I know what you're probably thinking.
"Oh boy another buff Willow/Woodie thread where yet another bozo gives his idea of what needs to be done to fix them. Haven't seen one of those this week. Guess we're due"
But in actual fact that's not what this is about. It occurred to me that despite the near-constant posting of character rebalance threads in the past years or so almost nothing has changed. To begin, there is simply no denying the outcry the community has had asking for a rebalance that makes Willow and Woodie viable again yet we have received virtually nil in response, despite being the foundation of the game's active community. And that's what this is actually about, it's about why almost nothing changed. It's pretty obvious most of the community desires a buff for these characters, considering the literal hundreds of discussions, posts, arguments, name calling, and threads on the various platforms (steam, discord, youtube, and the forums), yet it seems as though all pleas have been, for the most part, utterly ignored and forgotten, resulting in the cycle never ending.
Not only this, but the horrific disparage in balance between the characters had led to severe animosity and elitism within the community itself, spearheaded by a youtuber who shall remain unnamed all in defense of "the meta." The simple fact is that we have reached a point in the community where if you want to be involved, you have to be careful playing certain characters as your main otherwise you will face severe prejudice, potentially leading to more difficulty developing in the community. There is no way this helps encourage new players.
Maybe I'm just crazy right? Perhaps there has been changes made and I haven't noticed them. Well I decided to check and all I could find in terms of buffs was this:
- At some point Willow's insanity freeze was nerfed so that it could only freeze her in winter without something else (woah what a MASSIVE buff)
- Apparently they gave Willow a whole extra second of fire immunity at some point to before deciding that was too op and removing it
- As far as I know the only buff woodie has received in DST is the ability to plant pinecones and birch nuts for sanity (actually halfway decent but completely out scaled by his nerfs)
These "buffs" are the equivalent of putting a band aid on a bullet wound.
So why has it only been this despite the near constant requests for change? Certainly Klei has seen at least some of the community who has been asking, even if they've actively attempted to ignore or quell posts regarding this subject.
Ok, so the majority of the community wants a buff and that nothing has been really done in earnest to sate this desire, perhaps there's some excellent reasoning as to why we don't actually need the buff. Certainly there's something we're collectively missing here, that actually makes the character imbalance justifiable? In that case let's examine the top arguments in defense of leaving things the way they are now.
Griefing
(this argument relates to Willow specifically). I can hear it now. But if we buff Willow griefers are gonna have a field day! We can't let that happen! In actual fact this argument holds no weight simply because while Willow is slightly better for griefing, any character can craft a torch and burn down everything.
I mean the nerf placed on Willow has worked so well after all anyways, am I right? Wait no actually it hasn't quelled griefing at all, and it still runs rampant as exemplified by the recent dedicated klei server takeovers. As it turns out, not all griefing even bothers with fire, there's more options than just that. The short of it is that griefing didn't justify the initial nerfing, and still doesn't justify.
Protecting "The Meta"
It is an unfortunate truth that the community struggles with severe animosity and hate developed from the imbalance in the characters. Despite this, there are those who would argue Klei need not touch character balance because it might upset the precious meta that they've worked hard to dominate most of the game's community with. I'd suggest that this argument is flawed in the sense that it is foremost inherently unethical, and secondly this thread is more about buffing characters that are at a current severe disadvantage, not nerfing those already on top of the pyramid. Sure it might weaken the most powerful characters by comparison, but it would be nice to not be called a r******* ape for playing my main for a change.
It's not necessary...
This is a pretty uncommon argument, not gonna lie, even generally the most elitist player admits that a buff would be in order, and then goes on generally laughing as they know nothing will even actually be done. However, I have heard this said before, and I'm going to address it. Generally out of the people who make this argument are not super involved or simply don't understand the situation (they often play the OP characters and can't really see the issue from their ivory tower). The truth is something needs to be done, the current disparage is massive, and while I certainly expect nothing to actually come of this thread (it'll likely be thrown on the pile and ignored), it's important as a community we continually call this out.
Another variant of this is "It's just a game, calm down." There is an important distinction to be made here, I'm well aware that this is a game and that it has no tangible impact on real life if Willow and Woodie, two fictional characters, are never buffed. However I love this game and want the absolute best for it, so if I see a problem, I'm going to call it out and say something because I desire a well balanced game. Not to mention it does get kinda discouraging when you're put down for your main repeatedly because they're "useless" (as stated by others).
Sure the Community might be requesting it but is it really a good idea?
My response to this is as follows:
Yes, and if you don't agree just compare the characters currently.
Just use Mods, K?
How would you feel if your main required mods, which are often laughed out in the community as de-legitimizing, just to be played on par with the other characters? What does this say about the balancing if this is one of the current major arguments? What if I told you that mods are often poorly made, buggy, or don't truly encapsulate a healthy buff?
Conclusions
Honestly, I'm aware jack diddly is gonna come of this thread but the community needs to continually keep requesting it. This was not a "bash klei thread" and if you think that then I must have used poor word choice. It's more just calling out an issue I've seen in the game that still hasn't been fixed, and desperately needs change. The flaw's effects have unfortunately taken root but I legitimately believe it is not too late to repair and rebalance Willow and Woodie. As for what that looks like, it's on Klei to really decide what should be done, however I've outlined my own suggestions in another thread.
Link:
If you see any inaccuracies in this post (it's a long one so there's likely to be something) just let me know and I can adjust.
Finally, what are your thoughts?