In the shady back alleys of Classic discussion elsewhere, I have found a number of pallies engaged in a vehement debate over a proposition that captured my attention, which I will summarize as the following:
In Vanilla, multiple Judgement of the Crusader debuffs could be visible and active on the same target provided that each debuff:
- originated from a different caster
- was a unique rank
Ergo, a raid containing at least six paladins could have up to six Judgement of the Crusader debuffs all visible and active on a boss, because there are six ranks of Seal of the Crusader. Presumably, had each paladin used talents and equip bonuses to increase the effect of Judgement of the Crusader, this raid could get in the neighborhood of each Holy attack against the target is increased by up to ~800.
I will admit I am very intrigued by this issue in particular, as I am interested in raiding as a paladin in Classic. I will not take a stand on either side of the debate, though, because even though I did play a great deal during Vanilla, I cannot remember if I ever even tried this, let alone with one of the least popular Judgements for raiding. You may have your own position and/or evidence regarding this particular issue, which you are invited to share here. But doing so is a little beside the point as I reach the first thrust in purpose for this topic, namely:
Only Blizzard can know.
Most of the arguments I have seen regarding this issue have centered around one or more of the following:
- appeals to authority or personal incredulity from fierce forum-lurking neckbeards
- screenshots and/or videos that are (probably) from Vanilla, but that donât really prove anything
- wild, tortured attempts to divine more meaning from early patch notes than any reasonable person would
- âfacts and figuresâ from those places that have cause to make the best educated guesses they can to suit their purposes, but are obviously not original sources and given the nature of their activities, shall not be named (if you donât know what Iâm talking about, then just keep on reading, you good wholesome person)
If someone reading this at Blizzard is able to fire up the rebuilt 1.12 client you folks have been using for the sake of comparison and run a quick test on this, I would love to hear the answer. But if the answer is what I suspect it might be, i.e. holy crap this does actually work in real 1.12, then maybe I shouldnât hear it because of the primary purpose of this topic:
For the purposes of Classic, Vanilla is both the set of all possible states and actions within the official 1.12 server and client, and the prevailing class and faction balance during 1.12 (from Aug. 22, 2006 to December 5, 2006). But what would Blizzard do if/when these majorly conflict?
To use our above example, I can say with reasonable certainty that stacking six Judgement of the Crusader debuffs on a raid boss in Vanilla was ânot a thingâ. If that was due to the fact that it simply doesnât work in real 1.12, then thereâs not much else to say. But, give this idea the benefit of the doubt for a moment and assume that it was permitted, but the players didnât do it out of simple ignorance. What would happen then?
At least a portion of the community is going to try it based on the debate already happening concerning it. They will discover that itâs a thing (if it is). And then both class and faction balance are threatened, potentially dramatically. If thatâs so, whatâs the right thing for Blizzard to do?
Let it stand just as it does (hypothetically) in the 1.12 client and server because Vanilla is Vanilla?
Or, disallow it because it threatens class and faction balance as they were at the time because Vanilla is Vanilla?
If the latter, would Blizzard be forthcoming with us that they were making the change and why?
