I was so excited to play WD, but sadly it has been nerfed out of the game. Every patch the damage is reduced more and more. It already trails Barbarian and Wizards by a long way.
WD is already the least popular class and that now they will trail further.
Who knows what it plays like at later levels than the beta though, it could have been too powerful. Although, I agree, the first thought I had when seeing the changes to the lower level skills was that WD will be the last class I play after release.
My problem with the WD is that it only has Big Bad Voodoo to buff allies and besides summons being used as tanks, the WD has no benefit to parties. The Monk and Barb seem to have the best party buffing skills, but then again Blizzard didn't give me a Beta Key yet, so I haven't tried it out. I'll probably be going with Monk, especially for MF-farming with friends.
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Diablo fans deserve a downloadable version of the Blizzcon D3 demo.
The WD might have lost to some poll, true. But there's no way in hell you can tell they've been 'nerfed out of the game'. Have you played anything past the sk? No? Then you're going to have to wait until release to tell the difference.
I feel like it's only fair to give Blizzard the benefit of the doubt here. None of us has played the game beyond level 13. Think of any MMO or ARPG you've ever played, and imagine trying to determine what endgame would be like if you could only play the first 20ish% of the level cap. You also aren't allowed to use any information you know about itemization, high-level party dynamics or end-game skill synergy. If you could get even close to determining how much damage each individual skill that you know almost nothing about other than the tooltip should do, you're a smarter person than I.
Blizz keeps saying that they are in the middle of their intensive balance testing phase, so I expect to see skills get nerfed and buffed seemingly at random. Good. If they weren't doing that, I'd be worried. I want as much of this stuff finalized before launch as possible. Before the final balancing phase, I'd expect skill power levels to be all over the map because all they're trying to do before then is get skills in the game and working. Balance is meaningless until all of that work is done, so it's zero surprise to me that some classes and skill/rune combinations are massively overpowered relative to others at this point in time, but I certainly hope they don't launch that way just because they're afraid people will assume WD is terrible because blizz nerfed som of their skills two months before release.
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...and if you disagree with me, you're probably <insert random ad hominem attack here>.
What nerf? Which skill particularly are you referring to?
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"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?"
The WD was really strong in previous patches. Patch 14 tried to bring them down to the same levels as other classes but they may have gone too far in some areas.
Not everything is nerfed, tho. Corpse spiders was nerfed in damage but made cheap enough to regen mana so it's now a primary skill. haunt was brought back up to be a damaging ability and costs more mana. Looks to me they are more moving damage around then flat our nerfing things.
You do realise wizzard damage have also been reduced quite abit from earlier patches so I assume that it's just a general problem that everyone was doing too much damage
NOOOO!!! RAWR!!!! THE CLASS I <3 HAS BEEN NERFED AND WHILE I HAVE ZERO EXPERIENCE WITH THE GAME PAST LVL 13 THIS MEANS THIS CLASS WILL TOTALLY SUCKZORZ!!!!!!!
I don't really feel that the WD's have been that weak in the beta...
They don't have the same bursting capability of the Barb or Wizard but they're sustained DPS capability is on par with both (if not slightly higher). With the buff to haunt and firebats, along with the "nerfing" of other skills, I'd say all-in-all this was more of a side-step for the WD.
I'm excited to give it (this new patch) a go - I liked previous iterations of haunt and with the damage re-increase, I'm excited to see what it can do.
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I don't really feel that the WD's have been that weak in the beta...
They don't have the same bursting capability of the Barb or Wizard but they're sustained DPS capability is on par with both (if not slightly higher). With the buff to haunt and firebats, along with the "nerfing" of other skills, I'd say all-in-all this was more of a side-step for the WD.
I'm excited to give it (this new patch) a go - I liked previous iterations of haunt and with the damage re-increase, I'm excited to see what it can do.
Well since it's beta, it suffers from something Blizzard can't fix short of release; Not every skill or rune unlocked. Since they've been internally testing D3 since Blizzard was known as Chaos, I think come release we'll be fine =P
There's no doubt in my mind that all the tuning we see end centered around end-game, it'd be stupid to base it otherwise.
I'm just saying - they're not even truly underpowered at the moment so even the adjustments to what we'll see in beta content don't have me all that worried in the short-term.
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I fail to see how the Witch doctor got nerfed.. I think ppl are way over exaggerating.
Damage increase on locust swarm and a huge increase to haunt, obviously mana costs are going to be increased. Mana deductions on some spells and it isn't exactly hard to figure out why vermin was removed.
These changes wouldnt be based on beta content either.. I'd say this is a change based on blizzards internal testers. Witch doctor was going to be my first character and still will be
I've little experience in beta (got a betakey in patch 13) but WD feels not so weak.
It's fun to play, it's effective, it's good in parties....
I think Blizz is just tuning things and testing some of the changes they did in response to internal testing feedback (I mean the guys playing the higher lvls).
That's what a beta is for.
And btw I prefer a game more blalanced at higher levels than in the few minutes it take to reach SK.
Firebats was really strong before and got a 50% buff.
And people seem to be forgetting the what, 215% dmg buff to haunt? It's at 575% now. RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGE lol
I'm not sure I would consider the aboves to be "buffs" so much as hidden nerfs.
Firebats got a 50% damage boost yes, but now they cost 123 instead of 27 mana. Boosting Haunt from 360 to 575 might seem like a boost, until you realize that it now costs 10 times as much mana. I wonder if this will make the Witchdoctor slower later on in the game, as they have to use other abilities to get mana back.
And just like the lesson everyone else is trying to pass on, we will have NO idea until release! I can argue back that it's NOT a hidden nerf, on say haunt, because the HUGE increase in damage might over compensate. For all we know, with adequate weapons in inferno, a 575% damage dot, while costing more mana, might kill at the same rate coupled with another attack or two, and actually cost less mana as a whole because you didn't have to cast it as much.
I was so excited to play WD, but sadly it has been nerfed out of the game. Every patch the damage is reduced more and more. It already trails Barbarian and Wizards by a long way.
WD is already the least popular class and that now they will trail further.
Guys, the OP didn't give any real examples as to why the WD is being "nerfed out of the game". So please don't take this troll post seriously by any means. For all of us that played the beta and the WD -- we know this is far from the truth.
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WD is already the least popular class and that now they will trail further.
Blizz keeps saying that they are in the middle of their intensive balance testing phase, so I expect to see skills get nerfed and buffed seemingly at random. Good. If they weren't doing that, I'd be worried. I want as much of this stuff finalized before launch as possible. Before the final balancing phase, I'd expect skill power levels to be all over the map because all they're trying to do before then is get skills in the game and working. Balance is meaningless until all of that work is done, so it's zero surprise to me that some classes and skill/rune combinations are massively overpowered relative to others at this point in time, but I certainly hope they don't launch that way just because they're afraid people will assume WD is terrible because blizz nerfed som of their skills two months before release.
Epicurus
Not everything is nerfed, tho. Corpse spiders was nerfed in damage but made cheap enough to regen mana so it's now a primary skill. haunt was brought back up to be a damaging ability and costs more mana. Looks to me they are more moving damage around then flat our nerfing things.
NOOOO!!! RAWR!!!! THE CLASS I <3 HAS BEEN NERFED AND WHILE I HAVE ZERO EXPERIENCE WITH THE GAME PAST LVL 13 THIS MEANS THIS CLASS WILL TOTALLY SUCKZORZ!!!!!!!
*phew
And people seem to be forgetting the what, 215% dmg buff to haunt? It's at 575% now. RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGE lol
They don't have the same bursting capability of the Barb or Wizard but they're sustained DPS capability is on par with both (if not slightly higher). With the buff to haunt and firebats, along with the "nerfing" of other skills, I'd say all-in-all this was more of a side-step for the WD.
I'm excited to give it (this new patch) a go - I liked previous iterations of haunt and with the damage re-increase, I'm excited to see what it can do.
16GB G Skill Ram ~ 2x Mushkin 120GB SSD's ~ MSI GTX 570 Twin Frozer ~ Asus P8P67 Deluxe
Well since it's beta, it suffers from something Blizzard can't fix short of release; Not every skill or rune unlocked. Since they've been internally testing D3 since Blizzard was known as Chaos, I think come release we'll be fine =P
I'm just saying - they're not even truly underpowered at the moment so even the adjustments to what we'll see in beta content don't have me all that worried in the short-term.
16GB G Skill Ram ~ 2x Mushkin 120GB SSD's ~ MSI GTX 570 Twin Frozer ~ Asus P8P67 Deluxe
Damage increase on locust swarm and a huge increase to haunt, obviously mana costs are going to be increased. Mana deductions on some spells and it isn't exactly hard to figure out why vermin was removed.
These changes wouldnt be based on beta content either.. I'd say this is a change based on blizzards internal testers. Witch doctor was going to be my first character and still will be
It's fun to play, it's effective, it's good in parties....
I think Blizz is just tuning things and testing some of the changes they did in response to internal testing feedback (I mean the guys playing the higher lvls).
That's what a beta is for.
And btw I prefer a game more blalanced at higher levels than in the few minutes it take to reach SK.
And just like the lesson everyone else is trying to pass on, we will have NO idea until release! I can argue back that it's NOT a hidden nerf, on say haunt, because the HUGE increase in damage might over compensate. For all we know, with adequate weapons in inferno, a 575% damage dot, while costing more mana, might kill at the same rate coupled with another attack or two, and actually cost less mana as a whole because you didn't have to cast it as much.
Again, release date my son.