Class Wars

The class wars in World of Warcraft have begun in earnest now. The Have Nots calling for nerfs and begging for more power; the Haves telling everyone to shaddup.

These type of skirmishes have been going on since time began in the virtual world, and they will continue until the last mole has been whacked, looted and skinned.

I can always tell which classes are the Haves — here’s a tip on how to quickly ID them in any game: it’s the class that remains curiously quiet, for the most part, in public forums. The Haves try not to make eye contact with the developers; they study their shoes, examine their fingernails, whistle idly while trying to appear casual and uninterested.

Every dog has its day, remember that. After power adjustments and requisite nerfs, the Have Nots will, in turn, rise up to become the Uber Class and the previously “overpowered” classes will become the players to pity. Cue the next round of adjustments and nerfs … next verse, same as the first.

Star Wars Galaxies is unusual in that if players find themselves on the receiving end of the nerf bat, they could redo their professions to the new Uber Class with a week or two of concentrated effort. Not so with a game that has a max level of 60, each level averaging 5 (or so) hours of solid playtime (worse still in EverQuest-Original … hells levels, death penalties), switching classes is a real hardship.

Usually some brainiac in the Class Wars will suggest, “just play what you enjoy”. Honestly, how much enjoyment could there possibly be when it SUCKS ASS?

Do you enjoy death? Are corpse runs your thing? Is making almost no progress after hours of playtime your preferred playstyle? If you answered “yes”, then by all means, play the Suck Ass Class. The rest of us, we like to avoid being the class to pity.

In Warcraft, my class is currently one of the Haves. (emphasis on currently; I know this shit can’t last.) And no, I will not speak its name here — trying to keep a low profile, donchaknow.

A few nights ago, after mopping up a poor pull, I remarked to one of my regular hunting partners: This shit ain’t right, we should be corpses right now.

Him: You mean we’re having fun. In a game. That shit can’t be right?

Me: Well ya, you know what I mean.

Him: Just keep your damn mouth shut and pull some more.

Amen, brother. Amen.

4 thoughts on “Class Wars

  1. At the beginning I was confident about Blizzard’s behaviour with the work on the classes. I’m one of those who do not really care about balance issues and do not contribute to long to infinite threads, exactly because it’s something that keeps changing continuously. I think it’s a good thing and I’m worried when this stops, when noone tries new solutions anymore.

    Till the point that made me write this:
    http://www.cesspit.net/drupal/node/284

    From my point of view the most powerful class (and same in many other games) is the priest. For the simple reason that they are always required, they can make the difference.

    I just hope that Blizzard doesn’t continue to remove the abilities that made their classes beautiful and unique. Like in the case of the warrior I tried to explain.

  2. Warriors really got the (ahem) shaft. One of my hunting partners played a warrior in Closed Beta and, even to this day, will not shut up about the once powerful warriors.

    Stick around long enough, everyone eats some nerf.

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