Forum post of the day: Pushback on Pushback
I remember the day that patch 2.3 was released. I got out of work at six PM as was stoked to get home and try some of the glorious improvements. I had a 25 minute commute then, north on I-15 right past the Las Vegas Strip. Usually by six most of the traffic had cleared and it was pretty smooth sailing- except that day. Some genius decided that it was a good idea to reduce the four-lane freeway to one. My left leg aching from working the clutch and blood pressure rising from impatience and a bit of road rage, it took me about an hour and a half to get home. I should be used to pushback though; I play a caster in WoW.
Debigmacca of Aman'Thul believes that Wrath would be a good time to do away with spell pushback. His argument is based on the number of stuns, fears, and assorted other of immobilization effects that abound in the current state of the game. There was some agreement with the original poster that spell pushback is unnecessary as casters often quickly fall prey to melee DPS. There's only so much a trinket can do.
The abolition of pushback could potentially make classes more balanced. Even without pushback casters are still subject to silences and school lock outs, which have little effect on melee classes. Casters also have less armor to mitigate physical damage, though this is somewhat balanced by a lack of magic resistance in melee classes.
The thread had plenty of disagreement though, and the discussion got pretty heated. Some cited a frost mage's ability to rule the playing field and kite melee enemies while beating them senselessly with spells or the explosive damage of unmitigated pyroblasts. Without pushback all casters would become more powerful.
A change to abolish pushback would be seen as a PvP balancing act. In PvE groups casters feel the burn of this mechanic much less. A good tank will keep aggro and let the casters merrily heal and DPS away. Pushback is pretty frustrating when playing solo and there's noone to hold aggro.
Do you believe the time has come to lay pushback to rest?
