Monday, June 6, 2011

The Shockadin - letting any class tank

Do you long for the glory days of Vanilla WoW where Shamans had a talent that gave them shield block?  Want to tank, but don't want to bother with those pesky talents that keep you from being crit?  Even better, ever had to tank as a cat spec'd druid?  Well folks, we just made it easier!

That's right, now you too can experience the thrill of tanking any boss encounter, providing you have the right tools available.  No, I'm not talkint about tank gear, some crazy Uncleslam block/dodge set, or even having the right spec.

No, the tool I mention is far more rare than that.  Ladies and Gentlemen - I'm talking about the Shockadin.

Lolwutadin?

That's right, Blizzard has now announced that we will be the only class available which can in turn, allow any class to tank.  Now even that terrible DK who queued as a DW Frost spec (frost stance even) tank will be able to live, providing there's a healer around to help prop them up.  How's this possible you ask?  Are our healing powers getting a buff instead of a nerf?  Are the days of watching our mana bar go up WHILE CASTING back?  Did they bring back the full Illumination? 

Sadly, no.

Instead, we have something far more powerful.  We have the power of the Light, and it's so strong, that our willingness and desire to openly, and publicly, condem our enemies with the power of our non-scaling patheticly weak nuke - buffed by Denounce.  Why this change you ask?  Have our enemies grown so strong that our 12k strikes now cause them to double over in laughter?  Is that how we're getting to this point?  Probably, but not officially.

No, the official stance on Denounce is now it will prevent the target of your Exorcism from (wait for it) from creating a critical effect (100% chance for 2 points) for SIX WHOLE SECONDS!  Oh yeah, we're huge now.  Of course with the effect only lasting six seconds, and a 1.5 second cast, you're only going to be able to weave in a couple of heals (3 if you're REALLY fast).  Oh, and don't forget to keep your judgements up as well.

Who cares though - now we can let anyone tank!

OK - maybe it's for PvP

I suppose the other intent of this spell is for PvP, but I am really struggling with how it fits into the scheme.  I'm not a big arena (i.e. never in Cataclysm) player, and the PvP experience I do have in Rated BGs is mostly spent mashing FoL and HoP/HoF as often as I can.  Instant exorcisms are great, but rarely do I get to sit back and just nuke on someone.  Heh, nuke.  Leveling it's not as big of a deal, as the GCD really prevents you doing anything during that time - but still. 

I suppose I can see where you might cast this on say, a Healer in Arenas to keep them from getting that clutch crit heal off on someone, but really - wouldn't you be better actually healing your team in that time?  Odds are, if you can spare the GCD to cast at their healer isntead of the target you're focusing down (or you know - healing your team), the game is probably already won/lost, and your cast won't mean much.

A PvE/PvP scenario

One setup where I can see this having some marginal benifit is in AV/IoC, where you have PvE in your PvP.  If you don't have an honest to goodness tank, you might be better served by preventing them from being Crit than healing.  Maybe.

Another scenario is the Chimaeron fight, but again, it doesn't really matter here.  He hits so hard that the first one will knock you down (Finkle will save you!), and the second one will kill you - even if he doesn't crit.  Who knows, maybe this buys your a third strike on that fight.  Odds are though, unless you're like me, you aren't picking up a Shockadin build just for that fight.  I don't think the DPS is needed now, but for our first H-Chim kills it was nice to have.

So uh - really?  What's the point?

I'm not sure to be honest here.  Maybe some PvPers can school me in the applications of Exorcism in Arenas, but I'm not seeing it.  The mana reduction will be nice for leveling still, and allow you to spam it when you have time, but it just doesn't hit hard enough to make us actual DPSers. 

Hey - at least BoL isn't dispellable now. 

4 comments:

  1. I use a Denounce spec for leveling, questing, soling, and (bad) PvP. The mechanic is interesting but I wonder which NPCs can be debuffed. I probably could keep this rolling on a boss... time to grab a Ret/DK dps and see how far we get into ZA.

    For casual and Chimaeron usage it is a straight nerf by taking away the free/instant aspect.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'd like it for arena. I primarily do 2v2 and getting off an Exorcism just as the enemy dps is running in to burst my partner isn't that difficult as long as I avoid getting CCed. Most players unload their cooldowns at that start, and preventing them from critting for six seconds while their cooldowns are up would be huge.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yeah - I just don't know how often we'll be able to pull it off. To me it seems lackluster, but it's obviously a PvP talent now, and I'll just keep on keeping on in the PvE land.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Having a power aura set up for recklessness and throwing exorcism on a warrior is priceless.

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.