TheIcon
Tuesday, 9th August 2005, 17:34
Like the last two weeks I'v stolen some info from the US and EU boards and will post them here for the lazy of you :)
Today has.
Druid love, Druid concerns, paladin ranged attack, hunter concerns, and for those that dosent know when the Darkmoon Faire is in town.
Druid
As already caught by our players:
In the upcoming content patch, there are significant changes to Cat Form. Here's the run down:
* Cat Form's base damage (not attack power, but the cat form's "weapon" damage) has been increased.
* Each point of Agility now adds 1 Attack Power.
* Rip's damage per combo point has been increased.
* Ferocious Bite's damage per combo point has been increased. In addition, extra energy now converts to damage at a higher rate.
* The global cooldown on Tiger's Fury has been replaced with a one-second self cooldown. Its duration has been increased to six seconds.
* Rake's damage has been increased.
Also, the combo point problem with Ferocious Bite -- wherein the points would go away on a miss/dodge/parry -- should be resolved.
Talent changes for Druids (which should, among other things, further enhance Feral viability) are still on the way and currently scheduled for the content patch after 1.7.
There is a school of thought that talent changes should be made to increase the Feral form viability, and the developers are of that mind also... but they were also not satisfied with the level of effectiveness for all Druids, regardless of specialisation. The changes in 1.7 should boost that significantly. Aeus - Community Rep English
Also Thundgot has posted a summry of the EU Druid forums
Following the class concerns threads on the three European Druid forums we've made a summary for the developers. Here's that summary for your perusal. :)
Talent tree
One useable talent tree (restoration)
Suggestion: Rework feral primarily, and balance also to some extent. Remove useless talents such as improved tranquility (which you made useless when you gave us Barkskin)
Rework the feral talent tree completely, and increase the rate of rage generation in bear form. Give some boosts to the balance tree while removing some of the useless talents for better ones (Please remove weapon balance and improved thorns for something better), also improve hurricane to make it worth using.
Innervate is so good and Hurricane and feral 31 point talents are so bad that spending 31 points in restoration is almost mandatory.
Suggestion: Vast improvements in top end of balance and feral trees.
Rework the feral talent tree completly, and increase the rate of rage generation in bear form. Give some boosts to the balance tree while removing some of the useless talents for better ones (Please remove weapon balance and improved thorns for something better), also improve hurricane to make it worth using.
Damage
General lack of dps
Damage Output, sure we can survive pretty well but WoW in its current state is pretty competitive, and let’s face it, its pretty sad when a designated healbot class (priest) can out damage us with ease, when we are suppost to have damage options available to us..
Feral damage
Severely lacking feral dps
Suggestion: Rework the whole feral system. A feral druid should not be outdamaged by another class 20 levels below them.
I know you're already on this problem , IMO there will be a choice for a druid in the feral tree , i mean remake the feral tree so a druid spending points in it can improve cat or bear in function of his playstyle.
Cat damage needs to be increased to a level where the consequent armour loss becomes a viable tradeoff.
Quests
Dire lack of quests (epic or otherwise)
Suggestion: Give us some nice fun quests !
Moonglade and Druid quests.
The game has a brilliant place to spice up Druid play and give the class some character and flavor. Yet I've had no reason whatsoever to visit Moonglade since lvl 16. It should be a place we would want to visit regularly. That can be quests for spells, items, professions recipes for Druid useful items, etc.
Armor sets
Druid armor sets are kinda ... lacking.
Many druids consider our lower level set (Wildheart) to be the superior druid set because of its well rounded skill bonus, where as our epic sets are seen as useless for all but "heal botting" due to the big decrease in str, agil and sta over Wildheart.
Change the stats on our epic armor and pvp sets, maybe keep our secondary stats (str/agil/stam) at a level similar to that of wildheart while boosting Int and spirit to an elevated level. Result: Helps us heal better as it does now, but doesnt totally gimp us in using our other skills.
The sets wouldn't have to be full sets. 2-4 related items would be fine. And they shouldn't be too hard to acquire.
Lack of midgame sets
This is partially a more widespread problem. The sets, while a very interesting aspect of the game, are very much limited to lvl 60 chars. Some nice and interesting midgame blue/green sets would spice up the char development during 25-50 and give something to aspire to during that stage. These should be relevant to all talent trees.
Generally slow
Being too slow at everything.
Healings,offensive spells,weapons... they're all slow.. It takes ages for us to level up, to kill a monster,to farm to get money,to do enough damages in a small time to get some honor points(this is the reason for our moonfire spamming trend),to heal a player in time before he get killed,to cast rebirth before getting killed and so on.
Suggestion: Generally, reducing the casting time of our spells and give us a new weapon. Specifically, you could introduce 3 new talents, maybe one in each tree, to speed up
1) healings (Restoration)
2) offensive spells (Balance)
3) weapons or the simple cat/bear attack (Feral).
Or you could replace the whole Balance tree (I tried it until lvl 60 and it's not so useful :/)and put talents for a new kind of Druid: the fast cast-druid
Poor resurrection ability - 1 res per 30 minutes is too long, however for an in-combat ressurection, this time is suitable
Paladin
In the next patch, at level 44 Paladins will have a new spell available to them called "Hammer of Wrath". This spell, useable only on wounded targets is a ranged attack which does holy damage. This spell is primarily designed to give Paladins greater control when fighting enemies which choose to flee.
Hunter
The three European Hunter class concerns threads have been summarized and forwarded to the developers. The summary is given below for your reading pleasure. :)
Main issue
Lack of recognition of the class in high level instance. Hunters feel rejected in raids, they have a feel-up role, not an important one.
Suggestion: A Pull that doesn't aggro every mobs in a group (very difficult to add without unbalancing gameplay, long cooldown? Limited AOE?)
Main issue
Pets are seen as useless in instance. Also, they do not have a “true personality”.
Suggestion: Giving them a special, unique role or transforming them in secondary tanks. Need more extensive, customization Players suggest two short skills tree, one on defence and another on offence. A few simple buffs (increase attack/armour value)… More difference in pets-type such as higher slower damage for a bear and quicker but lighter for a wolf.
Main issue
Deadzone severely handicaps hunters, especially in PvP. Moreover, added to immobility while shooting, it cuts any wings the hunter might have. Unable to move and unable to shoot in CC are a class-killer.
Suggestion: Different solutions, removing it altogether to add some nerfs to the hunter (lower defence value, more crits), decreasing the range, adding a more effective traps to root mobs (hunters feel that traps are useless as mobs/players can evade and that they do not last long enough). Another solution might be to allow players to shoot while on the move (although giving them a severe drop in accuracy to balance things up).
Main issue
Hunters feel that their high level talents are ineffective and need an overhaul.
Suggestion: A buff for increased accuracy. A more precise role for aspects, aspects are felt as nearly useless, for example Aspect of the Pack comes at level 40 when mounts become available. Aspect of the Cheetah/Pack are only used in travel and players do not like it as it make them very exposed to mobs.
Secondary issue
Mostly a cosmetic issue, lacks of customization and content for hunters and their pets.
Suggestion: I believe this is self-explanatory: more weapons, bringing in new rifles (as bow do not have their counter-parts in rifles), new armour sets with distinctive looks, an epic mount quest class to tame their mount.
Secondary issue
Some players believe that the mana bar doesn’t fit in with the hunter class.
Suggestion: Creating some equivalent to the rogue special bar might be better. This might works with a reworking of the talent trees (survival and beast master).
Secondary issue
Feign death is not useful in PvP. Fighters keep hacking at hunters even if they feign death. Sometimes, it misses with no apparent reason.
Suggestion: Make it like a rogue vanish skill, make the hunter untargetable (while giving it a long cooldown).
Secondary issue
Aimed shot is half physical type of attack, half magic.
Suggestion: Making it clear which type of attack it is.
Secondary issue
Lack of a real effective profession for the hunter (Leather is pretty weak, therefore skinning is only a way to win money, not too craft).
Suggestion: Enhancing crafting by adding fletching skills, lower costs for hunters and gives them a way to have a real profession (engineering perhaps).
Secondary issue
Freezing trap is not effective and can not be employed effectively.
Suggestion: Ability to setup more than one trap or to setup a trap while in combat/while feigning death, therefore giving the hunter a boost in instance.
Secondary issue
Hunters want to feel like they are really hunters.
Suggestion: Adding some kind of a long range backstab and a camouflage skill such as the rogue has. Players really perceive the hunter as a medieval sniper.
Secondary issue
Hunts feel that they have a high maintenance cost (arrows, food) and it eats up their storage space.
Suggestion: Special backpack for ammo independent from backpacks and bags or ability to make own ammunition (arrows) and maybe to poison them.
Side issue
Too many track skills. People would like to be able to track down beasts while finding mining sites.
Suggestion: Regrouping them, especially ones that need the others, might ease up things for hunters. It would lower down the micromanaging and make it more user-friendly.
Side issue
Lack of quests content for hunter comparatively to other classes.
Suggestion: Adding guns/bows as quest rewards, make hunter oriented quests (in woods, taming beasts to ease up the pressue its putting on a village)
Darkmoon Faire
There's been some questions about the timing on the Darkmoon Faire, so here it is:
On the early morning of the first Friday of every month the construction of the faire starts. The construction of the faire takes 3 days, hence the faire will open on the following Monday morning. It then stays open for another 5 days, leaving early Saturday morning.
Today has.
Druid love, Druid concerns, paladin ranged attack, hunter concerns, and for those that dosent know when the Darkmoon Faire is in town.
Druid
As already caught by our players:
In the upcoming content patch, there are significant changes to Cat Form. Here's the run down:
* Cat Form's base damage (not attack power, but the cat form's "weapon" damage) has been increased.
* Each point of Agility now adds 1 Attack Power.
* Rip's damage per combo point has been increased.
* Ferocious Bite's damage per combo point has been increased. In addition, extra energy now converts to damage at a higher rate.
* The global cooldown on Tiger's Fury has been replaced with a one-second self cooldown. Its duration has been increased to six seconds.
* Rake's damage has been increased.
Also, the combo point problem with Ferocious Bite -- wherein the points would go away on a miss/dodge/parry -- should be resolved.
Talent changes for Druids (which should, among other things, further enhance Feral viability) are still on the way and currently scheduled for the content patch after 1.7.
There is a school of thought that talent changes should be made to increase the Feral form viability, and the developers are of that mind also... but they were also not satisfied with the level of effectiveness for all Druids, regardless of specialisation. The changes in 1.7 should boost that significantly. Aeus - Community Rep English
Also Thundgot has posted a summry of the EU Druid forums
Following the class concerns threads on the three European Druid forums we've made a summary for the developers. Here's that summary for your perusal. :)
Talent tree
One useable talent tree (restoration)
Suggestion: Rework feral primarily, and balance also to some extent. Remove useless talents such as improved tranquility (which you made useless when you gave us Barkskin)
Rework the feral talent tree completely, and increase the rate of rage generation in bear form. Give some boosts to the balance tree while removing some of the useless talents for better ones (Please remove weapon balance and improved thorns for something better), also improve hurricane to make it worth using.
Innervate is so good and Hurricane and feral 31 point talents are so bad that spending 31 points in restoration is almost mandatory.
Suggestion: Vast improvements in top end of balance and feral trees.
Rework the feral talent tree completly, and increase the rate of rage generation in bear form. Give some boosts to the balance tree while removing some of the useless talents for better ones (Please remove weapon balance and improved thorns for something better), also improve hurricane to make it worth using.
Damage
General lack of dps
Damage Output, sure we can survive pretty well but WoW in its current state is pretty competitive, and let’s face it, its pretty sad when a designated healbot class (priest) can out damage us with ease, when we are suppost to have damage options available to us..
Feral damage
Severely lacking feral dps
Suggestion: Rework the whole feral system. A feral druid should not be outdamaged by another class 20 levels below them.
I know you're already on this problem , IMO there will be a choice for a druid in the feral tree , i mean remake the feral tree so a druid spending points in it can improve cat or bear in function of his playstyle.
Cat damage needs to be increased to a level where the consequent armour loss becomes a viable tradeoff.
Quests
Dire lack of quests (epic or otherwise)
Suggestion: Give us some nice fun quests !
Moonglade and Druid quests.
The game has a brilliant place to spice up Druid play and give the class some character and flavor. Yet I've had no reason whatsoever to visit Moonglade since lvl 16. It should be a place we would want to visit regularly. That can be quests for spells, items, professions recipes for Druid useful items, etc.
Armor sets
Druid armor sets are kinda ... lacking.
Many druids consider our lower level set (Wildheart) to be the superior druid set because of its well rounded skill bonus, where as our epic sets are seen as useless for all but "heal botting" due to the big decrease in str, agil and sta over Wildheart.
Change the stats on our epic armor and pvp sets, maybe keep our secondary stats (str/agil/stam) at a level similar to that of wildheart while boosting Int and spirit to an elevated level. Result: Helps us heal better as it does now, but doesnt totally gimp us in using our other skills.
The sets wouldn't have to be full sets. 2-4 related items would be fine. And they shouldn't be too hard to acquire.
Lack of midgame sets
This is partially a more widespread problem. The sets, while a very interesting aspect of the game, are very much limited to lvl 60 chars. Some nice and interesting midgame blue/green sets would spice up the char development during 25-50 and give something to aspire to during that stage. These should be relevant to all talent trees.
Generally slow
Being too slow at everything.
Healings,offensive spells,weapons... they're all slow.. It takes ages for us to level up, to kill a monster,to farm to get money,to do enough damages in a small time to get some honor points(this is the reason for our moonfire spamming trend),to heal a player in time before he get killed,to cast rebirth before getting killed and so on.
Suggestion: Generally, reducing the casting time of our spells and give us a new weapon. Specifically, you could introduce 3 new talents, maybe one in each tree, to speed up
1) healings (Restoration)
2) offensive spells (Balance)
3) weapons or the simple cat/bear attack (Feral).
Or you could replace the whole Balance tree (I tried it until lvl 60 and it's not so useful :/)and put talents for a new kind of Druid: the fast cast-druid
Poor resurrection ability - 1 res per 30 minutes is too long, however for an in-combat ressurection, this time is suitable
Paladin
In the next patch, at level 44 Paladins will have a new spell available to them called "Hammer of Wrath". This spell, useable only on wounded targets is a ranged attack which does holy damage. This spell is primarily designed to give Paladins greater control when fighting enemies which choose to flee.
Hunter
The three European Hunter class concerns threads have been summarized and forwarded to the developers. The summary is given below for your reading pleasure. :)
Main issue
Lack of recognition of the class in high level instance. Hunters feel rejected in raids, they have a feel-up role, not an important one.
Suggestion: A Pull that doesn't aggro every mobs in a group (very difficult to add without unbalancing gameplay, long cooldown? Limited AOE?)
Main issue
Pets are seen as useless in instance. Also, they do not have a “true personality”.
Suggestion: Giving them a special, unique role or transforming them in secondary tanks. Need more extensive, customization Players suggest two short skills tree, one on defence and another on offence. A few simple buffs (increase attack/armour value)… More difference in pets-type such as higher slower damage for a bear and quicker but lighter for a wolf.
Main issue
Deadzone severely handicaps hunters, especially in PvP. Moreover, added to immobility while shooting, it cuts any wings the hunter might have. Unable to move and unable to shoot in CC are a class-killer.
Suggestion: Different solutions, removing it altogether to add some nerfs to the hunter (lower defence value, more crits), decreasing the range, adding a more effective traps to root mobs (hunters feel that traps are useless as mobs/players can evade and that they do not last long enough). Another solution might be to allow players to shoot while on the move (although giving them a severe drop in accuracy to balance things up).
Main issue
Hunters feel that their high level talents are ineffective and need an overhaul.
Suggestion: A buff for increased accuracy. A more precise role for aspects, aspects are felt as nearly useless, for example Aspect of the Pack comes at level 40 when mounts become available. Aspect of the Cheetah/Pack are only used in travel and players do not like it as it make them very exposed to mobs.
Secondary issue
Mostly a cosmetic issue, lacks of customization and content for hunters and their pets.
Suggestion: I believe this is self-explanatory: more weapons, bringing in new rifles (as bow do not have their counter-parts in rifles), new armour sets with distinctive looks, an epic mount quest class to tame their mount.
Secondary issue
Some players believe that the mana bar doesn’t fit in with the hunter class.
Suggestion: Creating some equivalent to the rogue special bar might be better. This might works with a reworking of the talent trees (survival and beast master).
Secondary issue
Feign death is not useful in PvP. Fighters keep hacking at hunters even if they feign death. Sometimes, it misses with no apparent reason.
Suggestion: Make it like a rogue vanish skill, make the hunter untargetable (while giving it a long cooldown).
Secondary issue
Aimed shot is half physical type of attack, half magic.
Suggestion: Making it clear which type of attack it is.
Secondary issue
Lack of a real effective profession for the hunter (Leather is pretty weak, therefore skinning is only a way to win money, not too craft).
Suggestion: Enhancing crafting by adding fletching skills, lower costs for hunters and gives them a way to have a real profession (engineering perhaps).
Secondary issue
Freezing trap is not effective and can not be employed effectively.
Suggestion: Ability to setup more than one trap or to setup a trap while in combat/while feigning death, therefore giving the hunter a boost in instance.
Secondary issue
Hunters want to feel like they are really hunters.
Suggestion: Adding some kind of a long range backstab and a camouflage skill such as the rogue has. Players really perceive the hunter as a medieval sniper.
Secondary issue
Hunts feel that they have a high maintenance cost (arrows, food) and it eats up their storage space.
Suggestion: Special backpack for ammo independent from backpacks and bags or ability to make own ammunition (arrows) and maybe to poison them.
Side issue
Too many track skills. People would like to be able to track down beasts while finding mining sites.
Suggestion: Regrouping them, especially ones that need the others, might ease up things for hunters. It would lower down the micromanaging and make it more user-friendly.
Side issue
Lack of quests content for hunter comparatively to other classes.
Suggestion: Adding guns/bows as quest rewards, make hunter oriented quests (in woods, taming beasts to ease up the pressue its putting on a village)
Darkmoon Faire
There's been some questions about the timing on the Darkmoon Faire, so here it is:
On the early morning of the first Friday of every month the construction of the faire starts. The construction of the faire takes 3 days, hence the faire will open on the following Monday morning. It then stays open for another 5 days, leaving early Saturday morning.