50% Hammer of Wrath nerf going live?

01/19/2011 6:20 AMPosted by Samaul

Hammer of Wrath damage has been nerfed by 50% on the 4.0.6 PTR.

This is actually a bug. A very non-excessive, non-stealthy bug. There was small coding change in the latest PTR build that caused Hammer of Wrath, a ranged ability, to use ranged attack power instead of melee attack power. The change itself was completely unintended and has since been corrected.

That said, we're still watching paladin damage (both sustained and burst), and if we feel that further adjustments need to be made, Hammer of Wrath may actually be a good candidate.

01/19/2011 11:04 AMPosted by Katmina

Er, are you saying that paladin burst or sustained might be in line for nerfs? I know you said "adjustments", but Hammer of Wrath certainly doesn't need any buffs...

"Nerf" is such a dirty word sometimes, but yes, that's indeed what I meant. There's no changes planned right now, but Hammer of Wrath does hit for a lot and would be an ability we'd likely look at changing if we felt that paladin damage was too strong.

01/19/2011 11:02 AMPosted by Rlimbaugh

Is the new Mastery we have suppose to be affected by inquisition or not? Been wondering that since it was announced.

It is. There was a bug that was preventing this from occurring, though, but it should be resolved in the next PTR build. :)

01/19/2011 12:23 PMPosted by Jimmyjingle

I don't like the idea of making a list of abilities to nerf before there's ANY evidence they need it. This sort of thing leaves me really disgruntled with blizzard support of WoW.

That's not really how it works. Balance is an ongoing, iterative process, and we continually examine how class abilities interact and scale with one another. Even when we're not actively developing a patch, we don't just sit around with our hands over our eyes and wait for something to happen. We consider alternatives and monitor areas of balance we feel may need further finessing if things don't stay at the status quo.

So, simply because we have an idea for how we might be able to tone down paladin damage in the future -- if it becomes necessary -- that doesn't mean change is imminent. It also doesn't mean that we've made some fancy list with little empty checkboxes on one side and paladin abilities on the other and are now sitting perched with a big red pen in our hand, just waiting to draw an X through the one labeled "Hammer of Wrath." No, all it means is that we feel Hammer of Wrath may be a reasonable candidate for adjustment should we need to reexamine paladin DPS sometime down the line. Your fellow posters have offered counters as to why that may not be best approach, of course, and we absolutely appreciate the feedback.

01/19/2011 12:25 PMPosted by Kasio

Apologies for hijacking the thread a bit, but since my question is essentially the same as this, I'd really like to have confirmation. Dreadblade (Unholy DK Mastery) says it increases all Shadow damage, but currently does not increase the Shadow damage portion of Scourge Strike. Is this intentional or a bug (as many of us presume)?

Popular question! I actually just responded to another thread here: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/1869224488?page=2#21

Your instincts were right, though. The Shadow portion of Scourge Strike should be affected by mastery. :)

01/20/2011 7:09 AMPosted by Zamm

This. This many times over. The blues really should not use the nerf word anywhere near a ret thread. Our treatment in the past has made us far too paranoid.

That's a fair observation, and it's certainly something I'll take to heart. Even so, we want to be able to share our design intent with the community whenever possible and in a manner that's both upfront and real. Sometimes, the information we reveal may not always be what everyone wants to hear, but that's okay -- opening up the topic, in whatever form, usually leads to meaningful feedback.

Take this thread, for example. It's full of constructive criticism regarding Hammer of Wrath, and most of it was made in direct response to my first reply. While I can't guarantee that we'll be able to act on each of those criticisms, we will certainly consider them in discussions going forward.