Cataclysm Guide: Statistic Changes

From Twilight Wiki

Time for a Change

Blizzard has decided to simplify in-game statistics on items in an attempt to make it easier for players to pick and choose gear which suits their play styles as well as class and spec. Over the last few expansions, statistics on items has become more complex making it hard for some classes and talent specs to balance the stats that benefit them most. For instance, tanks having to balance defense, hit, expertise, stamina and so on all at once made for difficult upgrade decisions as well as complicated item designs every release of new tier gear.

Statistic Changes

Blizzard intends to stick with 4 basic primary stats for gear, Stamina, Strength, Agility and Intellect. Other stats will make their way onto items, however these 4 will be the primary stats classes will want to focus on for increasing character effectiveness.

• Stamina = With how stats on items will be redistributed in other statistics such as Agility, Intellect, Strength, etc, cloth, leather and mail armor wearers will see an increase in Stamina bringing them closer to the health pools of plate wearers.

• Spirit = Blizzard intends to limit this stat on gear only for healers. This stat will primarily be used for mana regeneration for healers and a new system of regeneration will be in place for DPS casters. Buffs that boost overall stats such as Blessing of Kings will no longer increase Spirit and only work on the primary stats.

• Intellect = This will now provide Spell Power to casters but will also provided less mana than it does pre-Cataclysm to compensate.

• Haste = This will now allow regeneration of things like Energy and Runes to happen more quickly which will make it more beneficial for melee classes.

• Block = Block Rating has been redesigned to scale better and will provide an overall 30% damage reduction on blocked attacks. Increasing your Block Rating will increase your chance to Block attacks though overall block chances in Cataclysm will be comparatively lower than they are pre-Cataclysm.

• Parry = Parry no longer provides a 100% avoidance chance but also no longer increases the time on the next attack so its time as a double-edged sword of a stat is finally over (See: Parry-Haste). Now, when an attack is Parried, that attack and the attack immediately after it will hit for 50% of normal damage if they hit at all (Dodge: 100% avoidance; Parry: 50% avoidance, Block: 30% avoidance.).

• Armor = The damage reduction of Armor isnt changing that much. Bonus Armor will go down slightly in Cataclysm and the damage mitigation between armor types (Mail, Leather, etc) will be adjusted so that all mitigation is closer between them all and plate isnt as significantly more as it is pre-Cataclysm.

• Resilience = This will only affect damage done by players and critical damage done by players. It will not impact crit chance, mana drains, or other such effects or impact damage done by game bosses or creatures.

• Mastery = Please see: Spells, Talents and Glyphs for more information on this stat.

Statistics Being Removed from Items

Some stats currently found on items are going to be removed from items however they will be gained instead from the primary stats mentioned above or from talents and abilities.

• Attack Power = This stat will no longer be present on most items as a flat value, though it will still show up on some process. Strength and Agility, which will be present on items, will grant the appropriate amount of Attack Power (generally 2 Attack Power per point of Strength or Agility) depending upon which stat a particular class favors. In addition, Agility will provide less Crit than it currently does.

• Spell Power = Spell Power is also being removed from most items. Instead, as mentioned above, Intellect will grant Spell Power. One exception is that caster weapons will still have Spell Power to allow weapons to be proportionately more powerful for casters in the same way they are for melee classes.

• Armor Penetration = This is being removed from all items however it will still be present on some talents and abilities.

• Shield Block Value = This stat will no longer be present on items, since the amount blocked is now a 30% flat percentage. Some talents and other effects will however still modify the damage-reduction percentage from 30%.

Statistics Being Removed Completely

These statistics are being done away with in Cataclysm completely. This means they will not be present on gear or find their way in talents or abilities, changing some of the statistic dynamics considerably.

• MP5 = This stat will be removed from the game completely. Holy paladins and Restoration shaman will be redesigned to benefit from Spirit like other current healers do.

• Defense = Defense is being removed from the game entirely. Tanking classes will become uncrittable versus creatures just by shifting into their tanking abilities such as Defensive Stance, Frost Presence, Bear Form, or by using Righteous Fury.

• Weapon Skill = This stat will be removed from the game completely. Classes will start with all the weapon skills they need to know at max level and will not need to improve them. You will no longer be required to visit specific weapons trainers to use different weapons.

• Spell/Ability Ranks = Spell Ranks are no longer in Cataclysm. You will train 1 rank of every spell/ability for your class at the appropriate level it is learned. Once learned it will scale with your level automatically.

Existing Item Changes (Patch 4.0)

With patch 4.0.1, these stat changes will be put in place just before Cataclysm release. Items with existing stats will be adjusted to compensate for these changes and some stat bonuses will be changed to others in place of ones being removed.

Additionally, classes that are using different armor types like warriors using leather or mail armor will likely need to replace those items for ones better suited for their class needs since the stat changes will be specific to the classes those items were primarily designed for.

Tank Gear Changes (non Druid)

• No more Defense on gear. Existing Defense becomes Dodge, Parry, or Block Rating.
• No more Block Value on gear. Existing Block Value becomes Block Rating.
• The Stamina amount on items will remain largely unchanged, though tanking plate may have noticably less Stamina than a comparable piece of DPS plate because Blizzard will take the gem budget out of your most attractive stat.
• Bonus Armor on gear will go down slightly.

Melee DPS Gear Changes (Druid Tanks and Hunters also)

• Stamina values will be increased significantly. Bear-form Stamina scaling will be lowered to compensate for Druids.
• Plate item stats will be converted to Strength. Mail and Leather item stats will be converted to Agility.
• Existing Attack Power becomes Agility and Stamina.
• Armor Penetration becomes Haste or Crit.
• No Intellect on melee gear. Hunters won’t need Intellect since they will no longer use mana. Shaman and Retribution paladins will get mana and spell damage in other ways.

DPS Caster Gear Changes

• More Stamina on items.
• Items with Spell Power will have that stat converted to Intellect and Stamina.
• Spirit will be removed from DPS caster items entirely.

Healer Gear Changes

• More Stamina on items.
• Items with Spell Power will have that stat converted to Intellect and Stamina.
• Items with MP5 will have that stat converted into Spirit. Mana regen is going to matter more than it does currently and Healing paladins and shaman will benefit from Spirit as well.

Balance druids and Elemental shaman

• You will still share gear with Restoration druids and shaman.
• Your gear will still have Spirit on it. It will not have Hit on it.
• You will have a talent that converts Spirit to Hit. We will adjust talents accordingly so that you want about as much Spirit as, say, a warlock wants Hit.
• Hit on rings and other such gear will still benefit you.
• Raid buffs will no longer boost Spirit, so you shouldn’t find yourself unexpectedly over the Hit cap because of buffs.

Gem Changes

Gems will receive similar stat changes where they apply. Also, some gem colors of certain types of gems will be changing, for example: A pure Hit gem is likely going to change to a blue color gem from it's pre-Cataclysm color of yellow.

Other Gear and Items

Many lower-level items with nonsensical combinations of stats, such as Agility and Spirit, will be changed as well. Quest rewards, trade skills, and loot drops are also being updated to support better itemization for class builds that weren't widely available or used prior to The Burning Crusade (such as Balance druids).

Other Stat Related Changes

Combat Ratings

The Rating Caps for Hit, Crit, Expertise and Mastery will be increased with each release of new tier content. This means that the amount of Hit you would need to be effective against later tiered content bosses would be more than earlier tier. This is being done to allow gear to scale without wasting stats or making it too easy to "cap out".

Reforging

Reforging is a new method introduced in Cataclysm which allows you to reduce an undesired stat on an item in exchange for another stat at a cost via a Reforging Master located in the major cities.

Currently, you can reforge an item by reducing the below stats in exchange for increasing or adding another of the below stats:

• Critical Strike Rating
• Dodge Rating
• Expertise Rating
• Haste Rating
• Hit Rating
• Mastery Rating
• Parry Rating
• Spirit

What this does is it takes the stat you choose to decrease and lowers it by 40%. That 40% value is then transfered to a different stat of your choice from the above list.

We have an item with +93 Crit and +53 Haste. We want to exchange the Haste rating for some Hit which currently doesnt reside on the item's list of stats. At the Reforge Master, we select Haste on the left list of stats to reduce. (Shown Top Left)

We then select to add Hit. Since 40% reduction in Haste is "21", we are able to add +21 Hit to the item in its place. In exchange for the new stat, Haste is then reduced by 21 and the new stat of our selection is added. (Shown Right)

If we decided to undo the changes we made at a later time because of changing out other items which provide what we need, we can re-visit the Reforge Master and undo our changes for a cost of course. (Shown Lower Left)

What Reforging Cannot Do

Reforging cannot lower any of the Primary stats on an item (Strength, Stamina, Agility and Intellect). It also cannot add more of a stat that already exists. So if an item has Haste and Crit, you cannot reduce Haste to add more Crit. The Reforged stat needs to be something that isnt already present on the item.

Also, only item level 200 and above items can be reforged.

You can only reforge an item once however there is no limit to how many items you can reforge. If you decide to change how you reforge an item, you have to revert to the original item stats and repeat the process selecting a different stat to add.