Armor and weapon types

[BSTRhino]

Ah, time for some more WoW contemplation. I was just thinking about the armor in World of WarCraft. There are different types of armor, right? Cloth, leather, steel, blah blah... and the stronger ones are heavier and can only be worn by special classes.

The thing that didn't match though, was, I remember reading there are a few types of damage. Ice, fire are the ones that come to mind. I can't seem to find references to what I'm looking for on worldofwarcraft.com somehow.

So now my question is, do you get weapons that do ice damage, or do all weapons do normal damage, and only spells do the special types of damage? You know, I'd think it would be quite strategic if different weapons did different types of damage. It'd add another dimension to the game.

Right now all the strategy lies in investing in the right spells, and using the right spells at the right time. If weapons were available that did different types of damage (if they're not available already), maybe choosing the right weapon for the right situation would become an important strategic decision too.

And perhaps the most powerful damage type that your character could use would depend on your race.

Also, on the other side of the coin, are there different kinds of armor that are better against different kinds of damage? So, say when you're going through this sort of undead area, you could choose to use your anti-ice armor or something like that.

So, do they have special weapons with different damage types, and special armors with different damage types? And if they did, do you think it'd be a useless addition?

One more question: what happens when it gets dark in World of WarCraft? Do you need to turn on a torch or anything? Or do you just deal with it?

Another one more question: Night elves shadowmeld, right? Is there any way you can see them? Like a 'detector' of sorts? For sure there would be night elf areas, and if you visited at night, and all the NPCs were shadowmelded, there wouldn't be much point visiting.

[TranquilNightElf]

Well you're right .. different type of weapons would be excellent.Perhaps you can perform enchantments on the weapons themselves to enable them to do a specific type of damage.Or perhaps a sword crafted from a particular and rare material could have fire damage. Same for armour.
Of course this may be already be available but not having played WoW yet I wouldn't know.

But bottom line is that different types of weapons and armour would be excellent.I reckon what the hard part for blizzard would be to make their availablity to the players and the type of advantage offered by the weapons/armour to be properly balanced.(but then again they have been known to be good at balancing ;))


Using torches/spell to enhance visibility in the dark I think should be pretty standard, considering the realism factor of the gameplay.
As far as Shadowmeld goes for NPCs , I think it works out better, as then NPC can choose to show themselves to players depending on their skill.Example an NPC offering a particularly dangerous and arduous quest would only show themselves to high level players, or something to that effect.
Of course to balance that out for non-power gamers, they could indulge in a summoning spell or other techniques to view invisible NPCs..

My two cents

[BSTRhino]

Enchantments... that reminds me of a tradeskill.

Do you think, maybe undead guys can see in the dark naturally? Also, in Astonia they have a thing called 'Holy Vision' and 'Infravision.' With holy vision, you can see all demons and undead creatures, whether it's dark or light, and with infravision, you can see all living things whether it's dark or light. Are there any interesting things done with vision in World of WarCraft? I've got more ideas now. Maybe they have binoculars or telescopes so you can see far away. That'd be great in an MMORPG.

[TranquilNightElf]

Absolutely, it would be awesome to have all that in WoW.. it'd be an experience beyond compare.
I'm pretty sure that demon hunters should have some sort of altered vision what with their spectral sight and all.
And i think Blizz mentioned the use of telescopes sometime but can't quite recall when they did...oh well.
Undead chracters should in someway (by either achieving it or having by default in specifc reatures) be able to see ghosts, monsters and other undead better than others without any sort of vision enhancements.

[spastic-ninJa]

I think it would be great if Night Elf characters could have a racial trait such as their skill on Warcraft -- which lets them have good vision in night as well as in day.

Some weapons/armour definitely need to have their own damage types, ie: ice, lightning. If they left out these additions for items -- eg: if the only way to enhance weapon damage (elemental etc) was through racial skills, trade skills -- then the game would suffer, as all characters would have to be a certain race or class to do elemental damage.

This being said, items cannot be overpowered (such as D2), or else skill/race/class choice would be irrelevant in becoming a high damage character.

I think they also have skills/spells implemented in the game that allows the caster to see invisible/shadowmelded units.

I don't think that night-time seriously affects visibility as of now, however I would like to see torches/lamps implemented, and night-time to be made darker, which also adds to the sense of realism.

[Exedore]

I'll try to respond to as much as I can...




The armor types are:
- Cloth
- Leather
- Mail
- Plate

Plate requires training (100 skill points) at level 40 to use, and only Paladins and Warriors can use it currently. I think the same goes for Mail. The type of armor doesn't matter aside from which skill you need to use it (certain classes dont have the mail armor skill, etc). However, different types of armor can be made by different trade skills. Blacksmiths make mail and plate (plate may need an armorsmith - a specialty blacksmith), tailors make cloth, and leatherworkers make leather.


You can find, make, buy, or trade for items that have elemental damage, but they're usually harder to get ahold of.


The types of magic are:
- Holy
- Shadow
- Frost
- Fire
- Nature

I'm not sure if there's also a general magic damage type, or if that's considered physical (arcane missles comes to mind). You have a resistance to each type, which can be increased by skills, potions, items, spells, etc. Right now, I think it's a percent chance to resist a spell of that category, taking either the normal damage, or none of it (noted as a resist in the battle log).


Currently, night is darker than day (you can tell it's night), but there's still enough ambient light to see. The night/day cycle is mostly to make the passage of time noticable, not to hinder gameplay. You can, however, equip torches/lanterns to add some light, and NPC guards do carry torchers or lanterns around at night.


Night Elves can't shadowmeld currently. There are very few race-specific abilities bonuses or weaknesses. About the only ones were undead immunity to sleep (sleep was removed last patch and replaced with polymorph, which has almost the same effect), and the paladin and priest spells that only work against undead. Races do, however, have slighty different starting stats and have some weapon restrictions or increased costs.


There are a few detect spells/effects, such as detect invisibility and detect undead, as well as the tradeskill detection abilities for herbalism and mining. They make dots appear on the minimap when you're near the applicable target. I haven't been able to use detect invisibility yet, so I don't know if that also makes them appear on screen, but it probably does make them at least semi-opaque.


There is an enchanting tradeskill, but it's not that useful right now. Many of the better items are soulbound, or become soulbound when you equip them. A soulbound item cannot be traded, and therefore cannot be targeted by an enchanter because enchantments (permanent) and imbues (temporary) both need to target items. So basically, imbues are worthless other than on your own items, and you need to pester an enchanter to enchant an item as soon as you get it or not get a bonus on it. Additionally, enchanting isn't finished and you can only enchant or imbue a few types of equipment (cloaks, armor, bracers, weapons I think is all). Blizzard will be re-working enchanting in a later patch, though.



If you have any more questions or want me to elaborate on something, feel free to respond.

[TranquilNightElf]

I hope blizzard does include many of the above points.
The main race specific ability of the night elves is to shadow meld and if undead can breath underwater(or not w/e) then other races should have specific ability as well.
Plus (as you said Exedore) Night time isin't very much of a change from day time except it goes a bit darker and is just to enhance the passage of time in the game.They really should put proper night in the game bringing with it new gameplay tactics.Imagine planning an ambush in a dark pathway knowing the chracters can only see you if they have a lamp or an appropriate spell etc.

Good to hear about the different types of magic damage/resistances though

By the way can you post a pic each of night and day ?

[Exedore]

I'll try to get a pic of Night and Day in the same location. I have a few screenshots, but they're mostly indoors.

[Frattimonde]

Are there any Dwarven Handcannons In WOW?

[Exedore]

Here (http://vorlon.cwru.edu/~jjw10/misc/WoW_day-night.jpg) is a screenshot comparing day and night in WoW. Both were shot in the Arathi Highlands, which is north of Dun Modr and just east of Stromguarde. The left part was taken around 7:00 or 8:00 PM server time (hence the orange sunset coloring), and the right one was taken around 1:00 AM server time.


Are there any Dwarven Handcannons In WOW?

There are dwarven rifles, and they're probably more common than bows as a ranged weapon (unless you're a night elf).

[TranquilNightElf]

Hmm...well you can definitely tell the day and night apart but at the moment it just looks like a basic difference in colors and the night being slightly more dim.Of course having never played it i really can't make an accurate assesment.What do you think ...Do you think night time should be as dark and as actualy night.Say for example like the effects in Thief:Deadly Shadows