Cataclysm: Preparing For Patch 4.0.1

[Paelos]

To force you to arena.

Of course this ignores that you'd have to somehow get up in the top 30% or higher to obtain a weapon, and that gets more difficult if you don't have a weapon...

Yeah the "reward for arena" being a thing that makes you more dominant in arena never seemed to make any sense. It's one thing to let your grinding players who enjoy playing get the awards. It's entirely different to put requirements on those rewards which keep everyone else down.

[Sheepherder]

Wait, you can buy weapons now without rating?

[K9]

Dunno, I tried to buy boots/belt/waist but they still needed rating.

[Ivanneth]

Wait, you can buy weapons now without rating?

Yes. You can buy the wrathful weapons and armor for honor points now. The vendors show them as requiring rating still, but it's a bug. Once you get them in your inventory the red text is gone and you can equip them.

Edit: There was a blue post about it, I'll see if I can dig it up.

Edit x2: Here we go:

As Zenlyth mentioned, being able to purchase Wrathful gear without the listed rating requirement is not a bug. Currently the tooltips are incorrectly still listing the rating requirement, but only Honor points are required for purchase.  

From here: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=27300871097&pageNo=4&sid=1#76

Also, I have only tried to purchase the lower tier of arena stuff because the best gear is prohibitively expensive - 3000+ points per piece. I didn't think it was worthwhile to wait and try to buy the expensive shit when I've only got ~2 months to play around with it anyway.

[kaid]

Yup I was able to get the wrathful 2 handed axe helm and bp with my stock piled honor points on my warrior and hat/bp/legs on my druid. One thing to note is you cannot get the shoulders but you can get the 251 point shoulders cheap enough.

[Minvaren]

A day after renewing (just to see the carnage/the old world one more time)...

Cookie-cutter builds : 

New Glyph prices : 

New graphics :   

Massive XP from treat bucket touring with alts : 

[SurfD]

A day after renewing (just to see the carnage/the old world one more time)...

Cookie-cutter builds : 

New Glyph prices : 

New graphics :   

Massive XP from treat bucket touring with alts : 

The new cookiecutter builds are an interesting change in my opinion.

There is still usually a few small options when chosing a spec.  I specced my rogue alt for combat and I think I had to spend 4 "floating" talent points to get to the end of the tree after takeing all the "no brainer mandatory talents", and there were 6 different 2 point talents that that i could stick those in, not all of which were 100% PVP or PVE only talents.  They also shuffled a lot of personal choice into the Glyph trees now, as there are usually 2 manadatory Prime and Major glypyhs for a spec, but a fair number of options for what to put in that 3rd slot depending on your play style or gear.

[Shrike]

As opposed to the old cookie cutter builds. The three I've been fiddling with all have a few points free for whatever floats your boat. The main parting of the roads comes from PvE vs. PvP specs.

Glyph prices are kinda nasty right now, but you only need it once...

Actually, the graphics are the biggest "meh" so far. Stilll looks about the same to me and I have it all slammed to ultra. Water is a bit...odd, but I guess it's all good. What I really want is a slider that removes boomkin from my game. That would get my unconditional seal of approval.

[Rendakor]

Glyph prices are just now dropping on my server, from ~80g/glyph down to ~20g. As an Scribe I'm not happy, but I knew it would come since they're no longer consumable. Made about 10k profit from them in the past week though, so it's not so bad.

[Azazel]

Yeah, I bought a shitton of glyphs pre-patch, and simply decided that I don't care about max-optimising my toons right now, and that I'll worry about it over the course of the next 2+ months. Same deal witht he change of gem colours. PUGs are overall beyond any kind of semi-competance right now, and with new content in 2 months, and heirlooms priced out of the market, I have no reason to worry about maxing my character's potential.

[Shrike]

I don't think it matters at all, other than maybe getting some practice balancing gemming and reforging.

PuGs right now are just a mess. Between feathered heathens like boomkin and mages it's just painful. My DK can't even get one disease up before groups are dead. Frost is even starting to look good. Even worse as enhance. I just SS stuff now. Totems...hah. I hope Blizz gets their collective stuff in one bag and fixes this NPC armor BS and gets physical melee damage straightened out. I suspect it won't happen until Cata, unfortunately.

Basically, I'm bored and all dressed up with nowhere to go. Probably would be a good time to overhaul my UIs. At least then I'd feel like I"m accomplishing something.

[Azazel]

I'm seeing a bit of the opposite. Undergeared groups in heroics, DPS right the fuck down compared to a couple of weeks ago, and REALLY undergeared tanks who also don't seem to have the first clue about aggro (i'm kind, I hold off nuking for a couple seconds to let the tank get aggro). I think most of the good players have said the hell with dungeon running at this point in time. 

[Ivanneth]

What I really want is a slider that removes boomkin from my game. That would get my unconditional seal of approval.

I found out about  Lunar Shower last night after encountering a bunch of moonkin in WSG and being "lol, moonfire"-d to death repeatedly. Being the recipient of moonfire spam is one of the most genuinely irritating experiences in PvP and Blizzard is encouraging it with talents. I've always thought that moonkin were unplayably goofy looking, but whenever I see them now I wish I could cause them to explode messily with my gaze. Runner up for the "Most Annoying Thing to Get Spammed With" trophy is: Exorcism.

I'm a little concerned that spamming the same attack over and over may be the future of pvp in WoW. (Smite, Ice Lance, Exorcism, Moonfire, etc) It's reminiscent of the old Street Fighter style arcade games where some 8 year old kid would dominate everyone by spamming the same overpowered move. I'm sure that the better players won't do it unless it makes sense to, but that won't stop Joe Average from running around moonfiring constantly and still being moderately effective and excessively annoying. Hopefully it's just a temporary situation while we're in pre-expansion limbo.

I'm seeing a bit of the opposite. Undergeared groups in heroics, DPS right the fuck down compared to a couple of weeks ago, and REALLY undergeared tanks who also don't seem to have the first clue about aggro (i'm kind, I hold off nuking for a couple seconds to let the tank get aggro). I think most of the good players have said the hell with dungeon running at this point in time. 

I'm seeing a fair amount of this in PUGs. Healing HNexus the other day the dps was so low that I almost ran out of mana on my disc priest before they took down what's-her-name the mage boss. I think a lot of folks are in 'gear up alts' mode because there's not much point in upgrading your main that's already got all ilvl 251+ equipment. 

[K9]

Smite spam 

[Lantyssa]

If the Armory is correct, my trinket that boosts crit with ticks of Moonfire and Insect Swarm gives pure stats now.  While I prefered the DoT glyph so I could Wrath and Starfire, and hate Moonfire spam, I'd be hard pressed to not use it now.

[Paelos]

I am planning to dive into pvp for a couple of hours tonight and post the exact results. Comedy will ensue.

[Reg]

Ooo! Moonfire spam actually works now?  I may have to resubscribe just to go on a reign of terror with my incompetent Moonkin before it's nerfed!

[Ivanneth]

Ooo! Moonfire spam actually works now?  I may have to resubscribe just to go on a reign of terror with my incompetent Moonkin before it's nerfed!

It was a gang of moonkin that assaulted me. They had tatoos and never smiled. If you seek them out they may accept you into their flock.

[K9]

I can't really tell, since I had a ton of honour and badges banked pre-patch, but it feels like the rate of currency gain is really slow.

[Minvaren]

I'd been wondering if Boomkins got a bump recently, the whole solar/lunar eclipse thing had me absolutely shredding mobs left and right in W Plaguelands the other day - was 2-shotting yellows!  My gear is all quest greens, and only half my slots are glyphed, so it's not that...

Hopefully I can get him to 58 and into Hellfire before the nerf bat swings, in any case.

[kildorn]

I can't really tell, since I had a ton of honour and badges banked pre-patch, but it feels like the rate of currency gain is really slow.

On my priest I could random an evening away for about 3 hours and pull in ~700 jp.

[Lakov_Sanite]

All I know is once I figured out how hunters work my marksmen specced level 33 has become an unmitigated god of ranged death. Most times I don't even need my pet and when I do its because I'm taking on 4-5 level 35-36 mobs which is relatively painless. The new change from mana to focus is without a doubt, glorious.

[SurfD]

I'd been wondering if Boomkins got a bump recently, the whole solar/lunar eclipse thing had me absolutely shredding mobs left and right in W Plaguelands the other day - was 2-shotting yellows!  My gear is all quest greens, and only half my slots are glyphed, so it's not that...

Hopefully I can get him to 58 and into Hellfire before the nerf bat swings, in any case.

Overall we got a bump (mainly in the form native dot crits, and the new talent bonuses and the way they effect our spells).   They did recently nerf Insect Swarm damage by around 50% i think.  My ICC geared boomkin was getting Insect Swarm crits for nearly 10k.  And with a 50% crit rate, that shit is insane.

[Setanta]

Is it just me or have huter pets lost their ability to hold aggro? Pre-patch and BM specced in T9 my pet held aggro fine - now it's 2 shots and I pull aggro off it (I switched cower off - why on earth Blizard switch it on in the spell book I don't know)

[Ingmar]

My hunter's bear is holding aggro fine at level 75, but it may very well be all out of whack in raiding gear because of scaling issues.

[Nightblade]

So is it me, or does this patch just have tons of things wrong with it balance wise? I'm mainly dicking around with some low level alts to get a feel of the game, but from what you guys are saying; it's even worse at level 80. My level 37 can run around 2/3 shotting equal level mobs, fire off 750 damage instant cast exorcisms, (Non crit) Throw around 1k crit heroic strikes and 1200 crit sheaths. I decided to try out the new dungeon finder. Found a group that was A paladin tank, a paladin dps (ME!), a paladin healer, rogue dps, and a shaman healer and we just walked through the instance. No need to rest, or CC, or put any thought whatsoever into our actions. We facerolled our way to the instance and Herod died before he could even start spinning around like a retard.

The instance was me as a dps throwing down AOEs mindlessly and spamming my most powerful attacks, not even bothering to assist the tank and I don't think my health ever dipped below the 80% mark. Isn't this new expansion supposed to encourage rerolling?

[Lantyssa]

I don't see how what you described will stop rerolls, for the majority of players.  They don't want a challenge.

[caladein]

Damage under Cataclysm, either on PTR or Beta, and at any level, has been wonky for a long time.  They just decided to release it and ignore all balance concerns under 85, although I'm still not sold that they've even got that worked out yet.

[Rendakor]

The new expansion encourages rerolling for players (me!) who don't like leveling by spamming /lfd. They fixed the dungeon and PVP leveling experience in the past few patches, so Cata is an overhaul for the quester. In that vein it seems successful to me; all the quests I've done in the beta have been much better (less annoying, cooler story, more scripted events, etc) than their vanilla counterparts.

[Soulflame]

Is it just me or have huter pets lost their ability to hold aggro? Pre-patch and BM specced in T9 my pet held aggro fine - now it's 2 shots and I pull aggro off it (I switched cower off - why on earth Blizard switch it on in the spell book I don't know)

I've never had much luck with pets holding aggro for my hunter most of the way through 70-80.  I tried a tank pet, a dps pet, and sadly the dps pet was generally better at holding aggro than the tank pet.  It was my key pet peeve with the class, the whole thing of being a ranged attacker that relied on a pet that could hold mobs at range for you, and yet two or three shots from me would invariably bring the mob running straight for me.

[Chimpy]

Were you spec'd BM?

If you weren't spec'd BM, then your pet will never hold aggro from you. EVER. Even after pet revamp/talents.

Thus why levelling BM was the thing.

[Bzalthek]

You used to be able to.  I leveled a couple up to 80 going mostly marksmanship and had the pet tanking most of it. 

[apocrypha]

Is it just me or have huter pets lost their ability to hold aggro? Pre-patch and BM specced in T9 my pet held aggro fine - now it's 2 shots and I pull aggro off it (I switched cower off - why on earth Blizard switch it on in the spell book I don't know)

Depends on the pet. I'm finding that tenacity pets (currently switching between a gorilla and a turtle) hold agro ok, although the occasional FD for 2 secs is required, but that my ferocity/cunning pets don't hold it so well. Either way, FD'ing if you pull agro then resuming the shooting after a few seconds sorts it out. This is at level 73, questing in Zul'Drak. Oh, pet level makes a big difference too. If my pet is the same level as me it holds agro a LOT better than the level 69-70's I pull out for a laugh occasionally.

[Chimpy]

It may be gear differences then?

I was always wearing top end raiding tier epics when I levelled so even trying to have a pet tank something as Marks was impossible. 1 auto-shot and I was tanking it (though most non-elite mobs they would usually be dead with one raptor strike after they got to me anyway if I hit them first at max range).

[K9]

fyi, Anzu doesn't need a druid to summon anymore.

Sethekk Halls has some nasty trash though...