Cataclysm Stat & System Changes

[Baaadum]

Holy shit, the sky is falling...!!

Oh, wait.. what? Blizzard stat change?

/head explodes

[Miatela]

Indeed, which is hopefully what reforging will do, tweaking sub-par stats to your liking is certainly going to be interesting. Making your gear a little more customizable, coupled with mastery, should keep people happy with their own armor class.

Or confuse the issue of gearing to even worse than it is now. "You want this Cloth piece with Hit as your best in slot healing gear. Yes, you lose Mastery but if you Reforge these two stats into these other two its better than anything designed from you". I'm hoping things will become easier but I feel that things could get incredibly awkward unless Blizzard have a very precise plan and do not deviate from it.

Any change in content progression could lead to the introduction of pieces with spellpower on them to differentiate as better gear and soon we fall back into the same gear issues we apparently have just now (the only one I can think of being Spellpower plate).

[schwegburt]

THIS IS WHAT I WANTED IN RAID DESIGN EVER SINCE I STARTED WOW. Very good.

No kidding. I'm so annoyed at how much Hit is on ICC gear and how utterly useless that stat is because you only need a marginal amount.

[Linuilas]

Yes, we won't be taking leather because we will be forced to not. Is this an option - NO.

Noone's forcing you to do anything, you can still take as much leather gear as you like come Cata. The only thing that's changing is that discrepancy of plate wearing dps classes being forced to use leather dps gear rather than plate will have been resolved. Or do you really think that forcing plate wearers to pick up leather gear because of bad stat itemization is really a better solution?

And how is that up to blizzard to decide what am I supposed to wear and what not?

Errr because it's their game? And because they decide the itemization of gear? I fail to see how your argument that they'll be "forcing" you to wear plate items is any different from the current situation where you're "forced" to wear leather gear.

Playing a game while having different gearing options makes so much more fun and makes you think more which adds complexity which is also more fun.

Now they are just completely ruining that.

Making your own armour class more appealing to you doesn't mean you have fewer gearing options. If you're picking up leather gear now then you're obviously passing over plate gear that you have decided is sub-optimal for your class/spec so in reality you don't have any more gearing options now. Sure you can pick up plate gear to bide you over until you can get your hands on the leather gear you want but that doesn't mean you've had more choice, and there's nothing in Cata that will stop you doing similar until you get the gear you do want (which then just be plate rather than leather).

This seriously disgusts me. They want everything available to everyone and everything to be easier. Its fun deciding what gear to get and what might be better. I don't want to automatically look at gear for 2 seconds and be able to say, "That is better, 100% sure, no questioning it." Stats in this game are not complicated. I'm sorry, but if you think that it's complicated, then your bad, or have never talked to anybody about your class. I knew what I needed of my stats and what was good before any patches usually come out, or right after a patch.
If anything, this is making the game LESS fun imo...

Noone is saying that everyone will be able to look at gear for 2 seconds and be able to say without a doubt whether or not it's a definite upgrade, but Blizz want it to be the case that you can look at an item and decide that without having to go and plug all the details into a simulator or spreadsheet to get the answer. And to be honest for all the talk about the fun and decisions to be made about what gear to get the vast majority of people just go places like here or elitistjerks and either get a list of gear to aim for or ask people what they should get (who then usually answer from a list they got from a website/forum).

[Herecius]

I love how a lot of people are QQing about subpar stats being the only ones available to reforge to, when they're actually talking about how they're subpar for WotLK. Last I checked, WotLK isn't Cataclysm. I'd better double check my install version though, this much QQ can't be wrong... can it?

[Shamslam]

Dumbing down? Hell this actually brings more diversity to the game and lets you have a brain. Like it's already been said in here, the only hard part of gearing in WoW right now is finding a website that tells you what to do about everything. Everyone is running around with the same spec, same exact pieces of gear, etc. ArP was by far the stupidest stat in WoW, good riddance. I was as tired of getting stuck with mail ArP pieces just as much as hunters hated all the haste mail pieces.

At least in Cata we will have more points to do with what we want, adding some diversity, as well as allowing us to change certain stats on gear. It's gonna be awesome to finally see a cookie cutter build that lets you choose like 5 or 6 of your own points, as well seeing people with the same gear but different stats.

[Kwickslash]

ITT: People comparing future stats with current specs.

When 4.0 rolls over specs will be changing as well as the stats just like in patches 2.0 and 3.0. Deal with change. It's for the better.

[Wanky]

I know that there are whiny bitches for every tidbit of news that Blizzard delivers, whether it be a tiny hotfix or a major article of information relating to a new expansion. But all of the whining here, now more than ever, is completely, totally, and absolutely unjustified. Nothing much will change, and everything that will change will be for the better. What's wrong with changing stats so that plate classes don't have to wear leather to DPS, or changing Haste so that it's actually interesting and fun? Nothing. What's wrong with removing convoluted and stupid stats like Armor Pen and MP5, or incorporating existing stats like Attack Power into existing meta-stats like Agility/Strength? Again, nothing (Agility and strength already give AP bonuses anyway... why not just assign AP into each category for simplicity?).

There is no "skill" involved with reading stats. Knowing exactly what "x" stat does isn't any better than knowing that "x" stat is just good and you should get MOAR of it. Once again, most of the people that are crying are just the usual trolls, but don't listen to the hate: these changes only simplify the existing stat system so that it's not so convoluted, while adding sweet new stuff (like Mastery... really interested as to how that works!) to the game. I can't wait for Cataclysm.

[Shamslam]

ITT: People comparing future stats with current specs.

When 4.0 rolls over specs will be changing as well as the stats just like in patches 2.0 and 3.0. Deal with change. It's for the better.

QFT. This thread is full of people asking stupid questions that are answered in the quote, or people complaining that "omg but spirit is bad 4 pally!!"

This change will do nothing, if anything you wannabe elitists should be happy since this apparently "dumbs down the game." Now all the noobs will have the same 3 stats as you, but you will be able to faceroll them anyway cuz you're that good.

[Haidaes]

I wonder if Frost DKs will finally get "(Frozen) Titan's Grip" with the cataclysm ?
1H melee weapons would come with no AP at all but buckloads of agi, which might do even less than now according to the changes stated in the post. So either they have to overbuff the frost tree (maybe) to compensate, make special 1H weapons only for DKs with STR (most unlikly), make them use tank weapons (usually too fast/still bad itemized) or just let us use 2x2H weapons.

What is it gonna be? :P

[Brookes]

I wonder if Frost DKs will finally get "(Frozen) Titan's Grip" with the cataclysm ?
1H melee weapons would come with no AP at all but buckloads of agi, which might do even less than now according to the changes stated in the post. So either they have to overbuff the frost tree (maybe) to compensate, make special 1H weapons only for DKs with STR (most unlikly), make them use tank weapons (usually too fast/still bad itemized) or just let us use 2x2H weapons.

What is it gonna be? :P

reforge that agi to str imo

[Grimraven]

I agree that having open options is fun; however, it is a little more than ridiculous when you see a warrior in half leather gear with his explanation being, "i saw arpen and went for it!"
IIRC, warriors wear plate, and when they prefer lower classes, something's obviously wrong, which is what they're fixing.
And who are they to decide what you gear for? Not really sure how to answer that...but...they're the people who decide what you gear for. I understand that you're trying to fuel some hate machine here, but realistically they're making changes that will benefit everyone, no matter how much rage you spout.

oh I understand what their goals is - to have "plate users" wear plate rather than mail or leather.

However, they cannot make plate more attractive than leather simply because they put too much stamina on plate and THAT is what they should be fixing.

Instead, they force us to wear plate by pretty much making leather and mail useless.

Might as well just change class description where they can only wear plate

[Phasmy]

This thread delivers in typical forum stupidity.

Thank you for my enjoyment.

[Shamslam]

I wonder if Frost DKs will finally get "(Frozen) Titan's Grip" with the cataclysm ?
1H melee weapons would come with no AP at all but buckloads of agi, which might do even less than now according to the changes stated in the post. So either they have to overbuff the frost tree (maybe) to compensate, make special 1H weapons only for DKs with STR (most unlikly), make them use tank weapons (usually too fast/still bad itemized) or just let us use 2x2H weapons.

What is it gonna be? :P

I'm gonna guess that mastery (or a talent) for going DW frost will probably include something to let you benefit more from agility on weapons. That or they make str 1h weapons. It really depends if they do actually decide to just make agil/str = 2 AP for everyone. That or reforging of course.

[Cerin]

This seriously disgusts me. They want everything available to everyone and everything to be easier. Its fun deciding what gear to get and what might be better. I don't want to automatically look at gear for 2 seconds and be able to say, "That is better, 100% sure, no questioning it." Stats in this game are not complicated. I'm sorry, but if you think that it's complicated, then your bad, or have never talked to anybody about your class. I knew what I needed of my stats and what was good before any patches usually come out, or right after a patch.
If anything, this is making the game LESS fun imo...

When the answer to pretty much any gear question is "plug it into rawr and sim it", that's too complicated.
There's a HUGE difference between 'look at gear for 2 seconds' and 'so complicated that you need to go get a 3rd party program (such as rawr) and plug numbers in there' and I suspect blizzard will put it somewhere in between.

[Haidaes]

reforge that agi to str imo

well thats a possibilty i haven't thought about, though you still only have 50% of the AP of a regular STR item.

[Quesly]

but...but...but... what will happen to my gear now that will become my rp set during cata with all arp gems

[Xiaz89]

somehow i still have the feeling we elemental shamans are going to get screwed over gearwise once again.

I remain sceptical, we'll see...

[Brookes]

I'm gonna guess that mastery for going DW frost will probably (or a talent) will include something to let you benefit more from agility on weapons. That or they make str 1h weapons. It really depends if they do actually decide to just make agil/str = 2 AP for everyone.

will tank weapons be less..."tank" weaponish? what with the lack of defense you can just reforge the avoidance stats to something better.

[Shamslam]

somehow i still have the feeling we elemental shamans are going to get screwed over gearwise once again.

I remain sceptical, we'll see...

I don't see how we can be tbh. The gear change is pretty much what we have always wanted, and the fact we won't need to go heavy on hit since mail caster gear w/ spirit will cover it...I'm actually considering coming back in 4.0 just to see how this goes.