The new Heart of Azeroth system proves it. Nobody cares about random abilities getting added to their bar that don’t interact with their class in any meaningful way. Blizzard should be focusing on abilities that interact with each individual specialization rather than abilities that interact with every specialization at the same time in essentially the same way.
I think a lot of players are quitting because their classes feel clunky and broken (still) after the removal of artifact passives and abilities that (for the most part) interacted with the class specializations in a way that was much more meaningful and interesting than what we got with the Azerite armor and what we are getting with the new HOA on the PTR.
There are a few shining examples of specializations that became (according to the community) even better with Battle for Azeroth, and those specializations tend to follow a trend, and that trend is near complete redesign of the entire specialization. This is probably because the individual game designers in charge of each individual specialization realized that said specializations don’t work, or are much worse without their artifact abilities and spells.
Most specializations, on the other hand, saw no meaningful changes aside from the removal of their artifact abilities, which were specialization specific and served to make the class feel better as the player grew in power, instead of worse.
Basically, what I’m trying to say is, give firemages phoenix flames and 20 second combustion back, PLEASE.
34 Likes
So is this a general complaint about the community’s perception that all classes are unfun because they were too heavily pruned… or a personal appeal because you miss something and want to force that opinion upon others?
2 Likes
I like the new stuff, especially the paladin specific stuff like randomly proccing avenging wrath. Pretty cool stuff in my personal opinion ![:slight_smile:](https://d38bqls1q93fod.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/slight_smile.png?v=6" ":slight_smile:")
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The former for the most part. I think part of it is me projecting, but a lot of raiders that I have talked to (ones who still play and ones who have quit) tend to agree that pruning, among the lack of tier sets and new abilities that interact with your specialization, have made a lot of the classes feel worse.
This has also been kind of a major talking point in the community too, I’ve seen a lot of posts on these forums and on reddit that make similar statements, if less direct.
5 Likes
I would really like to see Blizz do away with specs altogether and just give us classes to play. Let me choose what spells/attacks I want to use.
Example
1st Tier Talent Row
Incinerate
Shadow Bolt
Demon Bolt
2nd Tier Talent Row
Chaos Bolt
Felguard
Unstable Affliction
You get the idea. I think it would make leveling much more fun and give you many more choices for endgame play. Of course there would be some spells that every Warlock would get like Water Breathing and Banish, but the way you choose to damage your enemies would be up to the player.
Not sure how this would work for tanks and healers though, as I don’t play those roles.
4 Likes
Ion said in an interview he doesn’t want the difference in output/performance between a person who plays their character really well compared with someone who is clueless to be very large.
Which tells me is utterly the wrong person to head an MMO design team.
Players don’t jump through the hoops Blizzard provides to become more powerful relative only to monsters - they jump through them to become stronger compared to other players and the wider they can push that gap the more satisfied they become.
THAT is the true sense of progression in an MMO, not bloody item level rewards he keeps banging on about.
38 Likes
The main problem is that Blizzard insists on completely redesigning specs every other expansion, even the specs that people aren’t complaining about. Then they keep pruning abilities with every redesign leaving the specs as shallow shells of their former selves. Then they “run out of time” during Beta and we end up with specs being left unfinished because Blizzard themselves said they don’t do redesigns in the middle of expansions. The result is a player base angry at Blizzard for trying to fix what isn’t broken.
17 Likes
If you honestly cannot see any interaction of encounter-to-encounter benefits of the different essences, or how they’ll interact and benefit different specs in vastly different ways, it’s not Blizzard that’s how out touch.
And I like how some of my specs play.
3 Likes
That’s a pretty bold statement for a system that hasn’t been released live yet and is still in the early phases of testing. But just to disrupt your narrative, I care. I’m not nobody.
2 Likes
I’ve been saying let us do a talent system that is a scaled down version of the talent trees using the current 3 spec set up we have and do it on the same levels we do it at now . But instead of selecting from only one spec talent tree you can pick one from any of the 3 spec in a class per level.
2 Likes
The funny thing is Fire Mages are considered really overpowered and must be killed early in PvP.
all progression past level 100 is basically just a rental endgame grind system so bliz can throw it all away and start over with each new xpac
the treadmill is so obvious and unsubtle with Ion’s B team, their solutions to design issues so heavy handed and inelegant
just a bunch of spreadsheet analysts that can’t capture ‘fun’ except by ‘well everyone is playing this activity, it must be fun’
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Nah, he’s right.
Low skill floor, high ceiling is the way to go as a rule.
Seriously if you are a very skilled player what do you get out of less skilled players doing half your damage with the same gear?
Good thing you’re not head of design.
1 Like
I’d have to agree. But it isn’t without motive. My take, they are simplifying class gameplay for mobile integration. But for us gaming purists it just equates to boring class mechanics.
4 Likes
Fun does not fit into their time played metric.
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Hot take, artifacts should have been expanded upon in BfA rather than tossed out at the end of Legion.
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The artifacts added a lot of things to the classes that made them feel good to play. Those things were not added back in BFA, which is what I personally believe is a major part for why classes feel clunky. That and the GCD change.
Plus, the artifact weapon traits didn’t keep changing over time other than improvements, and they were permanent, but Azerite armor traits vary by the piece of gear and constantly change how you should play your class.
Edit: Not sure why it removed the quote for the person above me, but okay.
4 Likes
That’s how the talents trees were in classic. One of the many things that were done away with that I miss, I just don’t miss classic.
Not.
One.
Little.
Bit.
Semper Fi! 
2 Likes
Paladin will never be immersive again until they give back Divine Intervention.
1 Like
They were also fairly lore-relevant, which helped players be invested in them, and had a secondary progression avenue that was optional but really appealing for a lot of people, which was the appearances grind. Balance of Power? Pretty grindy. 50 Honor level in PVP? Also a grind. Mage Tower? Likely a grind too unless you were the top 10% of the playerbase. But I’d hazard those grinds kept quite a few people subbed and interested (it did for me), and since the Heart is a neck there’s no similar optional cosmetics hunt to take its place.
2 Likes