Preparing for Patch 3.0: The Old Switcheroo!
The build going live right now has a lot of class changes. But it doesn't have all of them. Some changes, particularly those that affect high level abilities and some of the changes we made more recently won't be in today's build. But you will get them all on or before Nov 13 when Lich King goes live.
While we have done some balance testing at level 70 with the changes, we tested at level 80 a lot more, since so many players are focused on Arena combat and endgame raiding. Balance at 70 is going to feel different from 80.
If you played WoW at the 2.0 version before Burning Crusade shipped, you'll remember that this can be a crazy time. You have new abilities through talents, but not new core abilities, and not enough talent points to get everything. There are major gear changes, major mechanic changes, and a lot of class changes. Some of those are going to take some getting used to, and despite our best efforts, it's entirely possible we'll find something broken that needs to be hotfixed right away.
The game should start feeling a little more normal again when Lich King ships. It's cool to keep providing feedback and testing things out. Just try and be a little patient and understanding over the next couple of weeks as players learn about the changes (especially players who weren't in the beta), get all of their broken mods working, and we make whatever fixes we need to make on our end.
So at the moment I don't know how much of what I based my information will be entirely accurate.
I think it's pretty safe to assume most of it will still be accurate, especially the paradigm shifts like the importance of Attack Power and Strength.
It seems certain the 3% Damage Reduction on Shield of the Templar will not be included.
Avenger's Shield may or may not have a cast time, we'll just have to wait for the servers to come up to find out.
I will be editing my Preparing for Patch 3.0 series as information comes to light.
While we have done some balance testing at level 70 with the changes, we tested at level 80 a lot more, since so many players are focused on Arena combat and endgame raiding. Balance at 70 is going to feel different from 80.
If you played WoW at the 2.0 version before Burning Crusade shipped, you'll remember that this can be a crazy time. You have new abilities through talents, but not new core abilities, and not enough talent points to get everything. There are major gear changes, major mechanic changes, and a lot of class changes. Some of those are going to take some getting used to, and despite our best efforts, it's entirely possible we'll find something broken that needs to be hotfixed right away.
The game should start feeling a little more normal again when Lich King ships. It's cool to keep providing feedback and testing things out. Just try and be a little patient and understanding over the next couple of weeks as players learn about the changes (especially players who weren't in the beta), get all of their broken mods working, and we make whatever fixes we need to make on our end.
So at the moment I don't know how much of what I based my information will be entirely accurate.
I think it's pretty safe to assume most of it will still be accurate, especially the paradigm shifts like the importance of Attack Power and Strength.
It seems certain the 3% Damage Reduction on Shield of the Templar will not be included.
Avenger's Shield may or may not have a cast time, we'll just have to wait for the servers to come up to find out.
I will be editing my Preparing for Patch 3.0 series as information comes to light.
Comments
Avenger's Shield was instant on the Public Test Realm (before the PTR was taken down), so I expect it will still be instant on the build being patched in today.