spell-interrupts
Latest
Earth Shock replacement to be implemented due to downranking changes
People are still reeling from the downranking change on Beta, but as the dust clears and Blizzard continues to stick to their guns, it may be that we'll have to live with it. One thing Blizzard has said, however, is that if it looks like there's genuine void created somewhere by the loss of downranking, they'll fix it. One genuine void is that of rank 1 Earth Shock. Shamans have longed used the spell as a spell interrupt when they can't afford to spend the mana on a max rank shock, both in PvE and PvP. With the new mana cost rules, that cheap interrupt is now gone, complicating a shaman's already touchy mana preservation issues. Luckily, not all is lost for Shamans, as Koraa says that they are creating a rank 1 Earth Shock spell equivalent that should show up in the Beta at some point in the future. This, at the least, is a good indication that Blizzard means to make good on plugging up holes left by the abolishment of downranking -- or at least the holes that the dev team sees as needing to be plugged. Will we see a replacement for rank 1 Moonfire for totem killing, or for rank 1 Arcane Explosion or rank 1 Consecration for flushing out stealthers? That remains to be seen, but it seems much less likely, since those are roundabout ways of using a damage spell for a non-DPS reason rather than the straightforward purpose of using rank 1 Earth Shock as a cheap spell interrupter.
Playing by different rules: should mobs be subject to interrupts?
Don't you wish sometimes that mobs had to play by the same rules as players? On his WoW blog, Gitr relates the story of how his tankadin came upon a group of 4 Gordunni shaman in Feralas and had to suffer the combined effects of their melee and spell attacks, while out-damaging their healing as well. Undoubtedly, part of the problem is that, as a paladin, his stun options with Seal of Light up are almost nill -- it's simply a product of the class. But the larger question, and the question that Gitr explores at modest length, is why aren't NPC spells interrupted by damage like players are?Obviously, there are balance issues to consider here -- if damage interrupted mob spell casting, quick-hitters like rogues and warriors would have an even greater advantage over casters than they already do. Gitr argues that giving casters the ability to interrupt casting by hitting mobs with their own spells would add an added utility to faster, lower-damage spells. While I generally agree in principle with anything that gives squishies more survivability, I think it betrays the balance between casters and melee. In general, melee have an advantage over caster mobs and casters have an advantage over melee mobs. That paladins, and one specced for tanking at that, have problems downing healing mobs is no surprise -- it's a function of the spec. Still, it's an interesting discussion to mull over, even if I don't quite agree.
