How about actually learn what the heck is being discussed before trying to preach from a position of authority. At this point you sound mostly like a joke.
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Going hypothetical here:
if two abilities do the exact same damage on paper, but one requires you to be in melee, behind the target, have a certain talent selected and you have to do a set up before you use it effectivelyâŚ
âŚand the other one allowed you to do the same from 10 yards aways regardless of talents or your position relative to the targetâŚ
âŚwhich one do you think is more valuable?
There is so little variation between those two choices that, if you are a dps, it doesnât matter what you choose in the grand scheme unless youâre min maxing, a practice so dreadfully bad to forumgoers.
To focus on just one of the points you made, the primary point reallyâ
This has actual physical proof showing that not to be the case at all. Racial abilities, aside from a very select few, like Shadowmeld on Night Elves and Arcane Torrent on Blood Elves, are within 1-2% difference in power. There are physical logs and data sheets showing this as the case. Again, admittedly only a few racialâs have excessive advantages not really quantifiable like the above mentioned two. Itâs much harder to put a number to Shadowmeldâs strength not to mention itâs value shifts from season to season.
On top of that, you are also kinda disproving yourself BECAUSE of racials like Shadowmeld that are so powerful that many groups will opt to bring teams of Night Elves because of the strength of the Shadowmeld utility. Or in dungeons like Kingâs Rest it is optimal to have at least one Blood Elf to make a few pulls of trash infinitely easier. Thus it creates exclusion in forming groups where there are hard set expectations of âOur group needs X & Y but not Z!â before even bringing in systems like Covenants which, from what has clearly been shown in Beta, will absolutely add even more to that.
Itâs not just a matter of the Covenant abilities either because then you also have Soulbindâs and Conduits and then the unique dungeon bonuses, all of these power bonuses and systems stack upon each other and compound into doing crazy things. Preach, for example, made a video on his Unholy DK where in a +10 Mythic Key they killed a boss in seconds by stacking the Prideful Bonus, the Kyrian Spear, and using the Dungeonâs Kyrian Bonus Golem Damage Increase to do absolutely absurd damage. (shown below)
They quite literally melt a +10 Mythic Keystone Boss in the Shadowlands Beta, in characterâs that are not out gearing the content, in 18 seconds start to finish because of how absurdly powerful that stack of bonuses strung together from the covenant and dungeon mechanics synergize. Quite literally bonuses that Blizzard purposefully implemented. This is the biggest point of the argument I see in terms of this being a bad system, it creates very hard set âWe are forming a group for X dungeon so we absolutely need Y Class with Z Covenant in our group!â
Now, with that said I understand that we have not had full number tuning yet and I have to admit I would be quite surprised if that made it live but it shows exactly what everyone in that âPull The Ripcordâ movement has been expressing worry over. There are very clear cut BiS choices and all these compounding systems are ripe for exploitation and we have not even seen the tip of the iceberg yet.
To further support my point, for anyone who has been in the know in terms of âWoWâ community news these past few months, a player by the name of Rextroy continues to find exceedingly broken mechanics in the live version of BFA and showcase them because all of these systems compound in crazy and absurd ways in a system that we have had access to for 9 months now and he is still finding new ways to break the system.
What we are seeing in the Beta from those actively sharing their experience is that the system that Blizzard is saying there is no âBiSâ choice in does in fact have VERY clear BiS choices stacking on top of already pre-existing BiS Class Choice and selective BiS Racial Choice (NE & BE) and itâs not just simply the Covenant Abilities but each system and some times a combination of the systems.
Then you have after launch nerfs/re-balances which will create new waves of frustration as what was once BiS is no no longer BiS and people, last minute, begin to scramble to change covenants.
This system is going to be a frustration and a source of exclusion for many and its so clearly obvious.
For me, I am lucky enough to have friends who donât care what I pick though they will all choose the BiS options and I am already sure they will find excessive frustration in the game over these systems much like they did with Azerite grinds and reforging costs, Early Legion Legendaries/Artifct grinds, etc.
For me the issue is something entirely different. I am personally in a struggle between choosing the covenant I like and choosing the ability I like. Do I want to pick the ability I like but be miserable with literally every other aspect of the Covenant from Armor to Mounts to Lore to Questing but have an ability I enjoy using when in combat -or- do I pick a covenant I actually like with rewards I like and enjoy but use an ability I very much loath and be stuck using that ability all expansion because I want to be with the covenant I like.
âMeaningful Choiceâ should, in my honest opinion, never be a situation of âWhich option do I hate the least?â and I think this is another case of Blizzard over complicating things just like they did with Garrisons as âPlayer Housingâ, just like they did with BFA and the Heart of Azeroth with the addition of new system on top of new system on top of new system.
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YikesâŚ
Wut⌠one is easy to use, one isnât⌠thatâs huge. Thatâs not minmaxing thatâs having something useful. It doesnât matter how powerful something is if you canât actually use it.
Is this really your fully seriously response to the example I just gave?
Yet they put out the same damage if used correctly. and theyâre both tied to different covenants.
What about the people who chose the worse one but love the aesthetics? They still do the same damage or heals in the long run.
Proof you know nothing of the topic.
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Except they donât. If the chance to use one correctly is 75% vs. 20% then the person with the ability that has the greater chance to use correctly will always do better than the person a harder to use ability. It doesnât matter if you can one shot people if you canât actually live to get the one shot off.
try to use taurenâs warstomp on a bossâŚnow try to use the covenant abilitiy.
yeah, thatâs it.
I use Animal Companion and Killer Instinct interchangeably despite the meta, I still pull the same numbers though I can outdps other BM hunters in the execute phase.
You have died
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<reply censored out of respect to Forbes>
F
10charactersman
Oh my god, how can you be so confident in your argument yet be so unrivaled in how wrong, uneducated and missinformed you are on everything regarding player power and combat.
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Iâm from the unpopular camp that thinks thereâs precedent for story locking, even if I disagree, but numerical thereâs almost no way in the current iteration these things are balanced, and I really dont see how its possible, too many points of failure.
Right, the original post did not mention any chance of performing the same damage if executed correctly, only that a setup based covenant ability and a free-using covenant ability does the same damage if used correctly and effectively.
Blizzard canât balance classes properly, so why on Earth would they create so many systems like Covenant abilities, Soulbinds, Conduits, the dungeon buffs, knowing they could NEVER balance them.
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That was the entire point tho. An ability that is guaranteed usable and will always do the damage is infinitely more valuable than an ability that does slightly more damage on paper but isnât reliable executable on demand.
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