Patch 5.4 patch notes
Virtual Realms feature revealed
The Proving Grounds are coming
The latest patch 5.4 newsTinnitus: Leatherworking drums cause a debuff
by Amanda Miller 
Jul 31st 2008 at 3:31PM
With the new Tinnitus debuff, any targets affected by drums are immune to the effects of all other drums for two minutes. While this sounds like a nerf, it might actually have a balancing effect.
In fact, other professions are seeing similar changes. Potions will create Potion Sickness, which will prevent the consumer from using more than one in any given encounter. Players will have to rest out of combat in order to refresh the privilege.
So far, this also is affecting mana gems and similar items, although it is unclear if that particular effect is a bug or not. What does this mean?
Encounters will have to be tuned assuming that players have limited access to buffs, self-heals and mana solutions. Mana regeneration will be of increased importance, and while you'll have to brush up on your mana management skills, Blizzard devs will also have to balance regeneration so that classes can last through raid encounters with only one mana potion.
It will also mean that raiding classes who have no use for leatherworking outside of providing drums for the raid, might be able to respec back to a profession that is personally useful and lucrative. I welcome the idea that raid members might bring unique benefits, rather than having a raid full of drummers.
What do you think about the change? Is your guild going to have to revamp its strategy, or have you worked around using drums anyway?
Filed under: Alchemy, Leatherworking, Items, Analysis / Opinion, Guilds, Instances, Expansions, Buffs, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 3)
Kassius Jul 31st 2008 4:10PM
thats all well and good, but as far as i know all the big name guilds, such as nihilum had 80% of their raids at 350 LW so they could chain drums giving a raid wide +80 haste buff.
Pretty clever; i think use of mechanics like this should be allowed tbh
PeeWee Jul 31st 2008 4:28PM
It is allowed, no one was banned for doing it.
Nathral Jul 31st 2008 3:59PM
I think the only problem with this is going to be if they Don't retune the Outland instances. People bringing up alts, death knights, and new players will have serious issues getting thru those instances on one pot/stone.
Nick S Jul 31st 2008 4:03PM
my major concern with these changes is with classes who are already gimped due to mana issues - mages come to mind.
i guess the spirit changes are really going to have to be major...
Offhand Jul 31st 2008 4:05PM
Less consumables could mean simpler raiding. Timing drums and other cooldowns is part of the teamwork that makes raiding enjoyable.
On the other hand it isn't really fair to see casters chug 3-4 pots per attempt and get stuck with huge costs to raid.
Also I was pretty surprised when 80% of Nihilum dropped a proffession to level up LW for the chain drum effect, I think Blizzard was too (IDK if they were the first guild to do this because recently they lost the #1 spot in terms of world firsts).
My guess is that group utility of professions is being limited to one at most per profession. Even skinning and mining supposedly grant passive buffs now. So it isn't a terrible sin to have a gathering profession on your main.
I would say this lowers the cost of raiding in the long run but I feel it's just because we got Incriptions to blow money on instead.
Fense Jul 31st 2008 4:21PM
"On the other hand it isn't really fair to see casters chug 3-4 pots per attempt and get stuck with huge costs to raid."
I would agree if I didn't wear plate armor which costs on average 10% durability ends up costing me around 6G. As a tank I genarally am not using health pots since 2k hp is really a lol when I'm getting hit by SWP bosses. On a progression night I can expect to pay around 120G in just repair bills for the night. If you compare that to the other amor classes, they pay significantly less to repair their armor. Not to mention the effects of the Flask of Fortification are not really that great at the SWP level. For serious attempts I'm usually stacking elixir of greater defense and elixir of major agility. I'm also eating spicy crawdad.Those are not potions or drums but all of that stuff adds up to a huge amount anyway. And lately I've been chugging ironshield potions every 2 mintues during Brutallus attempts. I just don't see how tanking him would be possible without all of this.
Jane Gray Aug 4th 2008 8:11AM
I was under the impression that the different kinds of armor pay the same for repairs now. My holy priest costs a little more than a holy pally in my guild, although we've got similar levels of gear.
I've been told that tanks just gets hit more and hence take more dura, that their repair bills are no longer due to their armor type.
Neil Jul 31st 2008 4:09PM
I think that the remark about brute-forcing through instances wasn't meant to disparage current raiders.
Level 60 raids required people to show up with tons of Elixirs.
Some Level 70 raids require people to chain-chug mana potions. Others require raids to string Drums.
It looks like Level 80 raids will not require people to burn through consumables of any sort. Gear and skill and coordination will be the measure of a raid, not ability to farm :)
Kidsmoke Jul 31st 2008 4:13PM
i highly doubt many people running their new guys through outland are going to bother with raids, and if your rotating and wasting (imo) drums and haste pots on 5 man content then you are just stupid.
Either way, we easily tore through 4/5 hyjal last week one shots all around with a total of 2 LWers. Myself and a mage who were not in the same group.
And if for some god-forsaken reason you are taking your alts or DKs through SWP when you should be questing in Outland then you are just silly, and shouldn't be worried about "retuning" the instance.
I'm pretty sure you can 3 man most of MC now-a-days w/o having 15 elixir buffs.
Man, people will find anything to bitch about.
The only ones who should be upset are Alchys who are going to be losing out on all that Gold from mass used consumables.
twyst Jul 31st 2008 4:19PM
Hyjal is t6, but its not somewhere where drums are going to make a huge difference. Fight Brutallus and then tell me that drums dont make a huge difference. Yes its possible to do it without them I(m sure, but it really helps.
Slayblaze Jul 31st 2008 4:20PM
The only way to balance encounters so that only 1 mana pot is required is to make the fight shorter. It really all boils down to that, plain and simple. All the mana conservation efforts in the world can only go so far, and there is a pretty severe limit to in-combat regen.
So unless Blizz has something up their sleeve we don't know about yet, the only real way to balance Potion Sickness (so that you would only need 1 potion) is to shorten the fight time.
As for the drums, yes this also looks like their will be some strategic changes that will be required. Should be interesting.
paul.marsico Jul 31st 2008 4:35PM
Please tell me how you are supposed to stay OS5R as a DPS caster.
Now tell me how a WARLOCK who never had to worry about regen while levelling from 1-70 is supposed to learn this.
GFG. The pot things gotta go, especially if Healthstones, mana gems, and demonic runes are attached to that same debuff.
As for the drums:
Stop making Brutallus fights and people will stop using their brains and circumventing the system.
onetrueping Jul 31st 2008 4:46PM
...or up the mana regeneration for mana-using classes, like they currently are?
paul.marsico Jul 31st 2008 5:11PM
onetrueping,
A dps caster class that isn't casting to regen mana is then doing nothing.
If they were to change this so that the debuff only applied to destruction, haste, or heroic pots, that would make ALOT of sense. But as it stands now, there's no amount of regen that can save a tanks life when he needs a heal that can amount to what you would gain from a Super Mana pot and a quick Flash of Light.
Mediator Jul 31st 2008 5:24PM
paul.marsico, they are increasing mana regen for casters, spirit is being itemized on caster gear and DPS casters are getting methods to get mana regen based on spirit
Also, paladins are getting divine plea, and mana spring/mana tide are becoming raid wide, along with a mana regening ability in rejuvenation, and many other mana regeneration abilities
This is a great change, since it allows them to make interesting 5, 10, and 25 man encounters without having to factor in a pile of mana potions
jewbanks Jul 31st 2008 5:27PM
As far as Im aware theyre just making it so it ticks every second or so outside of the 5sr or maybe even just continuously tick outside the 5sr, but even then that doesnt make you regen more. Ok, Maybe slightly more incase a cast goes off right before a tick thats less likely now. But that doesnt help a mage that has 0 down time. Given arc mages are being encouraged to stack more spirit and move away from the expensive arc blast using, but I guess well see.
Mediator Jul 31st 2008 5:38PM
Spirit itemized heavily on gear, mage armor becoming more useful / fel armor granting +damage and mana regen based on spirit, thunder for elemental shamans, improved spirit tap and dispersion for shadow priests, all the DPS casters will have methods to keep their mana up... yes it will be possible to OOM, but I think that's the point, smart players will be able to keep their mana up, and bad players will OOM and won't be able to just pop pots and stack shadow priests (Vampiric Touch generates less mana)
Healers will have plenty of mana too with gift of the earth mother for druids/replenish, divine plea for paladins, disc priests return mana back based on healing and holy priests have improved holy concentration, and resto shamans get improved water shield and improved shields
OOM'ing won't be a huge concern if you are properly geared for the fight
KillerKarl Jul 31st 2008 5:01PM
They dropped changes like this into the patch before TBC was released. If they have this and the mana potion sickness in the patch before WotLK it could put a significant barrier in the way of progression kills for guilds.
Mattlistener Jul 31st 2008 5:28PM
Here's one problem with Tinnitus I'm not seeing people talk about: say I'm a healer. I'd like to be able to use Drums of Resto to stretch the group's longevity in a tight healing situation. But I can't because in the prior two minutes someone else used the +hit rating drums, giving the healers Tinnitus and a useless buff.
In a well-organized group it means one LW will be in charge of picking the raid's Drum buff every 2 minutes according to the raid's need rather than their own.
There are 2x25 Professions present in a raid. Before populatity effects the default # of LWs to expect will be 5. So for 4 of them, the raid-buff ability of their profession will be worthless.
Tbear Jul 31st 2008 9:22PM
I am going to jump out on a limb here and say this move is designed to make utility classes more valuable. In the future raids will not be able to stack the highest dps classes and forego the usefullness of hybrids.
This is the next logical step from the viability of the shadow priest. Ret paladins bring mana and health regen through judgements, passive healing from Divine Storm, haste from Ret aura, etc.