Hybrid Theory: Healers, hit, and homogenization
by Alex Ziebart 
Jun 29th 2008 at 5:00AM
Brace yourselves, ladies and gentlemen. Today's Hybrid Theory is purely guesswork and speculation. In no way will I pretend that these are facts, and you should not take them as such. It's a topic that grabbed my interest, and it's something I really enjoy trying to figure out despite the missing pieces of information we don't have yet. I welcome all of you to add your thoughts on it in the comments section below. Perhaps we can get a decent idea of what's to come.
Let's get started, shall we? In the previous weeks of Hybrid Theory, we've discussed all we knew about some of our favorite classes. During this discussion, matters of itemization often came up. Most notably, the new Spellpower mechanic. This would allow healers and DPS classes to use the same gear, but Healing spells would get twice the benefit.
First thought is that DPS and healers will share gear. Right? Well... maybe. Possibly. There are a lot of factors we don't really know yet. While it isn't always the case, for some classes there is a pretty large divide between gear that is good for a caster and gear that is good for a healer, and the deciding factor isn't how much damage or healing is on that item. In some cases you'll be able to switch seamlessly from DPS spec to Healing spec and not need to change your equipment, but trying to optimize your gear in both cases is not going to be so easy.
Sometimes, Healer and Caster gear will be able to be used interchangeably. In fact, in some cases, that is true right now. The Healing necklace from Akil'zon in Zul'Aman is, in most cases, better for casters than the caster necklace from Zul'Jin. It's a marginal difference, but a difference nonetheless. Another example of this is the healing cloak from Illidan. Healers want it, but so do certain caster classes.
This hitch in itemization is probably one of the reasons that they're moving forward with an attempt at homogenizing this loot, alongside the potential benefits for Hybrids. The change to itemization that allowed Healers to gain Spell Damage from Healing was predicted by most to not have an effect on casters whatsoever, but when combined with things like Haste and Crit, the Healing items weren't just an alternative option... they were downright better options.
Saying 'to hell with it' and combining Healing and Damage into Spellpower to homogenize the loot is a fairly decent idea. It eliminates the problem by recognizing and embracing the problem... thus, it isn't a problem anymore. It's a feature. However, this calls a few other things into play. All of the other stats.
Spirit is gaining an increase in usefulness for all classes, so that isn't a deciding factor. Haste is good for everyone. Crit is good for everyone, and MP5 is... well, eh. Who knows with the Spirit change. It might be good, it might not be so good. So far, things are alright. What about the single most important caster stat (for most)? What about Spell Hit?
We have a few scenarios here. One: Spell Hit is removed from gear, and is unnecessary for PvE/Raiding. Two: Spell Hit is kept as an essential stat, and this single stat keeps the tenuous divide between gear that is useful for Casters and gear that is useful for Healers, largely nullifying any change they've made. Three, they vastly lower how much Spell Hit you need in the endgame, and let talents handle it.
The first one is highly unlikely, the second one seems the most likely, and the third is possible. In the third scenario, if they greatly decrease the needed hit, the change to a Shadow Priest's Shadow Focus (lowered to 3 points, 1% hit per point along with spell cost reduction) would be perfectly in tune with that. If you needed, say, 1% hit per level above you rather than 5%, three points in Shadow Focus would more or less have you on the right path. Sharing gear with the healers would be easy. It's a possible scenario, one they could do, but I don't think it's one we'll see. Especially since this hasn't been reflected in any other class yet.
I simply can't see them going through with the first scenario.
The second scenario is the most likely. Keep Spell Hit as an essential stat. Caster drops and Healer drops are, for the most part, separate from one another until you're hitcapped (which is becoming harder for some in Wrath). This means that Healers can use their healing gear if they choose to respec to a DPS spec, but it's never going to be an optimal choice. To perform to the best of your abilities, Hybrids would still need two nearly totally different sets for each of their specs.
In that scenario, this change does little to help the players that want to push their gear as far as they can. It does little to help the Hybrids that want to perform their very best. It helps the players that don't care about that and only want to do daily quests, but there is a similar system in place right now. In this situation, Caster and Healer gear is homogenized... except that it isn't, and in certain cases (being hit capped), the 'Healer' gear will be better due to item budget being used better. It just won't be called Healer gear anymore.
In other words... until we learn what they're doing with Spell Hit, we don't really know what this will do for most Hybrids. In the most likely scenario, this won't change anything at all, and Hybrids really trying to push themselves will need multiple separate sets anyway, and traditional casters will be doing the exact same thing they were before. Gearing with their own gear primarily, and then picking up certain pieces of leftover Healing gear because it's better. It's not a problem, though. It's a feature.
The only people this could actually benefit is the Healers themselves. Not the Casters, not the Hybrids, but the Healing specced Healers that don't intend to spec anything else. They'll have more +Damage for doing their dailies, and that's the extent of it. To do anything substantial as DPS (dungeons, raids), they'll still need another set.
Much of this can be changed one way or another with a few pieces of currently unknown information, so let's sit tight and see what we can see, eh?
Do you have a burning desire for more sweet, sweet Hybrid Theory? Take a look at our discussions on the looming arrival of the Death Knight. You may also be interested in the possible changes coming for Shaman, Druids and Shadow Priests. For other class columns and guides, take a look at the WoW Insider Directory!Filed under: Druid, Paladin, Priest, Shaman, Analysis / Opinion, Expansions, Hybrid Theory, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Carbon Jun 29th 2008 6:44AM
I think the talent changes to certain +spell hit abilities were to give raiding gear a 'higher budget' without making highly overpowered.
Think about it; most casters (if not all) now have 3% spell hit in their given casting tree. Notable exceptions are warlocks, but lets not diverge. 3% spell hit is nearly what "Average Joe" needs. With 3%, Average Joe can run level 70 dungeons, he can PvP, he can even start raiding. Average Joe doesn't need to worry about staying hit capped, he just needs to worry about how much damage his gear boosts his spells by.
This decision frees up a lot of resources for Blizzard. Now they can make most leveling up gear homogoed. They don't need to make cloth greens with spell hit. They just need to make cloth greens with a mix of spell power and critical rating, and all those other delicious stats. More loot options with less loot is a good thing, at least for loot that doesn't mater in the long run. But, when looking at caster loot for certain classes, (notably shadow priests, affliction warlocks, and elemental shamans) the use of +hit was wearing thin. Excess +hit was a loss of ibudget. So while that ring may be 5 ilevels higher than what you have, the extra hit rating gained may be useless. And again, when "Average Joe" wants to become a raider, Blizzard knows that all casters will need +X hit rating to reach hit cap. This allows them to design items that are much more suited to casters. If every item has a little bit of hit, and everyone needs hit, it allows more options.
Now we get to the raiding tier. With the disaster that was the original loot from Raiding, Blizzard expressed they wanted raiding gear to not give such a huge, ridiculous bonus to characters. (The reason they switched to a rating system too.) But people want upgrades. To keep in line with the philosophy, (at least for casters) Blizzard could just add more spell hit to items as the ilevel increases. Of course, other stats will improve, but they don't need to improve at quite such a high rate. It makes spell haste be an inflation control. Almost like an ibudget sink. Blizzard really likes sinks, eh? Its equivalent to the +Armor on caster cloth from arenas. It helps for what its designed for, but doesn't give you a massive boost.
As it stands now, spell hit shines only in raiding environments. 12% spell hit is not going to help you farm those primal waters from 69-70 Elementals. Its certainly not going to help you in arenas.
TL:DR version;
Lowering hit talents allows Blizzard to design gear fairly. It also allows blizzard to make hit-rating caster items be specialized for raiding, similar to how bonus armor and resilience are the trade marks for specialized PvP gear.
Please forgive any glaring errors in logic. I'll try to explain what I mean if you have questions, but I had lots of points and didn't want to write a giant wall of text. D:
achefsalad Jun 29th 2008 7:15AM
You say, "Average Joe doesn't need to worry about staying hit capped, he just needs to worry about how much damage his gear boosts his spells by."
The problem with that is, no matter how much bonus spell damge you have, if you can't hit them you can't damage them. As a balance Druid I need 12% spell hit for raid bosses. 3% won't do me any good. That's why the article says, "the single most important caster stat (for most)? What about Spell Hit..."
So you do need to worry about spell hit and not, "...just... about how much damage his gear boosts his spells by."
S?hrtogg Jun 29th 2008 7:40AM
Situation 2 is exactly why I'm cautious (and perhaps even opposed) to the so-called homogenization with spell power. But even if spell hit is changed, there will still be more 'caster orientated' and 'healer orientated' gear if you ask me. Spell crit vs. mp5 being the most obvious. It's both useful for healers and caster, but we aren't talking useful, we are talking best.
"If you needed, say, 1% hit per level above you rather than 5%"
This implies 5% per mob level above you is currently needed to cap spell hit. This is incorrect.
Chance for your spells to miss (confusingly named 'resist' while independent of resistance)
same level - 4%
one above - 5%
two above - 6%
three/?? above - 17%
Note that due to the 99% cap, you cannot reach 100% spell hit. At +16% spell hit you reach the cap versus raid bosses.
http://www.wowwiki.com/Spell_hit
S?hrtogg Jun 29th 2008 7:46AM
Situation 2 is exactly why I'm cautious (and perhaps even opposed) to the so-called homogenization with spell power. But even if spell hit is changed, there will still be more 'caster orientated' and 'healer orientated' gear if you ask me. Spell crit vs. mp5 being the most obvious. It's both useful for healers and caster, but we aren't talking useful, we are talking best.
"If you needed, say, 1% hit per level above you rather than 5%"
This implies 5% per mob level above you is currently needed to cap spell hit. This is incorrect.
Chance for your spells to miss (confusingly named 'resist' while independent of resistance)
same level - 4%
one above - 5%
two above - 6%
three/?? above - 17%
Note that due to the 99% cap, you cannot reach 100% spell hit. At +16% (202 spell hit rating without talents) you reach the cap versus raid bosses.
http://www.wowwiki.com/Spell_hit
Carbon Jun 29th 2008 9:22AM
@ achefsalad:
Let me clarify; Yes you are correct, and I didn't quite state what I mean clearly.
Arena Joe has no use for spell hit outside of talents, in a general sense.
Average Joe needs very little spell hit outside of talents to run his normals, his heroics, his dailies, occasionally Arena, or occasionally raid. But when he does raid, having them would be beneficial.
Raider Joe needs signfigantly (I can never spell that word right, I give up on it.) more spell hit outside of talents.
Solo Joe hardly ever needs spell hit outside of talents, because, well, he solo things.
What I mean to say is that being "hit capped" is only required for a narrow spectrum of the over-all game, but is ridiculously important for where it is used.
Over-all, I was trying to say how homogoed gear would be better for leveling and, need a little (but not much) differentiation at 80, and still be extremely differentiated for raiding...
Oh, and I meant the first tier of raiding to be the whole "my 68 blue is better than most karazhan loot" brouhaha before they fixed the ilvl curve.
Oh, I definitely know how important it was, given my mage and warlock I stopped playing. Trying to hit 16% hit with no hit talents as sack spec warlock was long and painful. I think that fixed my highly noticible errors. Gah, another wall of text post. Damn it!
katera Jun 29th 2008 7:21AM
or perhaps they add +hit requirement for successful heals :)
Idain Jun 29th 2008 7:53AM
What are those sipirit changes then? cause spirit still sucks for Shamans.
Carbon Jun 29th 2008 9:26AM
There is a talent in deep shadow that converts spirit to spell damage ( I think).
Deep arcane has +%spirit talents, and spirit into crit rating too.
As far as I know (from official announcements or that wiki) there has been nothing said about spirit changes to shamans or paladins. :\
Alex Ziebart Jun 29th 2008 8:01AM
@S?rtogg
It was easier to sum it up that way than explain the full mechanics of Spell Hit, because it roughly amounted to the same number.
Hollywood Ron Jun 29th 2008 2:16PM
Spirit is still worthless to paladins.
Andris Jun 29th 2008 2:31PM
You mean +hit, right? They are unifying melee and spell hit as well, I think.
This is a major boon to e.g. elemental shamans, who currently are the only casters wearing mail -- they often need to go down to boomkin leather or cloth to get spell hit on their gear.
The other difficulty is that some stats are more powerful for some casters than for others, at least traditionally. +crit for druids? Yes for Moonkin, no for Resto (HoTs can't crit). +crit for for priests? Not terrible for Holy, but lousy for Shadow. Spirit for Paladins? Not too useful, because they can't regen mana from spirit while casting, and their mana-regen model is based on chain-casting and critting a lot.
lord.teaspoon Jun 30th 2008 1:03AM
"This is a major boon to e.g. elemental shamans, who currently are the only casters wearing mail -- they often need to go down to boomkin leather or cloth to get spell hit on their gear."
Since when do elemental shamans find themselves in need of major spell hit? A 70 shaman with a standard raiding 41/0/20 build had 12% while nakes - 6% from elemental precision (elemental - 3 points), 3% from nature's guidance (resto - 3 points) and a further 3% from Totem of Wrath (elemental talent fire totem ability), meaning they only need 50-odd hit rating to cap out. You can get 50 hit rating by accident!
My girlfriend's shaman achieves hitcap with a glyph of power and the T4 gloves and pants. Also note that totems of wrath stack, so two elemental shamans with their totems out will each need only 1% (which you will pick up from the Draenei racial if you play Alliance)
Monoboy Jun 30th 2008 7:29PM
There is another scenario that they could come up with. They could make spell hit useful to healers somehow. Maybe a talent to convert spell hit into another stat or spell hit allows heals to reduce the effect of mortal strike type debuffs; allowing less reduction in those heals on that target.
Mattlistener Jul 2nd 2008 12:21PM
"...traditional casters will be doing the exact same thing they were before. Gearing with their own gear primarily, and then picking up certain pieces of leftover Healing gear because it's better. It's not a problem, though. It's a feature.
The only people this could actually benefit is the Healers themselves."
If the gear that Healers want is wanted by all casters, but the gear that DPS casters want is wanted only by DPSers, that would be very bad for Healers.