Darian,Jun 21 2005, 07:42 AM Wrote:I dunno why anyone would doubt they're real; they've been leaked the last three patches, and each time they've been completely accurate.
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I think they do it to stir up interest and possibly gauge the reaction every so often, without the burden of being 'official'. If its leaked you don't have to necessarily stand by it, you can just claim its fake or temporary until otherwise.
Poker trick imo.
Beyond that, there's always unmentioned changes that slip by the notes.
WotF is as close to an "I.Win" racial button as you can get. You only have a few general tactics for 1v1 pvp. Outdamage, Outlast, damage avoidance long range kiting or up close dancing, and interrupts. Against Warriors with arcanite reapers or MC epic equipment 6-7k health, you simply cannot outdamage or outlast them directly. Rogues with 4k health, they'll outdamage before you do. Mages who've practiced against locks, saber dancing upclose with fireblast and IAE, sometimes PoM Pyroblast (luckily most mages can't afford this, as they'll be oom and finished in group). Your real option is to interrupt them and try to mitigate damage to yourself through dancing behind them. Crippling poison, Hamstring, charge&intercept, frost nova & blast wave really cut down ability to kite long range. It is possible to CoEx them at range, only against rogues does this work often. Your only interrupts? Fear and charm. Pyroclasm (hellfire stun) doesn't work. Lock vs lock battles requires smart use of fear to dominate the enemy.
So take away fear & charm, your only interrupts, for 20 seconds. The enemy can either outdamage, outlast, or outmitigate your damage because they're either faster, beefier, don't require standing still to attack, and sometimes don't require facing the enemy.
Even with major talent investment, personal skill, and foresight to win against that extreme uphill battle, without charm or fear, which are part of the skill set, you're really out of options.
Soul-link, Drain tank locks can mitigate enough damage with drain life + dancing to not need fear as much but still need fear to buy time to outlast by outhealing. Mages and Arc Reaper Warriors are readily beatable this way. Felhunter / SL warlocks give mages the worst time, while warriors don't get to their nasty Execute at 20% health fast enough. Rogues, while still a problem, its possible to survive that encounter instead of being insta-death. Blind still isn't a big problem, as its a poison (not a disorient, gouge is a disorient). However, you must keep your side rather than front or back facing rogues to disrupt their 'facing front/back' required abilities. It is possible to pull off fear this way, because only 1/4 rogues use kick, but if it is kick-interrupted (difficult to tell in laggy situations). You can only guarantee outlasting rogues if you have the interrupts available.
Also, sitting down guarantees crits. That's a nasty bug that'll supposedly be fixed.
CoEx Locks can kite much better against rogues and warriors at long range, but mages still pose a problem.
Nightfall/Shadowburn locks have a chance to outdamage the enemy if they have low health, but this is chancy with requiring facing the enemy (not guaranteed). Nightfall procs will disappear with bad attempts, and rogues/mages tend to be able to zip behind you.
If you had charm available, you could charm enemy, kite, shadowbolt/nightfall/shadowburn/searing pain spam, charm again. Or mix fear / charm. Too bad WotF negates that all together.
No interrupts = You lose. They can outdamage, outlast, better damage mitigate and interrupt you. What can you do? Sit and die? That's what they expect, and there's a good chance of it happening if you cannot slow or interupt their ability to damage and interrupt you.
In BG, wotf's 20 second ability is whitewashed a bit because battles are fast and furious, but UD almost guarantees victory over fear defense classes every 3 minutes. Sometimes it takes that just to get to the field.
While WotF is overpowering... Fear ward is overpowered too. 30 second cooldown? Can still spam that before and during battles. All other wards only apply to self, and only last the period of their cooldowns. Fear ward should apply too. If not... don't nerf UD WotF.