This is an MMO. Clearly they should strive for balance. Ideally they could buff up certain skills/sets/etc. which are lagging behind to be inline with others. But at the same time I am also 100% ok with them nerfing something that is over performing if that is the easiest way to achieve balance.

Eh, eventually you would have an imbalance in the PvP population, where all of the make-it/take-it winning-is-all types would just spec to the out-of-balance class. Nerfing is historically done in MMOs to prevent this landslide in participating class population. It's also the reason class changes are never offered in any game that has static classes.

Truthfully I don't think any producer is striving for "class balance" I think they look at abilities, armor sets, etc that over time through any number of reasons have become unbalanced and make changes that they hope are appropriate. Players take these changes and because they are often associated with a class (breath of life reduced from 2 people to one as an example) and start to scream about class balance, hate etc.

With all the major changes this game gets every DLC things get out of whack and sometimes stuff needs nerfing and sometimes buffing. Some times things simply break (ok, maybe "often").

It is possible to have some classes best at 1 thing, good at certain other things and inferior in other things. Thus every class is competitive and comes down to the gamer and the scenario.

Zennimax is clueless at distinguishing what is important and we have classes like sorcs that are amazing at everything important in pvp.

Burst (offense)
Utility (roots, recovery, mobility)
Defense (shields, healing, counters)

We have 5 classes
We could have 2 top tier damage dealers 1 with poor utility and average defense, the other with poor defense and average utility

Have 2 other classes with average damage output but 1 with great utility and poor defense and the other with great defense but poor utility.

Lastly we have an average class. Bcz Nobody wants a class thats bad at damage we have a class that is average at everything.

It will never work bcz eoS is also a pve game and thus requires players to grind to keep playing. So they have to have things to grind for ie...armor sets. They have to be worthwhile and completely throw balance out the window.

Tandor wrote: »

Those who think that competitive players whether PvE or PvP are going to be happier with everyone else being buffed rather than being nerfed themselves are deluding themselves.

It's important to maintain balance so far as possible, but inevitably that is going to involve an element of both buffs and nerfs not least so as to keep individual changes as limited as possible.That is what has happened with ESO, but human nature being what it is, nerfs always get a "WTF ZOS, the devs are idiots!" response, while buffs never get a "WTG ZOS, these guys are the best!" response.

He gets it.

ComboBreaker88 wrote: »

Each class and race should have strengths and weaknesses. What they are doing now is making everything basically the same. If they're going to keep this up they might as well just remove the class system. Dk, are supposed to be tanky, let them be tanky. Nightblades are supposed to be stealthy, let them be stealthy. Templars are supposed to be healers, let them heal. Sorcs are supposed to be OP (kidding) they are supposed to be good support, let them support. Each class should excel at different things. Not all the same stuff. Give us DIVERSITY!!!!

I'm kind of thinking along these lines ... seriously, why would nightblabes possibly need a "heal other" spell ?
ESPECIALLY replacing a sick ability that allows them to drain Heath into themselves... nightblades by their very nature should be self-centered ... if you want to help be a Templar or warden

Buff us others!

Let's get one thing straight. There is only one difference between nerfing the strongest class and buffing the weaker. How much money ZoS has to spend changing more classes, and also tweaking PvE due to power creep.

Aww, jeez, two things. The warm and fuzzy that people people playing the un-nerfed class get if they don't understand that a buff to one class is a nerf to every other

Basically, ZOS should use this as a template. If everything is blue (sorcs) they are OP.

Yes BUT

PvE should’ve always been seperate from PvP

Basically the cosmetic and character looks would move over to PvP but nothing else.
Just make it a seperate thing

RandomSilliness wrote: »

There is no right choice in your poll. I voted "no" as the best alternative.

The right answer is to combine buffing and nerfing as needed to achieve balance with the fewest possible changes.

I've played an MMORPG where the dev team adopted a stance of never nerfing anything. It was a stance well liked by people that had come from EQ; at least for a while. Unfortunately, unintended consequences of new items and skills caused huge imbalances that required enormous amounts of work to "buff"--literally--everything else. In the end, the continual buffing made as many imbalances as it fixed, requiring more buffing, and more mistakes, and all of that took away from time they could have spent on more content. To their credit, the team stuck to their word, but I think it was a hard-line taken too far.

Edit: I wonder if anyone will remember what game I'm talking about.

The right answer is never nerfing anyone

the problem with that is you can't play what you want in order to be competitive. the nerfs that are handed out aren't because of a 2-3% difference, its a huge difference that needs addressed. If you are looking for hardmode vs easymode don't play an mmo. It just doesn't exist. Massive multiplayer online, so they cater to the massive.