Patch 3.3.3 PTR raid-buff changes
by Joe Perez 
Feb 19th 2010 at 8:30PM
The official Patch 3.3.3 patch notes have just been posted to the official site, and among those notes was news of an upcoming to change to raid buffs.
Several raid buffs have had their ranges increased to 100 yards, up from 45 yards, to prevent select buffs from repeatedly getting applied and removed during highly mobile encounters. Some buffs, such as paladin auras, totems, shouts and Blood Pact are intentionally meant to have shorter ranges and remain unchanged.
The concept does have me intrigued as to what exactly they have planned, but the question remains: with paladin auras, totems, shouts and Blood Pact being unchanged, which buffs exactly are being altered? To my knowledge, the vast majority of complaints about moving outside of the range of buffs mainly revolves around aura effects like totems and paladin auras.
At this time Blizzard has not posted a full list of the raid buffs that have had their range increased, but, as they said, the list is fresh and still incomplete. This also comes at a time where many class specific aura buffs (like Unleashed Rage, Abomination's Might, and Elemental Oath) are being changed to passive auras not requiring an outside trigger such as a critical strike or a spell cast to activate.
Be sure to watch for class-specific updates detailing further changes, and we will keep you up to date with information as more becomes available.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
William S Kent Feb 19th 2010 8:57PM
As a demonic pact wielding warlock I do have to say that not including the totem of wrath in the increased ranged category is an unfair blow to shaman. ToW is already being outscaled and outranged...this just compounds it.
Otherwise a lot of this sounds good.
Soulink Mar 24th 2010 9:32AM
Do note they said specifically that totems and Paladins auras will keep their ranges as is.
In a way it makes sense because pop a totem down, you can place those anywhere, and Paladins are emitting the free aura without a second thought. Totems are trainer learned, Auras are trainer learned, so there will be restrictions on them. (Minus Mana Tide of course.)
T-A-G Feb 19th 2010 8:57PM
This'll bring warlock's Demonic Pact to a much higher uptime. It's going from a 12 second buff applied / reapplied every time the warlock's pet crits to a 45 second buff with a 20 second internal cooldown. This'll mean you won't get such big peaks and troughs of spellpower from the buff, and more importantly gives double the time for it to be reapplied, essentially giving 100% uptime (minus a small amount of RNG being fickle).
Anaro Feb 19th 2010 8:59PM
The major result from these changes, in my opinion, is to reduce the amount of times the server is spammed. Everytime an Enhancement Shaman, an Arcane Mage or Demo Lock's pet crits, their raid buff is refreshed. So instead of spamming the server (especially for an Enhancement Shaman) every 0.5-3.0 or so seconds, it'll be a flat 20 second interval.
Valt Feb 19th 2010 9:11PM
After patch 3.3 came and arcane mages brought their arcane power or w/e buff, my combat text addon went apesh** of it. I had whole screen of spam
"Arcane power!"
"-Arcane power!"
"Arcane power!"
"-Arcane power!"
So yeah ;P agreed.
Tridus Feb 19th 2010 9:16PM
Yeah I agree. Some of these buffs go up and get refreshsed so often that it creates significant amounts of communication. This will reduce that.
Darksky Feb 19th 2010 9:25PM
Maybe they're just planning some REALLY big, spread-out raids...
/tinfoilhat
rawrawrawr Feb 20th 2010 12:05AM
Maybe something with a giant, molten, armour plated boss. Possibly a dragon.
Simerguesa Feb 19th 2010 9:27PM
For any caster:
Moonkin Aura
That is all.
Jack Spicer Feb 19th 2010 9:31PM
Aspect of the Wild
Slaytanic Feb 19th 2010 9:41PM
"Up from 45 yards".
Which buffs are 45 yds? I can't think of any. (Pally auras are 40). Whatever the answer is will be the anser to you question: "Which buffs exactly are being altered?"
slythwolf Feb 20th 2010 12:01PM
Horn of Winter.
Matthew Feb 19th 2010 9:52PM
How about making thorns last more than 10 minutes. Please??
Soulink Mar 24th 2010 9:33AM
Hello Glyph of Thorns.
grugan Feb 19th 2010 10:06PM
never mind the range, can we have warrior shouts that last for more than 2minutes, I mean as if I dont have enough to do when tanking already.
Viper007Bond Feb 19th 2010 10:32PM
Yay, less combat log / scrolling combat text spam!
Eli Feb 20th 2010 12:38AM
Ugh... so are MM hunters the new rogues now? I get the feeling that when this drops I won't have any buff to bring to a raid that isn't already supplied by the hordes of DKs and Shamans I've been seeing in raids lately.
Birkeland Mar 23rd 2010 12:42AM
I don't want to hear it. First we lose camo pre-wrath too endless rouge whinning, then you geta buffed version of md. Just shut up
Muse Feb 20th 2010 12:38AM
Replenishment specifically. If your only replenisher is your Ret paladin who is next to the tank under the boss' butt, and then doing their normal melee-running, odds are pretty good they're going to be out of range at one point or another.
toddless Feb 20th 2010 12:56AM
Perhaps it's just in the pre-buffing stage. I know right now it's a pain in the ass to get everyone to stand still in a common location to throw out a kings (i'm a pally if you couldn't figure that out) or whatever else buff they need.
Also, during battle - if one of the tanks dies on say - Lord Marrowgar and they get a BR it would be nice to throw out a buff from where ever I am (say during a bone storm) instead of trying to find them.