Changes for Demon Hunters

[Grakor456]

So, in the interest of keeping everyone informed and having a bit more transparency in our decisions (though at the cost of risking another drama thread in my blog!) I wanted to take some time to sort of explain our line of thinking with upcoming Demon Hunter changes. An official announcement is still coming (hopefully soon) once we have everything squared away and finalized, but this is how things are looking at the moment.

First of all, to explain the problems: there's two things about Demon Hunters we wanted to fix. First, that we were getting complaints that we were being too loose with lore, and we've started getting Demon Hunter applications of some very...colorful races. This was, at the very least, our fault with the initial approval of Krilari's Go'ren. It was an experiment that, at the time, had some backing within the GM team, but now a good majority are lamenting.

So what do we do? The idea of making these judgment calls on a case-by-case basis was brought up, but some of us found this idea lacking. Judging each case based on whether we feel that a certain player can "handle it" or not is a very biased and subjective way of handling a situation like this. A "meritocracy" only works if we have an objective way of measuring a player's contributions and their abilities, and we don't have that here, so we want to downplay this line of thinking as much as possible. It's for this reason that we're pretty much going to be flat-out denying any non-elven Demon Hunters.

The second problem is the flood of Demon Hunter characters, many of which are not played with a full understanding of Demon Hunter lore or the mentality of such characters. This is where we're likely to provoke a stronger response, but we're going to be changing how such characters are approved. Before, it only took the word of a single GM to allow a DH profile to enter the system. Now, it will need either three or four (the exact number to be determined.) We're also looking more at these, to ensure that such characters are thoroughly explored in the creation process. (These same rules will also be applied in equal measure to other "Private Discussion" characters.)

And now the bad news: in order to try to get this working, we'll most likely be requiring that all Demon Hunters that have already been approved put their characters back into the system and go through approval again. This'll probably be rather irritating, but we want some quality control for this one that simply wasn't happening before.

Questions? Comments? Concerns? Post 'em.

(Aside: I'll be looking at sub-forum requests later today, as well as clearing out abandoned guild sub-forums. Expect that soonish.)

[Roxas65]

I don't have a Demon Hunter so I guess it doesn't affect me that much, but I think this sounds fair enough. Probably as fair as humanly possible.

[Xigo]

[SachikoMaeda]

I like the sound of it so far. It seemed kinda easy to obtain a DH. I might not know much on DHs... But that's why I'm not gonna make one

I hope this'll work out for people who want a DH and motivate them to truly know their lore before posting a profile for evaluation.

[ImagenAshyun]

I have wondered about how easy it is to obtain a DH, it got a little irritating, even for a lore nub like me. I'll see if I can help despite my lack of knowledge.

Although...

(Aside: I'll be looking at sub-forum requests later today, as well as clearing out abandoned guild sub-forums. Expect that soonish.)

YAAAAAAAAAAY!!!

[Kage]

*Doesn't know what a demon hunter is to begin with.* I take it this is rather important...?

[Psychyn]

*Doesn't know what a demon hunter is to begin with.* I take it this is rather important...?

On this server? Demon hunters are regarded as the most epic, most special thing obtainable it seems.

http://www.wowpedia.org/Demon_hunter

Y'know. Here's a thought for you though;

Do the voting/discussion of which GM says yes/no (As it's bound to contradict eventually) for the profile to be accepted, in a private section of the board. Saves a lot of "He said no, but she said yes" which will eventually lead to favouritism. Always good to have less drama on the board. Eventually, the answer can be posted by an Admin with no further information given on who said yes/no. Drama regarding votes solved from my point of view.

But.. Got to agree with Xigo's picture. Even with everything you'll guys do to make DH's harder, people will complain. Simple as that, it's been the most dramatic thing after the prestige system because people can not handle seeing more DH's then two hands full. It's just a ticking time bomb.

Edit: Removed some stuff.

[Reigen]

I have to say...I agree with this decision. Granted, I do think races that make -sense- ought to be allowed as a demon hunter, but there really needs to be a good factor on if X or Y could logically become a demon hunter.

That's all I gotta say on it, surprisingly enough.

[No long post this time, sorry guiz.]

[Anski]

I'd like to take this space to note as I inhale my 15 minute lunch, if anyone has any questions on the race v DH viability, please send me a PM for private discussion, as i've had a heavy hand in this whole discussion due to my long term DH, Navren.

Edit: I'd also like to note, it most likely won't change the ruling on the private discussion, but rather serves for a private forum for people to understand why some are, and why some aren't.

Edit 2: I found a fitting image as to my lunch break.

[Rigley]

Redacted upon request.

[Spiky]

On this server? Demon hunters are regarded as the most epic, most special thing obtainable it seems.

Which, they really aren't. What most people think of when they think Demon hunter is Illidan. Yet they forget; Skull of Guldan, Drenched himself in, and drank from, the original well of eternity, has worked with the burning legion, then changed sides (was corrupted by them = even more power) and the big one; Lore Figure.

None of the player characters will ever have access to this, yet that is what most people think when they think demon hunter; Illidan.

Let's look at the real demon hunters; The ones that are slaughtered in the hundreds outside Black Temple by regular Felguard, or even the player as they do the quest to help breaching into the temple. Or the recent quests on retail (Cataclysm) where you help a demon hunter defeat something as simple as an infernal.

Demon Hunters are simply specialised warriors / hunters focused on killing demons, adaptating to such foes, forsaking their effectiveness in some areas, to succeed against demons where others might have an even harder time than they.

You are not teh Illidanz.

[Reigen]

I do have a few questions, now that I think about it!

When this goes though and those with approved demon hunters have to re-post their profiles, are they going to be special profiles? [This may possibly help with how many there are as many are discouraged by special profiles.]

If not: Will they be subject to the same one week wait between profiles for resubmitting what was already approved?

Also, on par with the lore thing. With so little demon hunter lore, it's hard to know what is right and wrong, such as what the demon hunter tattoos mean. The only source for the patterns we have are all fanon, which I really dislike taking in because it is not a solid source at all. My question here is: Is the COTH team going to make solid statements on that sorta stuff? If that fanon thing about demon hunter tattoos is right, or if it's color based, or if its anything really? [I would like a set thing on where we can find all our sources for demon hunters. Not only does it help people write profiles, it would help FH knows what is and is not acceptable.]

[Xigo]

I'd totally get to work on trying to write up a thing for Demon Hunters, but I'm not sure how successful that would be.

Hopefully my other little project comes out of the workshop eventually. :P

[Psychyn]

Which, they really aren't. What most people think of when they think Demon hunter is Illidan. Yet they forget; Skull of Guldan, Drenched himself in, and drank from, the original well of eternity, has worked with the burning legion, then changed sides (was corrupted by them = even more power) and the big one; Lore Figure.

That's how I feel as well, I'm just.. Not drawn to Demon hunters at all, but to each their own. Forgive me if I sounded sarcastic or negatively there however, it just surprises me at times how this particular class can stir up so much.

[Zarquon]

On this server? Demon hunters are regarded as the most epic, most special thing obtainable it seems.

Aye,

They are seen as the most prestigious things obtainable in a system without prestige. After Custom Models, that is.

It's always this issue of the 'haves' and the 'haves-not'.