2.1.0 PTR Patch Notes

[Polysorbate80]

supposedly the eyes move around on the hunter set.

So you can more easily see people coming and run away before they have the chance to point and laugh at you?

That is almost as ugly as the Paladin Pink Power Ranger armor set

[Miasma]

If I played a warlock who wasn't in one of the very top guilds who will be able to get that set I would quit right now out of pure jealousy.  I wonder if priests get angel wings.  Are you sure those are real?

Poor hunters :(  On the plus side though maybe the whole set isn't visible because they decided it sucked at that stage and are redoing it.

[WayAbvPar]

Dear FSM those Tier 6 sets are fugly (other than the lock, which looks nice and evil).

[Furiously]

I wonder if priests get angel wings.

Pali's get them as a spell effect.

[Jayce]

Dear FSM those Tier 6 sets are fugly (other than the lock, which looks nice and evil).

At least Blizzard is consistent.  You can always count on the next tier to be a) over the top and b) fugly.

[Morat20]

Oh thank God -- Mend Pet is now an insta-cast HoT. Thank FUCKING GOD!. That plus Avoidance + Cobra Reflexes makes me almost willing to drag my hunter out of his snooze.

[Fabricated]

Man, 3 Tier sets of armor in less than a half a year? You'll never see anyone in full Tier 4/5.

[Morat20]

Hey! They fixed the Arcane Missile bug. That's only been around forever. It says ranks 3 to 11 will now consistently pulse 5 shots -- does that mean no more "Channeling while nothing fires" or the "Channeling then all the pulses come right at the end"? Maybe we'll be lucky, and it's both.

[Miasma]

Do you get banned/suspended for hurling obscenities at a CM?  Because by the fourth or fifth page every third post calls Eyonix a $@#ing idiot.

[Miasma]

Some more tier 6 stolen from the wowboards which were stolen from some other place:

Shaman


Paladin


Hunter


Warrior


Priest


Rogue


Warlock


Gnome Warlock


I hate all of them except the warlock and warrior ones.

Edit: Epic Druid flight form

[Modern Angel]

Those lock sets are awesome.

[Modern Angel]

Do you get banned/suspended for hurling obscenities at a CM?  Because by the fourth or fifth page every third post calls Eyonix a $@#ing idiot.

Holy shit! I have never seen more evidence that Blizzard's staff are playing a different game than that right there. Wow...

[Yoshimaru]

Well I'm glad canceling my account 2 weeks ago was justified. PvP Frost mages got a royal fucking.

Wha?  I'm curious about this because I play a frost mage who world PvPs when necessary.

The only thing I saw was the diminishing returns on frostbite (problem, but understandable) and losing the ability to ice block, cold snap, ice block, which seems to my noobular self to be of limited use.

Double Iceblocking, paticuarly in the arenas, was a crucial part of the frost build. Even in 1v1's with classes such as rogues the added 30 second debuff will kill us. You're going to see a lot more AP/PoM mages now.

[Lantyssa]

Oh thank God -- Mend Pet is now an insta-cast HoT. Thank FUCKING GOD!. That plus Avoidance + Cobra Reflexes makes me almost willing to drag my hunter out of his snooze.

NOW I might be a little upset I took Improved Monkey over Improved Mending.  I do like the Hunter changes though.

[Morat20]

Oh thank God -- Mend Pet is now an insta-cast HoT. Thank FUCKING GOD!. That plus Avoidance + Cobra Reflexes makes me almost willing to drag my hunter out of his snooze.

NOW I might be a little upset I took Improved Monkey over Improved Mending.  I do like the Hunter changes though.

Still doesn't do shit for post-60 play, which is why my hunter sleeps at 61 and I'm slowly playing my Shaman and Rogue. (Well, grad school is another reason. Stupid papers).

At least having a pet that can survive in instances might make it more fun.

[Lantyssa]

There are some simple but convenient UI enhancements, too.

[Merusk]

Motherfucker that's some sweet 'lock gear.  Once again Hunters look like dipshits.   The priest stuff isn't too bad, but nowhere near the awesomeness of locks.

Pretty much.  The only thing you're missing is;

Blizzard:  "Well we have to design the encounters around the assumtion that EVERYONE is chugging and farming those potions.  If we don't, then the encounters are trivial and some segment WILL do just that and blow right through the encounter."

Raiders: "Oh, right, but it still sucks, do something about it, but keep it hard for everyone_not_us!"

No, no, no. The whole damned raid game is tuned for the top 20 guilds in the world because of consumables. So a million less hardcore guilds start asking for some way to alleviate the suck and it mainly centered on flasks. So they nerf flask effects (drastically, to their credit) but proceed to tune every encounter on the game as though the entire raid was flasked.

You know how many pots I needed (and I mean NEEDED) to clear BWL? Fucking zero. And the game didn't break when Nihilum used 40 flasks of the titans on C'thun because I was still in BWL.

It's gee swell that it's seven mana thistle per person for the raid instead of thirty per but that still sucks.

Pika?  How is that different from what I said.  The assumption is ALWAYS that they tune for the top 20 guilds in the world.  Blizzard just happened to add-in, "If they also drank every consumable possible on every single person."  That's been their tuning strategy from AQ-onward.  They even said as much in the previous thread about the alchemy changes.  Yes, it's asinine, but there it is.

[Phred]

Wow, I can't even read them all right now but that's a huge list.   Liked most of what I saw for hunters, too. I must be dreaming.

The nerf to downranking arcane shot hurts. I guess Blizzard really doesnt want hunters using anything but steady shot.

[Tannhauser]

I cancelled last week and this makes me even more glad I did.  The nerfs are disappointing, especially to my mage class.  Polymorph duration now at 8secs?  So how is it considered CC in instances? I have to stand there and keep reapplying?  Meanwhile the group loses my dps. 

Maybe I don't get Blizz's intentions but they don't get my dollars.

[Jayce]

I cancelled last week and this makes me even more glad I did.  The nerfs are disappointing, especially to my mage class.  Polymorph duration now at 8secs?  So how is it considered CC in instances? I have to stand there and keep reapplying?  Meanwhile the group loses my dps. 

Maybe I don't get Blizz's intentions but they don't get my dollars.

We are pretty sure that's for mobs, not players.

[Merusk]

Wow, I can't even read them all right now but that's a huge list.   Liked most of what I saw for hunters, too. I must be dreaming.

The nerf to downranking arcane shot hurts. I guess Blizzard really doesnt want hunters using anything but steady shot.

Meh, no big deal to me.  There aren't enough 2.9s+ weapons out there to weave-in that arcane shot every time anyway.  However, yes, they want us to use steady as our primary dps shot.

[Fordel]

I like the priest armor better then the lock armor. I can already see the lock wings just causing all kinds of LoS issues 

[LK]

I cancelled last week and this makes me even more glad I did.  The nerfs are disappointing, especially to my mage class.  Polymorph duration now at 8secs?  So how is it considered CC in instances? I have to stand there and keep reapplying?  Meanwhile the group loses my dps. 

Maybe I don't get Blizz's intentions but they don't get my dollars.

We are pretty sure that's for mobs, not players.

I don't think they are affecting Polymorph in PvE.

[Calantus]

Double Iceblocking, paticuarly in the arenas, was a crucial part of the frost build. Even in 1v1's with classes such as rogues the added 30 second debuff will kill us. You're going to see a lot more AP/PoM mages now.

This is a good thing. You'll still be seeing a lot of frost mages in arenas, now it might be a little more balanced. Actually I'm not even sure if the change to fire will be all that big at all, especially in the top teams, those games go for long enough for the mage to get in the second iceblock basically every time.

Honestly I've not understood mage complaints ever. You guys have been one of the strongest classes in PVP, both solo and group, for as long as there has been PVP, and none of the nerfs has ever changed that. For 5man PVE mages are one of the most useful classes in the game, and again this has never changed. Raiding has been questionable at times, but then it has been for every class in the game at some point. I guess I don't understand the "nerf=bad" mentality at all. Like when people drag out a long list of past nerfs? Who gives a fuck, how effective are you now? To me, mages still look strong.

[Teleku]

Here is a video of all the Teir 6 sets in motion: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5cGEqSDz6I

It would appear that the wings on the warlock only pop out for a few seconds when the player puts on the helmet.  Which is probably for the best.

[Alkiera]

Here is a video of all the Teir 6 sets in motion: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5cGEqSDz6I

It would appear that the wings on the warlock only pop out for a few seconds when the player puts on the helmet.  Which is probably for the best.

Why are all those guys wearing breastplates on their shoulders?  I guess it's helpful for protecting your neck/head, but for the majority of the classes, the shoulders/helm are the only real parts to their armor... the rest of them might as well be a single color-matched texture for all it adds.

At least my main is a druid, if I ever get any of that ridiculous crap, I can just hide in oomkin form.

--
Alkiera

[Paelos]

I'll sum up the current (and past, and all the future) patches:

-OMG Nerfs to <insert class here>
-Everyone not in class says they are full of shit and that it's a balance
-Class screams and screams
-Every tells the class to shut up
-Blizzard placates the class with a small change in a minor patch
-Class shuts up for a while, still grumbling but paying their fees
-Blizzard rolls around on large piles of cash with many beautiful ladies
-Somehow the world keeps turning despite your horrible nerf
-Months later you can't recall patch notes from previous periods

Anyone getting "nerfed" now should just shut up and beat the rush.

[Miasma]

Here is a video of all the Tier 6 sets in motion: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5cGEqSDz6I

It would appear that the wings on the warlock only pop out for a few seconds when the player puts on the helmet.  Which is probably for the best.

When I saw the druid set I thought to myself "wow, that actually looks worse than the hunter" then I saw the hunter in action and literally laughed out loud.  The pauldrons on the shaman are so enormous they look ridiculous, and that's in a game where all shoulder pieces are already huge.

I should have known there'd be a catch to those warlock wings, blizzard has to save something for tiers 8-123.

[Chenghiz]

Class whining is ridiculous, as always. If you enjoy playing, play. If not, reroll or quit, but know that your class will be buffed again later so ultimately your choice is futile.

As for consumables, apparently they are making turnin tokens for health and mana potions drop from trash in SSC and The Eye, which should alleviate the remaining consumable problem (after making elixirs/flasks limited).

Frost mages ice blocking twice in a row has to have been one of the cheesiest things any class could do in arenas, and I'm glad they nerfed it. That ability made having 21 points in frost almost a necessity to be competitive, and even now a 30 second cooldown is short enough that it's still entirely viable.

[Koyasha]

I don't understand the benefit of ice blocking twice in a row in arenas, really.  What's the point?  Sure, you're invulnerable longer, but you're also not doing anything.  No DPS, no CC, etc, so basically your team has 1 less person in it until the ice blocks run out.

As for the Paladin and Priest changes, that I'm most familiar with..  The change to Spiritual Attunement was necessary, but it's going to hurt the intended purpose of the skill anyway (giving Paladin tanks infinite mana to continue holding agro throughout an encounter, like warriors and druids do with their rage).  The change to Illumination coming at the same time, and being so large, seems a bit heavy-handed.  Testing smaller nerfs would have been better, I think.  70-80% would have been sufficient.  Main problem is, paladins have relied on Illumination for some time, and a lot of Burning Crusade gear is itemized for illumination.  If some math I saw on the official boards is correct, the illumination nerf effectively reduces a paladin's mana pool by 16.5%.  That's a lot.

Priest nerfs continue to be baffling.  They haven't really come out and said what they're trying to fix, but from the Vampiric Embrace nerf last time, followed by the Shadow Weaving nerf this time, it seems clear they're trying to reduce the amount of healing Vampiric Embrace does.  But the method they're going about it makes little sense.  Considering that Shadow Weaving and Vampiric Embrace have been fine ever since they were implemented and problems are only showing up now, it's clearly a problem with gear reaching previously impossible levels of +shadow and +spell damage.  The solution, if you want to nerf VE healing, isn't to nerf the base skill, which nerfs every shadow priest all the way down to the lower levels that just got the skill and have absolutely zero spell damage, is to nerf the way +spell damage interacts with VE.  +damage up to a certain maximum determined by the base damage of the spell in question gets full healing effect from VE, +damage beyond that doesn't change the damage output, but scales downward with the healing recourse.  So that if the +damage is sufficiently high to hit that mark, it stops being as effective for healing, providing a scaling cap on the maximum amount each particular Shadow damage spell can heal, determined by the base damage of the spell.  That prevents VE healing from being overpowered, does not nerf lower level priests with less +damage, and most importantly, continues to scale into the future, because problems based on increasing amounts of +damage gear will just repeat themselves when even more improved gear comes out, possibly in the next expansion, unless the actual issue is directly addressed.

[Trouble]

I don't understand the benefit of ice blocking twice in a row in arenas, really.  What's the point?  Sure, you're invulnerable longer, but you're also not doing anything.  No DPS, no CC, etc, so basically your team has 1 less person in it until the ice blocks run out.

Because in the arena every second matters. When you choose a mage as your target and he iceblocks you have a few options. Switch targets which will take you a few seconds to coordinate and execute. If you have a priest and you choose to mass dispel it will take probably a minimum of 3 seconds for that to happen and maybe upwards of 5 seconds if he's slow. In that 3-5 second window, whichever option you've chosen, there's a significant chance that one of your teammates has died. Most arena matches are won or lost within the first 15 seconds of battle. That's why iceblock and double iceblock are so powerful.

[Miasma]

Illidan is a pimp.

[Teleku]

So when raiding Illidan's layer, I get to fight off hordes of crazed elven whores?

[Merusk]

So while discussing the Alchemy nerfs in guild vent on Sunday, I mentioned my suspicion that Tailoring would be the next on the chopping block.  A few gulidies agreed with me, with one postulating that the first nerf would be Blizzard linking the cooldown timers for all the new cloths, once Alchemists figured out that little bonus that Tailors get vs Transmutes.   I tend to agree with that, and am keeping an eye out for it now.

[Polysorbate80]

save something for tiers 8-123.

Tier 123 is easy:  The shoulder armor collapses under its own gravitational pull, imploding the character into a microscopic black hole.  Client performance improves vastly over tier 122, whose 5,234,102,985,657,194 polygons have reduced framerates to .000000000000000001/sec.