AmenThis is Maso, the writer of the two FAQ threads stickied up here on the board. I've been playing WoW with little breaks in between since the original game was released. I post frequently on the boards, often read articles and accounts written by PvPers of all classes, and generally try to keep up to date on the PVP trends and statistics.
I will try as hard as I can to remain calm and constructive during this post. I'm sure that whoever actually reads this understands my frustration... or if they don't understand it now, hopefully I will show you why I and a lot of other older Warlocks are angry about 2.4. However I am going to be as direct and blunt as possible and you should not confuse this with anger.
2.4, in terms of PvP class balance, is a flaming, stinking, backwards piece of garbage. Unless you have some weird or radical changes coming later in 2.4, I have no freaking clue what your devs are thinking except that they might be 4 months behind. As if the cloth-hosing itemization of S3 wasn't enough, you continue to ignore OPness of Warriors, and instead nerf every non-physical form of DPS and strategy.
Here's a quick list of things about 2.4 that frustrate me:
-Physical DPS getting BUFFED, and not NERFED
-Nerfs that punish anybody running a comp that doesn't have a Warrior in it
-No action made against Warriors
-Unnecessary nerfs to Warlocks
-Still no pet resilience scaling
-Pathetic treatment of off-specs like Resto, complete inaction towards Affliction and Destruction
-Overall indication and continuing trend that devs are months behind on game changes with a dynamic PvP community.
I will go over each of these posts in the new few posts.
Why the hell is physical DPS STILL getting buffed?
What, cloth-hosing s3 itemization wasn't enough?
MUDflation is an accepted fact of MMORPG's by many gamers. Just by the nature of their classes, physical DPS will always scale better than magical DPS. It's pretty obvious: Warriors are still known to be the most gear-dependent class in the game, and at higher levels of gear are known to be overpowered.
So, instead of actually fighting the common problem of MUDflation, s3 EMBRACES it by giving cloth PATHETIC gains in comparison to s2 but by also giving physical dps the CLOTH-HOSING stat of armor penetration. The fact that resilience was not scaling up but s3 weapons were should've easily been enough.
Why was armor penetration even added? It adds practically no damage against heavily armored opponents, but a ridiculous amount of damage against cloth. You need to understand that only one of your cloth classes is capable of creating any decent distance from a melee class with support, and that the other two, just by MUDflation alone, would've been screwed anyways. The fact that resilience didn't increase at all and +armor only increased by a tiny amount doesn't help at all.
And what do we get in 2.4? MORE armor penetration gear, MORE melee weapons that scale much faster than cloth survivability gear, and MORE buffs to physical DPS talents. This is a problem. Fix it.
Why is every arena strategy except "lol have the Warrior train on someone and oom with MS" being nerfed?
Do you realize that your arena went from a CC-heavy, strategy based game to a mindless, item based zerg system? Do I really need to point out your proof? Okay, here's your proof:
3v3:
Druid/Warrior/Rogue
Druid/Ret Paladin/Rogue
5v5:
Euro comp (Druid/Priest/Mage/Lock/Rog)
The first two capitalize on how ridiculously easy it is for two melee to zerg down any cloth or Hunter armor or below character (minus Rogues), and how ridiculously powerful Sunder Armor and Expose Armor are, especially when you have more than one physical DPS on your team (wtf 20%-30% unremovable damage debuff with a 30 second cooldown).
Euro comp is a little different, and from what I understand, is a comp made especially for zerging Warlocks down without having to worry too much about positioning thanks to lol Cheat Death. Do you want to know why your game is being watered down like this? Why is your game being watered down like this? S3 itemization and 2.3 physical DPS changes.
So what does 2.4 do to fix this? Nothing! In fact, it encourages it! Just like how 2.4 went the complete backwards direction in fixing physical itemization, it goes completely backwards in addressing this issue. Increased physical DPS adds to the problem. Also, instead of nerfing "lol zerg this cloth down with Expose/Sunder" strats, it nerfs mana drains by adding a scaling defense against it without adding a scaling benefit for it.
Mana drain set-ups were indeed a little too powerful in s2. However, they at least required a little coordination and strategy from the team, unlike DRW/DRetW. With the increase in physical DPS, nerfs to Warlocks, nerfs to Druids, nerfs to drinking, and now nerfs to mana drains, you didn't just nerf these set-ups, no. You nerfed them, beat their wife, stole their TV remotes, and stomped on their children.
Why haven't Warriors been nerfed yet?
If 2.4 remains how it is, I don't see much reason to roll any class but a Warrior. I'm lucky that I already have one. Other people have also switched, including Azazael (WArrior) and Unstoppable (Rogue). There is just no better time investment. So many people have rolled Druids, Elemental Shamans, and Shadow Priests only to see their class get neutered in a future patch. Not Warriors though, they are unnerfable.
Warriors have consistently been the top DPS class in all three brackets of arena from the beginning of season 1 to present. Sure, some classes (particularly Warlocks) have taken the #1 spot for periods of time, but those classes get nerfed or outscaled and give Warriors back their righteous place on the throne.
It might get my thread deleted, but I'm going to go ahead and say it. I used to think those "Kalganism" threads were a pile of crap, but now I'm starting to buy into it. You'd have to be blind not to see that every patch that's made at least takes one or two steps towards making sure that the Warriors stay at the top. With s3 itemization, and 2.4 only making things worse, it is glaringly obvious now that Warriors are truly the class meant to own face for free in the arena.
How are Warriors unbalanced? Let's see. They are by far the most unkiteable melee class in the game. You have the unremovable Hamstring. Then you have the 15 second CD 3 second stun instant teleport intercept (I know a lot of classes would kill for an instant 15 cd 3 second stun ALONE). Then you have the RNG based mace stun and Imp. Hamstrings to buy more time for your intercept's cooldown to refresh. Oh... and MS.
Oh, and now Warriors have finally keybinded Sunder Armor, which for any game of decent length, is extremely worth it to stack an unremovable debuff that increases all physical DPS done to a target by 20-30%.
Almost nothing has been done to fix these. No, the pitiful mace stun nerf and Imp. Hamstring on DR doesn't help (though the duration reduction was helpful). Nerfing Hamstring further or MS would neuter the Warrior class, which is NOT what I'm asking for. Nerfing or removing RNG mace stun (with compensation, obviously) would be great. Removing the ridiculous 4pc intercept bonus is another great option.
Unnecessary nerfs to Warlocks
Many people on this forum recognize me as one of the first people who would admit to Warlocks being overpowered. I fought in support for the Drain Life and DoTs vs resilience nerfs. I shot down suggestions to turn UA into a ridiculously OP counter-everything-your-class-has spell. I reported 2.0 DoT coefficients as ridiculous.
However, when I began to see the effects of s3 itemization on Warlocks and other classes (the now extinct Shadow Priest), my opinion began to change. The LT nerf is the one nerf where I see most anti-Warlock posters (Mages, Priests in general, the blogger MIng, others) say that things have gone too far. S3 itemization, physical DPS buffs, nerfs to mana drains, and overall increase in any kind of DPS are already enough to push Warlocks down in the tiers. This is just overkill.
Warlocks are already demanding on healers, because they have the lowest mitigation and avoidance in the game. Yes, we have Soul Link and Fel Armor, and they are incredible at low levels of damage. Fel Armor makes up for our lack of true mitigation and Soul Link protects just as well against burst damage as something with true mitigation... until the pet dies. Oh, and drains are effective in smaller brackets as well.
At the larger brackets (3v3, 5v5) they are not quite as effective. Soul Link helps against burst but still causes the same amount of healer pressure. Fel Armor, the only buff to make up for our low true mitigation/avoidance gets dispelled. Drains become a weaker option because of the number of interrupts and pushbacks a Warlock gets.
I'm not saying that Warlocks are currently underpowered, but they definately have glaring weaknesses which are already exploited enough currently to remove them from the top tiers in 3v3 and (eventually) 5v5.
This is all thanks to armor penetration, increased physical DPS, and Sunder/Expose Armor btw. 2.3 Warlocks are already causing a ridiculous amount of healer pressure, even in 3v3. 2.4, with the LT nerf, more physical DPS, and drinking nerf (which is justified) will only amplify this.
More to come.
No pet scaling
I don't think I need to outline why this is needed, and why its lack of implementation so far is a concern. Please update us on whether or not it is going to happen at all in 2.4, thanks.
Pathetic treatment of certain offspecs
Shaman Resto needs much more than just 30% dispel resistance and the whole mana cost/charges thing, I hope you understand that. I'm not an expert on Shamans, so I don't have much to comment... but what looks to be the best solution to me is to give back Water Shield's full charge mana return on dispel but nerf the amount of mana given back per charge, and then greatly improve the efficiency of LHW/HW via a late talent. Healing Way needs to adapation for PvP.
I see that Arcane is getting a buff, but not Fire. I don't understand why Fire has been ignored for so long, the freaking 41 talent is clearly made for PvP. Remove the 41 talent for a PvE one if you want it to be a PvE tree, otherwise fix. Ret/Enh will start to see a place in PvP now thanks to melee dominance, which really isn't the way to go... both specs need to not be so reliant on mana. As for Feral, I have no idea what you can do to fix them without adding a snare or MS effect (which would be ridiculous).
And for Affliction and Destruction? Affliction, like the Shadow Priest, has gone practically extinct thanks to the problems I've mentioned before. Destruction? lol. Almost every BC change to it was made for PvP, yet the tree is garbage for any serious form of PvP and has not been looked at since the release of the game. Hell, it's being nerfed thanks to the LT change.
Make your decision. If you want Destruction to be a PvE tree, replace SFury, NP, Backlash, Conflagrate, Imp. Searing Pain, Aftermath, Imp. Immolate, and Pyroclasm into PvE talents and make the tree not completely freaking reliant on Demonic Sacrifice. If you want it to be a PvP tree, do SOMETHING... ANYTHING to make it better.
I see that Assassination got a buff to Mutilate in Imp. Backstab. Why hasn't Destruction been looked at at all? You would have to be completely freaking out of your mind to think Assassination is worse off than Destruction in any form of PvP. Mutilate DOES have its place in Rogue/Priest 2v2, certain 3v3 set-ups and 4DPS in 5v5. Destruction has no place anywhere in the arena. That's also not to mention buffs to on-spec trees like the Endless Rage change.
Please buff Destruction or make a decision as to what its place in WoW will be.
Devs are always months behind on changes
This is the point that makes me question why I wrote this novel in the first place. Assuming that, as a Warlock, my feedback even gets to the devs, no action will be made for at least half a year from now... and that's also assuming that we don't get the Shaman "lol fixes are coming some year" treatment.
I understand that it is a tough system. I understand that WoW is a huge game. I understand that things take time. This is my suggestion to make things take less time.
Your 2.4 patch, with continued physical scaling and further nerfs to old, already counter-comped set-ups shows that your devs are not capable of keeping up with a dynamic, ever-changing PvP community. Things are different in PvP. Discoveries are made, weaknesses are found and exploited. It took Warriors and Rogues 2.5 seasons to bind Expose Armor/Sunder Armor on their bars, anod now those abilities are dominating cloth classes in the arena.
I have more evidance that devs are always months behind on their changes. Druids were weak in arena during s1. Then with s2, they become easily the best healer for most 2's and 3's set-ups, and this caught on quickly. So what happens in the next patch? Druids get Natural Perfection, which does very little to cover their 5v5 weaknesses (switches, burst damage) and only further strengthens their 2v3 and 3v3 strength (dominance in low number, low DPS fights).
If you ever want a game like an MMO to ever gain e-sport acceptance, you are going to have to be a little faster and more up to date on your fixes. A competitive community is constantly changing, and if you are so far behind as to nerf what becomes underpowered and buff what becomes overpowered, you are not going to be successful at turning WoW into an e-sport.
I am not a game programmer, and I don't know how information is relayed to the devs, so I don't know what steps can be taken to improve this. My suggestion? Hire more devs.
source http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/threa ... 86&sid=1#9
