Voidwalker raid tanking going away
by Adam Holisky 
Feb 16th 2009 at 3:00PM
Zach Yonzon reported on the above video a few days ago featuring a Warlock's Voidwalker pet tanking the 10-man version of Sartharion with all three drakes up. Needless to say, it's one of the coolest things that I've seen in the game. In the comments Falcrist lists off a few good reasons how this became possible:
- Best in slot gear for increasing the Voidwalker's HP and relevant tanking statistics.
- The Voidwalker got a lot of alone time with Sartharion, probably in the range of 5 or so minutes, during which the Voidwalker is building up massive amounts of threat.
- Pets have 80% passive AOE resistance, so Sartharion's breath really doesn't hurt them at all (and especially at 90,000 HP).
Ghostcrawler has said that we shouldn't expect the Voidwalker to continue to serve as an "excellent tank for challenging raid content." Nerf incoming boys and girls.
We knew that the health boost for Warlock's pets was mainly for PvP purposes, since prior to the boost many were able to one or two shot most pets. It was always pretty obvious that this was a very big unintended consequence, and now this little bit of fun is going away.
RIP Voidwalker tank, RIP.
Filed under: Warlock, News items
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
Shulkman Feb 16th 2009 3:04PM
I love it.... faster than hell response times when it comes to nerfing... but in order to bring warlocks up to a competitive level in pvp takes months upon months...
Gnosh Feb 16th 2009 3:08PM
Nothing's been nerfed yet. GC didn't even say a nerf was inc. His post could easily be interpreted as "Go ahead and try this in Ulduar. Enjoy your wipes"
Devant Feb 16th 2009 3:10PM
This is the second time this has happened. Honestly I don't see the problem. OH NOES a Warlock is a viable tank on AOE heavy bosses, if you give them 5 minutes to grab aggro and use a ton of Tricks of the trade and misdirect. There is like a total of one situation in the game like this.
"We knew that the health boost for Warlock's pets was mainly for PvP purposes"
And Here I thought it was because my pets were dying in any fight where they took any aoe damage, 80% avoidance or not. If warlocks don't get fixed in the next patch there won't be any but a couple die hard hold outs. We're already less played than shamans at 80.
Shulkman Feb 16th 2009 3:20PM
By the way, for those readers who feel the need to scream "ZOMG! First!", notice how I posted first and instead of being an idiot, I contributed to the conversation. And my reward for that, will be not being voted down to the darkest depths of hell. So please, for the love of all that is holy, stop the stupid "First" junk.
kabshiel Feb 16th 2009 3:35PM
I'm pretty sure GC wasn't saying that they were going to nerf the voidwalker (lord knows that's the pet that needs the most buffs). He was just saying that Ulduar and other future content was going to be too difficult for a voidwalker to tank. The only reason the voidwalker could even tank this was because DPS spends so little of the encounter actually attacking Sarth so it can build up a lot of threat. On any other encounter the voidwalker would lose threat in a heartbeat.
Trippleye Feb 16th 2009 3:41PM
To skulk
1. your score is low
2. you should have put "First"
3. Don't get your panties in a bunch when someone puts first...it doesn't hurt you and it gives others joy...so whats the problem with it mr. selfish
Zul Feb 16th 2009 4:17PM
Balancing a class is a lot more complicated than nerfing one. As for the VW being able to tank Sarth with 3Ds, there is know way this is far and it should be immediately nerfed.
"Screw that feral druid, lets bring a lock"
Alkaios Feb 16th 2009 4:45PM
@Shulkman
Try being a paladin. We've been constantly hotfixed/changed with lightning fast speed. Not that we're in bad spot now, but it seems paladin changes are almost always lightning fast.
I totally understand where you're coming from, however.
Maksimun Feb 17th 2009 1:01PM
So, now you understand paladins.
R.I.P. WoW, Activision-Blizzard are succeeding in failing the game se everyone would move on to SC2 / Diablo 3.
Sorry for my bad english.
Devant Feb 16th 2009 5:45PM
@ Zul
The void walker didn't tank it alone. There was a PLAYER controlling that void walker. I thought we were supposed to bring the player not the class? Or is that just for hybrid classes? Warlocks, Mages, and Rogues sit this one out. The Druids, Pallies, and Death Knight have this fight, everyone else can go home early tonight; without pay.
Why should a Druid be tanking over a warlock? Honestly there is no reason. There is already one druid in that fight as a boomkin. What class you propose can sit out so there can be 2 druids? Honestly, void walker tanking should be viable for nearly every encounter. Quick way to fix a tank shortage IMO without unbalancing(ha!) pvp.
Aubrecia Feb 16th 2009 8:45PM
@Devant: Are you serious?
The reason a druid should come in over a lock is that druids are a class that were designed to feasibly tank. You can claim warlocks are viable tanks until you're blue in the face, but the fact of the matter is that they weren't designed for it. Warlocks were designed as a pure DPS class, and the devs expect that to be their main use.
Nobody is bringing two druids to the raid specifically to discriminate against you. It's not WARLOCK DISCRIMINATION. It's probably luck of the draw (in the case of a pug) or hierarchy of the guild ranks (in the case of a guild).
Warlocks have never been a tank-intended class. Druids have been for a long time -- not since the start of WOW, sure, back when Resto was the only workable spec, but for a long, long time. Hunters aren't intended to tank, either. Sure, they can, in a pinch, but the fact of the matter is that the intent of your class always outweighs your whining (yes, it's whining) about how much blizz loves Druids and Pallies more than you.
In summary, go QQ more. Possibly on the forums, then we don't have to read it.
Athzar Feb 16th 2009 10:02PM
Devant is right in some ways though. Why *not* let Demonology Warlocks tank with the Voidwalker? Obviously it should be tricky (80% AoE avoidance seems a bit much, but on the other hand they could use more threat) but otherwise I don't see why Blizzard hasn't already jumped on it.
Hunters can tank 5-mans with their pets (a good Hunter-tank is actually a very smooth run). Maybe not for the raid scene (I won't comment on that, I don't raid) but I really think Warlock Voidwalkers could be great for 5-man content.
skbid Feb 16th 2009 11:06PM
A couple things......
"Aubrecia said...
@Devant: Are you serious?
The reason a druid should come in over a lock is that druids are a class that were designed to feasibly tank. You can claim warlocks are viable tanks until you're blue in the face, but the fact of the matter is that they weren't designed for it. Warlocks were designed as a pure DPS class, and the devs expect that to be their main use.
Nobody is bringing two druids to the raid specifically to discriminate against you. It's not WARLOCK DISCRIMINATION. It's probably luck of the draw (in the case of a pug) or hierarchy of the guild ranks (in the case of a guild).
Warlocks have never been a tank-intended class. Druids have been for a long time -- not since the start of WOW, sure, back when Resto was the only workable spec, but for a long, long time. Hunters aren't intended to tank, either. Sure, they can, in a pinch, but the fact of the matter is that the intent of your class always outweighs your whining (yes, it's whining) about how much blizz loves Druids and Pallies more than you.
In summary, go QQ more. Possibly on the forums, then we don't have to read it."
First of all, your post seems to smell a lot like QQ to me, yes the makeup of raid groups depends on whether it's a PUG or a regular Guild group, but it doesn't matter what classes go as long as the group accepts the setup and accepts the risks of attempting the fight. Ever heard of a Mage tanking in Gruul? Ever heard of a Rogue tanking in BT? Who cares if it's not traditional? I think that would make the encounter a hell of a lot more entertaining and deserving of an achievement if you were actually successful, more so than just banging away like the masses of current traditional raid groups.
Next.....
"Sellenia said...
That would translate into:
Don't fix stuff that makes the game easy. it's not easy enough already, just leave stuff like that in there, yea mages can solo a whole quarter of naxx 25 man but hey not everyone's playing a mage right? VW can tank Sarth with 3 drakes because our main tank is just out of heroics and doesn't have enough HP for it, oor we can actually use a disc priest and kill Sarth with another fun little bug there, right, the game is more fun with bugs that let us do content we wouldn't be able to do otherwise."
The majority of people view these types of stories for the entertainment value as they were intended. There are always going to be those that see them as a platform for their pet peeves.
I can almost guarantee you that the rest of the characters in the raid with the "Lock" all accepted the fact that they were in for a few wipes in order to try this.
I can also imagine the excitement on their vent channels when each of the drakes dropped and at the end when Sarth fell.... I say props to all of them for attempting it and allowing the "Lock" to try it in the first place.
Finally, I want to say thanks to them for showing it to us, I'm sure there will be others that try to mimic it and I hope they succeed, and why not? It's not a "BUG" or a "GLITCH" or cheating, it's innovation not an exploit. The lock had to run quite a bit to get the gear he had in order to attempt this.
If Blizz decides to change things in order to make this harder you can bet there will be somebody else that will find a way to do something else like this and we will have this same conversation again.
Rather than complain about what hasn't happened or what might happen, just enjoy the story and this innovative guild's achievement for the entertainment value.
Wentworth Feb 17th 2009 6:42AM
To those saying this means real tanks are going to be sat for a warlock tank in 3 drake Sarth, I think you're forgetting that there are three other drakes that need tanking while that voidwalker is on Sarth. Belkath's pretty pro and all, but I don't think he'll be tanking them all at the same time. :P
Like a few other posters here, I interpret GC's comment to mean there aren't going to be any void tankable raid bosses in Ulduar. They're probably just going to let this one slide as creative use of game mechanics.
Finally, for those saying the voidwalker needs a nerf, consider that it's fairly useless as it is when you say that. It's only viable for this one fight with considerable effort (raid buffs, unconventional gearing, concentrated mds, etc).
Deadly. Off. Topic. Feb 17th 2009 9:12AM
Actually, Paladin changes are incredibly fast. So fast they don't even feel the need to test the changes first and just hotfix them right into the game as you play.
lanin Feb 16th 2009 3:09PM
Im getting sick of this ghostcrawler guy, does nothing but bring bad news. And for all those who keep finding cool little tricks like this, JUST SHUT UP. Stop posting videos on major sites and stop making OMFG posts on the official forums, that way we will have these cool fun things to do, because wow just isn't that fun anymore without them.
Sellenia Feb 16th 2009 3:17PM
That would translate into:
Don't fix stuff that makes the game easy. it's not easy enough already, just leave stuff like that in there, yea mages can solo a whole quarter of naxx 25 man but hey not everyone's playing a mage right? VW can tank Sarth with 3 drakes because our main tank is just out of heroics and doesn't have enough HP for it, oor we can actually use a disc priest and kill Sarth with another fun little bug there, right, the game is more fun with bugs that let us do content we wouldn't be able to do otherwise.
sephirah Feb 16th 2009 3:55PM
@Sellenia
No, that would translate into:
Don't change things that some people was smart enough to discover and take some work to do. Just make everything as "intended by devs" and leave no space to creativity.
Cathaoir Feb 17th 2009 4:18PM
So "clams will be stackable" was bad news? How dare you?!?!
Daniel Feb 20th 2009 10:41PM
I agree. I know I'm QQing, but its not unreasonable, so hear me out: Warlocks really are unbalanced. It takes months to get gear good enough to be viable in PVP and PVE, and when ghostcrawler comes out and says that blizzard is happy about "where warlocks are" and "where deathknights are" it is discouraging to me as a player because I realize that I put weeks into a character that is useless, unwanted and underplayed at 80(try getting into a raid group.... good luck with that!) and that blizzard thinks that the state of things is as it should be.
I started playing WoW last summer, and I really don't care if warlocks were overpowered the first two years of the game or whatever. I play the class because its the way I want to play. I like casting some dots and having a pet. But I don't want to suffer for blizzard's own lack of judgement in previously making warlocks too powerful. Maybe blizzard just has a vendetta against "fear".
Honestly, I would be much happier if blizzard just took away fear, and gave us some real new abilities(Ha demonic circle..... ha), boosted our stamina(our pets have no threat and we are like rice paper, and our pets too), and actually made us a viable option for caster dps.
Sorry for the QQ.