1 New Class in 5 years = Not Acceptable

#0 - Oct. 5, 2009, 8:10 p.m.

I guess the main argument against new classes is that, "we don't need new classes, we still trying to figure out how to balance the ones we have."

Well as most people have figured out, the 10 classes will never be perfectly balanced. There will always be a group of classes that dominates, a group that does ok and then a group that is at the bottom. Each group takes there turn. Years ago warlocks were OP, now Paladins are, in the near future another class will be.

It simply is not possible to achieve a perfect balance system when new items, spells and abilities are introduced on a consistent basis. If people were so concerned about balance then they would demand a halt to all of these factors until balance was achieved.

For the most part, Blizzard does a good job of juggling of the classes and I'm impressed by the steps they take to try and make it fair for everyone (eg. every patch makes changes to a class)

But its time to move on. There are a lot of fun classes that we could have had by now (from bard to battlemage) and while coming up with there concept, spells/abilities and how they fit in with other classes will surely take time, having only 1 new class in 5 years just is not good enough.

Zarhym

#51 - Oct. 5, 2009, 9:47 p.m.

Q u o t e:
I guess the main argument against new classes is that, "we don't need new classes, we still trying to figure out how to balance the ones we have."

Well as most people have figured out, the 10 classes will never be perfectly balanced. There will always be a group of classes that dominates, a group that does ok and then a group that is at the bottom. Each group takes there turn. Years ago warlocks were OP, now Paladins are, in the near future another class will be.

It simply is not possible to achieve a perfect balance system when new items, spells and abilities are introduced on a consistent basis. If people were so concerned about balance then they would demand a halt to all of these factors until balance was achieved.

For the most part, Blizzard does a good job of juggling of the classes and I'm impressed by the steps they take to try and make it fair for everyone (eg. every patch makes changes to a class)

But its time to move on. There are a lot of fun classes that we could have had by now (from bard to battlemage) and while coming up with there concept, spells/abilities and how they fit in with other classes will surely take time, having only 1 new class in 5 years just is not good enough.

Beyond the balance concern, which is a valid one, we don't want to over-saturate World of Warcraft with different classes. We want to make sure each class has a very distinct set of core mechanics from other classes. Continually introducing new classes can tend to bring about a feeling of redundancy if we're not fully comfortable with developing an entirely new set of mechanics distinct from the current classes.

This does not mean that we'll never consider adding new classes to the game as time moves on, but we're pretty happy with the play styles represented by the classes currently available.

Zarhym

#62 - Oct. 5, 2009, 10:04 p.m.

Q u o t e:

Im sorry for calling you out on this but classes have become increasing similar over the years. Not adding another class due to classes having overlapping playstyles and abilities is just a bad reason imo.

A few examples of classes gaining the same spells:
A mortal strike type debuff
Silences
Spell interrupts
Fear breaks
Dispels, offensive and defensive
Disarms
Snairs/ slows
CC (this may be justified)

You are correct in noting that some spells and abilities that are viewed as requirements in both PvE and PvP group play have been spread out amongst more classes. The primary goal of this move was to prevent the isolationism some classes were seeing for not having the right abilities for the role they wanted to fill when compared to similar counterparts in similar roles (i.e. damage-dealing, tanking, or healing). With that said, these classes still play quite different. The core mechanics of the classes and the way they're played are still very distinct, whether or not they now may share some more necessary spells and abilities with other classes.