Stats Changes in WoW Cataclysm
Written by WoW Cataclysm.
In World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, statistics will see a major change. Some people call it dumbing down the game, others call it streamlining the stats.
Blizzard want to remove all unnecessary stats, make all existing stats understandable, and make all “core” stats more appealing. It has been a rocky journey for stats in World of Warcraft. The first expansion brought new stats and totally changed the way previous stats worked. Stats such as hit % and crit % were changed to scalable stats such as crit rating and hit rating. On top of this spells such as haste rating, armor penetration rating, and spell power ratings were introduced.
Now Blizzard has decided to change things, and in WoW Cataclysm stats will see a revert back to the simple days.
Here are some examples of such plans.
• WoW Cataclysm MP5: This will be removed from items and replaced with Spirit. All healers will be given a meditation-like ability to compensate.
• WoW Cataclysm Spell Power: Spell Power is being removed from items as well. Don’t panic, Intellect will be improved so that it provides mana and Spell Power at the same time.
• Attack Power in WoW Cataclysm: Attack Power is also being removed from items . Instead, Agility will provide the necessary Attack Power for leather and mail wearers.
• Strength will provide the appropriate amount of Attack Power for plate wearers. This means leather and mail items will no longer be desirable for plate wearers in WoW Cataclysm.
•World of Warcraft Cataclysm Defense: The Defense statistic is also being removed from items so that players no longer have to stress about juggling around “the cap.” Tanks will receive the required anti-crit from talents and skills, like Survival of the Fittest.
• Armor Penetration Change: This ability is too confusing and “mathy.” It is being replaced with Mastery, a stat that makes you better at what you do. Mastery in WoW Cataclysm is also applicable to other talents and skills and for other classes.
• Haste: Will increase the rate at which you gain energy, runes, and focus – this is definitely huge! Retribution paladins and Enhancement shaman will have a talent that allows them to take advantage of this benefit – probably to make up for their intelligence and mana.
• Stamina Changes in Cataclysm: Players will notice more Stamina on gear as Defense, Spell Power, Attack Power and Armor Penetration are removed. This sounds like the stamina increase at the beginning of WoW Burning Crusade.
As you can see there are major stat changes in WoW Cataclysm ahead.
59 Comments so far
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FIRST!
I can’t believe Defense is going! It’s the end of an era for Warriors!
lame…. so now they are making it so that people wont have to learn how to play their class, or how to itemize their gear. Thanks for fixing something that wasnt broke. If you’re not smart enough to look on forums and read class guides then you shouldnt worry about qqing about not being able to get decent raiding gear.
Damn, warriors are gone for, for sure…
effing shit
A good way to make the game a button masher. Thanks Blizz for making any stragegic decision about gear completely irrelevent. As for warriors being gone, no way! Now get good plate with strength and stam and you can do both the tank and dps role.
For those of you qqing about the stat changes: wow is a game. One shouldn’t have to spend hours on end looking in the forums and scrolling through class guides in order to compete with the rest of the community. The stat changes allow players to play the game without solving complex mathematical equations. I understand you’re afraid of bad players competing on the same level as dedicated players, but people who can’t play the game will still be bad. Stats aren’t everything, if you don’t know when to cast a spell or set off a cooldown, etc, then no amount of stat changes will help you.
…what he said ^^
Sigh definitely has the best point on this forum. A frickin straight to that my friend.
WoW is a game and not a second job. Enough said.
I take it that the people that are for simplifying the stats are the ones who keep getting pwn’d in BGs and kicked out of raids. The mechanics of the game have never been that hard. I mean the math level to calculate it is algebra. You have to learn that to get past 8th grade.
so…
it’s a game for retards now?
i thought retards were in the part of the population which you try and avoid catering for.
Blizzard is dumbing down the game. It makes it far more appealing for people that way, and makes them want to continuosly pump money into their bank accounts. Everyone bitching about the game becoming “retarded”- they aren’t going to stop playing.
It’s a simple marketing strategy on Blizzard’s part, one that’s been successful ever since patches in Burning Crusade. It’s a pattern they’ll keep following as long as it makes the game more appealing and keeps their wallets thick.
Although I enjoy the challenge of creating formulas on Excel Spreadsheets, that is my job and I really dont want to work while I’m playing. I’m sure it wont get so dumb as to eliminate my excel work. Look at it like part of the game to adapt to the change. We should get achievement points for flexibility.
Just pointing this out. As far as stat changes go for tanking. No, you can’t take high STR and STA gear for a Warrior and go DPS and TANK with it. You need to still stack Dodge and Parry and the remaining stats. It only says that it’s removing the DEF Rating on gear from the game. You get DEF capped through speccing properly. That doesn’t make you a tank though…I figure you all would have known that. If you go tank with Cataclysm in gear with high STR and STA and no tanking stats, then I pray you never find a group.
You kids complaining about Blizzard “dumbing down” the game with stat simplification obviously didn’t play vanilla WoW. In original WoW, when there were no such things as spellpower (until close to BC), haste rating, defense rating, or armor pen, the game was still challenging and fun. People just didn’t have to spend hours and hours preparing stats rather than playing the game itself. If you remember (which you don’t, because you stat QQers started in the uninspired and needlessly stat-filled world of BC), BWL and Naxx 40 were extremely difficult, and people needed to know their classes to succeed. I welcome the Cataclysm changes.
While we’re on topic, remove resilience too. Talk about a stat that broke the game.
Naxx 40 was the bomb. Hard hard hard. Not sure which was harder though, BWL or Naxx 40. It seem BWL was harder boss fights, and Naxx was full of incompetent players, but the server I play on is kind of “meh”.
Also, I completely agree. Resilience ruined PvE because people think they can raid with Res stacked gear, it ruined PvP because a Res stacked player will dominate a PvE geared player, it just completely ruined the game.
Well its the end of personalizing ur toons. Good Job Blizzard fail agian
The stat system was garbage, especially for shamans. You should NOT have to put things through simulators/algorithms just to determine what a better piece of gear is for you.
Slab, your stats don’t define your character. Your talent tree does, which defines the stats you choose (or what you are supposed to choose). By simplifying it they can take focus off of gearing (which is unfun and tedious) and put it onto learning mechanics, actually PLAYING the game (A NOVEL CONCEPT).
Bring on the stat change. Roll back the WoW years. God knows it needs it.
bring back the pre-bc wow please! this is insane
this is seriously crap
yo’s will this destroy my boomkin/feral druid???
THIS STATCHANGE WILL BE SO AWSOME!!!!!!!! variation is the shit lads, stop beeing qq about it! LEARN TO LIVE WITH IT!!!!! WAHAHAHAHAHA MUAHHAHAH
omg are you kidding me? i thought they just cant make it easier, i guess how many armor types there will be when there will be just like 5 stats left,no mp5,defense and this stuff. i am really curious about it and i cant believe they really dont understand that the way it is now is good an do not need upgrading, or i should rather say downgrading.! its f***** up.
omg..the end of tanks…
Roll it back to pre BC and blizzard will bring back even more players.
Anyone care to comment on how the new stat system will affect lower lvl items. aka; int adding spell dmg and spirit adding healing. Will blizz add new items to lower levels? the’ve said they wana improve their starting zones because of warhammer and aion.
Well just wow..
“Some people call it dumbing down the game, others call it streamlining the stats.”
I would say combining many different types of stat into one is indisputably dumbing down a game. i do agree that you still need to know your class to pull off a lot of raid bosses.. however this takes ANY numbercrunching out of WoW which has taken a lot of effort for many players to learn about.
one word: simplified.
i will be ending my subscription very soon as will many of my friends and guild.
for those of you who like these changes, good for you. have fun.
I was there for vanilla, I liked it.
I was there for BC, I enjoyed the variation and increase in itemization difficulty.
I am here for WOTLK. Still enjoying the difficulty (if you could really call it difficult)
But seriously? Mastery….it just makes you better. This is gonna amuse me for hours.
totally agreed konglor, as a pally i stack sp and mp5 cuz i don’t prefer intel with this new shit i no matter what have to stack intel like every other fail pally in the world that stacks one stat cuz they can’t figure anything out.
and you guys crying about resilience, do you think a pve geared person should be able to kill a pvp geared person? the emphasis on player vs player….. its meant to help with that stuff, you guys are dumbasses, just like a pvp geared person can’t pull the dps of a pve geared person….
subscription retired once this comes out.
i just think wow cataclysm is just awsome in so many ways especially th worgen and the dwarf shamman
this is so funny for me! i have never seen so many people get in such an uproar about a game.
i got a suggestion, take a shower, go out side and at least see day light once a week, and get a job
You people need to stop complaining…you say its dumbing down the game but then complain that it destroys tanking…what you’re really saying is “omg i wont be OP compared to everyone else anymore”….maybe some of us actually have a life and dont want to spend hours on the stupid forums or doing rocket science for a game…let me say that again…a GAME….i pay the subscription to play, not do calculations….if you like that aspect so much you can shut up and get started on my math homework…
Yea, Ima Holy/Shadow Priest Main Holy, This is so fucking lame Spell Power gone? wow wtf does that leave a caster? So yea this game will eventualy be for 5 year olds, i like a challanging game, something that keeps the people who actauly are old enough to make money to pay for this game. Its going to be so fucking easy that you stack 2 things in everyclass and Bamm ur good to go, everyone gears and the game is lame. Im gonna quit. Anyone got a recommendation to a more interesting game? (not for 5-12 yr olds)
The only thing im glad for is Resil, that ruined PvP
this is dumb right when i learn how to play my toon and figure out all the stuff they make an extreme change and leaving me all confused. They shuld just leave it like it is, and do what they did in BC and LK.
If you don’t want to put the effort in, fine
But you can’t expect the same rewards.
Get a fucking reality check.
My opinion on the matter can be described as follows:
Imagine you’re building a puzzle. You’ve been building this puzzle for a long time time now, you’ve invested a lot of your own free time and effort into figuring out what pieces go where and when you finally get some of the pictures done it’s great. You feel you’ve deserved it.
Over time, new people come along and want to help and play too. Start their own puzzle. Great
More people to talk to and get involved with!
However, some of these people are impatient, some claim that it’s not fair that they don’t have the same amount of time to invest that you did and that because of this, you shouldn’t be able to be further in the puzzle than them.
In order to rectify the situation, the puzzle maker decides to change the picture. Something simpler, and gives everyone an even footing to a lesser goal.
Well, ok, works out fine for people who weren’t here before you. The one’s who will be ignorant to effort time and satisfaction you got from your puzzle.
But you can’t help feeling like the spoilt child got their way. The one who cried loudest and longest won. Like the company simply gave up and gave in.
You feel like you’ve lost what you really loved about your puzzle. It’s not the same anymore. It’s not what you originally liked.
You’ve had all the time you invested robbed.
You’re perfectly acceptable to be annoyed by this.
I personally like the stat change, people seem to complain that the gear will be made worthless but they never said anything about making the item levels lack any more value. So you have an epic piece that gives you hella mp5 well now it will give you hella spirit. You will still beat others who have crap gear, you just won’t have to know what all the different stats due. Everyone is focusing on the wrong thing. They are completely redoing the Trees and adding in the path of the titans to add in even more versatility.
Either way everyone is getting mad about their gear becoming worthless and that the game is being dumbed down and now anyone can play is stupid is wrong, you still have to know your character and with the sound of it they are going to be making that harder, and you still have to raid and pvp well to get the good gear to make your character successful. As to those who are already quitting before the changes even come out, that’s just ignorant for all you know the new set up may make the game more challenging why not wait and see before dropping these characters that I am sure you spent a lot of time making.
Either way everyone is getting mad about their gear becoming worthless and that the game is being dumbed down and now anyone can play is stupid is wrong, you still have to know your character and with the sound of it they are going to be making that harder, and you still have to raid and pvp well to get the good gear to make your character successful. As to those who are already quiting before the changes even come out, thats just ignorant for all you know the new set up may make the game more challenging why not wait and see before dropping these characters that I am sure you spent alot of time making.
I look at it this way.
It allows people like me who only get to play a little at a time the chance to enjoy the game when they reach level cap.
I hit 80 and it’s been several months and I still haven’t gotten a great tank/DPS set because I just don’t have the time to dedicate my whole day sweating over a keyboard and a donut just so I can get a couple of pieces of armour every two months.
I really want to play the game, I’m at 80 and I just want to enjoy it. I’d like to go do stuff with my guildies but instead I’m too low one stat out of 4-5 to do anything with them. Problem is PUGging is just as hard with the stats.
I’m not for making the game ez-mode but you have to admit, compared to a lot of other MMO’s WoW is comically dumbed down as is. They have to supply a game that 11.5 million subscribers can all play.
All these stats change do is make it so more people can enjoy the current endgame content. That’s not so bad I think.
^Amen Urgh, amen…
My main issue with WoW since WotLK is that Blizzard has completely destroyed the challenge of tanking and has turned tanking into a series of twitch moves that rely more on fast button mashing than on in depth thought before ever setting foot in a dungeon. Most of those who complain about the difficulty of calculating stats are people who typically DPS and now want to tank instead, but they do not want to invest the time to be tank.
I remember spending 3 weeks in BC after reaching the level cap just to farm the gear needed to do my first raid. Some would say that such a system is inefficient and too time consuming, but I felt much more accomplished BECAUSE of the work I put into my class. In WotLK, I was tanking heroics and Naxx the day I hit 80, which was rather disappointing; I quit shortly thereafter.
I quit playing WoW because I got fed up with how easy it became for anyone to tank whenever they felt like it. I worked hard and invested years into my character to get the gear, stats, and knowledge necessary to be a good tank and now a bunch of new players who just rolled their toon two weeks ago, are tanking along side me in end game raids?! No thank you Blizzard, I have taken my business elsewhere and I urge others to do the same.
I agree with both sides to be honest. However, the reasoning behind being for this change is rediculous. None of the reasons are accurate.
As far as not wanting to do math and equations, their are sites that break that down for you and explain it in a way a 3 year old could understand,
After leveling 3 toons, I was done, but wanted a mage. So.. I bought one. I knew nothing about it, yet 30 min, of reading on elitest Jerks and a few other sites. it didnt make a difference. It was like I’d been playin her for years. Nothing in this game is hard or time consuming, True, Leveling does totally blow donkey balls, but once your level capped, the load lightens.
The problem is everyone wants instant gratification. they want to raid for 2 weeks and be in the highest item level gear, and anyone who is too lazy to read for 30 min a day, well.. wow!
This change is going to cost bliz as much as they are going to make, loose thousands gain thousands… Whats the point?
People have delt with alot, from a personal viewpoint (and totally exagerated ofcourse) This game is like a first love, (First online game I ever played, 3 years ago) Its the one you compare everyother one to. However, ALOT of people are getting to the point where some of this is just too much. people were ver dissapointed with WOTLK, but fought through the dissapointment, one more major dissapointment (cataclysm) and people are going to start droping like fly’s. probably faster than blizz can recruit new players to replace them.
Its hard to say if cataclysm will be the final straw, but this game is killing itself. Blizz always said they hoped they were the ones to make the ” WoW Killer” and judging by the direction things are heading, its safe to assume they very well may. only not the way they’d intended. But to each his owne, but this is nolonger the girl I loved, but the woman I never knew lol
Idk why blizz is taking sp,ap,etc….. why not leave it like that? why stack int for sp… thats completly stupid…blizz is making human hunters… fail… they just whant ppl to change thre race on there site for more money, btw im sure ppl will quit cuse of your stupid ideas, Im probly 1 of them idk whats the point this is like playing a 3 year old game stacking all the stats like others… int int stam stam..?????? making low lvls quest in outland rofl thats uber wierd… WORST PART OF THIS IS there making hunters have focus???? so hunters will need to stack haste for regenertion of there focus to come back and they will hit like feathers… thats nerfing hunters badly.. paladin tauren… 5% more stam.. on a paladin that is already OVERPOWERED……. THATS STUPID.. RET TAUREN SERIOUSLY… rofl this is like playing a 5 year old game… ppl like 16+ wont wanna play… Fail maor blizz. stupid changes lawl
Oh, yeah, if wow kills itself much more they’ll be up to how many million subscribers?
And what about all these guys making out like they were here figuring out all the ins and outs and math of the game? Like they didn’t look up the info and download the mods like everyone else? In search of the elusive uber.
Complaining about button mashing? Like the way the math was set up before allowed for alot of tactical variation?
It looks to me like streamlining the math might actually allow for broader options… so I think people are scared they wont be able to go to a site and find out what gems and enchants they need to ‘pwn’.
Freaking goobers have been bitching with half-assed ideas of what they’re talking about since everquest days… they’re still bitching and still don’t have a clue.
So. Basically its going like this. I myself am a vanilla wow veteran. And yes.. being badass in vanialla wow took work.. like WORK. Then BC came. Things got a little bit easier. Then Wrath came.. things got even a little bit easier….. and? So cataclysm comes. things get even easier. So this means you dont have to spend 90868947569287645 hours to make your character pwn. So..maybe this is blizzards way of telling some of you idiots to get a life other than wow.
This will make the game easier for newer players..and yes will probably piss us veteran players off. Buts thats only because your jealous of newer players who have an easy ride. And THATS whats going to stop you from playing the game youve invested like..your LIFE in? Thats pretty retarded. I hope you feel good about all the years you wasted…because things are easier for noobs.
So now you wont be able to tell weither someone is a noob from inspecting. Wow, thats just great! -.-’
I dont understand the part ” I hope you feel good about all the years you wasted”? If you enjoy to do something you surely havnt waisted your time, Wow is a game after all not a job, at least I doesnt get paid to play it.
About the changes in stat system im quite negative. I like figuring out what gives me the optimal gear, geming , enchanting etc. I will ofcouse try out then new expansion, but if i dont like it I will probable stop playing Wow and swith to and other game, like many other plays. But for now I will wait and see.
you will all be playing the day the expansion comes out.
None of the complaints make sense. The game will still be all about spending 1000 hours in a dungeon to get better gear , so you can stoke your nerdy egos and brag to other people about how you have no life. The new green gear will have 100 int and the purple will have 150 int. So the epics will still be better than greens and you will still need to spend all your free time raiding to get the latest set. Some noob won’t come in and destroy your precious ego.
You all sound like the same people that quit every patch only to come back and play the next month.
Valid arguments on both sides; however, the dedicated players who spend the hours doing their calculations haven’t spent enough time researching the expansion. They may have simplified stats, but taking all the other changes of the game into consideration, customization will be so much of a bigger and significant aspect to the game than it already is.
In my personal experience, a lot of the elites in this game know which gear is the best, and as a result they all end up with the same gear. So Blizzard is taking a different angle on the whole customization aspect of the game with the whole path of the titans, archaeology profession, the extra glyphs, and ect.
Personally, I think Blizzard is aware of all of the concerns of *everybody*, and overall is bringing a purely genius response to the table with Cataclysm. And yet, even with the fact that all the best players know about the best drops of gear from this boss and that boss and ultimately end up geared very similarly (resulting in the illusion that they’ve calculated for the best gear when ultimately they achieve the same sets), plenty of calculations will remain for the other aspects of customization. Blizzard is delivering a product that will make your toon even more specific to your dream character.
Thank you, Blizzard. I look forward to renewing my subscription when this comes out.
Sorry!
I overlooked jewls and enchantments in my previous post, but I still think the argument is pretty valid.
TBH, I agree with that Urgh fellow.
However hopefully blizzard will successfully circumnavigate homogenization and add new variety to specs/gear, If so ill keep my sub going
I love the fact that I won’t have to spend time making some spreadsheet! The fact that people make spreadsheets tells me two things, they like math, or they are that nuts.
I don’t care if they nerf the crud out of this game, the fact is I won’t play anything that keeps the boring content of kill X mobs and filler junk quests like that in the game. For me its not about being the best, I only paid to feel heroic and excited about a story. They need more story, and that’s what they are hopefully doing for players.
I find people who do spreadsheets and require applications to guilds sad and i feel sorry for you.
even the original poster describes this as a contrast between ‘dumbing down’ and ’streamlining’.
I don’t think that was ever the issue here. the game has been dumbed down beyond belief, I found myself agreeing with Lidyan who talked about players wanting instant gratification. If that’s what players want, that is what Blizzard will provide.
I would strongly advise against expecting Cataclysm to provide new depth and harder challenges.
Personally I kinda dislike these new stat changes. I always liked the midpoint of an expansion, where everyone is wearing very different kit because of the stats they need and what has dropped. Cataclysm, plus the new practice of having hundreds of vendored epix, may well see an end to that.
But that’s just my opinion, it’s worth as little as every other opinion touted as fact in this discussion.
If they want to take something out of the game that ruined a huge aspect of it they need to take resilience out 100%
When I started playing back just before TBC came out I wanted the game to be simpler; easier to understand. But after a few weeks of playing and doing research on my class I realized that the learning curve is a good thing: if you’re smart and resourceful, you are rewarded. This was changed somewhat in WOTLK with the faceroll effect, but it seems to be completely the end of strategy in WoW with cataclysm.
My memory is pretty horrible, but I’ve been playing since 2005 and iirc, stats weren’t the way they are now. They were more Cataclysm-style. I don’t remember things like arpen, hit, haste, etc. We had your base stats, maybe defense and block…parry? They really were rather basic. It seems to me like this whole expansion is heading more towards the original formula. I mean, we’re even being thrown back into Azeroth instead of some alien planet. If the basics are what brought me to and kept me in this game, then I’m fine with that. Besides, there are still going to be changes to the talent trees and other aspects of Cataclysm. Our current stats aren’t disappearing, they’re changing. Who knows, you all may end up liking the new system. Can’t really knock it til you try it.
I Welcome cataclysm stats,why? because in all mmorpg use this similar stats for example (intelligence give more damage on spellcaster,strenght on melee dps, & about the tank i read also that dodge and parry also remove not sure were i read it) but still ok because u depends more in heavy plates + Talents for build up the defense (reducing damage ect) like others games, maybe for u, dont like the idea but for me its ok , i respects ur opinion but again, this will make ppl understand more easy the stats mechanics and not worried about all math calculation
Definitely have to agree with folks that this is a good thing. For people that say it’s dumbing down: the stats weren’t necessary in the first place.
Blizzard is showing it can incorporate what the extra stats did in the majour ones. RPG is based off 5-6 majour stats.
Yes this will make it easier to understand for new folks, but for older folks as well. Simple does not always necessarily equal dumb.
The funniest part about this thread is all the people saying that they’re cancelling their subscriptions based on the changes made. I can guarantee you that not one person stops playing WoW solely because of a slight change to the statistical mechanics of the game. It’s laughable to even think of.