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I guess I must be playing a different game than you do already, cause you're apparently dreaming. What does any of this have to do with viability?
Because of every dps spec being viable, we're having this amazingly high number of raiding frost and fire mages. Sub rogues are totally kicking ***. BM hunters are just plain awesome, and elemental shammys would be topping the meters if it wasn't for those overpowered rogue dudes. What are you smoking?
I am also concerned about your quality standards. If less than a handful of people can come up with spreadsheets and simulations in their spare time that accurately tell you how changing a single freaking gem would affect your dps, then it's a **** poor job if the people at Blizzard have classes go all over the place in between their buffs and nerfs.
Druids- 4 viable specs.
Priests- 3 viable specs.
Mages- 2-3 viable specs (Fire, Arcane and FFB all perform well at different levels. Frost is still behind, yes, but more than enough DpS for heroics and there are raiding Frost Mages that do okay).
Warlocks- 2-3 viable specs. Afflic and Destro are fine, but I know nothing about Demo.
Rogues-2 viable specs
Warriors- 3 viable specs
Death Knights- 3 viable specs (and 3 tank specs, but play styles are similar)
Shaman- 3 viable specs
Paladins- 3 viable specs
Hunters- 2 viable specs and 1 fine for Heroics (and possibly lower-end raid damage).
And there isn't a single spec that is never viable for any content. Blizz is (admittedly) nervous about changing Sub, since it works fine for PvP. Probably the same with Frost Mages and Hunters. But EVERY OTHER SPEC in the game is raid viable.
If you don't think that's a great feat, you need to GTFO and come back after you
see the state of every other MMO in existence. There isn't a single one so balanced that you can literally start as any class and be guaranteed to function fine in early PvE content, and still have options in the top end stuff. Most MMOs have whole classes that are 100% useless in the hardest battles.
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I am also concerned about your quality standards. If less than a handful of people can come up with spreadsheets and simulations in their spare time that accurately tell you how changing a single freaking gem would affect your dps, then it's a **** poor job if the people at Blizzard have classes go all over the place in between their buffs and nerfs.
Thanks for proving how stupid you ACTUALLY are. Spreadsheets work within specific parameters. I can put in my gear now and see my predicted DpS. I can change some stats and see predicted DpS there. I can change some talent points, and see predicted DpS.
So, tell me. How am I supposed to take that and turn it into a buff or a nerf.
A. The changes, unless they happen deeper in a talent tree, may affect ALL members of that class. Yeah, buffing up Subtelty by giving 2 AP per Agility may seem like a good idea until you take into account Combat and Assassination.
B. They only take into account specific gear levels. Ever notice how, at different gear levels, different stats and talents gain and lose value? Good luck coming up with a change that is going to create the desired affect with all of them. You seem to be laboring under the delusion that Blizz ONLY cares about what the top-tier raiders are doing, and they aren't. They care about the players running heroics, too.
C. Different changes have different affects in PvP and PvE. For example, HfB could be very powerful in Arena, Raids and Heroics, but much less so in BGs. Poison buffs may put out awesome damage in a Raid, but be pitiful in PvP. These things are taken into account for every change. It isn't as simple as saying "Okay, Rogues ar 7% ahead. Let's change the glyph to 2% and nerf HfB to 10% damage. Done."
D. Spreadsheets aren't predictive in nature. They work within specific constraints. And they don't always predict real-life scenarios. In 3.3, Scourge Strike got a buff, and then nerfed with the first HfB nerf. Why? Because it was doing more damage in practice within both PvE and PvP content than they expected it would, since the RNG was a heavy factor in making it do great damage, or making it do ridiculous damage.
E. Furthermore, raid compositions change DRASTICALLY, and there are 10/25 and heroic versions. Changes need to be such that it doesn't lead to stacking. Maybe a Rogue performs fine in 5 and 10 mans, but the additional buffs of a 25 man make their DpS zoom off the charts. But you can't just nerf them in 25 mans without nerfing them in 10 mans. Etc. It is unrealistic to expect Blizz to compare a change with every possible raid composition. But you can be sure players will...
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F. Gear.
When Blizz designs Leather that Rogues would potentially use, they also need to make sure it is usable for Druids (Cats AND Bears). Furthermore, they have to keep in mind that many of the stats those two classes want (so let's say 4 specs--Cat, Bears, Mut and Comb) are desirable for Hunters and Shaman.
Except there's a bigger problem. Warriors and Death Knights may want it too! (Warrior BiS list, before current wing at least, included leather). Maybe even Paladins, if it has really great stats.
So now you are creating armor that needs to be balanced with a ton of classes and specs in mind, all with the intent that you'll keep each class at similar DpS levels. But that's a problem, since different stats gain and lose power for each class, depending on other stats! For instance, Hit makes AP and Crit stronger for Rogues. But Mut doesn't want ArP. But Cats sure as hell do. And they want Crit and Hit, too!
So you see the problem? All the classes may be perfectly balanced around one idealized level (say, BiS DpS with every raid buff). But the fact remains that the VAST majority of players find themselves without BiS gear, and not always with each buff. It is IMPOSSIBLE to balance classes across even one level of content to have similar DpS. But Blizz has at least made most viable, which is awesome.
Do they have to fine tune nearly every change they make? Duh. But they put more effort into balance than ANY other game-making company that exists.
Have ridiculously high standards if you want to (hey, it's your happiness). But you have to be fair and recognize that Blizz is doing the best job in the industry right now. If you feel they aren't doing enough, then you should probably just quit MMOs right now, as they spend more in that department than all their competitors (possibly even the top 3-5 combined).
Edited, Jan 9th 2010 3:38pm by idiggory