Are those 4.0.1 spells shiny enough for you?
by Sarah Nichol 
Oct 14th 2010 at 9:00PM
The dust of patch 4.0.1 is not settled and won't be for some time if Deathwing has anything to do with it, but now we start to see the shape of things to come. I've had a chance to settle into the new abilities. I've annoyed more than a few fishers with my Earthquake. I've gleefully retrained my fingers to become reactive, in order to enjoy the full benefits of Fulmination and Lava Surge. My guildmates tell me I am too happy about Totemic Wrath and Rolling Thunder. Good times, all in all. However, I am still a grumpy shaman. I am mostly happy with the new spells, but the effects feel like an afterthought.
The shadow over my happiness is all to do with eye candy. I love Earthquake, but it looks unfinished. The spell has a lovely rumbling sound, but the actual animation stands accused of impersonating a pancake! The satisfactory crack and elegant visual of Chain Lightning has been replaced in the elemental rotation by an invisible Fulmination combined with an uninspiring Earth Shock. Do you know what the audio-visual feedback from an Earth Shock is? Nowt, nada, zilch. My fabulous new ability ends with a disappointing fizzle. We are stormcallers! Spiritwalkers! Masters of fire and thunder! Fulmination has a big DPS impact, as my fellow elemental shaman will well know by now, and yet half the time, I've no idea whether my cast actually queued at all. Combine that with the new ability queue issues and you have a recipe for frustration.
A fix for the ability queue is coming in Cataclysm, but to further compound the lack of effects, Blizzard hasn't coded any spell alerts for some classes. There are minor spell effects for Flame Shock and Earth Shock, but while I am comfortable with my new rotation, I am missing the gratification. Chain Lightning was the maple syrup on my pancake, and now I am going without. Do not deny me my candy, developers!
Now, I am well aware that we are not the only class that is feeling a little shortchanged in the effects department. How are you finding the new spells for you class of choice and their accompanying effects? Are you enjoying the built-in spell alerts? Did you replace them with custom Power Auras? What about the spells themselves -- are they satisfying to cast and use?
This is it! Patch 4.0.1 begins the slide into December's upcoming expansion. It's a whole new game from here on out. Get oriented with our roundup of everything there is to know about patch 4.0.1 and how it changes the game until the launch of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. Filed under: Cataclysm
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
Knob Oct 14th 2010 9:07PM
Lack of effects? Play a hunter. :P
I still love the class though.
kharrah02 Oct 14th 2010 10:10PM
Just like a fury warrior. Were every single attack is just another melee swing animation.
Our 2 classes should get together and hug and cry in our sorrow.
Zayd Oct 15th 2010 12:08AM
Whenever my warrior tries to get next to a hunter he always seems to move in the opposite direction.
I only want to give him a hug. Promise.
Xaklo Oct 15th 2010 12:35AM
To a certain level this is true with spriests as well. Aside from the pretty purple line of face-melting goodness and the floating poison sign (which is completely awesome on large targets), all we get are a couple of poofs of smoke and almost no sounds to go with our dps. I kind of prefer it that way though, it's a very peaceful way of twisting your prey's mind around.
Rakah Oct 15th 2010 1:11AM
Redbull gives you archangel
Anaughtybear Oct 15th 2010 5:06AM
I was already peeved that they messed up the talent trees with this patch, but I wasn't expecting to log in on my hunter and find half my abilities were removed. The new call pet worked so well I couldn't summon my main pet. So that's awesome. Also, thanks Blizzard. I wanted the homework of running around on all my characters to relearn all the basic stuff.
Asaron Oct 15th 2010 7:32AM
I'm sure when raging blow was implemented we were promised a fancy new animation for it. The animation we got is the mutilate one. Mutilate with 2x 2handers looks silly.
On the plus side, WoW's animation clipping means that the raging blow mutilate doesn't even play a lot of the time.
Ves Oct 14th 2010 9:07PM
Don't worry. I'm sure they'll get around to finishing the Earthquake graphic, just as soon as they're done with Typhoon.
blissfire Oct 14th 2010 9:39PM
Earthquake? What, you don't like the perfectly round, vibrating sponge cake?
Qot Oct 14th 2010 10:05PM
At least Typhoon isn't fundamentally flawed. Earthquake is just plain bad. Cast it on the edge of a building and you can have a brown circle vibrating in midair.
Stirb Oct 15th 2010 12:21AM
Yeah, a lot of spells need to be brought up to the high standard set by Hurricane.
Thundrcrackr Oct 15th 2010 9:49AM
I gotta agree, earthquake visual effect is horrible. When i first saw video of it from the beta i thought NO WAY that makes it to live, but it did!
The worst part is the perfect circular edge. They need to blend that out with some cracks going out in all directions.
Ikarus Oct 15th 2010 2:21PM
Though it's definitely not much to look at, I'm loving it in AV. It still has that "new" effect on people. I can single handedly push back a crowd of the enemy because people are still trying to figure it out. It throws them off. Cast it at a choke point and everyone moves back 5-10 feet > move up 5-10 feet and cast again. Rinse, repeat.
shkam Oct 14th 2010 9:08PM
And balance druids get the khamehameha too :)
Kaz Oct 14th 2010 9:15PM
"I cheer on my mage friends as they try out Flame Orb and Ring of Frost..."
Flame Orb is learned at level 81
Ring of Frost is learned at level 83.
No mages be using those yet...
Dave Oct 14th 2010 9:18PM
Beta. Dumb ass.
blevenu Oct 14th 2010 9:22PM
What Dave, is this article only for people in the beta?
Kaz Oct 14th 2010 9:24PM
And you see the word "Beta" in the article...where? I see 4.0.1, not beta. My browser's search function can't find it either. You must have the special addon that can see hidden words. Or you're just a douche bag.
Sarah Nichol Oct 15th 2010 2:51AM
Man. Would you like some of the egg on my face to go with your pancakes? Sorry, I got so distracted by the pretty I didn't notice with client my mage friend was playing at the time *facepalm* However the paladins are still scarily sparkly!
Obeyfez Oct 15th 2010 9:26AM
Sparkly Paladins. You must be referring to Holy or Ret. I see no new spell graphics on my prot paladin (except for the grand crusader proc, which of course is completely useless in single target rotations because its a TPS loss, and threat is ever so scarce these days). I'm a tank, I don't want new sparklys anyway, leave the sparklys for the fragile-ego dpsers ;)