Windzarko
Well-Known Member
It's very likely that sometime this month the major testing of Cataclysm will start (possibly with us seeing the invite-only beta before May), and recently Blizz has been announcing more and more of the changes to the game system they'll make. For those that don't go hunting around new sites, I'll say a few things here:
Dispel mechanics are changing so that lasting effects that tick every few seconds to remove stuff (eg Cleansing Totem, Abolish Disease and Abolish Poison) will be gone, and you'll always be able to cast a debuff remover on a target even if there's nothing to remove (thus making you able to waste mana on it). They're also changing who gets which dispels so that:
*Paladins can dispel disease, poisons and (with Holy talents) magic on friendly targets
*Druids can dispel curses, poisons and (with Resto talents) magic on friendly targets
*Shaman can dispel curses, enemy magic buffs and (with Resto talents) magic on friendly targets
*Priests can dispel enemy magic buffs, magic on friendly targets and (when not in Shadowform) diseases
Mages, Hunters and Warlocks will keep their current ways to dispel enemy buffs, and it's possible that the four classes above might have some of their debuff removes combined into a single multi-purpose spell.
Rage mechanics for Warriors and Bear Druids are changing so that you generate a set amount of rage based on the base speed of your weapon (with off-hands generating 50% of normal rage), crits giving double rage, and haste making you swing and generate rage faster. For tanking purposes, rage you generate should be based off your total health and the incoming damage (but without avoidance/armour/etc reducing the rage you get). Basically, undergearing or overgearing places shouldn't rage-starve anymore. There should also be more instant-rage abilities, like Warrior Shouts having a short cooldown but giving rage (think Horn of Winter). Finally, on-next-swing abilities like Heroic Strike will change to instead be instant and have a minimum and maximum rage cost; you can use it with the minimum, but the more rage it uses (up to the maximum), the more damage it does.
Mana Regen will change so that there'll be no "Five Second Rule". For those of you who aren't familiar with this, it's basically where a caster (usually a healer) stops casting anything that costs mana (sometimes making use of things like Clearcasting) to not use mana for at least five seconds. If you don't use mana for five seconds, you start regenerating it as if not in combat. Sometimes making use of this allows for silly mana regen mid-fight, but it's going to change so that you only regen mana at the higher rate when out of combat altogether. The intent is that you make more decisions between which spells to cast based on their mana costs and make more use of any mana-reducing talents/abilities rather than altogether stopping casting to get a bit more mana return.
Enhancement Shammies and Retadins sound like they're getting some major changes to their gameplay so that there'll be (I quote directly now): "more opportunities to screw up, so that when you don't, you feel really awesome".
Finally, they'll be announcing stuff like new 80-85 abilities, talents, Mastery bonuses, class mechanics changes and low-level spells for all the classes over the coming days. Tomorrow is the day for Shaman, Priests and Warlocks, the day after is Warrior, Death Knight and Rogue, Friday shall be for Hunters, Druids and Mages, and finally Paladins have an uncertain date of the 16th since they're apparently still "deep in development" and whilst there's a date given provisionally, they'll only announce stuff when it's more concrete.
Dunno about you lot, but between what I've heard before now (Mastery, flying in Azeroth, Path of the Titans, the new content, Archaeology, FLYING IN AZEROTH, and so on), this lot, and the coming class announcements this week, I'm getting more psyched for this expansion.
Dispel mechanics are changing so that lasting effects that tick every few seconds to remove stuff (eg Cleansing Totem, Abolish Disease and Abolish Poison) will be gone, and you'll always be able to cast a debuff remover on a target even if there's nothing to remove (thus making you able to waste mana on it). They're also changing who gets which dispels so that:
*Paladins can dispel disease, poisons and (with Holy talents) magic on friendly targets
*Druids can dispel curses, poisons and (with Resto talents) magic on friendly targets
*Shaman can dispel curses, enemy magic buffs and (with Resto talents) magic on friendly targets
*Priests can dispel enemy magic buffs, magic on friendly targets and (when not in Shadowform) diseases
Mages, Hunters and Warlocks will keep their current ways to dispel enemy buffs, and it's possible that the four classes above might have some of their debuff removes combined into a single multi-purpose spell.
Rage mechanics for Warriors and Bear Druids are changing so that you generate a set amount of rage based on the base speed of your weapon (with off-hands generating 50% of normal rage), crits giving double rage, and haste making you swing and generate rage faster. For tanking purposes, rage you generate should be based off your total health and the incoming damage (but without avoidance/armour/etc reducing the rage you get). Basically, undergearing or overgearing places shouldn't rage-starve anymore. There should also be more instant-rage abilities, like Warrior Shouts having a short cooldown but giving rage (think Horn of Winter). Finally, on-next-swing abilities like Heroic Strike will change to instead be instant and have a minimum and maximum rage cost; you can use it with the minimum, but the more rage it uses (up to the maximum), the more damage it does.
Mana Regen will change so that there'll be no "Five Second Rule". For those of you who aren't familiar with this, it's basically where a caster (usually a healer) stops casting anything that costs mana (sometimes making use of things like Clearcasting) to not use mana for at least five seconds. If you don't use mana for five seconds, you start regenerating it as if not in combat. Sometimes making use of this allows for silly mana regen mid-fight, but it's going to change so that you only regen mana at the higher rate when out of combat altogether. The intent is that you make more decisions between which spells to cast based on their mana costs and make more use of any mana-reducing talents/abilities rather than altogether stopping casting to get a bit more mana return.
Enhancement Shammies and Retadins sound like they're getting some major changes to their gameplay so that there'll be (I quote directly now): "more opportunities to screw up, so that when you don't, you feel really awesome".
Finally, they'll be announcing stuff like new 80-85 abilities, talents, Mastery bonuses, class mechanics changes and low-level spells for all the classes over the coming days. Tomorrow is the day for Shaman, Priests and Warlocks, the day after is Warrior, Death Knight and Rogue, Friday shall be for Hunters, Druids and Mages, and finally Paladins have an uncertain date of the 16th since they're apparently still "deep in development" and whilst there's a date given provisionally, they'll only announce stuff when it's more concrete.
Dunno about you lot, but between what I've heard before now (Mastery, flying in Azeroth, Path of the Titans, the new content, Archaeology, FLYING IN AZEROTH, and so on), this lot, and the coming class announcements this week, I'm getting more psyched for this expansion.
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