The raid buff issue - A rational fix

In Development Ghosts of K'aresh PTR
1

Between DKs wanting a raid buff and Monks getting their raid buff, buffed, the argument of raid buffs is taking up so much feedback time (and it feels like, maybe, development time/consideration) that it is drowning out more important issues.

The point of raid buffs is clear. Blizzard tried to remove them (bring the player, not the class) and it failed miserably. People stacked classes to an unfun degree and it made balance differences drastically scrutinized. Blizzard was slow about adding them back in, but over the course of a few expansions, NEARLY everyone has one.

Now the argument is which ones are better, how strong they should be, whether every class NEEDS one to be valuable, and whether or not utility skills like Death Grip can be counted as a “raid buff”. Given how close we are to the point of every class having a raid buff, it seems the answer about whether or not classes need them is “YES”. Either your class has to have some incredibly unbalanced throughput or utility, or you often feel left out without a raid buff. I’m sure if Frost DKs rework makes them the king of damage, groups will bring them no matter their lack of raid buff or not (see Unholy’s AOE damage this current patch), but that is not healthy for the game.

Best case scenario, everyone has a raid buff, everyone is balanced to be “relatively” close to each other in what we do and provide. Of course at that point, you start getting into the issue Blizzard is dealing with right now… “is the monk raid buff good enough compared to the DH raid buff”. This feels like we are going degenerate in the opposite direction of “bring the player not the class”. In trying to make groups not prefer caster classes, because of their better buffing, they are starting down a road of one-ups-manship that will end up badly.

I have a different idea. Looking to MoP Classic, but with a modern version of it, have raid buffs that are given out to everyone, easy to use, but duplicated enough and reduced in number, that individual classes are useful in groups, but not relegated to “we must have X classes with Y classes because they only work together that way”.

For example, if we took the 13 classes we have:

Raid Buffs
5% Primary Stats Warrior - Mage
5% Stamina Priest - Paladin
5% Increased Damage Taken Demon Hunter - Monk
3% Versatility Druid - Rogue
3% Crit Hunter - Evoker
3% Haste Warlock - Death Knight
3% Mastery Shaman

Bloodlust - Shaman, Mage, Evoker, Hunter, Warrior

This simplifies the raid buffs, provides two classes that can provide any of them (save Shaman, but I removed the WF component as that is way too strong for certain specs and they should be balanced around NOT having to have that). This allows for another class to be added to the game, giving them a Mastery buff, and making for easy slot into the game. For now, Shaman are a general enough class that they can go in lots of different groups.

This allows you to mix and match better, have less restrictive comps, have a melee team still be able to buff your healer, or a caster team still be able to buff your tank. This makes having a mixed group still valuable, but less stressful if you just want to play with friends who aren’t the “perfect” team.

This is an elegant, easy, and stress free solution that if only Blizzard read the forums, would be an easy steal and a big win for them.

Sadly, they don’t.

3 Likes
2

Then fix it. Make the voices go away and get a W in one swoop.

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Yeah, stop making the devs read walls of text and just tell them to do the only sensible thing of making every class have a “3-5% buff,” with DKs most likely getting Haste, since I don’t think there’s a class that provides just passive Haste yet, and while you’re at it, make Hunter’s Mark apply passively to ALL enemies damaged by the Hunter, instead of being something that HAS to be pressed, and is only single target.

That way, hopefully then the Devs can fix the Evoker issues I laid out in my “Evoker Feedback,” as well as make Brann actually heal like the companion in Horrific visions, and hopefully the devs can add some sort of queuable 1v1 mode to the game, as well as optional spell recolors, even if they’re client-side only, so I’m not “stuck” playing only certain classes, simply because most classes have FIXED visuals which I’m not a fan of.

4

Outside enh , and Survival no other melee gets BL so if u want a physical comp , u arent getting BL outside resto shaman as healer

maybe its time to give DH/Monk debuffs to other classes too

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You’ll notice I added warrior to the lust list. Between shaman, hunter and warrior, every physical comp is likely going to have it.

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Having a tank class that can bring lust can cause its own issues - the simplest answer to the lust question is to make Drums provide the exact same effect as Lust - this removes 1 requirement from groups and opens up more comps because you dont have to find a lust class.

I get this would upset lust classes but we are at a point where maybe they just need to make it a faction skill “For the Alliance / For the Horde” and then Lust is always present in group comps.

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That would be a fair thing to do as well. A General skill that everyone has.

1 Like