PvP Balance, Build 3.3 and Cataclysm: Another Season of Waiting?

You should work for blizz, although KS > DF sounds pretty retarded if you're nuking a target. Really liked the magical and physical CC part though

 

 

Killshot is quite superior to all other executes.

 

Firstly, I would like to call first (late).
Secondly, I agree with pretty much everything you said (how can I not ?).

Please, for the love of God, NO MORE MORTAL STRIKE EFFECTS. 
Whatever happened to "it is the defining ability of an Arms
Warrior/Rogues" mentality?  Does anyone think that
Hunter/Enhance/Healer would be as "amazing" as it is now without the MS
effect on Aim Shot?

MS already became a forced mechanic in most teams as soon as arenas came out.  The only 2v2 teams without it were pretty much only Warlock/Healer teams. Every healer class -had- to be healing spec to succeed (just a generalization) and Mages generally teamed with rogues (arguably not just for the MS effect tho).  I don't think there was 1 3v3 or 5v5 team with a high representation without either a warrior (WLD) or rogue (PMR).  Hunters may have had MS but their low burst pretty much forced them into drain teams and they really weren't that successful.

So, taking that into account, was it a good idea to give semi-MS to more classes/specs ? Or maybe they should have removed/reduced their effect ?  I can't say what would of been the absolute best decision, but I think they found a good middle-ground when they gave 20% MS to certain specs (frost/afflic/shadow if I am not mistaken) : What if every melee had 30% MS and every caster had 20% MS ? Double melee would be capped at 30% and double caster at 20%, forcing mixed teams and getting rid of Cleaves of all sort.  Could work, but could also be too much homogenization between classes.  Might force people too much into rolling melee/caster/healer instead of coming up with different comps.

I know some people will absolutely hate
this suggestion, but I would like to see CC placed into two categories
for diminishing returns: Magical and Physical.  As cool as it is to be
able to coordinate all that control, it is absolutely no fun to be
sitting there for the full duration of a match being chained from a
fear -> poly -> cyclone.   However, CC such as poly -> kidney
stun (physical) -> deep freeze stun (magical) could still be pulled
off.

Interesting.  But that's the kind of thing that only tests would show if its decent.  Also, you don't want to force people too much into melee/caster/healer teams or you take out the whole fun of having as many comps as possible.

No more "oh ****" buttons.  There are enough of them. 
Everyone complained about DK's having a too many (problem compounded by
plate); but there are some classes that have just as many.  I realize
that cloth/leather (maybe even mail) classes are no fun if you die just
by being stared at by melee, but there shouldn't be 20 different ways
to avoid death.

"Oh ****" buttons are pretty much the result of WotLK burst and that forced pvp into a vicious cycle : Reducing dmg/hp just a bit too much means games will last forever because of oh-**** buttons; you can't reduce the relative dmg without nerfing those oh-**** buttons.  They should be nerfed in duration or in effectiveness.  -60% less dmg for 12 seconds ? Should be -30% or only last for 6 seconds, effectively favoring intelligent use to avoid a very short burst and not just to make you invincible during a whole CC rotation.  Would cooldowns be reduced ? idk, the point is to reduce the effect of oh-**** buttons, so maybe cooldowns should stay long... would have to be tested.

No more Execute-like abilities.  Speaking of
which, isn't it odd that Hammer of Wrath and Kill Shot are better
abilities than Execute?  Hmm... about that...

Execute always was a terrible mechanic.  Get rid of it asap.

(PS - You are obviously a warrior)

 

I agree that MS is such a powerful ability, that it is almost one of those "must have" abilities in any comp. (especially in early TBC).  I think that such a heavy reliance on MS, has caused the emergence of these nuke teams today.  Your team doesn't have a healing debuff?  Better be able to blow someone up in a global or two.  This also begs the question, is MS too powerful, or is healing too powerful?  I certainly would not have gotten Gladiator if I didn't run with a Warrior in TBC (I played Enhance when WF totems were much more fun, but that's all I essentially was: a WF bot).  I certainly do not want to see people pigeon holed into always needing a warrior to get a high rating.  It really is a fine line between "OK, the damage and healing is perfectly balanced" and "Well, wish we had a warrior for MS".

I don't think it the CC would take the fun out of that many comps.  I mean, either go the way of Hex and have CC's on longer cooldowns, or have them share a diminishing return.  I think it would make people coordinate their CC's a lot more; but what I think it would do, is create an even bigger gap between those who are average and those who are a cut above the rest.

My thoughts are along the same line as your's in terms of the panic buttons.  I am more for intelligent use of these cool downs, as opposed to "I'll just use my OTHER get out of jail free card".

My fear is that in the next expansion, Blizzard will give some class an execute ability that does not need one.  Just you wait.  We'll see Priests getting some spell like Shadow Word: LOL -- When the target is at 100% health, you will deal your maximum health times your spell power as holy and shadow damage.  Or something stupid like that.

P.S.  I play a DK (I know.....)

 

youre dumb and this blog is terrible

 

LOL @ S1 + 2 being most balanced. Did you even play?
No season has been more balanced than another.

 

Balance relative to all other seasons in terms of damage, gimmicky specs, etc.  Let's take a stroll down memory lane shall we?:

S1 - Arenas start.  It's new, it's fresh.  People try out many different combination's, play with different players etc.  Some comps. work better than others, but if you had any amount of skill, any comp worked.  I played an Enhance Shaman and got Gladiator in S1.  No wolves, no snare breakers, no stuns.  Quite possibly one of the worst specs due to the vast amount of cons vs pros, yet I still got up to 2400+

S2 - Damage is still kept relatively moderate.  Warlocks gain more popularity, and more teams show up with Affliction/S.Priest/Healer (usually a druid).  Druids start to become the ideal healer over paladins.

S3 - Introduction of ArP.  Cloth cries, but still very limited amount of ArP gear, so it wasn't THAT bad.  Damage starts to spike with PvE gear becoming more powerful.

S4 - Quit the game during this season, so I don't have much experience.  All I remember is that rogues with the Warglaives raped (maybe these were in S3, can't quite remember).

S5 - New expansion!  Introduction of the DK.  Obviously had balance issues, the so-called "Shadowfrost" build gives them unbelievable burst.  Survival Hunters had the insane Explosive Shot for a while, but gets nerfed in a patch.  Arms warriors suck, and everyone specs Fury.  Mixture of PvE and PvP gear because the best for arenas and the best weapons (melee anyways) come out of Naxx.  Resilience becomes a nearly useless stat for cloth wearers unless you break like 800 or something stupid like that.  Introduction of a new class with improperly balanced trees make this season a big whine-fest for most people.

S6 - Didn't play, so if you felt this season was the most balanced of them all, please, feel free to point out why you think so.  And correct me if I'm wrong, but is this not the season where they buffed resilience because it had become so useless due to damage being insane?

S7 - Current season.  Cleave teams can burst you down in 2-3 global cool downs.

Or maybe my view of it is just biased.

 

No season has been more balanced than another.
lolwut

 

arenas right now are more balanced from a class/spec perspective than theyve been in some time even if getting globaled is gay as hell

also wasnt everyone crying about gear scaling and saying THIS EXPANSION IS THE CHANCE TO FIX THINGS back during season 4 and look where that got us heh

 

There's not much out of whack atm with LK

To me, one of the biggest things is PvE gear in PvP is more devastating than it has been in the previous years.

Before, wearing PvE gear was to gain a stat advantage. More attack power, more spell power, more int, more mp5, etc.

Now, classes wearing PvE gear aren't even the same. This is mainly towards ele shaman and warriors, but it applies to the whole.

When PvE gear completely changes how classes function in PvP, it's time to remove it.

 

The ICC loot you're seeing comes from like the first 4 bosses or whatever, don't keep your hopes up too high.