Patch 2.3 preliminary details

[Fordel]

I think I'm going to switch to leatherworking, so I can at least have the joy of seeing new patterns from every faction, and having the ability to make useful shit.

Don't do leatherworking. Just don't. Trust me.

The Clefthoof population needs time to recover.


The new loot doesn't obsolete Kara, if anything, it'll get more people in Kara for Badges. Lots of class/spec don't even bother with Kara atm due to it's shitty itemization for them. Now they can grab a handful of 'easy' Badges for shit they can use.

[Sjofn]

Have you tried engineering? All my fun shit got nerfed post-60. Flame and shadow reflectors, for instance. Mind control helmets got fucked when they first couldn't be used when you had a pet out (Thanks, Blizzard! Fuck the class with the most engineers, why don't you?) then couldn't be used in combat. Jumper cables fucking don't work enough, and grenades and bombs are too damn expensive to use.

We've got the invulnerability belt, which is nice in Arena if you don't mind that it can be dispelled, you're forced to wear a level 55 green belt at 70 PvP, lasts like 8 seconds, oh and when it backfires you take double damage -- so it's nice if it works, you're dead if it doesn't. Rocket boots, the parachute cloak, and......we can make a decent gun for tanks. And we have a nice T4-quality hat.

It's an expensive waste of time. I miss my shrink ray, death ray, netgun (why the fuck do tailors make 100% working nets?), rod-that-turns-people-into-gnomes, and all the other shit I used to do to annoy the fuck out of people in PvP or to turn easy boss fights into nightmares because everyone lost 25% of their AP when the Shrink Ray backfired.

I have attempted engineering several times. I cannot imagine rending my soul in two leveling that all the way up, only to turn around and grind it into a fine powder by leveling up leatherworking.

If you're going to dump engineering for something else, do jewelcrafting or turn to the gentle craft of alchemy. At least you'd have a hope in hell of making money.

[Fabricated]

The only thing I think really needs work is the Prince...I was watching someone I know fight him and they had a bad pull. Well, they couldn't even reset it because an infernal dropped right in front of the door. They just had to eat a wipe on a minor screwup.

[Merusk]

I hear lots of bitching about the Prince, including from my own guild who downs him regularly.  The complaint being, that he's all luck and no skill based on the infernal dropping.

From what I understand, he's fucking nothing compared to Lady Vaash and her random bullshit.


Ed:  Also, here's vid of the engineering mount in action.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTp9uYnyGLA

[Musashi]

I understand complaints about Kara.  That said, if it was the same every time, you have a completely different set of people who complain about it not being random enough.  Arguing which side is right or wrong is like arguing over pie or cake.  It's good.  Eat it. 

Only complaint I feel they could still address in Karazhan is the sheer, mind numbing, repetitive, stupid, asinine volume of trash, especially post-curator.  Whoever is in charge of 'pacing' dungeons for Blizz needs to die.  You can point to several instances where this person(s)'s idea of fluidity even though the term is  largely subjective is just flat wrong.  You can start with Molten Core, and the amount of trash was easy but, well, too much.  BWL was fine.  AQ speaks for itself, and so on.  Seriously devs.  Trash is not cool.  Is it necessary?  No!  Think outside the box.  If it was something we wanted, we wouldn't call it trash, would we?

Biggest barrier to the BC endgame for most people wasn't Kara though.  Everybody and his neighbor is/was in Kara.  It was SSC.  There again.  Trash.  Yay. 

[Phred]

Countdown to first notable abuse of guild bank... starting... NOW!

My first thought on them was, I need to get my alt his own guild. That's the answer to my storage problems right there.

[Threash]

Patch notes are up. Hunters are fucking boned.

There are no nerfs there so why do you say that?

Mostly because Blizzard stated that 2.3 would address Hunter problems in the Arena and....it doesn't. They're still just as fucked. Plus, it appears most classes got a nicer buff than we did, so when you're already dead last and everyone just got a bigger leg up than you did...amounts to the same thing.

They removed the dead zone.

[Sogrinaugh]

Countdown to first notable abuse of guild bank... starting... NOW!

If blizzard was worth a fuck they'd have auditable tracking on all transactions made with the guild bank, as well as enable permission lists on a per-player basis as to who may and may not make use of an item placed their.  So i can put up mana pots for X, Y, or Z to use, but players A thru F can fuckoff.  Hopefully, if the guild leader /gdisbands, the same auditing system would be used to mail a given player back all items placed their, assuming the cockmuncher didnt simply make off with the guild bank like so many guild leaders do.

[Morat20]

They removed the dead zone.

What, in the last six hours? You're shitting me.

Ah, I see they're looking at a reduction or removal. It's about fucking time they at least tested it. That 6 to 8 yards of nothing was bullshit, and I still think it was just a beta mistake they never removed. Ah, blue statement:

We're planning to shrink the min range on ranged attacks to reduce or eliminate the "dead zone". The only point to the dead zone was to ensure the min range on ranged weapons was enough such that ranged weapon attacks wouldn't be used while also being melee'd (at least by mobs... players have a bit of slush built in).

So we got three yards of "You're fucked" to prevent double white attacks? That's the lamest goddamn reason I've ever heard. We don't do that much white damage, especially with resiliance gear in the game. (We certainly do jack shit with melee, and our white crits aren't that fucking high). Why the hell didn't they just link auto and ranged cooldowns? Aren't they both linked to the global cooldown? So how the hell can you take both?

That'll seriously change the dynamic, though. No more having to find the one damn corner with an 8-yard range and LOS to target in some instances, and mages and druids will have to eat our massive (sarcasm!) melee damage if they want to nuke us to death.

And in case anyone bitches -- we have spell pushback on aimed shot and steady shot, and channeling interrupts on volley, just like every other mana user does on non-instants.

[Sjofn]

Man, not having to find the single spot in a hallway where I can shoot from? Rad.

[Morat20]

Man, not having to find the single spot in a hallway where I can shoot from? Rad.

From the forum crying, it appears that most non-Hunters think this means hunters can aimed shot from 0 yards without spell pushback.

Instead of from 6 yards, with spell pushback. The crying of the rogues and warriors is like sweet mana from heaven, although eventually they'll figure out that nothing's really changed for them and that their tactics haven't changed. Mages are screaming themselves hoarse, which makes me laugh. Apparently they think we can fire every shot in our arsenal on the run.

It's nice to see that I've put up with that shit not for gameplay balance reason, but as best I can tell, because it was a cheap solution for NPCs.

The practical upshot is to give hunters about two or three more yards to play with in the arena, which means a much better chance of having a target at range. Getting away from rogues and warriors will still be damn difficult -- but we might get an arcane and CS off before they intercept and hamstring us again. Then we're back to "Hunter pathetic melee damage" against "OMG WTF DID HE JUST CRIT ME FOR?" warrior damage.

[Merusk]

Then we're back to "Hunter pathetic melee damage" against "OMG WTF DID HE JUST CRIT ME FOR?" warrior damage.

I once meleed a rogue to death.  True story.   I've also never laughed so fucking hard in my life.  My god, he was a pathetic excuse for a rogue.

[Morat20]

I once meleed a rogue to death.  True story.   I've also never laughed so fucking hard in my life.  My god, he was a pathetic excuse for a rogue.

Hah. That has to be the world's shittiest rogue. I did hear a Hunter discuss what happened when she got jumped while AFK (this was below level cap prior to TBC). She had her pet on defensive and in prowl, and she was sitting off in a corner of Azhara, I think.

Rogue jumps her, gets jumped in return by her pet. Between her pet and the occasional Chili burp, she killed him. Didn't even find out until she sat back down and saw herself at 1/4 health.

Between an equally skilled hunter and rogue, it boils down to whether the rogue gets the jump. If I spot him at range, he's dead. If I spot him after he hits me, I'm dead. I once had (at 60, prior to TBC) a very good rogue stunlock and kill me while I was riding from SP down to the Field of Strife. He killed me so quickly I never actually dismounted.

[Righ]

I once meleed a rogue to death.  True story.   I've also never laughed so fucking hard in my life.  My god, he was a pathetic excuse for a rogue.

Once? I've done it so many times that I began to think that hunters were good at melee. Then I realized that I was on an RP server.

[Merusk]

I don't recall seeing this anywhere, but the minimap now shows you a ! or a ? (blue or gold) for your quests.   I flew over about 5 quests I didn't even know about between Shat and Area 51 on test.

[SurfD]

I don't recall seeing this anywhere, but the minimap now shows you a ! or a ? (blue or gold) for your quests.   I flew over about 5 quests I didn't even know about between Shat and Area 51 on test.

Is it still level specific?  They REALLY need to give you an option to turn on the ! for quests you out leveled.

[Chimpy]

No more deadzone + MS component to aimed shot (which I will still probably never use) makes me actually looking forward to the upcoming patch.

Plus Z'A looks promising if only because there is a pretty nice bow out of there, which I am probably more likely to get than a prince bow at this point......god I hate the drops we get in kara :/

[Merusk]

I don't recall seeing this anywhere, but the minimap now shows you a ! or a ? (blue or gold) for your quests.   I flew over about 5 quests I didn't even know about between Shat and Area 51 on test.

Is it still level specific?  They REALLY need to give you an option to turn on the ! for quests you out leveled.

I think it is, yeah.  I haven't gone running through Dun Morogh or anything to test it, though, just outland.

[Fabricated]

No more deadzone + MS component to aimed shot (which I will still probably never use) makes me actually looking forward to the upcoming patch.

Plus Z'A looks promising if only because there is a pretty nice bow out of there, which I am probably more likely to get than a prince bow at this point......god I hate the drops we get in kara :/

Hope you're geared. ZA is tuned pretty fucking hard.

[SurfD]

Yeah.  I can see ZA getting some tweaks.

ZA is NOT going to be a walk in the park for most Kara geared groups.

I got in on a guild ZA run.  For reference, my guild has BT / Hyjal on farm, however i am not a Prime raider, and as such, my druid is geared only in T4 / heroic loot.  We went in somewhat cold (a few people had some ideas as to how fights work).  We killed up to the 3rd boss in the timed run order and then wiped.

Bear boss was fairly easy, but shit hits HARD.  I was offtanking / Second tanking, and the first boss can put out a LOT of damage ( i was down to 1k HP a few times with healers focusing on me due to the sheer amount of damage his Rend dots do).

Eagle boss himself was a joke (get under the storm and you live).  The clear up to him was not however.  Think of it like the suppression room, but a bit faster paced.

Dragonhawk boss was a bitch.  The clear to him was so so (CC is a MUST here, as some of the trash mobs can put out REDICULOUS amounts of damage to your whole raid if not managed properly) and someone always need to be watching for scouts (they will run and summon adds, but have really low HP).  The boss himself is going to be the the hard part for most guilds, as he requires a LOT of coordination.  The fight involves a fair amount of positioning and timing. because you have to avoid Breaths + exploding bombs + allow hatchers to hatch SOME eggs but not too many eggs or you get overrun.  Lots of somewhat delicate balances involved, and a fair number of potential issues that can totally fuck your raid up.

That was as far as we got before people wandered off for dinner / arena groups / other stuff and the raid died out.  Going back again tomorrow to mess around some more.

[Fabricated]

I really hope they turn it back to what Blizzard said it was supposed to be at every turn, a 10-man for guilds getting out of Kara but not quite to TK/SSC. Right now it seems like a loot bank for T5 raiders who can't get the drops they want from TK/SSC.

[Chimpy]

No more deadzone + MS component to aimed shot (which I will still probably never use) makes me actually looking forward to the upcoming patch.

Plus Z'A looks promising if only because there is a pretty nice bow out of there, which I am probably more likely to get than a prince bow at this point......god I hate the drops we get in kara :/

Hope you're geared. ZA is tuned pretty fucking hard.

I have decent gear, some t4, random other kara loot. But I will be running with at least half the group being people in T6.

[Jayce]

Has a date been announced for 2.3?  Surely it's not today, with the downtime?

[Chimpy]

Has a date been announced for 2.3?  Surely it's not today, with the downtime?

Today was just your standard tuesday downtime. No patch today. My guess is next week at the earliest, probably one of the next two after that being most likely.

[Threash]

Has a date been announced for 2.3?  Surely it's not today, with the downtime?

Today was just your standard tuesday downtime. No patch today. My guess is next week at the earliest, probably one of the next two after that being most likely.

They said there would be a two week notice before season 3, so as long as the notice hasn't been given the minimum time it can come out in is 2 weeks.

[Chimpy]

Has a date been announced for 2.3?  Surely it's not today, with the downtime?

Today was just your standard tuesday downtime. No patch today. My guess is next week at the earliest, probably one of the next two after that being most likely.

They said there would be a two week notice before season 3, so as long as the notice hasn't been given the minimum time it can come out in is 2 weeks.

In that same post they said that they would not necessarily have season 3 start right with the release of 2.3. Which could mean 2.3 next week, s3 2 weeks later. Or somesuch.

[Draegan]

They are still actively testing different talents and AV changes.  I'm sure ZA is tuned well as it can be.  They are still doing some other things. 

[Morat20]

Engineering apparently got some love. The new repair bots mats have been toned down to something reasonable (and it makes 5 at a time), the new ammo boxes are cool, and it appears they've added a passive cloud tracking to the engineering helms -- like the new fish tracking, so it stacks with "Find Minerals" or whatnot.

So engineers with a Mote Extractor might have a much easier time of it.

I think potion injectors can now be used by anyone.

[Fordel]

It's silly, but the potion injectors might be the biggest change of them all, it might give engineers something to actually sell on the AH other then mechanical squirrels.

[Morat20]

It's silly, but the potion injectors might be the biggest change of them all, it might give engineers something to actually sell on the AH other then mechanical squirrels.

Don't make light of tracking clouds -- only engineers can harvest the damn things (I think. You need the Mote extractor, right?), and they tend to give off several motes. And they're adding at least one new type of cloud.

It's like giving engineers a tiny extra harvesting profession to offset the incredible fucking goldsink that is engineering.

[Merusk]

It's silly, but the potion injectors might be the biggest change of them all, it might give engineers something to actually sell on the AH other then mechanical squirrels.

Don't make light of tracking clouds -- only engineers can harvest the damn things (I think. You need the Mote extractor, right?), and they tend to give off several motes. And they're adding at least one new type of cloud.

It's like giving engineers a tiny extra harvesting profession to offset the incredible fucking goldsink that is engineering.

My god tracking would be awesome.  I can never find the fucking clouds as it is, flying around so damn low to the ground mobs aggro me the whole time. Fucking ridiculous.

Potion injectors used by anyone is huge, too.  I use the things all the damn time, because 20 potions in one slot is goddamn love.

[Fordel]

The cloud thing is meh, there's only like 2-3 per zone at any time, the extra half dozen motes you can grab won't offset costs.

[Xanthippe]

It's silly, but the potion injectors might be the biggest change of them all, it might give engineers something to actually sell on the AH other then mechanical squirrels.

An engineers can sell a mithril casing or two a day, also one or two gyrochronometers, and, of course, scopes of all levels.

These are items that are usually not on my auction house, despite people needing them.

[Merusk]

I'll sell mithril casings if I've come across a mithril vein recently and have the ore.  Gyros and scopes tend to sell for less than the mats to make them, so I've said fuck it, they're not worth my time.

For example: the 28 crit-rating scope from Kara I can only sell for ~120g if I'm lucky. It requires 2 Hardened Admanantite Tubes, 6 Felsteel Stabalizers and 2 Star of Elune

On my server those stars are 30-40g each.  The mats for the other parts breaks-down to 120 Admantite ore, 72 Fel Iron ore and 48 Eternium ore.  Stacks of Adam go for 20g if someone's undercutting and Fel Iron is ~15-18g.   Eternium is some ridiculous price near Khorium ore, but let's say ~15g.  Total cost at those prices?  270g for the scope if I'm only covering mats.

Yeah, that's why I only make it for guildies who bring me the mats, and screw selling it on the AH.

[Xanthippe]

Lower level scopes are hard to come by.

Why are you only selling high level scopes?

Nobody sells the other level scopes.

On my server, gyros sell for about 2g each.  That's pretty good for 1 iron bar and 1 gold power core, when a stack of iron bars goes for about 6g and gold bars go for about 8g/stack.  Cost for 3 gyros = 1 gold bar plus 3 iron bars = 70 silver. 

Investing 70 silver for a 6g return is not bad.

One of the mistakes people make in this game is to only try to make and sell high level stuff.  People are still leveling up, and still need lower level stuff.  That's where the money is, simply because no one else is doing it.