"The sniper platforms were made. They were made reachable through our cool flight/jumping abilities. They included strategic cover. How could anyone not anticipate players not wanting to try and use them?" Thank you for pointing out the obvious to those who have (obviously) no common sense. Freedom of players finding innovative and strategic methods to solve problems is what got the real nerf. Forcing players to play the game "how we developers say you must play" strips that creativity and freedom of choice from their hearts and minds. It's a disgusting practice and one that has sadly become the norm for many triple-A development studios. Quake is a fine example of a game that had a stage laid out in design but did not force players into reaching their goal by one path; rather there were multiple paths and one could even choose to not engage enemies at all but rocket/grenade jump over walls and such for speed runs or simply to gain an advantage. There was more right than wrong with those "play in a shoe-box maze" style games. At least they supported player freedom. Developers, many, these days...make me sick I ever cared and gave so much to and for the industry for so long. This is a classic "Follow" Call of Duty dumb-down move made and for the life of me I cannot fathom "why?" If this careless, unprofessional, and lackluster methodology is an example of what is to become the norm of "balancing", to the community I say this, "Here's another Diablo 3 epic fail, enjoy"