I have played Blizzard games intensively since I first discovered WoW about 7 years ago. I have never since then, not once, ever went on a forum and started a topic to complain about something. However today, I woke up in a grumpy mood, realized I was out of cigarettes, and the coffee machine didn't work. Then I read the Wizard preview. All of a sudden I found myself drinking Red Bull on an empty stomach and nerd raging away at the keyboard, so here goes. I tried to back up my views with as much common sense as possible. This is not addressed to Blizzard, as if I wanted it to be it would be on their forums and not here. I just want to see to what extent the general community agrees and/or disagrees with me on this.
I found the whole Wizard 1.0.4 class preview they posted to be quite annoying. Part of it was the changes mentioned, and the other was how non-informative the post was. I understand that these are not full patch notes and that they're just trying to give us as much info as they can but...
Okay, so the dude starts off by talking about Hydra. Then he keeps talking about Hydra. Then I realize I have read half of the post... and it was still all about Hydra. I never even used Hydra. Was kinda ticked off; however then I just said to myself "calm down... maybe I don't use it but Hydra is very popular and tons of people favor it. Diablo doesn't revolve around me, and those who use Hydra deserve it addressed". However, that still doesn't change the fact that the whole Hydra portion could have been summed up by listing the specialties, then saying something like "...but Venom Hydra was still the best in all situations, so to compensate we are buffing damage of other types as well as increasing range on Frost Hydra". I also almost spit out my drink upon reading the category "best in hallways". He fixed it by later admitting it was a bad specialty. Then he ruined it again by saying that while they realize this, they won't be flat-out fixing it, but only that they were to "keep an eye on this one for now" and "find something cooler" somewhere "down the road".
In short: Half of the post about Hydra, announcing that they all get damage buffs, Frost gets range buff, and Mammoth is left in a hallway somewhere.
Then we get to the fourth segment of the post, about class diversity.While not about Hydra per se... still mentions and talks about Hydra more than any other spell. It makes the good point of how general class diversity cannot be approached in the same simple "buff the others" way as Hydra, then mysteriously ends without ever telling us exactly how it will be approached.
Fifth segment. Oh no! They're nerfing melee Wizard! I play melee Wizard! Let's be fair though. We had a nerf coming. The build was very OP in many situations. Things especially like perma-freezing Siege Breaker while he is chokeslamming an unsuspecting victim, causing him to never let go of that poor player now permanently stuck, held 100 feet up in the air by a giant demon robot, while you are simultaneously smashing your keyboard, laughing like a maniac, and sneaking in "AAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAA" in party chat were quite entertaining... and ridiculous.
The nature of the nerf however, addresses none of that. Look at the nerf, people. It is NOT a Critical Mass nerf. The nerf is on proc coefficients on Energy Twister, which has NOTHING to do with Critical Mass. To be specific, it nerfs the Wizards ability to utilize Life on Hit through Energy Twister. By how much you say? Half. What does this result in? Well, those who can afford it will increase DPS elsewhere and lose the crit damage gem on their wand for a +600 LoH gem, and continue their melee Wizard lives as if nothing happened. Those who can't afford that, will have to quit playing this style, as a coefficient of 0.125 will not be able to heal through act 3 & 4 damage with 700-900 LoH. It's like trying to play it now with only 350-450 LoH. Just doesn't work. In the short times that neither Diamond Skin nor Frost Nova are up, you will be squashed, every time. So what is the summed up end result of this nerf? They've taken an OP build that was already gear dependent and just made it more gear dependent.
All of this though wasn't the part that annoyed me the most, what did was their reasoning for all of this. Legendaries. They mention that they weren't even going to do this nerf AT ALL, until they brought in Legendary procs which would be super OP at the current coefficient of Energy Twister. Seriously? If you wanted Legendary procs to not be OP with Energy Twister, well... don't let Energy Twister proc it? Problem solved? No. They said that it wouldn't be fun having Legendaries and not being able to proc them. Yes, that's all fine and dandy... if the only spell a melee Wizard ever used was Energy Twister. Don't know about you, but last I checked, melee Wizards were also using Spectral Blade, Explosive Blast, Meteor, Electrocute, and even Archon.
Then comes the sixth and closing segment, titled "Buffs, Buffs, and More Buffs". They talk a little more about "Hydra Philosophy" and applying it to signature spells, then tell you they're buffing damage on Meteor and Arcane Torrent... and it's just funny that those two tiny paragraphs at the end were probably more informative than the entirety of the rest of the post... even though it didn't exactly tell us what they're doing to signature spells other than.. um.. well.. Hydra Philosophy.
i play(ed) melee wizzard without any life on hit .
its a convenience for this build nothing more.....
i dont see any problem with this..
and i hope you're right that it isnt a critical mass nerf.
it coult be... half the chance of triggering critical mass effect on crit.. .. so instead of each crit = -1 second.. every second crit will reduce cooldown.
its not clear how that nerv will work out. but for the life on hit. i dont care about that
Proc coefficients do affect critical mass, because with a lower coefficient you get a lower chance to proc critical mass, so it is a nerf to CM.
Please explain this to me. Critical Mass reads: "Critical Hits have a chance to reduce the cooldown of your spells by 1 second". This leads me to assume that Critical Mass procs rely entirely on your crit chance. Is there a hidden relation between Critical Mass, crit chance, and proc coefficients on each time Energy Twister hits?
If there is... please, enlighten me. I'm searching for it now trying to prove myself wrong but can't find anything.
(adding an internal cooldown may have been a more elegant solution, but clearly Blizzard doesn't want to go that way)
Agree 100%.
Also just to clarify on the other spells used thing, I meant that Wizards almost always use those spells WITH Energy Twister, so if Energy Twister didn't proc Legendaries it wouldn't be such a great deal. It would do its job on its own, and you would still proc Legendaries with your other damaging attacks. Your Legendary proc rate will possibly be lower than other classes, yes... but your base build is OP in itself. Sounds fair?
Okay then, I was wrong about Critical Mass being unaffected. Thank you for the explanation. This just makes it worse though. To literally half LoH and Critical Mass because of Legendaries, when they claim that otherwise they wouldn't have made the change is just absurd.
Also, I just went in and tried both acts 3 and 4 without any life on hit, as some people are claiming that you don't need it. Well.. I can safely tell you that either:
1. You need it.
or
2. I really suck.
or
3. Those guys clearing Inferno on this build without LoH are Diablo Gods.
...or maybe 2 and 3 combined. I don't know. I just don't see going into act 4 with 0 LoH and relying on orbs to heal yourself to be viable.
They don't need loh because they don't lose any hp because of DS/don't get hit/permafreeze/whatever.
As for the preview I don't really know why people even care about this stuff, just wait for the patch and care about it then, not like anything will change.
Ultimately, what they did was nerf wicked wind, not critical mass. People only use it because they are pigeonholed right now but I'd gladly switch to meteor or something else when they change it because really twisters is a really boring spell to use.
(adding an internal cooldown may have been a more elegant solution, but clearly Blizzard doesn't want to go that way)
Agree 100%.
Also just to clarify on the other spells used thing, I meant that Wizards almost always use those spells WITH Energy Twister, so if Energy Twister didn't proc Legendaries it wouldn't be such a great deal. It would do its job on its own, and you would still proc Legendaries with your other damaging attacks. Your Legendary proc rate will possibly be lower than other classes, yes... but your base build is OP in itself. Sounds fair?
I don't agree with putting an ICD on CM being more elegant. WW is the sole outlier with CM due to it's incredible hit rate, and this change will put it pretty much on par with the rest of a melee wizard's available toolkit.
Okay then, I was wrong about Critical Mass being unaffected. Thank you for the explanation. This just makes it worse though. To literally half LoH and Critical Mass because of Legendaries, when they claim that otherwise they wouldn't have made the change is just absurd.
Also, I just went in and tried both acts 3 and 4 without any life on hit, as some people are claiming that you don't need it. Well.. I can safely tell you that either:
1. You need it.
or
2. I really suck.
or
3. Those guys clearing Inferno on this build without LoH are Diablo Gods.
...or maybe 2 and 3 combined. I don't know. I just don't see going into act 4 with 0 LoH and relying on orbs to heal yourself to be viable.
I do it with Life regen per second. LoH wands became too expensive when I started my CM set, but LPS was still cheap. My breaks between diamond skins are generally less than a second though, and almost always due to a double sentry. I might lose half to 3/4 of my health there, and then have that time for the sentries to swing all the way around again to recover. You don't need a lot for that.
Okay, so the dude starts off by talking about Hydra. Then he keeps talking about Hydra. Then I realize I have read half of the post... and it was still all about Hydra. I never even used Hydra.
Rolleyes.
The "preview" only looks at a couple of skills, it isn't supposed to cover everything. And the whole idea is to revamp lesser used skills to make them more useful so obviously there is a lot of talk about things you don't use.
Context!
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I found the whole Wizard 1.0.4 class preview they posted to be quite annoying. Part of it was the changes mentioned, and the other was how non-informative the post was. I understand that these are not full patch notes and that they're just trying to give us as much info as they can but...
Okay, so the dude starts off by talking about Hydra. Then he keeps talking about Hydra. Then I realize I have read half of the post... and it was still all about Hydra. I never even used Hydra. Was kinda ticked off; however then I just said to myself "calm down... maybe I don't use it but Hydra is very popular and tons of people favor it. Diablo doesn't revolve around me, and those who use Hydra deserve it addressed". However, that still doesn't change the fact that the whole Hydra portion could have been summed up by listing the specialties, then saying something like "...but Venom Hydra was still the best in all situations, so to compensate we are buffing damage of other types as well as increasing range on Frost Hydra". I also almost spit out my drink upon reading the category "best in hallways". He fixed it by later admitting it was a bad specialty. Then he ruined it again by saying that while they realize this, they won't be flat-out fixing it, but only that they were to "keep an eye on this one for now" and "find something cooler" somewhere "down the road".
In short: Half of the post about Hydra, announcing that they all get damage buffs, Frost gets range buff, and Mammoth is left in a hallway somewhere.
Then we get to the fourth segment of the post, about class diversity.While not about Hydra per se... still mentions and talks about Hydra more than any other spell. It makes the good point of how general class diversity cannot be approached in the same simple "buff the others" way as Hydra, then mysteriously ends without ever telling us exactly how it will be approached.
Fifth segment. Oh no! They're nerfing melee Wizard! I play melee Wizard! Let's be fair though. We had a nerf coming. The build was very OP in many situations. Things especially like perma-freezing Siege Breaker while he is chokeslamming an unsuspecting victim, causing him to never let go of that poor player now permanently stuck, held 100 feet up in the air by a giant demon robot, while you are simultaneously smashing your keyboard, laughing like a maniac, and sneaking in "AAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAA" in party chat were quite entertaining... and ridiculous.
The nature of the nerf however, addresses none of that. Look at the nerf, people. It is NOT a Critical Mass nerf. The nerf is on proc coefficients on Energy Twister, which has NOTHING to do with Critical Mass. To be specific, it nerfs the Wizards ability to utilize Life on Hit through Energy Twister. By how much you say? Half. What does this result in? Well, those who can afford it will increase DPS elsewhere and lose the crit damage gem on their wand for a +600 LoH gem, and continue their melee Wizard lives as if nothing happened. Those who can't afford that, will have to quit playing this style, as a coefficient of 0.125 will not be able to heal through act 3 & 4 damage with 700-900 LoH. It's like trying to play it now with only 350-450 LoH. Just doesn't work. In the short times that neither Diamond Skin nor Frost Nova are up, you will be squashed, every time. So what is the summed up end result of this nerf? They've taken an OP build that was already gear dependent and just made it more gear dependent.
All of this though wasn't the part that annoyed me the most, what did was their reasoning for all of this. Legendaries. They mention that they weren't even going to do this nerf AT ALL, until they brought in Legendary procs which would be super OP at the current coefficient of Energy Twister. Seriously? If you wanted Legendary procs to not be OP with Energy Twister, well... don't let Energy Twister proc it? Problem solved? No. They said that it wouldn't be fun having Legendaries and not being able to proc them. Yes, that's all fine and dandy... if the only spell a melee Wizard ever used was Energy Twister. Don't know about you, but last I checked, melee Wizards were also using Spectral Blade, Explosive Blast, Meteor, Electrocute, and even Archon.
Then comes the sixth and closing segment, titled "Buffs, Buffs, and More Buffs". They talk a little more about "Hydra Philosophy" and applying it to signature spells, then tell you they're buffing damage on Meteor and Arcane Torrent... and it's just funny that those two tiny paragraphs at the end were probably more informative than the entirety of the rest of the post... even though it didn't exactly tell us what they're doing to signature spells other than.. um.. well.. Hydra Philosophy.
its a convenience for this build nothing more.....
i dont see any problem with this..
and i hope you're right that it isnt a critical mass nerf.
it coult be... half the chance of triggering critical mass effect on crit.. .. so instead of each crit = -1 second.. every second crit will reduce cooldown.
its not clear how that nerv will work out. but for the life on hit. i dont care about that
Please explain this to me. Critical Mass reads: "Critical Hits have a chance to reduce the cooldown of your spells by 1 second". This leads me to assume that Critical Mass procs rely entirely on your crit chance. Is there a hidden relation between Critical Mass, crit chance, and proc coefficients on each time Energy Twister hits?
If there is... please, enlighten me. I'm searching for it now trying to prove myself wrong but can't find anything.
Agree 100%.
Also just to clarify on the other spells used thing, I meant that Wizards almost always use those spells WITH Energy Twister, so if Energy Twister didn't proc Legendaries it wouldn't be such a great deal. It would do its job on its own, and you would still proc Legendaries with your other damaging attacks. Your Legendary proc rate will possibly be lower than other classes, yes... but your base build is OP in itself. Sounds fair?
Also, I just went in and tried both acts 3 and 4 without any life on hit, as some people are claiming that you don't need it. Well.. I can safely tell you that either:
1. You need it.
or
2. I really suck.
or
3. Those guys clearing Inferno on this build without LoH are Diablo Gods.
...or maybe 2 and 3 combined. I don't know. I just don't see going into act 4 with 0 LoH and relying on orbs to heal yourself to be viable.
As for the preview I don't really know why people even care about this stuff, just wait for the patch and care about it then, not like anything will change.
Ultimately, what they did was nerf wicked wind, not critical mass. People only use it because they are pigeonholed right now but I'd gladly switch to meteor or something else when they change it because really twisters is a really boring spell to use.
I don't agree with putting an ICD on CM being more elegant. WW is the sole outlier with CM due to it's incredible hit rate, and this change will put it pretty much on par with the rest of a melee wizard's available toolkit.
I do it with Life regen per second. LoH wands became too expensive when I started my CM set, but LPS was still cheap. My breaks between diamond skins are generally less than a second though, and almost always due to a double sentry. I might lose half to 3/4 of my health there, and then have that time for the sentries to swing all the way around again to recover. You don't need a lot for that.
http://us.battle.net...22/hero/3153312 (wiz)
http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/heavymetal-1322/hero/8654665 (monk)
my twitch feed (just messing around, no super player or anything)
http://www.justin.tv/heavymetalmak
Rolleyes.
The "preview" only looks at a couple of skills, it isn't supposed to cover everything. And the whole idea is to revamp lesser used skills to make them more useful so obviously there is a lot of talk about things you don't use.
Context!