Another thread discussed nerfing overpowered classes that meet the game producer’s definition (I would not call him an anti-power creeper who does not understand the game.).
At my last count, there were 25 posters in favor of keeping barbs and crusaders as is (or at least barbs). Let’s dig a little deeper, 2 of these people did not have an account in any region.
I next considered what the main class of each posters was given their career profile (to be considered the main class, it had to be the most or second most played class).
Of 23 “no nerf” posters, 17 mained a barb, 3 mained crusaders, and 3 were other classes. This is striking for a couple reason. First, not many crusader mains voiced their opinion. You could envision multiple explanations (not many crusader players overall, they do not know about the thread, or simply the recognize the fact that they are overpowered and a nerf is required). Of note, when wizards and necromancers were nerfed in patch 2.6.7, very few wizards complained and even less necromancers. Most were rational in that they knew that there class (or at least a particular build) was far more powerful than others. I suspect the same phenomenon is occurring at least to some extent here relative to crusaders).
For barbarians, it is more complex. They are not as obviously overpowered as crusaders. They also have “spread the word” by creating a thread in their forum about nerf thread, raising visibility.
Some are also using an argument that barbarians were the weakest class for years and now it is their time to shine. This argument is interesting for 2 reasons.
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Balance was used as an argument to justify buffs to barbs when weak, but when the same metrics show the power of barbs currently, the argument shifted to those data metric are invalid. Being weak for a period of time does not justify being overpowered if one truly cares about the class balance in general.
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What is the data about barbarian strength through the years? Patch 2.6.1 ended in mid January 2019 (so roughly a year ago.) Prokahn, a trusted member of the barb community, looked at relative class power. He found 5 classes were well balanced. Demon hunters were slightly weak and witch doctors were very weak by 5-6 GRs. So the argument that barbarians have been weak for recent years is not supported by the data.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Diablo/comments/7gv52h/analysisseason_12_data_greater_rift_clearing/
He writes:
" Conclusions:
Overall, in Patch 2.6.1, the developers did a great job with balancing all of the classes with each other. Currently, Witch doctors and the demon hunters may need a slight tune up, but the current balance seems to be close to perfect. Well done to the developer team. Especially Don Vu."