Wednesday, September 23, 2009

3.2.2 is here

3.2.2 went live last night and the changes for druids in the patch notes are

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/


Druids
Talents
Balance
Moonkin Form: This form now also reduces the damage the druid takes while stunned by 15%.
Typhoon: The daze duration has been increased from 3 seconds to 6 seconds.
Feral Combat
Infected Wounds: The debuff generated by this talent no longer stacks and instead causes the full effect with a single application.
Predatory Strikes: This talent now also causes the druid's finishing moves to provide a 7/13/20% chance per combo point to make the next Nature spell with a cast time below 10 seconds instant cast.


What this means for us.

For PVE it doesn't look like much of a different, the change to the talent infected wounds was a slight buff as it get's applied with 1 hit, now i haven't played much feral this expansion, but honestly, i expect this pretty much does nothing for PVE

For PVP however, although at first it looks like a buff (get's applied on 1 stack) the elite PVPers over at Arena Junkies have been calling it a nerf, 1 stack means it's easier to remove.

Ferals have received a huge PVP buff with predatory strikes this lets them cast an instant nature spell after a 5 point combo, instant HT and Regrowth for heals, and instant cyclones are already being called op and getting complained about. I remember back when T5 was around, and ferals would wear 2 piece for instant regrowths. Now it's a built in talent that will be extremely strong in PVP especially arena.

For PVE, i don't think it will be so game breaking, if a feral kitty has to heal themselves the raid is not really doing it's job, although it may help those kitties that like to solo things.

Regrowth over HT will give you a slighter increase in healing due to the catform giving a 20% buff to healing spells, so the ticks will hit for a greater amount.

For Moonkin, we had a buff to a Typhoon, all the talk of increased knockback, as far as i can tell, never came to fruition.

I guess all the complaints from various forums, about shortening the distance on Typhoon caused Blizz to rethink the change, keeping typhoon at 30 yards with a 15 yard knockback would of been extremely good.

It seems the final change that has hit live servers has been to increase the dazed portion to 6s from 3, this is obviously a PVP buff, although i guess it does help Moonkins that like to solo a few mobs (they'd be using root and cyclone on single mobs)

The change to 15% dmg reduction while stunned is nice, once again this is a PVP buff, and we'll see if these 2 changes alone are enough to fix moonkin pvp (doubtful)

Typhoon glyph change is a meh, i guess a buff is better than a nerf, but who actually uses this?

The Typhoon glyph is purely for PVE, since the knockback on typhoon is the most important aspect of this ability in PVP.

Serious raiding glyphs are moonfire, insect swarm and starfire

Although some people have been saying the starfall glyphs are viable now.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Arena Season 7 is here

One of the easiest ways to gear up a noob casual like me is by collecting honor points and buying the latest available PVP gear.

I have friends that play this game that are even more noob then a casual like me, they like to do things on their own, they don't seem to enjoy the social aspect of the game (getting groups and making friends) and seem to be happy to just do quests and BG's, however they want the best gear...

So the best way for them to gear up is farm the honor system.

Since i always have to google gear requirements, i thought i would post a list of the gear and rating requirements for the current season.

It also appears the 213 level battlemaster trinkets have been removed from the vendors, not sure if this is an oversight or not, but i do know some of my friends who had been farming honor are bummed over this.

No Rating Requirements
Deadly Gloves 31,600 or 7,200 honor 200 arena
Deadly Chest 49,600 or 12,000 honor 350 arena
Deadly Shoulders 31,600 or 9,600 honor 275 arena
Deadly Pants 49,600 12,000 honor 350 arena
Deadly Hat 49,600 or 12,000 honor 350 arena

(other lists have the deadly off pieces but i didn't see them on my quick scout of the vendors)
Deadly Bracer
Deadly Belt
Deadly Boots
Deadly Neck
Deadly Ring
Deadly Cape 38,000 honor
Deadly Trinket 15300 honor
Furious Bracer 31,600 honor
Furious Belt 49,600 honor
Furious Boots 49,600
Furious Neck 38,0000 honor
Furious Ring 38,000 honor
Furious Cape 38,0000 honor
Furious Trinket 49,600 honor

Ratings Required
700+: Furious Relics 6400 honor 250 arena
800+: Furious Gloves 7200 honor 400 arena
900+: Furious Legs 12000 honor 700 arena
1000+: Furious Chest 12000 honor 700 arena
1100+: Furious Helm 12000 honor 700 arena
1200+: Relentless Bracer 39,400 (honor)
1250+: Relentless Belt 62,000 (honor)
1300+: Relentless Boots 62,000 (honor)
1350+: Furious Shoulders 9600 honor 550 arena
1400+: Relentless Gloves 1300 arena
1450+: Relentless Neck 47,400 (honor)
1500+: Relentless Ring 47,400 (honor)
1550+: Relentless Legs 2150 arena
1600+: Relentless Chest 2150 arena
1650+: Relentless Trinket 62,000 (honor)
1700+: Relentless Wands/Relics/etc 1150 arena
1750+: Relentless Cape 47,400 (honor)
1800+: Relentless Weapon - lvl245
1900+: Relentless Helm 2150 arena
2000+: Relentless Shoulders 1750 arena
2200+: Relentless Weapon - lvl258 35000 honor 1200 arena points
2300+: Relentless Tabard