Forum post of the day: Moving moments
Since its inception World of Warcraft has been an evolving game. Someone who played only shortly after release would hardly recognize the game now. Blizzard has always welcomed feedback, but some changes have elicited more feedback than others. In a thread entitled "Epic moments in WoW QQ history," Gatsukaa chronicled some of the most upsetting events that have occurred in the evolution of our game:
WoW is first released. Hunter and warlock pets could be one-shot. Hunter dps was pretty lackluster. Soulstones gave you rez sickness (I think). No soulshards from PvP. The first emo whiners in WoW were born: Hunters and Warlocks. World of Roguecraft video is released showing how a rogue in crap gear could wtfpwn people while warlocks were so gimp. Result is that warlocks went on to get buffed in nearly every patch as they were on their way to god-hood. No more world of roguecraft videos. Hunters saw substantial improvements as well, but weren't made into demigods.
Moment 2:
Mages with both Talisman of Ephemeral Power and Zandalarian Hero Charm could stack the trinkets' on-use effects to drastically increase spell damage. Coupled with Arcane Power and PoM Pyro, such mages could one shot almost anyone. Massive QQ on the forums ensues. Result is that trinkets no longer stack such on-use effects (one exception was a glitch that allowed Hex Shrunken Head and Skull of Gul'dan to stack, but that was later fixed).
Moment 3:
Before Burning Crusade, the best PvP gear was PvE gear. Raiders in tier 2 and tier 3 gear ruled the Battlegrounds. Massive QQ from casuals ensued. Result was resilience and arena gear without any rating requirement for the first few seasons in TBC.
Moment 4:
TBC is released. About a month later as most people hit 70 and begin running level 70 five mans and heroic dungeons, it becomes apparent that druids are one of the best tanks if not THE best tanks for 5 mans. Massive warrior QQ ensues. Result is that druid tanking is drastically nerfed..
Moment 5:
Alterac Valley is redesigned. Suddenly, Horde are winning on average 80% of AV games on most servers based on forum estimates. Massive alliance QQ ensues.
Moment 6:
Blizzard toys with the idea of nerfing lifetap on the PTR. Before the nerf is even implemented on the PTR, massive warlock QQ ensues. Result is that the change is never implemented on the PTR and thus never got patched into the actual game.
Now yes, this thread could be seen as a troll on the forums. When you take a step back, though, it's actually kind of fascinating to look at where we've been. These are examples of Blizzard taking action on common complaints. There have been plenty of other events that have caused a stir, but we've since learned to live with.
I remember when cross-realm battlegrounds first started. By the way players were complaining you would have thought it was the end of the world... of Warcraft, or at least PvP. I was a little miffed at first, and there are still man problems, mostly on a social level. But I remember hour-long WSG queues prior to the shift. I'd go to dinner and ask one of my guildies to call my cell phone if the queue popped. I don't miss that.
Think of all the incidents when they've implemented player requests. We have flying mounts now, though they are admittedly limited. Horde got Paladins, and
What did Gatsukaa miss in her list of player demanded changes?
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Reader Comments (Page 3 of 5)
Anroth Jul 10th 2008 6:36AM
" Someone who played only shortly after release would hardly recognize the game now."
In what way? The game is still the same as it was. Painfully the same.
PeeWee Jul 10th 2008 8:26AM
AoC that way >>
Why are you still here? GTFO.
Asa Jul 10th 2008 10:23AM
Did you actually play at release? I mean you can argue that the very basics of the game have remained "painfully" the same (i.e. it's still just a matter of what you're grinding). But other than that, there's hardly much the same.
I stopped playing just before Naxx came out and just returned to the game about 2 months ago. Even that short period of time was enough for the game to drastically change.
Anroth Jul 10th 2008 12:00PM
PeeWee,
I am out you.
I just like to see fanbois like you squeal.
Evenpence Jul 10th 2008 10:51PM
PET SCALING.
PET SCALING.
PET SCALING.
PET SCALING.
PET SCALING.
PET SCALING.
PET SCALING.
PET SCALING.
PET SCALING.
PET SCALING.
PET SCALING.
PET SCALING.
machieldejager Jul 10th 2008 7:57AM
I remember how they wanted to "fix" retribution burst damage by adding a -10% or -15% damage effect on forbearance. To bad they had forgotten about BoP which we can put on other people and give them forbearance as well.
I think the entire paladin community was thinking up new ways on how to nerf other people with the forbearance nerf, like chain-forbearancing mages in raids to give them a permanent -15% damage debuff.
Suddenly the -15% damage was gone, and after a while they even unnerfed Crusader Strike back to a 6 second cooldown :S
twh Jul 10th 2008 12:16PM
I remember that.
That had to be the single most retarded thing the developers came up with. Seriously, paladins DPS was bad enough at the time and they wanted to nerf it?!
PeeWee Jul 10th 2008 8:27AM
Warrior QQ pre-1.3 and the shaman "dot-strike" are the two worst examples of QQ I know of. Yet neither of them were mentioned in the article.
Great research there. Or did I blink, and missed it?
Atrocita Jul 10th 2008 1:44PM
I have to agree with this. Your hatred of warlocks really shines here, and I wouldn't be surprised if you were behind a couple "NERF WARLOCKS" threads on the warlock forums.
There have been countless other instances of QQings and resulting nerfs and buffs. The singling out of warlock buffs while ignoring the constant nerfs locks have gotten in the last year is petty and whiny. Get over it and be a little more unbiased, like you're supposed to.
Ilnara Jul 10th 2008 9:12AM
It's because Blizz recognizes and uses their carrot on a stick balance to keep the promise of being OP'ed on the table for everyone. This keeps people paying their scripts in hopes that they are next in line for the Buff bat and glory for a few balance passes.
Soulbento Jul 10th 2008 9:26AM
I'm glad you take the time to find these posts on the wow forums....as I cant really stand them long enough to find the good stuff. All I ever seem to get are vicious flame wars and trolls hijacking threads.
alwaypwns Jul 10th 2008 9:49AM
thats cus we suck so much that blizz figured they might as well give us something we can win... all the other battlegrounds at least in my battlegroup are won by horde 90% of the time
here is a thought Jul 10th 2008 10:05AM
...but... what about the hunters?
;P
Roboticus Jul 10th 2008 10:16AM
Yeah, I'm curious about hunters too. When we talk about needing buffs, Shamans and Pallies seem to get most of the attention (and they do deserve it). But which class is at the bottom of arena representation in EVERY bracket in EVERY way of measuring? Hunters. For 2s, 3s, and most of the time in 5s, hunters are the least represented in the 2000+ bracket and the 2200+ bracket.
My theory on why there isn't much talk of hunters needing buffs is that pvp hunters have just given up. We've been bad at Arena pvp since the beginning, so perhaps there's just no still rallying for the cause.
Heilig Jul 10th 2008 11:14AM
There are plenty of hunters in top arena brackets of all levels. The difference is that to get there you have to REALLY know how to play your class well and understand it better than most of the Huntards out there that break their own ice traps. A good Hunter/Druid combo is one of the most feared drain teams around.
Hunters have been buffed significantly many times. They were given a freaking dispel that is part of their mobile shot rotation, so they don't even have to think about it to use it. Don't tell me that a physical dps class needs a ranged dispel that they can fire off every 6 seconds.
here is a thought Jul 10th 2008 12:16PM
@Heilig: that dispel is only for MM hunters that have put all their talent points to get to the top of that tree and sacrificed all the BM talents that most hunters adore.
Sure there are SOME hunters in top brackets, but COMPARED to every other class, they are at the bottom; look it up. Hunter != good times in arena.
In addition will all the res out there hunter traps are only firing about half the time now; shots are missing a lot more, and LOS is still teh suk.
But ya know... it does not bother me too much, just challenges me to learn the class better, think of alternate solutions to a fight (with exception of pally bubble, which is impossible).
As you point out, unlike other classes, hunters have to have skill.
Roboticus Jul 10th 2008 12:58PM
Heilig,
I am in fact a Duelist Hunter, running with a Restodruid. So, I do know that it CAN break into the high ratings. What you're overlooking from my post, though, is that the statistics of arena representation show that hunters are far and away the least represented. You seem to be arguing the few-to-many fallacy, that the presence of some implies the presence of many.
But back to the constructive, it would be difficult to buff hunters into decent representation without addressing two things: we do little to no damage against anyone who stays in melee, and we do little to no damage against anyone who LOSes us (we have only 1 damage ability that can be used while moving, and it's on a 6 second CD. Our auto attack requires standing still and not using any ability for .5 seconds before it fires.).
Fix those, even if it comes with corresponding nerfs elsewhere, and hunters will have a bit more showing in arenas.
Ikarus Jul 10th 2008 1:41PM
@ here's a thought
I think you are confused. ALL hunters get a dispel on arcane shot rank 5 (or 6) and above with out any talents on a 6 sec cd. (5 secs with talents).
Hunters being under-represented in Arena's makes me really nervous. Cause they do pretty damn good in BG's and PvP content. So if they buff them on the basis of Arena numbers (and lets be honest, Arena is only a VERY small part of the game) they will become even better in BG's and raid/heroics/5 mans
Ikarus Jul 10th 2008 1:44PM
*BG's and PvE content
Roboticus Jul 10th 2008 4:09PM
That's a good point Ikarus. Hunters are quite good in BGs. I think it's very possible to improve hunter's arena presence without affecting BGs, though. Just make sure that the fixes address the LOS issues first and foremost. Seeing as LOS is much less important in BGs, buffs along these lines wouldn't make hunters much more powerful in BG encounters.