Thanks, that makes sense. I just wasn't completely aware of what had changed and/or been discovered since the OP's screenshots were taken. I appreciate the information.
If NR is 'nerfed', I would imagine some sort of new work around will be discovered by some intrepid teams. Then that is nerfed. Then a new work around is discovered. That is nerfed...pretty soon it would seem that EVERYTHING would be nerfed eventually....or is that horribly flawed logic?
I am trying so hard to understand the PvP concerns and such. I appreciate rational, non-condescending replies.
Well, if we think about it, if every special combination of skills that leads to an advantage is nerfed to be "balanced", then they'd all be equal, thus making build planning pointless.
Then we have the paper-rock-scissors game design, however, that's pretty pointless too, since it basically means if you've got a paper build, then when you come up against a scissors build you're pretty screwed. (since, unlike an RTS, you cant buy yourself some time and then manufacture the correct units... you're stuck with the skills you chose.)
Probably a reasonable compromise, is to have a variety of combinations of "powerful" builds, much better than if, for example, you just picked skills at random, but to ensure that these powerful builds are roughly equal in power to each other. So people who discover these builds and can play them well, will have an advantage over people who dont.
However, to make the discovery of a powerful build fun, it needs to be non-obvious, possibly difficult to use effectively, and preferably it needs to be "creative" and/or subtle. Also, there needs to be a wide variety of powerful builds, and they all need to be about the same level of effectiveness. (possibly some countering others, but generally, if A meets B, then the main determinant of victory should be their playing skill, not their builds).
Usually, variety is considered a good thing, we dont want games that have extremely limited options. (then again, many people seem to enjoy Quake 1 and its must-use-rocket-launcher weapon set)
There's also the elusive element of "fun", in that a powerful build should feel creative, cool, and interesting. And preferably look impressive.
NR & spirit spam fails these criteria, because it's more powerful than most other "powerful" builds (in certain situations...), it doesnt require much more skill and coordination than any other build, it doesnt have vulnerabilities in proportion to its power, and most of all, it just plain feels cheap and spammy :P (actually, in most games & sports, heavily defensive tactics are usually poorly thought of, seemingly.)
They dont necessarily need to nerf NR if they give us many more maps that allow for a range of playing environments - including some that heavily penalises defensive play in favour of aggressive play. However, compared to other similar skills, NR is heads and shoulders more effective. So, to satisfy the requirement of variety, it should be nerfed and other enchant removals buffed so that they are all equal at some reasonable level of power.
That's my wannabe-games-designer take on it, anyway.
Edit: As a counterexample, take the repeat suicide->mass zombie minion build. It's certainly fairly powerful, but not too much more than other specialised builds, and it has many weaknesses. However, it's pretty damn cool looking and fun to use and fun to play against. I haven't heard many complaints about it - most people seem to enjoy seeing it.
Edit 2: My personal preference is for the skills to be designed so that balanced teams are the most powerful of all, that having a variety of different skills and different classes is generally stronger than any build that focuses heavily on a few classes and a few skills. There's a number of ways to do this, but it doesnt look like the game is heading that direction. Spike teams, Spam teams ftw. :/
