News: Got Questions? Hafu has the answers

[K1boRG]

Questions that were asked by the community have been answered!




The community asked, and Rumay "Hafu" Wang answered. Wang is the star female WoW player from team Fnatic/Orz, winner of the 2008 MLG Dallas and Orlando tournaments. The World of Warcraft community will be watching closely to see how Wang fairs in the 2009 season. Wang has agreed to answer questions from the GotFrag community.

How are you adjusting to the new class (death knights)? - outplaced

Haha, I'm barely adjusting. There's not much that I can adjust to, when plague strike alone counters resto druids. However, the "remove hots" portion is getting nerfed, or so ************ says, so hopefully things will get better .

How do you manage to survive the ridiculous burst damage that is going around in arenas these days? - lolols

Well I see a lot of druids go feral/resto for the survivability talents. To be perfectly honest, I've only gone that spec once, ever, and for two arena matches total ^^. Although I'm a fan of feral charge, I feel that going full resto (yes, that means sitting in tree form a lot ~) is much more useful in arena. Although it seems like that you would be pretty squishy, it seems that natural perfection and the armor you gain from tree form is enough for now. Furthermore, tree form healing is absolutely ridiculous, (although mana is still vastly a problem).

What kind of skills did you learn in The Sims that translated over to WoW? - hinochi

Really dude?

How do you feel about the state that arena is in? Do you like the new point system? - dglmstr

The new point system is pretty sweet as it makes team-hopping a possibility. However, for me personally, arenas aren't as enjoyable as they used to be. It seems like to be viable, I have to play a boring spec (full tree), and sit there in tree and try to heal drink as much as possible.

How hard was it to transition from druid to shaman? - namdnas

Not hard at all, although shaman got a lot easier to play from 70 to 80. Having shock off global cooldown makes it amazingly simple. Furthermore, in threes, you're basically a heroism/purge bot.

Is fnatic still going to be attending every event this coming season? - blizzind

Yes that seems to be the plan so far. Fnatic is wonderful to us. We are very grateful to MSI for the amazing laptops, Steelseries for our hardware, Coolermaster, Ugame.net, and Bestpoker.com

What do your parents think of you being a professional WoW player? - LckE

They don't think much of it, but they've been supportive in the sense that they've let me travel around to all these tournaments. They also came to watch me play at the Blizzard North American regionals since it was in the area.

Outside of WoW, what do you enjoy doing?

I love to go shopping (especially now that I have money of my own to spend), and spending time with friends and family. I'm also addicted to Literati, an online yahoo scrabble-like game.

As some classes are broken in terms of damage (mostly warriors and warlocks), do you see them getting huge changes / buffs in the next patches? Or do you think all the other classes will get huge nerfs? - venom2

I think warlocks and warriors are fine. In fact, I think it's some of the other classes that need tuning down rather than everything getting tuned up. Arcane mages and rogues already got nerfed a bit, hopefully next turn around is DKs and Hunters. I think it's disheartening that Blizzard is giving Paladins an earth-shock type of thing (exorcism in the next patch).

How have the top competitive arena teams adjusted to the large increase in burst damage? - strifeee

Most of the competitive teams just rerolled to more viable classes it seems, and it's obvious that druid healers have died down since 70 (However I will continue to be stubborn!). I know that Sodah still plays a druid, although he has a priest alt. Vorrent is also still doing quite well with a hybrid balance/resto spec.

How do you feel about all the new updates within the game? Do you think Blizzard is making the game ridiculously easy? - jMs

I think it's fine. Although interrupting has become much easier, it allows you to focus on other aspects of the game. I think that the first few weeks at 80 were pretty stupid, and any faceroll arcane mage team could do extremely well. It's a bit better now that everyone has most of the arena gear that they need. Obviously there needs to be some tweaking for balance, but I think they will come around eventually.

Are druids still a very viable class to play in 2's and 3's as it was before in season 3 and prior? - raf0x

I wouldn't say "very viable", certainly not to the degree that they were at 70. However, I have found success in 2s with a hunter/warlock/rogue and warrior so far. All of the comps are pretty powerful, but have a great bit of trouble with any DK team (I wonder why *cough* plague strike is stupid).

As far as 3s go, I've played a great bit of WLD, and some RLD. I've played with a few other comps, but it seems like almost any composition is powerful if you have good players.

How do you feel about plague strike on death knights being a direct hit towards resto druids? How have you managed to cope with healing through them? - zubin_101

Haha, I've been pretty blunt about it so far in the interview. It's ridiculously overpowered, and should be removed from the game. The fact that it ignores subtlety (our 30% dispel resistance), and can remove a full stack of lifeblooms (1500 mana) without making it bloom is unbalanced. I honestly haven't coped with them. They can run all over me in any bracket.

Do you think plague strike was put in the game generally because Blizzard was tired of resto druids in season 3-4?

Probably not, although who knows what Blizzard is ever thinking, really.



Source: GotFrag eSports - World of Warcraft News Story - Got Questions? Hafu has the answers