On the Monolith server, Order is dominating Tier 3.

Our overall server population leans a bit to Destruction, but the bigger, more organized guilds bent on RvR conquest are clearly Order. With huge numbers of Ironbreakers and Bright Wizards they're sweeping across the lands, taking and holding every Keep there is.

It was the same at the beginning of Tier 1 and then Tier 2. Mark my words, it won't be long before they're burning a capital city.

Chances are though, as the massive casuals on Destruction level up, it will roll back the other way. Part of the strategy of the Order guilds is to level up ahead of the curve. That can't last forever. I can see a hint of this now as I'm departing Tier 2 it's bouncing back towards Destruction.

I'm also expecting that Order's widespread RvR and Scenario success on our server will likely attract a lot of re-rolls to that Realm. Elsewhere, Syp has even called for a migration to Order for all servers. It's a wait-and-see and anyone's guess what the landscape will be like once the majority hit Endgame.

While Syp is eating his hat over his assumption that casuals would choose Order, I'm going to eat my own over my assumption that Destruction would get both the casuals AND the hardcore. Looks like the hardcore is on Order and in the long run the casuals may just follow them.

Our server is one of the lucky ones so far, I think we're a lot more balanced than most.

PvP is cheap by design. Without the campers in Quake and the snipers in Counterstrike these games wouldn't have been as much fun as they were. That damned sniper might pick me off six times in a row, but nothing was quite as satisfying as finally lobbing a grenade into his position. It felt like complete payback.

I find Tactical PvP so much more satisfying than systematic. Tactical implies opportunity. Opportunity implies advantage. Advantage is inherently unbalanced / cheap.

Can we handle costly PvP? Perma-death is a sad reminder of real life and you can only remove a player from the field for so long, if it's Last Man Standing then it better be a short round. Looting items from players isn't popular either, especially if it stops the player from jumping right back into the fray.

PvP is about action, non-stop. That's what we want right? To feel like we're in the middle of a rollercoaster blockbuster action flic where it never stops. Go ahead and die, take a loss, but pop back up and keep going. You can kick a man, but you can't keep him down.

But when you take the cost completely out of PvP, if you remove any progression and bring it down to the basic elements of skill and pride, players start to demand balance. Is a fair fight what we really want? Here's the central argument in a recent post crying for class nerfs:

Isn't that what you're asking for? Perfectly balanced classes / characters would average out to everyone dying exactly 50% of the time. If you're concerning yourself with your rate of wins/losses, half the time is horrible, isn't it? You want to win, to come out on top.

PvP has terrible odds, period. Statistically, the only way someone can get ahead is while more players fall behind. So winning can't be about the odds, otherwise a whole lot of players are left unsatisfied. Accomplishments need to be given out either in small doses, or larger tasks that progress and accumulate more than the losses. It can't be zero sum.

In my mind, I feel the trick isn't to balance everyone as equals, but instead allow suitable means of challenge and revenge. Lob that grenade right back!

Dear Funcom:

It's not the combos that make your melee combat so fun. It's easy to think that, but it's not.

It's the fact that I can swing a weapon and everything that it hits, it hits. It's running up to mobs and just going at it. That's visceral joy.

Don't nerf that. You'll be watering down the best part of your game.

Funcom's stealth changes have been decreasing the damage dealt on multiple mobs. I don't know all of the details, but it's a noticeable difference as I play. In the next patch, they're taking this even further:

So now we'll have to pay more attention to our targets.

Weeks ago I could handle 5 mobs my level with ease and even push it to 7 mobs (although my death rate would go up considerably). I'm playing a Polearm "Frenzy" Guardian, a class and spec that's specifically aimed toward holding and dealing with crowds of mobs.

Lately however, I cannot handle the same mobs in groups of 3 and even 2 can cut it awfully close. I could previously clear a Villa without any deaths as long as I paid attention, but now I'm dying repeatedly. I realize this is in part to leveling up higher, but even scaling back like that feels odd, shouldn't I be more powerful at Endgame?

I understand getting nerfed, I could accept that, but that's not what this is about.

The number one joy of this game has been the combat. I love not having to target, I love running in and grabbing mobs like some kind of berzerker warrior. I love that my polearm hits what it swings through, that it's NOT target-based combat. Or at least that it's less-emphasized on the target, there should only be a marginal difference. I should sweep my weapon through mobs again with the thrill of watching them all take noticeable damage.

Funcom, please, don't reduce the best parts of this game to appease players who are demanding what they're accustomed to in other games. I understand you want to balance, but don't water down your game in the process.

Let the balance-obsessed players decide to play the classed they perceive to be overpowered, they'll do that anyway. Don't nerf away the biggest thing this game has going for it. This is 100% about the fun factor.

I hate patch day. Some folks love it, I probably would too if WoW patches were all about new content, but they aren't. And my dislike of patch day isn't just because of the inherent bugs or the server downtime, it's something more to the core of the game.

For those of you who haven't figured it out yet: Blizzard has created a Metagame out of "balancing" within WoW, by changing how the system works each major patch.

Yes, I'm very jaded and cynical.

I used to think it was just ordinary mundane balancing, the sort that comes along with nearly every MMO and gets tedious after a bit, but settles down over time. I strongly (that would put it mildly) disagree that any game needs "constant perpetual balancing", that's akin to game designer wanking. But I don't even think that's what they do with WoW. I think the whole point is to keep players occupied and busy with a new system every month or two. I'm certain that the peeps at Blizzard also feel like they're improving the game with each of the systematic changes, but much like The Vision wasn't really about the "epic" aspects of EQ, Blizzard's systematic changes aren't completely about improving the game.

I think most players are perfectly fine with that.

Here's how I became aware of WoW's Systematic Metagame:

A friend's comments about "skill" in WoW threw it right into my face. WoW does not have strong strategic or tactical elements and it certainly doesn't involve any physical or twitch abilities, but it is a systematic game. If you do not learn the system, you're labelled a noob and won't be able to play to the best of your abilities. Learning the ins-and-outs of the system is in fact a large portion of the game. This is true for most MMORPGs, especially ones that use the Tank + Healer + DPS paradigm.

So Blizzard perpetually changing the system, does keep a lot of players from getting bored. Except, for me at least, it has worn me down. Oddly, I'm more bored with having to re-learn the system each patch. For once, I'd like to jump into some new content WITHOUT having significant base elements of the game changed.

I'd like to feel a bit more comfortable, after playing for 3 years, there's a point where I do not wish to be on the edge of my seat. =P

The ever eloquent Tobold posted something quote worthy yesterday:

"But while we could discuss class balance in PvP endlessly, in the end it all sounds like the rock complaining that he always loses against paper in a game of rock-paper-scissors."

Class-based combat, whether it's WoW, Team Fortress or Tribes, is always best balanced in rock-paper-scissors style. That's the basis of the design. PvE requires more complexity in the design, whereas PvP is lent plenty of diversity by the human vs. human element.

As a PvE player, I'm selfishly irked over Blizzard's constant PvP-related rebalancing of the classes and how it alters the rest of the game. My impression is they appease a population that doesn't get it: some classes should be your bane.

Accept it. Play the class you enjoy most, to the best of your abilities. If you have problems with class balance in PvP, it's probably PEBKAC.