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Liveblogging the BlizzCon WoW Class Panel
We're still live on the BlizzCon floor, and now we're liveblogging the WoW Class Panel after the break. Stay tuned for news about classes, talents, and everything you need to know about how Blizzard developed the class you chose for your character.
Death Knight details
BlizzCon is in full swing, but sadly, I'm not there. However, holding down the fort back home does have one advantage: I'm free to scour the internet for things like this 1up article, which brings some interesting details to light about the Death Knight class. The DK is the most interesting feature of Wrath of the Lich King as far as I'm concerned and, according to them, here's how it'll work: Plate-wearing tank/DPS hybrid Upon reaching level 80 and embarking on a quest "similar in difficulty to the Warlock epic mount quest," the ability to create a new Death Knight character will be unlocked. Starts around level 60 or 70, "intended as an alternative, advanced class for end-game use only" The class mechanic seems very, very strange; I think I'll have to see a video or something before I really understand it:Rather than using rage, energy, or mana, Death Knights have a special "rune sword" displayed beneath their health bar, onto which the player can etch six different runes (choose between Frost, Blood, and Unholy). Different abilities require different mixes of runes, and using abilities consumes the requisite runes until a cooldown timer causes them to be available again.As far as I can understand, that sounds interesting. And difficult.Update: Mike Schramm, here from BlizzCon. 1up missed one thing: in the video we just saw, Death Knights summoned pets (yup, just like the Diablo Necromancers). More info coming-- we're planning on liveblogging the expansion demo in about an hour, so stay tuned!Update 2: More information from the live blog behind the cut.
Breakfast topic: A long day's journey into Death Knight
Oh, trust me, if yesterday's FAQ turns out to be legit (and I'm not entirely sure it will), that's definitely not the last "knight"-related pun you'll see. So what would you think of a Death Knight hero class? According to the rumors, it's a Warlock/Paladin crossover, able to tank and break out the shadow damage. There may be various requirements to become one, or players who start the class may be able to start at a high level.The first problem I see? Remember how many Blood Elves and Draenei there were on the servers after the last expansion? That's not so bad with a new race, but with a new class, the whole balance of gameplay might be thrown off. Not to mention that Feral Druids and Prot Paladins might not be real happy with even fewer tanking roles.Still, I'd play one, of course. Truthfully, I think this is all kind of a moot point-- if the Death Knight class is real, I hardly think it's the only hero class that is going to drop with a new expansion. Even if the Death Knight is the only class they reveal this weekend (remember how long we had to wait to learn about the Draenei?), my guess is that there'll be more announcements to come. Twenty four hours left!
Those evil, evil Warlocks
I'm not quite sure if I buy this assessment from Mystic Worlds: She says that Warlocks are the new villians of WoW. Just like everyone used to hate Paladins (wait, we stopped hating Paladins?), Warlocks are the new class people love to hate and consider extremely OP.She says, insightfully, that the reason for this is that Warlocks have just tons of annoying abilities. Fear is probably foremost among them-- with a skilled Warlock, your character spends half the fight out of your control. Soul Link and Felguards are just plain evil (it's like having a Warrior tank for you), and with all those DoTs, a lock is hellfire on wheels (and ten locks in WSG are even worse). Not to mention that since locks love to load up on Stamina, they're tough to kill, too.It's just MW's timing that I don't agree with-- people have hated Warlocks for a long time now, and I'd say in general that so many classes have been buffed lately that people have moved on. Personally, Hunters are the class that drives me nuts in PvP now-- they still have that very exploitable dead zone, but in a big melee, one Hunter can lay down DoTs and CC and turn the tide of battle. Plus, those NE Hunters in Tier armor just look so smug! A Warlock is still trouble, but my shadow Priest can fear and DoT, too, and no one's bothered by him. It's Hunters that really bug me.
A spec guide for classes that aren't yours
Nowadays, you lucky kids have the Armory, and you can, on demand, look up the point-by-point spec of any player in the game. You can see who's Fire, who's Affliction, and who's Resto at a moment's notice, and gone are the days where you had to guess what spec a player was from the spells they cast.Or are they? I'd hazard a guess that most players don't have the Armory on quick dial, and yet all players still encounter different specs of classes every single time they play. In an Arathi Basin, by the time you've looked up the other guy's spec on the Armory, the game is over.So it's still valuable to know specs just by glancing at the spells players are casting, and this is a guide to help you do that. Want to know at a glance whether your main tank laying down Mortal Strike is really specced Protection as he says, or if he's got a few extra points in Arms than he should have? Want to know if that Warlock who sent a Felguard after you in the battlegrounds is specced Demonology or Destruction?I've put together a handy guide to spotting specs of classes that aren't yours-- there are a few telltale spells in each class that will giveaway a player's spec at a glance, and save you the momentary trouble of having to punch their name into the Armory. I've also given you a short brief on what each spec can and can't do for you (so you're not asking priests in Shadowform to buff you with Divine Spirit). To check it out, hit the link below.
World of Cryingcraft
This one gave me a good chuckle: "World of Cryingcraft" is a deadpan voice reading of the various self-contradicting complaints you always hear about different classes. I could swear I've read a lot of these exact words before on the forums many, many times, so it's quite refreshing to hear them absuldly read aloud in what sounds to me like a cheery computer voice. I especially like how the voice uses all the silly forum language as if it were perfectly natural, such as when he says, "Sometimes I dodge them and then they overpower my face off for literally 2000 damage." and "Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. You know what else is stupid?" (as if we'd really like to know).Be warned that there's lots of cheerful-but-nasty swearing in this (so it's not so safe for work or kids), as well as a surprise ending once the topic turns to shamans. If you really hate swearing (or hold very strong opinions about class complaints) you may not find this very funny, but if you think all the class crying is absurd, you'll probably enjoy it.[Via AFK Gamer]
WoW Rookie: Choose your class!
UPDATE: See our updated guide for Wrath of the Lich King-era classes at WoW Rookie: Choose the right class.The first question many players have when they first tear open their World of Warcraft game box is, "What class should I play?" And I'm afraid that my standard answer to the question is terribly unhelpful, "Why don't you try them and see which one you like best?"I still think that's the best answer (I simply can't know all of your likes or dislikes to simply tell you "Mage" or "Shaman"), but today I'm going to try to give you a more helpful answer by defining the playstyles of each of the nine classes, and making some suggestions on which ones are the most newbie-friendly. So if you're trying to figure out which class might be best for you, read on!
Class cooperation tricks players may not have thought of
Recently, we took another look at the best and worst class combinations you can make with your friends, and you all had many insights on how to choose classes that match each other well. It occurred to me that there are some special tricks that two classes can pull off in pairs or small groups that would be impossible to do on their own, and that this might be an interesting thing to try if the trick strikes your fancy.The most obvious one may be that rogues and druids can sneak around together as a stealthy mini-party all of their own, and that's the sort of thing that many people know about. But for me, I remember being very surprised to learn from a friend how powerful a mage and a priest can be together when leveling through PvP content. I saw the mage gather up many enemies together and use arcane explosions on them while the priest healed and shielded her. They completed quests faster than anyone I'd ever seen before. Later they invited me to level new triplet alts together with them -- two mages and one priest. She taught me how she and I could gather up many monsters and kill them all without getting hurt by alternating our frost nova and blizzard spells, while at the same time having the priest's healing for tricky spots, mistakes, and emergencies.This is a fast way to level cooperatively that I never would have thought of on my own, and it took my friend's ingenuity and research to make it happen. Have any of you found similar class-cooperation tricks that you think many people might not have heard of?[Exciting fan art by Sara Forlenza]
Arena stats from the second season start
Caster has posted his "first successful pull" of an exhaustive list of arena PvP stats about class and spec over on the forums. There are tons of stats to play around with here-- for each bracket of 5v5, 3v3, and 2v2, he's got the average, minimum, and maximum of specs for each class, wins and losses, the low, average, and high of hit points, and even a breakdown of who's grouping with who.Not surprisingly (though I was surprised back when Arenas first started up), Warriors and Paladins are topping the charts in terms of numbers, so it seems a good way to win 5v5 Arenas is simply to stay alive. Apparently 2v2 teams are the most volatile (since people switch around with them all the time), but the numbers there are the most interesting-- Warlocks and Priests top the charts there (thanks a lot, Fear), and it turns out Druids might have actually have a place in Arena PvP-- as long as it's right alongside a Lock.And the big loser is apparently Hunters-- their numbers are down to single digits in 2v2 and 3v3 (as in 1 and 2 total), which means players are not taking their Hunters into the arenas. Is that because Hunters aren't useful or viable enough in the smaller teams? I'll leave that one up to you.[ via WoW LJ ]
Breakfast Topic: Classes shakin' their moneymaker
When reader Morthagrid wrote in asking us to discuss the best moneymaking class I first had to read the email twice to confirm he was talking about classes, not professions. Then I sat down and thought about it for a while, days in fact. Which of my characters do I make the most money on? I am quick to respond mage, since she pounds down the mobs fast enough that even gray loot stacks up in sufficient enough quantities to be a financial boon. But she is also my main, so naturally she's going to make more money simply because I play her most. I'd be interested to here what you have to say on the subject. Which class do you think is best at raking in the dough?
Ask WoW Insider: Best DPS class?
Welcome to Friday -- the end of another week and time for another edition of Ask WoW Insider, where we ask the questions you want answered! Last week, we talked about what the best healing class was and this week we're considering a similar topic: the best DPS class. Today's question comes from Stèphanò of Aggramar (US), who writes, simply: Which classes can dish out the most DPS and which ones make the least amount of DPS?Good question -- and I'm betting that our readers are all going to have completely different answers for you. Rogue? Hunter? Mage? Warlock? Readers, which class would you say does the best DPS in Azeroth and beyond?Ask WoW Insider loves getting your questions! If you have a question you'd like our readers to tackle, send them to ask AT wowinsider DOT com!
Class-specific features at WoW Insider
As you may have noticed, we've been stepping up the class-specific content lately here at WoW Insider. It only took 8000 complaints from the powerful mage's lobby for us to finally round out our collection, and we'd now like to give you this handy guide to all of the new features and their feeds in case you'd like to watch any of them in your newsreader of choice. Druid: Shifting Perspectives / RSS feed Hunter: Big Red Kitty / RSS feed Mage: Arcane Brilliance / RSS feed Paladin: The Light and How to Swing It / RSS feed Priest: Spiritual Guidance / RSS feed Rogue: Encrypted Text / RSS feed Shaman: Totem Talk / RSS feed Warlock: Blood Pact / RSS feed Warrior: The Care and Feeding of Warriors / RSS feed
A whole herd of Tauren, fighting an instance of bosses
I love this-- reader David B sends us news that he was chatting with this Alliance guildies about what to call a group of Horde ("Hordies," of course, but read on), and they eventually came up with a list of collective nouns for the various player groups of Azeroth.You know what collective nouns are-- like a gaggle of geese, or a swarm of bees. I've reprinted David's list below the jump, and I have to say, some of it is genius: "a blush of Blood Elves," "a den of rogues," and a "congregation of priests" are definitely my favorites. But there is some room for improvement-- "an annoyance of gnomes" is funny, but couldn't there be a better word for that? Maybe a "short stack"?And there have got to be better things to call a group of Alliance and a group of Horde, so post your own ideas in the comments below. I have to say, though, "a murder of Murlocs" is just about perfect. Don't touch that one.
Xfire Debate Club: Best and Worst Classes transcript
The transcripts from the sixth Xfire Debate Club ("Best and Worst Classes in WoW") are now available on Xfire's main site. On the main floor, I moderated a debate between such heavy hitters as Wowhead's Skosiris, Curse's Mek and Teza, Ming the rogue, and arena masters Tarde, Nuvas and Tiz. I wasn't able to format the full transcript for WoW Insider, but feel free to visit the link so you can see me ask questions and the panelists ... well, ignore them and keep arguing about the last question, or fight about which arena is the most interesting, or claim that the other panelists will one day be working for them. But it was fun anyway! Xfire also has a transcript from the open debate room, where Xfire users debated the questions themselves. I'd like to thank everyone who came to the debate or proposed questions to ask. I hope to see you all again on Xfire!
Breakfast Topic: How did you pick your class?
I don't know about everyone else, but when I picked my first class, it was completely at random. I didn't know anything about what the different classes did, what their utility was in groups, or even the difference between energy and mana. I just went with what looked interesting and tried it out. Sure, I ran into a few classes I didn't enjoy, but I learned a bit about the game playing each one -- and, well, even today, I'm not sure I've really decided on a favorite. But now, if I'm talking to a new player making the same choice, the conversation is all about playstyle and end-game viability. I'm not sure either way is right or wrong -- I know I had a good bit of fun trying everything in order to figure out what I enjoyed best, but if I were starting over, I'd want some advice. (What was I thinking leveling a rogue? All I ever do is sit in Orgrimmar or Shattrath and open lockboxes for people!) But now I'm asking you all -- how did you pick your first class? And if you were going to do it over again, would you pick differently?
DoTs and Resilience
Resilience, a stat introduced in the Burning Crusade, has quickly become very important in the new Arena-centric PvP world. In a nutshell, it reduces your chance to be crit, as well as the damage taken from any crits that do get through. And since PvP is all about burst damage, it makes sense that attacking crits would help. It helps against melee damage, ranged physical damage, magic nukes, anything that can crit. However, one very important class of damage is incapable of critting: DoTs.A DoT can't crit, and therefore it doesn't care about resilience. So what, you ask? Well, this means that as PvP gear improves, and gains more resilience, it protects more against all kinds of damage except DoTs. Which means that, relative to other types of damage, DoTs get buffed as PvP gear improves. Dahis of Shadow Gaming calls this "classist item scaling," and presents as plausible solutions "Either nerf DoT base damage and allow crits, or rework resilience with some flat damage reduction component, or just add some aspect that pertains directly to DoTs." And it looks like Blizzard is listening to the growing concern; in a discussion on resilience, Drysc said "We're looking into it."So what do you think? Does the DoTs/resilience situation need to be addressed in some way, or is it good as is? For more in-depth analysis, do read the article over at Shadow Gaming, which has several good points.
The fastest class to level with?
Breanni at WarcraftPets.com has spent quite a bit of time evaluating the nine classes of World of Warcraft and ranking them based on DPS, survivability, speed buffs, and downtime. The result? A very informative discussion of the classes comparative strengths and weaknesses. Breanni's list, ranked from slowest to fastest, with some comments of my own: Paladins: Excellent survivablity, but comprably poor DPS, even with a retribution build. Warriors: Good DPS, but moderate downtime (fight, bandage, fight, bandage, fight, bandage). Shaman: Reasonable DPS, but survivability and downtime issues. (How does a Shaman restore their mana? By sitting down to drink every third fight.) Priest: Spirit tap makes downtime no problem, an.d a shadow build provides great DPS -- but not as good as other classes Mage: Great DPS but poor survivability (cloth armor and low HP)and a good amount of downtime (pesky evocation cooldown). Warlock: Capable of similar damage to a mage, but with pets and more health (usually), they have much better survivability. Druid: A feral build provides great potential to do damage (cat form) and absorb damage (bear form). Combine that with healing ability, and you've got a great class to play. Rogue: Excellent DPS and pretty high survivability, too (vanish, evasion, sprint, etc!). Hunter: High damage, neigh unkillable in PvE, and if they ever do get in over their heads, they can feign death and get away without an annoying corpse run. I have to agree with Breanni's choices for the bottom and top of the list, but I think a lot in the middle could be mixed around. (I think Warlock could compete for the number two spot, personally -- but I tend to play Demonology spec, while Breanni leveled with an Affliction spec.) But enough about my opinions -- what do you think is the fastest class to level?
Let's play Combine-A-Class
We like to explore the hybrid role here at WoWInsider, but one player on the official forums has taken it to a whole new level. He asks a simple question: if you could combine two classes together into one uber class which would you choose?The possibilities aren't endless, but they are fascinating. You could take the defense of one class and mix it with the offense of another. Warrior grafted onto Warlock comes to mind. Or throw together two similar abilities for god mode: Shamadin invincibility anyone? Shadow Priest + Warlock would be high dps and hard to kill. Plus, think of the utility.The combinations are fun to tinker with. So we ask you, faithful readers: If you could meld two WoW classes together into one, which two would you choose and why?
Loot balance
Alright, this might just be me, but leveling my Rogue in Outland, I noticed one thing: there's a lot more Druid leather than there is Rogue leather, as far as quest rewards go. It seemed like for every Rogue piece, there were three Druid pieces, one for each talent tree. Never one to go with speculation where math would do the trick, I looked through 200 quests available to Alliance in any Outland zone to count the number of rewards for Rogues, Feral druids, Balance druids, and Resto druids. (I chose the first 200 quests in alphabetical order, which should be reasonably random.)If a reward seemed fairly viable for both, I counted it for both -- many pieces would work for Rogues and Feral druids, for instance. I'm only looking at leather armor here, not weapons, cloaks, or jewelry; arguably, this is a bit of a flaw, as weapons are a pretty big deal for Rogues (and a less big deal for Druids). But, well, let's see what the numbers say: Rogue: 11 pieces Druid: 21 pieces Feral: 11 Balance: 10 Resto: 1 So it seems my pre-math impression was a little off -- the ratio of Druid to Rogue is 2:1, not 3:1. But the point that really gets to me about this data is that Balance druids have almost as many rewards available as Rogues as a whole. That's one spec, as opposed to an entire class. Does that seem right to you?
Get in line! Rezzing order and you
So someone moved, someone pulled aggro, someone didn't heal fast enough, or you just don't have the DPS. It's a wipe. Everyone's dead on the ground, and the raidleader calls for a Shaman to pop, or for someone to use their soulstone. I'm a resto Shaman, so this happens to me pretty often: I Reincarnate and I'm standing over 24 dead people. Who do I rez first?Obviously, the first people I go for are those who have a rez to use, so we can do some chain rezzing. Priests, other Shamans, and Paladins. But after that? Caralynn lays it out: while your first instinct may be to rez your MT or your friends, you should really be rezzing pet and buff classes before melee.Which makes great sense. Warlocks and Hunters need to drink and resurrect their pets, and that's a lot of time wasted if you rez them last. Mages and Druids use all kinds of mana casting those buffs, so they usually have to drink, rebuff after a wipe, and then drink again. And Warriors and Rogues are easy to refill-- Rage doesn't refill, and I wish my mana filled up as quickly as Energy did.So it's Other Rezzers > Pet Classes > Buffers > and then Melee. There are other schools of thought on this (one player says to rez RL girls first, wink wink say no more), but this plan seems to be the best. Plus, Caralynn points out that this has the added bonus of not having melee standing around trying to pull while clothies are rebuffing. If you time it right, everyone can be ready to go again at the same time. And this time, watch that aggro!
