What's the point of resist gear?
by David Bowers 
Oct 6th 2008 at 5:00PM
There are clear reasons why many players don't like these mechanics. Who wants to go to all the trouble of collecting a whole set of gear that you use only for one fight? Who wants to let that gear take up all that bag and bank space? Who wants to be shut out of their favorite talent build or sit somewhat on the sidelines just because the bosses they're fighting are immune to their prefered style of damage?
So Ghostcrawler comes in with the developer's logic on this issue: They don't want the raid instance to be a simple thing where you just move from one boss to the next boss, to the next, and so on. They want to break it up a bit so that different bosses require not only different strategies, but different gear, and different abilities, too. This adds a bit of anticipation, of having to get ready for the challenge rather than just stumbling into it and accidentally getting it right on the third or fourth try.
Personally, I can see how this makes sense from a developer's point of view, but from a player's point of view I do think it gets old and uninteresting, especially if the same mechanic has been used a lot in previous resist and immunity-limited boss battles. It might have been interesting the first time we saw fire resist battles in Molten Core, but even then it quickly got old -- now in Northrend it would hardly be new and exciting to see a bunch of battles requiring frost resistance. It's just more of the same old thing.
Ghostcrawler admits, too, that Blizzard hasn't always got it right, and she hopes that helps explain why resist and immunity battles were put there in the first place. Regarding how things might be in the future, she says they are actively discussing these sorts of resist battles, and they are wondering if "it may be that the time has come to phase them out." No promises or anything, but it's definitely a question on the table.
What's your opinion? Off with resistance' head? Long live resistance?
Filed under: Items, Raiding, Wrath of the Lich King, Forums
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
Ryan Oct 6th 2008 5:05PM
"They don't want the raid instance to be a simple thing where you just move from one boss to the next boss, to the next, and so on."
Translation: We want you to play the game even more, because your time = $$$
Aldheim Oct 6th 2008 5:49PM
Actually, uh, no. From a purely financial standpoint, Blizz would love it best if you paid your fifteen dollars a month and never logged on. Every moment you're on costs them money in bandwidth, electricity, etc.
Hardcore players are actually the least profitable on a daily basis because they play so damn much. However, they're the most likely to stick with the game over time, so it balances out.
Super Guest Man 9000 Oct 6th 2008 5:48PM
Ryans got it right in a sense. The original old world, with all its spread out quests and traveling and things like the resist sets and that stuff are all game mechanics to lengthen the game. Blizz didnt anticipate the level of success that they had and included such things and included these lengtheners to keep players around. After the success they had they realized that in order to keep players they need to streamline things, hence what we saw in BC.
I do feel though that the mechanics of a pure resist fight is a bit of an old MMO gimmick that Blizz should move away from. Ghostcrawler explains they do this to mix things up, I feel that a new and interesting fight with engaging mechanics that dont rely on pure resists to be a more creative and enjoyable experiance. At this point resist fights stand as a "tried and true" progress checkpoint that we could do without.
Lemons Oct 6th 2008 8:41PM
People are seriously overestimating the amount of strain A SINGLE PLAYER places on the server. Uses extra electricity? what? even if that's true the amount would be trivial at best. Uses extra bandwidth? Blizzard pays for bandwidth like everyone else, It's one time monthly fee, whether they use half or all of it doesn't matter to their isp one bit.
So when people say that more people on the server causes all this server strain it's like saying "don't let that guy on! One more person and this cruise ship is gunna sink!"
onetrueping Oct 7th 2008 4:50AM
Lemons, I take it you've never had to sit in a queue for a server.
Believe it or not, with the numbers of players that Blizzard deals with, in aggregate, more people playing longer puts a lot of strain on the hardware, as well as consuming a lot of bandwidth. Whether or not it's a once-a-month fee for bandwidth, there are overage charges like with every OTHER ISP, and if you go over that amount a month, you can pay a lot more. Meaning that, as more people play for longer, the cost for Blizzard increases, as they pay more and more for more and more monthly bandwidth.
If you doubt this, check the latency figures between primetime (5pm EST to 9pm EST) and late night (12am EST to 7am EST). You'll see a significant difference, from the server side alone.
For those who go TLDR: Remember "Lagforge."
Arkhill Oct 6th 2008 5:06PM
I know my first Ask a Beta tester question was "Do I need to respec fire or arcane as a mage for leveling in Northrend?"
matt Oct 6th 2008 9:02PM
no playing my mage I have yet to run into any thing thats frost immune, and the control of frost makes its a very good leveling build as it currently stands in the beta. That said I'm sure there are mobs that are Frost immune but that is when you can used your frostfire bolt since its not useful at any other time.
Arkhill Oct 6th 2008 9:37PM
"since its not useful at any other time."
Great. Can't use it till 75, it's our big new spell and it's almost useless
OnniHopeDream Oct 6th 2008 7:52PM
I always thought resist gear battles were just there for pacing. So people don't blow threw a dungeon too fast. But it's freaking irritating losing people who you made a full set of shadow reasist gear for BT the week after it's made. There really is no use for resist fights anymore, it's pretty lazy and nobody really lies them.
kabshiel Oct 6th 2008 6:07PM
Resist fights make a certain amount of sense. They're basically just another type of gear check. They might be annoying, but I think they're a legitimate game mechanic.
Immunity fights, on the other hand, are retarded. Forcing players to respec or sit out of certain fights isn't fun. It isn't a challenge. All it does it make some specs suck, especially because only only fire, frost, and nature seem to ever have immunities. Immunities to class mechanics, like poison or disease, are an even worse idea.
The whole immunity idea seems so counter to Blizzard's new theory of raid composition, it boggles the mind. On one hand they've been saying that they want all the DPS and tank specs to be equal, that raids should bring the better player regardless of class or spec, and that you shouldn't have to sub players out...and then they turn around and make certain classes/specs completely worthless on certain bosses.
Right hand, meet left hand.
Eopie Oct 6th 2008 5:09PM
Being from the Molten Core days where you had to use Fire Resist on some fights, I don't mind this at all.
I think it adds a nice sense of a guild getting together and getting the gear needed. If its just resist, it probably will be crafted and what not with some farming perhaps of the instance you are in. I think this mechanic adds a group dynamic to more than just the raid itself, but to the preperation of the raid. I think its a good thing.
Nick S Oct 6th 2008 7:05PM
I agree with that, but the flip side of how nice it is to see the guild pull together to get resist gear made is how hard it is for less-organized guilds to do so. I think resist fights should stay at the higher ends of raiding so that guilds don't get locked out of content just because they don't have the infrastructure to craft the necessary gear.
That said, the point may be moot for at least some - I'll be speccing my Mage Arcane for resist fights, anyway. Free resist plus bonus spell damage on every resist? Yes please.
Anon Oct 7th 2008 11:56AM
I completely agree with this sentiment. Spending time as a guild preparing for a raid (by working on resist sets) together instead of raiding feels epic when the raid does start. Needing a low percentage drop in order to skin core hounds that you don't yet have the gear to fight so that you can get the gear to fight them, not so much.
BitterCupOJoe Oct 6th 2008 5:10PM
Resistance fights are just kind of a dumb speedbump. The fights where everyone needs to have slightly increased resistance to a damage type (one or two pieces of easily available equipment) are irritating but pretty doable. However, the fights where the tanks have to be outfitted in entirely different sets of armor are a pain in the ass. If you've only got one or two tanks set up with the armor sets and the tank(s) have to miss the raid that week, well, hopefully it's not a boss that you have to fight in order to make it to the rest of the content. Worse yet, there's always the possibility the tank will leave the guild or the game entirely.
On the flip side, it's no fun to have fights where someone, because of their spec, can't participate at all. Rogues: you know how much you hate fighting an enemy that can't be poisoned or bled? At least you've still got white damage on those fights. If you're specced fire and you're fighting a fireproof enemy, you don't even have that. You can try slinging frostbolts or arcane missiles, but you're going to do far less damage, run out of mana faster, and possibly even lose out on some of your utility.
Resist-heavy fights are an idea whose time has gone.
Eternauta Oct 6th 2008 5:23PM
/agree
PeeWee Oct 6th 2008 5:38PM
What is interesting here is the funny thing how it's always mages that whine about this.
Fire immune? Spam Frostbolts. Problem solved.
Frost immune? Spam Fireball. Problem solved.
Ask an elemental shaman what he does when he encounters a nature-immune mob/boss instead.
BitterCupOJoe Oct 6th 2008 5:47PM
That's absolutely a problem, too. Shamans absolutely have it worse than mages in this regard. I only brough up mages because the problem has been around longer for them, and generally to a greater degree, i.e., there were more frost/fire immune mobs than nature immune ones.
WoWie Zowie Oct 6th 2008 5:53PM
lol @ u peewee
can you ask a frost mage to shoot down water elementals during the vashj fight? pfft.
it would be like me saying "elemental shaman can just use melee dps during nature-resist bosses"
Verit Oct 6th 2008 8:01PM
@WoWie Zowie
I think you're missing his point - mages always whine about this, but at least they have a way out - even if it involves respeccing.
Shamans on the other hand really only have school of magic to nuke with. I went to naxx the other day - was surprised to see how many nature immune trash mobs are in there... (like the blobs) Really the only thing I could do was flame shock/frost schock, drop the searing totem and melee auto-attack for 120 damage per swing.
You don't hear warlocks complain about this much either - probably because I can only think of a handful of mobs that are shadow immune... Still if a mob was shadow and fire immune warlocks would be the same boat.
Mages in fact are the only class that has 3 schools of magic to nuke with - yet they qq the most about resist fights.
All I can say is - try farming air and earth elementals in outlands as an elemental shaman - then you will know why we cry all the time.
Drae Oct 6th 2008 5:15PM
It's a silly argument - no guild thinks "ooh a new resist based boss, let's look forward to farming resist gear!". You build anticipation by making fights interesting, dynamic and which reward you by seeing progress - Kael and much of Sunwell are perfect examples. Resist based fights are lazy and punish classes, specifically mages - of which I have one - for no reason other than time spent conceiving new mechanics. They do not build anticipation and I for one don't look forward to them.