Don't freak out about the Cataclysm changes yet
by Gregg Reece 
Apr 12th 2010 at 1:00PM
One important thing to remember (and something Ghostcrawler and other devs have stressed multiple times) is that almost all numbers, coefficients and bonuses are going to be changing when the expansion ships, and none of the abilities are final. This means trying to say that using certain spells or stats is a "horrible idea" because of particular issues in the current game doesn't really hold up, because your class might end up needing that stat or relying on that spell when Cataclysm hits.
Also, being as the entire stat system is getting a revamp (with a lot of the current stats going away or being repurposed completely), all of your current gear's stats will also be changing to reflect this including increased armor for cloth, leather and mail users.
There is also the fact that these previews are not the whole story. There might end up being additional talented spells for your spec or revamps of various class abilities that will change your current rotation. Some classes are getting simplified and others will be getting a little more depth.
All in all, please look at these changes with an open mind and leave any preconceived notions at the door. We still have the entire beta for them to tweak and change any of the current ideas that might be lacking or might not mesh well with your class's existing kit.
Always remember to leave constructive feedback (Note: "This sucks!", "Blizzard obviously doesn't play my class," and "Ghostcrawler promised me a pony!" are not examples constructive feedback.) and tell them what parts seem clunky, good, lackluster or just simply feel "off" of what it should be for whatever reason (and always include the reason why). If you're eloquent in your post (and sometimes even if you're not), you might be the voice that gets things changed.
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: Analysis / Opinion, Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 6)
Crumble Apr 12th 2010 1:07PM
In other words, calm the hell down!
Task Apr 12th 2010 1:22PM
@Crumble
My thoughts exactly. I don't go on the forums that often but it is enough. Blizz and the other devs have more than enough to stress to deal with, just leave them to their work and wait until Cata comes out.
Or... Play God of War 3 or something.
The End.
K Apr 12th 2010 1:52PM
There's a difference between going apeshit over an update and pointing out the likely outcome based on pattern recognition... Blizzard's ways may be mysterious, but if something just screams "I'M OP, NERF ME" or "I WILL NEVER FIND A SPOT ON YOUR ACTION BAR", then a seasoned played can pass pretty accurate judgments.
People tend to get real defensive in both cases, I wonder why...
Qot Apr 12th 2010 1:55PM
While I agree that people tend to get panicky and the forums tend to devolve into an echo chamber ("I'm outraged!" "I'm outraged too!" "Look at how many people are outraged!"), I think it's important to separate "OMG, why did you nerf me" complaints from "Your statements seem to have a logical hole in the middle of them."
Balancing PvE healers around offensive dispels (especially when they lack the proper hit rating and the cost is going up), for instance, makes little logical sense in a game where DPS (and even prot warriors) are able to assume the same role. DPS won't have to switch targets to do the dispel and two seconds of lost or diminished DPS will (in almost all cases) be less of a burden than two seconds of lost healing. While it may be true that defensive magic dispelling will be the only required function, the blues stated there will still be curses, poisons and diseases, meaning that guilds (especially those who are on the cusp of downing a boss) will be penalized for taking a shaman or priest.
Also, there's the problem of trusting Blizz's ability to implement their vision. Remember when GC said they wanted healing to be less spammy? In some fights in ICC, it definitely feels more deliberate... And then there's Bonestorm. And Koralon and Toravon (the VoA bosses being all the raiding some people do). I would prefer if the start of Cataclysm wasn't like the start of Wrath where resto shaman were mediocre tank healers if they stacked enough crit in Naxx, then not-particularly-effective spot healers in Ulduar and finally Chain Healing turrets in ToC and ICC when haste stacking started to work. That's three different mechanics for the same class/spec over the course of one expansion. As a result, it's difficult for me to take on faith that Blizz knows what it's doing, has a vision and everything will turn out roses.
I'd rather comment now, explain my concerns and have things shipped in perfect shape than sit back and assume that everything will work out fine.
Elmouth Apr 12th 2010 2:27PM
If you think its bad now, wait til the pally changes come out.
SKY FALLING! I REPEAT! SKY IS FALLING!!
raspybunk Apr 12th 2010 2:33PM
I'd say don't freak about changes to other classes, and don't freak about new stuff to your class. Go ahead and freak about things being taken out of your class. That stuff nearly never changes well in beta, and you know you like it, and that it's gone. New stuff you don't know how you like and how it's balanced.
Jim Apr 12th 2010 2:50PM
I'd much rather have a "cataclysm" expansion that completely revamps the game's core mechanics, and changes everything from top to bottom over Blizzard releasing an all-new-and-improved WOW2. The subscribers are already here - the community is already here - the time invested is already here...
theholyevil Apr 12th 2010 3:39PM
While I understand what you are saying, it is important to note this is the beta..... alpha..... something. Yes you could sit down and say nothing. Then once the changes are permanent suddenly argue like all hell has broken lose, but by then it's too late.
This is the point where the feedback people give count the most. To many of you, that may seem like QQ, but to us it's a situation we do not like.
Just remember it's always easy to pick on someone who's got a concern because it's not your class and jump to GC's aid. Though this is not about GC's personality at all, or his integrity, or his mom :|. This is about the changes that some of us might not agree with fully. Not all of us can worship the golden blizzard statue together, sometimes there is going to be argument.
It's important to not group all these people into a QQ group. Some of us are quite calm about the changes and just would rather see something different happen then what we are seeing. Some people are QQing and I don't doubt that, but some of us are trying to have an intelligent argument without being branded as one.
The more you know......
Eisengel Apr 13th 2010 12:06AM
Yeah, sorry, in some places a little outrage is kinda justified.
Take the Priest preview... a class that has been sputtering and clattering along, whose preview was posted ~3 minutes before the due date.
Here is a quote from the 84th page of the Priest preview, I'm putting the portions that the OP underlined in quotes:
start--
We want to improve Discipline's single-target healing capacity. "One key is to make sure shielding isn't always a more attractive option than healing."
Greater Heal will probably be the tank-healing spell of choice, though we've also discussed giving Discipline a second shield so that they have a small shield to cast on lots of different targets, and "a big, more expensive shield to cast on a tank or anyone else taking a ton of damage."
Absorption: Improves the strength of shields such as Power Word: Shield, Divine Aegis, and Power Word: Barrier.
--end
This is a contradiction. Blizz wants to make absorption mechanics less attractive than healing, but give Disc more shielding tools to deal with damage, and make their mastery bonus increase shield absorption. So... will shields always be weak, even with mastery? Will Disc's heals be bigger? Will they be smaller so that they have to constantly spam heals between shields (spam heal is also something Blizz says they want to move away from). How about mana? Does this mean shielding will be expensive, that Disc can't shield a whole party? These statements raise more questions than they answer. It could be great or terrible depending on the way it's done.
The Holy mastery is also troublesome. If you get 3 heals off on someone, it's likely that they're okay... unless you're tank healing. If healing is going to be more expensive, and less spammy, and you cast less spells, it's pretty unlikely you're going to be throwing around the same spell a lot. So, it's likely that you'll either gain the mastery bonus when you don't need it (i.e. healed up the tank, now you get the bonus), or you'll constantly be changing the bonus you have (tank is fine, now raid heals). So, this also seems to raise more questions than it answers.
Shadow... holy moley.
So, Shadow will get a single-target spammable nuke. Okay. This nuke applies a debuff that increases the damage it does. Okay. So, it isn't instant cast, so it won't stack its debuff quickly, and since it will do the most damage when its debuff is fully stacked, it has back-loaded damage. So Blizz's solution to SPriest back-loaded damage is a cast-time nuke with back-loaded damage? What?
Shadow's gameplay will also be entirely changed by the new mastery mechanic, Shadow Orbs... except... we have no idea what they will do (Blizz gave a loose possible examples). So Shadow will be entirely different, in some way we can't predict and have no indication about.
Shadow is losing its only substantive raid/party benefit, the hit buff from Misery. Blizz says they don't want people gearing around who is in a raid... okay, fine, however Mages have their same DPS and are getting Bloodlust too. To replace the marginal benefit of Misery, SPriests are gaining.... well, we don't know. Blizz didn't say if they were getting anything at all.
While on talents being cut, Blizz has stated they want to move away from passive +DPS talents. Nearly half of the Shadow tree are passive +DPS talents. If you add in talents that are passive utility bonuses, like increased range or reduced mana cost, you get up to about 75% of the Shadow tree. So... close to half the tree is composed of the types of talents Blizz says it wants to ditch... but we have no idea what they will chuck, keep, or replace.
The Priest preview was terrible. Utterly, entirely terrible. Honestly, I wish they didn't post it.
Jason Apr 12th 2010 1:06PM
I cranked my amp up all the way this morning and it gave me some terrible feedback. I totally sympathize, Blizzard.
NeoPhobos Apr 12th 2010 1:08PM
"Note: "This sucks!", "Blizzard obviously doesn't play my class," and "Ghostcrawler promised me a pony!" are not examples constructive feedback".
But... Mr. Hobbs promised me a Mage-lock!!
Duulket Apr 12th 2010 1:12PM
lol And GC promised a Sunset Red Octopus.
mtsadowski Apr 12th 2010 1:13PM
DON'T PANIC
/42
ZMES_Matt Apr 12th 2010 2:40PM
*wipes forhead with towel then goes on to be trampled at the next zebra crossing*
baldbull Apr 12th 2010 1:16PM
I just hope they change the Tree of Life change or do something so that resto druids who WANT to continue to be full time tree's can be. Out of all of the changes to all of the classes so far, I think this is the one that personally I feel is wrong. Bears, Cats, and Owl's are still full-time shapeshift abilities, and so should the tree.
The argument that a druid shouldn't have to be in a form to heal doesn't hold water. The druid has to be in a form to dps (cat/owl) and tank (bear) effectively, so why shouldn't the druid have to be in a form to heal (tree)?
I recently rolled a new druid specifically to go resto tree, and the change certainly saddens me. I hope the end result is that through talents, glyphs, or other means the tree form will end up a full-time shapeshift again.
Darkember Apr 12th 2010 1:39PM
As far as I'm aware, the point wasn't the fact you were in the form to heal it was more you couldn't do what other healers could do when in that form. (dps). And if say they were to make it so you can use balance spells as a tree why not just get rid of the tree alltogether (there thinking not mine)
I do love my tree, but I find it very difficult to make
a constructive argument back at the crab, as he explains and rounds things off so well.
The one thing I would like to see but probably won't is updates to spell graphics or an option to ramp them up! The potential for healing rain (shammy) and earthquake (shammy again) is enourmous. I envisage the eart itself rising up and spinning around smashing the crap out of everthing around the shammy. (more boulder then quake but meh) kinda like a giant earthshield I suppose, just more purple.
I seem to have lost my way, tl:dr - the crab probably does know best, I like tree & pretty spells.
Chow bel
Boom Apr 12th 2010 1:33PM
I can't remember the last time I actually assumed tree form outside of a raid. Heroics don't require it (in fact I healed 3/4 of HVH last night without a weapon equipped - granted, it wasn't intentional but it proved that end game raiders are too overgeared to make most heroic dungeons a joke) and I'm sick of looking at the dead tree form. It is the Tree of Life form after all - shouldn't we be green (at the very least)?
Gridneo Apr 12th 2010 1:47PM
Yea, your other comments are from idiots, so disregard those.
I heal from Tree because I want to. Naturally, the only time I'm not in Tree is if I'm DPSing something for the hell of it.
I think the Metamorphisis style Tree of Life could work if it's done properly. If each of our spells got some kind of special ability/modifier (increased healing doesn't count, and won't make anybody happy)... I'm talking maybe Rejuvs jump to extra targets in Tree, or crit, or something fun along those lines. If they're the same ol' spells, it's going to be dumb.
Metamorphis is dumb because you have to keep 5 extra spells on your bars at all times, and can only use those when you use Meta. You don't get an entirely different set of bars with Meta as you do with Druid stuff now.
It's still early, so don't freak out. I'm more disappointed that Balance is getting ANOTHER ability that has to be clicked and targetted onto the ground (Treants and Wild Mushroom).
Aalokor Apr 12th 2010 2:23PM
I understand to some extent what they are doing with the tree changes:as a non-raider, and a light pvper, I almost never heal in tree form these days. the small amount of throughput gained by tree form isn't worth the increased flexibility of being able to drop a few cyclones (pvp) or a few random dps buttons to fill in the gaps between wild growths (overgeared heroic healing).
Clearly, these aren't necessarily the issues blizzard is trying to fix, but no other healing class has to give up utility in order to heal, so i can see their point.
At the end of the day: shifting is part of the druidic flavor, and it's not going away for tree healers (perhaps we shouldn't call them that anymore?)
In the end, it will still be an iconic cooldown (in some respects similar to holy priest's angel form, just without the dieing part), and blizzard has a chance to do something cool with it. Personally, I'd like to have a reason to go into tree form other than flavor.
Sharvis Apr 12th 2010 1:52PM
You want your tree form!? WELL HERE'S YOUR TREE FORM!
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/community/comics/gallery.html#334
Sorry I couldn't resist. I know it's not really relevant, but it's too funny.