New Secondary Stats

[nefigah 26]

From this tweet it looks like the 5 secondary stat options will be Crit/Haste/Mastery/Readiness/Multistrike.

Supposedly there will be no more haste breakpoints, and supposedly haste will be made useful for all classes.

I'm curious what you experienced folk think of the two new ones, keeping in mind we won't be able to reforge.

I'm fairly dubious, at the moment. Conceptually, assuming similar tuning, I don't see how multistrike is different from crit (other than not being affected by +crit dmg). Random chance at some bonus damage, right? Seems kinda boring/passive, but maybe I'm missing an interaction that makes it more than "another crit".

Readiness I believe is CD reduction, which is certainly going to make it prone to breakpoints and more/less favorable interactions depending on class/spec. Seems hard to balance, and no way to reforge to/from it is kinda scary.

[Orthios 271]

Readiness is cd reduction, which is usefull to classes who rely on CDs, but there will be a lot less CDs in general, so it will have to wait for the ptr/beta to see which abilities are affected which will determine how good of a stat it is. Multi strike is a % chance to deal an additional 33% (subject to change) damage to whoever gets hit, so it is a lot like crit. It will likely take less multi strike to get 1% of it than crit to balance it out.

Edited March 10, 2014 by Orthios

[CptDan 25]

I for one, am all for the "stat" squish and bringing numbers back to a manageable level. One of my personal favorite things to do in the game was the theory crafting, crunching the numbers and figuring out what I can do to be better. I don't like not being able to reforge. I liked the freedom it offered. And the ability to experiment with the rare new builds we could come up with. So don't think i'm QQing just yet, I am just lamenting the passing of the comfortable. I'm sure we'll all find new ways to tinker with things and I will hold out for that :)

[drumsmani 47]

How Multistrike is similar yet different than crit: http://lhiveras-library.com/content/multistrike-and-you

[Kver 65]

I think the removal of reforging will not be felt as harshly as people currently think, due to the removal of hit/expertise and the way in which they intent to change items altogether. I also think that if they succeed in making sure that all secondary stats behave in different ways, but theoretically end up being about equally strong people will get the opportunity to make more conscious decisions about their gear, be more involved in theorycrafting(even if superficially) without the risk of ruining their play.

 

The only stat I am worried about is readiness, but I assume that it will require a lot of rating to stack up properly. Blizzard can easily balance these kinds of things.

[Gupsy 0]

I asked the why for all this new stats on the EU forum, but none answer. The follow up is just speculation on my side, skip it if you are looking for real info on WoD 

 

The fact is none of those new stats add anything in terms of game mechanics. So why they add those? Recap the "news":

 

Multistrike: its a clear duplicate of crit

Versatility: flat heal/damage increase + damage reduction

Bonus Armor: more armor, we already have armor on items, just more

 

Armor slots will swap primary: primary stat on armor will adapt to spec (they want you can use the "same" gear for different spec). I.E. a plate piece with strength for a retribution paladin, will change to int if it swap to holy. The secondaries doesn't change. It means we will have only 4 main categories for armor slot: plate, mail, leather, cloth.

 

Not armor slots (Fingers, neck, back, and trinkets) doesn't swap primary! The Spirit (healer specific) and Bonus Armor (tank specific) secondaries are limited to this slot (but weapon, but probably they are going to give bonus to spell heal or to spell damage, so ti will be the same).  It means we will have 6 main categories for this slot: healer, str tank, agi tank, str dps, agi dps, int dps.

 

And here I arrive at the because: if they didn't add other secondaries to replace the old ones we would have a lot of competition for the same item, especially on the armor slot items.

 

I think Multistrike is there for this purpose only. They will tune some class/spec to love it, while other will love crit. They can boost a worst stat (MS < Crit) with special "proc" on MS hits.

 

I think Versatility will be for PVP oriented gear, and possibly tanks (will be a tank spec viable in PvP? We lose the no-vengeance mechanic too!).

 

If my reasoning is valid I think it can be considered a good news. My biggest concern about those stats is the real pain it can became addressing all the possible multiply soft-cap. As MS and Crit duplicate each other, with MS improved by Crit (if ms hit can Crit) while Crit is unaffected by MS, put in the formula haste and mastery (hoping versatility is pvp/tank only) and optimal gearing can became a real nightmare of micro soft-cap!

 

Some more random thoughts on it

 

It seems a bit odd introducing such a complication just to "solve" such a problem, something you can address much better in a lots of other manners (ie revisiting the "drop" system you can easily address this and the foolish iLev scaling too). But hey, WoW and simple working design is something we had never seen in the past, why should this time be any different? And it adhere perfectly to the "change everything to change nothing" Blizzard's motto too 

 

The main pros I can find for all this is for leveling and the casual players out there. If they can do a fine job in balancing the stats it will be much more easy to dress up, even if sub-optimal, as the "worst" stat is something still useful to anyone. And I think this is a real improvement (if you address the iLev scaling prob too, it isn't manageable having a x4 dps difference on the same tier of content, I really feel embarrassed for the casual I meet in LFR: how can they enjoy a game when doing all "perfect" - from their point of view at least   - you are doing 80-90k dps and the top - maybe the tank - is over 350k?).

 

P.S. pardon me for my English, but if you arrive here probably you did it already 

Edited June 17, 2014 by Gupsy

[Hybrys 199]

Multistrike is definitely a duplicate on Crit, but I'm hoping there will be more interaction with it... Which they seem to be adding.  Things like an Ele Shaman's Fulmination gaining extra stacks from multistrikes.  And for a spec that already has automatic critical strikes, it's interesting.

 

It also has higher value when you have a large number of hits, as you'll most likely see a smoother gain on damage with it, instead of a big swing pull to pull if it procs.

 

Versatility is something that I think you're misjudging.  It's definitely a stat that has value, but it's value isn't in the flat role increase (Damage for Damage, Healing for Healers, Damage Reduc for Tanks), but in it's secondary values.  More damage for tanks, more healing for damage, and more damage for healers.  It's to allow you to gain something for yourself, and for everything else that you can do.  It won't be anyones highest priority, and it won't be something you stack, especially if they do the scaling correctly, but it'll be something that doesn't hurt to have.

 

Bonus Armor is smart.  In MoP, tanks are instead going for DPS stats instead of the traditional Stamina stacking, and in the day and age of double depth health pools (aka WoD) Stamina itself could be seen as too well scaling, or tanks would have to have specific scaling factors for those stats.  That's where Bonus Armor comes in.  Something that feels like a boost, and feels like a reduction in damage.  You'll legitimately see the difference between having that 300 bonus armor and not.  And I think it's very cool, and necessary to involved tank gameplay, instead of 'Stack avoidance', 'Stack haste', or 'Stack mastery'.