Raid buffs overhauled for 3.0.2
by Eliah Hecht 
Aug 29th 2008 at 9:00AM
Blizzard has been promising changes to raid buffs and raid stacking for a little while. Last night, they laid all their cards on the table in a giant blue post. Here's a run-down; all of this will be going live in 3.0.2, the pre-Wrath of the Lich King patch.
- Almost all buffs and debuffs will work raid-wide -- Warriors shouts, Shaman totems, Paladin auras, and more.
- There are approximately 30 categories into which raid buffs and debuffs fit. All raid buffs/debuffs have been put into one or more of these categories. Most categories have only one or two buffs in them; see the post for the category breakdown.
- Buffs cannot stack within each category; only the most powerful one will apply. For instance, Battle Shout and Blessing of Might will no longer stat.
- "Mana battery" action (such as Vampiric Touch) is changing significantly. It won't depend on damage done any more. Whenever such effects occur, the ten people in the raid with the lowest mana will receive a buff called Replenishment restoring 0.5% of their maximum mana each second. This buff will be provided by Shadow Priests, Survival Hunters, and Retribution Paladins.
- Heroism/Bloodlust will now affect the entire raid, but you can only be hit by it once every five minutes.
Many existing buffs and debuffs have been reworked for this new system, in addition to being fit into categories. Here are the big changes to existing abilities; for the full list, see the blue post.
- Shadow Weaving and Improved Shadow Bolt will now only benefit their casters. This is also the case for Expose Weakness and Shadow Embrace.
- Improved Scorch now increases spell crit chance against the target.
- Rampage now increases melee and range crit by 5%, for the entire raid.
- Tree of Life aura now gives every raid member +3% healing received.
Filed under: Raiding, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 9)
Drunkencheese Aug 29th 2008 9:05AM
nice
Nadrysta Aug 29th 2008 9:08AM
I am not sure if I like this change to Blood Pact. But at least it still stacks with Fort.
Swiss Aug 29th 2008 9:09AM
Nothing like giving us raid-wide buffs all the while "nerfing" them so that they're not really buffs at all.
Carrie Aug 29th 2008 9:08AM
I am a shadow priest and this stuff makes me cry :(
Mitch Aug 29th 2008 9:46AM
Meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee too.
Spriests better be able to do way more damage than they used to since they are no longer unique in the utility of returning mana.
Candina@WH Aug 29th 2008 10:11AM
QQ alert
Firstly, the new mana replenishment SUCKS. 0.5% per second of mana to ONLY the lowest 10 people in the raid sucks.
It means that Healers will see very little benefit from the mana restore any more.
Healers run out of mana more slowly than DPS casters so that the first people to get the buff will be DPS. By the time the healers are the Lowest 10 people in mana the raid is almost to wipe anyway.
With pots becoming a one and done thing, healers are now doubly penalized.
As a shadow priest (and a shammy healer) the mana restore mechanic change is a bad enough nerf, but now things like shadow weaving no longer buffing other casters is a slap in the face.
Everyone elses buffs are going raid wide, but the things locks and shadow priests put talent points in are being REDUCED to one person only? Will there be mutltiple stacks of shadow weaving then (one per casters)? Or will ONLY the one priest lucky enough to get his tick up first benefit?
It's official, Shadow Priests are no longer raid viable. We DPS 85% of other casters, we can't off heal without a significant mana efficiency hit. Our one raid 'Role' has been both nerfed AND diluted across multiple classes. Why take a Shadow Priest over a hunter? Hunter will out DPS, have greater CC, survivability, utility, and restore the same mana.
25 man raids had a place for Shadow Priests. 10 man raids had a place for shadow priests if they were well geared enough. 5 mans had no place for SPs.
Now? why even have them at all? They are less PVP viable than Disc/Holy priests.
Sigh, time to level a Hunter, I guess, so I have something to offer my guild in raids when they need DPS over heals.
darian Aug 29th 2008 10:32AM
QQ Alert indeed. Half of what you complained about was addressed in the thread in question, and the other half through simple logic.
1. At least 2/5ths of the raid isn't going to have a mana bar (3 Warriors, 3 Rogues, 3 DKs, 1 Feral Druid). That means that even if your healers are always on top of mana, 2-3 of them would still be getting replenish. Nevermind that in 10 mans the entire raid will always get the buff.
2. It's clearly stated in the thread that each class/spec's individual raid performance will be closely watched and tuned. If Shadow Priests are undesirable it'll be fixed.
3. Logically, they aren't going to make things like ISB and SW debuffs anymore if they only affect the individual.
Relax on the QQ, this is a big change but not the end of the world.
Jewbanks Aug 29th 2008 10:37AM
I hardly ever have a raid group with 10 rogues/warriors/feral... i guess with deathknights that might help bring it up to 10 with no mana but we often have maybe 2 warriors a feral and a rogue or 2.. so that leaves half the people with mana bars not getting regen
Doc X Aug 29th 2008 10:37AM
Now there's ABSOLUTELY NO REASON we should be doing 1000 DPS less than EVERY OTHER DPS CLASS IN THE GAME INCLUDING OTHER HYBRIDS in PVE.
I am cautiously optimistic this means Mind Flay will be changed to 30 yard range, proper damage scaling and allow it to crit . . . kinda like Arcane Missles.
Marc Aug 29th 2008 10:55AM
Shadow Priests were a must for raids. This was unnatural and is being fixed.
Jacckk Aug 29th 2008 11:24AM
How is a Shadow Priest being required unnatural when a Warlock(s) and Mage(s) being required is perfectly fine? Many encounters require specific classes with specific talents to be present, or at least make them much more difficult without it.
I'm not trying to troll, I'm genuinely interested in this comment and curious how you can justify it.
Manatank Aug 29th 2008 12:42PM
Why should an off-spec like shadow priests be required? The new direction Blizzard is taking is fantastic. Now that the major buff shadow priests bring no longer scale with damage they will be able to be buffed to do reasonable damage. Shadow priests will be brought if the player controlling the priest is good instead of because of some gimmick of the class.
That is the whole point of all of this. No more gimmicks giving bad players a free ride. On the other hand good players can feel free to play what every is fun for them. It is fantastic.
User_name Aug 29th 2008 12:49PM
@ Doc X (#8).
If you want to fix Mind Flay, you're not doing yourself any favors asking Blizzard to treat like Arcane Missiles. There's a reason why the only way Arcane's been remotely close to viable since the MSD/TLC changes is by 2pT5 and Arcane Blast spam. Maybe Missiles can crit, but the damage scaling is atrocious.
Just might want to consider a change in wording if you're ever in a position to give feedback (like on the PTRs).
Candina@WH Aug 29th 2008 1:01PM
RE: darian
1.) Our 25 mans usually have 6, sometimes 8, non mana users. Hunters, Pally's and Boomkin are all more valuable DPS and Utility to DPS warriors, rogues, feral (cat) druids. We usually go with War Main Tank and Pally off tanks. So, your assertion is flat wrong. Even if we have 15 mana users, per your assertion, If your healers are in the bottom 10 of your mana users, you are going to wipe.
As for 'it will be fixed'. Um. No. Making changes that 'break' a class to do not instill faith that you will 'fix' the class.
As for ISB and Shadow Weaving. They have not said
'we are removing these from the game', they have said we are keeping them AND making them caster specific.
Group buffs across the board are being expanded. Except the the one stackable buff that Shadow Priests can offer the raid.
So, I can give you improved Fort, Improved Spirit (if spec'd for it). But I can't buff the raids damage.
Warlocks can buff mages and shadow priests. Mages can buff mages and locks. Boomkin buff EVERYBODY. But Shadow Priests, no.
The QQ does not come from a 'gee, no I need to learn how to play my character under the new rules', but from a 'gee, I don't see HOW to play my character effectively enough to be useful to my raid team'.
They say they are going to buff our DPS. I will believe it when I see it. Until then, this is a broken spec.
Nasgoul Aug 29th 2008 5:03PM
I just don't get it. A little history for you. I am a two year plus guy on the game. I am also one if the few with no alts. I am the nasgoul and that's the way it is. Got my shadow priest to 1100 spell dam, and played him to the 1700s in arena. Logged months of playtime. I know others have too. Braggin is not my purpose but I want them to know they are hearing the opinion of a kindred spirit. Someone who knows the game well.
Whether u do it on purpose or not, whether u mean to or not you are once again discriminating hardcore against the priest class. I know we are not the flavor of the week class. We sew usually not the flashest class to watch dos and heal. But you are killing the class my friends.
When u choose a priest u know u are getting into a strange situation. The priest almost more than any other class relies in being in a grp. The priests job in all specs is utility. In pve you would rather have a different healer usually and if the shadow priest doesn't bring the mana then why waste the spot in the raid with his low dps. In pvp the disc healer is good but basically a dispell machine. And let me tell u from the experience of thousands of arenas and bgs dpsing in pvp iscalmost impossible.
Step by step u are making the class almost unplayabe. The only viable spec fir the priest to shine is pvp disc and it shouldn't be that way. I never post here and I never qq. But i'm telling you that u need to fundamentally rethink your approach to the priest class and your attitude towards it. Some of your most hardcore some of your true believers are priests and you are losing us because you are making us feel that the only answer is to reroll.
Linkage Aug 29th 2008 7:10PM
Utility?
I play my holy priest to, you know, keep everyone alive.
Tes Aug 29th 2008 9:13AM
That's it, my priest is going Holy.
Eternalpayn Aug 29th 2008 11:23AM
Mission accomplished.
Naix Aug 29th 2008 11:48AM
As it should be.
Kassu Aug 29th 2008 2:47PM
As stated above, a need for Spriests for one skill is total BS...
Spriests for solo PVE, Holy for group PVE and Disc for PVP...