Wrath of the Lich King News
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Druid / Hunter / Mage / Paladin / Priest / Rogue / Shaman / Warlock / Warrior
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Wrath Beta patch notes: Balance Druids Now that the Wrath of the Lich King Beta is live, and the patch notes are up, we have some solid information on Druid talents as they're being tested. Wrath Beta patch notes: Feral and Restoration Druids Continuing on from the analysis of the changes to the Balance druid talent tree, as shown in the first patch notes for the official Wrath of the Lich King Beta, we'll now examine the Feral and Restoration trees. Druids get polar bear form in Wrath with new Glyph list The majority of the new glyphs previewed so far seem to be for druids as of this posting (but who knows what the future may bring) but the one for mages, Glyph of the Penguin, seems extra awesome to me. New bear animations for eating and fishing discovered Everyone knows that bears are actually pretty good fishermen, but for some reason Ferals have to shift back out of form and use a pole like everyone else. That may be changing, however. Exploring Wrath as a Druid: A Feral Cat in Borean Tundra I've been poking around Northrend the last few days with my Alliance druid and wanted to share some of my discoveries with other Druids wanting to know what to expect in Wrath. Bear armor woes in Wrath to be addressed The new shared gear itemization between Rogues and Feral Druids is leaving bear Druids incredibly starved for armor and stamina. Extra stamina and armor is wasted on rogues, but is mandatory for Bears. Bears, therefore, have suffered. Furor buffed for 3.0.2 Do you guys remember yesterday, when I wrote about how the Druid talent Furor was altered to prevent powershifting? Well, if not, that's OK. Furor has just been rewritten again, and this time it has all I asked for and then some. The new Furor reads as follows (with 5/5 talent points in it)... Powershifting mostly killed in Wrath Anyone who's done much research on Feral druiding, especially cat form, has probably run across the concept of powershifting. Basically, powershifting plays off Furor (a talent that pretty much every Feral druid has) by shifting out of cat form and straight back into it to reset your energy to 40. |
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Wrath Beta patch notes: Hunter We have a few more insights into the pet talent trees that were announced at the Worldwide Invitational, as well as a few changes to existing talents and a nice Steady Shot buff. Pet talent trees unleashed Each pet family has access to one of three talent trees, named Tenacity, Cunning, and Ferocity; however, the trees have a large amount of overlap. Hunter pets to have family skills No, I'm not talking about parenting and honey-do skills. In Wrath of the Lich King, each hunter family will have its own unique skill, just as Warp Stalkers currently have Warp. BigRedKitty: "Exotic" declassified ...the new 51st talent point in the beta of the Beastmaster tree is named Beast Mastery. As written, it's kind of obscure, a little open-ended, and the programmers don't seem to have a clue what it could really mean. Wrath Hunter Talent Analysis, Part I: Marksmanship If I was to sum all the new talents and the talent changes up in one sentence, I'd say this: The 51 point talents look lackluster, but most of the rest is downright drool inducing. Clarification on pet talents To set the record straight, here are some fun facts about pets and pet talents in the current Wrath beta. Hunter pet aggro may be fixed in Wrath The story of Hunter pets and aggro in Burning Crusade, especially since patch 2.4.2 or so, has been a very stormy one. Luckily, it looks like there may finally be some real relief coming. Scattered Shots: Beastmastery in Wrath of the Lich King While the changes to Auto Shot clipping in Wrath will likely make shot rotations as we know them a thing of the past, Beastmastery is still looking to be a very viable tree in Wrath of the Lich King. New pets from the Wrath beta Our favorite Hunter (although BRK comes close), Mania, has had some help from the Wrath beta, and has now updated the great Petopia with all the new pets seen in Northrend so far. Devilsaurs tamable on Wrath servers, Chimeras may be next Despite the 51 point Hunter talent Beast Mastery still not being implemented, it looks a sneak preview of the talent may have snuck into the patch all the same: Devilsaurs are now tamable! Scattered Shots: New and improved abilities Hunters are getting quite a few changes in Wrath of the Lich King, but so far haven't covered them all. Today I'd like to go through the newest abilities and discuss them in greater detail. New stable slots in Wrath? Ghostcrawler has confirmed that we will indeed be getting two new stable slots. In fact, Ghost points out that further testing may lead to the stables being integrated into the UI the way non-combat pets and mounts will be. More stable slots now available on Wrath Beta The stables slots costs 50 gold for the third one, and 150 gold for the fourth one, giving you a total of 4 slots. This means you have room for one pet from each talent tree, plus a spot for a specialized pet or an exotic pet or two. Scattered Shots: The dev team takes on PvP Some call Hunters overpowered for their dispelling Arcane Shot (which is going away in Wrath, to be sent to the non-damaging Tranquilizing Shot), while others point to their low Arena representation and the ease of using line of sight to negate most of their DPS and Abolish Poison to get rid of their main PvP utility as proof that they need buffs. Pets Scaling in Wrath: Hit percentage is in, resilience and xp bonuses are out A while back, class designer Koraa told Warlocks that their pets would be getting their master's hit percentage. Today, he confirmed the same for Hunter pets. Hunter Pet News: New exotic pet families added, Kill Command changed Aspect of the Beast now grants a melee AP buff, and Mongoose Bite is unlinked from dodge. Tranquilizing Shot now dispels magic effects, and Arcane Shot does not. Hunter Beta News: Tranquilizing Shot explained, pet focus system adjusted Lead encounter designer Daelo clarified the other day with some information on how enrage type effects will work in Wrath... BigRedKitty: Devilsaur Have you seen a devilsaur up close and personal? Well, except when they stomped and chomped you silly in Un'goro? /shudder Here ya go, then! We tamed one and let it loose in Shattrath City and Nagrand, using all its abilities and letting it rip stuff up. BigRedKitty: Uvuros So you're wondering just how much of a tank the new Tenacity hunter-pets are going to deliver. Well, we're gonna try a few things and let you know. We obtained a level 70 Warp Stalker and trained it up nicely. Welcome to Tanking Pet City, population, Us. BigRedKitty: Moths Ferocity Pets! These are the face-rippers, the squishie-killers, the pets that make us proud to be a Beastmaster hunter! Cats, Devilsaurs, Raptors, Wolves! Yeeha! Moths? That's what we're being told, yes. Hunters get some major love in the Wrath Beta In PvP, being able to stand up to focus fire or get back to range have long been weaknesses of the class. Having a non-talent way to break out of snares or add a bit of extra defense attacks will go a long way to making a bit tougher. 77 Hunter solos Onyxia Chalk up another piece of evidence for just how trivial the old world stuff will be when Wrath releases -- here's a video of a Hunter at level 77 (on the beta servers, obviously) soloing the original raid boss herself, Onyxia. Scattered Shots: Pet talent trees in the Wrath Beta It's still very possible that Blizzard may make changes here and there before live, but I think they're solid enough at this point that we can look at each tree and make some solid predictions about how people will use them and how various talent builds might look. Disengage and trap changes coming to Wrath Beta With all the Hunter changes we've been promised in relation to PvP, one that has recently been announced may be the biggest yet. Disengage will be getting a new trick. Skill Mastery: Master's Call First appearing as an 11-point Beastmastery talent, Master's Call is now a new baseline skill for Hunters in the Wrath Beta. With this skill, your pet will rush to your target and remove all existing movement impairing effects or stuns on the target, and cause them to be immune to them for 4 seconds. BigRedKitty: Worms But really, worms? Hunter pets? Tenacity pets? Worm-Tanks, that's the concept Blizzard wants to sell us. Are you buying? How about you watch our little movie and then make up your mind. Hunter Glyphs found in Wrath Beta build 8820 In particular, I'd like to talk about the Hunter glyphs. They still seem half-finished, with some values that are most definitely placeholder, and a good portion of them are firmly in the PvP camp. Still, most of them are complete enough that they're worth analyzing, if only to know how to advise Blizzard to change them in future Beta builds. Scattered Shots: How do you make sense of all the beta hunter changes? The short answer is: You don't; at the moment there is no making sense of all the Wrath hunter changes. We find ourselves at the mid-point of Blizzard's mysterious scheme for hunters, right in-between significant changes already in-progress and vague changes which they've promised or the future. We remain uncertain about which ones are going to make it live, which will be changed again, and which will be removed or added later on. |
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Arcane Brilliance: The Arcane tree in WotLK Now we can finally talk in detail about things a lot of us have known about for months. I'm sure we're all underwhelmed by the Beta patch notes as they apply to Mages. Arcane Brilliance: The future of Fire Leave it to Blizzard to change the Arcane tree substantially the week after Arcane Brilliance's detailed look at that very same tree. I'm sure they did it to spite me! Druids get polar bear form in Wrath with new Glyph list The majority of the new glyphs previewed so far seem to be for druids as of this posting (but who knows what the future may bring) but the one for mages, Glyph of the Penguin, seems extra awesome to me. Yet more beta changes to Mages As has become customary, a new build of the beta has rendered a lot of the Mage class changes I reported earlier today moot. Much of it is still relevant, but the new build has introduced some very substantial new talent re-workings. Arcane Brilliance: Ch-ch-changes I was planning to turn this column's attentions to the Frost tree, but how can I ignore the vast and fairly sweeping changes the other two trees have undergone in the past seven days? The answer? I can't. Arcane Brilliance: Forecasting Frost I'm beginning to recognize a pattern forming. Each week, as Blizzard tweaks the talent setup in the Wrath beta, I'm becoming less and less inclined to complain. I know...I know. I'm a Mage. You poke a Mage with a stick, and QQ comes pouring out. Arcane Brilliance: My Mage wishlist To be frank, in these heady days of Living Bomb spells that look like they might actually be useful, Frostfire Bolts that have the potential to be very, very powerful, Deep Freezes that have become instant cast and do nice damage, an Arcane tree that looks as if it can stand alone as a high-DPS tree, and of course Polymorph: Penguin, I feel as if there simply isn't much left for us Mages to complain about. Arcane Brilliance: Glyph-hanger As you may have noticed, build 8820 has touched down in beta land, and with it we Mages finally have our first real taste of how Inscription will affect us as a class. There are still a great many things we don't know about these glyphs, but just having a list and knowing that Glyph of the Penguin won't be our only reason to track down an Inscriber in the expansion is newsworthy. |
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Wrath Beta patch notes: Paladin part I Faith has been rewarded. The Paladin changes have finally been revealed in the Wrath of the Lich King beta patch notes, and from a quick review of things... I'm just blown away. Wrath Beta patch notes: Paladin part II When Ghostcrawler mentioned on the closed Friends & Family Alpha that Paladins were the last to receive changes because the entire class was being majorly reworked, he wasn't kidding. Wrath Beta patch notes: Paladin part III - the Holy tree Finally. We get to the most exciting -- albeit also most likely to change -- part of our Paladin abilities analysis. The new Wrath of the Lich King talents! Wrath Beta patch notes: Paladin part IV - the Protection tree What about Paladin tanking? The Protection tree in its current state is designed for AoE tanking, which Blizzard acknowledges to be the Paladin tank's niche. Wrath Beta patch notes: Paladin part V - The Retribution tree I saved the best for last. Best if only because Retribution is the tree I've enjoyed the most, and because a quick perusal of the new talents show that Blizzard seems to be taking the right steps for the tree. Where is Blizzard going with Paladin changes? The Paladin changes we've seen so far have been pretty massive. There's been a reworking of our Seal and Judgement system, a shuffling of our talents, and the addition of interesting baseline spells like Divine Plea, a much needed mana recovery mechanic. The important thing to remember, though, is that this is Beta. Paladin glyphs and Blizzard's direction for the class Inscription is shaping up to be one heck of a profession. After seeing the interesting Druid and Mage glyphs in an earlier build of Beta, this latest build pushed yesterday revealed some Paladin glyphs and gives us an inkling of where Blizzard wants to take the class. The Light and How to Swing It: The shocking truth in Beta Ok. So Paladins rock in Beta. One popular request on the comments has been to test drive the new Wrath Shockadin, with improvements like a 6 second Holy Shock and ranged judgements from Enlightened Judgements, it really does seem like the spec has finally come into its own. Paladin glyphs in Beta build 8885 A few new glyphs have popped up in the latest Beta build, and basing it the list, it looks like some old ones have changed. A quick glance at the glyphs show them to be rather underwhelming, however, and I'm not so sure Blizzard is taking the right direction with them. Let's take a closer look. |
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Wrath Beta patch notes: Priest I've talked about what we saw in Alpha, and I was cautiously optimistic at the time. After seeing these notes... well... yeah, I'm still optimistic. I am (dare I say it?)... excited, even! Spiritual Guidance: The new age raiding Holy Priest A look at the new spells and abilities that Priests bring to a raid and how changes to the other classes will be affecting us. I'll also touch a bit on threat, my thoughts on Lightwell, and the raid viability of Discipline. Spiritual Guidance: Shadows of Wrath We haven't had a lot of Shadow love lately, so I figure it's about time we check out our new spells in Wrath of the Lich King. With the level cap currently 77 in the Wrath beta, it's a little hard to gauge just how effective the new Shadow spells really are. A Shadow Priest's take on the new Priest glyphs I've never said "Oh man I wish my silly fear lasted THREE MORE SECONDS" but oh well. Not all glyphs need to be drool-worthy. A Psychic Scream glyph might be something I would use while leveling. Spiritual Guidance: Utgarde Keep and the Nexus as Discipline After getting a beta key, I was absolutely excited with all the Priest changes and additions made. Several of the other WoW Insider bloggers wanted to get into Utgarde Keep and the Nexus in order to experience both places. The objective was to try out our new toys, of course. Select Priest glyphs changed in latest beta push Do you remember when the Shadow Priest glyphs made their rounds, and then we all complained a lot and made suggestions as to how they should be fixed? Guess what, guys. They aren't terrible anymore! I know, it's a shock! Skill Mastery: Penance Healing priests aren't getting a ton of new tricks in Wrath. In fact, some of our old tricks are getting removed: downranking is no longer viable, so goodbye Greater Heal (Rank 1). However, like every other class, we are getting a few new spells, and one of them is Penance. Beta Shadow concerns The core argument is that Shadow Priests' utility is not at the point it was once at (group mana regen is not unique any more; Shadow is not as important for raid synergy), but their DPS has not (yet) been increased accordingly. |
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Wrath Beta patch notes: Rogue Right off the bat Blizzard is changing stat itemization in regards to Hit and Crit to a more generalized Hit Rating and Critical Strike Rating. Encrypted Text: Assassination in Wrath While the Combat tree is focused on increasing white damage overall, and Subtlety about survivability and burst, Assassination is all about the liberal application of consistent damage through a repertoire spells and damage application modifiers (a la poison). Many Rogue changes incoming Rogues were one of the last classes to get new talent trees for LK; in general, it seems like they've been a bit behind during the beta. However, today another blue I've never heard of, by the name of Gamnin, dropped a lot of information about what's in store for the most stabbity of classes. Encrypted Text: Rogue Glyphs Inscriptions, a new profession in Wrath of the Lich King, allows for the creation of tradable Glyphs that can enhance your spells and abilities. Recently a number of these glyphs were released into a beta build and Inscription was announced to be apart of the new pre-Wrath patch. Encrypted Text: Combat in Wrath Ahh Combat. The cornerstone of the end (and mid-) game PvE Rogue. While not perfect, the Combat tree can be hugely satisfying and bears with it none of the positional damage dealing that the other two trees require, at least in part. Getting in people's (as well as creature's) faces and crushing them is all just part of the experience of the combat spec. |
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Wrath Beta patch notes: Shaman We now have a plethora of new information about where shamans are going in the expansion, and one thing is clear: totems are changing. Totem tracking for Wrath Beta Most of what we're seeing at this time is changes to talents, but there's quite a bit of totem news in there. Some totems stand to get buffed, others nerfed and some removed from the game altogether. Enhancement shamans, now 50% more huntery (Yes, I know 'huntery' isn't a word.) The idea is for DPS mail (with AGI and AP) to be viable for both Hunters and Shaman. Strength is mostly now only a stat for Death Knights, Warriors and Ret Paladins. The Wrath of the Shaman Part 1: Enhancement The real power of the shift towards granting AP from agility isn't that it will make agility more attractive on our gear. The real power is in this move's synergy with the incoming enhancement talent Mental Dexterity. The Wrath of the Shaman Part 2: Elemental Combat One of the first things I notice comparing the current talent trees to the ones coming is the move of Elemental Devastation down to a 5 point talent, making it much friendlier for Enhancement Shamans to pick up. Totem Talk: The Wrath of the Shaman part 3 - Restoration and Synergy As I promised you, our look at Wrath talents and skills for Shamans concludes with a roundup of restoration talents and skills and then a discussion of what all these new abilities mean for shamans. Totem Talk: How will you grow? To a degree, leveling a shaman is like being starving at an all you can eat buffet: you have so many choices that you might end up not being able to choose at all. More Shaman beta changes on the horizon Yet more news from the beta: while not as massive as the revamp to the Death Knight from the last patch, shamans have seen a fair amount of change in the most recent beta patch. The Wrath of the Shaman Part 4: New Talent Build and Inscription, too Totem of Wrath now increases spell damage as well as crit chance. That's good, but I'm concerned about the loss of hit, especially since shamans have also lost hit from restoration in beta. Totem Talk: Beta Impressions I have seen my character, a shaman with Kara/T4 quality mail, take a large jump in his DPS. His attack power is up by an easy 300 points. If you are a shaman who has collecting what we used to call 'hunter mail' you will see a serious reward for equipping it in Northrend. Totem Talk: Restoration in the Wrath Beta For most of yesterday the beta was inaccessible and when it finally came up again, it was patched, and that patch kicked me in the metaphorical testicles. I don't think I've been as shocked by a change to the game, especially one that's apparently intended like this one is. Earth Shock replacement to be implemented due to downranking changes People are still reeling from the downranking change on Beta, but as the dust clears, it may be that we'll have to live with it. One thing Blizzard has said, however, is that if it looks like there's genuine void created somewhere by the loss of downranking, they'll fix it. Totem Talk: What will Patch 3.0 mean? Well, this week we found out that we're going to get a taste of the new talents and skills for Wrath of the Lich King, which wasn't exactly a surprise, as we got a similar content patch before the launch of The Burning Crusade. However, as we've been getting quite a bit of mail asking what, exactly, it means for shamans when patch 3.0 goes live. Totem Talk: Enhancement in the Wrath Beta I'm resisting the urge to post more about downranking and shamans because I want to let it shake out a little bit more. However, since the change to downranking and the XP change happened at the same time in the beta, it's made my attempt to explore various specs a little harder to do: in order to see what all the new abilities can really do, I need to burn my way to 77 as fast as I can. |
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Wrath Beta patch notes: Warlock part I We'll want to be sure we understand what's coming for us, so as not to let anyone think those other evil guys are horning in on our territory. Blood Pact: The Warlock wishlist revisited Many moons back, I looked at some wishes that warlocks had to improve our lot (but didn't break the game). We're now here in this pre-expansion funk, where players are generally more interested in things to come than things that are. Warlock talent changes added to official talent calculators For every major class mechanic overhaul in the Wrath Beta, there's also a few minor tweaks for other classes as Blizzard works on perfecting the new talents and class balance for release. Today, it's the Warlocks' turn. Blood Pact: Is Demonic Circle the Warlock answer to melee? I figured that this topic was intriguing enough to warrant its own article and a look at probably the most interesting ability - in terms of Warlock mechanics - that we'll get in the expansion: Demonic Circle. Warlock talent plus Tier 5 set bonus equals 536 million DPS Um, nerf Warlocks? With all of the talking we've been doing about Wrath of the Lich King lately, we haven't really mentioned the one thing players are supposed to be doing on the beta servers: finding bugs. Fortunately, Sneakthief found a very nice one... New Warlock glyphs found in Wrath Beta build 8820 As Inscription is slowly built into a viable trade skill, Blizzard sneaks more and more glyph data onto the Beta server, even if none of it is directly available thus far. This build, MMO Champion discovered a nice selection of Warlock glyphs, and I have to say that most of them look pretty sweet. |
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The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Wrath Beta Edition Well, we were going to talk about other things, but with the Beta coming out I have to admit I've entirely forgotten what they were. The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Reset/Packrat As time has gone on, without really realizing it, I've been moving to a more hit/expertise system which relies less on big shield slams and more on consistent white damage and specials that don't miss and are not dodged or parried. Is Titan's Grip that good? I'm noticing a disturbing trend in perusing the Wrath blue posts. Well, disturbing for me, and possibly for any other warriors out there. All that awesome we seemed to be getting? It doesn't seem that the warriors are finding it quite so awesome. The Care and Feeding of Warriors: I still love you, Titan's Grip Dear, sweet Titan's Grip, be thou not angered at me. Dost thou remember how our affair began, as news of you first broached the shores of Europe and invited the whole world in? Yes, I have aired my doubts of you in public before now. For the truth is, my fair one, you are not perfect. Pets Scaling in Wrath: Hit percentage is in, resilience and xp bonuses are out A while back, class designer Koraa told Warlocks that their pets would be getting their master's hit percentage. Today, he confirmed the same for Hunter pets. Warriors will be cooling down faster in Northrend (Which, I suppose, makes sense. It's cold up there.) If you've been playing a warrior for a long time, you've probably gotten used to the way your three big class abilities work. Presently, Shield Wall, Retaliation and Recklessness are linked abilities with a shared 30 minute cooldown. The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Starved for Choice The current Wrath of the Lich King beta has had a lot of ups and downs. At present, since you can't say any class is finished and talents and abilities are subject to change at a moment's notice, all that can really be done is to evaluate what's currently the situation with the class. Warriors and Beta build 8885 Overall, the changes are deceptive. They look small at first, until you really stop and think about them. The biggest changes are also a little baffling, but not necessarily bad. The Care and Feeding of Warriors: The Climb to 80 It took several days longer than I expected, in part due to there being one less zone than there would be live, but last night I managed to level my tauren warrior to 80 in a mix of blues and greens, all of his PvP epics and Karazhan gear having been finally replaced. The Care and Feeding of Warriors: When words are insufficient I'm not even talking about the arms tree buffs yet. I hereby dub this beta patch "The patch warriors will never actually see go live" because it's simply too amazing. While yes, mace specialization has been nerfed, I honestly hated it anyway: getting stunlocked is bad enough, but it's even worse when it's another warrior doing it. The new version doesn't really offer much, though, I can't imagine anyone taking it over Sword or Poleaxe. Warriors gain super buffed Titan's Grip and passive Mortal Strike Have you ever wondered what the collective sound of every warrior's jaw dropping to the floor is like? Tonight you can experience it first hand by logging into vent and listening to them as they read about the latest changes in the beta. |
