Huge nerf that is.....

AE groups used to be a hoot and now.... Clerics with ae stun, ae dmg stun and pbae are better dps then a druid..

If they are gonna put all the pbae spells on 1 timer they could at least reduce the recast timer! ROLF. Lucky to 1 cast of pbae off now...

They linked the omens and pop era point blank area of effects years ago, but, from what else I heard they really pissed off Shadow Knights with linked lifetaps. My ranger's quick nukes were linked for along time. My guess would be the Dev's are once more trying to force people to use the "upgraded" or biggest nuke of one type, and remove the spell stacking combinations, like ae stuns for enchanters, once more forcing the Holy trinity of fighting and removing misfit groups. Just wait they may yet link the Damage over Time spell lines, now that would really piss off druid's, necros, shaman, etc.

All of our PBAE's have been linked for years with the exception of upheaval (lvl 48). I used to use this one and our highest one all the time when farming. Up untill the patch on 3/13 that is. Also, they linked Nature's burning wrath and the new one we just got in SoF. As sad as it is, I kind of agree with linking those two since that was massive burst dps. I never expected those two to be unlinked. However, linking our lvl 48 PBAE surves no purpose these days other than to piss people off. An extra 750 HP or so of AE damage is not going to break balance in the game. I'm pretty pissed about this.

I would imagine that impaler Prathun simply ran a script that would affect all of those spells that weren't previously linked without even looking at each case individually.

Also, they linked Nature's burning wrath and the new one we just got in SoF.

Sigh, I was working on faction to get the new spell so I might actually do some good dps in raids =(

It won't be too long until they change so that dots from the same line probably won't even stick.

ight as well just delete the PBAE spell and use AE rain instead... =/

I honestly believe that some of the people that make these decisions do not actually PLAY the game. If they did, they would see how utterly ridiculous these decisions are.

I think the linking of NBW(75) and NBW(80) is far worse than any other spell linkage they've done to us. That's probably 200-250 dps down the drain.

I got NBW(80) rk3 about a week before the linkage so I had the pleasure of using both for a short period. (and getting summoned and killed a lot on raids)

Using 7th AA, bard, mana recursion, I did 2900 dps on Ur-Floxiz (da orc) that week. Post nerf the best I've done is ~2400. (~90s fights)

Dps under normal conditions (ie no bard/7th/glyph/mr) post nerf seems to be about ~1600 when doing nothing but dpsing. Pre-nerf it was usually 1800-something. (for ~4 mins until oom)

It was pretty frustrating to have it nerfed just after having worked like a maniac on the Rebel faction. We surely didn't need this nerf. =/

The linking of the PBAE spells didn't shock me. I always wondered why Upheaval had a different lockout than all the others. In any event, the change isn't anything which causes me grief.

However, the linking of the Wrath DoTs just pisses me off.

I finally get to the point where I can throw out a little more DPS than I have in years and ... oooops! Linknerf!

Hell, even our curse DoTs, which have always shared the same recast timer, at least they have a long enough duration where you can still stack them up and overlap the damage ouput. The short duration on the Wrath DoTs make them impossible to stack. The duration is 1 tick longer than the refresh timer. Figure in response time and cast time, you end up with DoTs that cannot be stacked.

Next they'll be linking all of our swarm DoTs, citing it was an oversight that they were never linked all long.

The linking of the PBAE spells didn't shock me. I always wondered why Upheaval had a different lockout than all the others. In any event, the change isn't anything which causes me grief.

However, the linking of the Wrath DoTs just pisses me off.

I finally get to the point where I can throw out a little more DPS than I have in years and ... oooops! Linknerf!

Hell, even our curse DoTs, which have always shared the same recast timer, at least they have a long enough duration where you can still stack them up and overlap the damage ouput. The short duration on the Wrath DoTs make them impossible to stack. The duration is 1 tick longer than the refresh timer. Figure in response time and cast time, you end up with DoTs that cannot be stacked.

Next they'll be linking all of our swarm DoTs, citing it was an oversight that they were never linked all long.

You could only stack the curse DoTs after the spell overhaul in 05, before that they all had recasts that were one tick less than their duration. Which is kind of odd seeing as the shaman one was never linked, only the necromancer and druid ones were.

NBWs are still linked after the patch today. SK linked spells got fixed though.

Good thing we're used to disappointment!

NBWs are still linked after the patch today. SK linked spells got fixed though.

Good thing we're used to disappointment!

It was not much of a disappointment since it was announced that -only- two of the shadowknight spells would be unlinked again, seeing that they were not meant to be linked (and made the class unplayable even in the eyes of the developers). Any spell that was intended to be an upgrade to an older one remained linked. In other words, the developers have vetoed the practice of twisting spells for improving dps.
Though it hurts us with nature's burning wrath and its successor, we Druids are hit far less than several other classes due to the fact that we have so few fast casting spells that are suitable for twisting.


Eri

In other words, the developers have vetoed the practice of twisting spells for improving dps.


Like twisting of our magic and fire dots? Lets /bug that and have them linked as well. After all, druid power is through the roof nowadays so clearly something has to be done to reign us in.

Like twisting of our magic and fire dots? Lets /bug that and have them linked as well. After all, druid power is through the roof nowadays so clearly something has to be done to reign us in.

*shrugs* I never said I was particularly happy with the change, only reporting the observations of the how and why of it.
Personally, I think that twisting those two spells was something that kept the Druid class from sinking completely into the swamp, instead of only up to the nose, but apparently the developers think differently. If years of explaining and complaining does not change their mind I have no idea what will. The problem is that technically Druids are not incapable, only severely disadvantaged (and groups and raids tend to see it like that, never mind what the theoretical formula say).
Getting the Druid class entirely out of the swamp again is not that complicated, but it requires a decision by the developers (and an explanation how and why they make the changes they would make) what they want with the class in various contents. From there they then need to work backwards and forwards to create a lineup of spells and abilities that supports the chosen roles. Right now the direction the spell design of the druids takes from level to level staggers worse than a drunk fratboy at 2 at night. Right now that takes more time and manpower to dedicate to one class than the developers have to spare, so instead they keep going in the direction they have, using the Druid class to experiment new spell concepts on and otherwise copy existing spells with a fixed percentage increase across the board.


Eri