Cataclysm Changes to Warriors, Death Knights and Rogues

Thursday, April 08, 2010

Thursday, April 08, 2010

Today more information was revealed about the upcoming changes to Warriors Death Knights and Rogues. These are some of the key changes:



New Warrior Abilities

Inner Rage (Level 81): Whenever the character reaches a full 100 Rage, he or she will gain a buff that causes attacks to consume 50% more Rage and do 15% more damage for a short amount of time. This is a passive ability so it won't need to be activated by the player. The goal for this ability is to provide a benefit for hitting max Rage instead of it feeling like a penalty. However, we also don't want warriors to feel like they're supposed to pool Rage and do nothing until they hit 100, so we'll be closely monitoring how this plays out during the beta testing, and making adjustments as needed.

Gushing Wound (Level 83): This ability will apply a bleed effect to the target. If the target moves, the bleed gains an extra stack and refreshes its duration, up to a maximum of three stacks. The ability is currently planned to have no cooldown, cost 10 Rage, and have a 9-second duration. Gushing Wound is designed to be weaker than Rend with one stack, but better with three stacks, which will be reached when fighting a moving target.

Heroic Leap (Level 85): This ability makes the character leap at their target and apply the Thunder Clap ability to all enemies in the area when they land. Heroic Leap will be usable in Battle Stance and shares a cooldown with Charge, but the Juggernaut and Warbringer talents will allow Heroic Leap to be used in any stance and possibly while in combat. The cooldown for this ability might be longer than the Charge ability, but it will also apply a stun effect so you can make sure the target will still be there when you land.

Mastery Passive Talent Tree Bonuses

Arms
Melee Damage
Armor Penetration
Bonus Swing

Fury
Melee Damage
Melee Haste
Enrage Intensity

Protection
Damage Reduction
Vengeance
Critical Block Chance

Bonus Swing: This is similar to the Sword Specialization talent that is currently in the game, but Bonus Swing will work on all attacks and with all weapons. You have a chance to proc a free, instant weapon swing that hits for 50% damage.

Enrage Intensity: Every benefit of being enraged is increased. This includes doing more damage/healing/ etc. from abilities like Bloodrage, Death Wish, Enrage, Berserker Rage, and Enraged Regeneration.

Critical Block Chance: As we mentioned in the stat changes preview, block rating is changing to a chance to block 30% of a melee swing's damage. Protection warriors have a chance that the block will be a critical block and block for 60% of a melee swing's damage instead. There will likely be talents available to push the amount blocked even higher.



New Death Knight Abilities

Outbreak (level 81): Outbreak infects the target with both Frost Fever and Blood Plague at no rune cost. This ability allows death knights to apply diseases quickly when they are switching targets or when their diseases have been dispelled.

Necrotic Strike (level 83): Necrotic Strike is a new attack that deals weapon damage and applies a debuff that absorbs an amount of healing based on the damage done. For context, imagine that the death knight can choose between doing 8,000 damage outright with a certain ability, or dealing 6,000 damage and absorbing 4,000 points in incoming heals with Necrotic Strike -- the burst is smaller, but a larger overall amount of healing would be required to bring the target back to full health.

This ability is meant to bring back some of the old flavor from when death knights could dispel heal-over-time (HoT) effects. It also gives the class a bit more PvP utility without simply replicating a Mortal Strike-style effect.

Dark Simulacrum (level 85): The death knight strikes a target, applying a debuff that allows the death knight to copy the opponent's next spell cast and unleash it. Unlike Spell Reflection, Dark Simulacrum does not cancel the incoming spell. In general, if you can't reflect an ability, you won't be able to copy it either.

Mastery Passive Talent Tree Bonuses

Blood
Damage reduction
Vengeance
Healing Absorption

Frost
Melee damage
Melee Haste
Runic Power Generation

Unholy
Melee damage
Melee and spell critical damage
Disease Damage

Healing Absorption: When you heal yourself, you'll receive an additional effect that absorbs incoming damage.

Runic Power Generation: This will function as the name implies, and the new rune system will make generating Runic Power more appealing.

Disease Damage: Unholy death knights will be able to get more out of their diseases, which are integral to the tree's play style. 


New Rogue Abilities

Redirect (available at level 81): Rogues will be getting a new ability to help them deal with changing targets. Redirect will transfer any active combo points to the rogue's current target, helping to ensure combo points aren't wasted when swapping targets or when targets die. In addition, self-buff abilities like Slice and Dice will no longer require a target, so rogues can spend extra combo points on those types of abilities (more on this below). Redirect will have a 1-minute cooldown and no other costs.

Combat Readiness (level 83): Combat Readiness is a new ability that we intend rogues to trigger defensively. While this ability is active, whenever the rogue is struck by a melee or ranged attack, he or she will gain a stacking buff called Combat Insight that results in a 10% reduction in damage taken. Combat Insight will stack up to 5 times and the timer will be refreshed whenever a new stack is applied. Our goal is to make rogues better equipped to go toe-to-toe with other melee classes when Evasion or stuns are not in play. This ability lasts 6 seconds and has a 2-minute cooldown.

Smoke Bomb (level 85): The rogue drops a Smoke Bomb, creating a cloud that interferes with enemy targeting. Enemies who are outside the cloud will find themselves unable to target units inside the cloud with single-target abilities. Enemies can move inside the cloud to attack, or they can use area-of-effect (AoE) abilities at any time to attack opponents in a cloud. In PvP, this will open up new dimensions of tactical positional gameplay, as the ability offers a variety of offensive and defensive uses. In PvE, Smoke Cloud can serve to shield your group from hostile ranged attacks, while also drawing enemies closer without the need to rely on conventional line-of-sight obstructions. Smoke Cloud lasts 10 seconds and has a 3-minute cooldown. 



Mastery Passive Talent Tree Bonuses

Assassination
Melee damage
Melee critical damage
Poison damage

Combat
Melee damage
Melee Haste
Harder-hitting combo-point generators

Subtlety
Melee damage
Armor Penetration
Harder-hitting finishers

The initial tier of rogue Mastery bonuses will be very similar between the trees. However, the deeper that a player goes into any tree, the more specialized and beneficial the Masteries will be to the play style for that spec. Assassination will have better poisons than the other two specs. Combat will have very steady and consistent overall damage. Subtlety will have strong finishers.


For more changes coming to these classes go to this blue post on the forums.

Cataclysm Press Beta Invites Going Out

Wednesday, April 07, 2010

Wednesday, April 07, 2010

Blizzard has sent out pre-invites for the Cataclysm beta to members of the media. The emails were confirmed to be legit and not a phishing scam. Blizzard will be accepting sign ups until April.15, although the date that the beta goes live has not been released.

Also, today information was released about the upcoming changes to shamans, priests and warlocks in cataclysm.

Blizzard Quote
Beginning Wednesday, April 7 we will begin releasing class previews containing an overview of some of the changes currently being planned for each of the 10 World of Warcraft classes. The type of information you can expect from these posts are a list of the new spells from 80-85, the new passive mastery bonuses for all talent trees, a brief outline of some of the talent changes we're currently planning, and in some cases new low level spells for select classes.
Below is the schedule for each class:

Shaman - April 7 
Priest - April 7
Warlock - April 7 

Warrior - April 8
Death Knight - April 8**
Rogue - April 8

Hunter - April 9
Druid - April 9
Mage - April 9

Paladin - April 16*

You can see the full post here.

So far we know that shamans will be getting five new spells: Primal Strike (available at level 3), Healing Wave (level 4), Unleash Weapon (level 81), Healing Rain (level 83) and Spiritwalker's Grace (level 85).

Warlocks will be getting Fel Flame (level 81), Dark Intent (level 83), Demon Soul (level 85) and a major overhaul of soul shards.

Priests will be getting Heal (available at level 16), Mind Spike (level 81), Inner Will (level 83) and Leap of Faith (level 85).

It's still early and all of these spells may change as we get closer to the launch of cataclysm. Keep in mind that the invites to the cataclysm beta are only going out to the press. Some people will no doubt try to take advantage of players with phishing emails asking for account information to join the beta.

Make Gold with Engineering

Tuesday, April 06, 2010

Tuesday, April 06, 2010

Engineering is a fun profession that is used to create all kinds of toys and gizmos. A lot of the items that can be made with engineering are bind on pickup, which isn't good if you want to make gold. If you want to make serious amounts of gold I wouldn't recommend engineering, but it's not all about gold for everyone. Many players like using gadgets like Nitro Boosts, Parachute Cloak and Hand-Mounted Pyro Rocket. However there are a few things that you can sell to make some supplemental income.

As of patch 3.3.3 Pet Bombling and Lil' Smoky are no longer bind on pickup and can be sold to other players. The price has already dropped a bit on my realm but you can still get 100 gold or more for them.
  
The Mekgineer's Chopper/Mechano-hog cost about 13 000g to make, but can usually be sold for around 16 000 or more gold. Selling these mounts used to be able to make an engineer a fortune shortly after the launch of WOTLK, but now there isn't a lot of demand for them so it can be difficult to find a buyer.

There is a quest in Borean Tundra and The Storm Peaks which require Overcharged Capacitors. These go for about 20 gold and they sell fairly quickly.

Make Gold with Inscription

Sunday, April 04, 2010

Sunday, April 04, 2010

Inscription is the newest of the professions and was added to the game in patch 3.02. Inscription lets scribes mill herbs for inks, and then use the inks to create scrolls, glyphs and vellums.

One way to make gold is by using Darkmoon Card of the North. This will create a random card from one of four decks: Nobles, Prisms, Undeath and Chaos. Darkmoon Card of the North is expensive to use and its effectiveness at making gold has always sparked a lot of conversation. The cards it creates sell anywhere from 40g to over a 1000g, with cards from the Nobles Deck being the most expensive. The cost of the materials to use Darkmoon Card of the North cost about 100 gold on my realm. Check out your auction house and see if doing this is worth the risk for you.

Another option is to make glyphs. All characters need a set of glyphs for each talent spec and therefore glyphs sell very well in the auction house. The price of glyphs have gone down a lot but some rare glyphs will still bring in a lot of gold. The usual price range for glyphs on my realm is about 20g- 120g.

Also you can create Armor Vellum III and Weapon Vellum III and sell those. These items are great for enchanters who want to make gold or save their enchants.

Make Gold with Tailoring

Saturday, April 03, 2010

Saturday, April 03, 2010

The tailoring profession uses cloth found on mobs to create gear, bags and item enhancments. Tailoring is best coupled with enchanting, so that you can disenchant the items you make as you level the profession. Now down to the nitty gritty, here's how to make gold with tailoring.

Like the other crafting professions, make level 80 epic gear and sell it. Item level 226+ will make far more gold than the item level 200 stuff. Bejeweled Wizard's Bracers sell for 2500 gold on my realm. To buy all of the mats from the auction house to create this item would cost me 1794g. That's 706g profit from one sale.

You can also create bag to make gold with tailoring. The price of Frostweave Bags have fallen so much that you might not be able to get much profit. Glacial Bags are becoming cheaper due to the changes made to Moonshroud, Ebonweave and Spellweave but currently they are still at 400g. Certain specialty bags for enchanting, herbalism, jewelcrafting and warlocks sell for quite a bit. Check the auction house on your realm to see if its worth making bags.

Make Brilliant Spellthread and Sapphire Spellthread and sell them. Both of these items are still going for over 200 gold each.

Make Gold with Leatherworking

Friday, April 02, 2010

Friday, April 02, 2010

Leatherworking uses leather gained from skinning beasts to make items. The primary source of gold for a leatherworker is selling level 80 epic gear, but also selling item enhancements and drums. If you have a leatherworker be sure to have a skinner as well so that you don't have to buy all of the materials you need from the auction house.

Crafting item level 226+ gear will get you a lot of gold. The difficult part can be getting the recipes. Footpads of Silence sell for 1800 gold on my realm. If I were to buy all of the materials from the auction house to craft them it would cost me 1382g. That's 418g profit, which isn't all that great but if you get most of the materials yourself it's pretty good. You can earn even more gold if you can make higher item level gear.

Drums of Forgotten Kings sell for around 100g, and are cheap to make. The same is true of Drums of the Wild. These items sell quite well, especially on raid days. Frosthide Leg Armor  sells for 200g, and also sells quickly in the auction house.

Another way to make gold with leatherworking is to sell armor kits. Try selling lower level kits because there is less competition. Knothide Armor Kit and Heavy Knothide Armor Kits both sell for around 10g each on my realm. It's not a lot but every  little bit counts. You can also sell extra leather that you have in the auction house. A stack of Heavy Borean Leather can go for 150 gold or more.

Make Gold with Enchanting

Friday, April 02, 2010
Enchanting is a great profession, it's both convenient and a good way to make gold. Enchants and enchanting materials are always in demand because players will always be getting new gear. It was a bit of a pain to sell enchants before inscription was introduced, but now it's easy to make scrolls and list them in the auction house. Enchant scrolls and enchanting materials have no auction house deposit. That means if someone undercuts your price, you can cancel your auction to relist it and not lose any gold. With enchanting you can also disenchant bind on pickup quest rewards that you don't want and make way more gold than if you had sold the item to a vendor.

Here's the basic idea of how to make gold with enchanting.
  1. Disenchant anything that's not worth selling in the auction house or using yourself.
  2. Enchant Weapon Vellum III or Armor Vellum III and then sell the enchant in the auction house.
  3. Make enchants using other players materials and accept tips from them.
Enchanting is best coupled with jewelcrafting or tailoring so that you can disenchant green items that you craft. Certain low level enchanting mats often sell for 10g+, and can be easily farmed in low level dungeons by a level 80 character. If you do a lot of end game content like heroics and raids you will make far more gold because you will have more items to disenchant.

If you are able to do Enchant Weapon - Blade Ward or Enchant Weapon - Blood Draining you can usually get a pretty good tip, sometimes 75g+. Currently Enchant Weapon - Blade Ward sells in the auction house for 1200 gold, when it only costs 322g to buy all the mats to make it from the auction house. Check out the enchanting market on your realm and see which way is the best for you to make gold.