Combat Drinking Removed from WoW

[Mippo]

I'll go ahead and confirm what I already said in the other thread.

No more drinking and eating in combat. When you do an action that causes you to be engaged with a monster (attack it, heal someone attacking it, debuff it, etc) then you will be "flagged" as in-combat. When in-combat, you will not be allowed to drink/eat, you will get an error message when you try.

Why did we do this?
As many people have pointed out, eating and drinking were ALWAYS intended as a way to reduce downtime, not a way to introduce a meditation mechanic into the game.

What about encounters that are too powerful?
Any encounters that are too powerful with this change will, of course, be changed, but this will probably happen slowly since I am willing to bet that players being the resourceful people they are, will still find plenty of ways to defeat the encounters in the game.

As a sidenote - we have been doing all internal play testing on the new dungeons with the new functionality and with tougher elite monsters, so I don't anticipate too many problems.

What are some of the side effects of this change?
- Potions will become more valuable, since they can still be used while in combat.
- Wands should become much more useful since they do not require mana to use.

Lastly, this is not a change that will go away based on beta tester complaints. Drinking and Eating in combat creates enormous balance problems now and in the future. Once it is in the beta test, we will resolve any other problems individually, NOT undo the change. This change is not being put in the make the game "less fun", but to enable to us to properly balance the game. Here are some areas we will keep an eye on:
- are there any encounters that really are too difficult on one mana bar?
- are mana pools large enough?
- is Spirit effective enough?
- the balance between melee and caster classes will need to be evaluated
- etc, etc

-Eno

Happy day indeed.

[Samus Aran]

long live forcing the holy trinity and fucking the druid class in the ass.

[James]

Unless I'm mistaken, it doesn't exactly take forever and a millenium to get out of 'combat' status, so with two healers 'combat' drinking could still be effective. No?

[Mippo]

- Drinking and Eating in combat is being all but eliminated. You will still be able to eat and drink outside combat to reduce downtime. Note that "in combat" means that a monster nearby is engaged with you, so once you have started a fight with a monster, no more eating/drinking until the monster is dead or is disengaged. This will, of course, make dungeons much more challenging than they currently are.

I think he means hate list and is confusing the difference between combat, and hate list.

[Ravvenn]

How is it "fucking the druid class in the ass"?

[Mippo]

Ravvenn,

As he obviously plays a Druid, that was his way of saying I like the change.

[Tripamang]

People play druids?

err seriously.. I don't see this changing things too much, mobs like Eranikus are just going to have their AC and HP lowered. The fights are going to be harder, not impossible.

I don't see this making druids/shamans any less of an effective healer.

[Soygen]

This is a good change, in my opinion.

[Shinrai]

I guess it will cut down on mage DPS and make having multiple healers much more valuable (possibly leading to the silly numbers needed like in EQ). Still, a clear statement of intent is nice to see.

[Hardcore Cracka]

I am so happy to see this fix. It totally fixes a large problem with the game.

[Samus Aran]

The encounters will be more healer intensive without combat healing, thus the Druid class being picked over for a Priest.

[Tripamang]

I've never had any class other than a priest beable to solo heal on eranikus.

It's just going to require two healers, so my group combinations really aren't going to change.

[Jait]

Originally posted by Tripamang
I've never had any class other than a priest beable to solo heal on eranikus.

It's just going to require two healers, so my group combinations really aren't going to change.


__________________

Dizzident 50 Warrior PvP Server (WoW)

You do know it's in Beta right?

[The Bog]

Thanks a fucking lot Mippo. I shall blame the next patch of annoyingly hard content on you, while the Blizzard chimpanzees scratch their asses and wait for another month to patch it.

[Mazuli]

I think drinking in combat is stupid. Unfortunately Blizzard seems to have already started basing content on this (as EQ did with CH rotations). Eranikus is a good example of a drink heal fight or a 2 healer with someone bandaging and mana potions fight. The game is becoming too much of a healing game.