Blue posts and other WoW news: MoP talent clarifications, shaman buff auras, no flying in BC starting zones
by Adam Holisky 
Nov 17th 2011 at 9:15PM
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Blue posts
MoP talent clarifications
G'day all!
I have some clarifications for this on some of the class specific information just as an FYI :)
Gorefiend's Grasp is not going to be similar to the priest spell, it is actually a spell that will pull all enemies in within a set radius to the location of the targeted mob or player. The base spell itself can be targeted on a player, but the pull effect will not affect friendlies.
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The talent trees now require that you must trade the survivability talents you got in the frost tree, for some of the higher damage output of the other trees for PvE which is why Frost damage output was lower. The new talent tree in Mists of Pandaria will let you take the utility and survival talents from there. The major difference that you will have as a Mage between all 3 specs is the spells you cast as well as the procs and other mechanics that activate.
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If you like, we may consider changing it to Discipline Nova to keep it linked in with the talent tree that uses it? :p
Dibs to Jito for beating me to the Glyphs and ranged weapons point. ^^
I have some clarifications for this on some of the class specific information just as an FYI :)
Quote:
-Death Knight-
Gorefiend's Grasp? Back up a minute here.. First ehy get howling blast to nuke the living undead back to where they came from in the first place as an insane AoE attack and now they're getting
a somewhat priest spell? Come on, guys, this is just wrong!
-Death Knight-
Gorefiend's Grasp? Back up a minute here.. First ehy get howling blast to nuke the living undead back to where they came from in the first place as an insane AoE attack and now they're getting
a somewhat priest spell? Come on, guys, this is just wrong!
Gorefiend's Grasp is not going to be similar to the priest spell, it is actually a spell that will pull all enemies in within a set radius to the location of the targeted mob or player. The base spell itself can be targeted on a player, but the pull effect will not affect friendlies.
-----
Quote:
-Mage-
Frost not being survivability anymore? Can it really be that my ol' OP days as a frost mage in Ony 40-man is coming back?
-Mage-
Frost not being survivability anymore? Can it really be that my ol' OP days as a frost mage in Ony 40-man is coming back?
The talent trees now require that you must trade the survivability talents you got in the frost tree, for some of the higher damage output of the other trees for PvE which is why Frost damage output was lower. The new talent tree in Mists of Pandaria will let you take the utility and survival talents from there. The major difference that you will have as a Mage between all 3 specs is the spells you cast as well as the procs and other mechanics that activate.
-----
Quote:
-Priest-
Whoa! Back up here for a minute. What youse are telling me is that holy priests can no longer use Holy Nova? Holy priest = Holy Nova..... 'Nuff said.
-Priest-
Whoa! Back up here for a minute. What youse are telling me is that holy priests can no longer use Holy Nova? Holy priest = Holy Nova..... 'Nuff said.
If you like, we may consider changing it to Discipline Nova to keep it linked in with the talent tree that uses it? :p
Dibs to Jito for beating me to the Glyphs and ranged weapons point. ^^
Shaman buff totems to auras in MoP
Hey all,
Just wanting to make sure that you know that the core shaman buffs from totems, such as Strength of Earth and Windfury, will most likely become auras. These will probably work in a similar way that Unleashed rage does currently.
We feel that this change will be a positive influence because there is not a lot of interesting gameplay in simply dropping Strength of Earth on each encounter, comparatively to the reactive activation of a totem such as Earthbind or Tremor Totem.
I hope this explains the change for all of you and feel free to discuss it further! :)
Just wanting to make sure that you know that the core shaman buffs from totems, such as Strength of Earth and Windfury, will most likely become auras. These will probably work in a similar way that Unleashed rage does currently.
We feel that this change will be a positive influence because there is not a lot of interesting gameplay in simply dropping Strength of Earth on each encounter, comparatively to the reactive activation of a totem such as Earthbind or Tremor Totem.
I hope this explains the change for all of you and feel free to discuss it further! :)
Flying in BC starting zones? Nope.
Taking these zones out of their own separate instances, placing them properly in the world -- so they're in the same instances as Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms, respectively -- and revamping all of the terrain and architecture to make the areas suitable for flying, aren't trivial feats.
I know the last part of that answer sounds very familiar to what we used to say when we heard requests to allow flying in Azeroth, long before Cataclysm was in development, but it's still true. And maybe we'll do it some day too. It's not something we're against. It'd just be rather low on the list of priorities, especially in terms of the resource investment required for something that would have very little payoff for the average player.
I know the last part of that answer sounds very familiar to what we used to say when we heard requests to allow flying in Azeroth, long before Cataclysm was in development, but it's still true. And maybe we'll do it some day too. It's not something we're against. It'd just be rather low on the list of priorities, especially in terms of the resource investment required for something that would have very little payoff for the average player.
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Filed under: Today in WoW, Mists of Pandaria
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Transit Nov 17th 2011 9:29PM
Awww... I have a bad feeling that Silvermoon will be destroyed in some event before we get to fly over it. Too bad. It is probably the coolest looking city in the game.
Skyrei Nov 17th 2011 9:45PM
Maybe we'll get the fly over it WHILE destroying it! DOUBLE EMOTICON! :D:
Sharlatan Nov 18th 2011 2:55PM
Bliz is the only company so out of touch it still thinks players believe that line about limited resources. WoW is a cash cow, pure and simple, they could revamp the BC starting zones with a miniscule expenditure of their monthly profits. Most of the architecture is TBC which was designed with flying in mind, the main issue is server changes in mid flight, but thats not insurmountable.
Its not so much that they cant do it that bothers me, its that they wont. Its a half arsed job which is typical of bliz. The whole product is devalued by the shoddy, just do enough to get by attitude.
Philster043 Nov 18th 2011 6:57PM
It's not money, it's time investment. Blizzard has its artists and designers working on the next expansion currently. Having them spend time on revamping Elwynn Forest, Ghostlands, Silvermyst and Bloodmyst would delay the next expansion's release date by probably half a year at least.
They could hire more people but artists, especially the kinds they need, don't just fall from the skies.
Amaxe Nov 17th 2011 9:47PM
Well, I can understand why they can't just turn flight in Azuremyst and Silvermoon to [ON] because they're technically not part of the world and they would need to make modifications to the map.
But this goes back to my initial dissatisfaction with Blizz failing to realize that us players consider ALL starting zones should have been updated with Cataclysm. If they had to redo the entire world to permit flight and added the Cata zones (both of which meant a massive redesign of the map), the changing of the map to include these zones could and should have been done at the same time.
They didn't do that then and I'm less than sympathetic now.
Drakkenfyre Nov 18th 2011 2:30AM
They starting working on the expansion before Wrath of the Lich King was even released. Their goal was to rework the original world. Neither starting zone are considered part of the original world. Both of them are on the same map as Outland.
According to the developers, it took them an entire year to redo SW/Orgrimmar alone. And while the Exodar/Silvermoon City aren't quite as big, it would have been a big undertaking reguardless. The Exodar is underground, and the surrounding environment is designed to be seen from the air anyway, as a Shaman Totem quest had you fly back down from the mountain the Exodar is under, but the areas past that, and the entirety of Silvermoon City weren't meant to be seen from the sky, so would have required major reworking.
The update was to the original world, or map. So the second map wasn't included. If all of your work is concentrated on one area, it would have taken extra time and manpower to work on the second area.
Burning Crusade wasn't intended to be updated. So Burning Crusade areas weren't touched. That's what it boils down to. If they areas ever become flyable, it probably won't be before the next expansion.
SamLowry Nov 17th 2011 10:55PM
Hey, Blizz, put the city portals back in and maybe we won't bitch so much whenever we have to visit all the capital cities for a holiday event--and you know the bitching gets the loudest whenever we have to cross an expansive BC zone on a ground mount.
Zanathos Nov 17th 2011 11:25PM
They didn't even finish revamping every old zone. Redoing the more recent BC starting zones wouldn't have gotten done even if it was in the plans. They're fine anyway.
Piper Nov 18th 2011 12:01AM
How often does a toon 60+ need to be in those zones? Half a dozen times a year? Are they going anywhere that isn't served by a flight point now?
And, just how long would it have taken Blizzard to add those zones into the Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdom servers? Two months, four, six?
Blizzard doesn't have infinite resources, so what would you have cut to get Cataclysm out the door on the same date? Would you have waited longer to have flight in those zones? How long would you have waited? We'd been in ICC for a year at that point. Would you have wanted to run it months more? (And no, you can't just throw more people into the development mix. It is a truism of software development that adding more people to a late project just makes it even later.)
SamLowry Nov 18th 2011 12:11AM
My heart bleeds for a cash-strapped company with "only" 10 million paying subscribers.
Hob Nov 18th 2011 12:28AM
@Piper
How often does a 60+ need to be in the BC starting zones? The question could be extended to all of the old world... how often does a level 60+ need to be anywhere other than Outland, Northrend, the 80-85 level zones, or the capital cities?
Amaxe is absolutely correct. They were re-doing the *entire world*. They should have included the BC starting zones.
Amaxe Nov 18th 2011 12:40AM
"And, just how long would it have taken Blizzard to add those zones into the Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdom servers? Two months, four, six? "
Probably close to the time it would take to add the Cataclysm zones they **did** add perhaps?
Suzaku Nov 18th 2011 1:13AM
Revamping the Burning Crusade zones is even more complicated due to them being stored on seperate map files. Presumably they'd have to manually alter a bunch of values and coordinates to get all the NPCs and doodads in the proper places, in addition to copy and pasting large amounts of terrain, and remodeling places like Silvermoon City which are full of "camera tricks" like towers floating in empty space hidden behind walls.
TheDarkOne Nov 18th 2011 1:55AM
For a company that polishes it's non-MMO's to such a high degree leaving silvermoon & azuremyst in the BC map pack during Cata just seems lazy. It shows an amazing lack for foresight that no one said during BC development "hey one day we really need to merge these with the rest of the world".
Also given how much end game content suffered for the 1-60 reworking it's a slap in the face to have left such a jarring disconnect. I leveled 2 characters 1-85 during cata and have been redoing zones on my loremaster main and I do nothing but praise those zones but flying into the ceiling of ashenvale on my way to hyjal and into the wall around plaugelands just makes me grind my teeth in anger.
Skarn Nov 18th 2011 2:16AM
Lack of flying in Azuremyst/Quel'thalas doesn't bother me. I was more disappointed that they didn't update the stories in these starting zones. They gave 'em new voice-over intros, but all the quests didn't change! There's a disconnect. I too wish these zones would have been updated for Cataclysm.
They already had a lot of work to do, alas it just feels a trifle unfinished. :/
Drakkenfyre Nov 18th 2011 2:27AM
TheDarkOne,
They DID attempt to merge the areas with the old world. They said it was harder than they thought, so they didn't do it.
These aren't simply a zone closed off in an instance somewhere. Each one is sitting on the same "map" Outland is. Outland is to the left, the Draenei starting area is to the right, and the Blood Elf starting area is above that. There are huge distance between each to make them appear to be their own separate areas. To join them to the main world, they would have to remove all ability to go to the old areas, copy the areas, place them in the old world, and recode everything (boats, FP's, portals, ect.) to go there instead, check to make sure all of the quests still worked correctly, and probably half a dozen other things.
And for what? Simply so people don't need to go thru a portal, and can fly? Rebuilding the areas for flight would still take more time. So just wait, and probably at the expansion or the first content patch, it will be fixed and you can fly there. It's not like flying around to get World Explorer is so important you can't just walk.
Silversol Nov 18th 2011 2:50AM
*hits with pie*
Well... no /duck or /flee at the end of the post. Do you think we have forgotten (the bad jokes and puns in previous posts)?
Aalokor Nov 18th 2011 6:51AM
@hobb
archeology
audawak Nov 18th 2011 8:01AM
What gets me is that they didn't plan ahead to allow flying in these zones in the very expansion that introduced flying? Seriously?
Matheus314 Nov 18th 2011 8:34AM
The only problem I see with flying in BC starting zones is that region between Western Plaguelands and Ghostlands (right north of Stratholme with it included) would be redone to make flying avaliable there, and I think they have some crazy TFH plans for that region, maybe including a ancient elf/titan/old god large city and the restoration of Stratholme.
For Azuremyst and Bloodmyst, actually I don't see a problem, they should let it instanced (just like Tol Barad) but with the ability to fly.