Tuesday 14 April 2009

The Warhammer Arms Race


"My melee DPS needs to be able to hit harder than a ranged DPS since we have to get in close"
"No-one uses ranged DPS anymore because melee DPS does more damage, we need to have more damage since we're more fragile"
"What is the point of healers now as we can't keep anyone up? We need stronger heals"
"Our DPS classes can't kill anyone now due to over powered heals, we need more DPS!"
"I'm a tank... I stand here with no defined role in RvR!"

And so the cycle continues with each patch, the classes get more and more powerful, turning Warhammer into an arms race. There was a quote from (possibly) Mark Jacobs about how they would rather not nerf any class but instead bring the others up to the same power level.

THIS. DOESN'T. WORK.

There will always be a spec or class that can find a tactic set or buggy ability that turns them into an "I WIN" class. The minute you try to drag other classes up to the same level is when you start the arms race. Everyone wants the bigger abilities and the large floaty numbers overhead to be coming from them.

Currently archmages and shamans are getting a healing buff in 1.2.1. Overall the mechanic changes (it goes from interesting concept to 'why even bother with a mechanic?') and buffs should make them both fairly significant healers and I'd almost say on par with the current healing level of Warrior Priests and Disciples. So the poor Zealots and Runepriests are now the bottom rung healing class (and these were supposed to be the pure healers rather than the hybrid ranged dps / melee dps healers) so they need to get a buff up. 1.3 comes around and gives them a nice buff and we now have a situation where healers are ruling the roost and the only way to combat them is to up the damage people can do..

Or is it?

Mythic seem a bit.. wary of nerfing any class, I suppose EVERY MMO developer doesn't like to do this. It causes unrest in the forums, people may quit due to the changes and it never looks good having a class up in arms and screaming bloody murder about the nerfs. And imagine if every class was doing it.. Would that be a good thing? Possibly not in the short term but longer term I fully believe this would help combat balance. Take a step back and look at where the game is going right now, it's simply DPS/HPS escalating. If one class gets a nerf then they struggle to adapt due to the buffs that continually go around them. bring all classes down to a level peg and re look at the class mechanics. Melee healers for example should need to you know.. melee.

Of course there are underpowered classes right now, Shadow Warrior comes to mind, but instead of a big buff, what's truly wrong with them if the other classes were brought to the same power level?

Would you be happy for Mythic to tone down the class if it meant that every other class would be as powerful as yours? Dropping damage, healing and mitigation down to a level that is easier to manage?

WCPI Blog o' da week.


This weeks Blog o' da Week goes to WAAAGH! Roots. Great site by Xerb of War Underground fame. It has a series of great articles and many thought provoking posts that get you thinking.. Hmmm, this git may be onto something.

WAAAAGH! Roots. Check dem out!

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