Idea: Devotions

Community General Discussion
1

Directly inspired by the Warlock tome that turned their fire spells green, Devotions are a way to change the appearance of your class abilities. Here are some examples.

Priest: Devotion to the Light - Changes the appearances of Shadow Spells to look more holier.

Priest: Devotion to the Void - Changes the appearances of Light Spells to look more shadowy.

Priest: Devotion to Elune - Light Spells are White colored, Shadow Spells are Dark Moon colored.

Paladin: Blood Knight Oath - Replaces all the Hammers with something more Blood-Elf related. Like the phoenix symbol, or a sword.

Paladin: Sunwalker Oath - Similar to Blood Knight Oath, but with more tauren features. Like BoJ being more earthlike, Divine Storm showing Sun symbols instead of Hammers. And Hammer of Justice has a big totem instead of a hammer.

Mage: Pyromancy - All Arcane and Frost Spells take on a more fiery appearance.

Mage: Cyromancy- Similar effect, but with Frost.

Mage: Arcane Affinity - Ditto, but with Arcane.

Mage: Frostfire Mastery - All specs take on a more frostfire appearance, including arcane.

Warlock: Necromancy - Warlock demons are undead instead. Imp becomes Skeleton Mage, Succubus becomes Banshee, Felhound becomes Ghoul, Voidspawn becomes Abomination, Felguard becomes Revenant, which is like a lesser Death Knight. Idk. Rest of the spell appear more necromantic.

Any other ideas of Devotions would be welcome.

4 Likes
2

Good luck with that.

We only managed to get green fire those many years ago because the class used to have a really passionate dev who genuinely cared about the game and its players.

Most talent Blizzard once had left long ago. Nowdays we are lucky if a new expansion brings a new glyph or two.

6 Likes
3

I guess I just dont see what “talent” did back in the day that is any better than today.

You dont need talent to create green fire. The quests, etc, werent any better. The story wasnt better. The raids werent designed better.

But on topic. I’d be fine with this and just more glyphs in general.

4

All they need to do to end this whole thing with pvp is add a graphics setting that lets players turn off the appearances.

Adding class flavor like this would go over insanely well with the player population as long as it’s announced with the toggle.

1 Like
5

Something for warriors to change that Bastion Spear ability

6

I want the opposite of green fire for warlocks.

Instead of turning fire green, id turn green to fire.

2 Likes
7

1 Like
8

Man I’m tired of warlocks trying to steal another classes theme in these things

9

Ok. But what if shaman had an undead totem that turned their elementals into undead constructs

2 Likes
10

I like the idea but I am sure that this would be behind a grind too, lol

I had to grind out that warlock one because it looked so awesome! The fel-green spells, I mean.

11

Also no

Leave my stuff alone

12

I thought I found a loop hole when you said you were tired of warlocks.

Drat.

13

Never thought of that. Perfect for Bwomsandi Shaman.

14

I don’t think it’s talent that is missing. It’s risk. And passion. Everyone is operating according to design as dictated by engagement metrics with very little variation. On the whole, it likely is better than it would be otherwise. But it does leave things feeling more bland than they would be otherwise.

1 Like
15

Pretty much.

So illusions per se … I always thought them giving the example you mentioned was a good idea but I hate that they’d probably tie it to some content that is FOR ME unattainable so it’d feel bad.

That said I think it’d be a nice idea.

Maybe hunters getting their arrows to take on a more light-holy appearance.

Warlock demonology getting demonform back when casting some existing spell.

Mage shields take on a different appearance [instead of the comically bad looking thing it is now]

Not sure if I did it right :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

16

Turning efflo into a fire puddle would be one way to get DPS to stop standing in fire.

17

Warlock: Faerie pact. Warlocks that completed the Ardenweald questline made a pact with the Winter Queen to summon Ardenweald denizens instead of demons.

18

But what of “old Wow” has passion?

They followed the same cookie cutter quest lay outs. The story was still drab. And they had just as many things to create “artificial” playtime as today.

I guess I just dont see how its bland today, but passionate before.

19

I think Blackrock Depths - and Blackrock Mountain as a whole - is a good example. Someone out there felt that this was a significant lore area and they were going to realize it in-game. As a location. From a purely objective “kill things, get loot” perspective, this is counterintuitive. The layout is not design to funnel MMO players from boss to boss. It is designed to tell a story, environmentally, that the players can experience, even if it gets in the way of that de facto Gospel element of design.

Don’t get me wrong - the current team still tries their hand at environmental storytelling. I think the Dragon Isles itself has been an excellent return to form in terms of creating a convincing location rather than a game arena. But those types of efforts have no chance of coming out on top if they were to contradict the metagame. BRD would never work as a Mythic dungeon, ergo, if it were to be be added today, the original vision would have to be compromised.

There are little examples of this everywhere. The most depressing that comes to mind is that pet battles only exist due to the effort of a nameless developer who worked on it unscheduled (and unpaid) as a passion project. It’s not a feature that fits into the mold that WoW has solidified. But it’s absolutely a fantastic addition, even if it isn’t for everyone.

1 Like
20

But BRD existing previously doesnt mean devs still arent also passionate today.

At most, it means they may be passionate about things you arent passionate about.

BRD design doesnt have a monopoly on passion.