Why do poisons have a duration?

[zeemeerman2]

I am leveling a combat rogue, applying Deadly poison and Leeching poison about every hour or so.
I get that it first was applied to your weapons via consumable items sold at shops.
But since it is now simply a button at your ability book, why does it still have a 1 hour duration?

I usually forget to apply it, not paying attention when I'm killing quest mobs, since it's not something you actively interact with like short-duration debuffs and buffs. You just apply it once, and don't look at it again for the next hour.

And then, when suddenly the poison duration is over, mobs are suddenly harder to kill, and my health depletes more. Maybe I throw in a defensive cooldown.
I think "Wow, these mobs are really hard, compared to the rest!" not noticing the poison being depleted.

Then I see the lack of poison icons on the top-right corner of my screen and I look like a fool to myself.

So my question is, why, in this era of game design, have poisons still have a 1 hour duration? Why not have it being passives that you can toggle for another poison when necessary?

Thank you for reading.

[Darknessvamp]

It's the same reason why a lot of raid wide buffs still have 1 hour long durations. For flavour. Honestly do you think that poison would stay on your swords for an hour, much less stay there after you'd stabbed a bunch of things or after 10 minutes realistically? Nope, so it has to be reapplied. For the theme and flavour of the class.

[Schinto]

Did you know in Vanilla it had a 30min duration and damaging poisons had charges aswell?

I remember my first MMORPG....

[Feali]

Iconic.

But seriously: It probably has something to do with how enchants work. Else it would be like with Death Knights.

[Taeyon]

Did you know in Vanilla it had a 30min duration and damaging poisons had charges aswell?

I remember my first MMORPG....

RIP reapplying them every new bg.

[Gungrir]

In Vanilla you had to reapply the poison every time you zoned, that was fun.

[PixelFox]

Not to mention that poisons were consumables, and in the beginning you had to craft them yourself (IIRC). I recently logged in my 46 Rogue for the first time in years and her bags were full of stacks of poisons, stacks of Crafted Light Shot ammo, and one of her bags was a quiver. She has Dartol's Rod though, which will be going into the Toy Box for all my other characters, so it's all good

But honestly yeah, poisons should last forever just like DK forging etc. Today it's just there as a pointless mechanic to see if you're a total loser and forget to apply the poisons. Hardly a useful feature or one that makes the game more accessible to new players or more interesting/complex for old players.

PF.

[Deleted]

In Vanilla you had to reapply the poison every time you zoned, that was fun.

I think we all agree that the current poison system is a lot better than what it was in the past.
Why it has a duration of one hour? There wil probably be multiple possible anwers, but I think ‘flavor and theme’ is the laziest of them.

I am wondering why they do not treat it in the same way like the molten armor buff for mages. It is a buff that stays on until cancelled or overwritten by another armor spell.

I doubt it is treated like an enchant, since enchants are permanent if you don’t overwrite them.

My guess is that the duration has something to do with it not being able to be dispelled so they have to treat it the same like a flask. But who can really tell?

[Deleted]

My guess is that the duration has something to do with it not being able to be dispelled so they have to treat it the same like a flask. But who can really tell?

I think the reason isn't really technical, but rather that their default design is that any buff that isn't a stance or an aura should have a limited duration. And in the end the limited duration never has much impact on game play one way or the other so they just leave it alone most of the time because it takes effort to change it.
I also note that the new hunter exotic munitions also have a 1h duration, but maybe they're based on the rogue poisons code and the duration comes with it.

[Geckoo]

I think is a mix between lazy and flavor.

Lazy because they simply had to turn a spell attached to an item (the poison item) in to a spell attached to a class, they added support for the spell being part of a class but didn't really touch the spell.

Flavor because i guess that they think that it's positive to have some interaction with somethings as iconic as poisons and we are not unique with this one, many other abilities from other classes get the same treatment.

So i guess they decided to take the lazy route to keep flavor, i won't be surprised if at some point in the future they announce a new QoL improvement for rogues making poisons permanent until we cancel or replace them, i don't think that there is any technical reason behind their decission, just... lazy for the sake of flavor.

[Sesshou]

I get that it first was applied to your weapons via consumable items sold at shops.

Actually you had to buy stuff and then sit there and craft them. The ability to just buy the consumable item from the shop was added quite a bit later.

It probably has a duration because most buffs do. Thats kind of a crappy answer though.

[SynergyDarkstar]

I also note that the new hunter exotic munitions also have a 1h duration, but maybe they're based on the rogue poisons code and the duration comes with it.

If this is true, it's both hilarious and sad. "Hey, don't worry we're cooking up some new poisons for you to make up for removing so many non-lethals"

"Actually, those are going to hunters"

[Deleted]

Did you know in Vanilla it had a 30min duration and damaging poisons had charges aswell?

I remember my first MMORPG....

Not so much a problem, as most raid leads prohibited their usage, since mobs had limited debuff slots, and rogue poisons would overwrite more important DoTs

BTT: For the same reason Backstab still has a positional requirement: None.
Raid Buffs like PW: Fortitude I can understand, they can be buffed on others, and w.o. a duration, everyone would simply run around fully raid buffed all the time, leading to all sorts of tuning problems.

[Sesshou]

Not so much a problem, as most raid leads prohibited their usage, since mobs had limited debuff slots, and rogue poisons would overwrite more important DoTs

Since when did instant take up a debuff slot?

[Arainie]

BTT: For the same reason Backstab still has a positional requirement: None.

It's not that hard to figure out why backstab has a positional requirement once you realize where the term originates from. I believe it's excellent design for PvP, while it is most definitly a design problem in some PvE fights.

[DarthMonk79]

Flavor... maybe the fact that as simplified as the game has become they want you to still have to think a bit. Backstab is positional... its called "backstab" for a reason, you are stabbing them in the back. Think of poison's as the rogue's buff. My pally still has to throw on BoM or BoK every hour.

[Feali]

People who support the claim that because of the name Backstab it shouldn't be 360° are not at the top of my "people I like"-list. And no. Since they made it 270° it's not excellent for PvP (and it never really was) because now you can get parried just like any other. So that argument doesn't hold.

[Sesshou]

It's not that hard to figure out why backstab has a positional requirement once you realize where the term originates from. I believe it's excellent design for PvP, while it is most definitly a design problem in some PvE fights.

Uh wait what? Please explain to me how my front left is my back. Because you can now backstab from the front left, just not directly front.

Also I believe the term originates from being stabbed in the back and doesn't actually imply the relative position of the one doing the stabbing.

And it is good design in pvp why exactly?

Flavor... maybe the fact that as simplified as the game has become they want you to still have to think a bit. Backstab is positional... its called "backstab" for a reason, you are stabbing them in the back. Think of poison's as the rogue's buff. My pally still has to throw on BoM or BoK every hour.

Great, another one... You are stabbing them in the back. I can take a knife, reach around some one, and stab them in the back. This does not require me being behind them. In fact, the ability itself in WoD will already let you 'backstab' from positions that are closer to the 'front' than the 'back'.

[Feali]

Next up: Shaman weapon enhancements....

News flash: they're actually passive now.

[Anium]

Sticky stuff runs out eventually...if you know what I mean