modifier to your threat) the mob just ignores you while you're invulnerable and yes, it still has this function in WotLK but prot pallies get to play with Divine Protection
http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?spell=498
Runstadrey Aug 29th 2008 11:21AM
Are there any changes to the stat buffs from gems? Cooked food? Potions / elixirs (besides potion sickness)?
i.e. If I buy a +AGI gem today will it still have the same states in v3.0? Mix a +STR potion? Cook a +AP food?
Sallix Aug 29th 2008 11:24AM
Looking at the new Divine shield (reduces damage by 50%) will it still drop aggro or work like a shield wall-like ability? also will Hand of protection (reworked blessing of protection) still drop it's target's threat?
Elanassa Aug 29th 2008 11:32AM
My guess is, it's still an aggro dump... but it's probably a godsend for Prot Pallie tanks who don't need to tank certain AoE heavy fights.
Malkeior Aug 29th 2008 7:35PM
That is a change to Divine Protection
http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?spell=498
And it does not force the mob to ignore (DS does not drop aggro)while Divine Shield
http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?spell=642
remains the same.
Bluemanchu Aug 29th 2008 11:42AM
As our guild's pally tank, I would like to know for sure if Divine Shield (with the talents in place) is in fact an aggro dump still or just a damage reduction.
It would be amazing to have this as a shield-wall like function and be able to put it into rotation through boss fights during the rare "OOM!" from my healers.
Again...great article, thank you for keeping the un-lucky ones informed and listening to our questions!
Malkeior Aug 29th 2008 7:40PM
Divine Protection will be the Tankadin's OH SHI- button
http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?spell=498
dave Aug 29th 2008 11:45AM
Do lvl 70 toons start off with the max amount of rest xp (I've been in shatt for a long time without gaining xp from mobs) when we install wrath? Or will rest xp start after the game is installed?
mike Aug 29th 2008 11:50AM
rested exp will reset for all 70s im not sure about lvls 1-69
Drakkenfyre Aug 29th 2008 1:29PM
Rested exp won't reset for level 1-69.
Kiukiu Aug 29th 2008 11:52AM
All across WoW Insider and in practically every response to an article here, I see some poster complaining about or sniping at Ret paladins still being OP. Do they run rampant across Northrend? Do people beg to have them in dungeons to actually DPS? Is a Ret paladin grinding near you a thing to fear or laugh at now?
Solnova Aug 29th 2008 1:30PM
Fear.
Jack Aug 29th 2008 12:05PM
Here's another idea: have a chain of death knights pull an unsuspecting player to the edge of a cliff, where an elemental shaman lauches them off! Gwa ha ha ha!
Rob Aug 29th 2008 1:09PM
MUST TRY NOW!
Angus Aug 29th 2008 2:45PM
I've seen a video of some elemental shaman on the PVP beta server on a bridge in howling fjord. Let's just say the amount of humor involved in watching them fly is huge.
Apparently some shaman was launching every new DK trying to get a run in hellfire ramparts. He said he was even laughing as one used Death Grip to yank him off as well.
I see it being an awesome amount of fun.