I’ve spent some time thinking about WoW and what does it do well, and I keep coming back to it’s core combat loop. Passive damage with meaningful button presses in the flow of combat. To have meaningful buttons, the GCDs shouldn’t be overloaded (except a few specs maybe). If you have an ability “filler”, that is by its own definition, largely meaningless, right?
I also think players need an option for character progression alone. I think that need has been largely replaced with the idea that being a “collector” or “achiever” is sufficient. Eventually though, with every passing collector item, each item in the collection loses value and meaning, until you’ve got a hoard of junk – dragon’s gold. And then it stops being a motivation at all.
The last is customization. And I don’t mean transmogs. I mean talents, items, covenants, etc. Each compound together to a system far more varied than other games. When your build has a niche that you can shine with, and that niche exists in encounter design, I find myself genuinely smiling and having fun with the game.
There’s a lot I find wrong with WoW, and that’s why I can’t come to keep subscribing, at least for a while. But I wanted to try to focus on what it does right and see how others feel about the same.