PTR - WOW 4.0 - class changes

[Shaen]

I copied my dudes to the PTR to test out the changes to skills, stats and whatnot. So far Elemental's looking pretty nice. I'm not sure the haste numbers are completely right, though, because my casts are way faster than they currently are on Live with the same gear. The rotation looks like it's going to change a bit, which is a good thing. Elemental's pretty simple. I've already had problems with the new Searing Totem not targeting the right thing, so who knows if that'll end up being used or not.

[Noodlestein]

Well, things are getting changed so much that the haste change you're experiencing might be on purpose.

[Shaen]

Oh, I don't doubt that. I just didn't expect such a huge difference. It's also funny seeing such huge health and mana.

[Noodlestein]

Yeah.

Unfortunatly atm Im having some weird locking up issue to where whenever an ability is used I lock for a second or two..
Bloody annoying.

[Vosskah]

Alright, let's use this thread to post about PTR observations. I've copied some comments from the Shoutbox that I didn't want lost.

“It's fine for me also Devourer of souls just despawned when we killed him D: Also, prot is a mindfuck now... hard to go from how I used to tank to how it works now. But thats why I started playing the PTR so I could instant swap over when it goes live so we can do stuff... then again I doubt all of us will have done that and some will have to take time to relearn stuff. ”
by Noodlestein

“honestly, if 4.0 is like this, we might be able to down H LK... a hunter just pulled 15k dps in a heroic I was just in, and his gear was ~all 264...”
by Noodlestein

“Yeah Noodle, that's pretty much why I wanted to get on the PTR myself. Everything I've read is that tanking is different and I want to be ready for when it hits. Should have the full thing downloaded tonight.”
by Vosskah

“15 K? o_O ”
by Millya

“Yeah, 15k. Also, I've noticed that I take quite a bit more damage, considering they took out defense, which pushes crit off the table and pushes the rest down a bit, you cant be crit anymore as prot to my knowledge in pve but that means that the rest of the miss/dodge/parry crap hasn't been knocked down. blah blah blah, less avoidance, more damage, which is what they said they were doing in cata... more consistant damage taken BUT since Wrath mobs aren't tuned that way I get hit like a truck”
by Noodlestein

“Example, Nat was healing me in PTR in PoS, then he healed my brothers warrior in PoS on Live and said that it was easier healing my brothers warrior (4.4k gs)... then again disc got hit a bit imo. ALSO the "middle heal" aka Holy Light and Heal are shit... they have the same cast time as greater heal and Divine whatever, cost around 200-300mana (Greater heals cost ~1k+) but heal for damn near nothing... clearly some tuning is needed.”
by Noodlestein

“Oh Voss! something I forgot to mention, they're doing a thing with nameplates, when you start losing threat on a target, the nameplate gets bigger (quite a bit bigger) and makes its easier to click on along with letting you know you are losing aggro.. Perfect for AoE pulls. love it.”
by Noodlestein

[Vosskah]

Oh cool about the nameplates. I've been using tiny plates and threat plates to achieve that in live (recommended by Id, don't know why ).

I just finished getting the full client last night so Millya and I should be able to login sometime tonight.

And ouch about the avoidance. Ok, I guess I'll need to wear my full avoidance set (H LK tanking set) to do heroics. Actually, come to think of it, it might make ICC easier since the mobs are already tuned for less avoidance.

[Noodlestein]

So apparently BM hunters are broken right now and will NOT be keeping that dps :P

[Autoriot]

Poor BM. Every time there's a new expansion, the patch before it makes them overpowered and every hunter switches to it, therefore getting it nerfed twice as much as it should and then it's the worst spec (for dps) for the rest of the expansion.

[ullariend]

We should have no problems with not having replenishment come 4.0.

Resto druids are getting it, and survival hunters are trading it for the windfury totem effect

[Panerai 1]

Got to play on the PTR some this weekend, ran a few randoms as Holy

I think the way I'm supposed to play is quite different - but they were only heroics with geared groups.

I was able to just flash/greater heal pretty much the entire time if i wanted.

I *tried* to heal the way they want me to. Heal, going into a Chakra, using Chastise, staying in my chakra, smite smite etc...
The toolbox is a lot bigger - and found my self doing a lot of thinking which made my reaction times slower. I ran a whole dungeon without using Circle of Healing mainly because I forgot about it.

I had zero mana issues - again it was just heroics, but they were chain pulling everything and i didn't even hit 50% mana.

My problem was that my UI and keybinds play such a big part of my healing - and I didn't have my UI setup but only for the basics.

I'm sure after I get my UI established, things will be better - especially using auras for all the damn crap I have going on. ("Damn Crap" sure sounds like a Voss term)

but overall, I found I can probably just continue to flash, flash, flash, but to heal the way they intend (and they way i'll need to for Cat) its quite a bit different.

Hard to say at the moment if I see either spec changing our approach to fights like H:LK.
Leap of Faith for someone in Defile, or being dropped by a Valk?
Power Word Barrier for throne room?
My Renew Chakra to pretend I'm a druid?

They other thing is they really want me to Smite - i have a new talent in Disc that will "heal a nearby party member for 120% of my smite dmg" - My current smites hit for 4-6k, so that's a free tank or melee flash heal.

I apologize in advance, but I feel the day 4.0 drops, I won't be that great healing for at least a week till i get my UI setup and be able to heal instinctively and not have to look at a keybind cheatsheet.

[Shaen]

Well, the be fair, the UI thing is pretty huge. I'm super-familiar with my rotations and knowing when things proc at this point, but I feel totally lost on the PTR with no Power Auras or useful buff frames. I had forgotten just how stupidly difficult it is to tell which target debuffs belong to me and what their duration is with the default UI. I'm going to try to go as lean as possible on the addons when 4.0 hits, but there are several I just can't see ever living without.

[Millya]

I wouldn't expect anyone to be at the 'top of their game' when 4.0 hits truthfully, Pan, so no worries there. It's going to take all of us a bit of time re-adjust specs and figure out how our classes play with such sweeping changes to all of them. Like Shaen, I'd like to pare down my UI but I'll have to see what it's possible to remove and what I really, really like.

[Vosskah]

I didn't spend a lot of time on the PTR, but yes, the addons took a beating.

Bartender4 still works and so does recount.
I think Omen still works but I have not been playing too much with it.
Chatter works.
WIM does not.
Powerauras does not and I'm still trying to understand the damn icons from Blizzard's version of it.

No, when 4.0 drops, we'll all need to do some major work to recover from it and learn our classes again. It's just normal so I'm not worried about it. I'd say it will take a week or so for us to adjust.

[Panerai 1]

With another patch on the background downloader - it sure feels like 4.0 could be 10/5.

I'm definitely excited

the most organized beta addons I can find are here
http://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/cat140.html

I find wowace.com just too diffilcult to navigate for non-developers.

there is a healbot alpha build and a vuhdo one was just released.

[Noodlestein]

Heh, yeah.
I haven't played the PTR in a week+ but I used wowinterface's Cata beta addon page to try them on the PTR (Mainly for a better Holy power bar.... blizzard failed hard at it here)

In anycase, I've got my tanking stuff pretty much down, just need to get a holypower bar as I said (or if Icehud adds one build in like for combo points etc) to put in the middle of the screen I'll be 100%

As for ret, I need to do that a bit more since they changed it yet again since I last tried 20% chance for HP instead of 40% now? O.o