Could the game get any easier?

[Sanrin]

Blizzard answers the call.

(2) Detect Magic removed. All players may now see their target's beneficial effects at all times


http://www.mmo-champion.com/

Read it and weep.

[Evanthe]

....

....

[Sanrin]

lmao, grats horde, you got fear ward!

(1) Fear Ward will now be available to all Priests at level 20 (Source)

However your bitching for it has also caused a sad day for all priests.

(1) Fear Ward duration reduced to 3 minutes, and cooldown increased to 3 minutes (Source)

Excellent game.

[Evanthe]

Somehow I'm not too torn up over it. ;)

[Sanrin]

it makes me mad not cuz of the fact that you got FW, but moreover the fact they decided to give in to horde overall bitching then take the racial and nurf it into uselessness.

[Evanthe]

Like I said about the nerfing, not too upset about it. =P

Okay, this story below will tell you how completely illogical I can be sometimes:

When I was on my dwarf priest, applying fearward was a pain in the ass. You couldn't buff everyone all at once because of the cooldown. Minor, I know, but man did it frost my cookies. I honestly think I may prefer the nerf to having to apply... wait wait wait... apply to everyone in the party. At least you only have to put it on one person now.

Not as useful? Of course not. But definately less annoying. ;)

[Sanrin]

lol Evanthe i will explode you

[Kaliera]

The detect magic debuff change is fairly interesting, as it was being used in arenas to 'mask' sheeps as well. I'm not sure if this change was to cater to whining sheeped targets, mages complaining about spellstealing terrible buffs, or a combination of both.

Edit: Also, in regards to the fear ward change, I wish they'd just keep the cooldown as it was, but limit it to a single target similar to earth shield. The only real whining being done (aside from lack of a horde version) was the fact that it could effect multiple targets. As a single target, it'd deal with the whiners without making the spell next to useless in pve/solo pvp.

[Evanthe]

lol Evanthe i will explode you

You love me. :p

Overall, there's lots of cool things coming up. I, for one, am excited.

[Thalevia]

The magic detection thing is weird.

As to fear ward. Remove it from the game all together. Problem solved.

[Tillna]

No one plays Dwarves any way.

My issue is the buff thing...

Keep at least PVP ones hidden..

[Kallindra]

As a former NE Priest on my old server, I want to give a big F U to all the Dwarves who rolled only for the Fear Ward because their scrub asses couldn't cut it in a raiding guild on their original class. My old server had a huge influx of dwarven priests during BWL, a few months before AQ was released, and it was common knowledge that most of them were really bad players who were trying to get a guaranteed raid spot for having "LOLFearWard". Why? Because there were too many warriors who were too lazy to learn to stance dance since they felt Fear Ward should be a required component of the fight.

I'm with Thalevia. Remove it from the game!

[Okhu]

No one plays Dwarves any way.

My issue is the buff thing...

Keep at least PVP ones hidden..

I have a ton of dwarves I play.

[Malorii]

Guild Banks are being added to the game.


WOOOO... Maybe netheryn will lemme sacrafice sandvoal in dark expirments in the name of science..

[Sifar]

No one plays Dwarves any way.

My issue is the buff thing...

Keep at least PVP ones hidden..

*slaps Tillna with a wet noodle*

I play dwarves because I like dwarves. period. thank you.

I admit I haven't read the notes, but I'm bummed about the change to ward simply because its another move to make everyone the same. Are dwarven priests going to get that starfire spell NE's have? or whatever it is humans have? Meh - leave our poor characters with a little of their own heritage, I say.

[Maegannon]

PSH. Sometimes people roll dwarves because they LIKE DWARVES! *shakes fist*

The hubby made Gralin because of stoneform, actually, because he liked the idea of being immune to poisons while healin'. I probably would have been a gnome, cept that there are only Elf Druids Alliance side, and my friends all absoultely insisted that I be one. "Oh its the least played class" they said, "its easy loot in end game" they said..


psh.

[Aquizit]

Fear Ward cooldown was nerfed cause of Arenas... since it's technically a CC ability.. or neutralizes it anyway.

Welcome to a warlock's life.. having your PvE bread and butter nerfed because of arenas.

EDIT: Maybe not bread and butter.. but something that you're known for.

[Evanthe]

I played a dwarf because they are AWESOME. That little dwarven priest remains one of my favorite characters of all time.

In any case, Dwarves & Space-squids get a holy damage spell the stuns for a couple seconds. I think it's cool.

[Sanrin]

My first character was a dwarf, and he was the best. However...

The Headless Horseman is on the PTR !
Yup, the bad guy is hiding in Scarlet Monastery's Graveyard, it seems that you can take him down with a group of level 70 players and ... It drops epix !

And..

(1) New Dwarf/Draenei ability - Chastise: Causes Holy damage and incapacitates target for 2 seconds

Its not too bad, priests with a CC is kinda cool.

[Evanthe]

Must. Having. Flying. Broom. Mount.

Seriously. I can think of nothing more awesome for Eva.

[Darkblade]

Flying Mount added for Engineers. Regular and Epic version.

Best.news.ever.
It better have rockets!

[Asmodeous]

I am kind of happy about the fear ward changes, because seriously when entire fight strats are based around it, I mean seriously if you check a good chunk of boss strategies out there especially old world stuff but still a lot of them. They all sound the same, okay keep Fear Ward up on the tank at all times, then down at the bottom is the slight add on for Horde: Uh, if you are Horde throw down a tremor totem and pray.

Hope your warriors bought comfortable shoes cause they are going to have to learn to dance.

[Ellsbeth]

Don't cry for meeeeeeee.... !

Even though they've nerfed it, you have to agree that Fear Ward is useful. Far more useful than most of the priest racials Horde side. Shadowguard. Uhh. Shadowguard? Paging a useful Shadowguard.

The fact BOTH races got it was what made the stink even more. Since Draenei are 'hot' characters that means more people would play them rather than Night Elf priests and therefore Fear Ward is everywhere man. EVERYWHERE.

Honestly I'm delighted. I won't have to hear jerks say, "Give me fear ward. LOL!" in ooc raid chat anymore. *Shakes fist* Cause now I can say, "You don't deserve it."

[Sanrin]

Pray our warriors learned to stance dance? Been there, done that, and when was the last time a not retareded boss feared? Nightbanelol? Fear ward was a convience, but something more that dwarf/draeni could appricate on a 1v1 or world pvp basis. A nice racial, but nothing that even came close to being the crutch of mechanics in WoW. What bosses fearbomb the tank nowadays? Or even in old world WoW? Not too many aside from Ony, Nef. Perhaps those three bugs in AQ40...but how many people got into that instance on this server?

Was a dumb move, just as stupid as making everyone see each other buffs. As if purging wasnt easy enough, now you've been given a lettebox invite on how to play your class.

[Ellsbeth]

Likely it's a change due to Arenas moreso than progression and PvE. It just ensures that the shadow damage teams are going to do better.

[Sanrin]

Cuz they werent already?

[Sanrin]

Really, my anger isnt so much at 'horde get fear ward' as it is 'blizz cant fucking balance'. It frustrates me to now end that this company as hundreds of thousands of people all making wonderful suggestions for balance and they seem to just keep fucking shit up.

[Ellsbeth]

Seemed initially like you were angry that the Horde got it. Remember, the Horde has been complaining since day one that we don't have fear ward. There's got to be some other reason they gave it to us now. In its nerfed version.

I agree about the "WTF?" for detect magic. It's part of being a good mage to know to put that shit up. Gives us a reason to even be in a raid besides being a water dispenser and AI buffer. Having all the buffs visible just seems... stupid?

[Yichimet]

I'm angry that priests get racial skills and no other classes do.

[Ellsbeth]

I'm angry that priests get racial skills and no other classes do.

Haha! *Sticks her bum out*

Actually it is strange that we do. Even though most are useful in only minor circumstances or the odd situation, I do always use the racial spells. Can't say the same for the racial abilities.

They should make some kind of race specific ability for each class, but look at the balance issues they're having now with just the priest ones?

Oh and the new Draenei/Dwarf priest racial is pretty awesome.

[Sanrin]

Its a double edged sword Ell. Dumb players bitch to make the game easier, blizzard gives into them. So yes, i blame dumb horde for ruining fear ward in conjunction with blizzard. Just like how i blame dumb alliance ruining lots of other crap, and dumb healers for nurfing paladin healing. Its a cruel cycle, one that you'd think after two fucking years of running this game the devs would be able to fix by growing a pair of their own and implmenting changes despite what the 60% of their retarded population thinks. The same people who try to kill me with frostshock spam are the same fuckin people who go to the forums and bitch that blessing of freedom is overpowered.

PvP is a huge part of this, and any game for me. Theres no conflict without it, no excitement. It adds role play to my character and because of my class gives me the ability to assist my friends in many many ways. Yet I find it difficult to keep playing a game mainly for the community when blizzard takes the bar and forcibly lowers it every single time. Not just for my class, but every class. i get annoyed when i see priests cant heall as well as a paladin for NO REAL REASON. It agitates me to no end, particularly when i read these priest boards and people are giving genuinely gread ideas.

I always joke around that if you can handle the game mechanics of Pac Man then you can handle WoW. At this rate I wont be too far off.

[Ellsbeth]

Yet I find it difficult to keep playing a game mainly for the community when blizzard takes the bar and forcibly lowers it every single time. Not just for my class, but every class.

The squeaky wheels get the grease. A sad statement, but wholly true. If people who disagreed with the nerfers yelled, "DON'T CHANGE IT CAUSE IT WORKS FOR PEOPLE WHO AREN'T SCRUBS!" then maybe they'd think about it. For now, they see the scrub spam and they think... "Durr... people don't like this."

If you're not enjoying the game mechanics wise, then maybe it's time to take another break? They're going to keep doing this over and over and over. That's the way of the MMO. You have to satisfy the masses over the single player. So if the masses are scrubs (myself included) you keep us happy by implementing changes that will make our game play better because you're ONE person and we're a hella ton of people.

Blizzard isn't as bad as Sony. They haven't yet completely changed the game system in order to compete with other MMOs. It's still the same leveling system with the talent tree build that it was from the first day I played. They've tweaked and changed the talents, but it's not like they've changed it from a Profession Build to a Level Progression.

They make minor improvements and they do stupid things but think in terms of other races. Night elves don't have Fear Ward. My friend plays a Night Elf priest and she is always annoyed that she doesn't have Fear Ward so she rolled a Draenei one as well. But all her gear is on her Night Elf. Humans don't have Fear Ward. So then... isn't this a benefit to them as well? You'll have a ton more priests capable of buffing single targets, albeit with this nerfed version, instead of having one dwarf priest who has to buff everyone.

For people who aren't heavy raiders, fights like NightbaneLOL are going to be difficult anyway. The advent of fear ward ensures that we can worry a bit less about the tank getting run off.

I certainly don't suggest going into AV to cool off. Now that everyone's playing again, it's not a roll fest for either side.

[Sanrin]

Thats the way THIS mmo works. Warhammer will be showin up soon, and i have more respect for DOAC as opposed to blizz. But this doesnt help priests either in the end, since paladins STILL heal better then em.

[Kallindra]

I have always felt Fear Ward is a crutch for any encounter from my days on Alliance side. It may have limited uses now, but I'd rather they'd do away with it altogether.

There is nothing more infuriating than to be at a boss like Nefarion, with 39 of your closest raiding buddies, with the MT that we've been gearing up, and for him to suddenly stonewall us from going on because he doesn't have his fear ward. Why? Because our two dwarven priests couldn't be there at the time. Or to be the Priest officer in that guild and have to listen to the other officers say that we need to recruit more "dwarven priests" despite having a stable of five or six very well geared and well skilled priests who just happened to pick the wrong race. Why? Because everyone but the priests in the guild had to have the "easy" kill and not actually work for the hard kill without the Fear Ward crutch.

I was on a PvE server that had no roleplay and wasn't marked for roleplay. There wasn't a huge PvP crowd, and there were very few dwarven priests originally on the server. It wasn't until people realized how useful it was in raid progression that we got an influx of dwarven priests on my server.

And yes, dwarves and dranei are getting a spell called Chastise that is a 2 sec incapictate spell that does holy damage as replacement for Fear Ward.

[Ellsbeth]

I know paladin healers heal better than priests. I have been passed over for paladins before. I just keep plugging at learning my class and trying to improve.

They'll eventually make us overpowered again and everyone will bitch. Especially the shamans. *winks*

[Sanrin]

I took a sunchip break, now im back to being angry! Roar!

[Ellsbeth]

I took a sunchip break, now im back to being angry! Roar!

ROAR! My anger is great than thou!

Have at ye! *slaps*

[Sanrin]

:O ./fishslaps

[Ellsbeth]

Speaking off. I love the fish offhands. So epic.

[Malakim]

I totally use a healing fish in karazhan

[Malakim]

Random side note in this whole topic I have been thinking about for awhile. Remember when the expansion was coming out and the promise of tons more stamina, in order to make pvp more skill because you wouldn't be able to stun lock long enough or kill somebody before they could turn around. Sounded good, I remember the bitching and moaning of the rogues and other people that were like so I can't get free kills anymore.

Really all that has happened is the numbers people attack for have skyrocketed, I can still get 2 shotted and stunlocked, all my high level characters have about 9k health or more unbuffed and I know I can still shoot another person down in 3 or 4 shots just like always. So, um what happened to that.

Just a random thought to go along, but I have been wondering about it a lot lately.

[Grev]

Hope your warriors bought comfortable shoes cause they are going to have to learn to dance.
Learn to dance? More like learn to macro.

A two click button has you in berserker stance, berserker raged, and back into defensive stance.

[Darkblade]

The whole fear ward thing still makes me roll my eyes. I've killed Onyxia (obviously not alone). I've fought Nefarion. All on the horde side. All without the "needed" Fear Ward.

Can't do an encounter without Fear Ward? Learn2PlayIMO

But as has been stated...just another nerf to the players because they're trying to balance a PVE game for PVP.

[Sanrin]

And vice versa, thats really the issue. if they committed to wow being a PVP game or a PVE game id be fine...there'd be a line in which my objections could never cross because the rules would be defined. But they're not. Random shit in endgame encounters is too hard so they give into one thing, random players suck too much in pvp so they cave into another.

[Ryoku]

I'm late on this, but.

Removing Fear Ward from being Racial?

What are they going to give Dwarves, and Draenei to compensate?!

[Sanrin]

Its back a couple posts, a 2 second cc that does holy damage.

[Nasuj]

*Sips tea and laughs maniacally while reading this thread*

[Ryoku]

New racial doesn't sound that bad.

Also to Ell...

Shadowguard > Devouring Plague.

Because, man... Devouring Plague really does devour....

Devour your mana, that is.

While Shadowguard on the other hand, can proc blackout (unless they nerfed) for a very small amount of mana.

[Evanthe]

I just noticed that no one bothered to answer the question in this thread title:

Yes, the game can get any easier.

[Ryoku]

You know what?

...

...


One of Evanthe's theme songs is a Bright Eyes song.

*claps*

If you like Bright Eyes, you're officially cool.

[Fhenrir]

I can't agree with the people that are saying it was okay when the Alliance had Fear Ward in it's current incarnation, and the Horde had nothing. The way they're changing it doesn't seem so hot... I agree with Kali's idea on how to "fix" it while keeping it useful. But honestly I'm happier that the change is happening.

Also, in regards to Detect Magic, nobody's pointing out why the change is really happening. It's my belief that they're changing it so that mages can no longer throw up a detect magic along with a sheep to keep dispellers at it for a day and a half trying to get their teammate out of it. They could've just made it undispellable.

[Irontoe]

Blah blah blah blah bitchaboutfearward blad blah blah ENGINEERED FLYING MOUNTS ZOMG! blah blah blah...

[Netheryn]

To answer your original question Sanrin - YES.

Just wait till level 80! WOO for broken expansion buffs!

My only consolation is that Warhammer online is supposed to drop real soon so I may not have to suffer the Wrath of the Bored Content Developers.