In WoW, I feel as though there is an an incredible art team that has spent thousands of hours crafting everything from character models, to landscapes, to armor and beyond to make an immersive experience that we have all enjoyed for the better part of 2 decades. When the game launched originally, the graphics were cutting edge. I understand that without crafting an entirely new engine and rebuilding the game that there are limitations to what can be done. In fact, I would say blizzard has done a pretty good job of making sure that the art in the game remains aesthetically pleasing.
However, there is one area in which I feel the art in the game has stagnated: Ability artwork.
Take for instance one of the most basic abilities in the game, lightning bolt. It has remained largely stagnant throughout the entirety of WoW’s history. for nearly 20 years, lightning bolt, frostbolt, fireball, etc. have all remained (mostly) unchanged. Now I understand we don’t need, or want, a bunch of textures being vomited all over our screens, however I feel that the game could benefit from beefing up a lot of the abilities to make them feel more impactful.
As an example, I will once again use a shaman ability of enhancement ascendance stormstrike. In Mists of Pandaria, when ah enhancement pressed ascendance and fire off a stormblast, it looked just as visually impactful as it was. It felt like the massive crits that were landing had a visual that reflected their significance. Now when the same interactions take place, a small gust of wind is the visual, and even though you are using the biggest damage in your kit, it feels very weak.
I think WoW should take some time to redesign the looks of the abilities to make characters look like the masters of their abilities that they are supposed to be. I want to see imposing animations making the classes look as cool as they feel to play.
Anyone else agree that the abilities in the game need a revamp?
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Is it bad that I liked some of the older spells that were just… idk I like a lot of the new spells they have now but some of the old animations were simple but effective.
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Not necessarily a bad thing at all. Normally, I’m against adding purchasable items to games. Maybe cosmetic ability packs would be and agreeable middle ground so that blizzard is incentivized to provide updates art?
Hm what about glyph books that we can learn and then go to the barber to change our spell effects or the trainers?
It would allow for all in game things and give a use to those old class trainers again.
And lore wise it would make sense because they teach us how to alter our spells or our spell books etc in order to learn the different effects.
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I like that idea as well. I don’t really care how they implement it, I just want to see some progress in the way of making the game look more appealing!
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Oh yeah for sure I like having customization options with glyphs but they feel… clunky.
I would like to have glyphs for evoker too for different colors for our spells etc.
Have spell effects tied to holidays that would be a lot of fun to go and get a chaos bolt that launches flaming pumpkins lol
The ability to transmog gear led to a MASSIVE jump in players doing old content, collecting appearances, doing transmog competitions, etc. Hell even blizzard added trial of style! Why can we not have that for abilities as well? Look at monks with the red lightning they have. it looks so cool compared to the normal green one.
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I remember when Warlocks cast chaos bolt and a huge scary looking dragon head impacts your victim. And crits.
Now it looks like a green hadoken.
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Right I miss the dragon head!
The icon is even a dragonhead still!
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They did the same thing for our cone of cold. It looked like a tube of cold rather then a cone.
Then they reverted it back.
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Mage in particular has been done dirty through the years. Like look at arcane… Arcane blast might as well have no animation…
Arcane blast isn’t bad once you get to the forth charge.
In fact, all three specs of the mage don’t look that bad. But I still wouldn’t mind blue fire added to my arsenal. Or Greater Pyroblast.
I mean…there’s only so much you can do with a bolt of lighting.
I am happy it’s now an actual lightning bolt as opposed to a blue version of the Druid’s Wrath spell.
I disagree with that! make it arc and fork. Make it appear like a real bolt of lightning. Look what they did with lightning lasso as compared to lightning bolt. I think that even if they just make the abilities look more imposing (make them bigger) I would personally be satisfied.
In the past, when games still allowed individual freedom to customize, I would modify games to look better on my own screen. Even if no one else could see it