Dear Crab, Sir.

I know your a busy man, but I just wanted to compile a quick thread that hopefully warrants a response from you. I'll make it brief. I tried to compile a thread filled with some questions we've had some answers on, but heard nothing about recently or would like some clarification on. This thread won't focus on any particular class but general design of the game. I think it'll be worth your time to read and hopefully you'll enlighten the community with your thoughts.

Question #1: Pure VS Hybrid DPS

I think the community as a whole understands and accepts the fact pure DPS classes need to do the most damage due to the inflexibility of their roles. My question is there is a large gap between certain hybrids and their counterparts in other specs. Currently, DK's and Feral cats compete almost, but not quite, with the pure dps classes. In no particular order, priests, moonkins, ret paladins, shamans, warriors lag significantly behind, or, at least currently in 3.1. I know you have taken steps to curb feral DPS, and you have removed some of the "Splash" damage of DK AoE, but is it your intent to bring DKs/Feral cats DOWN to the other hybrids, or bring the other hybrids UP closer to the to their kitty/death knight counterparts?

Question #2 Caster DPS VS Melee DPS in PvP:

Even the most jaded of melee classes will admit ( I hope) they are dominating in PvP, which the possible exception of frost mages. In this author's view, it is because mages have the ability, much more so then any other class, to "open the gap" and prevent the melees from making contact. I've seen from your previous responses you don't want to have every other class have warmed over or simply reprinted mage skills, and I know I personally agree with you. But I think it's fair to say a little tweaking needs to be done to the casting dps classes, specifically, to make them not want to pound their desks in frustration. I know you don't want to give everyone Frost Nova, but it seems casters, from warlocks to shadowpriests to moonkins, desperately need a way to get out of the speeding truck we call melee.

Question #3 Spellpower Plate

I'd have to say a good 80% of the people who raid WoW are really, really sick of spellpower plate dropping in raids. When SP plate drops one spec of one class can use this, which means you have 29 out of 30 disappointed specs. God forbid two pieces of spell power plate drop from the same boss. The oft-suggested and effective fix would probably have a passive talent trainable by Paladins to convert Attack Power into Spellpower. I realize this would take some rebalancing of Paladins, ensuring Holy Paladins had mana(converted from Strength?) and roughly equivalent spellpower to heal. The talents Sheath of Light and Guided by the Light would probably need to be adjusted and maybe those spots in the talent trees might be a good place, and this is just me brainstorming, to have prot paladins run a little faster (they hardly need more threat or another tanking CD, come 3.2) and give Ret paladins an interrupt that they do honestly need.

Edit: It's not so much that paladins, if this change was implemented, would be rolling on DK/Ret paladin gear, they would more be rolling on haste/Crit plate gear, which isn't optimized except for one, possibly two specs. It would just be the same plate could be used by every plate wearing class and be a possible upgrade.

Question #4: Tri Specs

Give us an inch, we'll ask for a mile. Now that we've had a taste of the sweet life of dual specs, we realize how useful it is. And, for this we thank you. But I know there are classes who would like to experiment with the last tree of their class, or perhaps build a pure pvp spec without the not-quite compromise of the guild who require their hybrids to have both specs PvE optimized for raiding. I don't really think this would totally break your raid style encounters, do you? Any word on this?

Question #5

My fifth and final question is about haste scal...just kidding. I don't I would be far wrong in saying the community as a whole would really like something to do with our achievement points. This would also make good business sense for you if you set the bar steep enough. Something unique in game, such as our names written in gold or perhaps a master ( in my case) priest class tag. Perhaps a passenger mount that flies or a 2nd hearthstone location. Something to do with our hard won achievement points I think would be a fun addition to the game.


Anyway, I hope this thread was a constructive use of forum space and you find time in your schedule to share with us what you can. Thanks for stopping by!

Tri-spec me please.

WOW, this post is unlike anything i've ever seen on this forum...my mind is blown....


very nice job.

Bump for you taking the time to write this out, and not faceroll the keyboard.

I like the idea with achievements, sounds like more $ for Blizzard.

I like #2. Do want answer.

on #3

I don't want Holy pallies rolling on my stuff, I already have to compete with warriors and DKs for generic dps plate pieces.

You can survive with a little spell power plate, it won't hurt you.

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Q u o t e:
on #3

I don't want Holy pallies rolling on my stuff, I already have to compete with warriors and DKs for generic dps plate pieces.

You can survive with a little spell power plate, it won't hurt you.

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It is not good design to have one armor type one spec of one class can use. Plus, think of it this way, if plate is universally useful for all the plate wearing classes, plate armor that currently has spellpower/int would be removed, and plate that YOU would be interested in will drop noticably more frequently.

In Addition, Holy paladins wouldn't be rolling on plate with ArP or Hit Rating, they would stick to crit/haste.

It would be very similar to how cloth is now.

Think of how COOL it would be for paladins to have a talent called something like Strength of Mind, which is a straight STR-->Intellect conversion, and points for linking in trade chat my Strength of Mind > yours.

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Q u o t e:


It is not good design to have one armor type one spec of one class can use. Plus, think of it this way, if plate is universally useful for all the plate wearing classes, plate armor that currently has spellpower/int would be removed, and plate that YOU would be interested in will drop noticably more frequently.

In Addition, Holy paladins wouldn't be rolling on plate with ArP or Hit Rating, they would stick to crit/haste.

It would be very similar to how cloth is now.

Think of how COOL it would be for paladins to have a talent called something like Strength of Mind, which is a straight STR-->Intellect conversion, and points for linking in trade chat my Strength of Mind > yours.

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So thats STILL 2 different types of plate that you can't use. You would still have the exact same problem. So what did you solve? YOu just replaced spell power plate with crit/haste plate, of which ret and other dps specs don't like.

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Q u o t e:


So thats STILL 2 different types of plate that you can't use. You would still have the exact same problem. So what did you solve? YOu just replaced spell power plate with crit/haste plate, of which ret and other dps specs don't like.

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No, you wouldn't. Think about it for a sec. Plate gear with strength/ stamina/crit and haste drops. It's early on in new tier dungeon, or perhaps you have a low level alt. It's still an upgrade for you, far better then it would have been if it had spell power and int on it for you.

The goal is simple, it may not be PERFECT for your spec, but at least you, or someone, can use it and it's not a wasted drop.

In my opinion, mixing and matching gear to have the best stats is one of the most fun parts of raiding, you can tell a good player who's deeply involved in his class because his gear is exactly hit or expertise or haste capped, plus or minus a few rating, and the rest is devoted to other beneficial stats - no stat is overitemized or wasted.

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Q u o t e:



No, you wouldn't. Think about it for a sec. Plate gear with strength/ stamina/crit and haste drops. It's early on in new tier dungeon, or perhaps you have a low level alt. It's still an upgrade for you, far better then it would have been if it had spell power and int on it for you.

The goal is simple, it may not be PERFECT for your spec, but at least you, or someone, can use it and it's not a wasted drop.

In my opinion, mixing and matching gear to have the best stats is one of the most fun parts of raiding, you can tell a good player who's deeply involved in his class because his gear is exactly hit or expertise or haste capped, plus or minus a few rating, and the rest is devoted to other beneficial stats - no stat is overitemized or wasted.

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As fun as that sounds, it still would put a huge amount of dps based gear out there, and now you ahev HOLY, RET, DKs, and WAR rolling ont eh same piece of gear. Thats 8 different specs.

C'mon. That doesn't work. Holy needs its own geatset. Not to mention that prot and holy sometimes share gear, depending on what they are doing.

thread explosion. peench peench

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Q u o t e:


This is a really large topic that's beyond the scope of a brief answer here. In general I think the "melee owns casters" mantra is too simplistic. As you point out, Frost mages generally do well in 3s and Enhancement shamans are not generally feared to the degree rogues and DKS might be, so you already have to caveat it a lot.

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well feel free to put a more indepth answer here:

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=18601080619&sid=1

I have a well thought out list of dps caster pvp problems.

Hmm. DK dps lower you say? I cant say I have noticed that. It must be due to fight design if thats the case.

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Q u o t e:

If not, why can't we auto-shoot on the run like a melee can auto-attack?

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Because I cant auto attack you from 30-40 yards out?

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Q u o t e:



This is a really large topic that's beyond the scope of a brief answer here. In general I think the "melee owns casters" mantra is too simplistic. As you point out, Frost mages generally do well in 3s and Enhancement shamans are not generally feared to the degree rogues and DKS might be, so you already have to caveat it a lot.

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I think you've pretty much out lined the only caveats... Mages, but not really. And enhancement. Most every other ranged class finds fighting any other melee dps either an uphill battle or an insurmountable brick wall. Mostly because you've designed a game where kiting melee is wrong, and escaping melee is wrong.

You've said you think various specs are far too low on their representation, but we're nearing the end of the ptr (I would hope) and we've seen nothing directly done to solve these problems. Only a global resilience change that will by and large have a larger impact on ranged (because they still can't do anything with melee on them, but now will be doing less damage and living slightly longer), and some nerfs.

Nothing was done to balance RMP teams. Nothing was done to tone down rogues or warriors (the 2 largest problems). All we really saw was some ret nerfs (which in all honesty were needed, but ret also isn't that highly represented) and some DK nerfs that are going to push them further away from specific specs.