AT World of Warcraft Thread (Cataclysm, Where do you play, General BS and all that)

[lupi]

3.5 from a ret is pretty sad. My ret hasn't left dal yet except as needed to do the dal jc daily, and he's about 75% towards 81 with several L80 cata greens and absolutely rips through the wrath mobs when doing those dailies.

 

[lupi]

Looks like shammies getting a heavy dose of the nerf bat from pvp crap.

 

[Anubis]

if there are new notes can someone copy and paste them here. IIRC MMOC said the list was huge this morning

 

[Onita]

if there are new notes can someone copy and paste them here. IIRC MMOC said the list was huge this morning

Still the same quote up from MMOC, saying it won't be up til later today. battle.net is down. Anywhere else to get them?

 

[bl4ckfl4g]

I wonder how many more hunter nerfs they'll have. And will mage pve get buffed???? I wait in anticipation....

 

[OCNewbie]

http://www.wowhead.com/patchnotes=4.0.6-ptr

 

[coloumb]

If I understand the discussion about high end gear - WOTLK did an awesome job at allowing those who can't play for 5+ hours to RAID a way to obtain "high end" gear by running the non-raid dungeons for "dungeon currency" as it's being called in Cataclysm. Of course people who can spend 5+ hours to RAID in a dungeon obviously deserves to have better gear - it's the same as getting the reputation gear/awards - you put in the time, you get a better reward.

So if I read the changes to Rebuke for Ret pally - it's being changed to a useless passive skill?

 

[Anubis]

you get Valor Points right now for running the daily random heroic. Valor points can be used to purchase epics. you however earn them slow as fuck (70 per day) think it takes at least 2 full weeks before you can purchase the cheapest items

the could tweak the system to make it somewhat easier/faster but i doubt they will. People got gear in Wrath so fast cause Naxx was a total joke. Imagine if wrath released and Ulduar was the 1st raid. it would be just like it is now dungeon tokens or not

IIRC which i prob dont you couldn't straight up buy tier gear with Heroic tokens when wrath launched wasn't it mostly off set items and trinkets

 

[Onita]

If I understand the discussion about high end gear - WOTLK did an awesome job at allowing those who can't play for 5+ hours to RAID a way to obtain "high end" gear by running the non-raid dungeons for "dungeon currency" as it's being called in Cataclysm. Of course people who can spend 5+ hours to RAID in a dungeon obviously deserves to have better gear - it's the same as getting the reputation gear/awards - you put in the time, you get a better reward.

So if I read the changes to Rebuke for Ret pally - it's being changed to a useless passive skill?

I don't think you could buy the tier gear early on in Wrath.

And you're reading rebuke wrong. Rebuke is now baseline. It was talented before. The talent has been changed.

 

[lupi]

Haven't looked for new patch notes yet, but did see a blue post that said revised ones were coming today and would be twice as large as previous list.

 

[lupi]

Fudge, they're nerfing fel armor too.

 

[coloumb]

Eh - it's all relative. "epic" [purple] items should require a bit of time to obtain.

Crafting items - require orbs and an insane # of different materials

If you run just run faction dailies and don't run level 85 dungeons while wearing a faction talbard - it can take a few weeks to get the high end faction gear/enchants/trinkets/etc.

And aren't raids limited to once per week per instance? It could literally take months to get a specific drop depending upon who's in the raid and how bidding is handled. Now that people can dual spec at a low price - I bet people are saying "Oh..I can use that for when I tank instead of DPS!"

 

[Pens1566]

I don't think you could buy the tier gear early on in Wrath.

And you're reading rebuke wrong. Rebuke is now baseline. It was talented before. The talent has been changed.

You could get ilvl 200 for I think 2 slots with Emblems of Heroism when WOTLK first hit.

 

[bl4ckfl4g]

Those are some heavy handed hunter nerfs for sure. Exp shot nerfed a lot, black arrow nerfed and agility nerfed by 5% for srv hunters. Seems way overboard.


Fire mage got the love it needed. Fireball cheaper, dot damage up with flashburn talent, living bomb cheaper, no need for molten armor to cast scorch while moving. Very nice

 

[Doc Savage Fan]

Fudge, they're nerfing fel armor too.

Details?

 

[Anubis]

post the changes

 

[Doc Savage Fan]

I found this on a Japanese site:
http://www.ptt.cc/bbs/WOW/M.1294770691.A.450.html

nm...better info below

 

[bl4ckfl4g]

Those are outdated. Just look at mmo-champion.

 

[Aikouka]

Since some people are at work...

( Source: http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/2144-Patch-4.0.6-PTR-Build-13482 )

Alchemy

• Quicksilver Alchemist Stone (301 Agility Alchemy Stone) - Creates Quicksilver Alchemist Stone. / Reagents: Volatile Life x 50, Cinderbloom x 24, Heartblossom x 12
• Volatile Alchemist Stone (301 Strength Alchemy Stone) - Creates Volatile Alchemist Stone. / Reagents: Volatile Life x 50, Cinderbloom x 12, Heartblossom x 24
• Vibrant Alchemist Stone (301 Intellect Alchemy Stone) - Creates Vibrant Alchemist Stone. / Reagents: Volatile Life x 50, Cinderbloom x 8, Azshara\\'s Veil x 20, Heartblossom x 8

Also, all flasks had their reagents requirements changed and now requires 8 Volatile Life (up from 6) and 8 of each Herb (down from 12)

• Flask of Titanic Strength - Creates Flask of Titanic Strength. / Reagents: Volatile Life x 8, Cinderbloom x 8, Whiptail x 8, Crystal Vial
• Flask of the Winds - Creates Flask of the Winds. / Reagents: Volatile Life x 8, Azshara\\'s Veil x 8, Whiptail x 8, Crystal Vial
• Flask of the Draconic Mind - Creates Flask of the Draconic Mind. / Reagents: Volatile Life x 8, Azshara\\'s Veil x 8, Twilight Jasmine x 8, Crystal Vial
• Flask of Flowing Water - Creates Flask of Flowing Water. / Reagents: Volatile Life x 8, Stormvine x 8, Heartblossom x 8, Crystal Vial
• Flask of Steelskin - Creates Flask of Steelskin. / Reagents: Volatile Life x 8, Cinderbloom x 8, Twilight Jasmine x 8, Crystal Vial

Archaeology

• Survey now has a 3 sec cooldown, down from 5 sec
• Archaeology: Queen Azshara's Dressing Gown now requires Level 51, down from 60.
• Archaeology: Headdress of the First Shaman now requires Level 61, down from 70.
• Archaeology: Nifflevar Bearded Axe now requires Level 71, down from 80.

Enchanting

• Enchant Bracer - Agility - Permanently enchant bracers to increase Agility by 50. Requires a level 300 or higher item.
  Creates Enchant Bracer - Agility. / Reagents: Hypnotic Dust x 12, Maelstrom Crystal x 2, Volatile Air x 15
• Enchant Bracer - Major Strength - Permanently enchant bracers to increase Strength by 50. Requires a level 300 or higher item.
  Creates Enchant Bracer - Major Strength. / Reagents: Hypnotic Dust x 6, Maelstrom Crystal x 2, Volatile Earth x 25
• Enchant Bracer - Mighty Intellect - Permanently enchant bracers to increase Intellect by 50. Requires a level 300 or higher item.
  Creates Enchant Bracer - Mighty Intellect. / Reagents: Hypnotic Dust x 4, Greater Celestial Essence x 4, Maelstrom Crystal x 2, Volatile Water x 15
• Enchanting: Enchant Off-Hand - Superior Intellect now increases intellect by 40, down from 100.

Engineering

• Engineering: Heat-Treated Spinning Lure now lasts 15 minutes, up from 5 minutes.

Inscription

• Glyph of Dark Succor - Creates Glyph of Dark Succor. / Reagents: Ethereal Ink x 3, Heavy Parchment

Jewelcrafting

• Agile Shadowspirit Diamond - Creates Agile Shadowspirit Diamond. / Reagents: Shadowspirit Diamond
• Burning Shadowspirit Diamond - Creates Burning Shadowspirit Diamond. / Reagents: Shadowspirit Diamond
• Reverberating Shadowspirit Diamond - Creates Reverberating Shadowspirit Diamond. / Reagents: Shadowspirit Diamond

Guild - General

• Now That's an Achievement now requires you to earn 2,000 guild achievement points, down from 5000.
• Time To Open A Savings Account now requires you to loo 500,000 gold from creatures, up from 200,000.

Guild - Professions

• Better Leveling Through Chemistry now requires you to create 3,000 Cataclysm flasks, down from 25,000.
• Mix Master now requires you to create 1,000 Cataclysm flasks, down from 10,000.

Reputation

• 45 Exalted Reputations no longer rewards the "The Exalted" title.

Player vs. Player

• Just Another Day in Tol Barad *New* - Complete all of the Tol Barad daily quests listed below.

Racials

• Stoneform (Dwarf) now reduces all damage taken by 10% instead of increasing armor by 10%.
• Gift of the Naaru (Draenei) now heals for 20% of their total health over 15 sec at all levels.
• Escape Artist (Gnome) now has a 1.5 min cooldown, down from 1.75 min.
• Darkflight (Worgen) now has a 2 min cooldown, down from 3 min. Now increases current movement speed by an additional 40% instead of "increasing movement speed by 40%".

Death Knight (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Blood

• Bone Shield now begins with 4 charges, up from 3 charges.

Frost

• Runic Focus now also increases spells change to hits by 9%. Spells are all Death Knight abilities that are not direct weapon strikes.

Unholy

• Blightcaller is now called Dreadblade and Increases Shadow damage done by 20%. Each point of Mastery increases Shadow damage by an additional 2.5%.
• Virulence no longer increases chance to hit with spells. Now increases the damage done by your diseases by 10/20/30%.
• Sudden Doom now only procs from main-hand auto attacks, proc rate no longer specified and now just shows up as "higher than rank 1", "higher than rank 2".
• Necrotic Strike casting time increase effect now lasts 10 sec, down from 15 sec.
• Death's Advance (Tier 4) *New* - While your Unholy Runes are both depleted, movement-impairing effects may not reduce you below 100% of normal movement speed. /

Glyphs

• Inscription: Glyph of Dark Succor - Causes your Death Strike ability to always restore at least 20% of your maximum health when used while in Frost or Unholy Presence.

Druid (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Balance

• Soothe is now instant cast, down from 1.5 sec cast.
  Moonfire and Sunfire now costs 9% of base mana, down from 18% of base mana.
• Fungal Growth now has a 100 yards range, up from 30 yards.
• Total Eclipse now increases bonus damage from Eclipse by 16%, up from 12%. Each point of Mastery now increases the bonus by an additional 2%, up from 1.5%.

Feral

• Rip now scales from 16.56/33.12/49.68/66.42% of Attack Power, down from 18.4/36.8/55.2/73.6/92%.
• Rake now scales from 2.07% of Attack Power, down from 2.3%. Additional bleed damage now scales from 37.8% of Attack Power, down from 42%, base damage reduced by 10%, from 1859 to 1672.
• Shred now deals 450% damage plus 1487, up from 350% plus 1156.
• Skull Bash (Cat) / Skull Bash (Bear) now prevents spell from that school from being cast for 4 sec, down from 5 sec.
• Maul now scales from 24% of Attack Power, down from 30%.
• Lacerate now scales from 7.66% of Attack Power, down from 9.58%. Now makes enemies bleed for 35 + 2.56% of Attack Power, down from 35 + 3.2% of Attack Power.
• Mangle (Cat) now deals 460% normal damage plus 1452, up from 360% plus 1136.
• (Mangle) Mangle (Bear) now deals 235% normal damage plus 681, down from 300% plus 870.
• Pulverize now deals 80% weapon damage, down from 100%. Additional damage reduced by 20% as well, from 450 to 360.

Restoration

• Natural Shapeshifter now increases the duration of Tree of Life Form by 3/6 sec, down from 5/10 sec.
• Tree of Life now lasts 25 sec, down from 30 sec. (What do you call a druid in tree form who melees? A combat log.)
• Wild Growth now has a 8 sec cooldown, down from 10 sec. Base healing value increased by 30%, from 2866 to 3722.
• Symbiosis now increases the potency of healing spells by 11.6% (Up from 10%) on target already affected by one of your HoT. Each point of Mastery now increases heal potency by an additional 1.45%, up from 1.25%.

Hunter (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Beast Mastery

• Master's Call now has a 40 yards range, up from 25 yards. Cooldown reduced to 35 sec, down from 1 min.

Marksmanship

• Concussive Shot now dazes the target for 6 sec, up from 4 sec.

Survival

• Black Arrow base damage has been reduced by 25%, down from 2400 to 1800.
• Explosive Shot now deals [ 20.5% of Ranged AP + 340 ] damage, down from [ 27.3% of Ranged AP + 454 damage ]
• Deterrence now increases the chance melee attacks will miss you by 100% instead of increasing your parry chance.
• Hunter vs. Wild now increases your total Stamina by 5/10/15%, up from 4/7/10%.
• Serpent Spread now affects up to 4 targets.

Mage (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Arcane

• Arcane Blast now costs 7% of base mana, down from 8% of base mana.
• Arcane Barrage now costs 11% of base mana, down from 12% of base mana.
• Counterspell now prevents spell from that school of magic from being cast for 7 sec, down from 8 sec.

Fire

• Flashburn now increases damage done by all your periodic fire damage effect by 22.4%, up from 20%. Each point of Mastery increases periodic damage done by an additional 2.8%, up from 2.5%.
• Fireball now costs 12% of base mana, down from 16%.
• Living Bomb now costs 17% of base mana, down from 22%.
• Firestarter no longer requires you to use Molten Armor to cast the Scorch spell while moving.

Frost

• Deep Freeze's base damage has been reduced by 20%, from [ 1447 to 1814 ] to [ 1157 to 1451 ].
• Fingers of Frost now also increases Ice Lance damage by 15%.
• Frost Specialization now also increases the damage of Frostbolt by an additional 15%. However, if will decrease your Frostburn mastery by 6.

Paladin (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Retribution

• Crusader Strike now deals 135% weapon damage, up from 110%.
• Rebuke is now trainable by all paladins as a base spell.
• New Skill - Sacred Shield - When reduced below 30% health, you gain the Sacred Shield effect. The Sacred Shield absorbs [1 + 2.8 * AP] damage and increases healing received by 20%. Lasts 15 sec. This effect cannot occur more than once every 30 sec. 30 sec cooldown.

Priest (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Holy

• Prayer of Healing base healing reduced by 15%, from 3633 - 3838 to 3087 - 3262.
• Lightwell now restores [ 1.063% of Spell Power + 9929.445 ] health over 6 sec, down from [ 1.155% of Spell Power + 10792.875 ]
• Chakra now also affects Flash Heal or Greater Heal. Serenity now also procs from Flash Heal, Greater Heal, or Binding Heal. Chastise now procs from both Smite and Mind Spike.
• Blessed Resilience now also procs from a critical hit from any attack.
• Renew now costs 17% of base mana, down from 21% of base mana.

Discipline

• Focused Will now also procs from a critical hit from any attack.
• Strength of Soul has an additional effect - In addition, when you cast Power Word: Shield on yourself you are immune to Silence, Interrupt and Dispel effects for 2/4 sec.

Shadow

• Shadow Orb Power now increases the damage done by your Shadow Orbs by 21.6%, up from 20%. Each point of Mastery increases damage by an additional 1.5%, up from 1.3%.
• Mind Sear base damage has been increased by 60%, from [ 91 - 98 ] to [ 146 - 158 ]

Rogue (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Assassination
Deadly Momentum now increases your critical strike chance of your next attack within 15 sec, up from 10 sec.

Combat

• Mastery: Main Gauche now deals damage equal to 100% of a main hand attack, up from 75%.
• Vitality now increases your Attack Power by 25%, up from 20%.
• Restless Blades now also affects Redirect.

Subtlety

• Preparation no longer affects Evasion
• Shadowstep now has a 24 sec cooldown, up from 20 sec.
• Sinister Calling now increases total Agility by 30%, up from 25%. Now increases the percentage damage bonus of Backstab and Hemorrhage by an additional 40%, up from 25%.
• Find Weakness now causes all your attacks to bypass 35/70% of that enemy's armor, up from 25/50%.
• Sanguinary Vein now also gives your Bleed effects a 50/100% chance to not break your Gouge.

Shaman (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Elemental

• Earthquake base damage has been increased by 10%, from 493 to 542.
• Purge now removes 1 Magic effect, down from 2.

Enhancement

• Mental Quickness now reduces the mana cost of your beneficial, damaging, and totem spells by 75% instead of reducing the cost of your instant spells.

Restoration

• Tremor Totem now has a 1 min cooldown, removes Fear, Charm, and Sleep effects from party and raid members within 10 yards, and can be dropped even while the caster is afflicted with such effects.
• Mana Tide Totem now gives Party members within 23 yards of the totem 400% of the caster's spirit (excluding short-duration Spirit bonuses).
• Greater Healing Wave now costs 33% of base mana, up from 30%. Base healing value increased by 20%, from 7473 - 8538 to 8968 - 10245.
• Cleansing Waters now has a 0.5 sec cooldown.
• Deep Healing now Increases the potency of your direct healing spells by up to 24% (up from 20%), based on the current health level of your target (lower health targets are healed for more). Each point of Mastery increases direct heals by up to an additional 3%. (up from 2.5%)

Warlock (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Affliction

• Curse of Exhaustion now has a 40 yards range, up from 30 yards.
• Unstable Affliction now silences the dispeller for 4 sec, down from 5 sec.

Demonology

• Demon Armor and Fel Armor now seem to be permanent (no longer lasts 30 mins?)
• Fel Armor no longer regenerates the caster's life and increases his/her maximum mana by 10% instead.
• (Metamorphosis) Immolation Aura base damage has been increased by 5%, from 538 to 567.
• Demonic Aegis now increases the amount of mana granted by Fel Armor by 50/100% instead of the amount of life.
• Demon Soul Imp effect has been changed to - Critical strike chance of your cast time Destruction spells increased by 30% for 20 sec.
• Inferno now also increases the duration fo your Immolate by 6 sec.
• Master Demonologist now increases the damage done by your demon servants and damage you deal while transformed into a demon by 16% (up from 12%). Each point of Mastery increases damage by an additional 2%. (Up from 1.5%)

Destruction

• Aftermath is now a Tier 2 talent, down from Tier 3.
• Improved Soul Fire is now a Tier 3 talent, up from Tier 2. No longer increases your spell haste and now increases your Fire and Shadow damage done by 4/8% for 15 sec after you deal damage with Soul Fire. This effect has a 6 sec cooldown.
• Burning Embers effect now deals up to [ 0.121% of Spell Power + 20.209 ], down from [ 0.143% of Spell Power + 23.921 ] damage.
• Fiery Apocalypse now increases all fire damage you deal by 10.8% (up from 10%). Each point of Mastery increases fire damage by an additional 1.35%. (up from 1.25%)

Warrior (Forums / Cataclysm Talent Calculator / Beta Skills/Talents)
Fury

• Cleave now scales from 45% of Attack Power, down from 56.2% of Attack Power.
• Bloodthirst now scales from 80% of Attack Power, up from 62%.
• Raging Blow now deals 145% weapon damage, up from 80%.
• Unshackled Fury now Increases the benefit of abilities that cause or require you to be enraged by 44.8% (up from 37.6%). Each point of Mastery increases enrage effects by an additional 5.6%. (Up from 4.7%)

Arms

• Heroic Strike now scales from 93% of Attack Power, up from 75% of Attack Power.
• Juggernaut now also makes your Charge ability usable in all stances.
• War Academy now increases the damage of "Mortal Strike, Raging Blow, Devastate, Victory Rush and Slam" instead of "Heroic Strike, Cleave, Victory Rush and Slam".

 

[Anubis]

thats what i was looking for thanks AIK

 

[Aikouka]

I'm glad they're finally fleshing out a few trade skills.

I was a bit bummed on my Mage when I saw that all I could make was a tanking trinket. So now, I can make a pretty decent intellect trinket for him! The static haste isn't too bad either. I wonder if they're going to make all of those trinkets not disenchantable though.

It's also nice to see some good wrist options for enchanting, although some of my characters will still probably use Hit or Expertise.

I'm actually pretty anxiously awaiting the Rebuke change as well... it'll be nice not having to save Avenger's Shield on my Paladin to make up for bad PUG interrupters.

 

[lupi]

Haven't looked in like 30 minutes or so, but have not yet seen full revised posting by blue yet.

 

[HybridSquirrel]

DKs don't look like they got it too bad, unholy's mastery is actually worth something now. I was reforging all my gear to get rid of mastery, the extra 3% mastery was giving me from diseases was kinda pointless since they were only 8% of my total dps. And SS was like 20% or something last I looked, Death coil was about 30%. Thats going to buff our dps a lot I suspect, well more then it does now at least.

The death strike glyph would be good for pvp I guess, wish it healed 20% in Blood presence too (imba tank much?)

 

[coloumb]

PSA - Get off your god damn dragon mount when talking to the fishing/cooking dailies, quest givers, mailboxes, etc - nobody gives a rats ass you have a dragon mount and it only gets in the way of other people trying to talk to the npc or check their mailbox.

 

[lupi]

let the nerfs commence:


Originally Posted by Ghostcrawler (Source)
We've seen and heard a lot of discussion about the challenge presented by the Cataclysm Heroic dungeons, and to a lesser extent the raids. I'm not sure this is the kind of issue where we're going to be able to change anyone’s mind on the subject, but I can try to provide more insight into our point of view as well as offer some suggestions for success.

First, let me state that we do hear you. We understand some of you aren’t having fun and preferred the Lich King paradigm, or at least something closer to the Lich King paradigm. We greatly appreciate the feedback and it always makes us sad when players aren’t having fun. We're not ignoring you. We get it. We may not always agree on every point, but we understand where you’re coming from, and we want to try to help you understand where we're coming from.

The bottom line is that we want Heroics and raids to be challenging, and that is particularly true now while the content is new and characters are still collecting gear. They’re only going to get easier from here on out. We want players to approach an encounter, especially a Heroic encounter, as a puzzle to be solved. We want groups to communicate and strategize. And by extension, we want you to celebrate when you win instead of it being a foregone conclusion.

On the other hand, we don't want you to stumble your way to victory. We don't want you to be able to overwhelm bosses without noticing or caring what they’re doing. We don’t want healers to be able to make up for all of the mistakes on the part of the other players. While at the end of the day, dungeons may just be gussied up loot vending machines, we want you to do more than push a button to get the loot.

Ultimately, we don’t want to give undergeared or unorganized groups a near guaranteed chance of success, because then the content will feel absolutely trivial for players in appropriate gear who communicate, cooperate, and strategize.

We didn't like that the Heroic dungeons in Lich King and early Naxxramas had become zerg-fests. It made the rewards feel like they weren't earned. It made all rewards except the best-in-slot items feel transitory -- why enchant or gem an item when you don’t need the performance boost and you’ll quickly replace it anyway? Furthermore, it set the expectation that everyone would eventually earn all best-in-slot items rather than those being rare and treasured goals. It made class abilities feel less useful and interesting. Who needs that crowd-control or survivability talent when nothing is hurting you? Who needs a mana-conservation talent if you’re never going to run out of mana? Who needs a crit talent if your heals often overheal anyway?

Finally, the encounters, even the bosses, ended up having a sameness to them because you could ignore their mechanics. It didn't matter -- in fact, you didn't even notice -- if the dragon breathes or silences or drops a void zone. The fights all felt the same.

In Cataclysm, the Heroic dungeons and raids are intended to be challenging -- and they are, at least until you overgear them.



So what can you do if you find the Heroics too challenging? Here are a few tips and alternatives.

Strategy and Communication
Tanks, you can’t pull and AE every group in a Heroic (again, until you overgear the content). It’s a good idea to crowd control at least one target -- and sometimes two. As long as you have someone with a long-duration and/or renewable crowd control and someone else with a short crowd control such as a stun or even a snare, you should be fine. We don’t have anything like Heroic Shattered Halls, and you don’t need 3 mages for CC. Caster mobs, which are weak but do a lot of damage, are good choices for crowd control. So are mobs that buff other mobs or debuff your group. Don’t waste the CC on non-elite mobs or others that will die quickly. The responsibility for marking and setting the pace often falls upon the tank, but sometimes other experienced players are happy to take the mantle. If you are setting the pace, you need to keep an eye on healer mana. Healers will generally have enough mana to keep you alive in any given fight, but you need to be careful not to chain pull repeatedly if their mana is low. Tanks tend to have good situational awareness and are experienced at reducing incoming damage. Where I have personally seen them get into trouble is when they slip into overconfident “I got this” mode and try to tank too many things at once.

DPS specs often get blamed the most for not knowing what is going on. It should be your business to understand the mechanics of the fights. You’re a member of a team, not a follower who can always rely on someone else to tell them what to do. Which are the spells that need to be interrupted? Which are the void zones that you absolutely must get out of? Which are the adds that must be burned down (and conversely, when should you ignore the adds and focus on the boss instead)? If you aren’t sure, then ask. Almost every group would rather take the few seconds to explain a fight than to wipe because you failed to dodge Glubtok's wall of fire or tried to AE Vanessa’s spiders or didn't understand what "Downwind of Altairus" meant.

Healers seem like they largely understand that Heroics are challenging, and sometimes get penalized when the rest of the group doesn’t understand that. If you feel like you can’t cast anything but your efficient heal or you’ll run out of mana, then something is going wrong with the fight. Likewise, if you feel like you must spam your inefficient heals to the exclusion of all else, then your group is ignoring key mechanics or is just undergeared. Boss fights in 5-player dungeons generally shouldn’t last more than two minutes or so (the last few Deadmines bosses can be longer). If you’re running out of mana because the fights are going too long, that is a problem with the DPS or tank in your group. Gear also makes a huge difference for healers, which leads to my next point.

For everyone, regardless of role, I suggest running the dungeons on normal mode until you feel more comfortable with the pulls. Those runs can be quick, the penalty for mistakes isn’t as high, and you can often still earn a little reputation, cloth, or enchanting materials. As a bonus, you’ll probably make a group really happy if you’re geared for Heroics but helping them out in a normal dungeon.


Improve
If you just can’t make progress and you are literally wiping on trash pulls over and over, it may be time to analyze your gear. The Dungeon Finder's Heroic item level requirement should be considered a minimum -- and remember, it doesn’t look at enchants or gems or even if the gear is appropriate for you. We are assuming an entry-level Heroic player has a lot of item level 333 gear from Twilight Highlands, normal dungeons, or any of the reputation vendors. These 333s are probably mixed in with a few 318 quest greens, but offset by a few 346 items. If you finished the Hyjal quests, you are probably Revered with Guardians of Hyjal and have access to their 346 items. Questing might only earn you Honored with some of the other reputations, but that is easily rectified with daily quests or dungeon tabards (and don’t forget the Tol Barad reps). There are some nice crafted items. No, the weapons aren’t purple, but when you look at their stats, they are quite competitive.

The item level requirement is intended only to keep out players who have no idea what is appropriate content for them. We know you can game it by getting PvP gear or hiding off-spec gear in your bags. Congrats on being sneaky! If you’re sophisticated enough to try and game the item-level requirements, you should be sophisticated enough to know if you can actually handle the content.

Don't be stingy and decide you aren’t going to mess with gemming, enchanting, or reforging until you have epic gear. Note that you don’t have to always apply the most expensive enchants or gems. Gear matters a lot. It increases DPS, survivability, and mana sustainability. Healers who get, say, 1750-1800 Spirit notice that they can go a lot longer without gassing out. Go ahead and get enchants or gems or reforge to get a lot of Spirit. Some DPS specs who don’t reforge hit at those gear levels would struggle a lot as well. The new Cataclysm flasks are fairly expensive, but the Lich King ones aren’t, and there are elixirs and food consumables you can use as well. Archaeologists can even unlock small bonuses in the new dungeons.

Furthermore, once 4.1 comes out, you will have access to more powerful gear that will let you then revisit the content you couldn’t do before. Your Justice points will let you purchase epic items at that point, and Heroics that were challenging will become a lot easier. Players who have raid gear currently are already starting to burn through the dungeon content again, which is totally expected. You’ll get there too. In Lich King, the content patches tended to completely invalidate the previous tier of content. We don’t want players to feel like they need to farm Naxxramas when Icecrown Citadel is out, but at the other end of the spectrum, it was unfortunate that we largely killed Ulduar raiding when Trial of the Crusader came out.


LF3M 9600GS PST
I love the Dungeon Finder. I worked on it a lot personally. It is quite successful at finding you a group. It doesn't guarantee a successful group. It's a huge improvement over spamming trade chat trying to find a tank for your three-rogue party. But throwing together up to 5 strangers and asking them to do challenging content that some of the group may have never seen before is always going to be risky.

World of Warcraft supports a lot of solo play. However, we want dungeons to be a group experience. In fact, we think the game is more fun overall when you play with friends, which is why we put so much effort into encouraging players to join guilds for Cataclysm. Running a hard dungeon with friends tends to be a much better experience. Communication feels less awkward, and everyone is generally more supportive of mistakes. You learn the strengths and weaknesses and nuances of players that you run with regularly. There tend to be fewer loot arguments as well. PUGs have their place -- don’t get me wrong. But we don’t want to sacrifice dungeons being fun and challenging for organized groups in order to have everything be conquered by any possible group. Make sense?

I’ve PUGged the Cataclysm content a lot. So have all of the designers. We want to stay in touch with what players are experiencing. Heroic PUGs are definitely harder than going with groups of people you know, but they aren’t impossible. If things start to go wrong, you might want to take a moment to analyze why they are going wrong before you bail. I do weep for those players who join an in-progress Heroic Rajh attempt (with suspicious player skeletons everywhere), immediately pull without any discussion, and then have the tank leave the group following the first wipe. That’s not fun for anyone and not going to lead to success. These aren't the original Scholomance or Arcatraz runs that could take four hours with respawns. Making a couple of concerted attempts on Rajh is probably going to be faster than going into the queue again.


Mistakes?
We've seen a few threads that suggest that we're too proud to admit mistakes. I find that logic strange, because we do it all the time. Example one: we reverted the 10x honor from Tol Barad pretty quickly. It was a mistake. Example two: Heroic Strike is too dominant an attack for warriors. That was a mistake. Example three: the Lich King Heroic dungeons (and Naxxramas) were too easy to zerg, setting up an expansion-long expectation that purple gear would come easy and often. In retrospect, that was a mistake. We don't at all view the Cataclysm dungeon and raid balance as a mistake.

However, I can name at least three things related to dungeon difficulty that we either did wrong or could do better. We're our own worst critic, and we are very hard on our own decisions.

First, item level is a necessary -- but not sufficient -- hoop to jump through when using the Dungeon Finder for Heroics. We should have also made sure players had at least seen the content on normal mode before. Maybe we should have had Burning Crusade-like attunements. Maybe we should have made the item level requirements pretty relaxed if you’re going with a premade group and much stricter if you’re going with a pick-up group. We’d love to implement (and have some long-term plans that include) better ways to detect if you know what you’re doing other than just the gear you’ve accumulated. Overall, we just needed to state more clearly that Heroic dungeons are intended as a destination, not a first step.

Second, there are only a few level-85 normal dungeons. For a level-85 player who isn’t ready for Heroics but wants to run dungeons, these can get old pretty quickly. Perhaps another way to handle it would have been to have introductory Heroics and harder Heroics. We’ve also flirted with having three difficulty levels before, but that does add an extra level of content to develop and complexity to explain.

Third, the game could do a better job of telling a group why they failed so that so much blame doesn’t fall at the feet of the healer. We talk a lot about not standing in fires, but equally important is the number of bosses that spawn in adds that must be gathered up and/or burned down quickly, or in some cases ignored. We’re also asking a lot of DPS or tanks in those situations, but that information isn’t always conveyed well except through trial and error.


In Conclusion
We do understand that some healers are frustrated and giving up. That is sad and unfortunate. But the degree to which it's happening, at least at this point in time, is vastly overstated on the forums. We also know that plenty of players like the changes and find healing more enjoyable now. Both sides need to spend a little less effort trying to drown out the other side claiming that everyone they know -- and by extension, “the majority of players” -- agree with their point. You shouldn’t need to invoke a silent majority if you can make an articulate and salient point.

As always, we're keeping an eye on things. There are a few bosses that seem responsible for more wipes than the others: Commander Springvale, Beauty, Altairus, and Admiral Ripsnarl perhaps. By the time you read this, you might have seen us implement Restoration druid buffs intended to keep them competitive in raids. We also just tend to nerf content over time because the original players hitting that content have moved on, so we want to open it up to a wider audience.

In any case, we want to ensure that everyone is having fun and enjoying their time with the game, and I hope that this post may serve to some as the "tare" button that helps you zero in on the intended dungeon difficulty scale. For others, just know that we are actively reading feedback. For everyone offering constructive posts and points about their experience, we thank you.