Should some spells be PvE or PvP only?
by Elizabeth Harper 
Aug 2nd 2007 at 8:40AM
Over on the Blessing of Kings blog, Coriel makes an excellent point: does World of Warcraft need PvP-only or PvE-only spells? Why, you ask? For balance purposes. If some spells were lebelled as only usable in one type of combat or the other, it would prevent situations in which a sometimes helpful spell in PvE gets nerfed hard because it's too good in PvP. As an example, Coriel talks about the 2.2 change to Blessing of Sacrifice, which will give the skill a 1-minute cooldown:It's [the change] pretty much aimed at PvP, where Sacrifice is constantly used to break Crowd Control for paladins. However, this change makes Sacrifice useless for both PvP and PvE purposes. Admittedly, Sacrifice doesn't get used an awful lot in PvE. But there are times when it is useful.
Perhaps it's time for Blizzard to take a new tact in its PvP balancing act and implement some PvP-only and some PvE-only spells -- preventing a PvP nerf from nerfing your PvE game and vice versa.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Gungolf Aug 2nd 2007 8:50AM
Oh, great - the Maiden of Virtues Repentance happens every 30-40 secs! That means I need to stand into her Consecration which breaks all but instant casts. :-(
Tridus Aug 2nd 2007 8:59AM
In general, yes. Ask any person who doesn't PvP what they hate most, and a good deal of the time the answer is going to be PvE nerfs caused by PvP (and now arena) whining.
The two things are fundamentally different, one set of rules doesn't work for both of them.
Zeroshero Aug 2nd 2007 9:04AM
Well, I believe if they can keep a spell from being used in pve instead of pvp and vice versa, then they have the abilities to nerf a particular spell in pvp and leave it the same in pve and/or nerf something in pve and leave it the same for pvp.
FireStar Aug 2nd 2007 9:06AM
since combat style is so different, there's no need for this. plus, how are you going to fit that into the lore and make it make sense?
Dave Aug 2nd 2007 9:08AM
Yes. My gameplay is 99.9% PvE and I am sick and tired of my spells getting nerfed for PvP balance reasons. Yes. Put my name on the petition.
Ahoni Aug 2nd 2007 9:16AM
There is already at least one PVE only spell ... Curse of Doom.
dafire Aug 2nd 2007 9:16AM
there are pve only spells.. like "Curse of Doom" .. castable on all but player targets.
Geo Lara Aug 2nd 2007 9:21AM
Put me down too. Especially with the: "Locks are over powered" crowd. I shudder at the idea that my lock will become a broken class in PVE soloing because those PVP whiners.
Sometimes I wish there was a separate "World of PVP Craft" game, that way class balance issues would be easier to work out.
Hektor Aug 2nd 2007 9:26AM
Any taunt option a warrior has already fits this description, which I've always found ridiculous. Taunt could certainly be overpowered if its full PVE effect was allowed, but at least force the target to switch their target to you (sort of the reverse of PVP feign death).
Niyx Aug 2nd 2007 9:36AM
@Gungolf
Man you're an idiot, no wonder you're worried about wiping on maiden.
1) You can HoT through the damage on the tank very easily. Yes i know paladins dont have any HoT's but thats why you take a druid.
2) You can also step into the consecration 1-2 seconds before repentance hits. You get a single tick of consecration to take you out of repentance then you can go back and start healing again.
Seriously.
Lrn2Think before you insist on commenting and polluting my mind with such idiocy.
Razhlok Aug 2nd 2007 9:39AM
@1
Stand outside consencrate, by yourself. When repentance happens tank walks maiden back towards you to break it and then walks back. Holy Jeebus, what does your guild do when a Paladin isn't on? Just skip Maiden?
Gungolf Aug 2nd 2007 9:45AM
Believe me, Maiden is no problem anymore, and I'm HoTting for sure. Besides I'm playing a priest and try to jump into consecration anyway. No need to call people names.
BTW, how can you step into consecration 1-2 secs before if there is no certain recurrence? Repentance can be cast after 30 secs cooldown, but she might cast it much later - you don't know. So you could end up standing in consecration for at worst 15 sec anly able to HoT, dispell magic, but not proper heals. But that is only a problem for groups that just start raiding Kara.
Attapooch Aug 2nd 2007 9:47AM
I think it's pretty clear that PVP should have one set of rules and balancing between classes and PVE should have its own.
Looking back over the patches, the overwhelming majority of the class, skill, or spell changes being made are to accommodate PVP at the expense of PVE.
Stigsen Aug 2nd 2007 9:51AM
In my opinion, they should make some of the PvE-only abilities, ie. taunt and fade usable in PvP too. That would be wicked. Imagine a warrior taunting an opponent, forcing the opponent to change target to him. Or a priest fading, causing everyone having him targetted to loose their target.
Hidden_Agenda Aug 2nd 2007 9:55AM
Funny, I thought there already were these types of spells.
"Curse of Doom (Rank 2)
380 Mana 30 yd range
Instant cast 1 min cooldown
Curses the target with impending doom, causing 4200 Shadow damage after 1 min. If the target dies from this damage, there is a chance that a Doomguard will be summoned. Cannot be cast on players. "
With the huge increase in health pools, the exorbitant amount of time it takes to go off (giving plenty of time to be dispelled), and the 1 minute cool down (preventing it being put on all targets)... I don't understand why it cannot be cast on players.
Marlus Aug 2nd 2007 10:10AM
very agree with #14
Gendou Aug 2nd 2007 10:24AM
Considering that in this same patch that all CC is being reduced to 8 seconds in PvP only, they absolutely have the codebase to make spells have different effects in PvP and PvE.
Give us back our no-cooldown Prayer of Mending in PvE!
Kahja Aug 2nd 2007 10:30AM
"spells were lebelled as"
lebelled
Paw Aug 2nd 2007 10:34AM
We all know there are spells more useful in one play-type over the other. But I'm not sure how likely it will be for Blizzard to essentially recode the game to allow for differing nerfs/buffs on the different realms. They can't even implement a filter to prevent goofy anatomy-based names on RP realms. I don't know how much of that rides on the client versus the server, but guessing by the size of some of the patches, I guess it is client based. If you create a seperate file for PvE and PvP on the client, how do you ensure that the right file is read by the game at launch? If you have toons on a PvP realm and toons on a PvE realm, how do you ensure the right files are read in? I guess it could be done, but I doubt the effort will be put in to do it. Given the numbers of people playing at any given moment, they aren't in imminent danager of collapse, so why mess with the most successful formula to date?
Todd Aug 2nd 2007 10:51AM
I'm all for some PvP spell restrictions, while keeping the spells as intended for PvE. Mages get nerfed a ton for the sake of PvP balance, yet these same changes dramatically decrease their effectiveness in PvE.