Monday, February 25, 2008

Shaman & Lock changes

2.4 looks like one hell of a patch, but it's still too early to tell if it's going to be a good patch or not.

Gear-wise, it should be fantastic. For anyone leveling new characters from here on out, gearing up should be much less tedious.

1) The shaman changes so far look OK. Unfortunately, their out of control burst had to be nerfed. As much as I hate to see classes get nerfed, I had a feeling it was coming. I don't know why Blizzard didn't change the EM + NS combo back when they nerfed combustion for mages, but waiting this long to do it will only cause unnecessary pain. Hopefully they'll get a lot of other buffs to make up for the areas that shaman are weak in. The insta ghost wolf and undispelable rage talent changes look awesome. Hopefully enhancement gets some more love, as it needs it more than any other tree. I also don't agree with nerfing the spell pushback bonus on on the ele gear set down to 50%. If you're going to take away shaman guaranteed crit burst, then at least let them keep their sustained damage. I'm glad to see that they will be getting a lot of totem love coming up this patch.

2) The warlock changes. Incinerate changes look good. Lifetap changes look bad, but I know why they're doing it. It's a direct nerf to warlock efficiency and staying power, which, under many conditions, can be a little outrageous. HOWEVER, when you consider the fact that A) Warlocks typically have 0 armor against most physical dpsers this season, and B) heavy melee teams are all the rage (heh) this season, things were already looking bad. You already don't see warlock dominance this season simply because of the changes made at the end of season 2. Warlocks simply do not have the staying power they once did, simply because how easy they are to assist train down and are forced to eat nearly every second of it that they are not bopped or Pain suppressed. Melee rape warlocks this season ridiculously hard, harder than the devs are probably realizing.

I have a feeling that with this new proposed lifetap change (that already screwes PVE locks quite a bit), that if warlocks are given no escape methods or other ways to mitigate damage from physical dps assailants, then they will essentially swap places with mages as far as class representation goes for season 4. I believe that there could have been another way to balance warlocks more effectively, but this was the wrong way to do it. Hopefully there are other, more positive changes coming down the road for locks, because as it stands, they'll be pretty weak in the long run after this change. I just find it odd that lifetap now scales negatively against getting higher level gear. Gaining stamina hurts warlock efficiency? Weird. Just doesn't make any sense. I can't see it staying this way.

It also strikes me as odd that nothing was done with warriors at all, yet they will only continue to grow even stronger with every arena season that passes, as they arguably gain the most benefit from their iLvLs than any other class. Warriors always start out weak when gear levels are reset at release of the game or expansion, and then dominate when gear levels are maxed out. I don't think that system will ever change.

Also, my forum access has been removed. Yeah, it was for leaking stuff I absolutely shouldn't have. No, I can't blame them, as I shouldn't have. Also, I no longer play on tichondrius, so don't bother harassing me or (especially) tom anymore. You stalkers with nothing better to do can go eat a dick for all I care. If you need to get ahold of me for any legitimate reason, just post here and I'll get in touch with you somehow.

Also, Sorry to hear about Maso.

Edit: To clarify, I won't be playing on Leiah or Jadefury. I'm now playing and submitting feedback for druid on another server. (Balance is pretty weak, although the other two trees are quite solid)

31 comments:

Anonymous said...

Regarding the Life Tap change, why would the dev team want to nerf Warlock staying power? Was the nerf that had MS affect drains not enough?

Sorry to hear that you won't be posting on the WoW forums anymore. Are you still playing on your Hunter for this season now that you're not on Tichondrius?

Sam said...

No, I'm not playing a hunter or a warlock atm.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for keeping us informed during all these years and good luck with the dr00d.

Franja, Stormreaver

Anonymous said...

I was excited to see you had finally posted something new, but sad to hear that your forum access is gone and you are moving away from your characters.

I too am concerned that the warlock nerfs are "behind the times" and will not contribute to better balance. If this is a backhanded attempt at buffing classes like Mage, Paladin, Shaman, and other classes that Warlocks can harass, I think it's a bad way to go about it.

And, as you mention... what is up with warriors? We see them continuously riding high on the arena ladders with no real nerfs in sight. Do you know if there has been discussion about this subject with the devs?

Ridiculous QQers on WoW forums try to speculate with nonsense like "warriors always need to be strong so there will be enough tanks!" ... but I just can't wrap my head around the balance situation. What do you think is going on here?

Anonymous said...

I don't know whether to be mad you or empathetic towards you. This change is absolutely horrendous for PvP locks and terrible for PvE locks.

I wish you the best, though, and perhaps to seeing you post on the WoW boards again after all this dies down some.

Anonymous said...

Heya Leiah, I wanted to thank you for your contributions to both the Hunter and Warlock official WoW forums.

Good luck with the Druid, I've been thinking of making one myself.

It is truly a pity when two major contributors to the Warlock community have both left in the same month.

- Dreadnok / Uzi (Warlock and Hunter) Black Dragonflight

TheGentlemanSociopath said...

"Quite honestly, we wanted warlocks to take a larger hit to their hit points when lifetapping in PvP. While in PvP, this means they will take a bigger hit to their health, in PvE it will have smaller impact (and actually can be gamed for an improvement via higher intelligence and lower stamina)." - Eyonix

God, what a load of vile bullcrap. Like you mentioned in the blog, the fact that warlocks have 0 defensive capabilities only compounds the lifetap nerf to extreme levels in PvP. So what, overpriced spells, poor defenses, and zero sustainability in PvP? Gee, makes me wonder what the Devs are thinking this season, if they're thinking at all.

This wouldn't be so bad if the team didn't keep taking and taking away from the class without restoring anything...hoo, Incinerate buff, like that's going to save a warlock from Warriors wielding 110+ dps 2-handers with large amounts of armour penetration.

Doesn't help that every turd-brained moron leaps onto the nerf thinking its justified because warlocks are "OP".

I'm not going to blame Eyonix or any other of the CMs for this since their influence on final decisions is limited, and the fact that this is the consensus on how Devs feel about locks in PvP really makes me wonder how much they thought this through.

Unless some huge beneficial change comes with the final builds of 2.4, or the LT nerf is revised, I'm thinking a lot of pissed off locks will be re-rolling.

Sam said...

Yeah I know how you feel. Like I said, I'll wait and reserve my final thoughts until 2.4 is live. I try not to pass judgement until I see the whole picture before me.

Anonymous said...

Bad lock got what he deserved.

Thanks for the nerfs to the shaman class. Clearly being able to combine multiple classes talents to give shamans a ability to be useful outside of totems(pet target macro's ftw eh?) and bloodlust. So cheers Elemental will no longer be able to blast you down as easily and you'll probly see less of them.

The shaman community hates you because as a elemental shaman the idea of a WARLOCK complaining about us is akin to a Prot paladin complaining about having trouble with a level 60 rogue.

I really -really- hope that your kept out of the loop from here on out. For the sake of the game.

Anonymous said...

Sorry to hear about your access. I throughly enjoyed the contributions and info you shared with the warlock community.

Having said that, I absolutely agree with you regarding LT nerfs. I think MS affecting drain balanced warlocks for Melee with S2 gear. However when S3 started, melee hits warlocks MUCH harder, and healers can't even keep us up anymore. And now they're going to nerf LT? Sometimes I wonder if Devs even play arenas competitively with a warlock.

-Todu
Lightninghoof

Sam said...

Parn, you don't need to prove to me that you're an idiot for thinking it was my idea that ele shamans were getting nerfed.

You and your retard friends have made that quite clear repeatedly.

However, if you want to blame me for it, go ahead. See if I give a flying shit.

Anonymous said...

I have written a novel of a post as feedback to the devs, would like to know your opinion on it... what to add, refutes, etc. Thank you.

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=4914021721&sid=1

I do not see Warlock longetivity via Life Tap as ridiculous, because the real problem is in SP's, Mages, Shamans, etc not lasting long enough. Trying to remove Warlocks from the list of everlasting classes only pushes Warriors even further up the tree of dominance.

I will not be purchasing WotLK if 2.4 comes out looking anything like it currently does. It shows me a complete lack of competence from the developers and is causing me to lose faith in Blizzard as a company.

Sam said...

I can't really find a single thing in those multiple posts of yours that I disagree with.

Anonymous said...

Those are Kalgan's characters?

MS Warrior he played for 3 seasons

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Tichondrius&n=Megataur

New AP/Pyro Mage

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Tichondrius&n=Erasan

Any other?

Sam said...

1) Your links got cut off, so I can't read them to begin with

2) What makes you think I would tell you anyway?

Anonymous said...

Baek and parn had some inciteful things to say that i agree with.

Leiah sounded quite like the source in part for shaman nerfs, and one thing to keep in mind when you are swearing at everyone here since you are banned from forums that don't allow that, is that most classes seem to get balanced, that is nerfed and buffed at the same time. but shaman very often do not. you did have something to do with the effect this nerf has on shaman and yes they do hate you or it, and i assume many hate Tom Chilton as well for his unprofessional favoritism. what you seem to have done is ruin one of the better shaman abilities and leave them with little in place of it, with the empty promise that shaman will be buffed in the future sometime. well looks like shaman are the class of the future then, and they always will be.

Veok said...

Sorry to hear your forum access got nixed, Leiah.

It's just a pity that the warlock class is losing all of their big ticket names: you, Azael, Maso, Unstoppable, (and maybe Gumbot as well?)

Regardless, I wish you luck in your future endeavors, and yeah, shaman have no reason to get pissed at you. Hang in there.

Anonymous said...

You were banned for leaking information? I thought you were banned for posting derogatory and racist comments? Which is it? Just because you're 'in the loop' it does not exclude you from the forum rules/code of conduct; or general human decency.

Anonymous said...

No need to be angry. No need for emotional words.

To angry elemental shamans, I do not know how bad the elemental shaman nerf is, but what Leiah did is simply letting some information be known which she/he happened to approve. A bearer of bad news. A messenger. An old chinese proverb said " Do not kill the messenger. " If Leiah is the one calling the shot, we wouldn't be seeing such stupid warlock nerf or not-seeing some much needed Shaman buff, right? Don't forget Leiah is still on your side. " Shamans need buff. "

And to Leiah. I happen to have a druid alt, current feral specced. Good luck with the trees and fur and feathers. Oh and about the feathers. Though the boomkins I know often do comparable damage as warlocks or mages in Gruul if not forced to heal, they still claim boomkins need some more buff other than itemization. Wonder what they mean. Again thanks for the help.

It's kind of funny. One week ago, I was looking foreward to the 2.4 patch release, planning on saving some arena points for S4 gear. I was quite eager to see what WotLK holds for warlocks. Now I hope it never go live-I've heard that the PTR is haunted by bugs. WotLK does not seem that attractive any more. If something we hold true for 3 years can be tempered with like this, combined with the fact that the Dev's mind seems lagging at least half an year behind, I shudder to think what they would do to us oh-so-overpowered warlock in the expansion.

newcomer, Taiwan

Sam said...

Funny you mention that, newcomer. I just recently submitted a bunch of feedback for the balance tree that's already been reviewed.

What most people don't realize is, shamans and balance druids are both heavily nature-based casters, so if you buff balance druids to give sort of a stacking debuff that makes the target take increased nature damage, they'd share more synergy with ele/enhancement shamans.

It just seems really messed up to me that right now, the only class that can provide a debuff on the target that increases ele shaman damage by a good amount... is another shaman who's enhancement (stormstrike).

I think Blizzard could hit two birds with one stone, here.

That, and force of nature and brambles are just god awful.

Anonymous said...

hey bro this is kyoshi. thanx for trying for the lock class. it really sucks that it came to it. ill be quitting if 2.4 goes live with that lifetap. but i loved your movies as a destro lock and i hope all goes well on your druid. this is just really sad.

ever want to have an intelligent convo my aim name is what im posting under.

Sam said...

Sounds good man. I had a "feeling" you'd be posting right about now. ;)

I tried to give a little insight as to why the lifetap ability is getting changed, but it'll just get drowned out by all the QQ and "stfu troll" posts. so w/e. The wow forums are the wow forums.

Anonymous said...

If the life tap change goes live it'll be interesting to see if mana burn/viper sting becomes a popular addition to the melee train on the warlock.

Without the option to derank lifetap it'd basically take the warlock out of the game. With the only option being a big lifetap it'd be really easy to drop yourself into dirty deeds/execute range.

Oh well; my druid is fun to play and I'm toying with the idea of a druid/rogue/mage team. It should match OK against RMP and be a pretty hard counter against double melee.

Anonymous said...

It's good to see you around again in some form or another where it counts.

I'm really happy to see some updated blog entries on your site. Please keep them coming.

I tried to do a search on you and some of your other aliases, but I couldn't find any ideas of yours as to what LT should be if different at all.

I personally feel that if they want locks to take a larger HP hit, they should do a % HP hit returning equal mana, assuming of course that we only get one rank of that spell.

Have you tried Dreamstate for arenas yet? I've been thinking about trying it on my druid, but I've been playing resto for 3+ years now and am very used to the spec.

Meious Warlock
Ousei Druid

Anonymous said...

thanks for all the info on the WoW boards, Leiah.

70 lock, Dark Iron

Draele said...

Hey Leiah, sorry to hear you were compelled to leave Tich. Sucks donkey dick that you can't play with Tom and your other friends any more.

Just don't quit playing TF2! I always liked talking to you on steam and playing TF2 with ya!

Draele said...

Hey Leiah, sorry to hear you were compelled to leave Tich. Sucks donkey dick that you can't play with Tom and your other friends any more.

Just don't quit playing TF2! I always liked talking to you on steam and playing TF2 with ya!

Sam said...

@Meious: No, I'm only level 42. :P Rest assured, however, that I will be trying out all areas of the class extensively once it is viable to do so.

@Draele: Doesn't really matter. I have a ton of friends on another server that I can play with (that I also happen to be guild leader of). Not really an issue tbh. Tich wasn't really doing it for me anyways. I hated waiting in the queues just so I could wait in more queues, etc. Raiding on west coast time sucks when you're central, and several other factors. That, and NE druid > Tauren Druid. :P

Anonymous said...

Leiah it's really lame how you were just trying to inform the community and you got banned for it, retards will be retards. Thanks as always for your great input on the game.

Anonymous said...

Hey, I play on your server, and having somebody intelligent to talk to about pvp in general would be pretty fun for a change, so if you wanted to hit me up anytime that would be pretty cool. Bringing up changes and having responses to the extend of "nerfomgwtf!!!" in my guild chat can be pretty annoying.
Anywho, I'll probably send you a random tell sometime that you're online, so hopefully that doesn't go too awkwardly. Later!

Anonymous said...

this nerf on shamans is totally unnessecary for PvP.. we already get eaten alive by CCing classes... if this turns out to be as bad as i think it is, as much as i love the shaman as a class i will be forced to reroll an overpowered class that blizzard loves, like a hunter.