World of Warcraft: Everyone Hates Their Class
In past years, the World of Warcraft class panel at BlizzCon is where players would get a preview of the future of their characters. New talent trees and talents would be showcased at this panel for attendees to mull over. Not this year, though! With Cataclysm only a month and a half away, class changes and new talent trees are open and available to everyone, and future abilities have been playable on the beta for weeks.
So instead of holding the traditional class panel, the developers opened the floor to the public. For anyone who has seen the end of any previous year's class panel, the Q&A sections can be cringe-inducing. This year was no exception, and the hour-long session began with one player bringing up the hunter class and his perceived weaknesses. After the devs tried to give him what sounded to be a pretty legitimate answer, he basically called them wrong, and everyone booed at him. Later, someone tried to ask like fifteen longwinded questions and got booed too. Hunters and retribution Paladins voiced the most complaints by far, which reinforced all those stereotypes about the classes that have basically existed since launch.
Outside of these moments of terrible, some valuable class information was collected:
Hunters won't be getting any 'fun new melee enchantments' for their weapons. Sorry! Regarding the Hunter's minimum range -- the distance they have to stand before they can use their all-important ranged-weapons -- the developers don't see it as an unfair weakness when balanced against other classes, adding "You can shoot while moving while a mage can't channel while moving, so there's a tradeoff."
Paladin damage has shifted more towards the physical end of the spectrum lately as a response to the fact that holy damage, which was the Paladin's other main damage type, can't be resisted by normal means. The change in resources for Paladins from mana to holy power (more akin to Rogue energy) was intended to give paladins "more gameplay for their resource," with the devs also stating that mana simply didn't feel right for the class. The Consecration ability was also addressed, with the longer cooldown being explained; the class developers wanted Paladins to make a conscious decision to use the ability based on the situation, rather than use it whenever it was available.
The Rogue off-hand weapon mechanic might be considered for change in the future to give rogues a little more flexibility in their choice. As it stands, the fastest weapons are typically considered the best for the Rogue off-hand slot, and those are usually daggers. It was also acknowledged that the combat talent tree for Rogues could use some work, and that the developers intend for it to play similarly to the Mage's arcane tree.
When Druid ability Wild Mushroom was cited as lackluster by one of the attendees, a developer replied that he believed that most people simply didn't know how to use it properly yet. He said that using it at the spawn point of adds (extra enemies) during a boss fight made it one of the best methods of add-grabbing for Druid tanks.
Priests will be relying less on Power Word: Shield come Cataclysm, and developers expect Death Knight tanks to be more viable, but the other classes were hardly mentioned, if at all.
In more general terms, the developers ruled out a means to change class anytime soon, and have no plans to homogenize racial abilities.
So instead of holding the traditional class panel, the developers opened the floor to the public. For anyone who has seen the end of any previous year's class panel, the Q&A sections can be cringe-inducing. This year was no exception, and the hour-long session began with one player bringing up the hunter class and his perceived weaknesses. After the devs tried to give him what sounded to be a pretty legitimate answer, he basically called them wrong, and everyone booed at him. Later, someone tried to ask like fifteen longwinded questions and got booed too. Hunters and retribution Paladins voiced the most complaints by far, which reinforced all those stereotypes about the classes that have basically existed since launch.
Outside of these moments of terrible, some valuable class information was collected:
Hunters won't be getting any 'fun new melee enchantments' for their weapons. Sorry! Regarding the Hunter's minimum range -- the distance they have to stand before they can use their all-important ranged-weapons -- the developers don't see it as an unfair weakness when balanced against other classes, adding "You can shoot while moving while a mage can't channel while moving, so there's a tradeoff."
Paladin damage has shifted more towards the physical end of the spectrum lately as a response to the fact that holy damage, which was the Paladin's other main damage type, can't be resisted by normal means. The change in resources for Paladins from mana to holy power (more akin to Rogue energy) was intended to give paladins "more gameplay for their resource," with the devs also stating that mana simply didn't feel right for the class. The Consecration ability was also addressed, with the longer cooldown being explained; the class developers wanted Paladins to make a conscious decision to use the ability based on the situation, rather than use it whenever it was available.
The Rogue off-hand weapon mechanic might be considered for change in the future to give rogues a little more flexibility in their choice. As it stands, the fastest weapons are typically considered the best for the Rogue off-hand slot, and those are usually daggers. It was also acknowledged that the combat talent tree for Rogues could use some work, and that the developers intend for it to play similarly to the Mage's arcane tree.
When Druid ability Wild Mushroom was cited as lackluster by one of the attendees, a developer replied that he believed that most people simply didn't know how to use it properly yet. He said that using it at the spawn point of adds (extra enemies) during a boss fight made it one of the best methods of add-grabbing for Druid tanks.
Priests will be relying less on Power Word: Shield come Cataclysm, and developers expect Death Knight tanks to be more viable, but the other classes were hardly mentioned, if at all.
In more general terms, the developers ruled out a means to change class anytime soon, and have no plans to homogenize racial abilities.
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