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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsSharpening Stones, Mana Oils gone in Wrath
by Eliah Hecht 
Oct 31st 2008 at 9:00AM
It didn't really hit me until I saw this post about it, but there are no sharpening stones, weightstones, or mana or wizard oils in Wrath of the Lich King. Verimonde, a blue name that's unfamiliar to me, confirms that this is by design, saying "While they were something nice to use once in a while for most people for many raid guilds they were simply another burden to the cost of raiding." This is essentially my reaction to the change, although some other Insiders are of the opinion that it's another step in the oversimplification of WoW. I'm happy that typical raid consumables will be down to flasks and food.There's another problem with this plan, though. Unless they remove the current stones and oils, progression-oriented raiders are going to be running back to Outland and farming up the mats for old stones and oils all the time. This is nothing new really; dedicated raiders have been going to great lengths for buffs since the days of mind-controlling fire resistance off UBRS mobs to go to MC and BWL. Still, I don't think it's what Blizz had in mind in removing them, so my bet is that old stones/oils will either be removed, or prevented from working on players over level 70 (like the Riding Crop).
Update: Looks like they went the latter route. Stones/oils will not work on post-70 items.
Filed under: Raiding, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 6 of 6)
adam83 Oct 31st 2008 1:13PM
While I am not one to complain since there is plenty of content in WoW to make it a fun game, I will miss temporary weapon buffs. It is another way that characters can set themselves apart by knowing what is available and when to use it. By having many types of stat buffing methods (gear, gems, enchants, temp enchants, magic and food buffs, scrolls) you can either max a certain set of stats, or diversify, and it was up to skilled players to determine how best to use them (or if they were even always necessary). If I recall though, I seem to remember temporary enchants being more available on other pieces of armor now so we will see how it plays out. Besides we *need* consumables to drain gold out of the economy or prices will inflate since all lvl 80s will have 100k gold. New gamers will find [Weak Lvl 6 Item] will cost 5g. Also, there needs to be a reason to farm for gold or mats won't be available for craftable items/gear.
adam83 Oct 31st 2008 1:50PM
I checked and I didn't see any post level 80 temp enchants on wowhead (except for weapon oils which this article seems to indicate won't make it in the expansion). I was pretty sure I had seen mention of (for example) some chest temp enchants.
rekker Oct 31st 2008 1:14PM
Things are getting stupid at this point. I can see the benefit of certain simplifications, but now they really do seem to be making this mmorpgs for dummies.
Warcloud Oct 31st 2008 1:28PM
What a crap idea.
-Like others have said, the cost of oils was not at all a burden on raiders. It's a drop in the bucket. -Removing the oils takes away some of the flexibility of some classes to customize what kind of buff they want.
-It was nice to have a cheap buff that lasts through death.
-Oils were cheap enough that you could conceivably use them in non-raiding situations, like in a 5-man for example if you wanted a little extra power.
In other words, there were a lot of good things about oils, and nothing bad. And enchanters are not happy.
kyuuketsuki Oct 31st 2008 1:50PM
I think a big part of what Blizz wanted to do here was help the classes that DID have weapon imbues.
With their new mechanics philosophy of having healers/tanks/dps be interchangeable (you don't have to bring a specific class, just a skilled player of the right role) it's important for classes to retain their own flavor.
In the case of the Warlock stones, they've been saying for awhile that they wanted those to become more viable. Demo locks have some flexible points in the beginning and middle of the tree where they can choose to upgrade their healthstones and conjured stones. 1 healthstone per character makes this a more important choice too.
I think Blizzard wants to tune the encounters with less consumables overall, so each time they remove a "necessary" that's one less variable for them to think about when they set the difficulty. Hopefully this means more room for them to bake the variables into the encounter, meaning that the fights themselves are MORE complex. I would rather have to learn a new strategy for each boss than have each one be a gear check dps race that you can't win if you didn't get your checklist of consumables right.
Omestes Oct 31st 2008 1:54PM
As an Enh Shamie, I'll never notice. But it still is rather an odd move. They don't affect game play that much.
This is especially odd since both the QD dailies, and the scourge event are handing out oils like candy. I would like to hear what their explanation of this actually is.
I really hope they don't remove shield spikes, that would make my baby tankadin a sad panda.
Lemons Oct 31st 2008 2:22PM
Blacksmiths are getting owned repeatedly in the face. First, in BC, they took away our ability to make keys to open chests (which, strangely, was picked up by engineers (who honestly don't deserve it cause they have enough fun as it is) via seaforium charges). Now in wotlk we can't even make sharpening stones? What gives?
We are knocked down to very basics, crafting armor and weapons, most of which are only good for warriors (holy pally here). Blizz needs to rework blacksmithing to benefit more than just warriors as holy pallys and tankadins pick it up too thinking there'll be something for them the equivalent of Stormherald, but no there's really not. Sure we can socket some crap now but seriously give us back our keys and stones!!!
Gyroblade Oct 31st 2008 3:07PM
The wizard oils being taken out isn't going to bother me too much, but I'm not real excited about my sharpening stones being made useless. What might work instead, make it so only Blacksmiths can use them. That'd give us a little extra flavor to a profession that didn't see much attention the last couple of years.
Baluki Oct 31st 2008 3:15PM
Aaaaah yes, I remember the FR buff for MC/BWL. That was pretty funny. My guild used it while learning to kill Rag, and once we finally did, we soon stopped, except on nights when everyone was sucking and we didn't feel like wiping over and over.
supersaint Oct 31st 2008 3:41PM
World of RaidArenacraft
Adamma May 8th 2009 9:44AM
Damn Blizz! your hitting below the belt! right about where I keep my gold pouch!
no more consumables?? Sharpening Stones made good money, which was then spent on other professions consumables... now mineing is a one whack affair... why are you dumbing down wow? it's already dumb enough. you going to lose players who enjoy a more complex game/market system.
Bah.. after 5 years, am I just hanging on out of nolstagia? or is it time to find a new MMORPG, one that has a little more depth??