[edit: Please see the update at the end of this post.]
So Blizzard has announced that they will be shutting down the official class forums and replacing them with three role-based forums: Tanking, Healing, and Damage Dealing.
(Actually, it looks like the EU will be keeping their class forums, and Tyren posted later in the same thread to say that depending on feedback, the US might keep theirs as well.)
Why am I posting about this? It’s not directly pet-related, after all. But I am very curious to know how often people go to the Hunter forum, both now and when you first started playing a hunter.
My own reaction, which I left as feedback for Blizzard, is that while the class forums are a noisy, less than optimal learning environment, they do have the big advantage of being an obvious place to start for many players.
Utterly confused about how to feed your pet on your brand-new level 10 hunter? You might try Googling it, but for many gamers the first place to try is the forums — most likely the class forums, since feeding your hunter pet is obviously a hunter issue.
You may or may not have your question answered (and it may or may not be quick, accurate, or helpful) but the hunter forum acts as an accumulator for new hunters and therefore for some people who like answering new hunter questions — like me, when I have time.
But that’s just my experience. I’m curious to know how other people use the Blizzard class forums. Do you go there regularly? If so, what draws you? And will that draw be handled better or worse by the role-based tank, heal, and DPS forums?
[edit] As Jester points out in the comments, Blizzard has now updated their announcement to indicate that the class forums will be staying with us (although they do note that the focus of their posting about class roles will on the role-based forums).
I’m still very interested to hear whether or not you use the Blizzard forums, and if so how often and for what specific reasons.
I go there all the time.I’ve helped many people new to being hunters over there,as have many others.Sure they get massive doses of the “STFU L2P” crowd,but they eventually get help if they need it.
What was really needed in my opinion,was a separate forum for each talent tree.MM hunter threads always degenerated into “spec BM” when they really just wanted to talk to fellow marksmen about how to improve in their chosen spec.And survival almost always just got laughed at.
Instead they decide to “homogenize” all into DPS,Healers,and Tanking.Which is just silly really.A hunter does not need advice about stacking spell power,nor does a mage need assistance choosing the right +Agility enchants/gems.
While I see great sense in having forums for roles, my first thought about this was that no one will want to know about or care about hunter pets and their specs. I have seen some of the more recent comments about the likes of Mortal Strike from the devs and how they see homogenisation as a bad thing. Also the idea of roles doesn’t cover solo play well. Where are you supposed to talk about how well a pet bear can tank or how well a warrior can farm? I think that having the 2 would be smarter but that would also make it more complex for the devs to keep track of stuff.
I do not approve. :(
The hunter forums are noisy enough, with cross-class bashing, trolling, etc.
I think this will only get WORSE if we lump classes together based on role.
I do think that a Tank, Healer, and DPS set of forums would be an interesting addition, but NOT at the cost of our class-specific forums.
It won’t be funny when I go to the tanking forum asking pet related tanking questions… *shudder*