Give caster DPS a 4th stat in Cataclysm.

#0 - Nov. 16, 2009, 8:09 p.m.

As we all know by now, in Cataclysm, there will be a gear revamp moving Spirit to exclusively-healer oriented items. As well, Mastery will be introduced as a 3rd universal stat (much like crit and haste) that gives you different benefits depending on your talent point allocation.

However, this poses a difficulty for DPS casters. Already, we're limited to 4 stats from which to choose between on gear: Hit, Crit, Haste, and Spirit. Spellpower, int, and stam are on our gear in relatively inflexible amounts, and the other 4 show up in varying magnitudes, 2 at a time, on all of our gear. The problem is that once we reach the hitcap (which is achievable with only 2-3 pieces of gear in the current tier of content already), we can only choose between 3 stats, and since spirit is generally inferior, caster gear with Crit and Haste on it is nearly always a very good item and desirable by everyone. That's simply how the gear works.

With spirit essentially being replaced by Mastery in Cataclysm, we'll likely have the same woes: One of the 3 stats will be the most inadequate, and gear with the other 2 stats will be very highly sought after by every caster dps spec in the game.

Looking at melee, they have 5 additional DPS stats, consistent between agi and strength classes: Hit, Crit, Haste, Expertise, and ArPen. As such, there's more variety between the gear and getting some balance between the stats is more important. Though I'm fairly certain that at this point nobody actually likes balancing gear around caps (hit or expertise) since every point above the cap is just wasted itemization but it's the best stat below the cap, so balancing it with every gear upgrade can be extremely aggravating. However, I'm not offering a suggestion to fix that here, though I'm sure it would be something myself and a lot of players would be interested in.

What I'm suggesting is to give spell dps another secondary stat on gear around which to balance. I don't know what it could be, or what it could do, I just think it would be a good idea to have a 4th secondary stat so that it doesn't feel like there's such a disparity between Best in Slot (has crit/haste and possibly more sockets on it) gear and substandard gear (crit/spirit, haste/spirit, hit/spirit, anything with hit over the cap).

Oh, and I'm saying this from a Shadow Priest perspective, BTW. I'm not positive that every class works this way, and I know there are some BiS pieces with spirit on them. I'm making generalizations here.

(also, de-homogenize our gear from healers in some way besides regen vs. hit because you not only get every dps caster but healers too fighting over crit/haste gear)

Ghostcrawler

#28 - Nov. 16, 2009, 7:09 p.m.

Q u o t e:
Unless I'm mistaken, the Cata gear stats will break down like this:

Melee: Hit, Crit, Haste, Expertise, Mastery

Ranged: Hit, Crit, Haste, Mastery

Caster: Hit, Crit, Haste, Mastery

Healer: Spirit, Crit, Haste, Mastery

You are not mistaken. Everyone also gets stamina, armor, and their primary stat (Str, Int or Agi). Resilience and Spell Pen will continue to be PvP stats.

This is not set in stone either. Cataclysm isn't finished.

Ghostcrawler

#57 - Nov. 16, 2009, 8:22 p.m.

Q u o t e:
The post you cited left out tanks, which have at least one more stat: block rating, and possibly bonus armor above and beyond the AC value derived by the item level and it's base type.

So we'll have 6 desirable stats to everyone else's 4 (assuming dodge and parry rating cleanly replace crit and haste).

I'm curious to know what will be happening there, particularly regarding block rating, which itself is a stat that only 2 of 3 plate tanks can use.

Tanks will also have block (but not block value), dodge, parry and perhaps armor.

It isn't super important how many stats everyone has. Melee for example need hit and expertise, but casters need more hit. It only gets to be a problem if for example you can't piece together a set that has all the stats you need in the amounts you want. Many tanks for example will happily sacrifice hit and expertise for more armor and stamina.

Ghostcrawler

#58 - Nov. 16, 2009, 8:23 p.m.

Q u o t e:
So, I'm guessing the current plan is to get rid of the Spirit > Other Stat talents completely?

It's too early to tell. It would be nice to get rid of them for say mages and warlocks given that their gear generally won't have Spirit. We can't get rid of conversion talents completely. For example, Enhancement and Retribution will need some way to derive spell power from attack power and need a way to get mana back without Int or Spirit.