Ask A Beta Tester: Spirit, AoE, and raid loot
by Allison Robert 
Nov 8th 2008 at 6:00PM
Marathan asks...
Some time ago, there was a talk about new player character models for Wrath - and even some bugged pictures. So the question is, are they going live? Are we finally going to get improved graphics on our characters?
As Alex wrote, Blizzard used one beta build to test the ease of implementing new skins and some of them...didn't turn out too well. Imagine you're me and you get a beta key. Budget a few hours of anticipatory excitement while your main copies over. She's a 70 Tauren Druid who has been with you since day one, your sole 70, and you think she's the most beautiful thing in the game even if to everyone else she's an ungainly 8-foot heifer. Now imagine booting up the Wrath beta for the first time and being horrified to see your beloved character with a Glasgow smile, like the developers had seen the Joker in The Dark Knight and thought, "Hey! We could make that work!"
Holy water did nothing. Neither did crucifixes, garlic, a wooden stake, waving the Bible in the direction of the laptop, or sobbing quietly in a corner.
On the plus side, here was finally something in the game to which Tauren cat form was an actual graphical improvement.
Runstadrey asks...
When I start WoW after installing the WotLK dvd, will my addons already be there, or will I need to do some manual moving?
You should find Wrath of the Lich King installing in your parent World of Warcraft folder on both the PC and Mac versions of the game.
Nevermindz asks...I heard that spirit will be more useful for both DPS casters and healers in Wrath that it is now, is it true? How?
Blizzard is trying to make spirit more useful, yes. They already took a big step in that direction in patch 2.4 by allowing spirit's mp5 mechanic to scale with intellect, but it's still not quite where they want it to be. As Ghostcrawler wrote, "Spirit is something that all casters are going to need a lot more of," mostly because they thought the mana regen mechanic from shadow Priests in Burning Crusade was too good. They want casters to take a more active role in their mana management, rather than dumping and relying on the Replenishment buff.
Personally I find spirit to be a very underrated stat even now. My main is a Druid who is often Resto, and we got gobs of mana regeneration from it with patch 2.4, to the point where I continue to find Bangle of Endless Blessings fairly useful even in Tier 6/Sunwell. A Mage friend of mine found that with sufficient Spirit he could actually gain mana spamming Frostbolt, which greatly amused him. But I don't think spirit's really gotten to the point where most players consider it necessary or desirable to stack, and that's what Blizzard is trying to change.
Exordius asks...
I know that the beta is actually closed, but before it shut down was there any hope at all for us shammies so desperately in need of a ranged AOE?
There are plans afoot to give elemental Shamans a viable AoE. We didn't see anything before the beta closed, but I did confirm with shamans doing Naxx that their single-target damage was excellent. Blizzard's currently toying with a few possibllities for how best to implement an AoE. Enhancement will probably not be getting it, however; Blizzard compares them to the weak/nonexistent/erratic AoE damage done by most other melee classes/specs.
Filed under: Druid, Features, Expansions, Analysis / Opinion, Tailoring, Mining, Priest, Mage, Hunter, Wrath of the Lich King, Shaman
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Elvrag Nov 8th 2008 6:09PM
druid forms need some changes...
Myshkii Nov 8th 2008 6:28PM
Question -- Enchanting-wise, are we gonna see something like in TBC where there were items that could only be used on items with ilvls of 35+? (will it be 45+ with the new stuff or just stay at 35+)?
Caustik Nov 8th 2008 6:32PM
@Myshkii : new enchants require items level 60+
TheChao Nov 8th 2008 6:16PM
where the hell is that last picture from?
"Future You"!? tell me thats fake
Nevermindz Nov 8th 2008 6:27PM
Actually, it's not fake, it's a very funny quest chain in Dragonblight. Won't spoil but it's even funnier (beginning and ending of the quest chain)!
There's also something like this in another quest chain in Howling Fjord with "Your Inner Turmoil". :)
magicswordking Nov 8th 2008 7:28PM
He also whispers you, calls you a noob, tells you to get better gear, etc. He warned me not to drink too much at "that party" as well.
Rest assured time travel is involved in that quest.
Nevermindz Nov 8th 2008 6:21PM
Thank you for the answer. ;)
I used to play resto druid, mage, shadowpriest and warlock and it's been more than one year since I last played so I'm a little bit out of touch with the game...
frostymage Nov 8th 2008 6:40PM
After the wrath gate quest horde characters get to retake the undercity with all the horde leaders. My question is what do the alliance players get?
Shanic Nov 8th 2008 7:02PM
Without spoiling too much, it involves the new Alliance King and revenge within the Undercity.
Followed by both factions clashing (this is the event they share, though the players don't see each other).
Adamarius Nov 8th 2008 6:46PM
I remember reading on Wowinsider a while back that they were testing a new NPC collision system. You showed a video of it on the Tournament test realms. Has there been any news of this being implemented in Wrath, or has this been shelved until its "Ready"?
Helasmoth Nov 10th 2008 1:54AM
Has there been any news as to whether or not Divine Protection will be made a more rotation friendly tool for Prot Paladins? I understand the nerf for the OP Ret situation, but it kinda limits its utility again back to what the spell pre 3.0.2 was and that doesn't seem to be what blizzard wants from their spells.
mitch Nov 8th 2008 6:49PM
Why do Shamans need an AOE?
You are not an AOE class for crying out loud. Yet another scrub whining that his class has something that another class has but he doesn't. Next you'll want stealth and tanking abilities.
Get over it. You can't AOE well. Neither can rogues, priests, paladins, warriors.
Arkhill Nov 9th 2008 3:50PM
Actually, priests do have an AOE. If I remember right, it's ranged, channeled and does damage like living bomb and SOC, but not to the target.
And Consecration anyone?
mitch Nov 10th 2008 6:47AM
"Get over it. You can't AOE well. Neither can rogues, priests, paladins, warriors."
Please re-read what I said.
sonny Nov 10th 2008 4:58PM
Servers are down again, game and web site.
Scunosi Nov 8th 2008 6:59PM
I heard the Explorer's Guild and a few other old-world groups were going to be seen in Northrend. Any chance on them (and others such as the Earthen Ring) actually being groups that have rep now or will they continue to just be fancy titles for npcs?
sephirah Nov 8th 2008 7:25PM
"I heard that spirit will be more useful for both DPS casters and healers in Wrath that it is now, is it true? How?"
Read patch notes for 3.0.X... they've already implemented it...
Or, in less polite way... RTFM!
Zetam Nov 8th 2008 9:18PM
In regrads to spirit, is it actually useful for Mages yet who are not arcane?
Frost isn't viable enough for PvE so my concerns is Fire. My calculations is that with my gear, Molten armour gives me 11mp5 less than Mage Armour but it gives me 3% extra crit which over a period of time would result in more damage than the extra 5.5mana every second.
Is Spirit still a dead stat for mages?
Also, where is a good website source for Death Knight theorycraft? My main concern is that Frost seems the more dominent tree for Raid Tanking and there exists duel wield specialisation. Wouldn't duel wield mean you hit the boss more often thus the boss has a higher chance to parry your attacks and reset its swing timer = spikier damage. Therefore needing a chuck loads of expertise in relation to the speed of your weapons. And tanking with a 2her would mean lower tps of less frequency of hitting the boss.
And at 80 are arcane mages and retradin paladins dominating PvP and hunters face-in-the-mud?
Legather Nov 9th 2008 7:06AM
In answer to your question by not actually answering it, Spirit was a dead stat as soon as they invented mp5.
No one relies on spirit for health regeneration, it doesn't work in combat and food is used as soon as it is needed. So it is principally a mana regen tool.
Casting halts spirit based mana regeneration without added measures such as Mage Armour or talents like Arcane Meditation whereas mp5 regens mana regardless.
Taken down to unmodified functionality, mp5 has eclipsed spirit in its core purpose. It is only by adding on various mechanics, like the warlock's new Fel Armour, that the designers attempt to make spirit relevant.
Hopefully, one day they will see the light and lay to rest the spectre of spirit, either completely abandoning it or adopting mp5 as it's mechanic.
Jeger Nov 8th 2008 11:09PM
I've got two questions.
1: How are you currently setting up your raids? I am mainly interested in 10mans, do you use the old 2 tanks, 3 healer and mainly ranged dps or what is considered an ideal setup?
2: Are all reagents geting outdated? Will we need leather, ore, flowers, dusts/shards/essences or any of the old stuff at all?