Second thought... or smart move?

[Deleted]

I looked at those hotfixes and came up with an idea that this not Blizzard actually giving a second thought to the nerfs - I think it was a smart tactic to keep people calm. Basically, they announced huuge, kind of improbable nerfs knowing they are too absurd. They created an outrage. Then they claimed they "listened" to feedback, but in fact it was planned. People actually became grateful for these nerfs. I think that they did it because they knew DHs needed a nerf, they wanted to nerf bloodlet, but if they announced current changes straight away, it would still cause an outrage and it would remain continuous. This way they applied the nerf and kept people silent, grateful even.

[Deleted]

That would be a very smart move on their end and seems absolutely probable.

[Firefly]

Basic PR Tactics, and exactly what I expected. Like stated above, I believe this is highly probable and basically the exact way I would have done it in their place. I weep for the state of the WoW community that makes things like this almost necessary.

[Deleted]

The truth is that they obviously have zero idea what they were / are doing.

We have live numbers from live encounters. Everyone with a basic understanding of maths could have seen that DH is absolutely average in ST and godlike in AoE. Yet they proposed changes that made him terrible in ST and still grreat in AoE. The redacted changes don't change that a bit.

There is no excuse, they are just terrible at this.

[Deleted]

The truth is that they obviously have zero idea what they were / are doing.
W
We have live numbers from live encounters. Everyone with a basic understanding of maths could have seen that DH is absolutely average in ST and godlike in AoE. Yet they proposed changes that made him terrible in ST and still grreat in AoE. The redacted changes don't change that a bit.

There is no excuse, they are just terrible at this.

I think they wanted to bring bloodlet to the same level as other talents, but realised it would nerf DH too much and could change playstyle, so they simply nerfed Bloodlet slightly and there will be bigger changes in 7.1, we'll probably have better AoE or ST choices, but for now they applied a bandaid "fix".

[Pull My Finger]

Welcome to another episode of "the ridiculous paranoia and neglected child drama of WoW players"!

[Specialka]

The truth is that they obviously have zero idea what they were / are doing.

We have live numbers from live encounters. Everyone with a basic understanding of maths could have seen that DH is absolutely average in ST and godlike in AoE. Yet they proposed changes that made him terrible in ST and still grreat in AoE. The redacted changes don't change that a bit.

There is no excuse, they are just terrible at this.

You are one exemple why they did it that way.

[Shirofune]

You are one exemple why they did it that way.

That doesn't change the fact they didn't solve the issues, but instead nerfed what didn't need to be nerfed, while burst AoE remains almost the same.

[Hashcrypt]

Blizzard is not the Illuminati. It's a video game developer that sometimes makes mistakes when it comes to numbers.

[Deleted]

Seriously though, I dont understand why they didnt change fury of the illidari to act like the WW monk change in doing shit damage to secondary targets, or even just flat 50% to secondary targets, and then we could have left everything else. OR do that to fel rush, maybe it does 50% to secondary targets whatever. It would have left ST absolutely fine and no one would have complained about those changes, because our aoe would still be very good.

[nacruza]

Blizzard is not the Illuminati. It's a video game developer that sometimes makes mistakes when it comes to numbers.

shouldnt happen to game which is all about numbers...
infact the current changes still dont make any sense at all

[Hashcrypt]

shouldnt happen to game which is all about numbers...
infact the current changes still dont make any sense at all

You would be correct if that game dev was run by machines that are immune to error. Until human beings are out of the loop, errors will occur.

[Fiftyonred]

Basic PR Tactics, and exactly what I expected. Like stated above, I believe this is highly probable and basically the exact way I would have done it in their place. I weep for the state of the WoW community that makes things like this almost necessary.

Well, do you work with PR? Or is this the hot air balloon I see in the horizon.

[Deleted]

You are one exemple why they did it that way.

Great argument!

Go over there and go eff yourself

[Mirishka]

Welcome to another episode of "the ridiculous paranoia and neglected child drama of WoW players"!

*plays dramatic music*

- - - Updated - - -

Blizzard is not the Illuminati. It's a video game developer that sometimes makes mistakes when it comes to numbers.

Amazing how many people are too dense to grasp this concept, no? All these tinfoil-hat types are great for a morning laugh though, I suppose.

[Shirofune]

Or they nerf AND BUFF so everyone is "equal" as much as it can make sense?

And that's fine. But in this expansion nerfing should be addressed very carefully, as there's a lot more effort behind your character (AP).

Also, the community takes better that other classes get buffed than his/her one being nerfed. That's a more healthy way of doing stuff.

And obviously, it's clear that the nerfs that were taken in the last patch notes still DON'T aim at where they want (AoE burst). It's like they're totally oblivious at how the class works. This last one is unnacceptable for any kind of developer that knows how his products work.

[Deleted]

You people will never be happy.

[Deleted]

You people will never be happy.

You people will never be smart enough to grasp basic concepts of logic.

[Deleted]

You people will never be smart enough to grasp basic concepts of logic.

Lol, OK. Need a box of tissues?

[Shirofune]

What this expansion makes it different than any other before? They always nerfed and buffed.

There is no healthy way of doing stuff because whoever gets nerfed gets to cry about his/hers class. Unless, you understand that they are nerfing classes in order to avoid one single class (or just few of them) to be overpowered in that one thing that they do, so everyone keeps wanting that class. Hence, I never understood the bullshit "no one wants X class because they suck at [namespace]". Nerf hammer comes sooner or later.

Their goal is for every class to be desirable and fun to play. They are trying to please everyone.

I'll ignore "unacceptable for any kind of developer" part because, as software engineer, I am quite aware that I do not know how Blizzard makes decisions and what are they are goals or plans and yet someone, most likely who has no idea how developing works at all, has bold statements. I am not idolizing them but I am quite sure they know what they are doing and why they are doing it.

What do you mean what is it that makes this expansion different? We've a huge gate of power we've to grind for in every character and spec, Artifact weapons. Even if you got gutted in the past, all you had to do is reroll. Leveling was fast, and so was gearing. You were behind max 1-2 weeks. You can't do that anymore. Farming an artifact weapon requires a lot of time and Artifact Knowledge is not account based. That's why they've to be careful with nerfing, they can't make a class useless, because you can't reroll and be competitive anymore.

Of course there's a healthy way of handling nerfs. Not doing them. Instead of nerfing the classes that are ahead, buff the rest. I know its harder, but, unless there're special cases of people ahead by a LARGE marging, there's no reason at all not to buff the underperforming rest. I'm sure of this, people rather see other classes buffed than their own nerfed. Nobody likes to see his/her class nerfed. One special case being Havoc AoE burst. Another way of handling nerfs in a healthy way is doing them in a gradual margin. Dropping a nerfhammer gutting skill damage in 50% or 20% ain't being careful, is just that your beta testing was not enough.

And that's what we all strive for, just in different ways.

I'm a software developer myself and while I totally understand that something can go wrong developing and handling hotfixes (like it happened in US today, the hotfixes were deployed wrong), handling orders of "Bring the damage of Fel Rush down by 20%" are a lack of knowledge of your product. If my software fails when clicking in button 1, the trouble won't get fixed by touching the code of button 2. All we've seen so far in the Havoc hotfixes are a totally lack of knowledge of how the current iteration that most of us play works. They strive to nerf the AoE burst, we understand and we agree. The changes they've made do not reflect that, and implementing them without testing is just wrong. They've said they've listened to the community feedback. Well, that's a lie. The community said we don't need our ST hit and I think Blizzard agrees somehow, that's why they've made a 2nd row of adjusts. Sadly, they're still wrong. It hits the AoE, sure, but it still hits our ST, and that's a wrong choice to make, specially since the class only has one DPS spec and what I described above about Artifact weapons.

We know Bloodlet is overperforming, but is the only thing we have to make our ST middle pack. Blizzard can't nerf Bloodlet without buffing the other talents, and honestly, the problem of the T3 talents is something that must be done slowly, because those talents do not need a numerical buff, they need an overhaul. That's why they should leave Bloodlet as it is until 7.1, where they can finally touch things well and make Felblade the ST talent, balancing numbers while they're at it.