Upcoming Tanking Changes

[Boubouille]

Upcoming Tanking Changes

As the release of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm draws near, we continue to fine-tune various class abilities. Based on feedback and our own testing, we're in the process of assessing and amending tanking cooldowns -- at level 85 in particular. Some of these abilities, like druid Savage Defense and death knight self healing, are particularly difficult to model, so further testing will be necessary before there is sufficient information to base adjustments on.

In the case of paladins and warriors, we have recognized that it is possible for block chance to get too high too quickly and cause a situation where stacked mastery and the warrior Shield Block ability behave strangely. Since that's a scenario we want to avoid, we're making some changes regarding how block chance is handled for each of these classes:

Paladins - Holy Shield will be changed to increase block value by 10% (40% total) instead of increasing block chance by 15%. Since this will cause Mastery to become more valuable, the amount of block granted by Mastery will be reduced to 2.25% block chance per point of Mastery, down from 3%.

Warriors - At level 85, the value of Shield Block decreases as block value generated by Mastery increases. To remedy this, we will convert overflow of block + avoidance that exceeds 100% into critical block chance instead. Along with that change, Shield Block will be reduced to +25% block chance (down from +100%), but this will still yield a net buff for most warriors. Also in response to this change, the amount of block and critical block provided by Mastery will be equalized. Finally, Mastery will now grant 1.5% block chance per point.

[tumaelso]

quite some changses

[Cernunnos]

kinda seems like every blue post has something to do with Paladins. lol.

Where's the DK/Druid tank changes? Or are these classes "perfect"

[Exodus Death]

Did you even read it they talk about DK and Druid a Little bit, Sentence yes, But they said there not Perfect, that there looking into it.

[fex]

kinda seems like every blue post has something to do with Paladins. lol.

Where's the DK/Druid tank changes? Or are these classes "perfect"

They very clearly said:

"Some of these abilities, like druid Savage Defense and death knight self healing, are particularly difficult to model, so further testing will be necessary before there is sufficient information to base adjustments on."

[Seriesh]

It's easier to quickly tune block than it would be to mess around with SD/BS, I would assume, and while these changes are fairly heavy, I do think this is a solid idea overall.

[Snes]

I'm a little confused as to how to gem my warrior; is going for stam/mastery the best option in most cases after this? Not sure what their intention is, are they trying to make the new mastery stat a bench warmer?

Edit: Also I'm not convinced that nerfing shield block by 75% and critical block mastery by 1% while bringing the normal block mastery up by 0.25% is a buff. Think I'll be sticking with dodge, parry, and stam for the first tier for sure, then throwing on mastery once they become devalued at high gear levels.

[Skellyhell]

kinda seems like every blue post has something to do with Paladins. lol.

Where's the DK/Druid tank changes? Or are these classes "perfect"

Paladins cry the loudest, BLizzard is more keen to shut them up

[greyghost]

Paladins cry the loudest, BLizzard is more keen to shut them up

Non-paladins cry about paladins loudest, as evidenced everywhere -- from these forums to Blizzcon attendees, yourself included.

And if this really was a 'blizzard reacting to paladin crying to shut them up' as you so strongly support, then this is an odd way to go about it, seeing that this balancing change is effectively a nerf to block (by means to create value to mastery).

TL;DR: you = logic fail

[tricknick76]

Paladins cry the loudest, BLizzard is more keen to shut them up

And they do it by mega nerfing us? Yeah you make a lot of sense.

[Siar]

So we can only play cataclysm from 9am on the 7th? not midnight?

[Vook]

Sooo...we don't get to pre-download Cata unless we purchase it through Battle.Net? Lame =/ Oh well, DVD installation can't be too slow ;p

[Runorr]

@Siar

I think the servers will open at 9 a.m. due to patching? Dunno, was wondering the same, because if they open at 12a.m. that's 9 hours of potential play time wasted => it's more viable to go to a midnight launch.

[MAXCAVALERA]

Im glad to see Blizzard still has some respect for his customers.

1. Not doing a euro= dollar conversion.

2. The price is not over inflated as was Starcraft 2 digital version at 60euros

[conscript]

kinda seems like every blue post has something to do with Paladins. lol.

Where's the DK/Druid tank changes? Or are these classes "perfect"

Shamans say hello. Every blue post they get is "Our tests show Enhance is fine" or GC picks a random post, terms it an insult post and locks the entire thread.

[Glomp]

£29.99 not bad

I saw a physical copy elsewhere for £24.99 with free postage, however I really don't need discs and I don't want to worry about late delivery/etc

Just bought it yay.

[Siar]

@Siar

I think the servers will open at 9 a.m. due to patching? Dunno, was wondering the same, because if they open at 12a.m. that's 9 hours of potential play time wasted => it's more viable to go to a midnight launch.

I always go to midnight launch, mostly because I live one hour behind paris time so by the time I get home and its installed i'm ready for midnight :P + I kinda like the launch nights, usually have a few friends over and we play through the night, lotsa fun. Now I'm dissapointed that we're only going to start in the morning, seems a bit lack luster.

[SkodLife]

1. Not doing a euro= dollar conversion.

Well I did.

USD: $39.99 = 28.69€
Euro: 34.99€ = $48.78

I don't care, but I know it won't be long before the storm comes...

[seeings]

Only problem I have is the pricing of the Blizzard items that you can buy online.
I live in sweden and I can buy Cataclysm CD/DVD from Webhallen for 259SEK (26,81 €). While if I should buy it through digital download it costs 337,99SEK (34.99€), which is a lot more just to get a digital download instead of the need to go to the store and buy it.

Same goes for the Gametime cards on the Blizzard Store, I can buy my 2months gamecards at 249SEK (25,78 €) from Webhallen. While if I buy a 2months gametime card from the Blizzard Store it costs me 347,45SEK (EUR 35,97€)

[jsz]

What's this 9:01AM nonsense? I want to play at 12:01AM.