WoW Patch 3.1 Catch All

Pages

Detailed Patch Notes are posted later in the thread from the first 3.1 PTR iteration. They are massive so I trimmed this post down.

TL;DR - Dual Spec currently costs 1000G.

Hmm, I'd like to see how they are going to make the Enhance and Elemental Shaman more PvP viable.

Someone mentioned a change in the patch would be the ability to join a battleground from anywhere in the world. Dunno if its true. I hope WoW does copy some of the good stuff from Warhammer like that though

I don't like the Chain Lightning change. It took one of our nukes and turned it into a pseudo-AoE. As for the totem streamlining, I think it's about time they did that. I (and others, I'm sure) suggested that change quite a while ago.

That's not enough to fix Shamans in PvP. They need to tell us what else they have in store before I can say any more.

The Hunger for Blood change is going to rock big time in PvE. Now we don't have to worry about putting it in our rotation. The Adrenaline Rush change seemed like a no-brainer. 5 minutes, when everything else was 3, or 1? I don't know if Combat will keep up with Assassination, but the buffs are nice so far.

Divine Spirit change is great. It'll be nice to not have a slightly gimped priest in order to get +80SPI and +80 spell power for the raid. This can't come soon enough.

PW:Barrier and being able to cast PoH on another group are interesting I guess but seem to go against the Blizzard raiding goal of having the 5 man groups become irrelevant. I'm assuming PW:B would be for a group and not raid wide.

Serendipity change could be interesting depending on how it gets implemented. A flash heal to top off a raid member that lets you toss a short followup gheal on a tank could be handy. Everyone specs serendipity so whatever it ends up being, it's all bonus.

MikeMac wrote:

Divine Spirit change is great. It'll be nice to not have a slightly gimped priest in order to get +80SPI and +80 spell power for the raid. This can't come soon enough. :)

Gimped? I disagree with your review of the discipline tree. =)

That being said, the change is good. I assume most disc priests will take those talent points and swap them into PW: Barrier.

I'm really stoked about PW:Barrier and party-specific Prayer of Healing. Now I won't have to flipflop group makeups on certain boss fights. I actually think it goes very far forward in terms of making groups more transparent in raids. I am interested to see the mechanics behind PW:B though -- I wonder if it'll be a ranged-based smart shield (like CoH) or a strict party based shield. And, if the latter, if it'll have the same limits that the current prayer of healing does.

I'm not sure I understand how blizzard is going to implement the new Hunger for Blood -- will be an always on ability that only activates when bleeds are on a target, like the damage bonus on shred? Or will it be an ability that still have to be manually activated when a bleed is applied, like overpower?

Totem streamlining ftw. FOR THE WIN.

I don't know if Combat will keep up with Assassination, but the buffs are nice so far.

I think they are going to be so close that the difference will be practically impossible to notice. The biggest remaining advantage to Assassination is Focused Attacks. That's got to be one of the best rogue talents, period. The HfB change is fantastic for PvE. Pairing up with Feral Druids and DPSing Warriors will be a big advantage for mut. rogues but since one of our main finishing moves is a bleed effect, it won't be critical to do so.

# Adrenaline Rush – the cooldown on this ability has been lowered.

Even if AR just loses a minute; glyphed will bring it down to three minutes. That's a nearly double the amount of uses in a boss fight.

# Killing Spree – while this ability is active, the rogue does 20% additional damage.

20% Damage increase for 2.5 seconds in PvE? KS accounts for between 1 - 3% of my total damage done by the end of the raiding night. Not that impressive. The change to KS almost seems like a PvP buff.

# Lightning Reflexes – reduced to 3 ranks. In addition to 2/4/6% dodge, this talent now also grants 4/7/10% passive melee haste.

One of the least used rogue talents finally gets some love!

Using a talent calculator, I came up with a 14/52/5 build that looks really solid for Combat. The catch is that you can't go dual weapon spec if you want to pick up the melee haste buff.

EDIT:

Seth wrote:

Or will it be an ability that still have to be manually activated when a bleed is applied, like overpower?

My guess is that is exactly how it will work. Bleed - HfB shows - Activate HfB - 30s (?) Duration - Profit.

This fits Blizz's apparent intent of making the Assassination tree more game-y and providing very strong PvE raiding utility. It also nerfs the piss out of Rogue's burst damage in PvP. No more front loaded 9% damage.

Seth wrote:
MikeMac wrote:

Divine Spirit change is great. It'll be nice to not have a slightly gimped priest in order to get +80SPI and +80 spell power for the raid. This can't come soon enough. :)

Gimped? I disagree with your review of the discipline tree. =)

Seconded My Disc priest is awesome.

Dr.Ghastly wrote:
Seth wrote:
MikeMac wrote:

Divine Spirit change is great. It'll be nice to not have a slightly gimped priest in order to get +80SPI and +80 spell power for the raid. This can't come soon enough. :)

Gimped? I disagree with your review of the discipline tree. =)

Seconded My Disc priest is awesome.

They still cant compare to a holy priest.

Looking forward to the totem combines.

ranalin wrote:
Dr.Ghastly wrote:
Seth wrote:
MikeMac wrote:

Divine Spirit change is great. It'll be nice to not have a slightly gimped priest in order to get +80SPI and +80 spell power for the raid. This can't come soon enough. :)

Gimped? I disagree with your review of the discipline tree. =)

Seconded My Disc priest is awesome.

They still cant compare to a holy priest.

You need at least one for 3 drake Sartharion, and they're pretty useful, in general.

ranalin wrote:
Dr.Ghastly wrote:
Seth wrote:
MikeMac wrote:

Divine Spirit change is great. It'll be nice to not have a slightly gimped priest in order to get +80SPI and +80 spell power for the raid. This can't come soon enough. :)

Gimped? I disagree with your review of the discipline tree. =)

Seconded My Disc priest is awesome.

They still cant compare to a holy priest.

I think you were referring to the Disc/Holy spec that was very popular in TBC, right? Full disc definitely got some good lovin for WotLK, this just solidifies it as a great option compared to going holy where you focus more on enchancement and boosts opposed to straight full-blown healing. I think it's great!

I know a couple priests from BHA that will really like the chance and not having to spec halfway into Disc to get spirit buff. Now they have a great reason to go deeper holy or have a lot of reason to try out full Disc, whichever they choose and not feel like they are losing out on anything

polypusher wrote:

Someone mentioned a change in the patch would be the ability to join a battleground from anywhere in the world. Dunno if its true. I hope WoW does copy some of the good stuff from Warhammer like that though :)

Those were fake notes that were a bunch of stuff people knew were coming mixed with some things that the author decided would be a good idea.

Don't expect it unless you see it written by a blue.

Wreck wrote:

Looking forward to the totem combines.

I'm curious since I tend to lack paying attention to them all that often, but does this give more reason to use healing/mana totems, or is it more like "now my mana totem I always use will give some healing too"?

Reaper81 wrote:

Comments

Have the rogue gods been appeased, or is this just a step in the right direction you think?

Experientially, I find disc priests to be superior in 5 and 10 man environments, where prayer of healing can handle the entire group or half the raid (vs 20% in 25 mans). The shielding also tends to reward proactive healers. But, yeah, a disc priest can't beat the sheer throughput of a pure holy priest, and a bad holy priest is MUCH better than a bad disc priest.

I realized that part of the fun of the game is discussing changes that haven't even happened yet. Anyone else get that feeling?

Seth wrote:

I realized that part of the fun of the game is discussing changes that haven't even happened yet. Anyone else get that feeling?

Definitely.

Blizzard actually explained the priests' roll by spec before announcing these changes, which you can find on MMO-Champion:

The Role of the Priest
The priest is a caster class that uses Holy and Shadow magic. Priests can only wear cloth armor and have a limited selection of weapons, but do most of their damage and healing from range. They make up for their low armor with spells that offer protection and healing.

Discipline -- this is a healing tree that emphasizes survival and single-target healing. Discipline specializes in damage absorption and prevention rather than restoring health, although they are very capable in that department too.

Holy -- this is a healing tree that has a spell suited for every situation. Holy priests can heal groups, heal individuals, heal tanks, or do all three in a single encounter. They are better at group healing than Discipline priests, but don't have as many damage prevention capabilities.

Shadow -- this tree sacrifices healing for damage. Shadow priests can restore health and mana to their group while casting their spells. Like the Shadow damage of warlocks, Shadow priest damage tends towards drains and damage over time spells.

There's a writeup of that class description on wowinsider, too. Honestly I'm not sure why this is getting so much media attention -- any intelligent person who played a priest -- or grouped with a priest -- in the last six months understands this stuff.

I know I'm overestimating the average intelligence of a WoW player (apparently the shaman official forums are ALREADY exploding in complaints about the changes), but still. I didn't gather anything useful from the description.

Warrior, Druid, and Warlock notes.

Guess I have to wait until tomorrow for the hunter info.

There had been alot of requests, and I mean pages and pages...and pages, thread after thread, all asking to find out the difference mainly between Holy and Disc. Blizzard doesn't like to announce a class' roles because (as was also posted) it can lead to players trying to get buffs out of it "based on what blue said", so they avoid it by allowing speculation.

So yeah, basically if you are playing Disc, (as a Raid Leader point of view) you'd likely do really good at MT or other single target heals, being able to toss up preventative, protection and absorbtion spells for when damage comes in. Very much proactive healing. You also have good healing for other situations, but not as good as Holy in that regard, and your single target heals are much better to use.

Conversely as Holy, you've got a heal for any situation.

zeroKFE wrote:

Warrior, Druid, and Warlock notes.

Guess I have to wait until tomorrow for the hunter info. :D

WOW

Destro gets replenishment.

Affliction gets a steamline of DoTs (Corruption will give Siphon Life, Siphon Life spell removed).

Weakness/Recklessness now 1 curse

Loos pretty awesome so far, love the "several talents have been reduced in points, others have been removed" general comment at the end

Dr.Ghastly wrote:
Seth wrote:
MikeMac wrote:

Divine Spirit change is great. It'll be nice to not have a slightly gimped priest in order to get +80SPI and +80 spell power for the raid. This can't come soon enough. :)

Gimped? I disagree with your review of the discipline tree. =)

Seconded My Disc priest is awesome.

Wasn't meant as a slight against disc priests. I was just referring to having to sacrifice points from the holy tree to get DS if you happen to be primarily a holy priest.

Savage Defense – this is a new passive ability. When a druid in Dire Bear form deals a melee critical strike, the druid gains a damage shield equal to 25% of their attack power. The next hit completely removes the shield regardless of how much damage was done.

This way of allowing ferals to scale with an offensive stat is.....interesting. assuming a 5k AP bear with a 40% crit rate spamming lacerate or swipe every GCD and you're looking at a 1250 damage shield every 2-3 seconds. huh. Suddenly stacking crit and AP is VERY VERY important.

They also buffed feral faerie fire and "nerfed" sunder armor. that'll make all the rogues and hunters I run with happy.

Destro gets replenishment.

Always good to have more of that going around. Also, it fits well with recent comments they've made about how they want to assume that replenishment is present in any raiding situation just like they assume tanks, healers, and DPS will be.

Warrior: You now gain rage when damage done to you is absorbed, such as through a Power Word: Shield.

Awww.... now how are we supposed to cheese off warriors as they pull?

here's hoping that paladins, hunters, death knights, or mages get some sort of heroism. So sick of requiring a shaman to do bleeding edge achievements.

ranalin wrote:
Dr.Ghastly wrote:
Seth wrote:
MikeMac wrote:

Divine Spirit change is great. It'll be nice to not have a slightly gimped priest in order to get +80SPI and +80 spell power for the raid. This can't come soon enough. :)

Gimped? I disagree with your review of the discipline tree. =)

Seconded My Disc priest is awesome.

They still cant compare to a holy priest.

You should look into the mitigation absorbtion affects have on tanks taking damage. If you throw in the healing and shields Disc priest >>>> holy. Holy is more raid/group healing, disc is single target.

MikeMac wrote:

Warrior: You now gain rage when damage done to you is absorbed, such as through a Power Word: Shield.

Awww.... now how are we supposed to cheese off warriors as they pull?

Atleast you can still cheese off Prot Pallies since they haven't announced that we receive mana gained in the same situation

It's definitely a nice change for warrior tanking, but if you're going in with a pally tank, then they just lose mana continuously until they actually take damage and get a heal. Hrrrmmmm....

Zablocki19 wrote:
zeroKFE wrote:

Warrior, Druid, and Warlock notes.

Guess I have to wait until tomorrow for the hunter info. :D

WOW

Destro gets replenishment.

Affliction gets a steamline of DoTs (Corruption will give Siphon Life, Siphon Life spell removed).

Weakness/Recklessness now 1 curse

Loos pretty awesome so far, love the "several talents have been reduced in points, others have been removed" general comment at the end :P

It remains to be seen if the SL change is a nerf. The ISB change defiantly is based on the wording, but not a huge one.

MikeMac wrote:
Dr.Ghastly wrote:
Seth wrote:
MikeMac wrote:

Divine Spirit change is great. It'll be nice to not have a slightly gimped priest in order to get +80SPI and +80 spell power for the raid. This can't come soon enough. :)

Gimped? I disagree with your review of the discipline tree. =)

Seconded My Disc priest is awesome.

Wasn't meant as a slight against disc priests. I was just referring to having to sacrifice points from the holy tree to get DS if you happen to be primarily a holy priest.

Oh we know, we're just ribbing you back.

Seth wrote:

here's hoping that paladins, hunters, death knights, or mages get some sort of heroism. So sick of requiring a shaman to do bleeding edge achievements.

Agreed.

Seth wrote:

here's hoping that paladins, hunters, death knights, or mages get some sort of heroism. So sick of requiring a shaman to do bleeding edge achievements.

I'd say give it to mages; the other three classes have more roles they can fill and more group buffs, whereas mages are primarily just damage and cc. They could use more group buff utility.

Dr.Ghastly wrote:

It remains to be seen if the SL change is a nerf. The ISB change defiantely is based on the wording, but not a huge one.

I suspect it's a bit of a wash. You lose having to cast out yet another dot every X seconds (which saves you the GCD atleast), but you lose out on the additional damage from casting that spell.

From what I understand, right now Affliction will still toss out CoA, Corr, UA and Haunt. Possibly adding in Immolate too, all of which have different CDs. This should allow you do to something else in that time too before refreshing 4 DoTs instead of 5 or 6.

I suspect they will make it easier for Affliction to ramp up Shadowbolt too and give it a little better synergy since it's not really something Destro uses all that often, and having those low Destro talents for shadowbolt are becoming more appealing with the added 5% crit.

Farscry wrote:
Seth wrote:

here's hoping that paladins, hunters, death knights, or mages get some sort of heroism. So sick of requiring a shaman to do bleeding edge achievements.

I'd say give it to mages; the other three classes have more roles they can fill and more group buffs, whereas mages are primarily just damage and cc. They could use more group buff utility. :)

I don't see the mages getting it for the sole reason they have Icy veins and they would be...crazy...in PVP.

Pages