To no further surprise, I won’t have Thunderstruck ready for this expansion, seeing as it would only serve for “that long”, before I’d have to re-iterate all of it, to match up with the Cataclysm changes and additions. However, it seems like the coming changes are only going to make it all easier – which is a thing I’m really glad about – the changes might not actually be that many after all.

Now, first of all, it was “just” (3 days ago) announced that the Mastery and Talents was up for a bit change, by giving us less talent-points, but giving each of these more meaning, while – as we have known for some time – making all the boring stuff passive. The way I’ve built Thunderstruck, is basically by having a long list of what the various talents does, and add those bonuses to the base spell-values, which are then used to simulate a casts, based on the characters current statistics (as these can obviously change, by using trinkets, being under the effects of [Bloodlust] or otherwise). Less numbers flying around should make that a lot easier.

The fun part about masteries was indeed the Elemental Overload (basically just [Lightning Overload], where Lava Burst can now be triggered as well), which I’ve already covered the basics of. The way I’ve done it, is basically that Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning and Lava Burst, are all simulated with the same function, with the only difference (except different input numbers), is that the later has a variable set that doesn’t let it do Overload, but instead causes it to always crit. Now, this is something I can change, and completely leave out, as all of them will be able to do it.

In regards to statistical additions, there will be three additions/modifications: Spirit, Intellect and Mastery Rating. The first two are easy, however. Spirit will simply (as it stands now) be added as Hit Rating, and continue as that. Intellect will add a conversion-ratio for Spell Power (and that is possibly being changed to “Spell Power on weapon”). Lastly, there’s Mastery Rating – but do we know that works? Actually, it is quite simple – if my assumption is correct: Like any other Rating, Mastery translates directly into a percentage, from the basic rating formula. This percentage boosts your current Third Mastery (in this case: Elemental Overload), by that amount.

So, basically, let’s say the base percentage of Elemental Overload is 25% (as it looks now), and our Mastery rating translates into 38%, we’d end up having a 34,5% chance of Elemental Mastery doing its wonders. I like that – it’s going to give some nice theoretical wonders in determining which stat is the best, and how they’ll end up scale with each other.