WotLK spoilerfication

[Gobbeldygook]

Make the class abilities dynamic on each server. Update them regularly. If Blademasters are winning significantly more encounters than intended, tone them down a bit.

Don't roll up a warrior on our server; a bunch of goons from Something Awful rolled up TONS of warriors and zerged everyone down, so the server nerfed them into the ground.  Then mages were overpowered, so they all rerolled.  We think they're just going to switch between the two depending on which one is nerfed.

[Ironwood]

Seriously stray... it's a little embarassing.

Hmm? I haven't even made a chart yet.

Don't do it.  They make you question the nature of your existence.

Really.

[Azazel]

Uh, no you don't get it apparently. I'm just using the blademaster as an example. It has two class defining skills, doesn't take long to describe, and is pretty much the first thing anyone familiar with warcraft thinks of when they hear "hero class".

To address your other points about loot, re-leveling, and whatnot.. Well, humor me for a second here. For one, I'm not talking about World of Warcraft. At all. No point in trying to understand or reference anything I'm saying under any of WoW's current rules.  Ultimately, I'm just trying to have fun talking about a completely different, theoretical game.

Okay, no worries. I just misunderstood you for some reason.

And it wouldn't take much to design a Blademaster class even..
Give me a rogue -- but give me 2 handed swords. And no armor, no raids, no teir 7/8/9 anything. Just a loincloth and a big ass solo attainable quest sword to backstab with. Perfect class right there. 

That's why I thought you were talking about WoW. Well, that and the WC hero classes you were discussing, and the topic. I'm with you now though, carry on.   


My stuff about re-levelling, etc remains though, but for those talking about WotLK and the DK.

[lamaros]

Huge (47mins long) preview of the WotLK lands.

Fucking Awesome.

Seriously. Some of the stuff there...

TBC is child's play in comparison.

[Fordel]

Where?

[lamaros]

http://files.filefront.com/WotLK+LOL+Preview/;10332878;/fileinfo.html

[Fordel]

Thanks.

[Merusk]

Damn long vid.  Check out about the 37 min mark. Looks like a new CoT instance.. Strathome and the Plague.  Very obvious walk through the entrance of Strath, clear shots of plague-tainted grain, then you hit a burning area. Looks fantastic.

[lamaros]

The thing that I liked the most was some of the design of the outside zones. It looked like the fact that people will have flying mount right from the start really allowed them to open things up and put in some varied terrain instead of all the flat stuff we're used to. A lot more interesting and awesome because of that.

Plus I like snow.

Lots of stuff obviously unfinished, but lots of really cool stuff everywhere too, no not just cool in the old "shiny" way, but also just cool from interesting design and art. Outlands has a few bits like that, but overall it seems a bit "lets put this here for the sake of it" and doesn't look cool and also make that much sense/add anything to the game. Original WoW had BRM, Strath, and lots of other awesome areas, and the size of Northrend gives it much more scope for similar areas.

Hopefully it is also a lot less linear.

[Triforcer]

Pandarens 4 life, yo.  Damn Chinese and their panda-protecting laws will prevent this forever. 

[Oban]

The Chinese government has no rules regarding the artificial slaughter of panda-like creatures. Warcraft III had a Panderan Hero and various Panderan creeps and China didn't have any problem with that.

http://www.wowwiki.com/Pandaren

[Fordel]

I'm told it wasn't the actual killing of Panda's but that the Panda's had a little too much Japanese flavour in them or something along those lines. Knowing how much China and Japan love each other, I could buy that being the actual reason.


Like, I'm sure if we dressed up some Bald Eagles in toques while curling, there would be quite a few upset Yankee's south of the 49th, and our countries mostly get along. I would expect nothing short of a wag of the finger from Mr. Colbert! 


-edit- Typo.

[Ragnoros]

The thing that I liked the most was some of the design of the outside zones. It looked like the fact that people will have flying mount right from the start really allowed them to open things up and put in some varied terrain instead of all the flat stuff we're used to. A lot more interesting and awesome because of that.

You will not be able to you your flying mounts in Northrend right off the bat.

I could not find the Blue post in question (link in story is dead) but this article backs it up.

[lamaros]

The thing that I liked the most was some of the design of the outside zones. It looked like the fact that people will have flying mount right from the start really allowed them to open things up and put in some varied terrain instead of all the flat stuff we're used to. A lot more interesting and awesome because of that.

You will not be able to you your flying mounts in Northrend right off the bat.

I could not find the Blue post in question (link in story is dead) but this article backs it up.

Oh dear. :(

[apocrypha]

http://files.filefront.com/WotLK+LOL+Preview/;10332878;/fileinfo.html

Awesome :)

However, there seems to be no mention of this preview up on the official boards or sites, but a new bluepost has appeared titled "Unreleased content and NDA's" (http://forums.wow-europe.com/thread.html?topicId=4095423310&sid=1).

Does this mean that the preview movie is a bit of an  -breaker?

[lamaros]

Very much so.

[Simond]

I don't remember signing an NDA about the WotLK alpha that I'm not part of. 

[Merusk]

Very much so.

Yeah, the opening calls it "LOLpreviews" and it's obvious from the camera movements that it was the alpha client loaded into a model viewer.   That's even before you realize that Blizzard has NEVER shown an unfinished/ unmapped model or an area lacking NPCs in one of their previews.  Really, I think the unfinished and unskinned parts were some of the neatest bits as it shows some of the working process.

[Fabricated]

The thing that I liked the most was some of the design of the outside zones. It looked like the fact that people will have flying mount right from the start really allowed them to open things up and put in some varied terrain instead of all the flat stuff we're used to. A lot more interesting and awesome because of that.

You will not be able to you your flying mounts in Northrend right off the bat.

I could not find the Blue post in question (link in story is dead) but this article backs it up.

Oh dear. :(

Awesome IMO. At least a day of people not zooming around on 500000% mounts stealing ore/herbs/mobs, no obnoxious fucking mounts floating outside the new banks, fuck yeah.

[Register]

Awesome IMO. At least a day of people not zooming around on 500000% mounts stealing ore/herbs/mobs, no obnoxious fucking mounts floating outside the new banks, fuck yeah.

While resource stealing is hateful - clearing your way to a node only to have a flyer snatch it, on a pvp server ganking from the sky is even more painful - its really hard to spot them in advance. Corpse campers also have the advantage with flying mounts - in the grey death mode its hard to spot enemy flyers camping your corpse.

In city, the most irritating mounts got to be the fat ZA bear. Horde side, you have 2 taurens with the bear sitting on the mailbox and its basically unclickable. And you have players who intentionally do that.

[Sjofn]

WTB Goblins as a playable race.

Oh God, yes PLEASE.

[kaid]

I believe there was a blue post stating that it would be level 77 before you can use your flying mounts in the new zones. Frankly as much as I will shiver not being able to use my flying mount you get a lot better appreciation of quests and zones when you can't just fly to the mob you want drop kill it and fly away again.

The flying mount just trivializes a lot of content so its for the best that it takes a while to get them back gives you a better appreciation for the funky zones when you have to hoof it around them.

[Paelos]

I believe there was a blue post stating that it would be level 77 before you can use your flying mounts in the new zones. Frankly as much as I will shiver not being able to use my flying mount you get a lot better appreciation of quests and zones when you can't just fly to the mob you want drop kill it and fly away again.

The flying mount just trivializes a lot of content so its for the best that it takes a while to get them back gives you a better appreciation for the funky zones when you have to hoof it around them.

As long as you can fly around anywhere after a certain level, I don't mind. Making zones completely unflyable would frustrate me.

[Gobbeldygook]

For all of the hunters who aren't happy topping the damage meters, some new pet abilities have been found in the alpha.

- New line of pet spells called "Smack". Equivalent to Claw except with different name.
- Pin rank 1: 80 Focus, channeled, 20 second cooldown. "Pins the target in place, and squeezes for 20 damage over 12 sec."
- Tendom Rip rank 1: 25 focus, Next melee, 20 second cooldown. "Damages an enemy for 3 to 5 and reduces movement speed by 25% for 8 sec."
- Spore Cloud rank 1: 50 focus, 10 second cooldown. "Inflicts 2 nature damage to nearby enemies every 2 sec for 6 sec and reduces armor by 15%.
- Dust Cloud rank 1: 50 focus, 20 second cooldown. "Kick up an obscuring cloud of dust, lowering the chance for enemies to hit by 30%. Effects last 8 sec."
- Serenity Dust rank 1: 75 focus, 2 minute cooldown. "Heals the pet for 510 over 15 sec."
- Bad Attitude rank 1: 25 focus, 3 minute cooldown. "Snap back for 5 damage at any target that strikes you for the next 2 min."
- Nether Shock rank 1: 30 focus, 20 yard range, 6 second cooldown. "Instantly lashes an enemy for 17 to 19 Shadow damage. Also interrupts spellcasting and prevents any spell in that school from being cast for 1 sec."
- Ravage rank 1: 80 focus, 1 minute cooldown. "Violently attack an enemy for 4 to 6, stunning it for 2 sec."
- Sonic Blast rank 1: 80 focus, 1 minute cooldown. "Emits a piercing shriek, inflicted 4 to 6 physical damage and stunning the target for 2 sec."
- wing Buffet rank 1: 40 focus, 30 second cooldown. "Blasts the target for 4 to 6 damage and knocking it back."
- Snatch rank 1: 40 focus, 1 minute cooldown. "Grab the enemy's weapon with your talons, disarming them for 10 sec."

[kaid]

Those pet abilities I would take with a big grain of salt especially ones with spell interupts and snares. I would like to see each pet family get some special power though there are still some out there that don't get anything then you get the poor sporebats. They are tameable and actually decent tanking stats. They however can learn no normal pet skill that is not trainer purchased. No bite no claw no growl no dive no screech nothing zip nadda. It seems really odd to have a pet thats pretty much totally useless and lacking even the most basic power. I could see them getting that spore cloud type power which at least would be something.

[Merusk]

Not to mention there's been lists of pet ablities - data mined no less - from as far back as the first implementation of abilities and they always seem to go *poof* between their discovery and actual patching.   That or they turn out to be "NPC pet" abilities or NPC abilities in funny spots of the spell data.

[kaid]

When looking at all those alpha content stuff remember this. Blizzard understands how easily people can datamine the files there is a lot of crap listed in those files that never sees the light of day just to screw with dataminers.

[Chimpy]

Now that we are talking about pets:

WTB Tallstrider ability.

FRIENDS OF THE FLAMINGO UNITE!

[Simond]

I miss the days from my original hunter where having a boar pet was unusual (because everybody else had cats).
Oh yeah, and wtb abilities for spiders and hyenas.

[Paelos]

If I had a hunter, I'd want a monkey, regardless of stats or abilities.

[Oban]

If I had a hunter, I'd want a monkey, regardless of stats or abilities.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8avOiTUcD4Y

[apocrypha]

If I had a hunter, I'd want a monkey, regardless of stats or abilities.

But it'd have to be able to wear little hats. And maybe a tuxedo.

[Merusk]

You can tame a Gorilla, but that's about the closest thing there is in WoW right now.  Apparently the great apes ate all the monkeys.

[kaid]

Tall striders actually are pretty decent for powers at this time now that they got dash. They are decent all around pets having a special ability is nice but there are some pet types that have zip for abilities not even bite and dash.

[Paelos]

If I had a hunter, I'd want a monkey, regardless of stats or abilities.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8avOiTUcD4Y

The monkey tossing the car thief off a bridge ties monkey with a shotgun as the two best moments.