Raid Buff Versatility Among Classes

Moriantum · 09/12/08, 3:27 PM

Not long ago I was very happy to see mmo-champion.com post a consolidated list of all the buffs in WotLK. As a raid leader making sense of all the blue posts had become very tedious, and it helped alot as far as getting an idea of class balance issues for level 80 raiding. While it was a large step up, I found it still lacking in certain areas, mainly the ease of organization for quick answers to the question, "If I don't have x class in the raid, what other class or classes do I need to have?" As a result I have tried to lay out a format that would be helpful to me personally in this regard, and hopefully helpful to the community at large as well.

This is a work in progress and all the other classes and links will soon be added. If you don't mind taking a look and possibly giving some feedback, it would be appreciated.

Buffs shared by no other class:
Blessing of Kings (Improved Tier 1 of the Protection Tree)
Mark of the Wild (Improved Tier 1 of the Restoration Tree)
Power Word: Fortitude (Improved Tier 2 of the Discipline Tree)

The following is a list of classes needed to replace the buffs of the primary class listed:

Retribution Paladin(Total Buffs to replace: 5)

Shadow Priest or Survival Hunter
Lose: Judgment of the Wise
Gain: Vampiric Touch or Hunting Party
Note: All three buffs appear to be exactly the same.
Elemental Shaman or Assasination Rogue
Lose: Heart of the Crusader
Gain: Totem of Wrath or Master Poisoner
Note: HotC affects ALL attacks, while ToW only affects spells
Fury Warrior
Lose: Improved Blessing of Might
Gain: Battle Shout
Note: BoM is a only a Tier 2 talent, so it could theoretically be picked up by a Holy or Protection Paladin. Also, BoM is a raid buff lasting 30 minutes, while BS only lasts 2.
Moonkin
Lose: Swift Retribution
Gain: Improved Moonkin Aura
Note: Range difference.
Beast Master Hunter (Party buff only)
Lose: Sanctified Retribution
Gain: Ferocious Inspiration
Note: SR is 2% while FI is 3%.

Protection Paladin (Total Buffs to Replace 3)

Restoration Druid
Lose: Improved Devotion Aura
Gain: Tree of Life
Note: ToL does not give the armor bonus of DA.
Discipline Priest
Lose: Blessing of Sanctuary
Gain: Grace
Note: BoS has the obvious advantage of being a 30 min raid buff while Grace will only affect the target currently being healed by the priest. Grace also does not give the added mana/rage/runic power buff.
Frost Death Knight or Warrior or Feral Druid
Lose: Judgment of the Just
Gain: Icy Touch or Infected Wounds or Thunderclap
Note: All of these buffs appear to be exactly the same.

Holy Paladin (Buff is Unique)

Lose: Improved Blessing of Wisdom
Note: No other comparable buff.

Moonkin Druid (Total Buffs to Replace 5)

Shadow Priest
Lose: Improved Faerie Fire
Gain: Misery
Note: These buffs appear to be exactly the same
Elemental Shaman
Lose: Moonkin Aura
Gain: Elemental Oath
Note: MA is an aura, while the shaman debuff is a proc on crit talent
Retribution Paladin
Lose: Improved Moonkin Aura
Gain: Swift Retribution
Note: Range difference.
Unholy Deathknight or Warlock
Lose: Earth and Moon
Gain: Ebon Plaguebringer or Curse of Elements
Note: EP is 12% plus increased disease damage, EaM is a flat 13%, CoE is 10% and 165 less resistance. If you had all three you could get the best of them all, i.e. – 13% damage, improved disease damage, and 165 less resistance.
Hunter
Lose: Insect Swarm
Gain: Scorpid Sting
Note: Both buffs appear to be exactly the same

Feral Druid (Total Buffs to Replace 5)

Beast Master Hunter or Warlock
Lose: Faerie Fire
Gain: Sting or Curse of Recklessness
Note: You can get FF from a moonkin if you have one also. CoR has the downside of increasing the targets AP along with the armor reduction
Fury Warrior
Lose: Leader of the Pack
Gain: Rampage
Note: Improved leader of the pack will also give group heals.
Arms Warrior
Lose: Mangle
Gain: Trauma
Note: Both buffs appear to be exactly the same
Frost Death Knight or Warrior or Protection Paladin
Lose: Infected Wounds
Gain: Icy Touch or Thunderclap or Judgment of the Just
Note: All these buffs appear to be exactly the same
Warlock or Warrior
Lose: Demoralizing Roar
Gain: Demoralizing Shout or Curse of Weakness
Note: CoW provides slightly more attack power reduction

Restoration Druid (Total Buffs to Replace 1)

Protection Paladin
Lose: Tree of Life
Gain: Improved Devotion Aura
Note: ToL does not give the armor bonus of DA

Elemental Shaman (Total Buffs to Replace 2)

Moonkin Druid
Lose: Elemental Oath
Gain: Moonkin Aura
Note: MA is an aura, while the shaman debuff is a proc on crit talent
Demonology Warlock or Discipline Priest or Mage (11 points in Arcane)
Lose: Totem of Wrath
Gain: Demonic Pact or Focus Magic or Improved Divine Spirit
Note: All these spells add spell power, but all are distinct

Enhance Shaman (Total Buffs to Replace 1)

Blood Death Knight or Marksmanship Hunter
Lose: Unleashed Rage
Gain: Abomination’s Might or Trueshot Aura
Note: TA is an aura while the other two are chance on crit effects

Restoration Shaman (Total Buffs to Replace 1)

Priest (13 points in Holy)
Lose: Ancestral Healing
Gain: Inspiration
Note: Both buffs appear to be exactly the same

Frost Death Knight (Total Buffs to Replace 2)

Shaman
Lose: Improved Icy Talons
Gain: Windfury Totem
Note: Both buffs are the same if an enhance shaman is placing improved WF for the added 4%.
Feral Druid or Protection Paladin or Warrior
Lose: Icy Touch
Gain: Infected Wounds or Judgement of the Just or Thunderclap

Unholy Death Knight (Total Buffs to Replace 1)

Moonkin Druid or Warlock
Lose: Ebon Plaguebringer
Gain: Earth and Moon or Curse of Elements
Note: All three buffs are a little different.

Blood Death Knight (Total Buffs to Replace 1)

Marksmanship Hunter or Enhance Shaman
Lose: Abomination's Might
Gain: Trueshot Aura or Unleashed Rage
Note: TA is an aura while the other two are chance on crit effects

Fury Warrior (Total Buffs to Replace 3)

Retribution Paladin (battle) Feral Druid or Warlock (Demo)
Lose: Improved Battle Shout and Demoralizing Shout
Gain: Improved Blessing of Might for Battle shout and Improved Demoralizing Roar or Curse of Weakness for Demo
Note: 2 min buff vs. a 30 min one.
Rogue or Marksmanship Hunter or Arms Warrior
Lose: Furious Attacks
Gain: Wound Poison or Aimed Shot or Mortal Strike
Note:
Feral Druid
Lose: Rampage
Gain: Leader of the Pack
Note: Improved Leader of the Pack also heals.

Arms Warrior (Total Buffs to Replace 2)

Rogue or Marksmanship Hunter or Fury Warrior
Lose: Mortal Strike
Gain: Wound Poison or Aimed Shot or Furious Attacks
Combat Rogue
Lose: Blood Frenzy
Gain: Blood Poisoning
Note: Both buffs appear to be the same.

Protection Warrior

Rogue or Beast Master Hunter
Lose: Sunder Armor
Gain: Expose Armor or Acid Spit
Note: All three buffs are the same
Frost Death Knight or Feral Druid or Protection Paladin
Lose: Thunderclap
Gain: Icy Touch or Infected Wounds or Judgment of the Just
Note: All four buffs are the same

Warlock general abilities with very low talent point requirements to improve:

Improved Curse of Weakness and Curse of Recklessness (7 points in Affliction)
Improved Blood Pact (3 points in Demonology)

Affliction Warlock (Total buffs to replace: 2)

Discipline Priest and Mage
Lose: Fel Intelligence
Gain: Divine Spirit and Arcane Brilliance
Note: Improved Felhunter.
Unholy Death Knight or Moonkin
Lose: Improved Curse of Elements (Malediction)
Gain: Earth and Moon or Ebon Plaguebringer
Note: It may not be worth it to use Malediction for only a 3% increase over normal CoE given the DPS loss to the affliction lock putting it up.

Demonology Warlock (Total buffs to replace 1)

Discipline Priest or Mage or Elemental Shaman
Lose: Demonic Pact
Gain: Improved Divine Spirit, Focus Magic, Totem of Wrath
Note: ToW may be the best of these four.

Desuction Warlock(Total Buffs: 0)

No unique buffs, but can obviously put up any of the curses.

pope master · 09/12/08, 3:30 PM

Holy Pallys get Improved Blessing of Wisdom.

• mutagen · 09/12/08, 3:34 PM

Similar efforts at [WotLK] Listing of class synergies (talents and skills) and Raid Stacking 101 A Dwarf Priest

Tinwhisker · 09/12/08, 3:37 PM

Assassination Rogue - Tier 9 - Master Poisoner 3/3

Combat Rogue - Tier 9 - Blood Poisoning 2/2

Subtelty Rogue - Tier 5 - Hemorrhage 1/1

Moof · 09/12/08, 3:38 PM

Direct equivalent of Heart of the Crusader is an Assassination Rogues Master Poisoner

Combat Rogues also get Blood Poisoning which is equivalent to an Arms Warriors Blood Frenzy

edit: urgh too slow >.<

Moriantum · 09/12/08, 3:42 PM

Originally Posted by mutagen

Similar efforts at [WotLK] Listing of class synergies (talents and skills) and Raid Stacking 101 A Dwarf Priest

Thank you for posting those, I had not seen them. For me at least it is easier on the brain to lay it out in this format then the other ways. However, if moderators find my post redundant please feel free to tag this thread onto one of these other ones.

• frmorrison · 09/12/08, 6:12 PM

This thread is different, because it reflects the current changes.

Other buffs not listed here are the glyphs for blessings.

Glyphed Might adds 10% of AP as spell power (might work with other spell damage buffs) and Glyphed Wisdom adds health per second equal to mana per second (unique).

Gruntle · 09/12/08, 6:32 PM

Leader of the pack can be improved by talents to give heal raid members on crit, this makes LoTP slightly better than Rampage (if the druid has that talent).

Windfury (any shaman but likely supplied by enhance) is the same as the Death knight's Icy talons, providing 20% melee haste.

Dekkar · 09/12/08, 6:48 PM

You might want to also mention that Grace and Blessing of Sanctuary, besides having the difference of one being a 30 minute raid buff, it also gives the mana/rage/runic power return, which is something no other class brings.

Mijae · 09/12/08, 7:07 PM

Originally Posted by Dekkar

You might want to also mention that Grace and Blessing of Sanctuary, besides having the difference of one being a 30 minute raid buff, it also gives the mana/rage/runic power return, which is something no other class brings.

Resto druids also have this utility:

Replenish (Tier 9) - Your Rejuvenation spell has a 5/10/15% chance to restore 8 Energy, 4 Rage, 1% Mana or 16 Runic Power per tick.

• Feist-Mok · 09/15/08, 1:46 PM

Originally Posted by Mijae

Resto druids also have this utility:

Replenish (Tier 9) - Your Rejuvenation spell has a 5/10/15% chance to restore 8 Energy, 4 Rage, 1% Mana or 16 Runic Power per tick.

This is a different mechanic from Blessing of Sanctuary's Rage/Mana/RP regen on block/dodge/parry.

Darkwand3r3r · 09/15/08, 7:52 PM

Guess I'll chip in the Warlock class.

Affliction lock (Total Buffs: 2)

Disc Priest and Mage
Lose: Int and spirit
Gain: Divine Spirit and Arcane Brilliance
Note: Int and spirit gain depends on speccing into Imp Felhunter or not.

Demonology Warlock(Total Buffs: 1/2)

Spell Damage increased buff:
Mage, Disc Priest, (Arcane)Mage, Elemental Shaman or Resto Shaman
Lose: Spellpower increase
Gain: Improved Divine Spirit, Focus Magic, Flametongue Totem, Totem of Wrath
Note:
Totem of Wrath gives 140 spell damange and 3% spellcrit for the entire raid at 70, 280 at 80.
IDS: Depends on spirit gained trough gear.
Focus Magic: Gives 150 spell dmg at lvl 80, 80 on lvl 70.
Flametongue Totem: Gives 114 spell damage and healing done(highest rank is lvl 67).
So Totem of Wrath looks to be the best.

Spell Damage taken debuff:
Moonkin Druid or Unholy Deathknight
Lose: Curse of Elements
Gain: Earth and Moon, Ebon Plaguebringer
Note: Curse of Elements gives 10% increase, 13 as affliction but affliction locks use CoA for damage instead.
Both Earth and Moon and Ebon Plaguebringer give standard 13% so these would be the better choices.

Desuction Warlock(Total Buffs: 1)
Same as above with CoE

Hope it matches the intention of the structure.
Wouldn't it be a good idea to have a list with the buffs and debuffs from best to worst for easy comparing? If yes I could make that if people want.

Edit: I saw that under Retri pala, Heart of the Crusader gives 3% crit for ALL attacks. Totem of Wrath gives ONLY spell crit. Master Poisoner gives 3% crit for ALL attacks aswell. This is asuming that the tooltip is right.

To clarify:
Totem of Wrath
Summons a Totem of Wrath with 5 health at the feet of the caster. The totem increases the damage done by spells and effects by 140 for all party and raid members, and increases the critical strike chance of spells and effects by 3% against all enemies within 40 yards. Lasts 2 min.

Heart of the Crusader
In addition to the normal effect, your Judgement spells will also increase the critical strike chance of all attacks made against that target by an additional 3%.

Master Poisoner
Increases the critical hit chance of all attacks made against any target you have poisoned by 3% and reduces the duration of all Poison effects applied to you by 50%.

Edit: The buffs and debuffs are almost all the same. There are a few differences.
Leader of the Pack vs Rampage, the Healing part.
Earth and Moon+Ebon Plaguebringer > CoE for reasons mentioned in the warlock buffs/debuffs.
Trueshot Aura has 45 yards, Unleashed Rage and Abomination's Might are 20 yards.

Totem of Wrath gives 140 spell damange and 3% spellcrit for the entire raid at 70, 280 at 80.
IDS: Depends on spirit gained trough gear. Also gives mana regen.
Focus Magic: Gives 150 spell dmg at lvl 80, 80 on lvl 70.
Flametongue Totem: Gives 114 spell damage and healing done(highest rank is lvl 67).

Improved Moonkin aura slightly better than Elemental Oath. First is an aura, 2nd is a proc on crit, will not really matter much in the end.

Improved Devotion Aura gives Armor and Healing received. Tree of Life aura does not give the armor buff.

Curse of Weakness gives a bit more Damage decrease than Demoralizing shout(unimproved) and Demoralizing Roar(Unimproved).

Ferocious Inspiration gives 3% damage increase for the entire raid, unlimited range?. Sanctified Retribution gives 2% dmg done for the entire raid in range(30 yards).

Ceral · 09/15/08, 8:47 PM

It appears to me you're overspecialising some classes:

DK - Improved Icy Touch - 3 points in Frost
Warrior - Improved Thunderclap - 8 points in Arms
Warrior - Improved Demo Shout - 8(?, been a while since I've raided) points in Fury

Improved Thunderclap is commonly taken by all specs since there is not much else.
Improved Demo Shout is taken by both dps specs commonly.
Improved Icy Touch is always gonna be taken by a deep Frost spec, regardless of dps or tank. But ith only 3 points to spend it's also likely that other that other tank specs take it.

Actually, reading the first post again you're not even looking at the improved versions ? Then it makes even less sense to me to split them into different specs.

PSGarak · 09/16/08, 2:33 PM

The original post is only looking at talented buffs, not at baseline buffs. All warlocks have access to full-power CoR (talents only remove the AP penalty), all DKs have access to full Horn of Winter, all mages have access to full AI. All shamans have Flametongue totem and Strength of Earth totems, improved versions is tier 1 enhancement, competes with ToW, arcane focus, and demonic pact for FT and horn of winter for SoE. All shamans also have mana spring, currently no replacement (healing stream can be considered a HoT, not a buff), heroism/bloodlust which has no replacement but limited stacked, and resto shamans have mana tide, currently unreplaceable.

Scobey · 09/16/08, 3:36 PM

This is a spreadsheet that I posted in some of the previous threads on this topic, hopefully it can be useful here. I've updated it with some of the new abilities and updated some pet abilities as well. I'm also very bad about catching errors, so if you see anything that needs to be fixed or any buffs/debuffs I've left out please tell me so I can fix them. Suggestions on how to make it better are also always welcome.

WotLK_Raid_Planner_v3_2.xls - FileFront.com

Erdluf · 09/16/08, 4:31 PM

You might also consider listing what it costs the different specs to provide the aura. Other than talent points, applying a buff/debuff may cost DPS in uneven ways.

From a Moonkin point of view:

E&M is free from a normal rotation. CoE prevents the Warlock from casting a DPS curse (CoA).

IFF hurts Moonkin DPS (roughly 3% dps loss). Misery is a normal part of a normal Shadow Priest rotation.

Insect Swarm (for debuff) means not using a nice DPS glyph (roughly 3% dps loss). Scorpid Sting, I don't know.

Malan · 09/16/08, 4:33 PM

You're missing a few things from the Enhancement Shaman side. Enhancement shaman provide talented Strength of Earth/Grace of Air, talented Windfury Totem (20% haste, 16% base) in addition to Unleashed Rage.

Both are replacable by death knight abilities - horn of winter and icy talons.

julored · 09/16/08, 6:20 PM

Shamans' Wrath of Air totem is the only spell haste buff (5%), though it isn't talented.

Lasie · 09/16/08, 7:08 PM

Frost Mage

Fire Mage
Lose: Winter's Chill
Gain: Improved Scorch
Note: Same type of buff.
Retribution Paladin, Shadow Priest or Survival Hunter
Lose: Improved Water Elemental
Gain: Judgment of the Wise , Vampiric Touch or Hunting Party
Note: Similar.

Moriantum · 09/18/08, 1:14 PM

I appreciate all the input. Originally I only intended to put in buffs that were unique to a certain spec, which generally meant these were something that was specced for fairly deep in a talent tree. I have found limiting it to only that can be problematic however, because sometimes unspecced for buffs of one class, overlap with specced for buffs of another. Also, there are lots of buffs that are very low in the talent trees, that could be theoretically picked up by just about any spec in the class if they wanted too. Considering those things, I think I might change the format slightly to be a little more like the way I did the warlock, with general abilities to the class, or abilities low in the talent tree listed first, followed by specific spec required buffs.

Woodlum · 09/19/08, 10:15 PM

- In the OP's instance of Ret Paladin vs Moonkin it is offered that the Moonkin Aura is a party buff only. Which is false, it is now raid wide like Retribution Aura. Only difference is yardage for affect 45 vs 30, thus they are not entirely the same.

- I believe Ferocious Inspiration (party buff) and Sanctified Retribution (raid wide) stack.

- I believe that there is some stacking that can be done between the 3 different mana-battery class-specs while the Improved Water Elemental is actually a different affect and isn't counted as the same as the others.

- Does CoE buff Holy damage now?

Zifna · 09/23/08, 1:29 PM

You may want to note on

Restoration Shaman (Total Buffs to Replace 1)
Priest (13 points in Holy)
Lose: Ancestral Healing
Gain: Inspiration
Note: Both buffs appear to be exactly the same

That while the buffs will be exactly the same, Restoration Shamans will likely have significantly more spell crit than Priests and even have a talent intended to force crit heals on demand, so the uptime on the buff (particularly during critical periods) is likely to be much higher.

manapaws · 09/23/08, 2:10 PM

One of the buffs I didnt see mentioned here was Death Knights 'Horn of Winter'. It's a 2 minute buff, operates similar to warrior shouts and gives 155 strength and 155 agility. Does not stack with shaman strength of earth totem which gives the same amounts of both at max rank.

Some notes though. Firstly Enhance spec Shamans would generally have 3/3 Enhancing totems (in fact any spec can reach this) to improve it by 15%. Secondly, the strength of earth glyph makes it also provide a 1% physical crit chance.

• Endahl · 09/23/08, 5:50 PM

Originally Posted by Zifna

That while the buffs will be exactly the same, Restoration Shamans will likely have significantly more spell crit than Priests and even have a talent intended to force crit heals on demand, so the uptime on the buff (particularly during critical periods) is likely to be much higher.

Not sure your assumption reflects post-patch reality as things like Improved Holy Concentration and Divine Aegis increase the value of crit on gear for healing priests in 3.0.

Dayn · 09/25/08, 12:04 PM

Another buff shared by no other class:
Unholy Aura (Tier 7 of the Unholy tree)