Blizzard and multi-role approach to WoW

Community General Discussion
1

Imagine a Police Department (that fights bad guys). You have the people in the field “fighting battles”, the call center which connects the notifications of bad guys with the heroes to go fight them. You also have all the admin people in the police department NOT in the field.

The point is that there are 3 roles that work with one another to fight bad guys.

Imagine if there was a shortage/need in any of these areas. The local city policy states:

  • If you go help out in the field, you have to buy your own Kevlar vest and gun.
  • If you help out in the call center, you have to bring your own headset and radio equipment.
  • If you help out in the admin department, you have to bring your own office supplies/computers.

These 3 could translate to the cost/time involved in getting (Gear with secondary stats/weapons, potions/flasks/enchants/scrolls, etc.)

Now on top of this – if you ever help out in another area ,optimally, other than your preferred area, to help fight the bad guys as a community, you’ll get docked on your pay. Furthermore – if the need continues to arise for you to help out in these other areas, and you continue to take on a non-preferred role - the amount we dock from your pay will continue to increase and double each time.

There’s already a cost in taking on different roles should the need arise for you to help out fighting the bad guys – but on top of it, the system is designed to charge you when you do so optimally.

This would translate to the policy continuing:
Should you go help in the field - you bring your own sub-par vehicle. If you want the appropriate/optimal police cars - you have to pay.
Should you go help in the call center or department - you bring your own chairs/desks/filing cabinets. - if you want the appropriate/optimal items - you have to pay.

From a real – on planet earth perspective that sounds insane to me. Why would you not want to equip your police department with the best equipment that the city has been able to farm/tax/purchase? (regardless of who is serving those roles).

From an RP – video game perspective, I’m guessing there’s some benefit to this mentality - But I’m having a hard time seeing the benefit this provides to the community and how it makes things more fun.

If you don’t help out with other roles when there’s a need – everyone suffers. If you DO help out – you’re charged in various ways.

This is my understanding of the mentality behind charging players to be optimal when they change specs when they try and fighting bad guys “for the horde”/”for the alliance”/”for fun and blowing stuff up”.

Can someone help me understand what value is added to the game with this mentality?

Yeah yeah - it’s been worse in vanilla The point isn’t to compare to previous iterations of the game. The point is to understand how it’s beneficial to the game.

4

This was a blue response. “Probably” - even though the things listed are still applicable even if traits changed when a player changes specs…

5

Have you watched the Q&A from Ion?

6

Having stuff to do and work towards is probably beneficial to the game.

“I don’t wanna carry gear in my bag” is just the same old “i don’t like X hurdle, remove it.”

1 Like
7

There’s plenty of stuff to work towards outside of the 3 azerite pieces. You need gear with the right secondary stats. You need separate weapons/offhands with the right primary stats. You need trinkets that make sense for those roles.

That argument would hold ground if they allowed players to work for azerite gear in M+ like they do all the other gear. But when there’s a cap to the number of pieces you can get in a given week - “working” for those pieces is innately limited.

8

I think that the azerite pieces are the same as relics from Legion in that you needed to find 3 per spec that were optimal. You still needed rings, a neck, and trinkets for each spec, unless all the specs you used somehow prioritized the same secondaries and the trinks worked across the board. Plus, once we had the crucible, even the relics we got were total random. The azerite armor has the bonus that we don’t destroy them when we want to switch them out and play around with combinations.

Could the bonuses be more exciting, sure, but I personally don’t get the hate on azerite armor.

9

If I recall during one of their Q&A’s - they were trying to move away from the Relics and the negatives they brought to the game - especially the randomness.

Azerite pieces are more of a combination between Artifact weapons (mainly the traits; the HoA is the leveling component) and Tier sets. Tier set bonuses changed with your spec - which was a great feature!

I’m not really worried about the bonuses/effectiveness of the traits themselves - It’s the general mindset of putting restrictions on players trying to work together as a team in order to fight bad guys optimally.

That doesn’t make sense in real life and I can’t see how it makes sense in game.

1 Like
10

I think I agree with you, but I would like some clarification on the restrictions you are referring to. Do you mean the personal loot changes or do you mean needing multiple sets of azerite?

11

Yes. It does sound insane to apply video game mechanics to real life.

2 Likes
12

Neither - it’s the cost to reforge gear for other roles.

Tier sets before would automatically change their bonus when you changed specs.

With azerite gear, if you’re willing to be a team player and you tank or heal for content when you normally dps- in order to do so optimally, you have to pay. Which is where the analogy comes into play. We already have to pay for this switch in so many other ways (a different set on non-azerite gear for secondary stats, potions, flasks, enchants, weapons etc.)

Note: this is different than having to reforge within a spec to adjust for AoE or ST scenarios - in those cases, sure, go ahead and charge people for min/maxing.

13

Not really. Depends on the analogy that’s being made. Most of them are just bad.

14

Ok. The gold cost. I got you. It sucks. I like to switch between MM and BM and until I have some good azerite for both, it amasses a small fortune in an expansion where gold is increasingly scarce. I would love if the pieces would automatically switch between preset talents when we respec. This would still leave the need for different pieces with BiS talents, but when you get that great one that works for 2 or even 3 of your specs, it would be amazing.

1 Like
15

Exactly. I just don’t see the what benefit the players or the game get’s out of charging people for this.

There’s already plenty of “cost”/time associated with switching specs. This was such a great feature in Legion - and it’s gone…but for what?

1 Like
16

The cynic in me says that it boils down to a time played metric. We have to farm the gear and then we have to farm the gold to make multiple uses of it. But I don’t know if I believe him on this. I am sure there is some valid reason, but i don’t know what it is yet.

17

Yeah don’t get me wrong - Azerite has its issues, I just don’t think that issue includes having to have multiple pieces. Getting the “right” pieces, I agree, is a bit too random; however, my personal experience is that issue evaporated almost instantly when Emissaries started dropping level appropriate azerite.

18

I thought that too. A lot can be attributed to that - but with Azerite Gear; that just doesn’t seem to fit as a reasonable excuse.

1 Like
19

But you can’t farm Azerite Gear. It’s available from a limited number of sources each week.

20

Yes, you are right. My apologies. I meant “farm” in the sense that we have to go out and get the gear from various, repeatable sources. In this instance, the acquisition becomes much more drawn out as the sources are quite limited.

21

No worries. :slight_smile:

1 Like
22

It’s not about pieces or bag space - it’s about charging people when they’re willing to take one for the team and take on a role that’s needed.

That’s where the analogy comes into play.