Beta Patch Highlights

The WotLK beta has begun, and it brings with it some pretty interesting patch notes.

Druid
- Entangling Roots: Can now be used indoors.
- * New Spell: Revive - Returns the spirit to the body, restoring a dead target to life with health and mana. Cannot be cast when in combat. (Ranks 1-7 added)

These are my two favorite changes to druids. Indoor roots will come in handy for a variety of situations, from temp CC in a regular group, to separating enemies that must be cleared in stealth runs, making multiple pulls more manageable. Revive can't get here soon enough. I've always hoped they would give druids a "real" rez, as it can be quite the challenge to heal a 5 man group with only a druid battle rez. No mention of changing or removing the battle rez, which may sound a bit over powered, but I think will work out just fine. Druids can help rez at the end of a fight, but they retain their utility in battle as an emergency rez too.

Hunter
- If a hunter tames a pet that is more than five levels beneath than the hunter's level, then the pet jumps to five levels beneath than the hunter's level.

There are lots of hunter changes that I'm happy about, but this one, I really like. So many times I've wanted to go back and tame a pet of lower level, but find it really hard to level it up. This is still 5 levels to work on, but closing the gap should really help those of us that like to collect interesting pets. Now...about that stable size Blizzard!!

Changes to buffs, auras and totems that make them into proximity, instead of party benefits are really exciting. It makes much more sense for them to apply to those around the caster, rather than having to stack groups and force a healer to keep the tank (for example) in range.

I'm happy to see that the Death Knight still sounds like it's balanced to be able to choose any tree and be effective, I truly hope the nerf bat isn't hitting them too hard anytime soon.

How about those Achievements?

This system is one I've wanted to see in place for a while. It's fun to have a list of things you've done to look back on, and for others to see. I'm hoping, for the sake of not only myself, but others that like to collect things like this, that most of the old world stuff is going to still be unlock able in Wrath. I also hope that things you have done in the past will count! The only down side to this system that I can see so far is the fact that it announces to guild when you unlock something. Now, as nice as that sounds...I've got a big guild...and a lot of people who are going to be working on stuff like this. Think of a boss achievement...and the 25 people who unlock it at the same moment. Spammity!! Perhaps there's an option to disable it...guess we'll wait and see.

Shave and a haircut anyone? I'm looking forward to seeing what new styles are added for each race. A couple of my characters could really use a makeover...who knew when I created them that I'd still be playing years later? It's not something I plan to change often, but I can see it being a pretty effective gold sink if Blizzard continues to release new options with content patches. Now all we need is a groomer for those shaggy druids!

Tease! (Part 2)

We find out tonight! Or, really...in the morning for most people. I'm really tempted to get online and check when the announcement is made around 2:30am my time. I know, that makes me pretty nerdy sounding, but I hate waiting! The suspense is driving me nuts, just as I'm sure Blizzard hopes it will.

So what do we have now? Ice, Stars, Runes (from every game so far), and Eyes. Clearly defined eyes and a prominent brow now, as opposed to just hints of eyes yesterday.

I'm just not getting Diablo from this picture. I know a lot of people want it to be Diablo...but I really think it's something to do with Starcraft (world of...pretty please!) or WotLK at this point. The crazy rumor that it might be an early release of the DK sounds great, but seems doubtful. The Death Knight is a pretty major component of the WotLK expansion...the only reason I could see to release it early, is to allow them to level up and experience the content from 70-80 with everyone else. But it doesn't seem likely to me.

And those secret numbers and the picture? Ha. A penguin..which looks like an artistic recreation of the new ones we'll have in WotLK to me...and the numbers from LOST? Yeah...Blizzard is toying with is.

Only a few more hours and it will all be made clear. I hope...

Death Knight Changes Paving the Way?

Are the recent changes to the Death Knight info page a sign that change is on the way for all the tanking classes? Blizzard has removed the wording in the tree descriptions which specifies what tree is for tanking and which is for dps. It's quite possible that they may be doing this as a first step in making all tanks more viable with different specs. Will we see warriors (which should be THE tank class, imo) able to both tank and DPS with any spec? How will that change the pally and druid, will they be able to heal with one tree and tank/dps with the other two? Amazing how many questions come to mind with just a small change of a web page.

I really hope it's true though. Not only for the Death Knight, which would be awesome, imagine tanking with whatever combination of Blood, Frost or Unholy you wanted, but also for the other tank classes. Warriors might be more viable as off tanks now, not so easily replaced by the utility of a feral druid. Of course, I think they'd also need TC and their shouts to be buffed as well, but I'll take what I can get.

Back to Death Knights, when I first read about the change I was worried that perhaps Blizzard wasn't so sure they wanted DKs to tank after all, but a quick check of their page shows that their primary roles haven't been changed:

* Tank: The plate-wearing death knight is a capable tank for small groups as well as raids. His or her damage output while tanking will be respectable.
* DPS: The death knight can also spec and gear for a melee DPS role, which draw upon many debilitating disease effects as well as direct damage and instant attacks.

Instead, their talents tree descriptions have just been changed to remove the reference to tanking and dps from any one specific tree, making it sound like all trees just might be viable for either of the primary roles, with talents just allowing you to specialize in one of the three spell types.

* Blood: Talents in this tree focus on weapons, armor, and strikes.
* Frost: Talents in this tree focus on control, counters, and combos.
* Unholy: Talents in this tree focus on spells, summons, and diseases.

Combined with the use of runes of each type...the possibilities seem endless, I'm actually started to get excited about this class. And if it means changes for my much loved, but sadly retired warrior? All the better.

I guess now all we can do is wait and see...don't break my heart Blizzard!

Source: WoW Insider