Cataclysm = bigger heath pools, lower heals, longer fights

coffee

Seems Blizzard are looking to change things even more so in Cataclysm.

If they go through with it, it should be the end of the 2-3 shot PVP kills, now if they reduce AOE and bring back the need for CC (even in 5mans) I'll be a happy night elf ... erm... and goblin.

Health Pools in Cataclysm ( source )

Health pools will be much larger in Cataclysm and healing will be lower. That should help address some of the overly binary feel of PvP and PvE encounters.

You'll still be able to kill people as well as be able to heal them. The pace will just be a little slower and both healing and killing should require more than 1-2 buttons. (Source)

Tanking and Healing in Cataclysm ( source )

You missed the part where I said health pools will be higher. Imagine a boss that takes say 3-4 hits to kill a tank, but it also takes a healer 3-4 heals to top her back off. Now efficiency of a healing spell can be as much of a consideration as direct throughput, since the tank is unlikely to die in your next GCD. Now coordination among healers can be a bigger deal since efficiency will matter. Now maximum health on the tank classes will matter less because the question of how long you can survive without a heal landing is largely academic. Now avoidance on a tank can matter a little more because saving healer mana becomes as important as being table to take the next hit.

As an aside, healers will actually need enough healing tools and enough distinction among them so that they are really choosing the big, expensive heal vs. the small, cheap heal vs. the fast, expensive heal, to name just a few examples.

Dreathor

As long as I don't get globald by wizcleave and the like anymore, I'm happy too;)

Much needed imo. As long as we don't get 40min games like in BC wtih druids for example.

Auzy

Great news!!!!  No more Mr. T grenades too right??

 

Thanks Coffee!

htiger23

"5" Levels means nothing.  Levels are an arbitrary creation in which Blizzard houses upgrades.

Take a look at Anarchy Online, for example.  There are 200 regular levels, 20 shadow levels, and 30 alien invasion levels.

 

Warcraft could have doubled the level cap with each expansion but kept stats/skills exactly the same as they are now.  For all we know, and it sounds like it could be the case, going from 80 to 85 will actually be a bigger increase in stats than going from 70 to 80 was.

 

Think of it this way, if your buddy has a stereo and the volume goes up to 10, but you have a stereo and the volume can go up to 20, is your stereo guaranteed to be louder?

Thenarius

I think Blizzard fucked up the damage&healing/maximum health ratios so damn bad in WOTLK, even with the relative balance shown by things such as SK Gaming Top 100 arena.

BC had some looong battles, but it could be very bursty as well, only in BC, you needed to have some damn support/CC to score some burst without it getting healed(See purge-spam Shamans/Arms Warriors/Ret paladins who could pretty much global someone if Windfury totem proced).

But WOTLK is just...let's say that, while I'm happy to see better class representation, I don't exactly enjoy timed Chaos Burst+Conflagrate+Lava Burst+Shock which can global you no matter how skilled you are. I can also state that prot/holy paladins(pre-nerfs) were worse than the bloody S3 resto druids.

WOTLK also had a lot of dumped down specs, such as druid's restoration tree(thank god they didn't nerf my discipline tree into being a complete healbot, that would have been an insta-quit) who brought us the retarded tree healing-spam druids...among other things.

If Blizzard can score WOTLK's Class representation+S4's TBC pacing(pretty fast-paced season...at least in BC's era) then we're gonna have some good PvP and who knows...maybe we won't have 1v1 gods like frost mages these days(I know a frost mage on a EU server that will pay you 10k gold if you beat him in a duel..he has about 800 haste and 3k spellpower and will simply blow you up).

Oh and Zorny, I appreciate your enthusiasm, but BC was indeed far more slow-paced than WOTLK.

Torik

Originally posted by htiger23 
Think of it this way, if your buddy has a stereo and the volume goes up to 10, but you have a stereo and the volume can go up to 20, is your stereo guaranteed to be louder?

 

Everyone knows that to get the most volume you turn the dial up to 11 no mater what the numbers on it say.

axhed

http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/post/3253054#3253054

oh crap i meant to link the thread, not my sparkling contribution to it.