Re: From The Blizzcon Panel - Classes, Items And Professions

On Fri, 21 Aug 2009 19:16:02 -0700 (PDT), Nemesis wrote:

I just watched that panel on replay...

Warlocks

The soul shard system is receiving a massive revamp, and will now
become a core feature of the warlock class. Soul shards will no longer
act as an inventory item, but rather exist as a resource, and appear
below the warlock's health and mana bar.


A new spell, Soul Burn, will be the only warlock ability to cost a
soul shard, and will empower most of your other spells to behave
differently.

For instance, when combined with Fear it causes the spell to become
instant. Other examples include: guaranteeing your Searing Pain spell
three critical hits, increased horror effect and additional healing
from Death Coil, and instant summoning from your summon demon spell.
Soul shards will regenerate quickly upon leaving combat, and you may
also be able to use drain soul as a "soul shard evocation."

It sounds extremely cool I just wonder how that will make warlocks even more
overpowered :-)

Hunters

Also receiving a massive overall are hunters.The hunter=92s need to rely
upon mana is completely gone, and instead they will use focus. This
means hunters will no longer care at all about Intellect, mana regen
or Aspect of the Viper.

Focus will regenerate continually, similar to how rogues or feral
druids regenerate energy. For comparison, rogues regenerate
approximately 10 energy per second, whereas hunters will regenerate 6
focus per second.However, Steady Shot can also be used to improve
focus regen, and bring the rate at which hunters regenerate focus to
12 per second.

The hunter will have a maximum of 100 focus, and shots might cost 30
or 60 focus, with fewer cooldowns on abilities. Another exciting and
long-awaited change regards the ammunition system. Ammunition will
become an equipable item, and will no longer be consumable.

Ahw no! Focus is the one thing I hate most about rogues because it
regenerates so slowly the mob is dead before I get enough combo points to do
anything...

I was fine with cooldowns and really loved how mana and AoV works now, I am
never OOM I just do more or less damage. This is the single most devastating
change in the expansion (potentially). *fret*

Attack Power: We're removing Attack Power from items as well. Instead,
we're allowing Agility to provide the necessary Attack Power for
leather and mail wearers. Strength will provide the appropriate amount
of Attack Power for plate wearers. This means leather and mail items
will no longer be desirable for plate wearers.

Going back to how things were before BC :-)

Armor Penetration: This ability is too confusing and "mathy." It is
being replaced with Mastery, a stat that makes you better at what you
do. More on that later!

Ha, finally!

Reforging

Reforging affords tailors, blacksmiths, leatherworkers, engineers, and
jewelcrafters the opportunity to customize any player's gear,
including their own. Specifically, they can reduce a single statistic
on applicable items and convert the lost points into another stat not
already on the item.

Be sure to check out the information from our other World of Warcraft
panels as BlizzCon 2009 continues. These overviews will be posted at
worldofwarcraft.com

Sounds potentially very cool!

Cheers
Urbin

--
Dun Morogh-EU (PvE)
Urbin (80), Dwarven Hunter | Surana (64), Draenei Mage
Mymule (74), Gnomish Warlock | Kordosch (65), Human Death Knight
Sunh (71), Nightelven Priest | Juran (33), Nightelven Druid
.