It seems like every time there is a new expansion or even a new patch, Blizz is determined to shake things up like an Etch-A-Sketch as talent trees get reworked, classes play differently, stats are squished or inflated, spells get added, taken away, and then added again. Why not just focus on adding more content and leave core mechanics alone? Why do we have to relearn our classes with every patch or expansion? Chill.
22 Likes
Itās always been this way.
Weāve learnt to live with it I guess.
4 Likes
THANK YOU for saying this! Iāve been playing since BC and itās been bothering me since MoP. All it tells us (the player base) is that no matter how far the game goes onā10, 11, 12, 30 xpacs, whateverāBlizz will never get basic class & combat design done right. They will always keep experimenting with different designs, never be satisfied with them, and keep going back to the drawing board to start over with something different.
For something as BASIC & ESSENTIAL as class combat designs, this is stuff that any RPG should have figured out & settled upon by the first full release of the game (aka 1.0), and after that just adjust things to fix bugs, improve balance, fine tune, etc; NOT completely redesign the system many years in!
Itās a really unprofessional practice and Blizz is addicted to it. (But then again, Blizz is addicted to being unprofessional in general.)
6 Likes
Unfortunately this is always how itās been. They feel like every new expansion needs to do some crazy shakeup of the game.
To a certain extent, yes, I want innovation each expansion, but itās exhausting when every expansion is some massive thing that has the potential to just blow up in all of our faces.
This one seems to be packed full of them.
3 Likes
Honestly itās a good thing that specs and gameplay and combat have changed over the years.
Having vanillaās gameplay and combat for 20 years likely would have caused the game to die off. Pressing one or two buttons while raiding wasnāt great. Many specs werenāt really viable in raid compared to others. It was what we had at the time though.
Combat has improved a lot over the years because of these changes.
3 Likes
If I wanted to play a game that hadnāt changed in 20 years, Iād play Command and Conquer 2: Yuriās Revengeā¢
2 Likes
To a certain extent yes, change does keep things interesting but it can also have a lot of downsides.
In a game like WoW people become very attached to their characters and sometimes changes can completely change how the class feels to play. Sometimes itās just a matter of adapting to the changes but sometimes a class or spec can change so much that it no longer feels right. This happened to me twice, first with my Druid and now more recently my hunter and this is where it can get a bit frustrating because thereās still a lot more work that needs to be done with things like shared reputation, shared achievement progress, grind skips and unobtainable items.
Now that Iāve lost interest in my hunter and upcoming changes I like the idea of going back to my first āmainā which was a Druid but because Iāve neglected it for so long the thought of even trying to catch up to my hunters progress is extremely offputting.
Then thereās things like the mage tower appearances where people who never saw themselves switching class/spec and didnāt obtain those rewards could feel disappointed they canāt get them for the new main.
These things make class changes more frustrating than they need to be because you either have to put up with the changes, quit playing or play catchup on your new main.
I do think blizzard are making alright progress towards this with warbands and if Iām not mistaken there are improvements coming to the things Iāve mentioned but I would really love to see blizzard do more to make switching mains feel more seamless so that if changes prevent you from enjoying your class you can reroll without feeling like youāve left your entire legacy behind.
2 Likes
It keeps things from getting stale. Part of my excitement over new expansions is the class reworks.
2 Likes
Such a good game. Maybe throw some Red Alert in there and the original Age of Empires
2 Likes
Iām not saying improvements shouldnāt be made, and I concede that gameplay now is better than it was in Vanilla. But my point is that it seems Blizzard is making changes just for the sake of shaking things up. If an improvement is needed, go for it! But otherwise, leave things alone. It would be so nice to start a new expansion already being familiar with how specs, talents, professions, and everything else work.
3 Likes
Because you donāt keep your department funded and your team employed by saying things are fine, or that only minor adjustments are needed. The people who make the game have to keep the ones who pay the bills convinced that a lot of work needs to be done. Thatās why a class can feel like itās in a great place one expansion, and get a wholesale rewrite the next.
Thatās where I feel they lose touch with the players. To them a character is a spreadsheet of numbers representing a lot of different attributes. It might be a fun project for them to completely rewrite the sheet from scratch, but to the person who has been adventuring with what that spreadsheet represents, the sudden change is often jarring and upsetting. Just look at the baffling attempt to replace MM Huntersā pets with that silly eagle.
Iād love to see the end of big class rewrites, and instead have a gradual evolution that feels more natural, but corporate politics means we probably never will.
4 Likes
Providing players with new play styles to keep things fresh is fine. Problem is the new play styles are mandatory.
At times I wonder if GW2 alleged system would be better - alleged because I didnāt play enough to see it first hand - where your āspecsā is determined by your gear. Every expansion they release new gear sets with new play styles and if you donāt like the new play style, you can just mothball the gear set.
1 Like
Do they still have talents or a similar skill system thatās tied directly to the player as well?
1 Like
I donāt recall frankly. Itās been a long time since I played.
I vaguely recall choosing abilities to place on my finite hot bar - thatās kind of like talents I guess. I could be confusing GW2 with some other MMO though.
2 Likes
Itās one of the ones I never got around to trying. Perhaps the next time Iām mad at Blizzard. 
1 Like
This statement makes me think of ret paladinsā¦ since legion rets toolkit had been treated as if I am a ranged class rather then a melee except for maybe 2 abilities and maybe a proc (debatable because you could talent into a different proc that works at range)
And death knights after cata where all their runes was changed to death runesā¦
Neither change I liked and made things feel āoffā for me for the classes.
3 Likes
Kind of
As far as I recall, which I havenāt played GW2 in a few years so it might have changed now, you pick a class on character creation and then pick your specialization within that class, your actual skills are based on weapons. Weapons are class wide, everyone can use a sword for example, but as a mesmer you get different sword based skill set than a necro or thief using a sword. So the weapons you picks are kind of like the talents, they determine which buttons you can press, but the class you chose also plays a role as each class utilizes the weapons differently.
2 Likes
Well, thatās not really the case since blizz brought back classic cause players were always asking for it, eh?
2 Likes
Create new problems to fix those problems and claim that youāre listening to feedback and care about your players.
2 Likes
Keeps things fresh. I donāt always agree with it, but new content alone doesnāt always keep the MMO crowd interested. The core gameplay refreshes also help.