Blue Notes: Fear ward for all, and a faster Armory
by Eliah Hecht 
Aug 22nd 2007 at 6:51PM
Apparently, Fear Ward is going to be a spell for all priests as of Wrath of the Lich King. This is indirectly confirmed by Nethaera. In response to a post translated from German that implies a universal Fear Ward, the candle said:This is true that we plan to spread Fear Ward around, but don't expect it until most likely the expansion.
There's a bit of a difference between "spread it around" and "for all races," but still, I'm betting on every race getting it just to end the debate. And it looks like the URL change is not the only refreshing the Armory is getting today; the "first phase" (ooh, there's more?) of Armory optimizations has gone live:
- Smarter, faster results pages: The Armory's various search results pages respond more quickly when changing pages or sorting within the results. The Armory's right hand panel also takes advantage of this new speed and now remembers what page you were last viewing as well.
- Faster item tooltips: The tooltips that appear when mousing over items in a character profile or an item search results page are now much more responsive.
- Open Armory links in new windows/tabs: Now you can open links from the Armory in their own tabs or windows for quick comparisons between profiles, items, search results, and more.
- New advanced item search button: This button takes you to the Armory's powerful advanced item search options and is located in a prominent, convenient location under the main search field.
- And much more: Many more specific improvements have been implemented, the details of which can be found on the Updates page. In addition, general performance has been greatly improved in the areas of response time, loading time, and memory usage.
Filed under: Priest, Odds and ends, News items, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Byron Aug 22nd 2007 7:10PM
Did blue elaborate on why Horde now gets both Fear Ward and WotF? I haven't been keeping up with this much other than the headlines, did they provide some rational for this somewhere? I play Horde, but don't really see how this is balanced.
Lori Aug 22nd 2007 7:13PM
Now if they could give us access to the Quest database so we can see what quests we have completed.
Milktub Aug 22nd 2007 7:17PM
I love the Armory.
I love checking my characters and looking for equipment upgrades most of all. Much more efficient than going on forums and whatnot.
I love using it when looking for a healer and having to resort to /who -- I haven't whispered a Shadowpriest in a month!
I can use it to help out guildies who are wondering why they aren't playing as well as they think they could.
Very, very useful.
Byron Aug 22nd 2007 7:18PM
Here's a blue post on the Fear Ward changes, but it still doesn't address the possible imba of, say, UD priests having both FW and WotF, or Horde in general having both abilities:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=712409913&pageNo=5&sid=1#87
Sari Aug 22nd 2007 7:23PM
so if other races get fear ward, are they going to give dwarfs a new priest racial special?
Ryan Aug 22nd 2007 7:46PM
Lol, finally dumping xslt?
Apoc Aug 22nd 2007 11:41PM
Ok, as a player with my main being a Warlock, a feel the need to say something here.
Sure, it would be quite fair to give all priests fear ward. It would be extremely unfair for everyone to have it. Warlocks have already been seriously nerfed by the pvp duration of fear being shortened so much, and with diminishing returns. Without fear at all an option, the class will be horribly nerfed, leaving death coil and seduction as our only real viable methods of crowd control, and will really destroy a lot of the little pvp functionality we already have.
I'm sick of hearing people whine about how warlocks need to be nerfed, but they neglect to complain about a warriors similar fear abilities, or the priests Psychic Scream. Why are we hated on so much? We're not even really much of a direct damage class, relying on DOTs for most of our damage. One on one with most other classes, if you take away our fear, we're completely unable to defend ourselves in pvp.
Anyone who has played a warlock for long enough can tell you that we're not as overpowered as a lot of people claim, and it's already easy enough for a rogue to completely own us, and fear is the ONLY hope we have against a rogue, save for death coil, which is pretty much my "save my ass" button.
Give priests the ability to self-buff fear ward, and maybe let them buff party members, but on a cooldown. Everything needs to remain balanced, or a lot of people are going to be very sad. I would be very pissed off if my lvl 70 warlock got easily pwned because of the addition of fear ward to everyone. Then we'd need to nerf every other class, or give the warlock some other cheap move.
You complain about fear, but not about sap? Kidney shot? We all have some cheap move that we can do that either is on a cooldown or has diminishing returns. What needs to be done is really a situational problem, that needs to be handled carefully...
Byron Aug 23rd 2007 1:01AM
Damn Apoc, you sure you aren't really a mage? Never heard a lock qq like that. My main is also a lock, on a pvp realm, so let me correct a few things for you:
"Without fear at all an option, the class will be somewhat more nerfed, leaving death coil, seduction, Howl of Terror, Curse of Exhaustion, Shadowfury, and arguably Aftermath and Pyroclasm as our only real viable methods of crowd control, and will really destroy a lot of the immense pvp functionality we already have."
"One on one with most other classes, if you take away our Fear, we're slightly less able to defend ourselves in pvp."
"...and fear is not the ONLY hope we have against a rogue, there's also Death Coil, Howl of Terror, Seduce, Curse of Exhaustion, Paranoia, Health Stone, Fel Domination, Soul Link, Sacrifice, Felguard, and Backlash."
With BC gear it's possible for lvl 70 locks to stack enough stam/resilience gear that rogues can blow all their cd's and still not be able to stunlock a lock down to 0 anymore. Does it take time, effort, and preparation on the lock's part? Yes, but that's one of my favorite aspects of the warlock community - for the most part they improvise, adapt, and overcome rather than whine. And don't worry, Fear isn't being taken away, as teh Bliz devs themselves clarified at Blizcon:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=JGFMLDg7gm8 (skip to 5:43)
twh Aug 23rd 2007 1:32AM
Apoc, I would sympathize, except for all the times I kept getting chain feared, dotted, and dead before I could do anything.
In short;
cry me a fricken river.
coconut Aug 23rd 2007 1:53AM
"Spreading fear ward around" does not inevitably mean all races of priests are going to get it.
Hotelfire Aug 23rd 2007 8:10AM
Horde getting Fear Ward is great -- UD Priest here, no complaints.
To the sad Warlocks, if you're one of those fear spammers (50% of you are), you'll just have to waste 1 fear before it will work. Second, if you are actually still using fear that often these days in PvP, there's something totally wrong with you.
Fear is basically a PvP interrupt now -- people have cried and cried to get it squeezed over the years and now it is. Fear is weak, on top of all the possible ways to get out of it. Occasionally, you can get off a bunch of dots after a successful fear, but any bulk damage will break it. I have a Warlock and a Priest, so I know. Anybody who says otherwise is wildly exaggerating, really unlucky, or hasn't played the game for a year.
Anyways -- as a Priest, you'll get a resounding "woo hoo" from me. As a full affliction Warlock alt, I say fuggetaboutit. If you constantly use fear to solve your PvP problems, you've got big insecurity issues.
And just to reiterate, Fear Ward absorbs 1 fear -- the people worried about it usually blast fear as often as possible, until the target is immune anyways. So what's the problem?
Bradj Aug 23rd 2007 10:01AM
@ Hotelfire, twh, & Byron
Ok, so let me get this straight.
Fear is horrible now. As already stated, it's more of an interupt ability now... with a casting time.
Currently for an affliction lock:
Fear - Gives a warlock a "chance" to run away while DoTs tick.
Deathcoil - Gives a warlock a "chance" to run away while DoTs tick.
Howl of Terror - Gives a warlock a "chance" to run away while DoTs tick.
Curse of Exhaustion - Gives a warlock a "chance" to run away while DoTs tick.
Get the point? DoTs take a while before they will kill something/someone, and thats if its not a healing class (then you can forget it). So now a warlock's only hope is to DoT and hope they can run out of combat range? I think affliction locks are horribly broken right now because of this.
Vapors Aug 23rd 2007 11:43AM
The armory got a speed upgrade? It was horribly slow before and it is horribly slow now.
Queuetip Aug 23rd 2007 11:49AM
Silly warlocks. Get your facts straight before complaining. Fear ward lasts through 1 fear, and is on a 30 second cooldown. Fear's duration is reduced in PvP... along with every other CC ability. It is the only 10 second CC that isn't a guaranteed break on dmg.
Fear Ward was already being used by Alliance priests anyway, so there is no reason to complain about them giving it to horde.
The only issue here is what will be done with the priest racials of the current classes that have it, and what will be done to undead's racial if they get fear ward?
Scruffy Aug 23rd 2007 12:07PM
The hell with the warlocks. What about priests?
Sure, looks like I get fear ward but I didn't need that against hunters, shamans, warriors, druids, rogues, pallies, or mages. So now fighting horde, I fear, fear ward eats it, then... what? I tank for 26 seconds?
Wait! I know! I'll MC them! If I'm lucky and can manage the THREE SECOND CAST TIME without it being knocked back or counterspelled or silenced or shield bashed or.... Oh, then what? PVP target so I got, what, 10 seconds to... run them off a cliff? That's it. I can't use any of their abilities. I can't hold them long. I can't run them away for what seems more than 10 yards.
Bleh.
Bradj Aug 23rd 2007 12:21PM
@ Queuetip
This is exactly why warlocks have a right to complain. Currently, Alliance has Fearward for only a priest IF you choose one of the two races that get it. Horde get WotF for an entire race. This already places the favor on the Horde side.
There are 26 race/class combinations for Horde. 5 of these get WotF.
There are 26 race/class combinations for Alliance. 2 of these get Fearward.
If you are an affliction warlock, you get two "oh $h!t" buttons. But, basically fear is our only (used to be reliable) method of defence. For a warlock to even get off a fear they need to be in combat range, and stand still for the 1.5 second cast. If this is avoided through Fearward, they must stand still another 1.5 seconds to cast it again. By that time the warlock is already getting beat on (if they have not already chosen to run away), been CC'd themselves, or is dead. So... now they must rely on either deathcoil or Howl of Terror to be off cool down to stay alive?
There is a huge balancing issue here.
PallySucks Aug 23rd 2007 12:29PM
Blizz should fix Fear not nerf it down. I am so sick of Blizz for nerfing stuff instead of changing the behavior or mechanics of it.
They will never find the balance or solution by simply nerfing down stuff because it always breaks the class or make something else OP.
Fix the Fear mechanics, what other classes hate about Warlocks is that Fear is terribly design that make you run around and touch all the bad terrain and clipping issues causing most classes to get too far out of range to engage the Warlock.
I truly think it is OP because all the game bugs that make Fear 80% of time OP because of this.
If Fear only made me run 10 yards away, I still have a chance to chase the warlock and get a few melee hits in but the way these are. Most classes without a twinket or fear remover will just die of DoTs.
Is that fair?
infection Aug 23rd 2007 2:24PM
@11
"And just to reiterate, Fear Ward absorbs 1 fear -- the people worried about it usually blast fear as often as possible, until the target is immune anyways. So what's the problem?"
Play your priest much in pvp?
You'll now be able to cast fear ward and then you get a 30 second cooldown to cast again. The first thing you do in arena is cast fear ward (10 minute duration). You start the match and you get feared. Now you just (insta cast) fear ward on yourself again. Now you just resisted fear twice. Lets say you get feared again. WotF which breaks and you are immune for 5 seconds. Lets just say you get feared again. Trinket and you are right back at it.
Wtf are you coming into the conversation with:
"So what's the problem?"
My god, get a clue.
Horde having fear ward is going to completely screw any balance that was in PvP.
I am a UD Priest btw.
Alliance is now going to be to easy to beat. To get any competition I'll have to roll Alliance.
What are they thinking here?
Scruffy Aug 23rd 2007 3:25PM
/sigh
Well, so long as we're getting boned pretty hard (half "Yay! Fear ward!" and half "Fear ward?! FUCK!"), I hope we get some buffs for the crappy racials.
Feedback? Make it charge based (20 like Inner Fire), reduces magic damage taken, and lasts 5 minutes (or, hell, as long as inner fire).
Elune's Grace? Make it castable on party members!
Desparate Prayer? Scale with life (heals 25% HP), spirit, or +healing (since +healing often boosted with generic +spell damage&healing).
Or, wait, can you imagine if they gave Fear ward a debuff after it's used like they did with Iceblock? Oooooooh, I can hear the QQ now.
dang Aug 23rd 2007 4:56PM
I picked a dwarf priest all those years ago specifically for fear ward. Its not a bad thing that certain races get certain racial spells, but giving fear ward to all priests takes away my uniqueness. Why make all priests the same now. If I wanted to be a cookie cut character I would have rolled a hunter.
And for the love of god don't give into the horde whiners. Keep fear ward where it belongs on the good guys side. Its a holy spell for crying out loud. Holy because it removes fear and that ia a white hat versus black hat fact. The good guys can sometimes not be afraid of the evil bad guys. If your gonna give fear ward to the horde call it something else. Are the horde really afraid of anything?
On the other side though, I still can't understand why fear ward was a drano racial. Can you say cop out?