I guess it's time I clear the air.

I would like to preface this blog entry with this: I meant no disrespect to BigRedKitty with my blog post which has seemed to stir a lot of traffic towards SES. I haven't seen an influx of negative comments (yet), so I would like to cut that off at the head.

I understood and had a very heavy hunch that BRK's introduction to his seventh podcast episode was sarcasm and his own brand of humor. Usually, that brand of humor makes me giggle. This time it did not. I tried to post something similar to this on BRK's newest post, but twice I was denied by the spam filter and lost what was probably 8-10 minutes of typing, so I'll write it on SES and cross-link it.

My initial hostility and anger towards these nerfs is that they work directly against balance. BRK in his newest post talks about class balance and what must occur to preserve it. For the large part, I agree with him. Where our agreement ends is the realm of PVP. I, personally, believe that the pursuit of PVP balance at this point in World of Warcraft's lifecycle is wholly impossible. The game is far too entrenched, far too settled into itself, and far too hard to change radically without a massive outcry to truly balance.

What this nerf that I take offense to does not do, however, is balance the Retribution Paladin for PVE. Both today, at level 70, and on the beta, at level 80, I have raided with Retribution Paladins. For the most part, I regard them as another DPSer - someone that I have to beat out if I want to be number one on the DPS charts. And as a Hunter, the Grand Arbiter of MQoSRDPS (/bow to BRK for the great acronym), that is my overarching goal. Yes, I have other responsibilities, such as trapping if necessary, aggro maintenance, and pet management, but my primary raid goal is DPS, and my personal raid goal is topping the DPS.

On the Beta, Retribution Paladins were a very fair and strong competitor in that race. They were not blasting miles ahead of me, nor was any other DPSer (Rogues, Fury or Arms Warriors, Kitty Druids, Mages, etc). The numbers came down to two things: Who was better geared, and who was on their A-Game. This was great! I was not threatened by Ret Paladins - I knew that if we were equally geared and we put out equal effort, I could squeak out a win. This, of course, holds true to Blizzard's new philosophy of "bring the player, not the class/spec".

These nerfs are shattering that.

Last night, I went to Black Temple. My guild has a very skilled and wonderful Ret Paladin. Throughout the entire instance, he and the three Hunters present duked it out for the leadership on the DPS charts. It was neck and neck for most of the night - sometimes I'd eek ahead, sometimes he'd pull ahead, and other times another Hunter would lead the pack. It was a friendly competition that spurred all parties present to DPS as hard as they could within reason (aggro, mana, etc). Friendly poking and prodding was part of the fun - the person lagging in fourth would jovially get called out on it, and they'd rocket into something beyond their A-Game, catch up, and the cycle would repeat.

It was fun.

Now, my Ret Paladin friend will not be part of that race. He will be lagging behind. We won't be able to, in good faith, poke good-natured fun at his DPS, as he'll likely be doing the best he can and still trailing the other DPSers by a fair margin. Essentially, you are taking away a player in my fun little game and it hurts very badly.

I don't have a Paladin. Hell, I don't have an alt, even. But I know what it's like to be nerfed because people are crying about you in PVP. It happened to us in 2.0.6. You remember how that felt? It sucked. And now you're glorifying the same treatment to Retribution Paladins today? Why?

From the inception of Beta, World of Warcraft was a PVE game. The PVP was tacked on as a minor afterthought due to a decent number of beta testers clamboring for it. I was not among them.

"But Rilgon, the game is shifting focus!" you will tell me. To which, I would respond as thus: the change is shifting due to one person with a very flawed and selfish ideology. I have gone over this, as have other bloggers, but it remains the same. The game is being slowly mutated and ruined by one man and his short-sighted "dream" of making WoW no longer the place where raids are fought and lore is spun but the place where noobs are pwned and money is made in some sort of eSport league.

And I say this: WoW will never achieve that "dream". Starcraft it is not.

Let me close with this: If I offended anyone, angered anyone, or lost favor with anyone due to my frustration, I apologize. But you must sincerely look at things from all facets - a nerf that "balances" a Ret Paladin for PVP may very well ruin that Ret Paladin's PVE career entirely. Is that fair to the Ret Paladin who never PVPs at all, and was in no way a cause of this massive outcry?

And if you truly want a game where PVP is the controlling factor, please go and play it.