Paladins used to specialize in hurting demons and undead, but had no extra damage or effects on other mobs. I did not change out of paladin because they didn’t when say I was fighting humanoid mobs.
No, it is a great feature. Look at games like Vampire the Masquerade, Skyrim, Fallout 4, etc. All are great narratives, great games, all have a choice in a faction you choose to side with, and once you choose a faction, it locks you out of it. When you choose the institute, you make an enemy of the railroad and brotherhood. When you choose the StormCloaks, you make an enemy out of the empire. All of this affects side quests and stuff that appears in end game, but doesn’t change your narrative. This is what covenants are. It gives you 2 more abilities and some soul binds that are basically talent trees. Nothing game breaking if you choose wrong, especially with ALL the wealth of information that is datamined and then put out with release and all. You have plenty of opportunity to make an educated decision, and it should be a meaningful choice. Choice is a great thing in games, and adds some engagement and fellowship with others. Just look at the AvH stuff. People are fanatical about their faction, and that only affects who you play with.
Covenants only affects a few abilities, transmog, cosmetics, and your own characters side quests. That is it. Nothing detrimental
Those are single player games, not an MMO. In an MMO there are no save points, no way to go back and change things. That style of decision point is grossly inappropriate for an MMORPG.
No it’s not, Covenants are a massive borrowed power system. You’re clearly reading different forums that I am. Because the feedback I’ve been reading has not been complementary. Most classes have one maybe two covenants that are actually useful if they are lucky.
Please don’t bring single player RPG concepts into this. This is an MMORPG not a single player game. What works when you’re the star of the show doesn’t work when you have to share the stage with thousands if not millions of others. You can’t have that impact without harming others game. Furthermore, not everybody plays this to be an RPG. So enforcing RPG elements on this when this has always been a casual game is a major anti-pattern. It’s why we’ve never had punishment for death, up until this coming expansion. Everquest did… many MMORPGs did… but not WoW, because WoW was the casual game.
This design decision is taking the game a new and honestly bad direction for what is supposed to be a casual game.
Apparently you haven’t been reading all the cries for the game to be LESS casual.
Impactful choices can matter in a MMO easily. You are representing what covenant you agree with in outlook, survival of the fittest, or life and nature is precious, or that dedication to the cause is more important than the individual, or sin and violence is awesome lets drink blood. You make a choice to represent and support a side, and this is a GOOD thing because not everything in the game needs to be made up purely on how good you do in M+ or raids, when the overall impact is negligible, and just an added cool factor. Some abilites, are bloody awesome, some, meh, but its something you get to try and see if you like. Same as there are people that LOVE enhancement shaman despite the fact it sucks. They will still raise that enh flag with pride. Right there, is the right choice. Play what you want, how you want, represent what you want, and the stupid sims be damned.
I don’t understand why certain players think Blizzard should be designing the game that they develop, own and manage around how those players play the game.
If the game is actually unplayable, as in players are unable to clear the content due to the design, then there is an issue.
Refusing to design around players who don’t want to put a bit of extra effort into their play when they don’t have a leg up everywhere, is not an issue.
I’m not going to reply again. Please read what I wrote carefully, this isn’t about sims. This is about punishing players for wanting to play different things; to help their friends. The devs fully understand that nothing they are going is going to stop the min/maxers or the mythic raiders. They will do what they will.
Nor will this stop people from getting declined for a group because of covenant. That will be a thing because people will have yet another thing they can judge people for.
I’m tired of arguing against the same trite and frankly hollow arguments that don’t hold water. I’m done.
I would guess they’re using gaming psychologists to design these systems to keep us in game (and more importantly, subscribed) as long as possible.
I see similar system in games for my little grand niece - timers, RNG, special badges, multiple currencies, events, etc. All of which are designed to get players (okay, their parents lol) to buy them hearts to help them move forward.
What stops them from helping their friends? The only gameplay they couldn’t are quests for that covenant, there are quests paladins cannot help warlocks on via Legion, etc.
And nothing stops these people from making their own groups. Nothing is preventing them from doing content they want to, they just can’t force people to do it with them.
and there will be many many others, because those people want an easier way to do their thing. Again, nothing stops the players from making their own groups, so there is still no downside. They can still do the content, just not with people that don’t want them to.
No you are just done with the fact you have a difference of opinion and not everyone is going to say you are right when they disagree. Get over the fact there are people that do disagree, and there are people who pay the same amount to access the game and are fine with the design decision. For as many people as there are that don’t like it, there are those that do, and those that don’t care. WHY should blizz ONLY listen to your side? Why should it only be what you want in a game everyone else pays for? Where is the line of who blizz listens to? Who decides that arbitrary line?
I used to think devs were clueless. Now I realize that they know what players think. They just think we’re wrong. Their reasons for designing the game the ways they do have zero to do with increasing the customer base by designing a game people will play because it’s fun, and everything to do with realizing some vision of the future of the game we can only guess at by observing the changes they implement, often in the face of protest by the playerbase, many of whom have quit over changes they felt they couldn’t live with.
If there are 1.7 million people (as some 3rd party sites suggest) that would require each person to be spending almost $800 a year on WoW. I have a feeling that number is not correct.
