Patch 3.08

[Draegan]

I can't spoiler stuff so I won't post the whole thing.

http://blue.mmo-champion.com/13/7536073945-ptr-patch-308-notes.html

My Favorite:

Mining

    * Mining veins and deposits no longer require multiple hits to receive all the ore. Players will receive around the same amount of ore, stone, and gems they would have received from multiple hits.
    * Weakened Giants and Iron Rune Sentinels can now be correctly mined.

[Numtini]

I am so grinding gnome rep to get a mechanostrider.

As a shaman, I hope the nerf on water shield and LHW isn't too extreme. I rely on LHW a lot, which might explain why I haven't had mana issues that other shaman report.

[Vash]

That mining change is great in the sense that they finally made it equal to herbalism and skinning with the 1 hit and done, it even has the added benefit of preventing people from coming up and stealing the rest of your node after you've already got a hit in.  I'm just afraid it's gonna increase the amount of ore that can hit the market and drive the price down even more than it is now with the rapid drop in prices that seem to be happening on my server and many others. 

[Merusk]

Wait we taller folks can mount Mechanostriders now? Awesome.
I've got "The Ambassador" title already on my pally. Mechanostrider here I come.

Num - Gnomer rep was a living pain in the ass.  I finally got it by repgrinding Runecloth from my AD dungeon repgrinding because all the quests and other methods weren't working for shit, even with the human Diplomacy bonus.

Love the mining change too. About fucking time.

[Selby]

No more druid quest to get aquaform!  Talk about timing!

I do like the ability to ride all race mounts, my druid is getting a raptor and a skeletal knight for fun!

I do wonder what the reduction of quests for loremaster is, I'm *almost* there and if they reduce it, I may just be there ;-)

[Numtini]

I'm guessing you'll still have to grind faction to get the other race mounts. Though personally, I'd be delighted if they'd remove that too.

[DraconianOne]

No more quest for aquaform? Shit! I did that on my new one only a couple of weeks ago.

Mining change is definitely great.

The instant tapping is potentially very good as well.  As a 'lock, I'd throw a couple of dots then some huntardloladintwatrogue would come and steal the mob before it had properly tapped to me which was very annoying.  Admittedly, this is day one of WoTLK's release in the area around the starter zones and it's rarely a problem otherwise. There's probably going to be someway this will annoy and inconvenience players but for now, I like this change.

More graveyards? I got ganked at the southern end of shimmering flats 1k needles last night - the GY is by the great lift.  I welcome this change heartily.

Also, Warlock summoning change? Thank you.

[Ratman_tf]

That mining change is great in the sense that they finally made it equal to herbalism and skinning with the 1 hit and done, it even has the added benefit of preventing people from coming up and stealing the rest of your node after you've already got a hit in.  I'm just afraid it's gonna increase the amount of ore that can hit the market and drive the price down even more than it is now with the rapid drop in prices that seem to be happening on my server and many others. 

Well, they would have gotten the same amount of ore whether they hit it once or multiple times. Assuming Blizz doesn't change the drop rate from mining.

I think the price drops were inevitable. More and more people are hitting 80 and that's going to change both the amount of ore mined and the demand for it.

[Selby]

Though personally, I'd be delighted if they'd remove that too.

Don't think they did.  Nobody would ever ride kodos if they did...  My Ambassador is just fine though so no worries for me ;-)

[Fabricated]

Thank god ore is cheaper and easier to get in WotLK. I was tired of playing "hunt the Khorium" or battling over shitty adamantite nodes.

[Kail]

Interesting for me:

"There are now three ranks in Wintergrasp: Recruit, Corporal, and First Lieutenant."
Are they perhaps finally letting us use those alleged flying siege weapons?

"Players may now create death knights on any realm once they reach level 55."
That's good news.  Now, if someone's got a nice guild on another server, I can just roll a DK and not have to grind through the Barrens again or eat a $15 transfer fee.

[Azaroth]

Yeah, but there's already so many fucking Death Knights. Seems like they should just allow you to do that with any class.

But then they might as well board up Azeroth.

[Ratman_tf]

Thank god ore is cheaper and easier to get in WotLK. I was tired of playing "hunt the Khorium" or battling over shitty adamantite nodes.

Are you mining Titanium yet?

[Paelos]

Yeah, but there's already so many fucking Death Knights. Seems like they should just allow you to do that with any class.

But then they might as well board up Azeroth.

I don't know, I see a lot druids and pallies roaming around these days. Sure DKs are out there in force, but in my raids I have 5 pallies and 4 druids signing up as the two top classes, with DK's tied at 3 with almost everyone else. Maybe people aren't raiding a ton with them, or they are using them as solo/boredom toons rather than mains.

[Selby]

On my server, it's nothing but DKs as far as the eye can see.  Druids are few and far between, while paladins are pretty common.  The rest seem to be around, but nowhere near as much as the DKs.

[Ingmar]

Warlocks are the most endangered species as far as I can tell, but we've never had a lot of them anyway.

[Morfiend]

On my server, it's nothing but DKs as far as the eye can see.  Druids are few and far between, while paladins are pretty common.  The rest seem to be around, but nowhere near as much as the DKs.

I second that. On Tich they are not totally overwhelming but there are a LOT of them. I rolled one and got to 80 cause it was fun as all hell, but there are just so many. I started leveling my Ret pally, which is awesome, cause I always wanted to play Ret, and now its really good.

I would say just from what I see around Dalaran the population is in this order:

-DK
-Pally
-Druid
-Everyone else
-Warlock

[Merusk]

Being a pvp server that makes sense.

[Triforcer]

Being a pvp server that makes sense.

Its been a couple years for me.  Did Warlocks finally get pvp nerfed into oblivion like they so richly deserved?  Fuck you, Mr. Fear-and-dot-me-to-death-before-I-can-hit-one-button. 

[Azaroth]

Yeah, Warlocks are in a sorry state at the moment.

[Kail]

I would say just from what I see around Dalaran the population is in this order:

-DK
-Pally
-Druid
-Everyone else
-Warlock

According to census, most popular are Death Knights (though only by about 5% now) followed by Hunters.  Then Paladins, Warriors, Mages, and Druids.

Weirdly, looks like Shamans are the least played class.

[Fordel]

Totems are annoying. Incredibly useful and can usually guarantee you a raid slot, but still, very annoying.

[Rasix]

I would say just from what I see around Dalaran the population is in this order:

-DK
-Pally
-Druid
-Everyone else
-Warlock

According to census, most popular are Death Knights (though only by about 5% now) followed by Hunters.  Then Paladins, Warriors, Mages, and Druids.

Weirdly, looks like Shamans are the least played class.

I quit my shaman for a DK.  Shamans are incredibly annoying to play and all anyone wants you to do is heal. Enhance felt extremely weak in Northrend, and if I want to PEW PEW I have my druid. 

Easy class to catch on to if you're not terribly enamored with what you're playing currently. Plus, melee that isn't squishy is fun.

[Lightstalker]

I can't say I've had that experience at all.  We have 2 resto shaman and we don't want them to heal in raids, we'd prefer they do anything else (Why bring a Shaman when you have Circle of Healing, Regrowth/WildGrowth/Lifebloom and Holy Light available?).  Sometimes my spirit wolves outheal the resto shaman over the course of a boss fight.

Of course, I also found Enhancement to be invincible for 45 seconds out of every 3 minutes while questing in Northrend, thanks Feral Spirit.  Makes completing most group quests a piece of cake, something I haven't been able to duplicate on my DK - he just takes too much damage without any way to recover health.  I haven't PvPd as Enhance though, no illusions about that.  Through the beta all varieties of Shaman were ineffective and unfun, pushing a wide perception that the class is now crap.

[Shrike]

Enhance? Weak in Northrend? You're doing something wrong. I've been an elite soloing machine since I hit the beach at BT.

You can keep the DKs, though. I want to like mine, but every time I play her, I just end up logging off in frustration in about an hour. DKs  are squishy when compared to prot warriors or paladins. And that's from a heavy frost DK. Things always start off well (they do good damage and all...), but I always end up in a situation that my warrior and paladin would have bulled through, but my DK faceplants.

[Phunked]

DKs are hardly squishy. Either you're terribly undergared, or are doing something wrong.

I've comfortably MT'd everything in the game with both unholy and frost. As long as you're smart about keeping your cooldowns always running, you should have zero issues in the tanking department. Of course, knowing when to follow a parry with Icebound Fort. takes a certain amount of skill beyond reactively hitting last stand.

[Rasix]

Enhance? Weak in Northrend? You're doing something wrong. I've been an elite soloing machine since I hit the beach at BT.

Never said I had any problems playing it or soloing.  I've solo'd 3 man elites with greater ease than my DK through most of Dragonblight. Still felt weak.  Just a feeling though, I don't have DPS reports or anything to prove my case. Heh. It would help if I could loosen my deathgrip on my old epics and take the higher stam quest greens so I don't end up healing myself so damn much after fights.  And yes, feral spirit is ridiculous for soloing.

I've played blood and unholy DKs.  Bloods are nigh indestructible. Blood can heal themselves for 20% health every 30 seconds untop of all the other dumb DK tricks (death strike, blood worms & mark of blood (blood line), and icebound fortitude).   Unholy is fun but doesn't have the staying power v. tougher elites.  Unholy is just sick AE and likely my spec at 80 once I'll be sufficient on my own with just death strike.  And eh, with frost you can kite. 

Of course, it could just be personal preference.    

[Hawkbit]

I gave my hunter and mage up for a DK.  Now at 80, 540def, 26k hps self buffed.  Frost tank. 

The only quest I needed to group for in my whole leveling experience was the Icecrown quest that has you killing 5 of the Horror liches near Icecrown citadel.  Those things were simply too rough for me, although had I respeced unholy I could have likely soloed them as well. 

I'm anything but squishy.  I need more stamina, which will come as my 25man gear starts falling into place.  But I've tanked all four horde bosses in the cities, 10/25man Archavon, a good portion of 25man Naxx.  Never has my gear been an issue, only skill/experience with the fights. 

Overall, this has been a wonderful change... tanking is a LOT easier than dps. 

[Fordel]

I can't say I've had that experience at all.  We have 2 resto shaman and we don't want them to heal in raids, we'd prefer they do anything else (Why bring a Shaman when you have Circle of Healing, Regrowth/WildGrowth/Lifebloom and Holy Light available?).  Sometimes my spirit wolves outheal the resto shaman over the course of a boss fight.

Of course my own anecdotal experience contradicts your own, where our priest had so little to do one raid because the Shaman was all over everything, he started to smite to keep busy. 


I think Rasix was more referring to the general stigma all hybrid's get. "If you can heal, you will heal, or else!"

[Koyasha]

Makes completing most group quests a piece of cake, something I haven't been able to duplicate on my DK - he just takes too much damage without any way to recover health.

Huh?  You're doing something wrong then.  There were exactly two quests I wasn't able to solo in Northrend.  The Amphitheater of Anguish, and that pitfighting event at Conquest Hold.  And I soloed the first two rounds of the Amphitheater of Anguish at 76.  Everything else, including the various and sundry elite group quests in Dragonblight (including the hard one, the frost wyrm Sarathstra) was soloable - while the quest was yellow in my log.

Cycle Icebound Fortitude and Bone Shield.  Solo elites in Frost Presence - the extra damage and piddly healing does not make up for the increased survivability.  Weave in death strikes as needed, but if you have any healing issues whatsoever, forego scourge strikes entirely in favor of death strikes.  Things will take longer to kill, but you will NEVER DIE as long as you've got some decent leveling tank gear.  Ghoul provides some nice added DPS except on AE fights - but don't be afraid to sacrifice him if you take some spike damage to heal up.

[Lightstalker]

I suppose the comparison was unfair.  Yes, I am doing it wrong.  I'm spec'd mostly frost and I'm making gear selections based on physical appearance.  And giving the group quests a go the moment I'm eligible.  Glyph of Death Strike + having Death Strike on the hotbar might make things easier, specing deeper into Unholy for bone armor and a 3rd disease, etc.  I am playing my DK like the alt that it is.


Prior to 3.0 I was Resto because it was valuable and irreplacable.  Post 3.0 there are always too many healers around who can do the same things, only better.  Could you imagine taking 9 healers for a fight in Naxx?  We're talking about 3 healing Naxx now - some guilds are already taking shots at speed records with a mix of solo and duo healers.  Those 1 and 2 healer attempts don't contain a Shaman. 

[WindupAtheist]

I'm making gear selections based on physical appearance.

...

[Merusk]

I wasn't able to solo the rune giants in HF, but I didn't have ANY tank gear at the time as it was all in the bank.  Even as unholy my experience has been "Yeah I can kill that, let's see if anyone needs help" instead of "fuck I need a group for this."  My prot pally was the same way, but killed shit a lot slower.

[Dren]

My Enh Shaman is 4th in my line of alts, but I do enjoy playing him.  I really don't see the "weak" play comment either.  While he does take more damage than my pally ever does, he kills mighty quick.  Plus, all of the talents he has for keeping mana topped off leaves me to never have to stop.  Finally, that other talent (EDIT: Maelstrom Weapon) allows me to build up to an instant heal, chain heal, lightening, chain lightening, which I can do during battle or after.  He's just a killing machine that never has to stop.  That's before I even drop totems, which I don't do very often solo.  Yes, totems are a pain.

If I do drop totems?  Crazy burst DPS.  I just get tired of constantly picking them up and putting them down when I move every 30 yards.  It would be nice if you could preassign 4 totems to one summoning that gets cast all at once.

[Draegan]

I'm making gear selections based on physical appearance.

...

This guy reminds me of the rogue in my guild that has full epic gear and still can't manage to trump 1600 dps.