Comments on: Bear swiping fun in 3.1!

By: Sabrensdruid

Sabrensdruid — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 22:37:26 +0000

I’m looking forward to the new swipe, i have come across a few encounters with 4 mobs at once with not only 2 of them being casters, the but casters want to actually run 10 yards away from me to cast their ranged goodness (absolutely in their opposite directions). It would be nice to stay in the middle of them all (even if some are behind me) and be able to apply threat to them all, esp since it seems i can dodge attacks from behind where as pally’s, warr’s etc cannot parry, block from behind etc (since i cant parry or block, it doesn’t concern me). With regards to using CC like sheep etc, Ive noticed cc has been long since forgotten about. Back in BC , i played a hunter as my main ( note: hunter, not huntard ) and cc was used so much in heroics that alot of classes like dps warrs missed out on runs due to their lack of cc, a year later, everyone had geared up to the point where not only was cc not used, but tanks would pull a few groups at a time to speed up heroic runs (hence the term , badge farming run) , so when ppl ( on my server anyways) started NR heroics, spells like polymorph, freezing trap weren’t even on peoples action bars.

By: Rummies

Rummies — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 21:21:47 +0000

CC just isnt what it used to be… people rarely use it (rogues is still the best then you never have to worry about them getting too close) which puts more of an emphasis on tanks/healers to perform. I enjoy dpsing 5 mans (bear spec naturally, I dont have the gold to change all the time) and when I’m catting it up most tanks dont even bother to mark mobs anymore. Lets do H Nexus in 20 mins!

By: Malphailuron

Malphailuron — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 14:03:12 +0000

I’m sure we’ll still be able to tank things. It’ll just feel like a prot warrior’s doing it.

Yes, yes, bring the player, not the class. But that mantra is absolutely meaningless if the classes are all exactly the same. Might as well have four classes rather than ten.

By: drudesa

drudesa — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 13:51:47 +0000

I’m thinking of maybee a new bear model, perhaps based on a panda?
+
360deg round house?

yep you got it……..

here comes the kick ass, yankin, tankin, “Kung -fu Panda!!!”

(If you don’t know what the hell I’m talking about, ask your kids :) )

By: Monkeytree

Monkeytree — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 21:37:30 +0000

Another thought:
Personally I’m not worried about the armor and stamina changes. The armor loss will be directly compensated by savage defense so fingers crossed it will balance out. And it makes itemisation more exciting too, because instead of getting leather with extra armor, we now look for extra attack power and crit for the same mitigation effect.
The stamina drop doesn’t have anything to counter balance it. Or does it?
We lose 10% stamina bonus, but we gain 2% stamina, 2% agility, 2% strength…

So it’s really an 8% stam loss, and a 2% other stats gain, which isn’t so nasty.

I prefer to take a more holistic view – as long as my druid can tank things fine, I’m happy. If I can’t tank things fine anymore, I’ll start to whinge.
My prediction is that there are happy days ahead for druid tanks.

By: Monkeytree

Monkeytree — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 21:30:08 +0000

I am going to love the changes to swipe.
Not having to have a specific target in range will make it much more useful and natural in those fast-paced situations.
And having it be 360 degrees will overcome the bugginess in the game.

I actually don’t mind it being just a frontal arc, much of the time – it adds a bit more skill to tanking. In theory.
In practice, when I’m tanking, mobs just walk through me and start hitting me from behind. Or lag is so bad that by the time the game server has figured out that i want to hit the mob, the mob has run past me and is down the hall beating up the mage. Both of these problems are counteracted by the 360 degrees change to swipe.

To summarise:
In theory, I sympathise with people who like the frontal arc damage of swipe. But the 360 degree attack is needed due to lag and mobs randomly walking through you.

It will also be brilliant for aoe farming and kiting mobs.

Hooray for Blizzard! Three cheers from every druid!

By: Thomstel

Thomstel — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 20:58:04 +0000

This is their opportunity to change the bear form model! Have the new swipe animation be a pirouette and the skin to include a big hula-hoop of a pink tutu!

See: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=19764554

Naow barez ‘ll b srs bznz!

By: Tom

Tom — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 20:22:12 +0000

The big thing with Thunderclap is that it’s got a 6 second CD. So if, as a warrior, you hit your Thunderclap a little too early and miss 1-2 mobs, you had better find another way to gather them up or they’re gonna go chew your healer’s face off. Swipe is only tied to the GCD, so you can literally run around spamming swipe and be ensured of grabbing any mob that comes near you. I wouldn’t be surprised if they added a bit of a CD to Swipe (and buffed its damage to match) with this change.

By: treesandleaves

treesandleaves — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 19:35:11 +0000

I would say that I really feel the targeting part of swipe needs to die, although I didn’t mind the 180 degree bit. Targeting made sense in BC, but it doesn’t make sense now that the ability isn’t target limited.

That said, learning to actually control mobs with swipe is pretty rough, as you will have the massive screwups that can cause wipes due to the unexpected pathing mechanics, general lack of skill, or range problems. I think you only really make it when you finally realize that you must charge on every pull, and to yell at dks who drop DnD before you can do anything.

By: Bludgeoness

Bludgeoness — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 19:24:42 +0000

What I liked about how swiped worked was the fact that it used to take some level of skill to use it. Also, it was more like an AOE scalpel rather than a hatchet as BBB points out when he described using it. The only thing I never understood about the targeting aspect was that mobs who were out of range to use swipe were still in the swipe’s AOE. I didn’t mind the targeting aspect so much as it’s implementation. I hate that it will be 360, 270 I’d be fine with, it just doesn’t make much sense to swipe all the way around as a bear. Unless we spin or something stupid.