Proc Rate Nerf Incoming?

[flint]

Looking over some of the info that the developers have given us leads me to believe there is a proc rate nerf on the way, which is bad news for us doctors. Buffing dogs/garg to increase survivability is going to make witch doctors invincible with the way Burning Dogs and Big Stinker interact with proc abilities. The new legendaries also seem to be big on proc abilities, such as that 2h axe that has a 95% chance to do 6000-9000 bleed damage. Can you imagine how powerful that would be with Fire Pit, Slow Burn, and Rain of Toads? Now, I am not saying all skills will have their proc rates driven into the ground, but I would wager to guess that the skills already mentioned will be looked at due to their ability to consistently proc even extremely low chance abilities against entire groups of enemies.

Agree/disagree?

[Karth]

If the Barbarian's Sprint (Run like the Wind) proc rate isn't getting nerfed, nothing* is. Aaand it isn't.


*Okay, so maybe the pet auras' (Big Stinker and most particularly Burning Dogs) proc rates will get nerfed as pets are buffed; they seemed to be absolutely insane (100% proc rate per tick per enemy?) when I tested them, though I admit I wasn't very rigorous in doing it. With zombie dogs that can survive in battle that could get a little excessive. I might test it a bit more though.

I would bet money that more normal skills (that don't look like they were overlooked by a developer) like acid rain and rain of toads will not get a proc coefficient decrease.

[flint]

Blizz does seem quite serious about not nerfing useful skills but rather buffing underutilized ones, however they just made sure to mention the new legendary proc rates as reason why Energy Twister is getting its proc rate cut in half. Wicked Wind as a single skill procs more often than any single WD skill but when you have 3 zombie dogs, a garg, and are launching firebombs things get really bonkers. The only reason that build is not completely out of control now is because the pets need to survive the initial wave of attacks before getting everything on lockdown. I think I'm with you on the aura pets getting scaled back a bit but the other skills remaining where they are.

[Karth]

Yeah, I'm definitely foreseeing a proc coefficient decrease on the pet auras. With the reasoning given for nerfing Wicked Wind's proc rate there's no way it would make sense to leave 100% per tick AoE proc coefficients untouched. Even if they didn't buff pets.

[jamesL]

Gargantuan can no longer trigger procs

Skill Rune – Rabid Dogs
Proc coefficient has been reduced from 1.0 to 0.10

Skill Rune – Burning Dogs
Proc coefficient has been reduced from 1.0 to 0.05

Burning Dogs; Wow, not from 1.0 to 0.5, but from 1.0 to 0.05 !

[Kailenaa]

What does that mean? Is that about how much % dmg they;re takin?

[flint]

They also nerfed fire pit but did not mention rain of toads as having been nerfed unless I skipped over that part.

[Painman]

What does that mean? Is that about how much % dmg they;re takin?

It's the likelihood that they can make an effect like freeze, stun, bleed, etc. take hold. It was previously pretty high. With 1.04 it's going to be pretty low.

Pets will now be harder for monsters to kill off, but it will also be harder to neutralize monsters using the properties of various pets alone, such as the fire aura of Burning Dogs. A pet-doc in 1.04 will have to take a fairly active role in locking down monsters via use of Acid Cloud, etc.

I don't think it'll be that terrible. A pet-doc ought to be lobbing good artillery-type spells anyway.

They also nerfed fire pit but did not mention rain of toads as having been nerfed unless I skipped over that part.

I didn't see anything about nerfing RoT either.

Roll the Bones will still hit stuff that it's not really supposed to.