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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsEarth Shock replacement to be implemented due to downranking changes
by Daniel Whitcomb 
Aug 19th 2008 at 5:00PM
People are still reeling from the downranking change on Beta, but as the dust clears and Blizzard continues to stick to their guns, it may be that we'll have to live with it. One thing Blizzard has said, however, is that if it looks like there's genuine void created somewhere by the loss of downranking, they'll fix it.
One genuine void is that of rank 1 Earth Shock. Shamans have longed used the spell as a spell interrupt when they can't afford to spend the mana on a max rank shock, both in PvE and PvP. With the new mana cost rules, that cheap interrupt is now gone, complicating a shaman's already touchy mana preservation issues.
Luckily, not all is lost for Shamans, as Koraa says that they are creating a rank 1 Earth Shock spell equivalent that should show up in the Beta at some point in the future.
This, at the least, is a good indication that Blizzard means to make good on plugging up holes left by the abolishment of downranking -- or at least the holes that the dev team sees as needing to be plugged. Will we see a replacement for rank 1 Moonfire for totem killing, or for rank 1 Arcane Explosion or rank 1 Consecration for flushing out stealthers? That remains to be seen, but it seems much less likely, since those are roundabout ways of using a damage spell for a non-DPS reason rather than the straightforward purpose of using rank 1 Earth Shock as a cheap spell interrupter.
Filed under: Shaman, Analysis / Opinion, News items, Expansions, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 3)
FailedNinja Aug 20th 2008 8:45AM
What the heck are you talking about?
Flash of Light x2 (896-1004, 360mp, 3secs)
Lesser Healing Wave (1039-1185, 440mp, 1.5secs)
That's half the time and slightly more healing for slightly more mana cost.
That's a pretty decent tradeoff, so cry me a river.
Shams should not be exempt from the downranking nerf. Either nerf everyone or no one. It makes no sense to favor one class over the others when making these sweeping changes.
Sciencegeek Aug 19th 2008 5:29PM
What about Rank 1 Drain Soul?
bumble Aug 19th 2008 6:22PM
and make it a 'dot' effect. As deep destruction it's a pain not to overnuke and get a drain out in time.
Illirien Aug 19th 2008 5:42PM
What I can't figure out is why, if they don't want us to use varying levels of skills and spells, do the lower ranks still appear in our spellbooks? If they don't want us to downrank, just have the rank you're training replace the previous rank you had, and be done with it. Enough of this beating around the bush.
video_game_master91 Aug 19th 2008 5:51PM
Exactly what I was thinking.
Algorithm Aug 19th 2008 6:01PM
Two words: Cast Times.
The best example I can think of where you would want to use a lower rank spell, even at increased mana cost is spells with cast times, like frostbolt or fireball. I frequently use rank 1 (and will continue to do so, even at a mana penalty), because of the 1 second snare or 1.7 second or whatever DoT.
PvP is time sensitive.
Dave Aug 19th 2008 5:44PM
I don't see why everyone who normally (ab)uses the mechanic of a cheap spell with an identical proc to a higher level spell should get a rebate on it.
I think they should just make the spells appropriately affordable at all levels and ranks such that you're not getting a signficantly better deal by using something cheap.
If the solution is to keep Earth Shock at 1 rank, get rid of the damage added and it basically becomes a Counterspell for Shamans, then great. If they get a scaling AND static counterspell, that's kinda crap.
jasonlotito Aug 19th 2008 9:23PM
"I don't see why everyone who normally (ab)uses the mechanic of a cheap spell with an identical proc to a higher level spell should get a rebate on it."
They aren't.
Roxton Aug 19th 2008 7:13PM
I use rank 1 scorch in raids to stack the fire debuff on a boss, not because of its mana cost or cast time, but because it causes virtually no threat and so I can do it during the pull without the chance of aggroing it and thus meaning that I can start dps straight away.
I use rank 1 frostbolt in PvP to quickly apply a snare to an opponent.
This, to you, counts as "abuse". To me, this is intelligent gameplay. Finding the best way to use your spells isn't abusing them, it's playing with skill.
jasonlotito Aug 19th 2008 9:26PM
"I use rank 1 scorch in raids to stack the fire debuff on a boss, not because of its mana cost or cast time, but because it causes virtually no threat and so I can do it during the pull without the chance of aggroing it and thus meaning that I can start dps straight away."
Accept this is already account for in the expansion. Moreso, if you mages want a low aggro way to get this buff up, they should ask for it.
Basically, down ranking isn't the problem.
JDM Aug 19th 2008 5:49PM
If they want to get rid of downranking, why in the world would they add the equivalent of the downranked spell back at lower mana costs? It still works out to being the exact same thing as downranking! Stupid.
Also, the blue poster on this subject said that the downranking was UNintentional, and they want to phase it out - but they're just upping the mana costs on lower ranked spells in the end. Who is going to downrank now? Not many, I bet! Also, if you want to get rid of downranking, why in the world would you even leave the lower ranks in the game?!
I for one don't understand why they would penalize downranking, and why they would want to get rid of it, as it has become an essential skillset for playing the game for both DPS and healing.
I just can't understand why they would offer low-mana cost versions of the spells back to players if getting rid of those low-mana cost spells was the whole idea to begin with!
jasonlotito Aug 19th 2008 6:05PM
Answer to each of your four paragraphs.
1. They aren't. The are selectively adding back in spells that accomplish something that want with the class. Just because shaman are getting a counter doesn't mean all classes are getting replacements of every spell. And no, it's not stupid. It's rather smart and critical to doing what they said they would do.
2. Down ranking is still useful. Take a lower ranked spell with a faster cast time (Frostbolt, for example). It could also be used in some cases so apply debuffs while something is still CC'ed via Ice Trap or something. And yes, you can damage things in ice trap in wrath. It's intended. If you didn't know this, you've really no right to have an opinion on down ranking as you clearly don't know the whole story.
3. Because it's an unintuitive skill set that actually helps to promote poor game play. People put a lot of stock into choosing the right rank to avoid over healing and other rubbish. The truth is, it's actually much more mindless to down rank and spam heals all day long without a care. Down ranking was smart only because it worked; it was not, however, any measure of skill. The only thing it did was show who spent time reading what others had learned. So yeah, it showed who was a good sheep and couldn't think for themselves.
4. Clearly, you don't understand what they are doing. Honestly, if you don't understand why they are doing what they are doing, and what they are doing, your opinion is just flat wrong and uninformed.
Meira Aug 19th 2008 5:51PM
It's comprehensible that Blizzard puts the downranking prevention system, to avoid cheap ways to do things that you should do with max ranks, to do maximum effect.
But Blizzard should think a little further on these, because classes that don't use mana, and specially rogues, can become a enormous issue to mana-using classes, because they will burst mana like hell to prevent nasty strikes.
Now a thing that is somewhat odd is those spells with only one rank, that don't scale with level/equipment, and don't have a pvp advantage also suffer from the base mana cost. Like teleports or Hand of Salvation, we will waste extra mana on a spell that several levels ago costed a much smaller amount of mana and did the damn same thing.
Plastriq Aug 19th 2008 5:58PM
+1 for Drain Soul rank 1
Kyane Aug 19th 2008 5:57PM
It's not so much going to be a rank 1 equivalent, but a separation of the interrupt and damage components of earth shock, and giving the interrupt a different spell, which will cost less mana since there will be no damage component to it ( at least this is what I'm guessing based on discussions on the beta boards ).
And wands and pet macros still exist to take out totems ezmode as it is.
Butnick Aug 19th 2008 6:01PM
What I really don't understand about removal of downranking is that you pay money for each spell to train it. So really you are buying each rank seperate and therefore you should be able to keep each rank that you have paid full price for. If they are going to eliminate the abilty to use something that you paid good money for, I've spent upwards of at least 30 gold for a round of new spells, then they need to compensate by lowering the cost to reflect that it is indeed just an upgrade and not a seperate spell.
jasonlotito Aug 19th 2008 9:26PM
1. It's hardly any cash, and makes no real difference.
2. Rogues/Warriors have suffered this for a LONG time.
3. Lower rank abilities still have uses besides lowered mana cost.
Angus Aug 19th 2008 6:21PM
Okay, so folks are putting 2 reasons for objecting. I'll now get mean in response.
1: "Why do they get to keep their cheap spell interrupt and I don't?"
Hi, your "not cheap" spell interrupt is now off GCD and cheap. Ours is tied to a damage spell on a 6 sec CD with 2 damage spells tied to it so we lose massive amounts of utility if we use it, AND is still on GCD.
We'd love it fixed. In fact that comment came on a thread about making a new shock "Wind Shock" who's only purpose was to be a spell interrupt. Earth shock would become pure damage.
2: "I should get rank 1 moonfire too, mwah!"
Rank 1 moonfire is an abomination to shaman. It's a dispel for almost no mana that targets specific buffs.
Sorry, but purge is base mana. Dispel, base mana. Tranquilizing Shot (WotLK) base mana. They will not be cheap. You want to kill my buffs, spend some mana to do it. Heck, the pet classes still kill them with macros.
I love how druids think their entitled to kill a shaman's buff system for almost no mana.
This change isn't just about PVP. Shaman need that mana in PVE and having an interrupt that people can rely on and not have the shaman run OOM is a good thing.
Core Aug 20th 2008 3:31AM
The reason Shamans are to be given this interrupt is pure and simple. It's needed. The whole down ranking thing is quite stupid really, and obviously blizzard feel it is an unwanted part of the game. Rank 1 moonfires to kill a totem? something that takes about 30 mana to kill a max rank spell? that seems fair doesn't it? But shamans having to use about 700 mana just to interrupt something is just silly, hence why the other interrupt will be given. It's not the same as rank 1 moonfire which is spam-able. it will OBVIOUSLY have a cool down (maybe 10 or so seconds). You don't go complaining about rogue's kick or warrior's pummel? Then don't complain about this.
Zep Aug 19th 2008 6:30PM
Any rogue that gets caught by a rank 1 consecrate or AE is stupid. With improved sap you get practically hit the person without entering the area, and I've Pounced or seen my friend Sap through AE spam and consecrate reliably. Yes, RELIABLY.