Drysc talks about Battlegrounds and class balance in PvP
by Zach Yonzon 
Mar 13th 2008 at 6:30PM
In a thread started by quitting player whose final rants include issues such as class balance and the limited number of Battlegrounds, Drysc responds with a rare, long explanation. He mentions that Blizzard understands that not all classes and specs are as viable in PvP, particularly in the extremely competitive Arena environment, and concedes that they are trying to make at least all classes contributive in some way. Protection Warriors, for example, should be able to jump into Battlegrounds or Arenas and "be able to do something with some small amount of success." The 'small amount' comes from the fact that he also unequivocally states that it is Blizzard's philosophy that they have to be ok with all specs not being as viable as others. He also explains that the dearth of new Battlegrounds or Battleground maps is not due to queue times (they have little to do with each other), but that each Battleground requires a fair amount of work on Blizzard's end and that most of their developmental focus lies in the expansion Wrath of the Lich King. He says that playtesting, balancing, and other efforts are extremely labor intensive. Oddly, Drysc mentions Warsong Gulch, the smallest of all the Battlegrounds, has "terrain issues here and there." Hopefully this isn't indicative of what Blizzard sees as the problems with WSG, as the game suffers from more than just some terrain issues. It's a good thing that Patch 2.4 promises changes to WSG, but it's even better that Drysc has been more vocal on the forums as of late.
Filed under: Blizzard, Forums, Battlegrounds, Arena
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Wolftech Mar 13th 2008 6:44PM
If they would ban premades, BGs might be fun
brittwilson Mar 13th 2008 7:22PM
Wouldn't banning pugs make more sense? I do not pug BGs anymore, its a waste of time. No communication, no one one tries to complete the objectives, they just kill the enemy until the game is over, complaining the whole time about how they always lose. Especially against another premade.
The only way you have a shot at winning anymore is to be in a premade. Why not make that the standard?
donoteatmikezila Mar 13th 2008 8:54PM
Why not just make it so that premades and pugs never mix? Both camps are happy. People who want loose games get them, and teams only fight other teams.
Because we all know that premades are about team-on-team combat, and not rolling pugs over and over for near-free honor.
That's obvious.
Obvious.
rick gregory Mar 13th 2008 9:05PM
Britt,
Because banning PUGs would be one more thing where you have to find a group and one of the things that makes WoW broadly appealing is that there's much you can do solo or in small groups. Now you have to have 14 people in an organized group to do AB? If you want team PvP, you have Arena. BG PUGs address the desire of some people (myself included) to PvP for a bit without having to organize a group and without the comittment being in a group entails. I can queue a couple of times, then take a break. Come back, queue again.
As I watch premades though, it's obvious that the only reason most of the play is to farm honor - they dodge other premades regularly.
There are several possible solutions:
1) Ban premades totally
2) Ban full premades, allow groups of 5 or less (yes, this could be exploited)
3) If you join as group, you go against others who have joined as group (vs solo queuers).
4) One you're in a queue, you're in. Leaving gets the deserter debuff even if you leave before the battle starts (no premade scouting).
As for the "it take work to create new BGs... um... yes? But the best thing they could do would be to focus on new 5 man instances and new BGs. Let's face it, in a bit over a year since TBC release we've gotten BT/Hyjal and ZA. We're about to get Sunwell (hmm 3 25 man raids... ) and MT. So... 3 25 man raids that many people will not see, one new five man since release and a 10 man. Um....
mattarin Mar 13th 2008 6:46PM
speaking of battlegrouds i came up with a completley new one i think ppl will enjoy. ok its a travel in the past battleground back to where it all began orcs vs humans. the alliance players will all be turned into humans and the horde will be turn into orcs with the classes staying the same. orc paladin? lol. the battleground will be the old stormwind seige. the objective of the alliance is to keep the orcs from capturing stormwind and reducing thier numbers and the horde objective is to take stormwind and reducing the numbers. the location of the battleground portal can be located at caverns of time with other battlemasters in the capital cities as well. well thats my idea for a new bg.
Chuckpierre Mar 13th 2008 7:01PM
No, even better - the Chromatic Dragonflight is trying to rescue Stormwind, but because the city HAS to be destroyed - otherwise the precious timeline would be altered - ALL of us will be turned into orcs, and WE have to make sure Stormwind is ransacked, burned, pillaged and devastated.
Talking about killing your own grandpa, eh?
tim Mar 13th 2008 6:55PM
about the bgs: the instances that they put out take time to build and test too. thats understandable. the thing though is that they put out new instances all the time between xpacs. we got one new bg with the xpac, and thats all. its been over a year and nothing. just one a year would be stellar, or erm.. better. they just don't seem very concerned with pvp, even though a large of their player is.
Ikarus Mar 14th 2008 3:39PM
With all of the nerfs/buffs constantly rolling out focused purely on PvP aspects of the game, i think it's a little silly to say blizz isn't focused on PvP
Markymark Mar 13th 2008 7:01PM
We'll I coulda told ya that Blizzard is always testing the Bg's and people just keep on finding more and more fualts with it...meh.
r.a-c.r. Mar 13th 2008 7:06PM
"each Battleground requires a fair amount of work on Blizzard's end and that most of their developmental focus lies in the expansion Wrath of the Lich King."
And the rest on Arenas. That's why there's no new BGs. Arena's the new BG.
And I'm an Arena hatr. Stop pouring resources into arenas and nerfing/buffing for arenas. The last 3+ years of the game was without it and now Bliz is sacrificing everything else for it!
You're freakin actizzard! Make a new game if you want to have elves, cows, zombies and dwarves beating each other up in small rooms. It isn't as if you don't have the capital. Don't break a working game to integrate an entirely different game into it.
my 2cp
Aticus Mar 14th 2008 9:40AM
That's a very good idea. Just to branch off of that, instead of making a new game, at least have the ability to move your character to an Arena Server once you hit 70. Once there, only those characters will be able to gear up in Season 2 and 3 gear and also compete against other PVP players. This also gives Blizzard the ability to nerf or buff skills on that server only; leaving the PVE side of game unharmed.
-Aticus, http://www.paladintales.blogspot.com
Wisakedjak Mar 13th 2008 8:35PM
First off, let it be said- I am, in fact, Waiting On Warhammer.
With that off my chest, Blizzard turned a profit in the neighborhood of $40M last year, if memory serves. So the message is that, with that level of cash flow, your dev team is still small enough that you can't have people working on developing content within the existing game while continuing work on the expansion pack?
It seems more likely that this is yet another stalling, milking tactic on their part. Why provide a balanced game and address long-standing class issues (I speak now as a rather thoroughly bitter ex-shaman) when they can string us along for another 8-12 months of monthly fees, then charge another $50 for an expansion pack that only partially addresses issues that should have been resolved in patch cycles?
In short, why spend time on development that won't make them money?
In any case, WoW has chosen a direction, away from meaningful, large-scale, faction-based PvP, away from rewarding any level of casual play, and instead solely toward raiding content or Blizzard's newest bid at an eSport. No thanks.
doyesac Mar 13th 2008 11:34PM
I'm not really buying your argument -- altho, since you played a shammie, I fear your bitterness is justified.
I've been playing less than a year and during that time there have been two big content patches (well... ZA and upcoming Sunwell/Magister's Terrace) as well as quite a few non-content but new-feature patches.
Considering Blizz's long-term commitment to quality and balance at the cost of speedy development (really -- how many Halo sequels have there been while we still wait for Starcraft 2?) I honestly think that Blizz is just taking their time to get things the way they want -- and not just taking your money and laughing all the way to the bank.
Unfortunately, since they want to fix things in the right way, and are willing to take their time to do it, we are left with some broken things (Shammies, WSG, etc) while we wait for em,
mark Mar 14th 2008 12:08PM
I am not buying the arguement about Blizzard and quality, because I just don't see it.
There are tons of bugs in WoW, some that have been there for years - and when you send in a bug report for it, they send you a response that says "we are aware of the issue" So, you send them a report about the same issue a year later, you get the same response.
You would figure that with 10,000,000 subscribers, Blizzard could hire at least one Bug Fixer, but they don't - because they don't care.
hisame Mar 13th 2008 8:46PM
"Regarding spec viability we would definitely like to see every spec at least partially viable, that doesn't mean however that each spec will be equal in a very cutthroat PvP environment like the arenas. A prot warrior or shadow priest or what have you should though be able to jump into a battleground or arena and be able to do something with some small amount of success."
I like how he lumped shadow priests with prot warriors as examples of specs that are not meant for PVP.
My how WoW has changed since TBC came out...
Ras Gonzo Mar 13th 2008 11:27PM
BAN ALL PUGS. They are wothless. Also, remove AV entirely. They should also remove that stupid unbalanced epeen/sport game known as arenas.
Raaj Mar 14th 2008 3:47PM
Not all of us want to group just to be able to scratch our own asses. Speak for yourself.
LFD Mar 14th 2008 12:08AM
40 vs 40 Battleground, Horde vs Alliance, no towers to cap, no graveyards to defend, no flags to run, just kill each other. Team with most kills in a set amount of time wins. Like a huge Arena match but without the ratings nonsense. How hard can it be to get that going?
Spockette Mar 14th 2008 9:12AM
Yeah, because someone in full S3 gear vs greens makes sense right? Ratings are meant for a small amount of fairness, agree with it or not.
Saintgutfree Mar 14th 2008 3:52AM
Agreed.