Breakfast topic: How's 2.1 treating ya?
by Elizabeth Harper 
Apr 14th 2007 at 8:02AM
Now that we've had a little time to digest the lengthy 2.1 patch notes, it's time to ask what you think of the patch so far. Of course, I imagine opinions vary a great deal based on what class you're playing. I, for one, am incredibly impressed by Blizzard's ability to make me want to play a healer a little less with every new patch. (And I like healing.) But are you looking forward to the new content? Eager to jump into the Black Temple? Or are you disappointed by class changes and trying to decide what to reroll?
Filed under: Patches, Breakfast Topics
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
BaboonNL Apr 14th 2007 8:11AM
I'm glad Priests will at least heal equal to paladins again, but I'm sad they had to nerf paladins instead of buff priests.
And all of the raiding changes are great.
d503 Apr 14th 2007 8:20AM
Flask of the Titans = 400hp...lol...I realy hope they tune those boss encounters down ALOT...
Nithelm Apr 14th 2007 9:01AM
I thought the vaunted new and improved lfg system was to make its apperance in 2.1.
Nothing in the notes.
So bummed.
Seriously.
Ecko__18 Apr 14th 2007 9:17AM
The new LFG is in the notes, buried somewhere. Not sure I like the pally changes, as im Ret/Holy and this nerfs the healing I can do, and I wont know if I like the new vengence till I try it out, although Fiery is looking like the enchant to have because the proc can crit and trigger vengence, but I wont know till i try it out.
Bobby Hansen Apr 14th 2007 9:20AM
I'm really displeased at the Shaman changes. I've been speccing Elemental and now suddenly the only thing that kept our Mana use under control is now nearly cut in half. It's not a good idea.
But on the positive note, our Trainers now have correct animations and there was an update to a tool tip of a class skill to clarify.
Karmakin Apr 14th 2007 9:38AM
It's in the notes. At least I saw it there.
What I don't like about the patch is the lack of any sort of thinking about game design. And this isn't by Blizzard, it's by all the people criticizing it:p
Everybody thinks that all changes begin and end at their class, and that power=fun. So if you take away some of the power of their class, it's less fun.
Power is relative.
From what I can tell, especially at the end game, it's going to be easier to heal (probably substantially). To keep it balanced, you can either buff priests, and make it way too easy, or you can lower pallys down a step down to fit the new balancing.
When looked at from that light, you obviously choose the latter.
2.1 is the beginning of a completely new balancing system. To compare it to anything in the past is kinda pointless. Will it be perfect right of the bat? Hell no. But at least now there's a framework that can start to be developed, as opposed to the mess that currently exists.
drakar Apr 14th 2007 9:53AM
Well, as a rogue, the changes made were pretty much everything we asked for. No talent points wasted in having to get imp sap, less reagents for poisons, charges for poisons are gone, and less damage taken away by glancing blows.
41/20/0 here I come. Can't wait for 2.1!
BeardedFerret Apr 14th 2007 10:00AM
I'm a Warlock. I can now get wings.
This patch delivers.
Todes Apr 14th 2007 5:29PM
@6
Why, hello there, Blizzard PR troll.
This patch sucks. My alchemy gets fucked with and so does my priest. But OH! TWENTY-FIVE MORE HP FOR GOD DAMN MAX RANK CIRCLE OF HEALING! IT'S LIKE ANGLES ARE SINGING IN MY EARS AND BUMPING @#&%S BEFORE MY EYES!
drock1205 Apr 14th 2007 10:35AM
I have played nothing but pallies, but I am enjoying my new warlock very much. If I can't heal effectively... I might as well dps.
Karmakin Apr 14th 2007 10:49AM
Nah. I'm just a troll for game design in particular. I irritate people in that way :)
The alchemy change is long overdue, and it's needed to be able to properly balance encounter content. If you reduce damage taken in instances, you've effectivly buffed survival (and that's what it is)
Power is relative.
Yeah it sucks that Herb/Alch won't be such a money maker. That's what I have on my main. But it's always been a money maker to a degree out of balance with all the other professions. So my thinking is I can't complain too much.
Karmakin Apr 14th 2007 10:49AM
Nah. I'm just a troll for game design in particular. I irritate people in that way :)
The alchemy change is long overdue, and it's needed to be able to properly balance encounter content. If you reduce damage taken in instances, you've effectivly buffed survival (and that's what it is)
Power is relative.
Yeah it sucks that Herb/Alch won't be such a money maker. That's what I have on my main. But it's always been a money maker to a degree out of balance with all the other professions. So my thinking is I can't complain too much.
MacAllah Apr 14th 2007 10:57AM
Dear Blizzard,
If you notice people are playing priests as shadow more than as holy, it may mean shadow is over-powered. It may also mean holy sucks... badly. I think the way you know which is which is to see if holy can heal on par (or better, this is what they are meant to do) than any of the other healing classes.
Oh, they can't? Pallies are more mana-efficient and wear plate? Druids can wear all the healing gear priests can AND leather healing gear?
Well, no worries. Don't look at the overall class balance in comparison to the other classes, just try to "fix" things within the priest genre. While it might be fun and beneficial to buff the holy tree, it instead is a lot easier to nerf shadow... repeatedly.
Sure, eventually shadow will suck so badly people will go back to holy (maybe to off-heal...). Good job.
Then again, if there is a lack of changes to the holy tree because of some void of creativity, I have some ideas.
How about a "linked" HOT. Kind of similar to druid HOTs this ability would let you heal a tank overtime (maybe use a holy-colored mind-flay animation) and if he starts getting hit hard quickly the HOT can be "finished" and all the remaining health is applied all at once for slightly more mana cost.
You could throw up a renew, a prayer of mending, and then one of these. It'd be a more active healing role figuring out when to break the flay for max heal/mana efficiency and would be fun.
Either that or you can keep slowly buffing circle of healing... which if your tank is doing a good job... is almost 100% useless. That is unless you happen to enjoy having your casters stay really close to bosses, so they can get splash damage AND be within range for circle of healing to thus heal them.
Awesome.
Signed,
Trejo (Drak'Thul-Alliance)
Khanmora Apr 14th 2007 11:01AM
My big complaint is that changing Illumination which has been a core holy talent since release nullifies all the work I have put in on my pally to get crit gear. I can either go try to get a totally new set of gear (probably greens of the elder since there is very little mp5 itemization beyond that) or try to raise my crit by another 30% or so to get the same efficiency I have now.
With bosses and trash hitting as hard as they are and using Holy Light more often (most of the priests in my guild quit playing their priests or specc'd to shadow after 2.0 so I am usually the main healer) we already can go out of mana way too quickly. :(
masterpat Apr 14th 2007 12:23PM
I play 2 Characters. My rogue main, and my paladin who Im working through the ranks. I am happy that all rogues will now have what Imp Sap used to give. Which allows me to be just as useful in instances and still have points to pump out dps. I do not however like the changes dealt to Paladins and especially even warriors. They nerf the class instead of buffing others. Blizz stop with the nerf bats and start changing other classes to be just as good.
Also cant say I like the new changes to elixirs and other potions. Just....meh. I dont think the potions themselves were broken at all; I think the amount required for some boss fights...are
Madjap Apr 14th 2007 11:41AM
OMG what do you mean priests need a buff on healing?!
Jeez, you guys dont have fun fort and spi buffing ur raids, being on main shackle duty in kara, and then off heal the raid?
Oh, and BIG thumbs up to the +25 to circle of healing..that was LONG overdue. (does anyone really use this and lightwell?)
Savok Apr 14th 2007 12:06PM
Priests got plenty of love in 2.1, just look at how cool their T6 looks.
All you need is a top class raiding guild to take pity on you and your broken class to get there.
Valefore Apr 14th 2007 1:00PM
After reading through it, I'm very ticked off for a number of reasons. Why is flare being made so we can only have one flare out at a time? Why the change? Apparently the two flares we could effectively have out at once was too much for rogues/feral druids so they changed it. Why? There is no point. Also something that has no reasoning behind it is the change to mining. Nodes will spawn closer to groups of mobs. Those mobs will now target and attack you while mining even if they wouldn't have before. Why the change? Are we mining too much for your liking Bliz? Must we kill things before we mine? I really hope they take a good look at the feedback players will overwhelm them with and not make some of the changes.
Karmakin Apr 14th 2007 12:57PM
They reason they nerfed pallies is because they nerfed every BC dungeon (especially on Heroic), and to keep them from being insanely overpowered healers in the new difficulty environment.
Blackbrute Apr 14th 2007 1:57PM
@13
God, my RL friend has a Holy Priest. He's having fun with it and guess what, he's able to heal me (Prot Warrior) through Heroics and Karazhan with just Flash Heal and Renew on his hotbar. We also find his Lightwell to be of some good use on certain situations. One thing I agree with though is Circle of Healing. Get that spell out of the game. It's like a mistake they try to correct each patch.
@17
Don't you understand? It all makes perfect sense. Imagine that a certain class is too powerful. Wouldn't it make sense for you to just nerf that class instead of buffing all the others? It would become chaotic.
Imagine everytime a class or ability is overpowered, Blizzard would buff the equivalent of other classes then PvP balance would be consistantly thrown out and fix to patches would take even longer (it does take some time to program all of this, they have no wizard to help them create the code they want in just 5 simple steps with no &?&# up).
If you have 9 classes with each their levels. One surpasses the level expected, it's easier to tone that class down instead of going through the trouble of bringing all the others at the same level.
The amount of potions required for a boss fight is too much? You're solution is just leave alchemy like it is, tone everything down and let the raiders pot and flask themselves to death so they beat the content they took a year and a half to design and plan in about a month?
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Anyway, all in all, I love the changes, I find Intervene to break Immobilizing and slowing effect totally cool, altough it will take a lot of the suspense when I get immobilized but will help a lot of warriors in PvP with Charge/Intercept.