MoP Beta

witless1

Figured its time for a MoP beta thread! Got my invite the other day, installed the client. Got to try out a Monk and saw the new starting area, has that new shiny feel to it. To be fair to Blizzard they always give the new race starting zones a lot of polish. Didn't get far on the Monk quest wise, area was way too crowded and a choke point of about 200 people trying to spam a quest item spawn.

The system won't allow me copy over any of my characters but I managed to get a premade Priest and Warlock copied over. The iLvl is Firelands so around 378. Tried a few quests, usual lark of killing X and collecting Y. The XP jump from 85-86 is what struck me, 10m XP required, done two quests and it jumped half a bar to give you an idea.

I play a shadow priest normally so was stoked to check out the changes, have to say the class feels clunky at the moment to play. Obviously still very early in the beta but now Shadow Orbs are a resource which you use to release Shadowy Apparitions. I like that idea but right now it feels weak, they were hitting for 6k or thereabouts, so around 20k damage for three of them. Felt a lot nicer getting a 3 orb MB crit but at least it gives some control over how we use the apparitions now. Few other changes which are nice is the addition of baseline PVP spells for PVE like Silence / Psychic Horror which are handy for levelling to be fair. Major glyphs are non existent really from what I could see, nothing caught my eye. The change to VE was surprising as it was always a class defining spell, I missed that in the patch notes its now a CD spell, can see the uses for it though from a raiding PoV. Won't get too critical yet though, have to wait and see what changes they bring in, I'm hoping they jig the talent choices somewhat as right now some lines are packed with really strong talents and making a choice is going to be difficult. Suppose other classes can say the same as well.

Also tried a Warlock, the new pets are immense looking and the class (which I haven't played past mid 70s) is really smooth to play. Feels a lot more developed then the shadow priest, hadn't a notion what I was doing with Meta and rotation but I killed mobs a lot faster. The spells felt a lot more powerful even comparing direct damage between the two. Going to copy over an Elemental Shaman tonight to give it a lash tomorrow.

Akarinn

The XP jump from 85-86 is what struck me, 10m XP required, done two quests and it jumped half a bar to give you an idea.

That doesnt seem to be bad to be fair...

Would appreciate if you would keep this thread updated on Shadow Priest info, its great to hear this stuff first hand instead of listening to the same old ppl on mmo-champion.

Cheers

witless1

Righty so, will post my initial thoughts on the shadow priest, bear in mind it was a 15 minute play through!

- Shadowy Apparitions are now push to use, one per orb with a max of 3. Gives a bit of freedom for when you want to use them but it just feels too simple, press and forget job. Would have been nice to use the orbs to empower certain spells like soul shards, Apparitions could be one aspect of it and would really push our mobile DPS up even more. I do like this change in that we have control, but right now they feel very underpowered but it could be tied into how they are generated. I'd prefer to see them hit for bigger numbers or change to be a debuff / boost mechanic for us, as from a PVP perspective no need to avoid them as they only tickle you right now and from a PVE perspective they probably would contribute a small portion of your DPS.

- Mind Blast: Is the sole way of generating Orbs. So every ~20 seconds you will have enough to unleash 3 Apparitions so that's possibly why they feel weak when hitting a target? It still hits for big numbers, possibly 2 or 3 orb numbers from what I can see at a glance.

- DP: This is gone in the current build Rotation just feels clumsy now as all we are managing is 2 DoTs (SWP isn't refreshed by MF but I assume that will change) and MB on CD. Rotation is going to change based on your talent choice as well, its going to be much more reactive.

- We have a talent that procs a debuff allowing SWD hit for 4x its damage regardless of the health of the target. The 4x damage normally comes in for execute range but if you take this, SWD will be a reactive proc within your rotation which is nice and it hits pretty hard, no backlash as well which is nice.

- We also have a talent that procs a buff, allowing you cast Mind Spike instantly and have it not remove your DoTs. So that potentially adds 2x spells to a standard rotation depending on how you spec. Really like this, gives the rotation a dynamic feel to it and good for PVP as well I would imagine.

- The self healing from VT feels weak, 1-2.5k heals per tick. It's probably close enough to what VE gives you on live today but seeing it as one number rather then coming from multiple sources just makes it feel low. The VE raid cooldown is interesting and certainly adds a raid presence for us. Popping wings (not implemented yet!) and this should give nice throughput and help out healers.

- Currently we have no mana regeneration! Took me about 90 seconds to go completely oom after using fiend and dispersion. The mana back from SWD is gone and no replenishment either. Obviously Archangel would have us at a comfortable level if it was working, but SWD losing out the mana back is a blow for multidot fights.

- Tendrils are really interesting and will be a good utility for raiding. Just a shame that in this build Mind Control is on the same line as it WPVP griefing with that spell used to be brilliant!

- We can kite with the 2nd level talent, gives us a speed boost and makes us levitate. Interesting change from PVE and PVP perspective.

- The level 75 talents are way too interesting to have all 3 on the one line. I suppose that is the whole point of the new MoP changes. It's going to make me spec 2x PVE shadow possibly. It gives us an execute ability that is a flat 15% damage increase (been asking for this for years!!) OR we can take Power Infusion which is a nice DPS cooldown OR we can take the SWD proc talent which I mentioned above. I'm sure the latter two options will be theorycrafted out for their DPS gains over a fight and probably will come out close together but a flat increase on all your damage in execute range is too good to pass up. Leveling wise though I took the SWD proc, combined with the MS proc you could blow through mobs.


I did say we felt a bit underpowered overall but when the RNG comes into play you make a mob explode in record time. I have seen way too many bad shadowpriests who can't manage a DoT rotation, throwing in random procs is going to confuse a lot of people. I would expect QQ on the forums and the class could get a bad name but to me I think its a refreshing change. You have to pay a bit more attention and now you have some form of freedom within your rotation. Like you could skip the SWD talent and opt for something else. I think the changes even at an early level are really promising for a 10 man raider. We can now silence and disarm as a baseline which is handy, we can kite, we can control adds and we still have decent mitigation with shadowform and dispersion with a new talent also helping our survivability. All in all it looks to be a good place, I am sure the numbers will work themselves out and the class will be competitive.

Shougeki

Akarinn wrote: »

That doesnt seem to be bad to be fair...

Would appreciate if you would keep this thread updated on Shadow Priest info, its great to hear this stuff first hand instead of listening to the same old ppl on mmo-champion.

Cheers

I havent started playing this one yet, but played the last two betas. At the time the xp gain was much higher so people can level quickly, get a feel, and then try something else.

oxo_

I've had access for a bit but not been that interested in spoiling it for myself really, prefer to wait until release and enjoy levelling up all my toons then.

I did copy a premade Druid a few days ago, just to try out the new travel form (glyphed) as a stag, made party and took it in turns running around with party members on my back. It looks weird but it'll be great in pvp.

There's never been much point to the beta EU side, never any feedback, never any input from the devs at all. Only ever take the EU beta as a chance to get a look in advance at new changes or areas, wouldn't even bother reporting bugs etc.,

Might make a premade paly later in the week to see what's in store Retribution wise.

witless1

Tried my Elemental Shaman this evening and very underwhelmed but Shamans haven't had much work yet, a lot seems to be missing. Have to individually drop totems which is a pain and no real buffs for an individual. The SP buff and mastery buff is only applying in a party so couldn't see that or couldn't see the haste benefit. Totems now feel gimmicky, outside of the mandatory DPS fire totem the other totems are either situational {earth grab / bulwark} or short lived buffs {healing / DPS / AoE dmg} so most of the time you will only have 1 totem active. A minor glyph is in to put dummy totems down to make it look like you have 4 out which is strange!! The three things I noticed, which I liked, is:

- The ability to move your totems which is being asked for since TBC. Not a massive impact now that you only drop maybe 1 totem but no need to run into melee range to drop a magma totem.

- The level 90 talents include a boosted Fire Ele totem with additional abilities and a pet bar. Looks promising because Elemental has been underpowered for two expansions now and the set bonus from Firelands solved the DPS problems by adding 5k or so through the use of that totem alone.

- Unleashed Elements has a use now, it makes the target take a flat % more damage for 12 seconds or so which means its going to be in the rotation.

Despite feeling clumsy with no buffs and totems the class still has the potential to blow up a mob with 2 casts, always enjoyable

Sonics2k

witless1 wrote: »

- The level 90 talents include a boosted Fire Ele totem with additional abilities and a pet bar. Looks promising because Elemental has been underpowered for two expansions now and the set bonus from Firelands solved the DPS problems by adding 5k or so through the use of that totem alone.

I don't want to start anything but, I'm assuming you mean in PvE when you say underpowered :pac:

/ontopic
Downloading the beta now, will be testing my Warrior mainly as Arms, and my Rogue on the side.

Key things I'm looking for is the return of mobility and it's playstyle which I've adored since Classic.

witless1

Sonics2k wrote: »

I don't want to start anything but, I'm assuming you mean in PvE when you say underpowered :pac:

Yeah my experiences are in PVE, I have never dabbled in PVP on my Shaman bar WPVP and going into AB in full PVE gear and blowing people up. A stationary elemental Shaman in PVP is lethal! Haven't done any serious PVP since Season 2 on my priest

From a PVE point of view I raided him as an alt so never seriously. Despite a near perfect rotation the class was just static damage wise, it hit a plateau very quickly. I know meters ain't everything but it was very depressing to have an undergeared player beat you on meters and the bring the player not the class didn't hold through for progression raiding. We never looked for an Ele Shaman in our main 10 man progression raids, the odd time our resto Shaman specced Ele when we only needed 2 healers (with the gear to do it) his contribution was minimal, certainly not enough to warrant a regular slot as a DPS char.

The emergency talent they dropped in to give it some form of scalability and the constant tweaking of the coefficients show they haven't got it right. Even taking the CD off of Chain Lightning is a cheap boost to AoE damage after the disaster that was Earthquake & then Fire Nova. I thought they had a great opportunity with Unleash Elements this expansion & the fire elemental totem but at a guess PVP implications blocked it. I followed the class closely at the last beta and was going to commit to it as a main but serious issues were flagged at beta level about the scale of the class and they weren't addressed before hitting live. I couldn't see a logical reason not to address and implement some of the suggestions {shock lockouts, UE, Fire Ele CD / control, fire totems behaviour, mobility of the class} but it took 3 content patches to sort most of it out in a temp manner.

The level 90 talents are going to address some of the currently weak areas which should see Shamans start the expansion on a level footing. Their new DPS cooldown looks promising as well, no CD on LvB should be interesting for PVE & certainly PVP (which may nerf it ). So yeah, back to looking at choosing a main time, the three classes I have played already all look immense even at an early beta stage.

Sonics2k

witless1 wrote: »

Yeah my experiences are in PVE, I have never dabbled in PVP on my Shaman bar WPVP and going into AB in full PVE gear and blowing people up. A stationary elemental Shaman in PVP is lethal! Haven't done any serious PVP since Season 2 on my priest

Haha, was going to say. Ele is doing insane damage in PvP once again this season, in fact my Warrior just ate a 50k LB to the face!

My beta is downloaded and ready to go now, I don't think I'll be on tonight though as the queue to send my Warrior over looks to take a very long time due to the errors.

I'd roll a Monk, but I'm not so keen on them if I'm totally honest.

TheDoc

Getting unexpected error when trying to install/download the client /mop beta

Annoying.......

Gonzo

TheDoc wrote: »

Getting unexpected error when trying to install/download the client /mop beta

Annoying.......

same here, getting all sorts of fatal errors. really annoying.

tom_ass19

Try running as admin

Update drivers etc

If all else fails boot up in safe mode with networking and install the client

witless1

I had a few problems when downloading and resuming the download later (had to stop it due to lag).

There seems to be a process called Agent.exe which in Task Manager has a description saying it is a Battle.Net Update Agent. For some reason this was stopping the download from progressing, when I killed that and launched the beta again it downloaded smoothly. Happened me three times with that one process causing problems constantly. When you launch the Beta a new version is created of it but from what I can gather its not terminating properly when you stop the download and some form of conflict occurs when you launch it again.

TheDoc

Mine just randomly started working

Friend advised to just keep uninstalling and reinstalling and it eventually works and low and behold

Will have a look through this week

Plan to take the following to MOP

Resto Shaman
Prot paladin
Warlock

I'll provide some feedback on my thoughts

Berns

BTW if wanna make a 85 panda I hadda make a us trial account and copy it from that. Kept getting errors from the normal eu one. Dunno if was cuz made a level 1 one or not.

Aint jumped on it that much tbh since was really laggy

Baneblade

went to train enchanting the other day and it required 500 blacksmith to train.

poped open the help menu and the report a bug option is greyed out.... whats the point with a beta if you cant report bugs

NiallFH

Had a right pain in the arse trying to get the beta, finally got it working and had my warrior copied over.

Largely unimpressive changes, new abilities aren't great and I don't like how they have set up our talent tree's. Taking too many abilities from us ><

Also I used battle shout after placing my talent points and the Beta crashed lol.

Rant Over

witless1

Bumping this. Hoping to get a look back at it this week maybe. Damn Diablo and then sunshine and beer gardens.

Anyone actually progress in the beta have any thoughts on it?

fiinch

after all the fuss waiting to get my beta invite i have completely neglected it. same here - D3 and beer garden taken over haha

NiallFH

Went on again the other day and played about with a pre made monk, they have some really nice abilities. Was playing with the tanking tree and I might roll one as an alt tank in MoP, reckon it will be one of the more enjoyable tanking classes.

Also the Beta seems to be a lot smoother now, keybinds work, not sure about add ons though, didnt try any.

I remember hearing a while back they were aiming for a 30th June release, I dont see that happening but I dont think it will be as late as September/October

Kiith

They'll probably wait till they know the GW2 release date before announcing it.

witless1

Summer is always horrible from a raiding point of view so releasing it at a time when the target market has minimal interest in the game might harm it. I know myself I wouldn't be too keen on buying and subbing if it was a June / July / early August release. I think an early September release would be perfect. Waiting as late as November / December could backfire with GW2 and the big Xmas console games coming out around then.

oxo_

Wow seems more and more being aimed at kids so I wouldn't put it past them releasing it in the school summer holidays rather than September.
Seems too early to me though, not an awful lot in mop that impresses me so far, I'd feel they've a lot more to do before they even think about releasing but hey, money talks these days.
Don't think GW2 will have any impact at all on wow either, so I don't think Blizzard will even bother taking any heed to its release date.

For me anyway the game has been completely destroyed by botters in pvp and Blizzard doing fk all about the problem so the only real fun I got from the game (random pvp) is gone.
Probably the first expansion I won't even bother buying, don't see any point in it when cheating/exploiting is so openly widespread.

Probably spend more time in Rift instead.

Akarinn

Rift..??!! RIFT??!!!!

If your playing that pile of crap then your opinion is invalid and void.

That is all.

oxo_

Akarinn wrote: »

Rift..??!! RIFT??!!!!

If your playing that pile of crap then your opinion is invalid and void.

That is all.

Stool cory brah...

NiallFH

Seen some of the PvP changes planned for MoP.

2 new Battlegrounds, this can go either way really, they have done some good and some horrible in the past.

Ability to inspect people in the arena waiting room (I really do not like this at all, I think it might lead to the more versatile hybrid classes having a much greater advantage over the pure classes)

No new WG or TB instead the boss that is usually there will be an outdoor world boss, this will be amazing for world pvp looking forward to it.

On topic of actual Beta, still can't get my warrior copied over (anyone know a way of getting this going?)

Playing a bit on a premade, one new defensive cooldown which is nice I think it was 100% parry and 20% damage reduction on a 1 minute CD. Awesome as it gives us the change to go defensive without the need to sword and board.

Playing without rend still feels weird, the class is lacking something in rotation, possible I will get used to this with time though.

Shockwave being our new stun for pvp is a downgrade imo, I love Throwdown, its a fantastic ability but I'm guessing their choice to remove it is because they cant fix it so people can trinket it instantly as currently the first 2/3 seconds you are on your arse. AoE on shockwave is nice but its much too easy to dodge.

Mass spell reflect is a nice ability but the cooldown on the normal spell reflect needs to come down to maybe 15 seconds or the shield requirement removed (There was talk of it being removed, not sure if it happened)

oxo_ wrote: »

Wow seems more and more being aimed at kids so I wouldn't put it past them releasing it in the school summer holidays rather than September.

How exactly is it aimed at kids? If you mean casuals then I would have to disagree. Yes, there is easy content, so what? That's great, it allows you to gear up alts faster and keeps the casuals happy. There are still heroic mode raids which are hard especially before all the nerfs are brought in. Also fair enough the pvp isnt balanced but getting 2.2 k rating still isnt 'easy'

oxo_ wrote: »

Probably spend more time in Rift instead.

Each to their own but I did a quick google for 'buy Rift Gold' and there are tons of websites, so even if Rift try to tackle the bots, they are failing (I have never heard of a mass banning of gold selling accounts in Rift, happened in Wow though).

All mmo's are plagued by bots, never seen one yet come up with an effective solution

oxo_

Rift doesn't have botters that last more than 30 minutes lol.
Report a botter and they're perm banned within a few minutes.
GM's are very active and take no bullshït from exploiters of any kind, it's not uncommon to have GMs appearing to everyone in warfronts and banning exploiters or bots. Very rare these days as bots just don't exist in the game anymore.
Get reported multiple times afk in pvp and expect a suspension, happens again, another suspension or perm ban.
Trion take no prisoners when it comes to botters and exploiting, unlike Blizzard who couldn't give a crap. In fact I'd go so far as to suggest botters are permitted in pvp in wow as otherwise there's not enough players if botters were removed.
Wouldn't be surprised actually if some Blizz GMs are involved with the botters tbh, it's that bad.

Buying currency in rift is also pointless, raid/dungeon, pvp and soul ascen currency are what matters, not gold and all that can only be gained yourself.

Anyway, taking it off topic.
I've no interest in buying mop at this stage, even as a casual player myself these days, damn game has been watered down way way too much in order to cater too much to kids and keyboard turning retards.

oxo_

I take your point though about bots and I know what you mean with them being everywhere in other mmo's too.
They just don't stand a chance in Rift because the GM's are active in shutting them down.
Even if you were hacked in Rift, unless your email account was also hacked, the hacker can't sell your stuff or whatever due to being coinlocked.
Simple thing, drove the hackers and gold sellers away in droves.

I'm still subbed to wow for another 6 months or so, don't enjoy it anymore though and can't see any changes mop bringing to change that.

NiallFH

oxo_ wrote: »

Rift doesn't have botters that last more than 30 minutes lol.

Plenty of websites are selling Rift Platinum so they must be having success somehow.

oxo_ wrote: »

Report a botter and they're perm banned within a few minutes.
GM's are very active and take no bullshït

I would give you this, wow GMs are poor, wait times to contact them are slow and you dont see them in game. But I still disagree that there are no bots, if there were no bots there wouldnt be the high level of gold selling sites that exist for it.

oxo_ wrote: »

Get reported multiple times afk in pvp and expect a suspension, happens again, another suspension or perm ban.

Multiple afk votes in wow is now instant kick from a bg, bans and suspensions are a bit much in my opinion in this scenario, you get nowhere being afk as you are kicked and get no honor (it used to be bad as if you engaged in combat while you had the debuff after a vote you stayed in)

oxo_ wrote: »

Wouldn't be surprised actually if some Blizz GMs are involved with the botters tbh, it's that bad.

Your just exagerating now, I do a lot of BGs and I would say there is no more than 1 in 50 players botting.

oxo_ wrote: »

Buying currency in rift is also pointless, raid/dungeon, pvp and soul ascen currency are what matters, not gold and all that can only be gained yourself.

Well wow is the same, you can only get one or two peices for your spec/class that are current teir with gold the rest you need to get yourself, gold is still useful for gems, enchants, potions etc which im assuming Rift has.

I am in no way hating on Rift, I played a bit but I wouldnt drop wow for it, it quite simply isnt as good

oxo_

I can't multiquote with this poxy iPhone on this site, too slow so forgive me if this reply is short, absolute arse this site is for mobiles

Anyway, the instant afk kick in wow was a bug and was abused a lot, far as I know it's been fixed last month, so botters still reign supreme.
Between say 11pm and around 8am, at least 80% of players in BGs in wow are botters, comical at times when you have ten bots following you in as a bot train. I play on Draenor horde side but have played on alliance side too so it was just as bad.

I was playing pvp in rift for months on end when I had the time, never saw a single botter, games are always competitive. If for some reason there's less queueing up for the warfronts, you can get thrown to the opposite faction to kill your own as a merc, ingenious.

Sure, enchants etc will cost plat in rift but at least on the US server I play on, everything is cheap.
Honestly can't see the point in buying plat in rift and I dunno why they bother selling it, seems no point, surely just selling for the sake of doing so.
Actualy wouldn't believe they have much for sale at all, probably go to buy and get a message saying wait for blah blah amount of days while they manually farm for it.
Don't mind hating on Rift either, I play on US servers which are alway high pop anyway, criticism is good, Trion have acted so much on improving the game from player feedback.

Blizzard devs just don't give a crap anymore, pandas ffs

Would love wow to improve, playing since the beginning, I just think they really don't give a feck at all. If the game dies off I don't think they'll care much either. It's becoming more and more a "get as many casual kids playing so I can keep my job" type of company. How about they start sacking shít devs and GMs for a start, get some new blood and ideas in from people who are hungry to improve the game.

One thing Rift has over wow, even when you hit max level, you still can level up your game in others ways, same with the pvp. It doesn't just "end" when you hit max gear level as it does in wow. There just seems very little to aim for these days in wow and that's not changing in mop.

jreynolds1312

good for you that someone invited you to the Beta. excitingly waiting for the release. 4 months more to go....

Akarinn

4months..? Its released in less then a month?