A small 'quitting rant'

#0 - March 12, 2008, 8:05 p.m.

EDIT: sorry - more medium than small, even if size doesnt matter!

Well, 1 more day for my acct to expire so I figured I'd post where Bliz might actually see it ;d I'm leaving because of RL reasons, but I will say that there are some areas where bliz has seriously neglected the game imo (and that makes it easier to quit) - these are mostly pvp related.

1) Class / spec balance - Warlocks were overpowered for a LONG time before they decided to do anything about it, even before arenas existed... Also, specs should be balanced (not saying it is easy, but there have been no attempts to do such) - I play a feral druid, and how long have we been neglected in terms of arena viability, where the good rewards are? Why not let prot warriors have pvp abilities? Taunt SHOULD change the target of enemy players imo, even if they can switch it back, you can save someone from a shadowbolt, for example. Let tanks also tank in pvp (i have a crapton of ideas, but I'll spare you guys). Every spec should have some pvp viability, even if it is not the optimal, it shouldnt be worthless (prot war/pally, arcane mage).

2) PVP battleground maps - **YOU KEEP IGNORING THIS SUGGESTION** - when asked about why there are only 4 battlegrounds, you say 'well to keep the queue times short'... omgidea: rotate 4 out of x battlegrounds every day or every week, OR have more than 1 map for each queued battleground. Why make 10x as much content for PVE when most people PVP close to as much as they PVE? Fail.

3) PVP is player vs player! Capture the flag? Down opposition bosses? These are interesting, but give us some damn -BATTLE-grounds! 10 vs 10, first team to 100 kills wins, and the map should be small enough that you don't have to run for 1 minute before any fighting. The resources in AV were a good start, but the map is still more about strategic zerging than PVP.

I'm just venting about the failed PVP model, which I only played because of the gear and because I could play for 30 minutes and accomplish something. I will say, I do think your PVE content is good overall, and the game is well worth my time playing. One small issue I have is there is no easy way to play with friends who just joined the game, apart from rerolling and keeping up with their leveling.

I might be back for WOTLK (if friends are still playing), so I'm keeping my stuff ;d
And people -will- miss me!
Edit: And I know this topic is new and original!

Drysc

#22 - March 12, 2008, 8:35 p.m.

It happens, but I'll try to touch upon each of your points and maybe give some small amount of insight and reassurance that they're all points we're either aware of or actively working to resolve.

Regarding spec viability we would definitely like to see every spec at least partially viable, that doesn't mean however that each spec will be equal in a very cutthroat PvP environment like the arenas. A prot warrior or shadow priest or what have you should though be able to jump into a battleground or arena and be able to do something with some small amount of success. How much success that should be is really the question, but our general philosophy is that we're ok with some specs not being as viable as others, we sort of have to be.

There's a synergy within the classes for PvP, as well as PvE, that doesn't lend itself to a model where every spec is exactly the same, exactly as viable as the other, in every situation. At that point we start watering down classes, watering down abilities, copy and pasting, the focus of the game is lost, dogs and cats are living together... mass hysteria.

Moving on to battlegrounds I don't believe we've ever stated that we have fewer maps to keep queue times short, that's not an issue. The issue is the amount of time it takes to create a battleground, and balancing that work time with other areas of the game. Battlegrounds are very labor intensive, Warsong Gulch which is probably the smallest of the battleground maps still has some terrain issues here and there. Playtesting, balancing, making edits, all require a very large amount of resources to ensure a successful battleground.

Now, that's not to say we aren't willing to put in the time, only that we have an entire game to put resources into, and those resources have to be delegated appropriately. The entire team is now working full force on Wrath of the Lich King, and the new battleground it also includes. Hopefully there will be some time to get additional battleground maps into the mix even after it ships. Personally though I think I'm most excited about Lake Wintergrasp just to see how it turns out.

In any case I'm sure the people you've been playing with have appreciated your time with them in the game, and I think you'll be pretty excited with the stuff going on in Wrath once we get a bit closer and can start revealing more and more.
But I hope you had fun, and see you around maybe.