Profession News: Potion Sickness gone, Herbalists get new ability
by Daniel Whitcomb 
Aug 9th 2008 at 6:00PM
It was perhaps one of the most unexpected and controversial changes to hit Wrath Beta: Potion Sickness, the debuff that spelled the end of chain-chugging by allowing only one potion to be quaffed per combat and no more. Some people loved, since it would cut down on pre-raid farming and perhaps allow for bosses to be balanced more around classes and roles and less around Haste, Ironshield, and Destruction potions. Some saw it as a major nerf to Alchemists and to casters who were used to chaining mana pots to stay in the blue.
The debate, for the moment, seems to have ended in favor of the latter camp, as Potion Sickness has disappeared from the Beta servers in the latest build. As of this writing, there is no word on whether the removal was intended, and if so, whether or not Blizzard intends to return it or a similar mechanic to the Beta servers at a later date.
For now, though, it looks like chain chugging is back. As a member of the former of the aforementioned camps, I'm a bit concerned, and I hope they continue to work on limiting chain chugging. Farming for potions as a mandatory part of 10 or 25-man raiding really isn't fun and doesn't, in my mind, add much value to the encounters, and I'd much rather see a limitation of potion use combined with class buffs and boss balancing to remove the need to chug altogether.
In other profession news, Herbalists got their own version of the buffs recently given to Skinners and Miners in the form of Wild Growth, which heals you for an amount of health over 5 seconds. The healing amount (2000 at the highest rank) does not appear to be affected by spell power, nor does it scale with HP in any noticeable way, so that may make it a bit weak as HP pools grow. However, it does not appear to share a cool down with other healing abilities, and it is usable in Feral forms, so it still may have a bit of utility after all if you can spare the global cooldown.
Filed under: Herbalism, Wrath of the Lich King, Making money, Raiding, Expansions, News items, Analysis / Opinion, Patches, Alchemy, WoW TCG
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
Jack Aug 9th 2008 6:08PM
Damn it.
Willypiggy Aug 10th 2008 3:36AM
Heiling, your idea is completly retarded, if you only ever have 30minutes to play then you will NEVER get past Kara, you will probabley only even down the first few bosses in Kara then you would have to go, 1 hour to do dailies is nothing, I don't even see why people complain about farming stuff for raids, just go to Quel'Danas, do the dailys and thats enough to pay for a flask (50-60g) for the night and all your repairs, you can even use whatever is left to get some mana pots (if you use mana ofc) or haste pots. and thats like 11 of your 25 allowed dailys.
Lilith Aug 10th 2008 11:44AM
http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/9425/wowscrnshot081008120611fe8.jpg
It's not gone, it's just not showing up as a debuff.
(Commenting here so it's seen earlier)
Jorelos Aug 9th 2008 6:14PM
Glad they got rid of potion sickness, if this or anything like this goes live you can say good bye to most of the herbalists I'd bet. I don't use enough pots myself to make it worthwhile just for me and this change would have essentially made herbs and potions worthless on the ah essentially crushing any point of herbalism/alchemy for all but a few who would keep making potions for the ah because they're too lazy to grind up another set of professions.
Mediator Aug 9th 2008 6:35PM
Flasks still exist, and you can still use a potion once per fight. Naxx has fifteen bosses, assuming the bosses are designed with using only one potion per fight, your raid will have to consume 375 potions on the night you spend clearing it assuming no wipes on any of the bosses. Without potion sickness, naxx could require thousands of potions or more, assuming your raid one shots every boss. Thousands of gold a week to clear the first raid dungeon... one of the major points of WOTLK was that it was becoming more casual... requiring multiple potions per boss per raid member doesn't sound very casual to me.
Hurode Aug 9th 2008 6:49PM
The new Inscription uses herbalism too :)
Heilig Aug 9th 2008 6:57PM
"Thousands of gold a week to clear the first raid dungeon... one of the major points of WOTLK was that it was becoming more casual... requiring multiple potions per boss per raid member doesn't sound very casual to me."
I agree wholeheartedly. In fact, I think that requiring people to put in time and effort farming lower level raid content for gear just to be able to move on to higher level content is absurd as well. We should all just be given a full set of top-end gear when we ding 80. That's the only way to make it fair to casual players.
I mean really, it takes almost an hour's worth of dailies to have enough gold for consumables on a raid night. AN HOUR! Are these people crazy? I'm lucky if I have half that to play each day, and I pay my 15 bucks a month just like everyone else. I should get to down Kil'Jaeden on my schedule, not have to conform to some arbitrary difficulty scale.
Aigarius Aug 9th 2008 7:00PM
I fail to see why would you ever chug a pot on trash ...
Assuming an average boss fight time of 10 minutes you would spend no more than 4 pot per boss attempt (if you are really pushing it and you are a class and spec that can really burn trough mana with a good cause).
I doubt you will reasonably go trough more than 20-30 pots per raiding night. Maybe on Brutallus or Mu'ru wipe fiesta night. But if your raid does well it is rather rare that you even get the chance to chug a lot of pots.
40 mana pots is around 100-120g. Add 120-140g for two flasks. Add 50-60g for food. Add 10-20g for weapon buffs. Add 10g for reagents. Add 50g for repairs.
Yes, you can spend 300-400g per night on raiding, however pots are just a small part of that and it is the part you can control and limit with most ease. Also, if you are doing farm content and killing stuff, then most of the nights you will actually earn money from the gold that bosses drop.
Chris Aug 9th 2008 7:08PM
That's a nice ability for anyone, but especially for tanks :)
DurWrathi Aug 9th 2008 6:26PM
A shame to see Potion Sickness go. Hopefully they bring it back. Even as an Alchemist I think its insane to design raid encounters around the assumption of chain chugging potions.
The Herbalist heal looks great, but is it enough? I'd love to see more passive and active abilities added for each profession. Nothing overpowering, but little bonuses are great both as a matter of flavor and having a useful buff. Any idea if Miner's Revenge, the pick throw for miners, made it out of alpha?
Ametrine Aug 9th 2008 6:34PM
"A shame to see Potion Sickness go. Hopefully they bring it back. Even as an Alchemist I think its insane to design raid encounters around the assumption of chain chugging potions."
Bring it back?? Are you NUTS? They don't need to revive that horrid idea to rebalance the boss encounters.
Mediator Aug 9th 2008 6:37PM
And you think its a great idea that bosses are designed that you HAVE to chain potions? If anything, the encounters could be designed around not requiring potions at all if potion sickness was included, and potions can become the "Oh sh*t" button in WOTLK, now that encounters are being designed around using shield wall and blood lust (Shield wall is now a 5 minute cooldown with only 50% damage reduction).
Tuhljin Aug 9th 2008 6:32PM
Whatever possible advantage is allowed becomes "required" in end-game raiding. Potion sickness was a VERY GOOD thing - potion consumption in raiding is far too high. The idea that it's a nerf to mana users only stands if you think Blizzard is stupid enough not to take it into account when they design encounters.
Kaphik Aug 9th 2008 6:38PM
No, potion chugging was not "required", except when you were trying to push your limits. In that case, then yes, every edge you can get is needed.
WHICH IS FINE.
Even being able to drink potions every two minutes requires a bit of foresight in the timing of them. Potion Sickness was a bad idea, in my opinion, and I am glad to see it gone.
MisterMoose Aug 9th 2008 6:43PM
By "Push your limits" what exactly do you mean? Do you mean progression content? Because then you are agreeing that such encounters are designed around potion chugging (as Devs have said).
Mediator Aug 9th 2008 6:45PM
Kaphik, have people beaten Kil'jaeden without potions? M'uru? Brutallus? Yes, potion chugging is required unless you outgear the encounter, and logically you can't outgear encounters that are currently the highest level without having beaten encounters past it. When kara first came out and people were running it in t3 gear and blues, they had to chain chug mana potions. Encounters are designed around "I have the best gear I can get from encounters before this boss, and spamming as many consumables as possible".
Kaphik Aug 9th 2008 6:46PM
Pushing your limits is doing something where you need every little edge to complete it. If your guild is on the edge of progression, then yes. Once you get better stats, or better strats, then the potions don't become vital. No problem with that in my book.
Tuhljin Aug 9th 2008 6:46PM
If you can do it, Blizzard will balance end-game fights assuming you will OR they will make it so you can't, thus, for bleeding edge content, they will be "required" or restricted. This is why Potion Sickness and tinnitus ( http://wotlk.wowhead.com/?spell=51120 ) were implemented.
Faar Aug 9th 2008 10:26PM
"The idea that it's a nerf to mana users only stands if you think Blizzard is stupid enough not to take it into account when they design encounters."
What, you mean you expect Blizzard to make it so that you can win a bossfight without really shooting any spells or casting any heals?
Potion sickness was yet another in a long row of dumb band-aid fixes to issues created by blizzard themselves that didn't actually fix the underlying problem (as defined by blizzard anyway, regardless of if it actually was a problem or not). It just made it harder for the player, that's all.
I point at the life tap and water drinking nerfs they tried to push on us, but failed both times as other examples of the same school of shoddy game design, I'm sure I could come up with many more if I'd just spend a little time.
Potion sickness would have killed the viability of alchemy. All we'd be good for would be making flasks and doing transmutes. Why would you want to drink an ironshield potion for example if it permanently locked you out of being able to pot ever again during the fight. You'd save yourself instead for an emergency health pot in case an "oh cr*p!" type situation arises.
Maybe players rely too much on pots. Or maybe it's just herbs that are too uncommon, making pots too expensive. However, blizzard doesn't explore other possibilities, they nerf all of alchemy instead with a sweeping change to game mechanics. Wayy to go! Give those greedy alchemists a good kick in the nads and kill off their profession, that'll teach them!
*sigh*
Tuhljin Aug 10th 2008 2:57AM
"What, you mean you expect Blizzard to make it so that you can win a bossfight without really shooting any spells or casting any heals?"
You know very well that argument is fallacious. When you decide to take what I post at face value and not stretch it to ridiculous extremes, maybe we can talk.