The game is based around math. It has been forever. Yes it’s supposed to be about fun, but not at the expense of being an asset/detriment to your party. This is a multiplayer game, you can’t expect people to go, “oh well he’s having fun so I guess it’s ok he’s not as good as the other X class with the better preforming choice.”
Blizzard also said they didn’t want anyone to feel like their choice would limit what they could participate in and they’ve failed. Ion talked about a ripcord they could pull if it failed, then walked back that comment and said it doesn’t exist. Well they better create one or figure out a way to fix the massive disparities among covenant choices and class power.
I mean none of the Hunter skills are that exciting.
Th kyrian one is a copy past of the Night Fae one with a couple twists. The Necrolord one is just fire on cd and forget and the Venthyr one is Black Arrow 3.0 (my personal favorite).
I just don’t get why they had to make them so mechanically different. Either make them all AoE puddles with slight twists or all variations of Black Arrow. Just that would had made the balancing incredibly easier.
This is why I would never be an accountant. People who find math entertaining are odd. That said even in multiplayer games its still supposed to be fun. If ones not having fun then why play at all.
It’s different depending on your situation, but if you’ve raided with a guild previously, they should know darn well what you’re capable of by this point. There should be zero reason to yell at someone for the “wrong covenant” if they consistently show they are doing fine.
If you are new to a guild and the guild is trying to fill a spot, a tryout can tell you plenty.
Heck, even with PUGs, there’s usually some previous log data out there when you happened to run with a group that was logging in the past. You have to take it with a grain of salt, because not all of your runs are logged unless you are logging them, but there’s tons of data out there for people who raid actively, I’m sure.
The truth is there’s way too much subjectivity with choices that impact gameplay because of the people playing. There will always be a bell curve, but just because one choice takes a little more effort to optimize doesn’t mean much if the player is good at optimizing it. You’ll get situations where they are better than the “average” player who made the “right” choice. If the bell curve put the highest ability user below the lowest ability user of the other choice, then sure, that’s an objectively bad choice, but that’s rarely the case here.
I don’t think Blizzard did it, but rather players or theoricrafters did it via simulation tools and assumptions. However, for individual players, your play style, habits, gear, encounter, raid assignment, etc., most likely won’t match those assumptions. Ultimately, you are the one playing the character, and you should dictate how to play. Even for min/max top players, I don’t think they always follow these internet guides.
Statistically speaking, the majority of the playerbase finds being more powerful fun.
That’s why Sub Rogues went from the most popular spec to being practically non-existent overnight when they were nerfed in Uldir.
That’s why specs don’t have even an evenish distribution between players on their specs, if it underperforms, it’s no longer fun to them.
It’s not a new mindset to exist, but as the game grew and the internet got more and more developed, people just got better at figuring out what makes the smaller numbers into bigger numbers.
Accounting is satisfying.
When you do it right, it’s like playing Sudoku and all the numbers just line up perfectly.
All I’m saying is that generally speaking, if you make 1 wrong choice, you probably made multiple. There are obviously exceptions to the rule, and like you said, outliers on the bell curve, but I stand by my original statement, and the higher ranking your guild is, the tougher the competition, and the more that a small 2-3% different might matter.
And yet these same people say numbers are arbitrary when many complained about the level squish. One set of numbers can’t not be arbitrary and the others be arbitrary. All numbers are the same.
You get most RPGs come from D&D? The most math game ever right? Yeah the role playing mattered, but you needed to know math to do pretty much anything…or then you’re just a bunch of weirdos sitting around a table talking funny.
Isn’t night fae best for Affliction? That’s what our affliction locks picked, but I really couldn’t care less.
I have been a guild master and raid leader for over 12 years now.
The ONLY thing I care about is that we have a roster filled with engaged and active players.
If some one picked a covenant they disliked just to get a few percent DPS more, that will may lead them to not be a part of the roster in the long run due to burn out, so its a net DPS loss in my eyes.
I always encourage people to have the most fun possible, because raiding wont always be fun.
We need to make it fun.
Either way, make no mistake. Blizzard did not intentionally design these covenants to be BIS.
That’s the community’s often misguided distinction.
Many of the covenants feature widely variable TYPES of damage, so to say that one is universally better than another is just nonsense.
Some are still imbalanced, clearly.
But the ones that aren’t are even enough that you could pick what you want and enjoy.
Screw them. Transmog is forever, balance is not permanent. Find people who aren’t minmax freaks (easier said than done but you gotta put your foot down).
Its still weirdos sitting around talking funny regardless. But I’m there to have fun not stress myself out of a school subject I’ve never been and will never be good in.