Remember, fear isn't going to be a big factor in the expansion!
by Elizabeth Wachowski 
Feb 21st 2007 at 12:29PM
That was the logic used by Blizzard to give Fear Ward to Draenei priests instead of Blood Elves. This comment runs through my mind every time I get feared into mobs in Steamvaults/Underbog/other instances, wiping the group due to something I cannot control.
I hate mobs that fear in PVE. As a rogue, there's nothing I can do to control or stop the fear aside from permanently staying outside melee range. (No, I'm not undead.) I haven't even done Nightbane yet, who is apparently another Nef-like encounter that involves major fearing. Sure, tremor totem can help, but if you don't have a shaman you're sort of boned.
This isn't another Alliance-has-it-easy complaint -- I know that most Alliance groups probably don't have a dwarf or draenei priest, and many of the "fear" effects are actually horror and aren't stopped by Fear Ward. The mechanics of PVE fear are annoying to everyone, from gnomes to tauren, and I sincerely wish it had some kind of counter -- either by reducing its appearance in instances or giving all priests Fear Ward. It's an overdone and repetitive mechanism that no one actually likes.
Looking at the forums, it seems many people agree with me. And surprisingly enough, a good share of the complainers are Alliance. A dwarf paladin notes that he "loves getting stuck between a wagon and its wheel or falling through the world" after a fear, a human warrior hates that you can't stance dance past insta-cast fears, and a night elf priest says that "it's pretty uncreative to make the frustration factor in instances solely based on one spell for almost twelve instances."
So do you think fear is overused, or do we just all need to lrn2play by pulling mobs further back and clearing large areas?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Instances, Raiding, The Burning Crusade
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Rich Feb 21st 2007 12:35PM
I haven't had a chance to try it yet, but wouldn't cloak of shadows be a solution for rogues? At least once a minute.
Twinny Feb 21st 2007 12:35PM
QQ more,
until the most imba racial of all WoTF is balanced i'd bite my tongue.
Lostmimic Feb 21st 2007 12:43PM
I agree with #1, If you have a decent priest then for most of those "fear" events in those instances stay out of range of the fear and dispel magic the tank and the rest of the group who was feared. As for places where there is no range on the fear, who cares? 5 points in the first tier of the discipline tree should read 50% chance to avoid fear because it procs all the time (cant tell you how many time ony has killed me in stage 3 cause of it ;) )
-Human Priest
Rakeleer Feb 21st 2007 12:51PM
As stated, most of the 'fear' effects are actually Horrify and cannot be mitigated with fear ward. CloS only works if you pop it BEFORE the effect, as you cannot active CloS while feared/horrified. So it's virtually useless against the packs of trash in instances that do this.
So by "Fear will not be a factor" Blizzard must have meant "We're going to make the mobs Horrify, so you Fear Ward won't help anyway". ROFL
Druid dude Feb 21st 2007 1:10PM
Fears in instances:
Get rid of them completely.
Totally frustrating and pointless. Cheap gimmick to use when designers cant think of any other way to make an encounter or pull interesting or challenging.
tyger Feb 21st 2007 12:56PM
Primal Tenacity (druid feral talent) has gone off enough times for me that I'm so grateful that I put the points in them (max for 15%).
Zuuler Feb 21st 2007 1:00PM
WotF isn't imbalanced, and it fits perfectly into lore. Every race has some ability that gives them an advantage in certain situations.
Besides, everyone can have a fear dispelling effect, for the cost of some honor points. Its called insignia of the horde (and whatever the alliance equivelant is called).
Mat Feb 21st 2007 1:05PM
I ran Slave Pens for the first time last night, and while the fear was occasionally annoying, we never wiped. Of the five times a fear went off, I resisted twice, was held in place by root twice, and once ran towards some water. For a feral druid tanking in bear, that's not too bad.
Sylythn Feb 21st 2007 1:07PM
Now it doesn't do any good for melee classes - but if you're doing your job as a caster, you're out of range of those PvE fears all the time. They really don't last all that long (certainly not as bad as a Warlock's), and since Horror effects can't be countered by anything - it's just something to learn to deal with. You just cleared a long cooridor, it's a safe place - so pull those mobs back to the cleared area where you're not going to fall of a 30ft cliff or pull a dozen adds.
Pruflas Feb 21st 2007 1:23PM
Common, people. Clear the way - pull back farther then normal, and kill the casters first. not all the mobs have fear/horror - target them first. Make sure you have room to work.
I'd bet 80% of party wipes due to this is from people trying to skip mobs to move faster.
We've wiped twice, first one we were not ready for, second one we were getting cocky. We learned our lesson fast, and haven't wiped due to this since.
Grimolfr Feb 21st 2007 1:34PM
Unless you have more than one priest with fear ward in your group it isn't that effective anyway. It is on a 30 second cooldown. I never found it to be that useful for instances outside of a couple raid encounters. To fear's detractors, why should every encounter be "as long as we know the strat we can do this with our eyes closed". Is that fun to you? This makes things harder and more unpredictable. We play games for a challenge, right?
GDub Feb 21st 2007 1:46PM
Insignia/Medallion of the Horde dispells fear... easily attainable PvP trinket.
Ragbar Feb 21st 2007 1:53PM
@#9
You said:
"Totally frustrating and pointless. Cheap gimmick to use when designers cant think of any other way to make an encounter or pull interesting or challenging."
That sounds awfully hypocritical. So you're demanding Blizzard makes instances more challenging, but only as long as they don't use fear? When you yourself admitted, it's frustrating. Well I would say that makes instances more challenging almost by definition.
Sal Feb 21st 2007 1:54PM
I ran Underbog last night and could earth shock the horror if I caught it during the cast. Since it no longer has the aggro side-effect (moved to frostshock) I will able to keep spell breaking and not drag aggro off the tank. This saved a lot of unnecessary fearing. Could counterspell work as well?
Matt Feb 21st 2007 2:10PM
@#6 & #12
Not every class's trinket dispels fear. Some only remove fear/stun/immobilizing effects (which is highly useful, but allows for no fear control).
Matt Feb 21st 2007 2:12PM
Edit-
Errm.... Some trinkets only remove Slow/Stun/Immobilizing effects. I'm dumb.
Heymish Feb 21st 2007 2:29PM
Waaaaaaah! QQ Bizzard made things challenging. QQ Come on guys! Do we really want an easy game? Wipeing is a part of WoW. Always has been. Personally, I like when they throw curve balls at us. If there was a way to counter every spell in the game, mobs would be easy. They changed it to a horror spell probably so NO ONE would have an advantage. Are instances fun for you whiners when you always have a script to follow to beat mobs? What's wrong with some difficulty once in awhile?
roseroyce04 Feb 21st 2007 3:28PM
Been saying this for over two years now:
Fear is fine, learn to play.
Ephor Feb 21st 2007 3:30PM
1) It's hella annoying, Horrify effects should not make you draw aggro from other mobs, period.
2) Hordies need to stop whining about FW, this is like the eighth post on this site. Dwarves have it because their racial (+10% armor, immune to poison/bleed for 8 whole seconds) is positively worthless for any dwarf not wearing plate (even then I'd take WotF or Wstomp in a heartbeat), Draeni have it because expac racials are imba. I've never seen the argument comparing priest racials WITH natural racials to other race/class combos of priests.
InfoMofo Feb 21st 2007 4:34PM
WOTF can't be used during a horrify effect, but I've had some success with popping it while the mob is casting. Still, I'd be better served be using that cast time to kick/gouge/stun instead.