Friday, April 30, 2010

Class Changes?

Blizzard has said that they would never make class changes an option.  Their reasoning is, from what I understand, that people would level an easy class to level then switch to a hard class to level and not know how to play it.  That makes prefect sense to me.  But I do see a problem with that assessment however.

Most people that play suck.  Plain and simple.  There are different levels of sucking however. I think I play my hunter well and at that would put it at about 75-80% of my complete potential on any given night.  Which would still mean I suck 20-25%.  Everyone sucks, some just suck to a lesser percent.  If it is a night I am tired or my latency is crap then my suck can reach 40% on a bad run.  The thing is, I can suck easily up to 40% and the sad sad fact of the matter is that I am better then 95% of the people I have ever seen.  Sure, most of those were PuG people, but those are really the people I am talking about.  Those people are the average player.

That would mean that nearly 95% of the wow population sucks more then 40%, most likely more then 50%.  So in reality most players are only playing their role at 1/2 potential on a good night.  So I have to ask the question when it pertains to class changing, Why not?


If someone that apparently is not very good can still play a class acceptable enough for heroics and maybe even to get into raid PuGs that do not fail overly then why not let them switch to another class.  They have already showed a basic competence with the class they have now that they suck 50% of the time on.   That means they can learn.  They are just not good at what they are doing.

If you let them switch classes maybe they will find another class that works better for them and has mechanics they fell more comfortable with.  Thus moving them up into the sucking 25% of the time bracket.

They do not want to allow people to switch classes because they will not know the role.  Well, apparently 95% of the people that play WoW already do not really know the role they play and have been playing at 80 for a very long time.  How would playing a different class wrong be any worse then them playing the class they have now wrong? At least with a class change they would have an excuse and not have to suck it up and admit that they suck.

There are also many benefits to allowing class changes that really do deserve being looked into.  First off, they will make a crap load of money from people that are always switching to the flavor of the month class and have the free cash to blow on it.  Making money has no down side really.

They will be making people happier as most people that suck would not want to level up another character because it would "take forever" to do it.  So allowing this allows them to just move to something else.  This making them a happier player.

There are many people, myself included, that rolled what seemed like something they would like to play before really knowing anything about the game.  Don't get me wrong, I love being a hunter but there are many people out there that invested all this time in a character only to find out it was not want they really wanted. 

Then there are people like me that are total achievement whores.  I worked my ass off to get each and every one of those annoying grinds just to say I did them.  Yeah, I know, kind of lame, but I did like doing it.  People enjoy the game in different ways.  While I did enjoy it I sure as shit do not want to have to do it again.  If I ever decided to class change I want to take my history and achievements with me.  Why should I be penalized for wanting to play something else?  I earned all my achievements, what difference should it make what class the character I earned them on is?

How many Priest healers leveled as Shadow and then turned to holy as soon as they hit 80?  Many, if not most, did just that. How many Hunters leveled as BM to switch to SV at 80?  Same, most.  How many Druids leveled as kitty to switch to tree or bear?  Same, many, I know I did.  You are already allowing people to hit 80 and not know how to play their class.  With a hunter it is one thing, not so bad, but other things, it is like giving them a brand spanking new character at 80.  Telling someone to heal at 80 when they never healed for the previous 79 levels does not mean they know the role, it just means they had a heal button or two while leveling.

Last point for now is this.  This super simple point that seems to escape everyone.  If you have a 80 already and a little self control you can level a character from 1-80 playing one day a week for 8 weeks with heirloom items.  Just only play on Saturdays and maximize your quest times and kills and getting to 80 is a joke if you know what to do.

I do have the perfect solution for Blizzard that would allow class changes and throw away their worries about people not knowing how to play the class.  Only allow people to change to a class they have already leveled to 80.  Like I have an 80 druid, so if I wanted to make another druid I could change my hunter into a druid because I already worked my way to 80 with a druid but I could not change to a priest because I only ever got mine to 26.  Blizzards concerns are now addressed.  Give us class changes now.  Thank you very much.

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