Comments on: In which Blizzard solves the melee vs ranged issue: THE PITY BUFF

By: typhoonandrew

typhoonandrew — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 06:39:28 +0000

Any game which has such unforgiving mechanics which wipe groups will have issues, for melee it is slightly worse but not enough (imho) to warrant a an overall buff such as this.

I was ok with some classes being bad and others good between fights and instances as long as there was a quasi-balance. From what I read there is a real issue here, and as so many players enjoy melee then Blizzard is doing *ahem something.

I guess we are not familiar with the mechanics of the p4.3 bosses to know if there is a huge problem though. Maybe the fights are so melee unfriendly that it would alienate the players in raids?

If this was needed, then why not add a mechanic into specific fights where the boss is slightly more vulnerable to particular affects, or attacks from close range, or white swing damage?

Applying it as mass effect looks clunky. Melee in some of the old fights were fantastic (icc Saurfang), it could be done in an alternate way.

The BRPNTC (bring the player…etc) was about any player, not Bring-the-Range-not-the-Melee. Waiting to see the final way it plays out is all we can do.

By: Tesh

Tesh — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 21:48:39 +0000

Indeed. Maybe it’s OK because it’s for the raiders, the easiest cash cows to milk.

By: Goodmongo

Goodmongo — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 18:41:26 +0000

Those were swords so they only worked for combat rogues and even in combat you had to pcik swords over maces. Secondly, very very few rogues ever got them. They really were legendary. Finally, rogues were very strong in PvP due to stun locking which has been nerfed to the ground.

Bottom line is in Cata melee, including rogues are a dying breed.

By: Delurm

Delurm — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 18:10:08 +0000

Odd – Rogues were kings in BC – and the legendary swords were pretty much considered Rogue only for those that worked on them.

Rogues with the legendaries would tear up PvP back then even without PvP gear.

I’m not sure how you think Rogues have been neglected for so long.

By: Goodmongo

Goodmongo — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 17:32:59 +0000

Should it really be called a “Pity Buff” when the cause of the difference is the designed mechanics that Blizz chose to use?

In their quesst for the holy grail of gimmicky mechanics Blizzard has all but destroyed their stated intent of bring the player and not the class.

Unfortunately even with this ‘buff’ raid leaders will still go ranged heavy if not all ranged based.

By: Raffles

Raffles — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 12:34:02 +0000

Rogues have had very little love or lore since…um. Ever. Verious expantions have favoured classes or races. BC by its very nature was Spacegoat and Belf, WotLK was very Dk and Paly lore based. With the release of Cata, Shamans had the etheren ring across several zones, with Druids in patch 4.2 for the firelands. I can’t remember anything for rogues, ever. Or hunters for that matter, past the vanilla demon chain for the epic bow.

As far as ledgedarys go, there were the warglaives…but that wasn’t rogue specific, and only viable by 1 spec of that class. The truth is, rogues aren’t played a lot because they die too fast and frankly don’t have the edge on DPS meters.

Why would a raid bring a melee that will take more than it’s fair share of healing and sit top-middle of the charts, when they can just take another hunter to take hardly any damage and top the charts? This is nature of the low amour melee class taking too much avoidable and unavoidable damage.

I love playing my rogue but he’ll stay an alt as long as my other classes are more viable. From reading forums, I gather that a lot of people have a well loved rogue alt…alt being the key word here.

By: spinks

spinks — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 17:18:36 +0000

It’s fine for him to give examples based on his own experience

But I think it’s more widely felt that melee are at a significant disadvantage in general, and Arms Warriors really don’t usually top the dps chart (mostly cos they make us tank, but even if you get to dps).

By: Utakata

Utakata — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 16:48:39 +0000

I love the header for this, Spinks!

By: Dril

Dril — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 15:41:23 +0000

It’s this style of “balancing” that I really detest and I think is an exemplar of the exceptional laziness Blizz have employed since mid-Wrath. They’d rather treat the symptoms than treat the actual problem.

By: Dril

Dril — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 15:39:03 +0000

Anecdotal evidence is anecdotal.

So, to put it back at you: commenters are doing it wrong if they think their single raid is indicative of every raid group.