Earth Shock replacement to be implemented due to downranking changes
by Daniel Whitcomb 
Aug 19th 2008 at 5:00PM
People are still reeling from the downranking change on Beta, but as the dust clears and Blizzard continues to stick to their guns, it may be that we'll have to live with it. One thing Blizzard has said, however, is that if it looks like there's genuine void created somewhere by the loss of downranking, they'll fix it.
One genuine void is that of rank 1 Earth Shock. Shamans have longed used the spell as a spell interrupt when they can't afford to spend the mana on a max rank shock, both in PvE and PvP. With the new mana cost rules, that cheap interrupt is now gone, complicating a shaman's already touchy mana preservation issues.
Luckily, not all is lost for Shamans, as Koraa says that they are creating a rank 1 Earth Shock spell equivalent that should show up in the Beta at some point in the future.
This, at the least, is a good indication that Blizzard means to make good on plugging up holes left by the abolishment of downranking -- or at least the holes that the dev team sees as needing to be plugged. Will we see a replacement for rank 1 Moonfire for totem killing, or for rank 1 Arcane Explosion or rank 1 Consecration for flushing out stealthers? That remains to be seen, but it seems much less likely, since those are roundabout ways of using a damage spell for a non-DPS reason rather than the straightforward purpose of using rank 1 Earth Shock as a cheap spell interrupter.
Filed under: Shaman, Analysis / Opinion, News items, Expansions, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Typhonus Aug 19th 2008 5:06PM
awww
Tophy Aug 19th 2008 5:11PM
Remind me again why shamans should be entitled to a cheap spell interrupter? Are they going to create Rank 1 equivalents for all interrupters/stuns? As a pally, can I get a rank 1 Judgement so i can kill totems? If I as a pally have to use all of my higher rank spells that cost more mana, then why does a shaman get this little gimmick so that it doesn't? I still need to spend top mana on my stun, why do they get to interrupt for basically free? This is just ridiculous....the downranking thing either needs to be complete or not at all. Fixing small "plugs" is only going to be favoring some classes over others. Shamans use rank 1 earth shock to be more mana efficient, so why can't I downrank my heals to be more mana efficient? It just makes no sense.
darian Aug 19th 2008 5:49PM
It's a matter of what Blizzard intends.
Blizzard never intended for players to be able to use low rank AoE spells to flush out stealthers. That was an unintentional side effect, and one that ultimately they didn't like. It wasn't a problem with an easy solution, and as such had to wait until the next expansion to fix.
Now they can implement fixes such as Interrupt Shock and maybe Holy Priest Unstealth Rogues Nova if that's how they want to balance those classes. It's still in Beta and if losing a cheap unstealth ability makes PvP/Arenas too difficult for Priests they'll do something to fix it.
Reinard Aug 19th 2008 5:44PM
It's cute how you actually try and make it sound like Hammer of Justice actually costs a lot of mana.
Top rank Hammer of Justice: 100 mana
Top rank Earth Shock: 535 mana
Heilig Aug 19th 2008 8:32PM
Yeah, except it's less than 250 if you've crit since you used it last, which is pretty much guaranteed. Not to mention that Enhance and Elemental gear carries TONS more Intellect and MP5 than Ret or Prot gear.
Stop whining. At least you HAVE an interrupt. HoJ is a stun and only breaks spellcasts if the target is stunnable.
And remind me of the CD on Earth Shock again? 6 seconds? Yeah, HoJ is ten times that.
So, basically, STFU.
West Aug 19th 2008 8:51PM
While guarding any PVP objective, my pally spams Rank 1 Consecration for the entire duration that i am not being attacked. my mana regen makes this essentially free.
It is a huge change to force me to use the max rank just to show that rogue 1/2 sec before he stun locks me.
Marc Aug 20th 2008 3:29AM
@darian:
Making things easier for rogues is hardly balancing.
nikoli Aug 19th 2008 5:19PM
As a discipline priest, I have to say I'm disappointed to see the new down-ranking prevention. Already at a disadvantage against skilled rogues, now there is an even higher penalty for using an already crappy spell (holy nova) to flush them out at an already pathetic range (increase the effective range if we're forced to use max rank). Blizzard seriously never could have intended holy nova to be used for healing, because the heal per mana is pathetic. It's a multi-purpose ability at best (it's a talent as well, so we're already investing in it). No PvE priest in his right mind will ever use it, it's only currently useful in PvP for snake traps and un-stealthing.
Also, I cast rank 1 fortitude/inner-fire/renews when a pesky mage starts yanking all of my essential buffs from me, to at least penalize his mana pool somewhat for spamming that godawful ability on a class that relies entirely on magic for protection. The extra 10% dispel protection being given to priests is not enough to cover what we're losing with down-ranking going the way of the buffalo.
elprogramer Aug 19th 2008 5:18PM
I've been using Consecrate (Rank 1) to reveal rogues. Rather useful, IMO.
rick gregory Aug 19th 2008 5:24PM
And exactly the kind of thing they want to eliminate - downranking has all kinds of side-effects that mess with game mechanics (you can flush out a stealther but pay virtually no cost for doing so). The elimination of downranking lets blizz create spells for those functions that they feel are legit but gets rid of cheap stuff like rank 1 frost nova etc. Want to flush out stealthers with a Frost Nova or Consecrate? Fine... spend the mana.
infection Aug 19th 2008 5:35PM
and that's what tophy is saying
downrack certain spells and leave one or two class's with them?
i would hope they don't make that mistake
infection Aug 19th 2008 5:36PM
*downrank
Algorithm Aug 19th 2008 5:57PM
There are a few comments I have on this.
Flushing out stealthers using rank 1 is not full proof. Between ticks and GCD's, I've seen good rogues/druids rush in for an opener. Shadowstep/Sap etc.
They haven't been very clear about what unintended side effects have occurred from down ranking? What specifically is the issue with it? It adds an extra dimension to caster classes.
It doesn't "mess" with game mechanics. It essentially adds tools to classes. Mages, Priests and Paladins have a cheap AoE that they can use when the damage component is insignificant in order to save mana.
This change in it's current form is now officially anti-caster and pro-stealth. Interrupts are still cheap, but anti-stealth techniques are now prohibitively expensive?
Additionally, rank 1 frostbolt will still be useful (even with increased mana cost) due to its cast time. However, Arcane Explosion and Blizzard downranking will be completely gone.
zappo Aug 20th 2008 9:06AM
I agree with Algorithm on the pro stealth stance. What I actually can't understand is why Blizzard has suddenly decided to side with the stealth classes. Like priests and mages are just so vastly overpowered considering stealth is the most powerful PvP weapon there is. Any rogue who isn't a moron will see a mage run around trying to flush them and position themselves away accordingly.
God forbid they require patience and wait for an opportune time instead of just ez-button walk up with stealth and start stunlocking people. Ever seen a rogue cry about hunter flares? Hard to have sympathy for people who can't figure out extremely difficult concepts like "avoiding" and "waiting".
mstree Aug 19th 2008 5:22PM
Hope they find that Rank 1 Earth Shock replacement right next to my Rank 1 Moonfire.
Ikarus Aug 19th 2008 5:34PM
Is max rank moonfire really that expensive? The amount i see it spammed in the BGs does make it seem like. you can swing a lvl 1 weapon and kill my totem.
spartan084 Aug 19th 2008 6:00PM
max rank moonfire costs somewhere between 600 and 700 mana, too lazy to look it up. but yes, if they dont give druids something equivalent, we may be gimped quite a bit.
NoSoupForYou Aug 19th 2008 5:32PM
A pally complaining about mana conservation? What? Why? When you can shoot off 2 flash of light's in the same time I can send off a lesser healing wave and heal twice as much while costing nearly the same amount (and taking the same time), I don't think you have much to gripe about. So what if we can keep our only solid interrupt? I never thought I'd hear someone complain about the mana efficiency of paladin, especially compared to a shaman.
Tophy Aug 19th 2008 5:42PM
I'm not complaining about my mana problems haha...probably a bad example for me to use since people like you simply fail to see my real point. Why do your spells become exempt from down ranking? Either spend the mana on your interrupt or don't...it's ridiculous that Blizzard is doing this. I'm not complaining about my class at all. I just think its ridiculous to enforce this on some classes and not on others. You have one interrupt, Earth Shock. I have one AoE, Consecration. Why can yours be downranked and mine can't? That's all I'm saying.
Manatank Aug 19th 2008 6:02PM
Seriously?
You know there are 3 paladin specs right, and only 1 of them has a lot of mana?
As a prot paladin, I use rank 1 consecrate to grab snap agro on adds when I'm nearly OOM. Which, if you've ever played a prot paladin, you'd know can happen quite often at the end of a pull.
They may not like silly PvPers using rank 1 consecrate to get stealthies, but some of us playing real WoW in PvE use this rank too.