[Leviathonlx]

3.3.3 Background Downloader

The background downloader for 3.3.3 has started which means the release of 3.3.3 is getting close.

Mastery System

Ghostcrawler and Eyonix clarified a few points on the mastery system after it was posted last night. His posts are below.

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How the points will work (Source)
It's possible you will only get the benefit of the tree in which you've spent the most points, or will only get the benefit from say 50 points maximum with the bonus chosen from the tree with the most points in it. We'll have to see when the talent trees are more finalized and we start to figure out build strategies.

Overall, the goal is to spend points as you want, and not feel penalized for spending into another tree or feel like you have to game things by spending more points than you want in your tree. Remember these passive bonuses are designed to give you flexibility, not lock you into anything.

Reasoning against Hybridization (Source)
Imagine you spend 55 points in Retribution, so you get the maximum passive talent tree bonuses from that tree. Your remaining points you can spend where you want, in Retribution, Protection or Holy. It does discourage some kind of true hybrid build where you go partway down multiple trees, but we aren't really trying to support those, and they aren't very popular today.

The flexibility comes (hopefully) in having more discretionary points that you can spend on talents you like, rather than sacrificing raw damage, healing or tanking to do so.

When Mastery will show up (Source)
It's designed partially with new players in mind. It will be much harder to have a truly terrible talent spec because you won't be able to help but be reasonably good at your chosen role.

The mastery stat itself won't show up until high level, and even when it does, you should have more confidence that it's a stat you want instead of say trying to figure out the percent of your damage that is physical damage to calculate if armor pen is good for you or not.

I admit that adding passive bonuses at all to talent trees complicates the talent feature slightly. We hope to make up for that by there being less paranoia about picking "the wrong" spec. The wrong spec might only be a slight loss instead of a tragic loss. As a point of comparison, dual-spec complicates talents a little, but overall we think it was good for the game.

Mastery stat won't be on level 80 gear (Source)
Sorry we didn't make this more clear -- what this means is -- all level 80 gear of this expansion will not not include the mastery stat on gear. However, once you enter the new end-game zones, you will slowly find this stat on select gear.

Does mastery on gear affect both highest trees or give no benefit at all? (Source)
Mastery on gear gives you one bonus. That bonus is the third passive (the unique one) in the tree in which you’ve spent the most points. In the examples we gave, those are Absorption, Radiance and Runic Power generation.

How will Feral Druids and DK tanks work (Source)
Ferals will have passive bonuses that say Cat: melee damage done, Bear: damage reduction. For death knights we have a different plan in mind that we’re not quite ready to discuss. DKs are undergoing some slight changes so they aren’t so GCD constrained and are less limited by rune cooldowns.

How are the non-pure classes going to be balanced against those with a full 76 point passive benefit? (Source)
Assume you only get the passive bonuses for the tree in which you’ve spent the most points, and there is a ceiling per tree (which could be something like 51-55 talent points). If you spend more points than that in a tree you still get the benefits of the talent. If you spend points in another tree, you are benefiting from those talents instead. Unless you try to make say a 40 / 36 / 0 build, you shouldn’t be losing passive bonuses.

If you turn level 10 and spend 1 point in Discipline, you are now a Disc priest. You receive the Disc talent tree passive bonuses and mastery rating on gear benefits your Disc passive bonus (Absorption). If you reach level 85 and have 70 points in Disc and 6 in Holy, you are still a Disc priest and the same rules apply. If you change your build to 51 Disc / 20 Holy / 5 Shadow, you are still a Disc priest.

Hybrids non spec spells will be weak. (Source)
They are weak now and the intent is to keep them that way. We aren’t trying to nerf them any more than they are today. If we want to make sure Resto shaman can do big Lava Bursts, we’ll give them a talent or something to make that happen. We don’t want Resto shaman to Lava Burst anywhere on the scale of an Elemental shaman. Again, how they perform today is pretty much the target for where we want to end up.

DK Rune Mechanics (Source)

I know it's hard to get a feel for the design when you can't see the complete picture, but talent trees are changing for Cataclysm. As Eyonix referenced above, we are changing the DK rune mechanic a little so that you aren't so GCD constrained. This in turn will give us a chance to rebalance how much runic power Frost gets. Remember that in many cases we are pulling talents out of the trees and giving them to you as passive bonuses. In general if you see a passive talent tree bonus and think to yourself "Hmm, that doesn't sound very good for me," then it's probably because we haven't revealed the changes that lead to that being attractive to you.

By all means mention concerns though. That's one of the reasons we like to announce changes like this early.

No mastery points for sub-spec (Source)
It's hard to set stuff like this in stone until we explore what kinds of builds will be popular, but assume that you don't get anything for the sub spec (except for the actual talents, which are presumably still valuable or you wouldn't be sub-speccing).

Blue Posts

There were a few interesting Blue posts today also.

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Warrior
[color=“#FFFFFF”]Difference between Shockwave and Thunder Clap[/color] [color="#00C0FF"](Source)
Shockwave is technically a ranged attack, like a hunter shot. This means it's treated like an attack (and not a spell) for purposes of what you want but can't be dodged or parried. (I believe ranged attacks can be blocked, but I can't honestly remember off the top of my head.) The Shockwave treatment might be the right way to go for Thunder Clap. Thunder Clap is currently a spell that hits for physical damage and can't be dispelled. The distinction among spell, melee and ranged attack (or persistent auras like Consecrate) is a largely technical one that doesn't always encompass unusual abilities well.[/color]

[color=“#FFFFFF”]Thunder Clap changing to a ranged spell[/color] (Source) [color="#00C0FF"]
I think we're likely to make Thunder Clap a ranged attack (like Shockwave) for 3.3.3. This will let it get 200% crits among other things.

Standard no promises, in case there ends up being a problem with that implementation[/color]

[color="#9ACD32"]The Raid - Lady Raiders[/color]

Thanks to Jer for the tip on this latest interview short from the folks at The Raid.

[Arsan]

That is some awesome information on the mastery system, I just can't wait to try it out when it hits.

[katuka]

I like that you get a small mastery bonus if you choose the armor that was intendet for your class/specc. So if Ele shamans pick a cloth piece with the same stats as one in mail, the cloth version will be the worst choice.

[Xentropy]

Agreed. Nothing frustrates me more than the boomkin in my raid outbidding mages, locks, and priests on a cloth piece WHICH HAS A LEATHER EQUIVALENT all because the cloth piece has a red socket instead of the yellow on the leather. They're exactly the same in every way other than the socket color, so he screws over like 6 other specs picking up that item, then we d/e the leather version later the same run, or it goes to a healer for the off-spec they never use. Mastery bonuses for using the "proper" gear should put a nail in that coffin once and for all.

[Zaythi]

Meh, I have mixed feelings about it. I know that there are multiple pieces of gear that are better as cloth, with almost identical stats as there is mail (I'm a shaman). One item for example is a cloth belt. The badge mail belt has ~15 crit more, and ~20 haste less than its cloth counterpart. Haste is a much better stat for us, so the cloth belt actually becomes better (given, 10-30 DPS change), but when you get into heroic mode, there are 4 cloth items that are BiS, because the only mail equiv items are badge pieces that are 264 vs the 277. It's not always the classes fault that the cloth item is actually better itemized than the proper armor class piece.

[katuka]

Zaythi, on 10 March 2010 - 07:22 AM, said:

It's not always the classes fault that the cloth item is actually better itemized than the proper armor class piece.

I am aware of this, but I am still hoping that the mastery bonus is good enough to overshadow better cloth or leather items (Using an Ele Shaman as example).

[Xentropy]

Zaythi: The examples you use don't bother me nearly as much as the situation I'm talking about. When the stats available on the pieces are actually significantly different, I consider it an itemization issue on Blizzard's part, not the fault of the boomkin or elemental shaman "stealing" my gear. But when Blizzard put in a leather (or mail) piece with EXACTLY the same stats (as in the same VALUE of each stat, not just the same stats on the item), and the only difference on the cloth piece is the socket color, it really pisses me off that for a 5 spellpower socket bonus my gear goes to a leather-wearer. The mastery needs to at least be of an amount that is worth more than a socket bonus to discourage this sort of thing.

[komorie]

so you are loot horny xentropy and you dont care about what improves your guild the most ?

[katuka]

komorie, on 10 March 2010 - 04:40 PM, said:

so you are loot horny xentropy and you dont care about what improves your guild the most ?

Xentropy says that he finds it unwise to itimiz a cloth item so it is better for Moonkin druids, then the leather counterpart. And in his example the only difference is a socket color.

So he simply jsut states that the mastery bonus for picking up the "highest" armor type available will give you enough mastery to be better then the cloth item.

[Chimina]

komorie, on 10 March 2010 - 04:40 PM, said:

so you are loot horny xentropy and you dont care about what improves your guild the most ?

You are saying the complete opposite as what's being said. The Moonkin is loot horny himself for taking a cloth item when he could get a similar leather item in the same run, which then gets wasted as he doesn't want it anymore.

Only 1 upgrade went to a raid member instead of 2, so Xen's point is valid

[Stompalina]

Congratulations to "The Raid" in meeting, and exceeding their Kickstarter goal for production funding!

Make sure to catch an exclusive interview with Kevin Michael Johnson from "The Raid" on Episode 62 of Rawrcast airing this weekend - Sunday at 1PM CST!