One of the most interesting things about WC3 – another Blizzard game – is that for the past 18 months or so it has been completely left alone. When the current major patch was released players and fans complained about human towers and Nightelf in general. Now, pushing two years later, players and fans are complaining about human towers and Nightelf. However, a quick glance at SK’s own race stats will show you that Orc is actually doing pretty well for itself. The game has evolved without the godly hand of game developers poking through the clouds.

Now, talk to the WC3 community and they will – perhaps correctly – tell you that this is because Blizzard has given up on the game. Whatever the reason, though, strategies have evolved and despite what the fans may think the balance has shifted.

Take a look at WoW and you’ll see a game patched regularly to balance its every aspect. Every new patch, both major and minor, seems to bring along a new FoTM composition. The game never has longer than six weeks to breathe, and grow naturally. It's almost insulting - as if the players are incapable of learning how to beat the contemporary FoTM. Though, in Blizzard's defence, I'd think the same thing if I had to read as many whine-threads as their community managers do.

An interesting exception which proves the rule is the Warrior/Druid combo in two-vs-two. This set-up utterly dominated the twos bracket in season two and early season three. Despite massive outcry for Druid nerfs they never really came, yet we have already seen a decline in this team’s success. Granted, it is still somewhat over-represented, but not as strongly as before. Why? Because other teams have learned how to counter it

Why is this a problem? After all, some kind of levity is maintained between the classes, albeit a kind achieved by continually shifting the weight from one side of the scales to the other – from one extreme to another. Well, for the majority of WoW’s 9,000,000 players who just want their class to do okay it probably isn’t a problem at all. For the esports audience, however, things are a little different. We don’t want a game which is artificially balanced to give bad players a leg-up.

One of WoW’s biggest criticisms is that the skill gap is minimal. A successful player, the critics argue, just needs to out-gear his opponents. Now, while this is not strictly true it isn’t helped by Blizzard’s constant alterations to boost the arena representation of popular but under-represented classes.

Consider hunters for a moment. They are mentioned in Nerf Sap 10 in a way I’d never seen them publicly mentioned before and a way which I have often felt myself. Happyminti calls them overpowered and I almost agree (when I play on my Rogue I completely agree). Even on my Warrior they are incredibly hard to kill with a good healer backing them up and either CC-ing me out of the game entirely (really, Druid/Hunter is a ridiculous set-up) or eating my Druid’s mana.

However, the Hunter class is one of the most poorly represented classes in all three arena brackets. Correspondingly, Blizzard has patched them in the past and continues to publicly fret over their poor showing in the competitive side of the game. I wonder if it has occurred to anyone that maybe the type of person attracted to the Hunter class just isn’t very good at competitive gaming. I realise this is a pretty big generalisation, but it isn’t wholly implausible; big, cute, furry pets doing all the hard work for you? What kind of mentality enjoys playing a class where a semi-controllable NPC does about a third of the work for you?

Should that kind of player be given special dispensation and have his or her class made stronger in order for them to compete on the same level as a better player in a different class? For a multi-billion dollar making game: yes, for a sport: absolutely not. When Manchester United meet lower division teams in the FA Cup do they make their goal bigger to give the opponents a better chance?

Blizzard needs to decide whether arenas are for the hardcore or the casual, I really don’t think there is room for both in this kind of gameplay. At the very least, they need to allow the skilled players to show their skill. Listening to the community is generally a good thing and Blizzard have been one of the best in the business at it but this is the time to ignore it for once. The 3v3 tournament is a definite step in the right direction and I really hope we’ll get some good video coverage of it.

I’ll finish by saying I do like the arena system in WoW. I think it’s a great way to try and bring the game into the esports stable but by tinkering with the game so much, Blizzard are driving it further and further from it. Of course there are instances where tweaks are needed - bug fixes and the like, but in general a game is better off left to its own devices. Give us more maps, new graphics and get back to balancing PvE. We’ll balance PvP ourselves, thank-you very much.

PS. before I get Hunters flaming me I’ll say that of course there are good players out there representing your class and I’m sure you aren’t all girls and furry perverts (well, almost sure). I’m merely using you as an example… sorry!