Dev Watercooler -- Critical Hits (And Misses)

[Nekokami]

These jokes get worse and worse

I like it, it's a reference to Dungeons&Dragons

[Azrile]

who cares.. you balance the game around the rules... they decide to change the rules, and people may change their gear stats a bit.. but in the end, all we care about is our spec being viable. Congrats.. they figure out to let poisons crit... then they spend 2 months trying to figure out how much they need to nerf Mutilate to rebalance rogues... or how much they need to nerf stormstrike because LB now crits for enhancement.

Honestly, this is one of the reasons there are so many complaints about the game being boring. Because instead of actually adding interesting systems and features, the devs apparently spend all their time chasing their own tails on small rule changes while adding very boring new features. Think about this? How much better do you think guild leveling or archeology would be if the devs had spent this much time talking about minor minor details.

At the end of the day, classes will have to be balanced. For every paragraph talking about what they want to give a spec, they should spend another paragraph talking about how they will have to nerf something else. It is just a waste of dev time to focus on these trivial issues which in the end, don´t make the game more fun.

[taymatt]

Wow, how pathetic is it that the lead developer believes Resto Shammies value crit? Hopefully the mods around here will keep this in mind next time they try to pretend Blizz knows what they are doing with us.

[PlatedPriest]

re: Rogue and Enhancement

Essentially saying:

"We're probably not too happy with their 150 percent crits, but we're not going to do anything about it any time soon."

Very similar to a few weeks ago:

"We're not too happy why how out entire combat is based on interrupts, but we're not going to do anything about it any time soon."

you must not understand the points of these water coolers.

THEY ARE NOT PROMISES.

all it is at best. is how they currently view these aspects of the game. and there thought process on some of these topics. just because GC discuss they fact that they are not happly with interrupts, hit/expertise for tanks, and critical hits doesn't mean they are going to role out a game changing patch tomorrow.

[underdogba]

Wow, how pathetic is it that the lead developer believes Resto Shammies value crit? Hopefully the mods around here will keep this in mind next time they try to pretend Blizz knows what they are doing with us.

I felt the same way when I heard GC suggest that prot pallies might take the haste on judgment talent at the top of the holy tree!

---------- Post added 2011-04-19 at 01:08 PM ----------

I like it, it's a reference to Dungeons&Dragons

It's just pandering, in order to appropriate some kind of nerd legitimacy.

[Buu]

Nooo... having heals be 200% just makes things even more unpredictable than it already is. Healers can't make up a run of bad streak of non-crits in a fight like a dps can. If you get unlucky with crits and the tank dies, then you get to do the encounter over again. If this happens to the dps, then there is still a good chance they can make up lost ground.

Reverse Psychology?
Because Healers don't make decisions on criticals. They do on normal Heals, and if they Crit... Hey extra second for breath.
If you "plan" your criticals, then I believe you're a poor healer.

[Swizzle]

Wow, how pathetic is it that the lead developer believes Resto Shammies value crit? Hopefully the mods around here will keep this in mind next time they try to pretend Blizz knows what they are doing with us.

Resto shaman like it, but look at how many talents they have that make crits better for them.

Like can mean it's a bonus to have it, but it doesn't mean it's your number one stat.

[paloalto]

you must not understand the points of these water coolers.

THEY ARE NOT PROMISES.

all it is at best. is how they currently view these aspects of the game. and there thought process on some of these topics. just because GC discuss they fact that they are not happly with interrupts, hit/expertise for tanks, and critical hits doesn't mean they are going to role out a game changing patch tomorrow.

Not be rude, but what in my post indicates I believe the opposite?

In fact, the content of my post is acknowledging that they recognize what they feel are problems within combat but aren't:

going to role out a game changing patch tomorrow.

It's odd that you didn't understand that.

[Schizoide]

Another completely milquetoast blog from GC, this time spending way too much space talking about a non-issue nobody actually cares about, as opposed to his usual fare of spending way too much space taking absolutely no concrete position and spouting platitudes about an issue people actually do care about!

This is the dev watercooler. It's supposed to give players a window on what the devs are talking about this week, not <<nerfs/buffs to your class>>.

I've been enjoying these watercoolers and blog posts a great deal. They're a huge improvement over the total lack of communication we had before.

[Notos]

Wow, how pathetic is it that the lead developer believes Resto Shammies value crit? Hopefully the mods around here will keep this in mind next time they try to pretend Blizz knows what they are doing with us.

Even after the mastery buff they gave resto, crit is still a very good stat because it offers both good throughput and an increase in mana regen because there are several talents that improve it. So basically, what GC said.

[underdogba]

This is the dev watercooler. It's supposed to give players a window on what the devs are talking about this week, not <<nerfs/buffs to your class>>..

You're misunderstanding the nature of my criticism. I am not saying that GC's blogs are bad because they are not a litany of specific class changes a la class notes. It's because everything he writes is completely predictable, devoid of any controversy whatsoever, and essentially meaningless as far as advancing our understanding of where they want the game to go. The whole thing reeks of consulting a publicist, under the auspices of a blog.

[taymatt]

Resto shaman like it, but look at how many talents they have that make crits better for them.

Like can mean it's a bonus to have it, but it doesn't mean it's your number one stat.

Uh yeah. We "like" it so much, we reforge all of it to spirit, haste, and mastery. It is literally the bottom stat, so it is more than embarrassing that Blizz's lead developer would say we "like" it.

[underdogba]

Uh yeah. We "like" it so much, we reforge all of it to spirit, haste, and mastery. It is literally the bottom stat, so it is more than embarrassing that Blizz's lead developer would say we "like" it.

I wouldn't recommend starting this whole thing up, the particular poster you are responding to has made a cottage industry out of arguing the semantics of this point for no particularly good reason, seemingly just for the sake of having something to argue about.

[taymatt]

Even after the mastery buff they gave resto, crit is still a very good stat because it offers both good throughput and an increase in mana regen because there are several talents that improve it. So basically, what GC said.

Incorrect. It is literally our worst throughput stat. The confusion likely stems from the fact that when people just hit 85 back in december, and were in greens and blues, mana regen was terrible and pre-buffed mastery was semi-useless. As such, several posters here and at EJ recommended crit as a way of dealing with mana issue.

Once your gear isn't terrible (i.e., you didn't just hit 85; aren't wearing a bunch of greens; and are instead wearing mostly 346 gear and above), crit is of very low value. It really is no longer disputed that ALL of the other stats rank above crit in priority.

[Dacomp89]

You're misunderstanding the nature of my criticism. I am not saying that GC's blogs are bad because they are not a litany of specific class changes a la class notes. It's because everything he writes is completely predictable, devoid of any controversy whatsoever, and essentially meaningless as far as advancing our understanding of where they want the game to go. The whole thing reeks of consulting a publicist, under the auspices of a blog.

You find what he talks about meaningless because you do not think about the game as deeply as he does. You are concerned with superficial changes, he is concerned with how the whole game interacts in itself. If you do not think his watercooler blog is useful then ignore it, he doesn't do it for you, he does it to provide some insight into how a game is run and developed.

[Phaidrae]

Good fucking GRRRRIIIIEEFFFFF...I know they say not to read too much into these stupid Devs thing - but honestly. So lame.

I'm so damn sick of hearing the same motherfucking excuse for healers EVERY time they release any sort of talk/info about them. 95% of the time it boils down to this hot steaming pile of shit: "We don't want to change too much for healers because it'll be too OP for PvP..."

Will they never EVER give us raiders a fucking break here? Would it be too much to ask for a little love for these MASSIVE works of art called raids as far as class-tuning and spec'ing love?

I realize that there's a big following for PvP in this game (although I really cannot for the life of me figure out why)...but there's also a nice chunk of ppl that would REALLY enjoy seeing some stuff implemented/done/changed/fixed for PvE and that alone. A course of action that's NOT a swift set of debuffs/nerfs/setbacks and then buffing for classes that don't really need it.

This is simply asking too much. I've crossed a line.

[Orcheon]

Healers do not like randomness. Crits are random. I would rather every heal heal for 25% more than 25% of heals heal for 100% more.

This is the same reason procs that don't regenerate mana aren't fun for healers. They add a level to the game that healers don't want, that we don't have any control over--the thing healers want is control.

This is the exact opposite of what good healers want. We want MORE control, not less.

[vizzle]

These Dev Watercoolers and "Ask the Devs!" stuff are so open-ended and vague that it's obvious they are just doing it to keep the interest of those who don't really already know this in the first place. They don't say anything ground breaking and they don't share anything new that a decent player could think of himself. They try to show their knowledge of the game by mentioning that they know where Boomkins and SPriests get their passive damage from, but aside from that, there was nothing worthwhile reading in this post. Waste of time, just trying to make it seem like the developers haven't abandoned this game, which, the A team has.

[Deleted]

re: Rogue and Enhancement

Essentially saying:

"We're probably not too happy with their 150 percent crits, but we're not going to do anything about it any time soon."

Very similar to a few weeks ago:

"We're not too happy why how out entire combat is based on interrupts, but we're not going to do anything about it any time soon."

Do you have any idea how long it takes for simple napkin ideas to turn into an idea that is put into the game?

[underdogba]

You find what he talks about meaningless because you do not think about the game as deeply as he does. You are concerned with superficial changes, he is concerned with how the whole game interacts in itself. If you do not think his watercooler blog is useful then ignore it, he doesn't do it for you, he does it to provide some insight into how a game is run and developed.

Three quick points --

1. You don't know anything about how I think about anything, so as far as I'm concerned, this is just troll bait.

2. The fact that you keep insisting that I'm "concerned with superficial changes" means that you have essentially zero comprehension of the criticism I'm making.

3. "If you don't like it, ignore it" is a patently-misused conversation-destroyer in the context in which you're offering it. This is a valid argument when it comes to censorship by an institution of political power. But to claim as you are that readers/watchers of a piece of media have no right to criticize it is patently absurd.