Patch 2.3 and you: Et cetera edition
by Eliah Hecht 
Sep 26th 2007 at 11:20PM
With the bonanza of upcoming changes coming out, there are a few categories that don't have enough changes to merit posts of their own. These are their stories.- We're adding new relics to support all talent trees in patch 2.3 for Shaman, Paladins and Druids. In addition, (not that this will sweep you off your feet), most of the arena-system relics have been renamed so there is a more consistent naming convention. (Eyonix)
- Those who completed the [Tempest Keep] attunement process will have access to the title "Champion of the Naaru". Also, the plan is to hard-cap it at 70, meaning you can't go back at 80 and "cheese" the title. (Eyonix)
- We're looking into potential improvements for earth shield, and even lightning shield (Eyonix)
- Fear Ward will be available to all priests at level 20, but there are some changes in addition. Current plans are to reduce duration to 3 minutes, and increase the cooldown to 3 minutes.
To give the dwarves and draenei something else to even it out, they'll see a new ability called Chastise (also given at level 20) which will cause holy damage and incapacitate the target for 2 seconds. (Drysc)
Filed under: Priest, Patches, Odds and ends, Forums
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
my2cents Sep 27th 2007 12:06AM
So they're giving fear ward out to all priests to please ppl who rolled the wrong race (I do think at least one horde race should have it though) and to compensate they're nerfing it to near uselessness????! GG Blizz you finally topped yourself. Oh but we get chastice instead. woo...
Some of you may think the nerf isn't so bad, but oh it is. As it is now, I throw a fear ward on the tank and when it gets used throw up another one (cd is 30 secs) I can also ward others in the raid if the cd runs up and the tank still hasn't used his. But after this change you will only be able to have it on one target at a time (because of 3min duration = 3min cd) and if it get's used up you can't apply another one on the tank for 3 mins...sigh
starmilk Sep 27th 2007 12:22AM
As a dwarf priest, I'm pretty peeved about this. Increasing the cooldown to 3 minutes might make sense if you have an abundance of non-shadow priests in the raid (as a holy spell, fear ward cannot be cast in shadowform), but it would take 6 priests in rotation to equal a 30 second cooldown. In many fights (ie Nightbane) fears come about every 45 seconds. Too bad for pally & druid tanks.
I could have been a tall sexy night elf or a human with added spirit and reputation gains, but I chose to be a dwarf for fear ward (and twirling braids).
And so help me god, if they let other races have my twirling braids. . .
Jason Sep 27th 2007 12:39AM
Oh no! Now you'll have to either have a Warrior tank Nightbane or do like the Horde and just bring a shammy for tremor totem.
I don't really care if Horde gets it. It'll make life a lot easier sure, but we already know how to live without it. I am very glad it got a 3 min nerf tho, it's needed that since it's inception.
Byron Sep 27th 2007 1:28AM
Another for your list: Healing debuffs will now affect Drain spells and abilities. More specifically, Warrior's Mortal Strike will debuff Warlock's Drain Life and Siphon Life:
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=1778037077&sid=1&pageNo=4#66
my2cents Sep 27th 2007 3:11AM
Tremor totem is nice, yes. And we can live without fear ward (or deal with it in its nerfed form). The point is we chose our race carefully, for a reason. I'm especially pissed off on behalf of dwarf priests, most of whom chose that race solely based on Fear Ward, only to have it go to Dranei as well. And now everyone else...
I originally chose human, but I really wanted fear ward and I just didn't want to be a dwarf. So when bc came out I deleted my human priest and made a dranei...gg Blizz. As a healer I could care less about this new racial we're getting.
If we're gonna make all things fair Blizz, then every race needs to get a spirit and rep bonus, and hex of weaknes. Oh and all races must be equally attractive. In fact, let's just make everyone the same. One race and one class and you just spec differently for different effects. That's the only fair thing to do ;)
Trudie Sep 27th 2007 4:52AM
If they are going to increase the cooldown to three minutes, why the hell should they even bother to give it to anyone? It's going to be total crap after that. They better not do that. If they do, they need to change the game mechanics on boss fights like Nightbane (and before that, Nefarian) that give complete bias to warrior stance dance tanks. They've improved paladin and druid tanking tremendously, and now they are going to nerf (even further) their abilities to tank certain bosses due to lame fear mechanics. Seems like one step forward, two steps back to me.
Caleb Archon Sep 27th 2007 4:23PM
@5
All goes to show that you should choose your character race, class and profession based on what you think is cool and not some (temporary) game imbalance.
Buuty Sep 27th 2007 6:31AM
@7 good point..especially sinc eit is a class racial abilty, not a general racial ability. Other classes don't get special racial abilites....
Bobby Sep 27th 2007 6:33AM
So now Undead priests are going to have Fear Ward. That makes that 3 ways for Undead priests to stop fears from CCing them. Fear ward, Will of the Forsaken, and Trinket.
It was already hard enough to CC an Undead priest as a warlock with just WOTF and Trinket. So pretty much any team with a Warlock that an Undead priest faces is pretty much GG for the lock team.
Buuty Sep 27th 2007 6:36AM
@9 welcome to the world of mage teams versus warlock. Karma....so sweet.
Morrigän Sep 27th 2007 6:51AM
So Hyjal feral druids won't have to use a green relic anymore? Heh.
BSChim Sep 27th 2007 7:16AM
WTB that title!!!
OrionPaxt Sep 27th 2007 7:52AM
I have objection to all priests getting fear ward, but should the dwarfs not get a new racial skill ?
jpn Sep 27th 2007 8:35AM
YAY....more titles please!!
Satarus Sep 27th 2007 8:48AM
So they nerf fear ward into uselessness and then give it to everyone? GG blizzard. GG...
Ryan Sep 27th 2007 9:18AM
@11 Green? Ha! I use a lvl 60 blue.
infection Sep 27th 2007 9:23AM
My friend rolled a dwarf priest because of fear ward. How many others rolled that god awful ugly class just to get fear ward? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Now all the nightelves and human's can laugh. They get better racials (race specific, not priest specific) and get the fear ward 2.
Dwarf = owned.
And forget about playing an undead and trying to fear him at all.. what a waste of mana, rage.
Undead wins in this deal. Please make them more powerful.
Shealtiel Sep 27th 2007 9:35AM
In my opinion, fear ward should not be spread out, if for no other reason than Will of the Forsaken.
Vestras Sep 27th 2007 9:44AM
The only way I can see a 3min cooldown being acceptible is if Fear Ward became a persistant effect rather than dispeling when fear is cast. 3 mins of immunity might make it work.
It's still excessive, but there it is.
i am more curious to see what Chastise plays out as. It would be nice since otehr priests get Starfall and my Dranei Disipline priest has to struggle by a bit.
greg Sep 27th 2007 9:47AM
I never understood why everyone hates on priest racials. I think they are a great flavor mechanic, really the only one in the game. I always felt there should be more consequences to choosing your race rather than making it just a visual distinction. The racial abilities are good, don't get me wrong, I just wish there were more of them. And honestly, how many dwarf priests are there? How many of them would there be without Fear Ward in the game? I like my little robe wearing friends.