Ask a Beta Tester: Spell power, phasing, and more
by Alex Ziebart 
Sep 16th 2008 at 11:30AM
The image above has almost nothing to do with the content of today's Ask a Beta Tester, but I found it funny so you get to deal with it. We'll jump right into things with Turfing's question...
I have a priest alt getting close to 70. Planning on doing healing come Wrath. With the conversion to spell power should I be picking up healing gear or damage gear right now? How is, for instance, Spell fire stacking up against Primal Mooncloth? Is spellfire actually able to heal better right now in the beta? How about damage?
I strongly recommend hopping over to Wowhead's Wrath site and doing some research on how the numbers turn out. In most cases, DPS gear has better DPS stats (hit, crit) and Healing gear has better Healing stats. The spell power numbers are just much, much closer. In your particular example, the Primal Mooncloth Robe has more spell power than the Spellfire Robe, but it has mp5 and the Spellfire has crit. A DPS spec/class would rather have the crit.
A few weeks ago I covered the effects of the spell power change in Hybrid Theory, with some raw numbers to look at. You can read that over if you'd like, but I mostly just suggest hitting up wotlk.wowhead.com for specific items.
For more answers to your questions, read on!
Camaris asked...
Is there actually any limit to the number of pets/mounts those new windows can accommodate? I'm assuming they work like key rings (growing larger as you get more stuff), and I hope I'm not wrong on this.
As far as we know, there is no upper limit to how many pets or mounts you can learn. As another reader mentioned, there's an achievement for having 50 pets, so you can have at least 50. I imagine you can have many more than that.
yazah asked...
Are there any changes to fishing? I don't mean new fishing areas, or fish, but are there any changes to the *mechanics* of fishing? Or is it the same boring process as before?
No new mechanics yet. They've stated that they want to spice up the Fishing mechanics, but it hasn't happened so far. Personally, I like it that way. I fish when I'm watching TV or reading a book. Gogo relaxation time!
trogdor7 asked...
Now that the king is back, where did Bolvar and Prestor go? I'm wondering how the Onyxia attunement chain in particular will work.
Currently in the beta, that chain can't be completed because Prestor is indeed missing. The Missing Diplomat works for the most part, except for the fact that Wrynn is right there in the Keep. That's just awkward. If I had to take a guess, I would say that they're going to use World Phases to patch this up. You see Stormwind as it has been for the last 4 years until you've completed certain quests or hit a certain level, and then hey! The king is back!
Shadowpriest asked...
Do the two talents Improved Spirit Tap and Meditation stack?
Yep.
Erinar asked...
Is there any storyline in beta so far involving Jaina Proudmoore?
Nope.
The Wrath of the Lich King beta is in full swing, and the WoW Insider crew is here to sate your curiosity with Ask a Beta Tester! Leave your beta questions in the comments and we'll do our best to answer 'em! And if you can't get enough Wrath, don't forget to check WoW Insider's Wrath Roundup page for anything we haven't answered here!Filed under: Fishing, Analysis / Opinion, Expansions, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
spencer Sep 16th 2008 11:37AM
hopefully fishing mechanics will be changed, I think it is rather boring ATM.
BillDoor Sep 16th 2008 1:10PM
Not everything in the game has to be 100% pulse pounding action all of the time.
I like fishing after raiding, it's a nice wind-down time while we discuss what happened during the raid on Vent.
NoTomorrow Sep 16th 2008 3:36PM
My problem is that I am still lower in levels than most players (41), so I have to yet experience raiding and all the other good endgame stuff. Fishing seems boring to me because I am trying to get my level up, and there are still a lot of things in the game that are constantly amazing me more than fishing while I am playing.
Silkath Sep 16th 2008 11:42AM
It's not true to say that healing specs don't want crit. As a disc priest you should be aiming for 30% crit chance, though you get 9% from talents.
Holy priests should be aiming for spirit > haste > spellpower in the current beta.
Disc priests should be after int/crit/spellpower (though I haven't checked out which stat scales better)
So the short answer is, decide which spec you want to heal as (holy or disc) then choose gear accordingly.
Alex Ziebart Sep 16th 2008 11:45AM
I didn't say Healers don't want Crit. I said DPSers want Crit over MP5.
Thander Sep 16th 2008 11:52PM
Depends on what you want to do.
For my holy pally, I favor spell crit for PvP healing but MP5 for raid healing. I would forgo MP5 if I could get spell crit to a decent level. At 100% crit essentially all spells are 40% mana cost from Illumination. At 50% crit, spells are 70% mana cost on average. 50% is easily possible in the expansion.
You could probably do the math to figure out MP5 to spell crit conversion.
Bart Sep 16th 2008 9:26PM
Are there any changes to the Macro mechanics?
I want to know if I will be able to use a /summon random mount command.
Currently I have so many mounts that I cannot fit them all into the macro command for summoning a random one.
Will this change?
Serrar Sep 16th 2008 12:46PM
Yes /castrandom mount works the same way as it does now
Serrar Sep 16th 2008 1:00PM
Ups nwm my previous comment cos it doesn't answer the question xD
Khanmora Sep 16th 2008 1:51PM
We've been talking about this on the UI and Macro Beta forums. A lot of things still seem to be unfinished as far as macros go, particularly the [flyable] conditional. Here's a couple of threads discussing it:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=9023657035&postId=90226974508&sid=2000#3
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=8537784152&postId=85368359675&sid=2000#0
Amaxe Sep 16th 2008 3:06PM
I know the macro I used from BC (if you can fly, use flying mount, if you can't, use ground mount, if you right click, use ghost wolf) did not work in the PTR. It might have to be re-written for WOLK
Phantomwolf Sep 16th 2008 11:46AM
[quote]I have a priest alt getting close to 70. Planning on doing healing come Wrath. With the conversion to spell power should I be picking up healing gear or damage gear right now? How is, for instance, Spell fire stacking up against Primal Mooncloth? Is spellfire actually able to heal better right now in the beta? How about damage?[quote]
I think what was being asked here, is not about crit or Mana regen, but which numbers yield better results for +healing. Does the conversion favor one vs the other when it comes to how much +healing you actually can do after WOTLK.
The previous questioner may be looking at using items with Mana regen and high spell damage as opposed to more conventional healer gear hoping to get a better return later.
I think quite a few healers have been looking at this as well, my self included.
Kaeder Sep 16th 2008 11:56AM
I havent heard of any news of being able to "Showing all questgivers on the minimap" since the article here: http://www.wowinsider.com/2008/08/06/showing-all-questgivers-on-the-minimap/
Is this something that is now available in beta, or in the PTR, I took a look at the PTR, and either I can't find it or it isnt available yet.
Any ideas?
Mystical Parrot Sep 16th 2008 12:00PM
thats on the ptr atm, you select it where you choose your normal find things (eg find reagent vendor, find herbs) on the minimap
StarGryphon Sep 16th 2008 12:13PM
Currently in the beta there is a tracking option for low level quests. I found it helpful for my PVP premade hunter because I had to go back and do the pet training quests so I could learn revivie pet.
rigz Sep 16th 2008 11:58AM
Any news on the legendary drops that could be obtained through 40-man naxx? Is it still possible to get a corrupted ashbringer or the staff of atiesh?
Kaeb Sep 16th 2008 1:27PM
These items are only seen as existing from Vanilla WoW.
http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?search=Ashbringer
SPOILER
No known drops of these items as of yet, but any death knight will see the Ashbringer prominently, and Tigole has said they are undecided on the fate of Atiesh.
Cerelith Sep 16th 2008 11:59AM
It seems to go by item level. For example, my resto druid is using the Shard from Maiden which has +348 healing/+116 spell damage.. I also have the Amani punisher which has +217 spell damage. In Wrath, the punisher is better. The shard was converted to have +185 spell power. So if you can get +dmg gear thats a higher level than your current healing gear, Id take that. Same if you are dps and can get a hold of +healing gear higher than your current gear's level.
Eric Sep 16th 2008 11:58AM
Totally agree with Bart
I have some 30 odd pets at the moment, and I'm trying for more, my worry is that I wont be able to use a /random pet or mount macro. WTB more macro characters PST
Alex Sep 16th 2008 12:01PM
Jaina Proudmoore is in the CoT Strat event