Having one or two for big moments in a boss fight or to cycle strategically in a dungeon run are good things. But I don’t think Blizzard realizes that having too many of them reduces those classes to hitting like a wet noodle while waiting on their CDs to come up.
It is not fun. I think if they are looking for a way to engage average players to return to this game a great start would be cleaning house with CDs. This would make classes feel powerful again outside of whack-a-mole popup windows.
Note I am talking offensive CDs here. There of course should be defensives as well. But generally speaking I think it is important to look at rotations across the board and consider how much players are waiting for popup timers on their weakauras. Elites who want more buttons to press will of course disagree and that is fine. But your average run of the mill players returning to this game should be the goal, as many zones and servers are veritable wastelands compared to what they used to be.
Completely agree, I hate having so many spells I only use once every 30s or something. I think so many cooldowns could be combined into one spell with charges. There is also way too much CC in this game.
Depends a lot on the spec and playstyle, we should have more variety but I don’t think there’s anything fundamentally wrong with any individual design.
Also remember that the more a spec is built on sustain damage the harder it generally ends up being and the more impacted it is by disruption such as having to do mechanics. Being able to say “As long as I nail the next 20 seconds then the 40+ after don’t matter quite so much” is a good thing for the average player.
Shadow Priest has 2 main builds. One based on extending a 2 minute cd for 50+ seconds through consistent overall play, with a 1 minute cd to offer some burst between uses.
And one based on 30 seconds burst windows created by void torrent, with a short 1 minute cd damage buff to accentuate those shorter burst windows.
Both builds play very differently, have different pros and cons, as well as situations and content they’re more effective in.
Try out sub rogue for the best of both worlds! Energy management, many cooldowns (shadow dance, secret technique, symbols of death, flagellation, cold blood, vanish, shuriken tornado), upkeep spells (slice and dice, poisons), AND combo points! Bonus!
It kinda just depends, WoW’s a game that often requires players to manage disruptions to their gameplay in order to perform. One such way to manage those disruptions is to weight the periods of time you’re not disrupted much higher than the periods of time you are.
It’s also typically much easier to play optimally for shorter, more spaced out periods of time, than to play consistently optimally throughout the full encounter. Even if the loss from messing up during CDs is greater.
While I generally prefer DPS that have no/low cooldowns, I don’t really think homogenizing every spec into that would be good for the health of the game overall. Allowing more passive/less button builds that perform slightly worse due to their more limited complexity and interaction for people who prefer it is fine and something I strongly hope Blizzard employs more of, but I do not think turning every spec into no-CD would be fun for the game. Some people prefer having those large bursty moments, especially so when it is accompanied by proper setup and execution. You shouldn’t desire to kill that playstyle outright when there are options that do not play around cooldowns or have cooldowns that are frequent enough that they are barely felt.
Yes sub is a great example. Never have liked SnD, completely ridiculous ability, it’s like saying “ok so we are going to take away your average damage but we will give it back to you to manage on a timer.”
It’s why I specifically don’t like Frost DKs in PVE.
I don’t like that the is to fire of 5 cooldowns. I don’t know about damage or anything like that, I don’t track that.
But just mechanically, the 5-4-3-2-1 GO type gameplay is just a terrible feel.
Worse, in open world PvE, I tend to use long (2m) cooldowns very rarely. Which means I hardly ever use them at all. Who wants to burn a 2m cooldown on a trash mob in a WQ? Save it for “something important”, save, there’s nothing important when gathering 10 Boar livers. So, its a dead button.
In raids, Augs will try to learn how others use thier cds, then apply buffs prior to your burst so you do more damage. Rotating buffs to players using cds is a fun way to increase the raids overall damage. It adds to the skill cieling of the spec for those trying to do the most they can.
I find dps to be boring (healer main) and the above mentioned mini game of rotating buffs I find is a great way to stay engaged on long prog nights. Without cds, Aug would just be buffing the same targets all fight and that would be redudant and boring game play.
yeah holding cooldowns then never using them sucks. Or you use them during a boss but then OOPS IMMUNITY PHASE LOL
i like 1 30-sec cd, a 1-min, a 2-min, and a 3-5 minute as the /real/ “oh shi” one, to save for stuff like if undermine spawns on you in a delve right after you pull an elite
