TL;DR: NUMBERS ARE GOING TO CHANGE THROUGHOUT THE BETA. DAMAGE, HEALING, AND BALANCE MATTER, BUT THEY ARE ONLY PART OF THE PICTURE. WE NEED TO SPEND MORE TIME DISCUSSING HOW OUR CLASSES FEEL TO PLAY!
With the WoW: Forever beta well underway, I think we need to have a conversation about the kind of feedback we’re giving Blizzard.
Lately, a lot of class discussions seem to devolve into damage numbers, DPS meters, percentage buffs, percentage nerfs, and comparisons between classes. More often than not, I see the same conversations in chat, on the forums, and across the wider internet:
My (insert class or spell) does X damage.
This talent needs an X% buff or nerf.
My DPS is lower than Y’s.
This class topped the damage meters in my Wetlands run…
Blizzard said XYZ…
These things can be useful information, but THEY ARE NOT THE ENTIRE PICTURE. They should not dominate every single conversation, all of the time.
We’re in a beta. The numbers are going to change.
Damage coefficients, weapon damage, talent percentages, and ability tuning can ALL be adjusted. Blizzard can change those things relatively quickly compared to redesigning a talent or reworking the way a class plays.
CLASS FEEL IS A DIFFERENT STORY.
Instead of immediately arguing about how much damage an ability does or how its numbers look, we need to first ask: WHAT IS THIS ABILITY OR TALENT SUPPOSED TO ACCOMPLISH?
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Does this ability give my class a new tool?
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Does it create interesting decisions?
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Does it create opportunities for counterplay?
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Does it seem like it will work in PvP, PvE, or both?
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How does it feel in a raid, battleground, or the open world?
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How does it feel while questing? Am I actually getting use out of it?
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Is this ability satisfying to use? Why or why not?
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Does it interact meaningfully with the rest of my class’s abilities?
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Does it fit the class fantasy I’d like to see?
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Does it make my class more interesting to play? More interesting to fight against?
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Is it fun? If so, why? If not, why not?
These are the kinds of questions we should be asking.
If a talent feels pointless but its damage is competitive, increasing its damage might only mask the underlying problem. Likewise, if an ability feels fantastic to use but deals too much damage, that might simply be a tuning problem.
WE NEED TO DISTINGUISH BETWEEN A NUMBERS PROBLEM AND A DESIGN PROBLEM.
Numbers do matter. Balance does matter. Nobody is suggesting we ignore damage, healing, threat, or other measurable outcomes. Those metrics can help identify issues and support our feedback.
But numbers alone rarely explain why something FEELS wrong.
Instead of only reporting that your ability does too little damage, explain what happens when you use it. Instead of only saying your talent is weak, explain why it doesn’t feel worth taking. Instead of only comparing your DPS to other classes, talk about the experience of playing your class and the situations in which its toolkit feels rewarding, frustrating, janky, clunky, or incomplete.
Give Blizzard something they can actually use to understand the problem.
BLIZZARD NEEDS CONTEXT. THEY ALREADY HAVE THE NUMBERS.
The distinction matters because numbers can be tuned, but class design shapes the experience of PLAYING THE GAME.
If we spend the rest of this beta arguing over percentages while overlooking fundamental problems with how our classes actually feel to play, we risk reaching the end of beta with reasonably balanced numbers but gameplay and classes that are still underwhelming and unsatisfying.
Please start asking questions before jumping straight to the damage meter and demanding nerfs or buffs.
We don’t need to agree on every answer. Disagreement is useful! Different players approach the same class differently, and that’s precisely why we need to discuss our experiences.
Let’s make those discussions as productive as possible while we still have the opportunity to influence the game. Our time in beta is limited.
visual effect anymore. Small stuff like that actually adds up a lot to how it ‘feels’ to play a given class. I hope designers take it to heart that whether a rotation or playstyle is enjoyable comes down to much more than how large the numbers are.