Computers Advice

I have often heard people complain about the number of classes available in World of Warcraft. Indeed, compared to alot of other MMO’s on the market, WoW does have a significantly lower number of classes. Some games have 20 or more classes to choose from, with all sorts of subclasses and dual specializations etc.. Why doesn’t WoW, the most successful massively multiplayer game in history, have nearly as many? Well it all comes down to balance.

The more classes you add to a game, the exponentially more difficult it is to maintain balance. Indeed, one of the most chronic and consistent complaints about basically every MMO I have ever played is that the classes are imbalanced. Consider WoW, having fewer than 10 classes, and still one of their biggest challenges is maintaining a balance between the classes.

A classic example of classes out of control is Dark Age of Camelot. DAoC was an excellent game, certainly the best thing on the market when it came out and for quite awhile afterwards as well. However, there were 3 different realms, all of which had their own sets of classes. As they added more skills, and as they added even more classes like Animist for instance, things quickly spiraled out of control. Not only did the developers have to maintain a balance within the realm, but they had to maintain a balance between each of the realms as a whole as well when factoring in RvR and shared dungeons such as Darkness Falls.

Grab the Nerf Bat

Games like this can never be balanced. Everytime they nerf something here, something else gets messed up. For instance if a game’s developers decided they need to upgrade their rogue classes damage output. They must figure out a way to upgrade the damage on a rogue enough so that it will at least be noticeable against a warrior class, but not so much that it instantly kills mages outright. So perhaps the developers decide to add a “chink armor” bonus or something like that so the rogues can sneak their blade past the warriors thick plate armor.

Spiraling Out of Control

Well now the warriors are angry because in PvE(Player vs. Environment) gameplay its not a big deal, but in PvP(Player vs. Player) combat its making them useless against all the rogues sneaking around the battlefield. Furthermore, if you have too many classes, you most likely have other classes similar to rogues, such as mercenary or brigand, who also specialize in melee damage dealing with low defense. So now the mercs come out and start complaining that rogues are doing the same damage as them, but rogues get sneak and hide abilities that the mercs don’t. They are perhaps justified in saying that since they don’t get the special abilities of the rogue, that they should have a damage bonus at least.

What are the developers to do now? Should they tweak mercs, nerf rogues somewhat, ignore the problem? If they tweak mercs will another class be at a disadvantage? These little changes to classes can have ripple effects across the entire span of gameplay when it comes to fairness, the ability for a class to solo, group, or participate in PvP. Nevermind trying to add new classes, along with their whole sets of original abilities, to a game that has already been released!

In conclusion, I think World of Warcraft has been smart in realizing this constant challenge when it comes to classes and balance. They do the best they can, and they still don’t get it perfect. Games that stay closer to the classic “fighter,mage,cleric,thief” model with their classes are going to be more balanced in general than the games who just keep adding and adding classes and struggle with nerfs and tweaks throughout their lifetime.

Related posts:

1. World of warcraft rogues: guide to the stealthy poisoners of wow
2. World of warcraft druid guide - The warrior rogue mage of Azeroth
3. Interesting Information about World Of Warcraft Clans