Hello,
Question: Since some classes are getting and armor bump at lv 40 ( e.g. Mail>Plate, Leather>Mail), will it be necessary to have a Meta upgraded so it will match the armor bump from the other classes? Thanks!
PS: I will assumed something similar shall happen with Druids too.
What they SHOULD do, and have already started doing, is itemizing some pieces of cloth to be strictly stam/int/spell power, with a green value modofied armor value.
The Befouled Waters gloves are a good example of design going forward (tho hopefully with sp instead of shadow in the future so searing scales also)
In full BFD gear, with raid buffs and meta, you should be able to break 55% easily. More if you go for suboptimal pieces like the clam weaving shirt (an example where they should’ve itemized spirit into spell power) or the book or neck with armor. Meta DR looks fine.
For druids, they get Dire Bear. Dire Bear with an extra 20% from the rune is going to be a crazy mitigation number, plus large dodge and additional armor from agil. Bears will be just fine.
they need a rune called “sacrifice” that adds 20% armor for 20 seconds when you life tap.
Right now my Lock Tank is roughly at 51% physical damage reduction unbuffed.
So I don’t think we need an armor buff at all. Also later on we may have more items with spell power AND additional armor instead of the lackluster Clamweave Tunic. (look at Jagged Bone Necklace and Handwraps of Befouled Water)
I wouldn’t be surprised if we got a gear slot where the runes affect Life Tap either giving more SP or Armor/DMG reduction.
I also hope we get a rune that makes Hellfire become Immolation Aura when in Meta so we can have some decent AoE threat.
Warlocks will be able to get master demonologist at next level cap, which gives a flat 10% physical damage reduction with voidwalker summoned. Should easily keep them on par with other tanks
In raids buffed I have 4K armor about 62% DR, at 40 you’ll have soul link for 30% and 10% physical from voidwalker. The biggest issue with meta at 40 is gonna be threat/dmg, it’s going to be the tankiest tank by a lot and will likely see nerfs actually. Depends entirely on what new ruins they add and how they work out rune slots (adding more, making runes usable on other slots, etc)
Assuming that will be the best build. Could make the argument to go deep Affliction for Siphon Life and improved Drain Life.
And I have a gut feeling we might see a Siphon Life/Ruin build at 60 be the most prevalent.
I have a feeling threat won’t be an issue outside of AoE, and for AoE I have a feeling we will get a rune that makes Hellfire become Immolation Aura while in Metamorphosis.
I did this on the talent calculator and came to a similar conclusion, it just makes meta into a dps, but is gonna be entirely based on how or if they modify caster drops from traditional 60 raids to include armor bonuses, which I’m remembering somewhere they said they won’t do and that “some things just won’t be viable” was the message. In which case deep demo/affy might still be the play without some crazy runes. Also there’s a lot of random or harder to avoid AoE at 60 that will or could kill your void walker leaving you either having to instant resummon or go without soul link. So sac pet/affy might be the go depending on runes/gear. Just a lot of speculation.
To the point of threat, I’m unsure, not having corruption instant might hurt a bit gonna come down to what runes come out.
I mean we could swap out our leg rune for Everlasting Affliction which will refresh the duration of corruption but if it misses you will need to hard cast again.
I do have a feeling next phase we will get 1 or 2 new item slots to have rune on (then 1 more in phase 3 and 1 more in phase 4 for a total of 5-6 active runes).
Pretty sure 9 rune slots has been conformed.
So 2 more each phase from the current starting 3? That sounds pretty solid to me. Gonna be interested in seeing if they create entirely new abilities to fill those slots or return old expansion spells like the rest of the meta lock spells they had in MoP or rogues burst of speed, etc. likely a few modified spells like drain life being a dot.
i suspect that metamorphosis is just immediately equivalent to plate 6x armor is so huge, i would not expect a meta update.
Excellent
I’m wondering if certain slots are going to be themed. Like Bracer Rune slots all being passive to improve an aspect of class gameplay etc. Imagine if Rogues/Feral druids had a rune which made energy regen in real time vs the current tick system.
Fun fact you can also get 57% DR if you grab the Razorhide buff as Horde in Cap Taurajo! Gives you… 700 armor? Kinda really nice.
Right now my biggest issue is threat for all tanks is kinda wonky unless you’re a shaman or warrior.
That’ll change when we get access to most of our kits.