Tier 12 Set Bonuses - Feedback Part 2

The original thread can be found here: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2522434404?page=1

Be sure to check out our follow-up responses as well before providing feedback or asking additional questions: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2522434404?page=3#45
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2522434404?page=22#433
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2522434404?page=23#448
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2522434404?page=23#455
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2522434404?page=24#478

Below you'll find the latest tier 12 set bonuses for all classes. Nearly all of these should be live on the PTR, if not implemented very soon. We thank you all for the feedback you've provided us thus far, as it's allowed us to make a few necessary tweaks. Feel free to let us know how the current bonuses are looking. Also, be sure to read the additional information in the section below all of the class listings, as it contains a few clarifications based on commonly asked questions about these sets.


Death Knights

• Blood 2-Piece Bonus: Your melee attacks cause Burning Blood on your target, which deals 800 Fire damage every 2 seconds for 6 seconds, and causes your abilities to behave as if you had 2 diseases present on the target.


• Blood 4-Piece Bonus: Increases parry chance by 15% for 12 seconds after Dancing Rune Weapon expires.


• Frost/Unholy 2-Piece Bonus: Your Horn of Winter ability also grants you 3 runic power every 5 seconds for 2 minutes.


• Frost/Unholy 4-Piece Bonus: Your Obliterate and Scourge Strike abilities deal 6% additional damage as Fire damage over 4 seconds.

Druids

• Balance 2-Piece Bonus: You have a chance to summon a Burning Treant to assist you in battle for 15 seconds when you cast Wrath or Starfire.


• Balance 4-Piece Bonus: While not in an Eclipse state, your Wrath generates 3 additional Lunar Energy and your Starfire generates 5 additional Solar Energy.


• Feral 2-Piece Bonus: Your attacks with Mangle, Maul, and Shred deal 10% additional damage as Fire damage over 4 seconds.


• Feral 4-Piece Bonus: Your finishing moves have a 20% chance per combo point to extend the duration of Berserk by 2 seconds, and when your Barkskin ability expires you gain an additional 10% chance to dodge for 12 seconds.


• Restoration 2-Piece Bonus: Your periodic healing from Lifebloom has a 40% chance to restore 1% of your base mana each time it heals a target.


• Restoration 4-Piece Bonus: Your Swiftmend also heals an injured target within 8 yards for the same amount.

Hunters

• 2-Piece Bonus: Your Steady Shot and Cobra Shot have a 10% chance to trigger a Flaming Arrow, dealing 80% instant weapon damage as Fire.


• 4-Piece Bonus: You have a 10% chance from your Auto Shots to make your next shot or Kill Command cost no focus.

Mages

• 2-Piece Bonus: You have a chance to summon a Mirror Image to assist you in battle for 15 seconds when you cast Frostbolt, Fireball, Arcane Blast, or Frostfire Bolt.


• 4-Piece Bonus: Your spells have an increased chance to trigger Brain Freeze, Hot Streak, or Arcane Missiles. In addition, Arcane Missiles can now be cast while moving.

Paladins

• Holy 2-Piece Bonus: Healing with Holy Shock has a 40% chance to grant you 6% of your base mana.


• Holy 4-Piece Bonus: Your Divine Light, Flash of Light, and Holy Light spells also heal an injured target within 8 yards for 10% of the amount healed.


• Protection 2-Piece Bonus: Your Shield of the Righteous deals 20% additional damage as Fire damage.


• Protection 4-Piece Bonus: When your Divine Protection expires, you gain an additional 12% parry chance for 10 seconds.


• Retribution 2-Piece Bonus: Your Crusader Strike deals 15% additional damage as Fire damage over 4 seconds.

Retribution 4-Piece Bonus: Increases the duration of your Zealotry ability by 15 seconds. [/li]

Priests

• Discipline/Holy 2-Piece Bonus: Your Flash Heal, Heal, Greater Heal, and Prayer of Mending spells cause you to regenerate 2% of your base mana every 5 seconds for 15 seconds.

• Discipline/Holy 4-Piece Bonus: You have a chance when you cast a helpful spell to summon a Cauterizing Flame at the target’s location. Each second the Cauterizing Flame will heal an injured party member within 20 yards for 9250 to 10750. Lasts 5 seconds.


• Shadow 2-Piece Bonus: While you are in Shadowform, your Shadowfiend deals 20% additional damage as Fire damage and its cooldown is reduced by 75 seconds.


• Shadow 4-Piece Bonus: While you have Shadow Word: Pain, Devouring Plague, and Vampiric Touch active on the same target you gain Dark Flames, which reduces the cooldown of Mind Blast by 3 seconds.

Rogues

• 2-Piece Bonus: Your melee critical strikes deal 6% additional damage as Fire over 4 seconds.


• 4-Piece Bonus: Your Tricks of the Trade ability also causes you to gain a 25% increase to one of your combat ratings at random for 30 seconds.

Shaman

• Elemental 2-Piece Bonus: Your offensive spells have a chance to reset the remaining cooldown on your Fire Elemental Totem.


• Elemental 4-Piece Bonus: Your Lava Surge talent also makes Lava Burst instant when it triggers.


• Enhancement 2-Piece Bonus: Your Lava Lash gains an additional 5% damage increase per application of Searing Flames on the target.


• Enhancement 4-Piece Bonus: Your Stormstrike ability also increases Fire damage you deal to that target by 6%.


• Restoration 2-Piece Bonus: Your periodic healing from Riptide has a 40% chance to restore 1% of your base mana each time it heals a target.


• Restoration 4-Piece Bonus: Your Chain Heal spell no longer consumes your Riptide effect on the primary target.

Warlocks

• 2-Piece Bonus: Your periodic damage has a chance to summon a Fiery Imp to assist you in battle for 15 seconds.


• 4-Piece Bonus: Your Shadow Bolt, Incinerate, Soul Fire, and Drain Soul spells have a 5% chance to increase all Shadow and Fire damage you deal by 20% for 8 seconds.

Warriors

• Arms/Fury 2-Piece Bonus: Your Battle Shout and Commanding Shout abilities also cause you to deal 10% increased physical damage for 6 to 12 seconds.


• Arms/Fury 4-Piece Bonus: Your Mortal Strike and Raging Blow abilities have a 30% chance to trigger a Fiery Attack, dealing 100% instant weapon damage as Fire.


• Protection 2-Piece Bonus: Your Shield Slam deals 20% additional damage as Fire damage over 4 seconds.


• Protection 4-Piece Bonus: When your Shield Block expires, your parry chance is increased by 6% for 10 seconds.

Additional Information & Clarification

• The Fire damage-over-time effects from some set bonuses work like Ignite, and will accumulate and refresh damage just as it does.


• The summoned guardians from the druid, mage, and warlock sets gain increased armor, resistance, Intellect, and hit chance from their master’s stats. They do not gain increased damage done in any way. In addition, they all cast spells and do not melee (this includes the druid Burning Treant).


• The Frost/Unholy death knight 4-piece bonus uses both the physical and Shadow damage of Scourge Strike to calculate the Fire damage bonus for Unholy death knights.


• The hunter 4-piece bonus does not get consumed by shots that do not cost focus.


• The Mirror Image summoned by the mage set (2-piece bonus) does not cause him/her to drop threat. It summons a guardian who appears like the mage and casts Fireballs by his/her side.


• Mage 4-piece bonus stats: +15% proc chance to Brain Freeze, +30% chance on single critical effect to Hot Streak, and Arcane Missiles will always proc by the 4th cast.


• Dark Flame (from the Shadow priest 4-piece bonus) stacks with Improved Mind Blast.


• The rogue 4-piece bonus never picks hit or expertise, and never picks the same rating twice in a row.


• The warrior 2-piece bonus gets its duration reduced based on the number of talent points the warrior has in Booming Voice. It lasts 12/9/6 seconds at 0/1/2 points spent in Booming Voice.


• For an image preview of the tier 12 armor sets which have been completed, head to the front page of the community site: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/2705803

05/17/2011 08:41 PMPosted by Rindom

4-Piece Bonus: You have a 10% chance from your Auto Shots and Kill Command to make your next shot cost no focus.

Hoping Kill Command was added to the wrong part of that sentence?

Yes! Thanks for the catch. :)

Warlocks

2-Piece Bonus: Your periodic damage has a chance to summon a Fiery Imp to assist you in battle for 15 seconds.

4-Piece Bonus: Your Shadow Bolt, Incinerate, Soul Fire, and Drain Soul spells have a 5% chance to increase all Shadow and Fire damage you deal by 20% for 8 seconds.

4-pieces: This includes Periodic damage?
Currently we need to refresh or re-apply DoTs so our DoTs gain damage bonus based on our current buff or proc. Will this 4set bonus work like this too?

Yes. This was answered here: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2522434404?page=22#433

05/17/2011 04:57 PMPosted by Zarhym

No, effects in World of Warcraft generally do not work this way. If a set bonus (or a trinket) gave a spell power buff temporarily, it would not change existing DoT effects either.

Posted by Zarhym
Chain Heal is the signature shaman healing spell, so we feel a set bonus that interacts with it is entirely reasonable. Some of the alternate Chain Heal bonuses suggested in this thread are too powerful or technically infeasible.

Okay so it sounds the designers are intent that the 4 piece resto shaman bonus involve chain heal.

So having read that, then chain heal bounce range needs to be increased about 5 yards to make it reliable in 10 mans. This is not overpowered or too much to ask for considering other healers aoe hits for a larger range (notably priest prayer of healing). Chain heal is no longer the super spammable high thoroughput and cheap spell it was in previous expansions. Making it easier to hit all 4 targets is not unreasonable at all.

Second, the 4 piece bonus of not consuming riptide is really lackluster. How about

Chain heal no longer consumes the Riptide effect on the target. Also, each target hit by your chain heal spell will receive a Dousing Waters heal over time spell.

I'm not sure what the exact healing numbers for each hot placed on all 4 targets should add up to but it should be comparable to whatever the priest 4 piece produces. I think this would also fit in thematically with the whole Firelands theme. What is better than more healing waters going around!

Also, I came across an interesting suggestion from another thread that asks to make Chain Heal have the ability to bounce back to previous targets like a boomerang. So if there are not 4 different targets within jump range, it can bounce back to a target it has already healed. I think that would be really awesome with an increased bounce range as well and make chain heal cool again! Chain heal used to be a signature spell, but not anymore. Please make it better.

Thanks for reading:)

Chain Heal’s bounce range has already been increased about as much as the engine supports without causing odd behavior and/or undermining the purpose of the spell. It’d certainly be a better spell if it jumped 20 yards, but at that point it’s just a smart heal with a funny visual. And if it can bounce to the same player multiple times, then it’s just the best heal to use, always.

I think you're undervaluing the benefit of not consuming Riptide. That potentially amounts to a sustained 25% boost to Chain Heal’s throughput, which is huge, in addition to the healing conserved by not losing a portion of your Riptide. And while Chain Heal is easier to use efficiently in a 25-player raid, if the heal hits three targets it is quite efficient, and those situations will arise frequently in 10-player raids.

Ultimately, because healing gameplay is naturally varied (as opposed to DPS rotations for a min/max player), whenever we come up with healer set bonuses, unless they’re incredibly vanilla, they will inevitably favor some healers’ playstyles over others. And the latter group will say “but I never use <insert spell>, this bonus is terrible!” while a separate but less vocal group is giddy over what they’re getting. The original bonus was flawed because it really did play directly into the greatest weakness of Chain Heal in 10-player raids by requiring a 5th target to be of any use, but this bonus will be incredibly strong on 10-player Firelands encounters like Fandral, Beth’tilac, Rhyolith, and more. And on the encounters where it’s weak, Chain Heal isn’t really the right spell to use in 25-player modes anyway.