[WoRBot]

In a recent interview with PC Gamer, Tom 'Kalgan' Chilton revealed that spell-damage only type gear will get replaced by a new system in WotLK.

Quote from: PC Gamer (Source)

PC Gamer: What else is changing?
Tom Chilton: We're also going to be doing away with spell-damage only type of gear. We'll moving to a system that,  as part of your talents, player will be able to convert healing into spell-damage and vice-versa as part of their talents. That way, they can use the exact same gear, but their talents just adapt what it does.

In their latest issue PC Gamer UK also released an interview with J. Allen Brack, lead producer on Wrath of the Lich King.

Here's is a snippet from the interview:

What was the biggest lesson you learned from launching The Burning Crusade?

JAB: I think the biggest thing we took away was that Illidan (Burning Crusade's lead baddie) was meant to be an all-pervasive evil that you'd fight against and eventually defeat, but I don't think that came across to the average player.

Most players just did their quests and never really thought about him. That's one of the big changes we want to make to Lich King. We're going to push Arthas right in front of players - so they understand why he's a big threat. In Lich King, Arthas will appear to players at level 71, level 75 and level 80.

Read the full interview.

[QuiSiLoR]

Not sure about the fact that people can use the exact same gear, your talents just change what it adepts to. Sounds like a good idea, but I am not sure if it will work.
I mean on Bosses for example... having all casters and healers wanting the same piece and only the way there talents work makes it different.

[zoradin]

QuiSiLoR said:

Not sure about the fact that people can use the exact same gear, your talents just change what it adepts to. Sounds like a good idea, but I am not sure if it will work.
I mean on Bosses for example... having all casters and healers wanting the same piece and only the way there talents work makes it different.

Iam guessing this will only affect class specific gear drops/crafts. As in there will be a chest armor for priests only that can benefit holy/disc/shad priests, or, head armor for mages that will benefit all schools (think spellfire v/s FSW).

Though if they use it on weapons, trinqs, rings,etc. its gonna cause a lot of drama in raids. Heck even if they use it on armor like i said it'll still cause a lot of drama

[kdn]

Why would this cause drama... ? This will eliminate only healing gear drops on one boss for 3 months in a row and now give warlocks, priests and mages the opportunity to get the cloth gear. Yes there will be more people who want the same stuff.. but you wont have to start DE stuff after 2-3 weeks of killing the boss.

[Deployed]

The people that'll get upset by this are those that don't want all the classes within a armour-type looking the same. Hopefully this will mean that we will see dynamic colour variations that are caused by talents. I.e. shoulder pads will have a glow aura which will be red for a fire mage, blue for a frost mage etc etc.

I wonder if they're just going to condense +healing and +spell damage into a basic 'Spell Power' attribute like attack power.

[Fitzlestick]

zoradin said:

Iam guessing this will only affect class specific gear drops/crafts. As in there will be a chest armor for priests only that can benefit holy/disc/shad priests, or, head armor for mages that will benefit all schools (think spellfire v/s FSW).

Though if they use it on weapons, trinqs, rings,etc. its gonna cause a lot of drama in raids. Heck even if they use it on armor like i said it'll still cause a lot of drama

Imagine a boss that now would drop a healing ring and caster dps ring. Now ideally he would drop one week the healing one and the other week the dps one.
In WOTLK, the same boss would drop the "generic" ring every single week.
While more will want the same item, it would also drop more often, so slightly fixing the problem of random drops.

[Heavenfall]

Regarding the +healing and spell damage changes, this will have significant changes for druids and priests and shamans wishing to not collect several batches of gear. Instead of let's say a druid keeping one balance set and one resto set, you could have enough with just one set (you'd lose a tiny amount on enchants though).

Either way, this is great news for everyone who don't want to put all their eggs in the same basket.

[Clovice]

This is just an excuse to reduce itemization in the game. We saw the start of it with the new badge gear - repeated textures/colors, etc.

Sounds like in WotLK, instead of taking time to develop new items, they'll just make one and slap a generic "spellpower" on it. We'll end up seeing 4 basic armor types - cloth, leather, mail, plate.

[DaZzA89]

Confused as to how they will itemize Spell Hit, Crit, Haste etc into this, because from a healing perspective, I can't say I'd like a piece with a ton of Spell Hit for example.

Am I thinking about this in the wrong way?

[Mgd]

Deployed said:

The people that'll get upset by this are those that don't want all the classes within a armour-type looking the same. Hopefully this will mean that we will see dynamic colour variations that are caused by talents. I.e. shoulder pads will have a glow aura which will be red for a fire mage, blue for a frost mage etc etc.

I wonder if they're just going to condense +healing and +spell damage into a basic 'Spell Power' attribute like attack power.

That's basically what they are going to do also I'm pretty sure they are going to change most of the healing spells to reflect the loss of +healing across all the items existing because there is no way they are going to give the same number of healing to spell damage.
It has it's pro and it has it's con. Less gear being DE's, more people rolling for the same gear, less customization for rings and trinkets and as for the "look" of the characters it won't change much from the current game unless you are still wearing in dungeon gear or below.

[Heavenfall]

The talents are supposed to adapt to the situation we're playing. If all "spellpower" items lack hit, which would make sense, it would have to be gained from talents instead.

[Dawnstar]

Isn't this killing the hybrids? You know, the moonkins or shadowpriest that might actually stop doing dps in an instance cause extra healing might be required? All your gear will be 'made' by your talents, so either you have all dmg of all healing items? We're moving to more 10men raids, it might actually happen that people need to heal more on a fight but their talents prevent them to change gear since it will all be spelldmg cause of it?

[Quintalas]

This is going to be a very interesting concept... i wonder if we'll see alot more class specific drops other than Arena/Dungeon/Tier sets. I'm a boomkin player, i'll still be a boomkin player through WOTLK... it's going to pan out to be an interesting experience throughout the game though. I'm looking forward to trying it out... and i'll be able to adapt to it, it's just going to take a bit more strategy in parts.

It's going to be interesting with the Arthas parts... 75 is CoT: Strat, 80 is Icecrown Citadel.... but 71? hrm... wonder where he will show up to start the chain of events off.

It's quite interesting, they refer to him as Arthas... not the Lich King... maybe he's going to battle for his self control?

[Zumwalah]

my concern with this new Spell dmg system, is what about hybrids? if i spec elemental will all my Mp5 turn magically into Spell crit? what about enhancement? will all my spell dmg turn into str, and mp5 into crit rating?

this system, seems to be for priests only

[JasonF]

I think it's a good idea as far as the gear is concerned - it's a lot easier to respec for 50g than it is to gather a whole new set of gear, ESPECIALLY when your guild is pushing end-game content and can't afford to give you an off-set. My concern is that the talents will be so deep in the tree that it will really affect the various specs. I'm worried that rather than all the interesting discussion about talents, and the meta-game of perfecting your build, you'll see more and more people pidgeon-holed into one talent tree. Another plus will be gear that is very easily comparable.
And if It can be very finely tuned (i.e., convert pure spell dmg into spell dmg of a certain school) then this is a very exciting change for shadow priests and elemental shamen.

In the past changes like this have mostly tended to work out for the best, so I have faith that Blizz will think of this too.

Now . . . wtb Leave Queue button for the Battleground queue popups.

[Thylanter]

The spelldmg/healing change sounds silly to me. If this is to allow for mages/warlocks/dps casters to make use of say a generic chest piece, or for healers to make use it as a otherwise standard item, then these talents will become requirements for the sake of actually getting useful drops.

So while yes its great instead of sharding the 15th healer chestpiece in a row to drop off the same boss, I hope this is not a staple in their philosophy for item design. Because then in essence, everyone is locked into picking up these talents just to use generic items whereas currently specific sets for specific roles exist.

This just sounds like an excuse to dillute the itemization further. But we shall see how this plays out.

[Lamina]

DaZzA89 said:

Confused as to how they will itemize Spell Hit, Crit, Haste etc into this, because from a healing perspective, I can't say I'd like a piece with a ton of Spell Hit for example.

Am I thinking about this in the wrong way?

dude, u totally gotta make sure those heals hit!

[because]

This is how they will itemize for a greater variety of of classes (see: DK), and better itemize for various specs that didn't get as much love before (see: boomkin).

This is a great move.

[DaZzA89]

Lamina said:

dude, u totally gotta make sure those heals hit!

Haha, you can almost imagine it aye;

Healer casts Heal, Main Tank resists, Main Tank dies
Main Tank: DUDE WHERE WERE MY HEALS FFS
Healer: Sorry... I'm not hit-capped yet

[Deployed]

DaZzA89 said:

Confused as to how they will itemize Spell Hit, Crit, Haste etc into this, because from a healing perspective, I can't say I'd like a piece with a ton of Spell Hit for example.

Am I thinking about this in the wrong way?

I think those stats will be the key element in the decision for which class/build get's which item.

We'll see an item with nothing by Spell Power, another with Spell Power + Spell Crit, one with Spell Power + Hit Rating and a fourth with Spell Power + MP5.

While all the viable classes and builds could use them, some make more sense for a particular roll. Healers will go for Crit and MP5 gear, Affliction locks will opt for plan spell power and hit, mages will go for hit and crit. We'll still have the choice, it's just grouping healers into the DPS casters gear.

Technically this already happens with Mail Attack Power gear. Enhancement Shaman can use hunter gear, but if something with strength drops, they'll go for that instead.