Classmancers - A MOBA Esport Story

[The game has just started but my tower is already like this...] Ben frowned as he examined the Turret's remaining HP. From just one push, the tower dropped down to 88%.

And, this was only the beginning of the game, the very first wave. Things will get only tougher from here on out as minions will grow stronger with each wave.

In this first push, the Orc's strong basic attacks were responsible for most of the damage. However, over time, all the minions together will be delivering just as much damage as Appretnece, if not more. At that point, Ben's tower will lose about 20% HP per wave.

[N-No, I can't let that happen!] Ben steeled himself. [This isn't the first time I'm facing an aggressive Orc. I can defend against it, even if Druid isn't exactly the best class for the job.]

Defending was the one thing Ben knew how to do best. It was the only skill he believed he excelled at. Therefore, no matter what kind of pro-level prodigy Appretnece was - Ben should be able to stall the guy; he had to!

"Ben, are you alright?" Kai asked. "You're looking kinda pale over there."

"Y-Yes, I'm fine! I can do this! Everything is alright. Yes."

"Very convincing." Kai made a face. "Looks like that Korean guy gave you quite the beating, huh."

"I-It's okay, I can handle this," Ben insisted. "With a Lv.2 shield, I'll be able to tank the minions properly. I won't let him push like this again."

"Are you confident you can do it?" Yuel asked. "I was thinking of having Nia patrol Top Jungle to discourage further pushes."

"It's okay, I can handle this," Ben insisted. "I don't think there's any need to waste her time on something like this, really." 

"Are you sure? Your tower took quite the beating."

"S-Sorry about that..."

"I'm not blaming you," Yuel explained. "I'm just stating the facts as they are. This isn't a comfortable matchup for you, and your opponent is a high-level player. It'd be stranger if you didn't struggle."

"I-It'll be okay!" Ben insisted. "I was just a little startled last round, that's all. I'll defend properly this time."

"Are you completely sure?"

"Yes, I know what to do in the next few waves." Ben shared his plans for the upcoming battles. Defending against hyper-aggressive opponents was something he practiced a ton, so it was one of the few topics he was rather confident about.

"With a Lv. 2 shield, this should be easy enough to achieve," Ben concluded his explanation on that note.

The HP of Gaia's Protection increased substantially by a flat amount with each level. As such, there was quite a big leap between Lv. 1 and Lv. 2 in the early-game.

[I wish that building HP or Defense also made the shield buffer.] Ben thought. [But, it just doesn't scale that way, unfortunately.]

Out of all things, the HP of Druid's shield scaled with Magical Power. It was a rather odd decision for a class that was clearly designed to be a defensive tank. There was actually some history behind it.

On release, the Druid's shield did scale with HP as expected. And, like today, the shield also benefited from a flat HP increase per level.

[I wish I played Mancers during that time.] Ben always sighed whenever he thought about this topic. [It sounds like Druid was such a strong class back then.]

It was indeed treated as top-tier back then, even arguably broken. With the shield scaling based on HP, Druid players simply built tons and tons of it. This way, the Druid player became an unkillable tank, and the shield he provided to allies was equally durable. During these times, Druid was the epitome of defensive support.

This resulted in an unhealthy meta, so ClassSoft nerfed Druid. They concluded that having access to a strong shield from the early-game was too much, therefore they nerfed Gaia Shield's base HP, as well as the flat HP increase per level. In other words, now the shield's entire worth was decided by HP scaling.

To further reinforce that design direction, ClassSoft also nerfed the Ents' base HP. Now, in the early-game, these giant trees were barely capable of tanking any tower shots at all.

However, as compensation, the Ents' HP now scaled that much harder with the Druid's HP. This turned them into incredible tanks for the late-game.

As a result of all these changes, Druid was borderline useless during the early-game. Its shield was paper thin and his Ents couldn't help much with pushes. The Druid player had to build tons of HP in order to come online.

Once it did come online, Druid was even more oppressive than before. Its shield was so strong it effectively doubled the HP of its allies, and its Ents could tank tower shots for days.

Nonetheless, the class's usage rate dropped sharply as a result of this change. Druid became a niche pick, which was a far cry from its former god-tier status.

The main reason for the decline in popularity was that Druid now lacked any value for the early-game. It had a squishy shield that couldn't protect allies and squishy Ents that couldn't tank towers.

[Though, I think people just overreacted to the nerf.] That was Ben's take on the subject, though it was a purely speculative one as he couldn't try that version of Druid for himself.

[Players probably got too used to having a strong shield the entire game, so they felt like Druid lost its purpose without it.] Ben speculated. [Though, I definitely understand the appeal of a strong early-game shield…]

With all said and done, Ben was also heavily relying on Druid's strong early-game shield right now. So, there was no saying for sure how he would've felt about the changes if he played Classmancers during that era.

Apparently, there was a lot of heated discussion at the time regarding Druid's viability in the meta. Especially, on the DruidMains server, people lashed at each other nonstop.

One faction claimed that Druid was a great pick for hyper-defensive teams, while others claimed that a strong late-game defense was useless when the Druid contributed "absolutely nothing" during the earlier stages of the game.

For example, Hyper Carry classes like Seraph worked because they were considered "win conditions". Once the Seraph went online in the late-game, it was expected to push for victory.

But, what about Druid? Did it also ensure victory for the team once it got online? Debatable. Druid was very strong at keeping its allies alive and at tanking towers, but it was ultimately still the role of the offensive classes to seal the deal.

Ultimately, the tier list discussion came down to a competition between similar options. There were other classes, like Vanguard, that tanked towers and protected allies well enough. But, unlike Druid, these classes had tools that worked throughout the entire game, not only the late-game.

Regardless, some extremists claimed that Druid was now a "top-tier pick" for some "specific team comps". Namely, the team comps with a fanatic focus on the late-game.

["Druid is the best-in-slot Support for a Seraph team!"] These were the kinds of arguments these madmen made. And, there was some truth to it, at least on paper.

The Seraph + Druid combo was unbeatable in the late-game. Seraph excelled in split pushing, and Druid's powerful shield and Ents only made Seraph's job that much easier.

However, there was one big caveat: the two classes first had to survive the early-game in order to reach the late-game in good shape. Until then, both of them were like baggage for the team.

Carrying one baggage was still affordable, but two? How was the team even supposed to reach the late-game like this? It was unreal.

And so, despite how hyped up this "powerful duo" was, it didn't actually see much play in practice. A few pro teams attempted this strategy, but most such attempts failed spectacularly.

The only specific scenario in which the "Druid + Hyper Carry" setup was highly valued was in a matchup between two extremely defensive teams. For example, in the Leopards vs. StormBlitz kind of matchup, there'd be a strong argument for that kind of team comp.

However, both teams would be aware of the fact, so they'd simply ban Druid to seal that option. Thus, in the very few games in which Druid could potentially show its true strength, it didn't even get the chance to come on stage.

[It was a really sad state for the class.] Ben thought so back when he watched a video documenting the class's history. [Druid wasn't really that bad, it's just that the competition was better.]

Such was the unfortunate reality of many "low tier" classes. They weren't necessarily "bad" in a vacuum, they just existed in a competitive environment that didn't complement their strengths.

According to the documentary, Druid remained in that sorry state for quite a while. Perhaps ClassSoft was waiting for somebody to figure out a way to utilize Druid better, or maybe they hoped that future item changes will shake up the meta enough to make Druid relevant.

Alas, time went on and none of that seemed likely to happen. Druid remained an impractical one-trick pony and people kept complaining.

An HP build was the only viable build because everything about Druid scaled with HP. As a result, there wasn't much room for experimentation. No amount of theorycrafting could save a class that was so restricted in its build options.

In light of the situation, people posted many redesign ideas, trying to convince ClassSoft to fix the class. However, it didn't feel like ClassSoft was paying much attention to Druid's situation. After all, there were countless classes in the game and it was impossible to balance all of them.

On top of that, with Classmancers becoming official esports that was even practiced in schools, the process of getting approvals for redesigns became far more complicated than for a regular game. So, it was only natural for ClassSoft to take their time with this matter.

It was the same as how it took them a long time to push through the balance changes that nerfed Shadow Walker. Their response had been slow like that over the years because of bureaucracy.

But, eventually, the changes had finally come. ClassSoft redesigned Druid's properties once again based on the criticism.

The new Druid became something of a mix of the two previous versions. ClassSoft aimed to create a more balanced version that was better suited for the meta environment.

After this change, Druid lost the big HP scaling across the board. Instead, its skills had good base value again, as well as a decent flat increase per level. This made Druid's shield and Ents fairly durable during the early-game.

However, without any further adjustments, this would've caused the opposite issue: Druid would've become decent in the early-game, but very weak in the late-game. The skills that lost their HP scaling needed some alternate form of scaling, or else they'd fall off too hard in the late-game.

So, ClassSoft did give some scaling to Gaia's Protection, but it was a very different kind of scaling. Many criticized this design decision for being "unthematic", even though mechanically most agreed that it was a good, refreshing change.

And so, today, Druid's shield scaled with Magical Power. This type of scaling didn't quite match Druid's pacifistic image, but it practically solved all the issues Druid had had in the previous two iterations.

The new power scaling was just as strong as the older HP scaling, so in theory, the Druid could reach the same power ceiling as before. However, by building power, Druid had to give up on building HP and defense, leaving itself far too squishy to serve as the team's frontline.

Essentially, the Druid player was given a choice. He could build full HP and become a sturdy tank at the expense of giving teammates a weaker shield, or alternatively, he could build more power to provide a better shield, but that would make him a weaker tank. Essentially, this was an interesting dilemma of tank vs. bruiser.

This change sparked a lot of theorycrafting, guides, and discussions. Druid's state became more lively than ever as people analyzed the class no end.

Of course, there were always a few extremists in the bunch. Some claimed that the class reverted to its OP state, while others claimed that the new scaling made no sense and that the class was still too weak.

Regardless at large, the community was happy with the changes. The Druid skin that came out alongside the balance change sold very well, which some used as proof that the community approved of the changes.

In time, the hype settled down. People reached the conclusion that the new Druid was "good but not broken", so the class found its place in the meta alongside other popular picks.

[All's well that ends well.] Ben thought. [Though, I really wish I had the chance to play that hyper late-game Druid just to see how it feels. Still, I imagine the current Druid is overall more stable.]

It was thanks to the properties of Druid's current iteration that Ben was confident he'd be able to tank most incoming attacks in the upcoming wave. He definitely won't let Apprentece get another strong push…!