There are a lot of big changes coming to gearing in WoD. In many ways, each expansion has been kind of defined by some big, striking change. BC really cemented what we might expect from an expansion, such as a new continent. Wrath made raiding accessible to the masses, Cataclysm revamped the leveling experience. Mists revamped the talent and ability system. And Warlords of Draenor seems like it will mean the revamp of the gear system.
As a quick recap:
Armor pieces will switch out Strength, Agility, or Intellect depending on your spec.
Hit and Expertise are gone (presumably you just won't miss or be dodged by enemies, though I think you might do something where tanks get an extra 7.5% chance not to be parried, which would allow bosses to still parry DPS and thus encourage them to stay behind them. Likewise, I could imagine dual-wielders still having a chance to miss with auto-attacks to balance it against 2-hander wielders.)
Dodge and Parry (the ratings, not the mechanics) are gone.
And with those, Reforging is going away.
Gems and Enchants will be used in fewer slots, but have bigger effects.
Gear will have tertiary stats that are more varied and weird.
What Else Can We Hope For?
Item Upgrades:
Upgrading items for Valor Points was added in 5.1, and then taken away for 5.2 only to be brought back (much cheaper) in 5.3.
However, I've argued that this feature is actually pretty lousy. It isn't very interesting, and instead simply gives you another way for your gear to be incomplete. It's a time sink more than anything else. Unlike Reforging (and I wasn't even that crazy about that one,) there was no thought to put into it.
What I find far preferable is using Valor points to purchase actual gear. Valor, like all of its predecessors, is there to help with bad luck. Sometimes, that one piece of gear never drops. Valor gear is there to make up for that, allowing you to get something else that is roughly as good.
In 5.4, we got no new Valor gear, and were simply expected to upgrade our gear.
If there's anything I really want to put on the chopping block regarding gear, it's these upgrades.
Tertiary Stats:
I love the idea of tertiary stats. Having really cool, flavorful stats can give pieces of gear their own identity. Instead of being one of the three leather agility boots that drops in that one raid, this piece of gear can be "the boots of desperate swiftness," and grant an extra 5% movement speed.
I think the one danger here, though, is making sure that the tertiary stats don't overwhelm too much.
One stat I heard tossed around was some sort of increased critical damage. This is not the kind of tertiary stat I want to see, the reason being that this is the kind of stat the could wind up being so powerful that people would want to get a full set of it.
Now, granted, if they make good on the idea of only allowing each of these stats to occupy a single slot - for instance, crit damage might only be on bracers - and if they kept the percentages low, it might not be so bad. But then again, you also want these stats to have at least some impact as well.
Tank Stats:
With dodge and parry going away, tanks will be using the same trifecta of crit, haste, and mastery. So, Leather tanks already used those, and Paladins have been favoring Haste and Mastery already, so it may not be such a huge change. Blood DKs don't really go in for Haste, but it's not a useless stat for them. More haste means more Death Strikes, after all. Likewise, recent changes to Warriors have made Crit a more useful stat, as it can translate into more Rage and thus more Shield Block/Barrier.
While certain stats might not be great for a DPS spec, all three do universally contribute to making a DPS character more effective. However, for tanks, some of these stats only help with threat, which is the area of tanking that Blizzard has tried to de-emphasize by buffing it to the rafters. Death Knights don't get any harder to kill when they have high critical strike chances, which is probably why Blizzard thought it was ok to give them Riposte. Paladins I suppose could get in a more powerful Word of Glory, but crit has no effect on Shield of the Righteous, which is where they're spending most of their Holy Power. Warriors do benefit from crit, but Haste doesn't really give them anything. Their abilities have the same cool down regardless of how fast their weapons swing.
So I think that they need to go into these three tanks' kits and find a use for these other stats. The alternative is either having tanks carry junk stats or that certain pieces be declared "DPS only," which is the opposite of the intended new philosophy.
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