World Of Warcraft Discussion Thread

[Ithekro]

I think I've started to notice the "fail groups" more after the last patch. While Pit of Saron (heroic) is difficult, it isn't that hard to have wipes left and right. Up until "We Know Girls" managed to take down the Lich King on our server (and I suppose whatever guilds took him out on there own respective servers in our Batttlegroup) it wasn't all that often I'd have problems wih aggro/threat against bosses. My gear hasn't gone up all that much...just a frost emblem belt since then. Now we get semi resonable tanks and low heals...from druids even. It is bad it I can draw aggro from a paladin on Lord Tyrannus. Or even a Death Knight for that matter. It is worse when I was able to "tank" him for maybe ten seconds when I was the last one alive. Only because I was able to use the ice to stay away from him while casting dots and what few instants I do have.

[Xacual]

I did that once, on my mage I duo'd his last 100k with the only healer and I left alive. Massive use of blink and other fun skills to pull it off though.

[Ithekro]

Is it true that Naxx25 is still suppose to be hard if you underman it with say, 20 people?

[Last Sinner]

I once had to 2 man Ick for about 400k worth with an Elemental Shaman on my Druid when healing.

Downing 9 ICC bosses in 2 hours is actually fun. I didn't realise how...'easy' Dreamwalker is? One shotting something that deep into it just doesn't seem right somehow.

Some MAJOR stuff got announced a couple of days ago for 3.3.3. And for Cataclysm.

Cataclysm announcements:

# Limited attempts probably won't ever be used again, but if it is, it will be bosses like Algalon and not widespread
# Blasted Lands is revamped in Cataclysm to provide an entirely new experience, including a worgen contingent in The Tainted Scar
# A new Caverns of Time instance is planned for Cataclysm
# More classic heroics are planned aside from Shadowfang Keep and Deadmines
# The gnome and troll starting experiences will be changing significantly in Cataclysm
# The transports for Cataclysm will be two submarines -- one goblin and one gnome -- and they're about as big as the Icecrown gunships
# Emblems will likely be capped in how many you can have in your currency window and will likely only have two exist at any time
# Tabard storage is on the to-do list
# Cross-realm BoA mailing is coming "soon"
# Western Plaguelands will no longer be consumed by the plague in Cataclysm
# It sounds like the Scourge is "going away" in general, probably detained in Northrend post-Cataclysm
# All old gear has been redone already for Cataclysm (Hmm...)
# An article about the stat changes in Cataclysm will be going up soon
# Cross-realm raiding is on the to-do list
# World bosses will likely make a comeback at some point
# Eclipse is getting a major overhaul in Cataclysm
# Mongoose Bite is going byebye and Aspect of the Beast will probably be something retooled to fit in with the Beast Mastery spec
# Substantially more slots for storing Hunter pets

3.3.3 announcements:

# With patch 3.3.3, Marks of Honor are being removed with the substantial changes to the honor and battleground systems. However, because there are many players who have collected a number of these marks, Blizzard is adding functionality to Alliance Brigadier Generals and Horde Warbringers that allow players to trade a Mark of Honor for a new Commendation of Service -- an item that gives 185 honor on use.
# PvP honor mounts will now cost 50k honor each

And a security announcement - in the last week, hackers have figured out how to steal accounts with authenticators. Scan your computer for a file called emcor.dll. If you find it, DELETE IT IMMEDIATELY.

[Ithekro]

I'm thinking that they are going to change all the starting zones to be instanced like the death knight starting zone. Maybe (maybe) this will cut down on the number of level one spammers since unless they got someone several levels above them to summon them out of the instance...they aren't getting to the cities. While you can go back to those zones later on, it will be phased. This also seems like what will happen for the Goblins and Worgan, so doing it with all the races seems logical now, especially if they are doing something "special" with the Trolls and Gnomes.

I like that there will be progress in the old world after nearly six years. Many of those old elites have been killed how many times now? Things have shifted politically in a lot of places. Teh Scourge has been pushed back by the Forsaken/Blood Elves and the Alliance for years now in the East and by the Horde and Alliance in the North....the Lich King is....contained. The Burning Legion's remaining troops should have gotten out by now after all the trouble people went through to get through Outland and the Sunwell, plus with the world being broken by Elementals/Old Gods/Black Dragons....who needs the Burning Legion and the Scourge?

It would be nice if they could figure a way to include Outland (and maybe Northend) into the expansion in a logical way. (logic...in World of Warcraft?) Like maybe use the Black Dragon/Nether Dragon angle to bring troops back to Outland for a few quests or a raid on Deathwing's old Lair...assuming it survived that is...as some distant islands off the Hellfire Pennisula. Northend is easy....Dragon sanctums or looking for more Titan relics...plus it is only five levels below you at maximum...meaning unlike most of Outland, you can still gain experiance on mobs in Icecrown and the Storm Peaks (warlock change means that I won't need to farm soul shards off level 78s in Icecrown where it would be easy. Not like it already isn't easy with T9 or better gear and glyph for multiple shards anyway).

Oh and I'm waiting for the Yellow Submarine parody. You know its coming.

[Xacual]

Just because its only 5 levels doesn't mean much in the WoW game sense. I'm expecting the stat boost to be quite hefty just like it was in the last two expansions.

[Ithekro]

Oh the level change isn't what I meant, it was the easy of kills at level 85 in a level 78-80 zone such as Icecrown that could give experiance still. That doesn't mean much if you don't need (can't get) XP anymore. But it would have been useful for shard farming if shard farming was needed anymore (which it seems like it won't be). Sort of how like I use to go to Nagrand to farm shards early in the expansion because the level 66 mobs gave experiance still and were easy kills (especially that Broken village to the west of Halla.) But that was basically farming to fill the bag before heading off the Northrend, or before hitting level 74 in case I was going to run an old world instance for some reason (where there is no chance of collecting soul shards). After getting to level 80, Icecrown daily kills (especially those for the Argent Tournement) would net enough shards to refill the bag even if I'd been running around the old world for Loremaster for a week or two.

[Mr Hat and Clogs]

And a security announcement - in the last week, hackers have figured out how to steal accounts with authenticators. Scan your computer for a file called emcor.dll. If you find it, DELETE IT IMMEDIATELY.

Wut... link to this announcement pls, because it seems quite doubtful unless they are sittingthere waiting to log in when you do...

[Last Sinner]

http://www.worldofraids.com/topic/15...w-vulnerable/?

WorldOfRaids is pretty reliable with this.


I'm looking forward to classic heroics. The Deadmines is just one of the best instances ever, for me anyway. For atmosphere and fun it's still hard to beat. Shadowfang Keep was also fun. They'd been trying to avoid this one for a while but it looks like there's enough demand for it to be viable. The Cata required bit will probably stop people from sitting on an older expansion.

[Mr Hat and Clogs]

Mm yeah, still it requires them to be logging into the game at the same time as you do which is pretty unlikely. Should be safe anyways if you aren't silly.

Yeah I'm looking foward to the Deadmines and SFK among others too. Wonder if they'll do Scarlet Monastery.

[Last Sinner]

Originally Posted by Mr Hat and Clogs

Mm yeah, still it requires them to be logging into the game at the same time as you do which is pretty unlikely. Should be safe anyways if you aren't silly.

Yeah I'm looking foward to the Deadmines and SFK among others too. Wonder if they'll do Scarlet Monastery.

If they're going to do all of them, I hope they overhaul Maraudon. That place really needs some love. Current levellers really don't like going there.

[Mr Hat and Clogs]

I actually enjoyed maraudon to an extent, it had some variety too it. I used to do it all the time back when it was first released it was really quite epic back then, considering Princess was like 4 levels higher then the rest of the instance (and us).

I also really really enjoyed Sunken Temple. People hate that too, maybe I'm just odd.

I hope Razenfen Kraul/Downs are nuked out of existence by the Cataclysm... those places were irritating. That "Depth's" instance in Ashenvale will prolly be changed too.

[Jaden]

That authenticator logger is pretty nasty.

Originally Posted by Mr Hat and Clogs

Mm yeah, still it requires them to be logging into the game at the same time as you do which is pretty unlikely. Should be safe anyways if you aren't silly.

How about a program that automatically uses the intercepted information to log in when it comes, then summons the hacker to the PC to proceed to steal goodies?

Anyway, I think Blizzard can fix this with a client patch, making it so the code that gets sent can't be changed.

[Last Sinner]

http://www.mmo-champion.com/news-2/a...-deathcharger/

Update on the trojan and info about quest reward drops from the Lich King. Apparently one is a mount, another is a free Portal: Dalaran item with a 1 min cd.

[mechabao]

Originally Posted by Ithekro

I'm thinking that they are going to change all the starting zones to be instanced like the death knight starting zone. Maybe (maybe) this will cut down on the number of level one spammers since unless they got someone several levels above them to summon them out of the instance...they aren't getting to the cities. While you can go back to those zones later on, it will be phased. This also seems like what will happen for the Goblins and Worgan, so doing it with all the races seems logical now, especially if they are doing something "special" with the Trolls and Gnomes.

I like that there will be progress in the old world after nearly six years. Many of those old elites have been killed how many times now? Things have shifted politically in a lot of places. Teh Scourge has been pushed back by the Forsaken/Blood Elves and the Alliance for years now in the East and by the Horde and Alliance in the North....the Lich King is....contained. The Burning Legion's remaining troops should have gotten out by now after all the trouble people went through to get through Outland and the Sunwell, plus with the world being broken by Elementals/Old Gods/Black Dragons....who needs the Burning Legion and the Scourge?

It would be nice if they could figure a way to include Outland (and maybe Northend) into the expansion in a logical way. (logic...in World of Warcraft?) Like maybe use the Black Dragon/Nether Dragon angle to bring troops back to Outland for a few quests or a raid on Deathwing's old Lair...assuming it survived that is...as some distant islands off the Hellfire Pennisula. Northend is easy....Dragon sanctums or looking for more Titan relics...plus it is only five levels below you at maximum...meaning unlike most of Outland, you can still gain experiance on mobs in Icecrown and the Storm Peaks (warlock change means that I won't need to farm soul shards off level 78s in Icecrown where it would be easy. Not like it already isn't easy with T9 or better gear and glyph for multiple shards anyway).

Oh and I'm waiting for the Yellow Submarine parody. You know its coming.

You can farm shards off of target dummies in the major cities and probably from the ones at the Argent tournament as well.

[Knight Hawk]

So that trojan finally went over to Wow, huh. That trojan is old, it hit FFXI few months back. What took you so long Mr. Gold seller?! Here is a nice read for those curious. (taken from ZAM)

Originally Posted by Yazumi

It's unfortunate the other thread went into a flame fest of arguments. Anyways; the tokens themselves cannot be hacked. HOWEVER like Guppie mentioned, the one minute time frame is the only vulnerability. Essentially the hacker monitors the victim live. These are the new trojans hitting the web. So no, it's not SEs fault as some are saying in the other thread(s).

Here are several good articles on the new trojans.

• How Hackers Snatch Real-Time Security ID Numbers
• Two-factor banking security systems threatened by Trojan
• A Lawsuit Tries to Get at Hackers Through the Banks They Attack
• Trojan: One of the largest and most professional thieving operations on the Internet

[Ithekro]

Sounds weird to be able to farm shards off a dummy you can't kill and doesn't have a soul.

[Last Sinner]

Managed to score Arathi-Basin All Star and Overly Defensive in the same match last night. Hiding under my Water Elemental is fun. ^^ However, I switched to Arcane for PvP a bit after that. It seems to be the way to go now. Too hard to kill anything with Frost's weak damage since most classes are beefed up now. Plus Slow seems to be a better snare than Frost's tricks.

MAJOR EDIT: Cata stat changes have been announced.

Quote from: Eyonix (Source)
As many of you know from panels at last year’s BlizzCon and posts here on the forums since then, Cataclysm will bring about major changes to familiar character stats such as Intellect, Armor Penetration, Defense, and others, ultimately designed to make the effects of stats more easily understandable and make gear choices more interesting. As these changes will have a significant impact on how stats work and relate to one another, today we wanted to offer you a closer look at exactly what’s in store and explain some of the rationale before Cataclysm arrives.

The most obvious question these changes raise is "Why are stats being changed, and why now?" As the game has matured, we've run into increasingly complex issues with the current stat system. Many stats are inherently confusing, and the way they interrelate can feel convoluted. Attack Power, for example, currently translates to damage, but so does Armor Penetration. Defense provides five different statistical benefits of varying utility. Mana regeneration involves understanding multiple stats and rules and often ends up being irrelevant anyway. In addition, the difference between a "good stat" for a class and a "bad stat" can be extreme. Some casters want Haste but not Crit; hunters want Armor Penetration but not Haste. There are other overarching issues, as well, such as Intellect not being very exciting for casters despite it being a core stat -- and these are just a few examples.

Our ultimate goal is make gear a more interesting (and less confusing) choice by making each stat valuable to more players. While the reasoning behind some of the following changes may be clear, we understand that you may have questions about some of the less obvious alterations, and we'll do our best to answer any questions you may have here on the forums.

What You’ll See on Gear

Stamina - Because of the way we will be assigning Strength, Agility, and Intellect, non-plate wearers will end up with more Stamina than before. Health pools will be much closer between plate-wearers and other classes.

Spirit - Come Cataclysm, this stat should only be found on healing gear. Non-healing casters will have other systems in place to regenerate mana, and we are designing special solutions for Elemental shaman and Balance druids who often share gear with healers (more on this below). Raid buffs that currently boost Spirit (such as Blessing of Kings) will only boost the primary stats of Stamina, Strength, Agility, and Intellect. We are also likely changing the five-second rule and other quirks of the current regen system.

Intellect - Intellect will now grant Spell Power (more on this below). Intellect will also provide less mana than it currently does.

Haste - Haste will become more attractive for melee classes by allowing them to recover resources such as energy and runes more quickly. Our intention is for Haste to let you "do stuff" more often.

Block Rating - Block is being redesigned to scale better. Blocked attacks will simply hit for 30% less damage. Block rating will improve your chance to block, though overall block chances will be lower than they are today.

Parry - Parry no longer provides 100% avoidance and no longer speeds up attacks. Instead, when you parry an attack, it and the next attack will each hit for 50% damage (assuming they hit at all). In other words, Dodge is a chance to avoid 100% of the damage from one attack, Parry is a chance to avoid 50% of the damage from two attacks, and Block is a chance to avoid 30% of the damage from one attack.

Mastery - This is a new stat that will allow players to become better at whatever makes their chosen talent tree cool or unique. It's directly tied to talents, so what you gain from improving this stat is entirely dependent upon your class and the talent specialization you choose. We’ll talk more about specific Mastery benefits in the future.

Armor - The way Armor mitigates damage is not changing, but the Armor stat has been rebalanced to mirror changes to the armor curve in Cataclysm. As a result, bonus Armor will go down slightly overall. We are also changing the mitigation difference among armor types so that plate doesn’t offer so much more protection than mail, leather, and cloth.

Resilience - This will only affect damage done by players and critical damage done by players. It will not impact crit chance, mana drains, or other such effects.

Strength, Agility, Hit Rating, Expertise, and Critical Strike Rating - These will all still appear on gear as well. Aside from situations mentioned elsewhere in this list, in general these will function similarly to how they do now, though the details -- such as how much Hit Rating you might need to effectively combat high-level creatures (more on this below) -- are likely to change.

Being Removed from Items

Attack Power - This stat will no longer be present on most items as a flat value, though it will still show up on some process. Strength and Agility, which will be present on items, will grant the appropriate amount of Attack Power (generally 2 Attack Power per point of Strength or Agility) depending upon which stat a particular class favors. Agility may provide less Crit than it currently does.

Spell Power - Spell Power is another stat that you'll no longer see present on most items. Instead, as mentioned above, Intellect will grant Spell Power. One exception is that caster weapons will still have Spell Power. This allows us to make weapons proportionately more powerful for casters in the same way they are for melee classes.

Armor Penetration - This stat will no longer be present on items. Armor Penetration will still exist in talents and abilities.

Shield Block Value - This stat will no longer be present on items, since the amount blocked is always proportional to the amount of damage done. Talents and other effects might still modify the damage-reduction percentage from 30%, however.

Going Away Completely

MP5 - This stat will be removed from the game completely. Holy paladins and Restoration shaman will be redesigned to benefit from Spirit.

Defense - Defense is being removed from the game entirely. Tanking classes should expect to become uncrittable versus creatures just by shifting into Defensive Stance, Frost Presence, Bear Form, or by using Righteous Fury.

Spell Ranks - Spell ranks will cease to exist. All spells will have one rank and will scale appropriately with level. The levels at which you can learn certain spells are being changed in order to fill in some of the gaps, and we will be introducing some new spells to learn along the way as well.

Weapon Skill - This stat will be removed from the game completely. Classes will start with all the weapon skills they need to know and will not need to improve them.

What Else You Should Know

Combat ratings - All ratings will be much harder to "cap out" at maximum gear levels. Ratings will be steeper in Cataclysm, and creatures in later tiers of content will be harder to hit or crit, similar to how level-83 mobs are harder to hit or crit than level-80 mobs.

Reforging - While these changes will go a long way to making a wider variety of stats more attractive, we understand that sometimes you simply don’t want more Hit Rating on your gear or you’d rather have more Haste than more Crit. In Cataclysm, we are going to give players a way to replace stats on gear as part of the existing profession system. As a general rule of thumb, you’ll be able to convert one stat to 50% of another stat. While some conversions (like converting Stamina to Strength) won’t be permitted, the goal is to let you customize your gear more.

Gems - We are changing the gem colors of a few stats as a result of these adjustments. For example, Hit is likely to be blue instead of yellow. We'll have more details on this in the future.

Changes to Existing Gear

As with previous expansions, we plan to roll out these changes and modify all existing gear shortly before Cataclysm launches, though it’s still too early to say exactly when. For the most part, the gear you have will still be good for you, though there will be exceptions, such as warriors using leather and mail armor.

If you are a tank (druids excepted), expect to see:

* No more Defense on gear. Existing Defense becomes Dodge, Parry, or Block Rating.
* No more Block Value on gear. Existing Block Value becomes Block Rating.
* You’ll have as much Stamina as you’re used to, though you may notice your tanking plate has a bit less Stamina than a comparable piece of DPS plate, since we tend to take the gem budget out of your most attractive stat.
* Bonus Armor on gear will go down slightly.



If you are a melee DPS class, druid tank, or hunter, expect to see:

* A lot more Stamina. Bear-form Stamina scaling will be lowered as a result.
* Strength if you wear plate. Agility if you wear mail or leather.
* Existing Attack Power becomes Agility and Stamina.Armor Penetration becomes Haste or Crit.
* No Intellect on melee gear. Hunters won’t need Intellect since they will no longer use mana. Shaman and Retribution paladins will get mana and spell damage in other ways.



If you are a DPS caster, expect to see:

* A lot more Stamina.
* All of your Spell Power converted to Intellect and Stamina.
* No Spirit. You won’t miss Spirit, though, because you won’t need it for DPS or mana regen.



If you are a healer, expect to see:

* A lot more Stamina.
* All of your Spell Power converted to Intellect and Stamina.
* Spirit instead of MP5. You’ll probably be happy with Spirit, though, because mana regen is going to matter more than it does currently. Healing paladins and shaman will benefit more from Spirit than they do currently.



If you are a Balance druid or Elemental shaman:

* You will still share gear with Restoration druids and shaman.
* Your gear will have Spirit on it. It won’t have Hit on it.
* You will have a talent that converts Spirit to Hit. We will adjust talents accordingly so that you want about as much Spirit as, say, a warlock wants Hit.
* Hit on rings and other such gear will still benefit you.
* Raid buffs will no longer boost Spirit, so you shouldn’t find yourself unexpectedly over the Hit cap because of buffs.



Many lower-level items with nonsensical combinations of stats, such as Agility and Spirit, will be changed. We're also updating quest rewards, trade skills, and loot drops to support better itemization for class builds that weren't widely available or used prior to The Burning Crusade (such as Balance druids).

We're aware this is a lot of information to take in, but this is still only a piece of the larger picture, and many of these changes rely on integration with other systems we haven't yet discussed in detail. In the weeks and months ahead, we'll continue to tell you more about these changes, along with all of the new and exciting features we have planned for Cataclysm.

[Zenemis]

I'm torn... we're either losing depth here, or losing unnecessary complexity.

What do you guys think?

[Xacual]

I don't think its real depth though, I mean some of these stats weren't really used until late BC like armor penetration and haste. I mean all its doing is making it easier to eye ball upgrades. When you are in a progression raiding guild of any quality, it can get a little bit silly to try to figure out what is or is not an upgrade.