Thursday, April 5, 2012

Mists of Pandaria Beta: Second Impressions

Well, I've had another day to play with the beta, and here's what I've done:

Got the "core 5" transferred over and did a once-over on their main specs. I forgot how dependent I was on addons and macros. If you look at my UI on live, it's not super different, but without Power Auras I'm at a bit of a loss. I also made character copies of an 85 monk, warlock and mage. Here's the impression I've gotten from each:

At 85, Windwalkers still seem to have a much better design than Brewmasters. While there are certainly some issues (having your one healing spell require you to target a place on the ground, for example) overall Windwalkers are starting to make sense. I also adore the little animation and sound that happens when you cast either of your Legacy-buffs (Legacy of the Emperor is Blessing of Kings, Legacy of the White Tiger is Blessing of Might, but you can cast both if you're a monk.) Also, Flying Serpent Kick is really fun, if a bit tough to time right, give how insanely fast you're going. Might be more useful as a "get out of there now" ability than an attack.

I don't really know what the plan is in terms of how Brewmasters are going to shape up. Really, what they need is an AoE Jab. If Dizzying Haze A: didn't have to target a place on the ground, B: did reasonable damage and C: Generated Chi, they'd be in much better shape. As it is now, you need to spend a ton of energy to get the DH debuff up, then Jab a bunch to get Chi, and then spend that Chi on Breath of Fire - and that's just for soloing! God knows how these guys are going to play when you actually need to keep up Guard. Frankly, I think they need to go back to the drawing board and really cull some abilities and redesign others (keeping the cool names - like Drunken Haze.) I think it would be best if the Tiger Palm/Blackout Kick was kept to just the Windwalkers and 1-9 Monks, and Brewmasters (as well as Mistweavers) were given a different suite of Chi spenders that made more sense for what they needed to do.

Ok, moving on from Monks:

Playing a Paladin without Power Auras takes some getting used to. I actually think they should make good on what they said about making some resource bars (as an option) available at the bottom of the screen, rather than making you look up to check on it. This goes for Monks (who are already required to keep an eye on the target's health,) Death Knights, Rogues, Arcane Mages (with Arcane Charges being so clearly significant now) and now Warlocks.

I tried out two specs on the Warlock, Demonology (my lock's main spec) and Destruction. First off: Demonology is really cool, but I have no idea what I'm doing. My guess is the idea is you're supposed to maintain Demonic Fury at as high a level as possible. You can then hit Metamorphosis when you need to really bring the pain, but then I'm not sure where to go from there - either you're supposed to try to keep things balanced to stay in Demon Form, letting your veritable army of Wild Imps (and I mean it - you will have a freaking army of Wild Imps at basically all times) keep up your DF, or burning through it and returning to your less demonic form.

Destruction confuses the hell out of me. I was out killing random things (I'm avoiding quests to stay unspoiled - for the most part) and I was running out of mana like crazy. The "enhanced mana regen" you're supposed to get that replaces Life Tap might be bugged, because it didn't look like it was regenerating any faster than otherwise. I'm also not entirely clear on what you do to build up burning embers, and what's spending them. Really, I should probably just read about the abilities.

Still, altogether, Warlocks are getting some very interesting work done on them.

The last pre-made one I made was a Mage - specced Arcane. I don't know if there's really much to say about it - other than the face that there's an Arcane Living Bomb equivalent (and without the damage bonuses like in Cata, you're free to choose whichever you want in the talent tree) it plays very similarly. The only really big thing is that Arcane Missiles build Arcane Charges, rather than resetting them. They're still free, though, so you basically want to hit them any time they're up. Arcane Barrage is now a spell you need to use to reset your stacks, and lets you get in a decent amount of trash-pack AoE/Cleave, as it hits an additional target based on your AC stacks.

The characters I actually have (oh yeah, them!) I actually haven't done much with. Blood and Frost DKs seem almost entirely unchanged, as does Enhancement (with a few "under-the-hood" differences you might not notice.) Arms is a bit different, with forbidden fruit like Whirlwind now available to us, but an ancient staple like Rend gone completely. Also, I remember how weird Slam was when I first got it - a Melee attack with a cast time? But now that it's instant, I realize how much I kind of liked that. Oh well. Assassination is not all that different - the main thing is that Backstab got replaced with Dispatch, and there's an honest-to-God proc that lets you use it regardless of the enemy's health (very much like the pre-Cataclysm Sudden Death for Arms.) And I've already talked about Paladins.

So back to Monks real quick: Admittedly, tank specs always feel weird until you start tanking on them, but I really think we need to see a significant straightening-up of the Brewmaster spec. Actually, Monks all have a bit of a weird "which ability am I supposed to use with this limited resource" issue. Obviously, even with the tons of abilities that everyone has, you eventually figure out what the important ones are, but for instance, when am I supposed to use Rising Sun Kick instead of Tiger Palm? Also, there is only one Windwalker ability I can think of that spends the 3 Chi necessary to summon a Tiger spirit from the statue (like the old Buff-totems back before you could summon them all at once, I expect you'll only be putting your statue down on boss fights or tough trash.)

The other huge thing is that the abilities need to be better staggered. Getting Jab, Roll, Tiger Palm and Blackout Kick all by level 3, and then absolutely nothing until 10 (and then still nothing for many levels after that) is really, really weird. While I understand the reasoning behind the changes to the talent trees, the big thing they're losing is that sense of constant progress. We used to get a talent point every single level, so even if you went for a few levels without getting a new ability, you might put points into something that made you feel like you were that much more powerful - that much more in synch with your spec. Cataclysm balanced things decently well - usually if you weren't getting a talent point you were getting a new ability. Now, however, you'll spend most of your time in your starting zone using just three abilities in combat.

Oh, and Roll is great, but give it to us later. Much like Blink, this is one of those abilities that you feel you need to hit on every cooldown before you get a mount. Make it a level 18 ability, or something, so that you can play with it for two levels and then ride around like a grown-up. Here's what I'd recommend instead:

Level 1: Jab
Level 3: Tiger Palm
Level 5: Blackout Kick
Level 7: Healing Sphere, or some equivalent "heal up between fights" kind of spell for leveling monks
Level 9: Something vaguely Brewmaster-y

and with a couple other abilities thrown in there as they see fit.

Also, for the love of God, give Monks their resurrection spell before level 15. Remember when Druids couldn't rez except with Rebirth, with its long cooldown and reagent cost? Remember how much it sucked when you had a Druid healer, a Warrior tank, and let's say a Mage, Hunter, and Rogue, and someone died? Just as all tanks should get their taunt and tank-stance before heading into a dungeon, all healers need to have like two healing spells and a resurrection spell.

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