#0 - Feb. 26, 2007, 7:58 p.m.
Many people have proposed that Fade should cause pvp enemies to drop target, if they are targetting the priest who has faded. Blizzard has responded that this would be unbalanced, primarily because it is unnatural and upsetting to players, if targetting was not in control of the player.
I propose that Fade have a different effect. Make it so that Fade causes magic and physical attacks made against the priest to miss 50% of the time, while under the effects of Fade.
The PvE benefits of this is that, in situations where Fade does not cause the pve enemies to target another player, it will give the Priest a chance to stand alive, for the duration of Fade. If Fade fails to prevent a PvE enemy from attacking the Priest, the 50% chance to miss, would give the priest enough time to heal him/herself, without it being overpowered.
In PvP, if a Priest is focused fired upon, Fade would give the Priest some time to respond, either by healing himself, or allowing him to run to the safety of others. If a priest is being attacked by 3 other players, Fade would not save them. All it would do is keep them alive long enough to run to other friendly players, or allow them enough time to try and heal, while back-up arrives.
Sounds great right? Fade doesn't last that long (10 seconds), has a long cooldown (30 seconds), and priests are available to both factions. Plus, if a Priest has faded, surely, the Priest would be harder to hit, right?
Shadow priests? Well, that's where trouble begins. Fade is usable in Shadow Form, and even if it wasn't, it would cause a new breed of Shadow Priests who choose to melt face, while not in Shadow Form, for the benefits that Fade would bring.
Solution: Give Fade a negative affect while active, in addition, to the 50% chance for attacks made against the Priest to miss. The negative affect should be that the Priest can only cast healing spells, while Fade is active, or better yet, damaging spells cast by the Priest have a 50% chance to miss the target, while Fade is active. That way, a Priest can use Fade in pvp and pve, to better survive (but not totally avoid) a focus fire, while not being overpowered since the use of Fade causes the Priests damaging spells to also miss 50% of the time, while Fade is active.
The changes to Fade, as described don't need to benefit Shadow Priests, since they can survive. It's the Holy priests that are complaining about survivability, and here is a way to give Holy priests that survivability, without Shadow Priests benefiting from it also.
What are your thoughts?