1.6 Leaked Patch Notes

[lemekim]

Lets look now at how this has really changed PvE for the horde. Lemekim pointed out that WotF allowed an undead tank 20 seconds or so to build up aggro on Onxyia and other fear producing mobs. To get the same effect the Alliance has to have two dwarf priests casting fear ward on a tank. The Lurkers on Stormrage are truly fortunate to have two dwarven priests but I can tell you that they are not overly abundant throughout the rest of the population. Other encounters where sleep and charm are abundant the horde had an advantage over the Alliance population. Granted these encounters are not overwhelming in number but they do happen in the end game instances.
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I don't know why there aren't that many dwarf priests given how versatile they are! (Fear Ward, instant free heal, and the only priest with ability to clear poisons/bleed effects). If every priest was a dwarf, I bet we would never even see this discussion =) It's probably because most people choose to go for a hot night elf or human female rather then short and stumpy dwarf. <_<

Still, you only really need 1 dwarf priest (well technically you don't need any, but even 1 makes it soooo much easier). 2 dwarf priests are simply an insurance. And there is only 1 high-end encounter in the whole game where charm/sleep is used, and that's Lucifron's guards, and even there the benefit is marginal, since you should have priests dispelling it anyway. Eranikus in Sunken Temple? His "sleep" is actually a stun. Baroness in Stratholme? Her "charm" cannot be broken through WotF. Hex curse from troll boss in LBRS? Nope.

On the other hand I can name quite a few encounters where fear is used and where Fear Ward is/would be superior:

Magmadar (5 second WotF is not nearly long enough to cover the 10 second fear window of Mag, making it useless in the fight), Beast in UBRS, Bats in Stratholme, some mobs in Scholomance, and of course Onyxia, to name a few.

In PvP, this change won't mean much. Most complaints people have are with undead Rogues. But ironically, all rogues get a trinket that breaks charm and fear (and polymorph!). Most rogues will use WotF reactively anyway, so undead rogues will break fear twice, just like with old WotF! Change in the fight? None.

And with warlocks? A smart Undead Rogue rogue will sap you, kill your succubus, then kill you. No change again. If you try to seduce them right after sap, the rogue will simply break with WotF and kill succubus, and if you choose not to reveal succubus, they can often find her with distract. Or they could simply jump you, wait for seduction, break out of it, blind the warlock and kill the succubus. Change in the encounter? None. It can even be done with the trinket, without WotF.

The only difference is that dumb rogues can't simply expect to jump warlocks, pop WotF on and try to kill the warlock in 20 seconds before it expires. Although they still can try, with 5 seconds of immunity and a trinket to break out when needed, they can either make warlock wait until seduction immunity timer is down (making warlocks waste precious time), or they can cast a 5 second at best Seduction, which won't be enough to bandage or do anything.

To make matters worse, if the rogue is a Blacksmith, they can use Glimmering Insignia for 30 second fear immunity. If they are an engineer, they can use Shadow Reflector to fear the Priest, Warlock or seduce the Succubus!

I think that in PvP, this only seems like a significant nerf, but it won't be long before people will start complaining again. The difference will be marginal. PvE wise, especially high-end content, it makes WotF fairly useless. I simply think that they nerfed it in the wrong way.

An interesting solution would be splitting charm/sleep and fear parts of the WotF, and linking their cooldown. So there will be two WotF, one that makes you only immune to fear for 20 seconds, and one that only makes you immune to charm/sleep for 20 seconds, and when one is used, neither of them can be used again for 2 or 3 minutes. This would keep PvE aspect of WotF intact, and would nerf effectiveness of WotF, especially against Warlocks. It won't change much against priests, but given that priests have 30 seconds cooldown on the fear, it doesn't matter if WotF lasts 1 second or 20. But that's my take on the subject, and I am biased! :P