Spooncraft

So people are starting to get a little riled up with the whole class balance thing again. According to Bornakk nobody is going to be left in the cold again (like Shaman were -cough-) when WOTLK starts making class changes.

It actually is a simple process of making class changes, but it’s vastly more complicated to implement the changes. If you change something with a class you have to look at what that change will mean for gear, off-spec gear, gear competitions with other classes, other classes and yours with raiding, PVP changes, PVE changes, and so forth. It really is one of those things where what looks like a minor change can make a big difference.

Hell Shaman for example, I now have instant cast Ghost Wolf (through talents) I’m not by any means immune to snares and stuns and roots but I can frostshock and then ghost wolf and chase down a mounted enemy so easy now it’s damn near silly. Same for escaping hunters or mages (add that imp. armor and 50% shorter slowing effects). Granted it doesn’t do jack for my raiding but at least I can survive longer in PVP. We’re not 100% brought in line where I think enhancement shaman could be, but that tiny change has made a very noticeable difference in many situations.

Overall it isn’t that hard to change one thing, the issue is the ripple this will have down the chain. One small change can make a big impact on not just the class, but how well it performs in groups, in PvP, and in PvE so we have to evaluate as many scenarios as possible before making the change live.

Based on one change we would want to check out all of the other classes and see what changes they need to keep things balanced too.

Currently we are already working on going through every class in this way, while also adding a bunch of new things because, lets face it, we all like new things. (src)