Gear-Scaling
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How PvP gear works in Warlords
Say you want to PvP in Warlords of Draenor -- how are you going to go about gearing? How is gear going to work? Well, Blizzard's Lore went and put a whole lot of information about that very thing into this huge post, and it's very much worth reading. Because it explains: PvP gear with now scale up in power when you enter a PvP zone (battleground, arena, Ashram) or when you are attacked by another player. This is intended to remove the sometimes confusing extra stats we've seen proliferate since Cataclysm. All gear, even PvE gear, will scale up in designated PvP areas in a similar fashion. It won't eclipse PvP gear or its scaling, but the intent is that PvE players who are poorly geared won't immediately explode in PvP content. The exception is mythic quality PvE gear. It's ilevel is high enough that it will be slightly downscaled in PvP zones in order to keep Conquest gear the best option for PvP. PvP will now reward strongboxes for completing objectives and winning matches, and these strongboxes can contain rewards up to and including actual PvP gear. There will now be three tiers of PvP gear - starting gear, earned via strongboxes, with a fast accumulation rate, veterans gear, from both strongboxes and honor, and finally gladiator's gear from conquest points. For the full details, Lore's post is chock full of information. It also teases an upcoming post about how Ashram is going to be implemented, which I'm interested in reading.
Check your scaling for Challenge Modes and Proving Grounds with Wowhead
Challenge modes have been in the game for some time now, but patch 5.4 added another type of content where gear is scaled down, and that's proving grounds. Proving grounds, unlike challenge modes, are already being used to gauge the quality of players, with groups asking for certain ranks or achievements in order to join them. So how best do you arm yourself for this content? Gear scaling is certainly one hurdle to overcome, and it's a tricky one, as it's not easy for the average player to work out just how their stats are going to be scaled with the reduction to ilvl 463. And you can't always carry every potentially viable piece of gear with you to the Temple of the White Tiger to see what works. And that's where Wowhead's gear scaling checkbox comes into play. While it's far from perfect, it's certainly helpful. As you can see above, we're looking at a tank trinket that drops off Garrosh. It's not ilvl 463. In fact it's ilvl 553, in this example at least, but by checking the "Challenge Mode" box, it's downscaled to 463, as it would be in-game. You can see what works, what the numbers will be, what the procs will look like and so on. Go forth and prove yourself!
Ghostcrawler: A discussion of gear scaling
It's been a common thing lately to hear "my spec doesn't scale well" as an excuse for poor DPS. People tend to toss the term around a lot without really knowing what it means, or at least what it means in the context of the WoW design team. A a very basic level, scaling is the capability for spells and abilities to grow stronger as your gear (item level) increases. A spell that doesn't scale well is a spell that doesn't get as strong as it should as your gear increases. This is where Ghostcrawler comes in today via a forum post. He talks about the history of scaling (how some abilities used to only do flat damage and not scale with attack power, and thus gear), and how the complex (but really rather simple) interaction in scaling happens between primary and secondary stats today. However, despite the discussion being about gear scaling, my favorite line from Ghostcrawler's thoughts has to be this: Encounter mechanics can have a much bigger impact on DPS than 5-10%. Keep that in mind when reading and talking about his post, which is in full after the break.
Blizzard clarifies Challenge Mode gear scaling
U.S. blue Watcher has recently been online answering questions about Challenge Mode gear scaling. Blizzard first responded to discussion about the upscaling of old items, confirming that as many suspected, this has been purely for beta testing purposes. Gear above ilevel 463 will be scaled down, but gear below ilevel 463 will be left alone. This certainly means that challenge modes will not be available to those who have only recently started working their way through the dungeon gearing system, and I definitely think that is working as intended. After all, players who aren't experienced at the dungeons they're attempting will likely not do well in challenge mode scenarios. One commenter mentioned that it meant they could choose their favorite tier set bonus. I rather sympathize with that perspective; it would be really cool to have the opportunity to go back and reuse those old set bonuses. In a later post, Watcher went on to clarify how the scaling would work on in the live game. Check it out after the break!
Warhammer Online details plans for buffing turrets and daemons
Pets of any kind can pose some issues in games. On the one hand, you want both temporary and permanent pets to provide a utility; on the other hand, you don't want someone crippled without the pet. Warhammer Online has a number of classes that use both permanent and temporary companions, and as part of the next update for the game, the team is working on making the engineer's turrets and the magus's daemons more useful for players in combat. Both daemons and turrets will now scale with the owner's stats, allowing their growth to keep better pace with more powerful characters. Equally important, however, is the new stacking buff that both types will receive when the engineer or magus remains near their pet. The buff will increase damage gradually while the player remains nearby, up to a 20% buff to damage output. Take a look at the full details from the development team in this small preview, a welcome promised bone for Warhammer Online players.
The Queue: Judgement of Light & Day
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Adam Holisky will be your host today.Today's music comes from a viewing of Scrubs I was, at the time, forced to watch by the girlfriend Katie. They had this great band playing at the end called The Polyphonic Spree. Today's featured reading music is the aforementioned band performing Light & Day ("Reach for the Sun").It really doesn't have anything to do with anything, but they're hippies and jump around a lot while making some rather cool and unique music. Plus they have this cultish vibe to them. The Leader is good, The Leader is great, we surrender our will as of this date.Hey look! World of Warcraft related things coming up now...Many people asked... "The PTR you download from the official WoW site is still 3.1! How are people getting on the Patch 3.2 PTR?"
