So a Game Designer Can Convince Me Why My Character Needs to Transform Into a Random Dude in Ascendance

I genuinely don’t understand the design decision behind Ascendance turning our character into a completely different elemental model.

One of the main appeals of an RPG is building and seeing your character. Their race, their transmog, their identity. But when Ascendance is used, that identity disappears and you become a random elemental-looking guy that has nothing to do with your character.

It feels especially strange now that we have so many glyphs and cosmetic options in the game. Instead of enhancing our character, Ascendance replaces it.

So I’m honestly curious:
What is the design reason for this?

Why does the ability need to completely replace the character model instead of empowering the character visually (effects, aura, elemental overlays, etc.)?

I’d genuinely love to hear the design philosophy behind it, because from a player perspective it feels like losing character identity during what should be a power moment.

4 Likes

They literally had a glyph that made us glow in a different color and was slightly ethereal. Idk why they removed it.

2 Likes

RIP Glyph of Ascendance from WoD. Blizzard has dug their heels in on this. It makes zero lore sense for our characters to turn into twilight cultist ascendants, but they made a new model for it and everything so I doubt they would change it again.

1 Like

Exactly. I dont understand Either