A few remarks pre-WoTLK

Okay I wanted to point out a few things that are on my mind with the WoTLK launch just around the corner. As we know BC made many significant changes to the game when it launched, and LK will as well. So I would be a fool going into it carrying left over baggage from what I know of the game today. In just over 2 days WoW as we know it will be gone and in many ways a new game will emerge.

I say that because so many aspects of the game will be considerably altered. Yes, the lore will still be there, all of current classes will remain (with the addition of the Death Knight) and many of the things we all love will remain untouched. However, changes to class mechanics, raid functions, spells and abilities, gear stats and boss scripting will force us to relearn how we play the game. On top of the tweaks we will also have many new features and concepts coming at us and we won’t truly understand them until we are waist deep in them.

Some of the new and unknown include:

• Rebalancing of classes at 80.
• New talents and core abilities.
• Overall game development and design changes by Blizz.
• Dual-speccing… (Trust me one of the biggest changes).
• Threat mechanics.

Trust me when I say there are several more, and with each patch we will more than likely see new things added that we have even seen mentioned. If you’re like me you have probably been keeping your eye on “blue posts” and trying to make sense of it all. Well ladies and gents, even Blizz doesn’t fully understand where all the pieces will find their final rest. So assumptions are all that we are left with at this point. That is why I will be holding off on any in depth number-crunching posts or concepts. I don’t want to throw random guesses your way. Theory crafting is one thing, but even it should be based on solid and tested data.

And now a few comments about this blog:

• Please note that even a threat build tank usually keeps a mitigation set in the bank. If your guild practices proper time management in their raids, then you know that you don’t always meet new bosses with everyone decced out in full tier from the previous content. So a bit more mitigation might help give the needed edge.
• I respect mitigation tanks and their role in raids, I just simply play the game a different way and my guild seems to benefit from it. Each guild is different though. (Oh great, now I have Dave Chapelle singing “Diff’rent Strokes” stuck in my head.)
• I am currently working on confirming new stat caps and minimum stats for tanking as a warrior. If I can find information easily enough I may provide stats for the other tanking classes as well. We’ll see.
• I am always open to comments and suggestions for improving my blog. This is my first serious blog so bare with me as I learn how it’s all done.

Catch you all next post!