Blog Articles by keyword: wotlk
WoW 3.0 PTR testing and new Frost Spec
by Tachyon on Mon. 22. September 2008, 01:30
Filed under: mage, talents, spec, raiding, wotlk, ptr, deep freeze, patch
This weekend, I did some testing on the public test realm (PTR) with patch 3.0, in order to test the new frost talents, and have some fun with Blizzard now critting (it's about time!)On visiting the mage class trainer, I was surprised to find new spell ranks for Frostbolt, Fireball and Arcane Missiles at level 70, haven't heard of that before.
- Frostbolt rank 14: 630 to 680 Frost damage
- Fireball rank 14: 717 to 913 Fire damage + 92 Fire damage over 8sec
- Arcane Missiles rank 11: 280 Arcane damage every 1 sec for 5 sec.
Also the new battleground (Strand of the Ancients) is now in the game, though I didn't test it yet, as my addons are quite in a mess due to incompatibilites. I didn't take the time to fiddle with the UI and find out new hotkeys for most of my spells (Bartender3 wouldn't load), so I'd be handicapped for PvP anyway.
I finally decided what frost spec I'd take when 3.0 goes live. My focus is still on raid PvE, but I also took some PvP talents and included meaningful talents for a Blizzard AoE spec.
My new WoW 3.0 spec:
http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?talent=oZZAIccRfu0fdgrst
Reduces the casting time of your Frostbolt spell by 0.5 sec.
Must have talent. Reduces the Frostbolt casting time from 3 to 2.5 sec, which is a 20% DPS increase.
Ice Floes - Rank 3/3
Reduces the cooldown of your Frost Nova, Cone of Cold, Ice Block and Icy Veins spells by 20%.
Reduces the Frost Nova cooldown from 24 to 20 sec, Cone of Cold from 10 to 8 sec, Ice Block from 5 to 4 min, and Icy Veins from 3 to 2:24 min.
It's not a must have talent, the only component that makes it wanted for raiding is the reduced cooldown on Icy Veins (to maximize DPS).
Ice Shards - Rank 3/3
Increases the critical strike damage bonus of your Frost spells by 100%.
Must have talent. Makes your frost spells crit for 200% of the normal damage, and with the Chaotic Skyfire Diamond metagem even for 209%.
Frostbite - Rank 3/3
Gives your Chill effects a 15% chance to freeze the target for 5 sec.
Neat for solo/PvP situations, useless for raiding (as boss mobs can't be frozen) - unless you combine it with Improved Blizzard, giving each tick of it the chance to freeze the target, which means superb AoE crit chance with Shatter.
Elemental Precision - Rank 3/3
Reduces the mana cost and increases your chance to hit with Frost and Fire spells by 3%.
Mandatory for PvE. I'm not sure whether the Elemental Precision Ghost Hit (+6% instead of +3% for Frostbolt) still applies in 3.0/WotLK, but I doubt so.
Spell hit chance is no longer capped at 99%, so for raiding situations, you need +17% hit (214 Hit Rating @ lvl70, 446 Hit Rating @ lvl 80), or +14% hit with 3/3 Elemental Precision (176 Hit Rating @ lvl70, 367 Hit Rating @ lvl 80).
Piercing Ice - Rank 3/3
Increases the damage done by your Frost spells by 6%.
Must have talent, no discussion.
Icy Veins - Rank 1/1
Hastens your spellcasting, increasing spell casting speed by 20% and gives you 100% chance to avoid interruption caused by damage while casting. Lasts 20 sec.
Must have talent.
Improved Blizzard - Rank 2/3
Adds a chill effect to your Blizzard spell. This effect lowers the target's movement speed by 50%. Lasts 1.50 sec.
Adds a snare effect to Blizzard, making the affected targets stay longer in the spell's area. The snare allows it also to proc Frostbite, combined with shatter this will turn Blizzard into a crit galore feast!
Arctic Reach - Rank 2/2
Increases the range of your Frostbolt, Ice Lance, Deep Freeze and Blizzard spells and the radius of your Frost Nova and Cone of Cold spells by 20%.
Must have for PvE (Frostbolt) and especially for PvP (Frostnova, Cone of Cold). Too bad it only increases the range of Blizzard and not its radius.
Frost Channeling - Rank 3/3
Reduces the mana cost of all spells by 10% and reduces the threat caused by your Frost spells by 10%.
Must have for PvE, the thread reduction is vital. It's now even better than clearcast, as you get the mana reduction directly, no wasted procs.
Shatter - Rank 3/3
Increases the critical strike chance of all your spells against frozen targets by 50%.
This. Is. SPARTA! The bread and butter of a frost or elemental spec (since patch 1.12 it increases the crit chance also for non-frost spells), mother to all shatter combos, and now also useful in raids, thanks to the Fingers of Frost talent. And it now only costs 3 talent points, and no longer has a prerequisite talent.
Cold Snap - Rank 1/1
When activated, this spell finishes the cooldown on all Frost spells you recently cast.
Allows you to gain more DPS by increasing the Icy Veins and Water Elemental uptime in boss fights, and saves your back in PvP fights by resetting Ice Block / Frostnova.
Cold as Ice - Rank 2/2
Reduces the cooldown of your Cold Snap, Ice Barrier, Deep Freeze and Summon Water Elemental spells by 20%.
Indirectly increases your DPS due to the reduced Cold Snap and Water Elemental cooldown. For two points, a must have, even for PvP, as it reduces the Ice Barrier cooldown from 30 to 24 sec.
Winter's Chill - Rank 3/3
Gives your Frost damage spells a 100% chance to apply the Winter's Chill effect, which increases the chance spells will critically hit the target by 2% for 15 sec. Stacks up to 5 times.
Up to +10% crit, now for all spells. Too bad it doesn't stack with the new Improved Scorch (+10%) or Boomkin aura (+5%). Might help your fellow fire raiding comrades, as they can skip adding Scorch into their spell rotation and just gain the effect from Winter's Chill. Sideeffect in PvP: WC is an additional debuff, making it harder to remove more important ones, such as polymorph.
Shattered Barrier - Rank 2/2
Gives your Ice Barrier spell a 100% chance to freeze all enemies within 10 yds for 8 sec when it is destroyed.
I'd say this is a PvP-only ability, but an incredibly powerful one. Adds a third way to nail your opponent to the ground (besides Frostnova and Frostbite), which helps shattering or deep freezing. It's also good that the effect just freezes the opponents, but doesn't do any damage, so it won't break sheep on any target it hits.
Meele will hate you for this, as soon as they slice away your Ice Barrier, they get frozen, allowing you to gain distance again.
Ice Barrier - Rank 1/1
Instantly shields you, absorbing x damage. Lasts 1 min. While the shield holds, spells will not be interrupted.
- Rank 6 (Level 70) absorbs 1075 damage
- Rank 7 (Level 75) absorbs 2800 damage
- Rank 8 (Level 80) absorbs 3300 damage
Never leave the house without it!
Arctic Winds - Rank 5/5
Increases all Frost damage you cause by 5% and reduces the chance melee and ranged attacks will hit you by 5%.
Nice, a plain +5% dmg, take it.
Empowered Frostbolt - Rank 2/2
Increases the damage of your Frostbolt spell by an amount equal to 10% of your spell power and increases the critical strike chance by an additional 4%.
Improves scaleability by adding +10% to your spell power. The crit chance used to be 5% for rank 5 points before patch 3.0, now it's only 4% but only requires to points.
Fingers of Frost - Rank 2/2
Gives your Chill effects a 15% chance to grant you the Fingers of Frost effect, which treats your next 2 spells cast as if the target were Frozen. Lasts 15 sec.
Now that's cool, a 15% proc which allows you to cast 2 spells that profit from shatter, even if the target can't be frozen. That's 2x Frostbolt, or 1x Frostbolt + 1x Deep Freeze with almost guaranteed crits.
Brain Freeze - Rank 2/3
Your Frost damage spells have a 10% chance to cause your next Fireball spell to be instant cast and cost no mana.
This is the most weird talent in the new frost tree. With 3/3 ranks, the proc chance is even higher, 15%. When Brain Freeze procs, you've got 15 sec time to release an instant fireball for free. Untalented fireballs won't do much damage, and only crit for 150% base dmg, but the instant cast (1.5 GDC instead of 3.5 sec casttime) evens this out. Don't expect too much DPS increase from this, the talent only shines because the fireball costs no mana, increasing your overall mana efficiency (DPM).
For PvP this is actually funny, having a little 'PoM Fireball' ready which can be cast while moving, that alone makes it worth taking it.
Might make spell rotations a little tricky, as you don't want to waist the Fingers of Frost proc on a Brain Freeze proc, so watch your procs carefully.
Summon Water Elemental - Rank 1/1
Summon a Water Elemental to fight for the caster for 45 sec.
Squirtle, friend to all frost mages. Will bite nastly rogues into the ankles while they stunlock you, helps you range-shattering with its ranged nova, and add its little share to your raid DPS. Must have.
Improved Water Elemental - Rank 3/3
Increases the duration of your Summon Water Elemental spell by 15 sec and your Water Elemental restores mana to all party or raid members within 100 yds an amount equal to 0.6% of their total mana every 5 secs.
PvE only. Increases WE uptime, and adds a little manareg to the party (for a lvl 70 mage with 10000 mana, it's 60 MP5).
Chilled to the Bone - Rank 5/5
Increases the damage caused by your Frostbolt, Frostfire Bolt and Ice Lance spells by 5% and reduces the movement speed of all chilled targets by an additional 10%.
Another 5% plain damage to your main nukes, and adds an additional snare which comes handy for your Blizzard (with 2/3 Imp. Blizz., it's 60% snare).
Deep Freeze - Rank 1/1
Causes x to y Frost damage and stuns the target for 5 sec. Only usable on Frozen targets.
- Rank 1 (lvl 60): 694 to 806 Frost damage
- Rank 2 (lvl 66): 787 to 913 Frost damage
- Rank 3 (lvl 72): 1018 to 1182 Frost damage
- Rank 4 (lvl 80): 1319 to 1531 Frost damage
Stunning your target means totally incapacitating it, so you can do anything to it (paint a moustache on its face, untie its shoelaces or just nuke the living daylights out of it without breaking your CC).
Even better, the freeze effect won't be broken on the target by damage, thus you have 5 sec of shatter opportunity. The Deep Freeze cast will also be affected by shatter, and you enter the global cooldown afterwards as DF is an instant cast spell, so 3.5 sec remain to unleash another Frostbolt/Ice Lance combo, or 3x Ice Lance if you're really quick.
The damage component of Deep Freeze gains 1.5/3.5 = 42.857% of your spell power.
WotLK release date confirmed - 13. Nov. 2008
by Tachyon on Tue. 16. September 2008, 00:49
Filed under: wotlk, expansion, release, raiding, items, qq, dps
Our guild is still stuck on Brutallus (we managed to take him down to 17% before the enrage phase), and I just heard that our raid leaders decided yesterday to no longer raid Black Temple / Mount Hyjal anymore but invest the remaining time to focus on Sunwell only.
Whilst I understand this decision, I has a backlash on me, as I'm still missing the fourth set item for my 4x T6 set bonus (which would give my Frostbolt / Fireball / AM a plain 5% damage bonus).
So if we refrain from raiding MH, my only chance to get the 4x T6 bonus would be to get the Bracers of the Tempest, whose token drops from Kalecgos, the first boss encounter in Sunwell. Of course the demand for the bracers is much higher than for the gloves, and Kalecgos is usually raided on Wednesday (the day I'm babysitting my two baby boys as my wife is attending her aerobic lessons), so my chances to get the 4x T6 bonus are not that good.
It's kind of a tragedy (or better: just sucks.), as without the bonus I'm missing 5% of the DPS I'd need for Brutallus to help contributing to the DPS we need to kill him.
This week's MH id has Azgalor and Archimonde still alive, but I hope but really doubt that we will visit MH tonight, on the last occasion, before we skip the instance completely.
Too bad for me, but it's the price you pay when you're in an achievement oriented guild as a casual raider.
Comforting hugs, cookies, or 'get up and fight!'-kicks are welcome, just drop them in the comments...
WoW 3.0 Compatibility Patch
by Tachyon on Tue. 26. August 2008, 06:49
Filed under: patch, WotLK, talents
Every expansion requires a compatibility patch, that brings the WoW client to a version which is compatible to the expansion, but does not include its specific features. With this compatibility patch, you can play the same WoW that users who don't buy the expansion will experience, including the new talent trees and professions, but none of the new zones, items, or increased level range.Blizzard added such a patch (2.0) almost two months before The Burning Crusade shipped, and now they're doing it again with patch 3.0 before lauching Wrath of the Lich King.
Quote from Eyonix ( see original quote):
With the release of Wrath of the Lich King approaching, we wanted to provide you with some important information. In preparation for the expansion, we will be issuing a new content patch in the coming weeks. Much like the patch made available shortly before The Burning Crusade's release, this content patch is designed to bridge current game content with that of the expansion and will contain some exciting changes and additions.
We have outlined some of the larger features scheduled to release with the patch below:
- New class spells and talents
- Stormwind Harbor
- Barbershops in capital cities
- Zeppelin towers outside of Orgrimmar and Tirisfal Glades
- Two brand-new Arenas featuring challenging new layouts, terrain hazards, and moving obstacles
- Guild calendar
- Hunter pet skill revamp
- New profession: Inscription
As mentioned above, this is not a comprehensive list, just some of the major highlights. We?ll post the full patch notes as soon as they?re available. Regarding Inscription, please note that all Burning Crusade players will be able to select Inscription as one of their two professions and level up to a skill level of 375 with it. Upon the release of Wrath of the Lich King, players who purchase and install the expansion will be able to continue leveling in Inscription and the other professions beyond 375.
The pre-release of the new talent trees and the guild calendar was expected, but the addition of the new Inscription profession, the barber shops and the new arenas were quite a surprise.
This patch is soooo full of opportunities:
- Testing the new talents
The changes in the talent trees are massive, it might as well be a new game you play. The patch is a good occasion to test and explore the new talents, so you can experiment which talent combination works best for you. I hope there will be a beta version of the patch on the Public Test Realms, so we can test all trees and talent combinations with virtually free respecs. - PvE progression
The new talents and especially their synergies will likely result in a boost in raiding environments, aiding you jump over whatever hurdle you're facing in progression. Too little DPS on Brutallus..no more! - Shave and a haircut
Aye, it's a fun feature and money pit, but I'm foreseeing large queues before the barber shops. Look at my new hairdo, mom! - Inscription
Inscription can be levelled to 375, and even if you won't choose this profession, I'm sure you'll *love* to fiddle about inscribing your spells - PvP
Arenas are fer sissies, but BG PvP will give you a chance to test your new talents and also experience in what way the other classes changed. Prepare for a refreshing new experience in the battlegrounds (and whine threads flooding the forums)
No date for the patch has been anounced yet, and the talents aren't final, nor are all working properly yet, so it's too early to come up with talent build suggestions. I'll reserve those for when the patch goes live (or when the PTRs are open)...
WotLK Cinematic Trailer
by Tachyon on Thu. 21. August 2008, 19:52
Filed under: WotLK, Expansion, Videos
Just as WoWInsider announced, the Cinematic Trailer for the Wrath of the Lich King expansion was presented today at the Games Convention in Leipzig, Germany."My child.
I watched with delight
as you grew into a weapon
of righteousness"
- King Terenas Menethil, to his son Arthas
Blizzard's CG departement excelled once again, it's looking sooo awesome.
The trailer is full of bittersweet tragedy, when the past voice of King Terenas expresses his hopes for his son, and seeing what he'd become.
Compared to the classic and BC trailers this one is shorter, and doesn't follow the 'classes showcase' pattern anymore, but delivers a more immersive and cinematically clear vision of the expansion theme.
It's so sad that the WoW movie won't be done in this CG art, but I have faith in both Blizzard and Legendary Pictures (300, The Dark Knight) that they'll at least follow the spirit and graphical style of those trailers.
What I'm most looking forward to in WotLK
by Tachyon on Fri. 08. August 2008, 01:38
Filed under: wotlk, expansion
New mage talentsI'm currently 2/0/59 deep frost specced, and I love it, so the new frost talents get most of my attention, and I can hardly wait to test and use them all. I'm also waiting for more feedback from the beta testers to find out which talents are worth spending points before I try to make up a new talent build for levelling in WotLK and one for the end game. Hey, I also heard that we will be able to have two specs at once and somehow switch between them, but I don't know if this is a) in the beta yet and b) will make it into the release. That would certainly solve pve/pvp spec dilemma.
It's to assume that the new talents will be available one month before the release of the expansion (they did the same when The Burning Crusade came out, the new talents were available in Dec 2006, when Blizzard added the backward compatibility patch). That would be great, boosting PvE process for raiding guilds, and give us all a head start on some new abilities, so we have something less to ponder when the expansion comes out.
Discovering Northrend
The art style evolves with every content patch and expansion, it's amazing what the art department at Blizzard does within the limitations of the aged 3d engine.
The zone concepts were already superb in The Burning Crusade, and from what I've seen yet from the beta, the new expansion will just excel on the zone design.
Exploring is all about fighting your way through the jungle, not about taking satellite pictures from a save distance. Kudos to Blizzard for recognizing that, and disabling us from using our flying mounts before level 78, that's a good thing and disables the players from bypassing all the new content.
Levelling to 80
Levelling from 60 to 70 had a huge impact on the balance and gameplay of the classes. Though I was in the BC beta, I wasn't able to foresee how strong or weak the classes and specs get relative to each other. The same shuffling will happen from 70 to 80, and balance in regard to abilities, specs and equipment is yet unpredictable.
I like levelling very much, but only on my main, as I hate it to revisit content, thus I'm not much of a twinker (my highest twink is a lvl40 rogue).
I'm really looking forward to level my mage, gaining new abilites and seeing if and how my gameplay will change. As in BC, I try on purpose not to level too fast, as I want to enjoy it to a maximum degree before entering the endgame mill again.
Achievements
Achievements are not only there for bragging, but can also serve as a reference card when applying to a new guild (look, that's what I've done, the boss encounters I've beaten). And in annoying times, there's always one more achievement to unlock, it's a game in itself.
I'm yet wondering which achievements will be retroactive, some (like the number of quests made and the total amount of honorable kills) will be most certainly, but I also hope that I won't have to raid the lvl 60/70 instances again to unlock those achievements.
New herbs
I actually love gathering, and especially when it comes to new herbs. It's like a floral treasure hunt!
The next item wipe
I can't understand the woes of people crying over the item wipe. With the advent of Burning Crusade, I only once replaced an epic item with a green one (the lvl63 quest trinket), apart from that only blue items of a higher level replaced my purples one-by-one. I'm all into hunting for and collecting items, and I dont care to replace a beloved item with a better one.
The item wipe also has the important task of bringing players onto the same level with the new expansion, it's like a second chance for all the people that weren't into the raiding endgame before.
Doing the casual instances with my guild
The casual atmosphere of doing new 5men dungeons are the perfect occasion to socialize with my co-guildies and get to know them better, that's one thing I'm very looking forward to do
PvPing
New Battleground: Strand of the Ancients
I just *love* battlegrounds. Being thrown into a random group of people and forced to quickly and dynamically forge a battle plan to crush the enemy is endless pleasure. I personally find pre-formed groups annoying to a high degree, whether its on the own faction (boring as you have a huge advantage and no real challenge) or on the enemies' side (being steamrolled and camped if they are good, or, as in most cases, having a long battle when the preformed enemy group plays bad and they win only closely, but not because the were really better), so I tend to play with random groups, which is more of a challenge and keeps the battlegrounds fresh and interesting. Too bad they only added one new battleground, but at least it looks very promising. I hope WAR will challenge them enough to add more BGs in later content patches.
PvP Zone: Lake Wintergrasp
Open PvP can't really be balanced when there's only two factions. Back in my old DAoC (Dark Age of Camelot) days, there were three factions and only open PvP, but if one side was stronger than the other two factions would pact against it to keep them from getting too strong. But even if open PvP will be unbalanced from the very beginning due to unbalanced alliance/horde population, it will only impact one zone and not the entire world.
Doing some PvP there with my guild is what I'm looking for, could be exciting, but it's hard to predict how this will come out. Might as well end up in endless Zerg fests and mexican standoffs (a.k.a wallfights in DAoC). We'll see.
If anyone from Blizzard is reading this:
Dudes, you forgot to send me a beta key! Seriously!
WotLK Beta Frost Mage Talents
by Tachyon on Thu. 24. July 2008, 23:38
Filed under: wotlk, mage, talents, beta
Now that the NDA on the WotLK alpha/beta has been lifted, we're able to get a first impression of the new frost mage talents as they are currently in the beta. Blizzard is still tuning and tweaking talents (as they just did with the new arcane talents), and this is beta anyway, so don't take anything as granted, as it may be changed anytime before release.
A list of the new talents (also the fire and arcane ones) can be found in the Mage section of the WotLK Wiki. Here's my first review of the new frost talents, in respect to Raid PvE and PvP:
(2 Ranks, tier 8 Talent, requires 35 points in the Frost tree)
Gives your Frost damage spells a 5/10% chance to apply the Winter's Grasp effect, which increases the chance all attacks will hit the target by 2% and the target is considered Frozen for 5 sec.
PvE Rating:
PvP Rating:
Have you noticed it? CONSIDERED FROZEN! Yay! This must be like the biggest change WotLK is about to offer to us frost mages. It mainly means that targets can be frozen in a non-crowd control way. A 'normal' freeze roots the target to the ground, and the 'frozen' status is directly related to this CC (crowd control) effect. Meaning that if the target gets hit too hard, the CC effect will break. Bosses also are immune to CC effects, meaning that we currently can't freeze a boss, hence there will be no shatter crits. For the non-mages: Shatter is a talent which increases the chance to critically hit a frozen target by 50%.
So this talent introduces a 'considered frozen' effect applicable to bosses, and I'd almost bet that in contradiction to the 'normal' freeze it won't break immaturely.
Basically this means that shatter is now useful in a raiding spec, so during those 5sec every spell will have a highly increased crit chance. With a little spell haste, it's possible to squeeze two Frostbolts and a consecutive Ice Lance into this 5sec frame.
And: the more frost mages you pack in the raid, the more they will profit from each other, crit galore incoming! This talent is such an enormous boost to frost mage DPS, that I doubt it will make it into release in this form.
The second effect on this talent is to increase the hit chance by 2%. I assume that this only affects the meele hit chance, which wouldn't be bad, as casters already committed to reach the hit cap with talents and equip. So this is some raid synergy we bring for the meele classes in the raid, which increases our raid slot value.
For PvP, this talent is next to useless, as we already have Frostbite (15% freeze proc) and Frostnova (self and Water Elemental's) for our shatter crits. It's not bad, as it will increase your crit chance a little, and it's unlikely to be disspelled, but it adds more to the average DPS than to the burst damage.
(3 Ranks, tier 9 Talent, requires 40 points in the Frost tree)
Your Frost Nova and Frostbite effects also reduce the target's chance to hit with all attacks by 5/10/15%.
PvE Rating:
PvP Rating:
Useless for PvE. Completely useless for bosses, as Frost Nova/Frostbite can't be applied. Useless against meele PvE targets, as mages don't stand in meele range, especially not when the target is rooted by the freeze and this situation can be used to gain some distance. Also next to useless against casters, as the -15% hit chance doesn't make much of a difference, as we've also got counterspell to make sure we won't get hit. Hell, event if we get hit, with Ice Barrier and Ice Block we're the best survivalists among all casters, so we won't care.
For PvP, this can be nice in some situations, for example when you get jumped at by a Rogue which tries to stunlock the living daylights out of you, gets frozen by a Frostbite proc off your Frost Armor, and then is 15% less likely to hit.
Also you could root a caster with frost nova, and reduce his hit chance a little.
Anyway, the 15% is next to nothing, so I wouldn't really bother to take this talent.
(3 Ranks, tier 9 Talent, requires 40 points in the Frost tree)
Increases the duration of your Summon Water Elemental spell by 5/10/15 sec and increases the total health and mana of your water elemental by 10/20/30%.
PvE Rating:
PvP Rating:
Increasing the uptime by 15 sec results in 1 min / 3 min uptime (33%), or 50% on a long time average with coldsnap.
The Water Elemental contributes a significant part to the mage raid DPS, so taking this talent is highly recommended. It still currently suffers from a weak hit chance (gains no +hit from the caster), and only crits for 150%, but at least it gets a share (40%) of the mage's spelldamage, and also profits from the up to +10% crit from the Winter's Chill debuff. I'd recommend the Improved Water Elemental talent for PvE, but wouldn't care to take it for PvP, as chances are still high it will get killed before it expires. Its mana pool still won't last for the full duration, so make sure to have some sort of mana source in your group (shadow priest, mana totem).
In PvP, the +30% HP increases the survivablitily of the elemental a little, which is nice.
(5 Ranks, tier 10 Talent, requires 45 points in the Frost tree)
Increases the damage caused by your Frostbolt and Ice Lance spells by 1/2/3/4/5% and reduces the movement speed of all chilled targets by an additional 2/4/6/8/10%.
PvE Rating:
PvP Rating:
Frostbolt and Ice Lance are our bread and butter (solo, in PvP and thanks to Winter's Grasp now also in PvE), so this talents means 5% more DPS in all situations. Nice, wtb!
The additional movement speed reduction makes us more of a snare machine; combined with Permafrost we can now chill down our targets to 40% (Frostbolt), 30% (Cone of Cold) and 15% (Improved Blizzard).
Must-have talent for deep frost mages!
(1 Rank, 1.5 sec, 30 sec Cooldown, tier 11 Talent, requires 50 points in the Frost tree)
Stuns the target for 5 sec. Only usable on Frozen targets.
PvE Rating:
PvP Rating:
This one's interesting. I consider mages, and especially frost mages, to be the strongest CC-class ingame, that's why I rolled this class! Yet we alsmost completely lack the strongest of all CC-categories: stuns. The only mage stun is to be found in the fire tree: Impact, giving fire spells a 10% chance to stun the target for 2sec.
Other CC-categories are Mezz (rendering the target incapable to do anything, but breaks on damage. e.g. Polymorph), Root (rooting the target to the ground, e.g. Frostnova, Frostbite) and Snare (that's our speciality).
Now we get a stun effect which holds for 5sec. During those 5sec, you can do anything to the target, decorate it with flowers or paint a moustache on it, or use the time to unleash some significant burst damage -> Frostbolt, Ice Lance, Frostbolt.
PvE-wise unnecessary, but in PvP one of the upcoming killer abilities of our class.
In WTF-situations, it can be used as an escape mechanism: Frostnova, Deep Freeze, and you have enough time to face into invisibility without being interrupted.
Feel free to post your 2 cents on those talents, I'd like to read your opinion when I come back from vacation!
Frostmourne for collectors
by Tachyon on Sun. 16. March 2008, 23:05
Filed under: Frostmourne, Items, WotLK, Expansion, Lore
The replika is 1.2m (47'') long, weights 7.3 kg (16lbs) and is forged of stainless steel.
The rune typed inscription is both promise and warning:
Whosoever takes up this blade shall wield power eternal.
Just as the blade rends flesh, so must power scar the spirit.
The stats of the rune blade have been presented at the last BlizzCon in the Lore(lol?) panel, but it's yet unclear if it will even be lootable sometime in the next expansion (Wrath of the Lich King), and what this would mean for the bearer (mind the inscription!).
More pictures and infos to the Frostmourne replica can be found here:
http://www.epicweapons.com/products/frostmourne
Wrath of the Lich King
by Tachyon on Sun. 05. August 2007, 21:09
Filed under: WotLK, Blizzcon, Expansion
Inzwischen sind auch mehr Details zum Inhalt von WotLK bekannt:
- Levelcap wird von 70 auf 80 angehoben, das Skillcap dementsprechend von 375 auf 450
- 10 neue High-Level-Zonen (Level 68+) in Northrend und anderen Teilen der alten Welt
- Flugmounts in Northrend mit lvl70 noch nicht benutzbar, sondern erst in den späteren höheren Leveln, da Blizzard will, dass man die Zonen erst zu Fuss erkundet
- Die neue neutrale Hauptstadt (quasi der Nachfolger von Shattrath) in Northrend wird überraschenderweise Dalaran, das mitsamt der magischen lila Kuppel abhebt und in Richtung Norden schwebt, um sich dort niederzulassen.
- Northrend wird nicht komplett schneebedeckt sein: Howling Fjord ist eine grüne bewaldete Zone mit hohne Klippen, Borean Tundra wird einen herbstlichen Anstrich haben, und in Grizzly Hills wird man Rotholzwälder finden.
- Neue freundliche und feindliche NPC-Fraktionen: Taunka (mit den Tauren verwandt), Tuskarr, Eisenzwerge, Vrykul (Wikinger), Titanen, Nerubian (Spinnen), Akiri, Blauer Drachenschwarm, und viele mehr...
- Neuer Beruf: Inscription (Inschrift) - ermöglich es, bestehende Fertigekeiten und Zauber zu modulieren oder mit neuen Effekten auzureichern.
- PvP: neue Schlachtfelder mit mobilen Belagerungswaffen und zerstörbaren Gebäuden (yay, finally!)
- Mehr Character-Customization mittels anpassbaren Frisuren (need Epischer Lockenwickler!) und neu lernbaren Tänzen
- Wieder viele neue Dungeons, der erste wird Utgarde Keep (für 5 Spieler) im Howling Fjord sein.
- Engineering: craftbare Flugmounts (Flugmaschinen)
- Der Konflikt zwischen Allianz und Horde wird weiter ausgebaut.
Heldenklasse: Todesritter (Death Knight)
- Epische Questreihe mit lvl 80, nach der man einen Todesritter erstellen kann (als neuen Charakter, der Char mit dem man die Quest gemacht hat wird also nicht gelöscht sondern bliebt also weiterhin bestehen).
- Die Todesritter sind sehr mächtig und starten deshalb schon auf einem hohen Level (wahrscheinlich irgendwo zwischen 50 und 70).
- Fraktionsübergreifende Rasse/Klasse, steht also der Allianz wie auch der Horde zur Verfügung.
- Wird ebenfalls 3 Talentbäume (Blood, Frost, Unholy) haben und eine primäre Tank/DPS-Klasse werden.
- Trägt Plattenrüstung und kann 2H-Waffen oder 2 1H-Waffen tragen, wahrscheinlich aber keine Schilde.
- Der Todesritter wird ein neues System für den sekundären Balken haben, welches anstatt auf Mana/Wut/Energie aus Runenslots für die Blut- Frost und Unholy-Fähigkeiten besteht.
Wie bei Blizzard üblich wurde kein Erscheinungstermin veröffentlicht (it's done when it's done), ich vermute mal dass man den Release auf das erste Semester 2008 legen wird, um der mit Warhammer Online (welches für das erste Quartal 2008 angekündigt wurde) kommenden Konkurrenz gegenüberzutreten.
Wrath of the Lich King klingt jedenfalls sehr vielversprechend, vor allem durch die Heldenklasse, das Inscription-System, die zusätzlichen 10 Level (= neue Fertigkeiten und Talente für alle Klassen) und die Belagerungswaffen im PvP, so dass es Warhammer wohl schwer haben wird, schnell Fuss zu fassen. Und was man Blizzard auch hoch anrechnen muss: sie verstehen es, neue Features einzubinden ohne die Spielbalance auszuhebeln, vor allem weil sie sich an neue Klassen (der Todeskrieger ist nur die erste der kommenden Heldenklassen) sehr vorsichtig herantasten, und nicht den gleichen Fehler wie andere MMORPGs machen, die pro Expansion 2 neue überpowerte Klassen einführen.
Ich schwelge jedenfalls schon in der Vorfreude auf die nächste Expansion, und hoffe mal dass Blizzard mir wieder einen Beta-Key schickt...
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