World of Warcraft News and Raiding Strategies

We will be holding our next developer chat on Twitter on Friday, July 16, at 5:00 p.m. PDT with World of Warcraft's systems design team. This chat session will focus on the recently-announced talent specialization and Mastery system changes coming in Cataclysm: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/th...26290449&sid=1

We'll be taking questions live through Twitter, so be sure to sign up for a Twitter account at https://twitter.com/signup and follow @Warcraft to participate.

To submit a question for the developer chat, please tweet using the #BlizzChat hashtag between 5:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. PDT on July 16. Due to Twitter's character limitations, all answers will be posted in a dedicated thread on the World of Warcraft forums.

A typical day @ Blizzard
Most of the day is spent in communication of some sort. We'll have formal meetings where we review a current talent tree. We have just tons and tons of discussions of "Hey, guys, I had an idea," or "Hey, I can't solve this problem. Any thoughts?" We do work quite closely with the programmers implementing things like the new talent UI or the new scaling spell model. We also work closely with the artists coming up with new spell visuals. Our QA department is constantly trying to sort through what the design of the moment is, and they do a great job of triaging the totally broken things from the "fix this before we ship" things. The community team brings us concerns that they have seen on the forums or from their interactions with players. This is particularly true for the non-English forums, because my non-English for one is sadly lacking. History geek that I am, I studied Ancient Greek in college, which serves me about as well in day to day life as you probably imagine.

GC's got friends in every town and village from here to the Sudan. He speaks a dozen languages, knows every local custom. He'll blend in -- disappear -- you'll never see him again. With any luck... he's got the Grail already.

GC: Does anyone here speak English? Or even Ancient Greek?

There aren't many typical days. Sometimes we will spend literally hours discussing one problem. The last few days it has been the paladin rotations. We'll throw things on white boards, send out some ideas to guys not actually in the office, try out some stuff in game to see how it feels, and get feedback from anyone who has recently run one of the new dungeons or tried a new BG. We interact a lot with the community outside of the building, visibly on forums like this one, but through email, IRC and even in game. There are a lot of excellent PvP and PvE players with whom I regularly correspond, and I want to call out any of you reading this and thank you publically.

Overall the environment is very collaborative. The team as a whole (by which I mean the artists, programmers, producers and everyone else) don't get enough credit for the design decisions that go into the game. In many cases, my guys are just the implementers, but the ideas and feedback come from everyone working on WoW. (Source)

Beta Testing
Deepholm - Alliance Gunship crash
If you are experiencing client crashes in the area near the Alliance Gunship, temporarily turn your graphic settings to low and set your view distance to the minimum setting. After you’ve completed the quests at the gunship, feel free to restore your settings.

The fix for this issue has already been implemented in the next build. (Source)

Deepholm - Temple of Earth
The Temple of Earth should be a sanctuary, if that's what you're talking about. Everything else is fair game for PVP. This area should be flagged correctly in the next build. (Source)

Player vs. Player
Anti-Crowd Control Talents
We are getting rid of a lot of the "being CC'd doesn't really counter you" talents, because we think they have led to classes not having weaknesses. The fact that instant casts are so important in PvP we think is a direct result from mobility being so important which is a direct result of nobody being controlled. We just need to chill all of that stuff out. If CCs are too potent, we want to nerf the CCs, not give everyone "CCs are impotent" talents. (Source)

Classes
This is a first pass
While this is a first pass on all of the talent trees, death knight, druid, paladin, warlock, Arcane mage, and Assassination rogue trees are not as far along as other specializations. (Source)

Damage vs. Utility Talents
Those are actually the decisions we're looking for. Trying to decide between dps and utility isn't a decision (for PvE anyway) and choosing damage vs. damage is a decision most players make by going to third party sites. We want you to be able to get all of the damage talents you reasonably can, and be making decisions over the utility talents. (Source)

Damage / PvP Talents loss
Yes. Every class lost "PvP isn't so hard on me" talents and every class lost passive damage. (Source)

Stats / Damage Loss
In any case, many of the trees lost passive stat bonuses like this. If you want Strength, gear for it. The damage of every class will be adjusted according to the new talent trees. (Source)

Passive talents in early tiers
I did say that the first two tiers were liable to contain passive talents. This is for three reasons. First, these are available at very low level where you have few abilities to make a real rotation. Second, they need to be pretty understandable to new players (including experienced players trying a new class for the first time). Third, they need to be attractive to subspecs at high level.

There are placeholder talents in various places in the trees though, and we'll keep iterating on all of them throughout beta. This is a pretty big change to every class. (Source)

Modifying spell coefficients
We're probably not going to have any talents that modify coefficients. Those are really mathy talents and super-confusing for non hardcore players. It also means the talents aren't useful until you have end-game levels of stats on your gear. We'll just increase the damage or healing total, which affects the flat points as well as the coefficients. (Source)

Death Knight (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
No posts today.

Druid (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Moonkin Form missing from the Talent Tree
We are experimenting between Moonkin Form and Starsurge being the level 10 bonus (the other will be the first active ability in the talent tree). (Source)

Hunter (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Cobra Shot
Marks and Survival generally won't use Cobra Shot in PvE -- mobs don't change their armor. BM will use Cobra Shot in PvP and PvE. (Source)

Mage (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Arcane
Arcane has two passive talents early right now, Torment the Weak and Netherwind Presence. We would like to replace one of them. We do want the early talents to be relatively simple, useful at low level and attractive for subspec though. (Source)

Paladin (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Warning: Paladin Skills/Talents in current beta build
These are old talents. This is not the paladin revamp that we said was coming. Sorry, you'll just have to wait a little bit longer. (Source)

Removal of Judgement of Wisdom
This is true. JoW was really only a big deal for hunters, shaman and paladins themselves, and those are all solvable in other ways. (Source)

Divine Illumination
There is no Divine Illumination. Divine Favor is 100% chance to crit on your next heal with a 1 min cooldown. [...] It is still called Divine Favor, still grants a 100% crit chance to the direct heals and Holy Shock (to tie into all the "on crit" mechanics in the tree) and has a 1 min cooldown. (Source)

Paladin Questions (Source)
1. Are Sanctified Ret, Swift Ret, Sanctuary, and Imp Dev Aura going to remain 3-pt talents? They feel too expensive this way. Maybe they can be rolled into individual talents, or changed to cost 2-pts each.
One of Sanctified and Swift is 2 points and the other is 1 point. I can't remember which without looking. Imp Dev Aura is dead.

2. The whole reactive Judgement thing feels weird to me. If a Ret is taking a lot of damage in PvP, he no longer has to worry about mana? I'm all for new mechanics and making E4E a strong talent, but I'm not sure I like this. On the same note, how about Purifying Power -- if a Holy Paladin dispels his teammate, will it break CC on the enemy who applied the debuff?
Reactive Judgements is also dead.

I'm going to regret saying this, but the paladin trees are the most changed in the game. There are only a few of the current beta talents that survived the, um, cleansing.

Holy Shield
We are going to turn both Holy Shield and Shield Block into short cooldowns. A short cooldown is an ability that you don't save for an absolute emergency (like Shield Wall) but we also don't want it to be on such a short cooldown that it feels maintenance-y. It's a tricky number to get right, but something in the 30 sec to 1 min zone feels about right. Then you might use Holy Shield one GCD instead of SoR or you can choose to save it until the next big boss attack. (Source)

Pushback Resistance
Holy paladins get pushback resistance too. (Source)

Paladin Rotations
If we do one thing for class design in Cataclysm, it will be changing the paladin (all 3 specs) rotation up a bit! (Source)

Holy Shock
Holy Shock is Holy only again. We wanted an ability that did healing and damage for Holy, and Holy Shock fit that bill.

We have plenty of other ideas to get more interest into the Prot and Ret rotations. (Source)

Retribution
In the Ret case, we started with a basic question: what is it they should be managing? There are a lot of things they *could* be managing. Today it's cooldowns. It could be mana or procs or a lot of things. There was one Ret talent in particular we really liked, and we started building a rotation around it. Then we decided the mechanic was good enough to flesh out for Holy and Prot too.

We're not ready to share the design just yet, and like all changes of this sort, it will be controversial. Some players crave a more interactive rotation. Some like their paladins the way they are. Some are only attracted to the class because it can be overpowered and they like to feel like a superhero. (Source)

Priest (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Lightwell
In the current beta build (or possibly the next one), clicking Lightwell no longer switches your target to it. That was one of the changes we've been waiting for to reevaluate the talent. (Enemies can still target it normally.) (Source)

Desperate Prayer
Desperate Prayer is a pretty different ability. They really only have the name in common. In Cataclysm, Desperate Prayer has a 45 sec cooldown (down from 2 min). The lower cooldown will let you use it often as leveling.

Holy also has a talent that when you use Desperate Prayer (to heal yourself), it also heals the most injured ally (a portion of the healing done to you), turning it into an instant, smart Binding Heal. (Source)

Shadow Priest - Hit from Spirit
No, we said that hybrids who share gear will be able to convert Spirit to hit. We originally were only going to do it for druids and shaman, but priests argued that it should apply to them too (even though they do have they do have access to actual hit gear). (Source)

Rogue (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
No posts today.

Shaman (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
No posts today.

Warlock (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
No posts today.

Warrior (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Damage loss / 2H Weapon Specialization
[...] You didn't lose any damage. Talents that grant nothing but armor pen or Strength are not the kind of talents we want to offer any more, at least below the first couple of tiers. You won't be doing any less damage when you log in for Cataclysm than you do today.

Imagine the Two-Handed Weapon Specialization from Arms is +28% to damage with two-handed weapons or whatever it needs to be to make up for losing talents. (Source)

Stats loss
Most trees are losing free stats such as Strength, hit and expertise. If you want it, you'll have to gear it. The dual-wield trees will keep some free hit. (Source)

Tactical Mastery
Tactical Mastery is now baked into Stance Mastery (so you retain 25 rage when swapping).(Source)

Piercing Howl
Well, we'd like for Fury to be usable in PvP and there is a certain attraction to Arms having Juggernaut and Bladestorm, but Fury having Piercing Howl. As it is now, it's easy to make a hybrid build that scoops up the best of both talent trees. Rather than having Fury play differently than Arms, you just have Arms with the best of Fury.

That aside, we're not sure yet how we're going to handle Piercing Howl. One option is to put it in the second tier, the same way we did with Lichborne for DKs. My fear is that opening that door wider leads to a future full of "what is wrong with my class" manifestos from other classes that start off with bullet number one as"Lack of a 6 point talent." Other options include making it a class-wide ability. (Source)

Furious Attacks and Piercing Howl are both PVP exclusive abilities. Furious attacks I'll wait to see if the proc rate got buffed significantly, which may help fury pvp, but as of now it looks unchanged. Piercing Howl is useless to a raider baring a few specific fights.
Furious Attacks I grant you has very limited use in PvE. I disagree about Piercing Howl though. Once upon a time, groups had to control mobs instead of just AE'ing them all down. Someone who wants a build solely focused on killing single-target raid bosses (which to be fair, we don't have many of these days) might skip over Piercing Howl, but we are trying to structure the trees such that you don't have an option to get dps elsewhere even if you do. (Source)

Shield Block
We are going to turn both Holy Shield and Shield Block into short cooldowns. A short cooldown is an ability that you don't save for an absolute emergency (like Shield Wall) but we also don't want it to be on such a short cooldown that it feels maintenance-y. It's a tricky number to get right, but something in the 30 sec to 1 min zone feels about right. Then you might use Holy Shield one GCD instead of SoR or you can choose to save it until the next big boss attack. (Source)

AE Rotation
I agree. We tried making warrior AE "rotations" just one button, but we didn't like it. We'll change the other classes instead. (Source)

Heroic Leap - NYI
Heroic Leap isn't implemented yet. The level cap isn't at 85. (Source)

Heroic Strike
Heroic Strike is off of the GCD but with a short cooldown so it isn't in danger of competing with Execute (which hits considerably harder now). (Source)

Disarming Glare
Disarming Glare isn't likely to make it. (Source)

Impending Victory
As promised, we have cut Impending Victory and given Fury a new attack that they can used only when Enraged (but does not consume the Enrage). (Source)

Enrage
Enrage procs on all damage (including raid AE damage). We also want Fury to be a viable PvP spec in any case. (Source)

Unbridled Wrath/Rage in LK
You're operating under the "rage doesn't matter" mindset of Lich King. In Cataclysm, the ability to get rage from talents is going to be pretty attractive.

The issue isn't that it gives rage, but that it gives so little of it.
That's a tuning issue, not a fundamental flaw with the design of the talent. If you find yourself low on rage, you can get this talent in the same way a mage might get a talent to make nukes cheaper. If you find you don't need the rage -- perhaps you have Booming Voice or get it from Charge or something -- then you can take another talent instead. (Source)

• Tripping the Rifts - Destroyed one of each type of elemental rift during the Cataclysm launch event.

Death Knight (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator)
DK - Blood
A dark guardian who manipulates and corrupts life energy to sustain himself/herself in the face of an enemy onslaught.

• Veteran of the Third War (+stam/expertise)
• Death Rune Mastery
• Heart Strike
• Vengeance

DK - Frost
An icy harbinger of doom, channeling runic power and delivering rapid weapon strikes.

• Frost Strike
• Icy Talons
• Blood of the North

DK - Unholy
A master of death and decay, spreading infection and controlling undead minions to do his/her bidding.

• Impurity
• Master of Ghouls
• Scourge Strike
• Reaping

Druid (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator)
Druid - Restoration
Uses heal-over-time Nature spells to keep allies alive, taking on the form of a tree when the need is most urgent.

• Swiftmend
• Restoration Druid (pushback reduction on healing spells)
• Meditation

Druid - Feral
Takes on the form of a great cat to deal damage with bleeds and bites or a mighty bear to absorb damage and protect allies.

• Mangle
• Feral Druid (?)
• Vengeance

Druid - Balance
Can take on the form of a powerful Moonkin, balancing the power of Arcane and Nature magic to destroy enemies at a distance.

• Starsurge
• Balance Druid (pushback reduction on balance spells)

Hunter (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator)
Hunter - Marksmanship
A master archer or sharpshooter who excels in bringing down enemies from afar.

• Aimed Shot
• Marksmanship Hunter (+ ranged hit, pushback reduction)

Hunter - Survival
A rugged tracker who favors using animal venom, explosives and traps as deadly weapons.

• Explosive Shot
• Survival Hunter (+ ranged hit, pushback reduction)

Hunter - Beast Mastery
A master of the wild who can tame a wide variety of beasts to assist him/her in combat.

• Intimidation
• Beastmastery Hunter (+ranged hit, pushback reduction)

Mage (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator)
Mage - Arcane
Manipulates arcane energies, playing with the very fabric of time and space.

• Arcane Barrage
• Arcane Specialization (+arcane damage)

Mage - Frost
Freezes enemies in their tracks and shatters them with Frost magic.

• Summon Water Elemental
• Frost Specialization (+frost damage)

Mage - Fire
Ignites enemies with balls of fire and the breath of dragons.

• Pyroblast
• Molten Armor
• Fire Specialization (+fire damage)

Paladin (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator)
Paladin - Holy
Invokes the power of the Light to protect and to heal.

• Holy Shock
• Meditation
• Healing Bonus

Paladin - Protection
Uses Holy magic to shield himself / herself and defend allies from attackers.

• Avenger's Shield
• Touched by the Light
• Vengeance

Paladin - Retribution
A righteous crusader who judges and punishes opponents with weapons and Holy magic.

• Two-Handed Weapon Specialization
• Divine Storm
• Sheath of Light
• Divine Purpose

Priest (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator)
Priest - Discipline
Uses magic to shield allies from taking damage as well as heal their wounds.

• Penance
• Discipline Priest (pushback resistance)
• Meditation

Priest - Shadow
Uses sinister Shadow magic, especially damage-over-time spells, to eradicate enemies.

• Mind Flay
• Shadow Priest (threat and pushback reduction on shadow spells)

Priest - Holy
A versatile healer who can reverse damage on individuals or groups and even heal from beyond the grave.

• Desperate Prayer
• Holy Priest (pushback reduction on disc/holy spells)
• Meditation

Rogue (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator)
Rogue - Combat
A swashbuckler who uses agility and guile to stand toe-to-toe with enemies.

• Dual Wield Specialization (+offhand damage)
• Blade Fury
• Vitality (+energy regen)

Rogue - Assassination
A deadly master of poisons who dispatches victims with vicious dagger strikes.

• Mutilate
• Improved Poisons
• Assassin's Resolve (if dagger, +max energy, +damage)

Rogue - Subtlety
A dark stalker who leaps from the shadows to ambush his/her unsuspecting prey.

• Sinister Calling
• Master of Sublety
• Shadowstep

Shaman (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator)
Shaman - Elemental
A spellcaster who harnesses the destructive forces of nature and the elements.

• Eye of the Storm
• Thunderstorm
• Elemental Fury

Shaman - Restoration
A healer who calls upon ancestral spirits and the cleansing power of water to mend allies? wounds.

• Earth Shield
• Purification (+healing)
• Healing Focus
• Meditation

Shaman - Enhancement
A totemic warrior who strikes foes with weapons imbued with elemental power.

• Dual Wield
• Mental Quickness
• Dual Wield Specialization
• Lava Lash

Warlock (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator)
Warlock - Destruction
Calls down demonic fire to burn and demolish enemies.

• Conflagrate
• Destruction Warlock (+hit, pushback reduction)

Warlock - Demonology
A warlock who uses both Fire and Shadow magic along with powerful demons.

• Summon Felguard
• Demonology Warlock (+hit, pushback reduction)

Warlock - Affliction
A master of Shadow magic who specializes in fear, drains and damage-over-time spells.

• Unstable Affliction
• Affliction Warlock (Bane and Curse GCD = 1sec, +hit, pushback reduction)

Warrior (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator)
Warrior - Arms
Highly trained for battle with two-handed weapons, uses mobility and overpowering attacks to strike his / her opponents down.

• Mortal Strike
• Anger Management
• Two-Handed Weapons Specialization

Warrior - Fury
A furious berserker wielding a weapon in each hand, uses a flurry of attacks to carve his / her opponents to pieces.

• Dual Wield
• Dual Wield Specialization
• Bloodthirst
• Precision

Warrior - Protection
A stalwart protector that uses a shield to protect himself/herself and his/her allies.

• Shield Slam
• Vitality
• Vengeance

Next wave of Beta invitations
We hope to distribute additional invites to the World of Warcraft: Cataclysm beta sometime this week, possibly as soon as late Tuesday or Wednesday. This is only an estimate, though, so the schedule may change and, as a result, invites could be distributed earlier or later than anticipated. Either way, we'll work to keep you as updated as possible. (Source)

World changes in Cataclysm - "Old" zones lost forever
If there's one lesson I've been struggling with a lot recently, it's that rejecting the nature of change can be damaging. Granted, the trials to which I'm referring aren't related to video games, though they still apply universally. Sure, places will change, new questlines will replace many old ones, and Azeroth will never look quite the same again. There are, however, new places of beauty, new adventures to be had, and new struggles to overcome in the wake of change. A brand new player joining us in Cataclysm won't know quite what it was like to level prior to Deathwing's return, but they'll get to experience all of the new wonders of the world, not to mention a design that's become more definitive and polished over the years.

[...] Trust me, I understand the sentiment. We have no current plans though for preserving elsewhere the areas being changed. The story is evolving. To complement this, so is Azeroth as we know it. For current players, there will still be a good sense of familiarity in so many places within the old world. (Source)

Classes
Block Chance
Your block chance won't be 5%. That's too low. It will probably be something like 30%, but we haven't figured out yet where to provide that 30%. It is likely to be a warrior / paladin only thing or even a Prot / Prot passive. (Source)

Max out the Mastery Bonus
Furthermore, there should be no way to max out mastery. It's only just possible to max out things like crit and haste today because of A) overly generous talents, and B) ratings that were never designed for current item levels. We've already built the theoretical Deathwing gear, so we can make sure the numbers are more appropriate. (Source)

Hybrid/Multi-Tree Specs
Whenever a popular hybrid spec comes up, it's usually because of some sneaky build that is broken for PvP by snaking down to pick up key talents in two trees. It's not because the player really wants to play as say two specs -- they are just cherry picking the talents. Since those builds almost always feel broken (as in breaking the rules) we don't want to design around them. (Source)

Abilities in new Talent Trees
They aren't all abilities. Most of the trees have say 4 or so active abilities in addition to the one at level 10. This is pretty consistent with live (an 11, 21, 31, 41 and 51 "clicky" ability).

The first couple of tiers have mostly simple talents. This is because you just don't have a lot of abilities at level 10, rotations are simple, stuff tends to die fast, and we don't want to overwhelm new players (including experienced players trying a new class). We also have to provide a lot of sub-spec potential in these trees.

Beyond that, things start to get more interesting and you see the talents that do procs or mechanic changes. There are more 1 point talents now, typically those that give raid buffs. (Source)

GCD Locked
We consider being GCD locked a bad thing. It doesn't give you any room in your rotation to say click a potion or respond to a proc or do something out of the ordinary. It leads to tunnel vision. (Source)

Druid (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator / Cataclysm Talent Calculator)
Regrowth
We want Regrowth to feel like the flash heal. It will need to change a little to fit in that model (more up front and less hot perhaps) but it doesn't also need to feel exactly like Flash Heal to do the job. (Source)

Paladin (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator)
Holy Paladins in Cataclysm
Holy paladins are changing in Cataclysm probably more than you realize. (Source)

Warrior (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator)
Mortal Strike as Fury/Protection
Correct. It is impossible for Fury or Protection to ever have Mortal Strike. (Source)

Dual-Wield
Only Fury warriors will dual-wield in Cataclysm. The Arms tree is completely built around using a two-handed weapon and the Prot tree is completely built around using a shield. There is no reason to dual-wield in those trees. (Source)

Critical Block
We haven't done much with Critical Block as mastery yet because the level cap on the beta is so low and raid content isn't available to publicly test yet. As we get closer we'll put some better numbers on it. (Source)