#0 - Jan. 1, 2009, 11:56 p.m.
Problem: Death Knights are not viable targets for the current pace of arena. With IBF providing stun immunity and even damage reduction (let's even assume 20%) for 12 seconds, AMS providing complete magic immunity for 7 seconds (assumed for next patch, as well), AMZ providing an enormous magic damage buffer (16-20k damage absorb depending on gear), bone shield 20% flat damage reduction, and frost presence mitigation, Death Knights have become the WotLK "HARP rogue" in the sense that they can blow an enormous amount of defensive cooldowns to stay alive long enough to get a kill, at which point it means the fight is usually over. The biggest difference here is that rogues could still be relatively easily gibbed as well as peeled, and when playing defensively, they often output significantly less damage. DK's are also very unattractive targets because of Shadow of Death causing them to return as a ghoul and continue fighting after a brief period of immunity.
Solution: There are a few solutions that I was brainstorming to provide a fix for this but to not destroy the class for PvE tanking purposes. Of the possibilities I came up with, I think the most reasonable ones would be to either create a cooldown of around 30 seconds where one defensive cooldown cannot be used following another (similar to the upcoming interaction of avenging wrath and divine shield) or to reduce damage dealt by the Death Knight while defensive cooldowns are active by about 50% or so. This would force the Death Knight to choose whether they want to play offensively or defensively. As of right now, there really is no choice. You're offensive the whole time and simply pop cooldowns when things get in your way. Finally, Shadow of Death resurrection needs to be disabled in arena for more than obvious reasons.
Problem: Healer survivability imbalances. Let's face it, some healers are much more useful than others right now, with shamans being the absolute worst in my opinion. If you focus a 49/0/22 paladin, you have to deal with virtual stun immunity, very high crit chance on holy shock and other heals, and obviously divine shield. If you focus a priest, depending on what spec they are, you have to deal with blessed resilience AND focused will, guardian spirit or pain suppression, desperate prayer, and a variety of instant heals/shield. If you focus a druid, you have to deal with natural perfection, nature's swiftness, swiftmend, three different HoT's, bear form, and fast casting heals (nourish). When you focus a shaman, you really only have to get by Nature's Swiftness and they're pretty much screwed after that. Sure, you can drop totems when you're silenced or CS'd now or even Riptide, but one grounding totem usually doesn't change the outcome. If a shaman uses their NS and they get mind frozen once into a Strangulate, they will die 100% of the time. It simply does not even take any DPS really to kill a shaman in 8-9 seconds.
Solution: For paladins, move divine purpose deeper into Retribution. It really overpowers holy paladins to have access to it and to only have to give up Beacon for it which is largely worthless in arena. Priests are about fine where they are in terms of survivability, although I do feel that it is time to give priests a poison dispel given that they are the only healer class without one. I also think Abolish Disease should tick as fast as Abolish Poison (every 2 seconds for 8 seconds instead of every 5 seconds for 15 seconds). For druids, I recommend removing the restriction of certain spells for certain shapeshift forms. If a druid wants to spend a significant amount of talent points for Moonkin form and forego certain healing talents, let them heal from it. The same should apply to Tree of Life form, allowing druids to CC from it. In the current state of arena, it is almost impossible for a druid to leave tree form in order to CC less they want to get swapped to and die within two globals. For shamans, I feel that if they gained one more instant heal, they would be pretty well off. My recommendation is to cause Riptide to do the current effect/HoT but also make your next Chain Heal cast instant, allowing the shaman to effectively "swiftmend" with a Riptide/CH combo. This would boost their survivability and burst healing a much needed amount.