Dev Watercooler -- Critical Hits (And Misses)

[Borcster]

Maybe this so-called designer should move his ass from the watercooler and actually do something useful? Whether or not a healer crits for 150% or 200% is a completely useless discussion at this point of the game. Whether or not an assassination rogues crits for 150% or 200% on their poisons is also a completely useless discussion. It's all about how you balance the total output.

What they SHOULD discuss at their watercooler is how they can make crit(since it's the stat in question) more attractive. For example tying it to a buff/debuff, ie. for assassination rogue it could be a buff that increases poison damage done by a small percentage, for holy paladins it could be that their mastery shield stacks with the next incoming heal or whatever.

Would be awesome if he ever discussed anything that is relevant and said "We'll be doing this, this and this to change it. It will affect this and that, but we think that's a better way of doing it. It's not the solution we're looking for, but for now it's better". Or if they discussed something relevant and said straight out "we won't change x, because it changes y and z". Instead of spewing out vague bullshit about time and money.

Best of it all would be if they split PvE and PvP balancing.

[Callace]

Why do people think Mages are so hot in PvE? They're in the bottom half in raid statistics. I have a Mage along with several other toons, and I actually have been playing it less because his DPS is lower. Or is this just a PvP argument overwhelming the sum-total of the class?

[loop not defined]

Your post implied that his opinon didn't matter to anyone except him; so which opinions do matter then? And the fact that you got defensive over being called out as a Blizzard devotee doesn't really change my stance either.

Funny how you mention egotism and make failed attempts to belittle the intellects of other people.

Edit: The reason people are getting bored of the game lies on the basis that negative criticism isn't acceptable. It just gets filtered and corrupted to paint a pretty picture.

Read his post. He made a clear, universal statement on what is not fun. Guess what? That's bullshit, no matter how you cut it.

Negative criticism is perfectly acceptable. Just stop being stupid about it. If someone makes sweeping judgements and tries to pretend they speak on anybody's behalf but their own, I'm going to call them out on their bullshit. Stop hiding behind this "blizzard devotee" crap and actually argue over the goddamned point.

[lilbuddhaman]

So, I quit wow at the end of BC as a feral druid (resto in vanilla), hardcore raider, Top 100 US blah blah blah, returned midway through Lich King to raid with my RL brother as a mage, quit after we killed Lich King Regular (and we had done nearly every achievement available before it, aside from a perfect Trial run 25). I didn't like when they nerfed the most perfectly balanced fight in the game (Kael), nor when they removed keying from BC, and I didn't like much of anything in Lich King save for a few fights. The actual Lich King Raid was crap, an empty rushed Black Temple ripoff with skulls on everything...

ANYWAYS

I still check out the updates about the game on this site, and all I can wonder is "what in the hell are they doing with this game?" It seems like on a weekly basis classes are getting major coefficients bounced around, damage scaling changed huge numbers on a whim, and batshit insane stuff like druids losing root break. All I can wonder is, how can anyone NOT say that this game is a broken mess, and that the devs truly have no clue what is going on ? If it wasn't clear from Lich King, all the real assets of blizz are being put into Titan or whatever its called... What % of art assets are still being recycled ? Better yet, what assets are even new ? Every mob I see in screenshots is just an old mob with feathers/fire/recolor added. Set pieces went to shit a LONG time ago. (With the exception of warlocks and warriors who for the most part get a "good" set).

And the whole homogenization thing ? Please. To any PvE player, you basically have the choice of 4 different mechanics/rotations, sprinkled between all the classes/specs. It feels the same, it plays the same, its just blah. And for PvP, I dunno, never got into it, but it always felt like RPS...

As far as "some rogues might like to apply poisons for their damage". These are also the people that don't raid, don't know/care about what does the most damage, etc. They're casuals.

well, no one will likely read this but its been a while since I checked on this game. (and damnit I really wanted FF14 to not suck, maybe the PS3 release will breath new life into the game). Anyone have any info/details on Rift's "endgame"?

[mtawney1313]

Anyone have any info/details on Rift's "endgame"

Haven't made it to endgame yet but just the levelling aspect of Rift was enough to make me quit Wow

[CrenVerdis]

Just a sidenote...
Please don't take the slippery slope to premium accounts. I don't like it when I have to read "via curse premium". That makes me nervous.





Also please don't ban me because I don't like the company that pays checks and servers. Information have to be free and chances as equal as possible!

[tusker]

Does anyone else feel like all the banter over balancing classes, pvp vs. pve -- all the banter over "this blue said this and that, etc"... none of that matters if you're able to play the game with friends, or in a guild with friends, and you raid (or maybe run heroics) and enjoy it? My guild (my friends) are 5/12 HC and I've never had more fun raiding (i'm a healer, btw). It's at least as good as I remember in parts of Vanilla and BC.

[Deleted]

ITT: People expecting GC to outright say "We think crits are a problem for [Your Class Here]. We are going to buff [Your class here]. You sure deserve it."

This isn't about you fishing for buffs. It's an insight into the design and design problems of a game like World of Warcraft. It's about what a designer must consider. NOT some list of planned changes for YOUR class.

[Calibar]

Honestly when I chose to play a warrior I never once in my mind thought, oh I can crit more than most other people and what not, hell I didn't know what crit was. I chose to play a warrior because 1 he wears plate, 2 no spells and 3 he had a sword and shield(changed now)

I didn't even know there were differences in crit damage until now. So it really doesn't bother me in the least.

[Dalanos]

So basically I need to stack the fuck out of crit on my warrior to atleast seem like a threat to healers since they won't be buffing MS. Got it. Because i'm sick of trying to "keep the healer busy" while my team tries to kill the efc and have the healer stand there and /laugh and /no at me while keeping everyone alive.

[v1ze]

"No whining about the choice of topics we cover."

...and then Blizz fires back at the community.

"This was back when all the designers presumably played rogues instead of mages, which according to the forums is what we all play now (which makes our dungeon testing interesting, I gotta tell you.)"

Dear Blizz,

ugh, I realize Blizz is cynical now but you're still the developers. You aren't required to act like bitches, it's on your own accord.

[Steampunk]

Haven't made it to endgame yet but just the levelling aspect of Rift was enough to make me quit Wow

Likewise!

I'm pretty disappointed here. Seeing "Dev Watercooler" garbage like this just reminds me that Ghostcrawler is a terrible choice for Lead Designer. I'm not allowed to complain about the topics he writes about, yet this jerk's able to talk trash about me as a player?

Screw that noise. I won't be coming back to WoW until his ego gets gut-checked.

[Xayla]

Is this guy on fucking dope or what.... the shit he says over the course of time doesn't even add up.
More burst damage.. yeah that's the plan.

The game wasn't this fucking broken until he decided to start "fixing" it.

[zakbel]

Is this guy on fucking dope or what.... the shit he says over the course of time doesn't even add up.
More burst damage.. yeah that's the plan.

The game wasn't this fucking broken until he decided to start "fixing" it.

Yup, lets go back to vanilla. I can 1 shot ppl on my enhance shaman with Hearld of Woe. While i try to heal 30 dps in said enhance spec, thansk to no dual spec. Oh, not to mention the fact that you NEED 39 other ppl on at one time just to raid.

Yup the game was perfect at release. World PVP only, no rewards for doing it. No end game raiding unless you were the 5% of the server population that passed the application process to get into a raid guild. Only 1 class could tank, hybrid heal/dps were expected to be healing only in raids, but their raid gear spread out their stats as if they were suppose to be doing both at the same time.

Yup.... perfect..

[Deleted]

You idiots realize he isn't the one making all the changes?
If you don't like the game, or used to but dislike where it's headed, why are you still here mocking the devs?

[Beachcomber]

back when all the designers presumably played rogues instead of mages, which according to the forums is what we all play now

He jokes, but there is a deep feeling of resentment amongst the player base for the pvp imbalances which continue to proliferate in this game.

Right now, there is an unreasonably high frost mage representation and with good reason. They have a number of tools to lock down the opponent...too many tools. Then when you expect some significant nerfs to abilities like Deep Freeze, they instead get buffs to Ice Lance and Frostbolt which will make their shatter combos hit that much harder.

Is Ghostcrawler incompetent? Tough to say. You can add numbers all day long and miss out on some critical numbers, like class/spec representation in arena and battlegrounds. You can also miss out on spell/counterspell issues, like paladin bubbles, ice block, instant cast heals. The list goes on.

[slosh]

I can't for the life of me figure out why healers are complaining about the possibility of crit healing for 200%.

I cast a heal. I know how much it heals for. I judge which heal to cast based on that information. Down 30k+? Big slow heal incoming ...

WHAT! DOUBLE THE AMOUNT!?!? OMG!! DAMN YOU BLIZZARD AND YOUR RANDOMNESS!!

Seriously, where's the logic in that? You were going to cast the spell anyway, right? What so now that you get more healing than you expected, suddenly you don't want to cast it?

Furthermore, for pallies the synergy with our mastery would leave larger bubbles on our target while holy priests have larger hots/shields. HoTs critting won't change much, and apparently shaman already like the stat.

There is literally no downside to crit for healers UNLESS you assume that you'll get a crit. None. Assume = bad player. Crit for 200% is a good thing because it will help balance how players value different stats.

[Explosion_Rex]

So basically I need to stack the fuck out of crit on my warrior to atleast seem like a threat to healers since they won't be buffing MS. Got it. Because i'm sick of trying to "keep the healer busy" while my team tries to kill the efc and have the healer stand there and /laugh and /no at me while keeping everyone alive.

Hahaha! This! So much this! It's really sad that this is the case in every BG I do.

[Pantelija]

You idiots realize he isn't the one making all the changes?
If you don't like the game, or used to but dislike where it's headed, why are you still here mocking the devs?

Explain what does LEAD SYSTEM DESIGNER mean to you , developer that makes coffee breaks changes right ? >.>

I dont remember when was the game this unbalanced and sad part is blizzard thinks this is the most balanced season of them all which shows that they are clueless and have 0 touch to reality .

[Hungrydingo]

No one said the devs all played mages... it's obvious based on balance they all play Mages, DKs, and Warriors.