WoW: Battle for Azeroth (8.3)

More BFA class impressions:
The warrior specs when I first tried them seemed better but not earth shattering.
Protection sounded like it had a lot of drama only to end up largely the same. Later
with the one Devastator talent that boosts your auto attack, it plays much better.
You almost don't need ignore pain.

Fury is solid. The rotation still has variety but is no longer nested, complex or reliant
on blowing long cool downs.

Arms seemed to have an overwhelming amount of abilities but I tested some talent
changes and it is decently fun.

I made some tweaks to my shadow priest talents and hands down it is the most fun
priest spec. Shadow priest and Destro lock are tops of the list of the mage classes
right now IMHO.

Druid catform is pretty awesome. The other specs are capable but routine.
Monks are a little meh right now. The melee DPS I may have to play around with
some talents on but when compared with the Assassin rogue, looks like it is standing
still.

The monk tank is kinda fun. I like the talent that drops a keg when you use that baton(?)
skill is cool. I don't find I am really doing anything with the stagger mechanic.

I was worried about demon hunters having changes that would ruin them. That was
unfounded. In fact the dps is much heartier and can talent the fire nova from the tank
spec.
The tank spec is mots except a little more refined. It is clearer now which abilities you
don't need on your action bar.

I just wanted to say i am enjoying these class impressions from the beta. keep up the good work and writing!

I'm seriously thinking DH as my main just for the sole reason of flying...once real flying is unlocked I might switch but seriously, the whole gliding w/ fel rush etc is almost too good to pass up.

Hunters are already pretty popular and I get the feeling they are going to be even more popular in BFA.
Beastmaster gets a 2 pet talent at tier 1. It is another in a long line of classes that feel like they have a bag of tricks that they can pick and choose which couple to annihilate things with.
Marksman has that also and has a bunch of aoe and single target awesomeness. Rapid fire is great. Barrage I get the feeling is going to be a mainstay of every Marksman and Beastmaster. It is like a channeled repeater shotgun with a 20 second cool down. No one is going to say no to that.

My main is a Hunter, and he is a beastmaster, always has been even when beastmaster was sub-optimal. I'm glad they are folding Hati into a talent, i would have missed having two pets running with me.

I'm the opposite, always played BM primarily (since Vanilla! I have to say that don't I? ) but extremely glad to be rid of the second pet. The AI was painful and running through some instances felt like I needed a 'wide load' sign. I like the vibe of just the hunter and A pet.

I may play a bit of survival this time around though. I have a beta key but not had time to play with it too much yet. MM hasnt appealed to me for a long time although the changes to lone wolf are appealing - I always feel 'wrong' playing a petless hunter, although there have been raid bosses where the pets a real liability because of target switching or whatever, so having it optional may be more palatable.

It definitely still has a bit of wide load "formation". And FWIW the Unholy DK with 2 pets feels the same way. The AI isn't revolutionary but seems competent. There is the side note that I have yet to take either into a dungeon which I am sure will complicate things. Oh and demonology warlock has got to be way worse in that regard

Also I do not recall seeing the "lone wolf" talent. But I am not really interested in it either TBH. There is way more interesting stuff in Marksman. One talent has a chance to proc a small "rain of vengeance" on your ranged auto attacks.

Finished Before the Storm tonight. I recognize I may be one of the few "lore nerds" for this game on these forums, but it's a pretty good book.

It also completely shatters the illusion Blizzard keeps trying to prop up for morally gray BfA and such.

Spoiler:

Anduin's last line in the book shows that for YEARS, even thinking she might have been responsible for his death (but having accepted she wasn't based on her word and Baine's) that she could be saved or that she wasn't past redemption. And in those last moments after the reunion of Alliance Humans and Horde Forsaken who were split by Arthas's betrayal and destruction of Lordaeron... he came to realize that she had truly descended into an evil that could no longer be reversed.

Now, yes, he's on the opposite side. But like... this is a man, young though he may be, who has always been a herald of peace. Even he sees the point, much as he dislikes it, of how she just cannot remain anymore.

Sidenote, Turalyon reuniting with Alonsus Faol? Holy sh*t. Genn too? Whaaaaaaa... then... Genn, at the end of the book talking with Anduin, realizing that the Forsaken aren't all monsters, and that there are people there, regular people, not just killers, and not even saints (though he acknowledges the value of those Forsaken who were truly happy to be reunited with their living loved ones), but also just people who also couldn't fully come together, and how Forsaken did not rage, did not attack... they could simply be... just disappointed... and that proves that there is something still human inside them. Damn. Like I don't expect Genn to ever stop hating Sylvanas (and rightly, or at least justifiably, so)... but the idea that he may now recognize that she doesn't represent all of the Horde. Damn, that's a leap I didn't ever really expect.

Spent a few more moments with the Shaman. The enhancement is pretty solid and fun. I really don't know what I am doing with elemental. And restoration, like most healing specs, seems to have healing overkill but can get by with their dot, nuke and procing special.
The trick why enhancement works is that maelstrom generation is plentiful, they get a flashy bolt from the sky that mixes things up and the small heal that is instant when using maelstrom as a resource. Spirit wolf gets a nice talent buff too.

Demosthenes wrote:

Finished Before the Storm tonight. I recognize I may be one of the few "lore nerds" for this game on these forums, but it's a pretty good book.

It also completely shatters the illusion Blizzard keeps trying to prop up for morally gray BfA and such.

I am big in on the lore as well. That is the main draw that keeps me coming back. Ever since Humans V Orcs I have been interested. I have been Horde since day 1 and was excited to see all out war xpac with both sides doing some stuff, the more I read the more I find it disappointing. Just feels too much Sylvanas is crazy and Anduin is a saint and the savior of Azeroth who does no wrong.

Medmey wrote:
Demosthenes wrote:

Finished Before the Storm tonight. I recognize I may be one of the few "lore nerds" for this game on these forums, but it's a pretty good book.

It also completely shatters the illusion Blizzard keeps trying to prop up for morally gray BfA and such.

I am big in on the lore as well. That is the main draw that keeps me coming back. Ever since Humans V Orcs I have been interested. I have been Horde since day 1 and was excited to see all out war xpac with both sides doing some stuff, the more I read the more I find it disappointing. Just feels too much Sylvanas is crazy and Anduin is a saint and the savior of Azeroth who does no wrong.

He may be doing no wrong now, but his wisdom and plans now come from a place of doing a metric sh*tton of noble but ultimately foolish, naive, and stupid things for years. In his case, time on Azeroth has given him wisdom (and those he's chosen to associate with have helped him grow in that regard).

In Sylvanas's case, she's largely isolated herself. When she hasn't, she's surrounded herself with either sycophants (see Nathanos and most of her Forsaken military machine) or actual enemies (Putress, Tichondrius, etc...). When she hasn't been making bad decisions based on her company, she's been making bad decisions based on her past mistakes. She tried to kill herself and scared the sh*t out of herself as a result on what will happen when she dies. She's so motivated by that fear of death now that she continues to hurt pretty much everyone and risk even what little she ultimately actually has.

Like, really, her plans don't even make any damn sense once you get above the great "tactical level" thinking, which is both short term and... may be other characters giving her too much damn credit. As was revealed a while ago through PTR/beta data-mining and the early release of part of the book at Blizzcon, Sylvanas's plan seems to be "kill all the humans and make them ALL Forsaken".... ok... and... then what? If you kill off all the humans, you ultimately create a decomposition timeline of extinction like any zombie invasion. We specifically see, in the book, that even non-decomposing Forsaken still require replacement parts, still break down over time, as evidenced by the blacksmith who destroyed his hand accidentally. And... Forsaken don't have children. They don't reproduce. Without that... you can never grow the population naturally so... eventually, if you win, you ultimately lose. This seems not to have occurred to her at ALL. But... how could it not have?!

It's up there with her apparent plans of pre-emptive strike upon a currently non-hostile (though unfriendly) superpower. Why would you ever? "Oh, we're going to eliminate our main other rival for power with a sneak attack". Like half your damn population is NEVER going to be ok with that. Baine is questioning orders basically from the get go. Saurfang is clearly not ok with this either. The two of them alone are well respected enough that you're going to alienate not only a good chunk of their respective races who view those two as their leaders (whether actually or just de facto)... but also those who look up to them. The book specifically talks about Anduin's vision of the Forsaken warrior who regarded Garrosh as a monster who was threatening the whole world. Hell, the book gives a good bit of work to a group who is loyal to Sylvanas, but has separate beliefs and goals... and they have plenty of followers in the Undercity too.

Like, at this point, I think she was a great character up until the end of Wrath, and ever since then, she's gone further and further afield with her fears and that seems to be the only thing motivating her and that's juse... so sad because she could be so much more interesting.

Here's to hoping for Warchief Saurfang, again. Really would make the two sides and their occasional head butting so much more interesting.

fangblackbone wrote:

Also I do not recall seeing the "lone wolf" talent. But I am not really interested in it either TBH. There is way more interesting stuff in Marksman. One talent has a chance to proc a small "rain of vengeance" on your ranged auto attacks.

Nah it's gone as a talent. What happens now is if you are marksman and dismiss your pet lone wolf just activates and the damage buff creeps up over 1 minute ( to stop people chopping and changing mid fight presumably)

Means you can play marksman with/without a pet as you choose a lot easier.

Goo wrote:
fangblackbone wrote:

Also I do not recall seeing the "lone wolf" talent. But I am not really interested in it either TBH. There is way more interesting stuff in Marksman. One talent has a chance to proc a small "rain of vengeance" on your ranged auto attacks.

Nah it's gone as a talent. What happens now is if you are marksman and dismiss your pet lone wolf just activates and the damage buff creeps up over 1 minute ( to stop people chopping and changing mid fight presumably)

Means you can play marksman with/without a pet as you choose a lot easier.

Thats really good. It felt wrong to me as a hunter to be commited to No pet. Its what kept me away from marksman even when ti was "the best"

class lore and my image of my character is a lot more important to me than spreadsheeting the perfect powerbuild.

Thrawn82 - Yeh exactly the same here. While I doubt I will go MM for BfA, it would at least be palatable, and to be honest the idea of being able to ditch the pet for dungeons/raids (not dealing with pet issues/management yay) but retain it for anything else with minimal effort, is somewhat appealing.

All that being said I'll probably just go BM as always though lol, it was always the 'class feel' that appealed to me, regardless of complexity or numbers at any given time

Goo wrote:

Thrawn82 - Yeh exactly the same here. While I doubt I will go MM for BfA, it would at least be palatable, and to be honest the idea of being able to ditch the pet for dungeons/raids (not dealing with pet issues/management yay) but retain it for anything else with minimal effort, is somewhat appealing.

All that being said I'll probably just go BM as always though lol, it was always the 'class feel' that appealed to me, regardless of complexity or numbers at any given time

I still remember when i had to log on to feed my giant killer tomagatchi to make sure it did what I wanted when i hit the right buttons.

Yeh. Tiny bags, full of ammo and pet food. those were the days lol

Goo wrote:

Yeh. Tiny bags, full of ammo and pet food. those were the days lol

I still have a couple stacks of mammoth rounds in my bank for sentimental reasons

Ooh, and quivers!

There is nothing like revisiting WoW after I had been on hiatus since very early in Cata. I had no idea what servers my characters were on. I discovered one of my forgotten alt main servers (where I went to play when I wanted to be by myself) that had ~7 or so decently leveled alts. One of them was one of my many "I must have one of every race" hunters, a level 37 dwarf female. Talk about dating yourself, she had a quiver filled with - was it broad tipped arrows? (wasn't there something about different types of arrows or you needed arrows, bullets, or bolts for the different weapons?)

I fired up my BFA lock and played around with the talents some. Destro is still my favorite. But demonology has some talents for the dreadstalkers that make it more than a "ZOMG Pets!" gimmick. But we are talking about a couple seconds difference if I open with Hand of Guldan instead of the dreadstalkers. Plus the automatically summon a wild imp every few seconds talent does not get old either.

And affliction is quite capable if you ditch drain soul and pick up some shadow bolt talents. You really have no choice but to take haunt later on but you really don't need it. The talent that lets shadow bolt do 30% of the remaining dot damage is quite fun and powerful. And then you can add the talent that lets corruption ticks sometimes make shadow bolt instant and you have a winner. It is like that old viral LARP video: except instead of "lightning bolt, lightning bolt, root", it is "dot, dot, dot, dot, shadow bolt, shadow bolt, dead"

Protection pally is streamlined and the talents that enhance judgment and avenger shield are nice.
But TBH holy pally is no slouch either. No one would ever choose it over prot and ret when talking solo questing, but if it were a spec of another class it is more fun than a few specs.

thrawn82 wrote:
Goo wrote:

Yeh. Tiny bags, full of ammo and pet food. those were the days lol

I still have a couple stacks of mammoth rounds in my bank for sentimental reasons

I wish I had kept a few just because. But, no, I don't miss ammo packs or bullets or pet food or any of that.

I do think it's weird to play a dwarf hunter with a bow and without a pet, which is why I went BM this expansion for the first time ever. (MM For Life, except for a brief weird flirtation with Survival.) We'll see about BfA.

Anyone heard when the pre-patch will drop? I'm assuming mid-July sometime to give us a month to figure out the new specs, etc.

Also: If anyone on Blackhand-A wants to donate (or sell) stacks and stacks of current enchanting mats, let's talk. I gotta get enchanting to 800 and the mats my god.

Enix wrote:
thrawn82 wrote:
Goo wrote:

Yeh. Tiny bags, full of ammo and pet food. those were the days lol

I still have a couple stacks of mammoth rounds in my bank for sentimental reasons

I wish I had kept a few just because. But, no, I don't miss ammo packs or bullets or pet food or any of that.

I do think it's weird to play a dwarf hunter with a bow and without a pet, which is why I went BM this expansion for the first time ever. (MM For Life, except for a brief weird flirtation with Survival.) We'll see about BfA.

Anyone heard when the pre-patch will drop? I'm assuming mid-July sometime to give us a month to figure out the new specs, etc.

Also: If anyone on Blackhand-A wants to donate (or sell) stacks and stacks of current enchanting mats, let's talk. I gotta get enchanting to 800 and the mats my god.

OH don;t mistake me, vanilla feels like a hot garbage pain in the ass now, i would not give up all the uncountable quality of life improvements made over the years. I just like to wax nostalgic occasionally and wave my cane at the whiper-snappers who didn't have to walk uphill through the snow both ways.

thrawn82 wrote:

OH don;t mistake me, vanilla feels like a hot garbage pain in the ass now, i would not give up all the uncountable quality of life improvements made over the years. I just like to wax nostalgic occasionally and wave my cane at the whiper-snappers who didn't have to walk until they hit level 40 and were able to scrape together 20 gold.

FTFY

You're right. Those days suuuuuuuuucked.

OMG 20 was a freaking fortune back then too. i scraped hard for that mount money

Enix wrote:

Anyone heard when the pre-patch will drop? I'm assuming mid-July sometime to give us a month to figure out the new specs, etc.

Don't think there is a set date yet but I think you are round the mark with mid July, that would be pretty consistent with other expansions.

I gotta wind back and take some kinda break. I'm not raiding and havent been for months but just finishing tidying up alts etc. Then they say 'we are gonna open the mage tower up. Bastards.

I though i read somewhere that 6 weeks was around the time they dropped the pre-patch.
ZOMG the queues!

Demosthenes wrote:

Like, really, her plans don't even make any damn sense once you get above the great "tactical level" thinking, which is both short term and... may be other characters giving her too much damn credit.
...
Here's to hoping for Warchief Saurfang, again. Really would make the two sides and their occasional head butting so much more interesting

Absolutely agree. IMO having Sylvanus scheming away in the background was a good counterweight to Baine and Cairne in highlighting the cobbled together nature of the horde, but having her front and centre as Warchief doesn't really work. Now if her plots succeed it takes the Horde away from its roots, and if they fail it makes her look incompetent.

FWIW much of human history has been shaped by focusing just on tactical short term victories rather than on the long game.

Speaking of the invasions, any word yet on when the pre patch will drop and whether it will be a good way to level alts/get decent gear like the Legion event?

Pre-patch should come out any week now -- July 3, July 10 or July 17. I'd put my money on the 17th.

No idea about XP. Each side gets a pre-patch scenario so ... maybe? The Wowhead rundown of pre-patch features might offer some clues.

Seems like there will be "replayable outdoor skirmishes".
Hopefully they will be as lucrative as invasions.

Yeh, the hot moneys on the 17th but nothing official. Would seem about right I reckon.

Haven't they done releases on major holidays before?