Friday, September 19, 2014

Tier Pieces, Item Enhancements, Item Variety and Spec Flexibility

One of the really fun things they just added to the Beta is the ability to purchase, merely for gold (for testing purposes,) the entire heroic (note - Mists' normal) tier set. You can now get all that super-epic gear (a lot of which has really cool set bonuses - way more interesting than they usually do for the first tier of an expansion) to outfit your pre-made 100s in (though not weapons.)

As you're probably aware, gear is far more spec-flexible in this expansion. Every new Plate armor piece now has both Strength and Intellect on it, likewise Leather and Mail all has both Agility and Intellect. Your character will now simply ignore the stat they don't use depending on spec and class, so if you go Ret/Holy, you'll see the Strength when you're in Retribution spec, but you'll see the Intellect instead when you're in Holy spec.

The thing that's really awesome, however, is that this logic now extends to set bonuses as well. When you get your Shaman tier 17 helmet, you just have that appropriate helmet now, regardless of spec. If you change from Elemental to Enhancement, not only will you simply use the helmet's agility, but you'll also see the set bonuses change to something more Enhancement appropriate.

Taking a step further, the other cool thing is that set bonuses are far more diverse now. While it's been mostly true for the later Mists tier sets, now every spec, even if it's the same role as another spec, has a different bonus. Even for Hunters and Rogues!

The other thing that could be considered exciting (though I'm sure there will be some grumbles about it as well) is how enhancing one's items has been pared down. Now, I could be missing something here (as I'm basing this mostly on the Savage Flaskataur - a giant Tauren in a suit who is a regular of the Beta tests and gives away free enchants, flasks, and the like) but it looks like there are far fewer items that can be enchanted this time around. Necklaces, Cloaks, Rings, and Weapons are basically all you can enchant in Warlords. You'll note that these are also the pieces you're most likely to switch out if you change specs, so it actually allows you to realign your stats with greater ease, while leaving your actual armor pieces alone.

Gem sockets are going to be a random bonus, along with tertiary stats like Leech, Speed, or the one that makes it not take durability damage, as well as "Warforged" items that get a higher iLevel. Gems will, like enchants, be only secondary stats. Likewise, it looks like colored gem sockets (and colored gems) are going away, so you'll pretty much want to just get your favorite stat and fill every socket with the appropriate gem.

Now gem sockets do appear on armor, so if you're really heavily into min-maxing, you might want to either carry around a ton of spare gems or keep two versions of that armor piece, but if you're anything like me, you're probably willing to let one of your specs have slightly better-optimized gear if it means not having to carry around a bunch of other junk.

Finally: loot has finally been added to the dungeon journal for the dungeons (the raid loot has been there for a while.) What's very interesting indeed is that bosses have absolutely enormous loot tables, but typically it's that there are several variations on the same basic types of loot. For example, one boss will have a huge number of chest pieces - of all armor types. And I don't mean just one of each armor type. I mean almost every conceivable combination of secondary stats.

My sense of the idea here is that any time you down the boss, you'll have a very high likelihood of getting a piece you can use. But you're still incentivized to go back, because chances are, it's not the absolute ideal version of that piece. Supposing for the sake of argument that stats remain equally valuable as they are now, a Prot Paladin might get a Multistrike/Crit helmet, which is fine, but not great, and then get a Haste/Versatility one... ok, better, but finally might get a Haste/Mastery helmet.

If this sounds like a pain, though, remember that in most cases, you'll be able to throw that helmet on your head immediately. Without reforges, meta gems, and most pieces not needing enchantments, switching out gear is going to be a lot less painful.

What's potentially exciting about this is that if they really do raise the chance to get gear, it will let you become at least decently geared much quicker - the most important stuff, like your primary stats, will be based totally on iLevel, so as long as you're getting something, your capabilities will go up. But this encourages players to seek out side grades and keep running those dungeons after they've gotten their gear from them.

No comments:

Post a Comment