Need for Balance
Posted June 02, 2009 at 11:11 AM by Kalium
It seems as though Blizzard is concerned with class balance and they constantly state making a single change will impact multiple systems. PvE and PvP balance need to be tuned and adjusted separately... a nerf to one class will have the unintended result in buffing another class. With all the combinations of Talents, Glyphs, Food, Scrolls, and Gear it's no wonder balance is too hard to achieve.
However, I sometimes wonder if they are making things more complicated than they need to. Let's assume that the basic formula that Blizzard uses for gear is correct i.e. 226 Tank Plate is optimised with the same benefit as 226 DPS Cloth. Since both are using the same food/scrolls we can toss those out as well. That means Talents and Glyphs are the biggest hurdle for balance.
If that is the case wouldn't it make sense to take those choices out of the equation when striving for balance. Simply apply all talents and glyphs to their test subjects. Now since you can only do a limited number of actions under the global cooldown you can really test to see which abilities are lacking and which are over powered.
I'm not suggesting this ever go live but for internal testing it seems this would be the most reasonable. At a height of power the player could never achieve run the simulations and adjust the raw abilities. Once you have the balance you want... split the abilities back into three groups cut the power of those groups by 20%... those groups are your new talent trees and glyphs which can give you back that 20% in either, lower cast time/cooldowns, improved damage/healing, additional/lingering effects, etc. I'm of the opinion that talent trees should tweak abilities not grant them.
Just more random thoughts,
Kalium
However, I sometimes wonder if they are making things more complicated than they need to. Let's assume that the basic formula that Blizzard uses for gear is correct i.e. 226 Tank Plate is optimised with the same benefit as 226 DPS Cloth. Since both are using the same food/scrolls we can toss those out as well. That means Talents and Glyphs are the biggest hurdle for balance.
If that is the case wouldn't it make sense to take those choices out of the equation when striving for balance. Simply apply all talents and glyphs to their test subjects. Now since you can only do a limited number of actions under the global cooldown you can really test to see which abilities are lacking and which are over powered.
I'm not suggesting this ever go live but for internal testing it seems this would be the most reasonable. At a height of power the player could never achieve run the simulations and adjust the raw abilities. Once you have the balance you want... split the abilities back into three groups cut the power of those groups by 20%... those groups are your new talent trees and glyphs which can give you back that 20% in either, lower cast time/cooldowns, improved damage/healing, additional/lingering effects, etc. I'm of the opinion that talent trees should tweak abilities not grant them.
Just more random thoughts,
Kalium
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Comments
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I disagree. If it becomes standard to open with Shadowfury then the spell could be examined as either it does good damage or is it because of the stun component. If further testing reveals it's used only because it's an instant stun then that would become a new talent "Stunning Shadowfury". The "new" base spell would still be instant and hit multiple targets... only now you have to talent for the stun effect instead of the spell itself... similar to Howl of Terror... which has a cooldown to offset the fact it can be made instant. Darn priest and ther superior Psyhic Scream. /shakes fistQuote:...It's a cool idea in theory, but your testing something that will never be in the hands of the players, so it won't reflect their experiences. That's not going to get any sort of useful results.Posted June 02, 2009 at 06:11 PM by Kalium
