Originally Posted by
Eapoe
But you do have the option of being a fast paced, mobile spec'd archer in the form of BM, albeit with a stronger focus on the pet than the archer. The last xpac SV was mostly dead as it was thenand the only people playing it were alts or new players, which was also very telling of the spec at the time.
You may not have as much diversity from rdps to mdps now, but there is still diversity between all melee classes as well as diversity in the Hunter class between specs.
The changes to SV aren't largely unwelcome, they are largely unknown as well as largely underplayed. That doesn't mean they are bad.
Bold doesn't mean it has to be good or bad, or even stupid or not stupid, it just means that it was a bold decision to change something . You trying to demean it doesn't change anything. If Blizz didn't try changes we'd still be playing shit Pally tanks, DK's that can tank/dps in any spec, Hunters with a min range they have to be away from the boss to shoot, and everything else that has happened thru the years. Almost every change has been met with bad criticism and naysayers and a lot of these changes have played out really well.
Prot Paladins also weren't introduced until BC, but overlooking that as a simple mistake, they were almost completely useless and unplayable at the time yet still filled a role and were a necessity for Hyjal. This means that even though they worked, they were extremely unpopular at the time and had problems, but as Blizz worked on the spec and focused it into working well for all situations it has grown to be one of, if not the most, popular tank in the game. The comparison wasn't about what something was always intended to be or not to be, but that over time views change on something when it starts becoming a more polished machine as well as people giving it time to become used to.
How is that explicit deflection of blame to the playerbase? If you want to take a psychological approach to the issue, then I can see what you are getting at, but the same approach can be taken to get right back to the root of the statement putting blame right back on the devs/producers. To say this holds true every time the phrase is stated is just asinine and belief that people are always trying to sell you something. Even EA's "shitty" statements hasn't detracted from them selling products and making extremely popular games. Sometimes the fault is on the players, as that is a topic where the truth of the matter is found out over time. Again, if SV remains melee and becomes a highly played class over the next .5-3 years, then everyone in this forum saying it failed is then proven wrong, where if that doesn't happen then they are all proven right.