Hey, do you play a Survival Hunter? Do you think you'll be able to wing it when 7.0 arrives, coasting on knowledge of how the spec has functioned in the past? Guess what. You won't.
While Combat got renamed to Outlaw, Survival is the spec that has undergone the most radical redesign of any spec in the game. Throw out absolutely everything you know about Survival in a pre-7.0 world, because this is a brave new world - one in which you have to get up close and personal.
This entry might be a bit longer, as there's a whole lot to cover. In other posts I've glossed over cooldowns and mechanics that are only slightly different, but Survival doesn't really have small changes.
Set Down Your Gun and Pick Up a Spear!:
Survival is now a melee spec. Every other major change to the spec flows from this huge change. No longer will you be standing at the periphery of fights, pewing and pewing away at a boss that is far away. Survival Hunters get in close.
When you log in after 7.0 drops, you'll get a Polearm in the mail, but this thing is only something like item level 655. I'd recommend that you get 30,000 Apexis Crystals together and get yourself a Baleful weapon and Empowered Apexis Crystal (or whatever that thing is called) so that you can have a 695 piece ready, or if you're in a regular raiding group, the next time a polearm drops, ask your guildies if you can pick it up for when the patch drops.
The rest of your gear should be fine. It's just the weapon.
Mongoose Bite:
The central ability to Survival is Mongoose Bite, which actually costs no Focus. The ability has three charges, with a 12 second recharge reduced by haste. When you hit Mongoose Bite, you gain a buff, increasing the damage dealt by Mongoose Bite by 50%, stacking up to a maximum of 6 times, and lasting 12 seconds. The wrinkle here is that successive Bites will not refresh the duration of the buff. So once you have that first stack, it will fall off after 12 seconds no matter how many stacks you build to.
Various passives and abilities will give you more charges of Mongoose Bite, and so maximizing the damage of the spec will largely revolve around getting as many Mongoose Bites into that 12-second window as you can. You'll also want to conserve charges when the buff runs out so that you have the full three charges to strike with next time you go into your Mongoose phase.
Your Mastery, Hunting Companion, will give your pet a chance on its attacks to give you a charge of Mongoose Bite.
Flanking Strike:
Flanking Strike is sort of like Survival's version of Kill Command. You'll still have a pet with you in all situations, and using this ability will have the two of you strike the target at the same time. If the target is attacking you, your pet will do 50% more damage and 400% more threat. If the target is not, you'll do 50% extra damage. This ability also has a double chance to trigger Hunting Companion.
Lacerate:
This is a 12-second bleed on a 10-second cooldown - this one unaffected by haste (you'll be able to see this by having a green cooldown number if it is affected.) As such, you'll simply maintain this on your target. Multi-dotting doesn't seem possible, as you'll be able to get at most a 2-second overlap.
Raptor Strike:
When you have more than enough focus to use Flanking Strike on cooldown and maintain Lacerate, you can burn 25 Focus on Raptor Strike. Easy peasy.
Carve:
A simple AoE attack, this costs 40 Focus and probably gets swapped in for Raptor Strike in multi-target situations.
Harpoon:
Instead of Disengage, Harpoon will take you to the target. It's functionally almost exactly like a Warrior's Charge.
Explosive Trap:
Unlike the other two traps you'll have, Explosive Trap will automatically get tossed right in front of you. It will only trigger if something walks over it, but of course if you toss it at an enemy in melee, it'll go off immediately. It has a 30 second cooldown, making it a major part of your AoE rotation.
Hatchet Toss:
A simple ranged attack, this is something you'll use when you can't get in range, similar to Poisoned Knife or Shuriken Toss for Rogues.
Aspect of the Eagle:
This is your major 2-min dps cooldown. It increases your crit chance by 10% and increases your chance to gain Mongoose Bite charges by 100% for 10 seconds.
Other Aspects:
Like all Hunters, Aspect of the Cheetah is a Sprint ability now and Aspect of the Turtle more or less is Deterrence, and both are available to all specs.
The Traps Are All Yours:
Having Freezing Trap and Tar Trap (which is just the old Frost Trap, slowing those it hits) may not seem like a big deal, but these are now the exclusive domain of Survival. Freezing Trap and Tar Trap can be turned into Steel Trap and Caltrops, respectively, via talents. Explosive Trap will simply be tossed forward when you hit the button, but Freezing and Tar will automatically have the functionality of "Trap Launcher," allowing you to throw them where they're needed.
I Will Survive:
It's almost a brand-new spec, and I expect that there are going to be mixed opinions. Those who loved the old Survival might want to check out Marksmanship, which gets some of its old mechanics. The good news is that if you love your Hunter but are getting tired of plinking at enemies from afar, you can switch to Survival and get a different perspective on combat.
I actually think this was a great move on Blizzard's part, not only creating a very serious distinction between the three Hunter specs, but also making another class get the option to DPS at range or in melee, which previously had been limited to only Druids and Shamans. Frankly, while I adore the 7.0 Subtlety Rogue, I think it would have been a smart move to give Rogues a ranged spec in Legion, perhaps making their artifact a Crossbow to round things out. Being an outdoorsy wilderness person doesn't mean you can only exclusively use ranged attacks, and it would seem that some assassins and spies might occasionally want to strike from a distance, perhaps in a dark alcove where they cannot be seen.
Perhaps in the next expansion, if the transition for Survival proves popular, they might consider this (though I wouldn't hold my breath, especially after the major changes to Subtlety and Outlaw.)
Sunday, July 10, 2016
Throwing Shade (and Void) in 7.0
So first the big caveat I always feel I should start with when I talk about Priests. Of the eleven classes in WoW, Priests are the one I have played the least. I got mine to level 100 and then more or less dropped him. But I did get him to 100, so I have some sense of how the class works.
Shadow is one of the specs that has gotten a new resource system, and the spec's connection to the Old Gods, which has only been strongly implied before now, has become basically explicit. So let's get into things.
Insane in the Membrane:
Much like Balance Druids and DPS Shamans, Shadow Priests still have a mana bar, but it has been bumped down under the main resource bar to make way for Insanity. Yes, Shadow Priests channel their own craziness to attack their foes. Insanity is a very unusual resource in that almost all of your abilities generate it, rather than spending it. In a sense, it works a little like Demonic Fury did for Demonology Warlocks in Mists and Warlords, but not exactly. We'll get into its mechanics in a moment. It's represented by a bluish-lavender bar under your health bar.
Shadowform Gone/Always On:
Shadow Priests will now always be in Shadowform, meaning that in a sense, the ability no longer exists. However, cosmetically, Shadow Priests will be darkened and translucent at all times. I also believe that the more Insanity you have, the darker the effect will be.
Keeping the flavor of being unable to cast Light-based spells, you now have a new heal called Shadow Mend (something we've been seeing enemy NPCs cast since vanilla,) which heals for a large amount and then, if you're in combat, puts a DoT on you until you've taken half of the heal's amount in damage (from any source - the DoT itself or external damage.) Outside of combat, this is just a straight heal, and there's a talent early on that changes the DoT component to a HoT. You also have Power Word: Shield, which counts as an in-between, Discipline-type spell.
Core Rotation Looks Similar:
Many of your core spells are going to be pretty much the same. You'll still be DoT-ing up your targets with Shadow Word: Pain and Vampiric Touch, and you'll still be hitting them with Mind Blast and filling in with Mind Flay (which can be replaced with Mind Spike with a talent at level 100.) All of these abilities generate Insanity, with the DoTs doing it on cast and every time they tick. Your little Shadowfiend summon is still a DPS cooldown, and it will now generate Insanity for you each time it hits the target.
Goodbye, Shadow Orbs, Hello, Void Form:
Shadow Orbs are gone, as is Devouring Plague. You're no longer focused on building to this major DoT. Instead, you'll try to get your Insanity to 100, at which point you'll hit Void Eruption. Void Eruption deals damage to any targets affected by your DoTs and then puts you in Void Form.
Void Form will begin to consume your Insanity. It starts off slow, but the longer you're in the form, the faster it will drain away the resource. The more spells you're able to cast and the more DoTs you're able to maintain, the more Insanity you'll generate to maintain the form. When your Insanity hits zero, you'll exit the form.
Void Form does a couple things. First, it increases your damage dealt by 20%. Your Mind Blast also has its cooldown reduced by 3 seconds. You gain 1% Haste every second while it's active, and after Void Form ends, you retain that stacked haste buff for one minute.
Finally, Void Form transforms Void Eruption into Void Bolt, which is instant-cast, dealing damage to the target and refreshing the duration of your two major DoTs.
The New Shadow:
So while it's not as radically different as, say, Survival Hunters, Shadow does work pretty differently. You're going to want to maximize Insanity generation both in and out of Void Form, but particularly within it, to try to get that Lingering Insanity haste buff to stack as high as possible. If you manage to stay in Void Form long enough (I want to say 15 haste stacks) you'll even start to sprout tentacles, which is pretty awesome/freaky.
So that's the basic gist of the changes to Shadow. And as we say in the Void, Iä! Iä! N'Zoth fhtagn! Ph'nglui mglw'nfah N'zoth Ny'alotha wgah'nagl fhtagn!
EDIT: I also feel I need to draw attention to the most ridiculous talent in the entire game: Surrender to Madness. This is a highly impractical, but potentially powerful niche ability that is the only ability in the game (now that Divine Intervention has been gone for a while) that actually kills you.
The ability has a 10-minute cooldown (I'm currently waiting on its cooldown to switch to a different talent on the PTR) and causes your Insanity-generating abilities to generate 200% more Insanity (so three times their normal amount.) It also allows you to cast while moving until you exit Void Form (I actually don't know what happens if you cast it before using Void Form, or what happens if you never enter Void Form while it's active - though if you didn't, what would be the point of the ability?) after which you die. Horribly.
Dying Horribly means that you can not be battle-rezzed. You get this insane burst of damage and you can maintain the Void Form buff for a good long time (I had like four or five tentacles waving around me by the end) but you better be near the end of the fight, because you are not getting back into it. The debuff on you when you're dead lasts a couple minutes, so theoretically if you used this early on, you might be able to get rezzed later on, but I can't imagine being dead for several minutes of the fight is a DPS gain. I think the only really practical time to use this is if you have a really tough burn phase at the end of a boss fight - something like Professor Putricide, where you just need to pour out as much damage as you possibly can or the raid will get overwhelmed. During that period, a Shadow Priest who surrenders to madness might be able to very significantly increase the damage he or she causes, and once the boss is dead, your buddies can just rez you when it's time to distribute loot.
Shadow is one of the specs that has gotten a new resource system, and the spec's connection to the Old Gods, which has only been strongly implied before now, has become basically explicit. So let's get into things.
Insane in the Membrane:
Much like Balance Druids and DPS Shamans, Shadow Priests still have a mana bar, but it has been bumped down under the main resource bar to make way for Insanity. Yes, Shadow Priests channel their own craziness to attack their foes. Insanity is a very unusual resource in that almost all of your abilities generate it, rather than spending it. In a sense, it works a little like Demonic Fury did for Demonology Warlocks in Mists and Warlords, but not exactly. We'll get into its mechanics in a moment. It's represented by a bluish-lavender bar under your health bar.
Shadowform Gone/Always On:
Shadow Priests will now always be in Shadowform, meaning that in a sense, the ability no longer exists. However, cosmetically, Shadow Priests will be darkened and translucent at all times. I also believe that the more Insanity you have, the darker the effect will be.
Keeping the flavor of being unable to cast Light-based spells, you now have a new heal called Shadow Mend (something we've been seeing enemy NPCs cast since vanilla,) which heals for a large amount and then, if you're in combat, puts a DoT on you until you've taken half of the heal's amount in damage (from any source - the DoT itself or external damage.) Outside of combat, this is just a straight heal, and there's a talent early on that changes the DoT component to a HoT. You also have Power Word: Shield, which counts as an in-between, Discipline-type spell.
Core Rotation Looks Similar:
Many of your core spells are going to be pretty much the same. You'll still be DoT-ing up your targets with Shadow Word: Pain and Vampiric Touch, and you'll still be hitting them with Mind Blast and filling in with Mind Flay (which can be replaced with Mind Spike with a talent at level 100.) All of these abilities generate Insanity, with the DoTs doing it on cast and every time they tick. Your little Shadowfiend summon is still a DPS cooldown, and it will now generate Insanity for you each time it hits the target.
Goodbye, Shadow Orbs, Hello, Void Form:
Shadow Orbs are gone, as is Devouring Plague. You're no longer focused on building to this major DoT. Instead, you'll try to get your Insanity to 100, at which point you'll hit Void Eruption. Void Eruption deals damage to any targets affected by your DoTs and then puts you in Void Form.
Void Form will begin to consume your Insanity. It starts off slow, but the longer you're in the form, the faster it will drain away the resource. The more spells you're able to cast and the more DoTs you're able to maintain, the more Insanity you'll generate to maintain the form. When your Insanity hits zero, you'll exit the form.
Void Form does a couple things. First, it increases your damage dealt by 20%. Your Mind Blast also has its cooldown reduced by 3 seconds. You gain 1% Haste every second while it's active, and after Void Form ends, you retain that stacked haste buff for one minute.
Finally, Void Form transforms Void Eruption into Void Bolt, which is instant-cast, dealing damage to the target and refreshing the duration of your two major DoTs.
The New Shadow:
So while it's not as radically different as, say, Survival Hunters, Shadow does work pretty differently. You're going to want to maximize Insanity generation both in and out of Void Form, but particularly within it, to try to get that Lingering Insanity haste buff to stack as high as possible. If you manage to stay in Void Form long enough (I want to say 15 haste stacks) you'll even start to sprout tentacles, which is pretty awesome/freaky.
So that's the basic gist of the changes to Shadow. And as we say in the Void, Iä! Iä! N'Zoth fhtagn! Ph'nglui mglw'nfah N'zoth Ny'alotha wgah'nagl fhtagn!
EDIT: I also feel I need to draw attention to the most ridiculous talent in the entire game: Surrender to Madness. This is a highly impractical, but potentially powerful niche ability that is the only ability in the game (now that Divine Intervention has been gone for a while) that actually kills you.
The ability has a 10-minute cooldown (I'm currently waiting on its cooldown to switch to a different talent on the PTR) and causes your Insanity-generating abilities to generate 200% more Insanity (so three times their normal amount.) It also allows you to cast while moving until you exit Void Form (I actually don't know what happens if you cast it before using Void Form, or what happens if you never enter Void Form while it's active - though if you didn't, what would be the point of the ability?) after which you die. Horribly.
Dying Horribly means that you can not be battle-rezzed. You get this insane burst of damage and you can maintain the Void Form buff for a good long time (I had like four or five tentacles waving around me by the end) but you better be near the end of the fight, because you are not getting back into it. The debuff on you when you're dead lasts a couple minutes, so theoretically if you used this early on, you might be able to get rezzed later on, but I can't imagine being dead for several minutes of the fight is a DPS gain. I think the only really practical time to use this is if you have a really tough burn phase at the end of a boss fight - something like Professor Putricide, where you just need to pour out as much damage as you possibly can or the raid will get overwhelmed. During that period, a Shadow Priest who surrenders to madness might be able to very significantly increase the damage he or she causes, and once the boss is dead, your buddies can just rez you when it's time to distribute loot.
Protecting with the Light in 7.0
I guess given that it's my main spec and it's going through some big changes, we should probably talk about Protection Paladins. There's plenty of nit and grit to get into here, but I'm going to try to keep it relatively simple.
Holy Power Gone:
Yes, Holy Power is now a Retribution-only feature. So how do we actually work then? The main thing is that Shield of the Righteous, which remains our central active mitigation ability, now has three charges.
You can kind of think of ShotR charges as your new resource to track, though unfortunately it's not a part of the default UI. I imagine you'll be able to put together a Weak Aura to track them, but you aren't going to have anything quite as elegant as the little holy symbols under your mana bar.
Judgment's main purpose in your rotation now, other than generating threat, is that it will reduce the remaining recharge on your Shield of the Righteous by one second, or two on a crit (not sure if this will be enough to make us gear for crit.)
Seals Gone:
This was maybe a long time coming. Stuff like Seals and Stances and really anything that you toggle on and off that isn't a single-target/aoe option tends to be something you set once and then just ignore. So I'm not really broken up about this.
Less Healing Independence:
Light of the Protector replaces Word of Glory for Prot. This ability is on a relatively short cooldown and heals you for a percentage of your missing health. Thus it becomes more useful the closer you are to dying, which is, granted, when you'd want to be using Word of Glory too.
The downside of course is that you'll never be able to heal yourself up to full with this ability. I've had Word of Glory with full Bastion of Glory stacks work about as well as a Lay on Hands in nasty situations - I remember when my guild got our first kill of the guard dogs at the start of Mogu'shan Vaults, I was the only raid member alive for the last maybe five percent of the fight, thanks to my great self-healing abilities.
Consecration Emphasis:
Consecration, which has an improved graphic (actually, almost all melee classes have lots of improved graphics,) is now pretty central to how you function as a tank. Standing inside it will buff the effect of Shield of the Righteous and Light of the Protector, and it'll also give Hammer of the Righteous its AoE component. There is, however, a talent that you can take to opt out of this, as you'll get the Consecration bonuses at all times (it also makes Hammer of the Righteous have no cooldown.)
The downside is that there's no glyph of the Consecrator anymore. So you'll need to pick your spot well when you throw this down. You can, with enough haste, reduce the cooldown on this below its duration, allowing you to have multiple Consecrations down at a time.
Hammer of the Righteous:
Crusader Strike has effectively been merged into Hammer of the Righteous for Protection. As seen above, Hammer of the Righteous is single-target by default, but gets its AoE effect from standing inside your own Consecration, or through a talent that causes it to always do this and also have no cooldown.
With the removal of Holy Power, however, you'll really only use this ability as a filler. You'll prioritize Consecration, Judgment, and Avenger's Shield first, and of course weave in Shield of the Righteous any time the buff's falling off or you have a big attack to block. It can be used for snap-threat, but if you're going into an instance where this could be something you need to do, I'd recommend taking the talent that gives it its AoE component outside of Consecration.
Lightin' the Way:
I've got to confess that of all the spec re-works in Legion, this one makes me the most concerned, which makes me a little nervous due to the fact that this is my main spec of my main character. It does seem functional (I have yet to run things in a proper dungeon or raid group, but at least during demon invasions I haven't felt too squishy,) but I think that some of the design choices are a step backward. My mistrust of active mitigation before Mists of Pandaria is well-documented on this very blog, but once I got my hands on it I became a true believer.
But I also think that the design of having tanks build up resources and then spend them on defensive abilities was a really integral part of that initial active mitigation design. Ironically, the two classes I most consistently play as tanks are having this turned around - simply getting ability charges and then a way to speed up that recharge. There's much less of a sense of "hit it now" with the new design, and more of a "hit it whenever" feeling.
Don't expect me to drop Prot as my main spec or anything, and it might be that with proper addon management like Weak Auras, I'll have enough information on-screen for me to feel like I've got a strong handle on the spec, but we'll just say that for now, I moderately disagree with the direction that Blizzard has gone with the spec.
Holy Power Gone:
Yes, Holy Power is now a Retribution-only feature. So how do we actually work then? The main thing is that Shield of the Righteous, which remains our central active mitigation ability, now has three charges.
You can kind of think of ShotR charges as your new resource to track, though unfortunately it's not a part of the default UI. I imagine you'll be able to put together a Weak Aura to track them, but you aren't going to have anything quite as elegant as the little holy symbols under your mana bar.
Judgment's main purpose in your rotation now, other than generating threat, is that it will reduce the remaining recharge on your Shield of the Righteous by one second, or two on a crit (not sure if this will be enough to make us gear for crit.)
Seals Gone:
This was maybe a long time coming. Stuff like Seals and Stances and really anything that you toggle on and off that isn't a single-target/aoe option tends to be something you set once and then just ignore. So I'm not really broken up about this.
Less Healing Independence:
Light of the Protector replaces Word of Glory for Prot. This ability is on a relatively short cooldown and heals you for a percentage of your missing health. Thus it becomes more useful the closer you are to dying, which is, granted, when you'd want to be using Word of Glory too.
The downside of course is that you'll never be able to heal yourself up to full with this ability. I've had Word of Glory with full Bastion of Glory stacks work about as well as a Lay on Hands in nasty situations - I remember when my guild got our first kill of the guard dogs at the start of Mogu'shan Vaults, I was the only raid member alive for the last maybe five percent of the fight, thanks to my great self-healing abilities.
Consecration Emphasis:
Consecration, which has an improved graphic (actually, almost all melee classes have lots of improved graphics,) is now pretty central to how you function as a tank. Standing inside it will buff the effect of Shield of the Righteous and Light of the Protector, and it'll also give Hammer of the Righteous its AoE component. There is, however, a talent that you can take to opt out of this, as you'll get the Consecration bonuses at all times (it also makes Hammer of the Righteous have no cooldown.)
The downside is that there's no glyph of the Consecrator anymore. So you'll need to pick your spot well when you throw this down. You can, with enough haste, reduce the cooldown on this below its duration, allowing you to have multiple Consecrations down at a time.
Hammer of the Righteous:
Crusader Strike has effectively been merged into Hammer of the Righteous for Protection. As seen above, Hammer of the Righteous is single-target by default, but gets its AoE effect from standing inside your own Consecration, or through a talent that causes it to always do this and also have no cooldown.
With the removal of Holy Power, however, you'll really only use this ability as a filler. You'll prioritize Consecration, Judgment, and Avenger's Shield first, and of course weave in Shield of the Righteous any time the buff's falling off or you have a big attack to block. It can be used for snap-threat, but if you're going into an instance where this could be something you need to do, I'd recommend taking the talent that gives it its AoE component outside of Consecration.
Lightin' the Way:
I've got to confess that of all the spec re-works in Legion, this one makes me the most concerned, which makes me a little nervous due to the fact that this is my main spec of my main character. It does seem functional (I have yet to run things in a proper dungeon or raid group, but at least during demon invasions I haven't felt too squishy,) but I think that some of the design choices are a step backward. My mistrust of active mitigation before Mists of Pandaria is well-documented on this very blog, but once I got my hands on it I became a true believer.
But I also think that the design of having tanks build up resources and then spend them on defensive abilities was a really integral part of that initial active mitigation design. Ironically, the two classes I most consistently play as tanks are having this turned around - simply getting ability charges and then a way to speed up that recharge. There's much less of a sense of "hit it now" with the new design, and more of a "hit it whenever" feeling.
Don't expect me to drop Prot as my main spec or anything, and it might be that with proper addon management like Weak Auras, I'll have enough information on-screen for me to feel like I've got a strong handle on the spec, but we'll just say that for now, I moderately disagree with the direction that Blizzard has gone with the spec.
Saturday, July 9, 2016
Bloody Disgusting in 7.0
Blood is going through some big changes in Legion, and tanking Death Knights will be stepping into a brave new world to face off against some demon bastards. Given that my DK is a Draenei, this fight is more or less everything he exists for, so it's pretty exciting.
So where to begin?
Runes of Death:
All Death Knights now have just one type of rune. If an ability would have cost, say, one Frost and one Unholy rune previously, it now costs simply two runes. You still generate ten runic power per rune spent and you can still only regenerate three runes at a time - they just aren't paired up like they used to be.
Blood also no longer has Runic Empowerment or Runic Corruption - you'll simply regenerate your Runes based on your Haste.
Death Strike is Rune Strike:
Blood no longer uses Death Coil. Instead, Death Strike now costs Runic Power instead of Runes, meaning you'll never have to worry about using runes on something that isn't as central and useful as DS. Building up Runic Power also becomes even more important to use your biggest active mitigation ability.
Bones and Marrow:
Bone Shield is now the passive side-effect of one of your new rotational abilities, Marrowrend. Marrowrend costs two runes and does physical damage to the target as well as granting three charges of Bone Shield. Bone Shield reduces incoming damage and also buffs your haste, stacking up to ten but losing a charge any time you take a hit (just like on live.)
Heart Strike is Back, Baby!:
Heart Strike is back. It's a one-rune strike that hits a second nearby target for some physical damage, reducing movement speed of anyone it hits by 50% for eight seconds. This also generates an additional 5 Runic Power, plus 2 for every additional target it hits - which can be boosted by Death and Decay as we'll see farther down. Given the bonus RP, you'll probably want to use this any time you aren't worrying about losing Bone Shield charges, because more RP means more Death Strikes, and this is the most efficient Rune-to-Runic Power ability you have.
Blood Plague Good for Blood Now:
Each DK spec has just one disease to track now, and for Blood it is, appropriately enough, Blood Plague. Blood Plague now drains health to you, instead of simply dealing damage.
Blood Plague is applied in single-target situations by Death's Caress, which has a 30-yard range and costs one rune, dealing a bit of shadow damage up front as well. In AoE/cleave situations, you use Blood Boil. This has no cost, two charges, and a 7-second recharge (affected by haste,) dealing shadow damage to enemies within 10 yards of you and applying Blood Plague.
I wonder a bit if Death's Caress is actually worth using in any situations other than having to infect from range. Blood Boil does more damage and has no Rune cost, so you can save the rune from Death's Caress to use with Heart Strike. Death's Caress might be more of a ranged pulling option than something to use rotationally. Definitely keep an eye on the theorycrafting.
Death and Decay and AoE:
You still have Death and Decay, and now standing in it will cause your Heart Strike to go true AoE instead of simply cleaving onto one other enemy. Blood Boil is still there for snap-AoE, but this will be good for sustaining it.
Cooldowns:
You lose Icebound Fortitude, but Vampiric Blood is clearly meant to be your major tank cooldown. You also still have Dancing Rune Weapon and Anti-Magic Shell, along with some talented options, so you're going to be ok. And then of course you no longer have Bone Shield as an activated ability, but it's now rotational as part of Marrowrend. Also, Army of the Dead is now Unholy only.
Gorefiend's Grasp:
It's baseline for Blood.
So where to begin?
Runes of Death:
All Death Knights now have just one type of rune. If an ability would have cost, say, one Frost and one Unholy rune previously, it now costs simply two runes. You still generate ten runic power per rune spent and you can still only regenerate three runes at a time - they just aren't paired up like they used to be.
Blood also no longer has Runic Empowerment or Runic Corruption - you'll simply regenerate your Runes based on your Haste.
Death Strike is Rune Strike:
Blood no longer uses Death Coil. Instead, Death Strike now costs Runic Power instead of Runes, meaning you'll never have to worry about using runes on something that isn't as central and useful as DS. Building up Runic Power also becomes even more important to use your biggest active mitigation ability.
Bones and Marrow:
Bone Shield is now the passive side-effect of one of your new rotational abilities, Marrowrend. Marrowrend costs two runes and does physical damage to the target as well as granting three charges of Bone Shield. Bone Shield reduces incoming damage and also buffs your haste, stacking up to ten but losing a charge any time you take a hit (just like on live.)
Heart Strike is Back, Baby!:
Heart Strike is back. It's a one-rune strike that hits a second nearby target for some physical damage, reducing movement speed of anyone it hits by 50% for eight seconds. This also generates an additional 5 Runic Power, plus 2 for every additional target it hits - which can be boosted by Death and Decay as we'll see farther down. Given the bonus RP, you'll probably want to use this any time you aren't worrying about losing Bone Shield charges, because more RP means more Death Strikes, and this is the most efficient Rune-to-Runic Power ability you have.
Blood Plague Good for Blood Now:
Each DK spec has just one disease to track now, and for Blood it is, appropriately enough, Blood Plague. Blood Plague now drains health to you, instead of simply dealing damage.
Blood Plague is applied in single-target situations by Death's Caress, which has a 30-yard range and costs one rune, dealing a bit of shadow damage up front as well. In AoE/cleave situations, you use Blood Boil. This has no cost, two charges, and a 7-second recharge (affected by haste,) dealing shadow damage to enemies within 10 yards of you and applying Blood Plague.
I wonder a bit if Death's Caress is actually worth using in any situations other than having to infect from range. Blood Boil does more damage and has no Rune cost, so you can save the rune from Death's Caress to use with Heart Strike. Death's Caress might be more of a ranged pulling option than something to use rotationally. Definitely keep an eye on the theorycrafting.
Death and Decay and AoE:
You still have Death and Decay, and now standing in it will cause your Heart Strike to go true AoE instead of simply cleaving onto one other enemy. Blood Boil is still there for snap-AoE, but this will be good for sustaining it.
Cooldowns:
You lose Icebound Fortitude, but Vampiric Blood is clearly meant to be your major tank cooldown. You also still have Dancing Rune Weapon and Anti-Magic Shell, along with some talented options, so you're going to be ok. And then of course you no longer have Bone Shield as an activated ability, but it's now rotational as part of Marrowrend. Also, Army of the Dead is now Unholy only.
Gorefiend's Grasp:
It's baseline for Blood.
Demonic Invasions and You
7.0 will bring, among other things, demonic invasions to Azeroth. These are limited to only six zones, but the events are pretty fun and reward really nice gear. You're guaranteed to get two pieces of item level 700 armor if you stick it through a whole invasion, and occasionally you'll get a weapon that starts at 700 but can be upgraded with "Crystalized Fel" five times to eventually get to item level 725. (If you don't get a weapon, don't sweat it too much, as the first thing you're going to do in Legion is get your artifact weapon.)
The invasions have four stages, at the end of which you'll get 10 Nethershards, or 20 after the final one. After stages two and four, you'll get chests that contain armor and a chance at weapons or crystalized fel. There are Illidari camps in each of the zones where invasions are going on as well as Stormwind and Orgrimmar, and you'll be able to purchase a number of things with Nethershards, including Crystalized Fel, a Felbat pet, full Appearance sets for each armor type (I believe this is the same look as the stuff that drops from the chests, but you'll be guaranteed to get every piece,) and a few other things including level 700 necklaces, cloaks, rings, and trinkets.
Invasions occur in Westfall, Dun Morogh, Hillsbrad Foothills, Azshara, Northern Barrens, and Tanaris. Each invasion will start with a localized attack on the zone's central town (Dun Morogh uses Kharanos while Azshara actually just uses the area in front of Orgrimmar's northern gate.)
Phase one involves waves of demons attacking these small areas, with very few elites mixed in.
Phase two has two or three demonic lieutenants show up, followed by a demonic commander. These guys are a bit tougher, but should go down pretty quickly. Killing the commander will yield a Small Legion Chest, which has 10 Nethershards and a piece of armor inside.
Phase three opens things up significantly, and lasts the longest. Demons will appear throughout the zone, along with lots of demonic buildings. These buildings can be destroyed by smashing the fel crystals supporting them. The smaller forts simply have an unprotected crystal inside. Fel gates have two crystals that are being protected by Eredar demons who channel an immunity spell on them. The larger fel fortresses have three crystals that protect the front door, and once these are gone, you can go in and kill the fort's commander, which will destroy the fortress.
Throughout the zone during phase three, there will be many boss-level demons that can be killed for a chunk of progress on the bar, but these guys will hit quite hard, requiring something akin to a full dungeon group to take on. You'll also be able to rescue NPCs, some of whom will join you in combat for a few minutes. Additionally, you should be able to find various siege vehicles around the zone, though in my experience their damage has been low enough that they're really more useful for keeping you alive and giving you long range attacks.
Phase four will see the initial invasion site attacked by a large demonic general. These enemies are more or less full-on raid bosses, and even if you have a tank, you will need to keep them healed constantly and also respond to extremely unforgiving mechanics. Expect many, many corpse runs when dealing with these guys.
When the general is slain, you'll receive a Large Legion Chest with a piece of armor, 20 Nethershards, and potentially a weapon appropriate to your spec or piece of crystalized fel.
On the PTR, these invasions are happening pretty much constantly in all six zones (though not Westfall recently,) but I suspect that on live they might instead happen one at a time. These are definitely designed to have a lot of people participating in them.
Also, they're good for both factions. While the invasion is going on, local NPCs of the opposite faction will act friendly toward you. So if you're Horde and find yourself in Kharanos or you're Alliance and find yourself at the Crossroads, don't worry about Muradin or Saurfang, respectively, chopping you to bits. They're just happy to have any help they can get. (Each zone has a main NPC who is leading the defense. Azshara has Gallywix, Tanaris has Noggenfogger, Westfall has Gryan Stoutmantle, and Hillsbrad has Helcular.)
Not only are these invasions a lot of fun and reward really great gear to get you into the new expansion, they are also a great place to test out the changes to your classes and specs. Just remember that you've got to be out of combat and in a rested area like an inn if you want to change talents.
I'm hoping/assuming that these invasions will continue after Demon Hunters have been unlocked, and so I bet this would be a really great way to get a handle on the new class.
The invasions have four stages, at the end of which you'll get 10 Nethershards, or 20 after the final one. After stages two and four, you'll get chests that contain armor and a chance at weapons or crystalized fel. There are Illidari camps in each of the zones where invasions are going on as well as Stormwind and Orgrimmar, and you'll be able to purchase a number of things with Nethershards, including Crystalized Fel, a Felbat pet, full Appearance sets for each armor type (I believe this is the same look as the stuff that drops from the chests, but you'll be guaranteed to get every piece,) and a few other things including level 700 necklaces, cloaks, rings, and trinkets.
Invasions occur in Westfall, Dun Morogh, Hillsbrad Foothills, Azshara, Northern Barrens, and Tanaris. Each invasion will start with a localized attack on the zone's central town (Dun Morogh uses Kharanos while Azshara actually just uses the area in front of Orgrimmar's northern gate.)
Phase one involves waves of demons attacking these small areas, with very few elites mixed in.
Phase two has two or three demonic lieutenants show up, followed by a demonic commander. These guys are a bit tougher, but should go down pretty quickly. Killing the commander will yield a Small Legion Chest, which has 10 Nethershards and a piece of armor inside.
Phase three opens things up significantly, and lasts the longest. Demons will appear throughout the zone, along with lots of demonic buildings. These buildings can be destroyed by smashing the fel crystals supporting them. The smaller forts simply have an unprotected crystal inside. Fel gates have two crystals that are being protected by Eredar demons who channel an immunity spell on them. The larger fel fortresses have three crystals that protect the front door, and once these are gone, you can go in and kill the fort's commander, which will destroy the fortress.
Throughout the zone during phase three, there will be many boss-level demons that can be killed for a chunk of progress on the bar, but these guys will hit quite hard, requiring something akin to a full dungeon group to take on. You'll also be able to rescue NPCs, some of whom will join you in combat for a few minutes. Additionally, you should be able to find various siege vehicles around the zone, though in my experience their damage has been low enough that they're really more useful for keeping you alive and giving you long range attacks.
Phase four will see the initial invasion site attacked by a large demonic general. These enemies are more or less full-on raid bosses, and even if you have a tank, you will need to keep them healed constantly and also respond to extremely unforgiving mechanics. Expect many, many corpse runs when dealing with these guys.
When the general is slain, you'll receive a Large Legion Chest with a piece of armor, 20 Nethershards, and potentially a weapon appropriate to your spec or piece of crystalized fel.
On the PTR, these invasions are happening pretty much constantly in all six zones (though not Westfall recently,) but I suspect that on live they might instead happen one at a time. These are definitely designed to have a lot of people participating in them.
Also, they're good for both factions. While the invasion is going on, local NPCs of the opposite faction will act friendly toward you. So if you're Horde and find yourself in Kharanos or you're Alliance and find yourself at the Crossroads, don't worry about Muradin or Saurfang, respectively, chopping you to bits. They're just happy to have any help they can get. (Each zone has a main NPC who is leading the defense. Azshara has Gallywix, Tanaris has Noggenfogger, Westfall has Gryan Stoutmantle, and Hillsbrad has Helcular.)
Not only are these invasions a lot of fun and reward really great gear to get you into the new expansion, they are also a great place to test out the changes to your classes and specs. Just remember that you've got to be out of combat and in a rested area like an inn if you want to change talents.
I'm hoping/assuming that these invasions will continue after Demon Hunters have been unlocked, and so I bet this would be a really great way to get a handle on the new class.
Friday, July 8, 2016
The Alliance and Horde After 7.0
Legion's a big expansion, lore-wise. While Mists and Warlords dialed things back from the "fate of the world" stakes we had in Wrath and Cataclysm, we're now way back up at about the highest the stakes have ever been. This is essentially the expansion that WoW has been building up to for nearly twelve years, and you could argue even longer, as the entire impetus for the First War was the Legion's desire to use the Horde as a foothold on Azeroth.
Following the Siege of Orgrimmar, Alliance/Horde relations have been a lot better than they were while Garrosh was Warchief. Granted, we really didn't spend much time back on Azeroth during Warlords, but one gets the impression that, with the Draenor invasion a join operation that saw almost no conflict between the factions, things had settled into at worst a Cold War. The Alliance was riding high on a successful defeat of the Horde, while the Horde expunged the toxic Orcish-supremacist faction within to embrace its diversity with the first non-Orcish Warchief.
So what are we looking at as Legion begins?
Spoilers.
Following the Siege of Orgrimmar, Alliance/Horde relations have been a lot better than they were while Garrosh was Warchief. Granted, we really didn't spend much time back on Azeroth during Warlords, but one gets the impression that, with the Draenor invasion a join operation that saw almost no conflict between the factions, things had settled into at worst a Cold War. The Alliance was riding high on a successful defeat of the Horde, while the Horde expunged the toxic Orcish-supremacist faction within to embrace its diversity with the first non-Orcish Warchief.
So what are we looking at as Legion begins?
Spoilers.
Tomes of Illusion - Weapon Enchant Transmog
The new transmog system is going to allow players to collect as many gear appearances as there are for them to have. In Warlords, those of us who had an enchanting building in our garrisons with a follower could use weapon enchant illusions, changing the appearance of weapon enchants, the sort of "last piece of the puzzle" in visual customization.
But given that we're leaving our garrisons behind, what is the alternative?
The answer is that weapon enchants will also be saved under appearances. However, collecting these looks will work a little differently. You won't simply get the enchant on a soulbound weapon and have it from then on out. Instead, you'll need to collect illusions to add them to your appearance tabs.
A large number of these will be drops off of raid bosses. There are two in 7.0's raid: a Nightmare illusion that drops off Xavius (in all difficulties) and a Chronos illusion off of Chronomatic Anomaly in the Nighthold. There are also several that can be found on older bosses, like the Mark of the Shadowmoon off Ner'zhul in Shadowmoon Burial Grounds, or Flametongue off of Ragnaros in Molten Core.
Some will be available form vendors, such as Executioner, which is gotten from the Consortium in Outland at a certain reputation level.
However, I believe the majority of weapon illusions are going to be gained by having an Enchanter make (or if you have an enchanter on your account, making your own) a Tome of Illusion. There are six Tomes of Illusion to be had - one for each expansion before Legion and one for vanilla. These tomes use materials from those expansions, so you might want to start collecting now.
Here's the list!
As a note, Crystals are typically the result from disenchanting epic/purple gear from the appropriate expansion. Shards are the same, but for rare/blue gear. Dust and Essences tend to come from uncommon/green gear, and often Essences will come in Greater and Lesser varieties, typically allowing you to combine three lessers to make a greater. Likewise, elemental components in BC and Wrath can often be found as smaller items that are combined into the larger pieces.
But given that we're leaving our garrisons behind, what is the alternative?
The answer is that weapon enchants will also be saved under appearances. However, collecting these looks will work a little differently. You won't simply get the enchant on a soulbound weapon and have it from then on out. Instead, you'll need to collect illusions to add them to your appearance tabs.
A large number of these will be drops off of raid bosses. There are two in 7.0's raid: a Nightmare illusion that drops off Xavius (in all difficulties) and a Chronos illusion off of Chronomatic Anomaly in the Nighthold. There are also several that can be found on older bosses, like the Mark of the Shadowmoon off Ner'zhul in Shadowmoon Burial Grounds, or Flametongue off of Ragnaros in Molten Core.
Some will be available form vendors, such as Executioner, which is gotten from the Consortium in Outland at a certain reputation level.
However, I believe the majority of weapon illusions are going to be gained by having an Enchanter make (or if you have an enchanter on your account, making your own) a Tome of Illusion. There are six Tomes of Illusion to be had - one for each expansion before Legion and one for vanilla. These tomes use materials from those expansions, so you might want to start collecting now.
Here's the list!
As a note, Crystals are typically the result from disenchanting epic/purple gear from the appropriate expansion. Shards are the same, but for rare/blue gear. Dust and Essences tend to come from uncommon/green gear, and often Essences will come in Greater and Lesser varieties, typically allowing you to combine three lessers to make a greater. Likewise, elemental components in BC and Wrath can often be found as smaller items that are combined into the larger pieces.
Vanilla: Fiery Weapon, Unholy Weapon, Coldlight
10 Large Brilliant Shards (disenchant blue gear from high-level dungeons like Lower Blackrock Spire or Sunken Temple.)
5 Essence of Water
5 Essence of Fire
5 Essence of Undeath
3 Light Parchment (purchasable from a vendor)
BC: Battlemaster, Spellsurge, Netherflame
10 Void Crystals, gained from disenchanting BC epics/purple gear
5 Large Prismatic Shards, gained from disenchanting BC rare/blue gear
5 Primal Fire
5 Primal Mana
3 Light Parchment (purchasable from a vendor)
Wrath: Berserking, Greater Spellpower, Icy Chill
10 Abyss Crystals
5 Dream Shards
8 Greater Cosmic Essences
4 Eternal Water
3 Light Parchment (purchasable from a vendor)
Cataclysm: Windwalk, Heartsong, Light of the Earth-Warder
10 Maelstrom Crystals
10 Heavenly Shards
5 Volatile Air
5 Volatile Earth
3 Light Parchment (purchasable from a vendor)
Mists: Windsong, Elemental Force, Breath of Yu-Lon
10 Sha Crystals
2 Imperial Amethysts
2 Wild Jade
2 Vermillion Onyx
3 Light Parchment (purchasable from a vendor)
Draenor: Mark of the Frostwolf, Mark of the Thunderlord
20 Temporal Crystals
10 Sorcerous Air
10 Sorcerous Water
15 Savage Blood
3 Light Parchment (purchasable from a vendor)
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