The Queue: Patch 4.0.1 bonanza
by Alex Ziebart 
Oct 13th 2010 at 2:00PM
Today is our first full day with patch 4.0.1 on live servers. In today's edition of The Queue, we'll be tackling a few frequently asked questions about the patch. Some of them will be aimed at people who haven't been able to log on yet, and some will be aimed at those who have but are still unsure of the answers. Some of the questions were taken from the What is Patch 4.0.1 post yesterday rather than the comments of The Queue. As a warning, most of my answers are very short because that's all that's required.
Enjoy!
Cortland asked:
Is the built-in Power Auras that shows procs around your character in this patch?
For the most part, yes. Not everything that should have an alert has one, but most things are covered.
Irontoof asked:
Why do I live in Europe!?
Foolishness.
Many people asked:
Are the new class/race combos in this patch?
Nope, sorry. You will need to wait until patch 4.0.3 for that. This patch has very little of the actual adventure-type content in it. Patch 4.0.1 is mostly about tools and mechanics. Patch 4.0.3 will introduce the new class combos and all of that sort of thing.
thpthpthp1 asked:
When are people gonna stop asking about heirlooms?
Never ever. Also, saying your name out loud makes my tongue feel funny.
bonelip asked:
I have 485 Dalaran cooking tokens from the cooking daily. Are those being converted to anything or are they essentially useless after the expansion arrives?
They are not being converted to anything in Cataclysm. You could buy Northern Spices to help alts level cooking, I suppose. Or you could buy a Chef's Hat if you haven't yet.
Caallis asked:
In Cataclysm, is that little shit William still running around stealing Donna's doll?
No, actually! William had the tables turned on him. Donna stole his Grindgear Gorilla and is keeping it away from him.
Yes, I know the last two questions had nothing to do with patch 4.0.1. Want to fight about it?
Have questions about the World of Warcraft? The WoW Insider crew is here with The Queue, our daily Q&A column. Leave your questions in the comments, and we'll do our best to answer 'em!Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, The Queue, Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 13)
Pyromelter Oct 13th 2010 2:03PM
Any other dps spellcasters enjoying their time to shine right now?
A more serious question for The Queue and commenters:
I was not around during the BC to WotLK transition. Doing a VOA last night, it seemed certain melee classes are doing about 30-50% less damage than before the patch, and certain caster classes are doing 20-30% more damage. A quick review of some logs and comments on some message boards confirms that most casters have been buffed, while a lot of melee have been nerfed. My question is: What will Blizzard do to balance the disparity? Or will they even do anything?
Hasselhoff Oct 13th 2010 2:08PM
My guess is that classes that are over-performing now will scale less on the road to 85 than those that are under-performing. They've said on many occasions that the numbers are balanced for level 85, and not level 80.
That being said, my enhancement shaman is doing slightly better than he was before the patch. I guess that has something to do with the hybrid nature of the class (spells and melee attacks).
briker Oct 13th 2010 2:09PM
You mean a Rogue is doing 1/2 damage and my elemental shaman is doing 30 percent more? 'Scuse me, I need to go hit some Battlegrounds and get some long needed payback.
joshownsu Oct 13th 2010 2:09PM
Wont be balanced until level 85...
Texicles Oct 13th 2010 2:09PM
If something is outrageously out of line, there might be a tweak. If it's an outright bug, it will be fixed. If things just feel different and out-of-whack, but things are still playable, then don't expect a lot of balancing, as the pre-expansion period is a kind of "lame duck."
That is to say, everyone gets new things to play with, but the fundamental mechanics of classes are tuned around 1) playability through the leveling process, and 2) balance at the soon-to-be level-cap. Things will likely feel much different for all classes at 85.
Hasselhoff Oct 13th 2010 2:10PM
DERP: *the hybrid nature of the spec (spells and melee attacks).
mark Oct 13th 2010 2:11PM
@Briker
as a ultra squishy mage...
give me 10 seconds to throw on a robe and ill join you :)
Thundrcrackr Oct 13th 2010 2:15PM
I noticed this too. My mage is doing more damage and my ret pally is doing way less. =(
Boom Oct 13th 2010 2:16PM
A lot of this has to do with hit scaling. Caster classes (at least spriests and boomkins) have either a talent or an innate ability that makes spirit into hit, while melee classes are seriously lacking in any hit reducing talents. Rogues, for instance, need close to 890 hit to actually hit 100% of the time. My rogue is currently sitting around 15% hit and still has an 11% chance to miss on a level 83 boss. My boomkin, on the other hand, went from 8% hit to 33% hit just from the spirit to hit ability (i.e. he doesn't miss a shot - ever).
Zenotho Oct 13th 2010 2:32PM
@Boom - Time to reforge some of that hit into crit my friend! Unless you want to be known as a... hitchicken?
Olddgregg Oct 13th 2010 3:18PM
I have a rogue and I disagree with this. I'm pretty sure you were running with some people that haven't gotten used to their new ability priorities and/or baddies. I mean it was the first day of the patch... I was actually doing better than I previously was once I got used to my new Assassination "rotation".
Rakah Oct 13th 2010 2:49PM
the biggest reason we are doing better is the stat changes. ArP gone, lots of SP from int.
Rob Oct 13th 2010 2:51PM
With boomkin gear its hard not to get hit. But yeah reforging would help with that issue. With just a handful of boomkin pieces my resto druid gets all the hit she needs for moonkin dps.
Tankizgay Oct 13th 2010 2:54PM
@Boom
That may be true for your class but actually very little of this has anything to do with hit rating... The main victims, Feral Druids and Ret Pallys come from new designs that are going to scale on the way to 85, such as the removal of feral AP. Whether this is fair is another matter, it'll take longer to level these classes/specs and cata is actually pretty far off and anyone putting together a raid might dispense of them in favor of a caster dps.
Coco Oct 13th 2010 3:05PM
People are mentioning that everything is balanced for 85, well, there hasn't been a numbers pass on beta so it's not right now. The disparity exists at 85. Casters are basically gods in pvp in the current build.
Brainded Oct 13th 2010 3:06PM
Not only are characters now balanced towards 85 (rather than 80), but they are also balanced towards content that has not even been released. The next 7 weeks or so are meaningless as far as performance. They are only about learning the new mechanics and playstyles.
Brian Oct 13th 2010 3:39PM
It's funny you should post this because on my 2 main toons (Frost DK and Ret Paladin) i've noticed a significant DPS increase. It seems that the caster classes aren't as dependent on Mastery as Melee classes are right now. I personally have boosted my mastery up to 15 on my ret and 12 on my Dk (i know it sounds negligable, but thats an extra 5% chance to proc TV on ret and an extra 6-7% frost damage on my DK).
Also to address the rets a bit more; the class is entirely different than it was on Monday when the servers went down. The inital knee jerk reaction is "zomg rets are broken etc etc etc" but it's just an adjustment period. This is actually the exact opposite for rets than what happened in the BC > Wrath switch over because rets were extreamly OP at that time.
Jeffro Oct 13th 2010 4:25PM
I noticed a 6% crit drop from the patch on my DK, went from 30.xx% down to 24.52%.
Natsumi Oct 13th 2010 3:48PM
Well, I don't know about the other Warriors out there, but I lost a good 4k DPS with this patch, 7k DPS loss if I go back to Fury, my warrior's GS is 5865. On the other hand, my warlock gained 2k DPS, is 1k DPS HIGHER than my warrior, and has a 5100ish GS. 2 Ret paladins in my guild can barely break 2k DPS, they used to be over 9k DPS (this could be due to them needing to relearn their spec), and both their GS is over 6k. I ran with a mage earlier and he was doing 13k DPS average with 18k on bosses, his GS is 5.5k. even my hunter with a 4700 GS can pull 3800 DPS as BM with me not even knowing what I am doing (6 CDs and 2 on use Trinkets gives me a lot to do lol) which is still 4-600 DPS more than I was pulling on anything but trash packs before the patch.
The only reason I bring up GS here is so people know that these aren't fresh 80, they are toons that have had SOME effort put into them to gear up and in some cases are people in full ICC 25 gear. NONE of these numbers are from ICC, so the disparity will be even worse in there. I don't think that 16k is a small gap between worst and best DPS. Blizz needs to do something.
Spiritfire Oct 13th 2010 3:54PM
@Coco:
Yeah, casters have gotten a major buff this time around, but in a lore aspect with the upcoming Deathwing return, it makes sense. If you've read the book The Demon Soul, it was caster - a druid in fact - who in the end defeated Deathwing. Considering his armor and body type, and that he is one HUGE effin dragon, it would require a lot of magic to take him down, much more so than just beating on him.