Invulnerable Mail - Nerf in Patch 1.7

[nobbie]

There are some hefty discussions going on about the patch 1.7 nerf of the "Invulnerable Mail", an epic dream armor for Shaman and Hunters that a level 300 Armorsmith can create as BoE (tradable!) item. Neither are the plans easy to come by nor are the extremely expensive ingredients to create it, incl. 30(!) Arcanite bars. If you would sell the 30 Arcanite bars, and the other ingredients, seperately in the auction house, you could easily make around 1000 gold (worth an epic mount), so the 1.7 nerf of this very expensive piece of armor certainly deserves a close look as to what exactly has been changed.

This are the 1.7 patch notes:

- Invulnerable Mail changed to a lower duration effect, but your own melee swings will not interrupt the invulnerability.

and this are the stats before and after the 1.7 nerf:

BEFORE

554 Armor
Increased Defense +20
Physical Attacks will be harmlessly deflected 5% of the time

AFTER

554 Armor
Increased Defense +13
When struck in combat has a 5% chance to make you invulnerable to melee damage for 3 sec. This effect can only occur once every 30 sec.

The change in Defense is clear, +13 instead of +20 is the 33% Defense nerf all items with that stat got in patch 1.7. Of much more importance is the significant change of the proc effect on the armor: Before patch 1.7, it said "Physical Attacks will be harmlessly deflected 5% of the time", and after 1.7 "When struck in combat has a 5% chance to make you invulnerable to melee damage for 3 sec. This effect can only occur once every 30 sec.". I've heard that the proc effect duration was 8 seconds before (now it's 3 seconds), which seeems to be a very heavy nerf at first glance. The proc effect works similar to a paladins invulerablity shield: it completely absorbs all melee damage for 5-8 seconds. However, ranged and magic attacks are not "deflected" and the real issue is/was, if you use a melee weapon while the effect is activated it will cancel the immunity! Magic and ranged attacks are ok, but not melee. So, anyone who uses a melee weapon primarily will get no benefit from this armor at all. Sounds like a rather stupid bug/oversight, right? According to the new patch notes however, it seems that this wasn't an oversight but intended: The 1.7 patch notes now say that the effect duration was lowered to 3 seconds (and that the effect can occur only once per 30 second), but that your own melee swings will not interrupt the invulnerability anymore.

I would be interested in some "expert" insight and opinions about this change, because I got the plans today but am very unsure if I should ever make this armor for my Orc Shaman. Is this change in 1.7 a nerf at all, or is it even an improvement given the patch notes statement? How effective would that armor be for a soloing melee-focused Shaman now in all imaginable combat situations:1 vs 1 PvM, 1 vs 2 and more, tanking in instances, PvP etc.? Is it really worth 30 Arcanite bars?

[MongoJerry]

The general consensus among the shaman in our guild is that the change made the armor from one of the best items in the game for shaman to disenchant bait. The shaman didn't care about the melee interrupt thing before, because they use shocks a lot in PvP combat. So, for them, this reduced the immunity from eight seconds to three seconds. Plus, it made it so that the proc can't pop more than once every 30 seconds, when before, it often would (especially when fighting a rogue). So, you end up with a piece of armor that at most does a small amount of damage mitigation, if you're lucky and the proc goes off at the right time against the right opponent. Meanwhile, you're stuck with a piece of armor that has no other useful stats on it.

The change to Invulnerable Mail was probably necessary, as the proc was overpowered before, but Blizzard should have compensated for the change by adding stats like stamina and intellect to the armor. They didn't, though, so no, don't waste the arcanite.

[nobbie]

The general consensus among the shaman in our guild is that the change made the armor from one of the best items in the game for shaman to disenchant bait.  The shaman didn't care about the melee interrupt thing before, because they use shocks a lot in PvP combat.  So, for them, this reduced the immunity from eight seconds to three seconds.  Plus, it made it so that the proc can't pop more than once every 30 seconds, when before, it often would (especially when fighting a rogue).  So, you end up with a piece of armor that at most does a small amount of damage mitigation, if you're lucky and the proc goes off at the right time against the right opponent.  Meanwhile, you're stuck with a piece of armor that has no other useful stats on it.

The change to Invulnerable Mail was probably necessary, as the proc was overpowered before, but Blizzard should have compensated for the change by adding stats like stamina and intellect to the armor.  They didn't, though, so no, don't waste the arcanite.
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I think that Blizzard must change it again, because making 1000 gold almost worthless is a slap into the face of everyone who made the effort to collect and create the materials, really. It's a stupid overnerf from what I could read so far, probably again based on whiners who don't play (or like) Shaman, or can't use this mail armor. It is an EPIC armor and it is VERY expensive, and its power should reflect that. I also think that Blizzard has to learn that this is not a "play for free" Diablo II where they can change everything as they like, but a game that costs 13$/month, which I wouldn't call exactly cheap (compared to other MMO's). Any significant change regarding items and skills can easily destroy a player's effort of many months of playing as you can see by this piece of mail armor. While a free respec has recently been given for those whose skills were changed, i.e. Warlocks or Warriors, Blizzard obviously hasn't wasted any thought so far how they could compensate a player who has created this 1000 gold armor. How about giving them all the materials or 1000 gold back? And one last thing for Blizzard: It is not the user's fault that epic items drop in droves in instances and as high rank PvP rewards, causing an epic item inflation that is already way too high. Restrict the amount of epic sweets that you throw around in instances and PvP, but don't punish those who collect the materials for their personal, handcrafted epic armor over many months.

[Artega]

Invulnerable Mail is still extremely strong. It's not godlike, like it used to be, but it's still far from worthless.

It's not worth thirty Arcanite as it is now, however, and some say it wasn't before.

[nobbie]

Invulnerable Mail is still extremely strong.  It's not godlike, like it used to be, but it's still far from worthless.

It's not worth thirty Arcanite as it is now, however, and some say it wasn't before.
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Well, if they don't want to give it more power (again), then they must change its label color from purple to BLUE and lower the material requirements significantly, because at the moment, the purple label color and the extremely high material requirements suggest something that doesn't exist (anymore): an almost "godly" item. It seems that the "Invulnerable Mail" is rather the "Arcanite Reaper" or "Arcanite Champion" among the armors after the patch 1.7 nerf. This would probably be reasonable material requirements (50% of what was required before):

Arcanite Bar (15)
Enchanted Thorium Bar (15)
Huge Emerald (3)
Azerothian Diamond (3)

The item label color should be changed to BLUE and the plans should drop more often.

Of course, this is just theory. How should they compensate the creators and possible buyers of this tradable BoE item who have spent much more materials and/or money for it before?

[Artega]

Of course, this is just theory. How should they compensate the creators and possible buyers of this tradable BoE item who have spent much more materials and/or money for it before?[right][snapback]89403[/snapback][/right]

They won't. The ToS and/or EULA states that they're free to do whatever the hell they please with their game, and that their customers have no say in what they do or don't do.

The entire Blacksmithing, Leatherworking, and Tailoring lines need a complete overhaul, since the three professions produce VERY few useful items. Blacksmithing creates Phantom Blade (excellent main-hand weapon until you get Thrash Blade), Green Iron Hauberk (will easily last you 31-40, and is still pretty good post-40 for mail classes), Arcanite Reaper (duh), and Elemental Sharpening Stones. Everything else it creates can be equalled or exceeded by drops. The other production professions share the same problems.

[nobbie]

The entire Blacksmithing, Leatherworking, and Tailoring lines need a complete overhaul, since the three professions produce VERY few useful items.  Blacksmithing creates Phantom Blade (excellent main-hand weapon until you get Thrash Blade), Green Iron Hauberk (will easily last you 31-40, and is still pretty good post-40 for mail classes), Arcanite Reaper (duh), and Elemental Sharpening Stones.  Everything else it creates can be equalled or exceeded by drops.  The other production professions share the same problems.
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I've found just one profession to be actually useful for every character and free of inflation: Alchemy (with Herbalism). That and an epic mount later, anything else is a waste of money IMO. Sadly this says a lot about the inner qualities of WOW in general.

[Skandranon]

The entire Blacksmithing, Leatherworking, and Tailoring lines need a complete overhaul, since the three professions produce VERY few useful items.  Blacksmithing creates Phantom Blade (excellent main-hand weapon until you get Thrash Blade), Green Iron Hauberk (will easily last you 31-40, and is still pretty good post-40 for mail classes), Arcanite Reaper (duh), and Elemental Sharpening Stones.  Everything else it creates can be equalled or exceeded by drops.  The other production professions share the same problems.
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Very true until level 60 end-game raids. Once you get there, guilds without devoted production professionals will sorely regret it. Dark Iron Helms are some of the most critical fire-resist pieces in the game right now, and Dark Iron Shoulders are also good and relatively cheap. Molten Core can be done without high levels of fire resist, but many battles, especially Ragnaros, are significantly easier with high FR. Leatherworking offers Molten Helms and Lava Belts; tailoring has the Flarecore gear - Flarecore Gloves and Mantle are simply fantastic FR pieces.

[Rinnhart]

Very true until level 60 end-game raids.  Once you get there, guilds without devoted production professionals will sorely regret it.  Dark Iron Helms are some of the most critical fire-resist pieces in the game right now, and Dark Iron Shoulders are also good and relatively cheap.  Molten Core can be done without high levels of fire resist, but many battles, especially Ragnaros, are significantly easier with high FR.  Leatherworking offers Molten Helms and Lava Belts; tailoring has the Flarecore gear - Flarecore Gloves and Mantle are simply fantastic FR pieces.
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Because grinding faction for armor patterns is fun, cheap, and rewarding both in long term yields and in my ability to smite the wicked. Only two thousand dark iron ore until exalted.