Let's ALSO not forget that bears is a RUNE ability. Rune of an ability that probably wasn't really intended to be spammed like a primary. But what's to say that tons of other late level runes won't be brought in line with bears? What's to say acid cloud won't be given 3x as much damage with a better DoT, or locust swarm won't have it's cast range increased and it's damage increased. We simply don't know, what we do know is that they are buffing a LOT of abilities
I really think people are losing sight of the fact that in order to spam your big spells you are supposed to have gear that supports it. It is clearly unintended behavior if a Wizard just throws on a bunch of iLevel 61s and can throw out 10 or 12 Arcane Orbs and everything basically be dead.
They are giving us a resource dynamic and I totally agree with Zero & Proleteria on this one. The numbers may not be totally spot-on (maybe VQ needs to be 40%) but there's a very strong possibility that in light of the VQ change that we may see mana cost tweaks to the high-cost abilities (I can't imagine Acid Cloud wouldn't be lowered in some manner at this point as an example). Now, if this were the case, it might have been a slight blunder for them to not at least mention that in the blog, but the blog is only a blog and it's not all-inclusive.
The next 10 days will give us the MF blog, perhaps some blue clarifications on all 7 of the blogs we've seen thusfar (Legendaries, MF, and classes), and eventually patch notes.
Until we see the patch notes, though, we cannot be outright convinced that something is broken. It's clear that the blogs were designed only to be a rough overview and it's also clear that Blizzard put a LOT of effort into fixing our pets and I think it's a bit disingenuous to simply assume they wouldn't treat most/all of the big concerns of each class with that degree of care.
The change they made to VQ has the potential to be one of the most liberating changes that WDs could ever recieve. I would urge everyone to retain constructive criticism here and not to go down the "fuck, bears are broke" route immediately.
Perhaps it's more pertinent to attempt to get direct feedback from Blizzard as to whether or not they plan on adjusting mana costs on any abilities. I mean, that's a fairly key component to the discussion here and without that piece we're kinda flailing around in the dark, yes?
No... the reason why people used VQ was because our ONLY passive skill that increases damage also makes our spells cost 30% more. This creates a situation where you can pick a primary spell and NOT VQ or you can pick a high damage spell AND VQ. Now, our only option is to do less damage or pick PtV + primary spell. PtV needs to be changed if they eliminate Vision Quest (which is effectively what they did).
So now we have more build choices and we also grow weaker as a class. That's not a tradeoff I was expecting or appreciate.
You're looking at this the wrong way.
Resources now matter.
No other class could just spam high-cost abilities without the gear to support it. WDs were the only ones and that was entirely due to VQ.
Bears as the sole damaging ability is not valid anymore unless you have great gear. This would be no different than saying a Wizard can't just spam Arcane Orb without the gear to support it.
Perhaps 30% on VQ is too low. I'll give you that much. But these changes represent a paradigm shift for WDs to one where we have to pay attention to our resources for high-cost abilities instead of simply being able to spam bears and hope that the mobs come out dead on the other side.
For example, Haunt glyphed for mana regen is a net positive if it runs its course. Perhaps Bears builds might work Haunt into their skillset somehow. At the end of the day, though, not thinking outside the box is going to create disgruntled players. The whole idea of the skill revamp was to allow us to think outside the box. Clinging to the status quo *is* going to result in disgruntled players.
It's also possible that they are changing mana costs somewhat. That's something we'll have to wait to see in the patch notes, though.
Would buffing the skill increase or decrease build diversity? Some skills when buffed cause other skills to become obsolete, so there’s a net decrease in build diversity - we’re more careful with those. Other skills, when buffed, add to the total pool of appealing skills, which increases build diversity. The most obvious example here is the Witch Doctor Zombie Dogs and Gargantuan, which are both receiving significant improvements in 1.0.4.
I really think people are losing sight of the fact that in order to spam your big spells you are supposed to have gear that supports it. It is clearly unintended behavior if a Wizard just throws on a bunch of iLevel 61s and can throw out 10 or 12 Arcane Orbs and everything basically be dead.
They are giving us a resource dynamic and I totally agree with Zero & Proleteria on this one. The numbers may not be totally spot-on (maybe VQ needs to be 40%) but there's a very strong possibility that in light of the VQ change that we may see mana cost tweaks to the high-cost abilities (I can't imagine Acid Cloud wouldn't be lowered in some manner at this point as an example). Now, if this were the case, it might have been a slight blunder for them to not at least mention that in the blog, but the blog is only a blog and it's not all-inclusive.
The next 10 days will give us the MF blog, perhaps some blue clarifications on all 7 of the blogs we've seen thusfar (Legendaries, MF, and classes), and eventually patch notes.
Until we see the patch notes, though, we cannot be outright convinced that something is broken. It's clear that the blogs were designed only to be a rough overview and it's also clear that Blizzard put a LOT of effort into fixing our pets and I think it's a bit disingenuous to simply assume they wouldn't treat most/all of the big concerns of each class with that degree of care.
The change they made to VQ has the potential to be one of the most liberating changes that WDs could ever recieve. I would urge everyone to retain constructive criticism here and not to go down the "fuck, bears are broke" route immediately.
Perhaps it's more pertinent to attempt to get direct feedback from Blizzard as to whether or not they plan on adjusting mana costs on any abilities. I mean, that's a fairly key component to the discussion here and without that piece we're kinda flailing around in the dark, yes?
You're looking at this the wrong way.
Resources now matter.
No other class could just spam high-cost abilities without the gear to support it. WDs were the only ones and that was entirely due to VQ.
Bears as the sole damaging ability is not valid anymore unless you have great gear. This would be no different than saying a Wizard can't just spam Arcane Orb without the gear to support it.
Perhaps 30% on VQ is too low. I'll give you that much. But these changes represent a paradigm shift for WDs to one where we have to pay attention to our resources for high-cost abilities instead of simply being able to spam bears and hope that the mobs come out dead on the other side.
For example, Haunt glyphed for mana regen is a net positive if it runs its course. Perhaps Bears builds might work Haunt into their skillset somehow. At the end of the day, though, not thinking outside the box is going to create disgruntled players. The whole idea of the skill revamp was to allow us to think outside the box. Clinging to the status quo *is* going to result in disgruntled players.
It's also possible that they are changing mana costs somewhat. That's something we'll have to wait to see in the patch notes, though.
You to take your hardcore PvP-doctor to some other forums and troll other people and leave us alone.
That would be excellent.
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
I hope "significant" really lives up to its promise!