Other changes they may need to consider to make spec choices viable in end game:
Add Nature and Holy damage to curse of elements or shadow.
Remove element specific resists on mobs (fire, nature) and use general spell resistance and armor to even out the TTK.
Consider reworking weapon skill so that people are not forced to wear level 40s gloves for years.
Maybe reconsider racial bonuses, especially to weapon skill, or add some (such as maces/axes to dwarves, swords/maces to undead (dead humans)) to widen race/class choice.
Consider removing/significantly increasing the debuff cap.
Thoughts? Just thinking about roadblocks to certain specs/races as to endgame performance. Shouldn’t be any significant mistakes you can make at character creation.
Nature yes, holy no. Nature should be included for obvious reasons. Holy already has the major benefit in that almost nothing has resistances to it.
I’m not a fan of this. A fire elemental should be resistant, if not immune to fire damage.
I do agree with this. Someone that chooses to focus on a weapon should be able to master it. If anything players should be able to choose a weapon skill to master, maybe having a questline to get +5 weapon skill in a weapon type of your choice.
I agree with this, current racial weapon skills don’t make much sense as it is. As I stated above though, anyone should be able to master a weapon that they choose to focus on. I say get rid of all weapon skill racials and make it a quest based choice.
The holy damage comment is fair. It really only needs to be added if they remove specific resists. It just means that some specs can’t be played in some content. Fire mage in MC? Balance druid and enhance shaman in MC/BWL/AQ (nature and fire)? Being forced into a spec seems counterproductive to making specs viable.
I really like your idea on weapon skill quests allowing a player to get their +5 to any weapon, maybe being a gold sink after the initial quest.
Yeah, I kinda feel like the weapon skill actually creates more issues/limits gameplay more than it helps. Its a stat that could almost be removed and replaced with hit/crit. Puts everyone on level glancing blow footing and makes it easier to tune encounters.
So nature for resist i can agree with as i dont think we have a talent or ability that reduces nature resist. Though as has been said holy has few if any mobs with resistance to it. I could see adding version of the holy damage buff that paladin’s crusader judgement to an ability might be nice.
I could see giving enchanting a enchant that buffs weapon skill either that is placed on a weapon buffing that weapon type, or as a glove enchant. A quest would be nice yet that could be an issue as you would be locked into a weapon type even if you change which you want later, but a enchant that buffs different weapon skills can be changed to suit the situation.
Yeah, not removing nature/fire resistance invalidates at least 5 dps specs (using MC as an example). This is a chance to make all specs viable and telling every shaman that they must heal for the first 3 raid tiers and only use 1 of their specs seems odd.
Here i thought this would be a thread about opening up the class/race combos that were ui limited lol (like human hunter was intended but they could only do 6 classes per race, think the other one was troll warlock)
What might be fun to see is a dual nature attack/spell/ability getting added like how mages in wrath had frostfire bolt that counted as both fire an frost, but would use the lower of the two resistance score to determine if it were resisted as well as only being able to be immune if the target was immune to both fire an frost damage. This could be added as a rune tied ability. Though personally just having mage get this back so that you could do a frost an fire based built really interesting.
And maybe thats the answer, because sunfire doing nature damage means its useless on Garr, surgers, annihilators, and lava lash for enhance and lava burst, food dps enhancers for those specs…are rendered useless in a lot of MC. It just doesnt make sense. in Fact, Shamans suffer the most in MC as now, their 2 damage types, fire and nature are resisted by so many things.
Does +weapon skills on more gear solve the base issue? The human (and orc) advantage just means they won’t have to go for all of the +weapon skills gear and will be able to free up a slot for something else that will deliver more advantage, resulting in their racial +weapon skills still enticing a ton of players to choose them over other races. So, no real benefit of adding that gear unless they rework the base racial +weapon skills.
Yeah, im still of the mind that weapon skill is an unecessary mechanic. Just let everyone have 40% glancing chance. I’m sure its there just to slim the hit table.