All aboard the nerf train in the BC beta
by Mike Schramm 
Nov 18th 2006 at 12:54AM
If you haven't been on the forums for a day or two, you may not have noticed: the devs finally pulled the nerf bat out for the expansion. Lots of classes are running around crying their heads off (droods I'm looking at you), there's lot of flaming going on, and the world is generally coming to an end. You haven't noticed? Strange.So here's the changes that freaked everyone out so bad. These appeared in the patch notes for the beta server, which we posted here without fanfare when they first showed up.
- Warriors got a big change to rage generation that, as far as I can tell (there's a lot of math involved) gave a nerf to anyone carrying around a two hander. Rage was normalized, especially on crits, so people are reporting from 3-4 to up to 10 less points of rage per crit damage. Of course, as gear gets better, so will rage generation, but the warriors aren't thrilled.
- Mage AOE took a hit, as well-- right now, AOE hits any number of mobs in a certain area (hence, "area of effect") for the same damage. After the patch, AOE will diminish (see point number 6) after a certain number of mobs-- beta testers are saying it's around ten or so. I didn't think this was a big factor (because when are you really fighting more than ten mobs, but I was proven wrong tonight in ZG, when we found countless numbers of panthers and spiders and the AOE was necessary to finish them.
- Hunter pets got "normalized" (more math-- anyone want to try explaining this simply), which means Cat pets will see a drop in damage and Bears will see a small gain. Also, Hunters aren't thrilled that The Beast Within (one of their BC skills) was nerfed to a 10% damage bonus from a 30% damage bonus. But they aren't crying nearly as much as the...
- Druids, who got hit big: there will now be a one second cooldown for all shapeshifting abilities. Also, feral druids were very excited to be able to use consumables (and weapon procs) in bear and cat forms, but the devs say that was apparently a bug, and it's not happening in the beta. That has got druids torn up more than anything else, so there is QQing aplenty over on the druid forums (though there may be hope yet).
But I will say that I think it's inevitable the nerf bat had to be brought out eventually. Blizzard has been exceptionally generous, I think, with these expansion talents and spells (don't forget, mages still have Invisibility, and almost all classes are getting completely new spells and strategies to use), and so I'm not surprised at all that these changes came about-- and I won't be surprised if more show up as well (Shamans, I still expect a dual wield nerf for us).
But at the same time, the Mage and Druid changes confuse me a little bit. AoE seems so fundamental to the Mage class, and you'll rarely hit 10 targets in a PVP setting, so why bother nerfing it in PVE? And even if the Druid consumable problem is legit (and I think it is-- Druids shouldn't be able to be replacement warriors in every situation), the devs just call it a "bug"? That's a pretty big bug to let float by for so long.
Anyway, have at it. And if you've played on the BC server, are these changes as much of an issue as everyone thinks they are? Or is this stuff all just creating a river of tears for nothing?
Filed under: Druid, Hunter, Mage, Warrior, Analysis / Opinion, Expansions
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Druid dude Nov 18th 2006 2:13AM
Yesterday's eh... ASCII reactions on the Druid forums were the result of 2 years of pent up frustration, coming out on a group level.
I really do like playing a Druid. My hat is off to those that pursue Feral or Balance specs, as they frustrated me far too much knowing that my Fury warrior in greens and blues can outdamage my epic geared Druid, and I do have some pretty nice fancy purple feral gear. But that was okay by me, because it turned out that I really do like to heal.
So that was what we really had as Druids, outstanding healing. Nevermind that I needed a 60 alt or two to finance my Resto Druid habit, since I have the DPS of a drunken Sloth and raiding gets very expensive.
Fire up the flames if you play a Priest and you feel the need to, but IMO, a good Druid can heal just as well as a good Priest. Its a very different style of healing for sure, but just as effective. Or at least it was.
The big thing for Resto Druids were:
1) Highly efficient healing by downranking, coupled with 15% mana regen talents and 3 piece SR bonus, thrown in a little MP5 and some +heal gear. Wow, a Druid can heal all day long without running out of mana. Popping out 1000-1200 heals every couple of seconds for like... ever. When *well* coordinated with Priests and Shammies, its incredible how much healing 15 people can pump out, just incredible.
2) OH CRAP heals. With Swiftmend, Nature's Swiftness and solid HoTs, a Druid can both smoothe over the rough spots and and recover damage on a tank like nobody else can.
The 2nd still applies in the new patch, better even.
The 1st is completely in the toilet. This is what kills me. The downranking nerf hits Druids the hardest. Our healing efficiency is gone. Yes our HoTs stack, sure would be nice to still have the mana to cast one 5 or 10 minutes in to a boss fight. We won't.
Priests want an innervate? Roll a Druid, we need ours now. Phase 2 Nef, sorry, OOM, used my innervate too. Yeah, just like I did on all 3 Drakes an hour ago. Sorry our tanks died. Patchwerk? Well... no more play. Raids are going to be seriously hosed as a direct result of the downranking nerf. Make no mistake, this is a nerf of epic proportion, the most severe one I have seen in WoW yet.
When you pile this on top of the other recent nerfs Druids have been pounded with... its just bad, really bad.
I am not jumping on the ZOMG ACCOUNT CANCELLED bandwagon, I like WoW far too much. I am not even changing mains, at least not yet. However, when this next patch comes out... well, I am going to wait and see how this plays out. I do have a 60 Hunter and Warrior, both ready to grind to 70 and become my primary source of fun in WoW.
That would suck to do, because I really do like to heal, but how many Druids are going to be invited to raids if we only do 75% the healing of a Priest, 75% the melee damage of a rogue, or 75% the caster damage of a Mage? I can tell you exactly how many: 1. Mark of the Wild is still the best buff in the game, and a combat rez is great to have around some times.
Did people get carried away on the Druid forums? Oh yeah. Was their anger justified? Yup.
Frostfall Nov 18th 2006 3:20AM
Druid Dude, you nailed my restro druid issues on the head, thank you.
The guild leaders of my guild were discussing exactly how many druids to recruit to our post BC guild based on the changes - the answer was 2, one for a back up.
I'm afraid I did join the account cancelled bandwagon for now, but that's because I had made the decision a few weeks ago to reroll a Draenie priest once the expansion comes out. (At which point I'll start paying to play again.) I enjoy healing and dislike the changes they've made to the druids enough that yes, I'm throwing in the towel & switching. Ok, so a factor of this is also that my fiance would like us to be the same race for once and this is a perfect time to switch. I still hate the changes they have made and each one I hear seems to be getting worse, not better. Tree of Death, is now Banishable for example.
apriori Nov 18th 2006 4:49AM
"But I will say that I think it's inevitable the nerf bat had to be brought out eventually. Blizzard has been exceptionally generous, I think, with these expansion talents and spells..."
If you actually played a druid then you would realize how far from the truth this is. Druids got hit with that "nerf bat" from our very conception, and the moment we were actually given some sort of viability (and news of this spread like wildfire among us), Blizz ripped it away from us. The class is already the least played class of the game, and with this round of nerfs, I dont really see many current druid enthusiasts hanging around to try and complete the ever growing list of things we want to do, but that blizz and the wow community won't allow us to do. The general feeling among the druid community is that it's either time to move to another class, or time to find a new game.
rud Nov 18th 2006 7:39AM
KALIMDOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOR! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yz (Echo Isles) Nov 18th 2006 8:20AM
They did some play balancing. And, as usual, the folks who thought through what the devs were trying to accomplish end up defending these rational moves to folks who are venting some knee jerk reactions.
On the hunter changes, pets are having their attack speed normalized to 2.0. This means broken tooth won't smack the snot out of casters as often, but he will still do the same amount of base dps as every other pet in the game. This means that you choose your pet based upon the family and the skin you like - no more camping rare spawns for days looking for the pet with the special stats.
As for the nerf of the beast within, the major component of this talent was the crowd control element. That hasn't changed. A hunter has an 18 sec immune to fear, sheep, stun, etc... on a two minute timer. That's insane. The added damage is just topping on the cake. It was overpowered, when considered in conjunction with the other talents in the BM tree. So, they nerfed the lesser part of the talent to appease locks and mages getting owned on the beta servers, but left the core of the talent intact.
Now, as far as the druid useable item nerf. I remember when they first thorugh about putting this in during the druid talent rebalancing. It would overpower the druid too much. Here's the sole reason: You let a druid in bear form with that massive heal spell add in healing pots and bandages, and druids will be beating the snot out of stuff that nothing else in the game can come close to.
So, I have faith in Blizzard. I don't always like what they do, but I respect their jusdgement. After all, they made a game with 7 million subscribers. If I could do that, I would be sipping umbrella drinks in Bermuda, instead of posting here on the boards right now.
Tainted_mage Nov 30th 2006 9:53PM
Blah to me nerfs are nerfs. I learn to deal with them and change playing style based on em. So why are ppl crying like Emo's when they'll learn to deal with it?
Savok Nov 18th 2006 8:59AM
A bug, yeah right
http://www.thottbot.com/beta?i=8607
I remember the same bullshit when the 5th were taken out of CoH. God damn lying devs.
JP Dec 7th 2006 4:10PM
I can't believe the screwed over hunters so much! The whole point of the hunter is the pet, and now Bliz "normalized" them, basically destroying the whole point of having different pets.
Way to go Bliz, nerfing nearly all of the classes I play!
Jadus Nov 18th 2006 1:13PM
if everyone is nerfed... are we gonna notice?
Aladek Nov 20th 2006 11:49AM
Ok, I don't see why the hit is on the Druids so much (I admit I have never gotten one past 19) but the ability to use consumables in form isn't as much of a hit if you consider the fact that people playing now don't have that option anyway.
Meat Shields... I mean warriors may have a point, I don't know how much difference this makes, but it is a change from the current standard.
I do however play a hunter, and while I don't focus on my pet tanking as much, it is nice to have the different pets avaliable, and not just different looks, different all around pets. imho there should be even more differences, not less.
Mages got screwed over the most. Whenever there is a large group of mobs that need to take a dive... you call on the mage (and the lock or hunter to back up the aoe) but it's the mage that either makes it work or fails. If this actually goes through, they better make it up to the mages... maybe give them plate armor and a nice pet ;)
Frostfall Nov 18th 2006 1:54PM
It's not just the consumables thing. To be honest, since I'm restro I'm almost always in caster form so it doesn't effect me too much. Sure I'll drop to a feral form if needed in a heart beat - but most of the time it's not needed.
It's the changes to the restro treee as well.
"I need a heal! HEAL ME!!!"
".... I can't. I'm in Tree of Death form & well... I'm banished. Sorry."
Valzar Nov 18th 2006 3:27PM
Bring out the nerf bat on someone who deserves it... say those dirty rogues, aways playing the game on easy mode.
Druid's have always been crippled from the gate, so why shoot them in the knee when they start to keep pace?
I agree us mages are going to need just compensation tho, AOE is why i play mage. I forsake armor and threat reduction for pure damage to everyone around me. Have i not forsook enough?
Dan Nov 18th 2006 4:34PM
Mages get invisibility? WHAT and this is a fair trade off for the nerfs we have seen across the board since Beta opened. We finally got a Blue response on our forums to 7 questions; however the response were horrible and didn't REALLY justify anything.
Furthermore, learn the mechanics of invisibility. It is an 8s cast time designed to DUMP AGGRO, any AoE breaks it, any party memebrs in combat breaks it, it does take you out of combat to drink and it, but you will put right back in with a party member. You don't see anyone but other invisible people so it isn't THAT pvP (only slightly).
Invisibility hahaha, like it is that good. They gave it to us so that they could NERF the F*&$ out of our aggro ability. Burning soul and frost channeling will take a huge hit come 1.13 with our threat reduction.
mages got the shaft!
CS on GCD
PoM+comb on same cooldown (although it might change)
CoC and Dragon's breath on same CD
Burning soul and frost channeling threat reduction was reduced IN HALF
Emp Fireball and Emp frost SUCK compared to locks and priest
AoE dmg reduced for exploitive purposes, but the only people who did it were for fun and were geared out level 60s who couldn't AoE grind.
41 pt talents suck, Slow hasn't been perfected, Dragon's breath is nice but this game hates fire except in naxx, and water elemental is cool, save the fact that it is only up for 45seconds.
qq
Bill G Nov 18th 2006 5:05PM
There have been some nice changes to both the Assassination and Subtlety trees for rogues made in the beta server, however the one Combat talent [Weapon Expertise] that was added in the "rogue review" which was huge for raiding rogues (effective vs. raid mobs/bosses pretty exclusively) was just nerfed into uselessness along with the human racial +swords/+maces advantage.
No change to PvP, small change to grinding (only if you're grinding mobs > level), huge [-7.5% damage] change to raid boss damage.
Jay Nov 18th 2006 7:16PM
To quote your post, Mike:
..."And even if the Druid consumable problem is legit (and I think it is-- Druids shouldn't be able to be replacement warriors in every situation)"...
Consumables wouldn't make druids into replacement warriors, there are too many other fundamental differences for that, sheesh... Druids can't parry, use a shield, change stances, generate as much threat, mitigate as much dmg, etc etc the list goes on. Kindof expected more from you guys to make an uninformed comment like this. ;)
Druids were hit hard, and they have needed a lot of fixing since the beginning. Blizzard needs to fix this class, not break it further.
Also, I have to wholeheartedly agree with Druid Dude, the first comment to this post, well said.
Andrew Nov 19th 2006 12:30AM
As a person with a lvl 60 pally, and a Hunter I'm not overly concerned with the hunter changes(Hunters have nothing on pallys when it comes to nerfs), we'll wait and see how it works. But from what i've seen the hunter changes will make the class a little more interesting and allow us to have a little more personality and individuality. There is no point to having certain pets that everyone HAS to have becuase of its attack speed. Although it would be nice to have an even greater variety of potential pets. I personally want a merloc pet(but it would actually be 3 Merlocs that would attack and move as one....heh).
As for the druids, I want my pally to dual wield, tank, heal like a priest, have a holy stealth, have a "Holy Warrior" form(I'm invincible for 30secs and do 5x dmg on a 1min cooldown), have a "freed" undead pet, and have DoTs. But i don't cry that much about it(cept for the tanking thing). Stop crying(in a few days) and learn how to play your class, and if you don't like it reroll or threaten to quit the game only to continue to play your drood and grumble about it for the next 6 months because all the other classes in the game don't care b/c we've been nerfed too(cept rogues, they'll just keep on laughing at us all).
/end rant
Andrew
Aaron Nov 19th 2006 1:16PM
Druids got hit with the nerf bat REAL hard. From what Ive read - Blizz gave them weapon procs and pots. Gave each form its own animation for such events, changed the pots to read "Warriors, Druids" and them came out and said it was a bug!!
Total crap.
The biggest problem is scaling - once you hit 60 in a Druid you become totally out matched - no scaling.
Druids have a harder time tanking because they dont have snap aggro - rage pots would have closed that gap.
Well - for me I rolled my priest and lock to 60 now - so thats 84 days played on my druid wasted for now ;(
Anti Whinger Nov 19th 2006 5:03PM
Cry More Druids!
You guys won't be happy till you have everything.
dps of a rogue, healing of a priest, tanking of a war.
Jack of all trades, Master of NONE.
There is no way you should be able to fill a specialty role as well as a specialist class.
Aaron Nov 19th 2006 5:26PM
"There is no way you should be able to fill a specialty role as well as a specialist class."
Why not? The purpose of a Druid IMO is to fill in for any class as needed.
If I am fully spec'd and geared spicifically for that roll I should be "comparable". Out of the 80 some odd bag slots I have at least 70 are taken up by gear. This does not include my fire / nature gear.
If Im spec'd / gear for one role Im VERY gimped for the others - so a Druid CANT be all rolls ALL the time.
Anti Whinger Nov 19th 2006 6:39PM
Well, there would be no need for any other classes then would there.
We would all roll druids and just make a trip to the bank everytime we wanted to change classes.