Warlords of Draenor: More information on player CC removal
Blizzard Community Representative Lore has been over on the official forums providing players with more information on the planned reduction in CC that will be implemented in Warlords of Draenor. While Lore isn't exactly spelling out what will and won't be removed, he is talking about how the devs currently like CC in talent trees, particularly when it's three abilities over one row.
The reason for this is that it forces players to make intelligent choices about the CCs they take. Struggle with casters? A root won't do you any good. Know you're facing a lot of fear breaks? Don't take that, then. And it cuts down the overall number of CCs available to existing players. This, to me, is far better than the current trees for, say, warriors, where Storm Bolt and Shockwave are both on trees with two DPS abilities -- although Dragon Roar is a knockback. These two abilities would be far better off on the same tree, perhaps with Dragon Roar as the third. Bladestorm could then join another CC break + damage increase -- Avatar -- on another tier.
Lore also mentions, in the blue post after the break, that they will not just look at talent tree CC, but at baseline abilities as well. What's more, given the removal of CC abilities, CC breaks will need to be slimmed down, and that is on the devs' radar. In a subsequent tweet, he adds that DR categories are being looked at. With 14 at the moment, this is also a welcomed change.
Hit the break for Lore's full post.
I think most CC needs to be removed from the talent trees. CC should be what makes a spec unique. Like wyvern sting, howl of a terror, shock wave, etc. If they are going to put CC on the trees, then it should weighted against other cc abilities, not damage or utility buffs.
Of just keep it how it is now and just tone things down a tad. ^^
Our current plans are to do a little of both. We do like CC in talent trees, particularly when they're put up against other CC's in the tier (as you mentioned). You still can only have one of the three, but you get to choose exactly which, and can tailor that choice to your comp, playstyle, raid encounter, etc. Choosing between a CC and a DPS cooldown doesn't always feel as meaningful, so part of our plans for talents in WoD include making those choices make more sense where we can.
Still, we think there's more needed than just jiggling talent trees around a bit, so we're going through baseline CC's as well. Some will be left alone. Some will be nerfed. Some will be outright removed. Note that some CC breaks are likely to be nerfed as well in the process, as when there's less CC overall, the ability to remove whatever's left over becomes exponentially more powerful.
Please remember that the expansion is still very much in development, so anything could change at any time. But that's our current thinking.
