WoW 3.0.2 Patch Notes: Laughing my Balls Off

So, Blizzard released some information regarding the 3.0.2 patch. After getting about halfway through the post I laughed my balls off. So, I thought you all might enjoy knowing why.

Blizzard is changing the way Buffs and Debufs stack in raids. Previously, certain buffs only affected members of one's 5 person party and not the raid as a whole. Upon the release of 3.0.2 buffs will affect the entire raid. The reasoning behind this is "We want players to be able to form raids and parties based on who they want to play with, rather than who has the correct talents and abilities to min-max their raid performance." So, rather than put a Shamman in every caster group to give those casters Totem of Wrath now one shaman's totem will affect the entire raid. Which certainly sounds neat, until you see how they're balancing this.

There are thirty or so different categories into which buffs and debuffs fit. Here you will find a comprehensive list of the changes made broken down by category and which spells/talents are in that category.
In each category, you can only benefit from the most powerful spell granting that effect. For example, Fel Intelligence grants spirit and intellect, both weaker than Arcane Intellect and Divine Spirit. If a player has Fel Intelligence and receives a stronger Arcane Intellect buff, he will gain the intellect value from Arcane Intellect and the spirit value from Fel Intelligence.

This is the point at which I laughed my balls off.

To simplify raid composition, to enable players to "to be able to form raids and parties based on who they want to play with, rather than who has the correct talents and abilities to min-max their raid performance" Blizzard is creating a new definition of raid optimization, a new system of exclusion.

Think of it this way. Pre 3.0.2 Totem of Wrath affected only the 5 people in the casting shaman's party. With 3.0.2 Totem of Wrath will affect the entire raid. So, pre-3.0.2 raids who had more than 5 casters had to include an elemental shaman in each 5 person party which needed the buff. (which usually meant that 2 Elemental Shamans were ensured spots) With 3.0.2? Raids need only have ONE Totem of Wrath source, ONE Elemental Shaman. More than one is a waste of a spot. By reclassifying Buffs into 30 categories Blizzard has now created a new system of raid composition: Build a Raid which maximizes those 30 categories.

That's why I laughed my balls off. Blizzard wants to open raid compositions, remove barriers and allow more people in. But the system they made to do that LIMITS CHARACTER INCLUSION!

And that's completely ignoring the new automation system Blizzard is creating for mana regeneration abilities:

In addition to this change, we also needed to address the "mana battery" roles in a raid. The mana regeneration effect they grant is no longer limited to their own party, and it no longer depends on the amount of damage they deal. Each time they trigger the mana regeneration effect, 10 people in their raid group will receive a buff which causes them to regenerate 0.5% of their maximum mana each second. This buff, Replenishment, will be given preferentially to raid members with the lowest mana, but will re-evaluate which raid members receive it each time it is fired. Replenishment is provided by Shadow Priests, Survival Hunters, and Retribution Paladins.

Man, I can't fucking wait until my warlock gets the Replenishment buff over a healing priest. That will be spectacular!

Fucking Blizzard. "It works! LET'S BREAK IT!"