I have the (PvP) Power!

Ghostcrawler post:

Resilience

• We are renaming this stat to “Defense (PvP)” or possibly “PvP Defense.” All players will have 30% base Defense, the same way all characters have some base Stamina.
• PvP gear will have Defense on it, as well as a new stat, “Power (PvP).” Power increases the damage you do to other players as well as the healing you do to other players in PvP situations.
• If you have a lot of Power, you’ll do more damage to other players, but they likely have Defense as well. If you fight players in lots of PvE gear, they’ll take more damage. Likewise, a player in PvE gear won’t have enough Power to effectively penetrate your Defense.
• The names PvP Power and PvP Defense may not be final, but we’re leaning towards going with stat names that are obviously PvP-related, rather than “fluffier” names that might not be as easy to grasp. We want it to be clear to players that neither Power nor Defense have any relevance when fighting creatures, such as in dungeons or raids.
• PvP gear will be lower in item level than PvE gear of an equivalent tier, however the Power and Defense stats will make sure that PvP gear is more powerful in PvP (both offensively and defensively) than PvE gear. In our budgeting system, the PvP stats will be free rather than causing other stats, such as Strength or haste, to be smaller as a result of including Power or Defense.
• The goal of this change is to make it easier for a PvP player to participate in PvE, or for a PvE player to get started in PvP. Currently, we feel it is too large a barrier to go from one to the other, and the result has been that we see more and more players choosing to focus exclusively on only PvP or PvE. In earlier expansions, it was more feasible to use PvE gear in Arenas or Battlegrounds until you acquired the more useful PvP gear. The same was true of being able to use your PvP gear in a dungeon or raid until you acquired something better. In Cataclysm, stepping into PvP with no PvP gear would result in a player being so ineffective that it was difficult to even make progress towards acquiring PvP gear.
•    For the higher-end of PvP or PvE (say Gladiators or heroic raiders), we believe those players will still gravitate towards the dedicated PvP or PvE gear. It is the players who are working towards those two end games that will benefit more from some cross over.

So after some Blue post clarification of all of this here is what I came out as a sample of what this might mean:

First note that every player will have a base PvP Defense of lets say +30 PvP Defense. This allows every player to be able to get into PvP with at least a little bit of damage reduction.

Ring of PvE (ilvl 300) - From Justice Points
+100 Stamina
+100 Intellect
+100 Hit

Ring of PvP (ilvl 270) - From Honor Points
+100 Stamina
+85 Intellect
+85 Hit
+15 PvP Power
+15 PvP Defense

Ring of Awesome PvE (ilvl 360) - From Valor Points
+120 Stamina
+120 Intellect
+120 Hit

Ring of Awesome PvP (ilvl 300) - From Conquest Points
+100 Stamina
+100 Intellect
+100 Hit
+20 PvP Power
+20 PvP Defense

Lets first look at these items from a PvP players perspective. Just starting out you have a choice between the Honor point ring and the Justice point ring. For PvP I am going to want to use the Honor Ring because this give me +15 PvP Defense, but because this item also has +15 PvP power, I will still be doing the same amount of damage to other players as a person who would be wearing the Justice point ring.

Now lets say my PvP player wants to go do PvE content. He is a good arena player and has bought the Conquest point ring. Because this ring has the same ilvl as the Justice point ring he will not feel underpowered when it comes to starting PvE content and will be able to que for beginning level PvE. But if he really wants to dish out the PvE damage he is going to want to get the valor point ring as this does more damage and is a higher ilvl than his current gear.

Now lets look at the PvE player. Starting out I’ll want to get the Justice point ring as this has more intellect than the PvP ring. Also the ilvl is higher so I will be able to get into higher level content faster.

But now my PvE player wants to do some PvP. He is a bleeding edge raider so he has already obtained the Conquest Point ring. Because his ilvl is higher he will be able to do the same amount of damage as a PvP geared player. But because he does not have that Conquest PvP gear he will be at a disadvantage to the PvP player who has that added damage reduction.

I am thinking that this new way of doing stats is going to work. The tough part though is going to be getting people use to the idea of PvP power and PvP Defense and making it clear to new people to the game. It’s going to be a little confusing at first but in the end I think it will lower that gap between the PvE player and the PvP player.

Affliction Spec List

Here is a combined photo of the Spells for the Affliction spec. I just wanted to see what it was like all put together.

Warlock Talents - Level 60

Here is a look at the talents for Level 60. This tier is about sacrificing health in order to gain a buff on something else.




Blood Fear

Comments: I feel that this spell is very strong. Having an instant cast Fear will be nice to have and I think the health cost is worth having fear be instant cast.

In PvP, this spell will be very strong. The cost of the spell will not put you too far behind on your health. It also will work well as an interrupt. Being able to instant cast this on a healer will help in interrupting that cast and giving you time until your pets spell lock is up. You could almost consider this a reverse Death Coil where you take damage rather than get healed.

In PvE, there might not be as much use for this spell. I can see using it in dungeons but other than that this spell will not have much use. Generally in PvE you have time to cast Fear.




Burning Rush

Comments: This spell is interesting in that it gives you a sprint but at the cost of your health. My hope is that with this spell on your bars you will be able to cancel the effect after you activate it rather than having to create a stop casting macro or right-click the buff off. I am also curious to see if there will be a cooldown associated with the spell.

In PvP, this spell has some use. Using this spell might allow you to do a lot of kiting or allow you to get away from someone if you needed to. I could see a warlock using this spell along with the Level 90 - Kil’jaeden’s Cunning and doing a lot of damage as they kited a melee player. I am curious how well using this spell along with Drain Life would work to counter the health lost.

In PvE, there are some good uses for this on fights where you need to be able to move quickly. In Dragon Soul I could see using this spell on Yor’shaj to get to bloods faster and on Warmaster Blackhorn to get out of his AoE Cone effect faster.




Unbound Will

Comments: Almost like having a trinket, this spell is interesting. The health cost seems a little too much to me. I would like to see the cooldown increased and maybe have the health cost reduced a bit. I would be curious to see if this shared a cooldown with the PvP Trinket.

In PvP, this spell could be a little counter-productive. Usually if you are under the effects of any of these spells, you are also taking damage and being focused on. Costing 25% of your health I feel is too much a sacrifice to have an “extra trinket”. I would like to see this at most 20% of maximum health.

In PvE, this spell I do not feel with be very good. There are not a lot of fights where you are going to be under any of these effects. If there is a fight where there is a magic effect on you or you are rooted, then it will likely be up to the healers to get us out of it. I think the healers would rather dispell us then have to heal 25% of your health.


My Choices:

Unfortunately I do not think this tier is very strong. The spells in this tier are very situational so they more than likely will not get much use.

For PvP I will probably go with Blood Fear. I think that having an instant cast fear will be very strong and worth the 10% health cost. I might test out Burning Rush a bit and see if having a sprint to kite will be worthwhile.

For PvE, I will go with Burning Rush. Having a movement speed cooldown will be the most worthwhile in PvE. The other two spells I feel just would not get used in PvE and thus they are not worth taking.