We've been seeing an issue with the shaman wards only warding 1/2 their maximum ward amount. Ward will start the night out warding their full amount - lets say 500mil as an example - then part way through the night it will start warding for is 250mil max. Personally I've only had it break in-combat but I've heard of it breaking out of combat as well. Even if you're out of combat the wards will stay broken once it happens. The only way to fix it seems to be relogging. If you don't relog the ward will continue to decrease until it eventually wards for zero. It's not a display bug nor is it due to a detriment from a mob. We've seen this happen in multiple KA zones and PoP zones. Happens with both defilers and mystics (At least 2 defilers and 4 mystics that I know). Happens on different fights, different times, different AA specs, different group setups, etc. We originally saw this start happening back in late KA and now it seems to be getting worse in PoP. For me, I spent the last 2 raid nights either having to deal with wards doing 1/2 their max, not working at all, or having to relog 3-4 times a night to fix them. I'm not sure what's causing it to happen as there doesn't seem to be any consistency with it. Some nights it doesn't happen at all (rarely) and other nights it's multiple times a night. We're wondering if anyone else has experienced this or been able to figure out what's causing it.
Are any of you using ACT? That would show if people were being protected by your 'zero' wards even if the numbers are displaying incorrectly on your screens.
Yes, as I already said, it's not a display issue/bug. The wards are not warding for the correct amount. For defiler the heal portion of the ward will go off but the ward portion doesn't ward at all (and before anyone asks, no it's not a bleedthrough issue either). We know what our wards maximum values normally are. Provided your stats don't change, and you don't get anything other than a standard crit, the maximum ward value is static. To be more precise, my group ward is exactly 549,220,483 (Standard Crit) every single time I cast it with resting stats. Obviously this amount can change in combat due to temp buffs/procs/etc but once the temps drop off it returns to a static amount. For wards it's not: Wards between X and Y amount. It's just straight up wards for X amount. Also, this issue is not confined to in-combat. I've spent months tracking this issue. If I let my ward run out on a fight I can look in ACT and account for every point of it spent. I've tested this using the creature conjuror as well as simply letting mobs beat on me. After testing with properly working wards and broken wards I can 100% tell you this is not a display issue. They are, in fact, not warding the correct amount. Group wards, single target wards, emergency wards... if one breaks they all break.
Are you grouping/raiding with a Channeler? The truespirit rift cause a similar bug, where is reduce greatly the amount of ward, the workaround is to ask your channeler to macro truespirit rift on himself so you can ward your tank correctly. Is that the bug you are referring to? I haven't seen that bug since i know that workaround, i can still pump up to 120m hps during raid, so i guess my wards are not bugged. (but we got no channeler, and when we got one, i ask him to macro his truespirit rift on himself)
I just brought up a few raids from last week from two different raid forces. Looking at the ward 'hits' over the duration of the zones across all healers (mystic, defiler, templar, warden), none of the wards on any of the toons evidenced a decrease over the course of the zone(s).
Our defilers have definitely been seeing this too for quite some time but it seems to be more frequent (multiple times in raid just last night) now than it used to be.
So I am trying to understand what the shammies here are talking about. Last night in raid working on the dogs in bastion (thang/val which we have cleared before with very little heal problems), people were getting one shotted as if they were not even warded. Going through act and the logs, i see many cases where John absorbs 1 million damage with 5 million damage bleedthrough. I didn't know bleedthrough damage could be higher damage than what was actually warded. Are you saying that your wards should read as John absorbs 10 million damage with 5 million damage bleedthrough? Or am i missing something with bleedthroughs?
Bleed can go up to 80% sometime. Like 2 million warded, 8 million bleedthrough. So your 1 million warded, 4 million goes through is very plausible. Additionnaly, when a ward break (like the wards that cannot crit), any damage that overflow the ward display as bleed on ACT.
It has nothing to do with bleed-through. Your people were dying because your shaman were sucking, (i.e. relying on only group ward to keep the group alive instead of single target warding everyone as well) or your people need more resolve. Here's the deal with this bug. It's been around for at least two expacs. It started at the end of Thalumbra. Throughout KA. And now it's gotten VERY bad. I raid with Azian above, and often have to log numerous times an evening to fix this bug. Same with the other defiler in our raid. (Strangely, none of our Mystics ever report getting this bug...whether it's because they aren't paying attention enough to their own numbers, or it's not happening, I don't know...but I suspect the former) Like the original poster stated...a halfway decent raid Defiler knows exactly what their wards are applying for...and it is VERY obvious when something is going wrong. In my case, when bugged, my wards apply for between 1/4 and 1/3 what they should be applying for. There is no fixing it, but to camp to self. Easy to fix, but if you get bugged in the beginning of a fight, there is nothing to be done about it. And that's the thing, there is no rhyme or reason why it's happening. I can go an entire raid night, and not have it happen once...while the other defiler in raid has it happen multiple times. Or, we both get it. Or, neither of us get it. I've been in all sorts of group class setups during raid, and it happens with one setup one night, but might not happen with that same setup the next night. I've never been able to see a reason why the bug will hit while I'm in the middle of a fight, or just sitting around during an afk. It's done both, and I don't know why. Unlike the original poster, I've never had this bug hit me while I was solo or grouped....only in raid. If you have Defilers in your current-content Raid, and they are saying that they don't know what this bug is that this thread is about....I hate to be a jerk about it, but they aren't playing their class well and aren't looking at their own numbers. This bug is real, and it's happening to all the Defilers that I know that are decent players (the ones that pay attention).
This has nothing to do with bleedthrough. This has to do with the actual maximum ward values not how much is warded on an individual hit. You can look at ACT and see: 10mil warded, 5mil bleedthrough but that's only one hit. Just means whatever ward now has 10mil less absorption left. Unfortunately you can't quick glance at ACT and say... well the damage was warded so it's working fine. Maybe I'm doing a poor job of explaining it to those who don't see the wards breaking first hand. Provided your stats do not change (via temps, food/drink, debuffs, whatever) shaman (I don't play other warding classes so I can't speak for them) wards have a static ward value (Or amount of damage they can absorb) and we can see the available ward ticking down as damage is absorbed. So, I can cast a 500mil ward and you can look in ACT and see that it absorbed 50mil damage, but what you can't see in ACT is that it still has 450mil more damage it could absorb. Now, my wards can break and only have 250mil absorption available and you can look in ACT and see the same 50mil damage, but again, you won't see that I now only have 200mil left on that ward. To someone looking in just ACT it looks the same. You also can't see how many times I recast that ward during a fight. It's possible that ward absorbed a total of 400mil during a fight, but ACT won't tell you if that was from 1 cast of the ward or from 2 casts of the ward. There are only two ways to track it in ACT. One is to preform a deliberate test with working wards and broken wards in a controlled or semi-controlled environment. The second is if the shaman chooses not to relog and continue to let their maximum ward values deplete to zero where you will then see the heal component (if the mystic takes that AA, or if it's a defiler) but that it doesn't absorb any damage. No shaman worth their salt is going to let that happen in a raid or group situation. Depending on the fight maybe we're okay with wards only doing half what they should and we can postpone relogging a little bit, others we need that full ward value available and end up relogging every other named. Edit: In response to RescueMe above and for clarification, I am a mystic.
I think I've noticed this also. I don't usually spend much time watching ACT so I always just assumed it was some buff fell off or something. If I see it in the future I'll relog and see if that resolves it.
I hate to be a jerk, but just because someone doesn't have this bug, that it means it doesn't know how to play. My group ward has always been, and is around 300-360m (regular crit), and unless this is a very very recent bug, i never seen it happen. (beside the channeler bug), and i have that spelltimer UI part, that allow me to filter which maintened spell i want. (only my wards and curse of shielding timers)
This bug doesn't just decrease the ward amount, it actually cast a ward with 0 ward amount. It starts out lowering the ward then goes lower and lower till its a 0 ward. After the ward counts down it will do the heal, but 0 ward. And unless you camp out and log back in it will continue to decrease until it reaches 0 ward amount. This happened in raid, in the middle of fight, by the end of the fight I did 0 wards on my tank and only showed heals at the end of fight. And as stated above some nights I never get it other nights I have to long many times to fix it. You can also have it hit just before a pull... I was precasting wards and boom bottom dropped and my ward was down to about 1/4 normal amount. And then I have to say I need to relog wards are out! Or by the end of the fight I will be warding for 0- with only the heal proc at the end of timer for ward. Also if u would like to test what I am saying zone into brackish vaults duo, it will bug out there almost every time to 0 ward
I haven't noticed any issues like this, and I generally keep an eye on my ward amounts as I cast . The only time i have noticed ward numbers being off is in Trakanon fight when someone fails to kill the healer add, but that is a visible detriment. In solo/duo zones the font of power buff makes the ward number too large to display on my UI, but the ward still works fine. If this is an interaction between spells that different group members are casting, it may be pretty tough to figure out, since raid groups are pretty static. At first I was guessing it may be a server issue, but semi is on AB with me and he is seeing it but I am not.
