Classic is a game of primary RPG mechanics, with some secondary gameplay mechanics. There is real depth, and complexity in mastering the primary RPG mechanics of Classic WoW. These primary mechanics include…
Threat management, resource management, gear acquisition, stat management, crowd control, focus fire, hit / dodge / miss / parry chances, resistances, professions, and consumables. Patience, strategy and communication are required.
The secondary mechanics are things like…
Don’t stand in the fire, face the boss away, watch the tail swipe, dodge the attack, etc.
Retail has no primary RPG mechanics left, though it is full of secondary gameplay mechanics to compensate. The result feels nothing like an MMORPG but more like an ARPG. It’s like a pizza with extra toppings and no crust. BFA is a soulless game of secondary gameplay mechanics only. There’s no core game left, and the Devs haven’t seemed to notice.
It’s not a question of hard vs easy. Those things are adjustable as needed.
It’s a question of the right design philosophies vs. the wrong ones. It’s a question of what constitutes a real MMORPG. What does matter is Devs learn from their mistakes to avoid another BFA. And just between us, when Classic smashes all expectations this summer, they will.
A lot of people care about Hard vs Easy including me.
If the game is too easy, then there’s no challenge and it becomes boring fast.
A game keeps me interested when there’s a high skill ceilling where I can always thrive to get better.
In this case your sarcasm did not further the discussion. Try engaging in the points the OP brought up as they are rarely so clearly made here, and cut straight to the heart of the classic vs. Retail discussion.
I have been enjoying auto attacking mobs to death on my beta shaman because spells use so much mana and casters get 0 gear scaling for damage until near cap.
Pulling 3-4 at a time is NP because i just heal while i whittle them down.
This is a very interesting point that gets down to the definition of what an RPG is. Although your claim that threat management for example is inherent to an RPG while dodging fire is not seems intuitive, I’m unable to articulate why.
That said this does nicely encapsulate what I’ve been trying to communicate about the difference between RPGs and action RPGs.
In your case your posturing did not further the discussion. Try understanding that Blizzard is about profit right now and a huge part of that is preventing market cannibalization, and understand that the purpose of Retail WoW might be different than the purpose of Classic WoW.
But a critical point is how that skill is manifested from you into the game. Is it through twitch reaction speed? Or is it through strategy formulation and adaptation? You can improve at both but they are substantially different.
Absolutely, no question. Each individual mechanism can certainly have unintended and/or emergent consequences.
As a side note the group is also capped by healer and group Mana. So no matter what you do there will eventually be a cap. Where you set it is somewhat arbitrary.
In retail you need both. With a poor strategy you aren’t going to kill bosses. My raid struggled on heroic Uunat because our strategy was terrible. Figuring out the appropriate strategy, pouring through logs, and adapting successful strats to our raid comp was part of the challenge. The other part of the challenge was getting people to not fail mechanics while also doing acceptable dps/hps. From a mechanical skill and strategy perspective, at least pertaining to raids, retail beats Classic hands down. I would guess that many very successful raiders from Vanilla would struggle with heroic end bosses and anything at the Mythic raid level. The skill requirement is much higher. What retail is missing are the deep RPG and resource management elements that made raiding in Classic so satisfying.