General Class Changes in 3.0 Build -- Ghostcrawler Updates

**Ciderhelm** · #1 10-14-2008, 12:15 PM

Patch 3.0 Tuesday Preparedness Guides: Paladin / Warrior

As you can tell from the giant bold header, I hate bumping these guides down, but there's some worthwhile news from Ghostcrawler to post:

Source: Dr. Ghostcrawler, Lead Systems Designer & Androgynous Crabby Beta Poster
The build going live right now has a lot of class changes. But it doesn't have all of them. Some changes, particularly those that affect high level abilities and some of the changes we made more recently won't be in today's build. But you will get them all on or before Nov 13 when Lich King goes live.

While we have done some balance testing at level 70 with the changes, we tested at level 80 a lot more, since so many players are focused on Arena combat and endgame raiding. Balance at 70 is going to feel different from 80.

If you played WoW at the 2.0 version before Burning Crusade shipped, you'll remember that this can be a crazy time. You have new abilities through talents, but not new core abilities, and not enough talent points to get everything. There are major gear changes, major mechanic changes, and a lot of class changes. Some of those are going to take some getting used to, and despite our best efforts, it's entirely possible we'll find something broken that needs to be hotfixed right away.

The game should start feeling a little more normal again when Lich King ships. It's cool to keep providing feedback and testing things out. Just try and be a little patient and understanding over the next couple of weeks as players learn about the changes (especially players who weren't in the beta), get all of their broken mods working, and we make whatever fixes we need to make on our end.

No idea how that will affect what we've posted (if it will at all), so stay tuned.

**Tonypablos** · #2 10-14-2008, 12:19 PM

It'll probably depend on what build they decided to patch this up with and from there you could technically remove whatever changes they have put from that point on. Not sure if there's a way to figure out what build it is that we've installed, but it's just food for thought

phaze · #3 10-14-2008, 12:22 PM

an additional comment from GC, that concerns the tank classes:

One of the things I would really like to explore in the future is a way for tanks to communicate more with each other. As it is I (wearily) bounce around from class to class trying to convince them that they aren't the worst one in the game. What would help is to have more classes talk to each other, since ultimately it's going to be you guys making the decision of who you bring for your MT, not me.

So that reinforces what Tankspot is all about: civil discussion by tanks, for tanks, and between tanks. =)

**Kazeyonoma** · #4 10-14-2008, 12:23 PM

as far as I know, the last build or two on the beta and PTR haven't really affected warriors except maybe 1 or 2 skills having their values changed, possibly TG will still be at 12%. Other than that I can't see how things weren't already set in stone, namely prot talents long before the last 3-4 builds so we should still see all the things we're looking forward too =]

Belak · #5 10-14-2008, 12:33 PM

God I hope you're right. I'm going to be pretty... irritated (to put it mildly) if they decide that half of our new abilities are too overpowered to get until WOTLK, and don't bother telling us that until patch day.

Trying to remain calm... *sigh*

**Lore** · #6 10-14-2008, 12:40 PM

wat

All he's saying there is that this isn't a new build from the latest beta push and doesn't have any of the post-70 spells in it.

Belak · #7 10-14-2008, 12:46 PM

I really hope you're right, Lore. I read that as some of the higher level talents and class changes that happened in the last few beta patches weren't going live today. Hopefully, I misinterpreted.

**Lore** · #8 10-14-2008, 12:48 PM

I don't see why they would remove changes that have been on the PTR.

Biggensak · #9 10-14-2008, 12:53 PM

Does Blizz have an official "culled" version of the patch notes available somewhere? Wow Insider seems to have an older version posted up... I've got the client patched on my laptop and have reviewed the notes (dated today) released with the patch and don't see any indication that any of the Warrior stuff is missing...

The thing that caught my eye was mention of the Instance / Raid changes calling out the HP/melee damage nerf to Raid content by zone but excluding Kara... wonder if they decided the change trivialized the content (see the "3-manned Kara" post elsewhere)?

ßoß · #10 10-14-2008, 12:55 PM

gr i didnt see them change the amored to the teeth from str gain to ap..

**Lore** · #11 10-14-2008, 12:58 PM

Kara has been pretty trivial for a while :P

**Galushi** · #12 10-14-2008, 01:02 PM

I think when he said "The build going live right now has a lot of class changes" hes addressing the general wow populace that classes and mechanics are changing compared to 2.x , not that theres changes from what we had on ptr/beta.

Biggensak · #13 10-14-2008, 01:05 PM

Source: Lore
Kara has been pretty trivial for a while :P

Bah, you're not a newb tank still wearing blue quest gear who, prior to joining a VERY patient guild, had only tanked 2 instances on the way to level 70.

I'm finally doing a passable job MTing the joint but still manage to wipe us on oops pulls now and again (that maiden hallway, easy as it should be, always trips me up...).

On the topic of patch notes, in the notes I've got here:

"Armored to the Teeth now increases attack power by 3 for every 180 Armor value."

.. hoping this is still the case, AttT seems like a pretty popular staple in most prot builds I've seen around here.

**Galushi** · #14 10-14-2008, 01:07 PM

I've said this a few times....comparing 3 points in AttT in tank gear to 3 points cruelty..is like comparing 300 ap to 66 crit rating. The AP is a bit better imo.

ßoß · #15 10-14-2008, 01:09 PM

its a good skill no doubt about i was more or less looking at the shield block gain + ap gain instead of just the ap.

**huggy77** · #16 10-14-2008, 01:22 PM

i just want to use my improved TC and Shockwave live.... It worked great in the ptr...

Kraugug · #17 10-14-2008, 01:44 PM

Source: huggy77
i just want to use my improved TC and Shockwave live.... It worked great in the ptr...

I hear that! I want to try those out too, plus work on my pally tanking rotation using a real tanking weapon!

4 hours until I'm off work, then its time to vote, then home for all-night tanking fun.

Biggensak · #18 10-14-2008, 01:50 PM

WoW -> Patch Notes -> Current Patch Notes

Not sure if we should be concerned that Shockwave and Damage Shield are not mentioned here along with the other new abilities... I see Sword and Board mentioned as a possible Revenge proc but not called out as a new skill per-se so I'm guessing the notes are incomplete compared to the prod servers. Guess we should know for sure in 1 hour and 20 minutes, give or take.

Jeter1 · #19 10-14-2008, 02:29 PM

guys we are not getting shockwave in this patch, since their is no mention of it in the patch notes on worldofwarcraft.com, also no mention of damage shield means its not in this patch as well.

this officially sucks

**Ciderhelm** · #20 10-14-2008, 02:31 PM

Source: Jeter1
guys we are not getting shockwave in this patch, since their is no mention of it in the patch notes on worldofwarcraft.com, also no mention of damage shield means its not in this patch as well.

this officially sucks

THE SKY IS FALLING.

Ignore the patch notes.