Blizzard and Linguistic Ambiguity

[Arcdelad]

In one of my 300 level linguistics classes, they trotted out an examples like the following:

"Kids make nutritious snacks"

or

"Milk drinkers are turning to powder".

These, of course, can mean two different things logically - and BOTH can be inferred from the lines....but...seriously - kids ARE pretty damn tasty for those late night raid munchie needs

anyway...

Two druid talents READ as if they can help feral cat DPS, but in actuality they DO NOT

1) [spell=57814]Genesis[/spell] - the spells reads as if ALL periodic damage will be increased, ie meaning it could apply to Rip, Rake, lacerate, etc....it does NOT....its for spells only...

2) [spell=57877]Protector of the Pack[/spell] - the way this is written, it COULD mean that it provides a 6% attack power increase accross all forms, and a damage reduction for bears ONLY, but in reality the AP increase is ONLY for bears.

[Belandand]

well you know arc, the tooltip for protector of the pack says Bear and D

[Belandand]

Well you know Arc..the tooltip says Bear and Dire Bear form..so of course that means it can be used in aquatic form.

**Double post because I hit enter and two other keys at once**

[Arcdelad]

the problem is the "and" - its ambigious...it could mean:

"Increases your attack power by 6% AND (comma assumed), blah blah blah" meaning those two are independant clauses...

or

it could be a compound clause with both parts modifying bear or dire bear....which the math makes clear when you field test it...

[dharq]

Agreed on Genesis. The wording of that talent is crap.

On PotP though, I always assumed the requirement for bear/dire bear and the fact that it specifically mentions those forms meant that it applied there. IIRC there were some early patch notes from 3.0.8 that stated the AP bonus would apply for all forms, but I think that got changed in the PTR... again, IIRC.. which I often don't.

Concerning snacks, I'll just quote from Austin Powers... "Baby, the other other white meat"

[Belandand]

Now i gotcha. Don't grade school grammar teachers hammer it into you not to make your sentences ambiguous?