I’m sure many of you have noticed a pretty comprehensive absence of Wrath of the Lich King information here. I’m really too busy with current content to get very involved with something we may not see before November. Or December. Or (I hope) January! And I really don’t want to play in the beta.
However, that doesn’t mean I’ve gone all ostrich; I’ve read a bit of stuff about Priest Talents and Hunter Pet Trees, but I haven’t gone all gaga over the beta. That said, there is a major change for casters you should be aware of, and that’s the change from +spell damage/+healing to +spellpower.
Why is it important? Because a little knowledge now might just save you a lot of trouble come release of Wrath; e.g., you just might be better prepared to be a casting god, instead of just a decent caster. Incentive enough? How about if I tell you that you might want to make a few extra Karazhan runs and actually ROLL on all that so-called "off-spec" stuff you keep passing on, because come Wrath time, it’ll be better than your current T5? (Well, it might, or it might not.)
I could go all theory-crafty on you and explain it, but then you’d go all 
and 
at me. Instead, I’ll direct you to my friend and fellow blogger, Siha at Banana Shoulders for the lowdown on what Spellpower is all about. So getouttahere, go read her great explanation. Just don’t forget to come back next week!
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{ 5 comments }
I hadn’t even considered that, Kestrel. I guess it’s a good thing that I’ve started snagging all of that caster DPS gear from Tier 5 and Tier 6 raids; I figured that I had the extra DKP to burn and no one needed it, so it’d be awesome to have some DPS gear if I want it for leveling come Wrath of the Lich King. It’s all precognitive reasoning!
Not having done a lot of research on the matter (glad I’m not the only one not obsessed with the coming expansion!), the one thing that concerns me about the change to Spellpower and the increased use of Spirit by other classes is that I’ll be vying for loot against more people now. It’s bad enough that I sometimes have to fight with druids or shamans or even paladins oddly enough on healing gear, but throwing caster classes into the equation — which might even include Balance druids and Elemental shamans! — scares me to no end. Bah! I hope that it doesn’t turn out that way.
Very good point: I certainly hope we’re not all vying for the same gear. Right now, Priests are the only cloth-wearing healers.
But if I have to roll against mages, shadow priests, and warlocks on every item…that could get ugly. And I mean that in the sense that it’s bad enough when feral druids and rogues want the same piece.
While it seems that more classes will be rolling on the same loot in Wrath, it also stands to reason that there will be fewer pieces of loot dropped by bosses, and thus no ultimate reduction in the rate at which people acquire loot.
In fact, that rate may actually be buffed with the changes. For example, in TBC, a certain instance may drop a high crit/low spirit/DPS item, a low crit/low spirit/DPS item, a low crit/high spirit/DPS item, a high crit/high spirit/DPS item, and maybe a couple healer items (all just in the cloth field). Only a few classes/specs would want each piece, so only a few people rolled on them. However, if the arcane mage piece dropped for a second time after the raid’s only arcane mage already got it, someone would either spend DKP on a subpar item or it would be DE’d.
In WotLK, on the other hand, there will be fewer items to be dropped, so while more people will be rolling on them, the items will also drop more often, and if the same item drops twice and the arcane mage already has the item, then the destro lock can still pick it up and not feel like they’ve gotten a subpar piece for them.
Another excellent point, and very logical. Are you in the beta, and if so, is this borne out by your experience?
I’m not in the beta, so I can’t confirm this. However, I don’t think anyone can, as last I heard, the level cap in the Beta is still 77. However, looking at loot dropped from the 5-player bosses seems to allude to this.
Prince Keleseth is the first boss of the first dungeon. So far, wowhead records he has 3 drops in 100 kills (http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?npc=23953). I think the numbers are kinda weird, and it’s obviously too early in the beta to be able to say for certain that this is all he drops, but note the number of classes that will be rolling on Keleseth’s Blade of Evocation (http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?item=35570): Healery Priests, Shadow Priests, Arcane Mages, and Resto Druids all want it now. Other mages, warlocks, elemental shaman, and warlocks are kinda eh on it. But the second time this drops for your 5-player team, it isn’t getting DE’d or sent to an off-spec player.
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