World of Vanillacraft: Blizzard’s Assault on Uniqueness

As I look back on the past year, I inevitably gaze upon the vast potential for the individual.  It would be misleading to state that everything was fair and balanced but to say that uniqueness didn’t exist among the various classes and talent specs would be even farther from the truth.  From a PvE perspective, if you were interested in increasing your raid’s DPS, you might consider a Retribution Paladin for 3% raid-wide crit, 2% extra damage to his or her group and 100% Judgement of Wisdom uptime.  Comparatively, you might send an invitation out to an Enhancement Shaman for 10% extra attack power, Windfury and Bloodlust for his or her group.  Still yet you might mull over the presence of a Beast Mastery Hunter who, although not bringing quite as much utility as the previously mentioned classes, had far higher DPS potential while still providing a very useful buff for his or her party.  I could carry on with this list ad nauseum, but I trust you understand what I mean:  things weren’t perfect by any stretch but at least there was a sense of uniqueness amongst the classes and specs that warranted a conscious decision on raid make-up.

This very sense of individuality within World of Warcraft is under attack with Wrath of the Lich King looming on the horizon and the onslaught is being lead by none other than the game’s creator:

Posted by Jimmythenumbers

As Ghostcrawler has been posting recently, we’ve decided to make a change in the way we allow buffs and debuffs to stack exclusively in a raid. For the most part, what this change means is that many buffs and debuffs which were previously allowed to stack together no longer can, and that many buffs and debuffs which only a single talent specialization could bring can now be brought by multiple different specializations. The philosophy behind this change shows up in many of the changes we have made in Wrath of The Lich King, such as when we made almost all buffs raid-wide. We want players to be able to form raids and parties based on who they want to play with, rather than who has the correct talents and abilities to min-max their raid performance.

The implications of this are already to be witnessed on the Beta realm.  Rogues, for example, have received a new ability called Tricks of the Trade which is more or less a Misdirection.  Additionally, Wound Poison no longer stacks and is a 50% healing debuff on the first application (aka Mortal Strike and Aimed Shot).  As we already know, Hunters now have the capability to dispel with Arcane Shot but did you know that Unleashed Rage from Enhancement Shamans no longer stacks with Trueshot Aura (Marksmanship Hunters)?  We already are aware that Tranquil Air Totem (Shaman) doesn’t stack with Salvation (Paladin) but the proverbial slap in the face on this one strikes even harder given that totems are now raid-wide.  Were you aware that Bloodlust now works on the entire raid but once someone is affected by it they cannot receive the buff again for 5 minutes due to a wonderful little debuff known as “Sated”?  This also applies to Heroism.  Have you heard about the change to Windfury Totem?  It no longer provides extra attacks but rather increases Haste.  So does a properly-talented Retribution Aura but the two certainly don’t stack.  Speaking of Retribution Aura, if you have Sanctified Retribution talented, you can provide your 2% flat damage increase to the entire raid – but don’t expect it to stack with a Beast Mastery Hunter’s Ferocious Inspiration because it doesn’t.  Surely you’ve seen the wonderful change made to “Improved Devotion Aura” where it now increases healing received by affected targets?  Given that auras are raid-wide now this seems to be an excellent piece of utility for having a Protection Paladin in your raid.  Just so you know, however, it won’t stack with the aura from Tree of Life.  Certainly though we can take some pride in our recently-buffed Blessing of Might can’t we?  If you’re casting it on yourself, then feel free to do so but if you are using it in a raid, know that it won’t stack with Battle Shout any more.

I could go on and on with an even more exhaustive list revealing specific removals of class/spec uniqueness.  No longer are the days when we were afforded the opportunity to build a raid based on our preference for its performance.  No longer will we be able to sway our raid composition in the interest of increased DPS simply by swapping out one pure DPS class for a Retribution Paladin or Enhancement Shaman.  Is this truly where the game needs to go?  I can already here the groans from disgruntled WotLK players as they are denied a raid spot based on the presence of a class that already provides the buff they would otherwise bring.

[Ret Paladin]:  invite to raid please

[Raid Leader]:  sorry, we already have an Enhancement Shaman

[Ret Paladin]:  okay so he can provide my haste rating but what about my 2% damage increase?

[Raid Leader]:  sorry, we already have a Beast Mastery Hunter

[Ret Paladin]:  well, then what about keeping Wisdom up?

[Raid Leader]:  Our one Holy Paladin has that into his rotation for proccing Judgements of the Pure

[Ret Paladin]:  Isn’t there anything at all I can be useful for in your raid?

[Raid Leader]:  Yeah – you can stand outside the instance and throw us all your Improved Blessing of Might when we zone out just before a boss encounter.  Oh wait.  Nevermind.  I forgot we brought a Fury Warrior.  Good luck in Arathi Basin tonight.