Claws are trimmed on the CoX Training Room
Not so long ago, Martial Arts got a slickening-up in City of Heroes, and now a similar job has been done on the Claws powerset. In the latest patch to go to the Test Server, the animation times for many of the powers have been pared down, resulting in smoother attack chains, and the use of a 'balancing algorithm' has upped the average damage. (There's one power, Focus, that comes out worse off.) Claws will now be notably more efficient in terms of damage done in relation to endurance burned.
Plenty of players are applauding these changes, but some strong voices are against them. Katfood, who plays well-known claw-scrapping poster girl Feral Kat, acknowledges the good intentions behind the changes but points out that with a nerfed Focus, the set is now far less competitive in PvP. (PvP in CoX isn't about long drawn-out fights where endurance is a major concern, but more about dealing burst damage quickly.) Other players have raised concerns about the Stalker version of the power, which developer Back Alley Brawler has promised to address.
Power rebalancing in any MMO is always a loaded topic. What City of Heroes currently does exceptionally well is to keep the players involved in the process. The developers are renowned for answering queries and concerns personally, and though they take a fair amount of public mud-throwing and trolling, they keep coming back.
Castle the Powers Guy has made a point about why it is, on balance, worth a developer's while to read the forums and talk to the players directly: '... while now and again people get to me, or the level of angst reaches epic proportions, for the most part I can take it. I also know that I'm one slightly above average in intelligence and education person and that by listening to a couple thousand other folks, I might get an idea or two that is better than what I thought of.'
