Wrath of the Lich King

[Aristes]

Yes, the patch is out but the verdict is not in. The latest patch has a lot of changes. My favorite so far? Mounts are 'learnable' so that the player need not keep them in his inventory. Instead, they fall under the 'pets' tab in the character sheet. Confusing, I think so. I'm still happy about it, though. Nice to have those two slots back. For someone who collects a lot of mounts, even better.

[Calax]

as a tank I was a little freaked when post spec I was somthing like 11 defense UNDER the uncrittable level. Freaked me out until my pack rat instincts activated and I equipped a single old trinket.

 

I personally am quite happy as I can now deal damage instead of just take it. (me and a friend were clearing Shadow Laberynth for the heck of it and so he could get rep)

 

I did mess up a little on my spec but I'll fix it later.

[Gfted1]

By the time I fired up WoW last night and installed the patch it turns out my server was flakey. First I could log in but then had a "error retrieving characters" (commence sphincter puckering) then finally the whole server went offline and I gave up around 11pm. Logged on at o-dark-thirty this morning (characters were back, yay) and looked around for a bit before the whole thing went offline for a world reset. I was dissapointed to see in the patch notes they nerfed "Living Bomb" to not blast enemies into the air but was pleased to see "Blastwave" now has a knockback. I cant wait to get home and play.

[qt3.14159]

I had a lot of fun re-speccing my girls. My priest is still 3/4 Holy and *just* enough Disc to pick up the spirit buff, but she has a lot of new spells now. I'm going to have to completely rearrange all my toolbars so that I manage to actually be able to use them!

 

My shaman also has quite a few new abilities / spells. And I noticed that when I logged off the night before she was about 14k away from hitting 67, but when I got on yesterday she was 1 away from hitting 67. I think they dropped experience requirements significantly for lvls 60 - 70. Woot!

Edited October 15, 2008 by qt3.14159

[Gfted1]

I didnt even get a chance to respec yet. I got like 5 minutes in this morning before the server went into reset. Im ridiculously anxious to flesh out my talents and see the new spells, PvP gear (I am maxed on honor and all four sets of honor tokens, HUZZAH), new city(!), character tabs, etc... I was this close to calling in sick today, but that would have been sad. Right?

 

*rends cloth and knashes teeth*

[Calax]

I was an idiot and didn't take the "for every 180 armor you get 1 attack power"

 

especially given I've got somthing like 17k armor.

[Gfted1]

Wow, thats 94.4 free AP!

[alanschu]

New patch info?

[Gfted1]

^Commence drooling.

[Gfted1]

Im not sure how I feel about these mage changes:

 

Teleport spells now cost 9% of base mana.

Portal spells now cost 18% of base mana

Polymorph now costs 12% of base mana.

Counterspell now costs 9% of base mana

 

So, if I understand correctly, the higher my Intellect goes (most important stat for mages which directly controls the "base" mana pool) the more mana these spells cost to cast. WTF is that junk?

[qt3.14159]

Im not sure how I feel about these mage changes:

 

Teleport spells now cost 9% of base mana.

Portal spells now cost 18% of base mana

Polymorph now costs 12% of base mana.

Counterspell now costs 9% of base mana

 

So, if I understand correctly, the higher my Intellect goes (most important stat for mages which directly controls the "base" mana pool) the more mana these spells cost to cast. WTF is that junk?

 

 

Hrm... my understanding of "base" means that without all your buffs.... so it would just be % of what your mana would be based on your unbuffed intellect. If that's the case, that's not very much, really. Your intellect probably comes mostly from your gear anyway. Of course, I could always be wrong about that.

 

Spent my lunch hour leveling my shaman. She's moving fast now. Too bad I've got so much stuff going on this weekend or I'd push to have her at 70 by the end of it... ah well, the weekend after will do, I'm sure.

[Gfted1]

I see. Well, if it in fact does not include your gear or buffs then the mana cost has significantly decreased from the previous fixed values of those spell. So I guess Ill just shut my mouth.

[qt3.14159]

I see. Well, if it in fact does not include your gear or buffs then the mana cost has significantly decreased from the previous fixed values of those spell. So I guess Ill just shut my mouth.

 

According to a thread I found on the forums:

 

"base mana is your mana when you;re naked and with 0 intellect.

 

Every 70 mage in the game has 2241 base mana. No exceptions, ever. "

 

So, it's not as bad as you thought, but not great either. Apparently polymorph went up.

[Gfted1]

Meh, I mixed up base intellect with base mana. I just checked my mage and the base mana of 2241 is correct. I still dont like the fact that the cost of casting those spells will increase as I level from 70 to 80. I wonder what the rationale was behind that decision and why those particular spells? Two of them arent even combat spells.

[Aristes]

Probably because of folks charging for ports. Either that, or some knuckleheads made a ruckus about it. Otherwise, why change them? I simply can't understand why it was a big deal to anyone, including Blizzard. I haven't had time to check into it today, although I was tempted when I first read your post. My gut instinct on polymorph is that it's PvP balance, which doesn't make me appreciate PvP more than I do now.

 

I really like the achievements things. It reminds me of City of Heroes, which I enjoyed quite a bit. Plus, it's more incentive to do just about anything. Some of the things are kind of silly.

 

There is only one so far I think is complete crap. The PvP reward for hugging characters you've killed before the player can release spirit just demonstrates that the WoW design team really want to reinforce an ugly sort of atmosphere. I guess maybe it encourages competition, but not in a friendly or healthy way. Part of my problem with PvP in WoW is that it really does encourage folks to hate each other... not in a role playing sort of way but in a real life sort of way. I've heard people talking about having the hordie in front of them so they could "put a foot in their ass" or worse. Sure, most of the time, that's simple machismo, but not for some of these folks, like my retired policeman brother who has been getting in fights with people since he was old enough to hold a bottle and strong enough to swing it at someone. The nerd rage is maddening sometimes. For example, folks say, "Hey, why don't we go kill people at the cross-roads?" I'm like, "Why? I don't really have much time, I was hoping to adventure." "Well, they hassle Sentinel Hill all of the time." "Yeah, but if they're hassling Sentinel Hill, then I'll come help drive them off so we can finish our quests."

 

And don't think this is sour grapes. I get a lot more kills than I suffer deaths these days. I play a rogue and most of my fighting either comes from defending cities, which is simply a role playing issue for me, or taking PvP spots in the outlands, like the bones waste or Halaa. Even then, I do it for practical reasons. Since gear is so important, half the time I get in one or two shots and the other guy runs off. LOL. I landed on a tower once and there was a rogue taking it. So, I land, put the venom on my blades and waited for him to take the tower before I flagged. I thought to myself that he probably just had the mission to take a tower and, since I knew I could take it whether or not he fought me, I figured I'd let him finish his quest. Anyhow, he just flew off. On my regular server, the PvP spots are owned by my faction the vast majority of the time.

 

Anyhow, I figured I'd throw that out there to draw fire from you avid PvPers. Back to the achievements thing. I'm missing quite a few achievements that were not retroactively applied to me. Weird stuff. I have credit for killing the Prince in Kara, but not for doing two of the regular outlands instances. ...And not even late ones. The two they didn't give me are Blood Furnace and Slave Pens, for crying out loud! haha. I also didn't get credit for any of my heroics, all of which I've also done. Go figure. Still, all in all, I think the achievements are really sweet, even most of the PvP ones. I'll get that Defender of Cities thing pretty quickly, since I'll usually take the time to help root out rogues in the city and always come to help defend against raids.

 

Oh, and did I mention mounts no longer taking an inventory slot? bwahahahahahahaha

[Gfted1]

I understand "balance" but isnt that what cooldowns are for? So nobody can spam (x) ability? Oh well, c'est la vie. Im ambivilant on achievments. Guess its neat to look at but it doesnt do anything tangible for me. I do like not using up bag slots for my mounts but since I havent played with the new patch yet Im not sure I understand the mechanic of having to "learn" them again.

 

Im also on the fence on whether or not to blow my wad on the new PvP gear or just wait a month when the yet newer PvP gear comes out with WotLK.

[Aristes]

I would buy stuff you can use now if you've got a wad of bills because you can earn more honor. Since you do a lot of PvP, you'll probably get more honor built up anyhow. However, I would save a bundle for new purchases, for sure.

[Gfted1]

Yeah, restraint isnt my strong suit. Give me a quick rundown on the new mount things?

[Aristes]

You right click on your mount in inventory. The mount disappears, but you have it as a new "skill" of sorts in your character sheet. When you open your character sheet, click on the "pets" tab at the bottom and you can place your new mount ability on your toolbar. Hey, my wife has one of those little pet ellekk things named "peanut" and it works for those too. So, my wife ends up with three new slots! You can use the ability from your character sheet OR by putting it on your toolbar.

[qt3.14159]

Basically, what used to be the mount you carried around in your bag is now a scroll that teaches you a spell. It's just that the spell now goes on a "Pet" tab on your character sheet rather than in your spellbook. It's pretty awesome.

 

***edit***

 

Damn, he beat me to it!

Edited October 15, 2008 by qt3.14159

[Gfted1]

Cool, thanks guys and gals. That will free up some bank space too as I just cant force myself to delete my roach and a few other toy pets.

[Mamoulian War]

Cool, thanks guys and gals. That will free up some bank space too as I just cant force myself to delete my roach and a few other toy pets.

 

 

muhahahaha

 

gratz me \o/

 

http://img116.imageshack.us/my.php?image=w...08215749bf0.jpg

 

 

server 1st :D

Edited October 15, 2008 by Mamoulian War

[Gfted1]

muhahahaha

 

gratz me \o/

 

http://img116.imageshack.us/my.php?image=w...08215749bf0.jpg

 

 

server 1st :D

 

 

What am I looking at there thats a server first? The "Ambassador" prefix? If so, what do you have to do to get it? Is that a new type of dragon mount?

Edited October 15, 2008 by Gfted1

[Mamoulian War]

muhahahaha

 

gratz me \o/

 

http://img116.imageshack.us/my.php?image=w...08215749bf0.jpg

 

 

server 1st :D

 

 

What am I looking at there thats a server first? The "Ambassador" prefix? If so, what do you have to do to get it? Is that a new type of dragon mount?

 

The Dragon Mount ... reward for one of the achievements

 

and for the ambassador you have to be exalted with all 4 faction capitals...

Edited October 15, 2008 by Mamoulian War

[Gfted1]

The Dragon Mount ... reward for one of the achievements

 

and for the ambassador you have to be exalted with all 4 faction capitals...

 

A dragon mount for an achievement! Sexy. There way no way in hell I was going to grind those crappy Netherwing dailies to get one, lol. Grats!