I talk about pendant of energy. Heroes with small/average manapool but with strong spells become very strong if they have pendant. Almost 2 extra stomps, healing waves or claps can win game while +3 armor can do almost nothing. You can ask: “Ok, there are strong items in game, but why pendant is obvious imba?”. Because maths.
Pendant of energy is 3 level item that gives hero +150 mana. +6 robe is 4 level item that gives hero 90 mana. But int more usefull than just mana? Well, periapt of vitality is 3 level item that gives hero +150 health. +6 belt is 4 level item that give hero 150 health. So, 4 level item > 3 level item because the first gives the same hp but also regen and damage for some heroes. But 3 level pendant often > 4 level robe because pendant gives 60 more mana.
Or another comparation. Heal +500 hp or restore +300 mp - the same level. +X str or +X int - the same level (so 25*X hp = 15*X mp). Yes, it’s obvious that 1 mp > 1 hp (1 mp = 1.66 hp). But +150 hp and +150 mp is items of same level. It’s obvious that pendant of energy is so strong mathematically. And practically it is so strong too.
Consequently pendant of energy should be higher level item (at least 4) or give +90 mana. Then we have more balance items and less gap between "good" and "bad" drop (I think +90 mp is still better than +150 hp like +6 int often is better than +6 str).
Pendant of mana (+250 mana) need nerf too. Gem of Health give in 2 times more hp than periant, so if we nerf pendant of energy to 90 mana pendant of mana should give +180 mana.
And 1 more disbalance item but this one is so weak. The Lion Horn of Stormwind. It gives +1 armor aura, paladin already has +2 armor aura and it’s still weak. Horn needs obvious buff.
5 Likes
Wand of lightning shield was rightly nerfed for being so gamebreaking vs human, so that ones done. And book of the dead got some appreciable nerfs. In general the armor vs damage vs stats items aren’t too well balanced but aren’t too far off the mark. Look at the level 7 artifacts- a typical hero with average stats like death knight at level 7 himself has 5 armor and 46 damage. That means the claws+15 increase his damage by 32.6%, but a ring+5 increases his ehp by 23%. And in general dps>>ehp for practical purposes. They do overvalue armor in wc3, pretty much everything armor based is a tad underwhelming. Armor upgrades, pally aura, priest inner fire, etc. I mean heck, a level 3 talisman of evasion will give that DK +17.6% ehp, an item you find from a murloc green camp nearly as much as from a dark wizard red camp.
Lion wind of stormwind, legion doomhorn and ancient janggo all being the same tier is a bit of a joke indeed. 10% movespeed is a boost that significantly increases your ability to control the map and micro. +1 armor will rarely matter in combat at all, it might be the difference of units taking 1 more hit to kill, if that at all.
I can’t think of any creep-dropped items level 5 or below that are really gamebreaking like lightning shield could be though. When you start getting blink daggers and doom tokens and mask of death sure, but even pendant of energy at level 3 is going to at best give +50% mana for early game. A sobi mask is +50% regen, a belt gives 90 mana, +0.3 mana/s and on an int hero +6 damage. Maybe its slightly stronger than the level 4, but its not busted, and that extra regen/damage potential means its pretty close. After 3 minutes of the game you’ll have regenerated as much as the difference I guess.
3 Likes
Staff of Sanctuary, Staff of Preservation, Staff of Teleportation, Scroll of Town Portal.
Not that they’re technically imbalanced, but they just screw with the balance of everything else and make the game less fun because they feel so lame when used and make map position less important.
2 Likes