It has now been a couple days since the patch 3.0.2 release, and it has definitely made an immediate impact on the WoW community. Big topics that have become popular include: Ret Paladins being OP, Glyphs and the balance from class to class, and gaining exp in battlegrounds. I have been able to experience all of these topics, and there is good reason for them being so talked about.

The obvious and probably biggest concern the community has with this patch release is the Retribution Paladin, their ability to put out great amount of damage constantly and being able to heal effectively when needed. Queuing up for arena at the moment is completely different, in the sense that almost every game, no matter what bracket, will seem to have a Ret Paladin. This just isn’t coincidence, it is fact that Paladins are stronger than they probably should be at this time. With that said, there has already been a recent “hotfix”, with the Divine Storm ability (51 point talent) being nerfed in the way that it is now physical damage, instead of magical damage, so armor/shields will now make a difference. These hotfixes are expected to come more and more before the actual release of Wotlk, but right now, the PvP scene seems to be dominated by Ret Paladins. To be fair however, a big point is that blizzard has stated that these patch changes were meant to be balanced at level 80, which is the max level of the expansion, not level 70. However beta players, including myself at blizzcon, still suggest that Ret Paladins are OP even at level 80. I do not think there is any doubt more “hotfixes” will come prior to Wotlk release, but it is just a matter of how much.

Another big discussion is that on Glyphs, and the effect they will have on PvP and whether or not they seem to be balanced right now from class to class. The inscription profession is a great idea, but with such a big addition to the game, comes the good and the bad as well. Although personally, I have not looked in depth into the Glyphs as a whole, I know there has been discussion on whether or not they are balanced. It will be very interesting to see how this profession plays out come Wotlk and whether or not people will be able to live with them the way they are.

Although not the last discussion the community is having, it certainly is a big one. With the release of Warhammer Online, there were several features that it had that made you wonder why WoW had not implemented them into their own game yet. With that said, WoW has now added experience gain in battlegrounds, along with being able to queue up from anywhere in the near future. A big argument that players have with this however, is that it ruins the twink play in battlegrounds. Basically, twinks are characters that would be at the high end of a certain level bracket, and have the best gear attainable at that level with the best enchants as well. The twink community is a decent size, and it can be fun for any player to create one just to have fun on the side, but with gaining exp in battlegrounds, they will eventually level and ruin the point of a twink. A suggestion that has been thrown around is the ability to turn on and off exp gain in battlegrounds, so a player can choose. We will see if blizzard decides to implement this as well.

Tags: General · Articles

2 Responses to “Big discusions post patch”

1. loquiter Says:
   October 19th, 2008 at 2:29 am

   good read, its nice to see articles back on here. keep it up.

2. Aesop Says:
   October 27th, 2008 at 9:32 am

   good read, I’m pretty sure blizzard didn’t intend for twinks to be in the game at all, so perhaps this is their solution and will give people without high level alts a chance to experience pvp a little bit better.

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