#0 - June 13, 2007, 5:13 p.m.
An excerpt:
Well I’ve seen an incredible amount of discussion going on in the various Warcraft forums about the discriminative nature of resilience in terms of mitigating PvP DPS. To put it simply, resilience doesn’t affect DoTs, and with two classes (Shadow Priest, Warlock) often relying on these spells as their primary source of damage, there is a major disparity in the effect of PvP gear scaling on different players. As many times as this topic has been addressed, I have yet to see it covered as systematically and thoroughly as necessary in order to (hopefully) show exactly what the issue is, and what can be done about it. This is not about nerfing any particular class(es), only working to insure that game progression and gear development do not result in disparate effects for different players.
From looking at the season two Warrior set, we can probably assume that most t2 Gladiator sets are going to have about 10-15 more resilience (including new set bonuses) than the current gear. Combined with a new PvP Ring, upgrades to the honor epics, and a new non-unique craftable resilience gem, I’d say the average resilience of players on top arena teams will increase by around 30-50 (and a bit more for the hardcore resilience !@!*!s). Right now, the average on serious teams is probably around 320, with people like Azael getting as high as 450.
In The Evolving Arena, and Playing the Long Game, I went pretty thoroughly into the mathematics behind resilience, particularly in terms of the flat damage reduction that crit-reliant players receive from it. Basically, depending on your class, every 40 resilience that your opponent is wearing results in a ~1.5-2% overall reduction of your own damage.
DoTs can’t crit, however, and so while resilience scaling makes a huge impact on some players, Warlocks and Shadow Priests remain mostly untouched. This may not seem like that big of a deal, but it basically means that (relatively speaking), these two classes get a direct buff every time PvP itemization improves. With Azael’s 400+ resilience resulting in more than a 15% flat damage reduction for most classes, he can spam DoTs all day at 100% effectiveness. While I’m certainly aware that both Warlocks and Shadow Priests have direct damage spells as well, the large part of their damage that comes from DoTs can only be mitigated by wearing Shadow Resist gear.
The effect of this scaling disparity between classes should be reasonably apparent for anyone who has been keeping an eye on the armory. Between the beginning of the season and now, I’ve personally seen a significant increase in the number of Warlocks/Shadow Priests on top arena teams. Now, I’m not going to argue that the representation of these classes is too high or low at the higher levels, but I think this is a good indicator of how much resilience scaling has affected PvP for these classes.
Now, I’m sure it’s pretty clear that I’m all for making resilience more useful against damage over time effects, and I think the best way to explain my reasoning is to examine the main objections that people have to any resilience changes.
