Replenishment hotfixed, changed for arena play
by Alex Ziebart 
Apr 24th 2009 at 6:30PM
The developers are continuing their hotfix spree, this time targeting Replenishment in the arena. While in an arena, any class that procs Replenishment will only proc it for themselves. It does not apply to the entire party while in an arena. This is something that a lot of people have expected would happen eventually, and it's good to see that they didn't wait for another major content patch for something like this. It had to be done, so they did it. I'd love to see that trend continue.The arena community has been asking for this for awhile, and if you want to know their reasoning, Serennia discussed it just the other day. I strongly suggest giving it a read. Replenishment is a game changer in the arena, and in a format with teams so small, you can't really expect every team to find a Replenishment to slot like you can in 10 and 25 man raids. Replenishment essentially being a requirement in the 3v3 format would be a disaster, and it's been made pretty clear that teams with a Replenishment have a severe advantage over those that don't.
A post-Patch 3.1 world seems to be one where broken things get fixed quickly, rather than just sit there broken for months until the next content patch. As long as that holds up for more than these few weeks immediately after the patch, I'm a fan of it.
Filed under: Hunter, Mage, Paladin, Priest, Analysis / Opinion, PvP, Arena
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Ron Apr 24th 2009 6:41PM
>> As long as that holds up for more than these few weeks immediately after the patch, I'm a fan of it.
Otherwise, you're not?
???
jfofla Apr 24th 2009 7:11PM
I am amazed that this time they made the fix ONLY in Arena instead of changing the entire game to fix an Arena issue.
Arashikou Apr 24th 2009 9:22PM
THIS.
First the Exorcism change, now this change. Has Blizz finally realized that balancing the same game to both ends is a losing battle? This isn't just a brave new world because so many issues are being hotfixed promptly, (not to mention that Blizz even CAN hotfix stuff like this without a patch) but because Blizz seems finally willing to make things work differently in and out of Arenas. It could be the end of PvE-vs-PvP QQ as we know it!
Anthony Apr 27th 2009 12:04PM
Will Blizzard stick to their guns?
Will PVE vs PVP QQ end?
Will we ever get Vanish fixed?!
Stay tuned for next week's patch folks! Same great WoW, different patch notes!!
Dreadskull Apr 24th 2009 7:20PM
So... why the hell haven't they been doing arena only fixes like this from the start when nerfing abilities that are fine in PvE -_-
*sigh*
mitch Apr 24th 2009 7:36PM
What a laughable change.
The upside: Finally they are making Arena only changes so it doesn't fuck over the community that doesn't enjoy being tossed and turned around over something they don't even participate in.
The downside: it's taken them 2 years to do it. Meanwhile we're still suffering the other "Arena" nerfs which also effected PVE.
http://remainsofapaladin.blogspot.com/
inthemidst01 Apr 24th 2009 7:37PM
Good point, but at least they are on the trend of separating the PVE and PVP game mechanics (the Exorcism and Replenishment nerfs in PVP only). This is a great sign of things to come (I am hoping) despite it taking them 4 to 5 years to reach this point.
jfofla Apr 24th 2009 10:08PM
I think before calling another poster a "retard", one should know the difference between the words "know" and "now".
Stripes Apr 25th 2009 11:22PM
You mean other than complete class homogenization?
Gee, I just don't know.
Honestly, your examples could be argued either way, so take your PvP e-peen somewhere else please.
When it comes down to it, WoW simply was not made for 5v5 (let alone 2v2) combat. Arena should be separate from PvE, World PvP and BGs.
Axe Apr 25th 2009 5:13AM
Lock's Conflag being nerfed to 70% because they were popping 10k+ crits
dropped PvE dps by a couple hundred according to EJ
Domilol Apr 25th 2009 5:33AM
@ Stripes
Argued either way? How in the world can it be argued either way? They were all due to PvE.
- Downranking: Healers not running OOM in PvE
-TG: 'Too much damage' in PvE
-RoS: Guilds abusing it to tank hard encounters
-Afflic: Doing 'Too much' damage in PvP
@ Axe
touche, but I would argue that Destro was already significantly behind Afflic, anyone that was taking raiding abit seriously (i.e into Uld) would of already been running affliction anyway.
Eisengel Apr 25th 2009 6:15PM
Why haven't they been making changes this way in the past? I'm going to guess because Ghostcrawler wasn't the Systems Lead. I don't work at Blizz, so I can't know exactly why things are being done this way, but since he became Sys Lead things starting getting done, there have been a slew of 'quality of life' improvements, and there has been an immense amount of communication from Blizz. Now I know correlation does not guarantee causation, but I'm willing to bet either Ghosty being Sys Lead was either a large part of the cause, or it was the effect of a large decision.
Iambored Apr 24th 2009 7:44PM
Stupid change, good change in policy.
Zhiva Apr 24th 2009 8:06PM
Looks like Blizzard's claim of not separating PvE and PvP mechanics starts going the same way that their other claims did:
- no paladins for Horde, no shamans for Alliance;
- no PvE-to-PvP transfers;
- no knockback abilities for players;
- no character recustomization;
- no gender change;
...
What big no-no claim will be next? :/ Cross-faction communication?
Arashikou Apr 24th 2009 9:24PM
Gold-selling will become OK.
Aureliusz Apr 25th 2009 3:00AM
As long as Blizzard gets their share of the money under the table.. :P
Stone_Rhino Apr 24th 2009 8:06PM
Blizzard is making a poor decision by separating PVP and PVE mechanics, not to mention messing with spells to force players to play a certain way.
WoW was always a game that strove for simplicity and ease of use. Changing the function of spells between PVE use and PVP serves to further confuse players who are new to the game, or those who have recently reached max level and want to start PVP.
The spell change I mention is specifically targeted at affliction warlocks, who are no longer given the choice to use immolate, but are forced to NOT use it, because it will knock off UA. This change was clearly a desperation move on blizzards part, as they could not find a way to make immolate unappealing to affliction due to its DPCT.
More changes like these will only further muddle with the straightforward game play WoW originally offered.
Axe Apr 25th 2009 5:12AM
No one is forcing you to spec a specific way, it's just that particular specs do better. Which is often the case, rarely will you ever see a fire/frost/arcane all ripping up pvp or pve equally
On the flipside, Warlocks dps in raids got nerfed when they nerfed Conflag's damage. All the more reason to keep PVE and PVP separate. Same with burst damage on paladins, sure it's fine for pve but a different story for pvp
funny how you mention WoW strives for simplicity when it's reason why UA and Immo share the same debuff slot. It's simply reduced another dot you'd have to worry about, bringing it down from 6 dots to juggle down to 4. I'll admit, it is a dps nerf, but a much more simple spec
problem now is destro has turned out to be the most complicated spec juggling dots, conflags when immo is up, working in Chaos bolts when it's up, all while spamming incinerates inbetween.
awesomeness Apr 24th 2009 8:34PM
To the ground!
What's next? Divine storm skill not usable in arenas?
They might as well state clearly that ret is pve only.
Halokon Apr 25th 2009 5:51AM
This.
Whilst it makes sense that it's not for the whole team anymore, because it is unbalanced in favour of a replenishment team, it's just one of the many reasons not to bring a Ret pally to the arena anymore.
(And I'm aware that other classes have Rep, but tbh, they don't suck as much as ret does)
Also, ret pally hotfix again!? Bloody quick to jump on ret when they need a fix.
Bla blah DKs too.