The new transmog system is one of the most eagerly anticipated features of Legion. Working as a part of the UI that doesn't require you to hold on to every piece of gear you might want to 'mog in the future should free up an absurd amount of space, and going account-wide will make it easier to farm up the looks you want.
There will be some restrictions though, with the big one being that any class is going to only be able to "unlock" the appearances of gear that they can and would equip. By "would," I mean that a Paladin, who yes technically can equip cloth, leather, or mail armor, will only be able to unlock plate armor looks, because ultimately, that's what a Paladin should be wearing.
The intention is pretty clear here. If you love playing casters, and so your top characters are a Warlock, a Mage, and maybe a Balance Druid, you're only going to be able to soul bind cloth and leather gear. Meanwhile, if this restriction weren't in place, a Paladin, Warrior, or Death Knight would be able to collect all the gear looks they wanted, supplying them for Shaman, Demon Hunter, or Priest alts.
But there's a hitch.
You may not have played a character under level 40 for a long time, and if you had, there's also a chance that you were playing a Priest, Warlock, Mage, Druid, Rogue, or Monk - for whom that level 40 threshold is more about getting a new mount.
Back in the early days, level 40 was a really big transition - you'd start doing a lot more jumping around from zone to zone and to help you do that, you'd get your first, slow 160% speed mount. But on top of that, Shamans and Hunters upgraded from leather armor to mail while Warriors and Paladins upgraded from mail to plate.
And they still do. There is currently not a single piece of plate gear that you can get before level 40, because no one who is lower than level 40 can equip it.
Well, that's changing.
In Legion, Shamans and Hunters will start out with Mail gear, and Warriors and Paladins will start out in Plate.
Sounds simple enough, but this could have really huge consequences.
First off, this means that there need to be new quest reward options for everything from 1-39. Likewise, randomized gear and dungeon drops will need to be re-itemized. You'll never want Strength Mail to drop, because neither mail class can use that stat.
Now I suspect that they could just flip a switch on existing low-level mail to make it officially plate, but that still leaves you with the need to make a whole bunch of new mail gear, now that Shamans and Hunters will not be sharing with the three non-DH leather classes.
And since this is all about transmog, I also wonder about models. Currently, the mail armor that exists at low levels has more of a foot-solider look, appropriate to Warriors and Paladins. But mail at higher levels has tended to be a little weirder, reflecting the mystical shamans or the improvisational hunters. Simply flipping that low-level gear to plate might work ok, but some of it very clearly looks like it's made of rings. Now sure, Blizzard plays fast and loose with the looks of their armor, but I really wonder if they'll use existing, older assets or if they'll have to come up with new stuff for either the plate-wearers or the mail-wearers to use.
And then there's professions. Leatherworkers start to be able to make mail armor at around level 40 (or rather, at a skill level that you'd get to around then if you level up your profession with your toon,) while still obviously continuing to make leather armor into higher levels. Blacksmiths make a pretty serious shift from Mail to Plate, clearly intended to keep in step with the plate classes for whom the profession makes the most sense.
But this change would, I think, require a bit of a redesign, allowing Blacksmiths to make Plate armor from the start, and maybe even removing mail recipes from it entirely (many of their "mail" pieces already look plate-like enough, so that's not too difficult.) Meanwhile, Leatherworking needs to be able to make mail stuff immediately as well.
So ultimately, this fairly small change could have some serious reverberations through the low-level game. It's still probably worth doing, but I'm curious to see how Blizzard addresses it.
Thursday, December 31, 2015
Monday, December 28, 2015
Attempting to Break Down Vengeance
Ok, I know I said that Discipline was likely in for big changes, but I don't think there's any spec that's more subject to big "this will probably change" caveats than Vengeance Demon Hunters. Why? Well, not only is it a new class (and thus hasn't had at least two expansions' worth of iteration) but it's also not been playable in the Alpha. There is data about the spec, and thus we might be able to glean some sense of what they want the spec to look like, but we should take this with a spoonful of salt.
One thing to notice about the various tank redesigns (and I still need to do Prot Warriors, but their changes look more on the order of Paladin ones than, say, Monk ones - some very notable changes, but not a radical redesign) is that we've seen a move away from high-avoidance. Monks and Druids have both had a lot of focus on avoidance as a means of damage mitigation, and in fairness, it kind of makes sense given the fact that their primary stat (other than stamina) is Agility, which does kind of suggest a dodgy fellow. But Monks are getting more focus on their Brews and Stagger mechanics (which to be fair, is kind of like partially dodging - I interpret it as kind of turning a direct hit into a glancing blow) while Druids are focusing more on Hulking out and just becoming an indestructible bear-monster.
This opens up some design space for a more avoidance-oriented tank spec. Avoidance has always been a little tricky, given that too much focus on it (at the expense of other damage mitigation strategies) can turn a tank's health level into a ping-pong game. Avoidance is fantastic when you have it and utterly worthless when you don't. So any avoidance tank is going to need some way to smooth out the damage they do wind up taking - something that Brewmasters managed with Stagger.
Anyway, what I think this means is that Vengeance might be a bit more avoidance-focused (though given their comfort with iconic Demon Hunter glaives, it might be more parry than dodge,) they'll clearly need some other component to smooth out the damage that they take when they get an unlucky avoidance (or lack thereof) streak.
So let's look at what's currently up. Notably, there are definitely some mechanics that are only half-implemented, including what looks like an entirely separate resource system called Pain. I honestly don't know if this is a secondary resource or something that replaces Fury, so as I said earlier, take this with many grains of salt.
Blade Dance costs 50 Fury and has a 12-second cool down, dealing high damage to all nearby enemies and giving you 100% dodge for 1 second.
Blur has a 1-minute cool down, giving you 50% dodge and allows you to dodge spells and ranged attacks for 3 seconds. Each time you strike an enemy, you refresh the duration, up to a maximum of 10 seconds total duration.
Chaos Nova costs 30 Fury and has a 1-minute cool down, stunning nearby enemies for 5 seconds and dealing moderate Chaos damage to them.
Chaos Strike costs 40 Fury, dealing high Chaos damage to the target. If it crits, it is free.
Consume Magic is a 20-yard interrupt spell on a 20-second cool down. If you successfully interrupt a spell this way, you gain max Fury.
Demon Spikes costs 100 Pain and has 2 Charges on a 15 second recharge. It increases you parry chance by 20% and reduces all physical damage taken by 8% for 6 seconds.
Demon's Bite does moderate physical damage and generates 20-30 Fury.
Demonic Wards is a passive, reducing magical damage taken by 30% and increasing your Stamina by 20%. It also gives you your 6% crit immunity and your 3% lower chance to be parried (standard tank kit.)
Double Jump is the standard Demon Hunter thing, allowing you to jump again when you get to the apex of your jump.
Glide, likewise, after you jump allows you to hit the jump bar a third time to glide down gradually on demonic wings.
Eye Beam costs 50 Fury and is channeled over 2 seconds, dealing high damage to enemies in a line within 20 yards.
Fel Rush has 2 charges on a 10-second recharge, shooting you forward and dealing moderate fire damage to targets in your path.
Fiery Brand has a 45-second cool down and a long range, doing moderate fire damage to the target and reducing the damage the target deals to you by 40% for 10 seconds.
Immolation Aura has a 10-second cool down, dealing a burst of moderate fire damage to all targets around you and then pulsing additional light damage over 6 seconds.
Infernal Strike has a 30-yard range, 2 charges and a 15-second recharge. It allows you to jump to a targeted location, dealing light fire damage to all enemies near the landing site.
Mastery: Fel Blood increases the damage reduction of Demon Spikes.
Metamorphosis has a 3-minute cool down, increasing health by 30% and reducing damage taken by 30% for 10 seconds. Also, while in demon-form, Immolation Aura will automatically always be up.
Shattered Souls is a passive, causing enemies that yield experience or honor to drop a soul fragment on the ground where you land a killing blow on them. Collecting this fragment will heal you for 2% (this could be a typo, because I'd think 20% would be more like it) of your maximum health. If the fragment is from a demon, you'll also get 20% increased damage for 15 seconds.
Shear has a 3-second cool down, dealing moderate physical damage to the target and generating a Soul Shard nearby. It also generates 5 Pain.
Sigil of Inquisition has a 1-minute cool down. It allows you to place a sigil at the targeted location that activates after 3 seconds. Enemies within the sigil are drawn to its center and their speed is reduced by 70% for 6 seconds.
Sigil of Persecution works similarly, with a 1-minute CD and activating at the targeted location after 3 seconds. This taunts all targets within the Sigil, forcing them to attack you for 8 seconds.
Sigil of Silence has the same range, cool down, and activation time, but silences the targets within it for 4 seconds.
Soul Cleave costs 400 Pain and deals moderate physical damage to all targets in front of you and also heals you for 10% of your maximum health. It also consumes all Soul Shards within 30 yards, healing you for 2% of your max health (ok, maybe it wasn't a typo) for each shard consumed.
Spectral Sight has a 30-second cool down, allowing you to see Stealthed and Invisible things and also allowing you to see creatures and treasures through walls for 10 seconds, or until you attack or take damage.
There are two versions of Throw Glaive here, but I think the Vengeance one will have no cool down, dealing light damage to up to three targets.
Torment is your standard taunt, forcing the target to attack you for 3 seconds.
Vengeful Retreat has a 25-second cool down, causing you to leap backward, dealing moderate damage to nearby targets and slowing them by 70% for 3 seconds.
Felblade has a 6-second cool down, dealing high fire damage to the target and spawning 3 nearby Soul Fragments.
So as you can see, this is pretty incomplete. I've added in a lot of the utility spells here because I want to give a full picture of what you're working with. What I suspect is that a lot of the spells on this list are actually Havoc-only, but because that's the baseline spec and the only thing that's been playable, it's kind of left in (it's the same reason we have two Throw Glaives - I'm sure that one is the Havoc version.)
I'd suspect that Demon Spikes will be your main active mitigation ability. Metamorphosis looks pretty believable as a major tank cool down. Demon Spikes manages to get that avoidance theme while using the flat damage reduction as a way to smooth it out. And Felblade, Shear, and Soul Cleave all make the Shattered Souls passive (which exists in Havoc as just a standard "heal yourself up while soloing" mechanic) into a fairly major self-healing theme.
The really big question I have is what form Pain will take. We see things like Shear generating 5 Pain, but Soul Cleave costing 400, which means that unless there's some passive (like generating Pain as you take damage,) that's going to be a whole lot of Shears before you can use Soul Cleave. (Though even if it's only really 40, that's still 8 Shears.)
So while I've been wanting to figure this out for a while, I really don't think we have enough information to figure out exactly how the spec's going to work. I think it's likely we'll see some of this survive. Shear was an iconic ability (at least for tanks) that Illidan had, so I'd like to see some reference to it within the DH arsenal. I think names for standard stuff like Torment will probably be unchanged. And the mechanics of the Sigil spells are cool and unique, so I wouldn't be surprised to see them survive to live.
But the actual rotation and mitigation mechanics will definitely need some work. We don't even really know whether Vengeance will use Fury as a resource, so it's hard if not impossible to really get a sense of the spec's flow.
I do think that with things like Infernal Strike and potentially retaining Fel Rush, we're going to see an even more mobile tank than Warriors or Monks. Guess whose job it's going to be to pick up streaming adds?! So far it looks like flat mitigation, avoidance, and self-healing area all going to be potentially big survival themes. Immolation Aura and Throw Glaive should help for rounding up packs, so while the actual rotation is a cluttered mess, assuming we get abilities that look similar to what we have here, Vengeance should have the tools it needs to keep things running pretty well.
Expect to see another article - maybe an official break-down - once the next build comes out in January.
One thing to notice about the various tank redesigns (and I still need to do Prot Warriors, but their changes look more on the order of Paladin ones than, say, Monk ones - some very notable changes, but not a radical redesign) is that we've seen a move away from high-avoidance. Monks and Druids have both had a lot of focus on avoidance as a means of damage mitigation, and in fairness, it kind of makes sense given the fact that their primary stat (other than stamina) is Agility, which does kind of suggest a dodgy fellow. But Monks are getting more focus on their Brews and Stagger mechanics (which to be fair, is kind of like partially dodging - I interpret it as kind of turning a direct hit into a glancing blow) while Druids are focusing more on Hulking out and just becoming an indestructible bear-monster.
This opens up some design space for a more avoidance-oriented tank spec. Avoidance has always been a little tricky, given that too much focus on it (at the expense of other damage mitigation strategies) can turn a tank's health level into a ping-pong game. Avoidance is fantastic when you have it and utterly worthless when you don't. So any avoidance tank is going to need some way to smooth out the damage they do wind up taking - something that Brewmasters managed with Stagger.
Anyway, what I think this means is that Vengeance might be a bit more avoidance-focused (though given their comfort with iconic Demon Hunter glaives, it might be more parry than dodge,) they'll clearly need some other component to smooth out the damage that they take when they get an unlucky avoidance (or lack thereof) streak.
So let's look at what's currently up. Notably, there are definitely some mechanics that are only half-implemented, including what looks like an entirely separate resource system called Pain. I honestly don't know if this is a secondary resource or something that replaces Fury, so as I said earlier, take this with many grains of salt.
Blade Dance costs 50 Fury and has a 12-second cool down, dealing high damage to all nearby enemies and giving you 100% dodge for 1 second.
Blur has a 1-minute cool down, giving you 50% dodge and allows you to dodge spells and ranged attacks for 3 seconds. Each time you strike an enemy, you refresh the duration, up to a maximum of 10 seconds total duration.
Chaos Nova costs 30 Fury and has a 1-minute cool down, stunning nearby enemies for 5 seconds and dealing moderate Chaos damage to them.
Chaos Strike costs 40 Fury, dealing high Chaos damage to the target. If it crits, it is free.
Consume Magic is a 20-yard interrupt spell on a 20-second cool down. If you successfully interrupt a spell this way, you gain max Fury.
Demon Spikes costs 100 Pain and has 2 Charges on a 15 second recharge. It increases you parry chance by 20% and reduces all physical damage taken by 8% for 6 seconds.
Demon's Bite does moderate physical damage and generates 20-30 Fury.
Demonic Wards is a passive, reducing magical damage taken by 30% and increasing your Stamina by 20%. It also gives you your 6% crit immunity and your 3% lower chance to be parried (standard tank kit.)
Double Jump is the standard Demon Hunter thing, allowing you to jump again when you get to the apex of your jump.
Glide, likewise, after you jump allows you to hit the jump bar a third time to glide down gradually on demonic wings.
Eye Beam costs 50 Fury and is channeled over 2 seconds, dealing high damage to enemies in a line within 20 yards.
Fel Rush has 2 charges on a 10-second recharge, shooting you forward and dealing moderate fire damage to targets in your path.
Fiery Brand has a 45-second cool down and a long range, doing moderate fire damage to the target and reducing the damage the target deals to you by 40% for 10 seconds.
Immolation Aura has a 10-second cool down, dealing a burst of moderate fire damage to all targets around you and then pulsing additional light damage over 6 seconds.
Infernal Strike has a 30-yard range, 2 charges and a 15-second recharge. It allows you to jump to a targeted location, dealing light fire damage to all enemies near the landing site.
Mastery: Fel Blood increases the damage reduction of Demon Spikes.
Metamorphosis has a 3-minute cool down, increasing health by 30% and reducing damage taken by 30% for 10 seconds. Also, while in demon-form, Immolation Aura will automatically always be up.
Shattered Souls is a passive, causing enemies that yield experience or honor to drop a soul fragment on the ground where you land a killing blow on them. Collecting this fragment will heal you for 2% (this could be a typo, because I'd think 20% would be more like it) of your maximum health. If the fragment is from a demon, you'll also get 20% increased damage for 15 seconds.
Shear has a 3-second cool down, dealing moderate physical damage to the target and generating a Soul Shard nearby. It also generates 5 Pain.
Sigil of Inquisition has a 1-minute cool down. It allows you to place a sigil at the targeted location that activates after 3 seconds. Enemies within the sigil are drawn to its center and their speed is reduced by 70% for 6 seconds.
Sigil of Persecution works similarly, with a 1-minute CD and activating at the targeted location after 3 seconds. This taunts all targets within the Sigil, forcing them to attack you for 8 seconds.
Sigil of Silence has the same range, cool down, and activation time, but silences the targets within it for 4 seconds.
Soul Cleave costs 400 Pain and deals moderate physical damage to all targets in front of you and also heals you for 10% of your maximum health. It also consumes all Soul Shards within 30 yards, healing you for 2% of your max health (ok, maybe it wasn't a typo) for each shard consumed.
Spectral Sight has a 30-second cool down, allowing you to see Stealthed and Invisible things and also allowing you to see creatures and treasures through walls for 10 seconds, or until you attack or take damage.
There are two versions of Throw Glaive here, but I think the Vengeance one will have no cool down, dealing light damage to up to three targets.
Torment is your standard taunt, forcing the target to attack you for 3 seconds.
Vengeful Retreat has a 25-second cool down, causing you to leap backward, dealing moderate damage to nearby targets and slowing them by 70% for 3 seconds.
Felblade has a 6-second cool down, dealing high fire damage to the target and spawning 3 nearby Soul Fragments.
So as you can see, this is pretty incomplete. I've added in a lot of the utility spells here because I want to give a full picture of what you're working with. What I suspect is that a lot of the spells on this list are actually Havoc-only, but because that's the baseline spec and the only thing that's been playable, it's kind of left in (it's the same reason we have two Throw Glaives - I'm sure that one is the Havoc version.)
I'd suspect that Demon Spikes will be your main active mitigation ability. Metamorphosis looks pretty believable as a major tank cool down. Demon Spikes manages to get that avoidance theme while using the flat damage reduction as a way to smooth it out. And Felblade, Shear, and Soul Cleave all make the Shattered Souls passive (which exists in Havoc as just a standard "heal yourself up while soloing" mechanic) into a fairly major self-healing theme.
The really big question I have is what form Pain will take. We see things like Shear generating 5 Pain, but Soul Cleave costing 400, which means that unless there's some passive (like generating Pain as you take damage,) that's going to be a whole lot of Shears before you can use Soul Cleave. (Though even if it's only really 40, that's still 8 Shears.)
So while I've been wanting to figure this out for a while, I really don't think we have enough information to figure out exactly how the spec's going to work. I think it's likely we'll see some of this survive. Shear was an iconic ability (at least for tanks) that Illidan had, so I'd like to see some reference to it within the DH arsenal. I think names for standard stuff like Torment will probably be unchanged. And the mechanics of the Sigil spells are cool and unique, so I wouldn't be surprised to see them survive to live.
But the actual rotation and mitigation mechanics will definitely need some work. We don't even really know whether Vengeance will use Fury as a resource, so it's hard if not impossible to really get a sense of the spec's flow.
I do think that with things like Infernal Strike and potentially retaining Fel Rush, we're going to see an even more mobile tank than Warriors or Monks. Guess whose job it's going to be to pick up streaming adds?! So far it looks like flat mitigation, avoidance, and self-healing area all going to be potentially big survival themes. Immolation Aura and Throw Glaive should help for rounding up packs, so while the actual rotation is a cluttered mess, assuming we get abilities that look similar to what we have here, Vengeance should have the tools it needs to keep things running pretty well.
Expect to see another article - maybe an official break-down - once the next build comes out in January.
Tuesday, December 22, 2015
Breaking Down the New Discipline
Discipline Priests struggled in WoW's early days to distinguish themselves from Holy - the more go-to, classical healing spec for Priests. Priests were (and are) the only class to have multiple healing specs, and in general, the distinction has been more one of focus than anything really radical. Holy gets more straight-up healing spells, while Disc has focused on damage absorption.
But this has been a big problem. Having a shield that prevents damage instead of a heal that retroactively gives you health back is obviously better - it essentially makes your target seem as if they have higher max health than they do.
In Cataclysm (possibly as early as Wrath, though I don't remember it then,) they started playing with an idea with Discipline called Atonement - allowing the Priest to damage enemies and thereby create additional healing effects to help one's allies.
In Legion, Discipline is diving deep into this theme, becoming almost a hybrid of a damage-dealer and a healer. Given the removal of Mistweaving's Crane Style (Fistweaving,) it's kind of surprising that they're embracing it so whole-heartedly with Discipline, but my guess is that, thanks to the existence of Holy Priests, Priest players are not totally screwed if they want to heal but Discipline winds up being a train wreck.
They're even embracing this hybridization in terms of lore and flavor. Discipline will use both Holy and Shadow spells to heal and harm.
But in terms of gameplay, they're reining in a lot of the "smart heals" that made Atonement healing perhaps too easy. You're still going to be able to damage enemies to heal your friends, but you'll need to keep close watch on those friends to make sure that they get the benefits.
A big question for the spec is what the ratio will be. After all, a healer who also does half the damage of a DPS is going to be in high demand, but a healer who does half the healing of another healer is not. In a raid, this kind of half-and-half quality actually seems really easy to use - if your raid usually runs with two or three healers, you can run with two and a half! But for dungeons, where there's just one healer in the group, will Discipline Priests find themselves benched or forced to go Holy (or Shadow and run as DPS?)
I've been adding a little caveat to all these breakdowns, but honestly, even with a new class and some totally redesigned specs, this could be the biggest example of "expect changes and iteration."
So what have we got? (Also, I think I'll include base mana percentage costs with healing specs, as that's a bit more important for them.)
Smite costs 1% mana with a 2-second cast time, dealing Holy damage to the target.
Shadow Word: Pain costs 2% mana and deals a little bit of Shadow damage up front, with a lot of additional Shadow damage over 18 seconds.
Power Word: Shield costs 3.5% mana, creating a damage absorption shield that also prevents spell pushback that lasts a maximum of 15 seconds.
Plea costs 1.2% mana, and is an instant-cast heal that heals the target for a modest amount.
Penance costs 2.5% mana and is channeled over 2 seconds, dealing heavy Holy damage to the target. This can be channeled while moving.
Mind Blast costs 4% mana and has a cast time of 1.5 seconds, dealing high Shadow damage to the target.
Shadow Mend costs 3% mana and has a 1.5 second cast time. It heals the target for a massive amount, but then deals 10% of the amount healed as Shadow damage to the target every second until the target has taken 50% of the heal from all sources (so without any other damage source, 5 seconds) or if the target is no longer in combat.
Revelation is a passive, giving Smite and Mind Blast a 30% chance to reset the cool down on Penance.
Atonement is a crucial passive, causing Plea, Power Word: Shield, and Shadow Mend to apply the Atonement buff on the target for 15 seconds. All targets with Atonement will each be healed for 50% of all spell damage you deal.
Shadowfiend is on a 3-minute cool down, summoning a fiend to attack the target for 12 seconds.
Power Word: Radiance costs 7% mana and has a 2.5-second cast time, healing the target and allies near them for a modest amount and applying Atonement to them for 50% of the normal duration.
Rapture is a 1.5 minute cool down, removing the cool down on Power Word: Shield for 8 seconds.
Pain Suppression costs 1.6% mana and has a 3-minute cool down, reducing the damage the target takes by 40% for 8 seconds. This is cartable while stunned.
Power Word: Barrier costs 6.2% mana with a 3-minute cool down, and reduces all damage taken in the targeted area by 25% for 10 seconds, also preventing spell pushback.
Mastery: Absolution increases the healing done by Atonement.
Obviously healers don't typically have a "rotation" exactly. But given that there's a big DPS component to this spec, you could almost act as if there were one. Clearly you'll want to maintain Atonement on any targets your responsible for healing. Plea is clearly the cheapest and quickest way to do this, though you'll probably want to use Power Word: Shield on cool down. Shadow Mend's damage downside of course doesn't matter much when you've got a tank taking boss-damage, as it will be overwritten before the DoT component can do much. In terms of Atonement healing, you'll probably want to maintain Shadow Word: Pain on a few targets to get constant ticking heals. Penance will provide a nice burst of healing/damage, while you can kind of titrate healing by using either Mind Blast for heavier damage or Smite for lighter damage. Power Word: Radiance is clearly meant for periods of heavy raid damage, and the cool downs have rather obvious applications.
But this has been a big problem. Having a shield that prevents damage instead of a heal that retroactively gives you health back is obviously better - it essentially makes your target seem as if they have higher max health than they do.
In Cataclysm (possibly as early as Wrath, though I don't remember it then,) they started playing with an idea with Discipline called Atonement - allowing the Priest to damage enemies and thereby create additional healing effects to help one's allies.
In Legion, Discipline is diving deep into this theme, becoming almost a hybrid of a damage-dealer and a healer. Given the removal of Mistweaving's Crane Style (Fistweaving,) it's kind of surprising that they're embracing it so whole-heartedly with Discipline, but my guess is that, thanks to the existence of Holy Priests, Priest players are not totally screwed if they want to heal but Discipline winds up being a train wreck.
They're even embracing this hybridization in terms of lore and flavor. Discipline will use both Holy and Shadow spells to heal and harm.
But in terms of gameplay, they're reining in a lot of the "smart heals" that made Atonement healing perhaps too easy. You're still going to be able to damage enemies to heal your friends, but you'll need to keep close watch on those friends to make sure that they get the benefits.
A big question for the spec is what the ratio will be. After all, a healer who also does half the damage of a DPS is going to be in high demand, but a healer who does half the healing of another healer is not. In a raid, this kind of half-and-half quality actually seems really easy to use - if your raid usually runs with two or three healers, you can run with two and a half! But for dungeons, where there's just one healer in the group, will Discipline Priests find themselves benched or forced to go Holy (or Shadow and run as DPS?)
I've been adding a little caveat to all these breakdowns, but honestly, even with a new class and some totally redesigned specs, this could be the biggest example of "expect changes and iteration."
So what have we got? (Also, I think I'll include base mana percentage costs with healing specs, as that's a bit more important for them.)
Smite costs 1% mana with a 2-second cast time, dealing Holy damage to the target.
Shadow Word: Pain costs 2% mana and deals a little bit of Shadow damage up front, with a lot of additional Shadow damage over 18 seconds.
Power Word: Shield costs 3.5% mana, creating a damage absorption shield that also prevents spell pushback that lasts a maximum of 15 seconds.
Plea costs 1.2% mana, and is an instant-cast heal that heals the target for a modest amount.
Penance costs 2.5% mana and is channeled over 2 seconds, dealing heavy Holy damage to the target. This can be channeled while moving.
Mind Blast costs 4% mana and has a cast time of 1.5 seconds, dealing high Shadow damage to the target.
Shadow Mend costs 3% mana and has a 1.5 second cast time. It heals the target for a massive amount, but then deals 10% of the amount healed as Shadow damage to the target every second until the target has taken 50% of the heal from all sources (so without any other damage source, 5 seconds) or if the target is no longer in combat.
Revelation is a passive, giving Smite and Mind Blast a 30% chance to reset the cool down on Penance.
Atonement is a crucial passive, causing Plea, Power Word: Shield, and Shadow Mend to apply the Atonement buff on the target for 15 seconds. All targets with Atonement will each be healed for 50% of all spell damage you deal.
Shadowfiend is on a 3-minute cool down, summoning a fiend to attack the target for 12 seconds.
Power Word: Radiance costs 7% mana and has a 2.5-second cast time, healing the target and allies near them for a modest amount and applying Atonement to them for 50% of the normal duration.
Rapture is a 1.5 minute cool down, removing the cool down on Power Word: Shield for 8 seconds.
Pain Suppression costs 1.6% mana and has a 3-minute cool down, reducing the damage the target takes by 40% for 8 seconds. This is cartable while stunned.
Power Word: Barrier costs 6.2% mana with a 3-minute cool down, and reduces all damage taken in the targeted area by 25% for 10 seconds, also preventing spell pushback.
Mastery: Absolution increases the healing done by Atonement.
Obviously healers don't typically have a "rotation" exactly. But given that there's a big DPS component to this spec, you could almost act as if there were one. Clearly you'll want to maintain Atonement on any targets your responsible for healing. Plea is clearly the cheapest and quickest way to do this, though you'll probably want to use Power Word: Shield on cool down. Shadow Mend's damage downside of course doesn't matter much when you've got a tank taking boss-damage, as it will be overwritten before the DoT component can do much. In terms of Atonement healing, you'll probably want to maintain Shadow Word: Pain on a few targets to get constant ticking heals. Penance will provide a nice burst of healing/damage, while you can kind of titrate healing by using either Mind Blast for heavier damage or Smite for lighter damage. Power Word: Radiance is clearly meant for periods of heavy raid damage, and the cool downs have rather obvious applications.
Breaking Down Guardian
It's odd, I thought I had done this already, but maybe I just started a draft that I never posted. Anyway!
Guardian, despite not technically existing until Mists, is actually one of the original tank specs (back in my day, we called 'em Feral Tanks!) Way, way back, during Burning Crusade, tanks who wanted to raid needed to get geared enough that they wouldn't be killed by "Crushing Blows." Warriors could easily do this by getting enough Defense Rating to be crit-immune, and then just use Shield Block to easily cover their avoidance table. Paladins had to work harder, since Holy Shield only gave them 35% extra block instead of 50% like Shield Block used to. Druids, whose leather gear never had any Defense Rating on it, could never do this. So what did they do? They'd stack stamina and armor to the high heavens and just soak those nasty blows.
Over the years, this designs has kind of faded away, and instead, Bear tanks have become extremely dodge-focused, using their natural agility (and their Agility, found on all their gear) to become very hard to hit - despite being a giant mass of shape-shifted fur, muscle and bone.
Well, things are changing! Guardian is getting a pretty nice and welcome redesign to reiterate the old design - Bears are tough. Bear tanks are massive beasts, and hitting them just makes them angrier.
As always, this is based on an Alpha build, so expect things to change. But here's what we have so far:
Bear Form is obviously what you'll be in most of the time as Guardian. It increases armor by 250% and reduces damage taken by 20% (there's another passive called Thick Skin that bumps this up to 30%.) It reduces your chance to be critically hit or parried by 10%, and also makes you immune to polymorph effects. Shifting forms will free you from movement-impairing effects. Being in Bear Form also allows you to use your Bear abilities.
Mangle has a 6-second cool down, generating 5 Rage, slowing the target by 50% for 12 seconds, and dealing a huge amount of damage, plus an additional 20% against bleeding targets.
Moonfire is an instant-cast spell, doing a bit of Arcane damage up-front and then a lot more over 12 seconds. It is now usable in Bear Form, which I think is really cool, as I often feel like the animal-druids kind of miss out on the magical side of the class. It's another way to distinguish Guardians from Warriors.
Maul costs 20 Rage and has a 3-second cool down, dealing a fair amount of physical damage to the target.
Thrash has no cool down or cost, simply hitting all nearby enemies for a bit of physical damage up-front and putting a bleed on them.
Lacerate has a 3-second cooldwon, dealing a fair amount of physical damage up front and then making the target bleed for a fair amount over 15 seconds, with the bleed stacking up to 3 times. Lacerate has a 25% chance to reset the cool down on Mangle.
Barkskin has a 1-minute cool down, reducing all damage by 20% for 12 seconds and can be used while incapacitated or otherwise cc'd.
Survival Instinct is your major damage-reduction cool down, with 2 charges on a 3-minute recharge, reducing damage by 50% for 6 seconds.
Ironfur is one of your main active mitigation abilities (though recall that in Legion, cool downs like Survival Instincts also count for any attacks that specifically look for active mitigation.) It costs 40 Rage and has a 1-second cool down, increasing your Armor by 100% for 6 seconds. Subsequent applications of this can overlap, which I suppose means you can actually have many times your normal amount of armor if you have the Rage.
Frenzied Regeneration has a 2 charges on a 20-second recharge and costs 10 Rage. It heals you for 100% of the damage you've taken over the last 6 seconds over 6 seconds, with a minimum of 5% of your total health.
Mark of Ursol costs 40 Rage and reduces magic damage taken by 30% for 6 seconds. This also counts as active mitigation.
Mastery: Nature's Guardian increases your maximum health and your healing received, and like all tanks, it also increases your attack power.
So the picture's relatively clear: Ironfur in particular is going to make you very tough. Essentially you're going to have a ton of health and armor, but you also get a boost to the healing you receive so you don't just become a mana sponge. Technically, the "higher health and healing received" effectively amounts to "you take less damage," but I doubt the healers are going to complain as their HPS gets inflated.
So here's what the rotation looks like, before we get into talents or artifact traits:
Active Mitigation:
1. Frenzied Regeneration if you just took a big hit or big series of hits.
2. Mark of Ursol if there's a big magic attack coming.
3. Ironfur most of the time, and possibly pooling 80 Rage if you know there's a really big hit coming so that you can get two stacks of it (assuming that's how it works.)
Threat/Damage:
1. Mangle if Lacerate procs it.
2. Lacerate if there's fewer than 3 stacks on the target or it looks like it's going to fall off.
3. Maintain Moonfire DoT.
3. Maintain Thrash.
4. Mangle
5. Maul, but only if you don't need the Rage for active mitigation.
Depending on how much Rage you get from normal combat, you might want to just use Mangle on cool down. In AoE situations, Thrash is going to help you pick up and hold lots of adds, but if you feel like getting fancy, you can multi-dot Moonfire and Lacerate. The latter might even help with Rage, depending on whether the bleed from Lacerate can proc Mangle. In terms of defense, I think Ironfur will be your AM-of-choice 9 times out of 10, as Frenzied Regeneration is more of a reaction to bad stuff happening, and Mark of Ursol is situational.
Guardian, despite not technically existing until Mists, is actually one of the original tank specs (back in my day, we called 'em Feral Tanks!) Way, way back, during Burning Crusade, tanks who wanted to raid needed to get geared enough that they wouldn't be killed by "Crushing Blows." Warriors could easily do this by getting enough Defense Rating to be crit-immune, and then just use Shield Block to easily cover their avoidance table. Paladins had to work harder, since Holy Shield only gave them 35% extra block instead of 50% like Shield Block used to. Druids, whose leather gear never had any Defense Rating on it, could never do this. So what did they do? They'd stack stamina and armor to the high heavens and just soak those nasty blows.
Over the years, this designs has kind of faded away, and instead, Bear tanks have become extremely dodge-focused, using their natural agility (and their Agility, found on all their gear) to become very hard to hit - despite being a giant mass of shape-shifted fur, muscle and bone.
Well, things are changing! Guardian is getting a pretty nice and welcome redesign to reiterate the old design - Bears are tough. Bear tanks are massive beasts, and hitting them just makes them angrier.
As always, this is based on an Alpha build, so expect things to change. But here's what we have so far:
Bear Form is obviously what you'll be in most of the time as Guardian. It increases armor by 250% and reduces damage taken by 20% (there's another passive called Thick Skin that bumps this up to 30%.) It reduces your chance to be critically hit or parried by 10%, and also makes you immune to polymorph effects. Shifting forms will free you from movement-impairing effects. Being in Bear Form also allows you to use your Bear abilities.
Mangle has a 6-second cool down, generating 5 Rage, slowing the target by 50% for 12 seconds, and dealing a huge amount of damage, plus an additional 20% against bleeding targets.
Moonfire is an instant-cast spell, doing a bit of Arcane damage up-front and then a lot more over 12 seconds. It is now usable in Bear Form, which I think is really cool, as I often feel like the animal-druids kind of miss out on the magical side of the class. It's another way to distinguish Guardians from Warriors.
Maul costs 20 Rage and has a 3-second cool down, dealing a fair amount of physical damage to the target.
Thrash has no cool down or cost, simply hitting all nearby enemies for a bit of physical damage up-front and putting a bleed on them.
Lacerate has a 3-second cooldwon, dealing a fair amount of physical damage up front and then making the target bleed for a fair amount over 15 seconds, with the bleed stacking up to 3 times. Lacerate has a 25% chance to reset the cool down on Mangle.
Barkskin has a 1-minute cool down, reducing all damage by 20% for 12 seconds and can be used while incapacitated or otherwise cc'd.
Survival Instinct is your major damage-reduction cool down, with 2 charges on a 3-minute recharge, reducing damage by 50% for 6 seconds.
Ironfur is one of your main active mitigation abilities (though recall that in Legion, cool downs like Survival Instincts also count for any attacks that specifically look for active mitigation.) It costs 40 Rage and has a 1-second cool down, increasing your Armor by 100% for 6 seconds. Subsequent applications of this can overlap, which I suppose means you can actually have many times your normal amount of armor if you have the Rage.
Frenzied Regeneration has a 2 charges on a 20-second recharge and costs 10 Rage. It heals you for 100% of the damage you've taken over the last 6 seconds over 6 seconds, with a minimum of 5% of your total health.
Mark of Ursol costs 40 Rage and reduces magic damage taken by 30% for 6 seconds. This also counts as active mitigation.
Mastery: Nature's Guardian increases your maximum health and your healing received, and like all tanks, it also increases your attack power.
So the picture's relatively clear: Ironfur in particular is going to make you very tough. Essentially you're going to have a ton of health and armor, but you also get a boost to the healing you receive so you don't just become a mana sponge. Technically, the "higher health and healing received" effectively amounts to "you take less damage," but I doubt the healers are going to complain as their HPS gets inflated.
So here's what the rotation looks like, before we get into talents or artifact traits:
Active Mitigation:
1. Frenzied Regeneration if you just took a big hit or big series of hits.
2. Mark of Ursol if there's a big magic attack coming.
3. Ironfur most of the time, and possibly pooling 80 Rage if you know there's a really big hit coming so that you can get two stacks of it (assuming that's how it works.)
Threat/Damage:
1. Mangle if Lacerate procs it.
2. Lacerate if there's fewer than 3 stacks on the target or it looks like it's going to fall off.
3. Maintain Moonfire DoT.
3. Maintain Thrash.
4. Mangle
5. Maul, but only if you don't need the Rage for active mitigation.
Depending on how much Rage you get from normal combat, you might want to just use Mangle on cool down. In AoE situations, Thrash is going to help you pick up and hold lots of adds, but if you feel like getting fancy, you can multi-dot Moonfire and Lacerate. The latter might even help with Rage, depending on whether the bleed from Lacerate can proc Mangle. In terms of defense, I think Ironfur will be your AM-of-choice 9 times out of 10, as Frenzied Regeneration is more of a reaction to bad stuff happening, and Mark of Ursol is situational.
Monday, December 21, 2015
Breaking Down (Atomizing?) the New Elemental
We're getting really close to the last of the DPS specs here, but I left out one of the specs that's getting the biggest changes until now. Elemental Shamans are not really changing quite as much as Enhancement, largely because in the divorce, they got to keep the Shocks and Lightning Bolt. But much like Enhancement, Elemental is moving onto a new primary resource other than Mana, which is the new Maelstrom (I don't know what color all of these new resources will be, though if any deserves to be kind of similar to the clear blue of Mana, it's Maelstrom, what with its tides-and-lightning connotations, and how Shamans' class color is a dark blue.)
Elemental still kind of interweaves four spells that are connected to each other in different ways, but a lot of the ways they have been connected has been streamlined into the Maelstrom resource (which is a cool name, but harder to type than mana.) You'll be generating Maelstrom with some spells and paying it off with others. Basically, the generators will be your bolts and the spenders will be shocks.
It also looks like Elemental will be the "default" spec - you'll no longer be spec-less from level 1-9, and instead simply get a free re-spec when you hit level 10 (though since re-speccing will be more like tri-spec, it's more like you'll just unlock the other specs at 10.)
As always, this is Alpha, and with a big redesign like this, you can expect changes to Elemental. It also seems like some of this information is a little self-contradictory, and since Shamans are not yet playable in the Beta, there could be lots of changes.
Lightning Bolt, good old trusty Lightning Bolt, is a 2.5 second cast that deals Nature damage to the target and generates 10 maelstrom.
Fulmination causes Lightning Bolt and Lava Burst to generate 15 Maelstrom (perhaps on top of the base amount, giving Lightning Bolt 25?) Chain Lightning generates 6 Maelstrom (I believe per-target.) It also causes Earth Shock to consume all of your Maelstrom, dealing damage based on how much you had.
Earth Shock consumes all of your Maelstrom (minimum of 10) to deal potentially massive Nature damage to the target.
Thunderstorm is instant cast on a 45-second cooldown, dealing light Nature damage to enemies in 10 yards and knocking them back as well as slowing them by 40% for 5 seconds.
Healing Surge is a 2-second cast, consuming Maelstrom and healing for a decent amount plus up to 100% more based on how much Maelstrom you spent.
Elemental Fury makes your crits deal 250% damage instead of 200%. Elemental Reach just gives you the range to be a real ranged class.
Flame Shock costs 0 to 20 Maelstrom, dealing light Fire damage to the target and then burning them every 2 seconds for additional damage for 10-30 seconds, depending on how much Maelstrom you spent - I assume you get an extra second per Maelstrom.
Shamanism increases the damage of your spells and reduces the cast time on Lightning Bolt by .5 seconds (to 2 seconds) and removes the cool down on Chain Lightning.
Lava Burst has a 2-second cast and an 8-second recharge (it currently says it only has one charge, but I suspect there might be a talent or something that increases this,) dealing high Fire damage to the target. If Flame Shock is on the target, Lava Burst will automatically crit, and it always generates 15 Maelstrom.
Frost Shock deals somewhat low Frost damage to the target and costs 0 to 20 Maelstrom, slowing them by 50% for 5-10 seconds, depending on how much Maelstrom you spend (presumably .25 seconds per Maelstrom.)
Chain Lightning has a 2-second cast, dealing somewhat low Nature damage to the target and jumping to two additional targets, generating 4 Maelstrom for each target hit.
Elemental Focus is a passive that causes your non-periodic critical strikes to increase the damage of your next two spells by 20%.
Lava Surge gives your Flame Shock ticks a chance to reset the cool down on Lava Burst and make it instant.
Fire Elemental is a 5-minute cool down, summoning a Fire Elemental to attack your foes. For 15 seconds after casting this, you generate 100% additional Maelstrom. It says the Elemental lasts until cancelled, but I don't know exactly how that works.
Earthquake Totem has a 10-second recharge (but apparently only 1 charge) and costs 80 Maelstrom, dealing a large amount of physical damage over 10 seconds to enemies near the targeted location, with a 10% chance to knock them down.
Earth Elemental has a 2-minute cool down, summoning an Earth Elemental to protect the caster and his/her allies. It lasts 15 seconds, and for 15 seconds after casting it, you take 30% less damage (and this can be used while stunned.)
Master: Elemental Overload gives your Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, and Lava Burst a chance to trigger a second bolt for 75% damage that generates no threat (not sure whether it generates Maelstrom.)
So what I think is cool about this is its flexibility. You can front-load Flame Shock just to ensure it's on there, but when you get more comfortably into the rhythm of your rotation, you can spend more Maelstrom to make it last longer. You can also sacrifice a bit of damage if you need to kill some low-health add with an Earth Shock. So here's how I see the rotation before adding talents or artifact traits:
1. Maintain Flame Shock - ideally at high Maelstrom so that you save on global cool downs.
2. Earth Shock when you're at high Maelstrom - I'd guess 75 or higher, depending on what the numbers wind up being on how much a Lava Burst or a Lightning Bolt generates - you want to do it before you go over 100.
3. Lava Burst on cool down, being sure to watch out for Lava Surge.
4. Lightning Bolt as a filler.
In AoE situations, you'll sub out Chain Lightning for Lightning Bolt as soon as there's a second target. You also probably want to run Flame Shock on all your targets (which shouldn't be terribly hard, as you can toss up a short one at 0 Maelstrom.) Once you get a fair number of targets - I'd guess 4 or more - you'll want to start using Earthquake Totem instead of Earth Shock. And of course Fire Elemental is now your big cool down.
Elemental still kind of interweaves four spells that are connected to each other in different ways, but a lot of the ways they have been connected has been streamlined into the Maelstrom resource (which is a cool name, but harder to type than mana.) You'll be generating Maelstrom with some spells and paying it off with others. Basically, the generators will be your bolts and the spenders will be shocks.
It also looks like Elemental will be the "default" spec - you'll no longer be spec-less from level 1-9, and instead simply get a free re-spec when you hit level 10 (though since re-speccing will be more like tri-spec, it's more like you'll just unlock the other specs at 10.)
As always, this is Alpha, and with a big redesign like this, you can expect changes to Elemental. It also seems like some of this information is a little self-contradictory, and since Shamans are not yet playable in the Beta, there could be lots of changes.
Lightning Bolt, good old trusty Lightning Bolt, is a 2.5 second cast that deals Nature damage to the target and generates 10 maelstrom.
Fulmination causes Lightning Bolt and Lava Burst to generate 15 Maelstrom (perhaps on top of the base amount, giving Lightning Bolt 25?) Chain Lightning generates 6 Maelstrom (I believe per-target.) It also causes Earth Shock to consume all of your Maelstrom, dealing damage based on how much you had.
Earth Shock consumes all of your Maelstrom (minimum of 10) to deal potentially massive Nature damage to the target.
Thunderstorm is instant cast on a 45-second cooldown, dealing light Nature damage to enemies in 10 yards and knocking them back as well as slowing them by 40% for 5 seconds.
Healing Surge is a 2-second cast, consuming Maelstrom and healing for a decent amount plus up to 100% more based on how much Maelstrom you spent.
Elemental Fury makes your crits deal 250% damage instead of 200%. Elemental Reach just gives you the range to be a real ranged class.
Flame Shock costs 0 to 20 Maelstrom, dealing light Fire damage to the target and then burning them every 2 seconds for additional damage for 10-30 seconds, depending on how much Maelstrom you spent - I assume you get an extra second per Maelstrom.
Shamanism increases the damage of your spells and reduces the cast time on Lightning Bolt by .5 seconds (to 2 seconds) and removes the cool down on Chain Lightning.
Lava Burst has a 2-second cast and an 8-second recharge (it currently says it only has one charge, but I suspect there might be a talent or something that increases this,) dealing high Fire damage to the target. If Flame Shock is on the target, Lava Burst will automatically crit, and it always generates 15 Maelstrom.
Frost Shock deals somewhat low Frost damage to the target and costs 0 to 20 Maelstrom, slowing them by 50% for 5-10 seconds, depending on how much Maelstrom you spend (presumably .25 seconds per Maelstrom.)
Chain Lightning has a 2-second cast, dealing somewhat low Nature damage to the target and jumping to two additional targets, generating 4 Maelstrom for each target hit.
Elemental Focus is a passive that causes your non-periodic critical strikes to increase the damage of your next two spells by 20%.
Lava Surge gives your Flame Shock ticks a chance to reset the cool down on Lava Burst and make it instant.
Fire Elemental is a 5-minute cool down, summoning a Fire Elemental to attack your foes. For 15 seconds after casting this, you generate 100% additional Maelstrom. It says the Elemental lasts until cancelled, but I don't know exactly how that works.
Earthquake Totem has a 10-second recharge (but apparently only 1 charge) and costs 80 Maelstrom, dealing a large amount of physical damage over 10 seconds to enemies near the targeted location, with a 10% chance to knock them down.
Earth Elemental has a 2-minute cool down, summoning an Earth Elemental to protect the caster and his/her allies. It lasts 15 seconds, and for 15 seconds after casting it, you take 30% less damage (and this can be used while stunned.)
Master: Elemental Overload gives your Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, and Lava Burst a chance to trigger a second bolt for 75% damage that generates no threat (not sure whether it generates Maelstrom.)
So what I think is cool about this is its flexibility. You can front-load Flame Shock just to ensure it's on there, but when you get more comfortably into the rhythm of your rotation, you can spend more Maelstrom to make it last longer. You can also sacrifice a bit of damage if you need to kill some low-health add with an Earth Shock. So here's how I see the rotation before adding talents or artifact traits:
1. Maintain Flame Shock - ideally at high Maelstrom so that you save on global cool downs.
2. Earth Shock when you're at high Maelstrom - I'd guess 75 or higher, depending on what the numbers wind up being on how much a Lava Burst or a Lightning Bolt generates - you want to do it before you go over 100.
3. Lava Burst on cool down, being sure to watch out for Lava Surge.
4. Lightning Bolt as a filler.
In AoE situations, you'll sub out Chain Lightning for Lightning Bolt as soon as there's a second target. You also probably want to run Flame Shock on all your targets (which shouldn't be terribly hard, as you can toss up a short one at 0 Maelstrom.) Once you get a fair number of targets - I'd guess 4 or more - you'll want to start using Earthquake Totem instead of Earth Shock. And of course Fire Elemental is now your big cool down.
Breaking Down (Burning Down?) Fire
We're getting pretty far with all the DPS specs, and many of the tank specs. At some point I'll have to go into pure-theory mode (ok, to be fair I've healed one or two dungeons as most of the healing specs - possibly never Shamans) with healers, but let's knock out the rest of the DPS'ers.
Fire Mages, like their Frosty and Arcane brethren, are not getting huge changes because, well, Mages in general have been pretty fun to play and true to their class and spec fantasies for a long time. In fact, you could argue that a lot of the changes coming are sort of to bring the other classes up to the elegance and strong design of the Mage.
Fire is getting some new toys and some upgrades to old toys. Probably the biggest change is that Combustion is getting changed from a powerful DoT into a powerful cool down (well, it's always had a cool down, but now it's more of a buff than an attack.) There's also a cool and very flavorful change to the Ignite Mastery which we'll get to.
So let's get into the Fire spells. As always, remember that this is based on an Alpha build, and while I don't expect to see the baseline Mage spells change too much given how little they're changing from the existing design, you never know.
Fireball is, of course, the primary filler spell you'll be casting most of the time. It has a 2.25 second cast time and deals fire damage to the target.
Pyroblast has a (baseline) 4.5 second cast time, dealing a massive amount of fire damage to the target.
Hot Streak is a passive causing your next Pyroblast or Flamestrike to be instant if you get two critical strikes from direct-damage spells in a row.
Enhanced Pyrotechnics is a fun passive that makes each Fireball that does not give you a critical strike give you a 10% increased critical strike chance, stacking up indefinitely, but ending once you do get a critical strike. I love this, because it ensures you never go too long without a crit.
Inferno Blast has 2 charges on a 12-second recharge, dealing a modest amount of fire damage to the target, but always critically striking. It is not on the global cool down and can be cast while casting other spells. Its main purpose, I think, other than giving you something to cast on the move, is a guaranteed Hot Streak once you've crit with Fireball.
Combustion has a 2-minute cool down, increasing you crit chance by 100% for 10 seconds, and gives you Mastery equal to your critical strike rating (it doesn't double-dip on its own buff, but it makes all the crit on your gear still worth something while it's up.)
Molten Armor gives you an extra 15% crit chance and reduces incoming physical damage by 6%, giving you a nice healthy baseline before you start stacking up crit (I think base crit without anything is 10%, so that's a baseline of 25%.)
Scorch has a 1.5-second castime, dealing a small amount of fire damage to the target, but is usable while moving, which is probably the only time you ever want to use it.
Flamestrike has a 4-second cast time dealing a fair amount of fire damage to anyone standing in it and slowing them by 50% for 8 seconds.
Critical Mass is a passive that multiplies the critical strike chance of Fireball, Scorch, and Pyroblast by 1.3.
Dragon's Breath is an instant-cast spell on a 20-second cool down, dealing relatively low fire damage to enemies in a cone in front of you and disorienting them for 4 seconds, though this effect breaks on any damage. It replaces Cone of Cold.
Mastery: Ignite causes Fireball, Pyroblast, Scorch, Inferno Blast, and Flamestrike to add a 9-second DoT to the target based on your Mastery and the damage of the initial spell. Subsequent applications of Ignite will roll over, so you'll get the full Ignite effect off of each spell without worrying about "overwriting." Also, every 2 seconds, Ignite has a chance to spread to a new nearby enemy.
So as you can see, most of this is familiar, but won't have to worry about finding the perfect sweet spot for Combustion - in fact, Combustion will basically turn you into a Pyroblast machine gun. Before we get into talents and artifact traits (which will add new parts to the rotation,) here's what we're looking at:
1. Pyroblast if there's a Hot Streak.
2. Inferno Blast if you have the "Warming Up" buff - basically if you just crit.
3. Fireball.
AoE's kind of interesting. With Ignite now spreading, you might be able to just keep up the single-target rotation on two or possibly three targets. But at some point you'll want to start using Flamestrike instead of Pyroblast. With a similarly really-long cast-time, you'll probably only want to use Flamestrike 4 seconds before the pull or if you get a Hot Streak proc. Scorch is obviously the substitute for Fireball when you're on the move, but everything else should be instant-cast in your rotation, so you just swap it out. And of course, you'll now just want to use Combustion on cool down - no prep required.
Fire Mages, like their Frosty and Arcane brethren, are not getting huge changes because, well, Mages in general have been pretty fun to play and true to their class and spec fantasies for a long time. In fact, you could argue that a lot of the changes coming are sort of to bring the other classes up to the elegance and strong design of the Mage.
Fire is getting some new toys and some upgrades to old toys. Probably the biggest change is that Combustion is getting changed from a powerful DoT into a powerful cool down (well, it's always had a cool down, but now it's more of a buff than an attack.) There's also a cool and very flavorful change to the Ignite Mastery which we'll get to.
So let's get into the Fire spells. As always, remember that this is based on an Alpha build, and while I don't expect to see the baseline Mage spells change too much given how little they're changing from the existing design, you never know.
Fireball is, of course, the primary filler spell you'll be casting most of the time. It has a 2.25 second cast time and deals fire damage to the target.
Pyroblast has a (baseline) 4.5 second cast time, dealing a massive amount of fire damage to the target.
Hot Streak is a passive causing your next Pyroblast or Flamestrike to be instant if you get two critical strikes from direct-damage spells in a row.
Enhanced Pyrotechnics is a fun passive that makes each Fireball that does not give you a critical strike give you a 10% increased critical strike chance, stacking up indefinitely, but ending once you do get a critical strike. I love this, because it ensures you never go too long without a crit.
Inferno Blast has 2 charges on a 12-second recharge, dealing a modest amount of fire damage to the target, but always critically striking. It is not on the global cool down and can be cast while casting other spells. Its main purpose, I think, other than giving you something to cast on the move, is a guaranteed Hot Streak once you've crit with Fireball.
Combustion has a 2-minute cool down, increasing you crit chance by 100% for 10 seconds, and gives you Mastery equal to your critical strike rating (it doesn't double-dip on its own buff, but it makes all the crit on your gear still worth something while it's up.)
Molten Armor gives you an extra 15% crit chance and reduces incoming physical damage by 6%, giving you a nice healthy baseline before you start stacking up crit (I think base crit without anything is 10%, so that's a baseline of 25%.)
Scorch has a 1.5-second castime, dealing a small amount of fire damage to the target, but is usable while moving, which is probably the only time you ever want to use it.
Flamestrike has a 4-second cast time dealing a fair amount of fire damage to anyone standing in it and slowing them by 50% for 8 seconds.
Critical Mass is a passive that multiplies the critical strike chance of Fireball, Scorch, and Pyroblast by 1.3.
Dragon's Breath is an instant-cast spell on a 20-second cool down, dealing relatively low fire damage to enemies in a cone in front of you and disorienting them for 4 seconds, though this effect breaks on any damage. It replaces Cone of Cold.
Mastery: Ignite causes Fireball, Pyroblast, Scorch, Inferno Blast, and Flamestrike to add a 9-second DoT to the target based on your Mastery and the damage of the initial spell. Subsequent applications of Ignite will roll over, so you'll get the full Ignite effect off of each spell without worrying about "overwriting." Also, every 2 seconds, Ignite has a chance to spread to a new nearby enemy.
So as you can see, most of this is familiar, but won't have to worry about finding the perfect sweet spot for Combustion - in fact, Combustion will basically turn you into a Pyroblast machine gun. Before we get into talents and artifact traits (which will add new parts to the rotation,) here's what we're looking at:
1. Pyroblast if there's a Hot Streak.
2. Inferno Blast if you have the "Warming Up" buff - basically if you just crit.
3. Fireball.
AoE's kind of interesting. With Ignite now spreading, you might be able to just keep up the single-target rotation on two or possibly three targets. But at some point you'll want to start using Flamestrike instead of Pyroblast. With a similarly really-long cast-time, you'll probably only want to use Flamestrike 4 seconds before the pull or if you get a Hot Streak proc. Scorch is obviously the substitute for Fireball when you're on the move, but everything else should be instant-cast in your rotation, so you just swap it out. And of course, you'll now just want to use Combustion on cool down - no prep required.
Tuesday, December 15, 2015
Cloud Strife, Bayonetta, and Corrin from FIre Emblem Coming to Smash Bros.
Today saw the last Nintendo Direct dedicated to Smash Bros. and with it, I believe, the final additional fighters available as Downloadable Content for the Wii U/3DS version of the game.
This latest iteration of Smash Bros. was already the largest so far, and we've seen some exciting new characters (and old ones) added as DLC.
Cloud is obviously one of the most iconic video game characters of all time, despite starring in only one game (though there was a spin-off and an animated film, and a high-profile remake coming soon.) He's the main character of Final Fantasy VII, which is probably the most popular entry in the series.
Bayonetta is the star of a somewhat younger series of action games, a witch who can manipulate time and fights with four guns - one in each hand and one on each foot.
Corrin... I have no idea who Corrin is. Nintendo seems to like to push Fire Emblem characters almost as much as Pokemon.
Anyway, Cloud and his associated Midgar stage will be available tonight, while it appears that Bayonetta is getting her own stage some time later.
With this being the last Nintendo Direct, it might mean that these will be the final additions to the lineup. My response? "Snake? Snake! SNNNAAAAAKKKKEEE!"
Despite the existence of some high-profile Wii U titles in the works and the fact that the Wii U is only a couple years old, Nintendo has already started talking about their next console, currently codenamed as the NX. Granted, talking about it doesn't mean that it's coming out anytime soon. The Xbox One and PS4 are only about a year old at this point, so I don't think we're racing toward the next generation just yet (especially given how long the PS3 and Xbox 360 generations lasted,) so I wonder if Nintendo is trying to beef up their specs to handle the kind of games that Sony and Microsoft's consoles can.
Anyway, Smash Bros. has become one of the big Nintendo franchises that kind of has to have an entry for each console. If the NX comes out any time soon (meaning the next three years,) it's likely we'll see another Smash Bros. as well.
This latest iteration of Smash Bros. was already the largest so far, and we've seen some exciting new characters (and old ones) added as DLC.
Cloud is obviously one of the most iconic video game characters of all time, despite starring in only one game (though there was a spin-off and an animated film, and a high-profile remake coming soon.) He's the main character of Final Fantasy VII, which is probably the most popular entry in the series.
Bayonetta is the star of a somewhat younger series of action games, a witch who can manipulate time and fights with four guns - one in each hand and one on each foot.
Corrin... I have no idea who Corrin is. Nintendo seems to like to push Fire Emblem characters almost as much as Pokemon.
Anyway, Cloud and his associated Midgar stage will be available tonight, while it appears that Bayonetta is getting her own stage some time later.
With this being the last Nintendo Direct, it might mean that these will be the final additions to the lineup. My response? "Snake? Snake! SNNNAAAAAKKKKEEE!"
Despite the existence of some high-profile Wii U titles in the works and the fact that the Wii U is only a couple years old, Nintendo has already started talking about their next console, currently codenamed as the NX. Granted, talking about it doesn't mean that it's coming out anytime soon. The Xbox One and PS4 are only about a year old at this point, so I don't think we're racing toward the next generation just yet (especially given how long the PS3 and Xbox 360 generations lasted,) so I wonder if Nintendo is trying to beef up their specs to handle the kind of games that Sony and Microsoft's consoles can.
Anyway, Smash Bros. has become one of the big Nintendo franchises that kind of has to have an entry for each console. If the NX comes out any time soon (meaning the next three years,) it's likely we'll see another Smash Bros. as well.
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