Are classes being tuned and changed way too much?

[Echocho]

Back in the day (as recent as MOP tbh) I could always pick a class for the X.0 patch and be happy with that decision of the rest of the expansion until they made major changes for the next expansion.

Today I can't really be sure if my pick is going to last until the next patch until changes make me have to reconsider, I personally find it exhausting and demotivating not feeling like "this is my main and I'm gonna work on it for the next 2 years".

Should classes and specs be tampered with less over the course of an expansion?

[SL1200]

Yes it's too much.

[ls-]

Nah, I think that some specs are being tweaked/tuned too little T_T

[cuafpr]

yes /10 chars

[Tradu]

Yes, and it's because their internal testing/development team is not big/good enough as well as them not making proper use of the beta/PTR feedback/data they get, because they'd rather use "live data" which just ends up showing the exact same things as beta/PTR.

[Lightbull]

I think Blizzard knows that after reworking every spec in the game, people are going to be upset and the classes will need tweaking. I think it's fair, but I wouldn't like to see it happen too much after Legion is over.

[Pull My Finger]

I don't really care. Some people throw a tantrum whenever something gets tweaked by 1%. Who gives a shit. Relax.

[Saracens]

To be honest, as much as I have loved WoW for as long as I have, I really enjoy new changes being made. After all, who would want to play the exact same game in the same or similar form for 12+ years? I'm not saying constant re-hauls needs to be a thing, just that the face of change doesn't constantly have to be met with a slap from the fan base. Change is good, keeps you on your toes; keeps things fresh! Just my two pennies.

[Interim]

Yes. Waaay too much.

[gushDH]

I love frequent changes. Keeps my class fresh.

[Deleted]

Back in the day (as recent as MOP tbh) I could always pick a class for the X.0 patch and be happy with that decision of the rest of the expansion until they made major changes for the next expansion.

Today I can't really be sure if my pick is going to last until the next patch until changes make me have to reconsider, I personally find it exhausting and demotivating not feeling like "this is my main and I'm gonna work on it for the next 2 years".

Should classes and specs be tampered with less over the course of an expansion?

The longer you have class (or spec) imbalances in game, the more FOTM rerollers you will have. So: If you want to have the feeling "This is my main and I'm gonna work on it for the next 2 years", you should be happy that they do a lot of re-tunings.

The sheer amount of those rerollers during WoD (where it was so incredibly easy to change) was one of the main drivers for Legion's more strict approach towards class/spec fantasy and "AP rails".

[Brewhan]

I welcome class changes within reason what I don't like is a new patch coming out and changes made then 2 days later or 1 week later even more hotfixes or buffs/nerfs changes made. Then blizz telling me it was impossible to predict that buff/nerf was needed until live data was used? I'm sure people do test on PTR and blizzard has their own team. Why do we have to be the unpaid game testers ...

Wow team in 2017 is just really bad at making concrete class changes. They just pull a lever now and wherever it lands they buff/nerf then 2 months later do the same thing without any warning at all. It easily triggers me the most about the new development team.

[Deleted]

Yes, way too much -.-

[Sierra85]

not enough tuning. some classes are OP while others are a hot garbage mess.

everyone should be equel, (give skill ofc)

[Deleted]

its needed and its the result of easy way out for devs...

instead of bringing classes up to top performers (which they specifically promised) they lied and started nerfing some specs instead of buffing weak ones. Buffing al underperformers would probably mean they would have to adjust raid encounters as well which they may find more difficult (I dont). This easy way out (nerfing one class is easier than to come up with something creative to fix other 5-10 specs) led us to this.

And again we see weird changes for some specs, nerfhammers dropping on one side and huge buffs coming from the other side. Its getting ridiculous. Minor tweaks (buffing one ability slightly) every 2-3 weeks would be absolutely okay. The problem is their knee-jerk reaction, "this spec is OP? nerf it to the ground and buff the other ones" a.k.a. "we dont want you to play demonology warlock, so we are nerfing it to the ground" (instead of making other specs viable...just to quote a little bit a WoD).

Frequent changes are not a problem, the problem is the rollercoaster. 90% would not care about frequent minor nerfs and buffs.

[tankbug]

A spec should play a little different every few months, complete remake every expansion. It doesn't matter how well-balanced they are, they need to change things, or players will get sick of playing.

[Deleted]

I don't mind it, atleast if you managed to "pick" a weak(er) class, you can hope that in the next 7.x.5 patch it will get stronger or something.

[ThrashMetalFtw]

Nah, it's still not even close to enough.

Certain classes are still being left in the shitbin for way too long.


Also, I'm not sure what kind of MoP you played, but the one I played had pretty much the same amount of changes as we do now. Classes were retuned for every patch, sometimes midpatch aswell (the balance was horrendous, but that's another story). Same with Cata.

The last expansion to look somewhat like what you are describing, was WotLK, which was an absolute shitshow in terms of balance, or more specficly, some classes just had no real statscaling with anything else than Spellpower, like SPs and Elemental Shamans barely getting any Dps increase going from full t7 to full t9. Ppl forget that DotS didn't scale with Haste, and that 200% Critdmg wasn't possible for every class to get until Cata.

[Agentbourbon]

They could have used the Emerald Nightmare to get a rough idea as to what we should look for in The Nighthold, the refused to do any amount of tuning during that raid tier. And they still haven't done enough.

Like others said, they left so many classes in the shitter with this patch and previous patches, they probably need to rework half the classes and specs at this rate. They ignored tank balance so badly I don't even know how they recover from that situation.

All in all, it's pretty bad in terms of balancing and tuning passes. They've been quick to pull the trigger at completely destroying a spec while ignoring others to the point that they are absolutely broken.

[Eapoe]

Classes are always getting updated/changed thru an xpac. It's just never been as noticable or impactful before, possibly in large part to legendary items and the AP system. In the past, a change happens and it was a minor tuning buff/nerf, but with less to work with it usually only took 1-2 skill changes to make happen. Now, with AP affecting almost every ability of a class there is almost a need to change multiple abilities as changing only 1 is too much/not enough. The other thing that makes it noticable is that people feel locked into a spec. They invest a great amount of time and energy into 1 spec just to have it changed and another spec becomes better, and now that player feels upset because they don't have legendaries/traits for their OS.
People that have been playing since launch probably won't experience that as much, considering they more than likely have multiple legendaries/traits across multiple specs now, but new(ish) players will feel this much like people did around EN/ToV.