Daily Thoughts: Warrior 4.0.3a
Most warriors know by this point that blizzard, using their mighty nerf hammer, struck furious down the haughty warriors and nerfed their precious damage into oblivion, leaving warriors impotent and senile. Or did they? Check the patch that has sent many a search to this blog (and many others I’m sure, but I don’t have their statistic pages) asking, “fury warrior nerf 4.0.3”. Actually, about 50% of all the search terms used to find my blog since 4.0.3a are in regards to the Great Warrior Nerf of 2010. I must admit, I was even a bit concerned seeing a 17% nerf to most of the fury dps toolkit.
So how demolished was my warrior dps after all? Well…It wasn’t. That’s right, you can put your warrior fears to rest. At least fury ones, I hear arms is pretty bad again, but I don’t play that to test it myself. All in all my damage on a test dummy was between 5-10% lower so yes, a nerf, but not world ending. I saw a lot less of my attacks hitting over 10k, which isn’t surprising. On the other hand, I still topped damage in the 3 heroics I did, pretty much every pull. I have to worry about pulling threat from decently geared tanks still, which makes me happy.
So in short, Fury warriors are OK after all. You might not be quite as much of a beast as before, but don’t think you need to go roll a mage now in order to get a raid slot.
4.0.3a Hotfix Nerfs Dungeon Quest XP
Although I don’t necessarily disagree with this change from a designer/balance standpoint, I know all my leveling toons under 60 will be very disappointed. Oddly, this hotfix is not included on the list of hotfixes that blizzard links at the bottom of their post, as of now anyway. The original text can be found HERE.
We are applying a hotfix today to all level 1-60 dungeon quests for Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms dungeons which will significantly reduce the amount of experience they award.
While dungeons should remain integral to our evolving storylines, and great places to collect gear in cooperative environments, we need to make sure each player’s questing progress remains relevant as dungeon quests are completed. In many cases we’re seeing players enter dungeons to complete quests, only to come out ahead of the leveling curve for the zones they’re in.
This change should allow players the opportunity to reap the benefits of running dungeons, while not outpacing the leveling flow from levels 1-60. At this time there are no plans for making any adjustments to dungeon quest experience for Outland, Northrend, and level 80+ Cataclysm dungeons.
You can find a list of all of the latest hotfixes here: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/1232869
4.0.3a – Tanaris & Ashenvale Screens
Here’s a couple pictures of the new beachfront property in Tanaris along with several of all the craziness in Ashenvale.
The Shattering: Before and After 4.0.3a
WoW Insider has a great selection of “before” screen shots available HERE
Some of my screen shots of changes can be found at the following Links:
*Updated* Ashenvale/Tanaris
I’ll try to add to this post as I get more of my own screens posted. I am having trouble finding a nice comprehensive collection of new screen shots, or even a handful of non-comprehensive collections to link. So I implore you to send me or comment links to blogs you have or know that have some of these screens
Postcards from Azeroth – as always another good place to find artistic screen shots.
Daily Thoughts: More Bad News For Scribes
I just read that Enchanting Vellum, used to put enchantments down on paper so the enchanter can mail/sell them, is now going to be available from the Exchanting Vendor. It appears to have a measly 9s 50c cost. This is officially the nail in the coffin on inscription’s vellum market. This is a little disappointing to me with the change to make all glyphs permanently learned, scribes have precious few things that will create repeat business. Even the level 81+ dust of disappearence (the new vanishing powder for changing glyphs) sells at the inscription vendor for 10g, effectively putting a cap on the potential profit that scribes can get from making it.
Fortunately, we’ll still have our darkmoon cards/decks. Check the following links for each type.
Str > Agi > Heal > Tank > Caster
A more optimistic opinion of inscription heading into cataclysm can be found HERE. That WoW Insider link has a few more of the things inscription will be able to make listed there as well.
4.0.3a – Some New Stormwind Screen Shots
I realized upon looking for the changes that I wasn’t that familiar. After my pictures I’ve included a link to a site that did a much more thorough job putting in before and after photo’s, but it’s from the beta not live patch. The huge broken city wall is one of the major highlights.