Bornakk confirms raid nerf
by Adam Holisky 
Oct 2nd 2008 at 6:00PM
Blue poster Bornakk has clarified what many people were noticing yesterday: all Burning Crusade raiding mobs have had their health reduced (approximately 30 percent according to data collected). He also goes on to say that the mobs will be doing less physical damage, although the spell damage will remain the same.As far my close and personal friend Illidan goes, he will no longer be casting Shear. While I understand the need for this, as a Warrior can no longer spam Shield Block come patch 3.0.2, I will miss this particular mechanic in that it truly provided a test of skill above the standard tank and spank mechanic.
The HP nerf to all of the raid bosses isn't sitting too well with me either. It makes me sigh in frustration at the weeks my guild spent getting the last 25% of Brut down to a science. Had this nerf been in place three months ago, we would have killed him on the second night of attempts.
But that is the life of these games, onward and upward towards Wrath of the Lich King!
Filed under: News items, Raiding, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
onetrueping Oct 2nd 2008 6:05PM
As mentioned in the previous post, and as theorycrafted by numerous people who aren't succumbing to a knee-jerk reaction to this "nerf," the fights are not becoming easier with the reduced health. In some cases, they are actually becoming just slightly harder. And since the nerf is coming concurrently with all the mechanics changes, you only have to relearn the fight once... or just wait a month and relearn nothing.
Blake Oct 2nd 2008 6:52PM
Simply because you were able to get Brutallus down to 25% doesn't mean you're going to be able to go in and kill him now. They aren't being "nerfed", they're at the same level of difficultly, adjusted for new raid mechanics. I usually don't have too many issues with WowInsider articles, but the author clearly misses the point of the HP adjustment to bosses.
PimpyMicPimp Oct 2nd 2008 8:06PM
/agree with Blake
Clint Oct 3rd 2008 9:15AM
A lot of this controversy could be avoided if everyone referred to this action towards TBC raid bosses as what it is... re-balancing or re-tuning. Let me repeat this is not a 'nerf.'
As an MT warrior, my gut reaction is... '40secs between shield blocks?! I'm done for.' Although I know that isn't the really the case.
There are sooo many changes going in, I suspect that some bosses will be very easy and some will be much harder. Try getting Brutallus down without chaining drums / bloodlust. The 30% reduction along with all the mechanic changes will help some raids and hurt others.
In any case, its just another month that I'll be tanking in bizzarr-o outland.
jrizutko Oct 3rd 2008 10:17AM
Why are people so afraid to call a nerf a nerf?
Nerf (v) to make a video game dynamic less powerful.
Whats the big deal? Lets honor the memory of George Carlin and not wet ourselves trying to pretend something is different because we give it a more comfortable name. They are nerfing content for the last month before the expansion while everyone gets used to new dynamics. Its not rebalancing. Its not fine tuning. Those euphemisms imply someone actually worked out the details of the dynamic to make sure that it WAS actually still balanced. When you lop off a flat % of HPs from every boss, you aren't accounting for detail. You're making them much much easier so there is no chance that any encounter will be harder whatsoever.
Why are people so uncomfortable with the truth?
onetrueping Oct 3rd 2008 4:18PM
"Nerf" implies a change that is implicitly bad, reducing the power of a game mechanic, encounter, or player ability to bring it in line with the rest of the game.
"Rebalancing" implies a change that is implicitly neutral, either reducing or increasing the power of several game mechanics, encounters, or abilities to bring them all in line with each other.
All the raids are being brought in line with the new mechanics and player abilities. This is not a "nerf," then, but "rebalancing."
Dumag Oct 2nd 2008 6:06PM
I can see both sides of this argument.
On the one hand, nerfing raids is kind of like opening the clubhouse door - it blurs the line between the casual and the hardcore. So I wouldn't be surprised to see a lot more T6 popping up in Shattrath in the coming weeks.
On the other, these raids have been around for a while now. I've only ever seen up to Gorefiend in BT, and with this nerf it's looking possible for me to actually get an Illidan kill.
Frankly, I'm glad. While I got into this game way too late to enjoy even pre-nerf Magtheridon, it means that I may get to see all the cool end-game boss encounters before Black Temple and Sunwell are consigned to obscurity, much like Naxx and Blackwing Lair.
Ktok Oct 2nd 2008 6:32PM
I'm sorry to say you've pretty soundly missed the point. This is not a measure taken to let less skilled/geared players waltz in and lay the smack upon The Betrayer or any other raid boss. This is being done because of the vast changes to class mechanics that are coming along in the same patch.
It's actually very simple. Make these changes, and keep the raids playable, or only change the class mechanics and make raiding anywhere from extremely hard to impossible. There's nothing more to it. :)
Gareth Oct 3rd 2008 11:53AM
While I agree that the changes are done not to nerf the raids but to make them possible with all the new mechanics overall I still expect a lot more things to get
easier then harder.
My reasoning is simple on this one, I cannot believe that with all the multitude of changes the solution to make the same difficulty as before is a flat 30% change to HP everywhere. So I would agree that this should be an overall nerf to the raid bosses and allow more people who would have screwed up minute 8 in a 10 minute fight to get them down in 7 minutes fine instead.
Meaning less attempts needed to get the job done, I think its a good move from Blizzard, things are going to be obsolete in a months time and anything that allows more people to see the content now can't be a bad thing.
Dumag Oct 3rd 2008 11:43AM
Well shut my mouth!
Comment withdrawn.
Hypo Oct 2nd 2008 6:07PM
You forget that come 3.0.2, you will no longer be able to chain-chug potions as Potion Sickness will be in place. This is why the bosses are being nerfed.
xeren Oct 2nd 2008 6:11PM
thought they retracted potion sickness?
big alchemy had too much pull, what with all their lobbyists
Darthregis Oct 2nd 2008 6:13PM
Didn't they end up going back on that decision, too? (The potion sickness, that is). I thought I read that somewhere.
Or maybe I'm just confused (as usual).
Reinard Oct 2nd 2008 6:15PM
They never said they retracted potion sickness, per se. They took out the visible debuff, but it's definitely still there.
onetrueping Oct 2nd 2008 6:18PM
Apparently the sickness mechanic is still there, it just doesn't announce the fact now.
seamonkey Oct 2nd 2008 6:08PM
I thought the hp was nerfed since overall raid damage was nerfed as well, with the removal of chain drumming and chain bloodlust/heroism.
shinken Oct 2nd 2008 6:08PM
old content is old?
Reinard Oct 2nd 2008 6:11PM
Irrelevant comment is irrelevant?
Unfunny meme is unfunny?
zemoto Oct 2nd 2008 6:51PM
The inability to chain heroism is replaced by the ability to heroism your whole raid with 1 heroism...
3.0 has added huge HPS/DPS/TPS buffs, healing is through the roof, dps is not balanced for the health at 70, and tanking TPS is just silly. Raid efficiency has not been nerfed. They are doing this so more people can see the content.
onetrueping Oct 2nd 2008 6:22PM
The source for your analysis? From the numbers I've seen, taking into account the cost of spells cast, nerf to downranking, issues with mana regen (taking into account potion sickness and all mana regen buffs), and taking into account the estimated 30% reduction in fight time, a priest is currently only slightly buffed in 3.0.2 compared to now. And that doesn't take into account removed buff/debuff stacking, party makeup, and the fact that one mana regen buff listed will not always hit the priest.