Aspect of the Viper changed again
by Eliah Hecht 
Sep 5th 2008 at 8:00PM
The Hunter mana regeneration tool, Aspect of the Viper, has been revised again. Currently, in live, it provides passive mana regen. It was recently announced that it was going to be changed to provide 100% of your damage as mana regen, but cut your damage output by 50% (less with talents). This lets the hunter switch it on when they need mana, fill up their mana pool, and switch back to Hawk to DPS some more, as opposed to being in Viper all the time as many hunters do these days.
Apparently, though, it was just a bit too powerful, as many users have commented. Hunters with good gear were filling up their mana bar way too fast. So it's going to be changed again, this time to restore a percentage of your base mana each time you hit. While this does do away with some scaling issues, it seems to introduce others. For instance, this makes a fast weapon vastly more desirable for mana regen. But (say it with me) it's still beta, so I'm confident that they'll work out any game-breaking flaws there may be in this new incarnation.
Filed under: Hunter, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Saelorn Sep 5th 2008 8:22PM
They just need to base the probability of it restoring mana around around the speed of the weapon. Say, some hypothetical speed 4.00 weapon would have 100% chance of restoring mana, so a 2.00 would only have 50%
I hope it's not the same mana-recovery buff that shadow priests will give; it's self-only, so at the very least the two should stack.
hootie2t Sep 5th 2008 8:25PM
I know it's a "nerf" to some, but it really still is in flux. I, for one, am happy that Blizz is at least addressing the mana issues.
Zuldim Sep 5th 2008 8:39PM
Speaking as a hunter I have two feelings on this.
1. This is much more balanced, and makes much more sense... It just needs to be tuned a bit.
2. AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW.. =(
Kaiva Sep 5th 2008 8:50PM
it seems odd to me that they in response to a spell being too powerful, they would change the mechanic all together instead of just decreasing % of damage that returns mana
Baluki Sep 5th 2008 9:03PM
I'm sure they'll eventually make it so that the rate of regen increases/decreases based on the speed of the weapon, like they do with weapon enchants.
It's still a very cool change, and I wish they'd change Water Shield to act similarly.
Taxis Sep 5th 2008 10:50PM
You know, if hunters have to lose a bag space and pay lots of gold for decent ammo on a regular basis, as well as needing to buy food to avoid having your pet lose dps, they should at least come up with something reasonable that makes our mana pool regenerate, so that we aren't having to drink every second fight. As it stands we lose 10% or more of our dps when aspect of the hawk is not active.
I understand that mages have to drink every second fight as well. However, they aren't paying for extra food and ammo, and they get to keep all five bag slots.
Alternately, it would be nice if aspect of the viper gave a group bonus instead of just a single player bonus. I find it hard enough to get a decent pug together because there are so many useless hunters out there.
Zakk Sep 5th 2008 10:55PM
Kind of disappointed that it isn't its former incredible self, but I definitely like it more than its live version. I really want it to stay an active effect rather than a passive one. And since I don't know the percentage returned, maybe it'll still be just as awesome.
As far as slower/faster weapons, I don't like the idea of changing the chances of mana being returned every hit. I'd rather it be more mana per hit for slower weapons and less for fast weapons. I hate being screwed over by unlucky strings of proclessness.
ninjasuperspy Sep 6th 2008 6:24AM
As a sometime Ret Paladin player, I have to say I feel your pain hunters. I miss the original Judgments of the Wise and I'm not even in the Beta. The new Replenishment buff for classes that don't stack int is just not enough mana regeneration to keep sustained DPS going. It is not called Massive Quantities of Sporadic Ranged DPS. A damage based regen mechanic works for DPS classes. It scales with gear and with stats we actually stack. I think we'll end up with something like this Aspect (and the original JotW) just slightly more balanced, I suppose.
crsh Sep 6th 2008 10:51AM
I wish Blizzard would put this much effort in trying out ideas and adjusting them as they go with priests as they do with hunters. No this isn't a "nerf hunters" request, I'm just jealous. :|
obarthelemy Sep 7th 2008 7:36PM
This change means we'll need as fast a weapon as possible. Most very fast weapons are very low level/dps: lvl 11 for a green vendor 1.7 speed bow, lvl 40-50 for an epic 1.6 bow or 1.5 gun...
Is that an issue, or should we not care ? what % of our DPS is due to the actual weapon, as opposed to ammo, gear bonus, and talents ? Is the trade off of lower dps during our half-dps viper regen, for a quicker regen and more time in full DPS hawk aspect worth it ?
Darkesday Oct 14th 2008 4:13PM
I have a feeling that whatever change that Blizz settles with, will more than likely be a huge handicap in arena.
In the past, I would use AotV throughout the entirety of a fight. Mana drain teams do really well, and I would easily take the extra mana over the small amount of extra damage with AotH.
Darkesday Oct 15th 2008 4:55PM
Another concern I recently thought of is, while going up against a mana drain team in arena, it is very likely that you will find yourself at 10% or less mana then be forced to use this aspect. At the end of a fight, this is no way to finish off an opponent, and it may be nearly impossible to regain mana, if you are locked in melee combat, which is very likely.
At zero mana, your only option is auto shot, which is slow and requires you to stand still... This is practically impossible in every arena situation I have encountered.
Some amount of passive mana regain would possibly make hunters viable again. Blizz attempted to fix the hunter problems with Disingage and Deterence, but if they boost hunter's melee, and make them the fastest mana loosing class in the game, then Blizz is really working backwards.