I think they are all great lore/storytelling (great job)!
However Kyrian seems the only one viable for my main (mage) because of DPS/raiding concerns.
Necrolord shield seems unusable. The elemental mage transform seems very low. The cast times on them are all annoying. The CD reducer is a melee range skill for a ranged(!?).
I really like the anima powers, however they are only in Torhast, which is broken. The worldwide skills/talents system really needs to be fixed & made consistent for more “player agency” as you guys call it.
this is the one. thank you for actually realizing that the top-end playerbase matters, and are actually capable of thinking outside the box and allowing a best-of-both-worlds option.
It’s a variable thing. I mentioned there being a point where the tuning of content means performance matters.
So, obviously, performance isn’t 100% tied to your talents, stats, covenant abilities, etc. Skill is a factor, Knowledge of the content is a factor.
One player might be able to meet the requirements of a piece of content while using suboptimal choices.
Another might fall below the threshold, which means someone else in the group has to be good enough to make up the difference.
That’s what makes it not a static “at this point, you MUST be optimal”, but it DOES mean it matters AT SOME POINT.
There will always be a point where you do “need it” because of the tuning of the content. Whether you play content at that level or not is another story.
The truth of the matter is that Warriors did get nice things, but the Banner of Glory buffing allies attack speed by 50% is too huge to pass up in favor of anything else. There’s no way any warrior would be caught without that if they want to do higher level content*, and that’s actually pretty depressing, because we’re likely going to be forced into that and only that now unless we tank.
It’s either that or play only 1/4 of the content he currently does.
How many people do you think will stay subscribed with only 1/4 as much to do as they had in BfA?
But you’re fine with having him forced to be sub-optimal in all but one type of content.
I’m not understanding all you people whose goal is to gimp your gameplay and be as awful as possible, as though that is the height of nobility. Oh, not your gameplay. Everybody else’s.
Sure. It’s a “community issue” that people want to play the whole game rather than a small fraction of it. They need to lower their standards and be willing to log on less and play less, right?
I don’t think many realize how damaging locking abilities away behind four huge gate keeping grinds is to the players and longevity of the expansion.
It doesn’t matter how you play the game; Casual, hardcore, bleeding edge, or somewhere in between.
Your choice is being taken away. You may view this as “oh I have a choice between four covenants,” but that’s absolutely the wrong way to view this. Your choice to play the game the way you want to is diminished. Locking abilities behind covenants is a colossal mistake and could easily have similar impact by cosmetic changes or other perks (what about guild perks previous taken away?).
Instead of picking player power for yourself, you’re diminishing your player power in potentially up to 75% of the content. There can be meaningful choices given to players without having to sacrifice an aspect of the game.
I take it everyone who is worried about sims also will have every class at max ilvl upon release of the first raid tier so they can freely swap between classes. You know just to ensure your raid doesn’t gimp themselves.
it is not about sims. it is about utility. being able to dodge a mechanic because you have a teleport? ridiculously op. being able to have extra throughput in a certain part of the fight (or remove a debuff via steward)? ridiculously op. think. outside. the. box.
How are we supposed to make this decision when there are no numbers attached to these abilities or evidence of their performance?
For instance: To the Hunt
“Charge to an enemy, inflicting Nature damage and rooting them.”
How much damage is this? How does it compare to the other abilities?
This poll is kind of indicative of everything that Blizzard doesn’t understand about their own system. It’s a worthless poll because a chunk of the community is going entirely off aesthetic, some are going off player power, some are going off lore, and many are opting not to and giving comment feedback about how restrictive it all is. And there’s no telling how many are voting based on a specific class, either, which can skew it.
It’s indicative that while not all, many people aren’t truly engaged or enjoying these things on a base level as intended and they feel stuffed into a specific set of options based on performance.
The abilities just need to be swappable while Covenants themselves in all other areas are not. But I think that’s a pipe dream because Soulbinds will be another layer of mess when we see the completed picture.
