Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Say NO to the lifebloom nerf

I am joining this blog to the growing number of druid blogs out there that are opposed to the upcoming nerf to lifebloom that Blizzard is contemplating for deployment in patch 2.4. http://www.leafshine.net/2008/02/bloggers-agains.html At first glance, the 8% decrease in the value of the HoT tick is not anything to whine about, but consider this: RunningElk's lifebloom currently ticks for around 224 every second. When three-stacked (as it normally is on tanks) it ticks for 675 or about 750 if the tank is in my group and benefitting from my 600+ spirit (raid-buffed). Fully stacked lifeblooms are the main source of the healing I provide a raid or 5-man group. An 8% decrease in the tick value will result in a 3-stack of lifebloom ticking for 618 (with tree buff) or 690 (without tree buff). Assuming that I am rolling lifeblooms, as I should be, and that I keep full lifeblooms stacks up on two tanks (which is easy) or three tanks (tougher), my healing output will be significantly compromized. In order to get back to where I am now, I would have to upgrade my gear to Black Temple levels, i.e. +healing over 2000 unbuffed. Frankly, I don't think it's reasonable to nerf a core PvE ability in order to fix a perceived PvP imbalance, especially in a way that does nothing to the way that ability is used in PvP.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Resto druids are DESTROYING 2v2 right now because of broken coeffecients on lifebloom *AND* easily obtainable water.

One or the other has to be nerfed. They are nerfing both (sorta).

As a level 70 Mage, Druid, and Rogue, I support these changes. I'm reasonably assured that despite them going live, Resto druids will still have a firm place in any raid.

Lorangriel said...

I agree that a well-equipped, well played resto druid is very difficult to counter in 2v2. But in my experience, playing a resto druid in PvP is not easy. Just check out my arena score on armory.

The point I was trying to make was that the nerf to lifebloom affects PvE and NOT PvP. Druids depend on the "bloom" part of the spell in PvP, while the HoT is what is important in PvE. If you check the patch notes, you will see that the HoT is being nerfed, while the "bloom" is actually being buffed. So this is a pure PvE nerf and it will do nothing to repair the broken balance of 2v2 arenas.