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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsCrushing blows (mostly) removed in Wrath as raiding changes
by Daniel Whitcomb 
Jul 31st 2008 at 4:00PM
We've known for a while that the developers have wanted to remove crushing blows, but now it looks like they're starting the process for good: Ghostcrawler has confirmed that crushing blows will now occur only when a mob is 4 levels above you, rather than 3. Since "Boss" mobs are automatically 3 levels above the max level, that means that if you're running level appropriate content, you should no longer have to worry about crushing blows at all.
As Ghostcrawler explains it, crushing blows were originally meant to discourage you from attacking high level mobs and to make bosses more challenging. Now, they serve only the former purpose, and Blizzard is working on other ways to make bosses challenging without making them so random.
This change definitely comes as welcome news to Feral Druids, who rely on high armor for tanking and are unable to reach uncrushability under current talent and gear choices. Paladins and Warriors, who use gear and Holy Shield or Shield Block to reach uncrushability, are probably less enthused. Death Knights are still working on finding their tanking groove, but since they can't use shields, it's likely the removal of crushing blows will only help them.
Those who are a bit concerned about the change may want to take heart (or find dread) in Ghostcrawler's words in another thread: Raiding is changing. In Wrath of the Lich King, they are hoping to have all 4 tank classes be able to step and tank straight up into the 25-man level (which means, in theory, that Paladins and Warriors should be getting stuff to compensate for losing uncrushability, and Death Knights should eventually have the gear and innate mitigation and avoidance to tank).
They're looking to reduce the randomness of raid encounters as well. This is their philosophy behind the removal of crushing blows as a boss mechanic. In addition, they want to make tanks do more DPS, make threat easier to manage, and make buffs to affect raids more but stack less. All of these additions, of course, should greatly change the face of raiding in Wrath.
Of course, all of this change is a bit much to process, and I'm sure that regardless of what Ghostcrawler says, a lot of tank classes are still a bit worried about their place in both groups and raids in the upcoming expansion. That's understandable, but luckily, this is a Beta. Hopefully, Blizzard keeps these new philosophies in mind as they continue on, and by the time Wrath goes live, we have 4 solid and viable tank classes, and a more streamlined, less random raid experience that still manages to be fun, challenging, and rewarding.
Filed under: Druid, Paladin, Warrior, Analysis / Opinion, Instances, Expansions, Raiding, Bosses, Death Knight, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 2)
slimj091 Aug 1st 2008 5:31AM
"That's true, warriors are the easiest to reach uncrushable... but thats talking about gearing up for end game... taking crushings away makes it easier for all tanks across the board to get into 10 mans. I could still see warriors being the tank of choice, esspecially for encounters that require a block. (illidan for example), Or something that needs a spell reflect type ability (RoS). I can still see Pallys being great at AOE tanking. Druids being able to take those extremely hard hitting bosses (brut) as well as really good tps, and very high stam."
i really hope they don't go as far as you suggest. otherwise wotlk raiding will turn in to tank micro management. meaning you have one of each tank class waiting outside the raid instance until the boss that is in their niche needs killed.
all raiding bosses and even raiding trash in the expansion need to be able to be tanked effectively by all four tanking classes.
Tychon Aug 1st 2008 12:14PM
@Rihlsul
Unfortunatley there is no reply button for me to click when im at work, my browser/network blocks weird things. :D
Schadow Jul 31st 2008 5:01PM
This is a good change for ferals, but I still think they will end up in the OT role.
Considering that raids will have both 10-man and 25-man versions, and considering Blizzard's penchant for... recycling... content to save on a bit of development, I doubt there will be many raid bosses that mandate the presence of all 4 tanking classes.
It stands to reason that Death Knights will be featured prominently - we can assume they will be be Golden Child of Wrath, fast-tracked into tanking by designing encounters requiring their magic avoidance/mitigation.
It can also be assumed that they will continue to provide content where a Paladin's ability to AoE tank is important to the raid. It gives us something to do, and as we all know Paladins prefer tanking trash to tanking bosses... or not.
This leaves 8 raid spots. Assuming 3 healers, you now have 5 raid spots left for your main physical tank and all your DPS.
That seems not enough spots for a Warrior and a Druid, unless one or more of the tanks can swap to another role depending on the encounter. The likely candidate is the Druid, leaving the Warrior as the main physical tank in a tank-and-spank fight.
Developers can fall back on the old "well if you do everything you can't expect to be able to do everything as well as the specialists" to support Druids as OT/DPS instead of MT.
All of that is opinion, based on a lot of inferences. However, it does seem logical.
vlad Jul 31st 2008 7:38PM
i smell a dire bear armor multiplier reduction incoming :(
jbodar Jul 31st 2008 10:17PM
Blizz has already stated that they want the tank classes to be flexible enough to be able to change roles mid-raid, if need be. It seems the stereotypical notion that only Druids can Tank or DPS in the same spec is going to change a bit. We'll just have to see how that pans out.
Wilhem Jul 31st 2008 5:03PM
I'm not really grooving on the randomness of raids being toned down. Part of, in my mind, what made a good raider was someone who could adapt quickly to any situation. I just hope blizzard isn't going to make raids easier to try and get more people through the content.
Draelar Jul 31st 2008 6:16PM
That's one thing I agree to. If it all becomes factory work, then there's no reason to experiment. Just take the strategy from one of the vanguard raiding guilds and rinse and repeat for epics.
Only two things lacking: fun and challenge.
Sigmaomega Jul 31st 2008 5:07PM
"In addition, they want to make tanks to more DPS, threat easier to manage, and buffs to affect raids more but stack less." ~ Grammatically, it burns my eyes.
But in terms of the info, the question comes as, whats gonna be the ups and downs per tanking class? You have two options: Damage Mitigation and DPS, now that crushing is off the list.
Secondly, someone (other than myself, I'm lazy) should look into why an enchant of healing gives different amounts of "spell power" compared to its spell damage dps counterpart.
sigmaomega Jul 31st 2008 5:08PM
"In addition, they want to make tanks to more DPS, threat easier to
manage, and buffs to affect raids more but stack less." ~
Grammatically, it burns my eyes.
But in terms of the info, the question comes as, whats gonna be the
ups and downs per tanking class? You have two options: Damage
Mitigation and DPS, now that crushing is off the list.
Secondly, someone (other than myself, I'm lazy) should look into why
an enchant of healing gives different amounts of "spell power"
compared to its spell damage dps counterpart.
Hannya Jul 31st 2008 5:24PM
I'm currently gearing my druid to feral tank and i must say that i am a little afraid that druid will loose his tank niche in wrath.
Do u think druid will keep their role as tanks? will there be a spot for them in 10 or 25 man tanking or will warrior/pala be just better?
What do u think?
luds Jul 31st 2008 6:15PM
I dont want to sound like the jealous warrior cutting himself in a dark corner.
But with the removal of crushing blows on the horizon dark memories come back :(. Back in the day when BC was fresh we did stuff like Maulgar and Kazzak and both HAD to be tanked by a druid because they had the edge due to their enormous scaling(and aggro gen.) which warriors could not compete with at that times. It took quite some time and spell damage heavy bosses to bring warriors back to their pre BC spot.
With some additional fixes to protection being the only maintank is NOT the right thing and i'm glad blizzard tries to balance all 4 tanks as much as possible.
But the sheer amount of stats and armor is just one huge advantage over paladin / warrior tanks that i'm a bit afraid losing my initial tankspot in both random and private groups[healer: "Well, the druid might take more damage but he's easier to heal, could you please step down and let him tank it, Mr. Warriortank, thanks"] until gears makes us equal to druids again.
Another point is the niches blizzard is trying to choose for the different tanks, i hate the style blizzard is choosing for us. I despise the idea of an avoidance tank and i did always prefer the mitigating and surviving tank rather than the monkey-donkey.
Yeah, warriors didnt have much choice between avoidance and mitigation back at 60 but i tried as much as possible. I didn't like the idea of a mitigation vs avoidance tank when BC hit and i will certainly dislike the idea of an even extremer mitigation vs avoidance tank with WOTLK.
wild Aug 1st 2008 8:53AM
have no fear luds blizzard has anticipated your fear and in turn is nerfing the us itemization wise accordingly. While warriors will get a brand new set of gear to help them at the start of WOTLK because the way you tank is changing.
Druids on the other hand are going to have a fun filled time sharing itemization points with rogues. They are also doing their best to make sure that we will have to chose between bear and cat while fury warriors will be able to tank just as well as us. So lay your fears to rest about losing your spot blizzard has made sure feral druids get screwed really early this time so your spot is safe and guaranteed.
mxxoxxd Jul 31st 2008 7:48PM
hmmm, i posted the link that forum post yesterday...
=( i got no credit...also warriors wont be less enthused because their shield block was changed. Its now 1 100% block on a 30 sec cooldown (the block does block double dmg though)
superfrank Aug 1st 2008 5:29AM
being able to completely avoid one block every 20-30s is better than a free health potion every 20-30s because a health potion does perhaps 1/4 of a boss hit these days.
If warriors are going the way of ridiculous amounts of dodge, then the new 100% shield block will go a long way to smoothing out the spikiness of warrior damage thus making them easier to heal in heavy physical damage fights.
Vonzy Jul 31st 2008 9:17PM
@ 21 + 22
Completely agree with you both.
Arthas will be downed by 10 scrubs a month after release.
GG
Zanny Jul 31st 2008 9:54PM
I guarantee you no one considers crushing blows an issue with killing a lvl 15 mob at lvl 5....
this change is great, and i expect even though blizz will make it so any tank COULD tank, players themselves will always use the best tank for a given situation, because rather than try a little harder to make up for a certain class tanking, they would rather have it easy using a different tank. Just because bosses can be tanked by all 4 classes doesnt mean they will be.
Even now some guilds use feral tanks on many bosses like brutallus, unless you have fights like illidan that require warriors i see no problem with removing crushing blows. They did in ZA and that instance just promoted a variety of tanks.
Verit Jul 31st 2008 11:01PM
I would say get rid of randomness that you can't do anything about, but that will wipe the raid. Keep randomness that you can do something about.
sardis Aug 1st 2008 2:37AM
I don't see the point in complaints that removal of crushing blows is dumbing it down...
There is ABSOLUTELY no stratagy revolving around crushing blows...
In Sunwell there are NO crushing blows at all...
Nexty Aug 1st 2008 9:21AM
That's not true.
Kanuris Aug 1st 2008 3:31PM
I see this as a worrying nerf for Paladins and Warriors. Early raiding a Warrior could easily hold Uncrushable status thanks to the large amount of Block Percent Shield Block would give, making them a more stable and reliable target for healers.
Paladins would then start pulling ahead as the item level went higher and the gear had more natural avoidance on it, allowing them to maintain uncrushable with Holy Shield up, which is better than shield block and doesn't eat through mana, thus lowering threat output, like Shield Block does on a Warrior.
I'm quite interested to see what changes Blizz will be implementing to keep the balance between tanking classes, because this seems like a monumental kick in the nadges of Warrior and Paladin Tanks.
Though i'm happy if Wrath has a nice large amount of Blue/Epic tanking gear with tons of Block Rating on it, so i can once again run into the entire Orcish army and emerge with slightly dented armour and a huge(r) ego.