I know it has less spells.
So probably shorter rotations.
But is it truly a 1-ability spam fest? In raids or other content? Or are all spells are actually meaningful.
Depends on the class.
Mage and Lock - yes.
Hunter- i don’t think so could be wrong
Melee - no not as bad
TBC was also a 1 spell spam fest for lock, mage and hunter
Obviously not “ALL” spells are meaningful.
But is it an one ability spam fest.
No it’s not.
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I am torn between maining a Mage or a Healer Priest/Shaman.
Spamming one ability as a mage is probably gonna be a let down. LOL
But I will still probably enjoy this more than Retail that’s for sure
Don’t get fooled by this.
Obviously you can if you want to just spam frostbolt on mage or shadow bolt on warlock.
But you can do so much more with trinkets, ability cooldowns and all sorts of things. One button “rotation” is just a gross oversimplification people tend to have about Vanilla because people managed to get by doing just that.
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Past MC/BWL Warlocks have the option to go full destro fire, and that opens up for a proper rotation of sorts. At least not a one button spam.
Raids, for damage spells yes, but there are other buttons to push. Dispels, decurse, various CC’s, Curses, purge and whatnot. Various classes have to take on different resonsibilities, like hunters kiting trash / adds.
PvP you use the tool-bag you have, and make the best of it! PvP, imo, is also the place where you can learn to push your class to the limit.
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Not all spells are meaningful. You may run through the game and not use all your spells. That’s fine.
It’s just if you want to get creative with them. If you play a priest. You can go through the whole game and not use mind control once. Or you can use it on a pack of two mobs and make them kill each other.
The spells are there to have meaning to each person. I played throughout my time in vanilla without ever using eyes of the beast. It’s there if I wanted it. But I didn’t. Some other smarter hunters most likely found uses. I didn’t. I was a noob.
For rotations it may be one button in raids. Ten in dungeons. And all of them in world pvp. Get creative with what you’re given. You have a lot to work with that’s for sure.
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In PvE generally yes you’re not pressing too many different abilities, in PvP you’re using a lot more of your entire toolkit, which can get overwhelming, especially if you factor in engineering skills.
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It depends entirely on the class/spec. Mages and Warlocks spam one button, but the others have varying degrees of difficulty. Warriors can get away with doing a pretty simple one (monitoring threat of course), but they can also swap to Battle Stance and Overpower if one of their attacks gets dodged for increased DPS - giving complexity and reactionary additions. Ferals have a pretty high skill cap for power shifting - and Hunters too, the rotation can change based on the weapon you’re using, whether you use Aimed Shot and Multi-Shot on cooldown or balance them with your auto shots. You can’t just use them as they get ready, as you will clip auto shots and lose damage in most situations.
Well couple caveats about mage is that you can go 31 arcane and do frost-bolt. So it’s basically spamming same spell but with a little variety because of arcane power.
Also later tiers you can go fire and do rolling ignites with other mages. Cheesy but powerful. Not as boring.
I played healer for much of vanilla. I thought it was very challenging and interesting. As shaman or priest you have more variety than say druid.
Eyes of the beast has a great use in MC. It can be used to safely pull lava packs into Garr’s room without needing the whole raid to run down that tunnel.
Hunter’s in Vanilla do have a pretty simple rotation from what I remember, but it’s not 1 button and it’s also variable depending on the situation because Arcane Shot and Aimed Shot share a cooldown.
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It’s only “simple” if you clip your rotation. If you don’t, each weapon makes the timing different, and a shot timer is mandatory to not clip it. It’s really only 2~ buttons regularly but it’s all about timing. It’s quite fun.
What I meant by simple is that there are not a lot of buttons to push on a regular basis.
An oversimplification, but not entirely untrue. If this bothers you, I recommend melee DPS.
They’re simpler than they are in BfA, but calling it 1-button spam fest is a little hyperbolic.
People keep missing the fact that down ranking spells is REQUIRED in vanilla, mainly for healers but also for DPS in PvP. A druid can have 5 different ranks of healing touch, for example, and you have to know which rank to use dependent on the situation. For priests it is WAY worse.
One button spam is a myth. Or at least a gross exaggeration depending on the content.
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Purely from a dps perspective, not counting dispelling, cooldowns, or other things, some classes were.
Frost mages - just spam frostbolt
Fire mages - if you’re the scorch bot you do more, otherwise just spam fireball.
Warlocks - put up your assigned curse then spam shadowbolt.
Moonkins - spam starfire
Ele shaman - spam lightning bolt
Every other class had a little more nuance to their rotations.
Nope not truly a single button fest.
People just don’t know what they are talking about, even though it kinda like how when you played a paladin in wotlk at the start you didn’t really have a fixed rotation you would usually try and create one.
Mages had those mana gems and evocation, and you use your defensive abilities when you need to. /blink
But raiding isn’t were classes really shine, its pvp so expect using the same abilities down rank them or using items which are part of your rotation.
/pyro blast /fire ball / scorch /fire blast /blast wave /increase crit per none crit ability or/arcane power fire mage has a bunch of abilities that may be used when needed.
Yep. The complexity of the game and classes didn’t come from a rotation, it came from everything - from the setting up and preparation to the intricate knowledge of the mechanics of the class, the fight, and where your current gear allows you to sit.
Well in general most combat rotations were simpler than what we have today.
Classes might have had more spells but most them typically weren’t used.