[블루포스트] 직업 밸런스 조정에 대하여

출처 : http://us.battle.net/forums/en/wow/topic/20749088032#1

요약

1. 흑마법사의 영혼의 조각 수를 3개로 증가시켜서 예열 시간을 줄였고, 무기 전사의 거인의 강타 재사용 대기시간을 30초로 줄여서 재사용 대기시간이 초기화되지 않을 때의 최대 손실을 줄였다.

2. 이번 주에 직업 밸런스 조정을 하겠다고 예고했었지만, 아직은 시기상조라고 판단한다.

3. 엔드게임 PVE 컨텐츠 중 기본 신화 난이도 이하의 던전만 열린 상태에서, 던전 클리어 자체는 큰 문제가 되지 않으므로 소요 시간 단축에 빛을 발하는 장점(광역 범위딜, 4~5마리를 상대로 한 폭딜)을 가진 직업들만이 좋은 평가를 받고 있다. (* PVP는 별도의 계수가 적용되므로 논외)

4. 하지만 레이드와 신화 쐐기돌 던전이 열리면 단일 대상 DPS 체크 (우르속), 흩어져있는 적들 처리 (일기노스), 위험한 패턴을 회피하는 와중에 우두머리의 기술 시전을 방해 (오딘) 등 다양한 능력을 요구하는 전투가 있게 되며, 직업마다 장단점이 부각될 것이다.

5. 이처럼 다양한 데이터를 얻을 수 있게 되면, 이 데이터와 플레이어 피드백을 기반으로 밸런스 조정을 하고자 한다. 따라서 직업 밸런스 조정은 레이드와 신화 쐐기돌 던전이 열리고 1주차가 끝나갈 때 하겠다.

6. 탱커의 딜 너프와 풍운 광역딜 (유물무기 스킬 위주), 파멸 광역딜 (지옥 포화 위주) 너프는 조만간 이루어질 것이다.

원문

Since the expansion launched, aside from fixing bugs, our class and systems teams have been keeping an eye on qualitative class feedback, looking for things that can be addressed via hotfix. We recently increased the default number of Warlock Soul Shards to 3 to decrease their ramp-up time; we also reduced the base cooldown of Arms Warrior Colossus Smash to 30 seconds, to mitigate the worst-case scenario when Tactician failed to reset its cooldown.

In the Developer Q&A last week, we touched on the general topic of class balance so far in Legion, and suggested that we were looking at making tuning changes via hotfix towards the end of this week. However, after further consideration of available data and the current state of the game, we feel that it’s still premature for a broad tuning pass.

World of Warcraft’s endgame consists of a range of activities, including varied raid encounters at different difficulty levels, random matchmade dungeons, Mythic dungeons (both baseline and Keystone-modified), outdoor questing, and of course arenas and battlegrounds (though I’ll be focusing on other gameplay modes in this post, since we can now handle PvP tuning separately). That’s the game that was available in beta, and it’s what our classes are designed and balanced around. But right now, everyone at max level is playing a very narrow slice of that diverse endgame: we are running dungeons, and we’re specifically running them with a focus on efficiency rather than success. Many players have learned the various dungeon encounters, and now zone in with their Heroic or Mythic groups not wondering whether they’ll be able to prevail over the challenges within, but rather how quickly. Unsurprisingly, that places an inordinate value on sustained AoE/cleave damage, and especially on-demand burst against the groups of four or five targets that comprise most enemy packs in dungeons, and so those specs that excel in those areas seem elevated above the rest.

But in a couple of weeks, when we talk about balance, major considerations will include things like meeting the single-target DPS check on Ursoc or handling the spread-out tentacles of Il’gynoth in the Emerald Nightmare, or making sure that your group can reliably interrupt Odyn’s Stormforged Obliterator in Halls of Valor, while running away from Radiant Tempest, so that he doesn’t derail your Mythic Keystone run entirely. Until we can see data from the endgame in its entirety, we can’t make informed decisions about which numbers need adjusting, and by how much. Therefore, at this point we’re aiming to hold off on a broad pass of tuning hotfixes until the end of the first week of raiding and Mythic Keystone dungeons.

In the meantime, we are looking at a couple of targeted changes to address some clear outliers: in the near future, we’re planning on deploying hotfixes that reduce tank damage output across the board (tanks should be very sturdy and effective at killing things, but too often their damage output rivals that of pure damage dealers), as well as reducing the AoE burst damage capabilities of Windwalker monks (mainly Strike of the Windlord’s area component) and Havoc Demon Hunters (mainly Fel Barrage). Those specializations will still excel in that area, but will not be so clearly dominant over their peers.

In the long run, our tuning goal is simply for everyone to feel that they can play the class and specialization they prefer. There will of course be areas of strength and weakness, and some specs will thrive in certain situations while lagging behind in others, but those gaps should not preclude viability. We’ll continue to look at available data and player feedback and make adjustments until that is the case, but that process will not begin until next week. Thank you for your patience.