Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Opinions on various 3.1 changes

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EDIT: Now, with more rating!

I was perusing through the new patch notes, and thought I'd highlight a few things for you guys. They're kind of random. Be prepared.

Gift of the Naaru (Draenei Racial): The heal has been changed to an instant-cast direct heal instead of a heal-over-time.
I realize that the spell was kind of bottom-of-the-barrel in terms of "oh shi- I need to heal myself NOW!" I mean, it's got a cast time, AND you have to wait for it to tick. It's like the bastard spawn of healing touch and rejuv, and only inherited the bad genes. So I could see them making it be a cast time direct heal, or an insta-cast tick. But insta-cast direct heal? It's like a freaking potion. Boring! When I'm leveling my draenei alts, it's always fun to have to time it perfectly - figuring out fast you're going down, how fast the enemy is going down, and how much time you have until it's going to be too late to cast that heal to save you.

Also, how OP is this in PvP? Insta 6k heal? -1

Haste Rating: shamans, paladins, druids, and death knights now receive 30% more melee haste from Haste Rating.
Does this mean I get to hit things even FASTER with my barky arms? I couldn't ask for more. +1

Abolish Poison: Now ticks every 3 seconds, up from every 2. Now lasts 12 seconds, up from 8.
Why not, sounds good to me. Every 3 seconds is still enough to get rid of a poison quickly, and we don't need to waste as many GCDs refreshing it every 8 seconds. And honestly, when do we need to keep Abolish Poison up all that often? Maexxna's really the only encounter as of yet. Seems like more of a PvP change to me. 0

Innervate: This spell no longer costs mana.
So, when I'm absolutely and completely 100% out of mana (which, uh, if you are, you should have hit Innervate about 2 or 3 GCDs earlier, you noob), it means I can cast Innervate RIGHT THEN AND THERE instead of waiting .9 seconds to cast it. Whatever. 0

Living Seed
: This talent now accounts for total healing including overhealing.

This is a neat change. Now we can throw a critted regrowth on a tank who may be near full health at the time, and the next time they get hit, they'll have an automatic heal of over 2000. Not too shabby. I'm not going to change my healing style to better work with this talent, though - for me, it's just a little extra bonus - if I crit and it's there, cool, if not, then whatever. +1

Increased the health granted by the Flask of Stoneblood.
Well, it's about time. Flask of Stoneblood is just way too weak to be considered good. 650 extra health points is nuffin. One of our best main bear tanks has 46k health raid buffed - what's an extra 650 heal gonna do? Pfft.

I wonder how much it will be increased by? The patch notes don't give a specific answer. Guess we'll have to see. +1

Glyph icons have been updated so it is easy to distinguish between classes.
I will bet anyone ALL OF MY GOLD that our glyphs will be either green, brown, or a color combo of green and brown. You just wait and see. +1

A new recipe has been added to cooking trainers for making Black Jelly, using several Borean Man 'O War as ingredients. While it looks disgusting, it restores more health and mana than the highest level food
OM NOM NOM NOM +1

Flint and Tinder is no longer necessary for creating a campfire. You're just that resourceful!

........uhhhh. I'm pretty resourceful, sure, but I'm not freaking MacGyver here.

I do think, though, that a toon specced for fire in any way shape or form, should be able to make a fire without flint and tinder. Srsly. Fire mages, shaman, survival hunters, demolition warlocks? Aim a fire totem, or throw that fire ball or immo trap somewhere and get a fire going. You don't need no stinkin' flint and tinder! But perhaps other, "less resourceful" classes can use other means (other than just flint and tinder) to assist fire-making. Sulfur-tipped claws, anyone? Strike anywhere! Insta fire! This is *so* coo-OH GOD MY PAW OH GOD THE BURNING WHY AHHHHH -1

You no longer need to learn cooking from books. The trainers have finally done their reading and are able to teach you the same thing.

Bout time. Those scrubs. +1

The time needed to catch fish has been reduced. Also, you can now fish anywhere, regardless of skill. Every catch has the potential for fishing skill gains, but you are likely to catch worthless junk in areas that are too difficult for your skill.
\o/!!!!!!!! +1

Players can now return items purchased with an alternate currency back to the original vendor within 2 hours of the purchase time for the original cost of the item.
So after all those half-runs of Naxx (I'm thinking of the puggers here), you finally have enough badges to buy a pair of shiny new boots. And oh, they are sweet. An upgrade in every way! Plus, immediately after, you get an invite to a 25 man Naxx run, so you get to try them out right away!

But then: ANOTHER pair of boots drop in the first wing. And they're even BETTER than your badge ones. And you win the roll! (note: I think the badge boots are actually close to best in slot - this is just an example). Pre-3.1, you probably would be insanely pissed off that you basically just wasted 40 badges.

Post 3.1? You could just scamper on over to the vendor, sell your boots, and get the 40 badges back.

My question: what if you enchant them? Can you still sell them back? Also: if someone else enchants their boots and then sells them back, can you then buy those enchanted boots for the same amount of badges? =P +1

Total patch rating right now: +6!!!
More snippets of patch notes to come, if I come across anything random and worthy!

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10 remarks:

Holinka said...

OMG F1RST!

Luthvian said...

I'm a terrible draenei. I always forget about that heal... mostly because it's nearly useless. the only good thing about it in its current state is that the cast time (1.5 seconds) is not subject to spell pushback.

Joyce Ann Martin said...

"Flint and Tinder is no longer necessary for creating a campfire. You're just that resourceful!
........uhhhh. I'm pretty resourceful, sure, but I'm not freaking McGyver here."

But but...you're a TREE. Barky arms are for even more than hitting. :D

Averna said...

@Joyce: But what am I gonna do, pick off pieces of my bark and light them on fire?! GAH! /flee

Also: barky arms are for more than hitting? Huh.

Joyce Ann Martin said...

Well, as they say, "Give a man a fire, warm him for a day, light a man on fire and warm him for the rest of his life." <3

Unknown said...

imo Improved haste counterbalances Gift of the Naaru in PvP. They beat you faster, you heal faster) But still having at least 1sec cast time would have been nice. I feel uncomfortable casting instaheals =/

Innervate has a manacost?? wow)

Increased the health granted by the Flask of Stoneblood: totally +1! well, people buy them anyway, but these potions seem to be some kind of bad joke if you ask me.

lint and Tinder is no longer necessary for creating a campfire. i'd say it's 0. Any class can find their means to light a fire, if you want it to be more realistic. But some part of the game is taken. A little sad.

The whole fishing thing is also nice. +1

I seem to be quite optimistic about the upcoming changes)

Anonymous said...

"Players can now return items purchased with an alternate currency back to the original vendor within 2 hours of the purchase time for the original cost of the item."

Whoa.

Maraetha said...

What? @ Fishing changes!
It's this one thing thats soo annoying and yet if you made it so "woot! I'm better at having no life then you" thing. I say they give us oldskool fishers who made it to 450 an achievement for that! :( Damn whats next, gnomish engineer fishing bombs "fish up 10 fish at a time" fishsticks ftw? xD
+ What miss elf said above is awesome! (I'm this kind that buys and then starts stalking a gm...)

Averna said...

@SP: I know, you do have a point. There have been SO many changes in the game that have devalued the hard work of people who actually worked for it back when it was difficult. "Well back when *I* was your age, we had to tank Kael's weapons UPHILL.

....BOTH WAYS.

IN THE SNOW WHILE WE WERE ON FIRE."

or something similar to that.

And then Blizz nerfed all those end-game encounters, hard.

Same goes for the rep needed for a wintersaber mount. The mats needed for enchanting stuff. The aquatic form quest for druids is gone - now you can just train it, and poof: sea lion. Soon, the CD on your hearthstone will be 30 min. instead of an hour. Blizz has been making the game more and more convenient, for better or for worse, and I can understand both side of the argument.

Anonymous said...

"Glyph icons have been updated so it is easy to distinguish between classes.
I will bet anyone ALL OF MY GOLD that our glyphs will be either green, brown, or a color combo of green and brown. You just wait and see. +1"

Oh, I'm holding you to this!