TLDR: The 32 buff cap is silly. Renews are bumping off world buffs. Please re-prioritize which buffs get knocked off. Current buff cap is promoting excessive min-maxing culture and distracting from immersion.
Feel free to correct my facts, but I think I have the overall concept of the buff cap mostly correct…
For anyone not aware, there is a buff cap in WoW Classic of 32. Basically, once you reach 32 buffs, the game knocks off your oldest buff (whichever you got first) and the newest one takes priority instead. This means a renew or regrowth can wipe off your DM, Songflower or Onyxia buff while raiding (since those are the ones you likely got first). Even though your DM buff might have 110 minutes left, the renew would take priority and bump it off.
Reaching the cap isn’t a big issue for most people, but it is for tanks. There are many additional buffs (some invisible) that count towards the cap… it’s easy to see how they add up. When fully raid buffed and consumed, most tanks will reach 24-28 buffs, but then any of these additional buffs could be happening at any given time which could easily push them over the cap.
- Skills: shield block, renew, regrowth, rejuv, PWS, inspiration, bloodrage, beserker rage
- Procs: crusader and other weapon procs
- Talents: last stand, shield wall, enrage, flurry
- Consumables: sharpening stones, FAP, LIP, stoneshield, mighty rage etc…
- Trinkets: any “on use” trinket
- Enchants: libram enchants
The list goes on. Pally auras, trueshot, leader of the pack… even passive effects like your current stance (battle, defensive) is counted as a buff (please correct me if I’m wrong, I’m not 100% sure on that one).
Regardless, our tanks are so concerned about losing their world buffs they’re actually telling healers not to use their HoTs. In top guilds, it’s considered best practice not to use libram enchants… ROIDS, stoneshields, or any other buffs that aren’t completely essential are also typically discarded. Even Pallies are being asked not to buff Sanctuary or Salvation and sometimes even Light… instead they’re being asked to apply the 5 minute versions to DPS warriors, which is annoying for both the Pallies and the DPS warriors.
Our tanks use /cancelaura macros attached to all their abilities so they can cancel these buffs automatically during the raid. This helps, but it doesn’t prevent the buffs from being applied in the first place.
I don’t believe this is how Blizzard intended the game to be played. It distracts from immersion and encourages us to stop using useful skills like HoT’s, shields or even libram enchants for fear of reaching some arbitrary invisible buff cap. The whole thing seems silly.
Personally, I would love to see world buffs simply taken away from instanced content. They trivialize the content anyway and promote excessive min-maxing culture. But I understand why this is a contentious topic… Fortunately, there’s a much simpler solution.
Why not just change the prioritization of a buff to be based on time remaining rather than when it was applied? OR we could remove passive effects from the buff list that probably shouldn’t be there anyway, like libram enchants for example.
Look, I understand why changes shouldn’t be handed out like candy in a game like this. It’s a slippery slope and the whole point of Classic is to re-experience the game as it was, warts and all. But this kind of weird restriction on buffs seems to be promoting excessive min maxing culture and distracting from game immersion. I think Blizzard would have corrected it back in the day if it became the issue it is today.
Blizzard… would you consider making this change?