If there’s one thing all of mankind can agree on, its that Nerfs suck.  The age old question however, is if they are unwarranted or truly needed for balance.  As with almost any game, lately I’ve noticed this topic being discussed fervently within Allods Online.  Now, before I continue its important to note a few things.  First off, Allods Online is still in an Open Beta phase, meaning numerous changes can still be made before launch (though since there is no character wipe one could argue if the game hasn’t already launched, just without confirmation of doing so).  Second, the only place we’ve seen these upcoming changes are on Russian Patch notes.  For all we know, none of what I’m about to discuss could happen.

Now then, putting those obviously important and logical things aside, Allods has me more scared than Mr Atkinson’s fear of angry gamers (FIGHT THE POWER! R18+ RATINGS FOR ALL)!  For example, the Summoner class, my current class of choice, is supposedly going to have all of its healing reduced by 30%, along with the removal of our mana regeneration ability, and a 1 minute cooldown added onto our most important heal over time spell.  That is a significant change and will dramatically change the layout of the class.  I’d imagine it will be very tough for Summoners to be invited to groups to heal or even offheal, and since other classes can easily out DPS us, we are only left with a few tricks up our sleeves.  Also, considering our pet can’t tank a paper bag past level 10, keeping ourselves alive with heals will be more challenging, not to mention now mana consuming.

That said, despite the looming possibility of gloom and doom, we’ve all seen these sorts of changes before.  Most of them don’t tend to make it past the patch notes, largely due to public outcry.  So it seems a little early to jump the gun and say “The End is Nigh” right?  The problem with Allods however is that the community and U.S. developers don’t seem to have much say in changes affecting the game, much like NCSoft West with Aion.  So now comes the real question, are these changes warranted, or are my nervous feelings an omen of horrors to come?  I’ve dealt with this sort of dilemma before in Warhammer Online with the Magus AoE Nerfs, and we all know how that ended.

Update: Looks like things were worse than I imagined in Russia, check out Keen and Graev’s Gaming Blog for more info.