Yet Another Warlock Nerf

It seems warlock and hunter pets are currently not scaling with their master's stats anymore. The only stats which they get are spell damage, intellect and armor, but no stamina or attack power.
What this means, other than being the biggest warlock nerf ever, is that your Felhunter will have about 3000 health, which will make it completely useless in PvP.

There's a few threads about it already (here, here, here and here) so it seems it's not an isolated issue.
Someone did the math in one of those threads, and here's what Felguards look like now:

Example: Felguard
Pre and Post current 2.4 fix.

Pre:
6200ish hp base
1247 attack power base.

Post:
3600 hp base.
343 attack power (no modification from gear)

There's dozens of threads on official forums for a few months now about hunter and warlock pets, all asking for buffs and more scaling, especially getting a part of master's resilience. Our pets are too squishy each passing day, while other classes get more and more damage. It seems Blizzard is doing exactly the opposite.

This issue is not yet confirmed by blues, so it's unknown if this is a bug or an intended change, but I certainly hope it's a bug. This change alone is enough to bring SL/SL and Demonology warlocks to extinction.

The latest 2.3.2 news surprised me today. I didn't expect a rogue nerf at least till 2.4, but AR/Prep was more ez-mode than SL/SL.

* Ambush: The damage multiplier on this ability has been increased from 250% to 275%.
* Hemorrhage: This ability now correctly does additional damage when its debuff has already been applied.
* Preparation now resets the cooldown of Shadowstep and no longer resets the cooldown of Adrenaline Rush.
* Shadowstep now adds a 3 second, 70% movement speed increase.
* Sinister Calling now also increases the percentage damage bonus of Hemorrhage and Backstab by 2/4/6/8/10%.

If you're a rogue, you can pretty much choose any spec atm and you'll be fine in PvP. That's hardly the case with other classes - some don't even have one decent talent tree.

Anyway, back to the point. I've read Ming's post today and it kinda makes me sick the more I look at it.

Also, a lot of people probably didn't notice this, as a hero of the rogue community, as soon as I saw the 110% hemo nerf, I posted two bug threads on PTR and bug forum

Self-proclaimed hero of the rogue community my ass... It's not the first time he said something like that either. Seriously, it was funny when Athene did it but in Ming's case it's just pathetic. But that's just me. I bet half of Ming's visitors would spec 0/0/61 if he said so.

Rogue needs damage more than anything else and even with AR/prep there are plenty of classes that can eat two AR's and still wreck us 1v1. Rogue's overall success (class as a whole, there will always be special players with special teammates like XOM) is still not top tier in anything other than 3v3.

*cough* roflcraptastic *cough*
Not even warriors can beat you, and they're your counter class (as much as I hate using this term).

We do have the best balanced talent trees with this change, unfortunately the best balanced class tends to be the weakest class as well.

Are you fuckin' kidding me? I thought you said rogues were finally the strongest class? No golden age?

Your Ambush is buffed (hello, anyone noticed?), Shadowstep's tooltip will soon cover half of your screen, and still rogues complain. Not to mention the class got quite a few buffs in 2.3.
To all those 'ima gonna reroll' rogue whiners out there - AR/Prep needed a nerf, face it. Rogues are fine, its a l2p issue.

Hate me, flame me, nerf me, unsubscribe me, /ignore me... I can't help it. I'm probably the only guy in the known universe who hates Ming, but I do. There, I said it.

> Ming sucks!

Mad Alchemist's Potion
It seems this new potion has a 95% chance to proc an additional elixir effect, and it's class dependant - meaning you will get buffs depending on your class, so casters should get Elixir of Draenic Wisdom or similar, and melee classes should get Elixir of Mastery or Major Agility. Good news. But I wonder how will it work with different specs or roles - what exactly will my feral druid get?


Druid

• Growl: The chance for this ability to land successfully on its target is now increased by hit rating.
• Challenging Roar: The chance for this ability to land successfully on its targets is now increased by hit rating.

I believe spell hit rating was previously increasing the chance for these spells not to be resisted so this is good news. Tanking druids still lack serious hit rating though.


Warlock

• Unstable Affliction: The silence from this ability is now subject to diminishing returns.

What can I say... nerf to dual lock teams.

Warrior

• Challenging Shout: The chance for this ability to land successfully on its targets is now increased by hit rating.
• Taunt: The chance for this ability to land successfully on its target is now increased by hit rating.

Same as for druids, a welcome and needed change. Intimidating Shout, Demoralizing Shout and Piercing Howl are not getting changed though.


Raids & Dungeons

• The Mechanar: The Cache of the Legion can now only be looted by players who are present during some portion of a successful attempt of the Gatewatcher Gyro-Kill and Gatewatcher Iron-Hand encounters. In addition, on Heroic difficulty Gatewatcher Gyro-Kill and Gatewatcher Iron-Hand no longer drop Badges of Justice. Instead, the Cache of the Legion contains a Badge of Justice for each player present.

My favorite Badge of Justice farming instance is getting nerfed :((

You can read the full patch notes on worldofraids.com.

Also, I'd like to point out that Ming, considered a very good rogue (and a very nice blogger) thinks Rogues are finally the strongest class in TBC.

I got no idea how I missed this, but Wowinsider is here to point it out. Druids will be able to shift forms without exposing themselves to vulnerable human form, which is in my opinion overpowered (I got a druid, remember). While the change looks very cool and somewhat logical, I believe it is hard enough for any class to catch a druid as it is.
Also from latest patch notes:

• PvP Trinkets: Insignia of the Alliance, Insignia of the Horde, Medallion of the Alliance, and Medallion of the Horde now clear the debuff from Judgement of Justice.

So long paladin, you shall not catch my druid anymore! Can this please be nerfed?

> New PTR build: Ain't getting better

Mmo-champion brings us the news of the latest changes on public test realms. These are not as bad as last ones, but (surprise!) rogues got a huge buff again!

• Cheat Death (Subtlety) chance to trigger increased to 33/66/100% and now also causes the rogue to take 90% less damage for 3 seconds when the effect triggers. This effect cannot occur more than once per minute.
• Dirty Deeds now also increases damage against enemies below 35% health (previously, reduced energy cost of Cheap Shot and Garrote by 20 for 2 points).
  

Cheat Death requires 30 points in Subtlety tree (33 for 3/3 CD). Previously, it had a 10/20/30% chance to proc. Shadowstep got buffed, Dirty Deeds got buffed, Deadly Throw got buffed, Blind got buffed, Hemmorhage got buffed... Geez, why the hell didn't I roll a rogue?
The 90% less damage for 3 seconds part sounds like yet another warlock nerf, no? We wouldn't want a DoT (or anything for that matter) to finish up the precious rogue, would we.


But of course, this site is more about warlocks then rogues, I must not miss this huge buff we got again:

• Soul Siphon (Affliction): If a Warlock already has a particular spell cast on a target, reapplying before its duration ends will no longer grant an additional bonus.

Oh wait, it's not a buff... It's a nerf! You can call it a bugfix just like Drain Life/Siphon Life being affected by Mortal Strike and similar effects - but it's still a nerf.

But why, why buff rogues again? After reading some posts on World of Ming lately, I'm sure those guys would disagree with me, but come on. Blizz killed lock+healer combo; when top teams will consist of rogue+healer, I wonder if Rogues will get nerfed. This is what I want Rogue talent trees to look like!

There's more changes, mostly about professions and interface, you can read full notes at mmo-champion.

> 2.3 - More rogue buffs

I've been browsing the forums a few days ago and noticed this topic, listing all the changes affecting Warlocks. I've checked old patch notes myself and ever found a few missing, so I decided to update this list.

Patch 1.1

• Howl of Terror: Increased the chance of breaking early.
• Fear: Increased the chance of breaking early.

Patch 1.02

• Warlocks can no longer kill players in duels. (not really a nerf, just a bugfix - but sounds funny)
  
• Fear: Players now have an increasing chance to break free of the effect, such that it is unlikely the effect will last more than 15 seconds.

Patch 1.03

• Fear - Mana cost changed to a percentage of base, which results in an increase in cost.

Patch 1.04

• Seduction (Succubus) - Is now considered a Fear effect for purposes of diminishing returns.

Patch 1.5.0

• War Stomp (Doomguard) - Now has a maximum of five targets.
• Warriors: Deathwish - Is now usable while under a Fear effect, and will also remove an existing Fear effect.

Patch 1.7.0

• Inferno - The stun effect can now be resisted.
• Druids: Druids should now be able to shapeshift back into caster form while Feared.

Patch 1.0.8

• Soul Link - Percentage of damage split with pet has been reduced (50% to 20%)
• Improved Drain Mana - Damage caused by this talent will now cause 150% damage instead of 200% damage, which is now consistent with other damage spells.
• Pets no longer break off attacks when their target is affected by Warlock Fear.

Patch 1.0.9

• Hellfire - Victims of Hellfire are now able to resist properly. Warlocks continue (as designed) to be unable to resist their own damage.
• Curse of Shadow and Curse of the Elements - These curses can no longer cause resistance to become negative.

Patch 1.10

• Death Coil - The horrify component no longer affects undead creatures (they've seen it all before.)

Patch 1.11

• Soul Link: If your pet is banished, Soul Link will stop functioning until Banish wears off. In addition, Soul Link's tooltip has been clarified to indicate it only works with your imp, voidwalker, succubus, or felhunter.
• Fear: The calculations to determine if Fear effects should break due to receiving damage have been changed. The old calculation used the base damage of the ability. The new calculation uses the final amount of damage dealt, after all modifiers. In addition, the chance for a damage over time spell to break Fear is now significantly lower. Note that Fear continues to be roughly three times as likely to break on player targets as on non-player targets.

Patch 1.12

• Howl of Terror: This spell now uses the same resistance checks as the Warlock spell Fear.

Patch 2.0.10

• Demonic Tactics now grants increased critical strike chance to you and your demon pet, instead of increased damage. (affliction nerf)

Patch 2.0.12

• Melee damage of "Felguard" has been reduced (about 40%)
• The bonus that the spells "Corruption" and "Curse of Agony" receive from bonus spell damage effects has been decreased by approximately 10%.
• Soul Fire: Bomus damage reduction from 171.4% -> 115%
• Soul Link: The damage mitigation component has been reduced. (30% -> 20% mitigation)
• Imp Firebolt bonus damage reduced by 50%
• The talent Improved Firebolt changed from 1 second max reduction to 0.5 sec.

Patch 2.1.0 22

• Chance to break crowd control from damage: The increased chance for a spell to break from taking a critical strike has been removed. Instead, all targets over level 60 have a slightly larger chance to break out of crowd-controlling effects when they take damage. (Affliction (and Demo) nerf) - In addition, fear and seduce both have "heartbeat" resists and can break at any time, whether damage has been applied or not.
• In PvP, all CC's have a maximum time of 12 seconds.

Patch 2.1.3

• Curse of the Elements and Curse of Shadow now have a duration of 2 minutes when used on PvP targets.
• Curse of Tongues now has a 12 second duration when used on PvP targets.
• Death Coil is now is now subject to diminishing returns in the Horror category. Currently, only Death Coil is in this category.
• Soulstones: Soulstones can no longer be used on targets not in your party or raid. In addition, the soulstone buff will now be removed if the target or caster leaves the party or raid.
• Spell Lock (Felhunter) duration reduced to 5 seconds (rank 1) and 6 seconds (rank 2), and cooldown reduced to 24 seconds.

Patch 2.2.0

• Banish, Seduction, Enslave Demon and Fear duration against PvP targets has been reduced to 10 seconds.
• Resilience Rating: The reduction to the percent chance to get a critical strike now also reduces the damage dealt by damage over time effects by the same percentage.

Upcoming changes:

Patch 2.3.0

• Mortal Strike and other healing reduction effects (like Wound Poison) will affect Drain Life (and probably Siphon Life).
• Fear Ward will now be available to all Priests at level 20.
• Hunters are getting a debuff similar to Mortal Strike

Other classes:
Rogue:

• poisons will last for one hour now, increased from 30 minutes.
• the speed at which Deadly Throw travels is being increased significantly, so it will reach the target much faster, and the snare duration is being increased by 1 second.
  
• Shadowstep can now be used at any time, not only while stealthed. In addition, after use of Shadowstep threat caused by the next Ambush, Garrote or Backstab will be reduced by 50%. The cooldown will however be increased to 40 seconds.
• Also on the Subtlety front is a change to Dirty Deeds so that it will also be increasing damage of special attacks by 10/20% against targets that are below 35% health.
• We're also taking a look at bumping up Hemorrhage a bit, but no details yet on what that may be.
• Fleet Footed will now be a 15% speed increase instead of 8%
• In 2.3 Blind will no longer require a reagent. It will also be changed to a physical attack, will share the same diminish category as Cyclone, and diminish in PvE as well as PvP. (basically, Blind can no longer be dispelled)

Hunter:

• Arcane Shot (ranks 6+) will dispel 1 magic effect in addition to the normal damage.

Warlock buffs in 2.3:

• There is a change for Ritual of Souls which will significantly reduce the time to cast and complete it.
• Banish may no longer be cast on targets tapped by other players
  
• That's it!
  

Now, I'm not saying other classes weren't nerfed over time - they were, some even more than warlocks. But don't you dare saying how locks never get nerfed! I'm pretty sure I even missed some nerfs while looking at the patch notes, for example Insignia of the Alliance/Horde was changed a few patches back, which gave warriors and rogues another way to remove fear effects, even Death Coil. There's also dozens of undocumented changes.

I admit it, Warlocks are very strong in PvP, even overpowered vs. some classes/setups. But Rogues and Warriors don't have much problems killing Warlocks now, so they are the last ones who need buffs. Every single class is getting buffs except Warlocks, and it's been going on for the last few patches.
Shadowpriest/Lock combo was too strong in 2v2 arenas, so they got nerfed by resilience in patch 2.2. Now, locks are considered generally overpowered, especially SL/SL specs (siphon life/soul link), but is that really the case? What option do I have when fighting melee classes other than DoT + Drain Life spam? Casting Shadow Bolt with 0% pushback resist? It literally takes ages, and in the end it will get Kicked or Pummeled.
You're saying Death Coil is imbalanced - what about Cloak of Shadows; you're complaining about paladin's bubble which can now even be dispelled.

Let's see, I play arenas with a Holy paladin, +1700 bonus healing. We enter the arena, and for the sake of argument, our opponents are Holy paladin and MS (of course) warrior. My usuall routine is Curse of Tongues on pala, and damaging DoTs on warrior. I need 6-7 seconds for that, maybe more. Casting Fear on pala, get Pummeled. Cast fear again, pala dispells with trinket. All my DoTs are getting cleansed in the process. Only damage I did was with Curse of Agony on warrior. Meanwhile, my teammate is struggling to heal me with Mortal Strike debuff on me, wasting precious mana while the opposing team's paladin can pretty much go AFK. What options do I have besides Drain Life on warrior or Drain Mana on paladin? Warrior just keeps smashing me with his sword without breaking a sweat, while me and my pala try to keep me alive, and while I try doing some damage.
It's even worse vs. rogues: cheap shot, kidney shot, gouge, blind... I can't even Drain Life properly while getting all the interrupts, my teammate can't heal while being CC'ed for half of the fight. Rogue has much more interrupts, while a paladin has one bubble and one Insignia. After I place some DoTs on the rogue, he simply uses Cloak of Shadows and removes them all. If he's close do dying, he can even Vanish and go bandage somewhere.

Let's snap back to dueling a rogue for a moment. You think Fear is annoying - how about rogue's stuns/CC? Duel starts, Cheap Shot, Backstab, Backstab, Kidney Shot... I use my Insignia, run away a bit, get Crippling Poison, try casting Fear - Kick, cast Fear again, he uses Insignia. If there's some distance between us and I start casting some spell, I won't do much against his Deadly Throw and PvP/Arena gloves equip bonus (spell interrupt and 3 sec silence) unless I fakecast - even if I do, my movement speed is still reduced and I won't get far. Oh wait I have Death Coil, lets cast it. Oh snap, he used CLoS. So much about my imba Coil. Since I used all my cooldowns so far, Drain Life is the only thing keeping me alive while he's feared and my DoTs tick. That is, if I'm not already dead. If I run out of mana and have to Life Tap, I'm almost doing him a favor. Don't forget, he still didn't use Blind or Gouge.
Fighting a warrior is easy - cast Siphon Life, Corruption, Curse of Agony, Immolate, and hope your Drain Life can keep you alive while DoT's do some damage. Don't bother using Fear, warriors are almost Fear immune with all the abilities available to them. Even if you do Fear, it won't last long. Coil is pretty much the only thing that can save you; unless it gets reflected - watch out!

There was once this arena match, where I died, along with shaman from the opposing team. My pala had about 3k mana, while the other team's mage was out. He kept polymorphing my teammate and ran away from him for 4 minutes, till his mana regenerated and his cooldowns were gone (evocation, water elemental). He even bandaged from 2k hp to full. Of course, the mage won. Balance?

I'm not angry because warlocks are getting nerfed (ok I am a bit but that is not the point) - I'm frustrated because I will be running away from every noob or halfskilled rogue or warrior I bump into in battlegrounds because soon I will have no chance of defeating them, even if they have worse items than me or no skill. I'm mad because I feel like I wasted all these months getting arena points and honor to buy some good items, and now when I have 11.7k hp and 360 resilience - decent PvP gear - I can finally beat the crap out of someone. Until 2.3 comes. You will see me picking up armor scraps in Alterac Valley, killing rams and do other PvE stuff, because I'll be too afraid to run into a warrior or a rogue (or even a hunter, if they get Mortal Strike).
Time to get honor on my druid I guess.

> Warlock Nerfs

I was thinking about making this blog for some time now, but I've been lazy lately and don't even know where to start.

I was reading WoW forums yesterday and saw all these changes coming in 2.3 patch, some good, but most bad - unless you play a rogue. Basically, I'm pissed. Rogues get buffs, warlocks get nerfs - nothing new, however it can't stop to amaze me how I hate these patches. One day you're a strong class, and then you get some incomprehensive nerf. Ok, you learn to live with it (or play with it) and move on. Until next patch, when something else is nerfed. Where does it end?

I want Wrath of The Lich King. Today! Burning Crusade ain't that bad, but its already boring. I've seen all the 5 mans a gazillion times already, did some PvP, arenas, saw Karazhan, farmed my epic flying mount, did pretty much all the quests. All that on two characters. I'd go level my shaman but to what end - by the time I finish leveling and get decent gear, they will probably be nerfed also.
I want another expansion so I can start over. Maybe even give up on PvP and start raiding. You know what to expect from PvE, you're the reason why you fail, or if you win. That used to be the case in PvP, but since classes are now being balanced for 2v2/3v3 arenas, it will get only worse.

There's one thing to remember about PvP: whenever you feel like you can finally beat someone, your class will be nerfed next patch. Don't bother posting on forums - all you'll get is l2p noob.

> So here I am...