Rogues Rogue builds stunlock and World of Warcraft PVP Game Balance

Balance in a video game, especially contemporary games that often put players in contests where they must compete with each other in order to achieve their goals. These games are known by a genre name called "PVP" or "player vs. player." The opposite genre name is "PVE" or player vs. environment. The PVE genre is one where the computer is the player's opponent. Almost all early computer games were PVE games, because networked play was rare, if it was available at all.

One of the key potential flaws in a game design, regardless of whether the computer or another player is the opponent, is something known as a "victory lock." What this means is fairly simple: by using only allowed manipulation of the game environment, a player is able to arrange circumstances so they cannot lose. Successful game designs try to avoid victory locks wherever possible, because a game with a victory lock is by definition no longer a contest. The only contest is to find the victory lock.

Blizzard's massively multiplayer role-playing game World of Warcraft was released in late 2004. When the game was released, the environment and rules were much different than they are today, but one thing that was abundantly clear was that the rogue class, a class which depended on stealth and burst damage, was without question the most powerful class in the game. At the time, the rogue was the only class capable of a player vs player combat technique known colloquially as a "stunlock" or the ability to chain incapacitating attacks together in an uninterrupted series which prevented their opponent from controlling their character at all.

This created some early controversy, most of which was immediately met with jeers of "learn to play" from the veteran MMORPG community. Meanwhile, the players which chose to level rogues initially continued to improve and become more powerful. Those players which chose other classes, especially spellcasters and hunters, found themselves unable to compete.

Rogues were equipped in the early game with the ability to become totally invisible outside of combat. This gave them an opportunity to attack by surprise in every battle. They were given an ability known as a "cheap shot" which allowed their first attack to stun their opponent, keeping them unable to defend themselves while under attack. As they leveled, the rogue players found that cheap shot was not their only stunning ability, and soon they found a way to begin stringing their incapacitating attacks together, even as their ability to do damage in combat began to increase.

Most of the players who leveled rogues in the early days of the game were not immediately aware of just how powerful their characters were. With the ability to always choose their fights, for example, players of rogues could give themselves a staggering advantage in nearly every fight, simply because they could time their initial attack to land at the moment their opponent was weakest. Naturally, this resulted in a practice called "griefing," where rogues would wait until a player was low on health from PVE combat, and then attack by surprise, using their stuns to make it impossible for their opponent, even in their weakened state, to defend themselves at all. Even if that player returned, they found the battleground empty, even though it was very likely the rogue was nearby, only invisible, waiting for the advantage to present itself again.

All rogues have the ability to "gouge" their opponent, which incapacitates them for a few seconds, but which means the rogue cannot attack, because any damage will break the effect of the gouge. Rogues also have an attack known as a "kidney shot," which stuns their opponent like a cheap shot, but does not require stealth. They also have an ability known as a "sap," which incapacitates their opponent like a gouge, but which can be performed from stealth.

But the attack that makes the rogue's stunlock possible is called a "blind." This is an attack like a gouge, but with twice the duration. While this alone is a very powerful ability, what is more important is that it allows the rogue to leave combat, which makes all of their out of combat abilities available, and which allows the rogue to re-stealth and start their attack sequence over again, usually with a cheap shot, which only serves to continue the series of stuns.

It wasn't long before the most capable players found they could attack by surprise, and keep their opponents completely incapacitated throughout the entire battle, unable to escape, attack or defend themselves. This became known as the stunlock, a strategy which made it very unlikely that a rogue would ever lose in a one vs. one player vs. player battle.

As the development of World of Warcraft continued, players were given new tools with which to combat various "crowd control" abilities which limited their ability to control their characters. Even with these tools, it is still possible for rogues with good timing and low pings to perform a perfect stunlock, provided they understand the limitations of their abilities and the strategies their opponents might use to defeat it.