WoW 4.0.6 PTR - LOTS of changes

[Kromtor]

i'd be inclined to agree merc, but the good for the goose good for the gander is partly to blame for the homogenizing of classes that we're seeing. soon the only difference between ranged dps classes will be the color of their projectiles.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

Played a hunter since before aq gates were opened. And the difference between a good/skilled hunter and legolas wannabes is becoming less and less.

In some ways, I'll agree. Guess it just depends on what you call "skill." And really, everything just got a whole lot more retarded in 4.0, so you could apply that to every class.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

but the good for the goose good for the gander is partly to blame for the homogenizing of classes

How so? I'd suspect it had less to do with that angle and more to do with putting WoW into sustaining mode.

[valkry]

The min range on hunters should be removed. It was based on a mechanic that no longer exists in the game. Hunters are a ranged DPS class that has a massive handicap. It isn't allowed to do ranged DPS in melee.

Why? Mages can, Warlocks can, Druids can, Priests can.

Why not add the same min range to all other ranged classes? If it's good or the goose it is good for the gander.

Other ranged classes are magical ranged, and can be interupted, where kick/pummel/rebuke etc don't stop a hunter's casts.

What do you mean by "based on a mechanic no longer in the game"?

[Tonuss]

And yay for removing more skill requirements from hunters.

Hunters seem to be a class in transition and I expect that there will be a lot of tinkering before Blizzard is satisfied with it. Hunters started as a pretty easy to play class that had some maintenance (keeping pets alive and happy required some effort) to a class that became too easy to play. And then with WotLK they somehow found a way to make it even easier. The change from mana to focus is, IMO, a good one, but it will take some time to properly balance it. Focus turns the hunter from a class with massive and extended burst to a class with a relatively short burst that can maintain DPS afterward only if they make an effort.

After years of not having to make an effort, bad/lazy hunters are dealing with a bit of shock IMO.

Wow warlocks get a percentage of damage they do back in health, W T F. Like they weren't hard to kill before.

That does look like a nice buff. I assume that this is in conjunction with the change that will make warlock self-buffs a toggle instead of a fixed-duration. An always-on aura that provides a constant HoT might have been a bit more mindless than they wanted.

Fel armor normally provides an automatic 2% health regen every 5 seconds, which can be talented to 4%. With the large Cata health pools, that's some pretty huge regen (4000 to 5000 heal every 5 seconds!). Now it will be 3% of spell damage dealt, so it could be a lot less overall (or more, no idea atm). That's another of those areas that they may need to balance, but changing warlock auto-heals from passive to semi-active could wind up a nerf, but since it's pretty much a damage class in PVP it could be a big buff if they don't balance it properly.

[Noids]

So in current form say its approx 1k hps. Now if we get a crazy lock doing 15k dps, 3% of this is only 450 hps.

Until locks get up to 35k dps, this is a nerf it seems :P

[valkry]

In some ways, I'll agree. Guess it just depends on what you call "skill." And really, everything just got a whole lot more retarded in 4.0, so you could apply that to every class.

Back in the day it was wether or not you could kite Drak, stay away from rogues, Jump shoot, Triple trap.

For wotlk, an example of skill would be in melee range of an opponent and being able to use your surroundings as well as abilities to remove yourself from your opponent. Take a bunker (not tower) in AV for example. Jumping out into the donut hole, turning in mid-air and disengaging onto the other side, making the melee run all the way around while you rain pain on them.

You can even count having traps down at your feet BEFORE you engage, so you don't waste a gcd setting them while a melee opposition is moving toward or on you.

[valkry]

So in current form say its approx 1k hps. Now if we get a crazy lock doing 15k dps, 3% of this is only 450 hps.

Until locks get up to 35k dps, this is a nerf it seems :P

Locks WILL hit 35k dps this xpac, don't worry about that. We were doing near on 20k dps in ICC, minus 30% buff you are looking at roughly 15k dps. That's 3 times more than the dps at lvl 70. Which was roughly 3 times more the dps at 60. (top end dps). I'm sure our dps will at least double when we are rolling fully phat purples.

[Noids]

Maybe once you're in phat purples your hp will be more like 200k which means that 4%/5s regen previously was now more like 1.6k/s. Divide that by 3% and you're looking at over 53k dps which might be pushing it. Also remember it is PvP we are looking at where you won't be doing anything like your max theoretical dps.

Either way, reading the PTR forums, it seems there is a lot of QQ by locks about it being a nerf. There was talk that they wanted to reduce passive healing by affliction locks, but considering they don't use fel armor much, it seems to be a small unintended nerf to the other builds instead.

[valkry]

Maybe once you're in phat purples your hp will be more like 200k which means that 4%/5s regen previously was now more like 1.6k/s. Divide that by 3% and you're looking at over 53k dps which might be pushing it. Also remember it is PvP we are looking at where you won't be doing anything like your max theoretical dps.

Either way, reading the PTR forums, it seems there is a lot of QQ by locks about it being a nerf. There was talk that they wanted to reduce passive healing by affliction locks, but considering they don't use fel armor much, it seems to be a small unintended nerf to the other builds instead.

Your hp doesn't scale up as fast as your dps in pve gear. I was 19-20k hp with 264 gear at 80, yet in full blues for around 16k hp. Unless you wear plate.