They're called "one-shots." I'm not talking about Massively's snazzy screenshot feature -- I'm talking about any player being able to kill another player in effectively one hit, from maximum health all the way down to zero. In a forum post by "Deathanddecay," there's apparently a big argument among himself and some friends as to what exactly counts as a "one-shot." Does it have to be like a Pyroblast critical strike? Or can a three-in-one windfury proc count?
For my part, the distinction seems unimportant. Either way, you're dead before you have any chance to react and defend yourself. This sort of thing used to occur all the time before The Burning Crusade came out, but since then players' stamina has increased faster than their damage, so one-shots tend to happen a lot less. Now that the expansion's been out a year, however, if one player is in the best gear while another just hit 70, it could definitely happen quite a bit. What's your experience with one-shots? Do you prance around gleefully decimating your helpless opposition without effort? Do you dread going to battlegrounds for fear that you'll just die without being able to contribute anything? Or do you find that everyone is more or less balanced and one shots don't happen much anymore?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-26-2008 @ 8:32AM
Koronus said...
hey i one-shot people all the time... then again theyre usually lowbies in IF that im shadowstep-ambushin' >=D
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1-26-2008 @ 8:35AM
Koronus said...
and one other thing, does the non-combat pet Willy REALLY shoot beams of death at those rats??? if so that is SO cool XP
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1-26-2008 @ 10:07AM
Erika said...
Yes he does.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IPQms0Z8P0
Before i went assination i loved shadow-stepping for crazy amounts of damage.
1-26-2008 @ 8:54AM
Mahtasooma said...
I oneshotted a Warlock in AB once with my Retribution Paladin about 2 months ago.
Bersi Buff, Wings, Trinket.
Crusader Strike, Autohit and Seal of Comman Proc in the same instant when you engage combat and start with Crusader Strike.
Crusader Strike crit: 3.7k
Whitecrit: 3.6k
Seal of Command crit: 2.9k
Dead. However once I just hit a mage with a 5.3k Crusader Strike... but then he fell dead already. Combine this with a whitecrit at 5k and a SoC proc at 3.5k... wh00t.
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1-26-2008 @ 8:56AM
Magnetite2 said...
By 'forum post by "Deathanddecay,"', do you mean the one begun on December 6th? Another slow news day at WoWInsider Towers?
On the substantive point, it rarely happens to me these days - I guess my gear has improved too much for that. Either that or my skill (riiiiiiight...)
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1-26-2008 @ 1:01PM
Chris Anthony said...
Yes, he means the forum thread that was started on 12/6/07, that died on 12/7/07, and then was restarted by a troll and bafflingly turned back into an intelligent discussion yesterday morning: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=3271180279&sid=1&pageNo=5#41178711467
1-26-2008 @ 11:07AM
Arnold said...
Last night in a battleground I got effectively one shotted by a hunter. Since I'm wearing crafted epics/season 1 BG stuff, this doesn't happen that often. Not that I survive incredibly long, but I usually don't get one shotted like that. SO I alt-tabbed and armoried him. He was wearing full T6.... Oh well....
But in any case, as a druid, I usually don't get to one shot people, though occasionally I have "druid stun locked" someone to death. Now that is fun, but much much harder to do than on my rogue....
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1-26-2008 @ 12:25PM
spamcatcher said...
I did not know that Willy did that...I'm going to go log in right now and nuke some rats.
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1-26-2008 @ 12:31PM
Johannes Farr said...
I've only been doing battlegrounds about a month now. When I started out I was really discourages because I kept getting one (or two) shotted. I'm a healer, so it was even worse...I was kind of a walking disposable healing machine.
As I've played more and gotten now 4 pieces of resilience gear it has done wonders. I'm only at like 137 resil, but I don't get one shotted anymore. True, I can't survive focus fire, but that's another story.
So start out with a couple of resilience gems or maybe the Felsteel ring...it's not a lot but with help.
And whether you know it or not getting 1 shotted actually helps you in skill...it teaches you that you have to fight together, or you'll just get creamed. Even the guys with 400 resil in Vengeful remember that rule, because they started out where you did.
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1-26-2008 @ 12:54PM
Tyrrax said...
The author is way off the mark. Mages don't one shot anyone anymore. Blizzard fixed them good. Kinda like what happens when you take your pet in to get "fixed".
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1-26-2008 @ 1:03PM
Chris Anthony said...
David, I find your optimism about other players astonishing.
"...if one player is in the best gear while another just hit 70..."
Sadly, my main is on a PVP server, and that just isn't how it works. One player is in the best gear, and the other is level 20 at the highest. :/
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1-26-2008 @ 2:40PM
Risa said...
My fav one shot.
We're in Strath Undead. We engage the Baroness and I on my 70 holy priest become mind controlled. Having my DPS gear equipped for the run my priest targets and one shots a 48 mage in the group with Shadow Word Death.
I was laughing so hard...
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1-26-2008 @ 3:32PM
GrumblyStuff said...
I'd say a one-shot counts if you're dead in one second or less.
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1-26-2008 @ 5:10PM
jason said...
Quick question. If I summon someone off the side of a cliff and they die in the fall is that considered a one-shot? ;)
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1-26-2008 @ 6:07PM
Rzar said...
As a holy priest I don't get much scope of opertunity to one shot anyone above say lvl30 :D
I'm not sure if this counts as a one shot... though I did cast one spell and that spell was responsible for them going from full health to dead. Either way throwing a gnome warlock off the edge of Outland is very satisfying.
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1-26-2008 @ 7:01PM
Suzaku said...
As a sub-spec Rogue, back at 60, I used to get one-shots on pretty much any of the cloth-based classes, and sometimes druids, even though I had relatively mediocre gear.
I'm now 70, and ShS specced, but I don't play my rogue very often. He's got mediocre gear, (three epics, rest are blues), only like 8,000 health. Needless to say, I don't often get one-shots anymore. With the buff to ambush and backstab, I've dealt some crazy burst damage recently on cloth and leather wearers, but it's probably just people with bad gear.
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1-26-2008 @ 7:54PM
Heilig said...
I've found that because of the mechanics, it's geared ret-pallies that are the kings of one-shotting nowadays.
Judgement isn't on the GCD and a Crusader Strike opener is immediately followed by a normal swing. So, if Seal of Command is up ,they pop their wings, and everything crits, you end up with:
CS ~3K
White ~2K
SoC proc ~3K
JoC proc ~2.5K
That will eat any undergeared people for lunch. It depends a lot on luck, but when it happens it is frightening.
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1-27-2008 @ 12:47AM
theremover said...
Honestly, I don't pass up a chance to ambush a lowbie horde if I see one in my travels. It's sort of why I play on a PVP server.
Call it weak.. but I call it fun.
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1-28-2008 @ 1:48PM
franz said...
If being constantly focus-fired out of existence is the same as being one-shotted... then yes, I'm one-shotted all the time.
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1-30-2008 @ 6:32PM
Romage said...
As a 17/0/44 mage, I always do the Water Elemental combo. It's not a one shot, but all spell hits go off in 2 seconds.
Summon WE, cast Frostbolt, meanwhile WE Nova the guy, then an Ice Lance, Fire Blast and 1 hit from the WE, and you have 3k+2k+1.5k+1k=7.5k damage almost instantly. If trinketed I reach 8k, which is more than enough to kill a bad geared priest/mage/holy pala/sham/druid. Happened to me lots of times, and keeps happening as I keep adding vengefuls to the set.
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