class-balance
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World of Warcraft unleashes its full patch 6.1 patch notes
The first major patch for World of Warcraft's latest expansion is here! If by "here" you mean "on the test realm," anyhow. So not here at all. The opposite of here; still preparing to be here. One might even go so far as to say it's there. But the full (preliminary) patch notes for the test realm are available right now for those who'd like to see what's around the corner aside from brand-new Blood Elf models. Garrison fans will have plenty of things to enjoy, with new visitors offering quests, new follower missions, and a new music box available. Players can also make use of a new Twitter integration feature and the new heirloom collection tab. Several classes are also seeing talent and balance adjustments, including across-the-board buffs to healer damage output for adventuring in the world. No word yet on when the patch will drop, but you can see what it contains from the patch notes.
Celestalon teases upcoming class changes [Updated]
Celestalon decided to tease us with this rather cryptic tweet regarding upcoming class changes on the patch 6.1 PTR. Class design is often 85% talking about what to do, 15% actually doing. Today was the 15%. Next PTR build should spur lots of discussion. - Celestalon (@Celestalon) January 22, 2015 Alright, Celestalon, you have my attention. He later followed it up with another tweet saying the changes will primarily be number tweaks, but there will be a few functionality changes. Overall class balance could definitely use some tweaks, at least for the top and bottom outliers. Recent hotfixes have helped, but I get the feeling they've been cautious with some of the changes. Patches are probably a better time to make significant adjustments since they can be thoroughly tested beforehand. What would you like to see changed for your class in patch 6.1? Update: Theses changes won't be going in today's upcoming build (January 22), but should make it into the next PTR build (source).
Class tuning hotfixes
Yes, turns out they're still at work adjusting class tuning before we go into Warlords of Draenor. Some classes saw buffs, other classes saw another round of savage nerfs. Death knights and balance druids saw some buffs, as did elemental shamans, while mages saw a 20% nerf to frostbolt's damage (rolling back a buff from October 17th) and warriors got pummeled. A complete list of the class changes will be posted after the jump.
The Mog Log: Final Fantasy XIV's superfluous damage Ninja
If you don't know whether or not I'm excited about the inclusion of Final Fantasy XIV's newest class, I don't know what to tell you. I've been playing a character who's been an in-character Ninja for the duration of the game's life, so obviously I'm happy to finally have it available to me. I personally would be happiest if it were a tank, since I do so enjoy tanking in the game, but I have plenty of people to run stuff with anyway. I'm not worried about queue times anyhow. At the same time, though... we know there's a shortage of tanks in the game right now. This isn't a mystery or a secret. Healers are more common but still hardly as ubiquitous as Bards and Dragoons. So is the inclusion of another DPS class really a wise decision? With the precedent established, would Final Fantasy XIV have been better off adding a more party-oriented option into the mix?
What ability would you rather not say goodbye to?
Game Designer Celestalon had an interesting question posed to Twitter earlier today -- what ability are you afraid Blizzard will get rid of, in its quest to defeat button bloat? Obviously each class is incredibly different and the answers are colored by personal opinion, but it's still a question worth asking. I think what struck me as odd was that I couldn't really come up with any kind of reasonable answer. As a rogue, there are very few abilities I can safely say I love -- Burst of Speed, Shadowstep, Fan of Knives -- but those are all situational abilities that I don't use with every raid encounter. As for the rest of the rogue toolkit, I'm decidedly ambivalent about the whole thing. The rotation for an Assassination rogue isn't what I'd call particularly complex, it's simply a matter of watching timers to make sure you're performing the right moves at the right moment. Mutilate, Rupture, Envenom -- they're all abilities I use regularly. There's nothing really remarkable about them. I like that Envenom refreshes Slice and Dice, but that's not really liking an ability so much as liking a side effect of using that ability. Which is really kind of weird, when you think about it.
Lichborne: The pitfalls of class balance arguments
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Lichborne for blood, frost, and unholy death knights. In the post-Cataclysm era, death knights are no longer the new kids on the block. Let's show the other classes how a hero class gets things done. By the time this column is published, it will be official. Greg Tiberus Street, the man formerly known as Ghostcrawler, will no longer be Lead Systems Designer for World of Warcraft. For many years now, even if his job encompassed so much more, he was pretty much the target for class-based arguments. The most passionate, angry arguments for class changes were directed at him. In his final days as Ghostcrawler, I noticed he did a lot of tweeting about some of the aspects of his job and how the dev team saw class feedback from the community. With that in mind, I want to take a look at the forms of class feedback and some terms that come up again and again as discussed by Ghostcrawler, not just as a tribute to Ghostcrawler, but as a way to hone our toolkit for when the Warlords of Draenor beta test drops and it's time for us all to give our feedback on the future of the death knight class.
The Nexus Telegraph: WildStar's last two classes
In the wake of last week's class reveal, I'm going to start with a piece of information that was actually revealed shortly thereafter but might have been missed. According to the development team, the Chua can be Medics as well. So now, WildStar's full class and race layout has been made public, and what seemed to be a single odd omission is now corrected. You might recall that I did some serious class speculation when we didn't even know what the last two races were going to be back in March. Now we know the last two classes of WildStar and I can see how good my aim was. And once I'm done congratulating myself on fitting together pieces of obvious information, we can talk a little more about what the last two classes are actually doing within the context of the game. That seems fair, doesn't it? I'm glad you agree.
Guild Wars 2 launches its Blood and Madness update
It's that time again in Guild Wars 2. The crisp scents of fall and candy corn are in the air, and everyone's getting ready for another appearance by Mad King Thorn. But the newest patch, Blood and Madness, is turning things on its ear by introducing Thorn's son, Bloody Prince Edrick, which will throw the already chaotic festival into... further chaos? Chaos is generally pretty boolean; things are chaotic or they aren't. As expected, there's a guide available for those who want to get the most out of this latest update. Even if you're not interested in the dose of story that goes along with the update, you can enjoy the holiday event, and you can also enjoy the other features added with the patch. World vs. World is getting its first competitive season along with a slew of reward improvements, and combat balance has been adjusted to make all classes a bit more fun to play. Check out the full patch notes for more details, and go get yourself some candy corn.
Darkfall Unholy Wars updates the balance of power
It was a couple of weeks ago that the development team behind Darkfall Unholy Wars first discussed the issue. Warriors in the game were just too good, meaning that the class meant as the easiest to first pick up was also the easiest to absolutely crush your enemies with. So the team stepped back, examined the problem, and put together a comprehensive set of changes meant to make all of the game's roles more appealing. The three major changes put into effect were an increase to damage mitigation for non-Warrior armors, more normalized stats for every role, and a slight reduction in Warrior armor against the relevant damage from specialized damage types. The net effect should be that weaker classes now stay up longer and can deal more damage to Warriors, allowing more skilled players to pull ahead in battle. For more details including revamps to the wobble mechanics and individual ability tweaks, take a look at the full list of balance changes. [Thanks to Jane for the tip!]
Yes, we need no new classes
In The Queue the other day, an intrepid reader asked about opinions on a new type of mail-wearing class. I can see the appeal of certain types of new classes, for sure -- one to wear mail armor, as suggested, or another one to wear intellect plate -- but to be perfectly honest, I really, truly hope that we are forever done with seeing new classes added to WoW. I've talked about this with a few other people, and as expected, opinions are mixed. Some people are horrified at the idea of never having a new class again in WoW, and other people, like myself, are relieved. I really, truly do believe that adding more classes to WoW would only create headaches for everyone, developers and players alike. I'd much rather see the required resources in design, development, and maintenance go to other aspects of the game such as dungeons, raids, scenarios, quests, and events, than to creating and continuously balancing still more classes. So, without further ado, I present three arguments as to why there should be no more new classes in WoW.
Darkfall looks at adjusting class balance
The Darkfall team senses that something is off, and that something is the lopsided use of classes. Namely, more players pick Warriors due to high survivability while eschewing some of the other classes. This will be addressed in an upcoming patch to help even the playing field. A new forum post outlines the issue of Warrior dominance and the "very short duration" of fights involving Skirmishers and Elementalists. The patch that's planned to adjust this will be fully revealed next week once the team has finished with internal testing. "The goal is to make combat more fun, exciting and challenging, while achieving a healthy balance between all roles," the post declares. [Thanks to Dengar for the tip!]
Celebrate Fury of the Feywild's launch with a trailer full of lore
Neverwinter's first big content expansion, Fury of the Feywild, is officially live, bringing a new campaign system, new professions to learn, the call to arms system, and dozens of gameplay tweaks and balance changes. Also included is the 20v20 PvE/PvP event Gauntlgrym, along with a new zone to explore and piles of new items. Cryptic and Perfect World have marked the launch by releasing an all-new trailer detailing the lore of Fury of the Feywild; you can see it yourself just after the break.
Get an advance look at Neverwinter's Fury of the Feywild details
Neverwinter's module 1 update, also known as Fury of the Feywild, will hit the game next Thursday, August 22nd, but you don't have to wait until then to read up on all of the specifics. Cryptic has posted many of the patch's details today, although they are of course subject to tweaking. Expect to see a lot of changes with module 1, including many class balance adjustments, a reduction in cost for some astral diamond purchases, a new passive power for non-augment companions, better inventory management, foundry tag searches, and LFG and trade chat channels. Fury of the Feywild will also include the new high-level zone of Sharandar, the ability to upgrade companions with astral diamonds, the salvage feature, and the new professions of artificing and weaponsmithing. The patch will also lay the groundwork for the Summer Festival to begin on August 29th.
Details on the class changes for World of Warcraft's 5.4 patch
It's one of the last patches of World of Warcraft's Mists of Pandaria expansion, and that means one more set of adjustments to the game's classes. You could, naturally, assume that all of the changes are being made because Blizzard hates your favorite class and loves your least favorite class. Or you could take a look at the most recent development post detailing why class abilities are being changed for better or worse. While the changes for each class are different, all of the classes have had several unappealing talents improved and a few overpowered talents toned down a bit. There are also several changes based on situational power -- Holy Paladins, for example, had too much mana when able to get into melee and too little mana when forced to stay at range. If you want to see how your class fared in this round of rebalancing, take a look at the full rundown before posting your rant about being horribly nerfed.
Ghostcrawler and Daxxarri talk classes in patch 5.2
With the advent of patch 5.2, World of Warcraft Lead Systems Designer Greg Street "Ghostcrawler" and Community Manager Daxxarri have been posting a series of class overviews and changes. Part one went up on Tuesday, covering death knights, druids, and hunters. Part two was posted Wednesday evening and covers mages, paladins, and priests. Part three, on rogues, shaman, and warlocks, went up yesterday evening, and part four, covering warriors and monks, was posted earlier today. For many classes, most of the changes involve PvP balancing as well as trying to improve a number of talents in some way to make them more useful and thus more attractive to players, at least situationally. If you're curious about either the philosophy of class balance design or just want to know what happened to your class this patch, make sure to check it out. What I love about these posts is that little glimpse of insight they provide into the thought process that goes into balancing the class mechanics in a game like World of Warcraft. I'll be honest, I'm glad I'm not one of the people involved in that job. To me it seems like an endless headache to try and make sure all classes are different enough to feel unique, but similar enough such that a raid or dungeon group isn't punished for lacking one indispensable class, and I wouldn't have the patience for it. But I certainly admire and respect those who do!
Ghostcrawler and Daxxari present Patch 5.2 Class Reviews
If you're wondering how your class has changed in patch 5.2, Blizzard's Ghostcrawler and Daxxari have joined forces to give you details on exactly that. This installment covers Death Knights, Druids and Hunters, so it's working alphabetically in case you're wondering where your class is. While the patch notes serve to give you the details on the changes, this series of posts exists to give you the motivation and reasoning behind the changes to the classes. Why did they buff this or nerf that? The motivations towards each change are explained in detail, letting you get a sense of just what's going on for you in patch 5.2. Ghostcrawler and Daxxari - Patch 5.2 Class Review Part 1 In terms of talent adjustments, while we're still happy overall with the Mists of Pandaria talent overhaul, we do recognize that there were some talents that weren't tuned as well as they could be or just weren't attractive. That's not to say that all talents should be all things to all players all the time; some talents are situationally quite attractive, and we're happy with those. On the other hand, others just never see much use and we would rather provide players real options for each talent tier. source Part one is up now, so keep an eye peeled to the official site for more.
Camelot Unchained: Balanced classes out, rock-paper-scissors in
In his latest lecture series on Camelot Unchained game design, Mark Jacobs discusses his team's approach to class design for the title and how it won't go with the flow of most MMOs. In fact, he says that the effort to carefully balance classes has proved a detriment to the industry, and as such, Camelot Unchained will pursue a rock-paper-scissors structure. Why is Jacobs going down this route? In short, it just doesn't fit an RvR-focused game. "[Rock-paper-scissors] lends an element of unpredictability and it gives us so much more freedom to explore different classes/abilities without worrying about having everything equally balanced 100% all the time," he wrote. Jacobs finishes his lecture by saying that the studio is adapting CCP's development model: "Start small, iterate and then build, baby, build."
Lichborne: 3 popular death knight requests that won't (or shouldn't) be fulfilled
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Lichborne for blood, frost, and unholy death knights. In the post-Cataclysm era, death knights are no longer the new kids on the block. Let's show the other classes how a hero class gets things done. Death knight complaints and requests can change with patches, dealing with current issues or balance problems, but there are other death knight requests that come up time and time again, and will probably be asked about until the day they finally shut down the servers for good. This week, we're going to look at three requests that probably will be around that long, just because it seems very unlikely Blizzard will ever fulfill them. The power of the hero class The "hero class" moniker has a long and storied history. It comes from Warcraft III, where hero units like paladins and death knights towered over the rest. By design, you only had a few of these every game, and they had more powerful skills that allowed them to dominate the battlefield when deployed. When WoW came around, rumors of the hero classes spread throughout beta, but in the end, Blizzard went away from the model. Paladins, a hero class in WCIII, were made a regular class, for example, while other hero class mechanics, such as the Far Seer's Chain Lightning, went to regular classes.
NCsoft seeks to correct Lineage II rebalancing changes with player feedback
Change is inevitable in any MMO, but in a letter to players Lineage II Development Director Gon Namkun acknowledged that not all change is good. As Lineage II has developed over the years, classes have been added and then changed around and stripped of many of their distinctive characteristics in the name of balance. And NCsoft wants to bring some of the diversity back to the classes. Gon Namkun explains the need for diversification and offers four possible solutions. However, instead of just forging ahead with changes, the development team wants player feedback: Players can vote on their preferred method through a poll on the official site. This poll, open until September 26th, 2012, is specifically for Western players as the Korean market poll has already been completed.
BioWare dev blog talks SWTOR's 1.4 balance changes
BioWare senior designer Austin Peckenpaugh has a tough job. Star Wars: The Old Republic's class gameplay balance is basically his responsibility, and as such he's penned a new dev blog intended to keep players in the loop on the upcoming changes in game update 1.4. The patch looks to be an extensive one in terms of gameplay tweaks, and Peckenpaugh has plenty to say on crowd control and resolve changes, ability adjustments, and changes to SWTOR's stealth gameplay. Read all about it at the official SWTOR website.
