Dragonwrath Statistics, Blue Posts, Blizzard at CeBIT 2012, Curse Weekly Roundup

[chaud]

Statistics: Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa's Rest
Today we take a look at which classes ended up with Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa's Rest and how quickly they got it. The sample size is ~5.6 million level 85 characters, with ~15,000 Dragonwrath owners.

You can see that mages are obtaining the staff at an even faster rate now that Firelands is less difficult, while the other classes are maintaining roughly the same rate of acquisition.

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Blue Posts

Warlock Ember System
How does Destruction’s Ember system work?
Basically, you build embers with some spells, and then spend those embers with Soul Fire, Ember Tap, or Fire and Brimstone.

Internally, this is how it works:

Immolate – DD + DoT on the target
Incinerate – generates 1/10th ember, or 2/10ths if it crits an immolated target.
Fel Flame – generates 1/10th ember, or 2/10ths if it crits an immolated target.
Conflagrate – triggers Backdraft and has a 12 second cooldown.

Soul Fire – consumes one ember instead of mana.
Fire and Brimstone – costs 1 ember and has no cooldown.
Ember Tap – costs 1 embers.

Each full ember costs 0.33% of your maximum health per second. If you stay below 1 ember, you take no damage.

How does chaotic energy work?
We are experimenting with a resource-driven, rather than time-limited, caster model on the Destruction warlock.

In a nutshell, Destruction warlocks are not GCD locked. In fact, chain-casting spells as a Destruction warlock is less important than spending all of your resources.

Keep in mind this is all subject to change, but here is how Destruction flows at the moment:

Start of Fight: Full mana bar, Empty Ember bar

1. Immolate the target
2. Conflagrate to trigger emberstorm
3. Incinerate to generate embers
4. Continue until you are low on mana

Middle of Fight: Empty mana bar, ~2 Embers

1. Soul Fire
2. Soul Fire
3. Mana bar is mostly full (Soul Fire costs embers, so your mana refills during the Soul Fires)

In addition to increasing your base mana regen, Chaotic Energy increases mana regen even more with Haste. This means the ability to cast spells scales smoothly with gear.

As long as the warlock never lets her mana bar fill up and burn her embers, she's maximizing damage. This is very different from the standard caster model where priority is placed on casting at all times and ordering spells based on cooldown.

Our hope is that the Destruction Warlock will attract players who are interested in a playstyle that rewards spending resources at the right time, rather than constantly casting.

How does Destruction’s Mastery work?
Emberstorm increases the effectiveness of all Ember consuming spells. Soul Fire deals more damage. Fire & Brimstone deals a higher % of the base spell’s damage. Ember Tap heals for more. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Development Time Cutbacks
Blizzard severaly reduced the number of people on WoW development teams in last few months, which explains the simplifying of various aspects of the game. They don´t want to spend too much time tuning bosses, so they simplify the player, for example.
I have no idea where you got this information from, but it's wrong. We're not simplifying various aspects of the game, we're constantly reviewing them to ensure they're fun, which can actually sometimes mean making them more involved. Also, we spend however long is necessary to tune bosses to make them engaging and challenging, we're not cutting back on that at all. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Play Diablo III and Win Beta Keys with Blizzard at CeBIT 2012!

CeBIT is a unique exhibition of digital technology, games and much more which takes place every year in Hannover, Germany. At the 2012 show, which starts on March 6, Blizzard Entertainment will be showcasing the Diablo III beta in the free gaming area, in partnership with ESL.

Members of our Community and eSports teams are looking forward to meeting you there! So if you’re going to CeBIT make sure you drop by to see us, especially as you’ll have the chance to win some nice prizes — including Diablo III beta keys — in the various contests and activities we’ll be organizing.

CeBIT is also hosting the final of the Intel Extreme Masters Season VI, where 24 of the best StarCraft II players will fight for the title of IEM World Champion and an impressive prize pool of $75,000! The roster so far contains famous names like Greg “IdrA” Fields, Giacomo “Socke” Thüs, Moon “MMA” Sung Won and Kim “viOLet” Dong Hwan – so make sure to follow the matches live or tune in on ESL TV.

We’re looking forward to seeing you there!

Event: CeBIT 2012 / Intel Extreme Masters Season VI World Championship
Location: Messe Hannover / Exhibition Grounds 30521 Hannover Germany
When: March 6 to 10, 2012
Stream: ESL TV
More details: ESL news / CeBIT website

Curse Weekly Roundup
Pico is back to tell us about the things you might have missed in Diablo 3, Guild Wars 2, World of Warcraft, Minecraft, Rift and Nitronic Rush news recently.

[esoterickk]

Mages sure love dem Legendaries

[chaud]

Before someone asks for it, this is the current representation in bar chart form.

Don't see a chart? Enable javascript!

[Deleted]

On my server alone we got 96 DTR wielders.

I'm sure the actual number is about 5x bigger than what you are mentioning.

I think about 50-100k wielders worldwide now.

[Volitar]

Quick let Mage's get more broken!I was the I think the 3rd Elemental shaman US to get Dragonwrath, GO SHAMAN.

[Eon Drache]

I feel bad for the shammies now

[lokithor]

hmmm why not many shamans? was under the impression is was still BiS throughout the expansion.Still workin on mine 822 cinders and then 6 weeks of siphoning, and tryin to get people to go is hell

[Bullettime]

hmmm why not many shamans? was under the impression is was still BiS throughout the expansion.Still workin on mine 822 cinders and then 6 weeks of siphoning, and tryin to get people to go is hell

Due to the potency of Mages, guilds are ensuring that they're given to their Mage for maximum DPS benefit. Guilds are less likely to give Dragonwrath to one of the more underperforming caster DPS specs in comparison if they have other candidates like Mage that become borderline god mode with it.

[Harry Botter]

Am i the only one who just does not like the way the Destro locks seem to work out up there? Maybe once i see it in action during the beta it will be different, but for now it just seems meh at best.

[jibbyjackjoe]

Destro, and locks in general, are looking so, so sweet. Can't wait for mop.

[Sylar Hao]

I'm glad I've always been a Destrolock... all these changes look sooooo awesome!!! I'm gonna enjoy my warlock sooooooooooooo much

[Dasn]

bufff mages

[Nerraw]

I'm gonna have so much fun with my warlock in Mists.

[AndaliteBandit]

Due to the potency of Mages, guilds are ensuring that they're given to their Mage for maximum DPS benefit. Guilds are less likely to give Dragonwrath to one of the more underperforming caster DPS specs in comparison if they have other candidates like Mage that become borderline god mode with it.

That, and there are a lot of guilds out there that told their shamans "caster shamans = shield" as a reason for not getting it, first or even second at least. Even though it's BiS, it's likely the same guilds that screwed their ele shamans and boomkins out of having a fair roll on the only (I think it was) 277 caster belts and boots before Ruby Sanctum came out, saying clothies got priority even though there were no leather or mail equivalents for shamans or boomkins to be rolling on.

[ihateyouall]

Still, if you assume the same ratio of characters, that's 0.26% that have the staff. For a legendary that "everyone" has, that's not that many. I think it just gets a bit exaggerated because of how public the final turn-in event is. Previous legendaries didn't have a big, public, voiced spectacle whenever someone turned it in. (Where you could also get spammed with someone dropping the quest and replaying the event repeatedly)

[MrExcelion]

While this applies to a lot of the other classes too, I notice a lot of PVP Mages (and there's a lot of those) going to FL to get a staff for PVP. I suppose it's also because there's just more Mages too.

[subanark]

I think the reason that shamans and druids are so low, is that they have a non-dps offspec. If your going to give it out to someone in the raid, give it to someone who always dpses, not someone who switch to/from heals depending on the fight (at least that was how it is for me).

[La]

I think the reason that shamans and druids are so low, is that they have a non-dps offspec. If your going to give it out to someone in the raid, give it to someone who always dpses, not someone who switch to/from heals depending on the fight (at least that was how it is for me).

just because someone is a hybrid spec and can heal, doesn`t mean they ever will heal, I think ele shamans are one of the best with the staff because of their mastery personally but meh, that is a good reason, but mages and shadow priests do stupid damage compared to any hybrid.

[rockdontroll]

ele+DTR will pretty much do the same dps as a mage with similar gear but a 403/410 wep, and actually less on certain fights. ele got screwed hard this expansion, feel sorry for you eles

[Sensa]

Destro, and locks in general, are looking so, so sweet. Can't wait for mop.

really? from how I interpret the "new" design locks are essentially becoming casting rogues...but hey if that's your cup of tea...