The end of Arcanite Reaper domination

This taken from a recent Blizzard Post

 

The mechanics of most instant melee attacks will be modified to improve item balance upon the release of patch version 1.8. Currently, instant melee attacks do damage based on the damage range of the weapon, plus a bonus for the player’s attack power. This bonus is then multiplied by the speed of the weapon. As a result, slow weapons do more damage than is intended, and fast weapons are considered inferior by most players. We are changing the way the attack power bonus is calculated for instant attacks. This change will NOT affect attack power calculations for normal melee attacks. Instead of multiplying by the speed of the weapon, the attack power bonus will be multiplied by a fixed number pulled from the following table:

 

Two-handed weapons: 3.3

Daggers: 1.7

All other one-handed weapons: 2.4

 

As a direct result of this, many weapons will shift position in their relative power. In particular, many epic (purple) quality items will now be more powerful than slower superior (blue) weapons. For the purpose of instant attacks, the Arcanite Reaper and the Barman Shanker will drop slightly in relative power, while Typhoon and Alcor’s Sunrazor will increase in power.

 

We expect to see the total damage output of a Mortal Strike warrior go down about 4% with the Arcanite Reaper, and up about 4% with Typhoon. We expect the total damage output of a Backstab rogue to go down about 2% with the Barman Shanker and up about 2% with Alcor’s Sunrazor.

 

This change was not made to reduce the power of instant attacks, but to correct the relative imbalance of weapon itemization. At a given level requirement, epic quality weapons should always be more powerful than superior quality weapons.

 

Please also note that all normal weapon swings will be completely unaffected by this change. The following abilities are affected by the design change: Sinister Strike, Ambush, Backstab, Whirlwind, Mortal Strike, and Overpower.

 

The full thread is here http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.a...p=1#post4981387

There goes my 200mana/s regen witha 1.5 speed sword.

Use the finkle's skinner if you can use daggers...heh...1.3 or 1.2 atk speed...can't remember.

 

As far as that...about damned time. I get reductions on +spell dmg for using instants and faster casting spells.

Well, pallies are the only class that can't use daggers.

I've been using Krol Blade for months and gathering all I could to increase my Attack Power to nearly 800. It's pretty difficult to go above that without MC gear. I had to sacrifice a lot of stats to get so high in AP

As a result I was not as effective a killing machine as a dagger rogue but still could have fun. And I had a sword and dmg average I could be proud of.

 

This patch will result in the equivalent of a 116 Atk points loss (I did the math). That's a 14.5% reduction.

I don't care whether 116 Atk power will make me considerably weaker or not. But keep in mind that an MC Epic ring such as Quick Strike (that made so many guildies drool) is a ....+30 atk.

Honey, I just lost the equivalent of FOUR epic rings.

 

What I really care about is that all those games are about PROGRESSING.

I was already a bit sad because I didn't get any upgrade since early June but now I've just be sent back in time to somewhere around mid april.

Except that back then I still had the hope to move forward.

 

Lot's of things are starting to accumulate...

Damnit I wish they would stop changing us!

There goes my 200mana/s regen witha 1.5 speed sword.  

 

Seige its only affecting instant attacks. And only warriors and rogues will feel this change.

 

It will boot the damage slightly of those of us who use fast 1 handers and use Overpower.

 

While it will lower the damage of come 2handers it will increase the damage of others so that epic items aren't worse then Crafted blues(Arc Reaper)

Just remember, pallies, a 14% decrease in 0 DPS is still 0.

Just remember, pallies, a 14% decrease in 0 DPS is still 0.

 

I'd Laugh if it wasn't so true ....

 

/cry

You can cry on Mammon's shoulder, but you'll have the wipe the dust off first.

yea, but the thing to do now would be to look for weapons that are faster than 3.3, but still have a relatively high damage base.