WoW Insider

Actually, Ed, there is now a option in the Interface option that hides every spell except your highest rank.

I was thinking the same thing.

If they want to nip downranking just have a single entry in the spellbook per spell

That's great to know! Thanks for the information!

What's the point in even making it possible to show the lower ranks if they do less damage and cost more mana though? Warriors and Rogues already only have their max rank abilities in their spellbooks (IE it's physically impossible to use, say, Rank 3 Eviscerate if you'ev learned Rank 4) so it seems a little convoluted to implement this new system for other classes when there exists a perfectly workable system already implemented in the game.

@Mike

because some lower ranks of spells will still be worth using the higher mana cost version.

For instance, please don't 20 second banish a demon that we don't been banished for 20 seconds. Use a low-ranked one so we're not all sitting around, pointlessly swinging at an immune mob.

I think that they should eliminate having to go to a trainer to get new ranks of old spells. It's not that really exciting to get Rejuvenation (rank 14) anyway. Just make it so you have one Rejuvenation that shows up in your spell book and when you get level 74 (or whatever) it automatically heals for a new amount. Or they could even make it so it scales a little amount each level. Even having the lower ranks is completely pointless if they are going to cost more mana.

It's not that really exciting to get Rejuvenation (rank 14) anyway. I remember when I first started playing WoW I always was pretty excited to go get my new spells, and then it seemed like I was getting robbed when I was just getting the same spell that did a marginal amount more damage or healing. It's just a big hassle without much point at this point to have to go all the way back to a trainer to learn a new rank when the old rank is worse then useless.

Before priest smite spec was made similarly obsolete I used rank 1 smite (0.5s cast) to pull mobs when I was leading an instance.

It's completely stupid that as you progress your character that you end up regressing your spells. It's a bit silly don't you think?

Also, I'm pretty sure before they nerfed down ranked coefficients. This is sorta a hidden discouragement to doing this. I seems they really need to nail it in harder. Honestly, I don't know why they just don't fold them all into one like war/rogue/feraldruid/DK abilities where everytime you get a new rank it replaces the old one.

That said, the problem with mana efficiency and overhealing is a seperate issue.

It's also necessary, your target isn't always damaged enough to require a full heal, so you downrank. If blizz is going to kill downaranking, they need to give us as many new healing spells to allow us to tailor our spell to the amount of healing needed.

"DirtyPriest said...
It's completely stupid that as you progress your character that you end up regressing your spells. It's a bit silly don't you think?"

I have a hammer but I still find use for thumbtacks. When I bought a butane torch I didn't throw out the box of matches.

There are times when you don't want to do cross health x% on the DSP'd target, need to heal but absolutely must not dip mana below x, need a panic short-cast heal on the tank, need to land fast spells while moving to keep a debuff stack up, or quickly stack a debuff while the tank is building initial aggro.

MANY reasons to downrank. I only listed ones I can't see Blizz objecting to; I can see downranking to fish for crits or to have effectively infinite mana annoying 'em. And then there's PvP...

What Blizzard has in place now is Absolutely NOT enough. If you've ever been in a BG chasing a pillarhugging druid who is laughing maniacally and casting downranked HoTs on himself combined with like 1800 +heal, you'd know this.

You can have 2, 3 DPSers wailing full-out on a druid like this for a minute or more, their mana barely budges and they just REFUSE to die.

If you DO manage to get their health down a bit - perhaps through a combination of stuns/silences, they'll nature's swiftness/healing touch/swiftmend and BAM they're up to 80+% again. Pallys and priests are nearly as bad, though druids are by far the worst.

One PvP issue one might have with this spell is it makes flushing out rogues with holy nova much harder since this spell costs such crazy mana at max rank.

As for overhealing/PvE issues, blizzard's already stated they're watching for this and will adjust the game to smooth out any rough spots. I for one am glad they did this - downranking's always been a cheap trick IMO.

Well I don't know what you mean by "alot." Sure, it will still get some use, but if each previous rank increases in mana cost as you get more higher ranked spells then frostbolt rank 1 could end up costing such a stupidly high cost that its just not worth saving another .5 seconds and ranks 2 or 3 might get a bit more play if only to save a good chunk of mana. You might as well spec Arcane *gasp* and use Slow instead **GASP GASP**

All that being said, maybe in arena that couple seconds can make the difference, but now you might end up with no mana to finish the job.

Even in PvE situations, frostbolt rank 1 is occasionally useful. I suspect I'll be taking it off my action bars when this hits live, though.

The main reason is that mentioned in the article of using Rank 1 AoE effects to bust stealthers. Rank 1 Arcane Explosion breaking stealth on a level 70 practically for free is often cited by the developers as a side effect they never intended.

I'm sure all the rogues out there are grinning gleefully in anticipation as the only thing keeping them from getting off their opener on mages is killed.