Drinking in arenas?

[Duraeas]

Yes or no? I personally think it's a stupid aspect of arena. It should only be allowed if you are grouped with a Mage and he Conjures the water. Anyone else have a thought?

[sadris]

I agree.

[laydee]

I disagree, healers mana regen is all different. By adding the same mana regen while drinking you atleast balence it out a little bit. Either that or make all healers heal before oom pool the same. I feel anyway ^^

[Sekah]

Before they allowed drinking the classes without mana bars had a massive advantage over those with them. Allowing drinking was an attempt to unclog the ranks with tonnes and tonnes of rogues, warriors and warlocks. (See how successful they were?) There was also a time when almost every team felt they needed a mage too. (Ha!)

I think drinking in arenas is an interesting part of the game, but it often leads to more headaches than advantages.

[Kadrix]

I feel it's a fair enough tactic in arenas, seeing as arenas would be even more dominated by druids than it already is. Good game innervate.

[Duraeas]

I feel it's a fair enough tactic in arenas, seeing as arenas would be even more dominated by druids than it already is. Good game innervate.

I feel that Druids drink the most of any healing class to be honest. Innervate is dispellable, especially next patch when you can see every classes buffs.

Some healing classes are designed and balanced around mana efficiency. It is touted as being one of the key points of the Paladin for example. Allowing any class to drink defeats the purpose of that.

[Kadrix]

Yeah, I know that innervate is dispellable, but only removeable by shamans, mages, priests. Doesn't matter to a rogue or paladin. Oh and hunters come 2.3

As wel as druids being able to hot up a target, then drink once they drop combat, and not be scared, whereas if I time my drinks badly, my partner can die easily.

[Taffie]

Yeah, I know that innervate is dispellable, but only removeable by shamans, mages, priests. Doesn't matter to a rogue or paladin. Oh and hunters come 2.3

As wel as druids being able to hot up a target, then drink once they drop combat, and not be scared, whereas if I time my drinks badly, my partner can die easily.

True, but it's really nice for Paladins because you can throw a huge holy light and right before it lands sit down and drink.

Us Druids have to cast a bad spell like Regrowth or HT to get that job done!

[Grup]

I don't like it, because some healers can get away easier than others (druids, paladins), and it makes pets ridiculously annoying.

[Chipstar]

I disagree, healers mana regen is all different. By adding the same mana regen while drinking you atleast balence it out a little bit. Either that or make all healers heal before oom pool the same. I feel anyway ^^

Yeah... what Laydee said..

[Geneth]

I don't agree. It is a part of blizzard's balancing, while there are many... crappy ideas and useless changes, this one was a good indeed.

[Tnewor]

Im going to be completely honest. I only disagree if there is a mage on my team. If not, then WTF let us drink :)

[Yothga]

i'd be completely lost without drinking :P

[Pinilla]

Priests have the best mana efficiency of all the classes (with regards to regen anyway, which is what really matters because you will get mana burned, drain manaed down to 0 a lot of the time), but we also have the hardest time getting a drink (no bof or cat form). I think it balanced out pretty much in some weird way.

[Asper]

One of the main reasons mana users were at a disadvantage though is because of all the lame mana burning crap going on. Mana draining AND drinking are both stupid in the arena and should be removed. Classes who don't use mana should have an advantage the longer a fight runs. Thats the point. Those classes generally do not have the amount of cc that mana users get either.

If blizzard finds that mana users are oom too soon even without mana draining then they can step in and add more intellect to gear if need be, but I'm confident that the level of damage output vs mana spent is a comfortable number right now.

[Digo]

Drinking only exists because manaburn is too efficient and powerful. The mechanics of manaburn should be changed entirely to become a reactive spell that works like an interrupt instead of just a straight -mana effect.

[Neajane]

True, but it's really nice for Paladins because you can throw a huge holy light and right before it lands sit down and drink.

Us Druids have to cast a bad spell like Regrowth or HT to get that job done!

The Holy Light --> sit and drink is an exploit that they'll eventually fix.

[Kadrix]

Yeah the same issue exists with HT, Gheal, Healing wave, etc. Pretty damned cheesey.

[Barr]

There needs to be arena water from vendors because if there wasn't teams with a mage would have a clear advantage over teams who do not. This is why arena water was implemented and this is why it will remain.

My main concern is where is the arena food?

[Geneth]

There needs to be arena water from vendors because if there wasn't teams with a mage would have a clear advantage over teams who do not. This is why arena water was implemented and this is why it will remain.

My main concern is where is the arena food?

Because it's possible to use bandages.

[Molp]

Balance issues aside, I am against removing mechanics from arena. Depth is the one thing WoW has over games like Halo.

Second, drinking was added because mana drains are too powerful otherwise. Removing water would require the rebalancing of a lot of abilities.

[Duraeas]

Balance issues aside, I am against removing mechanics from arena. Depth is the one thing WoW has over games like Halo.

Second, drinking was added because mana drains are too powerful otherwise. Removing water would require the rebalancing of a lot of abilities.

I agree with Drains being nerfed.

This mechanic was added to arena, it was not initially there. I think it was better beforehand.

Aren't Druids able to avoid Mana Drains simply by shapeshifting?

[Shadowborne]

I agree with Drains being nerfed.

This mechanic was added to arena, it was not initially there. I think it was better beforehand.

Aren't Druids able to avoid Mana Drains simply by shapeshifting?

Yes, but shapeshifting cost mana, warlocks always win ;)

On a serious note, a good warlock will drain the druid in caster form and as soon as he gets on bear he will put heavy DPS on him forcing him to shift out and heal and immediately begin draining him when he heals. By making him shift and getting drained everytime he does, he runs OOM very fast.

[efa]

I disagree with the drinking in arena part. You shouldnt be able to drink unless there is a mage in team.

Disable drinking is a quick way to balance restore druid in arena.

For all those saying restore druid arent overpower, go check out the teams above 2200, over 80% of them are restore druid + warrior/lock.

[Bubaa]

drinking is fine

shadowmeld drinking?

give me a break... if you can go shadowmeld, you shouldn't be able to do anything then what its meant for, to be invisible. shadowmeld drinking in arena is OP.

[Molp]

The collateral damage would be huge. Warlock/healer would be insanely strong. Bloodlusted mana burn in 5v5 would be, too.

If you want mana burn as a viable team strategy, it needs a counter. The counter to drain teams is drinking, because most mana burn teams have low enough DPS for the healer to not heal for a while.

The fact that druids can counter mana burn the best is a big part of their success in 2v2. But is the problem really the druid, or that mana burning is simply too strong against other healers?

I disagree with the drinking in arena part. You shouldnt be able to drink unless there is a mage in team.

Disable drinking is a quick way to balance restore druid in arena.

For all those saying restore druid arent overpower, go check out the teams above 2200, over 80% of them are restore druid + warrior/lock.

[Nightcide]

drinking is fine

shadowmeld drinking?

give me a break... if you can go shadowmeld, you shouldn't be able to do anything then what its meant for, to be invisible. shadowmeld drinking in arena is OP.

Thats why I am nightelf. . you know becasue being a dwarf would be so much beter :rolleyes:.

[Taffie]

I think drinking in arena is fine and needed.

As for shadowmeld, however. At this point I would actually trade warstomp for it. If you're not paying attention to the Druid at all times, you may lose them until they're at full mana. Or even more, I can't moonfire a drinking nelf until I'm right ontop of them.

If a shadowmelded Druid is drinking and presses cyclone as I get near them, obviously theirs would get off before mine (because they'd have first target). So a good way for them to abuse that could be to shadowmeld --> drink --> cyclone --> fully dps down target. This would be harder, me being a Druid.. But as a Paladin, you're SOL! =P

I don't think they should nerf it, I just think it's really good. Poor nelfs don't get many good things. And those poor, poor nelf rouges!

[Alysana]

I just wish I could eat and shadowmeld at times as well :( No food though.

[Zulmaluka]

well on 1 hand paladins cant get oom fast as shaman ,so me as a shaman have to drink almost always in arena...but still ...when i look @druid hots+run+drinks...thats IS OP....bcouse thay keep healing AND drinking @same time....and if sumthing goes wrong thay can just cyclone u[ur warriror/rogue ] and QQ moar ... -_-

thayr also hard to nuke so most ppl dont nuke them ,couse druids and run and heal very good [both @same time ] +are very fast which ppl r scared off...but whit enouh CC u can kill any druid or just drain him to death ...

[Mildo]

Drinking in 2's is definitely not balanced. Druids have too much mobility to stop everyone from drinking while drinking themselves. The changes to hamstring might affect this. Which is why any mana dps class pretty much has to roll 2 dps. With the exception of teams that solely try to drain mana before dps IE hunter priest. Drinking is fine in 3v3/5v5 imo because a healer can't drink to full before someone dies.

[Ven]

if there's bandaging, there should be drinking. sorry, some classes don't have the longevity of melees or warlocks, and drinking is just a huge part of the playstyle for a lot of classes

drinking has been a part of PvP since the game started, so i don't know why ppl whine about it

i will agree that it is very annoying in 2v2, but both sides can do it in a large portion of matchups so w/e

[Nightcide]

Btw if you took drinking out you have to either A: increase hunter's mana or B: find some way for us to regain it faster. . viper lol?

[Ahti]

drinking is fine

shadowmeld drinking?

give me a break... if you can go shadowmeld, you shouldn't be able to do anything then what its meant for, to be invisible. shadowmeld drinking in arena is OP.

Complaining about night elf racials??? This is a new one..

Drinking should be taken out of 2v2, yet kept in 3v3 and 5v5 imo.. Some 2v2 games take 15 minutes to win just because it's so ridiculously easy to get out of combat in blade's edge.

[Shadowborne]

I say take drinking out of 2v2 arenas ONLY, however to compensate from outlast teams becoming too powerful maybe implement a CD on mana drain/mana burn in 2's only. Doesn't sound like something Blizzard would do, but just my thoughts on it.

[shortcake]

if there's bandaging, there should be drinking. sorry, some classes don't have the longevity of melees or warlocks, and drinking is just a huge part of the playstyle for a lot of classes

drinking has been a part of PvP since the game started, so i don't know why ppl whine about it

i will agree that it is very annoying in 2v2, but both sides can do it in a large portion of matchups so w/e

Bandages have a one minute debuff attached to them. Drinking does not.

I don't think drinking is so bad, the problem is just being able to do it so much. I don't know if it'd be a good idea to reduce the ability to drink unless mana burn and drain mana were on cooldowns, though.

[Nightcide]

I say take drinking out of 2v2 arenas ONLY, however to compensate from outlast teams becoming too powerful maybe implement a CD on mana drain/mana burn in 2's only. Doesn't sound like something Blizzard would do, but just my thoughts on it.

Again they would have to do something about Hunter's mana in arena :). . knowing blizz not going to happen.

[Ven]

to make a long story short, if people want drinks removed or nerfed based on 2v2, then i can't agree with that kind of balance decision since 2v2 should be the last bracket considered when tuning arena balance.

[Duraeas]

to make a long story short, if people want drinks removed or nerfed based on 2v2, then i can't agree with that kind of balance decision since 2v2 should be the last bracket considered when tuning arena balance.

So long as 2v2 is a viable way of reaching Merciless Gladiator and Gladiator, I have to disagree.

[Kadrix]

I disagree with removing drinking from 2v2. That bracket would be dominated by teams like rogue/priest and priest/lock.

[Keline]

First of all, I'm extremly disappointed to see this thread on this board. This is one of the most annoying official forum topics because of the sheer ignorance many posters usually display in them.

Now my stuff

It's been said in this thread that mana-free classes should have an advantage over manaclasses in long fights.
I see two problems with that, certain classes are reduced to probably 1% power (feel free to dispute this but you know it's around there) once they are out of mana in a group PVP situation. Do you honestly think that such an incredibly permanent reduction is warranted? Or are you just playing a team that doesn't rely on drinking that much and you just want an Autowin for outlasting your opponents for 3 minutes? That's usually the motivation behind these "lol drinking?" threads on the Official boards.
Secondly, and even more important, are mana-classes at an advantage over melee classes, hunters and warlocks while they are with enough mana to cast? Of course they are not. This game is pretty much balanced as long as everyone has mana. It becomes a joke once everyone is out.
You all know that the true winners of short matches are classes with powerful long-CD abilities.

Another point repeatedly brought up is "No Mage No drinking LOL". As if Mages were the only source of water in the game. They weren't before honorwater was added before you say that.
Essentially what you're trying to say is that roughly 10 different class/talent setups shouldn't enter the arena unless they also have a mage on their team. Does that make sense?


Disable drinking is a quick way to balance restore druid in arena.
While breaking every other class that also relies on drinking. Who cares? Not you, you play a warlock.

[buena]

Sure it's a balance issue, but it's more than that. It's a gameplay issue.

Drinking causes gameplay to be less fun and therefore should be fixed. It would require a large rebalance of other abilities, true. But it is worth doing a large rebalance to make gameplay more exciting.

[Keline]

Sure it's a balance issue, but it's more than that. It's a gameplay issue.

Drinking causes gameplay to be less fun and therefore should be fixed. It would require a large rebalance of other abilities, true. But it is worth doing a large rebalance to make gameplay more exciting.

Wait, what? You think being out of mana and watching while 20 mana per second tick in so you can cast another spell in 1 minute is fun?

That's just an outrageous claim you made there.