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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsPatch 4.0.6: Bloodlust's arena nerf
by Josh Myers 
Jan 6th 2011 at 8:00PM
Official patch 4.0.6 patch notesBloodlust, Heroism, Time Warp and Ancient Hysteria can no longer be cast while in Arenas.
To some players (mainly my fellow shaman), this change has been viewed as a huge nerf. Bloodlust has long been one of the main assets a shaman brings to an arena team. Ever since Season 1, shaman have been able to cite Bloodlust / Heroism as one of the main reasons they were allowed to PvP at a competitive level.
However, Bloodlust has been both a blessing and a curse for shaman. In nearly every season of Wrath of the Lich King, one of the most frequently cited complaints by enhancement shaman in arena was that Bloodlust was the only reason they were on the team. Beast cleave and enh/arms/holy paladin were both comps that relied on the shaman to Bloodlust so that their arena partners could dish out the major damage. Elemental and restoration shaman fared better towards the tail end of the expansion, but there still was an overall feeling that the strongest contribution to the team a shaman could offer was its Heroism cooldown.
Cataclysm isn't Wrath of the Lich King, and some of the class issues that existed last expansion aren't as prevalent this expansion. For the first time ever, we're seeing enhancement emerge as a strong spec in its own right. Restoration is one of the two strongest PvP healers in the game, running counter to holy paladins for that title. Elemental is lagging behind the majority of specs in the game, unfortunately, but hopefully with the nerf to Bloodlust, we will see them buffed to compensate. Overall, being brought as specs because the specs themselves are strong will serve shaman better than being brought as Bloodlust bots.
Ancient Hysteria and Time Warp were also problematic spells, greatly increasing your chances of running into a 30% haste buff team. Frost mages have historically been a strong arena spec, and Time Warp just was another slather of icing on the seven-layer cake of playing one. Removing Ancient Hysteria as a required pet buff also opens up beast mastery hunters to other pet choices in arena.
The Cataclysm arena design is supposed to be different. Blizzard wants arena matches to be won through outplaying the other team, not because one team had Bloodlust and was able to tunnel unhealable damage until it turned into a 2v3 match. Ultimately, this should be what the players want as well: an arena system in which burst cooldowns play a positive role, but also in which the overriding goal of the match is to actually outplay your opponents, not to outburst them.
For more on Cataclysm arena design and predictions, check out C. Christian Moore's Blood Sport column.
Filed under: Shaman, News items, PvP
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 3)
tarvish_harcassle Jan 6th 2011 9:26PM
Why they can't do this for all arena problems when the abilities are fine for pve is beyond me. Did they finally realize they don't have to punish players in pve for arena and pvp problems?
kyrhild Jan 6th 2011 9:50PM
eh I guess I care even less about Arena now
Thomas Prescott Jan 6th 2011 9:53PM
The reason why Hero/Warp/Lust are getting removed is because they technically have a 10 minute CD. Removing this would be in line with their design goal of not allowing long-CD spells in the arena.
Ylspeth Jan 6th 2011 10:06PM
I am not sure if I follow the logic here.
Shamans losing heroism in PvP is a good thing because there is an vague possibility that they might be buffed to compensate for the loss?
Oriflame Jan 6th 2011 10:23PM
I'm kind of with you on this one. I'd love it if shaman became pvp viable after this... but there are no changes listed for them in the patch notes that indicate this is the case.
My shaman's chillin at 80 for now till they become a more clearly supported class again. Since I have options, I'ma play what's hot.
Josh Myers Jan 6th 2011 10:30PM
Neither enhancement are in need of any changes. If anything, purge needs a nerf for enhancement, as it's entirely too spammable. Resto is in an amazing place right now, second only to holy.
I'm saying that bloodlust removal is better for arena in general, and hopefully elemental can be brought up to a competitive level where they're not being brought for bloodlust alone.
Angus Jan 7th 2011 2:31AM
"Buff Shaman to compensate"
HAHAHAHAHA
Sorry.
heh
HAHAHAHAHAHA
Shaman that aren't resto may as well not botehr existing in the Devs' eyes. They are pretty much ignored. They will say stuff about wanting them to be competitive, but when it comes down to it, they do a halfway job, call it good, and ignore the feedback.
They were told in the beta that mastery needed changing and weapon DPS needed to matter more. They were told Earthquake is skipped in PVP and by some PVE players. They were told shaman AoE is clunky, unfocused, and dependent on being in melee range. They were given a laundry list of issues prior to Beta and not a single one was fixed, the class is showing glaring problems and the 4.0.6 patch note preliminary stuff? Nothing.
You are very much correct, there is no way this is a good change, nothing will get done to help the class and in the expansion that should have highlighted the class the most, they will be the class with the least amount of changes.
Hunters had a complete overhaul of their mechanics. Paladins got a new resource, as did warlocks. Druids got new classes and a new resource/mechanic for balance, (not bringing up the missing tree) DKs got an overhaul for tanking/dps trees, Warriors got Rage changed to better tune the class, Rogues got... hosed.
All shaman got was a long CD ranged attack, a pancake that sucks at all aspects of the game, shackled to a totem with the intelligence of a suicidal gnat, and a better version of healing stream totem that can be cast at people.
I figure they will say the next expansion will fix things for shaman by 4.2.
BigBadGooz Jan 6th 2011 11:30PM
Okay then make it so my fire elemental can be out in arenas or make it permanent.
Greg Jan 6th 2011 11:38PM
Good riddance. I like the complexity of the shaman class: managing totems, increasing team mobility, healing potential, and heavy on demand burst.
Shaman should be on arena teams because they have a lot to offer. Not because they have a 'kill buff.' The same goes for any other class.
buenoexcellente Jan 7th 2011 12:13AM
This is pretty much crap.
It doesn't hurt Shamans in the slightest, as they are already in a great place and will have to be nerfed again anyway. What it actually does is screw Hunters who are already struggling in Arena.
This entire expansion could be called "Great in Theory, Cataclysmic in Practice". At least as far as PVP is concerned. They constantly miss the mark, and end up shooting random passersby.
caylor Jan 7th 2011 12:34AM
Just because many of you died once to a great enhance team doesnt meant shammys are op. We still die in about 10 seconds just like we did in wrath. There are many pure dps classes that can out heal me (certain lock, hunter, and warrior specs come to mind).
Sure, lust in arena is OP. But playing a shammy is still just as painful as ever (in pvp). Now it's gonna get worse..
buenoexcellente Jan 7th 2011 2:06AM
Enhance is awesome at the moment because you essentially have a free purge in a world where there is no dispel protection, and three of the healers rely on enchantments to actually, you know, HEAL. Your wolves currently heal for more than most Priests do in an entire arena match. Your CC is instant and undispelable by most comps, not to mention on a ludicrously short cooldown considering the length of it.
Resto gained all the advantages of a defensive dispel in Cataclysm, gained healing power, and has the only effective dispel protection right now in Earth Shield. Not only can they defensively dispel, between Grounding, Tremor Totem and Wind Shear a good one can effectively render his entire team invulnerable to CC for the entire game.
Elemental is crap, and could use some help. Maybe it will get it now that Bloodlust is going away.
Frankly you should be damn grateful that you didn't eat more nerfs already. You WILL get them in the future, but Blizz has other things on their minds right now. People tend to complain more about overwhelming damage than an effective immunity to CC, but your time will come.
I played a resto shaman in S7 and S8. We were good, now we are amazing, and it's gonna get nerfed. It's just a matter of time.
Erik Jan 7th 2011 1:51AM
So if they announced that Pallies could no longer bubble, would we just assume other buffs are coming along to make it all ok? No point pretending this is not a significant nerf to the relevant classes in the arena.
Ylspeth Jan 7th 2011 6:58AM
>>So if they announced that Pallies could no longer bubble, would we just assume other buffs are coming along to make it all ok? No point pretending this is not a significant nerf to the relevant classes in the arena.
Troopcd Jan 7th 2011 2:22AM
Yesterday, I had an arena match of 43 minutes long...
If only Time Warp was that effective. Curse fully PvP geared Warriors and Paladin healers! :D
Codexx Jan 7th 2011 10:43AM
Why is it every time Blizzard changes Bloodlust/Heroism, shamans seem to cry that they have no other reason to be in a group? Do they really believe they bring nothing else to the table?
This only further supports my belief that we should just boot all Shamans from everything: Our guilds, our arena teams, anything we can. The one nice thing they brought is now redundant.
divorce Jan 7th 2011 5:10AM
it's hard enough to get a kill already this expac.
Tarbh Jan 7th 2011 8:35AM
This comment probably makes Devs as happy as they are to see the "heroics are hard" comments, and that is a good deal of happy.
Roxton Jan 7th 2011 8:54AM
Speaking as a Frost mage, I don't really mind. Mages in particular have had less than a month to get used to it, so losing it again isn't so annoying. It does rankle, however, that our level 85 ability has been removed from a major area of the game. Possibly an alternative effect in arenas could be implemented - say the run speed buff we heard about in beta?
Mila Jan 7th 2011 10:13AM
Exactly that... our LEVEL 85 spell (which simply copied another class's level 70 spell) is now unusable in arenas. It's like disabling Smoke Bomb or Dark Simulacrum... you push to your max level, get your reward, but then find out it's a copy of another class's ability and you can't use it in one of your favorite parts of the game.
Seems like poor planning to be on Blizzard's part.