This maybe an unpopular opinion but I have spent many, many hours trying to understand the concept of using borrowed power to make the specs feel somewhat complete to no avail.
However, during this time of soul searching and meditation I came up with a radical solution which rectifies all the negative impacts borrowed power inflicts on class design and the game as a whole which i may add has been discussed many many times on these forums to sometimes irrational levels of heat but fear not i have the solution ad here it is… Remove borrowed power in all forms from the game and i mean it no soulbinds, no covenent powers, no legendaries, no azerite powers etc and here comes the best bit build classes which upon reaching 60 are fully complete with all their toolkit availble without the need of added powere to make them feel and function right… Sometimes if you listen closely you can actually hear my genius.
13 Likes
So what your saying here is that desiging a class to be 70% complete with the extra 30% coming from a choice which you dont even make because 1 choice is always the best for 1 class and then losing that choice at the end of an expansion which then causes your class to feel like driving a car which is missing a wheel and thus requires even more “borrowed power” to fix what they initially broke is better game design than just you know finishing the class properly without borrowed power?
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What about tier sets, the original borrowed power?
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No I’m just of the mind that these borrowed power systems should remain, in a cumulative form, as we move from expansion to expansion. The game would get stale quick if there was nothing beyond our toolkit that we achieved as soon as we hit max level, expansion after expansion.
Talent system needs revamped. I said this in another thread:
I think they should do something similar to the Old Republic talent system. Keep the current talents the same, maybe add one more row with some of those main Covenant options. And then create something like Old Republic’s utility points. Along with their layout for what you get as you level.
Theirs looks like this:
I think ours should look similar, but on the left side, have our talent points we spend with the current talent system. The middle can be the path to better show what you get and when (instead of having to go search the spellbook to see what you get). The right hand side can be traits. Take all of the Azerite traits that were kind of minor, all of the glyphs that were kind of minor, the Covenant minor abilites and toss 'em all in there. Give points to choose those in between talent rows to spread out when you get major talents.
It’ll feel more rewarding, be more intuitive and more interactive with more choices and those minor things were already balanced in the game once. I think they need to spend the time to completely revamp the system like this.
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You didnt need a tier set to play your class. Your class felt complete without them. Please name me a tier set that was fundamentally required for you to perform your rotation.
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How did you get all that info from a picture of a cat shaking its head ? 
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Just made assumptions, the usual response!
I agree that would be more interesting and less class defining than say balance druid must choose night fae for convoke no questions asked to even compete with the other balance druids.
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They made replaying the current tier much more fun because you were chasing your set
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They weren’t even close to as impactful as the current borrowed power systems, but added nice flavour
The see-saw has tilted the other way now, some people will say you dont need your legendary, BiS covenant, BiS soulbinds, etc… they are liars. You need those to play a completed spec.
Your spec was already complete by the time you got your tier set
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I’m sure they put borrowed power in so they don’t have to keep adding new spells for each class. There’s only so many binds.
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I see your a man of great understanding and enlightened thought. Why doesn’t blizzard fire the diablo game devs who have ruined the feel of the classes with their convoluted design and hire some good hearted chaps who understand the concept of simplicity is best when it comes to class design.
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Borrowed power this tier feels much lighter than it did in BfA and Legion, where whole swaths of abilities were RNG from gear and AP advancement (BfA), and one’s progress on the artifact in Legion.
I’m usually more impacted by things that change largely expac to expac, such as GCD, aoe cap, changes to abilities in general, etc
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Heres an interesting idea. If you stop adding ridiculous soells like convoke into a classes design and make it so integral to the overall feel of a class people wont miss it when its inevitably removed. If we went back in time and rather than proceed down this class design rabbit hole the players and the devs would not have had to worry about fixing the holes left after the inevitable removal of that expansions borrowed power system. People cant miss what they never had and i think its time they stopped this whole pretense of adding in convoluted systems to finish classes they broke back in previous expansions.
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Your OP listed various borrowed power systems, but this seems to be all about Convoke.
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Threads on Mage Tower skins: “Am I a joke to you?”
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Its just the easiest example that comes to mind and the one i have most experiance with. They are all fundamental to how classes play. You try going into a mythic dungeon and try playing without your covenant ability or soulbinds or legendary and see how competative you are.
I mean, borrowed power is a good idea in principle, but blizzard sucks at it’s continued execution.
If they just kept adding new talents or new abilities every xpac, eventually there would be so much bloat, or so many redundant abilities people would just complain.
The problem is blizzard tosses each borrowed power system and creates an entirely new one from scratch. They should have taken the lessons learned from the legion artifact and carried them over into BFA, and then into SL, making changes and tweaks as necessary.
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You might be right, but those days are over.
