During the time of the Burning Crusade release, Blizzard announced that they hope to release one expansion every second year.
During the time of the Wrath of the Lich King released, a Blizzard chief in an exclusive interview stated that he predict them to still be working on various materials 10 years from now (This from an objective and professional point of view and not from personal hopes and dreams)
The reason they go for 85 rather than 90, is because they feel like 90 is just unnecessary. They do not need to go that far and instead simply gives a few levels, some room for new abilities and allow people to swifter attain maximum level from the previous cap of 80.
This because of the announce that Blizzard will be focusing more on end-game material than ever before. So they want people to level less, which is the reason why the leveling process is shortened at various places across the world, such as Barrens being cut in half (Making the leveling area for low-levels smaller) and yet keeps the pace for the same level range as Barrens had before Cataclysm.
Hmm, where did you read about those changes? My warlock has been through soo many changes throughout the years, yet they never seem to find the right tune for us locks.
Basically, soul shards as you know them are gone. Instease you will have 3 that recharge (out of combat only), not dissimilar to deathknight runes. You can only use one spell that requries them, so all the abilities that require them now won't cost soul shards.
The spell that will use soul shards is at the moment call soul burn, it will cost 1 shard, 30 second cd, and off the global cooldown. Basically it will change how the next spell you cast functions. here are the examples of how they will affect spells. (If i'm a little off on one, forgive me, warlocks aren't my class so i didn't make a note of memorising this ;p )
searing pain = next 3 searing pains will definately crit
summon demon = instant
fear = instant
soul fire = instant.
That kind of thing. Basically giving warlocks many cooldowns in just one. Kind of awesome, but potentially massively OP ;p
Theres a bunch of broken crap.. if you like it .. whatever.. but that doesnt mean my response is "baseless" just because I dont have a copy reserved
if they took the path of lets say "hey.. we're upping the cap 5 levels.. heres some new interesting skills to use.. and worgen / goblins are going to become important factions, along with new related instances (insert items / bg's, etc)"
but instead its.. lets insert unnecessary races, with ridiculous racials (after they had just got done toning everyone's racials down after like what? 5 to 6 years?).
glyphs are borderline broken.. there are clear differences between garbage glyphs and glyphs that say "you're stupid if you didn't buy me for (insert spec)".. on top of this, throw a talent tweak system?..
and I feel bad for engineers who gathered a ton of mats to make jeeves, cuz goblins get one for free
I havent even touched down on the new class combos..ugh.. no comment
whatever though.. I'll let the video do the talking.. I think its pathetic (when it could have been very interesting)
I like that they're trying to spice up vanilla areas.. but not like this
new races? sure.. but its too soon after burning crusade to be adding more races, IMO
I'm glad that your friend is high-end..... but I know I'm not the only one looking over these changes and feeling let down
I'll obviously be checking it out as more info is released.. though I have to say that Guild Wars 2 and Final Fantasy XIV have my interest at the moment
I assuming this is from the pay per veiw thing they mentioned?
If you saw Q & A someone asked if they were going to bring up older races racials up to speed with the new racials, and they answered yes. So i wouldn't worry about that ;p
New races are an almost purely aesthetic change, it doesn't actually affect gameplay at all. The only portion that does is the racials, and as said in the post above, Blizzard said they will be revamping ALL racials in the game for the expansion to bring them all up to par with the new ones. So that point is moot.
As far as the Path system, it's far too early to say it's anything gamebreaking, or even much of anything at all. It's just another method of customizing characters. And since every single character will have access to the same exact skills within the new system it should be the most balanced new gameplay system introduced to the game.
Glyphs are fine, there are varying degrees when it comes to glyphs but that's how it's always been with all avenues of customization. Talents are the same way. It's simply not possible or practical to make every talent or glyph or gem identical when it comes to its power or purpose, same with glyphs. Though they've done a good job in trying to bring them all as close together as possible. And with the new way they're condensing talents with the expansion it should help even more.
Still not seeing anything that any sensible person would say is gamebreaking. Having some vague concerns is one thing but to flat out say that anything they've introduced is 'gamebreaking' is hyperbole, at best.
People fear changes, it's as simple as that. Everything new that Blizzard has introduced for this expansion is for the better, from a purely objective point of view. It's easier to work with, it's more rookie-friendly, the longevity is better and there's a lot more too each and every thing new.
It's also more pleasing for those that are fans of the lore, such as myself, because of the fact that if Deathwing ever returned from his last failure, he would have done nothing less than made sure that this time he left a mark worth noting.
Some of the hardcore people may complain over the changes in attributes and the lack of some of the old mechanics and features in gear and characters, but that's because they have either worked so hard to get their stuff or because they don't want newbies to become better more easily.
I can understand why some complain on the stamina change, but it's still better. PvP will be at its pinnacle if you ask me, but of course, you won't, and I can't blame you as I personally don't play the game.
Still, I can't help but to tell myself that people who whine on all these changes are simply very short-sighted or simply lack the ability to view all of this from an objective point of view. I imagine people don't want to let go of things they imagine defines World of Warcraft.
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Last edited by Q'Anilia on Aug 25th, 2009 at 10:56 AM
Races = racials.. when you pick an undead, you're picking will of the forsaken, Ne - Shadowmeld, Be - Torrent.. its hardly aesthetic
if you selected your race, and then selected your racial, then I would see your point
I welcome change if its well thought out.. this just seems very hasty
I dont like to see powerful beings get brought out for nothing other than to be killed like crap.. i.e. illidan, and with wow becoming more and more ez-mode, deathwing will follow suit much faster
moreover.. when you see 3 power point pages for horde character racial, and in the next breath the alliance character racial gets 1 page (with the second being nothing but unrelated cosmetics), I think you can catch a glimpse of my disappointment there
Its better if you want all of this mess that they're mentioning.. but its just not cool from a difficulty standpoint..
I think you can all remember how exciting vanilla wow was.. and I think with every expansion released they just keep adding too many things that really weren't asked for
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On a sidenote, hunters being converted to energy would seem like a nerf to me.. you can always increase your mana pool to allow you to perform more attacks, but you're always going to be stuck with 100 energy.. but I've seen nothing on the matter, so theres my 2cents
Hmmm i sort of see your point, i rerolled BE for the torrent, though i must say i stick with it for it's appearence. (was dps, and am now tank, so a tauren would be more preferable for me)
Again i agree on that. I really wish they would bring out 2 expansions for deathwing. This one let him kick our ass. Then in the one after we turn it around. In our guild we call wrath of the lick king, pwnage of the lich king. Sure he acts "wrathful" but let's face it he'll just end up dying, then farmed ;p
Hmmm, i think the Horde racials being longer to describe means nothing. I mean, being a 60% pvper 40% raider, i would like to add in i think the worgen from my perspecting have the nicer racials. e.g.
Goblins have 2 racials that share CD, the burst foward is great but.... well it's not a blink, it's like disengage which means it won't break movement imparing. and can't be used when you're immobalized.
Whereas the Worgen 70% movement speed is badass. First of all, it doesn't share the goblins weakness of it being only forward. It's essentially omnidirectional. Which at the very least for pvp is much more useful.
Or look at the profession boosts. Goblins get +15 alchemy. Worgen get +15 skinning, faster skinning speed and they don't need a knife.
I think you get my standpoint on this topic. It's quality vs quantity sort of.
Lawl. That's a subjective opinion, not an objective fact. I'm not necessarily in disagreement with you about your later points, but this sentence stuck out to me like a sore thumb. Saying that all the changes are objectively "better" is as false a generalization as the doomsayers on the other side of the coin.
I like most of the stuff though. Particularly the revamping of Azeroth, and many of the classic dungeons.
The most likely outcome of this change is that it will standardize hunters' steady dps but eliminate burst damage that hunters were occasionally capable of because of deep mana pools and multiple cooldowns. It will undoubtedly need tweaking when it comes out, so I doubt it will be balanced to begin with, but will eventually be fine.
I'm just more of a "spreadsheet" player than a fast-twitch player, the latter of which will be somewhat needed to absolutely maximize dps in a timing-based energy system. So I'm not happy about the change, but neither do I think it's the end of the class. It won't be better or worse, most likely, just different.
Everything is a matter of perspective, I'm the last one to argue against that.
I know now after I've read what you have to say about my sentence that my choice of words could've been a lot better, and I didn't mean it as fact, but rather as an opinion from a neutral source that's not biased in any way at all.
I don't know. 'Every Man for Himself', 'Will of the Forsaken', and
'Arcane Torrent' are some heavy-duty racials that are so much more than just aesthetics.
I remember the days when WotF was pretty much quintessential for PvP. It really did put all other racials to shame.
__________________ And from the ashes he rose, like a black cloud. The Sin of one became the Sin of many.
Technically I'd pump out ever-so-slightly more dps as an orc hunter, rather than a Blood Elf (except for mana-dependent fights, where the BE racial helps considerably. But that's not most fights). But I didn't want to be an orc.
Have you even been hit by any of them?... mage vs BE rogue (spell shutdown for 2 seconds followed by cloak of shadows for steamroll)?.. human paladin vs stunlock rogue (2 full chances to escape stuns)?.. Even world PvP, with shadowmeld into flight form for escape > heal up > return gank.. or shadowmeld > re-stealth > access to stealth skills returned.. the possibilities are pretty over the top
not to mention the poor classes that rely on fears for survival and get lol'ed by will of the forsaken..
these are tide-turning racials.. they arent there to be pretty on your action bar
lately they have been skimmed over to make it so that everyones racial is great across the board (I dont know if troll racial is still fail, though).. so I was just taken back by the sudden ridiculous amount of racials goblins get, to throw the proverbial wrench in the works
well one bright side (perhaps theres more, if you come to find out) is that you'll never need to bother drinking again.. something I quite loved about my rogue.. high lvl herbalism to heal hp ftw.. I think one thing they could do to ease up the setback of the new timing based function is to probably increase baseline pet dps or something
I'm not a hunter expert or anything... but dont BE's get Bow specialty?.. specialties are pretty nice.. its why I'm miffed atm, because the best wep I have access to is an Axe, when humans are best with mace or sword.. /sniffle
I've always said that if you lose a battle because of a racial ability you probably would have lost anyways. They will rarely turn the tide of a fight in one person's favor. In all my hears of playing the game primarily with a PVP focus I have never thought to myself "Oh, WOTF won that fight for me" Or on my BE mage "Oh, I wouldn't have lost that fight if I had WOTF." There are always other reasons for winning or losing. They aren't nearly the game changers you are implying. They have an affect but it's a relatively small one.
I do agree that the Goblin and Worgen racials sound pretty powerful, but again, Blizzard has now said that they will be revamping ALL racials in the game to bring them up to that level. So it won't be a problem at all.
Probably because you haven't played in a while, and only played for one day. A lot of changes to get used to + not being able to experience the most fun stuff on a first go = not a good time. No one who is serious about the game would argue that it's gone downhill since pre-BC though. It's much (much) more balanced, nuanced, there's more to do, and more ways to enjoy the game. There will always be problems (can't please everyone) but I hope you enjoy your new experience with it.