#0 - May 7, 2010, 10:44 p.m.
First off, it's not just bad or whiny Warriors who are complaining about the Cata previews, info from the alpha, dev posts, and so on. In the thread over at ElitistJerks (where there is *ONLY* constructive discussion, whining = ban-hammer), Heroic Leap was dismissed as situational and redundant, while Inner Rage was seen as having serious balance issues and being potential overkill given the other changes to Rage/HS. Actually, the only thing I saw anyone excited about (in terms of tanking) was Druid Faerie Fire now stacking up to 3 (yes, Druids are getting Sunder Armor) and Furious Sundering, because Warrior tanks might finally start to be replaced in raids in higher numbers and Blizz will no longer have population balance as an excuse for atrocious balance!
No matter how reasonable or understandable the complaint, though, it receives the same treatment by Blizz.
AOE tanking:
Player: "In Cata, every other tank will have a threat-over-time DoT on CD, and instant AOE attacks (or splash), while we're stuck with 6-second dead zones."
Dev: "What do you want us to do, just take TC off of cooldown and let it do fifty bajillion threat?"
Player: "What?! No, but why do you keep saying Warrior AOE is fine, yet give other tanks MORE AOE tools?"
Dev: "Do you want all mobs to just focus on you no matter what, without you pressing any buttons?"
Player: "Uh… am I speaking another language or what?"
Dev: "Look, you won't even have to do much AOE tanking in Cata."
Player: "Then why give them new AOE abilities?"
Dev: "You tanked fine in Naxx."
Player: "That's… off-topic, but not really true. Mobs just didn't hit that hard, so losing aggro didn't matter."
Dev: "So you want a no-CD, fifty bajillion threat TC."
Heroic Leap:
Player: "Heroic Leap is boring."
Dev: "You haven't seen the numbers yet."
Player: "The numbers don't matter. The core mechanic is boring. It's a charge replacement once a fight."
Dev: "But it does massive damage to the max extreme."
Player: "Two words: PVP implications."
Dev: "Massive."
Player: "No matter what adjective you use, it is still a charge animation change with PVP-appropriate damage which can only be used once a fight and only in Battle Stance and shares a CD with Charge. You said 'if' you need to remove the shared CD and restrictions, you will, which means you currently have no plans to do so. And that would still make it nothing more than an animation change once every few minutes with PVP-appropriate damage."
Dev: (more adjectives)
Player: "Stop derailing the thread with adjectives!"
Dev: "Misdirection and Tricks of the Trade were based on real-life Developer abilities. It's true."
Cooldowns:
Player: "Why are Warriors the only class which has to spend two major glyphs and two talent points just to end up with cooldowns that are WORSE than other classes, who get them for free?"
Dev: "We can't give you everything for free and then let you be overpowered through talents."
Player: "I didn't say that! I'm just asking for parity between cooldowns."
Dev: "We can't make all of your talents overpowered, sorry."
Player: "You're not even pretending to listen, are you?"
Dev: "Sorry, I used intimidating shout and am arguing with my party about why it was a good idea"
Critical Block:
Player: "Crit block is double-RNG (which is against every single one of your design intentions, by the way) and therefore unreliable, and based on these completely reasonable #'s from your previews, will result in wasted block amounts when considering parry mechanics."
Dev: "You haven't seen the #'s yet, so ROFL @ you."
Player: "The only way for this problem not to happen is if crit blocks reduced less than 60% damage - which is what your preview said, and how will #'s make double-RNG any less double-RNG?!?!?!?!?!?"
Dev: (silence)
