This is completely irrelevant to most classes playing like crap due to pruning. Alts have always been a thing, even going back to BC/WotLK which are “ye old golden days”. The Badge vendors made it so gearing alts to being somewhat viable was never hard.
Pet Battles are also a good addition and truth be told, I’d imagine a fair bit of players are only subbed currently due to that little side game.
A better story would help, sure. But even a great story can become subpar if the core gameplay mechanics are suffering(aka class design). I mean, doing X and Y can be new and okay but if classes have more than 4 buttons and are actually fun then suddenly people are more engaged and the story plays out better. Why? Because people are ENGAGED in what they are doing.
That’s the issue. Most specs, most classes…they just aren’t really engaging to play. Which makes everything else that WoW has to offer, less than what it could be. What it should be. What it once was.
Shadow isn’t too bad. Previous iterations were definitely better though. I loved my Shadow Priest during WoD. Hated the Mind Spike build but I did good with AS and Devouring Plague(until DP was removed, sadness). Cascade was also amazing and lots of fun on fights like Xhul.
Why prune? Oh yeah balance. Why no real balance? Because dev time is wasted making 100 more pets that are going to sit in a tab and never be used. True story. Pokeymon was beat on when it was first suggested and some people in my guild totally called the problem with it…continues dev time would be spent dealing with making new pets, skinning them, giving them animations, abilities, etc… that have ZERO bearing on the actual game. They were correct.
The game is set up now to make a group of people happy…addicts. This is why the xpacs start out at 10-12 million and then quickly dissipates to 3 million or so. Instead of focusing on a game that 10-12 people can enjoy the devs are hyper focused on playing it safe and keeping the 3 million or so happy and hope that the rest, at the very least, buy something from the store before they bail.
Gear drops from the sky so people can gear up 20+ alts.
Pruning is easier than truly reworking the classes because balance is easier with a small toolkit opposed to large toolkit and it frees up time for silly achieves, morphing, skinning, rigging, texturing x amount of new pets.
A small toolkit is easier for someone running every fricken flavor of class race combination compared to people who plays one or 2.
Truly, I log on and hardly recognize the game anymore. If I was an addict I would never be able to put it down and if the game was actually good I would not be able to put it down either…which is why I played a lot from late vanilla through MOP…the game was good and NOT just becasue of class design. Now the game is collect all of these, all of those, have xx alts, be mogged on all of them, etc… There is no World of Warcraft now…it is World of CasinoRNG/Queue/Collectcraft.
Balance. You are aware of the current laughable balance right? Regardless of how classes played before and after pruning, even before “Pokemon”. Blizzard’s track record for balance isn’t very good.
I’m pretty sure different dev’s work on different things. It’s highly unlikely that the people who oversee Pet battles and stuff have anything to do with class gameplay, raids, quests, etc…
Also as I said, it has always been easy to gear alts. Even going back to BC I had my Hunter, Rogue, Paladin and a Shaman that were viable for anything I did, thanks to badge vendors. Gear has to have more sources now since they removed dungeon currency so you can’t gear via Justice Points/Valor Points/Badges of Honor anymore.
And…No. A smaller toolkit is what has forced so many people to be crazy altaholics now. There was a reason I only had my main and a handful of alts back during BC, WotLK, Cata and even WoD(which was when pruning started but wasn’t too bad). Classes had depth and were engaging. I was 100% content doing everything I could on my main. Now? Classes are shallow. There is no engagement so a lot of people switch a lot trying not to get bored out of their mind.
You also realize Pet Battles were introduced in MoP and that was likely the prime of the side game due to the Celestial Tournament, right?
For some people, it’s always been World of Collectcraft. Only difference now is that it doesn’t take all your bank and bag slots to do it. I have mixed feelings on LFG, it has made server communities worse due to all the anonymity but I also feel there is nothing wrong simply being able to queue for some stuff and relax, opposed to sitting in LFG Chat for hours on end trying to get a group together for XYZ.
I will agree with your World of CasinoRNG. There is too much and while RNG is a staple of MMO’s and gearing, Blizzard has went beyond overboard with it.
Regardless. You have your opinions, I have mine. Everyone has one. /shrug.
Who works on what is moot. Budget money either goes into making 10 things work well or make 30 things work poorly.
I get this. But the level of streamlining is insane now. At least in the past I could gear up my destro (others too)for different play styles and now I cannot. I would happily give up any hope of balance for the opportunity to make my toon varied again.
Right, having four alts is different than having 30 fully geared toons…that is the difference. Badges are great but it will not solve the problem at hand. When 40 alt Bob can no longer have 40 fully geared alts he will complain.
Um no. Easy to gear creates alts. Easy to level creates alts. Easy to rep creates alts. Easy, easy, easy. 50 Slots per server suggests that the game is now so easy now that you can have 50 alts…all of them fairly well geared.
Didn’t do the Pokeymon stuff or care to until recently and that lasted less than a month. Funny how the game went downhill about the same time Blizz decided the game needed…wait for it…a side game.
You are right on opinions but I come on the forums and I read how “class design will save the game” or “balance will save the game” or “no LFR will save the game” or “adding flight will save the game” or “harder to attain gear will save the game”. They are all correct but no single one is the issue at hand. As long as Blizz makes the game so everyone can have 1 geared toon of each race/class the game just gets that much more shallow. Add in achieves, pet battle side game, etc…and the game gets even worse which is where we are now… faceroll warfronts, faceroll island expeditions, faceroll WQs. Shallow. When the game was not shallow it grew to 12 million and now that it is shallow it holds on to a 3 million core tops.
Completely agree. If combat isn’t enjoyable or engaging the game isn’t worth playing IMO.
The first round of prunes after MoP was much more understandable. There were quite a few instances of button bloat. But 3 expansions in a row of pruning is just overboard. BFA’s gameplay feels more like a MOBA than it does an RPG. Its a snooze fest.
I think the people in charge of class design have created a situation where they have created job security for themselves. I do not blame them for doing so but I do blame the higher ups for allowing it. The only reason they are pruning and changing classes every expansion is that the people who do it have convinced the bosses that they HAVE to do it…which is why we keep seeing changes when they are not needed or asked for.
Crazy bob with 40 alts will have 40 alts regardless. Simple truth is, the true altoholics aren’t the people who get every class to max level and gear them. They level alts, make new alt. Repeat. Most true alt fanatics aren’t going to take the time to gear every toon to be raid viable. They may have a few they focus on in that regard but the vast majority of the alts are to experience the stories within WoW and stuff. Not every alt is a “lemme grind M+ and WQ’s on all 49 of my characters”. Those are a minority.
But regarding class design and balance and stuff. MoP and even WoD had generally good class design. Classes had depth(though MoP and earlier was better). I don’t think it’s fair to blame pet battles or X or Y. Fact is, unfortunately Blizzard’s design philosophy changed.
Also you are trying to blame Pet Battles on the game declining. That is so far off, lol. Pet battles have been a good addition and truthfully, the pet battle community is one of the few real communities left in WoW. The game has declined because Blizzard’s design philosophy has changed immensely. And whether you like it or not, whether you believe it or not… Class design is a big factor.
That isn’t what happened for BFA tho. All that really happened for many specs was just a prune. Talent reshuffling isn’t a change in class design, its just shaking the Magic 8 BAll. Look at the BFA launch versions of guardian druid, Havoc DH, S Priest, both shammy dps specs; where are the actual “design changes?” They spent like 5 mins on them and were like “welp, we ran out of time, sorry.”
Laziest expansion ever, and it shows. Blizz deserves to lose players over crap like this.
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