class-review
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The Road to Mordor: Six reasons LotRO's Lore-masters rock
In my Lord of the Rings Online career, I've played two classes far more than any others: the Captain and the Lore-master. Both scratch that "pet class" itch that I have in MMOs, both are quite group-friendly, and both seem to be somewhat unorthodox picks (at least compared to the plague of Hunters and Champions infecting the game). I'll leave a discussion about Captains for another time, but today I felt like talking about the strangeness that is the Lore-master. It's such a unique class in feel and execution, and it's captivated me such that I'm actually leveling up my second Lore-master because I was dissatisfied with the way I handled my first one. Maybe you've never tried one. Maybe you picked one up and just couldn't get a feel for what it was supposed to do. I'll admit that the LM is an acquired taste, partially because its skillset is all over the map and it doesn't settle into an expected template. However, it may just be the coolest class in the game. Here are six reasons why.
Ghostcrawler and Daxxari present Patch 5.2 Class Reviews
If you're wondering how your class has changed in patch 5.2, Blizzard's Ghostcrawler and Daxxari have joined forces to give you details on exactly that. This installment covers Death Knights, Druids and Hunters, so it's working alphabetically in case you're wondering where your class is. While the patch notes serve to give you the details on the changes, this series of posts exists to give you the motivation and reasoning behind the changes to the classes. Why did they buff this or nerf that? The motivations towards each change are explained in detail, letting you get a sense of just what's going on for you in patch 5.2. Ghostcrawler and Daxxari - Patch 5.2 Class Review Part 1 In terms of talent adjustments, while we're still happy overall with the Mists of Pandaria talent overhaul, we do recognize that there were some talents that weren't tuned as well as they could be or just weren't attractive. That's not to say that all talents should be all things to all players all the time; some talents are situationally quite attractive, and we're happy with those. On the other hand, others just never see much use and we would rather provide players real options for each talent tier. source Part one is up now, so keep an eye peeled to the official site for more.
Breakfast Topic: Class Reviews
With patch 1.12, we will have seen talent reviews for every class in the game. Every class has seen changes - both small and large - since the game's launch, and Blizzard has stated that there won't be any more large-scale reviews of this nature in the future. With that in mind, which class do you think has come out on top after this review process? I cannot, personally, think of a clear winner for PvE or PvP, as there is still much to be said for a player's specific build and skill, regardless of class. However, do any of you see a particular class winning out above all the rest?
Patch 1.12: Rogue Review Revisited
CM Drysc has updated us with additional news of the rogue review - including some substantial changes. The talent calculator has been updated to reflect these new changes, and presents rogues with some interesting new opportunities in the subtlety tree. The changes are as follows: Murder has been changed to increase damage caused against Humanoid, Giant, Beast, and Dragonkin by 1%/2%. Remorseless Attacks has been reduced to 2 ranks, with the new effectiveness being 20% and 40%. Endurance has been changed to reduce the cooldown of your Sprint and Evasion abilities by 45 sec/1.5 min. It no longer increases the duration of Evasion. Weapon Expertise will now increases your skill with Fist, Dagger, and Sword weapons. It will no longer affect Maces. Mace Specialization will now also add 1-5 weapon skill with Maces, in addition to the stun effect the talent already provides. Adrenaline Rush now has a reduced cooldown of 5 min. Elusiveness has been reduced to a 2 point talent and now reduces the cooldown of Vanish and Blind by 45 sec/1.5 min. It no longer reduces the cooldown for Evasion. Opportunity is being moved to a tier 1 talent, swapping places with Camouflage. Ghostly Strike has been reverted back to the previous 125% weapon damage, but retains its new Energy cost of 40. Setup will now also provide combo points if you fully resist an attackers spell. Improved Rupture, Improved Cheap Shot, and Improved Garrote have been removed. New talent 'Serrated Blades' is a tier 4 talent in the Subtlety tree, causes your attacks to ignore X of your targets Armor, and increases the damage dealt by your Rupture ability. The amount of Armor reduced increases with your level. At level 60, the ranks will reduce target Armor by 100/200/300 respectively. New talent 'Dirty Deeds' replaces the Improved Cheap Shot talent, reducing the Energy cost of both the Cheap Shot and Garrote abilities by 10/20. Garrote, Eviscerate, and Rupture now all scale with Attack Power. (For the druids in the audience, Drysc has confirmed that the druid's cat form abilities ferocious bite and rip will also scale in this way come patch day.)
Warcraft Designers on Class Reviews
There's an interview with Lead Game Designer Tom Chilton up on the official site on the topic of class reviews. It gives us a bit of insight into how the developers approach the process as well as providing a bit of insight into what to expect for mages in patch 1.11. Chilton hints at some of the must have talents in the arcane tree (possibly Evocation and Improved Arcane Explosion) being made available to all mages, as well as reducing the mage's downtime and improving the viability of frost/fire combination builds.
