Patch 3.0.2 - The Latest And Greatest
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iTZKooPA on Friday, August 29, 2008 - 12 Comments Tags: 3.0.2, Patch, PvE, Raid, content patch, patch 3.0.2, wotlk, wrath, wrath of the lich king
iTZKooPA on Friday, August 29, 2008 - 12 Comments Tags: 3.0.2, Patch, PvE, Raid, content patch, patch 3.0.2, wotlk, wrath, wrath of the lich king 
Some more details have been coming out about the pre-Wrath of the Lich King content patch. As you know, the upcoming patch will act as a “bridging” patch. What this means is that Blizzard will use patch 3.0.2 to introduce a chunk of the Wrath changes, before Wrath is launched. This is the same thing Blizzard did with patch 2.0.1, introducing some aspects of The Burning Crusade into vanilla World of Warcraft. That addition came just a little over a month before TBC's release.
Eyonix mentioned as part of patch 3.0.2's announcement that the notes would be coming shortly. However they still have not been posted. Nevertheless, Blizzard has posted additional information through alternative means. First we have a promise from Bornakk that the game won't be broken by the patch. I still remember the horror of “Assault on Blackwing Lair” or patch 1.6.0. I never wanted to use add-ons again after how long it took for all of my add-ons to be repaired, and then the time it took to go find them. One by one. Thankfully, we have tools like BLASC now. Bornakk also mentions that the patch should arrive “in the coming weeks”. To back up that statement the PTR forums have been wiped. An act that always happens shortly before a new patch is tested.
Zarhym brought us the first list of detailed changes yesterday, the long promised changes to raid buffs/debuffs and stacking. The changes are drastic and the post is long, so it is worth the read for the hardcore PvE players out there.
The Summation:
- Most buffs/debuffs will be raid-wide (ie Warrior shouts, Shaman totems).
- All buffs are categorized in one or more of 30 categories. Most categories have only a few buffs in them.
- Buffs from the same categories will not stack, with the most powerful buff taking precedence
- Mana regeneration buffs to be assigned to 10 players with the least mana
- Numerous existing buffs and debuffs have been reworked for the new system
Blizzard hopes that the changes will allow raiders to bring whomever is available to a raid – within reason - instead of requiring a concrete template be filled. Zarhym noted that Blizzard will be fine tuning the system and changes as needed based on internal testing and community feedback.
So start the feedback process.
Reader Comments (12)
well first id like to say first post! woohoo and second this sounds interesting and im not if hunter buffs life trueshot aura would go raid wide and stack if there was another hunter in the group.
Potatoeman 70 alliance hunter kalecgos
Wrath or as Goggins called it "Liiich!" is getting closer and closer. I say November, my friends say a Christmas release, which anyway around aims at the holidays. So I'm assuming this raid system acts automatic a lot in terms of giving mana regen to those that need it? Taking the manual casting away from the player?
I suppose in a lot of way's a shaman's chain heal goes to the players that need it most automatically, which would be cool, but they might have something else in their intentions entirely.
sounds interesting, i like how shouts and totems benefit the entire raid now instead of putting shamans in individual groups for specific classes.
yeah this would be really good for all spellcasters to get resto shammys mana spring and wrath of air(i think that's the spell crit 1) totems
I'd see the reasoning behind putting totem benefits to individual parties back when there were eight groups of five in a raid. But now comprising mostly of 10mans and even the hefty 25s, it's still a whopping 15 less assholes than your 40mans. So with the cuts in parties that's kind of told us all we need to be playing with a new book of rules, anyway.
Whoa what the heck does 10 least mana players mean exactly? Total mana available or total mana usage or total mana regen?
Arcane mages burn mana like crazy and have large mana pools, this would ruin arcane mages if this is implemented willy nilly. It would be Great if it was based on amount of mana remaining, except it might cause problems for healers who are trying to recover on long fights.
I hope they're thinking carefully about how they implement that change, it could destroy some specs, completely
I dunno. As a resto druid Im a bit concerned in the changes at the raid buff stack, concerning the Tree of Life aura. If they nerf it to +3% healing it's a huge nerf compared to 40% spirit.
Waiting to see.
Bengay - Kael'Thas US
Don't forget to get your Zul'Aman Bear mount before that patch. You won't be able to get it anymore afterwards...
I think it is a great idea to help people get into raids but i think most people will ignore that fact and still have requirements for raiding
YES! Now that shamans totems can be full raid instead of party, we can all now just put down whatever different totems we want as long as we dont put down the same ones! we had that problem over when I did Mags and Gruuls one night, and we had like 4 shamans put down the same exact totems, and it just feels wrong not to get them raidwide. I think us fellow shammies in our 10 or 25 mans can make this work for the best. Imagine these:
Earth totems: Strength of Earth, Stoneskin, Nature Resistance
w/e fire totems
Water: Water spring, Mana spring, fire resistance
Air(heres the big buffies): Grace of Air, Wrath of Air, and WF!
Now I may have just made people go "Ok, more buffs. so what?" Well, its a big deal when a rogue gets his agi AND a WF on his weap, or when that pally tank gets his wrath and WF, pulls of a crit of WF, and becomes the perfect tank! Im sorry for the wall of text, but I just cant not be exited about it! Anyways, hope the patch comes soon!
Rokokos (Resto Shammy ftw) US- Blood Furnace
The bear mount is going away what else is going to change.
Zearha 70 Alliance
Rogue Blood Furnace/
Warth 70 Horde
Mage Vashj
I wonder if they are going to move dalraan then or if they are going to wait. I remember them saying something about quest strings about the "teleportation" of dalraan before lich came out. That was almost a year ago that they said that though so who knows.