Blizzard confirmed for BlizzCon 2010

Blizzard recently confirmed via a post on their official site that Jay Mohr will be hosting BlizzCon 2010 in Anaheim, California October 22nd and 23rd (we originally reported this via Jay's quickly deleted tweet back in February).

Tickets go on sale for the event on June 2nd and June 5th for about as long as it takes to punt a gnome across the road. But if you don't get tickets, you can still catch Jay (and all the other glories that are BlizzCon) via the live internet stream.

In my opinion, Jay has been doing a better job at BlizzCon each year he's hosted.

Blizzard Entertainment

Comedian and actor Jay Mohr will be returning to BlizzCon this year to serve as master of ceremonies for the live costume contest and other contests on the first night of the show. Jay is the star of the popular television show Gary Unmarried, and is known for his roles in movies like Jerry Maguire and for creating, producing, and hosting the successful TV series Last Comic Standing. We'll have more info to share about the Friday-night contests and other events at BlizzCon in the months leading up to the show, so keep your eye on BlizzCon.com for more details.

Update: On Twitter, Mohr currently says he's not sure he's doing BlizzCon this year.

Fan-created documentary about BlizzCon: An event for fans

Here is a link to this excellent fan-directed documentary short about BlizzCon. Just a few days ago, I kind of panned the LA Times for treating BlizzCon as such an alien thing, but this video kind of takes a different look at the same event -- instead of coming at it from an outsider perspective and treating it as if it's something 20,000 crazy people do over a weekend, it's much more about how exciting it is to be a part of an event this big. I don't know, maybe the difference is just something I see, but this fan documentary, I think, does a really great job of showing just why BlizzCon is so great, while the LA Times piece, in my view, kind of dismissed its subjects even as it was portraying them.

At any rate, Chris Nguyen did a terrific job on this -- he says that he created the short film to prepare for a few doc film classes he's going to be taking, as well as challenge his doc-making skills, and it seems like he did just that. He interviewed two of his former guildies, as well as the winner of this year's costume contest, as you can see in the video. And he says the whole thing was shot over the two days at BlizzCon and then took about eight more days to edit. Definitely a fun little film to watch, and if you've never been to BlizzCon before, it'll give you a nice look at just what it's like to show up in a hall with thousands of people who play the same games that you do every day.

Will you be checking out Cataclysm?

Goblins and Worgens, oh my! Changes in different mechanisms, and a complete revamp of World of Warcraft's old Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor. At BlizzCon 2009, Blizzard announced their next expansion, titled Cataclysm. Players will have the option of rolling a Worgen on the Alliance side, or a Goblin on the Horde side, exploring in new (old) lands and getting killed in new and exciting ways. Of course, for the lore nerds, Deathwing is popping up, ready to chow down on a bunch of new adventurers. That, as they say, is just the tip of the iceberg!

Is WoW next expansion Cataclysm now on your gaming "must have" list? Is the idea of being able to roll a Goblin who can access their bank remotely every 30 minutes something that catches your attention? Are you all about the Worgen, having been mauled by the Sons of Arugal in your earlier World of Warcraft career? Or are you pretty firmly burned out on WoW - or fantasy in general - and will instead be enjoying the silence as tons of MMO gamers stampede for the nearest game store at launch?

WoW Patch 3.2.2 updates and BlizzCon news

Due to a bit of luck on BlizzCon ticket day, I was able to score a pair of tickets for one of this year's most desired events. I had a great time at the WoW.com reader meetup, and getting the opportunity to play as both a Goblin and Worgen Rogue really highlighted the weekend for me. I'm also excited at how Diablo III and Starcraft II are coming along; I am eagerly awaiting their releases.

However, it wasn't all fun and games. I had serious business to attend to, I had to use this opportunity to spend time with the WoW developers and ask some of the more important questions facing Rogues today. During the 2nd Class Discussion Panel, I got the opportunity to ask Ghostcrawler one question in front of the crowd. What'd I ask? About Vanish, of course! As expected, there's no timeline for a possible fix, but they don't want us to have to wait until Cataclysm for our most unique defense cooldown to provide more reliable protection.

A fellow Rogue used their Q&A time to ask about Assassination and daggers, to which Ghostcrawler commented that he'd like to see a little more balance between Assassination and Combat Rogues. Just a few days after his words, we saw an updated version of the patch 3.2.2 PTR build, including two buffs to Assassination Rogues.

Master Poisoner: Now also provides a 33/66/100% chance of preventing Envenom from consuming Deadly Poison.

While it may seem like a big upgrade, this change is actually fairly small in terms of actual DPS variation. It won't see us using two slow daggers, even though we won't have to worry about Deadly Poison falling off, because Focused Attacks still favors the quickest weapons. It does allow us to skip the tedious work of "timing Envenoms" between Deadly Poison ticks. It also should result in higher DPS in high-movement fights where we may not have had enough time to regain a 5-stack of Deadly Poison after an Envenom before needing to move. All in all, it is a very slight buff to our sustained DPS.

Envenom's scaling has been increased from 7% to 9% of attack power per combo point.

Now this change should see a tangible DPS boost for Assassination Rogues. With our buffed attack power in the 5 to 7 thousands, we'll see an additional 500-700 damage per Envenom (2% boost per combo point, 10% with a 5-point Envenom). Add in Vile Poisons, and we're looking at closer to 1,000 damage per 5-pt Envenom, or possibly 1,250-1,500 damage if we factor in a decent crit rate. A typical Mutilate rotation uses Envenom every 10-12 seconds, which mean the Envenom buff provides an extra 1,250 damage every 10 seconds, or ~125 DPS.

It's nothing to sneeze at, as it improves our damage in a very elegant way, instead of simply tacking on a few more damage percentage onto Hunger for Blood. However, with some of the Combat spreadsheets showing 10k DPS being possible in ToC gear, it's only a 1% nudge towards Assassination. There aren't any fights in "easy mode" ToC that specifically require DPS cooldowns, which has allowed Assassination to stay relatively competitive with Combat. However, with the upcoming release of ToC hard modes and a far stricter mindset for the raiding Rogue, it remains to be seen if these Assassination changes will keep Rogues rolling on daggers.

The simplification of stats:

Blizzard also announced their intentions for itemization at BlizzCon, and dropped quite the bombshell. They're removing Attack Power and Armor Penetration, changing Haste to increase our Energy regeneration rate instead of our attack speed, and doubling the AP we receive per point of Agility (from 1 AP/Agi to 2 AP/Agi). This should greatly decrease the complexity of our current gearing spreadsheets. By removing ArP and AP, it should also keep the plate classes from going after our precious leather!

The Haste change is one I am particularly interested in. Haste has always been a primarily "white" stat for us, increasing our auto-attack frequency but doing very little for our yellow damage. Now, the situation is reversed, and Rogues will actually have a way to increase our yellow damage and get us "pushing more buttons", as Blizzard intends for every class to do. Exactly what levels of energy regeneration we'll be able to accomplish with the new gearing model remain to be seen. Bloodlust may change from a simple white damage increase to a pseudo Adrenaline Rush!

Mastery stat:

Mastery is the stat that is designed to replace Armor Penetration on gear. It basically gives a boost to whichever talent tree you have put the most points into. For example, a Combat Rogue will gain Armor Penetration (possibly) for every point of Mastery they find on their gear. However, if you were to respect to Mutilate, that Mastery would change to say "Increased Poison Damage". Change to Subtlety? Now your Mastery is reducing the energy cost of all of your attacks. The goal is to provide a fun and interesting stat that gives each spec a valuable addition without adding a "wasted" stat. Mutilate currently cares very little about Armor Penetration, and some Combat Rogues with exceptional gear are nearing the "white crit cap", meaning all of the additional crit on their gear is reduced in value.

Mastery solves the problem of having too many disparate drops that no class can use, and allows for greater gearing flexibility. Between the removal of the Armor Penetration balancing meta-game and the simplification of gear, I see our spreadsheets in Catacylsm becoming far, far more refined.

Conclusion:

There's a lot of new changes coming our way, though months out they may be. However, if we start planning and discussing these changes now, we can provide Blizzard with our feedback and assist in steering our class towards the bright future ahead of us. Next week, I'll be doing a full write-up of Rogue tips for the ToC bosses: just in time for Anub'arak's triumphant return!