Warlords of Draenor: A peek at Diminishing Returns changes
Senior PvP designer Brian Holinka has been on Twitter today clarifying the changes to diminishing returns in Warlords of Draenor. Along with the recently posted indications of changes to CC, Community Manager Lore tweeted and then posted about the changes to DR, or Diminishing Returns:
The reduction in DR categories is welcome indeed, as we've discussed here in the past, there are 117 abilities across 13 categories, excluding things which CC and don't DR at all. This is baffling for new PvPers, and even advanced players often won't know every spell's category. As part of the big CC cull in Warlords, Blizzard's devs are looking to simplify DR. And Holinka has added more detail to their plans.
To add some more detail to the DR category conversations, you won't see things like Silence, Stun, Fear or Mez combined into one category.
- Holinka (@holinka) January 10, 2014
@oliviadgrace @Crawthz Also we hate the single DR idea. That will not happen.
- Holinka (@holinka) January 10, 2014
So it seems from the first tweet like Blizzard will not be looking to combine together big categories in CC, so things like Holinka mentions are pretty major, important categories of CC. But, it seems possible from the omissions that less populated categories could be merged together. I'm thinking of things like merging "Roots" and "Roots (short)" into one category, along with the "short" versions of stuns and mesmerizes, which would be added to their respective full-length friends.
Anything that falls under "other" or DRs only with itself, such as Dominate Mind and Cyclone, should, in my opinion, be blended into other categories. I've long been unhappy with Cyclone as a CC, it's very strong, and this might be a good way to bring it down to size. Personally, I don't think any CC should be free from DR or DR only with itself, regardless of tradition. And taking these actions would reduce us from a hefty 14 categories down to a far more manageable 7.
Lastly, I'm glad that they have not gone with the SW:ToR style of the resolve bar. While I can understand its appeal, for the sake of simplicity, I feel like it removes far too much gameplay. Yes, the current system is overly complicated, but there has to be a half-way house between 14 categories and none. 7, let's say! And of course, we have to remember that all of these categories will contain less spells after the CC disarmament that's taking place with Warlords. I'm excited, are you?
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