Dispel resistance mechanics changing in 3.0.8
by Daniel Whitcomb 
Jan 11th 2009 at 6:00PM
Here's a mechanics change that's been sort of sitting in the 3.0.8 patch notes that deserves a closer look: Dispel resistance mechanics via talents are being changed. As Ghostcrawler describes it, essentially resistance mechanics will now only protect your harmful damage over time spells and your buffs. Other types of Debuffs and Crowd Control effects, such as Fear, Psychic Scream, and Ebon Plague, will no longer be able to take any bonus from dispel resistance talents such as Silent Resolve, Contagion, and Virulence.
It seems like it's one more way in which, since Wrath of the Lich King came out, Blizzard's been shying away from crowd control mechanics as anything more than a stop gap measure, in both PvP and PvE. Whether this will hold up in the long term remains to be seen, but crowd control artists, be prepared to recast those spells just a bit quicker.
Filed under: Patches, Analysis / Opinion, News items, PvP, Talents, Buffs, Battlegrounds, Arena
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Seamus Jan 11th 2009 6:06PM
Great. No priest in the world will take Silent Resolve now.
Stephen Jan 12th 2009 12:59AM
Yes they will if they want their Fort buffs, Shadow buffs, Pain Suppression, & Inner Fire (for at least 5 seconds anyway) to stay up.
Priests were doing well in arenas because they could spam Mass Dispel. Paladins were doing well because of Cleanse.
The other dispel arguments were about buffs that can't be dispelled (auras) and buffs too easily dispelled (totems). Those haven't been addressed.
I really didn't see this as one of the bigger issues in arenas anyway. It's the crazy burst damage making any DoTs or HoTs irrelevant. The average levels of resilience just don't seem to be able to hack it. Mortal strike type abilities make some classes heavily advantaged over others.
Cloth wearers & casters are at a significant disadvantage as they are far too easily spell locked, and focus fired.
therationalpi Jan 11th 2009 6:13PM
This saddens me greatly. I always felt that crowd control was one of the more fun aspects of the game. It requires skill, good judgement, and teamwork. Nowadays, though, everyone just AoEs trash pulls and bursts down PvP targets.
I think Blizzard has a problem with Crowd Control being a rather frustrating and unfun mechanic. Simply put, it's no fun being a sheep, it's no fun having your sheep broken, and an AoE trash pull with 5 mobs is more fun than focusing down two then picking up the last three later. However, I think that it is fun to be able to effectively use crowd control mechanics, and making that useless bothers me.
Cyanea Jan 11th 2009 6:17PM
"This saddens me greatly. I always felt that crowd control was one of the more fun aspects of the game. It requires skill, good judgement, and teamwork. Nowadays, though, everyone just AoEs trash pulls and bursts down PvP targets."
Seconded.
Kemikalkadet Jan 11th 2009 6:26PM
Agreed. Crowd control was something that added strategy and without it we're left with a button mashing mortal kombat style arcade game.
Rioriel Jan 11th 2009 7:27PM
As a rogue, I think I've sapped three mobs in the entire run through levelling-instances and heroics throughout Northrend.
One was because one mob got a star (standard in our guild for sap) so off I went... BONK! and the other two were from a friend marking in UK who felt sorry for me.
:(
Narlic Jan 11th 2009 7:32PM
Rioriel, my GM main tank will sometimes give me pity marks as well. How sad is this?
Plastic Rat Jan 11th 2009 10:16PM
Yep, totally agreed. As a hunter I worked on developing the skill to chain trap and be effective at more than just DPS. Working out pulls was always part of the fun for me.
Current stuff is just about mashing a single button (AOE) so you can get to a boss that you generally have some gimmicky dance to get around and then you get loot.
Don't try and suggest on the main forums that this is a bad thing though. You'll have an army of barely literate kiddies yelling at you with the sole argument that 'CC IZ STUPID!!!!'.
The new instances are fun the first time around because you get to see new stuff, after that they're just a boring AOEfest.
I guess that's what your average player wants nowadays though. They don't want an interactive game, they want a TV sitcom with a button that they can hit to tell them how awesome they are.
Muse Jan 12th 2009 3:57AM
Same. The only time I've used CC regularly is when tanking level 70 normal instances on my Retri, and then only because I don't have access to Prot's damage mitigation talents. Which is kind of a funny feeling, the tank doing their own CCing. As far as actually keeping aggro is concerned, CC is outdated.
Verit Jan 12th 2009 10:17AM
The unfair part of CC was that not everyone had it.
Blizzard at the 07 blizzcon said they designed instances around a tank, healer and 3 dps - which isn't true. Most instances were designed for a tank, a healer and 3 mages.
If you were a balance druid or a elemental/enhancement shaman - screw you (I've been kicked from groups in bc because of that).
I think the new system is nice because tanks can hold more mobs and I haven't seen that shaman/druid prejudice, but it definitely has more consequences.
kworry Jan 12th 2009 3:17PM
Having tanked for all of Outlands, I leveled a Hunter just before Wrath came out, looking forward to the fun of chain trapping, taking down each target in succession, and dealing with broken traps. Now instead of using several abilities, I hit one button. Sure my dps is great, but a Dippy Bird could do my job for me.
This is like giving all the kids in class a trophy so they all feel special. don't want to be the same as everyone else. I want to have to think to play this game. If I wanted one-button mashing I'd go play Hungry Hungry Hippos. (Sorry about all the weird references.)
Please bring back the fun.
damon Jan 11th 2009 6:31PM
I think this is for the best. Crowd control has it's moments, but getting feared/poly'd/rooted/sapped/whatever in PvP is the entire opposite of fun. Your essentially reduced to banging your keyboard against your head for eight seconds or so while you get dot'd/targeted by a pyroblast/moonfire'd/repeatedly stabbed/whatever. The faint feeling of satisfaction the CCer gets doesn't really make up for the entire game suddenly being put on hold for the CC'd. There's a damn good reason there are PvP trinkets made specifically to break CC.
Dunno about PvE though. Does anyone even care about trash anymore, though?
BiggusGeekus Jan 11th 2009 7:12PM
What it looks like to me is that resilience isn't doing squat so they're messing about and trying to make resistance gear viable for PvP since most PvPers don't bother with resistance gear (at least as of now).
As a warlock, I'm glad I'm finally getting a nerf to fear. For too long it has dominated the battlefield and required no skill to gain a victory. Wait ... oh yeah, its 2009 and not 2007. OK, in that case I'm screwed. Again.
Roflpanda Jan 11th 2009 8:31PM
Yeah. Mashing your head against the keyboard did good when you finally broke the fear, intercepted the warlock, and proceeded to 2 shot him. That sounds like fun PvP to me.
Max Jan 12th 2009 3:08PM
This is a bad thing for both PvE and PvP.
PvE, as mentioned above:
"
I guess that's what your average player wants nowadays though. They don't want an interactive game, they want a TV sitcom with a button that they can hit to tell them how awesome they are.
"
I second that.
As to pvp, well - I play a mage. When the enemy healer has to eat a 10 second sheep followed by a 4 second counterspell and more spam sheeps... ahhh... it's just the best feeling in the world.
shumanfu Jan 13th 2009 6:28AM
yay.. now i can turn up to pvp on my warlock and become canon fodder.
already i get death grip and 1/2 shotted. without death coil fear i can jipped 24/7 .. no need to wait for cooldowns on my cc they are gonna be useless anyways
Tykell Jan 11th 2009 6:37PM
I don't understand. . . . . So can someone explain how something like Ebon Plague is put in the same category as crowd control spells? Also, what is the point in having 30% resistance in something like Virulence if this is the way things are going?
Why does Blizzard have such a problem with harmful spells over time? It's not like you can dispell a fireball to the face.
This is not an attempt on my part to QQ but rather a plea to try and understand it.
Roflpanda Jan 11th 2009 8:34PM
Ebon Plague increases magical damage done to the target, along with disease damage done. As it is not a damage over time spell, or a buff, it doesn't get the benefit of dispel resistance.
rosencratz Jan 12th 2009 1:35AM
"So can someone explain how something like Ebon Plague is put in the same category as crowd control spells? "
It's not... It's put in the same category as "non harmful debuffs" the change will effect many spells not just cc... I guess the CC will be most noticable however. Entangling Roots for example is a solid enough CC these days and presumably shan't be affected as it causes damage.
Seeress Jan 11th 2009 6:57PM
@Seamus: As a shadowpriest you'll definitely still take Silent Resolve as it protects your DoTs. If I would spec Holy or Disc for PvP I would still take it, too. It's still quite a good talent.