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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBreakfast Topic: The effect of nerfs and buffs
by Allison Robert 
Jan 10th 2010 at 8:00AM
Blizzard's observed in the past that there's often a correlation between the perception of a class as overpowered and the number of people who choose to play it (witness the proliferation of rogues in classic WoW, for example), so it seems fair to say that at least a portion of the player base's class choice is impacted by the conclusion they reach on design decisions. Then again, my own experience in-game -- and the pattern of comment votes here on WoW.com concerning class changes -- leads me to believe that yo-yoing between classes based on which one is doing "best" at any given time is not the overwhelming trend. The Warcraft Census' numbers on class population also seem to be evening out, slowly but surely, from a little bit over 6 months ago (which was itself an improvement over very lopsided numbers in favor of death knights and paladins shortly after Wrath went live). This would seem to suggest that, over the long term, people continue to play the class they like most for reasons that survive design changes. Or is it just that each character represents such a significant time investment that most people don't think it's worth it to switch mains?
I'm sure that arena and PvP as a whole wind up driving a portion of this, but what impact do class nerfs and buffs really have? If your main was ever nerfed, did you wind up playing a different toon, or did it just not matter that much to you? If your main was buffed, was it genuinely more fun to play?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics
Reader Comments (Page 6 of 6)
Kylenne Jan 10th 2010 5:26PM
It really depends on your group's make up, tbh. Deep Fire is still a perfectly reasonable alternative to Arcane, if you get a decent RNG streak going.
Kevin S. Jan 10th 2010 12:44PM
Nerfs and buffs have no effect on which class I play.
In fact, a couple times I've decided to start an alt of a certain class just to have serious nerfs announced. But this doesn't effect me since 1) I get my fun from wanting to play the class for the 'kit' rather than the power, and 2) usually nerfs and buffs effect end-game, whereas alts have a long way to level before then. Playing an underpowered class gives you a little bit of an underdog feeling, even.
For players who don't try to immerse themselves in the world as much as I do, and are happy to name their characters 'Healslol' or something similar, or switch mains each raid tier, I'm sure the answer is different.
lilleas Jan 10th 2010 1:02PM
from that charts display it would appear that death knights are the new rogue. i remember when i first started playing you couldn't swing a dead gnome without hitting a rogue ^^
dkhar Jan 10th 2010 1:13PM
I used to play a warlock, was my main for a very long time, since release. But, I left it cause to me it is a pet class and the lack of pet's/option's has me bored to death of my lock that I truly love. Each time I go back and try to play him, it is like fingernails on a chalkboard to me for some reason. I have played shaman a lot, leveled up a couple of em, would like to see more love to elemental but meh, what turned me off to them for a long time was pvp, cause they would just be a free kill to any rogue out there and they were very squishy, I love to pvp but it turned me off of shamans for awhile because it was so bad.
Aloix Jan 10th 2010 1:29PM
My choice of 'main' is relatively new. I've been playing since vanilla, always choosing hybrid classes (druid (A) then (switched to H) priest, another druid). I decided to try a Paladin (NOT because of any sort of 'popularity' but because I thought I might try tanking, although I haven't done so yet) and that class 'fit' the most, so is my new 'main'.
I play a class because it meshes well with me, not because of any sort of nerfs/buffs or popularity. Although I do at times wish there weren't so many Paladins, especially Retribution spec, as they have a poor reputation, OTOH that's just another reason for me to do my best to not suck.
In all of this I can't help but think, though, that separation of PvP and PvE would be so fabulous.
Azrahel Jan 10th 2010 1:39PM
Back when wrath launched and ret was nerfed " to the ground" I stopped playing my paladin. Honestly I agreed with most of the nerfs except for one and that was the nerf to judgment of the wise. I felt it was a very poor design or paladins to depend on spiritual attunement or their mana regen. Blizzard (eventually) saw the light on this and changed it back and got ride o SA or ret and holy which I think is good it really didn't do as much or us as they claimed.
The other reason I stopped playing my paladin at this time that I felt that blizzard was mistreating the class at this point. If you played a paladin during tbc or before as ret as I did you had to endure so much abuse that it was a wonder that any one ever played them at all. When blizzard released the new paladin talents to the live servers in their over powered state it was a huge mistake. And when they started to hot fix us (an unusual treatment at the time) It felt very unfair. We had been treated so badly for so long it was the breaking point for many of us.
Please remember that at the time it was blizzard's policy that if a class was over powered or under powered they would be left that way until the next patch. They never hot fixed any thing (except paladins*cough* reckoning *cough*). That's not the kind of special treatment that you want.
Oni Stardust Jan 10th 2010 1:45PM
I play what I play because I enjoy playing it. Topping the damage charts is not a priority, and as long as I put out respectable dps I'm fine (not going to lie though, it dose feel good to see your name at the top of recount).
I appreciate buffs to my class, but I just shrug my shoulders at nerfs- they're not a big deal.
I am considering changing my main from Rogue to Mage whenever I manage to collect a good set of heirlooms and lv the Mage to 80. But that's not because of incoming Rogue nerfs or recent Mage buffs- it's because I've been enjoying ranged combat more than melee as of late... Well, that and Archmage Pants.
Adoisin Jan 10th 2010 2:25PM
I like caster classes more than melee. So, regardless of buffs or nerfs, I will play them. I admit I did a little happy dance when my arcane mage got a raid wide benefit tho.
My one exception is my dk. I admit I am one of those bad dks you see, just face rolling. I don't try to raid with her tho, so people leave me alone about it. I don't play my toons to be one of the leet few. I play them all to have fun.
Nibu Jan 10th 2010 3:20PM
I've been playing my first char ever created - a rogue, since vanilla, through all the nerfs and buffs. There were times I considered rerolling, mainly because I got bored while waiting for a new content patch to come out. At the start of wrath, the state of rogues was pretty bad.. if they had waited a bit more with buffing our dps, I'd have quit and leveled my priest to 80.
I think the latest nerf to rogues was somewhat needed and i'm fine with it, but I think they should have put more thought on how they do it. Lets take a look at assassination 51-pointer..it used to be a pretty good +15% all damage increase that needed a bleed on target to activate. Now it's been nerfed to oblivion.. a 5% increase which requires a bleed. I just think it's not good enough to be a 51-point talent, some other classes have similar talents available very early in the talent tree.
decongle Jan 10th 2010 3:27PM
I have been a paly sence the release of TBC. I was a ret when it was a joke, a healer when it was a joke and stayed a healer threw ups and downs until present day. I have played the other classes through WOLK and enjoy them, but my paly will always be my main, no matter what they do to him.
AgroBear Jan 10th 2010 4:09PM
wouldnt this have been a prime spot for a poll rather than jus soliciting comments from readers?
Personally, yeah, I've given up on classes that blizz broke because I know if I wait long enough they'll come back and fix them. Blizz themselves have said repeatedly they follow a cycle, where sometimes one is up and one is down. Sooner or later they'll switch it back around so why knock yourself out if you have an alt at cap? Honestly for the casual player this doesn't mean much. If people love or hate a class they'll follow their personal desires regardless. But did anyone bring a shadowpriest to MC back in the day? If you didn't raid, there wasn't much incentive to play one beyond lvl cap.
Possum Jan 10th 2010 4:19PM
I like to think that the low rogue numbers are directly related to my rogue policy:
See a rogue, Kill a rogue.
It's served me well over the years.
Fletcher Jan 10th 2010 4:58PM
I started playing during the Midsummer Fire Festival last year, so after Wrath had come out ... played around with a couple of different classes before settling on pally and going all the way to 80. I was affected by the infamous exorcism nerf, of course, but my main complaint there is not that they nerfed it but that they nerfed it *wrong*. Their stated problem was that paladins were using it essentially as a free cast while closing to melee range, and their solution was to add a cast time to it (Art of War notwithstanding). They should have reduced the *range*, to 10ft or even to melee! It still doesn't make much sense that one of our most powerful spells is ranged when we're a melee class.
I also levelled a rogue to 80 during 3.2, when my guild had a real dearth of rogues (ie less competition on loot rolls!). I'm thinking of switching from Combat to Assassination if I can find a decent offhand dagger though - Combat gets boring after a while, since it's mostly Sinister Strike spam.
I really like warriors, but I've yet to level one to 80. When Cataclysm comes you can bet I'm rolling a worgen fury warrior.
RetPallyJil Jan 10th 2010 5:51PM
I have one toon. She is a ret paladin. She's been a ret paladin since January of 2005. She will always be a ret paladin.
The nerf/buff rollercoaster has no influence on me whatsoever.
splodesondeath Jan 10th 2010 6:24PM
So, are we nerfing or buffing the [Nerf Bat]?
jojo Jan 11th 2010 7:07AM
Funnily enough ive never played a class which has had major nerfs :P. Pre BC i played feral druid, in BC ferals were buffed quite a bit to be relatively raid viable. Also in BC i picked up ret paladin which ive only come back to after 3.2 (retired him just before 3.0 hit ). Also in BC i started playing my priest as disc for lvling :) abiut 2 weeks after this 3.0 hit)
kembleballer Jan 11th 2010 2:34PM
After patch 3.2 I sold my account because it was obvious that warriors are not supposed to be good at dps and that was the only thing I liked about the game anymore...