Alpha Patch Notes Update -- Thanks BlackDew

NEW STUFF

Warrior

* Incite - Increases the critical strike chance of your Heroic Strike, Thunder Clap and Cleave abilities by 5%/10%/15%.
* Improved Shield Block (Rank 2) - Reduces the cooldown of your Shield Block ability by 10 sec. [This doesn't make any sense… are they increasing the base cooldown of shield block?]

Death Knight

* Icy Talons - You leech heat from targets of your Icy Touch, so that when their melee, ranged and casting speed are reduced, yours speed up by 3%/6%/9%/12%/15% for the next 20 sec
* Killing Machine - After landing a melee critical strike, there is a 20%/40%/60%/80%/100% chance your next Icy Touch, Mind Freeze or Howling Blast spell will be a critical strike.
* Empowered Blood Presence - Strengthens the Death Knight and party members within 30 yards with the presence of blood, increasing damage and healing by 15%. Only one Presence may be active at a time.
* Ebon Plaguebringer - Whenever an enemy is infected by a stack of 3 of your diseases, they also become infected by Ebon Plague, which increases their vulnerability to magic damage by 3%/6%/9%/12%/15% for 15 sec.
* Heart Strike - Level 55 Skill - "A debilitating attack that lowers the target's total health by 20%, up to 3000, for 30sec."
* Arcane Torrent (BE Racial) - Silence all enemies within 8 yards for 2 sec. In addition, you gain 10 Runic Power for each Mana Tap charge currently affecting you.

Druid

* Gift of the Earthmother - Reduces the global cooldown of your Rejuvenation and Lifebloom spells by .1/.2/.3/.4/.5 sec, and causes your Healing Touch and Nourish spells to refund 1/2/3/4/5% of their base cost for each healing over time effect on the target.

Some new CC?

* Cripples the target, reducing movement speed by 75%, pacifying and silencing the target. Cripple causes the target to be immune to physical attacks, but still vulnerable to spells. Lasts 20 sec. Only 1 target can be crippled at a time.

Possibly - Warlock

* Chaos Bolt (Rank 1), Level 60, 715 mana, 8 sec cooldown, possibly shared with something
o "Sends a bolt of Chaotic Fire at the enemy, dealing 990-1256 Fire damage. Chaos Bolt cannot be resisted, and pierces through absorption and immunity mechanics."

New armor kits

* Jormungar Leg Armor - Permanently attach jormungar armor onto pants to increase Stamina by 45 and Agility by 15. Can only attach to armor in your possession, and attaching causes the item to become soulbound.
* Nerubian Leg Armor - Permanently attach nerubian armor onto pants to increase attack power by 60 and critical strike rating by 15. Can only attach to armor in your possession, and attaching causes the item to become soulbound.
* Jormungar Leg Chitin - Permanently attach clefthide armor onto pants to increase Stamina by 50 and Agility by 18. Can only attach to armor in your possession, and attaching causes the item to become soulbound.
* Nerubian Leg Chitin - Permanently attach nerubian chitin onto pants to increase attack power by 70 and critical strike rating by 18. Can only attach to armor in your possession, and attaching causes the item to become soulbound.
* Borean Armor Kit - Permanently increase the Stamina of an item worn on the head, chest, shoulders, legs, hands or feet by 12. Can only be used on armor in your possession, and attaching the armor kit causes the item to become soulbound.
* Heavy Borean Armor Kit - Permanently increase the Stamina of an item worn on the head, chest, shoulders, legs, hands or feet by 15. Can only be used on armor in your possession, and attaching the armor kit causes the item to become soulbound.
* Dragonscale Leg Armor - Permanently attach dragonscale armor onto pants to increase Stamina by 72 and Agility by 35. Can only attach to armor in your possession, and attaching causes the item to become soulbound.
* Protoscale Leg Armor - Permanently attach protoscale armor onto pants to increase attack power by 100 and critical strike rating by 36. Can only attach to armor in your possession, and attaching causes the item to become soulbound.

New drums

* Drums of Great Battle - Increases movement speed by 15% and haste rating by 95 on nearby party members. Lasts 30 sec. Drums can be used while shapeshifted.
* Drums of Major Restoration - Restores 144*5 health and mana to nearby party members over 15 sec. Drums can be used while shapeshifted.
* Drums of Dark War - Increases attack power by 75 and spell damage by 44 on nearby party members. Lasts 30 sec. Drums can be used while shapeshifted.
* Drums of Precision - Increases hit rating by 95 on nearby party members. Lasts 30 sec. Drums can be used while shapeshifted.

CHANGED STUFF

Mage

* Invisibility countdown changed to 3 seconds

Warrior

* Mocking blow cooldown changed to 1 minute, and can be used in Battle Stance, Defensive Stance
* Shield Block now increases Block Value too
* Defensive Stance now gives 45% increased threat (was 30%)
* Anger Management - "while in combat" removed from description.
* Improved disarm additional damage changed to 4%/7%/10%
* Sweeping Strikes now have 5 charges
* Improved Shield Block - changed to "Reduces the cooldown of your Shield Block ability by 5 sec."
* Shield Specialization now gives 20 rage
* Improved Disciplines replaced with Sudden Death
o "Your melee critical hits have a 10%/20% chance of allowing the use of Execute regardless of the target's health state."

Druid

* Soothe Animal now works on dragonkin
* Challenging Roar cooldown changed to 3 minutes
* Maul description changed to "A strong attack that increases melee damage by $s1 and causes a high amount of threat."
* Moonglow now affects Starfall and Wrath too
* Celestial Focus, Vengeance, Focused Starlight - now affect Starfall too
* Predatory strikes
o "Increases your melee attack power in Cat, Bear, Dire Bear and Moonkin Forms by 50%/100%/150% of your level and 7%/14%/20% of any attack power on your equipped weapon."
* Natures Swiftness - added "with a casting time less than 10 sec." to description
* Improved tranquility threat modifier changed to 30%/60%
* Ferocious Bite and Rip damage values changed
* Entangling roots now tick every second
* Lunar Guidance changed to 4%/8%/12%
* Nurturing Instinct increased healing changed to 35%/70%
* Empowered Touch changed to 20%/40%
* Mangle debuff now affects mangle too
* Owlkin frenzy - haste effect changed to "immune to pushback while casting Balance spells."
* Primal Precision 30%/60% changed to 40%/80%
* Primal Aggression changed to "Increases damage done by your Maul and Shred attacks on bleeding targets by 2%/4%/6%, and increases the critical strike chance of your Ferocious Bite ability on bleeding targets by 10%/20%/30%."
* Infected Wounds proc chance changed to 33%/66%/100%
* Reinforced Hide replaced by King of the Jungle
o "While Enraged in Bear form or Dire Bear form, your damage is increased by 5%/10%/15%, and your Tiger's Fury ability also instantly restores 20/40/60 energy"
* Living Seed proc chance changed to 33%/66%/100% and effect changed to 30%
* Starfall secondary damage radius reduced to 5 yards
* Natures Fury removed effect "Converts $s2% of your bonus healing into bonus spell damage"
* Berserk Reduces - Energy regeneration replaced by reduced energy cost of all abilities. Also Mangle (Bear) and Maul abilities hit up to 3 maximum targets.
* Replenish - proc chance changed to 5%/10%/15%
* Gnaw renamed to Lock Jaw, description says "stuns the target and deals damage", otherwise unchanged
* Nourish - Additional heal changed to "Heals for an additional 12% for each Rejuvenation, Regrowth, or Lifebloom effect cast by you active on the target."

Death Knight

* Most places mentioning "Runeblade" changed to "Rune Weapon"
* Death and Decay damage changed to (100/121/190/241)+0.039*AP and random component removed
* Death Strike deals 60% weapon damage
* Icy Touch cooldown reduced to 4 seconds
* Blood Tap - Level 55, Costs 15% of Base Health
o "Immediately activates a Blood Rune and temporarily converts it into a Death Rune. This rune counts as a Blood, Unholy, or Frost Rune. Lasts 30 seconds"
* Chromatic Rune Mastery - Replaced by Death Rune Mastery - "Whenever a rune activates, it has a 2% chance of converting into a Death Rune."
* Degeneration - DOT Stacks up to 3 times. "Unable to be healed by periodic heals" effect removed
* Mind Freeze - cooldown increased to 10sec and duration increased to 4 seconds
* Death Coil - Works on undead enemies
* All presences have 1 second cooldown, but won't trigger GCD
* Butcher changed to Butchery
o "Whenever you kill an enemy that grants experience or honor, you generate 10/20 runic power. In addition you generate 1 runic power per 3 sec."
* Scent of Blood - charges reduced to 2
* Mark Of Blood - Cooldown removed, can only be placed on enemy
* Vendetta - Heal reduced to 3%
* Sudden Death renamed to Sudden Doom
* Blood Rune Mastery (NYI) - proc chance changed to 10%
* Unholy Rune Mastery (NYI) - proc chance changed to 10%
* Heart Strike renamed to Obliterate, 150% weapon damage + 300 per desease
* Merciless Combat (NYI) changed
o "Your Frost attacks do an additional 20%/40%/60% damage when striking targets with less than 20% health."
* Pestilence renamed to Infested Corpse
* Crypt Fever - stacks up to 3 times
* Ferocious Dead - added "Death Pact grants a heal over time effect for 15 sec equal to 50% of the amount healed"
* Lichborn - 15 minutes cooldown removed, 5 minute category cooldown added (shared with what?)
* Frozen Rune Weapon - Also has a chance to cause your target to be vulnerable to Frost damage
* Frost Strike - changed: "A strong attack that increases melee damage by 200 and causes your attack to deal Frost damage. Has a 30% chance to freeze the target." GCD removed
* On a Pale Horse - changed:
o "You become as hard to stop as death itself. The duration of all Stun and Fear effects used against you is reduced by 10%, and your mounted speed is increased by 10%. This does not stack with other movement speed increasing effects."
* Midnight Sun replaced with Unbreakable Armor
o "Whenever you use a Frost Rune, you have a 5% chance of increasing your armor by 30% and your Parry chance by 30% for 10 sec."
* Chillbanes - renamed to Chilling Focus. Effect changed to 25%/50%/75%
* Shadow of Death - Duration increased to 45 sec
* Corpse Explosion - changed
o "Unleashes all available runic power to cause a targeted corpse to explode for 12 Shadow damage per 10 runic power to all enemies within 20 yards."
* Improved Icy Touch - changed
o "Increases the damage done by your Icy Touch spell by 5%/10%."
* Blade Barrier (NYI) - duration reduced to 8 seconds.
* Howling Blast - changed
o "Blast the target with a frigid wind dealing 719-782 Frost damage to all enemies within 10 yards. Deals triple damage to frozen targets."
* Frozen Dread Plate replaced by Frigid Dreadplate
o "Enemies who hit you in melee have a 5% chance to become unsettled, decreasing their attack speed by 50% for the next 3 swings."
* Will of the Necropolis - effect changed to 10%/20%/30%
* Hungering Cold - NYI removed
o "Unleashes all available runic power to eradicate all heat from around the Death Knight, freezing enemies within [???] yards and preventing them from performing any action for 2 sec per 10 runic power. Enemies are considered frozen, but any damage will break the ice." Stun renamed to "Frozen."
* Summon Gargoyle - "The Gargoyle remains until the summoner runs out of Runic Power." changed to flat 1 minute duration
* Wandering Plague - Changed "This damage will not cancel spells normally cancelled when targets take damage." to "This spell ignores targets with effects cancelled by taking damage"
* Glacier Rot - Hungering Cold removed from affected spells
* Spell Deflection - changed to "You have a chance equal to your Parry chance of taking 20%/30% less damage from a direct damage spell."
* Dance of the Dead - renamed to Dirge
* Deathchill - Changed to
o "When activated, increases your critical strike chance with Frost spells by 100% for the next 6 sec."
* Blood Gorged - changed to
o "When you are above 75% health, your melee damage is increased by 2%/4%/6%/8%/10%."
* Tundra Stalker - Howling Blast removed from affected spells list
* Anti-Magic Field replaced by Anti-Magic Zone - "Places a large, static Anti-Magic Zone which can protect any party members inside it. The Anti-Magic Zone absorbs 75% of the damage dealt by the next harmful spell. Absorbs a limited amount of damage"

Warlock

* Shadow Vulnerability (ISB debuff) now only affects non-periodic spells
* Shadow Fury - "Can be cast while moving." added to description
* Spell Lock "silencing the enemy" added to description
* Soul Depletion talent changed
o "Your Corruption spell ticks have a 5%/10%/15% chance of consuming 2% Mana, 8 Energy, 4 Rage or 8 Runic Power on affected targets.
* Death's Embrace - now affects Shadowburn instead of Haunt
* Decimate - Exhaustion removed from description
* Demon Form - Immolation self-damage removed
* Fel Armor - ranks 2 and 3 - possibly added Increases health regeneration by 30% (Not shown in the description)

Hunter

* Demoralizing Screech - now has 10 sec cooldown
* Charge - description changed to read "animal" instead of "boar"
* Gore - "Gores the enemy, causing $s1 damage. This attack has a 50% chance to inflict double damage, or triple damage if used just after a Charge."

Rogue

* Cheap Shot - "Awards 2 combo points" removed from description
* Eviscerate - Rank 12 (only) formula changed. For example rank 12 with 1 combo point: ${$m1+($b1*1)+$AP*0.03}-${$M1+($b1*1)+$AP*0.07}

Priest

* Improved Divine Spirit - Changed to 3%/6%
* Circle of healing - cooldown reduced to 6 sec
* Improved shadow form - Now gives 50%/100% chance to avoid interruption caused by damage.
* Dark Spirit replaced with Twisted Faith
o "Increases your Shadow damage by up to 6%/12%/18% of your total Spirit, and your damage done by your Mind Flay and Mind Blast is increased by 1% (?not sure?) for each of your Shadow damage over time effects on the target"
* Growing Pains replaced with Pain and Suffering
o Your Mind Flay has a 33%/66%/100% chance to refresh the duration of your Shadow Word: Pain on the target, and reduces the damage you take from your own Shadow Word: Death by 20%/40%/60%
* Improved Holy Concentration - gives 20% spell haste, instead of mana regen while casting

Misc

* Swift Zebra mount renamed to Swift Zhevra
* Spell 33153 - Artic Flying - Allows your mount to fly in Northrend.
* Many healing item effects and item enchants changed, for example Golden Spell Thread was 22damage/66healing, now it gives 35 both damage and healing
* Drums of Battle - description now reads "haste rating", was "Melee, ranged, and spell haste rating"

Stolen from BlackDew

All Three Holes, Girl

I take ZERO responsibility for this, but it does reference my favorite type of sweet-talk.


Love Charmed

A few people have brought up that I've begun to stray from silliness in lieu of writing drivel about what might come to be in WotLK. True. I actually have a work-in-progress article on how I view certain RMP matchups in high detail (think old school dueling guides), but that's going to wait until after TR2 gets going. To be honest, I've never really put much effort into running RMP well; we just kind of zerged people and hoped to win without any coordination, teamwork, or planning. Honestly, you do often win just mindlessly training against a lot of teams as the burst is sometimes ridiculously high. Still, there's a lot more I think you can do.

Yes, WotLK is still in alpha, but let's be real. We'll likely be playing Beta in a month or two's time -- the changes to come aren't likely to be that drastic. Balance is hard to predict, but Beta represents a time when players can have a lot of influence on shaping the game, and I think it's much better to have conversations on this stuff while it's still up for change. The community that trolls this site, GameRiot, EJ, and the WoW R&D boards overlaps a fair amount. Better to emowhine sooner rather than later. =p

WoW on live servers right now is extremely dead. I'm in the same boat as many others who've team hopped all season -- stuck on dead teams. Teams where it would take so many games to balance the PR that it's better to just start anew. Eventually Blizzard will announce S4's start date and there will be a title zerg at the end of the season, but right now, nobody cares to queue. With a new TR coming up next Tuesday, what's the point? ^^

I will be on TR more actively (I hope!) this time although I do have some timing conflicts with my RL schedule. The plan is to actually play instead of mindlessly duel (as stupid esoteric specs) this time too.

Because it still fucking owns:


Raddy V Preview from radikal on Vimeo

Some WotLK Talent Ideas

Thoughts: http://www.war-tools.com/t53376.html

It's inevitable the trees will probably be taken down for being too similar to the real alpha trees, but whatever. My initial thoughts on the existing WoTLK trees are:

• A few of the PvE DPS talents are simply too weak.
• There's still some horrible talents that don't scale. (5/10 spell pen on Arc Sub?)
• Some talents can be tweaked to be less awful by constraining them. (Wand Spec)
• Dispel is a problem for the class, but anti-dispel talents are generally gay RNG crap.
• Frost is way bloated and impossible to spec. Changed a lot of the 5 pointers to 3 pointers and even then, it's near impossible.
• Imp Blizzard isn't worth 3 talent points but is a neat toy.
• Icy Veins CD too short for 11 points deep -- causes weirdness.
• Pushback protection on Frozen Core.
• Make Pyro not suck.
• Make Burnout not suck.
• Make Fiery Payback what it really is -- mage eye for an eye.
• Make Winter's grasp strong without making it necessary in PvE.
• Make Imp Blink more meaningful.
• Change random crap for no reason to make mages imba.
• Waste everyone's time.

I think I succeeded on at least one or two of those bullet points. I've said this other places but really what I'd like to see is mage gameplay change up a bit -- I'm hoping mages have better options than simply spamming instants and being perma-dispel-trained in every bracket. Obviously any class can say this. Warriors against 4dps teams. Warlocks against, well, everything. Hopefully, every class gets the type of changes that force more diverse/creative play. ^^

I'm Back

And that box of Valtrex under your bathroom sink ain't gonna get rid of me. Actually, if you're a girl, yes, yes, it fucking will. RUN GET HELP.

My weekend away from all things WoW was mostly repeated failures to close, a brief encounter with undercover cops trying to sell me coke, and a reminder that I don't really fit in with the cats singing along to Journey and Live at the clubs here. I alone love you. I alone tempt you.

Seriously, fucking kill yourselves. And I know I tell people to kill themselves a lot. But when you see a club full of busted Indian girls and white-douchebag-jock-finance-fratboy- diesel-jean-wearing-fucks jumping up and down and singing along to 90s pop/rock, you become quickly aware that a lot of people just need to die a little bit.

Me: God, it's great to take a break from the sleep-work-exercise-wow-study-sleep cycle.

World: Yeah, yeah, we're rocking the suburbs. Yeah, yeah, we're rocking the suburbs.

Me: Matchbox 20. Cool.

World: ITS FUCKING BEN FOLDS NUB.

Me: ...

To be serious for a second -- what the fuck happened? Why is there a fucking post-hip-hop bad-rock revival going on everywhere? I haven't heard Biggie out anywhere in months. No Souljah Boy or Jay. Nothing. Love or hate big dumb hip-pop, it's fucking infinitely better that watching people convulse awkwardly to whitebread rock with no beat.

Yes, I'm emo. I sit around at home and listen to this shit:





But I keep that shit at home. I keep the whiteboy at home. When I go out, I fire up The Wire, pregame some vodka and redbull, and practice in front of the mirror, "What's good Holmes." I never bought a fucking Offspring CD. I have zero clue who Toad the Wet Sprocket are. Why is the world so fucking gay?

I'm maybe a little drunk/hungover. Sorry. =p

Fixed Talent Tree Links

First of all:

DeathKnight: http://war-tools.darlinganime.com/index.php?i=deathknight
Druid: http://war-tools.darlinganime.com/index.php?i=druid
Mage: http://war-tools.darlinganime.com/index.php?i=mage
Priest: http://war-tools.darlinganime.com/index.php?i=priest
Warlock: http://war-tools.darlinganime.com/index.php?i=warlock
Warrior: http://war-tools.darlinganime.com/index.php?i=warrior

Love to War Pirate


Does the Priest talent Growing Pains seem pretty ridiculous to anyone else? Especially with the free spell damage on healing gear thing, it seems without a doubt that SPs would stack healing gear instead of damage. This feels kind of weird and seems like it could really add itemization issues. (The current Arena healing set would be better than the damage set)