Do the dev's actually play this game?

[DragonFlyy]

The test servers iron out alot of issues before live.

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Thanks for the laugh, I needed that.

Seriously, Blizzard sucks when it comes to PTRs. They ignore 90% of what is being reported and all that crap goes live. As for listening to the top raids about balance, BS. When a nerf comes it's usually the top raid guilds that whine the hardest.

[Duelle]

Right now, comparing Heavensward to Warlords, Heavensward doesn't play quite as well but is still the better experience by far.

Despite the problems Heavensward introduced, I'd say it's still a better experience than WoD by far. The only things that bothered me were how the Ul'dah thing was resolved, the mess with BRD (which doesn't bode well for the other jobs if the devs get it into their heads to change everything without prior discussion) and concerns over ability bloat.

[Fendred]

Yeah lost 5 Million users from autumn to summer (expansion release 12 mio and may 7,1) is really something to look at ;D

Considering FFXIV:ARR's end game is a slight variant of World of Warcraft's (and I'd know, I played both games), that should be somewhat concerning.

[Fendred]

I like how you compare it to WoW's class balancing. And even go into detail how much they care and how much effort they go into testing and talking with top guilds, etc. Because...

Disc priest, still the penultimate requirement for every raid, and a well played one makes some others obsolete(mistweaver).

How about that sweet frost DK buff then immediate nerf within 3 days after patch released? All that testing sure was useful.

Blood DK still one of the strongest tanks and capable of soloing even current content (looking at you solo lord kazzak kill)

Should I go on?

It's easy to criticize WoW when its development team isn't the same one that put it on the map so many years ago. They used to do a lot better.

[Assirra]

It's easy to criticize WoW when its development team isn't the same one that put it on the map so many years ago. They used to do a lot better.

Not it didn't.

I don't get where this illusion comes from at all.
Hell it was even worse before.

You are a druid or paladin that wants to tank? hahahahaha
Reroll warrior or spec healer or be kicked, you choose.
Holy priests were the 1 true healer.
Mages talent spec were straight up decided by the raids what kind of spec they were, good look going fire in MC/BWL/onyxia's lair.

At least from vanilla and tbc back when i played wow class balance was a mess. Don't know how it went after but back when i came in MoP and WoD it was also a mess so i doubt it was magically balanced in WoTLK and cata.
Wow has been the absolute staple in class stacking to victory, something that screams broken class balance.

[MisterLucie]

As someone who raided hardcore progression in WoW for a number of years:

Never use WoW as an example of class balance. Balance in that game is and always has been an insane rollercoaster that throws you every direction possible at any random time.

[Kret]

They do! They post vids about 4 maning twintania and during that video someone posts a video of it being two maned.... They play. They just are not that good.

[Verius_Nox]

It's easy to criticize WoW when its development team isn't the same one that put it on the map so many years ago. They used to do a lot better.

Even in vanilla, balance was not good. Balance was a bit better in BC, but there were a lot of specs that were pretty much ignored.

Frankly, it's easy to criticize anything, but it is how you decide to criticize it. Criticizing FFXIV and using WoW as a "better example of balance", is pure folly.

[Kiara1]

Yes even Yoshida him self a director playing his own game.

And if you have something that can help game use support section!

I wonder if his name is something like XxCloudxXSephirothxxxxx
and he's all like trolling in WoD, removing markers on last boss etc

[Aegrus]

People are quick to attack anything that makes a reference to another MMO, especially on these forums. However, when you kid yourself thinking obvious imbalances are just player skill gaps (and not flawed design) such as astrologians straight up being second best to their attempt at scholar or whm, why bring one? You can just use WHM and SCH, and save yourself the headache. Better Hots, Better Shields, and they don't feel incomplete. This isn't an apples to oranges deal, AST clearly is supposed to be like sch, and like whm, but not quite, and they basically made a class that's worse at both roles.

Seriously, Blizzard sucks when it comes to PTRs. They ignore 90% of what is being reported and all that crap goes live. As for listening to the top raids about balance, BS. When a nerf comes it's usually the top raid guilds that whine the hardest.

And you know what? Even using your horrible anecdotal claim, that is still more than ffxiv catches with their lack of PTR servers. Clearly you don't read patchnotes during the ptr and see what all goes wrong and is adjusted before it goes live. You are too blinded by your fan-goggles to realize the value of a PTR and don't realize that the issues you say "plague" wow are relatively minor since the process is pretty polished and anything minor that's still there stands out.