I want to start off by thanking Blizzard for recognizing the problem with the GCD changes to some of the spells in game. Removing some of these abilities from GCD will undoubtedly improve players’ experience through smooth game play - so thank you. But these changes along with others have come to PTR in such a fashion that insists there won’t be a whole lot of time to test them and see how they actually sit. That can pose some problems when they actually go live. This brings me to my next point.
If we truly want to test changes to the game that impact countless players, I recommend making these changes early and making them well known to the community beforehand. If you bring changes that are this important to the game too early and they do not sit well then there’s going to be consequences. The lack of connection between the game developers and game players is in such a state (as far as I know) that it’s been beyond concerning.
I’ve never seen so many well thought out and described posts on this forum that detail not only the players’ experience but what’s wrong with some of the aspects of BFA. We all have to respect the time and effort that goes into the posts, whether we all see eye to eye or not. We as a collective obviously want what’s best for the game and each other’s experience.
I want to recommend to Blizzard and their game developers to put in more effort to connect with the community. If there’s a strong understanding between us then we will see great changes to the game. If these changes would be announced well before the patch hits live servers, that will give the players more time to not only test the changes but to give meaningful feedback (which could lead to further improvement). If there’s little connection between developers and players, then we will see changes that may have an adverse effect on the game.
At the end of the day, I’m just happy that Blizzard seems to be trying. We all have to tip our hats to that. Seeing the reintroduction of vendors makes me so happy. The adjustment in the philosophy of how Island Expeditions are played gives me motivation to do exponentially more than I have since launch. It makes me glad to see certain spells coming off the GCD, even though we know that some spells should stay (hopefully we’ll get to that happy balance soon).
TLDR - Thanks, Blizzard, for making improvements to the game. Looking forward to 8.1 Lets give each other more of a heads up before making big changes for testing purposes. We the players need more connection with the game developers. /moo
Good now just take the rest of the spells off the GCD.
Edit: Would rather have a fast paced game than a clunky slow mess where you can play with one hand not looking at the screen.
I can agree to an extent. I very much enjoy fast paced game play. But I’ve also seen Warriors and such charge into battle, hit one button that has been macro’d with several spells/trinkets, then absolutely wreck their target with no effort and almost instantaneously.
Unfortunately, it seems to take mass exodus of players to make them stand back and think, wait, what happened to make players not like our vision? Changing things that had no reason to be changed never made sense to me. I do not remember anybody ever saying the GCD needed to be changed, and yet, someone in development thought that was a grand idea.
It was placed on the beta, it was not well received, they put it in place anyways. It was griped about for months after the game released, still nothing. Queue falling sub numbers and some crazy stock drops later and we see them starting to look at what was being said. I always loved blizzard but their motto went from “Soon” to “We hear you”. The problem is that they hear us but until it affects their bottom line, they do not care what we feel about their vision. Which is pretty stubborn. It doesn’t feel like a game for the players any longer.
This is why we need better connection with the game developers. Because if there is no or little connection it creates confusion and resentment. There almost needs to be an entire team hired on whose sole purpose is to create that bridge between player and developer.
We need to make Azeroth great again. /moo
Edit - I’m unemployed and would gladly be part of this hypothetical team.
I’ve come to the conclusion that Blizzard perhaps more concerned with optics and looking like they listen to players by stating it rather than actually listening to players. It also seems like a lot of those who attack your constructive criticism are super casuals who do not understand the high-end plateau in wow at all.
It does seem to me, at least lately, that they publicly say that they listen to the community and they enjoy the feedback but aren’t completely genuine. Sometimes I doubt that happens at all. I believe things like this are said for PR purposes rather than the acknowledgement of the player base.
This does FeelBadMan. I miss where you can easily tell, across each class specialization, who was good at the game and who wasn’t. That skill cap has been lowered crazily over the past few years and it’s very apparent in BFA.
This would make me so warm and fuzzy inside. Any reduction of RNG would be gladly welcomed. The RNG has been tyrannical since launch of BFA and it just doesn’t feel good in my experience. I think the RNG that affects me the most (this probably rings true for most players) is the Warforging/Titanforging system. The system makes the looting experience feel more bad than good.
The FEW abilities they are taking off the GCD aren’t nearly enough. Gameplay is so slow and boring it’s painful. I spend more time autoattacking than attacking, I hit once then wait and watch the little visual going in a circle over all of my abilities on my bar. Wow, what fun.
That’s ok though, my main game has lightening fast gameplay, I can lay down three AOEs and come in with single target attacks on top of them. Combat in that game rolls along fast where it plods sloooooooooooooooooooowly in this game now. push a button, wait, push a button, wait, push a button, wait combat in this game takes one finger of one hand, that’s all you need.
It. Is. NOT. Fun. Blizz. It. Is. NOT. Engaging. Blizz.
At least we’re making progress in the right direction instead of working backwards or stagnating. Any type of improvement is a win in my book. I just wish improvement would come at a higher rate than several weeks/couple months. Also my wish is that the game developers would be way more vocal about said changes. The time gating is real ! /moo
Sorry, this isn’t trying. It’s just realizing their stupidity. They’ve been told the change is awful from the very first second they made it. There has been near universal, and unified feedback about how bad this change makes the game feel.
They need to revert the entire idea, not just a few abilities. And not 6 months later. Pathetic.
Minus the snobby, I agree. It does seem like Blizzard set themselves up to fall into a trap then work for several months to slowly revert back. But there’s improvement and improvement is good. We could just suffer the GCD change and play through all of BFA with it eating away at us. But Blizzard has realized their mistake(s) which is more of a good thing than a bad thing.
No, you’re right. I’m just really tired of Blizzard’s attitude when it comes to addressing player feedback and their stubborness. I simply wished they had listened when there is a huge wall of negative feedback thrown at them when they first made the change.