The promised class changes just keep on coming, some of them well received, some of them not so well received. Certainly the dust has far from settled, with Kalgan himself promising that more is to come only this evening, but there's already questions to ask. One that springs to mind seems especially pertinent in light of the upcoming 3v3 Tournament and Rob Pardo's talk about changing PvP into an E-sport: Are the recent class changes focusing on PvP at the cost of PvE? Druids and Shamans seem to be asking this especially, and we'll look at some of their changes after the break.The Shaman changes have been pretty clearly focused primarily on PvP. The most recent change linked Elemental Mastery and Nature's Swiftness to a 10-second cooldown. This was likely to prevent teams in PvP from using the "2345" burst damage setup, marked in part by an Elemental Shaman using a spell damage trinket's right click, Elemental Mastery, Nature's Swiftness, and Chain Lightning in rapid succession to put out a massive amount of damage that could be difficult for the opposite team to recover from. In addition, the recent nerf dropping the pushback resistance on the Shaman Elemental PvP 4-piece set bonus from 70% to 50% could be seen as part of this as well. This does take away a little bit from Shaman versatility in small group situations, whereas they can't use EM, then use NS for an emergency heal within 10 seconds. Those type of clutch situations aren't very common though (hopefully), so a pure PvE Shaman probably won't see too much disruption from these changes unless they ground PvP armor for the 4-piece bonus so they could cast more Lightning Bolts while soloing. In fact, one could argue that if Shamans are no longer built around dropping an opponent off the bat with a quick burst, this could open the way for future buffs to improve their versatility.
Lifebloom's changes, while seeming to be an across the board nerf at first, have also kept the PvE and PvP spheres remarkably seperate, due to the different ways Lifebloom is useful in PvE and PvP. Tree druids have long used "Rolling Lifeblooms" as their main healing method in raids, keeping full stacks of Lifeblooms up on multiple people to provide massive amounts of regeneration. In the meantime, Druids in PvP use Lifeblooms to counteract Dispelling attempts and provide a way to keep a teammate healed or provide a burst of large healing via the large heal at the end even while they themselves are being harassed or must duck out of LoS. While the current nerf reduces the healing ticks by quite a bit, the changes to Empowered Rejuvenation also going in this patch keep the ending heal nearly as strong as it is now. Thus, if it was Blizzard's wish to force raiding Druids into using more spells besides Lifebloom in raid healing, they seem to be working at that quite nicely while keeping Lifebloom a viable PvP heal.
Power Infusion might be where blizzard misstepped a bit. The change of the bonus from spell damage and healing to spell haste seems to be meant as a change to PvP. Formerly, it could be cast on a Mage or a Shaman winding a massive instant spell as in the above case of the Elemental Mastery and Nature's Swiftness for an even bigger burst of damage, but with the haste change, it will no longer work with that. However, the PvP nerf also means it will make it much less useful for casting on Shadow Priests and Affliction Warlocks, who do a major part of their damage with instant cast spells that receive no benefit from spell haste, or for increasing the power of Renew or Power Word: Shield for those emergency protection situations, or the Shadowfiend. Overall, this seems to have been a much more general nerf that hurts the versatility of the spell in small grouping and raiding as well as in PvP.
Of course, This is the patch of progressive testing, and Kalgan has said that what matters is what the patch looks like when it goes live, so we could get all sorts of changes and rollbacks (such as the recent news from World of Raids that the Warlock Mana Drain buff has been rolled back on the test server) between now and when the patch finally goes live. Hopefully, Blizzard gets all these balances sorted out, and doesn't let either PvE or PvP suffer too much to balance the other side of the equation.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
2-21-2008 @ 11:17AM
Markymark said...
t times it seems like Pvp is dictating some of the buffs and nerfs thats why the ablities should be seperated or operate differently when in pvp.
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2-21-2008 @ 4:31PM
Nasgoul said...
The Power Infusion nerf is just so frustrating to the PVP priest. They take a main power from the pvp tree (disc) and change one of the best spells to literally a waste of a cast. The time you will make up in the 15 seconds of the buff will barely make up for the time it takes to cast PI and wait for the global cooldown!! Its like someone who has never played a priest is making the changes.. Once again I state the case for the most discriminated class in the game. PVP priests do not need nerfs.. they need buffs against melee. just so rediculus.. some of the spells and talents should be above reproach from random patch changes.. this was one of those spells
2-21-2008 @ 11:19AM
Ametrine said...
The only time PVP and PVE have ever been separated, was when they invented Diminishing Returns.
Otherwise, PVP'ers whine for nerfs, and PVE'ers take the pain from it.
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2-21-2008 @ 11:20AM
Milktub said...
I feel any nerf due to PvP is a poor move. As WoW moves more and more towards being just another dueling game or frag fest, it becomes less likeable. What makes dueling in an arena any different from playing any number of first person shooters?
/sigh
But as long as there's still PvE content, I'm sticking with it, because I like it.
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2-22-2008 @ 7:00AM
Gareth said...
I feel exactly the same about it here, there is no magic, no imagination and no adventure in arena's, there are inumerable number of games out there that already do what arena does better for me.
The only pvp I enjoy (or used to) was in the battlegrounds or real world where there was a reason/story line as to why you were doing it. This is why I think AV is the ultimate battleground since it mixes in the NPC's and players to work on the same side, it would be good to see this expanded further.
I do wonder here how successful WoW would be if it started up as only arena's ?
2-21-2008 @ 11:21AM
brittwilson said...
I really believe they do need to watch what they do a bit more. I understand a lot of people like Arena, but I don't play one ounce of it, why should whats going on in there effect our progress in SSC and TK? They know when your doing pvp so DR only effects that aspect, and they know when you are in Arena, because you cant use hour long cooldown skills.
Why should it take me longer between pulls to drink, becuase they want to stop quick drinks in arena?
Why should my druid healers get their healing coefficients messed with, who's complaining on their healing, FLK?
They have the ability to keep things separate, and I don't see why they seem to not want to lately.
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2-21-2008 @ 1:11PM
rick gregory said...
PRECISELY. Arenas and BGs are instanced. By definition, Blizzard knows when I'm in one... so alter my abilities when I'm there and leave them alone when I'm in the outside world.
2-21-2008 @ 1:36PM
ThorinII said...
Except when it's world PvP you aren't in an instance. However, the game does know if you are fighting an NPC or Player. So, yeah, only nerf what needs to be nerfed when it's a PvP fight!
2-21-2008 @ 11:26AM
Algorithm said...
Wait, power infusion will at least lower the GCD in the next patch for priests, correct?
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2-21-2008 @ 7:52PM
Chronic said...
That's what I was thinking - people keep talking about how "affliction locks won't benefit" and so forth, but if it's working on the GCD it will be just as good for them as it will for everyone else, right?
Of course, the comments about using it for stronger PW:S or more shadowfiend mana are valid concerns.
2-21-2008 @ 11:30AM
Artaymis said...
This has been an issue I have had with WOW since day 1 (which was roughly 4 years ago): the dev's need to make PVP and PVE class balancing seperate from each other. As the above poster stated there is no reason to nerf a specific class ability when it comes to PVE progression.
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2-21-2008 @ 11:31AM
guesswho? said...
this is news? 95% of all nerfs are due to pvp balancing. its been this way since forever.
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2-21-2008 @ 11:50AM
mcclary said...
Thats because raid bosses don't QQ when they die.
Illidan kindly requests a nerf to rogue DPS. :)
2-21-2008 @ 11:35AM
Rydolomo said...
I don't play pvp and reading the forums over the years, most people judge character abilities in pvp terms and how each is countered by the other.
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2-21-2008 @ 11:43AM
Hokuto said...
The answer is NO. Blizzard fails on balancing the nerfs, and that's because they couldn't care less with PvE.
They swing the nerf bat around and hit whatever they want to "balance PvP" (ie: make customers happy). PvE takes the hit because they just don't care about it.
I've never threatened to cancel my account, but these changes are too ridiculous to stand. If it's actually going live, I'm canceling it. NERFING LB's ticks and BUFFING the final bloom is the proof WoW's real end-game is PvP, and they're not even trying to do otherwise, they're losing control of the game and giving up for QQers and PvPers, the minory and yet, the ones that cry louder.
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2-22-2008 @ 1:35PM
infection said...
LB will be nerf for sure, it is to powerful in arena's supposedly for kiting and hot'ting.
See ya later, hope your new game is as good as WoW.
2-21-2008 @ 11:45AM
Matt said...
The real issue is without PvP you don't need Class balance because the classes aren't fighting each other. Right now Blizzard can't give anyone anything without fear of unbalancing something that it all truth can never be completely balanced. PvP issues are also the reasons we aren't seeing new classes faster because once again there maybe imbalance.
As a healing druid the lifebloom nerf really bugs me. Not that it isn't over powered in PvP I think it is, but a I don't see any changes to dis priest or pallies. Both which are more survivable and more useful in Arenas.
And the other post is right the water nerf is lame as well if you have an issue with druids having his spirit take away the talent that makes it so darn high don't attack everyone.
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2-21-2008 @ 11:47AM
Tridus said...
The Lifebloom nerf is hard to judge, simply because its not needed in PvE. Druid healing isn't overpowered there, you can't simply bring 7 Druids and outheal everything because you have 7 Druids.
If they're trying to encourage other spells, I'd ask "what spells?" Healing Touch isn't usable in Tree of Life. Are they suggesting people should avoid their own 41 point talent?
No, I think its aimed at PvP still, to reduce the HPS on Lifebloom before its dispelled (or on teams that can't dispel it). And if thats the case, its a hit to raiding Druids for no good reason.
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2-21-2008 @ 3:08PM
Kaething said...
Yeah, OP doesn't understand the Lifebloom changes, and the way it's used.
It's even stronger on the final bloom/dispell bloom than it is currently. The only part that is taking a hit is the stacking HoT portion. While that does still nerf PvP some, that was not the major value of the spell in arena.
In PvE however, the HoT was everything. And it's been hit with a flat 10% coefficient nerf. Which means even at something average like 1500 healing, you'll see a 8% reduction in effectiveness in your healing.
At a little north of 2000 healing, I will personally see an 11% reduction in effectiveness. Aka. I lose 60 hps per 3 stack of lifebloom. Even on 2 tank situations, that's 120 hp loss for a PvP nerf that doesn't hurt PvP anywhere near as much.
My bloom goes off for 200 more on PTR than it does on Live.
http://kamileon.net/wow/PTR_Lifebloom.jpg
http://kamileon.net/wow/Live_lifebloom.jpg
And I agree on that the lifebloom nerf WON'T help us use our other spells more, because they suck in comparison. Even post nerf. Lifebloom is 80+% of a resto druid's healing for a reason -- it's the best thing we have. And I don't think, after being a Resto Druid since near-launch, that this lifebloom nerf will change that. It will just make us less effective overall, because Regrowth and Healing Touch are just not competitive in a raid environment.
Stacking HoTs gave us a niche to excel at in a raid team. Take that away, and we're just crappy direct healers.
2-22-2008 @ 3:40PM
jrodman said...
Agree, article's analysis of Lifebloom is flatly incorrect. The bloom is increased on PTR, and the ticks are reduced.
In 5-player content, the bloom has some (mild) value. Lifebloom is useful to fight some kinds of aoe damage, or to help out dps who have taken a couple errant hits. The bloom at the end will typically finish replenishing their health to a reasonable point, and so is not wasted. However, the the bloom comes so late that it's not a lifesaving heal, it's just a refill so that you may have enough time to catch the next issue. Lifebloom on nontank targets is primarily used because of the tick, which ticks every second, so it can start mitigating *right away*.
For tanks, you keep the stack 3-high at all times.
In raiding content, the bloom is essentially worthless. Tanks have rolling stacks, nontanks will be topped off by other, more reasonable raid-healing spells like chain heal before the bloom fires.
So the "buff" to the bloom, is a very minor benefit to 5-player, and essentially valueless to raiders.
Meanwhile the reduction to to the lifebloom tick is huge, because druids are throughput limited.
As tree of life you can apply *all* your hots to your target, and swiftmend when it's off cooldown, and that's mostly it. In emergencies you can spam regrowth but there's not a lot of time in the healing cycle to do this, and it's colossally inefficient, and doesn't increase throughput much. In short, there is a fairly firm cap on maximum heals-per-second for druids for a single target (tank), and this ceiling (600 - 700 hps) is lower than other healers.
The net result is that the weakest part of druid healing (throughput) is being further weakened. Some suggest lifebloom was "too strong", which may be so, but if so, the overall repertoire of druid healing spells is "too weak". After busting my but to pug my +heal all the way from 1200 to 1700, this change would effectively reset it back down to 1500 or so.
Ask yourself, would any healer welcome a change that is equivalent to a -200 to their healing bonus?