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  So what is Blizz's "Vision" for each class? |
09/17/09 12:27:12 PM
Patch 3.2.0a
Whee |
I personally think it's well past time
for us to be told, once and for all, what the actual "vision" for
each class is as the developers see it.
When I started this game originally, I played a mage from 1-40,
then leveled him up to 60, and played him as my main through most
of BC as well. I also played a Rogue, a feral druid (and tanked
with him long before druids were "accepted" tanks), a shaman, a
warrior, etc. I've put a lot of time into a lot of different
classes.
The problem, as I see it, is that people are rolling classes right
now with no clear definition of what that class is meant to be. All
of the classes have been homogenized quite a bit since the original
release of WoW, and we now have 4 distinct tanking classes, 2 of
which are also healers and all of which are also dpsers, 2 "pure"
dps casters, 1 ranged physical class, 1 pure melee class, etc
etc.
We keep hearing however after many nerfs and complaints about each
of the classes abilities and roles that certain things just didn't
fit with the "vision" of the class, and if you don't like it, just
re-roll. But re-roll to what? How do you actually "know" that
you're going to spend a ton of time leveling and gearing up a class
that you THINK is meant to do one thing, then find out a couple of
months down the road that what you made the class for is about to
get nerfed into oblivion because it didn't fit with the
"vision"?
Sure, leveling now is far easier than it ever was, especially with
the introduction of Heirloom items. I just started playing my
warrior again after about 3 years, and in not even a full day of
/played time I've taken him from level 54 to level 68. The same is
true of my Shaman, my Priest, etc. This game is constantly changing
and evolving however, and one day I could be playing my DK as an
"avoidance/absorbtion/magic damage tank", and the next I
hear "oh sorry, we dont want DKs to be avoidance tanks..or have a
high hp pool, or have high mitigation..or this..or that"...and
suddenly, I'm left with a class that is no longer fulfilling the
purpose I started it for. This has happened time and time again
over the course of my WoW playing.
Example: As I said, I made my mage as my main originally. In
vanilla wow, they were the supposed "kings" of ranged and AoE dps.
That stayed true for a long time, until they either got nerfed, or
other classes got buffed beyond what the mage was capable of. When
we asked the devs "why", they just said "the vision of the class
has changed since release".
There are countless other examples of classes evolving and becoming
different than what they were originally meant to be, but it would
be really, REALLY nice if we could get something a little more
concrete, so we're not stuck playing classes in one roll when we
started them for entirely different reasons. It would make
everyone's lives easier, including the developers, because maybe
then people would stop so much with the "my class cant do X, buff
it so it can"...because then you really could just say "your class
is not MEANT to do X, maybe you should play class Y instead"
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09/17/09 12:57:56 PM
Patch 3.2.0a
Ghostcrawler
<Lead Systems Designer> |
We're sympathetic if players *really*
don't understand what their class is supposed to do. Too often in
this forum however, players want to see something in writing so
they then have a visible target to go after. "You used 'ranged
caster' in the warlock description, but in the mage description you
just said 'caster.' Therefore, that means mages should be able to
stand and fight melee without having to blink away since clearly
the're supposed to focus less on ranged combat than are warlocks.
Please buff." Players still over focus on the descriptions "master
of healing" or "master of armed combat" in old class descriptions
to argue how their class should be the best at something even
though pausing and considering that design for a moment should
suggest why that might not be the best idea for the game.
If you really don't know what the vision is for your class, you can
probably figure it out reading class forums, the various fansites,
the class Q&As, talking to some players in game or just playing
and exploring what works and doesn't. Those avenues are going to
give you a much broader sense of how to play, what you should focus
on, where your strengths and weaknesses are and the overall vision
of the class than anything we can try to convey in 3-4 simple
sentences.
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