USA
EU
Korea
BluetrackerWhy'd they make Holy Shield unbalanced again?
Eyonix (2/23/06):
Caydiem(12/22/05):
Next patch for instance, we've made a few tweaks. ... Holy Shield's mana cost will be reduced by approximately 15% and the effect will have a small bonus coefficient from spell damage items and effects.vs
Caydiem(12/22/05):
...under certain easily achieveable conditions and combinations, Holy Shield was devastating with + spell damage applied. Rather than decrease the effectiveness of the base ability and still have the problem later on, they changed it so + spell damage no longer applies to it. I'm aware this is unpopular ... but please understand that we don't make such calls unless they're absolutely necessary. They tested these changes time and again and the results with Holy Shield were unbalanced.Why are the developers risking these huge imbalance problems as described by Caydiem with these new changes to Holy Shield for 1.10? What convinced and made them fall over? Could it be the fact that nobody got Holy Shield anymore?
posted by Mastgrr at 6:26:00 AM
3 Comments:
Unfortunately, I still don't see Holy Shield being of good enough quality and usability to be in any 31pt talent slot. One thing is clear, Paladins will not be called upon to tank in any 40-man raid instance, and without that requirement a skill such as Holy Shield is not necessary as a talent. It kind of worked as a 21pt talent because of how early in the character life-cycle you could get it, but even then it was more of a 'Oh, i'm going for Reckoning so I may as well get this too' type of skill. Beyond level 50 instances it becomes pretty unusable.
As a 31pt skill most players will not get it before their 50's given the tier 2 and 3 Holy and Ret talents avaliable and useful throughout the character life (yep, even into raids). And fundamentally you have to choose between it and Divine Favour, which like NS for Shaman is probably our best talent.
As an 'ultimate talent' it is (IMO) worse than any of the 21 and 31pt skills we have at our disposal. This is with or without the change to +spell damage coeff's. Though potentially the new threat it can generate through Righteous Fury is significant, it's limited duration and 'on block' mechanic makes it far too unreliable, and PvP use is extremely limited (perhaps rogues and fury warriors, but then they are rarely an issue and still DF is more useful).
A guaranteed free crit Holy Shock every two minutes though.. that's pretty significant, and if anything makes DF an even better skill than previously given that it has offensive and defensive potential. The de-nerfing of SoC was also required IMO.
Frankly though, this tweaking of skills which have been a staple of all Paladins since launch (with the exception of Holy Shock) lends credance to the idea that developers are confused about the skill-set and potential roles of the class beyond a general support and tertiary healer roll. As has been said, some sort of Dev dialogue would be wise (and time well spent) for all the hybrid classes.
One final thing... it is said that a Paladins durability justifies it's reduced potential in both damage and healing (well, in between cries that Paladin damage is too great of course). Well, the changes to the Priests make them both significantly more durable than before, and improves both DPS and Healing potential significantly. Oh, and gives both sides an invulnerable healer, which the Horde will no doubt enjoy.
I would buy the defensive potential arguement if the complaints were "I came across the battlefield, ran into the Paladin and he took forever but he killed me" rather then "I kill them everytime but it takes too long."
I think the point is that removing the coefficient completely was too much of a nerf. They are putting it back in but it won't receive much benefit this time around. It'll be something like 1% of our +damage gear.
Post a Comment
<< Home