2.1.0 Patch Notes

[TheDragoon]

How are warriors now? Better than in 1.0, for the most part. How are feral druids now? Still better than feral in 1.0. How are elemental shamans? They'll still be better than in 1.0. How are hunters going to be? Better than in 1.0.

The question "Are we better than in 1.0" is a poor gauge for progress, in my opinion. Each patch should be able to say that the game is better in this patch than in the previous patch. If it is not, then why change?

(Like hunters needed much buffs anyway, as GG said. They're the kings of farm/solo/quest. Only fitting that they can't be the kings of everything, which seems to me to be what some posters want.)

This is an argument that I just never seem to understand. It is basically saying that classes should either be "the PvP class", "the raiding class", "the grinding class", "the underwater herbalist class" or some other narrow style of play, but it should not be good at all of these things. Do people really think this because it makes absolutely zero sense to me.

In my opinion, the goal should be to make all classes equally good at each facet of the game, but in its own distinctive way. Accordingly, in a utopian game design, each class would be good at grinding up mobs, they would all be equally useful to bring on raids, they would all bring a wealth of abilities to the PvP game, but all with a different flavor. Does anyone disagree that this would be the ultimate example of a balanced, fun, varied game?

In reality, this sort of balance is something of a pipe dream. Given the mechanical differences between battlegrounds PvP, arena play, end-game raiding, solo content, 5-man instances, 5-man heroics, and any number of other facets of the game, it becomes exceedingly difficult to have a wide array of classes that all play differently with different mechanics that are all equal in their usefulness and power in these situations. Some things that would help balance a character for arena play might make the class overpowered or weak for 5-man instances and grinding. As such, trades end up being made to reach some semblence of overall balance to the game. The end result of this is that a given class is usually not good at each thing. Healers tend to have less damage output (because if they had good damage output, they would be overpowered in PvP) which makes them less useful for grinding. DPS classes have to be balanced around survivability, crowd control and damage output or they will become overpowering for either raiding, 5-mans, or PvP… often resulting in them being less good at one or more of the gaming styles available in the game. However, if given the understanding and creativity necessary to make a class that is perfectly balanced at all things (good at raiding, good at PvP, good at grinding, good in the arena, good in 5-mans, etc, but not overpowered in any), should that class design really be dumbed down simply because the other class designs are not as perfect? I would say no, that is what the designers should strive for and any chance they get to come close to that level of excellence, they should, regardless of whether the players of other classes are jealous that their class has not yet achieved that level of perfect design with its own flavors and quirks.