Blizzard has made a new post on their website detailing the upcoming Legion pre-patch.
EDIT 3: Up top because it's the most indicative of a release. The current PvP season is ending on July 19th. While Blizzard specifies that this does not require a patch, that strongly suggests that the patch will be the 19th. It is possible we'll see the 26th, especially because of this note about not needing a patch, but I think the 19th is more likely. See the bottom of the post for updates about the Grove Warden and when Demon Hunters will become playable.
Specifically, it lists the following features:
Class Changes:
I know I've said this for every expansion, but classes are changing more than they ever have this time around, with every spec getting stripped down to its core and often built back up with new mechanics. Survival went from being a ranged spec to a melee spec. Combat got renamed to Outlaw and now has a much stronger "pirate" theme. But even specs getting less visible changes are still changing quite a bit.
Transmogrification Changes:
One of the two game-changing features of 4.3, transmogrification is now far more alt- and bag-space-friendly in 7.0. A new tab has been added to the collections window called Appearances. Any time you get a new piece of soulbound gear (if it's BoE you'll have to equip it) that is appropriate to your class (so Hunters can't collect Cloth gear appearances,) you will forever have the look of that gear stored in your collection for any character on the account to transmog it (with racial and class restrictions accounted for.)
Burning Legion Invasion:
Several zones will be under assault from the Burning Legion, where players will have to fight off hordes of demons, receiving item level 700 gear, including weapons that can be further upgraded with a currency that can also be used to purchase gear and a new battle pet. I actually think there's other stuff to this too in the major cities as well, but I haven't seen it on the PTR yet.
Broken Shore Event:
There is a massive scenario sending you to the Broken Shore to make the first attempt of an assault on the Legion's base camp, which is followed by a quest line through your capital and gives you a taste of plot to come.
Demon Hunters Early Access:
In the coming weeks, players who have pre-purchased Legion will be able to start their Demon Hunter characters before the expansion proper launches. Demon Hunters begin at level 98 and will hit 100 in the course of their starting experience so that players who wish to take their Illidari heroes into the fray first can do so along with all the veteran characters.
It seems clear from the announcement that Demon Hunters will not be available the moment the patch hits, but likely only after a week or two of invasion. When exactly they will arrive is anyone's guess.
So When Is It?
That's really the question. Previously I suggested we'd be seeing it August 2nd or July 26th, but this announcement suggests to me that they might be getting ready for a launch soon. They could launch on the 12th, though that might be a little short-notice (for one thing they need to announce the end of the current PvP season ahead of time.) So I think the 19th is definitely within the realm of possibility.
Then, of course, there's Demon Hunters. Given that we don't know when the patch will hit, I think it's a stronger base of speculation to go by the expansion's release date and work backward. Considering that Cataclysm gave us two weeks with the new race-class combinations, I think the 16th of August is a solid possibility. That said, given that the Illidari play a big role in the Legion invasions and the city quest lines, it's also possible they'll try to get them available early (that said, these quest lines definitely treat the Illidari as new outsiders, and REDACTED sends you as an ambassador to them, which would be odd for someone who's already a member.
Anyway, get excited. And if you, like me, have not yet gotten your Grove Warden mount, now's the time to decide if you're still going to try. (The mount is gorgeous, but I don't think I have the patience to find/pay a group to take me.)
EDIT: A blue post just clarified that the Grove Warden will actually be available until the expansion itself launches, so you'll technically be able to get it on your Demon Hunter if you gear up quickly.
EDIT 2: Looking closer, the post specifies that Demon Hunters will be available no later than August 17th, which is two weeks before the expansion launch. They are giving themselves the opportunity to do it earlier, but for now I'd count this as the official launch for Demon Hunters to become playable (though maybe the 16th is more likely, as the 17th is a Wednesday and big patch-like things tend to be on Tuesdays.) But the key is, if you've pre-ordered, you will definitely be able to play your Demon Hunter in the two weeks leading up to the expansion's launch - plenty of time, I think, to get them caught up gear-wise, as I believe they start with 680 gear and the invasions give 700 gear.
Friday, July 8, 2016
Thursday, July 7, 2016
Level 1 in 7.0
Having run the risk of wearing out my enthusiasm for demonic invasions (though they are so much better for testing a spec than target dummies,) I decided to try leveling up a new character from level 1. I picked a Worgen Rogue - Worgen because Gilneas is my favorite starting zone and Rogue so I could be an Outlaw Pirate (which somehow fits Worgen really well.)
There's a bug preventing me from continuing, but I did manage to get to level 11, so let's see what we've got:
First off, all classes now start with a specialization picked out. Because there's way, way less overlap between abilities among the various specs, it would have been harder to have those first nine levels as a generic member of your class.
Rogues begin as Assassination, which retains a lot of the old Rogue themes. I also saw a Warlock questing around as Affliction, which again, is probably the closest to its classic incarnation of any of the Warlock specs.
They seem to have taken some care to make sure you get some core rotational abilities early. Rogues begin with Mutilate, and quickly get Deadly Poison at level 2 and then Envenom at level 3, which allows for you to do the most rudimentary version of the Assassination spec pretty early on.
You get Stealth and Evasion as well in these earliest levels, though Stealth is a little funny, as you don't actually have any stealth-based abilities for quite a while.
I also noticed they got rid of the Cataclysm-era "use your second ability, and here's how to talk to Class Trainers" quest, now that class trainers are almost entirely purposeless now. Maybe scratch the almost.
It may be simply that the PTR didn't copy over my heirlooms (though I did get the Chauffeured Mekgineer's Chopper,) but it seems as if enemies last a bit longer. I wouldn't be surprised if they buffed the health on low level mobs to counter the way that players deal way more damage than they used to.
Once you hit level 10, you gain the ability to change specs. In case you hadn't heard, players can now change specializations any time they could previously have chosen between their dual-specs, for no cost.
The alternate specs - Subtlety and Outlaw - both start with a comparable number of abilities to the ones that you had in Assassination. Outlaw has Saber Slash, Run Through, Stealth, and Riposte, and then gets Pistol Shot at level 11.
I suspect that specs with a vastly different weapon type might have an awkward period - a Hunter who chooses to go Survival, for instance, might still have to stick with the starting spec (I'm assuming Marksmanship, though I don't know that for a fact) until he or she can get a melee weapon, but they'll also have to know to switch specs before turning in quests to make sure that they get the right one. Granted, after switching to Outlaw I did find a quest that rewarded both a dagger and an axe, so perhaps you'll simply be given all the options your class can use.
Obviously, having played for just under ten years, I can't really put myself in the shoes of a totally new player, but the scratching of surface I've done here suggests that there is at least a decent introduction to basic class concepts early on here.
I didn't see what all the levels one gained new abilities were, but I think erring on the side of earlier is a good idea. Let the later levels bring in weird utility spells and the like, but let the class play like it's supposed to pretty early on.
There's a bug preventing me from continuing, but I did manage to get to level 11, so let's see what we've got:
First off, all classes now start with a specialization picked out. Because there's way, way less overlap between abilities among the various specs, it would have been harder to have those first nine levels as a generic member of your class.
Rogues begin as Assassination, which retains a lot of the old Rogue themes. I also saw a Warlock questing around as Affliction, which again, is probably the closest to its classic incarnation of any of the Warlock specs.
They seem to have taken some care to make sure you get some core rotational abilities early. Rogues begin with Mutilate, and quickly get Deadly Poison at level 2 and then Envenom at level 3, which allows for you to do the most rudimentary version of the Assassination spec pretty early on.
You get Stealth and Evasion as well in these earliest levels, though Stealth is a little funny, as you don't actually have any stealth-based abilities for quite a while.
I also noticed they got rid of the Cataclysm-era "use your second ability, and here's how to talk to Class Trainers" quest, now that class trainers are almost entirely purposeless now. Maybe scratch the almost.
It may be simply that the PTR didn't copy over my heirlooms (though I did get the Chauffeured Mekgineer's Chopper,) but it seems as if enemies last a bit longer. I wouldn't be surprised if they buffed the health on low level mobs to counter the way that players deal way more damage than they used to.
Once you hit level 10, you gain the ability to change specs. In case you hadn't heard, players can now change specializations any time they could previously have chosen between their dual-specs, for no cost.
The alternate specs - Subtlety and Outlaw - both start with a comparable number of abilities to the ones that you had in Assassination. Outlaw has Saber Slash, Run Through, Stealth, and Riposte, and then gets Pistol Shot at level 11.
I suspect that specs with a vastly different weapon type might have an awkward period - a Hunter who chooses to go Survival, for instance, might still have to stick with the starting spec (I'm assuming Marksmanship, though I don't know that for a fact) until he or she can get a melee weapon, but they'll also have to know to switch specs before turning in quests to make sure that they get the right one. Granted, after switching to Outlaw I did find a quest that rewarded both a dagger and an axe, so perhaps you'll simply be given all the options your class can use.
Obviously, having played for just under ten years, I can't really put myself in the shoes of a totally new player, but the scratching of surface I've done here suggests that there is at least a decent introduction to basic class concepts early on here.
I didn't see what all the levels one gained new abilities were, but I think erring on the side of earlier is a good idea. Let the later levels bring in weird utility spells and the like, but let the class play like it's supposed to pretty early on.
Wednesday, July 6, 2016
The Broken Shore Event
One of the major features of the pre-launch event for Legion is the Battle of the Broken Shore. This is a scenario that allows up to 80 players (40 Alliance and 40 Horde) to fight through the Broken Shore - the area of the Broken Isles with the Tomb of Sargeras, which will almost certainly be the final raid of the expansion (unless the third tier is a curveball, in which case it might be the second.)
Big things happen here, so I'm going to put this all under a spoiler tag. There are quests that immediately follow it, but they end kind of abruptly, so I wonder if there's more to come.
Anyway, spoiler break:
Big things happen here, so I'm going to put this all under a spoiler tag. There are quests that immediately follow it, but they end kind of abruptly, so I wonder if there's more to come.
Anyway, spoiler break:
Wizards, Sorcerers, and Magicians in 7.0
Almost every class is getting some serious reworking done in Legion. Even classes that aren't getting resource systems taken away or added are seeing some pretty big rotational shifts.
Mages, though? Mages are pretty much the same.
There are of course some shifts, but as a whole, Mages are coming out of 7.0 with most of the tools they had in 6.2. Given that all three specs are going to look pretty similar, I'm going to go over all of them in the same post.
Frost:
The biggest change you'll notice right off the bat is that Frostfire Bolt is gone. Instead, we have a pure-frost spell called Flurry. This has a similar cast time and also slows the target, but it sends out three little bursts of snow at our target, landing in quick succession. It is still made instant by Brain Freeze procs, so it really just steps right into the part of our rotation previously held by FFB.
There are some talent shifts as well. Splitting Ice is now a talent instead of a glyph, and shares a row with Ice Nova, giving you a somewhat tougher choice. Also, with Multistrike gone you'll have to look elsewhere for good stats. Multi was always kind of derided as "worse crit," but given how you could more or less soft-crit-cap with Shatter and Haste was devalued by all the instant spells the spec has, I really liked it for Frost. Oh well.
EDIT: Something I hadn't realized is that the new Brain Freeze, affecting Flurry, now also causes Flurry to debuff the target for just over a second to act as if it is frozen. So you can actually game this so that if you cast a Frostbolt while you've got Brain Freeze up and immediately follow it with Flurry and then Ice Lance, both the Frost Bolt (which travels slower than Flurry) and the Ice Lance will now benefit from that debuff, getting the Shatter bonus. So that's different.
Fire:
One big thing is that Ignite will now automatically spread to nearby targets, giving you plenty of passive cleave.
Flamestrike is also now made instant by Hot Streak, letting you work that into your AoE pretty easily.
Combustion is now a self-buff that gives you 100% crit chance - way easier to use, but perhaps less interesting.
Arcane:
The biggest change here is that your mastery now simply increases your max mana, instead of increasing the damage you do based on your percentage of max mana. So I suspect we're going to be seeing a lot more long-term Arcane Blast spams to do burst damage, and you'll only have to conserve mana to ensure you don't go OOM.
Still, fundamentally all three specs play more or less as they do on live. Frost is still about shattering your enemies with Ice Lance and Flurry, Fire's still about blasting the big Pyroblasts and lining up your crits, and Arcane is still about maxing those Arcane Charges (now tracked as a secondary resource, finally) to get in more damage at the cost of mana.
Mages, though? Mages are pretty much the same.
There are of course some shifts, but as a whole, Mages are coming out of 7.0 with most of the tools they had in 6.2. Given that all three specs are going to look pretty similar, I'm going to go over all of them in the same post.
Frost:
The biggest change you'll notice right off the bat is that Frostfire Bolt is gone. Instead, we have a pure-frost spell called Flurry. This has a similar cast time and also slows the target, but it sends out three little bursts of snow at our target, landing in quick succession. It is still made instant by Brain Freeze procs, so it really just steps right into the part of our rotation previously held by FFB.
There are some talent shifts as well. Splitting Ice is now a talent instead of a glyph, and shares a row with Ice Nova, giving you a somewhat tougher choice. Also, with Multistrike gone you'll have to look elsewhere for good stats. Multi was always kind of derided as "worse crit," but given how you could more or less soft-crit-cap with Shatter and Haste was devalued by all the instant spells the spec has, I really liked it for Frost. Oh well.
EDIT: Something I hadn't realized is that the new Brain Freeze, affecting Flurry, now also causes Flurry to debuff the target for just over a second to act as if it is frozen. So you can actually game this so that if you cast a Frostbolt while you've got Brain Freeze up and immediately follow it with Flurry and then Ice Lance, both the Frost Bolt (which travels slower than Flurry) and the Ice Lance will now benefit from that debuff, getting the Shatter bonus. So that's different.
Fire:
One big thing is that Ignite will now automatically spread to nearby targets, giving you plenty of passive cleave.
Flamestrike is also now made instant by Hot Streak, letting you work that into your AoE pretty easily.
Combustion is now a self-buff that gives you 100% crit chance - way easier to use, but perhaps less interesting.
Arcane:
The biggest change here is that your mastery now simply increases your max mana, instead of increasing the damage you do based on your percentage of max mana. So I suspect we're going to be seeing a lot more long-term Arcane Blast spams to do burst damage, and you'll only have to conserve mana to ensure you don't go OOM.
Still, fundamentally all three specs play more or less as they do on live. Frost is still about shattering your enemies with Ice Lance and Flurry, Fire's still about blasting the big Pyroblasts and lining up your crits, and Arcane is still about maxing those Arcane Charges (now tracked as a secondary resource, finally) to get in more damage at the cost of mana.
7.0 on the Background Downloader Today
While it is no longer there, the Legion pre-patch was temporarily up on the background downloader. What could this indicate?
(EDIT: It's back up! Still doesn't mean it's coming next week or anything.)
Well, Legion is now less than two months away, and so we're getting pretty close to the point where its pre-patch (7.0.3) should be coming out soon. There's a whole launch event this time, and some really huge class changes. The launch event is also going to include things that we've typically never gotten before the expansion itself launches - Demon Hunters will be playable for those who have already pre-purchased the expansion (it's not clear whether they'll be available immediately or if there will be some kind of unlocking later on, but I'm hoping for the former,) and we'll also get a big event scenario that actually takes place within the Broken Isles (this is a limited, instanced thing, so don't expect to go traipsing around Highmountain just yet.)
So how long will we go between 7.0 and Legion's actual launch? Let's look at the historical record!
Warlords:
October 14th - November 13th
Warlords' pre-patch lasted almost exactly a month before the expansion came out, which I think is more or less typical.
Mists of Pandaria:
August 28th - September 25th
Again, almost exactly a month. Mists had the smallest pre-expansion event of any expansion, consisting solely of a single scenario, the Fall of Theramore, to be played at level 85.
Cataclysm:
September 7th -October 12th - November 23rd - December 7th
This one is complicated by the fact that Cataclysm had three major patches pre-launch. The first involved essentially no real changes to the game itself, but had events for the Alliance and Horde to reclaim Gnomeregan and the Echo Isles (respectively,) justifying the eventual new starting locaitons for Troll and Gnome characters. The second was the systems change - its alterations of talent trees and such, which also included the Elemental Unrest launch event in which players infiltrated Twilight's Hammer and fought elementals coming out of various rifts throughout Azeroth, culminating in special 5-player boss fights with ICC-quality gear drops - and then the Shattering itself, which unlocked new race-class combinations and brought about the changes the the Old World with its new quests and ability to fly.
So, not counting the Echoe Isles and Gnomeregan events, this was nearly two months of pre-patch, with two weeks allowing for players to try the new quests.
Wrath:
October 14th - November 13th
Once again, almost exactly a month.
BC:
December 5th to January 16th
The first expansion got about an extra week of pre-patch, but once again we have about a month.
So, with that history in mind, let's think about 7.0.
The only case in which there has been significantly more than a month of pre-patch was Cataclysm, though this was due largely to the massive transformation of the old world. In a sense, the post-shattering patch was sort of the true launch of the expansion, while its "launch" was the unlocking of new zones and races. Cataclysm also had the most complex and ambitious launch event of any expansion to date, so giving that a little more time may have been the wise choice.
Legion is certainly a return to form in terms of launch events (though I don't know if there are quests that simply haven't been unlocked on the PTR - being unable to complete the Broken Shore scenario is a big limitation) but I still don't think it will quite match Cataclysm's massive overhaul.
So let's assume that it's four weeks of pre-patch, like most expansions have gotten. That puts 7.0's release on August 2nd. There's wiggle-room there, to be sure. An extra week of pre-patch would put it at July 26th. Two weeks would be July 19th. But I think that they're highly unlikely to launch earlier than that, as they want to keep the momentum of enthusiasm rolling for the expansion itself.
So, my proverbial money is on August 2nd. Which is too bad, as I'm out of town then.
(EDIT: It's back up! Still doesn't mean it's coming next week or anything.)
Well, Legion is now less than two months away, and so we're getting pretty close to the point where its pre-patch (7.0.3) should be coming out soon. There's a whole launch event this time, and some really huge class changes. The launch event is also going to include things that we've typically never gotten before the expansion itself launches - Demon Hunters will be playable for those who have already pre-purchased the expansion (it's not clear whether they'll be available immediately or if there will be some kind of unlocking later on, but I'm hoping for the former,) and we'll also get a big event scenario that actually takes place within the Broken Isles (this is a limited, instanced thing, so don't expect to go traipsing around Highmountain just yet.)
So how long will we go between 7.0 and Legion's actual launch? Let's look at the historical record!
Warlords:
October 14th - November 13th
Warlords' pre-patch lasted almost exactly a month before the expansion came out, which I think is more or less typical.
Mists of Pandaria:
August 28th - September 25th
Again, almost exactly a month. Mists had the smallest pre-expansion event of any expansion, consisting solely of a single scenario, the Fall of Theramore, to be played at level 85.
Cataclysm:
September 7th -October 12th - November 23rd - December 7th
This one is complicated by the fact that Cataclysm had three major patches pre-launch. The first involved essentially no real changes to the game itself, but had events for the Alliance and Horde to reclaim Gnomeregan and the Echo Isles (respectively,) justifying the eventual new starting locaitons for Troll and Gnome characters. The second was the systems change - its alterations of talent trees and such, which also included the Elemental Unrest launch event in which players infiltrated Twilight's Hammer and fought elementals coming out of various rifts throughout Azeroth, culminating in special 5-player boss fights with ICC-quality gear drops - and then the Shattering itself, which unlocked new race-class combinations and brought about the changes the the Old World with its new quests and ability to fly.
So, not counting the Echoe Isles and Gnomeregan events, this was nearly two months of pre-patch, with two weeks allowing for players to try the new quests.
Wrath:
October 14th - November 13th
Once again, almost exactly a month.
BC:
December 5th to January 16th
The first expansion got about an extra week of pre-patch, but once again we have about a month.
So, with that history in mind, let's think about 7.0.
The only case in which there has been significantly more than a month of pre-patch was Cataclysm, though this was due largely to the massive transformation of the old world. In a sense, the post-shattering patch was sort of the true launch of the expansion, while its "launch" was the unlocking of new zones and races. Cataclysm also had the most complex and ambitious launch event of any expansion to date, so giving that a little more time may have been the wise choice.
Legion is certainly a return to form in terms of launch events (though I don't know if there are quests that simply haven't been unlocked on the PTR - being unable to complete the Broken Shore scenario is a big limitation) but I still don't think it will quite match Cataclysm's massive overhaul.
So let's assume that it's four weeks of pre-patch, like most expansions have gotten. That puts 7.0's release on August 2nd. There's wiggle-room there, to be sure. An extra week of pre-patch would put it at July 26th. Two weeks would be July 19th. But I think that they're highly unlikely to launch earlier than that, as they want to keep the momentum of enthusiasm rolling for the expansion itself.
So, my proverbial money is on August 2nd. Which is too bad, as I'm out of town then.
Specs of Choice in Legion
As the title of the blog suggests, I play characters of each class. Since Cataclysm I've always gotten each class up to the level cap (Wrath was 9/10, as I just couldn't finish up the Priest.) I'm not much of a raider (our guild doesn't even tend to finish Normal modes,) and there are definitely some classes I spend way more time on than others. My Priest and Druid, for example, hit level 100 and more or less just chilled there, my goal accomplished. But I do like to play each class at least up to the level cap, and that means picking a spec. So what spec am I finding most exciting for Legion?
Paladin: Protection
This one's kind of obvious. I'm my guild's most veteran tank and my Paladin has been my main since Burning Crusade, always mainspeccing tank. I am certain I'll play plenty of Retribution while soloing, and I want to get my Ashbringer buffed up decently, but I really have to imagine that my main guy will stay Prot.
Death Knight: Frost
I might find myself going blood more often if queues for DPS get absurd (as they tend to,) and I'll admit that I've felt a little... negligent running as Frost for basically two expansions now. But even though they've eliminated two-handed frost in Legion (technically I think you can still play it that way before getting your artifact, but it really looks like they're putting 2H on the chopping block,) they're keeping its Obliterate-focused rotation (the version of Frost I always liked better) and the artifact weapon is (essentially) freaking Frostmourne, so I kind of have to, right?
Warrior: Arms
This one's a bit of a tough call, and I might go back and instead run as Fury. Mainly I'm just overjoyed that Arms once again makes sense as a rotation. It's a little simplistic, maybe, but Tactician seriously makes this spec come alive again. Still, Fury does look cool and I think I actually prefer the look of its artifact weapon set, so don't hold me to this one.
Hunter: Beast Mastery
My Hunter has been BM for a good long while now, and I don't see that changing soon. I'll admit that there's also a major factor in the fact that its artifact weapon is a gun. My Hunter is a dwarf, and he doesn't like those flimsy little bows. He wants a big "BOOM" every time he pulls the trigger (I actually did a minor hack on my own game files to change the sound effects back from the airsoft sound they introduced in Warlords.) It's a pain that while Titanstrike has alternate bow and crossbow skins, the Marks bow can only be changed to a crossbow.
Shaman: Enhancement
Not only has my Shaman been Enhancement since vanilla (though admittedly I was playing more with my dwarf shaman in Mists, who is Elemental,) but we also get the freaking Doomhammer as the artifact weapon. Sold. Also I'm really liking the radical redesign of the spec.
Druid: Guardian
Yes, my Druid hasn't been a tank for a good long time, but the tweaks to the rotation have got my attention. I'm never really satisfied with any of the Druid specs, but if I can have fun tanking on it, that's always going to feel pretty good.
Rogue: Subtlety
As I said in a previous post, Subtlety in Legion is finally the spec I always wanted it to be, from way back in vanilla. That being said, I also love how Outlaw has replaced the most boring Rogue spec with something that has some real personality, so I'm certainly going to pick up those artifacts (and if, like in Mists and Cataclysm, I level up multiple toons of the same class, my Worgen Rogue will absolutely be a pirate.)
Monk: Brewmaster
Like my Paladin, this guy has always been a tank. I see no reason to stop now, especially now that they've finally made Breath of Fire worth using in the rotation.
Demon Hunter: Vengeance
Big caveat here: I'm going to play both specs and get a feel for which I like more. I generally default to tanking just because of the obvious benefits (want to run a dungeon? Run a dungeon now!) But I also get the impression that there's plenty of interesting stuff going on with the spec. Admittedly, I think the Havoc artifact looks better, but I'll try both.
Warlock: Demonology
It's my default Warlock spec, and even though it has changed almost entirely, I like the new Demo too. Plus I kind of find Destro and Aff boring. I only wish there were something in the spec that was affected by my Codex of Xerrath. At least I have the Black Harvest title.
Mage: Frost
This is the one spec that has almost no changes whatsoever, especially now that they've introduced Flurry to take the place of Frostfire Bolt. I'll miss FFB, as it was maybe the prettiest spell in the game (possibly tied with Arcane Barrage,) but I think the spec should survive just fine.
Priest: Shadow
Kind of by default, as I'm not really into healing. I might experiment with Discipline, but I have no idea how Blizzard is going to balance that spec, especially for 5-player content.
Paladin: Protection
This one's kind of obvious. I'm my guild's most veteran tank and my Paladin has been my main since Burning Crusade, always mainspeccing tank. I am certain I'll play plenty of Retribution while soloing, and I want to get my Ashbringer buffed up decently, but I really have to imagine that my main guy will stay Prot.
Death Knight: Frost
I might find myself going blood more often if queues for DPS get absurd (as they tend to,) and I'll admit that I've felt a little... negligent running as Frost for basically two expansions now. But even though they've eliminated two-handed frost in Legion (technically I think you can still play it that way before getting your artifact, but it really looks like they're putting 2H on the chopping block,) they're keeping its Obliterate-focused rotation (the version of Frost I always liked better) and the artifact weapon is (essentially) freaking Frostmourne, so I kind of have to, right?
Warrior: Arms
This one's a bit of a tough call, and I might go back and instead run as Fury. Mainly I'm just overjoyed that Arms once again makes sense as a rotation. It's a little simplistic, maybe, but Tactician seriously makes this spec come alive again. Still, Fury does look cool and I think I actually prefer the look of its artifact weapon set, so don't hold me to this one.
Hunter: Beast Mastery
My Hunter has been BM for a good long while now, and I don't see that changing soon. I'll admit that there's also a major factor in the fact that its artifact weapon is a gun. My Hunter is a dwarf, and he doesn't like those flimsy little bows. He wants a big "BOOM" every time he pulls the trigger (I actually did a minor hack on my own game files to change the sound effects back from the airsoft sound they introduced in Warlords.) It's a pain that while Titanstrike has alternate bow and crossbow skins, the Marks bow can only be changed to a crossbow.
Shaman: Enhancement
Not only has my Shaman been Enhancement since vanilla (though admittedly I was playing more with my dwarf shaman in Mists, who is Elemental,) but we also get the freaking Doomhammer as the artifact weapon. Sold. Also I'm really liking the radical redesign of the spec.
Druid: Guardian
Yes, my Druid hasn't been a tank for a good long time, but the tweaks to the rotation have got my attention. I'm never really satisfied with any of the Druid specs, but if I can have fun tanking on it, that's always going to feel pretty good.
Rogue: Subtlety
As I said in a previous post, Subtlety in Legion is finally the spec I always wanted it to be, from way back in vanilla. That being said, I also love how Outlaw has replaced the most boring Rogue spec with something that has some real personality, so I'm certainly going to pick up those artifacts (and if, like in Mists and Cataclysm, I level up multiple toons of the same class, my Worgen Rogue will absolutely be a pirate.)
Monk: Brewmaster
Like my Paladin, this guy has always been a tank. I see no reason to stop now, especially now that they've finally made Breath of Fire worth using in the rotation.
Demon Hunter: Vengeance
Big caveat here: I'm going to play both specs and get a feel for which I like more. I generally default to tanking just because of the obvious benefits (want to run a dungeon? Run a dungeon now!) But I also get the impression that there's plenty of interesting stuff going on with the spec. Admittedly, I think the Havoc artifact looks better, but I'll try both.
Warlock: Demonology
It's my default Warlock spec, and even though it has changed almost entirely, I like the new Demo too. Plus I kind of find Destro and Aff boring. I only wish there were something in the spec that was affected by my Codex of Xerrath. At least I have the Black Harvest title.
Mage: Frost
This is the one spec that has almost no changes whatsoever, especially now that they've introduced Flurry to take the place of Frostfire Bolt. I'll miss FFB, as it was maybe the prettiest spell in the game (possibly tied with Arcane Barrage,) but I think the spec should survive just fine.
Priest: Shadow
Kind of by default, as I'm not really into healing. I might experiment with Discipline, but I have no idea how Blizzard is going to balance that spec, especially for 5-player content.
Tuesday, July 5, 2016
Bearing Arms in 7.0
Well, thankfully Arms is starting to look a little more like it did in Mists of Pandaria. The spec is still relatively simple, but most specs are getting trimmed down that way.
So what have we got?
Rage Generation:
None of your abilities actually generate Rage, but at least on my transferred-over Arms Warrior (who, with some demonic invasion gear, is ilevel 692) I've been getting enough Rage that it's very rare that I run out.
Colossus Smashing:
Colossus Smash is still a core part of the rotation, but they've brought back the proc passive, called Tactician now instead of Sudden Death, which will give you a chance based on Rage spent to reset the cooldown of both Colossus Smash (which is baseline 45 seconds) as well as Mortal Strike (baseline 6 seconds modified by haste.) Colossus Smash no longer has you ignore armor, instead it simply increases the damage you do, which I presume will be easier to tune, especially in PvP.
Your new Mastery, Colossal Might, increases both the damage of Colossus Smash as well as the damage bonus, so this is a pretty central thing.
Mortal Striking:
Mortal Strike is the center of your rotation, hitting harder than anything else except Execute. It's on a six-second cooldown, but you'll always have it up when you get a Tactician proc. It still applies a healing debuff and costs 20 Rage.
Slamming?:
When Mortal Strike is on cooldown and you have Rage to burn, your single target option is Slam. This does not do as much damage, but it has no cooldown and costs 15 Rage. This is absolutely a filler, but it's nice to see it back in the core rotation.
AoE:
You don't have a ton of AoE abilities, but you can play a little bit in talents.
Whirlwind is your main AoE Rage dump, basically just taking the place of Slam in your rotation. You also get Cleave, which is on a 6 second (reduced by Haste) cooldown and costs only 10 Rage. Cleave hits any number of targets, and it will buff your Whirlwind to do 20% more damage per target hit, up to 5 stacks (so in a group with five enemies, you can get it to hit twice as hard.) There is also a talent that makes Mortal Strike and Execute cleave to another target (man, are we going to have to start using a different term for Cleave damage now that Cleave is straight up AoE?)
Customizing:
There's lots of abilities you can add to the rotation through talents, like Overpower (similar to how it used to work,) Rend (likewise,) and Focused Rage (a stacking buff you apply to your next Mortal Strike.) It's still not super-complicated, but there's definitely more finesse you can work into the spec now, and it has very strong survivability while soloing.
So what have we got?
Rage Generation:
None of your abilities actually generate Rage, but at least on my transferred-over Arms Warrior (who, with some demonic invasion gear, is ilevel 692) I've been getting enough Rage that it's very rare that I run out.
Colossus Smashing:
Colossus Smash is still a core part of the rotation, but they've brought back the proc passive, called Tactician now instead of Sudden Death, which will give you a chance based on Rage spent to reset the cooldown of both Colossus Smash (which is baseline 45 seconds) as well as Mortal Strike (baseline 6 seconds modified by haste.) Colossus Smash no longer has you ignore armor, instead it simply increases the damage you do, which I presume will be easier to tune, especially in PvP.
Your new Mastery, Colossal Might, increases both the damage of Colossus Smash as well as the damage bonus, so this is a pretty central thing.
Mortal Striking:
Mortal Strike is the center of your rotation, hitting harder than anything else except Execute. It's on a six-second cooldown, but you'll always have it up when you get a Tactician proc. It still applies a healing debuff and costs 20 Rage.
Slamming?:
When Mortal Strike is on cooldown and you have Rage to burn, your single target option is Slam. This does not do as much damage, but it has no cooldown and costs 15 Rage. This is absolutely a filler, but it's nice to see it back in the core rotation.
AoE:
You don't have a ton of AoE abilities, but you can play a little bit in talents.
Whirlwind is your main AoE Rage dump, basically just taking the place of Slam in your rotation. You also get Cleave, which is on a 6 second (reduced by Haste) cooldown and costs only 10 Rage. Cleave hits any number of targets, and it will buff your Whirlwind to do 20% more damage per target hit, up to 5 stacks (so in a group with five enemies, you can get it to hit twice as hard.) There is also a talent that makes Mortal Strike and Execute cleave to another target (man, are we going to have to start using a different term for Cleave damage now that Cleave is straight up AoE?)
Customizing:
There's lots of abilities you can add to the rotation through talents, like Overpower (similar to how it used to work,) Rend (likewise,) and Focused Rage (a stacking buff you apply to your next Mortal Strike.) It's still not super-complicated, but there's definitely more finesse you can work into the spec now, and it has very strong survivability while soloing.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)