But it happens ALL the time.
Not in my experience. People do ask if they can, and if people say yes, then they roll. Obviously you’re going to run into some bad/toxic people, that’s just how it works in a MMO. I think RDF made it worse on WotLK just due to the amount of people you run into, but before RDF hit, it barely even happened on my server, even after dual spec hit. Also, isn’t there an addon to blacklist those people?
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The runes are interchangeable with no restrictions other than being out of combat.
How am I arguing in bad faith. The exact line of thinking led us to where we are today. True or false? Bottom line is, it was always “I want this QoL feature, if you don’t like it, you don’t have to use it” or some variation of. If people like casual retail that’s totally fine. If people don’t like it, that’s fine too.
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There is and I’m sure it will be used.
One of them. You play the entire class in a cookie cutter fashion instead of designing a character spec. It’s just another contributing factor that brought the game more toward an esport design philosophy. But like I say, my only issue is on the fly spec swapping. There’s no issue with changing specs at the trainer for free, and having presaved templates to choose from. What’s the problem with that from your end?
My only goal is to preserve pug meta from being a toxic cesspool of booting anyone without the exact meta spec for whatever is being done at any given time. In a world without that dynamic becoming meta, then spec swapping would be fine. But its introduction has consequences beyond qol, unfortunately.
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Dual spec isn’t retail, dual spec was literally added in one of the expansions that people say “is classic”. The problems existing in BfA, Shadowlands, Dragonflight, are significantly more than class design, dual spec, and flying.
I wouldn’t even put any of those three on the list of problems that DF has.
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I mean some people want it. I hate dual spec. It’s classic.
And wrath really put the pedal to the metal when it comes to casual retail. Wrath just feels like casual Retail. So saying it existed in Wrath isn’t exact a ringing endorsement.
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Yea its the same thing that happened to OG vanilla. The game became so big that a bunch of people who don’t like RPGs started playing it and became the vocal majority so Blizz listened to them. Now vanilla 2019 became so big again that its attracted people who don’t like RPGs so they’re calling for retail options in SOD. Its a depressing cycle if you love vanilla.
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I see, I think there’s still the pressure for following the meta even in original classic, but you’re right its not to the extent that comes later. I agree on changing templates at trainers is a perfectly good compromise. Still, I think offtanks becoming useless when there’s nothing to tank is always negative, and therefore the best tank class that can dps the most in tank spec wins - similarly for boss fights where you don’t need as much healing. Runes seem able to swap on the fly so we’re already heading in that direction. The esports design philosophy has a lot of culprits. Such as balancing classes around 3v3 deathmatches in arena as well as higher and higher difficulties or raiding and more punishing/difficulties of dungeon content in m+.
This is a hot take, but the pug meta should be purged with some caveats. Pug meta has always been inferior and a cesspool tbh. It only works great in less serious, less punishing content like 5 man dungeons. Its toxic in M+. It’s toxic in serious raiding. Karazhan and ZG and these smaller raids are great examples of it working. Even though, I often play more casually and benefit from avoiding guild raid schedules and such, I think having guilds be the source or the only avenue of 40 man raiding and harder content is the better goal. Provide more casual content for other players.
One of classic’s charm back in the day was not every player could raid, whether because of skill, tech, age and life circumstances. Seeing the few players that could raid with that gear makes the world feel much more grandiose. The fact there’s content out there that other players haven’t even done or can get to, but maybe aspire to as a goal. Hardcore reinvigorates that because of its punishing factor, whether for good or bad. Retail did it by creating togglable multiple difficulties, but that’s really not the best way I would like to see an mmorpg go into.
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Yeah … I don’t think telling players that not everyone can win a trophy works these days …
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The worst of the big 3 and just about the worse change in it too. And in the modern world it didnt become haha fun healer and tank spec l, it was 2 pve specs for diff fights. No dual spec ever, ever.
The only thing that made Wrath “big” was it’s story. Other than that, it was the first xpac where the player base was divided, subs plateaued, and players were quitting in droves.