Lore, I have an idea.

Ultimately, I think we'd rather people be able to use their actual characters (who they've put the effort into leveling, collecting achievements, earning fancy titles, etc) for something like this, instead of requiring you to access a separate realm and make a new character that you probably don't care about as much.

That said, we've certainly experimented with some ideas along these lines. For example, you may remember the Trial of the Gladiator concept we were considering for Warlords of Draenor, which would have been a scheduled period of ladder matches that required the use of Tournament gear. There were several, very valid, concerns about what the actual implementation of that idea would have done to the normal ladders, but I think the core concept is smart, and it's possible we'll revisit that idea in the future.

Standard caveat applies that I am not a designer and am not a direct part of those decisions, so I'm mostly just spitballin' here, but I think it's a cool idea.

(Side note: although the discussion itself is fine, please avoid referring to third-party hacks by name, as it only encourages others to use them.)

04/02/2015 02:57 PMPosted by Zikura

A separate realm would solve a lot and make things easier as far as balance.

Realistically, I don't think we'd want to put up a separate realm that has individual balance changes that only apply there. If it's a good change, it makes sense that it should be applied to PvP on live realms as well. In cases where a change has potentially negative effects in PvE but positive ones for PvP, I think we'd rather make the change only apply in PvP situations (and have done so on several occasions).

04/02/2015 03:30 PMPosted by Avaricex

So, in the most vaguest, hypothetical terms, if there's an ability that is ridiculously broken in PvP, like Hunter Murder of Crows, but nerfing it would hurt PVE, what are the steps taken to decide whether to nerf it or how such changes are made?

So long as we can agree we're speaking in hypotheticals here (reminder once again that I am not a designer):

We've actually done PvP-only nerfs to damage abilities many times in the past. Colossus Smash and Chaos Bolt are examples that immediately come to mind. Colossus Smash's armor reduction is lower on players, and until very recently, Chaos Bolt's damage was lowered against players.

So, using your example, if the design team were to decide that Murder of Crows needed a PvP-only nerf, they could easily make it deal less damage to players without affecting PvE in the slightest. The reason such a nerf hasn't happened isn't because the designers have decided that "PvE is more important" or anything like that, it's just because they haven't decided to make that change.

Specifically looking at Hunters -- and it's possible I'm reading into your question a little too much here -- I think a lot of people have misunderstood the intentions of the recent Tranq Shot nerf. Obviously, increasing the Focus cost will have a small impact on Hunter damage when facing comps where dispelling is important. So, it's understandable why a player upset about Hunter damage would come to the conclusion that increasing the Focus cost of Tranq Shot was intended as a PvP-specific damage nerf.

However, the potential (and minor at most) damage loss in PvP wasn't really the point of the change. Tranq Shot was nerfed because the design team felt that Tranq Shot was too powerful. The potential impact to PvP damage is just an acceptable side effect. If the goal was to reduce Hunter damage in PvP, they would have done something else entirely (possibly even the Murder of Crows nerf you've suggested).

That got a lot wordier than I was expecting, but hopefully I was at least able to answer your question.

04/02/2015 04:04 PMPosted by Gimolos

Really, you're claiming they nerfed tranq shot for PVE reasons? It was already a lost global and 20 focus of lost dps. If PVE is truly why it was nerfed it was a nonsensical change to an already balanced ability.

Er, no. It was nerfed primarily because the designers felt it was too easy for Hunters to dispel in PvP. It just wasn't nerfed for damage reasons.

It does have an extremely minor effect in PvE, but that wasn't the focus (pun not intended).