What Shall the Prot Nerf Be? 01/28/2010

#0 - Jan. 8, 2010, 10:03 a.m.

Now that the cross-hairs are on protection warriors due to arenas (Too much utility, too much damage), what do you think will be nerfed?

More PvE nerfs coming thanks to PvP!

My prediction is that since heroics are serious business, they are going to remove the stuns off concussion blow, or shockwave, or charge, or intercept, or all of them.

Current Changes Next Patch: (01/28/2010)

* Concussion Blow : Damage is decreased by 50%, but threat generated by this ability remains still.
* Devastate: Damage is increased to 120% (Up from 100%)
* Shield Slam: Damage increment from block value decreased, and starts to decrease from lower block value. If your gear is almost High-end, players won’t really recognize the change. In addition, threat generated by Shield Slam is increased by 30%
* Warbringer: This talent no longer allows Charge and Intercept to break roots or snares. Intervene remains unaffected.

Bornakk

#66 - Jan. 9, 2010, 12:25 a.m.

In the next content patch the current plan is to change Warbringer a bit so that it no longer allows Charge and Intercept to break roots or snares but Intervene would remain unaffected.

We'll see if any further changes come down the pipeline.

Bornakk

#111 - Jan. 9, 2010, 1:12 a.m.

We are also considering some changes to Shield Slam to where it won't affect players in normal tanking gear but it will affect the scaling of block value for those who are stacking it. This isn't guaranteed as we still want to make sure it doesn't have a real negative effect on PvE, but in turn we may have the threat caused by Shield Slam just straight increased. We'll see how this goes as we test it internally.

Bornakk

#428 - Jan. 10, 2010, 1:38 a.m.

There seems to be some confusion on what changes we are currently looking at that will affect Shield Slam.

What we are changing is block's scaling on Shield Slam and not block value itself. Shield Slam's scaling is being altered so this includes Shield Block Value, but it also includes all of the Strength on the PvE dps gear.

For players wearing normal PvE tanking gear, they should not see much of a difference, but we are increasing the threat of Shield Slam to make sure. Anybody stacking a lot of damage gear will probably notice a difference in their Shield Slams though.

Bornakk

#430 - Jan. 10, 2010, 1:44 a.m.

Q u o t e:

So from my Maintanking point of view my damage is going to be lower but threat higher ?
and from my pvp prot point of view my mobility is being nerfd into the ground yes ?

From a maintanking point of view, it is unlikely you will see much of a difference in shield slam damage, at least that's the goal. The threat boost is more to make sure than anything else.

From a PvP Prot point of view, the damage should be lower and then the Warbringer changes will affect mobility, yes.

Bornakk

#573 - Jan. 10, 2010, 6:14 p.m.

The problem with the PvP side of Warbringer is that when you consider prot warrior versus mage (just as an example), there was nothing a mage could do to a well versed warrior. The warrior carries a lot of stuns, silences, and then any attempt to root him is broken by multiple abilities. So then the warrior's teammate (like a hunter) is just doing tons of damage while the target has no defenses.

For the other side of this change, we certainly don't design 5-player or raid content with the assumption that the tank has Warbringer (or a way out of snares and roots in general). We understand that it can be a big help in specific situations but we don't feel it's the only option in any PvE circumstances.

Bornakk

#869 - Jan. 12, 2010, 1:53 a.m.

Here are some more specifics on the (possible) Shield Slam changed. Remember, nothing is finalized at this point.

The diminishing returns on shield slam damage now starts to kick in when shield block value is more than 1960 (at level 80). It maxes at behaving as if your shield block value is 2072 when your block value is actually 3160 (again, at level 80). Remember this includes the scaling from both shield block value on gear AND shield block value from Strength.