PTR: Day 2. Mogging, Shaman, Hunter and Mage

Today was the second day at PTR, and I’ve managed to try some new things.

First, they’ve fixed transportation system. So I’ve been able to go to Ashran for mogging vendor and Orgrimmar.

I could give a full review of the new mogging system now.

It’s quite convenient actually. There’s a window of your character not unlike the normal mogging window, but with extra options. You get your collection panel nearby. When you click on ‘head’ for example , you are able to choose the available head options, and so on. Weapons are not currently available for mogging – I think it is because of artifact issues (but they said you could mog over the artifact weapons in Legion).

You can dismiss head, shoulders and cape through the same interface at mogging vendor – you need to choose ’empty’ option from the range of available items.

You can save the looks you like as a collection in the same interface and name it as you wish, so now you can come to mogging vendor, choose the set, and be happy. No, you’re not allowed to do that in the field.

Finally, you can assign a certain set to your specs. For example, you’re questing as retribution paladin and queue to a dungeon as a protection paladin. When you enter the dungeon, the spec will automatically change according to your role and so does the armor mogging. Naturally, when you leave dungeon, you will automatically take off your sweaty tank looks and change to your DPS set again.

I have tested Enhancement Shaman, Marksmanship Hunter and Ice Mage at Garrison dummies.

Ice Mage has lost a bit of depth somehow, with Frostfire bolt gone, and you don’t depend on procs that much anymore. You keep spamming Ice Lance and Frostbolt as you did, you use the talent Nova as a burst on CD, and you have your Orb of Ice. The significant thing is that the Orb is a vital part of rotation now. Its cooldown is very small, so you will find yourself using it very, very often. I don’t think that I like it – it’s an uncontrollable AoE which could make your management of the aggro in the field more dangerous. I prefer precise shots. Thus Ice Mages could find themselves fighting more mobs than they intended to aggro.

Enhancement Shaman has changed significantly. From what we had on our rotation panels – I’ve got only one old spell left. I have placed the new ones on my panel and shuffled them a little. The new system is Maelstrom energy, the builder-spender type. You have one builder ability plus auto-attacks to fill this bar which you then spend on the rest of the things. You have a wide range of spells, and what is important, they are all powerful blows enhanced by elemental energies. It may sound slow and demanding of planning and many thoughts, but it’s not. Enhancement Shaman is an extremely fast and powerful fighter. You never wait for cooldowns, you have a wide range of abilities, and the animations finally let you feel the enhancement vibe. It’s a fury of axe-play, a whirlwind of elements unleashed upon your foes. Earth, frost, lightning, lava blows are all part of your rotation – it never gets old. The animations are probably the best of all classes. Finally no totems you must think of. And DPS is just great, I’ve never seen such numbers compared to the other classes. I may think this would be the coolest melee spec now for me. I’ve enjoyed it very much.

Marksmanship Hunter is kind of tricky now for me. What I liked is that your Aimed Shot is the only ability with casting time left. You now have like 5 shooting spells, and they are all instant cast, even the energy builder ability. I hated having these long, long shots in WoD, a hunter in my opinion must shoot like all the time. There’s a new (old) mechanic of hunter’s mark over the target. I haven’t figured out yet how it works, but it seems that your rotation will largely depend on it. It’s applied by certain shots, which is good, because the previous old version of hunter’s mark felt like a waste of precious seconds. There’s also a range of AoE abilities (almost all the same) and very cool new options for your survivability – how do you like a talent which instantly heals you for 50% of health bar? All in all, Marksmanship feels much faster and more complex and interesting than its WoD version. Me likey.

Finally, in Orgrimmar they gave you a pair of small quests sending you to Broken Shore. At the Orgrimmar harbor you talk to a goblin and queue for scenario. Guess what? Machinima of the leaving fleet is launched, scenario groups are formed, but you can’t do scenario, and you may stay in the harbor trying again and again. Test the introduction event my ass.

I understand it’s PTR, so I’m not worried about disconnects and bugs. But if you invite people to test some things, could they at least be there for test? Test this and that, oh only it’s broken and you can’t test it.

That’s it for tonight!

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