Massive WoW Patch 4.0.1

[Joose]

hoo-boy, theres a fair few changes in this one. Patch notes are here. Its hoog due to it being the part of the Cataclysm update.

Ive had a read through the patch notes, and a lot of it left me a bit
Not because I dont understand why they changed things, more that I dont understand what they mean. Confusing extracts include:

Rage has been normalized (What does that mean?)
A new Eclipse mechanic has been added for druids (What does it do?)
Paladins now have a new resource bar. (What?)
Resilience no longer reduces the chance a player will be critically hit by an opponent. (I thought that was all resilience did. Does it now do nothing? If so, why not just remove it? If not, what does it do now?)

Way to make comprehensive patch notes Blizzard. Anyone know somewhere I can get better infos?

[Dog Pants]

I noticed we were due a massive (like, almost as big as the game) patch. I'm glad I'm on half decent broadbean now.

[Joose]

Ive found some more descriptive write-ups on the changes here. I predict much wailing and gnashing of teeth by the hardcore, but there are some interesting new ideas in there.

[eRabbit]

I'm quite glad that my extremely limited playtime means I'm just spending a bit of time here and there levelling an alt. Gives me lots of time to slowly figure the changes out

[Dr. kitteny berk]

mmo-champion.com has a massive amount of info.

I'm not looking forward to it, lots of learning to do.

[Dr. kitteny berk]

hoo-boy, theres a fair few changes in this one. Patch notes are here. Its hoog due to it being the part of the Cataclysm update.

Resilience no longer reduces the chance a player will be critically hit by an opponent. (I thought that was all resilience did. Does it now do nothing? If so, why not just remove it? If not, what does it do now?)

Resilience - This now only affects damage done by players and their pets. It will not impact crit chance, crit damage, mana drains, or other such effects.

I imagine this is due to crit immunity now coming from talents, a'la druid, rather than gear. (which is fucking great)

Other things of interest:

New water!
No ammo
No weapon skill (you can just use the weapons you can use)
Reforging (adjusting secondary stats on gear)
Raid lock system all fucked up


Basically, they're pretty much normalizing everything, so there's no more X is better than Y because Z. Though, warlocks and hunters still get to die.

[Killavodka]

Rage has been normalized
When warriors hit targets they generate rage based on the damage done and the more damage, the more rage. However when you start getting to the ICC weapons rage starts to become an inifinite source and the only limit to spamming your abilities is the global cooldown so I think they have made it a set amount to stop warriors being OP.

A new Eclipse mechanic has been added for druids
Balance druids have two main damage sources, Wrath (nature based, quick cast, medium damage) and Starfire (arcane based, longer cast, high damage). Eclipse is an effect which procs off crits that gives a benefit to the opposite spell, making it less of a spam battle. For example, you crit with Wrath so you get a buff that increases crit rate of starfire for a set amount of time, and then after the buff ends you can then crit with starfire to get a damage bonus to your wrath spells.

Paladins now have a new resource bar
New to me too.

Resilience no longer reduces the chance a player will be critically hit by an opponent
Resilience also reduces the amount of crit damage, the amount of mana drained by attacks and also the damage of DoTs

Hope that helps joosey baby.

[Dr. kitteny berk]

DK tanking - Fucked.

only one reliable skill that does enough threat to keep ahead of massive caster burst threat, next to no AOE threat

[Guybrush]

My pc gets a BSOD when I try to install the patch

[Legoshoes]

buggy patch is buggy.
After clearing enough space on my HDD to make way for the patch (sorry, Starcraft...) the login screen is somehow back to vanilla WoW and i get a error every time i try to log on that crashes the game. Not a happy bunny

[Dr. kitteny berk]

C:\WoW\Repair.exe is your friend.

[Joose]

C:\WoW\Repair.exe is your friend.

Unless its not installed there.

/obvious


Also, be prepared for a great many broken mods. Many are now fail.

[Guybrush]

Well I got the patch to install via the online installer.. now it's downloading another 8 gig of stuff! :O

[Guybrush]

And now - after letting me login - another 3.5gb! Looks purdy though....

[Anery]

buggy patch is buggy.
After clearing enough space on my HDD to make way for the patch (sorry, Starcraft...) the login screen is somehow back to vanilla WoW and i get a error every time i try to log on that crashes the game. Not a happy bunny

Had the same problem, I thought Blizz were going all retro but I had the same connection error.
Disable your AV whilst the loader is patching the game, once it is done you can enable it again.

Pallies new resource bar is interesting, its three point resource that works similar to combo points for rogues and feral druids. There are skills that using them gives you 1xholy power, and there are skills that use up that holy power generated. Ret pally is still faceroll to victory, healing is a bit more complicated than it was before (no more spamming holy light) not sure about tankadin.

Healing druids tree form has now become a cooldown that boosts casting speed and amount of healing done. Makes healing as a druid a bit more complicated than spamming Rejuv and wild growth. Cock all change for ferals.

Warlocks get some funky stuffs too, mine is level 62 and gets some new summons (doomguard?) and your pets are now selectable from a pop up list, much like a shamens totems.

Hunters can now carry up to 5 pets with them wherever they go, so no more stabling them and having to retrieve them for different situations, just summon another one.

Not really played any of the other classes much since the patch (apart from DK and as Berk said, DK tanking = fucked)

[friznit]

It's slightly odd that almost 8 months since cancelling my account I still get an overriding sense of relief that I don't have to relearn how to play my class cos Blizz have fucking changed the mechanics again

[Dr. kitteny berk]

It's slightly odd that almost 8 months since cancelling my account I still get an overriding sense of relief that I don't have to relearn how to play my class cos Blizz have fucking changed the mechanics again

Shame, they've actually, for the first time ever, buffed warrior tanks.

[Dr. kitteny berk]

(apart from DK and as Berk said, DK tanking = fucked)

I'm getting the hang of this now, one of out biggest problems is we're lacking a few buffs that'd amount to stacking haste right now.

DnD is *important* all the time now, use it off CD.
Blood strike on 1-3 mobs
Blood boil on 4+
Deathstrike every other GCD or so (to proc runes to death runes)
Diseases (IT&PS) + Pest, as early in the fight as you can and still have control.
Use runestrike on CD, if you can't, dump RP using DC.

[Dog Pants]

Curious to see what's happened to Shammies, but that huge patch is putting me off having a look for the time being.

[Dr. kitteny berk]

I assume good things, I've not heard much whining from shammies.