Comments on: Nerf Log

By: Bender

Bender — Sat, 15 Jan 2005 00:15:36 +0000

Ah, I should have been clearer. The spells were only overpowered in that one instance because of terrible mob placement in the design. Outside of that, they were very balanced little spells that served as nothing more than an ‘ease of travel’ buff, as they were intended to be. As they are now after the nerf they are pointless since the very act of casting them defeats the purpose they exist for.

Up til this point i’ve been pleased with how Blizz has handled things. But this nerf smacks of SOE-style “Band-aiding”. SWG had more than it’s share of slashing player abilities to compensate for bad design flaws by developers. I’ve really hoped that Blizz will instead fix the problems rather than slapping a patch on them and hoping it’s “all good” in the end.

By: Ethic

Ethic — Fri, 14 Jan 2005 22:51:57 +0000

If indeed the spells “were only truly useful (read: exploitable) in ONE instance” as Bender says, than this does not seem like a big deal to me. If these spells are big part of who a priest or druid is than it certainly sucks to have a nerf. Truth be told, only time will tell if it was a good change or a bad change. If the spells did not work as they intended in the design, well I support the change. If they made the change to fix a broken instance design, bad move Blizzard.

As a long-time player of a Feral Intendant in AC2, I can fully understand how it feels to have a class changed fundamentally after you have been playing it for a good while. In fact, it happened several times for that class. But still, I was able to adapt my play style and find the new “style” for the class. Doesn’t change the fact that it sucked at the time though.

By: Bender

Bender — Fri, 14 Jan 2005 21:56:32 +0000

Even worse is that the spells were only truly useful (read: exploitable) in ONE instance, Mauradon. Can’t have priests or druids skipping content, only rogues are allowed to skip their way to the good stuff.

BTW, love the blog Foton! I’ve missed your ramblings ever since you left Eclipse. Who were you there anyway? Some of us still wonder.

By: Foton of AFKGamer

Foton of AFKGamer — Fri, 14 Jan 2005 21:26:15 +0000

It’s not as if the damn priests and druids were running around with multiple free lives like another class that comes to mind.

Seems that there’s bigger fish to fry right now. *shrug*

By: Abalieno

Abalieno — Fri, 14 Jan 2005 20:35:29 +0000

I think they changed it on three elements:

– It was an instant -> now it’s a 1.5 cast time spell
– It allowed to charm every type of monster -> now only on humanoids
– It was used to avoid aggro -> now it aggro on fails

On my agenda this is indeed a full nerf, in the true meaning of the word. I always defined a nerf not as a simple tweak of a class. A nerf is a basic change of a skill that forces the player to play in a different way.

In general it’s exactly this point that the players hate: it’s a change resulting in a different way to play that is perceived as less fun by the players.

From what I read the spell was used when running to instant cast it on monsters and so avoid them.

Now you cannot run because you need to stop and cast it, you cannot use to avoid aggro because it’s exactly what it produces and it will work only on a certain type of mobs.

It’s basically reverted. The previous use is completely unapplicable now.

By: Ethic

Ethic — Fri, 14 Jan 2005 19:52:35 +0000

Never having played a priest or a druid high enough to get them, can someone please tell me how these spells worked before this “nerf” and why this change is going to bring about the end of the world?