Incentives for appropriate gear types coming in Cataclysm
by Gregg Reece 
Jan 28th 2010 at 11:00AM
Bornakk revealed on the forums that gear will start having incentives to make you wear the appropriate type of armor. This means that holy paladins who are currently rolling on cloth and mail items will have incentives to stick to plate. What are these incentives? We don't know. It could be as simple as something like the current gem socket bonus system or a little more complex like a percentage increase in a particular stat. This could even be a generic spec based set bonus that gave you something if completely geared in class appropriate armor. We won't really know until more details are released.
This also comes on the heels of the post Bornakk made at the start of the thread warning that a lot of the tricks people use to eek those few extra dps through itemization will stop working in Cataclysm due to the stat overhaul. While this is technically old news, it doesn't hurt to remind people. Attack power as a stat on armor is completely going away (with the possible exception of things like rings, necklaces, and trinkets). So, any plate damage dealers currently strutting around Dalaran in leather chaps might want to start building a second set of gear for when the expansion hits or they'll be sorely disappointed when trying to level up to 85 using inappropriate gear.
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will destroy Azeroth as we know it. Nothing will be the same. In WoW.com's Guide to Cataclysm you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion. From Goblins and Worgens to Mastery and Guild changes, it's all there for your cataclysmic enjoyment.Filed under: News items, Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 7)
Peter aka Feanor Jan 28th 2010 11:07AM
Sounds like the first of many welcomed changes to come
Badman Jan 28th 2010 11:35AM
Only welcome if they stop putting Spirit on my Moonkin leather.
Darkthunder Jan 28th 2010 11:54AM
Badman: Spirit will be a "healer only" stat in Cataclysm. Mp5 is going the way of the Do-do as well.
Badman Jan 28th 2010 11:59AM
Yeah but I assume they won't be doing 3 types of leather in Cataclysm for the same reason they aren't doing it now. They don't want to do one type of armor for only 1 spec (SP Plate gear doesn't count). So they will try to shoe horn in some bad talent to make Spirit worth it for us so we can take the resto gear.
Valt Jan 28th 2010 12:06PM
"Badman: Spirit will be a "healer only" stat in Cataclysm. Mp5 is going the way of the Do-do as well."
I wouldn't say so.
I thought they were adding even more spirit on cloth items just for warlocks and mages..
Philip Jan 28th 2010 12:14PM
YAY Peter said something nice about Blizzard and changes to content! We don't know what those changes are but Peter said something I might agree with if I had more information!
RATE UP
BOOOOO! Philip isn't saying anything nice about these changes because he doesn't know what they are and can't be certain if these changes are good or bad! Philip isn't assuming Blizzard is on the right track because he doesn't have all the information!
RATE DOWN
anonymous coward Jan 28th 2010 12:47PM
@Badman
Leather workers will be able to reforge that spirit away.
Badman Jan 28th 2010 1:11PM
I have my doubts about reforging, I have a feeling that you will penalized some itemization points for doing it. But if you aren't then I guess I will have to find a leatherworking buddy fast.
Drakkenfyre Jan 28th 2010 1:27PM
Valt, they said straight out that Mages won't care about Spirit.
Verit Jan 28th 2010 2:24PM
In lineage 2 you could wear any gear you found (yes mystics could wear leather, plate etc) - just if you were a caster you got like a 50% boost to haste if you wore cloth ;).
I suspect stats like that will pop up.
Sehvekah Jan 28th 2010 2:47PM
Reforging will let you cut one existent stat in *half*, and convert it to an equivalent amount of another stat *that isn't currently on the item*.
To use your druid dilemma as an example, say some tree leather drops, it's got stam, int, spirit, crit and haste. Not *bad* for a boomkin, and it's still an upgrade, but that spirit's gonna be wasted on your feathery hide. Reforging will let you have that spirit cut in half and add, say hit rating or mastery, making this a more attractive upgrade, at least until you can get your claws on some *real* boomkin gear. It'll also let you fine tune your existing boomkin gear, turning stats that are over the cap into something useful, or putting excess stam to work making things dead faster(Yes, I know blizz will be tuning things around the idea that we'll all have larger health pools so we'll all want *most* of that stam, but there's still gonna be room for *at least* two or three items having it cut in half, and the stereotypical Elitist Jerks kinda guilds/players will probably be able to get away with even more).
It won't, however, let you completely remove any one stat, nor will you be able to enhance an existing stat(so no converting Rogue/feral gear into boomkin by replacing agi with int, and no turning half your stam into Even More Int).
Badman Jan 28th 2010 3:01PM
@Sehvekah
Yeah that's what I thought but I couldn't remember for sure. So knowing that and how they want us to stick to your armor type now I hope we will see some properly itemized gear in Cataclysm.
Meg Jan 28th 2010 7:21PM
How is spirit bad for moonkin? It's extra spell power.
Badman Jan 29th 2010 4:38AM
Spirit gives less of a DPS increase than an equal itemized amount of another stat.
It isn't technically bad but if you can find a piece of gear without spirit then it is generally better.
travis Jan 28th 2010 11:07AM
IMO, it wont be the gear with the incentives, but the talent trees. If holy pallys had a talent that converted armor into +int, then that would be a HUGE incentive for them.
As it is, I don't really like how many current stats are going to be replaced on gear (SP, MP5, ATP, etc) so unless they come up with some revolutionary system (not out of the question), I think the change has to be made to the player, not the gear.
K Jan 28th 2010 11:21AM
I find it perplexing that there should be incentives to wear your own armor...Any kind of stat boosts etc would just inflate the already inflated stats further.
It would be far more reasonable (and easier) to just add some negative effect to all armor classes below your own (like an automatic downscaling of stats or something).
No need to over-complicate things.
Heilig Jan 28th 2010 11:35AM
What you describe is massively more complicated than simply adding a talent that converts armor to something desirable. Warriors and DK's already have these talents. Granted, it doesn't work well because the conversion rate isn't high enough, but w/e. It''s still a simpler way to go.
Argojax Jan 28th 2010 11:51AM
Gotta agree with K, it should be disincentives on the lower armor. They should scale it like they do downranked spells. So for instance the Shaman who learns Mail at 40 is only penalized for wearing leather starting at like 50 and then only slightly but by 60 he's penalized by a 25% reduction in stats, etc.
ToyChristopher Jan 28th 2010 1:23PM
I would always choose plate over other armor types if plate actually had the stats I wanted. Somehow +20 extra stamina and loads of crit aren't very exciting for my holy paladin.
K Jan 28th 2010 1:34PM
@ Heilig
A talent you need to balance, and that goes for most of the classes that can wear more than cloth (obvious exclusions here)). The talent would also need to be pretty much mandatory for all specs to make it useful.
An automated downscale written into the armor-enabling skill would be a LOT easier.