Here comes the next content patch (3.2)

[Zetor]

Fan of Knives is balanced.  
http://www.filefront.com/pureskillwmv/;13772099;/fileinfo.html

(as you can see, 5v5 arena emphasizes coordination and player skill)

Isn't 1220 pretty low rating even by 5s standards?

Not really for a joke comp. :p Anyway, there are plenty of high-rated 5v5 cleave teams who utilize FOK rogues..

[Musashi]

Wind Shear is indeed off the GCD.


Really, the change means a Enhance Shaman isn't choosing between Snare or Interrupt, it can be both now!

I think when they initially put interrupts on the GCD they were expecting their casters to have a longer average cast time.  But as the game has evolved, and cast times average 1.5 - 2 seconds, it doesn't make sense to have to wait.  Besides, I don't think Earthshock was ever on the GCD, was it?  It was just on the same reuse cooldown as the other shocks.

[Ingmar]

Wind Shear is indeed off the GCD.


Really, the change means a Enhance Shaman isn't choosing between Snare or Interrupt, it can be both now!

I think when they initially put interrupts on the GCD they were expecting their casters to have a longer average cast time.  But as the game has evolved, and cast times average 1.5 - 2 seconds, it doesn't make sense to have to wait.  Besides, I don't think Earthshock was ever on the GCD, was it?  It was just on the same reuse cooldown as the other shocks.

Earthshock is indeed on the GCD, which was a pain in the ass if you were an elemental shaman and got told to interrupt on a particular fight. Only the 'no damage' interrupts were off the GCD.

[Musashi]

Hmm.  Was this always the case?  I seem to remember playing a shaman a few years ago and being amazed that it wasn't.  But I could be blending my alts together.

[Sheepherder]

Hmm.  Was this always the case?  I seem to remember playing a shaman a few years ago and being amazed that it wasn't.  But I could be blending my alts together.

As far as I remember, yes.

[Chimpy]

I miss the days before the GCD.

[Fordel]

There were days before the GCD?

[SurfD]

Probably during first beta test.

[Dren]

Wind Shear is indeed off the GCD.


Really, the change means a Enhance Shaman isn't choosing between Snare or Interrupt, it can be both now!

I think when they initially put interrupts on the GCD they were expecting their casters to have a longer average cast time.  But as the game has evolved, and cast times average 1.5 - 2 seconds, it doesn't make sense to have to wait.  Besides, I don't think Earthshock was ever on the GCD, was it?  It was just on the same reuse cooldown as the other shocks.

Earthshock is indeed on the GCD, which was a pain in the ass if you were an elemental shaman and got told to interrupt on a particular fight. Only the 'no damage' interrupts were off the GCD.

With my enhancement Shaman, I chose the talent to speed up shocks.  That talent did, indeed, speed up Earthshock, so I assumed it was not on the GCD.  It is on the shock count down and can be improved through talents.  Before the talent, I could only do one earthshock per stormstrike.  With talent, I can do two.

[Fordel]

All abilities except those otherwise stated (interrupts mostly) are on the GCD.

[Lightstalker]

With my enhancement Shaman, I chose the talent to speed up shocks.  That talent did, indeed, speed up Earthshock, so I assumed it was not on the GCD.  It is on the shock count down and can be improved through talents.  Before the talent, I could only do one earthshock per stormstrike.  With talent, I can do two.

Your example has nothing to do with the global cooldown. 

Assuming abilities foo and bar are on the GCD:  If your shocks were off the GCD you could fire off Earth Shock and immediately after casting ability foo.  And you could activate ability bar immediately after casting Earth Shock (but here is a trick, foo's global cooldown would prevent bar's cast even if the shock was off the GCD).  In practice you must wait 1.5 seconds after using ability foo to cast Earth Shock, then 1.5 seconds after Earth Shock before using ability bar.

Your talent reduces the cooldown of Earth Shock (from 6 seconds to 5 for 5 talent points).  There is a glyph that impacts the GCD triggered by Earth Shock (from 1.5 seconds to 1 second glyphed).  Those are seperate timers, the cooldown and the global cooldown.


Anyone on interrupt duty has to curtail their dps rotation in order to be available when the target begins casting a spell.  If the interruptor is under GCD when the target begins casting and their interrupt is on the GCD they can end up too late to interrupt by the time the GCD is free to cast the spell (especially on fast casting abilities).  Similarly, someone with an interrupt off the GCD can be out of energy or not have a combo point up (kick and talented deadly throw, for instance) when the target begins to cast leaving them too slow to interrupt as well.  Interrupt duty hurts DPS, there really isn't any way around that, at least melee interruptors have auto-attacks and dead GCDs after their interrupt ability is pushed into its own cooldown.

[SurfD]

The global cooldown is what prevents you from casting instant cast, no cooldown spells instantly back to back.

For example, lets take Moonfire, which has:
- no cast time cast time (is instant cast)
- no cooldown (i can spam it)

if the global cooldown did NOT exist (or if Moonfire were off the GCD), you could write a macro like so

/cast moonfire
/cast moonfire
/cast moonfire
/cast moonfire
/cast moonfire
/cast moonfire
/cast moonfire
/cast moonfire
/cast moonfire

and when you clicked it, it would instantly cast 9 moonfire hits on your target.  If you wanted, you could macro /cast moonfire untill you ran out of characters in your macro, and dump your ENTIRE mana pool in a single click.

[chargerrich]

The turtle doesn't come from balance problems. It comes from incentive problems.

WSG Solution:

Add a new and additional scoring mechanism... you still get 1 point per capture, but add .10 point increments for holding the flag. As an example; for every minute after the first minute that you hold the flag you get .10 of a point (1.1, 1.2, 1.3 etc) until one side gets a full point (i.e. point # 2) at which time the flag resets just like a capture score.

This incentive would certainly increase motivations to hold, defend and track down opposing flag carriers and even if the game turns into a turtle match, its over much quicker (each round and as a result, the entire match).

It adds a nice twist to what would normally just be a timer on the game.

[dd0029]

The points for holding is an intriguing idea.  I have been in games where it would be a viable scoring method.  These are the evenly matched games.

However, I have been in more games where the other side just holds the flag midfield and farms the other team for points.  I was in one game recently where the horde team held our flag in our graveyard and farmed respawns.  That's a place where a scoring system for holding the flag would fall apart.  The farming is the thing that really annoys me about WSG.  I'd prefer instead of some sort of timer, just something to stop the farming.  There is nothing fun about getting slaughtered.  Perhaps something like Dalaran or Shattrath in the GY.  It would have to be such that you could not do anything while in it and that you could not dance in and out of it to snipe people.  Or perhaps every BG should just have a big inaccessible platform like EotS. 

[Hindenburg]

Always tought that a ticket solution a la BF1942 would be nice. Each team gets 10 tickets, and another 10 per flag cap. That's it.

[K9]

The EoTS platform can be reached by Warriors and Rogues, and DKs can pull people off it. I think what you want are graveyards similar to the ones in Wintergrasp, which really wouldn't be a terrible idea.

[Nebu]

Anyone have any idea when this patch is releasing?  I want to buy a fast mount for one of my characters but would hate to pay the current price knowing that a patch were around the corner. 

[K9]

Well the raid bosses have been on the PTR for about two weeks now, so I'd guess it'll probably drop second week in August. Always err on the late side with patches of course, but I doubt there's much left for them to go over before it gets released for testing on the live servers.

[Paelos]

Anyone have any idea when this patch is releasing?  I want to buy a fast mount for one of my characters but would hate to pay the current price knowing that a patch were around the corner.  

All signs are actually pointing to August 4th, with the possibility of delay to the 11th at the very latest. The most recent build is flagged as a "Retail Build" which means they are ready to get it out the door.

[bhodi]

And by signs he means mmo-champion :)

[Paelos]

But of course.  

[Paelos]

I recently read a bit about the epic gems that they are going to release with 3.2 and the ways you can get them. Apparently there are four options:

1 - Prospecting Titanium Ore
2 - Transmuting lower level gems into epics
3 - Heroism emblems (you'd have to backtrack by trading in conquest for them)
4 - Honor points (10000 per gem)

Two things jump out at me about this plan. First, it's kind of upsetting that they decided to make these gems cost heroism emblems when the only way to get those emblems is by trading in conquest. That makes no sense. Why not just remove the middleman and make them cost emblems of conquest? Perhaps they are looking to burn up the remaining heroism items in people's inventory, but they are just numbers on a page now instead of actually items.

Second, this may bump up more interest in pvp. It will depend heavily on the market for the gems. The gems will certainly be pricey, and 10000 honor is not very hard to get. I would rather run 3 hours of simple BGs than shell out 500+g for a gem. However, if the gems are around 200, then I think people would rather just run a day's set of daily quests and be done with it.

[Ingmar]

I recently read a bit about the epic gems that they are going to release with 3.2 and the ways you can get them. Apparently there are four options:

1 - Prospecting Titanium Ore
2 - Transmuting lower level gems into epics
3 - Heroism emblems (you'd have to backtrack by trading in conquest for them)
4 - Honor points (10000 per gem)

Two things jump out at me about this plan. First, it's kind of upsetting that they decided to make these gems cost heroism emblems when the only way to get those emblems is by trading in conquest. That makes no sense. Why not just remove the middleman and make them cost emblems of conquest? Perhaps they are looking to burn up the remaining heroism items in people's inventory, but they are just numbers on a page now instead of actually items.

Second, this may bump up more interest in pvp. It will depend heavily on the market for the gems. The gems will certainly be pricey, and 10000 honor is not very hard to get. I would rather run 3 hours of simple BGs than shell out 500+g for a gem. However, if the gems are around 200, then I think people would rather just run a day's set of daily quests and be done with it.

That is the reason they cost heroism - they want people to get some use out of the potentially hundreds of heroism emblems they have lying around at this point. Its certainly better for *me* that way. I can use some old heroism stuff lying around to pick up some gems on day 1, and save my conquest badges for the several real slot upgrades I can buy with them.

[Gobbeldygook]

1 - Prospecting Titanium Ore
2 - Transmuting lower level gems into epics
3 - Heroism emblems (you'd have to backtrack by trading in conquest for them)
4 - Honor points (10000 per gem)

Icy prisms will also drop epic gems.

I strongly disagree that there's any chance of people doing BGs for honor to buy gems.  If you focus on ripping through dailies or grinding, you can easily make 200+ gold an hour, consistently, without having to worry about the dumbasses on your team screwing you up.  More importantly, new arena season, new honor gear.

[K9]

That is the reason they cost heroism - they want people to get some use out of the potentially hundreds of heroism emblems they have lying around at this point. Its certainly better for *me* that way. I can use some old heroism stuff lying around to pick up some gems on day 1, and save my conquest badges for the several real slot upgrades I can buy with them.

This. I have 160ish Valour and Heroism emblems combined on my main, which means I should be able to regem my gear to epics everywhere on patch day which is nice.

[Merusk]

That is the reason they cost heroism - they want people to get some use out of the potentially hundreds of heroism emblems they have lying around at this point. Its certainly better for *me* that way. I can use some old heroism stuff lying around to pick up some gems on day 1, and save my conquest badges for the several real slot upgrades I can buy with them.

This. I have 160ish Valour and Heroism emblems combined on my main, which means I should be able to regem my gear to epics everywhere on patch day which is nice.

The Druid tank in my guild has 450 emblems of Heroism and 250 Valor unspent.  We all got to discussing it in vent the other day.  He apparently has no alts and was willing to wait for his set tokens to drop.  So he hasn't been spending them on the twink gear and tier bits like I have. The bastard.

[Fabricated]

Also, can't you just use your 200000000000 stone keeper shards to buy the commendations that give you 2k honor a pop?

[kildorn]

Hey look, a patch.

A patch where I won't get to raids with my new lock <3

[Nevermore]

Told you! 

[kildorn]

I was under no false hopes of actually being allowed to raid as DPS, I'm fully aware of my permanent status as "guild healbitch" 

But it was a good thing to pick as a deadline to hit 80 by, and technically I DID hit it before tuesday! ... in certain timezones.

[Nevermore]

You're a rockstar in Hawaii! 

[kildorn]

Well I WAS born there. In a little pink hospital!

.. that explains SO MUCH.

[Simond]

I'm afraid we're going to need to check your birth certificate. 

[kildorn]

I'm afraid we're going to need to check your birth certificate. 

I'm so waiting for a birther to bother me. Because I have my entire righteous "WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON'T RESPECT THE US MILITARY OH MY GOD" speech ready to go.

[ezrast]

Wait, so the patch dropped today? That's funny, because my subscription expires YESTERDAY. Gah.

WTB game time in one-week increments.