How can GC actually make comments like this..

#0 - April 9, 2009, 1:13 a.m.

I'll list the comments you/he made:

Q u o t e:
We think DKs and Holy paladins are too dominant in Arenas. Beyond those two there are some imbalances, but you are going to find a lot of debate among the community about who it is, and I think that might come to dominate the rest of the thread. The "two-shotting" is a little exaggerated in most cases.

Q u o t e:
We have seen many fights now that won't wind down because the healers can just keep going and going forever. While we don't want fights to last for 6 seconds, we also don't want to see the only way a fight can end to be through mana drains (the spell effect itself, or just slowly, painfully watching someone's blue bar exhaust itself). Ideally both situations would sometimes occur, but there would also be more fights somewhere in the middle.

Q u o t e:
...You think PvP has too much burst. I get that. Not everyone agrees with you. Some players are very fearful of long matches where only drain comps can prosper. We think burst was too high earlier in the season. It is better now and will be even better in 3.1...

Source of comments:
http://blue.mmo-champion.com/28/16137366298-six-things-ruining-this-game.html

Now I could list many more instances of comments very similiar to these but I think Ithose 3 get the point across. I'd like you to take a look at the following screenshot of my combat log during a 2v2 match.

http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/309/balances.jpg

Notice something strange? Here let me point it out for you, yes that is 17,434 damage done in the span of ONE Hammer of Justice. Another interesting thing you may notice is, I was critically struck ONE time, so yes my 4/5 deadly(everything but the chest) with full deadly honor gear and deadly offhand definitely help reduce times I get critically struck and the bonus damage it does. However, you and the rest of the staff are missing the [b]KEY[/b] point. DAMAGE itself is absurdly high. Resilience doesn't matter, the amount of burst certain classes do is so far beyond unbalanced. And this is not a new thing. You even admitted it yourself, you made NERFS to classes and yet they are still doing this.

So I'd like to know a few things:
A) Do you really monitor arena matches and damage output? Because any answer other than no suggest you are lying

B) Why are you rewarding certain classes (gladiator) for YOUR mistakes? If you think things like burst, plaguestrike, etc were so game breaking, why was it not hotfixed months ago? Or why would you end S5 right as you supposively are making major PvP balance changes. Why not extend season 5 to actually see the "balance" you are brining before you start a whole new season and repeat this atrocity all over again.

C) My character is kind of broke, can you send me some gold.

Edit: I'm not sure how to make the URL's clickable links, if someone wants to tell me I will apply that

Zarhym

#31 - April 9, 2009, 2:43 a.m.

Q u o t e:
Now I could list many more instances of comments very similiar to these but I think Ithose 3 get the point across. I'd like you to take a look at the following screenshot of my combat log during a 2v2 match.

http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/309/balances.jpg

Notice something strange? Here let me point it out for you, yes that is 17,434 damage done in the span of ONE Hammer of Justice. Another interesting thing you may notice is, I was critically struck ONE time, so yes my 4/5 deadly(everything but the chest) with full deadly honor gear and deadly offhand definitely help reduce times I get critically struck and the bonus damage it does. However, you and the rest of the staff are missing the KEY point. DAMAGE itself is absurdly high. Resilience doesn't matter, the amount of burst certain classes do is so far beyond unbalanced. And this is not a new thing. You even admitted it yourself, you made NERFS to classes and yet they are still doing this.

This is the exact type of micro data that fails to counter Ghostcrawler's comments you quoted. He's speaking very generally, looking at things from a very broad perspective, while you're providing a single scenario to prove him wrong. It doesn't prove him wrong. At best, your data reflects a cause for concern he's admitted time and again.

Q u o t e:
A) Do you really monitor arena matches and damage output? Because any answer other than no suggest you are lying

More than you can imagine, though it appears you can't imagine I'm not lying about this... so there's that.

Q u o t e:
B) Why are you rewarding certain classes (gladiator) for YOUR mistakes? If you think things like burst, plaguestrike, etc were so game breaking, why was it not hotfixed months ago? Or why would you end S5 right as you supposively are making major PvP balance changes. Why not extend season 5 to actually see the "balance" you are brining before you start a whole new season and repeat this atrocity all over again.

Certain classes are performing better in season 5 than others. We've admitted that. For the most part though, the best players and most coordinated groups will be at the top of the charts.

Players have asserted every season that certain classes are over powered. While our goal is to tune balance as best as possible to provide a fair playing field for all, there will always be superior group make-ups. There's no reason to extend this season any longer when we're likely to see a host of new concerns posted by players in season 6 as players battle for the best rewards. Intense competition leads to intense discussion and debate. This isn't new to season 5.

Q u o t e:
C) My character is kind of broke, can you send me some gold.

I hear if you talk to Hodir and friends, they might have some chores for you to do. I'm sure you'll be well compensated.

Zarhym

#40 - April 9, 2009, 2:56 a.m.

Q u o t e:

I think he wanted to know: Why did you let it happen then?

The act of balancing classes for PvP and PvE is delicate. This is the first season of this expansion where players have been offered a host of new abilities, revamped talent trees, and a new class.

If you're asking why we don't throw in quick hotfixes -- as was mentioned with Plague Strike -- the idea of throwing a quick, flat nerf out there with little consideration for the ripples it will cause is dangerous and short-sighted. The best time to really work on balancing classes is during a major patch. The fact that the dual specialization feature is coming in 3.1 also allows us more time to really focus on talent trees as well, which is partially the reason players are going to see some major balancing adjustments in 3.1.

Zarhym

#64 - April 9, 2009, 3:30 a.m.

Q u o t e:
Oh really zar how bout the rogue nerf you threw out in the span of one night while leaving DKs n pallys untouched major patches hahahahaaha yeah okay

If you're curious whether or not there are certain exceptions to the rule in certain situations, it's true. It doesn't mean there's a hard-and-fast rule for immediately adjusting any ability that might be a little too powerful in PvP. This is especially true in the case of death knights, where the plan has been to do a lot of major adjustments with the first major content patch after the release of Wrath of the Lich King (3.1) since the class is brand new.

Zarhym

#70 - April 9, 2009, 3:38 a.m.

Q u o t e:

so being a pally and DK combo makes you coordinated and one of the 'best' players....I loled

I didn't say that. If we're discussing class balance, based on an extremely complex system with countless variables (even without regarding skill), and you want to deduce everything to black-and-white statements, we might as well be reciting political cartoons.

Q u o t e:
Actually, his perfect example just made your whole idea of "tweak it a little and don't overreact" fall on its face. You took to long to make changes that were needed since BETA, when people were complaining about some of these things in the first place. People have known for months before the game was even out that damage was too high, and still is. I can't believe you can sit there and run around the issue while the entire game suffers because of it. If a class is doing poorly you need to buff them, and if a class is doing too well they need to be toned down. Oh, and it doesn't need to happen months after the issue is discovered.

Yet sometimes that's exactly the way the development process and scheduling has to work. There are more developers working on World of Warcraft than you probably realize, and many of them are working on tasks based on a multitude of priorities.