Nerfs as social engineering

Another day, another round of heroic dungeon nerfs.

At least they're not changing Oculus again.

What's on the plate this time (if not to inform, then perhaps just to place this in proper historical context)? In Old Kingdom, we have Fewer adds on Elder Nadox and only one sacrifice on Jedova Shadowsong. Over in the Nexus (nerfing Nexus, really?) Anomalous will summon fewer chaotic rifts.

Really?

Ok, I can understand there being a lot of qq about Jedova. Puggers being puggers I don't think I've run the joint without at least one of the sacrifices making it to her and consequently being forced to heal through a damage buff, which, given the gear healers are running around in these days, isn't all that hard to do. On the flip side, even the worst groups seem to get one of them down - hence my not yet having the achievement for that boss.

I wasn't even aware that Nadox was an issue. Sure, your tank needs to be aware of the existence of adds and your dps needs to know to swap targets, but isn't that basic preparation? I don't seem to recall wiping on this guy and generally, it's a pretty boring fight from my side of the role split.

Anomalous too? Nexus is a 7-badge giftset soured only by the fact that it's a bit on the lengthy side. The trash packs around the mage boss's room are more dangerous than anomalous, but I do understand how frustrating it can be to watch as that DK continues to dps the boss during his immune phase.

And that is why these nerfs are being made.

Make no mistake, this round of changes is not about weakening the content so that noobs can beat it, it's about lessening the burden on the very people who will kvetch the most about the changes in teh first place.

So, while the hard core raiders piss and moan about how the content is too easy now and all the gear is just handed around in giftwrapped packages what they fail to realize is that this change is for them.

When the dungeon finder was put in place, the leader flag was added in hopes that the players who'd done the content would, either with or without the flag instruct those who were new or clueless in how to get through the fights. The hope was that the experienced would pass that knowledge on and everyone in the queue would become more competent, better geared, and over time runs would go smoother, gear levels would rise, and fun would be had by all.

Sadly, Blizzard did not count on the greed, impatience, and antisocial tendencies of its raid-oriented player subset.

People aren't teaching fights. They're just berating and complaining at people who don't know them. At the best of times the overgeared players are trivializing the difficult phases with overheal, ridiculous mitigation, and party's worth of dps in a single player, removing both the need and the occasion for a teachable moment, and at the worst, those experienced players who should have been instructing are instead dropping group in any case where the other players do not seem to have the knowledge or gear to blast through every encounter in a silent badge-farming speed run.

So, when fights like these where a lack of preparation or potency could potentially slow down or even lead to the death of an experienced raider just trying to get badges became an occasion in entirely too many cases for that awe-inspiring raider to launch into an abusive tirade or drop group, something had to be changed. Because the elites among us are so spoiled, so immature, so poorly-behaved, and so entitled that they cannot be bothered to suffer the moments it takes to explain a fight or to persevere through a run with people who cannot trivialize every encounter the developers are forced to diminish the difficulty of more encounters so that the casuals do not set them off.

These nerfs are not about making it easier for casuals to run content, they are not Blizzard dumbing down the game or about caving to the inexperienced portion of the player base. They are not about the things the raiders are kvetching about, they are about the raiders kvetching. This is about saving the casuals from the nastiness and fecklessness of the raiders, and nothing more. It is Blizzard saving us from them. It is about the game changing to keep the fragile peace between the different groups of people using the dungeon finder, a hope that in not provoking the worst of the few we can be sure that the many are spared the unpleasantness of their tantrums.

Sadly, it's probably still not enough.