WoW WotLK Guide - Buffs and Debuffs

New expansions for World of Warcraft (and most other expandable games, come to think of it) generally concentrate on bringing new items and content to the mix. Wrath of the Lich King (Blizzard's latest expansion pack) on the other hand, has broken with tradition by making changes to the actual dynamics of the gameplay.

Let me elaborate. With the latest incarnation, the changes introduced in 3.0.2 and Wrath of the Lich King have fundamentally changed the number of buffs and debuffs now working in the game. These changes are designed to take advantage of the new rules and methods of gameplay that were not necessarily there before. While the content has seen minor modifications, the major change affects the manner in which players will actually use their buffs and debuffs from now on.

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Historically, there have been buffs that have only affected one party. With the updated version, these are now going to affect the entire raiding party; for example, the affect of Blood Lust, Paladin Blessings, Totems , and Power Word Shield is now going to impact all 10-25 members of a raiding party. What this, in turn, means is that it will no longer be necessary for a player to separate and spread their specialized buffers throughout multiple parties.

This fundamental change will, inevitably, change the manner in which many raiding parties are assembled, as class selection will be much less of a headache than it has been in the past. Probably a welcome change for smaller guilds, this may well result in larger, more specialized guilds losing party members as a result of the increased competition for available buff slots.

In addition to these changes, more classes will now have access to multiple, previously stackable, buffs and debuffs; an example of this is where Death Knights, Warlocks and Druids will find it easier to get their hands on essential buffs that affect spell damage taken by a target. The downside to this will be the restriction to one party member casting the debuff (if all three classes are in a party), and its inability to be stacked. Ultimately, the overall effect is that a role can now be filled by multiple classes.

At first sight, it would appear that, from a raiding party buff and debuff perspective, the emphasis has shifted from the larger hardcore guilds to the less serious, smaller guilds. Exactly what the ramifications of this shift are going to be, only time and gameplay will tell.

WoW WotLK Guide - Buffs and Debuffs

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