Warlords Stat Changes!

[Kazistrasz 216]

Announcement today on where they are in terms of stats. Read the Dev Watercooler here or just read below.

 

Reminders:

 

Hit, expertise, dodge, and parry are going away. Hit will become crit, and expertise will become haste. If crit//haste is already present, these stats will instead become mastery.

 

Spirit will be a non-armor pieces only stat for healers (so rings, cloak, etc.). Spirit on armor currently will be converted to hit, which will be converted to crit, or mastery if crit is already present.

 

Similarly, Bonus Armor will be the tank stat for non-armor pieces. The mentioned today they're aiming to make it something you'll want on every piece possible as a tank.

 

Secondary Stats:

 

Two previously announced stats that are being done away with:

 

• Readiness (cooldown reduction)
• Amplify (like our trinkets)

They're getting replaced with a new stat: Versatility. It gives a flag % increase to damage, healing, and absorbs done, as well as half that % decrease to damage taken.

 

Multistrike is also being changed - previously, if you had X% chance, you'd have two X/2% chance rolls to Multistrike. Now, it's just two X% chance rolls. Essentially, it now caps at 100% instead of 200% Multistrikes are at 30% damage. If Starsurge does 5000 damage and you have 40% Multistrike, you'll do that 5000 damage, and you'll have two 40% chances to do an extra 1500 damage.

 

See math on this stuff in Zagam's post in the warlock forums if you're not good with probability.

 

Please understand that the value of these stats cannot be assessed until we can get into beta, see how much our abilities will actually be doing, and even more importantly see the scale rate on these and our other stats.

 

Minor Stats:

 

These are extra little stats we'll find at random in the same manner that pieces are occasionally thunderforged/warforged currently. They'll offer extra little bonuses to us and be something to keep working on even past having BiS for each slot.

 

Movement speed. Works exactly like it sounds. Stacks with other movement speed.

 

Leech will heal you for a percentage of all damage and healing done.

 

Indestructible. Just like Diablo, the item won't take durability damage when you getrekt.

 

Avoidance is the same thing pets get, only much, much less.

 

They're experimenting with Cleave still on the grounds of being situational for DPS but "always" good for healers (think for 20-man, not your current 10-man).

 

Thoughts for Druids:

 

Versatility is supposed to increase "how versatile your character is", especially for hybrids. Personally, I think that sounds pretty hokey, but it will be a stat that gives pretty much all specs an equal benefit. As easy as it will be to switch specs in WoD (especially for druids with four specs), it'll be nice to have gear that's a bit more flexible.

 

Multistrike doesn't sound as fun for Resto, because it's too unreliable. Maybe that's just me, but I like to know my heals are going to happen as I intend them to. I really like Leech, though. Anything that makes us have to worry less about ourselves is just a fantastic QOL thing.

 

Balance and Feral will pretty much see the changes pretty much the same way as any DPS will: yay more DPS. Multistrike will look cooler for Boomkin, though, since kitties produce no pew pews to see lots more of.

 

Guardians remain to be seen. They're already used to getting crit/mastery/haste over defensive stats, but I'm interested in seeing exactly how they'll make Bonus Armor so good for them as they said. Bears have always had traditionally high passive mitigation through high armor to begin with. I can't imagine Multistrike being useful, unless the mastery absorbs can Multistrike.  Indestructible will be good for saving money though. Hurray tanks getting hit in the face and having higher repair bills for it! If they scale back tank damage, Leech will probably be less useful. Avoidance will probably be more-or-less as useful as the Protectors trinket that hardly anyone uses for any fights these days.

[Paloro 39]

As far as Versatility goes, Feral will want this...all of this!

 

We will have the potential to throw out some serious heals on the tank/raid. 

Predatory Swiftness now increases our next healing touch to be increased by 50%.

Dream of Cenarius increases the healing done by healing touch and rejuvenation by 20% and also heals the druid when casted on an ally.

 

 

Remember, rejuvenation will now be able to be cast in cat form and with the new Bloodtalons talent (old DoC), we will still be encouraged to use HT quite often in the rotation.

 

Having all that extra healing be affected by Versatility seems amazing to me.

[Kazistrasz 216]

It's not just healing, though. It's your DPS as well. It'll flat-out increase your damage. As often as Boomkins are called upon for HOTW+Tranq, it'll be an increase to our healing too, though we'll likely do less healing than a feral if that DOC play stays in.

 

Versatility is another %-based stat. Because they didn't learn from amplify how that pans out. If they make it an even mediocre stat at WoD's launch, it'll become as OP at the end of the expansion as it is now unless they constantly nerf it. The only solutions are to unusuably poor at the beginning of the expansion or make it hardly scale at all with ilvl by comparison to other stats.

[Paloro 39]

Just in case you forgot, Tranquility is only for Resto now.  That means no more HotW+Tranq.

 

But yes, it will increase damage as well.  I just like looking at the "extra" benefits it will have versus other classes/specs.

[Hybrys 199]

You seem to have such little confidence in Blizzard, Kaz!

 

Versatility, if implemented correctly, will be a very fun stat to play with.  Imagine if it's balanced on a curve like Armor, where the more that you have, the less it helps.  This would mean that at every gear level, it has a different value, just due to stat depth and secondary density.

 

The percent increase would scale with your power, but would maintain itself without tweaks due to being worth more the more power you have until it's no longer efficient on a point per % scale.

 

Letting it scale like that could also allow them to differentiate scaling factors between classes, so that specs with guaranteed crits (such as Ele) maintain the same power as people with large quantities of small hits (such as Boomkin).

[Kazistrasz 216]

Damnit, Paloro. Why did you have to remind me?

 

I have as much confidence as watching things scale out of control for the last 6 years leads me to have.

 

I think it can be done correctly. If it's done on a curve (similar to scaling less with ilvl like I said), I have no issues. I doubt that's what they're thinking, though.