Coming in Cataclysm, Blizzard is changing how Battle Rez and Soulstone work; you will now only be able to use 1 Battle Rez OR Soulstone (not both) per fight in 10m, 3 total per fight in 25m. With this change, they're rolling the cooldown on Brez back to 10m (from 30). They're also resetting the cooldown on Battle Rez from 30m back to 10m. Now, a lot of people are up in arms about this change; I've even heard it described as the beginning of the end for WoW. However, this change fits in well with the theme of 4.0, which has been the reduction of buff stacking and eliminating the need to bring certain classes or fail.
Additionally, a change like this is NECESSARY to progression raiding. Before this change if you were learning a fight, you want all your resources available for every attempt. That means if you have 2 druids and 1 lock, you want both battle rezzes and the soulstone up for every pull; without them, what's the point in even trying? As a result, many raid groups would have to take 5 minute breaks between wipes to wait for skills to cooldown. But is that fun? Is it cool to schedule 3 hours of raiding but spend an hour of it sitting around waiting for skills to cooldown? Of course not, it's absurd and bad design.
The other problem this addresses is class stacking. In a 10m on live now, you could easily take 3 druids to a raid and get 3 battle rezzes without doubling up on specs or gimping your raid buff composition. Throw in a lock too, and that's 4 combat resurrections; nearly half your raid could die and come back to life. That's too powerful, making druids too "useful" for simply clicking one button and encouraging raid leaders to stack them.
This change is GOOD. It's good for the raiding game, and doesn't affect anyone else since you can still use 5 brezzes in a heroic if you're running with all druids.
Showing posts with label Beta. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Beta. Show all posts
Friday, November 5, 2010
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Cataclysm Newbie Thoughts
Since Cataclysm has placed such a large focus on new players and the leveling experience, I decided to use some of my beta time to roll a new guy to see the changes. On my live server I'm at the character cap already, and will have to delete a mule just to roll a goblin so I won't get to see much of the new content on live. So, I started up an undead warrrior; undead because I've always liked the Forsaken lore and warrior because I want to tank.
Very early on I'm impressed with the new level of story the quests show; it isn't all 'kill 10 rats' anymore, you're involved with several NPCs for more than single quests. There are also quests that begin automatically when you kill certain mobs (they don't even require drops), quests that complete and chain right in the field, etc. In Deathknell some of the quests are similar (first you kill undead, then hounds/bats, then spiders) but condensed: you don't need 10 of each type of undead anymore, you need 10 total, collect 3 bat wings instead of 8, etc. Generally they left the key story points of Tirisfal Glades intact while tightening it up, adding some new plot threads, and streamlining your path throughout the zone. Example: Once you hit Brill, you're given quests to go up to Garren's Haunt. After completing the quests there, you're sent directly to Agamand Mills without having to return to Brill to pick up new quests.
Once you're done with Tirisfal you head down to Silverpine, where the focus is on the Worgen. You battle the Worgen directly throughout the whole zone, eventually taking the fight into the city of Gilneas itself. This zone was a lot of fun, and felt almost completely different than it's vanilla version. You're working directly for Sylvannas here, and it really immerses you in the war going on between the Forsaken and the Worgen. Once Cata launches I recommend everyone go quest through this zone just to see an example of quests that put the War in Warcraft.
Very early on I'm impressed with the new level of story the quests show; it isn't all 'kill 10 rats' anymore, you're involved with several NPCs for more than single quests. There are also quests that begin automatically when you kill certain mobs (they don't even require drops), quests that complete and chain right in the field, etc. In Deathknell some of the quests are similar (first you kill undead, then hounds/bats, then spiders) but condensed: you don't need 10 of each type of undead anymore, you need 10 total, collect 3 bat wings instead of 8, etc. Generally they left the key story points of Tirisfal Glades intact while tightening it up, adding some new plot threads, and streamlining your path throughout the zone. Example: Once you hit Brill, you're given quests to go up to Garren's Haunt. After completing the quests there, you're sent directly to Agamand Mills without having to return to Brill to pick up new quests.
Once you're done with Tirisfal you head down to Silverpine, where the focus is on the Worgen. You battle the Worgen directly throughout the whole zone, eventually taking the fight into the city of Gilneas itself. This zone was a lot of fun, and felt almost completely different than it's vanilla version. You're working directly for Sylvannas here, and it really immerses you in the war going on between the Forsaken and the Worgen. Once Cata launches I recommend everyone go quest through this zone just to see an example of quests that put the War in Warcraft.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Cataclysm Beta
I finally got in. ^_^ Copied over a DK, specced for tank and queued up for a heroic! Two wipes later, we're still on the first trash pull. I guess heroics really are going to be hard now? Not sure if want. You only start with blues, so maybe I need to grind some regular dungeons first before testing the heroic stuff. Or maybe we were just doing something wrong. More to come!
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