WoW Class Balance

Since a few weeks the issue of class balance in World of Warcraft is making headlines. Especially warriors are unhappy, they even staged a protest march on one server. Which then promptly caused the server to crash, causing Blizzard to threaten all future protesters with account bannings. So what is the problem?

Direct comparison with paladins is the problem. Paladins wear the same armor, and wield the same weapons (except ranged weapons) as warriors. But pallys have the better abilities. They can make themselves invulnerable for some time, and heal themselves, making them nearly impossible to kill. Warriors have abilities too, but while paladins enter combat with a full mana bar, warriors have an empty rage bar instead, and complain that it is filling far too slowly, making them unable to use abilities as often as other classes in combat. In a direct PvP duell a warrior doesn't stand a chance against a palladin of the same level, equally prepared.

That has further implications, because only the Alliance has paladins. Not only is the Horde outnumbered in general, they can also field less tanks, and those are inferior to the tanks the Alliance brings to the battle field.

Blizzard developers responded to the protests by claiming that warriors aren't that bad. Because they have the much better taunts, being able much better to hold aggro when fighting monsters in a group. That is certainly true. Unfortunately that doesn't help warriors much. The paladins abilities are useful in all situations, solo and group, PvE and PvP. The warriors taunt only works in group PvE. In all sorts of PvP combat taunt does exactly nothing. And in solo combat neither.

So what am I going to do? Play a Horde warrior on the Euro servers of course. :) And that is not a masochistic love of playing the underdog. I'm relying on the self-balancing forces every game has. Being the only metal armor wearer the Horde has, warriors are the least redundant. Groups will always be happy to take them. Furthermore there is far less competition for metal armor and heavy weaponry on the Horde side. As long as you are the only warrior in a group, it should be easy enough to be allowed to loot this stuff, which is worthless to the other group members, especially if it is "binds when picked up". The lack of demand could also lead to more reasonable auction house prices for warrior gear. And finally there is always hope that the thought "warriors are underpowered" is lodged in the developers heads, leading to them being improved instead of nerfed.
- posted by Tobold @ 8:08 AM Permanent Link