Cataclysm Stat & System Changes

[Seys*]

Let the Theorycrafting begin

Actually, they want to put an end to it

On topic: Most changes sound pretty good imo, although it´s a little early to tell. dont think that changes like giving more stamina to everyone and reducing the tanks/plate wearers will balance pvp at all :\
I guess, we´ll have to try it out and see!

[Deviltry]

Good changes, but any info on hunters using Energy?

Focus. Steady Shot doubles the regen. We're screwed in PvP. Next question? :-P

[Tycho]

Wow you think the stats we have now are that tough to manage?

They're not hard because everyone uses a simulator, spreadsheet, etc.

Are you seriously saying that every single class has spreadsheets and/or simulators, programs like RAWR exist and loot ranking websites like LootRank and MaxDPS exist - yet nobody actually needs to use them at all? You're being silly if you think that 99% people can look at an item that has small differences in (for example) expertise vs. crit/ap and automatically know which provides the highest dps bonus if they haven't simulated/spreadsheeted/researched their current gear stats apriori.

[mochaomhog]

And just for reference, I would much rather be wearing plate armor as opposed to cloth if someone is swinging an axe at me....

And i would rather just get out of the way of the axe all together, IRL.

[dazline]

So resil doesnt effect mana burns in pvp now? thats great...

idk about you guys but i kinda liked how every class was different, sure warriors have more hp than most melee dps, I have also always seen warriors as the big fcker thats in your face and his hp is follwed. I dont see why people are actually that butt hurt that that pure dps class has more hp than you. makes no sense, and i dont play a warrior btw.

Just seems now its gonna be like, look its a bird! its a priest! wait no its a warrior -.-

Different is good :-\

Wow you think the stats we have now are that tough to manage?

It has nothing to do with being tough to manage, atleast when i roll new toons i got to see new gear/play styles and attractive stats. Hey now instead of gs people can just ask yo whats your int? HAHAH too low sorry.

[Dementation]

Stamina - Because of the way we will be assigning Strength, Agility, and Intellect, non-plate wearers will end up with more Stamina than before. Health pools will be much closer between plate-wearers and other classes.

Oh yea, those 35k disc priests really need more health.

Armor - The way Armor mitigates damage is not changing, but the Armor stat has been rebalanced to mirror changes to the armor curve in Cataclysm. As a result, bonus Armor will go down slightly overall. We are also changing the mitigation difference among armor types so that plate doesn’t offer so much more protection than mail, leather, and cloth.

So basicly they're nerfing plate and buffing everyone else... again.

[pedrnorth]

I'm really excited about these changes, they're really streamlining things. The increased customization on armor via reforging and character customization via Path of the Titans should help keep things from becoming too dumbed down.

Also the increased stam and armor for all classes is very welcome to me, it seems to be part of a larger shift toward making fights less spiky. Hopefully now clothies in my raid won't be getting one shot by random flying damage. However this also seems to indicate a greater importance to EH in tanking, kind of like we've seen in ICC. The flat 30% damage decrease from blocks will make paladins godly in the EH department, as they are now... I'm very glad I play one.

[jessmaster]

And i would rather just get out of the way of the axe all together, IRL.

You need more dodge.

[Karnige]

So you're saying that every single class has spreadsheets and/or simulators, programs like RAWR exist and loot ranking websites like LootRank and MaxDPS exist - yet nobody actually needs to use them at all? You're being silly if you think that 99% people can look at an item that has small differences in (for example) expertise vs. crit/ap and automatically know which provides the highest dps bonus if they haven't researched their current gear stats apriori.

agreed. spreadsheets and all that other crap are annoying. blizzard is making it simple now and I love it. Doesn't change the skill of the person.

[Sageth]

Haste will also allow melee classes to recover their resources more quickly, effectively letting them hit their buttons more often.

I wonder how they'll do this for Retribution. Retribution currently is balanced around cooldowns, they're supposed to always have enough mana to fight if you keep an eye on it. Increasing mana regen for Retribution won't do anything for them.

[Solitare-sp]

Wow you think the stats we have now are that tough to manage?

In some cases certainly yes. For melee DPS for example

Agi (or Strength)
Attack Power
ArmPen
Haste
Hit
Crit

Balancing all those? Yes, thats too complicated.

[Eviscerate]

Question about Reforging (I hope someone can answer)

Crafters can reforge items to change the stats. I get that.
What I do not know is if reforging can only be done to gears you created yourself.
Or it can be done to any gears you aquired (from drops, rewards etc.)
And also, can it be done in the same fashion Enchanting works, A person can open trade a reforger to get his gear changed?

Why does this matter you might ask? If the answer to the first question is yes, then rerolling a crafting profession will be quite ideal. If not, then Reforging won't be that big of a deal since other people can do it for you.

[Couga]

Some good and interesting changes in there.

However I fail to see how these changes will be significant simplfication over the current stat mechanics. Some of the stats they removed such as Attack and Spell Power are really not that complicated. And mastery looks like it will require tremendus amounts of theorycrafting to establish precise benefits for each possible spec.

Will these changes make the game better?
Yeah I think so

Will these changes make the stat mechanics easier to understand?
I somewhat doubt it (Ele Shams and Boomkins gaining hit from spirit? SAY WAT)

I guess it will be harder to spot obvious retards (eg ret pallies and feral druids who socket AP

[Solitare-sp]

I wonder how they'll do this for Retribution. Retribution currently is balanced around cooldowns, they're supposed to always have enough mana to fight if you keep an eye on it. Increasing mana regen for Retribution won't do anything for them.

Depends. Ret pallys have divine plea to get mana back, I guess thats one skill/talent which could get removed altogether, alone with things like replenishment.

The best way to look at this is to complety let go of everything you know from before, all skills and mechanics and talent will have a compelte overhaul.

[Twintop]

Question about Reforging (I hope someone can answer)

Crafters can reforge items to change the stats. I get that.
What I do not know is if reforging can only be done to gears you created yourself.
Or it can be done to any gears you aquired (from drops, rewards etc.)
And also, can it be done in the same fashion Enchanting works, A person can open trade a reforger to get his gear changed?

Why does this matter you might ask? If the answer to the first question is yes, then rerolling a crafting profession will be quite ideal. If not, then Reforging won't be that big of a deal since other people can do it for you.

IIRC, you have to be a Tailor to alter Cloth, Blacksmith to alter Plate, etc.

[mutantboy]

I see for some people the sky is still falling, the glass is half empty and the end of the world (of warcraft) is nigh...

But those who would rather play the game than consult spreadsheets and have a list of gear to consult every time a boss dies this will be a welcome relief. And lets face it - once you have equiped the gear it's not like it will change your play style. Every single min/maxer out there has the gear progression list, the BiS list, the best rotation list and knows what buffs to use, what gems to use, what enchants to use etc etc.

Maybe we finally are at a point where the OMG he Ninja'd my gear crap will stop and people will easily be able to say that is a rogue/warr/caster item

[Tang]

]
Yes, I've read these posts as well. However, since I cannot be inside the head of a "blue" to understand what they mean by "less spammy," I really cannot speculate to what it will be like until I can experience it.

Let me put it this way: Do you really think a healer is going to cast a heal, sit around for 2 or 3 GCDs, then cast another heal in a 25man raid setting?

If healing more often is going to cause overheal and OOM, then yes, I can see that for sure.

[Couga]

In some cases certainly yes. For melee DPS for example

Agi (or Strength)
Attack Power
ArmPen
Haste
Hit
Crit

Balancing all those? Yes, thats too complicated.

As opposed to:

Agi (or Strength)
Mastery
Haste
Hit
Crit
Exp

Granted its one less, but mastery is easily more complicated than ArP ;p

[Dreamless]

tbh when reading threw this it only seems wow just got that much retard friendly, now instead of deciding what gear you want you will prety much be limited to what was "designed" for you.

With the removal of stats and literally smushing everything together it just seems abit dumb. The only thing left in wrath was making gear choices now its prety much set out for you...

sure there will be stat changing and crap but honestly half this stuff seems really dumb.

I didn't think it was possible to be quite this wrong.

As it is now; there's only a VERY limited amount of gear any class really wants, because the weighting for the multitude of stats is so skewed in favour of a very small number of them for each class; and each class has a different skew, so the huge number of items being made are being made very narrowly to fit to all the different roles.

With a drastic reduction in the number of stats which appear on items, it allows for a drastic increase of the usability of different items for classes; depending on what you want to emphasize.

Doubly so with reforging.

Means Blizzard can not only create less pieces of gear, and therefore make each piece more interesting, but even with the lessened number of pieces, there'll be greater options for what any given class will want to use.

[ElAmigo]

ohhhhhhh i understand why they made boomkins share gear with trees and eles with resto shamans. its so they cant roll on cloth gear anymore.

took me a while lol