Eh… most of that is disabled in PvP. In Raiding (mythic) and M+ it should probably be too in all honesty. It’s actually quite small compared to most other player choices that can be more freely changed. Racials usually make up only 1-2% unless you’re an orc hunter. Class makeup… that’s a bigger issue and related to the core of the dispute here, blizz isn’t known for making things balanced.
Either way I don’t think hyperbole is (generally) constructive.
I’ve felt the same way. Part of why I love WoW so much is because of all the things I can do with my character. All of the choices I have and how valuable and impactful those choices have to my gameplay.
The game would be so much more boring without them - kind of like Classic.
That doesn’t mean Classic is bad, it’s just not my style. It doesn’t offer me fun and challenge specifically because you can’t make meaningful choices. Although to be fair, there isn’t really a whole lot of diversity in how you play Classic. There’s a reason it’s called “Vanilla”.
Yes you do, because the race/class you’re playing as isn’t optimal for X content (Assuming you’re not already that race/class).
You can’t just change your class/race without either a service change, or already having an alt available. So why aren’t you advocating for being able to change your race/class at any rest area, at any time?
Well for the class - you can freely switch to another class without any penalty.
You don’t have to regrind to max level and get gear all over again every time you play a different character.
In all honesty, Jessail said it best.
I can? So I can go to a rest area and instantly change my class without switching my character?
I was deliberately avoiding responding to them as they were deep in hyperbole territory.
No - you can change classes without having to re-earn things you’ve already earned.
With covenants you have to go through the process all over again to regain what you’ve already worked for - if not, you have to go through more.
Stop, you’re making yourself look like a fool
…I…can?
I don’t have a Shaman. I’d like to be a Shaman right now.
You’re saying I can switch to Shaman right now, as my character, “without having to re-earn things you’ve already earned.”
Yeah. I’ve recognized on GD that a lot of people go off the rails instead of honing in on the issues being brought forward.
Most RPGs give you choice in equal measures that affect story and character power.
You can also change covenants, and I bet it takes less effort than rolling an entirely new character.
Also, be honest: Do you really think people would be happy if Blizzard sold you a Covenant change for $20?
I said on a whim because that implies you can do it very easily for little to no cost.
By your logic you do though. That’s the point: You also hurt your progression in high end play by not having very specific setups.
That’s the entire point of min/maxing is that the only “choice” you ever make about your character is the optimal one. Everything else is being less effective than you could be.
For the other 99% of us, the Covenants mostly just need to not be so badly balanced we’re significantly disadvantaged for picking the “wrong” one.
Much like how it would be a problem one spec was massively underperforming too.
Let me adjust that number to ~60% There is more than the top 1% that cares and wants to be their best. Even approx 60% is probably waaaay off and underestimating.
Side note: Thank you for being fairly reasonable.
Oddly no, and I don’t think that this should be purely boiled down to min/maxing vs. RP. I think that’s disingenuous. I think that it’s a play styles issue and discounting either style is dangerous. Mythic raiders rarely do the ‘obvious’ thing. In most cases they’ve picked apart the encounter to the point they know it probably better than the devs.
No one is asking to have all covenant abilities available once they’ve unlocked one of them.
They are ok going through each questline for each covenant and earning each of the abilities, upgrades, etc.
They want to retain what they’ve earned by being able to pick up where they left off if they change back to a previously selected covenant…
Just like how classes work. No one is saying that once you max level on class/character, that we should then have access to all classes at max level. We are still ok with leveling each of them - because when we switch characters, everything we’ve earned on each of them is maintained.
Just like the decision we made to bring as many Aff Locks as we could. And if it turned out that Hunter cleave was bad too, I’d have made an alt too but MM AoE was busted at the time.
But at no point did the game say…
“We see you picked up your Lock instead of your Hunter. For doing this here’s your consequence”
That’s exactly what people are asking though.
The ability to have every covenant ability (Ha) to swap at any time for optimal results depending on the content that they want to do at that time.
No - I think that’s why players are asking for them to be treated more like different classes on other characters where you don’t have to go back and gear them all over again after you get that back up to max level.
Meaningful choices are subjective.
If being committed to one covenant is meaningful to you then yes it is but if being able to switch covenants to someone else is meaningful then that too is true.
Only after they’ve already earned the ability and any related upgrades through the story/quests.
No one is asking for all covenants, abilities and upgrades to be accessible once the first one is completed. People are only asking for the ability to change freely and to pick up where they left off on that covenant, rather than having to start back over - the way classes currently work.
And for what it’s worth - I’d personally like the ability to change classes more freely on a single character rather than having to go through areas I’ve already leveled through x times.
The new leveling experience in Shadowlands finally helps with that a little - but only for new players. Anyone who has already gone through all of those zones likely appreciates the ability to boost a character - which is why boosts are offered in the game, especially with every expansion. “Want to try/switch a new class for the expansion? Well here’s a boost to go with your purchase to help you avoid all the boring stuff”.
But in most cases those two things are separate past the character creation screen.