[WoW] Panel @WWI

[Ninajrr]

Are we sure this is legit? Some of it seems rather wtf.

[Javvo]

Originally Posted by Ninajrr

Are we sure this is legit? Some of it seems rather wtf.

Yes, it was talked about earlier today by devs at the WWI. A lot of it does seem rather "wtf?". But at the same time it seems like they're buffing every class and adding more variety to the talent trees while making them all equally viable.

From my perspective that sounds a lot like the original idea for hero classes to some extent.

[Zarcath]

Originally Posted by Javvo

Yes, it was talked about earlier today by devs at the WWI. A lot of it does seem rather "wtf?". But at the same time it seems like they're buffing every class and adding more variety to the talent trees while making them all equally viable.

From my perspective that sounds a lot like the original idea for hero classes to some extent.

Heroic Talents?

[Ukerric]

Originally Posted by spronk

Raid-wide totems, hex, I think my alt will be a shammy...

It appears that almost all "group buffs" are becoming raid-wide buffs. Warrior shouts affect all the raid, paladin auras are supposed to affect all the raid as well now, and so on (not all on the panels, some of that stuff comes from alpha). It's a move in response to the dwindling number of class members per raid (there's now an average of 2.5 per class in a raid), and a simplification on the composition of raid groups (which are a headache now).

[Javvo]

Originally Posted by Zarcath

Heroic Talents?

The original idea for hero classes, from my understanding, was to have each class branch off into individual sub-classes called hero classes. These classes would be extremely powerful in their specialized field. For example paladins would be able to branch off into (incoming gay generic names) Templars, Clerics and Protectors or some shit. It was a really cool idea and now they're trying to pass off DKs as a hero class while in reality it's just a new class. It's going to be balanced against all the other classes, etc.

What I think might be a good idea this expansion would be to add in an extra tier of talents (ie. a 50 and 60 point talent in each talent tree). This would get rid of many staple builds that have 20 points in a sub-tree and create more possibilities and a ton of choices.

[brekk]

Originally Posted by Javvo

The original idea for hero classes, from my understanding, was to have each class branch off into individual sub-classes called hero classes. These classes would be extremely powerful in their specialized field.

As the level range increases and each Talent tree grows deeper this is becoming true.

[Fythis]

* Paladin's short-term-blessings no longer overwrite long-term-blessings.

That'll have to get changed... Either that, or all the off-specs are going to whine about what buffs they're getting.

[Vitae]

Either that, or short term means Blessing of Freedom, Sacrifice, Protection, not single target blessings. Which would make about 100x more sense and has been a change paladins have requested for years.

[Praetor]

Originally Posted by Mist

Shamans need more buffs. There's only 5 of them in every raid.

You realize that's why these "buffs" are happening, right?

They have two ways they could go:
1) Nerf the shit out of all totems, windfury, etc., so that no one really wants shaman utility anymore.
2) Allow totems to cover more than 4 other players so that you don't need 5 of them to buff a whole raid anymore.

Blizzard doesn't like nerfing things and doesn't like pissing people off needlessly, so they opted for #2. Makes sense. This will result in fewer shamans per raid, not more.

[Dynalisia]

At this point they should just go with the EQ class renaming thing every time they increase the level cap. If they combine that with the new talents each expansion, they got their hero classes cheesed right in there.

[Deris]

Originally Posted by Praetor

You realize that's why these "buffs" are happening, right?

They have two ways they could go:
1) Nerf the shit out of all totems, windfury, etc., so that no one really wants shaman utility anymore.
2) Allow totems to cover more than 4 other players so that you don't need 5 of them to buff a whole raid anymore.

Blizzard doesn't like nerfing things and doesn't like pissing people off needlessly, so they opted for #2. Makes sense. This will result in fewer shamans per raid, not more.

Don't forget though Gurg, that Shamans right now are the kings of raid healing, and come dangerously close to Paladins single target due to AF, not to mention Mana Tide (lol for the whole raid?) and Bloodlust...

[Zarcath]

Originally Posted by Praetor

Blizzard doesn't like nerfing things and doesn't like pissing people off needlessly, so they opted for #2. Makes sense. This will result in fewer shamans per raid, not more.

Wrong. Unless they make drastic changes to chain heal, they'll still be highly desirable.

[James]

I don't think they'll have to. If things like Nourish are as good as they sound, I doubt you'd stack more Shamans than you have to for their utility. If Bloodlust has that cooldown debuff (does it now? I don't pay attention), I doubt you'd bring any more than 3 tops because Bloodlust in the Tank and Healer group is not exactly baller. 3 is not exactly ridiculous, especially for a class than has 3 viable raid specs.

[Makata]

Originally Posted by Javvo

What I think might be a good idea this expansion would be to add in an extra tier of talents (ie. a 50 and 60 point talent in each talent tree). This would get rid of many staple builds that have 20 points in a sub-tree and create more possibilities and a ton of choices.

Except that every X*10 talent is worse than its (X+1)*10 talent for the most part. So giving someone the option to go 10 deeper usually forces them to go 10 deeper and just reduces the number of points they can spend elsewhere from 20/21 to 10/11.

[Simas]

Id bet alot of the group buffs --> raid buffs changes are because of the new focus on 10 man shit.

With 10 people you wont have 2 of most if any specs but theyll now cover both groups which will allow them to ratchet up the 10 man difficutly.

25 it will be nice def but groups were already set up pretty much so that the people that needed the buff got it.