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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsGhostcrawler explains why it took five months to nerf Death Knights
by Zach Yonzon 
Apr 17th 2009 at 4:00PM
On the other hand. it took all of 24 hours for Warlocks to enjoy insane Conflagrate numbers, which was promptly fixed. Ghostcrawler explain why through a lengthy response over at the forums, noting that Death Knights were imbalanced for more reasons than a simply overpowered spell coefficient. He also said that Death Knights and Paladins were nerfed over the course of several patches leading to Patch 3.1, but none proved to be enough to balance them.
It needs to be said that Death Knights were changed the most in this patch, with talent trees completely revised, some notable abilities removed (oh, Shadow of Death, how we'll miss you...), and class mechanics changed. It's quite possible that even these changes won't curb Death Knight dominance, but it's a massive change that simply isn't hotfixable. It's a fair response and a pretty good read. Ghostcrawler makes several important points, one of which is that players shouldn't feel that developers don't love them. So don't be emo.
Filed under: Warlock, Death Knight, Forums
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 3)
shadowwolf007 Apr 17th 2009 4:59PM
Honestly, I can't believe people actually think that having overpowered Death Knights sells copies of this game. I can't figure out the logic chain that for that specific set of conclusions.
Adding Death Knights Themselves? New Class = more excitement, so yeah I can see that.
Vehicle Combat? Yeah, WAR had it and they wanted to compete.
Wintergrasp? WAR had something like it.
Character Customization? A couple other MMO's had it.
DKs overpowered in every aspect of the game? Causes some people to quit playing ( revenue goes up here somehow ). Admittedly a couple of MMOs had something like that happen, but they don't look like good models for Blizzard to copy.
Eversor Apr 17th 2009 5:23PM
Guess this proves that alot of WoW players are extremely short sighted, and if it isn't their class that is OP, then Blizzard hates them.
What would you do if GC didn't post at all, huh? What would you do when all you saw was just nerf/buff list without explanations? Cause to be quite fucking honest, if you guys keep up bitching and moaning like this, it will come back. And we will be in the dark again, without the crab with coffee & gin to shed some light on development process. His post explained situation very well, and I will be damned, if I ever jump on conclusions about Blizz being too hesitant to swing the nerfbat on the DKs... because it takes a real patch, not a hotfix plus plenty of calculations due to class mechanics to change it.
Myria Apr 17th 2009 10:17PM
What would I do if GC didn't post at all?
Cheer.
There are more then enough 'tards spewing crap all over the forums without adding crab poop to the mix. Frankly it's embarrassing to read his entries into the mental Special Olympics.
Eversor Apr 18th 2009 2:57AM
I think you will get that done soon enough. Then whine that you don't know why the changes were made and demand a dialgogue with developers. But Blizz won't fall for your entitled whining then.
Just look further your own selfish little entitled nose, alright?
RetPallyJil Apr 17th 2009 5:30PM
Ghostcrawler sucks.
It needs to be said as often as pos-si-ble.
twh Apr 17th 2009 5:53PM
How quickly people forget that paladins were hotfixxed nerfed when 3.0 came around in less time than warlocks, no less.
Fricken hypocrites.
DeathPaladin Apr 18th 2009 12:15AM
Even 3.0 wasn't the first time it's happened.
Two words: Reckoning Bomb
A Protection Paladin one-shots a raid boss and by the end of the day Reckoning is nerfed.
Lord Kazzak is such a whiner.
Naix Apr 17th 2009 6:07PM
Blizzards answers to forms QQing...
"OMG a warlock beat me!!!111!"
"ONOEZ Warlocks are so OP noW!!!"
"Why is Blizzard letting Warlocks kill ppl nows!!!??//"
"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!! A warlock beat me!"
Blizzards response
There there babies. We will nurf fear and nurf that damage by 30%... Now you can have your free HK again.
"Yeah! We love you Blizzard!"
Dude Apr 17th 2009 6:52PM
DK's sell copies on shelves. Even nerfing them keeps them in the publix eye. Buy, buy, buy, see our changes.
Xavs Apr 17th 2009 7:13PM
What really bugs me is how they seem to be making everything for the Warlock class less complicated. In the latest patch, Affliction got a major change to spell rotation, which now makes it not as fun, and a ton easier, which is really, really boring. I know this sounds weird, but I miss needing DoT timers to keep track of everything.
conundrum Apr 17th 2009 7:36PM
I agree with anyone annoyed at the oversimplification of Affliction. I was on a raid the other night and really felt like I was doing something wrong because I was not constantly looking at what DoT needed to be put pack up.
Oh, and I just have to say this; everyone in the Beta knew that Retadins and DK's were massively OP. MASSIVELY. In the Beta, mind you. So while I acknowledge that balancing classes is a tricky issue that takes a while to get just right, Wrath initially shipped with classes that thousands if not millions of players already knew were broken. For months before the game the classes were broken, and the Beta is the time to try crazy shifts that could fix or break a class, but guess what? It did not happen.
A quick nerf is a good thing if it is necessary, even if it is to one of my mains. Classes that were known to be broken for months being released into the game? It was Blizz's call, and who am I to second judge them, but I still think more should have been done prior to the release.
Zarfay Apr 17th 2009 9:18PM
I'm sick of DK QQ.
Hunters and warlocks were very OP in TBC and DKs are mildly OP in wrath.
Nagi Apr 18th 2009 5:09AM
Wanna know something funny?
My current main is a warlock. However, I didn't get her to 70 until about a month before Wrath launched (abandoned another longtime main to level her), and wasn't geared to any sort of endgame until I hit 80. You can say I have "no place to QQ because I'm a warlock and we were OP pre-Wrath," but fact of the matter is I never experienced those days of being an "OP class." By the time my warlock was high level, we were bottom-of-the-barrel versus other classes because of Blizzard's sudden boner for arena-tailored burst damage and our only useful function was damage versus the most basic tank-and-spank instance bosses and being a portable summoning stone. Even though I'm a warlock, I've never been "OP," so I think it's perfectly within my right to call foul when other classes ARE, the class I happen to play be damned.
And death knights? Yeah, they're pretty OP. I don't usually join in all this inane cage rattling about class imbalance, but it's perfectly justified against death knights, even in 3.1. I haven't willingly stepped into a PvP situation since they were introduced, save to sneak into Wintergrasp to buy a mammoth mount.
Zarfay Apr 18th 2009 5:29AM
Well I never actually said that you have no right to QQ that was your interpretation.
All I was saying is that in TBC I had a deep hatred for locks and hunters in pvp but I don't share that hatred with death knights in wrath.
FFTARoxorz05 Apr 18th 2009 5:37AM
I still don't see a nerf, my dps went up since 3.1 since unholy got buffed
Deathology Apr 18th 2009 7:27AM
What nerf?
Last night I finished sartharion 3 drake normal fight with 6.5 k dps and got my tittle. But it was speed kill though :p
Angus Apr 19th 2009 5:36PM
Wait, so holy paladins were nerfed insanely in order to balance them in arenas...
Funny, I remember resto druids being THE healer in 2v for FOUR FREAKING SEASONS.
Neat how they had an entire expansion to enjoy being OP and Paladins got nailed immediately as it became obvious they were decent. (Ret or holy)