Mists of Pandaria

[Fordel]

Spell Resistance
Spell resistance is gone. There are no buffs that improve it and there shouldn’t be much, if any, spell resist gear left. We always thought the system was hard to understand and we weren’t getting much gameplay out of it. Now taking a step back, we can imagine how to develop a game where you’d want various forms of resist gear for certain situations and opponents. Resist gear could potentially be interesting, but it isn’t currently in World of Warcraft -- the game has just been moving away from that sort of thing for years.
In the absence of spell resistance, there is no need for spell penetration on gear, so we’ll remove it as well.

About, Fucking, Time.

[Ingmar]

I like the change to block too, from a mechanical standpoint. It should be way harder for tanks to get broken in weird ways at extreme amounts of stats.

[Merusk]

I'm not seeing how the block changes do this:

This gives block a consistent value, regardless of avoidance. Currently block becomes more valuable the more you have.

They then go on to say there's no cap.. so uh.. doesn't block still become more valuable the more you have?

Also, if all tanks self-heal now, doesn't this make Pally/ War the definitive best tanks? The other tanks do the avoid thing, miss and then get hit.  Pal/War do all the avoidance then get block chance before getting hit.  Seems like they'd be better tanks.  

Not that I'm complaining, I miss my BC-era Pally but it'd suck to see DK/ Druid get pushed to the bottom because the other two get an additional mitigation stat.

[Ingmar]

I'm not seeing how the block changes do this:

This gives block a consistent value, regardless of avoidance. Currently block becomes more valuable the more you have.

They then go on to say there's no cap.. so uh.. doesn't block still become more valuable the more you have?

Also, if all tanks self-heal now, doesn't this make Pally/ War the definitive best tanks? The other tanks do the avoid thing, miss and then get hit.  Pal/War do all the avoidance then get block chance before getting hit.  Seems like they'd be better tanks.  

Not that I'm complaining, I miss my BC-era Pally but it'd suck to see DK/ Druid get pushed to the bottom because the other two get an additional mitigation stat.

Read that as, 'currently each point of block is more valuable than the one before it.' The idea is to change it so that 300 block rating is only twice as good as 150 block rating, or whatever.

On the other tanks, they have absorb mechanics that take the place of block (in theory).

[Rokal]

Block doesn't suffer from diminishing returns in the current model so the right gearing/reforging decision for paladins/warriors is always "more mastery (block)". The MoP change will bring it into line with parry/dodge. There isn't a cap, but there will be a point when you want to stop getting block and start getting parry/dodge.

Personally, I find trying to balance your tanking stats perfectly against diminishing returns to be a huge hassle. It's the epitome of needing an outside source in order to understand and make decisions about your character.

[Paelos]

Oh fuck. I agree with Rokal about tanking stats. 

[Wolf]

Paladins and warriors getting CTC capped ("unhittable" block+parry+dodge+5% miss = ~103%) was getting retarded. And they made it even more retarded in Dragon Soul by giving mobs hit or flat-out making important attacks unblockable, so they don't get too overpowered. It's just a design issue they're addressing.

DKs & Druids also have block, it's just hidden in their mastery - they have mechanics that give them absorbs. Basically in an ideal world the numbers will come out just right and all tanks will need the exact same amount of healing to survive the same amount of damage intake. In the real world block tanks are better for some fights, druids are good for others and a perfectly played DK is mostly overpowered ^^

The idea behind the new talents is just to give more versatility without having to resort to alts. For example - Yorsahj in Dragon Soul puts a debuff on the tank - every time they receive healing, they get a stack - once it reaches 5 stacks it explodes and wipes the raid. There are two ways currently in the game to deal with that - either have a DK that can help out since his heals don't stack the debuff, or a paladin that can heal via Beacon. We used a DK alt up to this reset (10% buff went live this week) and we almost died on a boss that's been on farm for months, because we used our insanely geared warrior. I am, of course, oversimplifying the fight, but that's the gist of it. In Pandas he'd turn on some healing talents and poof, problem solved.

[Wolf]

Expertise will negate dodge and spell miss, then parry.

Oh, our enhancment shaman will ruin his pants 

We are normalizing melee and spell hit, so that spell hit is equal to miss plus dodge.
Against a +3/boss level creature: 15% spell miss, 7.5% melee miss, 7.5% dodge, 7.5% parry (from the front only), 7.5% block (from the front only).

So I need 22,5 hit now as a caster? Am I reading that correctly? Missing sucks, I hope ratings come out right so it's not like a warrior trying to cap hit now.

Looks like a lot of cleaning house to be honest, if you understand how it works once, you won't have to re-learn it once you switch from caster to melee or hunter. Also enhancment won't require advanced math classes to get the stats right 

[Ingmar]

I am pretty sure you need 15% spell hit. They're not going to make dodge or parry or block apply to spells.

[luckton]

I am pretty sure you need 15% spell hit. They're not going to make dodge or parry or block apply to spells.

At least not until Wow 6.0, Emerald Dream Boogaloo 

[Simond]

All spells and abilities will crit for double damage, baseline.

Indirect DK nerf, fuck you Blizz, cancelling forever!

(Only mostly joking. Unless they give us tripled crit, or something....)

[Merusk]

It's WoW.  At this point the only thing less surprising than a DK nerf is a mechanics overhaul for Hunters or Paladins.   Whose turn is it this time, anyway?

[luckton]

It's WoW.  At this point the only thing less surprising than a DK nerf is a mechanics overhaul for Hunters or Paladins.   Whose turn is it this time, anyway?

Warlocks are certainly getting a fair shake-up with having more uniqueness added to each of their three specs.  Druids are also going to be the first class with four-specs, as they're (finally) splitting Bear and Cat-forms into their own respective specs.

[SurfD]

Expertise will negate dodge and spell miss, then parry.

Oh, our enhancment shaman will ruin his pants 

We are normalizing melee and spell hit, so that spell hit is equal to miss plus dodge.
Against a +3/boss level creature: 15% spell miss, 7.5% melee miss, 7.5% dodge, 7.5% parry (from the front only), 7.5% block (from the front only).

So I need 22,5 hit now as a caster? Am I reading that correctly? Missing sucks, I hope ratings come out right so it's not like a warrior trying to cap hit now.

Looks like a lot of cleaning house to be honest, if you understand how it works once, you won't have to re-learn it once you switch from caster to melee or hunter. Also enhancment won't require advanced math classes to get the stats right 

The way i read it is as follows:

15% spell hit will get you hit capped (spells will not be dodged, miss, etc with 15% pure hit).  Mainly applies to cloth casters (cause the idea of expertise on cloth gear is stupid).
Mele Caster hybrids (Enhance shaman, DK's, maybe monks) will double dip.  7.5% hit + 7.5% expertise will get you 15% hit for spells, + Full Hit + dodge avoidance from behind for Mele attacks?
Pure Mele will need 7.5% hit, + 7.5 % expertise as normal?

Or something like that.

[Ingmar]

That's how I read it.

[Fordel]

WoW is actually copying SWTOR's PvP gearing scheme.

The separate roll for blocking is also how SWTOR does it.

[Wolf]

I don't know about the PvP thing, but the separate roll I explained why they're doing. If they could've done it mid-expansion without paladins and warriors losing their shit, they would have.

[Maledict]

WoW is actually copying SWTOR's PvP gearing scheme.

The separate roll for blocking is also how SWTOR does it.

You mean RIFTs surely? They've had two PVP stats in that fashion long before TOR came out haven't they?

[caladein]

WoW is actually copying SWTOR's PvP gearing scheme.

The separate roll for blocking is also how SWTOR does it.

You mean RIFTs surely? They've had two PVP stats in that fashion long before TOR came out haven't they?

I think he means that PvP gear and PvE gear can relatively co-exist until you're at the top of the gearing ladder, not the actual stats themselves.  Valor/Vengeance is similar to what WoW's going to do but the itemization specifics are different, which may or may not be relevant depending on how big the item level gap is.

[Ingmar]

I don't think Fordel played Rift at all. Pretty sure he's just talking about the fact that the PVP stuff both reduces damage dealt by players and increases damage dealt TO players, which is new for WoW.

[Fordel]

Yea, never played Rift and yes, I am referring too SWTORs PvP stat increasing damage/healing as well as reducing damage taken.

[caladein]

Ah alright.  Either way, Rift Vengeance and SW:TOR Expertise are about the same age.  I think the latter was added in with the big stats overhaul in August (and is explicitly mentioned as increasing damage done in early September) and the former was announced at the end of August.

And both are predated by Flyff apparently.

[Furiously]

Still not going to come back!

There is a chance I will eat those words.

You are SOOOO going to roll a monk just to see what it's like!

[Simond]

Imma just leave this here:

[Lakov_Sanite]

So, furry dwarves? Sounds about right.

[luckton]

So, furry dwarves? Sounds about right.

Yeah, I don't think we're going to get those new character models/frameworks anytime soon.  Maybe if the numbers dip below 9 million and they get 'desperate' 

[El Gallo]

Preparing to fap to hot four-breasted panda ladies.  

Yes, I searched "how many nipples does a panda have" on Google to find out.

[Paelos]

Well there's a horrifying thought.

[Azazel]

Well, Tauren only appear to have two. I really would like to get those new models though, some are still decent, but human and NE males are particularly awful.

[Rokal]

I'm guessing we'll see new models as one of the things coming out of the press conference this week. If they're going through the trouble of having an event all week for the press, I'd hope it had some new announcements anyway. I don't think non-Pandaren monks are possible without the model updates, and I'll bet it's the big reveal come monday.

New MoP 'screenshot of the day' too. Honestly, the style looks great.

[El Gallo]

I can only assume that's the new troll dungeon!

[Wolf]

Well, Tauren only appear to have two. I really would like to get those new models though, some are still decent, but human and NE males are particularly awful.

I'd love non-floaty shoulder models for female draenei

[kaid]

So, furry dwarves? Sounds about right.

Frankly after the worgen female fiasco the sooner they get the female pandarens out the better hopefully this time we can get a decent looking model unlike the worgen female who just looks demented.

[Simond]

There is a persistent rumour that the female pandaren will be based on red pandas rather than giant pandas.

[Nevermore]

There is a persistent rumour that the female pandaren will be based on red pandas rather than giant pandas.

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