Life tap changes coming
by Eliah Hecht 
Feb 26th 2008 at 12:40PM
This just in: many players are unhappy with the Life Tap changes that have come on the PTR. But in all seriousness, Blizzard has evidently taken notice, and they promise that more changes are to come. Specifically, Hortus just posted the following in the test realm forums: "Some changes are going to be made to lifetap in an upcoming PTR build. Until that time I think we've got enough feedback." So now it's time to just sit tight and see what happens, I suppose. That doesn't mean we can't talk about it -- how would you deal with Life Tap to fill Blizz's goals of making it hurt more in PvP, while not totally breaking it for PvE?[Thanks, Fortine Gorganash - H]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Carigon Feb 26th 2008 12:46PM
maybe have it subject to diminishing returns while flagged for pvp?
Heike Feb 26th 2008 2:34PM
I like that idea. The only problem is going to be on PvP servers.
I don't know how often world PvP is an issue, but diminishing returns in battlegrounds/arenas could be interesting.
Netherscourge Feb 26th 2008 12:47PM
Blizzard needs to start making different rulesets for PVP and PVE situations.
Right now, the only thing that's separated with PvP and PvE is aggro-abilties.
Face it - some stuff NEEDS to be slightly more powerful for PvE and less powerful in PvP - and vice versa for other skills.
You can't have a game balanced for BOTH PvE and PvP simultaneously.
Ryan Feb 26th 2008 12:57PM
Yea, but if they do too much of that it becomes way too confusing for the player. Things like CC duration are flexible, but if you do what the first poster suggests (for instance) and put LT on DR in arenas/bg's then your class would play differently in a fundamental way depending on where you happen to be standing in the game world. I don't think that would work.
Todd Feb 26th 2008 1:05PM
People should play differently depending on the PvP or PvE situation, anyways. Why not have specific rule sets.
Lori Feb 26th 2008 1:32PM
If we can handle playing alts of different classes, we should be able to handle playing a class that is different PvP vs PvE.
darian Feb 26th 2008 2:28PM
Except, very few people can.
There are plenty of freak exceptions, including myself. I've got five mains, each of which I can play at least two if not all three specs expertly. But, as I noted, I'm a freak.
Most of the game's players take far longer than a day to master a new role or class. Some of them still haven't mastered their current one. Asking these players to learn their class twice is too steep a learning curve.
Heike Feb 26th 2008 2:37PM
People can handle playing their chars differently in different situations. I play my resto druid *completely* differently in a raid versus an arena or battleground - even though healing is still my primary role in both.
But I use different heals, I shift into forms, I expect heals to be purged.
Most players play differently in pve and pvp, they have to - because it's a different environment. Just like they play differently when soloing versus raiding.
Atrocita Feb 26th 2008 6:01PM
If this is a change in order to nerf the SL/SL spec, why not jus move either of those talents farther down the tree and leave lifetap alone?
Spoony Feb 26th 2008 3:07PM
it's simple you seperate it. make pvp servers actually a pvp server, instead of glorified ganking servers. give everyone the ability to copy their characters to them (much like how the tournament servers are going to be) make it cost a little more to have a character on both but normal priced to have a character on 1 server only. This way your character on pve realms will only get fixed if pve needs to be changed and pvp can change daily and only affect pvpers. This keeps pvp gear balanced, talents balanced, and lets changes to either one not cause huge outcries from the other.
Poxus Feb 26th 2008 12:50PM
Well, you get 145 pages of feedback ona class core mechanic change, not much else to do but go back to the drawing board.
thatquietgamerdude Feb 26th 2008 1:14PM
Unless it's feedback from Shamans! Lulz!............;_;
MechChef Feb 26th 2008 12:52PM
Perhaps use resilience as a modifier to LT.
Odoyle Feb 26th 2008 12:54PM
That would be a pretty nice idea actually. Having resilence reduce the amount of mana returned from LT (but not affect health).
Matt Feb 26th 2008 2:33PM
While we're at it, lets make resilience affect the gas mileage of my car.
Seriously, why do people want resilience to be a catchall stat? It's a horribly implemented bolt-on as it is.
insomnifox Feb 26th 2008 1:04PM
That sounds too easy. What's the catch?
simeon Feb 26th 2008 3:01PM
What, your resilience reduces mana gained from life tap? That sounds like a terrible idea. The more resilience a warlock has, the less effective his/her lifetap is? Name one other class that has an ability that gets worse the more resilience they have. If anything, they should make it so that the more resilience you have, the less life you lose from life tap. It starts out large, then with more resil, you lose less life. Easy.
Odoyle Feb 26th 2008 12:52PM
I'd add a short duration debuff (4 secs or so) that amplifies physical/spell damage on the Warlock by some amount (say 10-20%) after any Lifetap.
Granted that would hurt Lock tanks, but short of specifically coding something that only happens in PvP (not very likely), there's not much you can do that won't at least have some effect on PvE.
Furor Feb 26th 2008 12:57PM
Well, it's obvious that they aren't going to completely revert it. I play an endgame raiding warlock and even I admit the Spell Damage coefficient is a tad large for the type of spell it is. I assume they will revert it back to the way it was but will reduce the coefficient. It makes much more sense.
Matvey Feb 26th 2008 3:25PM
Why they didn't just do that in the first place is beyond me. There are a number of already-proven means of dealing with skill/talents that are overpowered:
- add/increase cooldown
- add/increase casting time
- reduce the +damage/+healing coefficient
- increase mana/health/rage/energy cost
It's when the devs try to do something completely bizarre that they run into horrible problems.
"Oh yeah...how will this be affected by current itemization?"