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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsClass specific buffs become craftable items
by Michael Gray 
Aug 27th 2009 at 2:00PM
The developers mentioned at BlizzCon 2009 that they wanted groups to be a little less reliant on specific classes for the buffs which are considered to be "must haves." Good examples of these include Blessing of Kings, Gift of the Wild, and even Power Word: Fortitude. These buffs are so commonplace in most raids that the lack of them feels wild and strange. Not to mention, you feel downright underpowered.
Patch 3.2.2 is going to help raids out with that issue. Three items will be making their way to Azeroth, each of which mimics a class-specific buff. MMO-Champ posted them, but I've transcribed them for you below:
- Runescroll of Stamina (Inscription) - Snowfall Ink, Resilient Parchment x 5 - Increases Stamina by 165 for all party and raid members for 1 hr. This is an obvious replacemeent for Power Word: Fortitude.
- Drums of Forgotten Kings (Leatherworking) - Heavy Borean Leather x 8, Icy Dragonscale x 8 - Gives all members of the raid or group the Blessing of Forgotten Kings, increasing total stats by 8% for 30 min. This is your new Blessing of Kings when you don't have a Paladin.
- Drums of the Wild (Leatherworking) - Heavy Borean Leather x 4, Jormungar Scale x 20 - Gives the Gift of the Wild to all party and raid members, increasing armor by 750, all attributes by 37 and all resistances by 54 for 1 hr. Going Druidless, and lacking Gift of the Wild? Drums of the Wild will get you there.
There's no official or even unofficial word about whether these items will be useable in the Arena. However, it would really, really surprise me if they were. They obviously seemed focused on enabling 10-man raids to get by without too many required classes, without handing these three buffs out to other classes.
Filed under: Leatherworking, Analysis / Opinion, Inscription
Reader Comments (Page 5 of 6)
Bluwatr Aug 27th 2009 3:07PM
This idea of independence from other classes buffs is going to an extreme. What about the players who decide on a specific class for what they bring to raid and the buffs they provide. There really should be a place in this game for players providing buffs to others. No matter what you do in your game design players will push the game content to the edge.
I also know that if there is a shortage of Shamans and A REAL NEED, in a very short period of times, there will be shamans, IMO the only classes this rule does not apply to tanks and healers. Those two classes will always be a problem based on the personality type required to play the classes and the shortage of those people in any game.
So lets say that the classes are balanced and is not having a Shaman/Pally or Druid buff during an encounter a make or break situation? It might be if they are pushing the edge on thier gear/knowledge or skill of the encounter. If it does then recruit or make freinds with one of each of those classes.
Lets take this a step further, when is enough enough. So bring on the drums of war that creates a buff the raises every classes attack pwer and spellpwer to level equal to any of the dps classes or how about the scroll of the bulwark, so we can circle the wagons cause everyone is a tank.
I really think its important to create a sense of community and need is a very strong part of that.
Bluwatr.
Cyanea Aug 27th 2009 3:23PM
The paranoid ones crawl out of the woodwork. It was bound to happen eventually.
This is aimed at ten man raids and smaller guilds who can't always field a Druid or a Priest. My guild raids very casually, and we don't have a solid 10-man lineup. We have maybe six people who show up regularly, and usually rotate the other four spots based on who's online at the time and can go. Sometimes we'll have all of the buffing classes and sometimes we won't. The lack of certain buffs are very noticeable in some Ulduar fights.
This change isn't aimed for the hardcore "clear-it-day-after-release" 25man guilds. This is an AMAZING thing for my guild and guilds like it.
Candina@WH Aug 27th 2009 3:10PM
Heroism Buff: Bag Pipes of the Wildling Charge!
Thundrcrackr Aug 27th 2009 3:13PM
So by BRING THE PLAYER NOT THE CLASS, they actually meant BRING THE PLAYER AND THE APPROPRIATE DRUMS AND SCROLLS.
jrizutko Aug 27th 2009 3:30PM
How many people were already bothering with scrolls of fortitude, wisdom or armor that have existed for a while now?
I'm guessing this will just be a resource for cases where a raid undergears an encounter, and not something people pay a lot of attention to.
Noraa Aug 27th 2009 3:23PM
No hero/bloodlust? Fail.
Leather Aug 27th 2009 3:25PM
What is the point of class anymore? I think this is a horrible change and continues what seems to be Blizzard's march toward oneness. No more class discintcion. What is wrong with needing a pally, priest or shammy in a group?
I'm sorry, what was the need of this change? Is it too difficult to raid? There a shortage of toons? Was there an outcry for these buffs my the masses?
Why not just allow tri-spec? Then we can all re-roll druids and no other class will ever be needed. Ever. Sounds like fun huh!
With less distinction comes boredom to me. This also puts another nail in the coffins of priests if not the other classes.
Question: If you make a class useless and it dies in an instance, does it make a sound?
*gets off the soapbox*
Bluwatr Aug 27th 2009 5:56PM
This is at most a bandaid for class design flaws. What maybe good for a few is not going to be good for the majority.
Take any class we have and there are advantages and disadvantages as compared to another class. Classes in the original design were built for Raid Support,Tanking, DPS and Healing. In order to help Raid Support be viable they were also given DPS/Heals but not at the same level of the pure healers or pure DPS.
Now I know that no raid is totally dependant on Raid Support buffs from the stand point of failure or success, but they are nice to have. That need was created on purpose, so that other players would want to include raid support players in thier groups.
Players want to be feel like they are important and contributing to groups and that is why guilds formed in the first place.
Just remember you can be replaced by a robot.
Bootsanator Aug 27th 2009 3:41PM
Runescroll of Stamina (Inscription) - Snowfall Ink, Resilient Parchment x 5 - Increases Stamina by 165 for all party and raid members for 1 hr. This is an obvious replacemeent for Power Word: Fortitude.
"equal to the class version" Technically true.
But you never get 165 stamina unless you group with a terrible priest.
Every priest has at least 13 points in discipline, no matter the spec, with 2 of those in Improved Power Word: Fortitude, increasing the stamina buff to 214.
G I JOEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
Avan Aug 27th 2009 10:03PM
Come Cataclysm, talents that improve buffs (such as the one you mention) are gone.
Terethall Aug 27th 2009 4:22PM
I will rage pretty hardcore if there's no tailoring buff. Call me selfish.
DarkWalker Aug 27th 2009 4:25PM
I see a potential problem with this. If Blizzard starts assuming we will always have all buffs in 5 / 10 mans it means those kinds of items become almost mandatory. If they assume we will not use those items and will often be missing a buff then 5 / 10 mans become effectively easier for groups that choose to min/max bonuses and use those items.
Avan Aug 27th 2009 10:04PM
Didn't Blizz come out of Sunwell and into Wrath with the line, "We don't want items to become mandatory" for the same reason that you just said?
Cyno01 Aug 27th 2009 4:30PM
They need to roll pally power into the game like all the other addons. Something similar for totems would be nice.
Duts Aug 27th 2009 4:47PM
Great...and all I got is this crummy summoning portal and some tasty lock rocks... I want moar kingz plz!!!
Bane Aug 27th 2009 4:52PM
Hope this comes through. I hate getting passed on for a raid because they want a shammy, pally or druid for one buff.
Bel Aug 27th 2009 5:21PM
This is so very obviously meant for smaller guilds it's not funny. The guild I'm in, for example, has under 50 members, including alts. An officer had a birthday last night, and we were missing about four of our normal people. Including two of our three druids, with the third being offline due to personal problems. Which meant going into Ulduar and attempting IC without a druid at all. No bres, no buff. Once this change goes live, we'll atleast have the buff if something similar happens.
Pallys, Priests, and Druids will all be wanted still, for their other buffs/unique abilites (Wis/Might, Shadow Protection/Spirit, Bres), or even the more powerful version of the buffs. Considering the game is balanced around having all the buffs, not having one of the aforementioned classes (or two pallys), having the consumables will even the playing ground out a fair bit.
As for people asking for a Heroism/Bloodlust replacement, it's not needed, at all. For one thing, Heroism/Bloodlust is a temporary buff, unlike those the consumables are replacing. For two, it's really only needed if the tanks, DPS, or healers aren't good enough and the boost will help down the boss before it all goes pear shaped. If we were to get one, it would probably be about half as effective, probably a potion, probably named Potion of Speed. Oh wait...
The_Reflection Aug 27th 2009 5:30PM
I love this, i'll finally be able to give rogue buffs!
jp Aug 27th 2009 6:21PM
Amazing twink buff.
Cant believe how vanilla this game is becoming.
Heres to having everyones buff all the time.
twinkbuffz Aug 28th 2009 10:45AM
I'm pretty sure they'll have a minimum level requirement for these items. They're intended to be for endgame pve and pvp (where buffs are the most important) and considering that they're stat bonuses are just below the standard buffs, I doubt they'd be letting anyone below at least level 60 getting these. If they did have a level 60 requirement though, it would be great for 69 and 79 twinks :D