I would rather see in game scenarios that help people learn their class/ spec.
Champion we will need you to interrupt this ability.
Champion we will need you to crowd control these targets.
Different scenarios for different things all leading up to one big scenario that combines everything. You get an achievement for doing it and some transmog.
Something that would totally be in Blizzardâs purview is teaching people how to use macros in game. Most players just see that button on the menu, click on it, and have no idea what theyâre looking at. If theyâre clever, they might make a macro that makes their character laugh and give it a bag icon.
Now Iâm a macro wizard but that is thanks NOT AT ALL to Blizzard.
And it doesnât always give you enough information to make sense to someone who hasnât played the group content.
Iâve read the Icy Veins pages and they are geared for the group play and filled with terms that Iâve had to ask on the forums for what they mean, especially since terms like âcleaveâ while obvious to those who know, are REALLY inobvious to those who donât.
Me having been one of those who went âbuhâ a lot and finding Icy Veins build suggestions can be REALLY bad if youâre not doing group play. For example: Never played a frost mage. So I took the recommended build to play around with.
Discovered that having a lot of AoE when playing solo gets you killed fast as mobs you werenât fighting suddenly join in.
Hekili is training wheels. A great tool as a reminder of a class you havenât played in a while or suggesting rotations.
More often than not, if itâs recommending an action I normally never use, I dig into the why so I understand it. Thatâs how it should be used. A springboard to understanding.
Most people who arenât good are that guy though.
Thatâs fine for an addon (though I generally recommend people not to become reliant on rotation helpers) but a terrible idea as a Blizzard feature. Determining the best ability to use next is one of the main areas of skill expression in the game and itâs not a question of a static rotation to follow. Making a rotation helper to recommend your next move to you would have too many variables and encounter too many edge cases to be consistently useful.
And hereâs the thing about putting information on your UI: if the information isnât useful it shouldnât be there. Information overload is a real hazard and we donât want to make it worse if we donât have to. Itâs one thing if players want to seek out an addon to make their UI worse of their own volition, but it should absolutely NOT be the default set by Blizzard.
Then that would be have to be designed really well, and be distinct from the highlights already used for reactive abilities. For example, Mutilate turning into Ambush on a proc for Assassination Rogues, or Aimed Shot going instant cast for MM hunters. Not really thinking of a good way to make that distinct from the animated reactive borders on procs, but Iâm not a multimedia specialist. Iâm just a programmer.
When I play Enhancement, I get multiple reactives simultaneously that each have a priority. At this point, I think I just need to bite the bullet and install Hekili, just because I find it extremely difficult to remember how stuff is prioritized. Before 11.1, it was a minimum 15-layer priority queue for single target, and thatâs after I removed a lot of abilities from the top-performing spec on WoWHead.
I used a rotation helper in one expansion (mostly - as I recall - because I canât eyeball when certain abilities will come off CD before my GCD of having pressed lower priority abilities), and I explicitly went in and removed my AW from its priority queue to avoid this.
This is the reality.
As someone who uses Healbot⌠if anyone canât pay attention to mechanics or whatâs going on around them while using an addon, thatâs a situational awareness problem on their end. Not because of an addon.
Iâm not saying this game needs built in training wheels like the OP wants⌠but addons are capable of being moved around and put in places where people can still see and pay attention to the game.
If people canât be bothered to read their own talents and abilities⌠thatâs their problem, not the gameâs.
I think healing is the hardest role in the game, certainly the one that demands the most attention, awareness, and quick reactions. Many healing addons compliment what youâre already doing or clean up the ui better or make things easier on healers.
I donât think there is a problem with people using rotation helpers as long as theyâre actually committing what theyâre doing to memory. I think using it in place of knowing what youâre doing and why youâre doing it and becoming reliant on it is a problem and could lead to bad habits.
I get why people use them, and Iâm not condemning them, I just think you feel better about yourself and more confident when you put the time, practice, and effort in to know why youâre doing what youâre doing instead of something else doing it for you. I could take no pride in it, speaking about myself.
Just quickly looked up how many downloads Hekili and MaxDPS have. Hekili has almost 52,000,000 downloads. MaxDPS has almost 15,000,000 downloads.
Perhaps Blizzard should look at that and work on making rotations less complicated. Idk.
I agree with most of what you said, butâŚ
Rotations for most specs arenât difficult. And I honestly think we need to stop stressing people out over their dps. Unless theyâre running high keys, I think we need to leave people alone and let them learn what they like and how they like it.
Like you said, theyâll figure it out with practice and they do need to read their abilities. And if they want to download Hekili, more power to 'em.
Blizzard canât teach a rotation because it constantly changes and would be a massive time sink
Thereâs plenty of tools that exist to become a better player, and anyone interested in improving can do so rather easily
Thereâs a difference between a ânew playerâ and a âbad playerâ
Bad playerâs just arenât interested in improving, which is fine, but there should be no surprise if they get kicked out of multiplayer content.
As for rotations, they might be able to make them slightly easier especially for some specs but itâs the same principle anyways, low dps players tend to not want to improve so it doesnât really matter
Edit: My biggest advice is reading a guide will increase your dps more than any gear drop, instead of worrying about gear get some big brain knowledge ilvl
I recommend this addon for the new/lower skilled/casual players.
It helped my dps tremendously!
It was a statement and not an opinion.
I started reading frost dk guides on wowhead and that seemed so confusing and convoluted. If thatâs an easier rotation Iâd hate to see the hardest ones.
Out of curiosity I looked at the WoWhead FDK guide, iâm curious what you find confusing because this is exremely straight forward
Itâs 9 lines that basically just tell you to smash procs and use your cds
What I read all seemed very long and confusing.
someone needed to say it lolol
editâŚalthough I do appreciate there being a starter build when Im playing a spec I havent messed with in a long while
You believe wrong.
Specs change almost every season, and talent choices can change rotations quite a bit. I doubt even Blizzard knows each specâs rotations. They just make design decisions and let the theorycrafters figure out what is correct.
lets out a long sigh and holds his face for a moment before gathering his composure
your telling me. there are rotation. helper. addons?
for real?
one guy mentioned âtraining wheelsâ above.
after just learning about rotation helpers ontop of all the addon help there is already out there, combined, it looks more to me like sitting in dads lap while he drive the bike for you and your just along for the ride.
part of the game is learning your class and what spells work together by reading the in-game descriptions of spells from the spell book, reading your talent trees and making connections happen so that you maximize your rotation (ideally).
there are hundreds of scenarios that change a ârotationâ and iâd be even hard pressed to call it a rotation sometimes.
part of learning to play the game is how to read each encounter and deal with it based on your classes abilities and your knowledge of how that works.
all i see from all this addon help trash is people who want to be LEET at the game without putting in any time. just log in, buy a character boost and be tHe UbEr 1st day no effort.
in the meantime, im just going to keep hoping and dreaming that one day. one wicked awesome day, enough is going to be enough and blizz is just going to cut addons and start making people play the game themselves again. those who know and learned their class from time and experience will come out on top while people who are held up by addon crutches will be put where they belong.