Mastery bonus in Cataclysm to encourage proper gear choices
by Zach Yonzon 
Mar 1st 2010 at 8:30PM
GhostcrawlerThere is a small Mastery bonus for wearing "your" gear. So a Balance druid who takes cloth will be essentially giving up free stats. Sometimes that may be worth it to them (just as sometimes it's worth it for a Resto druid to take that piece of +hit gear), but often times it won't be worth it especially if it's an upgrade for you.
Along with the many gear and stat changes that are coming our way in the next expansion, we should look forward to better itemization and gear distribution. It's probably safe to assume we can finally say goodbye to other classes stealing what is rightfully "your" gear. Except for hunters, that is. Everyone knows everything is hunter loot.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
elvendude Mar 1st 2010 8:34PM
"It's for my mend pet pvp spec."
remyk Mar 1st 2010 8:40PM
YES! FINALLY! now those stinkin warriors wont be rollin on my leather!
Ray Mar 1st 2010 9:41PM
But still, it bothers me that my paladin will "occasionally" need to wear mail or leather for an upgrade. I'm as much of a min-maxer as your average raider, but I'm also a purist when it comes to the "feel" of my characters (in all video games). I really hate the idea of facing down an entry-level 85 raid boss in a jumble of plate, mail, and leather, simply because "it was the better stat choice at the time."
From what I can tell, this is Blizzard's way of minimizing the work on their end when it comes to designing gear. I'll admit that I have no idea what work goes into it, but with this new system it seems like they simply apply a template to all gear, and slap the gear type on as an afterthought. I.e. they have a caster template, and a system is designed to slightly adjust the stats based on the role of the gear (more spirit or more int, more str or more sta, etc), and possibly upping the stats as the type goes up (at a glance, healadin gear seems to have higher stats than priest gear, but I could be wrong).
I'm not condoning them for this, as less work spent pouring over gear creation may allow them to focus on other things. However... I really just can't get over a warrior/dk/pally in a druid's tank pants, simply because the stats outweighed the mastery bonus.
Ray Mar 1st 2010 9:43PM
Forget the "more str or more sta" for the caster template. No idea where my mind was on that one. -joins the masses in begging for an edit button-
kunukia Mar 1st 2010 10:06PM
Ray, I think you meant to say "I am not condemning them for this", rather than "condoning", which has the opposite meaning, almost.
Ray Mar 1st 2010 10:10PM
/facepalm
Quite right, good catch.
Kylenne Mar 1st 2010 8:40PM
Hallelujah! Get your dirty hippie chicken...um, talons? off mah cloth!
...seriously what do boomkins have for hands anyway? Do they even have hands or do they just sorta pick stuff up with their wings? Oh god this is going to bug me all night isn't it.
Piper Mar 1st 2010 9:11PM
They've got paws somewhere under all those feathers.
WoWie Zowie Mar 1st 2010 8:40PM
ya my holy paly was wearing mail in the beginning 10 man naxx runs =\
ToyChristopher Mar 1st 2010 10:58PM
My holy pally is wearing cloth and mail right now...
...and he might still be in cataclysm depending on how they itemize plate and whether mastery bonus is worth it.
Soulestream Mar 1st 2010 8:41PM
So a Balance druid who takes cloth will be essentially giving up free stats
Does that mean there will be balance druid gear. Not that I don't love my 600 MP5 on the leather drops....
Reinhold Mar 2nd 2010 6:06AM
MP5 will be gone.
Neirin Mar 1st 2010 8:52PM
That's the idea anyways. Of course, they also promised better itemization for Wrath... and for BC... Guess we'll just have to see how it goes.
Owen Mar 1st 2010 8:59PM
Well, if you read the full post about stat changes, you would see that they plan on giving balance druids and elemental shamans a talent that converts spirit into hit. Granted, I do still think that they will end up making some leather and mail itemized for haste/crit still, but we will have a reason to use spirit gear come cata.
Possum Mar 2nd 2010 1:07AM
Do I remember correctly and they're re-doing all the leveling gear too? So that my leveling balance druid will actually have something leather to wear that's appropriate? All the good drops for me are cloth :(
debanyw Mar 2nd 2010 11:43AM
Speculation about itemization at this point almost seems moot, because we're going into Cataclysm knowing more about how gear will be budgeted but knowing nothing about our stat caps, which is at the moment our biggest issue.
Currently, Moonkin generally prefer crit to haste because crit has a higher soft cap. Current Resto leather has spirit and (mainly) haste, which is not how Moonkin itemize now.
Come Cataclysm though, our haste/crit capping could be a thing of the past, depending on how they change our talents. To be quite blunt, Blizz has made a lot of mistakes with Eclipse during Wrath. That said, I feel that they've learned a lot about the spec, as making mistakes is the best way to learn, and I'm very optimistic about how we'll be changed come Cataclysm.
Hivetyrant Mar 1st 2010 8:42PM
I like it!
I ahve often thought about a system that would at least discourage the kind of behaviour like this around gear and I think this is perfect.
It's a simple fact that there will be times where [Item x] is still an upgrade even when it is a different armor class, however this will widely grow the gap between an actual need or greed.
My question is though, when joe blow paladin looks at cloth gear x, is he going to see the stat increase he will actually gain? or just what the item description defaults to? because if he can't tell the difference or just sees nice little green +x to stat, I don't think its going to change a thing...
Adam Holisky Mar 1st 2010 8:43PM
Dude, Zach.
That is the best photoshop of Ghostcrawler *EVER*.
oallen Mar 1st 2010 8:44PM
No joke, 2 weeks ago a hunter rolls need on a piece of 264 BiS (assuming non-heroics) leather which I needed badly for my bear tank who was currently tanking. Most aggravating thing ever. In addition, just because you have the highest armor tier (Paladin, DK, War) you the right to roll need on every drop!
Clydtsdk-Rivendare Mar 1st 2010 8:49PM
Kudos to Blizzard, with the caveat that you better take care to make sure everyone's itemized-for this time around. Was it Eleshams with MP5 on some of their BiS ICC gear?