Bring the player, not the class. And a shaman

#0 - July 2, 2009, 3:09 p.m.

Is it just me, or are you just using this statement as a scapegoat?

Quote from MMO-Champions Q&A:
Question 5: Alot of players feel as though replenishment should belong solely to shadow priest, we understand that you would like to "bring the player not the class," but honestly could you say that having a unique class/spec ability is such a bad thing?

Yes, it's a bad thing. It's good if you're a shadow priest wanting a raid slot. It's bad if you're the druid or warrior who can't come because the raid leader feels like they must bring the shadow priest in order to raid. We want the challenge to be the encounters, not the logistics of building the group.

If it's so bad, why are shamans still essential in raids with things like heroism/bloodlust and tremor totem. The game is supposed to be to the point that you can build a group from nearly any pool of classes, and be successful. But my 10 man group is having trouble with hard mode Hodir because we don't have heroism.

If this game is supposed to be built around the player, not the class, then take the broken buffs away from shamans so I don't have to sit one of my good friends just to kill a boss..

Ghostcrawler

#33 - July 2, 2009, 4:15 p.m.

We don't balance 10-player hard modes around the assumption of Bloodlust / Heroism. You can do them without. You do need to make sure in general that you have some amount of synergy with your buffs, especially if you are doing hard modes.

You probably need Bloodlust / Heroism for 25-player hard modes, but having 1 shaman per 25 players doesn't seem too much to ask. If you needed 3 or 4 shamans then I could see the point. If only Enhancement shamans brought Bloodlust, then it might cross the line.

We required 2 priests for Razuvious, but we are unlikely to ask for 2 of a particular class in 25-player mode again. If we can't even assume 1 of a particular class, then the razor's edge balancing job that hard modes require will be much more difficult to attain.

Ghostcrawler

#135 - July 2, 2009, 5:56 p.m.

Q u o t e:
Is there a reason shamans are the exception to the no-unique-buffs rule? I can't think of any other class that has something that makes one required.... except maybe kings.

Rebirth and Health Stones are unique. There are unique buffs and abilities. The goal was not to remove them. The goal was to make sure that no ability was so mandatory that players had no flexibility in how they filled up their rosters. The fact that even cutting-edge guilds bring different raid comps suggest that the design is working relatively well. This was not the case in say Sunwell.