Thank God they removed our 'ranged' (Wand) slot!

[Kolo]

I'm not happy. We're losing a stats slot :/

If everyone is losing a stat slot then nobody is losing stats... technically.

[vaeevictiss]

i think that is BS...what about all the awesome weapons out there they are letting us transmog to...so im only going to be able to do that for 4.3 and thats it? Everyone else gets to take advantage of weapon trasmogs? Call me a QQer, but i dont play the game for my lock to look like harry potter waving a stick around.

[Afflictid]

Um.... they are just adding wands AS main hands. They aren't removing 1h maces, swords, and daggers....

[Xuany]

I'm not happy. We're losing a stats slot :/

You aren't losing anything, it's just one less item you have to worry about acquiring, besides wands and other ranged weapons are just a pain in the ass to make and really only Hunters get any real benefit from them other than being a stat stick.

[TheTrueM4gg0t]

Um.... they are just adding wands AS main hands. They aren't removing 1h maces, swords, and daggers....

I very well see them doing this (add wands as 1h) to explicitly distinquish in between casterweaps and meleeweaps.
I could imagine, that they remove 1h-int weapons, and introduce wands with tonnes of spellpower as only source for caster 1h.
but thats only speculation

[Kikiyodragon]

I expect it's to reduce the number of weapons in-game.

Potentially say good-bye to some/all spellcaster melee weapons.

Druids, shaman and monks will still use a main-hand/off-hand/shield.

[MoanaLisa]

As a point of interest they said at the professions QA (I think) that enchanters will be able to make epic wands. My enchanter likes this.

[Themos]

If everyone is losing a stat slot then nobody is losing stats... technically.

Relatively, yes. Absolutely, no.
The loss of stats is real, and unless they inflate our other stats or change our regen equation it's a loss of mana regen. At the very least, when 5.0 hits, it'll hurt. And at the new level cap, it will lead to a lot of spell cost tweaking shenanigans.


Personally, I don't see the reason for axing wands. It's an easy item slot to upgrade, the only real reason is due to cut development corners. And unless they do something big like actually update the race models, it's BS :/

[Arlee]

Somehow I think they will manage to tune the content to the fact that people will have lost some stats.

[Themos]

Somehow I think they will manage to tune the content to the fact that people will have lost some stats.

Im not worried about things like DPS and HPS, but our mana regen model is balanced around including that stat slot.
Omitting it will leave us in a regen deficit, and yall know what blizzard's stance on giving us more mana regen is. They are more inclined to take away than give back.

[FieryBull]

Im not worried about things like DPS and HPS, but our mana regen model is balanced around including that stat slot.
Omitting it will leave us in a regen deficit, and yall know what blizzard's stance on giving us more mana regen is. They are more inclined to take away than give back.

Are we all talking about wands right now? If so, the difference with mana regen will be so minor that it probably won't be noticeable.

[Kelesti]

Im not worried about things like DPS and HPS, but our mana regen model is balanced around including that stat slot.
Omitting it will leave us in a regen deficit, and yall know what blizzard's stance on giving us more mana regen is. They are more inclined to take away than give back.

If they were doing it in 4.3, I would be inclined to agree.... sort of. Though I could also be inclined to agree that Discipline is also including the Intellect on that stat slot, and have no fears.

However, this is taking place in 5.0, and that little bit of stats that wands have can get folded into other things. We actually lost spellpower going from 3.3.X into 4.0, just because of how the intellect conversion came out (smaller overall) but it wasn't a concern.

Wands haven't been interesting since AQ40, just something a lot of us had to spec into so we could level without going OoM (pretty poor design). If wands had a functional game purpose, I'd definitely be looking at this with a "o.O" face. But they're more worthless than my warrior's gun at this point.

[Themos]

The change is clearly a 5.0 one, not a 4.3.

*shrug* I'm less concerned with the period between 5.0 hitting and the expac launching and more worried about how it will effect our regen. Raw stats are fairly important when newly dinged, and right from the get go we'll have it a bit rougher than we should unless mana costs are slightly tweaked to make up the deficit. And stuff like that tends to not be clear during beta tests due to level caps.

Sure, equipping a wand in t13 won't be a major loss. But go ahead and unequip a wand on a freshly dinged priest. It's much more noticeable. :/

[Greens]

I wonder if you can melee with wands?

[Arteous]

Gratz on getting a legendary staff. enjoy it while you can. for the next what 8 months? then it will rot in your bank and you'll never be able to equip it again .. you won't even be able to show it off in ironforge/stormwind while idle... enjoy your harry potter wands

[poliwag23]

I don't get the point of having a wand as a weapon. Even if they buff the stats to make it like a normal 1hander.

Unless they're planning to make Wands the "caster weapon" for lock/mage/priest instead of dagger/sword/mace, and leave those weapons for melee.

Way back in vanilla wanding was actually viable dps phases for some bosses.

Also, wanding was the way you used to level priests, since you didn't get shadowform till level 40. Wands are mostly a relic of vanilla.

[Deleted]

Gratz on getting a legendary staff. enjoy it while you can. for the next what 8 months? then it will rot in your bank and you'll never be able to equip it again .. you won't even be able to show it off in ironforge/stormwind while idle... enjoy your harry potter wands

They have never said that you wouldn't be able to equip non-wand weapons...

[Arlee]

Gratz on getting a legendary staff. enjoy it while you can. for the next what 8 months? then it will rot in your bank and you'll never be able to equip it again .. you won't even be able to show it off in ironforge/stormwind while idle... enjoy your harry potter wands

You are treading very closely on trolling here.... In no place have they EVER said that we are only going to be able to use wands. Wands are going to be MH weapons.. the same way daggers and maces currently are. Please don't come here trying to start dumb stuff.

[Nox165]

Gratz on getting a legendary staff. enjoy it while you can. for the next what 8 months? then it will rot in your bank and you'll never be able to equip it again .. you won't even be able to show it off in ironforge/stormwind while idle... enjoy your harry potter wands

Did you even read what they said about wands? They will be main hand weapons now,moreover, this gives priest locks and mages another weapon choice. Please don't jump the gun thanks.

[Worshaka]

Relatively, yes. Absolutely, no.
The loss of stats is real, and unless they inflate our other stats or change our regen equation it's a loss of mana regen. At the very least, when 5.0 hits, it'll hurt. And at the new level cap, it will lead to a lot of spell cost tweaking shenanigans.


Personally, I don't see the reason for axing wands. It's an easy item slot to upgrade, the only real reason is due to cut development corners. And unless they do something big like actually update the race models, it's BS :/

Wrong

Balance is done retrospectively. First they ask the question, what sort of stats are possible, and when you reach those stats what do we want it to mean? Absolute power means little in a game based on relative power. Stats of a value x means its challenging when you hit y value you over power it. Whether you have that occur when x = 500 & y = 600 vs x = 5000 & y = 6000 changes nothing.

Just to illustrate my point. When LK was first designed they didn't account for the introduction of hard modes and thus another teir of loot. That meant when they number crunched combat ratings they did so thinking that the iLvl in the last teir of LK would be 232. However when the pushed in these extra teirs it ballooned the value out to a possible 271 and a bit higher for HLK. Even with people in 251 or 264 were in gear well above the projections. This is how mages for example were able to crit cap.

When MoP is designed, they know what iLvl you will be in, they adjust their combat ratings so you get a desirable level of stats that don't cause issues and they know pretty much exactly what your mana regen, dps and relative power level will be. They then design encounters that will be challenging at first and not so challenging when you gear out of them.

There is no way that the removal of a stat slot all of a sudden means you can't perform your function or it will lessen the desired relative power level they want you to be at. If you read more about MoP you will see they wish to reset stats so the actual stats you have might be something closer to the values we had in TBC... I'm not sure until I hear more about the propose but don't expect to have 20K of a stat at lvl 90 (which would be the case if current stats continue to grow as they are).