World of Warcraft: PTR 2.4 Warlock Life Tap Nerf
February 23rd, 2008 | by Shintar |This will be a shameless post about the Warlock Life Tap nerf currently on the PTR, since I have a Warlock, haha.
Currently on the PTR server, Warlock’s Life Tap has been changed to % base instead of a fixed amount.
Life Tap now converts 26% of maximum health into 26% maximum mana. This means that if I Life Tap, I’m about 1/4 closer to dying and getting back a disproportional amount of mana, since Warlocks receive more and more stamina as the gear gets better.
Now, consider the fact that Warlocks generally do not have a lot of mana due to lack of intelligent, no smart being would ever work with demons and the demonic forces, right? Additionally, Warlock itemization and talent supports stamina, not intellect.
This nerf is obviously a PvP balance, especially for 2v2, but I think it’s too much as Warlocks run out of mana quite fast. If Blizzard is truly going with this route, I hope they will lower the percentage, as the current PTR 26% is too much. Oh, did I mention mana potions are not usable in Arena while Mages, Hunters (Aspect of the Viper), and Druids have ways to get mana back in from of mana gems and spells???
This change will also affect PvE as Warlocks will require a lot more healing now because Warlocks will run out of mana after a few Shadowbolts, about 3-4 Shadowbolts for those that like stats. This will effective lower Warlock DPS since this will tax the healers. Plus, mana potions will only do so much when you don’t have much mana regeneration or any other way to get mana besides getting Dark Pact. Mages and Hunters have options and non-talent skills to help with mana regeneration.
I’ll give Blizzard more time to test out the mechanics in PTR and I hope they play around with the numbers for Warlock’s Life Tap. Our Mana Drain is already getting nerf in 2.4, heck, pretty much every patch Warlocks get some nerf, some are needed for some aspect of the game, especially 1v1.
On the side note, Elemental Shamans are getting a nerf in PTR as well. Nature’s Swiftness and Elemental Mastery now share a 10 second cooldown. I actually want to see some better Warrior re-balance as there’s not really any Warriors using 41 talent skills, besides Protection Warriors.
Note: If you want to read more about this, there’s post about Warlocks “crying” about the Life Tap change which is quite informative. Post found here.
