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ah so you're talking imbalance from a design perspective. i was talking from a gameplay perspective, if that makes sense.
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Well, yes. Like I said, I basically don't play the game, so I can only speak personally from a perspective of design (of which I'm no expert, but I'm no fool either, and I have smart friends
)
<span style="font-size: 9px">(I wonder if this was at the heart of a lot of our disagreements in the past (specifically the Techtree Contest Poll thread I threw up those years ago); you were talking from a gameplay perspective, and I was talking from a design perspective...)</span>
<span style="font-size: 9px">(Although technically I could argue that the kinds of things I was pointing out were gameplay imbalances (casters & towers being too powerful, etc), I suppose for the sake of argument I'll abstain)</span>
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human and orc don't have t1 detection (excluding far sight - which nobody with a brain learns).
vs. undead and night elf, i agree it isn't a 'game-to-game strat' if only because the blademaster is the predominant hero (and again, while from a design POV this is an imbalance, in the game it has just become part of the meta), but the execution is very much counter-play based.
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Well, while HU & OR don't have the Dust of Appearance, they do have reasonably effective ways to protect their workers (the main casualty to BM harass); Call to Arms & the Burrow defense seem to be pretty alright. But whether or not it's "smart" to pick it, the fact that the Orcs even have it available is my point (from a design perspective). It may not be good in other situations, but it's a great counter; seems like that fits the bill of "meta".
Why that is the case (only UD & NE got the DoA item), I couldn't say. I've asked many of the same questions: "why did the Orcs not get a true "anti-mage" like all the rest?" "why didn't the UD get a true "anti-turtling" like the others?" "why did the HU & NE get special "protect a unit" staffs but no one else?" "why do the OR & HU get special "build a building" items but none of the others?"
I have long had to assume that if these patterns exist & that Wc3 is a (reasonably) balanced game, there is a reason; I just don't know it. How I would love to pick the brains of some of the old design staff...
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edit: ah no i get what ur saying. ur not saying that the t0/1 detection itself is a design imbalance, but it's symptomatic of the design imbalance of the blademaster, and i'd agree. but it's really too late to fix him without either destroying the whole meta, or just getting another hero to replace him as a predominant 1st hero.
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Ah! I'm really glad you got what I was going for, since I wasn't sure I could explain it any other way.
"Symptomatic" is a good word. Gosh, would that our earlier disagreements could be resolved so easily! : )
I suppose what you say is true, it is pretty entrenched... But (and maybe I'm just crazy) what's wrong with "destroying the meta"? Isn't that just a word for "the dominant strategies & counter strategies", which means if something changes drastically, the meta will just... change? What's the harm/foul in "losing" a given "meta state"?
Especially if we move from a less diverse "meta state" (i.e. everyone picks BM & everyone else picks to defend against it) to a more diverse "meta state" (i.e. other heroes are picked, other strategies & counters arise)?