Hex has a really low threshold to break from damage these days.
Now that flame shock is going to be spreading around via lava lash and chain harvest, could hex get a higher damage threshold before breaking or could it clear dots when applied?
1 Like
Agreed. This is one of the changes I think needs to happen to Hex.
Right now, it’s a scuffed version of Polymorph that has a 30 second CD and still allows the target to move though they don’t heal. While some people would say that Polymorphs heal is a downside, the heal in it does have some niche uses. Polymorph being spammable in PvP makes it good for CC. Hex on the other hand, sure the target doesn’t heal but they can still move around to better position themselves, and even not healing any minor damage is likely to break it.
It would be nice to see Hex updated to stand apart as its own CC. I’d personally love to see it so that it would last for either ~20% of the target’s health or at least 5 seconds without breaking. After that ~20% or 5 seconds, allow damage to break its CC effect. This change would allow it to differentiate itself from Polymorph and give it some very nice use in mythic+ where target health scales and we wouldn’t need to worry about dots or splash damage breaking it, allowing it to be used as a quasi-stun with the downside that it can only be used on humanoids and beasts. In PvP, it would create a window where the enemy can’t fight back but is still able to run away.
Edit: A change such as this would also make a very valuable use for Voodoo Totem to return as a talent option to replace Static Charge. Static Charge isn’t a great talent and that is because Capacitor Totem itself isn’t great with a 2-second activation delay that gives it a window to be killed or moved away from in PvP, and the delay makes it unreliable to use as a way to stop a cast that normal interrupt would not be able to in mythic+. Another downside of Capacitor Totem is that it applies DR to stuns. I’ve actually been told multiple times to not use Capacitor Totem in mythic+ in certain situations due to the DR that would weaken more important stuns which have a longer duration.
Side note: Please allow Hex to be instacast with use of Maelstrom Weapon. Giving up potential damage and healing is a good price to give it an instacast option.
2 Likes
I agree they should allow hex to used up MW just to make it instant.
I hate this idea. I use hex to fake cast
Yah. Seems like instant hex for MSW might be better as a PvP talent or something so people could choose whether to use it.
Personally, I just want a higher damage breakpoint so flame shock and maybe crash lightning splash doesn’t break it.
I think that and make it to where you have to press spacebar to jump and move since you are a frog
1 Like
Or just slow down the frog move speed.
Hex has alot of downsides as is:
hard cast w/long 1.7 sec cast time
non-spammable
dispelled by all mages shamans and druids (so DPS as well as healers can dispel)
druids immune in forms (so generally immune + can dispel off teammates)
nature school so interrupt shuts down healing
target can move under own control while ccd
super low damage break point combined w/hexed target mobility + enhance passive aoe from crash lightning (+upcoming flame shock spread) makes it really easy to break
shared DR with sundering
Given the above, seems like slowing down the frog and increasing the damage break point isn’t an unreasonable request.
1 Like
The fact that it is dispelled by mages, shamans, and druids is both positive and negative. In PvP, sure it means that mages can dispel it. But if it was a magic effect, there would be more classes who could potentially dispel it: druid, shaman, priest, paladin, monk, and warlock.
Nature school is a problem. It isn’t just healing, it is also some offensive abilities. Changing it to shadow wouldn’t be bad, or just giving it the option to be instacast.
It could still be used to fake cast, just don’t use it with maelstrom weapon. The fake cast really only applies to Enhancement.
I’d honestly be fine if the damage breakpoint was just increased.
Hex is fine. Shaman pvp issues are not related to damage threshold on it.
The issue I’m raising is mostly about enhancement and hex and the fact that we can’t necessarily control what we hit, particularly in 9.2.
With chain harvest and lava lash throwing off random flame shocks all over the place and crash lightning buff throwing around splash damage every time you stormstrike or lava lash (plus crash being a standard part of even single target rotation), it may be hard to keep hex targets clean of damage.
So it would be nice to see the damage breakpoint increased just so a bit of random splash or randomly applied flame shock doesn’t negate our already limited ability to cc.
The difference is that generally only the healer has a defensive dispel so you can magic cc the healer. With hex, resto shamans and resto druids are everywhere and if they are paired with any kind of dps mage, druid or shaman, then the opposing team has two dispellers for hex. There’s also nothing else to use it on typically so it’s always off CD and ready to be used. We also have a class (druid) that’s basically immune AND can dispel it.
Yes, you can get teams that can’t do anything about it. But it seems pretty common to have teams that have multiple players that can deal with it or a druid that can immune it while also being available to take it off others.
In any case, just saying that given the flame shock and crash lightning splash on enhance in 9.2, it would be nice to see a higher break point (and maybe a slower frog) just so a bit of unintentional damage doesn’t negate our cc.
You mean when you hex the bursting DPS and a teammate decides that he is a frog and he must now be attacked? Hex is fine. Bad players are more detrimental to it since it is a 30 sec cd.
Yeah you’re gonna have to deal with that. Don’t lava lash or cleave when the hexes target is within melee range.
The way enhance is designed at the moment, you can’t really do any damage if you aren’t cleaving.
You have 3 melee abilities - stormstrike, lava lash, and crash lightning - that you are supposed to use even vs single target. Plus flame shock for damage and frost shock for low damage and slow. If you use crash lightning, you cleave and cause your stormstrike and laval lash to cleave for 10 seconds. If you lava lash, you will spread flame shock to other targets. Once flame shock is applied, it lasts 18 seconds.
Once upon a time, you could actually do a bit of damage to a hexed target w/o breaking but these days the threshold seems trivially low. Just seems like the enhance design with uncontrollable cleave damage doesn’t mesh well with the modern version of hex which still leaves your target mobile and under its own control but these days breaks on trivial amounts of damage.
i get that, but its better than hex being a psuedo-stun mechanic. i know, i know, fear is kinda like that already, but it shouldnt be. especially intimidating shout, should break instantly on damage.
i’d honestly say, hex breaking on trivial amounts of damage is the way CC should be and just extend that to fears and such.
I’m not suggesting that it get some massive break threshold. Right now I have 58k health. With the new trinket bonus that would be 65k health. Flame shock does less than 5k. So that’s like 7-8% of my health.
As is, a couple ticks of flame shock can break hex. Just make it like 10-15% of someone’s health bar. It’s a 1.7 second hard cast. And people can 100-0 you in an actual stun. Doesn’t seem crazy to me to just make hex a bit more forgiving to splash damage.
Alternatively, just have it clear dots when applied. Or, since the damage breakpoint is trivial these days, take away the movement.
seems balanced.
the only way i think you’d have a balanced thing was if they specifically coded Flame shock to not break hexes. But if you are saying it would be cool to take 10-15% of someones HP in a hex without breaking, thats nonsense.
Compromise: hexed targets take 90% reduced damage.
2 Likes
Sure. That would work.
Or just nerf chain harvest. It is an enh carry. Almost no enh play anything besides venthyr.
Their biggest complaint is enh is to hard compared to other specs. They want easy mode with Doomwinds and chain harvest and excuse is other specs have easy mode why can’t we?
Edit: point of my rant is pvp should be balanced but not in a way where burst is easy to pull off.
It should require some sort of spec mastery to do a combination of moves that gives you an advantage. A player should then use that advantage to win a match.