“Balance”
“Wah, X Class is Overpowered”
X would be any class that happens to be the flavor of the month. WoW has been great about keeping the game balanced. You’ll find that every other patch includes “balancing.” Unlike many other MMOs out there, it isn’t just about nerfing the strongest class. It’s also about bringing up the weakest classes. Just by the dynamic nature of WoW, though, there will always be classes that excel over others in many situations.
The Hot Classes
We can take this opportunity to see who placed in the top 10 in the “whole world.” Bear in mind that these stats are a little skewed as it may be easier to gain points (or harder) in certain battlegroups depending on competition levels and the numbers of games played. To some extent, I think this is a non-factor as I also consider players with lots of dedication to get kudos for putting in the effort to reach the top. All the players listed below have their rating added up together between 2s, 3s, and 5s.
Surprised?
What does this mean? The top slot is a Hunter. Where does warrior appear on this list? Right down there at #10 (and interestingly, he’s 41/20 and not some standard 35/23/3 spec). The missing classes from the list are Rogue, Paladin, and Shaman. Is that a surprise? Not quite. Rogues aren’t quite as visible in 5v5, whereas both Paladin and Shaman aren’t quite as effective as Priest and Druid in 2v2 and 3v3.
Is this a call for class balance? Not necessarily. I think the list in itself is relatively balanced. Blizzard does a decent job at cycling jobs in and out from the top spot. In seasons past, this list might have been more Paladin/Warrior heavy, or Priest/Lock heavy. I think the one thing we can expect from Blizzard (and I’m being hopeful) is that Paladins and possibly Shaman are next to get some strength buffs for 2v2 and 3v3.
Source for Data: SK-Gaming (God, I love their Arena Rating Listing)
-ERP-
January 28th, 2008 at 11:24 am
If I’ve learned anything its nerf 5v5 imo. ;-)
PS: druids are op
January 28th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
I find it interesting that 2/3 of those druids probably only got in 5s teams due to their 2v2 partners (#2 and #5) and setups built around that core 2v2. Also, can’t really take into account the people that point sell, team hop, etc.
January 28th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
Axema - They’ve mentioned in the past that they wanted to focus more on “e-sports” which means they may be hoping to reign Arena in around 3v3 more than 5v5. That could end up being really interesting to how the mechanics of 5v5 work. Druids are really effective now, but when you think about it, there haven’t been any glaring buffs to druids since Season 1 … People are just figuring out how to use them now. I imagine the same will happen with Hunters.
Hazard - I am pretty sure that people that play competitively in all brackets aren’t really team hoppers. These are the cut and dry true pvpers that are in it for the highest ranking possible. I agree that the druids that break the top 10 or even top 100 probably exist because their team revolved around the core 2v2 and 3v3 team.
January 28th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
Eric, he’s saying that there are people who are not on the list (who probably should be) because they point sell in various brackets (sometimes even in the one they’re most successful).
January 28th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
i wish there were good players on my realm that sold points so i could get geared then be back with my friend
January 28th, 2008 at 10:42 pm
Rob - I’m sure you can find them. Just ask the higher players if they’re selling :x
January 29th, 2008 at 11:53 am
I really cannot see WoW as an e-sport. There are too many factors which are totally outside of “skill”. Resists, class setup, etc… Just take out the absolute player based “skill” that all other e-sports have. Just because its popular doesn’t mean it should be an e-sport. It’s a fun game but its not something to base competitions around.
January 29th, 2008 at 2:09 pm
although its different to some extent in an fps like CS cuz you can semi-control your spray, I liken resists to missing a bullet durring your spray.
as for skill/vs class setups. the tournaments I have heard of allow each competitor to chose what class they want to play on a round by round basis.
January 29th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
E-Sports itself are a joke when you think about it. It’s a competition based around people playing a video game. I think people get too up in arms over how viable a game is to be an e-sport just because there aren’t straight balancing factors that makes the game equal to everyone.
In my mind, if you can play competitively, and it’s a video game, it can become an e-sport. Whether you argue if something is balanced in one class’s favor, or one player’s favor is a totally different bit in my eyes.
January 30th, 2008 at 7:50 pm
People also get too up in arms over the fact it should be an e-sport. I’m just saying its not really a competitive game for those reasons plus one I forgot to mention. It doesn’t take real dexterity, its just clicking buttons at a right time. Atleast in FPS you have to aim which takes dexterity. With all that said, WoW is fun and will probably do well as an e-sport just because it has 10 million players and a lot of them probably want it to be an e-sport. I, however, am not one of them.
January 31st, 2008 at 8:38 am
When it comes to WoW, if it was as easy as just clicking buttons, everyone could turn pro. That’s oversimplifying the game. I could say Quake revolves around squiggling your mouse and pressing six buttons: 4 movement keys, fire and reload. That sounds a lot less impressive all of a sudden.
It takes the dexterity to aim and fire accurately. There is something to managing a team, timing everything together, and executing that take it above and beyond just FPS.
The whole argument is moot though because we’re comparing apples to oranges. An FPS is not meant to be played the same way as an MMO (though people try to draw the comparison all the time).