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Class imbalance is on purpose
Palebane
Member RarePosts: 4,011
After almost 5 years, Blizzard still has not found a way to make all the classes balance well. Every patch there is a new overpowered FoTM class or two and a large number of players flock to them. I am wondering if somewhere along the line the developers decided it was a good idea to rotate the FoTM classes rather than balanced them. It certainly would be easier than trying to balance all classes, especially with all the different specs, glyphs, and gear available. Also, what is considered balanced for 5v5 arena, may not translate well to the other arena brackets, battlegrounds, or 1v1 duels.
At first I thought maybe they were trying to balance the classes and just overtweaked one or two classes and undertweaked the others. Perhaps they have some way of telling which classes are being played the least and decided to give those classes priority, trying to make them more attractive. However, after countless patches, and despite the test server's popularity, huge class imbalances remain. These imbalances do seem to shift from class to class, giving the overpowered classes nerfs, and buffing the less popular, or underpowered classes, but overall balance is never achieved. Perhaps it cannot be achieved, and thus the developers have either decided that balance was impossible, or they have a very good reason for keeping the classes imbalanced.
One reason to keep the classes imbalanced, or at least one reason to keep the FoTM train rolling, is to keep players subscribed. Many players flock to the OP class of the month. Some already have high level characters of that class, others will reroll to try it out. Either way, if players decide to change mains, or reroll, they are still playing, and still paying. Another reason to keep the classes imbalanced, for those players who are devoted to one class, would be that the players will keep playing in hopes that their class will eventually become the FoTM and they will once again be able to compete, and outright destroy the underpowered classes.
It seems rather strange that with the huge amount of resources Blizzard and co. have, that they cannot balance the classes for once, and it has dawned on me that very likely they are keeping the classes imbalanced on purpose. Thoughts? Opinons?
Vault-Tec analysts have concluded that the odds of worldwide nuclear armaggeddon this decade are 17,143,762... to 1.
Comments
IMO
The only way to Balance a PvP oriented game is to give each side the EXACT same abilities. Whichh kinda makes for a broing game. If you play on either side most of the classes are duplicates of the other side just abilities are renamed and given out in different order. They are not exactly the same but real close.
From what I have seen in the game it has not been OP classes but, fixing the issues with some abilities that now make the class work as intended may bring up an issue of over population. Word of mouth on now that they have fixed X power X is UBAH!
That is just my opinion and since I am bored with the game and only using it as a filler for something else (I do not feel like downloading another game just to see it is as boring as this one) who cares, right?
Say hello, To the things you've left behind. They are more a part of your life now that you can't touch them.
Well, both factions in WoW have the exact same classes, and thus the exact same abilities. The only discrepancy is is racial abilities, but this thread is more about class imbalance than racial imbalance, since in my opionon the racial abilities serve as a very minimal imbalance issue. Perhaps you meant, give both sides only one class?
Vault-Tec analysts have concluded that the odds of worldwide nuclear armaggeddon this decade are 17,143,762... to 1.
Opinions?
Well, yeah! Blizzard has been doing this since the beginning, it's just a brilliant scheme to perpetually keep players rerolling classes like they're the flavors of the month.
I mean if you look at the track record, Blizzard has been buffing, then nerfing, then buffing again, then nurfing back again...and again and again and again... every class in WoW for a very long time now.
Anyone that disagrees is just being naive, Blizzard is a business, and this has been one of number of ways they've kept WoW players chainned to the old level grinding stone....=/
Of course its on purpose. 'Balance' in an mmorpg is fundamentally impossible given the interplay of various complex systems (that are always in flux due to economic considerations as the OP suggested) and the large number of variables introduced by live players.
Balance is a myth, always has been. The only online games that have ever been 'balanced' are FPS titles like Counterstrike or whatever.
EQ wasn't 'balanced,' WoW isn't 'balanced' and SWTOR won't be 'balanced.'
What does 'balance' even mean? Its nothing but a buzzword thrown around by balance-tards on mmo forums since the beginning of time. If you want true 'balance,' there should be no classes, no skills or traits, and no equipment variation, period.
Blizzard don't care, it's that simple. If they did surely they must be smart enough/had enough to fix it by now? Right? As long as people pay and play they really don't give a monkeys. They are obsessed at the moment with giving every class AoE abilities to make soloing and farming endless cloth supplies easier, because they know deep down every WoW player would really rather solo / have NPC's that do the work of players for you.
The new season just started. Nobody knows yet what the new FoTM class is. Give it a couple months and I believe your representation will be largely in favor of whichever classes are now OP.
Vault-Tec analysts have concluded that the odds of worldwide nuclear armaggeddon this decade are 17,143,762... to 1.
No. Give both sides the exact same class and racial abilities.
Now, if you give them a multitude of options to choose from to make their character play the way they like ( be it feats or some other ) and make sure that those are identical as well.
And you will still get the guys who believe that the other class or side has better powers or is teh UBAH.
Cause these players will swear it is not because they are not good at the game. Of course we all know that most games have some random "die roll" to determine hits or misses so, that could not be a factor in the game either.
Say hello, To the things you've left behind. They are more a part of your life now that you can't touch them.
WoW is NOT balanced for 1v1... never has been!
And to be honest most players are far to quick to blame imbalance for their poor playing and lack of class knowledge.
and WoW was never balanced for 2vs2 either...think war/druid in s4 and dk/pally in s5 so remove 2v2 option as well?
and WoW was never balanced for 2vs2 either...think war/druid in s4 and dk/pally in s5 so remove 2v2 option as well?
No just get better at 2v2 and stop bitching. The only way to balance Wow and make all the moaning girls happy is to have 1 single class.. and well thats not going to happen is it.
Doktar - 70 Troll Priest - Perenolde
and WoW was never balanced for 2vs2 either...think war/druid in s4 and dk/pally in s5 so remove 2v2 option as well?
No just get better at 2v2 and stop bitching. The only way to balance Wow and make all the moaning girls happy is to have 1 single class.. and well thats not going to happen is it.
so 2v2 imbalance is "OK" and stop bitching whereas 1 vs 1 is not "ok" and should never exist.
k
LoL, true!
But then again WoW was never balanced around anything period...lol
Heres what it comes down to...
Im betting that you rolled a really good class when you started playing, and you built it up and you was GOD LIKE.
You went though every raid and owned at PvP.
But then Blizzard came a long and Nerffed your caracter in one of there little patches and you could no longer throw out those 14k crits that made you so good.
Get used to it and stop crying.
People like you are the reason behind blizzard Nerffing the Druid Healing, Hunter pet abilitys and the Palli mana regen.
This game will never be balanced because you will always have cry babies running home shouting "MOMMY...THEY KILLED MY CAT".
And every time you post rubbish like this up Blizzard go and nerff some other so called OP class thinking there listening to what the masses want.
As for inbalance in PvP...a Mage will never be able to take down a Pali due to Palis having plate armor, but run in to a raid your be glad a Pali isnt a clothy.
As for the FoTM class...at the moment its looking like the Hunter...its the only class that didnt get nerffed in 3.1.0
Mage, Warlock, Pali and Druid all got smashed and theres a planned nerff of Warriors coming.
Heres the simple truth....
If you dont like how the game is...dont play.
If you do...then stop complaining.
You know there's one group of ppl I detest more than whiners, trolls, fanbois, or haters. And it's these mindless opinionless drones, I remember while I was playing WAR, these idiots were all over their forums defending the game telling everyone there was nothing wrong with the game...just the players.
Telling everyone to stfu or gtfo, and guess what??? The majority jumped ship.
The truth is there's nothing wrong with criticism as long as it doesn't turn into trolling, these idiots do nothing but argue with trolls and those players that make a good point and bring up a constructive arguments.
I played WoW since day one of release and it's no brainer that Blizzard doesn't want to balance out the classes, so all they do is continuesly keep changing them in order to give a player the sense that balance depends on the season and and how much love Blizz is willing to give with every patch. Buffing a class to OP status than nerfing them down effectually to give other classes a chance to steal the show.
The only sense this guy makes is that the classes will never be perfectly balanced out. But that dosen't mean they couldn't have done a better job at it, for which I can honestly say "no," Blizzard just doesn't want to, and they never have...>>
I swear some of you guys need to give it a rest....balance? Get real. Like many have said here "balance" is a myth feed into by players that lack a sense of class pecking order. In WoW you have classes that are vulnerable: clothies and those that can dish it out: melee. You've had specs that supported PvP and those that supported PvE. One issue that was a factor in balancing things out at first was giving those that chose the PvE role the ability to escape and those clothies that chose the PvP role the ability to delay the initial ambush.
Don't throw the word "balance" around like it's so easy to do. With every new encounter, raid, level cap, release of gear and anything added to the game, tweaks are gonna follow. And this act in itself is very hard to do for any developer. You've added a new raid? Then guess what? Developers are monitoring the level of progression that may call for a bit of a tweak to steer some players back on the right track. For instance, I definitely called foul when they "nerfed" Wild Growth. I was cursing under my breath, but TRULY thinking how I devilishly enjoyed spamming it in raids and PvP without a care in the world. But to think that a group heal with no cooldown for a class that regens mana like a faucet filling a jug with a hole in it the size of a pin....I KNEW it wouldn't last long. And when the "corrected to work as intended" is applied to one group of players (Raiders) the other group (PvPers) feel it too. So they have to find ways to keep PvP druids in the know without giving raiding druids a overpowering boost in their play styles.
THAT is the ONLY type of balancing that Blizzard is currently monitoring and tweaking. But if you are not talking about 1 vs 1 fights or even 2 vs 2, then my apologies are in order.
"Small minds talk about people, average minds talk about events, great minds talk about ideas."
Sure, 100% balance might be very much impossible. But I believe that better balancing in WoW is possible. If Blizzard does this on purpose I cannot say. Maybe they just lack the proper tools. ANet, for example, can record each Guild vs Guild battle and watch and analyze them later on. In Aion, afaik, they added a lot of data-mining to the game. This way they can see, which class beats which class how often, how much damge, what kind of skills and so on.
Sometimes I feel Blizzard thinks to much in terms of PvE roles: damage dealing and healing. Class A is balanced with class B if A does the same damage as B on paper. But what makes certain classes so strong is not the class itself. It's the combination of certain classes that have great synergy, such as RMP (Roge/Mage/Priest). Balancing raw DPS or healing is one thing. It can be measured in tests. But balancing utility is quite a different story. And this is were Blizzard fails.
Why is class imbalance always discussed with PvP in mind? How about PvE which is what the vast majority of gamers do in WoW? You might say who cares? But if you're trying to fill out a group, it really does matter. For example, right now it's DKs. When I do /who in my area, I'm usually the only non-DK on. As a Warlock, I don't get invited into groups because of DK dps uberness and the fact that Warlocks are seen as superfluous now in PvE. Fortunately, I have a Druid that I play, but it swings to the other extreme where I get pestered all the time for groups as a healer. I'm quite often the only non-DK in the group.
Edit - And yes, in the case of DKs, their imbalance with respect to the rest of the classes is definitely on purpose. But how about how great hybrids are in comparison to the pure dps classes? What about that imbalance?
Back in EvE. Started with BatMUD. Main MMOs have been EvE and DAoC.
QFT
I would tend to agree with you. This technique is a quite common marketing tool.
I even remember in my childhood when i was playing the tabletop Warhammer and every 3-6 months they were respecing one of the armies to be better than the others, just in order for ppl to flock to it and buy more.
You'll also notice that these techniques are applied more often in "childish" games, where part of the public might be more sensitive to it.
If you are not a PvP person, it's probably better to just ignore the fact. That might be the best way to let Blizzard know their schemes are not working. Or if you're more extreme and want to fight back, do like me, never invite a DK for anything, you'll have even more fun as YOUR group will be more balanced
True Balance in an MMO is a Myth. If you want a Truly fair game play chess.
Takes a lot more skill then brainpower then mmo pvp too ^^.
Btw what would be the point of rerolling an overpowerd class? Unless you whole goal is kill and gank other players to highten your selfasteam, then of course you dont care if your pwning because of your op class. If you would play it to become better yourself and grow in your understanding then it dosent matter if you loose, even against an oped class, because it wouldnt be about winning or loosing but for the sake of playing and bettering yourself.
of course most people wont achieve that mindstate and feel better after getting that tiny bit of satisfaction to have won, no matter how, cause they cant think outside of competing over the most mindless of skills.
DING DING DING! YOU WIN THE INTERNETS!
"There is as yet insufficient data for a meaningful answer."