So, big caveat here: my Death Knight was a Blood Tank through Wrath and Cataclysm and then went Frost in Mists and Warlords. I've never spent a ton of time playing Unholy, so there are, I'm certain, some nuances to the spec that I'm less familiar with.
That being said, of the three DK specs, Unholy is probably changing the most (well, maybe it's on par with Blood) and so we're kind of in a brave new world anyway. Unholy is still going to be built around a theme of disease and you'll still have your permanent ghoul pet (though this guy can be talented to become an abomination, which is really cool though I think it's high time the standard abominations get a model update akin to what the various old-school warlock demons have gotten - not a new design, just an update.)
However, there are a lot of new mechanics going on, so let's cover them:
Remember the Runes:
Most importantly for all Death Knights is the simplification of the Rune system. All Runes are now a single type, and so you'll never have to worry about wasting a Death Rune on the wrong ability - effectively all Runes are Death Runes now. You'll still only be able to regenerate three runes at a time, but they're not paired up like they were when there were three different rune types, so just the thee runes used longest ago will be regenerating while the more recently used ones will be queued up.
Disease, Singular:
Each DK spec now has a single disease. With Blood getting Blood Plague and Frost getting Frost Fever, Unholy gets a new disease called Virulent Plague. This is applied by the new version of Outbreak, which costs one rune (no cooldown) and applies a miasma around the target that infects it and all enemies nearby with Virulent Plague. When a target dies while afflicted by VP, or just as a 30% chance when it ticks, the target will erupt with a burst of AoE Shadow Damage that is divided among targets nearby. This should provide some pretty solid cleave damage (yes, the burst is divided between targets, but you also very easily infect all the targets in a pack.)
Festering Wounds:
With diseases far easier to maintain, the purpose of Festering Strike, as well as Scourge Strike, has shifted. These two attacks are the core of your rotation.
Festering Strike still costs two runes, and it deals pretty heavy physical damage to the target while also applying 2-4 Festering Wounds on the target. The number is random, and is something you'll have to pay attention to. On their own, the Wounds don't do anything. But that's where Scourge Strike comes in.
Scourge Strike hits the target for physical and shadow damage, and then it consumes one Festering Wound, which pops, dealing additional shadow damage to the target and generating a bit of Runic Power for you. If you're standing within Death and Decay, Scourge Strike will hit every enemy near the target as well.
So I could actually imagine a cleave/AoE rotation that involves hitting multiple targets with Festering Strike, then putting down D&D and hitting Scourge Strike to pop them all. I think that's the intention.
Less Ghoul Management:
With the new focus on Festering Wounds, you'll have a bit less to worry about in preparing for or maximizing Dark Transformation. The ability is now a simple 1-minute cooldown that has no prerequisite to cast, though you can pick up a talent that causes Death Coil to cut seconds out of its cooldown.
Army of the Dead:
This ability is now Unholy only. So, grats.
Tuesday, July 5, 2016
Monday, July 4, 2016
Bringin' That Ash - Retribution in 7.0
While Paladins are not getting a spec renamed or having having a role totally re-thought like Survival or Discipline, all three specs are undergoing some serious changes that are going mean a lot to anyone who has spent much time playing a Paladin in the past. Given that they are (last time I checked) one of the most popular classes, that's probably a lot of people. And of course because most people prefer to DPS, that means Retribution's changes are going to be felt by a lot of people.
Holy Power - Retribution Remains:
HoPo was introduced in Cataclysm to give some structure to Paladin rotations after the "literally hit any ability that comes up" style in Wrath and before. While Holy (for whom it never really seemed necessary) and Protection (which is getting other rotational focuses. Foci?) are dropping Holy Power as a mechanic, Retribution is keeping it around. But Ret is not going to be just about building and spending.
Closing the Distance:
Retribution has historically had a lot of ranged spells as part of their rotation. Judgment, Exorcism, Hammer of Wrath - these all allowed you to do a fair amount of damage even if you were staying away from the target. They are reducing this by quite a bit. Hammer of Wrath is gone along with a lot of other Execute-like abilities, as they seem to want to make Execute-like abilities more of a specifically Warrior thing. Specifically the ability Execute. So Hammer of Wrath has gone poof, and consequently Avenging Wrath is a flat damage cooldown (though there's a talented replacement that is a little more complex.) Exorcism has also gotten a replacement in the rotation.
I Am The One Who Buffs:
Raidwide buffs are no longer really a thing in Legion. For the most part, players will just show up ready to wade into battle. However, harkening back to the old days, Retribution now gets three Greater Blessings. There are three of these buffs, Greater Blessing of Might, Wisdom, and Kings. You can distribute three of the buffs to any party or raid members (including yourself) in any combination, though the same buff won't stack twice on the same person.
These buffs persist through death, but cannot be re-applied or placed on another target while in combat.
Might grants extra holy damage on spells and attacks. Kings grants a periodically-refreshing damage absorption shield. Wisdom causes the target to regenerate health and mana gradually over time. While soloing, you'll want to just put all three on yourself.
Blade of Justice:
The replacement for Exorcism is called Blade of Justice, which has a moderate cooldown and hits harder than Crusader Strike. It's actually a kind of weird animation where a blade erupts from the ground underneath the target. This actually has a short range, so you can use it even if you're not in melee range, and it generates two Holy Power instead of one, which actually winds up making up for...
The New Role of Judgment:
Judgment no longer generates Holy Power. However, it is now far more central to the rotation. It now applies a debuff to the target that increases the damage dealt by your Holy Power spenders, which are Templar's Verdict and Divine Storm, plus a couple that come from talents. Judgment has a new animation (it's what Maraad uses in the Through the Dark Portal cutscene from the very beginning of Warlords' Tanaan Jungle intro at the beginning of the expansion.) It also inherently jumps to two other targets, which of course helps with cleaving.
The redesign here means that playing well is going to be about maximizing "finishers" while within the Judgment window and knowing how to conserve Holy Power when you're outside of it. There's a bit more thought you need to put into your actions, but it's relatively easy to get used to it.
A Bit Less AoE:
There's no longer a proc for free Divine Storms and you no longer have Hammer of the Righteous (that's for prot and even works differently for that spec.) You do have a natural cleave on Judgment, which will pair with Divine Storm in true AoE situations. Notably, as a talent choice, you can get Consecration back, which will of course work great for big AoE packs.
Clangs:
Pretty much all of Ret's combat animations have changed. There's much more of a visceral, physical feel to the spec. Even the magic hammers from Divine Storm look more solid now.
The Ashbringer itself is going to add a new ability that I believe does AoE damage, so I wouldn't worry too much if you like that niche.
Holy Power - Retribution Remains:
HoPo was introduced in Cataclysm to give some structure to Paladin rotations after the "literally hit any ability that comes up" style in Wrath and before. While Holy (for whom it never really seemed necessary) and Protection (which is getting other rotational focuses. Foci?) are dropping Holy Power as a mechanic, Retribution is keeping it around. But Ret is not going to be just about building and spending.
Closing the Distance:
Retribution has historically had a lot of ranged spells as part of their rotation. Judgment, Exorcism, Hammer of Wrath - these all allowed you to do a fair amount of damage even if you were staying away from the target. They are reducing this by quite a bit. Hammer of Wrath is gone along with a lot of other Execute-like abilities, as they seem to want to make Execute-like abilities more of a specifically Warrior thing. Specifically the ability Execute. So Hammer of Wrath has gone poof, and consequently Avenging Wrath is a flat damage cooldown (though there's a talented replacement that is a little more complex.) Exorcism has also gotten a replacement in the rotation.
I Am The One Who Buffs:
Raidwide buffs are no longer really a thing in Legion. For the most part, players will just show up ready to wade into battle. However, harkening back to the old days, Retribution now gets three Greater Blessings. There are three of these buffs, Greater Blessing of Might, Wisdom, and Kings. You can distribute three of the buffs to any party or raid members (including yourself) in any combination, though the same buff won't stack twice on the same person.
These buffs persist through death, but cannot be re-applied or placed on another target while in combat.
Might grants extra holy damage on spells and attacks. Kings grants a periodically-refreshing damage absorption shield. Wisdom causes the target to regenerate health and mana gradually over time. While soloing, you'll want to just put all three on yourself.
Blade of Justice:
The replacement for Exorcism is called Blade of Justice, which has a moderate cooldown and hits harder than Crusader Strike. It's actually a kind of weird animation where a blade erupts from the ground underneath the target. This actually has a short range, so you can use it even if you're not in melee range, and it generates two Holy Power instead of one, which actually winds up making up for...
The New Role of Judgment:
Judgment no longer generates Holy Power. However, it is now far more central to the rotation. It now applies a debuff to the target that increases the damage dealt by your Holy Power spenders, which are Templar's Verdict and Divine Storm, plus a couple that come from talents. Judgment has a new animation (it's what Maraad uses in the Through the Dark Portal cutscene from the very beginning of Warlords' Tanaan Jungle intro at the beginning of the expansion.) It also inherently jumps to two other targets, which of course helps with cleaving.
The redesign here means that playing well is going to be about maximizing "finishers" while within the Judgment window and knowing how to conserve Holy Power when you're outside of it. There's a bit more thought you need to put into your actions, but it's relatively easy to get used to it.
A Bit Less AoE:
There's no longer a proc for free Divine Storms and you no longer have Hammer of the Righteous (that's for prot and even works differently for that spec.) You do have a natural cleave on Judgment, which will pair with Divine Storm in true AoE situations. Notably, as a talent choice, you can get Consecration back, which will of course work great for big AoE packs.
Clangs:
Pretty much all of Ret's combat animations have changed. There's much more of a visceral, physical feel to the spec. Even the magic hammers from Divine Storm look more solid now.
The Ashbringer itself is going to add a new ability that I believe does AoE damage, so I wouldn't worry too much if you like that niche.
Sunday, July 3, 2016
Demonology - the Zoo Spec
With the introduction of Demon Hunters, Demonology had to lose its Metamorphosis focus to give that to the new class (that it kind of stole Meta from in the first place, to be fair.)
So what does the spec get in return? Demons. Lots of Demons.
Granted, Demo has had swarms of imps accompanying it every since the Mists of Pandaria revamp. But you'll be paying a bit more attention to your demons and summoning a larger variety in Legion.
So let's break it down:
Soul Shards:
Yes, all Warlocks are back to using Soul Shards, but rather than some weird utility mechanic, these are now a pretty standard secondary resource. You'll still have to Life Tap occasionally to regenerate mana, but the main thing you'll be watching is your Soul Shard meter. You get a max of 5.
Shadow Bolt:
The absolute most basic Warlock ability, Shadow Bolt is your primary Soul Shard generator. You'll be casting it a lot, but it's ultimately the spec's filler spell. It generates one Soul Shard per cast.
Call Dreadstalkers:
This is one of the two spells (before we talk about talents) that you'll be spending your Soul Shards on. This will summon a pair of Dreadstalkers (the leaner Fel Hunter dogs introduced in Tanaan Jungle) who will attack the target. You do need a target to summon them, but I think they will attack other targets if yours dies. You can talent this to have them come in with Wild Imps riding on their backs, which is both hilarious and awesome. These guys last for 12 seconds and the spell has a 15 second cooldown, so you'll be able to keep them up pretty frequently, but not constantly. There is a talent that causes this to sometimes proc to not cost any Soul Shards, which should make it easier to complement these guys with Wild Imps from hand of Gul'dan (see below.)
Hand of Gul'dan:
I suspect that this is going to be the spell you cast when you have Soul Shards to burn and Dreadstalkers are on cooldown. It does a bunch of Shadowflame damage to the target and nearby enemies and then summons a Wild Imp for each Soul Shard consumed, up to a max of 4. I believe the damage is independent of the Soul Shards, so in snap-AoE situations it might not be a terrible idea to spam this. However, if the enemies are likely to survive for any serious amount of time, I'd try to get those Imps up there for reasons I'll get to. Hand of Gul'dan can also be talented to apply Doom, which should smooth over your rotation a little bit.
Doom:
Doom is your only DoT, though it's only kind of a DoT, since it only ticks once at the end of its duration. If re-applied, the "first" Doom will still do its damage independently of the second, so you shouldn't have to let it fall off. It also generates a Soul Shard when it goes off.
Demonic Empowerment:
This is a spell that will require some skill to use properly, I think. It simply buffs your Demons' haste and health by 50% for 12 seconds. I'm sure you'll want to cast this immediately after summoning Dreadstalkers, and any temporary demons like your Doomguard/Infernal or the talented Darkglare. You obviously want to have this buff up on your demons as much as possible, but you also can't just cast it after every spell, because it doesn't do any damage on its own.
Demonwrath:
Similar to Hellfire (which this has replaced,) Demonwrath causes all of your summoned demons to radiate Shadow damage while you channel it. You can channel it while moving, and it has a chance to generate a Soul Shard each time it deal damage. Obviously, following a Hand of Gul'dan with one of these should be a pretty effective use of AoE, and of course the Soul Shard generation (which should be insane in large groups - with all your demons dealing damage to all those enemies) feeds into more Hands of Gul'dan.
So basically, it's a very different-feeling spec, but the mechanics are both flavorful and tricky, which should make it pretty fun.
So what does the spec get in return? Demons. Lots of Demons.
Granted, Demo has had swarms of imps accompanying it every since the Mists of Pandaria revamp. But you'll be paying a bit more attention to your demons and summoning a larger variety in Legion.
So let's break it down:
Soul Shards:
Yes, all Warlocks are back to using Soul Shards, but rather than some weird utility mechanic, these are now a pretty standard secondary resource. You'll still have to Life Tap occasionally to regenerate mana, but the main thing you'll be watching is your Soul Shard meter. You get a max of 5.
Shadow Bolt:
The absolute most basic Warlock ability, Shadow Bolt is your primary Soul Shard generator. You'll be casting it a lot, but it's ultimately the spec's filler spell. It generates one Soul Shard per cast.
Call Dreadstalkers:
This is one of the two spells (before we talk about talents) that you'll be spending your Soul Shards on. This will summon a pair of Dreadstalkers (the leaner Fel Hunter dogs introduced in Tanaan Jungle) who will attack the target. You do need a target to summon them, but I think they will attack other targets if yours dies. You can talent this to have them come in with Wild Imps riding on their backs, which is both hilarious and awesome. These guys last for 12 seconds and the spell has a 15 second cooldown, so you'll be able to keep them up pretty frequently, but not constantly. There is a talent that causes this to sometimes proc to not cost any Soul Shards, which should make it easier to complement these guys with Wild Imps from hand of Gul'dan (see below.)
Hand of Gul'dan:
I suspect that this is going to be the spell you cast when you have Soul Shards to burn and Dreadstalkers are on cooldown. It does a bunch of Shadowflame damage to the target and nearby enemies and then summons a Wild Imp for each Soul Shard consumed, up to a max of 4. I believe the damage is independent of the Soul Shards, so in snap-AoE situations it might not be a terrible idea to spam this. However, if the enemies are likely to survive for any serious amount of time, I'd try to get those Imps up there for reasons I'll get to. Hand of Gul'dan can also be talented to apply Doom, which should smooth over your rotation a little bit.
Doom:
Doom is your only DoT, though it's only kind of a DoT, since it only ticks once at the end of its duration. If re-applied, the "first" Doom will still do its damage independently of the second, so you shouldn't have to let it fall off. It also generates a Soul Shard when it goes off.
Demonic Empowerment:
This is a spell that will require some skill to use properly, I think. It simply buffs your Demons' haste and health by 50% for 12 seconds. I'm sure you'll want to cast this immediately after summoning Dreadstalkers, and any temporary demons like your Doomguard/Infernal or the talented Darkglare. You obviously want to have this buff up on your demons as much as possible, but you also can't just cast it after every spell, because it doesn't do any damage on its own.
Demonwrath:
Similar to Hellfire (which this has replaced,) Demonwrath causes all of your summoned demons to radiate Shadow damage while you channel it. You can channel it while moving, and it has a chance to generate a Soul Shard each time it deal damage. Obviously, following a Hand of Gul'dan with one of these should be a pretty effective use of AoE, and of course the Soul Shard generation (which should be insane in large groups - with all your demons dealing damage to all those enemies) feeds into more Hands of Gul'dan.
So basically, it's a very different-feeling spec, but the mechanics are both flavorful and tricky, which should make it pretty fun.
Saturday, July 2, 2016
Enhancement: Really a Melee Spec Now
Now I'm of two minds about this.
On one hand, Enhancement has, for over a decade, been a weird spec. It has used most of the same toolkit that Elemental had, but used some special mechanics to allow it to function as a melee class.
When I first started playing World of Warcraft, Shaman was the first class that I really played with any real intention of leveling up. (I had created a Paladin on the wrong server and then found out my college roommate was playing Horde, meaning I'd have to switch to a different class. I mean, who ever heard of a Horde Paladin, much less a Tauren one?) The class that I always wanted to play was an archetype that I always considered a standard RPG option but somehow have not been able to find anything that quite fits the description in basically any game I've played, namely the Battlemage.
Heavy armor, a big heavy weapon (preferably a war hammer, specifically the unrealistic sledge-like maul variety like Hammer of the Naaru or The Black Hand,) and blasts of arcane magic sundering my foes.
Enhancement Shamans were not exactly that, but they came pretty damn close (in vanilla Enhancement used two-handed weapons. And Strength as their primary stat. It was a weird time.) It actually wouldn't be until Wrath of the Lich King that the spec really delivered on its promise, though, using Maelstrom Weapon to allow us to cast Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning in the middle of combat.
In fact, using a lot of Elemental's kit in melee was kind of exactly what those of us looking for a Battlemage class or spec were looking for.
But there were some issues. For one thing, Enhancement has had a weird relationship with Mana, leading eventually to Warlords, where it's just a blue bar that means nothing, more or less. Enhancement has always been about simply juggling cooldowns, and it seems like they've made up for a lack of alternate resources by simply giving you about three billion abilities to juggle.
In Legion, Enhancement is getting a massive overhaul. You'll still have Windfury procs, you'll still have Lava Lash and Storm Strike, and you'll still have your Feral Spirit cooldown, but almost everything else has changed.
Maelstrom:
Both Enhancement and Elemental, who had basically ignored their mana bars for a long time, now have a new resource called Maelstrom, which they build somewhat slowly (slower than Rage, but not terribly so) and use to hit their hardest attacks. Enhancement generates a lot of this through abilities, but also some through auto-attacks thanks to the Maelstrom Weapon passive (which has nothing to do with the old one.)
Weapon Enhancements:
The old weapon enhancements (minus Windfury, which is just a passive buff now) have transformed into active abilities, which I'll go over individually. These each are technically ranged attacks, but have a mere ten yard range, so you can basically treat them as melee attacks that are forgiving if the enemy is moving around a lot. Two of these will be your main Maelstrom generators.
Rockbiter:
This is your absolute bread-and-butter attack. You hit the target for some physical damage and generate some Maelstrom. This has no cooldown, but you can switch it out for Boulderfist if you want to retain some downtime gaps in the rotation to use on utility or simply give your fingers a second to rest every now and then. There's also a talent that makes this more like the other weapon-enhancement-named abilities and makes it buff you.
Flametongue:
This one is on a cooldown but also gives you a buff that makes your attacks do additional fire damage - it's a maintenance buff but has a longer duration than its cooldown, so you've got some flexibility for it, and it also generate Maelstrom.
Frostbrand:
This one is A: mostly just utility, causing your attacks to slow the target and B: costs, rather than generating Maelstrom. This won't be part of a normal PvE rotation except with one of the legendary items and possibly one of the talents.
Melee Strikes:
Your only true melee strikes (though again, you can count the Weapon Enhancement abilities as practically melee attacks) are Lava Lash and Storm Strike. These cost Maelstrom and hit harder.
Lava Lash:
No cooldown, this simply costs Maelstrom to do fire damage to the target, I think still using the off-hand weapon (which with the Doomhammer is the lava-themed Fury of the Stonemother.) Just as Rockbiter is the "filler" for Flametongue, Lava Lash fills in when Storm Strike is on cooldown. There is a talent that makes this occasionally free, which will probably mean you'll be seeing it a lot more in your rotation (see below.)
Storm Strike:
The crown jewel of the rotation, Storm Strike hits hard but costs a lot of Maelstrom and has a cooldown. However, there is a proc that resets its cooldown, cuts the cost in half, and prevents I believe the next two Storm Strikes from triggering a cooldown. This means you're often going to want to pool Maelstrom so that you can use Storm Strike as much as possible - probably just saving Lava Lash to burn off Maelstrom if you're in danger of hitting the cap.
Lightning Bolt:
This is instant-cast and I believe has no cooldown, but is really just for pulling. There is, however, a talent you can pick up that increases the damage by a huge amount but also makes it cost Maelstrom and have a long-ish cooldown. I think with this talent Lightning Bolt will become a pretty high-priority spell, if not the top priority.
Crash Lightning:
This is your on real AoE ability, but it does multiple things for you. First, it hits every target in a pretty wide cone in front of you with nature damage (and can be talented to leave a little electrified patch - a kind of Shaman Consecration.) It also gives you a buff that causes your Storm Strikes and Lava Lashes to hit everyone near your target. This costs a somewhat low amount of Maelstrom, so I think it's probably meant to be used in any situation where there's more than one enemy to hit.
Other notes:
One really odd thing is that there are WAY fewer Totems to use now. There is one entire talent row with all totem abilities, and one other talent that transforms Hex into Voodoo Totem (which Hexes anyone near where you place it,) but there is not, actually, a single baseline totem for Enhancement.
So to break down the rotation, before we mention talents and such:
Stormstrike whenever you can.
Lava Lash if you're going to cap Maelstrom and Storm Strike isn't available.
Keep the Flametongue buff up.
Rockbiter.
And for multi-target situations, probably top priority is to maintain Crash Lightning's buff.
On one hand, Enhancement has, for over a decade, been a weird spec. It has used most of the same toolkit that Elemental had, but used some special mechanics to allow it to function as a melee class.
When I first started playing World of Warcraft, Shaman was the first class that I really played with any real intention of leveling up. (I had created a Paladin on the wrong server and then found out my college roommate was playing Horde, meaning I'd have to switch to a different class. I mean, who ever heard of a Horde Paladin, much less a Tauren one?) The class that I always wanted to play was an archetype that I always considered a standard RPG option but somehow have not been able to find anything that quite fits the description in basically any game I've played, namely the Battlemage.
Heavy armor, a big heavy weapon (preferably a war hammer, specifically the unrealistic sledge-like maul variety like Hammer of the Naaru or The Black Hand,) and blasts of arcane magic sundering my foes.
Enhancement Shamans were not exactly that, but they came pretty damn close (in vanilla Enhancement used two-handed weapons. And Strength as their primary stat. It was a weird time.) It actually wouldn't be until Wrath of the Lich King that the spec really delivered on its promise, though, using Maelstrom Weapon to allow us to cast Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning in the middle of combat.
In fact, using a lot of Elemental's kit in melee was kind of exactly what those of us looking for a Battlemage class or spec were looking for.
But there were some issues. For one thing, Enhancement has had a weird relationship with Mana, leading eventually to Warlords, where it's just a blue bar that means nothing, more or less. Enhancement has always been about simply juggling cooldowns, and it seems like they've made up for a lack of alternate resources by simply giving you about three billion abilities to juggle.
In Legion, Enhancement is getting a massive overhaul. You'll still have Windfury procs, you'll still have Lava Lash and Storm Strike, and you'll still have your Feral Spirit cooldown, but almost everything else has changed.
Maelstrom:
Both Enhancement and Elemental, who had basically ignored their mana bars for a long time, now have a new resource called Maelstrom, which they build somewhat slowly (slower than Rage, but not terribly so) and use to hit their hardest attacks. Enhancement generates a lot of this through abilities, but also some through auto-attacks thanks to the Maelstrom Weapon passive (which has nothing to do with the old one.)
Weapon Enhancements:
The old weapon enhancements (minus Windfury, which is just a passive buff now) have transformed into active abilities, which I'll go over individually. These each are technically ranged attacks, but have a mere ten yard range, so you can basically treat them as melee attacks that are forgiving if the enemy is moving around a lot. Two of these will be your main Maelstrom generators.
Rockbiter:
This is your absolute bread-and-butter attack. You hit the target for some physical damage and generate some Maelstrom. This has no cooldown, but you can switch it out for Boulderfist if you want to retain some downtime gaps in the rotation to use on utility or simply give your fingers a second to rest every now and then. There's also a talent that makes this more like the other weapon-enhancement-named abilities and makes it buff you.
Flametongue:
This one is on a cooldown but also gives you a buff that makes your attacks do additional fire damage - it's a maintenance buff but has a longer duration than its cooldown, so you've got some flexibility for it, and it also generate Maelstrom.
Frostbrand:
This one is A: mostly just utility, causing your attacks to slow the target and B: costs, rather than generating Maelstrom. This won't be part of a normal PvE rotation except with one of the legendary items and possibly one of the talents.
Melee Strikes:
Your only true melee strikes (though again, you can count the Weapon Enhancement abilities as practically melee attacks) are Lava Lash and Storm Strike. These cost Maelstrom and hit harder.
Lava Lash:
No cooldown, this simply costs Maelstrom to do fire damage to the target, I think still using the off-hand weapon (which with the Doomhammer is the lava-themed Fury of the Stonemother.) Just as Rockbiter is the "filler" for Flametongue, Lava Lash fills in when Storm Strike is on cooldown. There is a talent that makes this occasionally free, which will probably mean you'll be seeing it a lot more in your rotation (see below.)
Storm Strike:
The crown jewel of the rotation, Storm Strike hits hard but costs a lot of Maelstrom and has a cooldown. However, there is a proc that resets its cooldown, cuts the cost in half, and prevents I believe the next two Storm Strikes from triggering a cooldown. This means you're often going to want to pool Maelstrom so that you can use Storm Strike as much as possible - probably just saving Lava Lash to burn off Maelstrom if you're in danger of hitting the cap.
Lightning Bolt:
This is instant-cast and I believe has no cooldown, but is really just for pulling. There is, however, a talent you can pick up that increases the damage by a huge amount but also makes it cost Maelstrom and have a long-ish cooldown. I think with this talent Lightning Bolt will become a pretty high-priority spell, if not the top priority.
Crash Lightning:
This is your on real AoE ability, but it does multiple things for you. First, it hits every target in a pretty wide cone in front of you with nature damage (and can be talented to leave a little electrified patch - a kind of Shaman Consecration.) It also gives you a buff that causes your Storm Strikes and Lava Lashes to hit everyone near your target. This costs a somewhat low amount of Maelstrom, so I think it's probably meant to be used in any situation where there's more than one enemy to hit.
Other notes:
One really odd thing is that there are WAY fewer Totems to use now. There is one entire talent row with all totem abilities, and one other talent that transforms Hex into Voodoo Totem (which Hexes anyone near where you place it,) but there is not, actually, a single baseline totem for Enhancement.
So to break down the rotation, before we mention talents and such:
Stormstrike whenever you can.
Lava Lash if you're going to cap Maelstrom and Storm Strike isn't available.
Keep the Flametongue buff up.
Rockbiter.
And for multi-target situations, probably top priority is to maintain Crash Lightning's buff.
Friday, July 1, 2016
Subtlety Finally the Rogue Spec I Always Wanted It To Be
Obviously Rogues are going through some big changes. One of their specs has even been renamed. But while Outlaw has got its pirate thing going on (a really huge improvement to the flavor of the spec, in my opinion,) I'm really excited about where Subtlety has gone.
See, my Undead Rogue was the first character I got to level 70 way back in Burning Crusade. Soloing was tougher back then (mainly we had crap gear) and so I fell in love with Rogues and particularly Subtlety's ability to vanish and hide and wait for a better opportunity to take things down.
The problem is that a lot of those stealth shenanigans didn't really work in group content. And Subtlety got a lot of PvP utility stuff that, back then, meant they had to nerf its damage significantly (I also wasn't as good of a player back then, so there's that.)
Over the years, they've tweaked Subtlety in various ways to give it a real niche in PvE. Actually in Warlords it has managed to be pretty effective, but it never really felt like it was living up to its potential. Shadow Dance is fine, but otherwise the spec didn't really play much into the "striking from the shadows" fantasy.
Cue Legion.
Subtlety now has a lot of shadow-based abilities. We have Shadow Blades as a major cooldown (I think it's basically the same as it was in Mists, but now only for Sub Rogues.) We also replace Rupture with Nightblade, a DoT/snare. Shuriken Toss and Shuriken Swarm both reinforce the Ninja theme, and have cool purple-shadowy animations.
We also have Shadowstrike now instead of Ambush, which has a built-in Shadowstep (or Cloak and Dagger.) Thankfully, we also still have Shadowstep, meaning that Subtlety can move around quite a bit.
So let's break the baseline spec down:
Shadowstrike is our opener and something we'll want to use during Shadow Dance. It hits the target for a solid chunk of damage and also puts us behind them if we're not in melee range already.
Symbols of Death is a new maintenance buff that we can only cast while Stealthed or Shadow-Dancing. It lasts a good long time, increasing the damage we do. Also, after casting it, our next Shadowstrike is a guaranteed crit. I don't think the design intent is for you to use this every Shadow Dance, but it is off the global cooldown. It costs Energy though, so I'd wait for the min-maxers to figure it all out.
Backstab is our primary CP-generator. You can now use it from any position, but it will do more damage if you're not in the front 90 degrees of your target. Luckily, you can replace this with Gloomblade on your first talent tier, which does Shadow damage and has no positioning advantages (which I think makes it the obvious choice for soloing.)
Nightblade is a finishing move that deals damage over time. It's more or less just a Shadow-damage Rupture, but while it's on the target, your melee attacks will slow the target.
Eviscerate is still the filler-finisher you'll use when Nightblade has plenty of duration left.
Your finishers will reduce the remaining cooldown on Shadow Dance by 3 seconds per combo point. Additionally, your autoattacks will also sometimes generate combo points.
Shadow Dance works pretty much the same, but now has three charges. Given the refreshing your finishers will be doing, you can work these in very frequently. This should make it fairly easy to prevent Symbols of Death from falling off. I've typically been able to get off three Shadowstrikes per Shadow Dance, and given that Symbols of Death is off the GCD, you should be able to fit that one in there as well if you have enough Energy.
For AoE, you have Shuriken Storm, which works pretty much like Fan of Knives, except that it has built into it that you generate a CP for every target hit. I think you'll probably want to multi-dot with Nightblade in typical trash packs.
Shuriken Toss replaces Throw, but generates a combo point when used. The downside is that it costs Energy. Still, a decent option for when you're on the move or just can't be near the target.
The spec is still a bit maintenance-y, but I think it's much more proactive and less focused on just making sure buffs are up.
You'll probably want WeakAuras to track Symbols of Death and Nightblade - the latter doesn't last super long. You also might want to track Shadow Dance charges - you'll definitely want to use them as much as you can, but also make sure that you can maintain Symbols. And like all Rogues, a WeakAura to track when you have full Combo Points is never a bad idea.
As a reminder, Combo Points now appear below your Energy bar, reflecting the Warlords change that CPs are "on the Rogue" now instead of the target, something that I think should have been true in Vanilla.
Also, rather than Recuperate, all Rogues now have Crimson Vial, which costs Energy, has a cooldown, and restores 30% of your max health over a few seconds. Definitely something you'll want to use frequently especially when soloing.
See, my Undead Rogue was the first character I got to level 70 way back in Burning Crusade. Soloing was tougher back then (mainly we had crap gear) and so I fell in love with Rogues and particularly Subtlety's ability to vanish and hide and wait for a better opportunity to take things down.
The problem is that a lot of those stealth shenanigans didn't really work in group content. And Subtlety got a lot of PvP utility stuff that, back then, meant they had to nerf its damage significantly (I also wasn't as good of a player back then, so there's that.)
Over the years, they've tweaked Subtlety in various ways to give it a real niche in PvE. Actually in Warlords it has managed to be pretty effective, but it never really felt like it was living up to its potential. Shadow Dance is fine, but otherwise the spec didn't really play much into the "striking from the shadows" fantasy.
Cue Legion.
Subtlety now has a lot of shadow-based abilities. We have Shadow Blades as a major cooldown (I think it's basically the same as it was in Mists, but now only for Sub Rogues.) We also replace Rupture with Nightblade, a DoT/snare. Shuriken Toss and Shuriken Swarm both reinforce the Ninja theme, and have cool purple-shadowy animations.
We also have Shadowstrike now instead of Ambush, which has a built-in Shadowstep (or Cloak and Dagger.) Thankfully, we also still have Shadowstep, meaning that Subtlety can move around quite a bit.
So let's break the baseline spec down:
Shadowstrike is our opener and something we'll want to use during Shadow Dance. It hits the target for a solid chunk of damage and also puts us behind them if we're not in melee range already.
Symbols of Death is a new maintenance buff that we can only cast while Stealthed or Shadow-Dancing. It lasts a good long time, increasing the damage we do. Also, after casting it, our next Shadowstrike is a guaranteed crit. I don't think the design intent is for you to use this every Shadow Dance, but it is off the global cooldown. It costs Energy though, so I'd wait for the min-maxers to figure it all out.
Backstab is our primary CP-generator. You can now use it from any position, but it will do more damage if you're not in the front 90 degrees of your target. Luckily, you can replace this with Gloomblade on your first talent tier, which does Shadow damage and has no positioning advantages (which I think makes it the obvious choice for soloing.)
Nightblade is a finishing move that deals damage over time. It's more or less just a Shadow-damage Rupture, but while it's on the target, your melee attacks will slow the target.
Eviscerate is still the filler-finisher you'll use when Nightblade has plenty of duration left.
Your finishers will reduce the remaining cooldown on Shadow Dance by 3 seconds per combo point. Additionally, your autoattacks will also sometimes generate combo points.
Shadow Dance works pretty much the same, but now has three charges. Given the refreshing your finishers will be doing, you can work these in very frequently. This should make it fairly easy to prevent Symbols of Death from falling off. I've typically been able to get off three Shadowstrikes per Shadow Dance, and given that Symbols of Death is off the GCD, you should be able to fit that one in there as well if you have enough Energy.
For AoE, you have Shuriken Storm, which works pretty much like Fan of Knives, except that it has built into it that you generate a CP for every target hit. I think you'll probably want to multi-dot with Nightblade in typical trash packs.
Shuriken Toss replaces Throw, but generates a combo point when used. The downside is that it costs Energy. Still, a decent option for when you're on the move or just can't be near the target.
The spec is still a bit maintenance-y, but I think it's much more proactive and less focused on just making sure buffs are up.
You'll probably want WeakAuras to track Symbols of Death and Nightblade - the latter doesn't last super long. You also might want to track Shadow Dance charges - you'll definitely want to use them as much as you can, but also make sure that you can maintain Symbols. And like all Rogues, a WeakAura to track when you have full Combo Points is never a bad idea.
As a reminder, Combo Points now appear below your Energy bar, reflecting the Warlords change that CPs are "on the Rogue" now instead of the target, something that I think should have been true in Vanilla.
Also, rather than Recuperate, all Rogues now have Crimson Vial, which costs Energy, has a cooldown, and restores 30% of your max health over a few seconds. Definitely something you'll want to use frequently especially when soloing.
Murozond and the "True End Time"
For the first few WoW expansions, we were dealing with truly existential threats to Azeroth. The Burning Crusade admittedly snuck up on us - most of the expansion was built around dealing with the Illidari and Illidan himself, even if the Betrayer barely showed his face during the expansion (and as we'll learn in Legion, he was probably the wrong person for us to fight.) Still, that expansion ultimately ended with an invasion by the Burning Legion.
Sunwell Plateau might go down as the hardest raid in WoW's history, but ultimately, one gets the impression that Kil'jaeden's attempt to fight his way in through the Sunwell was a rushed attack of opportunity - Illidan's seeming complacency (something that has now been revealed to be his working on a big plan) drove Kael'thas to ally with the Legion, but this had to have been within a few short months, and big of a threat though it was, the invasion at Quel'danas was, in my interpretation, the Legion bringing their B-game.
Wrath had us dealing with two existential threats to life on Azeroth. The first was actually partially of our own making. Long ago, Yogg-Saron had taken over Ulduar, but it was our killing of his most powerful minion, Loken (and man did Loken cause a whole lot of problems if you read Chronicle) that set off an automated system that could have seen Azeroth re-originated, meaning scrubbed of all life (Uldum, the facility that housed the origination device, was originally a lush jungle. The Tol'vir activated it on a low setting tens of thousands of years ago and the place is still an arid desert. Now imagine that on a planetary scale.)
But of course the main event was the Lich King, who planned to cull the heroes of Azeroth until he had the absolute finest and then raise them from the dead to serve as the generals of his campaign to sweep over the entire planet.
Probably the closest the planet came to being destroyed was Cataclysm. Deathwing, empowered and maddened by the Old Gods, set about undermining the very structure of the world, breaking barriers between the Elemental Planes.
We actually get to see a scenario in which he has succeeded in the End Time dungeon. The world seems totally dead - the only remnants of life are echoes of our lost heroes. Even Deathwing himself doesn't survive the Hour of Twilight.
The only truly living being we see is Murozond - the future, corrupted version of Nozdormu, who transformed his Bronze Dragonflight into the Infinite Dragonflight. Indeed, Nozdormu knows or at least thinks he knows that this is his eventual fate and actually aids players in what appears to be his own eventual demise.
I've addressed some of the complications here before - like the fact that we killed Murozond in a future that will no longer take place, which makes me wonder if he's still dead within the timeline. But what I'm concerned about now is Murozond's claim that he is preventing the "True End Time" by allowing Deathwing to destroy the world before we can get to that point.
According to the Dungeon Journal, Murozond has been corrupted by the Old Gods, much like Deathwing. So the huge caveat to all of this is that he might simply be operating on lies that they have told him.
That being said, let's assume that thanks to his time-travel abilities, Nozdormu really does know about a fate worse than a successful Hour of Twilight.
The immediate scenario to jump to is the Burning Legion taking Azeroth. The Legion wants to scour the universe of all life, but we discovered in Chronicle that there is an understandable, if insane, motivation for doing so. Sargeras wants to destroy Azeroth specifically because it A. is the host of a World-Soul, aka a nascent Titan and B. it is infected with Old Gods who could turn that Titan into a Dark Titan.
Sargeras is often called the Dark Titan, but it would be more accurate to call him a Fel Titan.
The Old Gods were created by the Void Lords - beings outside of our reality that are even more alien and incomprehensible than the Old Gods. The Old Gods were created in order to infect worlds with Shadow/Void energy. In theory, a World-Soul infected with this energy would become a Dark Titan. Given how dangerous the universe is when there have been benevolent Titans to shepherd it, consider how horrific it would be to have a Titan bent entirely toward evil. Ok, yes, Sargeras. But the thing is, Sargeras is motivated out of fear of this thing. Sargeras, a massive god the size of a planet who has fought and defeated demons for eons. Azeroth is different - the chaos of the elementals is a sign of this. On Draenor, despite being a planet full of incredibly dangerous flora and fauna, the elements get along pretty well. But Azeroth's world-soul has drained away so much of the "spirit" element that the elemental lords constantly try to war with one another.
Sargeras wants to kill Azeroth - not just the people on its surface, but the World-Soul within - before such an eventuality can come to pass.
So here's a question: how is the victory of the Old Gods at the Hour of Twilight preferable to the Burning Legion coming in and destroying Azeroth? Obviously neither's good for anyone living on the planet, but wouldn't Sargeras at least be succeeding in preventing something truly horrific from happening? Doesn't the universe stand a better chance fighting off Sargeras than a Dark Titan Azeroth?
If the Legion's arrival is the "True End Time," is it really worse?
I think there are three ways that it could be.
One is that we're wrong about what Murozond is talking about. That some other even more horrific thing is farther down the line for Azeroth. It's hard to imagine things worse than the Legion or the Old Gods winning. Maybe a back-to-evil Lich King allows the Shadowlands to swallow up the universe and death overtakes all things. Who knows.
A second is that we've been interpreting Deathwing's actions in Cataclysm all wrong. Yes, he has been driven to insanity by the Old Gods. But consider his methods - he basically was trying to scour the surface of the world using the powers of the elements. That sounds a little like what the Reorigination device was intended to do, so why didn't he... oh yeah, he totally did try to activate the re-origination device. That's what, like, half of the quests in Uldum are all about.
What if Deathwing wasn't actually trying to help the Old Gods? What if instead he was fighting back with the last little bit of Neltharion that remained within his mind to finally put a stop to the Old Gods on Azeroth? Oh, sure, he had to be stopped because he was going to kill everyone on the planet, but what if "End Time" is not actually a picture of the Old Gods triumphant, but instead a picture of an Azeroth that was burned to a cinder - mortals, dragons, Old Gods, and all. Perhaps what we were seeing was Deathwing succeeding where Sargeras has failed time and again.
Then there's a third scenario. Sargeras created the Burning Legion in order to fight the Void. He has an army of demons whose purpose is to burn away all life in the universe to save it from corruption.
That's his stated purpose. It might even still be what he believes.
But consider that Sargeras' main enemies when he was a part of the Pantheon were the very demons who he now commands. This is a guy who can compromise his principles when it suits his purposes. Sargeras has no compunction using the creatures he had previously considered the greatest threat to the universe.
So why the Fel is the Legion using so much Shadow magic?
The Legion's entire purpose is to prevent the Void from getting a foothold within the physical universe. Yet among its ranks are plenty of Voidwalkers and half of the magic the Legion uses is Shadow-based. If anything, that seems like it would do more to help the Void Lords than hinder them.
Consider also that the way that Sargeras found out about the Old Gods was that he found a Nathrezim serving them on another planet. Demons clearly have no problems working with Old Gods.
There are two explanations I can think of:
First is that Sargeras has totally lost perspective - he's gotten used to using his "enemies'" weapons and so using Shadow magic no longer sets off any red flags for him. In other words, he's gone insane, and it's possible that the Dreadlords have been manipulating him all this time, serving their true masters, the Void.
Alternatively, maybe we're giving Sargeras too much credit.
The thing that made Sargeras turn on his fellow Titans was not so much their disapproval of his destruction of a World Soul. No, it was when Aggramar told him that there was a World Soul that would be more powerful than any living Titan. Aggramar told him about Azeroth to try to encourage him and show him that there was hope for the future.
Instead, Sargeras cut him in half. For eons, Sargeras had been the mightiest of the Titans. He had been their star, their champion - more or less the most powerful being in the universe. And now he was confronted with the possibility that this "Azeroth" was going to outmatch him.
Perhaps Sargeras and all of his evil - the evil that led to the destruction of Draenor and countless other worlds, the rise of the Undead Scourge, the exile of the Draenei, and presumably billions if not trillions of deaths and countless souls corrupted or consumed - is born out of pettiness. Sargeras doesn't want to be upstaged by some new Titan.
And that explains why there is nothing Sargeras won't do to destroy Azeroth. Maybe he doesn't care about the Void or the Demons or anything else. He just wants Azeroth dead.
And Murozond might have seen that his actions lead to the exact thing he would fear most - a Dark Titan Azeroth who emerges and snuffs out all light in the universe.
Sunwell Plateau might go down as the hardest raid in WoW's history, but ultimately, one gets the impression that Kil'jaeden's attempt to fight his way in through the Sunwell was a rushed attack of opportunity - Illidan's seeming complacency (something that has now been revealed to be his working on a big plan) drove Kael'thas to ally with the Legion, but this had to have been within a few short months, and big of a threat though it was, the invasion at Quel'danas was, in my interpretation, the Legion bringing their B-game.
Wrath had us dealing with two existential threats to life on Azeroth. The first was actually partially of our own making. Long ago, Yogg-Saron had taken over Ulduar, but it was our killing of his most powerful minion, Loken (and man did Loken cause a whole lot of problems if you read Chronicle) that set off an automated system that could have seen Azeroth re-originated, meaning scrubbed of all life (Uldum, the facility that housed the origination device, was originally a lush jungle. The Tol'vir activated it on a low setting tens of thousands of years ago and the place is still an arid desert. Now imagine that on a planetary scale.)
But of course the main event was the Lich King, who planned to cull the heroes of Azeroth until he had the absolute finest and then raise them from the dead to serve as the generals of his campaign to sweep over the entire planet.
Probably the closest the planet came to being destroyed was Cataclysm. Deathwing, empowered and maddened by the Old Gods, set about undermining the very structure of the world, breaking barriers between the Elemental Planes.
We actually get to see a scenario in which he has succeeded in the End Time dungeon. The world seems totally dead - the only remnants of life are echoes of our lost heroes. Even Deathwing himself doesn't survive the Hour of Twilight.
The only truly living being we see is Murozond - the future, corrupted version of Nozdormu, who transformed his Bronze Dragonflight into the Infinite Dragonflight. Indeed, Nozdormu knows or at least thinks he knows that this is his eventual fate and actually aids players in what appears to be his own eventual demise.
I've addressed some of the complications here before - like the fact that we killed Murozond in a future that will no longer take place, which makes me wonder if he's still dead within the timeline. But what I'm concerned about now is Murozond's claim that he is preventing the "True End Time" by allowing Deathwing to destroy the world before we can get to that point.
According to the Dungeon Journal, Murozond has been corrupted by the Old Gods, much like Deathwing. So the huge caveat to all of this is that he might simply be operating on lies that they have told him.
That being said, let's assume that thanks to his time-travel abilities, Nozdormu really does know about a fate worse than a successful Hour of Twilight.
The immediate scenario to jump to is the Burning Legion taking Azeroth. The Legion wants to scour the universe of all life, but we discovered in Chronicle that there is an understandable, if insane, motivation for doing so. Sargeras wants to destroy Azeroth specifically because it A. is the host of a World-Soul, aka a nascent Titan and B. it is infected with Old Gods who could turn that Titan into a Dark Titan.
Sargeras is often called the Dark Titan, but it would be more accurate to call him a Fel Titan.
The Old Gods were created by the Void Lords - beings outside of our reality that are even more alien and incomprehensible than the Old Gods. The Old Gods were created in order to infect worlds with Shadow/Void energy. In theory, a World-Soul infected with this energy would become a Dark Titan. Given how dangerous the universe is when there have been benevolent Titans to shepherd it, consider how horrific it would be to have a Titan bent entirely toward evil. Ok, yes, Sargeras. But the thing is, Sargeras is motivated out of fear of this thing. Sargeras, a massive god the size of a planet who has fought and defeated demons for eons. Azeroth is different - the chaos of the elementals is a sign of this. On Draenor, despite being a planet full of incredibly dangerous flora and fauna, the elements get along pretty well. But Azeroth's world-soul has drained away so much of the "spirit" element that the elemental lords constantly try to war with one another.
Sargeras wants to kill Azeroth - not just the people on its surface, but the World-Soul within - before such an eventuality can come to pass.
So here's a question: how is the victory of the Old Gods at the Hour of Twilight preferable to the Burning Legion coming in and destroying Azeroth? Obviously neither's good for anyone living on the planet, but wouldn't Sargeras at least be succeeding in preventing something truly horrific from happening? Doesn't the universe stand a better chance fighting off Sargeras than a Dark Titan Azeroth?
If the Legion's arrival is the "True End Time," is it really worse?
I think there are three ways that it could be.
One is that we're wrong about what Murozond is talking about. That some other even more horrific thing is farther down the line for Azeroth. It's hard to imagine things worse than the Legion or the Old Gods winning. Maybe a back-to-evil Lich King allows the Shadowlands to swallow up the universe and death overtakes all things. Who knows.
A second is that we've been interpreting Deathwing's actions in Cataclysm all wrong. Yes, he has been driven to insanity by the Old Gods. But consider his methods - he basically was trying to scour the surface of the world using the powers of the elements. That sounds a little like what the Reorigination device was intended to do, so why didn't he... oh yeah, he totally did try to activate the re-origination device. That's what, like, half of the quests in Uldum are all about.
What if Deathwing wasn't actually trying to help the Old Gods? What if instead he was fighting back with the last little bit of Neltharion that remained within his mind to finally put a stop to the Old Gods on Azeroth? Oh, sure, he had to be stopped because he was going to kill everyone on the planet, but what if "End Time" is not actually a picture of the Old Gods triumphant, but instead a picture of an Azeroth that was burned to a cinder - mortals, dragons, Old Gods, and all. Perhaps what we were seeing was Deathwing succeeding where Sargeras has failed time and again.
Then there's a third scenario. Sargeras created the Burning Legion in order to fight the Void. He has an army of demons whose purpose is to burn away all life in the universe to save it from corruption.
That's his stated purpose. It might even still be what he believes.
But consider that Sargeras' main enemies when he was a part of the Pantheon were the very demons who he now commands. This is a guy who can compromise his principles when it suits his purposes. Sargeras has no compunction using the creatures he had previously considered the greatest threat to the universe.
So why the Fel is the Legion using so much Shadow magic?
The Legion's entire purpose is to prevent the Void from getting a foothold within the physical universe. Yet among its ranks are plenty of Voidwalkers and half of the magic the Legion uses is Shadow-based. If anything, that seems like it would do more to help the Void Lords than hinder them.
Consider also that the way that Sargeras found out about the Old Gods was that he found a Nathrezim serving them on another planet. Demons clearly have no problems working with Old Gods.
There are two explanations I can think of:
First is that Sargeras has totally lost perspective - he's gotten used to using his "enemies'" weapons and so using Shadow magic no longer sets off any red flags for him. In other words, he's gone insane, and it's possible that the Dreadlords have been manipulating him all this time, serving their true masters, the Void.
Alternatively, maybe we're giving Sargeras too much credit.
The thing that made Sargeras turn on his fellow Titans was not so much their disapproval of his destruction of a World Soul. No, it was when Aggramar told him that there was a World Soul that would be more powerful than any living Titan. Aggramar told him about Azeroth to try to encourage him and show him that there was hope for the future.
Instead, Sargeras cut him in half. For eons, Sargeras had been the mightiest of the Titans. He had been their star, their champion - more or less the most powerful being in the universe. And now he was confronted with the possibility that this "Azeroth" was going to outmatch him.
Perhaps Sargeras and all of his evil - the evil that led to the destruction of Draenor and countless other worlds, the rise of the Undead Scourge, the exile of the Draenei, and presumably billions if not trillions of deaths and countless souls corrupted or consumed - is born out of pettiness. Sargeras doesn't want to be upstaged by some new Titan.
And that explains why there is nothing Sargeras won't do to destroy Azeroth. Maybe he doesn't care about the Void or the Demons or anything else. He just wants Azeroth dead.
And Murozond might have seen that his actions lead to the exact thing he would fear most - a Dark Titan Azeroth who emerges and snuffs out all light in the universe.
Gul'dan, Auriel, and new Skins/Mounts Coming to Heroes of the Storm
Much as the Medivh trailer suggested, Gul'dan will be arriving in the Nexus (presumably next) to mess things up with the other heroes.
We don't have big mechanical details on the new heroes being added, but it appears Gul'dan will have a lot of shadow-based attacks, including what appears to be a "fear" style ability that sends enemies fleeing. He definitely looks like a ranged assassin or specialist, both of which would fit with his theme.
Gul'dan is delightfully colorful for a modern video game character - the color scheme seems based on his WCI&II appearances, though you can have his more muted brown robes as his secondary color scheme option. His master skin ditches the hood in favor of a big collar/mantle. His premium skin is basically the tier 12 Warlock set with its spider theme.
Next up is Auriel. It's high time we get another Diablo Angel. In terms of abilities, I think she's a melee character of some sort. She appears to have some snares, using her big ribbon things to attack foes. Just given her general theme, I would have guessed she was a support character, but the abilities we've seen - albeit briefly - suggest one of the other roles.
Auriel's master skin involves a mask over the usual black void that Angels have instead of faces, and her premium skin is a Demonic variant (which actually is a bit disappointing - Tyrael already has one of those. We should get a Naaru-themed angel!)
Additionally, there are new skins coming for existing characters:
Johanna is getting a Spellbreaker skin, making her look like one of the elite anti-magic Blood Elf fighters from Warcraft.
Arthas is getting the Mystic Kingdoms skin, which gives him a sort of Chinese wuxia look and replaces his icy attacks with jade (and also makes him look alive with a black beard - curious what his Army of the Dead will look like with this skin.)
Li-Ming is getting the Striker skin, which makes her look like a volleyball player. Her orb is replaced with a ball and her wand is now a trophy, and she's wearing comfortable gym clothing. Yes, Disintegrate becomes a rapid-fire burst of volleyballs.
Finally, there are some new mounts, like a matching horse for Mystic Kingdoms Arthas, an alternate Cyber Wolf, and a Hellsteed.
As great as Arthas is (he's my favorite Warcraft villain,) I wish some other heroes would get new skins. It's great that newer heroes like Johanna and Li-Ming are getting some love. Really I just want a new one for Xul.
We don't have big mechanical details on the new heroes being added, but it appears Gul'dan will have a lot of shadow-based attacks, including what appears to be a "fear" style ability that sends enemies fleeing. He definitely looks like a ranged assassin or specialist, both of which would fit with his theme.
Gul'dan is delightfully colorful for a modern video game character - the color scheme seems based on his WCI&II appearances, though you can have his more muted brown robes as his secondary color scheme option. His master skin ditches the hood in favor of a big collar/mantle. His premium skin is basically the tier 12 Warlock set with its spider theme.
Next up is Auriel. It's high time we get another Diablo Angel. In terms of abilities, I think she's a melee character of some sort. She appears to have some snares, using her big ribbon things to attack foes. Just given her general theme, I would have guessed she was a support character, but the abilities we've seen - albeit briefly - suggest one of the other roles.
Auriel's master skin involves a mask over the usual black void that Angels have instead of faces, and her premium skin is a Demonic variant (which actually is a bit disappointing - Tyrael already has one of those. We should get a Naaru-themed angel!)
Additionally, there are new skins coming for existing characters:
Johanna is getting a Spellbreaker skin, making her look like one of the elite anti-magic Blood Elf fighters from Warcraft.
Arthas is getting the Mystic Kingdoms skin, which gives him a sort of Chinese wuxia look and replaces his icy attacks with jade (and also makes him look alive with a black beard - curious what his Army of the Dead will look like with this skin.)
Li-Ming is getting the Striker skin, which makes her look like a volleyball player. Her orb is replaced with a ball and her wand is now a trophy, and she's wearing comfortable gym clothing. Yes, Disintegrate becomes a rapid-fire burst of volleyballs.
Finally, there are some new mounts, like a matching horse for Mystic Kingdoms Arthas, an alternate Cyber Wolf, and a Hellsteed.
As great as Arthas is (he's my favorite Warcraft villain,) I wish some other heroes would get new skins. It's great that newer heroes like Johanna and Li-Ming are getting some love. Really I just want a new one for Xul.
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