A new feature is the difficulty settings and the group leader can select between five modes, of “easily” to “super+heavily”. Loot is also variable depending on the degree of difficulty you underatle. The harder the difficulty, the better the loot.

I was wondering.....once we get above lvl 60 will instances like ZG/MC/Ony be easier? Doable with 30 instead of 40?

Luke

Isn't the comparision suposed to be the dirfference between 30-60, for 60-70

Think the difference was compared to Whelan against all other Rogues.

doubt its single player, but more of tailoring content to the amount of players you have.

the problem with wow is its reliance on others to do anything. if we had 20 for MC for example we could stick it on medium and clear it. if we had 40 stick it on super hard and its the same as ever

I will say this, for expansion the debuff limit is being increased from 16 to 40, combined with the focus on smaller raid dungeons, Warlock players will have more freedom and opportunity to use their debuffing abilities with less limitation.

why would you go to MC with 20 on medium when the loot would be like Dire Maul quality then?
and reliance on others hmm .. thats why its a MMO

the reliance on so many though. 20 is manageable, 40 is difficult.

If you could tailor the instance to the amount of people you had available we wouldnt have to keep running zg/aq if we could go to bwl/aq40 with 20 or so people. They need more 20 man content, which it seems they're doing.

Getting 40 people in one place at the same time as we have found is nigh on impossible on a consistent basis even with 150 accounts.

As you're leveling up, you run through all the Outland instances at their default difficulty. You'll earn gear commensurate for your level, and the challenges will be tuned as such. Once you hit 70, however, your group leaders will have the option of running dungeons on "Elite" difficulty. This will tune the challenges to a level 70 group and increase the relative value of the rewards. At this point, there aren't any plans include such an option for the game's existing dungeons, though Chilton said that we shouldn't dismiss the possibility.

There's a whole new PvP system in place that will provide gear that's on par with the best PvE-garnered stuff.

In regards to flying mounts, the Horde will get armored Wyverns and the Alliance will get armored Gryphons. These will be available in normal and elite varieties, and according to Chilton, the normal versions will most likely be significantly cheaper than today's epic mounts.

Sounds like the portal opening will be a server wide event.

That'd involve you logging in sunshine!!



chelsea fan.

16/08 Tigole on tokens and reputation | 8/16/2006 5:47:33 AM PDT


I do believe there is an issue with a token system mixed with a reputation system such as the ZG or AQ system.

We recognized this with Naxxramas and corrected the situation. I am a big fan of token systems as well as reputation reward systems. But melding the two together causes many issues.

Also, regarding reputation, we're really trying hard in the expansion to make reputations less of a grind. We're trying to use reputation in new ways that don't require hours of repetitve behavior. To give an example, the Blood Elf secondary zone, Ghostlands, has a reputation associated with it. Do 2 quests -- go up a level. Do 3 more -- go up another level etc... No grinding whatsoever. It exists more for purposes of logical quest flow and world immersion (winning over a town -- proving yourself).

None of this has any bearing on what the maximum raid size is, however.

Protection
Tier 1:
Tactical Mastery (moved from tier 2 arms).

Tier 2:
Shield Specialization (moved from tier 2 proc).
Iron Will removed (moved to tier 2 arms tree)
Improved Bloodrage no longer a requirement for Last Stand

Tier 3:
Defiance
Rank 0/3
Requires 10 points in Protection
Increases the threat generated by your attacks by 5% while in Defensive Stance.

Tier 6:
Shield Mastery
Rank 0/3
Requires 25 points in Protection
Increases the amount of damage absorbed by your shield by 10%

Tier 7:
Improved Defensive Stance
Rank 0/3
Requires 30 points in Protection
Reduces all spell damage taken while in Defensive Stance by 2%

Focused Rage
Rank 0/3
Requires 30 points in Protection
Reduces the rage cost of all your offensive abilities by 1.

Tier 8:
Vitality
Rank 0/5
Requires 35 points in Protection
Increases your Stamina by 2%

Tier 9:
Devastate
Rank 0/1
Requires 40 points in Protection
15 rage 5 yard range
Instant
Requires One-Handed Melee Weapon

An instant weapon attack that causes 50% of weapon damage plus and additional threat for each application of Sunder Armor on the target. In addition, this attack will renew the duration of tthe Sunder Armor effect.


Fury

Tier 7:
Precision
Rank 0/3
Requires 30 Points in Fury Talents
Increases your chance to hit with melee weapons by 1%

Improved Whirlwind
Rank 0/2
Requires 30 Points in Fury Talents
Reduces the rage cost of your whirlwind ability by 2.


Tier 8:
Improved Pummel
Rank 0/2
Requires 35 Points in Fury Talents
Increases the duration of your Pummel ability by 1 sec and gives it a 25% chance to daze the target.

Tier 9:
Rampage
Rank 0/1
Requires 1 point in Bloodthirst
Requires 40 Points in Fury Talents

15 Rage
Instant 3 min cooldown
Warrior goes on a rampage, causing most successful melee attacks to increase the warriors attack power by 12. This effect will stack up to 10 times. Lasts 30 sec.


Arms:

Tier 2:
Iron will (moved from protection tree)

Tier 3:
Deep wounds
No longer has 3/3 Improved Rend Preq

Anger management no longer has a preq


Tier 6:
Improved Disciplines
Rank 0/3
Requires 25 points in Arms Talents
Reduces the cooldown on your Retaliation, Recklessness and Shield Wall abilities by 4 min and increases their duration by 2 sec.

Tier 7:
Second Wind
Rank 0/3
Requires 30 points in Arms Talents
Whenever you are struck by Daze, Stun, or Immobilize effect you will generate 10 rage over 10 sec

Tier 8:
Blood Frenzy
Rank 0/5
Requires 35 points in Arms Talents
Your Rend and Deep Wounds abilities also increase all melee damage taken by that target by 1%

Tier 9:
Endless Rage
Rank 0/1
Requires 40 points in Arms Talents
30 Rage
Instant 5 min
Reduces the rage cost of all abilities by 100% for 10 sec.






New Spells:

Intervine
10 rage 8-25 yard
Instant 30 sec cooldown
Requires Defensive stance
Run at high Speed towards a porty member, intercepting the next melee or ranged attack made against them.

Spell Reflection
25 Rage
Instant
Requires Shields
Requires Battle Stance, Defensive Stance.
Raise your shield, reflecting the next spell cast on you. Lasts 5 sec.

Commanding Shout
10 rage
Instant
Increases total health of all party members within 20 yards by 450. Last 2 min.

Victory Rush
10 rage
instant 5 sec cooldown
Requires Battlestance, Beserker Stance
Relish your victory after killing an enemy that yields experience or honor, increasing your chance to critically strike by 5% for 30 sec.

BASE SKILLS:

SPIRITUAL ATTUNEMENT (66): Gives the Paladin mana when healed by other friendly targets. The amount of mana gained is equal to 10% of the amount healed.

BLESSING OF SPELL WARDING (6Cool: A targeted party member is protected from all magical attacks for 10 sec, but during that time they are Silenced. Players may only have one Blessing on them per Paladin at any one time. Once protected, the target cannot be made invulnerable by Divine Shield, Divine Protection, Blessing of Spell Warding, or Blessing of Protection again for 1 min.

CRUSADER AURA (64): Increases the mounted speed by 20% for all party members within 40 yards. Players may only have one Aura on them per Paladin at any one time.

SEAL OF BLOOD (64): All melee attacks deal additional Holy damage equal to 30% of normal weapon damage, but the Paladin loses health equal to 10% of the total damage inflicted. Unleashing this Seal's energy will judge an enemy, instantly causing 409 to 451 Holy damage at the cost of 136 to 151 health.

AVENGING WRATH (70): Increases all damage caused by 30% for 20 sec. Causes Forbearance.

UNNAMED TAUNT: “The Paladin class will see a class-defining ability of its own in an ability to pull aggressive creatures off of classes with a "snap-aggro" ability. That ability, Chilton explains as the equivalent of an AOE taunt, but instead of being cast on the enemies, instead, true to the Paladin's role of buffing and supporting players, it is castable buff on a party member. At that point, the mobs that were attacking the party member within an Area of Effect range will then turn and attack the Paladin� (1up)

Comments:

ARE THESE REAL? They're missing one Confirmed skill, the Pally Taunt. I’ve added it from the 1up article. This is probably not hugely significant. If someone was creating fakes this good and believable, surely they’d be bright enough to put in the only confirmed pally skill. More likely, therefore, that it was either overlooked or has not been added to Alpha yet. Some of the Talents, which are from a different source, are also questionable, but the skills seem spot-on.

OVERALL it looks like Blizz made two significant direction changes with the Paladin. The first, and most remarkable, is Spiritual Attunement. It’s a fundamental prerequisite to serious Paladin tanking, and accomplishes it with a very impressive economy and grace. The mana bar becomes a Rage bar, constantly full on Raid encounters, requiring more management in smaller group content.

PALADIN TANKING: That being said, the clear direction of the Prot class appears to be as a dedicated, nearly preferable, off-tank. The ‘Snap Taunt’ is really an ‘off-tank Snap Taunt.’ I imagine it will work like this: in 5-10 man encounters, it’s most useful picking up singles that peel off, and building aggro on that mob. It’s of marginal use for the initial aggro gain, and will be difficult to use effectively when distracted by keeping aggro on many sets. Instead of clicking mob, pushing Taunt, you have to click mob portrait, see who is target of target, click target of target, buff. In raid encounters, it’s most useful off-tanking adds, where really only the off-tank healer could be stealing that mob’s aggro. Not to mention that it leaves the Paladin free to drop off-tanking at some point and begin healing with a full mana bar.

HOLY SHIELD: Second, it finally picks up on the image of Paladins as Holy Shields to the party, trading off damage taken to help the party. One of the fundamental problems with the Paladin, thus far, is that there was no real big point to being the most survivable class. You rarely if ever grab aggro and take damage. When solo, the survivability and consequential lack of downtime was nice but boring. The ability to turn that survivability into raw damage and party-assisting abilities is a huge shift in thinking on Blizzard’s part, making a class-defining trait into a major asset, and adding a lot of fun in balancing mana pool and health bar.

OTHER: Crusader Aura is a nice toy, possibly of some utility in outdoor PVP and other areas. Spell Warding completes the Paladin’s repertoire of Party-protecting talents, and the addition of the silence turns a possibly-overpowered move into an interesting strategic challenge.

New Talents:
HOLY
PURE OF HEART, requires 20, 3 point talent
Increases the paladin's chance to resist curse/disease by 5(10/15?)%

PURIFYING POWER, requires 25, 2 point talent
Reduces the mana cost of Consecration and Cleanse by 5(10?)%, and increases the critical strike chance of Holy Wrath and Exorcism by 10(20?)%

BLESSED LIFE, requires 30, 5 point talent
All attacks against you have a 2(10?)% chance to cause half damage

LIGHT’S GRACE, requires 35, 3 point talent
Your Holy Light has a 33(100?)% chance to cause our next Holy Light spell cast within 15 seconds take .5 seconds less casting time.

HOLY GUIDANCE, requires 35, 5 point talent
Your damage/healing is increased by 7(35)% of your Int.

DIVINE ILLUMINATION, requires 40, 1 point talent
Reduces mana costs of all spells by 50% for 20 seconds, 2 minute cooldown.

Comments:

THE REBIRTH OF HOLY LIGHT?: This Holy Tree is a puzzle. There is some recognition of the traditional Paladin healing role as the mighty mana-efficient healer. Holy Guidance, in particular, is a good heal/dmg boost, if the numbers work out. Others are strangely placed. Blessed Life seems more like a Prot talent, or even a Ret talent. Healing Pallies just aren’t taking much damage. Pure of Heart makes sense, and the big catch-all that is Purifying Power gives a damage boost alongside some mana-cost reduction.

But what’s with Light’s Grace and Divine Illumination? Is this meant to be some kind of Divine Illumination + Divine Favor + Holy Light � Light’s Grace Holy Light combo for major healing power? Granted, that’s a very interesting combination, but it’ll take a lot of foresight to use effectively. That COULD help with Paladin burst healing, which is not a class ability at present. I don’t see Divine Illumination doing much for Paladin Raid healing, either. Are Paladins running out of mana for some reason? I’m not a number cruncher, but this seems like a calculated move to 1) Give Paladins a reason to use Holy Light, 2) Lessen the dependence on FOL1-4, and 3) Give Holy Paladins some more utility with burst healing in 5-10 man combat.

PROTECTION
IMPROVED RESISTANCE AURAS, requires 20 points, 2 point talent
Your resistance auras also reduce spell damage by additional 3(6?)%

IMPROVED DIVINE SHIELD, requires 25, 2 point talent
Lowers the cooldown for Divine Shield by 30 (60?) seconds, and lowers the attack speed penalty by 50(100?)%.

ARDENT DEFENDER, requires 30, 5 point talent
When your health is below 20(100???)%, reduces all damage against you by 10%
Ed: I have no idea which part scales, but a perma defensive stance doesn't seem hideously out of line, and makes deep prot a whole new level of appealing.

LASTING DEFENSE, requires 35, 3 point talent
When struck by a melee attack, you have a 4(12?)% chance to gain 50% of the damage taken in mana.

WEAPON EXPERTISE, requires 35, 5 point talent
Increases skill with all weapons by 2(10?)

AVENGER’S SHIELD, requires 40, 1 point talent
range 8-30 (shooting range), Requires shield, 30 sec cooldown
(Listed are from the talent, it may scale with level, there don't seem to be any ranks on the trainer)
500 mana, 270-330 damage.
Hurls a holy shield at the enemy, dealing listed damage, and then bouncing to additional close targets. Affects 3 targets total.

Comments:

WELCOME TO PALLY TANKING: Frankly, all of these pale in comparison to the new Paladin tanking ability. As a core skill! If it was the 41-point I would still hail Spell Attunement as a brilliant move to create a Paladin Tank. Thematically, these all accord with the theme of Paladin tanking, namely “Abilities and Skills grow when you take damage.� It’s an interesting idea, although it tends to get messed up by the fact that as you gear up, you get hit with those ability-raisers less. Imp Resistance Aura lends credence to the idea of Pallies as off-tank specialists. Ardent Defender and Lasting Defense are both solid abilities; Ardent Defender + Imp Resistance + Spell Warding especially makes me wonder if they’re aiming Pallies at off-tanking spellcasters.

Avenger’s Shield gives Pallies a good spell for 5-10 man main tanking, and should in general be super-fun to kick ass with.

RETRIBUTION
CRUSADE, requires 20, 3 point talent
Increases all damage to Humanoid, Undead, Demon and Elemental foes by 1(3?)%

IMPROVED SANCTITY AURA, requires 25 and Sanctity Aura, 2 point talent
The amount of healing done to targets affected by Sanctity Aura is increased by 3(6)%

DIVINE PURPOSE, requires 30, 5 point
Decrease the chance that melee and ranged attacks will critically hit you by 1(5?)%.

EMPOWERED JUDGMENT, requires 35, 3 point
Gives your Judgment a 33(100?)% chance to refund 50% of the mana cost of the judged spell

FANATICISM, requires 35, 5 point
Increases the critical strike chance of Seal of Command and all damaging Judgements by 2(10)%

SANCTIFIED CRUSADER, requires 40, 1 point
In addition to the normal effect, your Judgement of the Crusader will increase the critical strike chance of all attacks made vs the judged target by an additional 2%

Total spell damage bonus is now displayed in the UI.
Frenzied Regeneration now scales with stamina. For Rank 3, each point of rage is now converted to 17 health plus some percentage of your stamina (looks like 1%).
Moonfury's tooltip now reads increases damage to all Balance damage spells, which means it probably is now applied after bonus spell damage effects.
Travel Form model has been changed to a stag.
No word about Stormcrow Form, but I wouldn't rule it out as a level 70 flying mount.


Balance Talents

Tier 5
Gusting Winds: Increases the damage done by your Cyclone and Hurricane spells by 10/20/30%.

Tier 6
Dreamstate: Gives you a 33/66/100% chance to gain the Focused Casting effect that lasts for 6 sec after being the victim of a melee or ranged critical strike. The Focused Casting effect prevents you from losing casting time when taking damage.

Tier 7
Improved Moonkin Form: Requires 1 point in Moonkin Form. Increases all spell damage caused by 1/2/3% and reduces the base mana cost of Moonkin Form by 5/10/15%. Note: This means Moonkin now costs as much as Travel and Aquatic Forms.
Strength of the Moon: Increases spell damage by up to 5/10/15/20/25% of your total intellect.

Tier 8
Empowered Starfire: Your Starfire spell gains an additional 2/4/6/8/10% of your bonus spell damage effects.

Tier 9
Force of Nature (Rank 1): The force of nature radiates from the Druid, silencing enemies within 10 yards for 2 sec. and causing 192-212 Nature damage. Note: 2 minute cooldown.


Feral Combat Talents

Tier 5
Feral Recovery: All healing effects on you are increased by 10/20%. In addition, the act of shapeshifting has a 25/50% chance to remove one harmful effect.

Tier 6
Primal Instinct: Increases your chance to resist stun, charm, and trap effects by 3/6/9/12/15%.

Tier 7
Animal Reflexes: Increases your agility by 2/4/6/8/10% while in Cat, Bear, and Dire Bear forms.
Predatory Will: Reduces the cooldown of Growl and increases the duration of Tigers Fury by 1/2 sec.

Tier 8
Heightened Senses: Increases your attack power by up to 10/20/30/40/50% of your intellect.

Tier 9
Scent of the Pack: Reduces damage taken in Bear Form and Dire Bear Form by 0.4%, and increases damage done in Cat Form by 0.6% for every party or raid member within 45 yards with Mark of the Wild or Gift of the Wild active. So 10% less dmg taken in bear and 15% more damage done in catform in a 25 man raid.


Restoration

Tier 6
Natural Resilience: Increases your mana regeneration while in all forms by 10/20/30%.

Tier 7
Healing Mastery: Increases the critical effect chance of your healing spells by 1/2/3/4/5%.
Improved Innervate: Reduces the cooldown of Innervate by 20/40/60 sec.

Tier 8
Nature's Reprieve: Gives you a 20/40/60/80/100% chance to gain Mana equal to the base cost of your spell after healing a wounded target with Healing Touch, Regrowth, or Swiftmend.

Tier 9
Harmonize: Distributes damage taken by party members within 30 yards between the party while in effect. Note: Its a self cast buff that lasts up to 30 seconds.

New Base Spells

Cyclone (Balance): Throws your target into the air, disorienting the target and causing Nature damage over 3 seconds but making the target immune to other damage during that time.
Mangle (Cat Form): Stuns the enemy and deals damage per combo point.
Feral Strike (Bear Form): An attack that deals damage and converts each extra point of rage into damage and causes a high amount of threat.
Enervate (Restoration): Drains mana, energy, or rage every second for 20 seconds.
Control Beast (Balance): Controls a beast up to level 77 but increases the time between attacks by 25%. Lasts up to 1 min.

Prayer of Mending - Rank 1

Requires Level 68
637 Mana30 yd range
Instant cast
Places a spell on the target that heals them for 702 to 858 the next time they take damage. When the heal occurs, Prayer of Mending jumps to a nearby raid target. Jumps up to 5 times and lasts 1 min after each jump. This spell can only be placed on one target at a time.

Shades of Darkness - Rank 1

Requires Level 66
446 Mana30 yd range
Instant cast5 min cooldown
Summons 3 shades to attack the enemy target for 8 sec.

Shadow Word: Death - Rank 2
Requires Level 70
556 Mana30 yd range
Instant cast6 sec cooldown
A word of dark binding that inflicts 572 to 664 Shadow damage to the target. If the target is not killed by Shadow Word: Death, the caster takes damage equal to the damage inflicted upon the target.

Personally, if the grind to 70 is gonna be 2.5m XP, and the grind from 0-60 was 4m xp, then i'm expecting the difference in power/healing between a lvl 70 and a lvl 60 to be similar to the difference in power between a lvl60 and a lvl37-38... atleast.

Lvl66 skill:
Ice Lance - Rank 1
Deals 146-186 Frost dmg, tripled if target is frozen (438-558)