How to get the attention of a blue
by Dan O'Halloran 
Aug 23rd 2007 at 11:00AM
A frustrated druid player on the European WoW Forums, Synneth, composed a lengthy, druid class complaint thread. She clearly stated the problems for druids in both PvE and PvP for all specs and backed up her assertions with examples. She did not flame, accuse or demand. She simply made a well-informed argument backed by facts.And she got a blue response. She got many blue responses. Admittedly, it's not devs who responded, it was Community Managers. But those blues are the ones who take player concerns to the devs. They couldn't guarantee a dev response, but they did promise to take her concerns to them.
So take note, those of your who feel your class is broken and your complaints are falling on deaf ears: a calm, strong argument supported by facts may be the quickest route for change. Now would be a great time to get the attention of the devs as they plan new abilities and talents for the expansion as well as itemizing the new zones.
Since Synneth did not provide a synopsis of her extensive post, I'll be summarizing it in Tuesday's druid class column, Shifting Perspectives, as well as analyzing her points about PvE play.
Filed under: Druid, News items
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Jacckk of Perenolde Aug 23rd 2007 11:12AM
"So take note, those of your who feel your class is broken and your complaints are falling on deaf ears: a calm, strong argument supported by facts may be the quickest route for change."
Unless you're a priest. I have seen countless intelligent requests for review of talents with mathcraft and all sorts of logical examples.
Blues are allergic to the priests' forums.
ezkial Aug 23rd 2007 11:23AM
blues have been allergic to the druid forums since the games release. the only blue we see is "welcome to the druid forums" sticky. American Blues dont play durids.. these blues are on the European forums so American druids still get the shaft. maybe they can get something done about it. American
i wish i could post on the euro forums.
Nick Aug 23rd 2007 11:27AM
Sigh,
Some durid is bare.
Sorry had to say it.
;-P
Kyrra Aug 23rd 2007 11:30AM
You guys would be amazed how much the blues actually read without posting. As well, the Devs read the forums regularly, but are not allowed to post. If you have written a well thought out post, and it has a few pages of replies, you can almost guarantee that a Blue (CM or Dev) has read it.
Some things to remember, Blues are in the PST timezone, and tend to read the forums from 9am - 8pm or so, but not continuously. They do not always read on the weekends (so don't make your brilliant posts when no one is around to read them).
If your post is good, and other players agree with you, expect that your post has been read.
Dyermaker Aug 23rd 2007 11:35AM
Everyone knows that if you want a Blue to read something important, you post it on the European forums...
PyroAmos Aug 23rd 2007 11:36AM
wow someone complained about durids... i played a durid for a long long time, and last thing I want to do is draw attention to us, we're one of the very very very few classes that works correctly, not overpowered, not underpowered, in almost any spec. last thing i would want is blizz tweaking durids.
Before durids can't fly, but now durids can even poop on peeps heds, lol!
I couldn't resist either... Alamo2, best druid addon in the game.
Station Aug 23rd 2007 11:46AM
I'm looking right now at Ferals since I have most work with them. It seems to me they are complaining mostly about scaling. Right now they scale INCREDIBLY well up to SSC - so well, in fact, that druid tanks are sought after for almost all fights. With just a few epics you can get maxed out armor and 17k life plus almost 35% dodge in bear form. Add that you can, in the same spec, DPS just by switching forms (or another armor set, but same difference) then it seems they are OP.
I get where the issues fall from, but as a pally we start slow tanking and end slow. I guess we can heal in prot, but not that well, since we lost any and all viability due to lack of mana efficiency. The majority of players are NOT past SSC, so for the majority of players druids are still amazing. I get that there should be some upgrades, but I'm not sure what. It seems like a lot of QQ from my perspective.
Verit Aug 23rd 2007 11:58AM
@7
I have a lvl 70 druid - I love playing her, however the itemization for them really blows. Up until lvl 60 lvling was pretty hard since quest rewards and dungeon rewards kinda suck for druids. 60-70 you get a lot of nice upgrades, but then it stops. There aren't any good feral upgrades outside of crafting (which I did) and short of running Karazhan.
So while Druid tanks do well in the end game - getting them geared correct takes tons of work. It'll be sad to see all that go by the wayside with the next expansion.
Arras Aug 23rd 2007 12:02PM
She got lucky, that's pretty much it. There are well-reasoned, fact supported posts for just about every class...and they're usually buried in flames and bs QQ whining posts.
The blue posters can only do so much and can only respond to so much before the whiners take over.
So, as much as I'd like to believe you, Dan...a well reasoned, fact supported post is not the key to getting a blue's attention or response.
That's the sad state of affairs of the WoW forums - both European and US (though the EU forums seem to be better managed than the US)
Sergio Aug 23rd 2007 12:04PM
There are a lot of intelligent posts with class concerns that go without a blue response. Even a simple, "I've read this and will direct your concerns to development" post would suffice. How can the community know that something has been read with out any type of feedback from the community managers?
lendas Aug 23rd 2007 12:11PM
Is there a class that DOESN'T think they're broken? All anybody does in the forums is whine about how their class sucks.
CthulhuCalling Aug 23rd 2007 12:25PM
@11
A saying I use in guild chat and forums whenever someone starts whining about how broken their class is... "I play rock. Scissors is fine, nerf paper"
Everyone is just looking for easy mode. The fact that the game reaches a balance when a class can dominate against another class or encounter, but completely suck against another class or mob- it escapes some people.
All the QQ'ers want is to be able to go into the Arenas an mash a few buttons and ZOMGWTFPWNED!, or be able to tank, heal, and dps all at the same time with no equal.
Rich Aug 23rd 2007 12:29PM
@11. Rogues aren't broken and my main is a Rogue.
Rich
Ghen Aug 23rd 2007 12:33PM
I play a druid in both PvE (tanking or healing, tanking specced) and PvP. ... The class ain't broke. Simple as that. I do very well. Heck, full healing gear with a tanking spec even works fine. I get more agro of course, but everyone ends the fights alive which is the result required.
Kyrra Aug 23rd 2007 12:50PM
@10 - You know, Blues have tried that before. Then the rest of the thread is "Where is a real reply, stop posting non-information!". Blues can't win either way, so they've decided to not post at all unless they have real information to report.
@11 - All classes have their issues, and the forums are a good place to express those issues. I tend not to read my class forums as they only depress me about my class. If I just play and enjoy it, I see the strengths.
Jon Aug 23rd 2007 1:06PM
I think not. Here's a post that I just made.
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=1230553709
It's whiny, rambling, lacking in any detail, and wholly devoid in value other than being a self-centered expression of pointless frustration.
It got a blue response. A dev even if I'm not incorrect.
Most of the blue responses are in threads that are functionally worthless. "What is your favorite kitten" is much more likely to get a blue response than a well written and useful post. You will find hundreds of posts just as valuable and important as your example with no blue text in them.
Coherent Aug 23rd 2007 1:34PM
I notice that all of the blue posts in response to her statement have been to the effect of: "None of your class complaints are valid, just L2P." The only point they seem to agree with the original poster about is the itemization, which they say is "getting fixed soon".
I don't think they're taking her concerns to the devs, they're just responding because they're bored.
Coherent Aug 23rd 2007 1:42PM
Actually, the devs in that thread remind me a lot of Tseric: talk talk talking without ever acknowledging the validity of the original issues. Tseric was famous for endlessly discussing your problems but never ever taking action on them.
The CM's are not our friends or advocates. They are there to placate us and insulate us from the developers. They're forum anesthetic, to numb our complaints.
Ross Aug 23rd 2007 3:19PM
I'm sick of all the QQing that hybrid classes do. "I'm sick of not being top dps class, I'm sick of not being top healing class, I'm sick of not being best tanking class." TO that, I say reroll. I had a druid whine to me the other day about how he thought it was unfair that I can use poisons and vanish and do more dps than him. I just replyed with "I wish I could tank and heal." Quit whining and STFU hybrids. You can do a lot of things. You're not supposed to be as good as any nonhybrid class at any of them though.
Psythrock Aug 23rd 2007 4:41PM
to 19:
Every class in this game is a hybrid (CC is a role in the holy trinity afterall). The "hybrid" classes are more annoyed that "pure" classes are BETTER hybrids (for the most part, druids are very well done).
Its the same 'boo hoo, ret paladin should suck cuz they can heal' (which, if you ever saw a ret paladin in ret gear, you'd realize that they have a mana pool lower than hunters and about as much +heal) or 'enh shaman should suck cuz they can heal' (again, low mana pool, no +heal).
Its like saying a rogue shouldnt be the best dps because they can keep a 5v5 arena team locked down by themselves (sap one, blind one, gouge one, stun one, dps the 5th); its a true statement, you CAN after all, do it for a couple seconds, but its a towering pile of crap.
Those sentences are spewed forth from warriors (hey, look, the best dps/tank hybrid for years going now, eh?) and priests (we all know the shadow tree isnt worth anything, amirite?) who generally have no idea which way is up.
As to the druid thread...
Wow, you mean theres classes with itemizaion issues? A class who if not specced to heal in arenas wastes points because they have to heal anyway?
Someone alert the media, we really need to alert the druids, paladin, shaman and priests that have known about this phenomenon since BG's came out (and before, in PvE).
I mean, we never see prot paladin using warrior items , ret paladin using warrior items (I notice a trend, and it has to do with great warrior itemization and bad paladin itemization), shaman/hunters pissed at the other for having better itemization, druids taking rogue stuff, rogues taking druid stuff, warriors taking mail/leather stuff (because, hey, back in the day, it was better on them anyway), and so on and so forth.
Heres a hint: Itemization blows for pretty much everyone (unless you are healbot specced and dont really care about your cloaks, a warrior, or a class that blows people up most of the time), and even when its good, its bad (can we please not have another +armor +resil +sta ring/cloak again, ever? Thanks.)
And mages are looking at the "we cant keep up our best spell rotation unless we have a shadow priest and use pots!!!" and wondering why thats suddenly a cause for concern.
to #8:
---"So while Druid tanks do well in the end game - getting them geared correct takes tons of work. It'll be sad to see all that go by the wayside with the next expansion."---
Remember, you're talking to a class that doesnt gear up properly until the later parts of the end game.