PvE winners and losers in patch 3.0
by Allison Robert 
Sep 14th 2008 at 11:15PM
I'm putting together a class-by-class prediction post on how the changes we'll see in patch 3.0 and beyond will wind up affecting PvE gameplay in Wrath, but it's probably a bit premature to make specific guesses while talents and skills are still being overhauled in the beta. Still, I think a few general trends (at least for 3.0) are pretty clear.I'm calling it now; Paladins will fare best, but Shamans will be the hardest hit by the upcoming changes, especially with respect to raiding. I think this change is driven in no small part by Blizzard's realization that Sunwell-level raid guilds are hugely dependent on the party-specific buffs like totems and Heroism/Bloodlust that Shamans bring. The problem is that Shamans are still the least-played class, which has left raiding guilds desperate for a high-end population of Shamans that simply does not exist (especially Alliance-side). Making Shaman totems and Heroism/Bloodlust buff the entire raid (but heavily nerfing how often the raid can benefit from the latter) means the days of stacking Shamans (or trying to) are effectively over.
Paladin changes, especially for holy and retribution, are equally driven by Blizzard's experience with Sunwell. With absolutely breathtaking amounts of raid damage occurring, encounters were disproportionately weighted in favor of: a). healers with more raid-healing capacity, like resto Shamans and CoH Priests (something we heard from SK Gaming months ago) and b). DPS who brought raid-wide DPS buffs to kill the boss as fast as possible (e.g. Retribution Paladins on Brutallus and M'uru). Given the new skills I'm seeing on other healing specs, I'll make another prediction; prepare to see that same level of raid damage rear its ugly head in Naxxramas again.
I'll be launching a more extensive prediction post once talents and skills are finalized for Wrath, and then I'd like to do a follow-up post at some point after guilds start conquering level 80 raid content to see whether they were any good.
Filed under: Paladin, Shaman, Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Expansions, Raiding, Classes
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Khanmora Sep 14th 2008 11:20PM
I am actually changing my main from a holy paladin to a resto shaman in the expansion because holy paladin talents are so bad right now. Shaman are doing just fine, trust me. It's much more fun playing the shammy than the pally in beta right now.
william Sep 14th 2008 11:27PM
yep, I like my one button healing just fine... well... 2 with BL...
Shinkou Sep 15th 2008 12:36AM
@Khan
Agreed. So far Holy paladin tree's are pretty plain. So far we've gained Beacon of Light, our supposed group heal spell, which by the way 1) does not count overhealing 2) applied to only ONE target 3) 35% base mana cost. Druids on the other hand get ANOTHER HoT and now get to... rez?
I love my paladin, raided Kara to SWP with him but he's just can't keep up with Resto Shamans and CoH priests at all. Weak group healing and crap for mana regen. Divine Plea restores only 25% base mana but cuts healing by 50% while winnervate has no negative effects? Granted it's a 6 minute CD, I'd be willing to trade the 1min CD for a 3 min CD with 50% base mana and 25% cut on healing.
Holy Paladins. If you're looking for jobs, from my experience in Beta thus far (raided 10/25naxx so far), Resto shamans are still in demand. I'm going to try to hold strong for a few months but if there's really no improvements (i.e. increase regen from Illumination) I'll be saying bye to my Pally and hello Resto Shaman.
Shinkou Sep 15th 2008 7:32AM
@Shinkou,
Druid res is going to take about 70 percent of mana which means they'll have to drink for every 1 or 2 resurrections when recovering after a wipe. Isn't it punishment enough for having an additional combat resurrection?
conker87 Sep 15th 2008 9:08AM
@Shinkou
That's 72% of base mana, just like a shaman. Plus how is that any problem?
Procris Sep 14th 2008 11:32PM
I still think its far to early to make this call, when it comes to the second class pass we will have a much better idea what direction Blizzard intends to go.
I don't think 3.0 will hit live any time soon and will most likely be on PTR for a month. Blizzard often changes things in the last minute and i fully suspect they will pull another Paladin nerf before it goes Live, like they did with TBC and make the spec disliked by players again.
Iwanttobeasleep Sep 14th 2008 11:39PM
Curiosity, does that mean that shamans are going to be less in demand than is reasonable, or that the demand for them will be brought down to reasonable?
Although it is *way* too early to call this, particularly without knowing the way boss encounters in Wrath are going to go.
smcn Sep 14th 2008 11:54PM
I don't think anyone can say how recruiting in Wrath will play out. As it is, every class is saying "why invite me when you can invite him?"... And I'm not exaggerating when I say *every* class. Which leads to a paradox, yes I can invite him instead of you, but conversely I can invite you instead of him.
I'm actually pretty confident that Blizzard's philosophy of "invite players, not classes/specs" will work out.
smcn Sep 14th 2008 11:48PM
With the 3 billion invites that went out this week I'm surprised anyone's raiding at all... Well, I would be if the beta servers were functional.
I'm with Procris in the "too-early-to-call" camp. Remember 1948? But anyways, when it comes to 80 I'll have to feel for the melee DPS that aren't rogues. Blizzard still refuses to fix the stat allocation parity between plate and leather.
I think Resto Druids have it best. We've still got great mana regen, and Flourish is simply fun to play with.
Manatank Sep 14th 2008 11:54PM
Shaman is the least played class? All I ever see are shamans on Arygos Alliance.
Farseer Lolotea Sep 15th 2008 3:04AM
A lot of people rolled draenei shaman (and blood elf paladins) when TBC was first released. Also, the vast majority of draenei seem to be shaman. But, AFAIK, they're still the least popular class.
Axxam Sep 15th 2008 8:04AM
8% of server population according to WoW Census last time I looked
quaunaut Sep 14th 2008 11:57PM
Enhancement Shaman won't be hit hard at all. Chances are, we'll be the #1 DPSers in the game after 3.0: I'm getting 400 AP from 3.0 alone.
Wasuremono Sep 14th 2008 11:57PM
Do you mean retribution paladins will fare the best? I don't see that the future looks quite as bright for holy paladins.
Jojojo Sep 14th 2008 11:58PM
Thank you for this post but it is true, it is far too early to call. However, it is a good indication of the current situation where Paladins look like they will be toned down and shamans are in need of serious tweaking.
The shaman community is quite worried given that it seems like we are the most neglected class and have been given the lowest priority. Bundle that with the fact that Wotlk is to be released this year and is competing with Warhammer we feel that they might rush through development and forget about us similarly to TBC.
PVE wise for elemental shaman, little has changed thus far and the spell rotation still revolves around LB spam (current reports suggest that Lava Burst isn't worth adding into the rotation). Resto looks fine and interesting while enhancement require PVP modifications.
I hope they put some effort into building this class.
Jeff Sep 15th 2008 12:45AM
"The shaman community is quite worried given that it seems like we are the most neglected class and have been given the lowest priority." lol
Try being a Priest. I have already canceled by account from all the neglect we are being given.
Jojojo Sep 15th 2008 12:56AM
Hey Jeff,
Funny you mention that Priest are also neglected, they share the same class designer (Koraa) with shamans.
Orestes Sep 15th 2008 5:27AM
This priest is going nowhere, and frankly is bloody well sick of the emo bitchiness of his fellow priests
sephirah Sep 15th 2008 7:59AM
Warlocks aren't fine now too, and guess who's the class designer?
Naix Sep 15th 2008 12:36PM
Priests are the suck now. Went from the best healers to the bottom scraping the barrel. Its sad that Druids and Shamans are going to dominate the healing classes.
Druids and Shamans are the new HOTness.