Hey there,

I play on EU realms and so the patch arrived yestesterday. I was eager to check out the Netherwing quests and so i did. I also wanted to check out how targets would break Fear while running arround with DOTs on them. I noticed no difference. The mobs I feared lasted the whole duration.
I didn't fear more than a few mobs. About 10 mobs but those I did fear there was no difference from before patch.
I haven't had the chance to fear PvP target so I dont know how they react to a Fear/DOT combination.
Any of you who have some experiences to share? Does the nerf have a huge og small impact on the way you play?

It feels very strange that they patched the game and didn't start season 2. In my opinion, it's kinda like changing the rules in the middle of the game. People have figured out what works for them, and now have to completely rework their strategies... something that is better done at the beginning rather than the end of the season.

Did some water elemental farming with my afflock twink. i did not feel a big diffrence, if at all they break fear a little earlier.

Seems like the changes(nerf) only affect PvP then.

Well to be quite honest, this was needed. I had a 2v2 matchup with my druid and a warrior against a warlock and some stealth class.

The warlock kept us feared for the maximum duration every time, stacked up all his dots and CoEx on us both and used the terrain to kite us both to <50% life before we dropped him and won the game (he was solo!).

Now we DID play a bit more conservatively because we didnt realise his partner had disconnected and we falsely assumed a druid or rogue to be about... but it was downright embarassing and we had so little options. He just controlled us both with ease. Between CoEx, heavy DoTs. Standing on a pillar, chain fearing us etc...

I can see this weakening 2v2 and 3v3 fear bomb teams, but thats about it. 5v5 will be not so badly affected. Fear was really a rediculously powerful CC.

However I do totally agree that in no way should it have been changed prior to the seasons end. Some people may evenm have rerolled with this tactic in mind and are now screwed in the first season.

I had quite a few early Fear breaks while doing PvE (with DoTs on the mob). The change affects all Fears, not just on PvP targets.

If Warlocks want their Fears to last 12 seconds, they have to keep off the DoTs. This change was needed, Warlocks were too good in 2v2 Arenas and Battlegrounds.

Yeah a well needed nerf tbh.

Having CC that does not break on damage is problematic in general. I remember when Blizz said that they didn't want players to lose control of their characters too much (then they added cyclone), so this nerf is consistent with their intent. Fact is, without my PvP trinket on I have died to warlocks without being able to perform a single action, which clearly was broken. That resilience does not help against dots doesn't make things better either.

To be honest, many of those warlock/shadow priest (or warlock/healer) combos that are now dropping in ratings were higher rated than their skill level justified. Now that fear was brought in line, maybe Blizz can look at warlock and shadow priest utility in 5v5 where they are somewhat lacking.

I haven't done any pvp since the patch hit, how likely is fear to break off a single dot?

Fear + UA was a pretty legitimate tactic against dispellers and I'd hate to see that go.

I've done around 40 arena games between my 2v2 and 3v3 since the new patch and notice a very minimal difference in the durations of fear, it is maybe breaking 2 or 3 seconds earlier but thats just eyeballing it.

I probably don't notice the change as much because I rarely fear the target that is being dpsed unless it is to interrupt a spell, typically I just use fear as a method of CC similar to a mage polymorph so that it actually does last close to the full duration.

I agree and I think with how infrequently they change over to new seasons it is unfeasible for them to wait for season resets to do class changes.