Blizzard have philosophy on systems players don’t like at first glance. They will launch with it locked because they want you to try and see their point of view. It’s a huge win for them if they can get the player on board with their style of thinking.
If 9.1 comes and players and going crazy about it or players ditching the game because of it they will change it. If the change does happen it most likely be patch 9.2 , history and Blizzard repeat themselves constantly .2 is always their big patch.
They have a backup option if it fails as a severe last resort. Keep in mind it failing is 100% their interpretation not what the community says or thinks. They will tweak things each patch until 9.3 at which point if it is still a major issue I can see them opening the flood gates and letting it go. So we are talking the final 25% of the expansion MIGHT open things up but I think just like flying… they will not consider it a major failure and they will keep this model.
Which was the problem with bfa, but bfa was less punishing. Shadowlands is going to be a WoD for me it looks like. Play the story then unsub for the rest of the expac. Covenants don’t look like a fun choice at all.
The community unsubbing makes their interpretation of it failing come that much faster.
That’s part of the point he’s making. Not only do you have the covenant abilities, but some of the covenant soulbinds are improved by the abilities.
For example, Venthyr’s teleport can be improved to make it instant cast through the appropriate soulbinds, I’ve heard, but what happens when you go to a covenant ability that is already instant cast?
It’s like, imagine as a Druid suddenly changing all your abilities to Warrior ones but still having the Druid talent tree. It would make absolutely no sense.
Well, worst case, they can make it swappable between covenants, but I think that sticks a pin in the ‘ability swap’ and ‘same ability but different skin’ ideas.
When you’ve got soulbinds modifying your covenant abilities, simply swapping the abilities isn’t a realistic option, and the ‘same ability but different skin’ concept would mean we’d be getting tons of conduits for different abilities of which we might use one. It would be a nightmare.
The code is prolly along the lines of this kyrian has betrayed baston and decide to join the Necrolords with it comes the unique knowledge of baston. “You can now use the Kyrian covenant abilities while being a necrolord” the ability will be green and ghostly green hue instead of blue and gold.
I never cover up the things I’m proud of. If the world was gonna split in half tomorrow, I’d buy the Dark Portal, slap a toll booth on it, and charge refugees the last of their pocket change, the rings off their fingers, a bite of their sandwiches, and a contractual obligation to build me a rocket palace in the skies of Nagrand. It’s the Blizzards way! Supply and demand!
" It won’t be hard to leave a Covenant, and it won’t be hard to choose a new one, but once you’ve left a Covenant rejoining it will be difficult "
Given that’s a quote from an interview with Mr Hazzikostas, and it has been said numerous times in other interviews, I read that as being the opposite of your post title. Covenant switching WILL be possible; its just switching back if you change your mind that won’t be easy.
Yes, I like how people make assumptions over an incomplete system. I expect many things to change/be added/be adjusted between now and launch. In fact, I’d be mightily surprised if they didn’t. Beta players are crash test dummies - they watch how we bounce against the game on impact and adjust stuff from that data.
I’d like to suggest that certain people pull back on their angst and keep on testing before burying the body.
Can Blizz go that low