Breakfast Topic: Will the classes be balanced in time?
by David Bowers 
Sep 19th 2008 at 8:00AM
Now we know. The clock is ticking. Blizzard has given themselves a deadline by which they have to get the expansion and all of its nifty features into our hands. This in itself isn't that hard, I'm sure. The hard part is getting the expansion to us in a state that we enjoy. Polished. Finished. Done.Case in point here is the essential balancing element between the classes in terms of how they perform versus one another in PvE and PvP. Looking at the current state of things on the beta, many people have been looking at the amount of balancing work left to be done, then looking at the time Blizzard has left to do it, and thinking that our favorite little company that could isn't going to make it.
Then again, most of the people saying this are players of one particular class or another. Very few have the ability to stand back and see all the classes at once from a very knowledgable and objective point of view, how they interact with one another and what their various strengths and offsets are. Most players see the entire game from their little own little vantage point, and are apt to view their class's shortcomings as serious failures of game design rather than areas in which they'll need to get their friends of other classes to come help them and work as a team. Sometimes, after playing for a while, the general playerbase realizes that the huge nerfs everyone was yelling and screaming about just a little while ago aren't really that bad, and the game is still very enjoyable regardless.
What do you think? Are the classes going to be balanced by the time the expansion goes live? Or are the actually more balanced than they seem, even now? Is it going to be a huge disaster with just a few classes stomping all over the others, or is Blizzard going to pull some magic rabbits out of their hat just in the nick of time? Will we see tons of post-launch minor adjustments, or certain classes just languishing for months at a time, or will it all turn out to be okay pretty much from the beginning?
Filed under: Blizzard, PvP, Breakfast Topics, Expansions, Classes, Buffs, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
souvlaki Sep 19th 2008 8:04AM
Have ever been balanced?
mtsadowski Sep 19th 2008 8:13AM
This
matt Sep 19th 2008 9:19AM
"Have ever been balanced?"
QFT
Every time we get a patch, how many class changes do we see for the purpose of (mostly PvP) balancing? Balancing the classes is like reaching absolute zero. It's unlikely that it will ever be acheived, but Blizz just gets infinitesimally closer with every tweak.
Of course, unlike absolute zero, no one can exactly agree on what constitutes "balance."
Adel Sep 19th 2008 9:25AM
"Have ever been balanced?"
This as well :)
I doubt even now, they are any more or less balanced on Beta than they are on live.
Eric Moser Sep 19th 2008 9:32AM
I guess the more important question to me is... do they NEED to be balanced?
I'm not sure how we drifted into this world where parity seems to be desired above all else, but I was quite comfortable in a world where the rock-paper-scissors approach dominated... where I knew that my mage was going to outright pwn any warrior who crossed my path but that a lock was going to take me down every time.
Somehow, IMNSHO, Blizzard caved to the crybabies and tried to introduce a sense of parity into the game so that all classes are created equal. That's a shame. Having spent some time in Warhammer the last couple days, I actually find it refreshing to play in the RvR system where I'm going up against completely different classes, as a completely different class. It may make things challenging for the 'E-Sport', but a bit of imbalance in the rough-and-tumble standard world of PvP in WoW would be welcome...
Naix Sep 19th 2008 9:40AM
Nope.
V Sep 19th 2008 10:53AM
"Have they ever been balanced?"
No, Blizzard has a stunning lack of ability in this area but with Yet Another "Reinvention" of the game in LK I think they've gone even farther off the mark than they did with BC. Whatever tabulations they use for them to consider things "balanced," they fail to match the gameplay experience.
But, of course, Blizzard has a trite answer for that: No one has discovered all the nuances of playing any of the classes. Right...blame the player. /rolleyes
I doubt they'll even get them in even close to the mismatch that BC was by the time they launch. Some classes are still wildly out of balance within their own talent trees, let alone with other classes.
Amaxe Sep 19th 2008 11:55AM
I was going to ask the same thing actually.
I don't think they have ever been balanced, hence we see priests and shamans as the most underrepresented classes in the games, with locks and rogues most common.
if there was a balance, the statistics should balance out as it reflected what people wanted to play, not what they needed to do to get ahead
oldwisemonk Sep 19th 2008 12:02PM
This ultimate class balance that many are speaking of seems only possible if Blizz gets rid of the standard DPS-Tank-Heal grouping ... and replaces it with one race and class that can do it all. Balance, to me, is illustrated by looking at the WoW population to see what classes and races people are playing. And level range matters considering hunters are the most played by a huge margin at lower levels, but only barely at end game (according to wowcensus). The ones that aren't being played probably need the most attention.
Knucker Sep 19th 2008 8:08AM
In my opinion, I don't think Blizzard will have the classes balanced completely for multiple reasons. First, they are basically creating an entirely new game, with a limited number of people testing it, so they don't have everyone's play styles in the game yet. Second, everyone has a different skill level. Let's say you face two different warriors in PvP with the same gear, you could beat one easily, but the other could completely decimate you. Because of the last reason, I believe MMO's will never be completely balanced.
Asgaroth Sep 19th 2008 4:47PM
You can't compare skill with balancing the classes. In Balancing for PVP, you must assume that both players are at an equal level of skill. Then you have to ask, if they were to fight one -on-one with the same class. Do they both have an equal number of resources and unique abilities that ensures an equal opportunity for defeat.
If people are playing at two different skill levels the balancing component wont work.
Knucker Sep 19th 2008 4:58PM
You just proved my point even further.
"If people are playing at two different skill levels the balancing component wont work."
How will you be able to balance the game, unless you are able to find two people of the exact same skill to find balance. And even then, the balance wouldn't work, because not everyone is at that skill level.
Wasuremono Sep 19th 2008 8:09AM
No!
eROKv Sep 19th 2008 8:10AM
the last expansion was delayed over a month. get used to the idea.
velutina Sep 19th 2008 9:00AM
Being a little unbalanced I can live with. As souvlaki said the classes are never completely balanced (and I think that if they were it would be a pretty bland game with no distinctiveness to any class).
As eROKv says the last expansion was delayed, and even after release there were some pretty major nerfs or "rebalancing." (I'm particularly thinking of the change to the coefficient on Maul (bear form attack).)
What I'm concerned is that every spec be raid viable. I don't think we're there yet.
Goats Sep 19th 2008 9:11AM
big neg. BC was released the they they said it would be once they announced a date it didnt change.
Barth Sep 19th 2008 9:34AM
Exactly.. just because they announced a date doesn't mean it's written in stone. They can do whatever they want. "Hey, we're not ready yet... new release date: 2-10-09" and it will still break records.
Banarax Sep 19th 2008 8:14AM
I think that no game is perfect. From extensive time in WoW, I think class balance is close now. Not perfect - it's balanced in big skirmishes, but in a 2v2 arena, it's lacking in a big way.
I think what we have now is really good, and I think that WotlK is going to really pump things up. Do I think it will have perfect balance? Hah! I'm not even sure that it's going to hit the same balance we have now. I think WotLK will need a some final tweaking after launch, as every MMORPG needs... some more then others... but it's going to really energize the game again and "from the little company that could" will still make an incredible experience out of it in the long run.
Aerei Sep 19th 2008 8:24AM
I have faith. As everyone's already said, they won't be perfectly balanced and never will. I do think they'll strike a decently happy medium soon, and that the huge nerfs of late have just been to check what the classes feel like at that point on the scale, to better gain perspective of the point they really want them to be at.
All will be well, though not perfect.
Fendoral Sep 19th 2008 8:27AM
I'm confident that the classes will be as well balanced as they possibly can be for PvP. However I'm skeptical that Blizzard will do an effective job balancing the classes for PvE and raiding in particular.
But thats what happens when you try to change horses midstream.