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BluetrackerThe Nerf Bat Fell...
... and I have to say - we seem to have dodged it relatively well compared to other classes.
We need to be real about a number of things:
1) Mass Dispel was put into the game specifically to screw us over in PvP. We knew this when it was announced. They just finally got around to making it work like most of us thought it would in the first place. All the new crying in the world now won't make a difference. So pop your bubble and heal while you can, then pop AW later and go beat the everliving sh1t out of that priest who now has to wait 20 seconds before throwing up subsequent PoMs.
2) Priests and Druids got hosed. I'm talking big time. It's hard enough to find a good priest these days, and Blizzard's totally unnecessary nerf to a big chunk of their healing utility will only send more to the account cancellation or character creation screen. Druids... I can't say we all didn't see it coming. Bear form was pretty ridiculous. Any way you slice it though, these two classes took the big brunt of the bat this time around.
3) Warriors got necessary buffs. Some are worried this will stunt our chances to be welcomed as something other than healbots. I wouldn't go that far. Even the most zealous proponents of Paladin tanking didn't seek to replace a class with a singular viable PvE role. The goal was to become viable ourselves, provide alternatives in certain situations where our tanking would be preferred, and ease some of the burden borne by one of the roles with a burnout rate second only to a Holy Priest.
4) The only direct "nerf" enumerated for our class pales in comparison to the whoppers handed out elsewhere. Avenger's Shield still dazes its targets, and Judgement of Justice Rank 2 will still keep would-be sprinters capped at run speed.
Overall, I count us lucky this round. So log in, pat your guild's Warriors on the back, comfort your Priests, and give your Druids a good ribbing (and a tissue).
=======================================================
Addendum since I posted the above on the forums:
=======================================================
I'm rather unsympathetic toward feral Druids. Recently, it had been pointed out on Paladinsucks.com that there was an element of unfairness in a Druid's ability to focus talents and spec for both melee damage and tanking viability. Cat form is one thing, but dishing out such high DPS in tanking form was clearly overpowered - especially given the huge amount of armor and stamina gained (as well as some healing potential via regeneration).
Drysc notes, "There are some straight up nerfs in this patch, and that's from our testing showing that Druid damage was just much higher than we would like to see bear form doing. The threat generation was far and beyond what we would have thought or intended, and this type of information on what a class is able to perform is based on internal testing and statistical information."
I'm happy for Warriors. There are some really great and dedicated folks that play Warriors in my guild, and I completely sympathized with them as they tried to cope with their perceived potential phasing-out of their group value in PvE. I never really wanted to be a MT in place of a Warrior. I just wanted to be back on the front lines (where we are supposed to be, traditionally).
I'm annoyed alongside the Priests. It's a tough and boring class to play in endgame PvE. I have no doubt that Holy Priests have the highest burnout rate of any class/spec combo in the game. What little survivability they were given in PvP has been destroyed, and their "off-spec" value in PvE took a big hit with the removal of a substantial amount of threat reduction and healing capability while in shadowform. From a Paladin perspective, I look critically toward any reduction in healing potency among other classes as it means we inch that much closer back toward our former pigeonhole.
Finally, I'm hearing frustrating reports that certain pieces of gear highly prized among tankadins (even myself, with only 13 points in Protection - enough to MT lower-end stuff and offtank endgame in a pinch) have had their stamina values substantially reduced. Specifically, the Junior Technician 3rd Grade Bracers as well as both popular pairs of superior quality tanking pants (one from Netherstorm questing, the other from a vendor via Caverns of Time reputation). The bracers, being only rare-quality and an easy to obtain quest reward, had their stamina nearly halved. The pants both lost about 10 points worth of stamina. Given that Paladin tanks tend to have the lowest health pools of the three tank classes, this hurts us the most. Maybe I'll hang onto Engineering a little longer and crank out a Goblin Rocket Launcher to help offset the loss. Then again, it was probably nerfed too.
We need to be real about a number of things:
1) Mass Dispel was put into the game specifically to screw us over in PvP. We knew this when it was announced. They just finally got around to making it work like most of us thought it would in the first place. All the new crying in the world now won't make a difference. So pop your bubble and heal while you can, then pop AW later and go beat the everliving sh1t out of that priest who now has to wait 20 seconds before throwing up subsequent PoMs.
2) Priests and Druids got hosed. I'm talking big time. It's hard enough to find a good priest these days, and Blizzard's totally unnecessary nerf to a big chunk of their healing utility will only send more to the account cancellation or character creation screen. Druids... I can't say we all didn't see it coming. Bear form was pretty ridiculous. Any way you slice it though, these two classes took the big brunt of the bat this time around.
3) Warriors got necessary buffs. Some are worried this will stunt our chances to be welcomed as something other than healbots. I wouldn't go that far. Even the most zealous proponents of Paladin tanking didn't seek to replace a class with a singular viable PvE role. The goal was to become viable ourselves, provide alternatives in certain situations where our tanking would be preferred, and ease some of the burden borne by one of the roles with a burnout rate second only to a Holy Priest.
4) The only direct "nerf" enumerated for our class pales in comparison to the whoppers handed out elsewhere. Avenger's Shield still dazes its targets, and Judgement of Justice Rank 2 will still keep would-be sprinters capped at run speed.
Overall, I count us lucky this round. So log in, pat your guild's Warriors on the back, comfort your Priests, and give your Druids a good ribbing (and a tissue).
=======================================================
Addendum since I posted the above on the forums:
=======================================================
I'm rather unsympathetic toward feral Druids. Recently, it had been pointed out on Paladinsucks.com that there was an element of unfairness in a Druid's ability to focus talents and spec for both melee damage and tanking viability. Cat form is one thing, but dishing out such high DPS in tanking form was clearly overpowered - especially given the huge amount of armor and stamina gained (as well as some healing potential via regeneration).
Drysc notes, "There are some straight up nerfs in this patch, and that's from our testing showing that Druid damage was just much higher than we would like to see bear form doing. The threat generation was far and beyond what we would have thought or intended, and this type of information on what a class is able to perform is based on internal testing and statistical information."
I'm happy for Warriors. There are some really great and dedicated folks that play Warriors in my guild, and I completely sympathized with them as they tried to cope with their perceived potential phasing-out of their group value in PvE. I never really wanted to be a MT in place of a Warrior. I just wanted to be back on the front lines (where we are supposed to be, traditionally).
I'm annoyed alongside the Priests. It's a tough and boring class to play in endgame PvE. I have no doubt that Holy Priests have the highest burnout rate of any class/spec combo in the game. What little survivability they were given in PvP has been destroyed, and their "off-spec" value in PvE took a big hit with the removal of a substantial amount of threat reduction and healing capability while in shadowform. From a Paladin perspective, I look critically toward any reduction in healing potency among other classes as it means we inch that much closer back toward our former pigeonhole.
Finally, I'm hearing frustrating reports that certain pieces of gear highly prized among tankadins (even myself, with only 13 points in Protection - enough to MT lower-end stuff and offtank endgame in a pinch) have had their stamina values substantially reduced. Specifically, the Junior Technician 3rd Grade Bracers as well as both popular pairs of superior quality tanking pants (one from Netherstorm questing, the other from a vendor via Caverns of Time reputation). The bracers, being only rare-quality and an easy to obtain quest reward, had their stamina nearly halved. The pants both lost about 10 points worth of stamina. Given that Paladin tanks tend to have the lowest health pools of the three tank classes, this hurts us the most. Maybe I'll hang onto Engineering a little longer and crank out a Goblin Rocket Launcher to help offset the loss. Then again, it was probably nerfed too.
posted by Vaelin at 7:52:00 AM
8 Comments:
I, and many others, called it a long time ago.
Druids had it coming, if not for the actual imbalance, then for the superior attitude many of them developed.
Thankfully, Warriors won't be moping around so much anymore and preventing me from getting tanks for Black Morass.
more nerfs
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=79158309&sid=1
Ungh.
As Ghmou said, the change to both Mass Dispell and Feral Druids was predicted here long ago, but it doesn't make the change to MD any easier though.
As per Anonymous' link above, for those that for whatever reason can't see the page here is a summary (post by Fujin):
AW now lasts 30 seconds instead of 20.
Casting AW puts both AW and DS on a 5 minute cooldown. Casting DS does the same. [it appears that AW does not cause Forbearance-SZ]
Forbearance causes a 15% physical damage nerf. [affecting white damage and probably CS. May also have an impact on SoC as it is derived from white damage. Doesn't seem to affect spell sources of damage (JoR/JoC/Consecration), but tough to tell as there is no convienient tooltip to check-SZ]
As they say, ouch, and arguably a much bigger nerf than the change to MD (and undocumented!!). We'll have to wait and see how this plays out.
Why put AW on a 5 minute CD? It's horse shit on a 3 minute CD.
-Vir
Very true as far as Holy Priests are concerned. Prior to BC Holy Priests had no damage, no crowd control, and no survivability. Why the hell would I want to play that class? PoM gave us survivability, and it was fun as hell to jump around spamming heals on yourself. It made playing a Holy Priest fun. Now, I dunno, I'll probably go back to Shadow but its disappointing. I want playing a healbot to be fun.
Prayer of Mending was overpowered, no ifs ands or buts about it so I don't mind the nerf. They do need to do some serious work on making healing more viable in PvP, the amount of interrupts and burst DPS in the game right now is just silly.
Wow, once again more nerfs dished around to appease the ePeen Gods PvP! So tired of seeing more and more PvE options get trashed due to the cock fighting PvP.
The Druids I can understand, the rest is horse manure.
The strange thing about the druid nerfs is that it only affects their ability to tank. They should lower the damage and put the threat modifier back, at least then druids will still be able to tank and we wont have to go searching for the non-existant whiney warriors.
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