Ask a Beta Tester: Of Paladins and Primals
We'll start off with a question from Alja that we've probably answered before, but let's try to clear it up....
With +healing and +spell damage becoming just +spell power will this change items that are +fire damage or +nature damage? I currently have the spellfire set but wouldn't mind going frost for leveling purposes in the beta but my gear currently isn't set up for that, will specialized gear still exist or is everything become just spell power?
I haven't yet run into any gear that gives +spell power to a specific school of damage, but all existing gear that gives +spell damage to a specific school of damage retains its specific school of damage in Wrath, it's just called "spell power" instead of "spell damage." If anyone out there has seen new Northrend gear that contains school-specific spell damage, please speak up in the comments to let us know!For more of your beta questions -- and our beta answers -- read on! But if you're the sort who wants to avoid spoilers, turn back now. We're aiming to avoid major story spoilers, but this feature is all about beta content and we can't talk about the beta without giving a few things away.
max attack asked....
With the new change to Sheath of Light put lower in the Paladin's Retribution tree, no longer allow for a viable Holy/Ret spec taking advantage of Sheath of Light's over time heals?
Though I love the idea of having a healing build with Sheath of Light, it's still too high in the Retribution tree to make a viable healing build that includes it. You need 43 points in Retribution to fill out Sheath of Light, leaving 28 points for Holy, at level 80. This means you can't pick up all of Holy Power or any of Light's Grace, Holy Guidance, Holy Shock, Infusion of Light, Divine Illumination, or Beacon of Light. Though I'd say some of those could be lost for good cause (and Sheath of Light certainly is a good cause), Holy Power, Light's Grace, and Holy Guidance are essential to any healing build. In the end, you'd be losing more healing ability than you'd gain, despite the convenience of the heal over time. Unless it moves much lower in the tree (into the 20 point range), it's just too much a sacrifice. The talent remains designed to allow Retribution some, I assume, healing viability for emergency situations, even when decked out in their Ret gear.
Scunosi (and several others) asked....
Relating to the 3000 quests question, do dailies count as one quest or do they count for each time you turn them in?
Afraid not. If the first daily is an actual quest (yellow question mark), it seems to count, but repeated turn-ins (blue question mark) do not.Sanzer asked....
In regards to the Paladin Holy tree -- the talent Purifying Power made me wonder if the number of undead in Northrend makes getting this talent worth the points. Am I going to be destroying so many undead that missing this talent would be a mistake?
I can tell you I'm not planning on making it part of my talent build. Though there are a good number of undead in Northrend, they don't make up the majority of the mobs you'll be fighting. That extra 20% critical strike chance for Exorcism and Holy Wrath? Not worth the talent points considering how often you're likely to be fighting non-undead. Whether you find the mana cost reduction for Cleanse, Purify, and Consecration to be worth taking the talent for is another matter entirely -- but I certainly wouldn't call it necessary, especially not for the improvement in your undead slaying prowess.
Brandon Tilley asked....
As a lower-level fury warrior, I dual wield two one-handed weapons. When you get Titan's Grip and dual wield two handed weapons, does it use your weapon skill for one-handed or two-handed weapons? Although I try to keep up on my weapon skill, seems like it'd suck if all the sudden you had to go back and level your two-handed weapon skills for TG.
Our local expert, Matt Rossi, tells us, "When you use Titan's Grip, you have two two handed weapons equipped and it uses the appropriate weapon skill: so if you had Cat's Edge and Soul Cleaver equipped, it would use your 2h sword and 2h axe skill. So yes, level those up now."
Harmun asked....
I wonder what this will do to the primals market? Will it become mostly obsolete like the elemental market did after TBC? Now the only time people need old world drops like this is if they are leveling tradeskills... I ask because I'm sitting on a stupidly large stack of primal life I bought at what was a good price before the markets crashed as people stopped raiding (and getting new gear) and started farming primals while waiting for Wrath.
Filed under: Wrath of the Lich King







Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Breue Sep 11th 2008 11:16AM
Frozen Shadowweave - Frost and Shadow spell damage.
James Sep 11th 2008 11:31AM
FSW is a set I own, and it worries me they'll scale the damage back if it now affects all schools of magic. Eh who cares I'm gonna be replacing it fast.
Jack Spicer Sep 11th 2008 11:39AM
I think the specific reference meant that the author hasn't found new gear in Wrath that gives +spell power to a specific spell school.
Nathanyel Sep 11th 2008 11:53AM
And Spellfire Set = fire spell power & arcane spell power.
However, would the nature spell power on Ring of Unrelenting Storms http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?item=30667 also affect druid/shaman (nature school) healing?
Menglor Sep 11th 2008 12:00PM
at level 68, I am still wearing my full Frost weave set, while there are a large number of items that give way better int and Stam, the combined Spell power with Gems and enchants, Nothing has been worthy of swapping it out.
Dev's have said, that the FSW gear was OP, and I would agree, its lasted too long in Wotlk for something that was crafted.
I have wanted to replace it, because some pieces have had 3x the stamina, but its hard to give up the damage. so I die a few more times.
dan Sep 11th 2008 3:58PM
I went over to the Wrath version of wowhead and looked up the FSW set. http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?item=21870 As you can see it will be a basic +47 spellpower.
Littlecoz Sep 11th 2008 11:19AM
hrm, pallys will sure be more fun to play in wotlk =)
Ruzan Sep 11th 2008 11:17AM
Good Update, its good to know I wont have to go back and farm primals ever, ever again.
Fletch Sep 11th 2008 11:30AM
No, you can look forward to farming eternals instead.
RogueJedi86 Sep 11th 2008 12:02PM
So......where's Eternal Plateau at? :P
Harmun Sep 11th 2008 12:40PM
Awww... dang. There's 2k G I'll never see again :(
slartibart Sep 11th 2008 11:19AM
I just read on mmo-champion about these new 'level scaled' items that are bound to account.
Any more information on these?
Seems like a great idea for the 'alt-game'.
Meatfish Sep 11th 2008 11:35AM
Regarding the primals question; what about enchanting materials (dust, essences, void crystals)?
High level old world enchanting materials (eternal essence, etc) are pretty expensive when they pop up, because there's not that many of them about and enchanters still need them to level up.
Do you think the same thing will happen to our current top end enchanting mats, or do you think no one will want them so they will drop in price?
Fletch Sep 11th 2008 11:50AM
I think I saw some enchanting recipes for making epic wands using a lot of void crystals. Other than that I think the BC enchanting mats will probably still find some use. It's hard to say for sure, but I doubt there will be price crash on enchanting materials.
Arajal Sep 11th 2008 11:40AM
@ Ruzan:
You may not have to farm primals anymore, but that doesn't mean you won't do the same with eternals :P
Slaign Sep 11th 2008 11:41AM
FYI, Frozen Shadoweave has changed on Beta to pure Spell Damage, and the Damage has scaled down.
http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/8925/wowscrnshot091108114240sv4.jpg
Slaign Sep 11th 2008 11:49AM
Oh and the shadow neck piece from Kara (Ritsyn or something I forget how it's spelled.) is also pure spell damage and scaled down. It seems school specific spell power is no more.
Nathanyel Sep 11th 2008 12:02PM
Ritssyn's Lost Pendant http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?item=30666 has "shadow spell power"
Gareth Sep 12th 2008 6:48AM
Nice news, one big downside I always found with the +shadow only items was my off healing was awful, at least now I can be fairly effective when needed.
A good move from Blizzard in that respect, although we'll have to see I guess if it makes things too vanilla when gearing.
Slaign Sep 11th 2008 12:47PM
I'm in beta and my priest has the pendant. It doesn't give Shadow Power anymore, it gives Spell Power, and it's less. The screenshot of the FSW giving spell power is my priest. I believe the amount the Ritssyn gives now is 41, but the world servers are now down and I can't check. Wowhead is out of date. The patch as of last night was the one that changed this.