Fear No Longer Dangerous?

[Ciderhelm]

This, from the updated 2.3 Patch Notes:

Creature AI has been changed to no longer prioritize attacking unfeared targets over feared targets.

If this sticks and is applied to current mechanics, Protection Paladins and Feral Druids will now be able to tank Fear-based encounters without Fear Ward or extensive workarounds.

Unfortunately, this change will also harm any guilds currently stuck in the Abomination wing of Naxxramas...

[Nicki]

I think this needs to be adressed,

The big reason priests wanted fear ward to be spread around was because you were taken to a raid if you were a dwarf priest. I remember many times seeing the recruitment posts; Looking for Dwarf priest. It was nice to have fear ward for pve. What blizzard did was say 'ok you can have fear ward BUT we cant give it to UD in its current form (because 2 fear breaks is overpowered...) for pvp this is not going to fly. So they nerf it to a 3 min cooldown and duration and then realise thats not what players wanted it for. So they change mob AI. Racial spells and specific spellls or racials are imbalanced and shouldn't make such a difference in a game. I can see the tauren racial being reduced soon honestly..

[Faze]

I wonder how this will change, say the Archimond encounter. Out MT somtimes misses the fear with 1ms and the boss moves around a bit. Now maybe it will stay in it's place or chase the feared MT... better then me dying atleast, as I'm second on the aggro list all the time

[Mesh]

If your MT really gets feared (not stuck in GCD but stuck in defensive stance) it will still wipe the raid with an estimated 80 % chance. Its a nice change but it won't really be a real nerf for Archi due to the encounter specific design.

[Faze]

He used to get stuck in a GCD situation, not in Defensive. Now he just doesn't use anything that uses the GCD until the fear has been used by Archi. Which is kind of dangerous for me sometimes and I have to stopp hitting Archi because he is just using HS for long periods of times. Sucks, but better the wiping
Anyways... we haven't taken Archi yet cause people are running into the fire all the time.

[Belak]

I asked this in another thread, but how does this fix a fight like Nightbane for a non-warrior tank? Ok, now if the tank gets feared he follows the tank instead of going to an unlucky person who resisted, but he's still cleaving and tail swiping the whole time.

Either way, people are going to get flattened every 45 seconds or so.

I just don't see this as a solution.

[Brickhuase]

Unfortunately, this change will also harm any guilds currently stuck in the Abomination wing of Naxxramas...

not funny... hi upcoming wotlk naxx revisit...

[Caulle]

I asked this in another thread, but how does this fix a fight like Nightbane for a non-warrior tank? Ok, now if the tank gets feared he follows the tank instead of going to an unlucky person who resisted, but he's still cleaving and tail swiping the whole time.

Either way, people are going to get flattened every 45 seconds or so.

I just don't see this as a solution.

Exactly, this could almost be potentially worse really. If the mob continues to attack their aggro target while the target is feared, it could create positioning problems and some other disastrous AE consequences. Nightbane turns around to chase the MT, and bam, melee get cleaved.

Either rate, I havn't had any problems dancing anything so far in the xpac. Havn't started Archimonde yet (thought have cleared to him) so we'll see.

[Bitesize]

It's almost certainly not worse. For one thing, there's still nothing stopping a warrior from breaking it like always. For another, sure the tank could run in fear toward a group and the breath could hit them... the same is true if Nightbane runs/turns toward another player because the tank is feared, 1-shots them and does a breath toward the group while he's at it.

[Caulle]

It's almost certainly not worse. For one thing, there's still nothing stopping a warrior from breaking it like always. For another, sure the tank could run in fear toward a group and the breath could hit them... the same is true if Nightbane runs/turns toward another player because the tank is feared, 1-shots them and does a breath toward the group while he's at it.

True, there's nothing stopping a warrior from breaking it like always, I guess I'm mostly referring to any group working on a fear based encounter whom relies on fear ward because they either use a druid/pally to tank, or have a warrior who has trouble dancing.

[Krissam]

tbh, it's not gluth i'm affroad of in in the wotlk naxx, i'm more scared of the 4hm, hf having 8 warrs in a 25 man raid.

[Ciderhelm]

I heard that they were changing the encounter to the Two and One Half Horsemen.

[Vakfaroosh]

Just a note, if a boss hits you when feared 99% of the time the fear is broken.

[Ciderhelm]

Just a note, if a boss hits you when feared 99% of the time the fear is broken.

That's what I said in the other thread, then someone brought up the example of Onyxia.

[Bitesize]

Didn't they change fear to be more likely to break on damage in 2.1 or so? Or was that only for player fears?

[Belak]

I guess the real purpose of this change was to make it so that taking fear resist talents didn't penalize you in PvE. It's definitely not going to mean that any tank can handle Nightbane w/o fear protection though.

If they wanted that, they'd probably need to change boss fears to be more like Intimidating Shout - primary target cowers in place until hit, others get feared. But then that would make stance dancing pointless too. Oh well.

[Arrowson]

fears still deadly, just not AS deadly