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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsExploitation and the demise of Heroic Leap
by Adam Holisky 
Nov 27th 2008 at 2:00PM
There was a time in the beta of Wrath of the Lich King that Warriors everywhere were excited little special snowflakes. They had not one but two, count 'em two, special talents: Heroic Leap and Titan's Grip.While the dual wielding goodness/badness that is Titan's Grip continues today, Heroic Leap was removed mid-beta with Warriors everywhere screaming and crying. Yours truly shed a tear. I loved leveling through the Howling Fjord and Dragonblight with Heroic Leap at my side. One press of a button and bam – I'd be raining down upon my enemies with my plate shining and dual two-handers blaring.
Its demise has always been speculated upon. Many thought that the skill just provided one too many ways for a warrior to quickly move about the world. Others thought that it was due to it being too over powered in PvP. Still others thought it had to do with exploitation of the terrain.
It turns out that those folks who thought that exploiting the terrain was the reason for its demise were correct. Ghostcrawler weighed in on Heroic Leap's removal and gave this very reason.
When you think about heroic leap from a game stand point, it is an ability which avoids the majority of terrain, and thus limits on the player's movements, to get to a given mob. Is there a stump between you and that nasty spider you want to kill? Heroic Leap and wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am, you're over the stump and standing on top of the spider beating the living daylights out of it.
It's this nature of placing the player at the mob while avoiding the majority of terrain paths that caused Heroic Leap's demise. Players could (and did) exploit this. Thus the ability had to go.
Ghostcrawler answered a criticism that the Death Knight's Death Grip did the same thing. He points out that with Death Grip you can assume the player is in legal terrain and pulling the mob to them. You can't reverse Death Grip and go to the mob. Thus if the mob is somehow in illegal terrain, it's not an issue. With Heroic Leap it would be.
Ghostcrawler does make an interesting revelation. He mentions that they had thought about making Heroic Leap a Blink or Disengage like ability. In the end they decided against it. But I have to believe and have hope that one day Heroic Leap might find itself back in the game with mechanics like Blink.
I can hope, right?
Filed under: Warrior, Analysis / Opinion, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 3)
Hnetu Nov 27th 2008 3:26PM
What annoys me about the whole thing is the fact that they, again, flat out lied during the beta as to why they took it out. I remember when they took it out after having played with it some, and GC's response was "it's too hard to code". Bull. Now of course it comes to light they were afraid of exploits in terrain. It could easily have been fixed so that it just leaped to whatever we were targetting. But no that would have been to easy to leave us with a fun ability we would have liked.
GG Blizz.
Bob Nov 27th 2008 3:35PM
Perhaps they just weren't entirely clear. Maybe it was too hard to implement code that would prevent exploiting the ability.
Aerei Nov 27th 2008 4:05PM
Or maybe it was too hard to code then, and the nail in the coffin now for why they won't bring it back is that they don't want exploits.
Saying two things doesn't mean one is a lie.
superfrank Nov 28th 2008 11:09AM
whiner
Finnicks Nov 27th 2008 3:54PM
Simply because "illegal terrain" is not always out of line of sight.
If they put a bunch of mobs across a small chasm that is not intended for players to be able to cross, all one would have to do is target a mob on the other side and Heroic Leap your way over there.
While I doubt there's really any places in the game that are intended to be entirely inaccessible, Blizzard does want you to have to work for certain things to reach certain places... why else would they effectively force everyone under level 77 to huff around Northrend on the ground?
So imagine now there's a big nasty named spider you have to kill right across this gully. Unfortunately, the average player has to run down into the gully, fighting regular spiders along the way, then back up the other side, to reach this named spider. But oh! You're a warrior. HEROIC LEAP! You're there.
Yeah. A bit unfair to the rest of us.
And yes, a DK might be able to just Death Grip the stupid spider over, but if you've played a DK yet you'll know that a lot of those kinds of named mobs are very much immune to Death Grip.
Aerei Nov 27th 2008 4:07PM
And yet they will aggro from it, and then run down through the gully, aggroing all the other spiders on the way, and come back up with an army of fifty spiders that all attack you at once, killing you in half a second?
Aegien Nov 27th 2008 6:22PM
Can you people please start using the "Source" button. Especially when you're referring to posts - I really dislike this about this site, it's really inconsistent when you do, and do not use the source link.
Cy Nov 27th 2008 8:50PM
Agreed. But this site never links to anything off-site unless they absolutely have to.
Osi Nov 27th 2008 5:03PM
hmm. Working As Intended != Exploit. It's just that most WOW staff are not warriors, and are jealous :(
RogueJedi86 Nov 27th 2008 6:26PM
Rather than fix the holes, they remove an ability to brings the holes to light? Lazy. They need to fix all the terrain holes anyway. They can start with the dueling hole behind the main mailbox in Ironforge. Maybe next expansion they'll fix all the holes.
Tyler Nov 27th 2008 6:41PM
Well, why do u need heroic leap if you have charge? Cat form druids were given the leap thing because they had no other move to pursue targets when they ran away from them, they had to use sprint (which has a mighty cooldown). I think charge ability is sweet, and it stuns the target, so why bother with another charge?
Mullinator Nov 27th 2008 6:51PM
Just make it a replacement for charge that shares the same cooldown. Same range, and uses a target like charge. It just adds the leap animation, and the AoE stun.
Clifton Nov 28th 2008 5:25AM
Once again a few people who wanna play the game as cheap as possible ruin it for everyone else. I was playing with it in the beta and it was awesome. Such a bad ass move. And quite honestly I don't see the big deal in this so call exploit. I don't know. Hopefully they will fix it and put it back in the game. As for it being cheap in PvP when has blizzard ever had a problem with putting a cheap PvP moves in the game. For example stealth, stun, charge, death grip, pet classes, moonkin trents, cyclone, and of course the grand daddy of all cheap moves Fear. WoW's PvP pretty much focuses on cheapness. I hate pvp anyway it sucks and just ruins PvE because of it causing ability changes and such.
Mowgli Nov 27th 2008 8:20PM
Blizz drop the ball on this one you can't just give us a taste for
something then take it away then wonder why ppl get upset.
As for Death Grip = Glorified pvp Taunt !!
Mike Schramm should revise an old post Taunting in PvP
Cy Nov 27th 2008 8:53PM
You forgot to finish with "it's a SLAP IN THE FACE". That would have completed the QQ trifecta.
Matthew Nov 28th 2008 12:40AM
So imagine now there's a big nasty named spider you have to kill right across this gully. Unfortunately, the average player has to run down into the gully, fighting regular spiders along the way, then back up the other side, to reach this named spider. But oh! You're a warrior. HEROIC LEAP! You're there.
I did this 5 years ago at level 4 in the night elf starting area, using charge. It was the same named spider scenario and everything. I charged down the back, across the bottom of the gully, up the other ramp, and to the spider LIKE A LASER. It was sweet. How is heroic leap bad again?
Olicon Nov 27th 2008 10:40PM
Then how about giving part of the mechanics to Blink? That way, you won't get stuck because a pebble is in your way anymore.
ie; make Blink actually puts you slightly above ground level, so you don't get stuck on crap.
Tainnym Nov 28th 2008 12:06AM
Tirion Fordring does a similar attack to Arthas in Light's Hope battle...
I wouldn't mind having an intercept like that on my Ret pally!
SBKT Nov 28th 2008 12:07AM
Rename Heroic Leap as Adrenaline Burst? Tooltip could have it as a blink effect and the effect would be like "Gain a sharp increase in energy, allowing you to move to a specific spot so fast, it's almost impossible to see."
Or something
It COULD work. It's right up the Warrior's alley.
kabuki Nov 28th 2008 12:42AM
Speaking from a designer's point of view, I could see how something like this could be too hard to code. Now the "Heroic Leap" itself isn't what was likely so hard to code, as much as defining what was immune to it, what the range was, how it recognized illegal territory, line of site, and so on.
With Death grip, as has been stated, you're bringing the mob to you. This isn't too hard when you remember that Mobs have always had the annoying ability to clip (walk) through walls and obstacles. So it's no big deal to grab something and yank it to the player.
However when you take the PC (Player Character) into question, it brings up a whole HOST of problems. Chief among them being the question as to what to do to prevent a player from getting some where they shouldn't. You could plunk down an invisible wall, but that would require a ton of coding and could make things harder than it need be. Especially if at some point you actually wanted the player to be able to get there. Using the gully example above as a case point. The invisible wall would need to extend a set height, location, and then you'd have to figure out how to code it so if the player is at X location they can pass through it. While also figuring out how to prevent someone at X location from using the spell to get where they ought not be.
When you really get into it, it's far more work than is really needed for one simple spell. In the end it doesn't shock me that the devs had to let it go. Would you rather Wrath have been pushed back several weeks or months, just to get this one spell working in game?
I'd expect not.