Do you trust Ghost Crawler?

[moveth]

Yeah, I actually really appreciated that "inside look" into the development process.

It's neat, because it's a glimpse other companies never offer to its playerbase, and it allows GOOD feedback to often assist in changes.

The problem is, everyone thinks their feedback is good, when in reality, the good feedback is rare.

Exactly. Most of the good feedback comes from the incredibly famous theorycrafters that exist (and have existed since Vanilla.) The people who devote a VERY heavy portion of their time to the incredibly difficult math that goes into an MMO.

[Holofernes]

well i see that the devs do a really job at class balance.

The number games, they do this really near perfect. In raids, challenge modes u got the people within a few 100 k dmg over a long boss fight / whole instance with even gear. the differences are very low between the "balanced" dds. There are some outliers now and then, and some mechanical playstyle / encounter things that favor special classes / specs more then other.

What i dont like at all is the comunity switching specs like mad if some theory guy tells them that this is 3 % more dmg, when in fact this is only theoretical.

Our frost mage who is a skilled player , beats the guy who does the fotm arcane thing and is a okish skilled player too on every single encounter by far. With the same gear. Skill , utility, and knowing a spec inside out is way more important than a few k theoretical overall dps.

Designs i dont disagree with:
Trinkets
What i dont really like is the great emphasize they put on trinkets (having this one little item or not is worth a 10th of dps, or in pvp is the reason why someone dies or not). This trinket-madness started in tbc, and really, having a dst or no dst, grim toll /mjolnir runestone or not having it, it was so huge. Same for the caster and healers trinkets, getting heroic remedy and mana was fine in t11, a shadow without heroic elegon trinket is worth shit. A shadow with this trinket is able to be at top.

Healing classes : 2 classes profit from bonus dmg (leishi stacks, elegon stacks , windlord hc). It is not possible for other healers than disc /monc, to use this bonus dmg for incredible amount of healing. If a random attonement heals u for 400 k, as a resto shaman, u know u are screwed on the healing meter. I dont think its clever to make dmg done on boss scale with healing done. Perhaps this tier has too many bosses that have this % dmg+ mechanic, which also put a very brutal and multiplying affect on the dps balance. I dont think it is balanced to have a kind of healers, that profit from that on a enourmos scale, and another kind of healers, that stands there and watches the madness overheal going on with open mouth.
Monks somehow feel like druids that can spam ae swiftmend with no cd and nearly no mana cost. uplift needs a major nerf, or renewing mists needs a target limitation. otherwise, this will never be balanced.

PVP: everything that is instant-cast and ccs or does a lot of dmg should be removed from the game. Only defensive spells should be able to be cast instant. If there is any initially defensive designed cd that avoids being cced / peeled, u can rely on that it will be used offensive. Best example for this paradigm is dk hull / stunimmunity, hunter bestial wrath (in classic, i used this more for not getting feared, than for bursting), mage / lock silence.

Whenever i saw Gc telling on twitter / blues that mage shatter is fun, i have to start crying.
IT IS NOT FUN TO GET HELPLESSLY KILLED WITH INSTANTS CRITTING ALWAYS IN A FUCKING RANGED STUN OFF THE GLOBAL CD WIHTOUT ANY ABILITY to DO ANYTHING AGAINST, if trinket is down. of course, there is the frostbomb that takes half hp away, too.
I remember too many arena games where the goal of my team was to not let the mage have a frostbombe explode. It has been nerved, and nerves are still coming. But its still way to easy to kill people as a mage. Fire mage, if played and geared well, is ridicoulus too in pvp.
I dont trust gc that he will ever bring mages in line with other classes in pvp. There was no single moment since arenas exists, were mage was not op or borderline op.

There are steps beeing made in the right direction, as u can tell from reading blogs and twitters, but its to little and already to messed up.

There is nothing more hilarious than killing a whole enemy rbg team with dk massgrip into double sunbeam and bombing them down.

I reall liked the tbc style s2 / s3 /s4 arenas, with oom healers /manamanegment , or cc chains (that could be avoided at a reasonable rating, as things had casttimes) as the key element of success, it only went down from those times.
The cd heavyness also is a step in the wrong direction, playing a 3 minute burster class is not fun for the poor bursted helpless victim, and too its not fun for the guy that has his moment every 3 minutes for a few secs.

[Vaelorian]

snip

I don't see any sorta thing in your post that says you do or do not trust Greg. I do see a lot of things that you feel are wrong about the game. And this has nothing to do with trusting Greg or not.

[Hyve]

I trust him, because he does not make the decisions solely by himself.

[Kisho]

Well. Didnt want to flat out say it because it makes me sound like a dick :[ , but my brother lives in Irvine and his friend used to be on the design team. It is this big. There is a small team for each spec and a small team that oversees each class as a whole.

I should also add that he worked there during the very tail end of wrath, so this could have been in preparation for Catclysm or whatnot. However, at one point, it was this big.

Oh wow. Then Ghostcrawler deserves even more respect for wrangling that team and keeping order as the Lead Systems Designer. That's impressive. Thanks for the clarification on that.

[Holofernes]

I don't see any sorta thing in your post that says you do or do not trust Greg. I do see a lot of things that you feel are wrong about the game. And this has nothing to do with trusting Greg or not.

well as Mr Street is the lead designer, the design direction of wow, the direction of changes and the state of balance is what makes me trust or not. Its not only gc, its a whole team, and its a philosophy of how they want their game to be played. U cannot trust in a single person, but u can trust in their ability to see the points going wrong and make the changes happen.

And if u actually read my post , u wouldnt have stated this comment, as i was referring and commenting exactly these topics.
Perhaps u think of trust and in way less complex way then me, like "in god we trust"?

I trust more in the state of gameplay and the from this derived planned development direction, and the ability to make those plans to work out in the actual game.

[Pull My Finger]

Let's put it this way: I don't see a reason not to trust him. I don't know the exact details of his job and I don't pretend to. It's obvious to me that he's a smart guy and that he has the best in mind for the game. He's also mostly right. I can't take those people seriously who keep bashing, insulting and blaming him for every little stupid thing that doesn't go their way. They act as if they really knew something and it's so far from the truth that it almost hurts.

[Deleted]

im a mage, i consider me and GC good friends. he always looks out for me

[Adramalech]

As far as WoW is concerned, I do.

[Atrea]

Exactly. Most of the good feedback comes from the incredibly famous theorycrafters that exist (and have existed since Vanilla.) The people who devote a VERY heavy portion of their time to the incredibly difficult math that goes into an MMO.

I wouldn't even say most of it; a lot of good feedback comes in from random players. Take a look:

http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/forum/to...1523?page=1#11

TL;DR -- "Boss sound only" option. I think everyone can get behind this one.

http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/6297803551#1

TL;DR -- "Bring back night/day distinction" -- you know, when it would be "night time" in the world, after a certain hour?


I mean, granted, these aren't gameplay or class balance mechanics -- but if you can demonstrate value with your suggestion, it's usually commented on by a blue poster, and things like this have a habit of actually being implemented.

[Deleted]

Let's put it this way: I don't see a reason not to trust him. I don't know the exact details of his job and I don't pretend to.

his job is arguing with people on twitter/forums and buffing/nerfing classes as he sees fit :P

[Deleted]

More or less
More concerned about Tom Chilton, he has been sinking wow further and further from it`s prime since he joined

[Vaelorian]

well as Mr Street is the lead designer, the design direction of wow, the direction of changes and the state of balance is what makes me trust or not. Its not only gc, its a whole team, and its a philosophy of how they want their game to be played. U cannot trust in a single person, but u can trust in their ability to see the points going wrong and make the changes happen.

And if u actually read my post , u wouldnt have stated this comment, as i was referring and commenting exactly these topics.
Perhaps u think of trust and in way less complex way then me, like "in god we trust"?

I trust more in the state of gameplay and the from this derived planned development direction, and the ability to make those plans to work out in the actual game.

My apolagies if I didn't read your post correctly. But I mean trust as in "I trust him to inform us about changes or what might be added etc". Thats where I trust Greg. Since he is hardly the only one deciding... I do not have to trust in his ability to make changes for the better or worse. Since I cannot blame him for decisions made by more people them himself.

[Darksoldierr]

He never lieing face to face, but definitely, he keeps lot of inside information and lot of times says absolute bullshit just to change topic or leave it be. But he never lied, so i trust him ye.

Too bad twitter allows you only 120 char messages, can't have any serious communication

[moveth]

I wouldn't even say most of it; a lot of good feedback comes in from random players. Take a look:

http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/forum/to...1523?page=1#11

TL;DR -- "Boss sound only" option. I think everyone can get behind this one.

http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/6297803551#1

TL;DR -- "Bring back night/day distinction" -- you know, when it would be "night time" in the world, after a certain hour?


I mean, granted, these aren't gameplay or class balance mechanics -- but if you can demonstrate value with your suggestion, it's usually commented on by a blue poster, and things like this have a habit of actually being implemented.

Oh of course! I didnt mean to devalue the suggestions that come from the players. I was merely talking of Class Balance and raw numbers :P

[Pull My Finger]

More or less
More concerned about Tom Chilton, he has been sinking wow further and further from it`s prime since he joined

Ah, yes. Well, name three bad things about the game Tom Chilton is responsible for, please. It shouldn't be hard, considering the fact that the man has been working on the game since the development of TBC.

And oh yeah, before you go off: the question wasn't "what do you hate about the game". We're talking Tom Chilton, so some kind of proof would be nice, eh.

[Elegiac]

Not of late, no. Nobody is beyond redemption, however.

[Buu]

This is the guy that made my mail-wearers useless for 3/4 of Cataclysm. Still the big picture is good. VERY GOOD, indeed. Proportion between the crap he produce and the gold is off the charts. I can forgive the little shit they do with the game.

[Deleted]

Why should we continue to play WOW, if he wasn t :P

[MasterHamster]

I disagree with him with some of his decisions
I agree with most of his decisions

I feel like whenever "he" has nerfed my class (which he of course doesn't do without heavy discussion with other people, below or above his own "rank") I feel he's always ready with a sensible rational explanation why.

The hate for GC is understandable but in reality pointless. He's the frontfigure, that makes him the scapegoat for any decision you might disagree with.
Yes, I trust that he does whatever he can to balance the game considering the many various factors he, and others, have to consider first.

/GC fanboy