Fear is also the Most Nerfed single ability or spell:
Patch 1.2 12/18/04
Fear: Players now have an increasing chance to break free of the effect, such that it is unlikely the effect will last more than 15 seconds. (nerf)
Patch 1.31 3/22/05
Fear - Mana cost changed to a percentage of base, which results in an increase in cost. (nerf)
Patch 1.41 5/5/05
Seduction (Succubus) - Is now considered a Fear effect for purposes of diminishing returns. (nerf)
Patch 1.50 6/7/05
Warriors: Deathwish - Is now usable while under a Fear effect, and will also remove an existing Fear effect. (nerf)
Patch 1.70 9/22/05
Fear will now cause creatures to flee immediately, even if they are already moving. (PvE fix)
Fixed a bug where Fear and Curse of Recklessness, when used together, would prevent targets from casting spells. (PvE bug fix)
Druids: Druids should now be able to shapeshift back into caster form while Feared. (nerf)
Patch 1.80 10/10/05
Pets no longer break off attacks when their target is affected by Warlock Fear. (not much of a change really, but it can aid fear in breaking sooner).
Death Coil - Cooldown reduced, mana cost increased, and now causes a short Fear effect that is not diminished. (DC buff - 3 second horror effect, 2 minute cooldown)
Patch 1.10 3/28/06
Death Coil - The horrify component no longer affects Undead creatures (they've seen it all before. (PvE nerf)
Patch 1.11 6/19/06
Fear: The calculations to determine if Fear effects should break due to receiving damage have been changed. The old calculation used the base damage of the ability. The new calculation uses the final amount of damage dealt, after all modifiers. In addition, the chance for a damage over time spell to break Fear is now significantly lower. Note that Fear continues to be roughly three times as likely to break on player targets as on non-player targets. (nerf)
Patch 1.12 8/22/06
Howl of Terror: This spell now uses the same resistance checks as the Warlock spell Fear. (nerf)
Patch 2.1
Chance to break crowd control from damage: The increased chance for a spell to break from taking a critical strike has been removed. Instead, all targets over level 60 have a slightly larger chance to break out of crowd-controlling effects when they take damage. (Affliction (and Demo) nerf)
- In addition, fear and seduce both have "heartbeat" resists and can break at any time, whether damage has been applied or not. In PvP, all CC's have a maximum time of 12 seconds. (nerf)
Patch 2.2
-Fear (as well as all other CC's) will now have a maximum time of 10 seconds and be subject to Diminishing Returns in PvP (nerf)
Patch 2.3
- Fear Ward is now available to all priests at level 20. Duration reduced to 3 minutes, cooldown increased to 3 minutes.
Patch 3.1.0
-The damage threshold for Fear, Psychic Scream, Hex, Intimidating Shout, and Turn Evil to break early has been significantly reduced. (nerf)
Fear Counters and BlocksCounters Ways to remove Fear effects:
The Forsaken Racial trait Will of the Forsaken.
The Stormwind Human Racial trait Every Man for Himself
The Mage's Ice Block.
The Paladin's Divine Shield and Cleanse (Cleanse, however, cannot be cast on the Paladin themself while feared)
The Priest's Dispel Magic and Mass Dispel (both abilities cannot be cast on the Priest themself while feared)
The Warrior's Berserker Rage (removes and make the warrior immune until the effect expires), Recklessness.
The Shaman's Tremor Totem.
The Warlock pet Felhunter's Devour Magic
The Druid's Berserk
The Death Knight's Lichborne.
The Hunter's The Beast Within (beast mastery talent)
The PvP Trinkets.
Fear PreventionTalents that help preventing Fear or making you immune to fear:
The death knight's Anti-Magic Shell
The druid's Primal Tenacity
The priest's Unbreakable Will
The paladin's Unyielding Faith
The rogue's Nerves of Steel
The priest's Fear Ward
The shaman's Grounding Totem
BlocksAnother method of preventing Fear would be preventing the caster from using a Fear with a cast time through your own crowd control or anti-spellcasting abilities such as:
The Glimmering Mithril Insignia
The Blood Elf's Arcane Torrent
The Tauren's War Stomp
The Death Knight's Strangulate
The Hunter's Silencing Shot and Intimidation
The Mage's Counterspell
The Paladin's Hammer of Justice and Repentance
The Rogue's Cloak of Shadows, Kick, and any stun or blind
The Priest's Psychic Scream
The Shaman's Earth Shock
The Warlock's Howl of Terror, the Felhunter's Spell Lock, and the Felguard's Intercept
The Warrior's Pummel and Shield Bash
The Druid's Feral Charge
Fear now breaks at damage equal to 40% of the targets base health.
Class Base health value 40% of Base HP
Death Knight 8121 3248
Druid 7417 2967
Hunter 7324 2930
Mage 6963 2785
Paladin 6934 2774
Priest 6960 2784
Rogue 7604 3042
Shaman 6960 2784
Warlock 7164 2866
Warrior 8121 3248