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Buff

Revision as of 14:39, 14 December 2009 by Thegame2412@legacy41576918 (talk | contribs) (Greater BoS now properly increases strength)
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Most often, a buff refers to a temporary beneficial spell or effect placed on a player. Buffs can range in effect from simple personal shields to buffs which augment almost every category of stats a given player may have for their race or class.

Buffs can be of two types: those that expire over time (simple buff like Spell holy magicalsentry [Arcane Intellect]) and those that are dependent of the environment around you (like the AoE effect given by Inv jewelry talisman 12 [Headmaster's Charge]).

You can dismiss an active buff that expires over time by right-clicking on its icon.

Most buffs do not stack with other similar buffs. One prominent exception is heal over time spells, heal over time spells from multiple characters and different heal over time spells from the same character (such as a druid's Spell nature resistnature [Regrowth] and Spell nature rejuvenation [Rejuvenation]) will stack with eachother.

Buff can also be used as a verb, i.e. "to buff" means to apply buffs.

Buff is also used to represent a change to a class or ability that makes it more effective or useful. It is the opposite of a nerf.

List of notable buffs obtained from other players

By class

Death Knight:

Druid:

Hunter:

Mage:

Paladin:

Priest:

Rogue: rogues have no buff for party members.

Shaman:

Warlock:

Warrior:

Draenei:

Consumable:

By type

Similar buffs do not stack with eachother unless otherwise specified.

Attack power (percentile)
Attack power (additive)
Armor
Base stats

Crit

  • Buffs
    • Melee and ranged
      • Druid Spell holy blessingofstamina [Leader of the Pack]: Tier 7 Feral Combat talent, 1 rank, active while in Bear, Dire Bear and Cat forms, +5%.
      • Warrior Ability warrior rampage [Rampage]: Tier 9 Fury Warrior talent, 1 rank, activated when the warrior deals a critical strike, +5%.
    • Spell
      • Druid Ability druid improvedmoonkinform [Moonkin Aura]: Spell nature forceofnature [Moonkin Form], a tier 7 Balance talent ability, applies this buff while active, 5% spell critical strike chance bonus.
      • Mage Spell Arcane StudentOfMagic [Focus Magic]: Tier 3 arcane talent, increases the target's chance to critically hit with all spells by 3%. When the target critically hits the caster's chance to critically hit with spells is increased by 3% for 10 sec.
  • Debuffs (listed for completeness because Totem of Wrath applies both a buff and a debuff)
    • Attack and spell
      • Paladin Spell brokenheart [Heart of the Crusader]: Tier 2 Retribution talent, 2 ranks, causes judgements to increase critical strike chance against the target by 3% at max rank.
      • Shaman Spell Fire TotemOfWrath [Totem of Wrath]: Tier 9 Elemental talent ability, 3% to attacks and offensive spells, each shaman can only have one active Fire Totem at a time.
    • Spell
      • Mage Ability warlock burningembersblue [Flurry]: Tier 6 frost talent, 3 ranks, gives frost talent spells a 100% chance to apply the Winter's Chill debuff @ max rank, increasing spell critical strike chance by 1% per stack, stacks up to 5 times.
      • Mage Ability mage fierypayback [Improved Scorch]: Tier 4 fire talent, 3 ranks, gives Spell fire soulburn [Scorch] a 100% chance to apply the Improved Scorch debuff (or applications of the Improved Scorch debuff if glyphed) @ max rank, increasing spell critical strike chance by 1% per stack, stacks up to 5 times.
      • Warlock [Improved Shadow Bolt]: Tier 1 Destruction talent, 5 ranks, causes Spell Shadow ShadowBolt [Shadow Bolt] to increase spell critical strike damage against the target by 5% @ max rank.
Damage (percentile)
Haste
Healing percentage
  • Druid Ability druid improvedtreeform [Incarnation: Tree of Life]: Tier 9 Restoration talent ability. While in Tree of Life Form, increases healing received by all party and raid members within range by 6%.
  • Paladin [Improved Devotion Aura]: Tier 4 Protection talent, 3 ranks, causes all your auras to increase healing received by 6% at max rank.
Health
  • Warlock Blood Pact: Imp ability, +1330 maximum health @ max rank (+1729 fully talented with [Improved Imp], a tier 1 Demonology talent with 3 ranks).
  • Warrior Ability warrior rallyingcry [Commanding Shout]: +2255 @ max rank (~2818 fully talented w/ [Commanding Presence], a tier 3 Fury talent with 5 ranks), the same warrior cannot have both Battle Shout and Commanding Shout active at the same time, however it will stack with another warrior's Battle Shout.
MP5
Reflective damage (damages attackers when hit)
Replenishment
Resistance
Spell power
  • Druid [Improved Moonkin Form]: Tier 7 Balance talent, 3 ranks, requires Spell nature forceofnature [Moonkin Form], causes Ability druid improvedmoonkinform [Moonkin Aura] to grant spell damage equal to 15% of the druid's spirit @ max rank.
  • Shaman Spell Nature GuardianWard [Flametongue Totem]: +144 (~165.6 fully talented with [Enhancing Totems], a tier 1 Enhancement totem with 3 ranks), each shaman can only have one active Fire Totem at a time.
  • Shaman Spell Fire TotemOfWrath [Totem of Wrath]: Tier 9 Elemental talent ability, +280 @ max rank, each shaman can only have one active Fire Totem at a time.
  • Warlock [Demonic Pact]: Tier 10 Demonology talent, 5 ranks. Causes the demon's criticals to grant the party or raid 10% of the warlock's spell power for 12 seconds @ max rank.
Miscellaneous sustainable shared buffs
  • Falling speed decrease
    • Mage Slow Fall: Requires a reagent unless glyphed.
    • Priest Spell Holy LayOnHands [Levitate]: Also allows water walking, requires a reagent unless glyphed (ends in combat).
  • Speed increase
  • Water breathing
  • Water walking (ends in combat)
Miscellaneous sustainable exclusive buffs
  • Druid Spell holy blessingofstamina [Leader of the Pack]: Tier 7 Feral Combat talent, 2 ranks, causes Spell holy blessingofstamina [Leader of the Pack] aura to cause those affected to heal themselves for 4% of their maximum health @ max rank whenever their attacks crit.
  • Mage Amplify Magic: Increases spell damage taken and spell healing received, mutually exclusive with Dampen Magic.
  • Mage Spell Nature AbolishMagic [Dampen Magic]: Decreases spell damage taken and spell healing received, mutually exclusive with Amplify Magic.
  • Paladin Spell holy greaterblessingofsanctuary [Blessing of Sanctuary] / Spell Holy GreaterBlessingofSanctuary [Greater Blessing of Sanctuary]: Tier 5 Protection talent. Reduces damage taken by 3%, restores 2% of the target's maximum mana whenever the target blocks, dodges or parries a melee atttack, increases strength and stamina by 10%, each paladin can only have one active blessing per target.
  • Paladin Spell Holy MindSooth [Concentration Aura]: Grants a 35% chance to ignore pushback (50% with 3 ranks of Improved Concentration Aura, a Tier 4 Holy talent). Each paladin can only have one aura active at a time.
  • Paladin [Improved Concentration Aura]: Tier 4 Holy talent, 3 ranks, causes all of the paladin's auras to reduce Silence and Interrupt effects' duration by 30% at max rank.
  • Shaman Spell nature skinofearth [Earth Shield]: Tier 9 Restoration talent. Causes incoming attacks to heal the target (consuming 1 change per heal, healing has an internal cooldown) and reduces pushback by 30%. Improved by various Restoration talents. Each shaman can only have one Earth Shield at a time, and each character can only benefit from one Elemental Shield at a time.
  • Shaman Inv spear 04 [Healing Stream Totem]: HoT, each shaman can only have one active Water Totem at a time.
  • Warlock Spell Shadow DetectLesserInvisibility [Detect Invisibility]: Invisibility detection.
  • Warlock Spell shadow soulgem [Soulstone]: Gives the target a self-rez.
  • DraeneiDraenei INV Helmet 21 [Heroic Presence]: Draenei racial passive, +1% hit/spell hit, only affects party members.

List of notable buffs from environment

Lordaeron's Blessing

Increases stamina by 5%.

Lasts: 30 min

How to get: Take control of the northpass tower in Eastern Plaguelands, click the altar that appears outside the door.

Notes: Persists in Scholomance, Stratholme and Naxxramas.

Fire Resist

Increases fire resistance by 83.

Lasts: 1 hour

How to get: Spell shadow shadowworddominate [Mind Control] (either by the Priest spell or the Engineering device) a Scarshield Spellbinder, found in Blackrock Spire.

Notes: Sometimes the tooltip will say differing amounts of Fire Resistance, but the buff always provides 83 resistance. Stacks with Paladin aura.

Inv misc head dragon 01 [Rallying Cry of the Dragonslayer]

Increases critical chance of spells by 10%, melee and ranged by 5% and grants 140 attack power, for characters below level 61.

Lasts: 2 hours

How to get: When the head of Onyxia or Nefarion is returned the players located in (or nearby) Orgrimmar or Stormwind are buffed with this buff.

Ability creature poison 05 [Spirit of Zandalar]

Increases all stats for a value depending on level for 2 hours.

(Old Effect: Increases movement speed by 10% and all stats by 15% for 2 hours.)

Duration: 2 hours (As of 1.11, this buff no longer persists through death)

How to get: When the Inv misc gem bloodstone 02 [Heart of Hakkar] is turned in to Molthor on Yojamba Isle as part of The Heart of Hakkar quest, players on the Isle and in Booty Bay will receive the buff.

Spell arcane teleportorgrimmar [Warchief's Blessing]

Blessing of the Warchief: Increases health by 300. 15% haste to melee attacks. 10 mana regen per tick.

Lasts: 1 hour

How to get: When the head of Rend Blackhand is returned after a player completes "For the Horde!", the end of the first part of the Onyxia prequest chain, all players located in Orgrimmar are buffed with this buff.

Songflower Serenade

Increases critical strike rating and spell critical strike rating by 70 and all attributes by 15.

Lasts: 1 hour

How to get: Cleanse a Corrupted Songflower in Felwood.

Buffs, debuffs, and raid stacking in WotLK

Icon-group-48x48 Your comments are desired.

In the Wrath-Logo-Small expansion, buff stacking and whether buffs affected the raid versus only the party were significantly changed. Here is the official release of this change from Blizzard on the forums:

2008-08-29 00:20 | Blizzard Entertainment Vaneras

With the release of patch 3.0.2 players will see a change in the way we allow buffs and debuffs to stack exclusively in a raid. For the most part, what this change means is that many buffs and debuffs that were previously allowed to stack together no longer can, and that many buffs and debuffs that only a single talent specialization could bring can now be brought by multiple different specializations. The philosophy behind this change shows up in many of the changes we have made in Wrath of The Lich King, such as when we made almost all buffs raid-wide. 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.

Raid composition will still matter to some extent, but without this change, it would have overwhelmed every other aspect of raid planning (as we added new capabilities to each of 30 different talent trees). You no longer need to rigidly control the melee/spellcaster balance of your raid, or make sure every group has all the critical buffing classes, etc. This change has many class balance implications.

IMPORTANT! Before we are done, we will thoroughly test the performance of every class. It should not be assumed that one class' current performance relative to others in beta is final. Some classes (and specializations) will need to be reduced in power and some increased. Many may feel the change has more impact on class X than class Y. We will address all of those concerns via our internal testing and community feedback.

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.

In most cases, fully-talented players will have exactly equal power on the strength of these buffs and debuffs. Fel Intelligence is an example of where one ability is weaker than others. The buffs in the "Increased Spell Power Buff" category are also not all the same potency, as they scale and grow in radically different ways. In virtually every other case, however, the buffs are equal. This means, for example, that fully-talented Battle Shout and Blessing of Might now grant the exact same amount of attack power.

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.

Finally, we have modified Heroism and Bloodlust to affect the entire raid. However, all affected raid members will be unable to cast or benefit from Bloodlust/Heroism for 5 minutes.

Below you will find a list of the changes to abilities which exhibit new behavior regardless of the exclusive categories. The changes usually mean the old behavior was removed and replaced by the new behavior. Numbers listed are for maximally-talented versions. Here is that list of changes:

  • Ability mage fierypayback [Improved Scorch]: Increases spell critical strike chance against the target.
  • Ability warlock burningembersblue [Flurry]: Also increases spell critical strike chance against the target.
  • Spell Shaman ElementalOath [Elemental Oath]: Grants 5% spell crital strike to raid members.
  • [Improved Moonkin Form]: Grants 3% haste of all types.
  • [Earth and Moon]: Increases spell damage taken from all schools by 13% on the target.
  • Misery: Causes spells cast at the target to have +3% spell hit.
  • [Shadow Weaving]: Buffs only self.
  • [Improved Shadow Bolt]: Buffs only self.
  • [Expose Weakness]: Buffs only self.
  • Spell shadow shadowembrace [Shadow Embrace]: Buffs only self.
  • Blood Pact: Grants health instead of Stamina.
  • Fel Intelligence: Has replacement ranks that grant flat values of Intellect and Spirit.
  • [Frost Aura]: Excludes properly against all other resistance buffs.
  • Spell holy hopeandgrace [Grace]: Reduces damage taken by target by 3%.
  • Ability warrior rampage [Rampage]: Increases melee and ranged critical strike chance by 5% for the raid.
  • [Improved Faerie Fire]: No longer benefits melee and ranged hit chance, only spell hit.
  • Ability hunter markedfordeath [Hunter's Mark]: No longer increases attack power bonus from attacks against the target.
  • [Improved Hunter's Mark]: No longer grants melee attack power.
  • Sting (Hunter pet): Now acts as a minor armor debuff.
  • Ability hunter traplauncher [Waylay]: Attack speed reduction changed to 20%.
  • Spell DeathKnight IceTouch [Icy Touch]: Only slows melee attack speed (not ranged or spell).
  • Tree of Life: No longer grants healing based on spirit, grants 3% increased healing received to raid.
  • [Demonic Pact]: Now buffs raid instead of debuffing monsters.
  • Spell Arcane StudentOfMagic [Focus Magic]: Now buffs raid instead of debuffing monsters.
  • Spell Fire TotemOfWrath [Totem of Wrath]: Now grants a flat amount of spell damage, and all enemies in its radius have an increased chance of being struck by criticals.
  • Ability Shaman Heroism [Heroism]: Cannot be recast while caster has Exhausted debuff, and those with Exhausted debuff cannot be affected by it.
  • Spell Nature BloodLust [Bloodlust]: Cannot be recast while caster has Sated debuff, and those with Sated debuff cannot be affected by it.
  • Spell Holy Stoicism [Vampiric Touch]: Grants Replenishment mana regeneration buff to up to 10 raid members on dealing damage.
  • Ability hunter huntingparty [Hunting Party]: Grants Replenishment mana regeneration buff to up to 10 raid members on specified shots.
  • Ability Paladin JudgementoftheWise [Judgements of the Wise]: Grants Replenishment mana regeneration buff to up to 10 raid members on Judging.

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