guys, just ij case you missed it, there is new detailed (sort of) info on one of the new zones that come with Cataclysm
[SPOILER=link to info]
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/cataclysm/features/hyjal.html
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looks nice :)
another new zone info
[SPOILER=new zone info link]
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/cataclysm/features/vashjir.html (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/cataclysm/features/vashjir.html)
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Say hello to pally rape....gsus..... beacon of light twice the mana instead twice the healing because it was mend to avoid the global cooldown..also..flash of light consumes more mana...and what do we have for johnny............ a giant heal....like a tank from 1% till 100%. Yhea right .... like you can have a tank for like 5s on 1% health.
Time to start leveling my shammy...:crying:
Yeah, we'll see how it fans out but its definately pally nerf
Quote from: Padding;308249Yeah, we'll see how it fans out but its definately pally nerf
Even more reason to play cataclysm :devil:
We shamans like to see Paladins suffer, for no apparent reason :norty:
L2heal :narnar:
Quote from: Luminance;308252Even more reason to play cataclysm :devil:
We shamans like to see Paladins suffer, for no apparent reason :norty:
qft :D
Quote from: Luminance;308252We shamans like to see Paladins suffer, for no apparent reason :norty:
If you can't beat them ..join them take over and break'em.....
[SPOILER=whole lot of info on cataclysm]
whaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!! (http://www.mmo-champion.com/news-2/cataclysm-friends-family-alpha-198562/)
new kobold model - "You no take volcano!" :roflmao: (http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/news/2010/may/cataclysm_models_npc/big/kobold6.jpg)
new kobold model - "You no nothing!!!" (http://static.mmo-champion.com/mmoc/images/news/2010/may/cataclysm_models_npc/big/kobold21.jpg)
new icons (http://db.mmo-champion.com/adys/newicons.html)
[/SPOILER]
a subject to change, of course. Enjoy tooltips of new hunter spells
[SPOILER=new hunter abilities]
(http://db.mmo-champion.com/static/img/icons/ability_hunter_displacement.png)
Camouflage
Instant
You camouflage, causing you and your Pet to blend into your surroundings. After 6 sec., you will enter a stealthed state. While stealthed, you and your pet's movement speed is reduced by 30%, but the damage done by your next attack is increased by 30%.
You can lay traps while under the effect, but any damage done by you or your pet will cancel the effect. Cannot be cast while in combat.
(http://db.mmo-champion.com/static/img/icons/inv_jewelcrafting_jadeserpent.png)
Cobra Shot
5-35 yd range
1.5 sec cast
Requires Ranged Weapon
Deals unmodified weapon damage plus RAP*0.1+951 in the form of Nature damage and increases the duration of your Serpent Sting on the target by 176 sec. Generates 9 Focus.
(http://db.mmo-champion.com/static/img/icons/inv_weapon_rifle_20.png)
Trap Launcher
1 min cooldown
0.5 sec cast
When used, your next Trap can be shot to a target location within 40 yards.
Breakdown:
Camouflage
Increased 30% damage with next attack? Nice. For MM it will be autoshot, for SV probably first tick of Explosive shot and BM? Either autoshot (if first shot will be Serpent sting) or Cobra Strike. LArger DPS gain will be from the possibility to lay Explosive trap before the fight, though. What I dont get is why you get into stealthed state after 6 seconds of an instant cast...
Cobra Shot
When compared to Steady, it has the same AP coefficient but deals a bit more additional damage (most probably only scaling issue. Tooltip value is probably for lvl 85 while Steady rank 4 has it for level 80). Interesting is that it increses duration of Serpent Sting by ridiculous amount. While the ability is a placeholder obviously, the idea is interesting, too. Basically it means tat the only spec that will need to refresh Serpent sting manually (given no damage modifier procs) will be SV
Trap launcher
Pretty cool PvE ability if you ask me. Not only it will reduce the need to run if you want to lay trap (thus increasing DPS) but it will directly increase your DPS with shooting your explosive trap. Cooldown of 1 minute will be probably decreased by SV talent.
However, what I dont like is that 0.5 cast. That means it will not be possible to macro it to a trap of your selection :( Questions are: Will the selected trap trigger GCD as it does today? Will this spell itself trigger a GCD, too?
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check this out, quite interesting numbers. And by the looks of it, it will be REALLY easy to balance the damage outcome of different specs in Cataclysm
WHU article (http://www.warcrafthuntersunion.com/2010/05/alpha-mastery-bonus-numbers/)
Talent tree overall change "might be happening"
When we first announced our design goals for class talent trees back at BlizzCon 2009, one of our major stated focuses was to remove some of the boring and "mandatory" passive talents. We mentioned that we wanted talent choices to feel more flavorful and fun, yet more meaningful at the same time. Recently, we had our fansites release information on work-in-progress talent tree previews for druids, priests, shaman, and rogues. From those previews and via alpha test feedback, a primary response we heard was that these trees didnââ,¬â,,¢t incorporate the original design goals discussed at BlizzCon. This response echoes something we have been feeling internally for some time, namely that the talent tree system has not aged well since we first increased the level cap beyond level 60. In an upcoming beta build, we will unveil bold overhauls of all 30 talent trees.
Talent Tree Vision
One of the basic tenets of Blizzard game design is that of ââ,¬Å"concentrated coolness.ââ,¬Â Weââ,¬â,,¢d rather have a simpler design with a lot of depth, than a complicated but shallow design. The goal for Cataclysm remains to remove a lot of the passive (or lame) talents, but we donââ,¬â,,¢t think thatââ,¬â,,¢s possible with the current tree size. To resolve this, we're reducing each tree to 31-point talents. With this reduction in tree size we need to make sure they're being purchased along a similar leveling curve, and therefore will also be reducing the number of total talent points and the speed at which they're awarded during the leveling process.
As a result, we can keep the unique talents in each tree, particularly those which provide new spells, abilities or mechanics. Weââ,¬â,,¢ll still have room for extra flavorful talents and room for player customization, but we can trim a great deal of fat from each tree. The idea isnââ,¬â,,¢t to give players fewer choices, but to make those choices feel more meaningful. Your rotations wonââ,¬â,,¢t change and you wonââ,¬â,,¢t lose any cool talents. What will change are all of the filler talents you had to pick up to get to the next fun talent, as well as most talents that required 5 of your hard-earned points.
We are also taking a hard look at many of the mandatory PvP talents, such as spell pushback or mechanic duration reductions. While there will always be PvP vs. PvE builds, weââ,¬â,,¢d like for the difference to be less extreme, so that players donââ,¬â,,¢t feel like they necessarily need to spend their second talent specialization on a PvP build.
The Rise of Specialization
We want to focus the talent trees towards your chosen style of gameplay right away. That first point you spend in a tree should be very meaningful. If you choose Enhancement, we want you to feel like an Enhancement shaman right away, not thirty talent points later. When talent trees are unlocked at level 10, you will be asked to choose your specialization (e.g. whether you want to be an Arms, Fury or Protection warrior) before spending that first point. Making this choice comes with certain benefits, including whatever passive bonuses you need to be effective in that role, and a signature ability that used to be buried deeper in the talent trees. These abilities and bonuses are only available by specializing in a specific tree. Each tree awards its own unique active ability and passives when chosen. The passive bonuses range from flat percentage increases, like a 20% increase to Fire damage for Fire mages or spell range increases for casters, to more interesting passives such as the passive rage regeneration of the former Anger Management talent for Arms warriors, Dual-Wield Specialization for Fury warriors and Combat rogues, or the ability to dual-wield itself for Enhancement shaman.
The initial talent tree selection unlocks active abilities that are core to the chosen role. Our goal is to choose abilities that let the specializations come into their own much earlier than was possible when a specialization-defining talent had to be buried deep enough that other talent trees couldnââ,¬â,,¢t access them. For example, having Lava Lash and Dual-Wield right away lets an Enhancement shaman feel like an Enhancement shaman. Other role-defining examples of abilities players can now get for free at level 10 include Mortal Strike, Bloodthirst, Shield Slam, Mutilate, Shadow Step, Thunderstorm, Earth Shield, Water Elemental, and Penance.
Getting Down to the Grit
Talent trees will have around 20 unique talents instead of today's (roughly) 30 talents, and aesthetically will look a bit more like the original World of Warcraft talent trees. The 31-point talents will generally be the same as the 51-point talents we already had planned for Cataclysm. A lot of the boring or extremely specialized talents have been removed, but we don't want to remove anything thatââ,¬â,,¢s going to affect spell/ability rotations. We want to keep overall damage, healing, and survivability roughly the same while providing a lot of the passive bonuses for free based on your specialization choice.
While leveling, you will get 1 talent point about every 2 levels (41 points total at level 85). Our goal is to alternate between gaining a new class spell or ability and gaining a talent point with each level. As another significant change, you will not be able to put points into a different talent tree until you have dedicated 31 talent points to your primary specialization. While leveling, this will be possible at 70. Picking a talent specialization should feel important. To that end, we want to make sure new players understand the significance of reaching the bottom of their specialization tree before gaining the option of spending points in the other trees. We intend to make sure dual-specialization and re-talenting function exactly as they do today so players do not feel locked into their specialization choice.
A True Mastery
The original passive Mastery bonuses players were to receive according to how they spent points in each tree are being replaced by the automatic passive bonuses earned when a tree specialization is chosen. These passives are flat percentages and we no longer intend for them to scale with the number of talent points spent. The Mastery bonus that was unique to each tree will now be derived from the Mastery stat, found on high-level items, and Mastery will be a passive skill learned from class trainers around level 75. In most cases, the Mastery stats will be the same as the tree-unique bonuses we announced earlier this year. These stats can be improved by stacking Mastery Rating found on high-level items.
To Recap
When players reach level 10, they are presented with basic information on the three specializations within their class and are asked to choose one. Then they spend their talent point. The other trees darken and are unavailable until 31 points are spent in the chosen tree. The character is awarded an active ability, and one or more passive bonuses unique to the tree they've chosen. As they gain levels, they'll alternate between receiving a talent point and gaining new skills. They'll have a 31-point tree to work down, with each talent being more integral and exciting than they have been in the past. Once they spend their 31'st point in the final talent (at level 70), the other trees open up and become available to allocate points into from then on. As characters move into the level 78+ areas in Cataclysm, they'll begin seeing items with a new stat, Mastery. Once they learn the Mastery skill from their class trainer they'll receive bonuses from the stat based on the tree they've specialized in.
We understand that these are significant changes and we still have details to solidify. We feel, however, that these changes better fulfill our original class design goals for Cataclysm, and we're confident that they will make for a better gameplay experience. Your constructive feedback is welcomed and appreciated.
In my opinion this is second greatest change in Cataclysm - after hunter overhaul, of course :)
sweet :)
And for all hunters there is more good news: BigRedKitty was in the alpha and is in the beta. So, new BigRedKitty Hunter Guide Movies!!! (http://www.bigredkitty.net/)
I looked at the hunter talent trees and I just thought: it is broken.
Lets have a look at MM tree. At lvl 10 you get Aimed shot which is cool for leveling It hits like a truck and together with Careful Aim 3/3 talent that increases crit % by 60% on mobs with +90% health, with Rapid Killing 2/2 increasing damage of first shot by 20% and Marked for Death increasing damage by 3% and crit bonus by 6% that is Chuck Norris Shot. You can just finish it with either Chimera dealing 190% weapon damage or Kill Shot dealing 200% weapon damage.
But I am looking at the talents as a raider so what do we have here?
Aimed shot as is will not be used in MM rotation unless Master Marksman procs. Why? Because it clips current Auto shot cast and auto-shot is not fired during Aimed Shot is cast. That is unacceptable...
Tier 1:
Efficiency 3/3: lowers focus cost of Arcane and Chimera from 50 to 44... It is a must have but the cost reduction seems too low
Go For The Throat 2/2: Auto-shot crits generate pet 6 focus.... It is way worse than as it is now but pets will work differently in Cata so should be ok.
Rapid Killing: Killing blow gives your next Aimed, Steady or Cobra 10/20% more damage... Useles for raiders. Even on adds fight, how many times you deal a killing blow?
Tier 2:
After having "chosen" 5 points from 5 usefu in tier 1 we have this:
Improved Steady Shot 3/3: Two steadies in a row grant 15% haste for 8 seconds... Nice one, this should be up all the time on stationary fights and skilled hunters will have it up most time even on movement fights
SicÃ,´Em 2/2: Crits of Kill Command (we dont use it), Explosive Shot (we dont have it), Aimed (ok, we use it on procs) and Arcane Shot causes next 2 pet focus dump abilities to be focus-free.... That is nice but not much MM-centric imho.
Careful Aim: Increases Aimed shot crit chance by 20/40/60% on targets above 90%... Soo are we going to spend 3 point for a talent that we will benefit 2 times on a boss fight? No, waste of points
Tier 3:
So after having the great option of spending our 10 talent points for 10 worthwile talent points out of 15, we get to tier 3 where we have to take all possible talents to get to next tier and 4 of those 5 talent point are useless on bosses and useless on most of adds - because they are PvP. Wow, that is what I call a choice!
To be continued...
So we got to tier 3.
Silencing Shot: it is a must. Still off cooldown and could be macroed to our shots but I still prefer to have it available for interrupting adds or even the boss (Deathwhisper)
Concussive Barrage 2/2: Chimera and Multi-Shot will daze the target for 4 seconds.... Extremely useful in BGs or leveling but for raiding? Come on, every boss is immune to it and even some adds are...
Dazzled Prey 2/2: Arcane, Chimera and Steady deal 10% more on dazed target... Why the hell is this on the same tier as Concussive Barrage? Shoudnt CB be prereq for this? And again - 0% utility on bosses, may be useful on some adds.
Tier 4
This is the first tier where we actually will have the possibility to choose. Or not?
Termination 2/2: Steady and Cobra will grant 6 more focus on targets below 25% when in Dragonhawk aspect... Very nice, this is a must. More focus = more Kill Shots = boss dead
Trueshot Aura: Increases AP for you and raid by 10%... Very nice talent. Unfortunately it is not possible to skip it in case you know other hunter / enh shammy / DK will raid with you. There are simply not enough other useful options to spend talents.
Bombardment: 15/30% increased crit % for Volley, Multi-shot crits cause next Multi cost reduced by 25/50%... Well, because Multi-Shot is not a part of or boss fight rotation, it will only be useful for adds-heavy fights
Resistance Is Futile: When your marked target attempts to run, flee or move, your next Kill Command within 8 secs has increased crit chance by 4/8/12%... This one is a real pearl.... So in 4th tier we have a 3-point PvP talent, that boosts signature ability of BM tree, that is NEVER going to be used by MM because of its incredible focus costs, and what is coolest about it, it is a prereq for Marked For Death (that is extremely useful) in Tier 6. Bravo!...
Tier 5
6 points to be spent in this tier and IÃ,´ll tel you something: they are all really good for raiding, finally
Rapid Recuperation 2/2: You gain 12 focus per 3 sec while under effect of Rapid Fire. You also gain 50 focus when activating RF... I love this talent. This is going to be deadly when used in last 20% of boss health. You grants you 110 extra focus to burn! Yay, more Kill Shots!
Readiness: Finishes cooldowns on all abilities except for Bestial Wrath... Nothing new here, this is a must, epecially when coupled with Rapid Fire (boosted by Rapid Recuperation). The tooltip needs to be updated, there is really no way you can have both Readiness and Bestial Wrath.
Master Marksman 3/3: Steady shot has 60% chance to grant a stack of Master Marksman effect. After reaching 5 stacks, you get Aimed Shot that costs 0 focus and has 0 cast time.... Amazing! These are the talents I was looking forward, these are those fun talents! This will separate good hunters from bad. Aimed shot is hitting so hard that you will love the talent - if you will be able to use it as often as possible.
Tier 6
Only 5 points to spend here but they are juicy.
Posthaste 2/2: Reduces Rapid Fire cooldown by 2 minutes and increases your movement speed by 30% for 4 secs after you disengage.... Another nice talent. It is a must for its RF part but that Disengage movement thingy is really cool! Maybe it will learn even more people hunters to use Disengage properly.
Marked For Death 3/3: On marked targets: increases damage of pet specials by 3% (meh) and your crit damage bonus of Chimera, Aimed, Arcane, Steady and Kill shot.... This is a nice talent. Shame it has such a stupid and illogical prereq.
Tier 7
We got to the last tier finally. Only one point in here and you will want it, again.
Chimera Shot: You deal 190% weapon damage, refreshing serpent sting and triggering an effect based on venom present on target:
Viper Venom: burns 5% of targetÃ,´s mana
Scorpid Venom: Disarms target for 10 secs. Cannot be triggered more that once a minute
Widow Venom: Instantly heals you for 15% of your health
What is amazing on new Chimera is 190% weapon damage. It went up from 125% possibly to compensate for the loss of Serpent portion. The venom effects are not extremely amazing for raiding, though... Still I think this should be MM inherent ability - such as Explosive Shot for SV.
Talent I really miss here is Piercing Shots. It as amazing one, and I am not happy to see it go away.
Anyways, lets move on to pick low tier talents from other trees. We will most likely have spent 32 points in MM tree.
Our choice in other trees will be affected by absolute necessity to take Hunter vs. Wild from SV tree that turns 30% of your stamina into AP. And we will have TONS of stamina in cataclysm. but this talent is in secon tier so we will have to spent 5 points in tier 1. This is a problem because tier 1 both in SV and BM seems to be unfinished. There are only two talent there and one of them, Improved tracking has 5 points in contrary to what Blizzard said (talents will have max 3 points). So we will take either 3 or 5 talent here. Why only 3? Lets see:
Improved Serpent Sting 2/2: Serpent sting also does instant damage equal to 30% of its periodic damage... There is a question if Serpent Sting refreshed by Chimera will trigger this effect. If yes, we will NEED to take this talent. If not, than hands off!
Tier 2
Hunter vs. Wild 3/3: Your and your petÃ,´s AP is increased by 30% of your stamina... This is a no-brainer, a must have.
Now we have spent 40 talent point and have one more to spent. it will be either
Trap mastery 1/3: Among other increases Explosive shot damage by 10% - and we will be focus free and possible to shoot from distance
or
One with Nature 1/3: (from BM tree) Increases AP bonus from Hawk aspect by 5% and increases focus generation from Fox aspect by 2%... we dont know numbers yet but it looks like this is not going to be as powerful as Trap mastery. Anyways, we will see.
Good write up DFE - Was thinking of doing the same for all 3 priest specs... But ofc Talent's are probably gonna change alot so nothing is guaranteed atm
Quote from: Jim;313492Good write up DFE - Was thinking of doing the same for all 3 priest specs... But ofc Talent's are probably gonna change alot so nothing is guaranteed atm
True. Many people showed their disappointment on the official and unofficial forums for those new 31-points trees. The devs stated that those are just first thoughts on what could be in cata, but they also stated that lots of classes (druids, paladins, mages and rogues above all) are still on the early stages of designing. I'm pretty sure the talent trees are gonna be reworked more than once before cata goes live, so i'd not take those too seriously. :)