So Blizzard are not pulling the ripcord

Community General Discussion
62

You say that, but the fact that Blizzard has a backup plan tells me otherwise that either there are more players who want it changed, or the numbers in previous expansions have not shown what Blizzard want.

Take flying as an example, Blizzard made the change in WoD to permanently remove flying and people thought the same thing, that there are enough players who want flying removed, so Blizzard pulled the pin and what happened? Enough players left and cancelled their sub that they had no choice but to bring it back.

It’s the same with AZ and covenants, some players say there are enough people who want it changed, some say there are enough to want to keep it, but why would Blizzard have a backup plan if players didn’t care how the system was?

63

This is straight up wrong. If the spells indeed did change their functionality based on active spec, half, if not most of the issues we have with the abilities wouldn’t even exist and balancing would be far easier.

64

Wat… they do change right? Or only between roles? I remember seeing a couple examples of class covenant abilities morphing to the current spec.

65

I assume you mean Soulbinds, not covenant abilities, right?

66

The class ability from covenants, not signatures, not soulbind stuff.

Paladin has got it good in that department from what I remember.

67

Well there’s only one class ability per covenant. There isn’t one for each spec.

68

You can’t pull a ripcord that doesn’t exist.

69

Please direct me to the nearest pitchfork and torch stand.

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70

Timbos thread should be a couple below that. We got all your pitchfork and torch needs.

71

How’s a healer or a tank supposed to make use of a dps covenant ability? That’s dumb

72

I would like to correct my statement. I just checked the Druid covenant abilities and, for example, the Kyrian one does have different effects based on the spec.

73

Yeah, it is.

What they’ve ended up doing is making it so every Covenant ability is generic enough to be used for every spec, but hard-casting a baseline 2.5s cast spell is gunna be a feelsbad for an enhancement shaman.

74

One covenant ability that does not change when respeccing or resetting your soulbind. One class ability that doesn’t really change, it’s still a base ability the same for your class, just fits with your spec better.

But also: https://www.wowhead.com/news=317159/socketed-conduits-will-not-change-with-spec-in-shadowlands

"Conduits will not change depending on your spec - you will still need to respec Soulbinds in order to change them and setup your preferred Soulbind “build” aimed at how you intend to play."

75

Some do, most don’t. And some only change because they have to, otherwise they wouldn’t work for the spec at all.

Example:
Warlock, Necrolord, Decimating bolt

  • For affli and demo, it affects shadowbolt damage, but also affects drain soul damage, because drain soul is a talent that replaces shadow bolt, so it has to conform
  • For destro, it affects incinerate, because destro doesn’t have shadow bolt and incinerate is basically the destro version of shadow bolt
  • Necrolord is incredibly strong for affli because drain soul does way more damage than shadow bolt and has execute mechanics baked into it, futrhet boosting it, and for destro as well, because with talent, they can further boost fire damage from incinerate + duplicate it with havoc
  • However it’s very weak for demo, because shadow bolt is nothing more than a shard generator filler spell and there’s no way to boost it’s damage, and decimating bolt doesn’t fit into the demo rotation at all on top of that

Warlock, Night Fae, Soul Rot

  • Works exactly the same for all specs
  • A castable 8 second dot that also spreads on 3 nearby targets and makes drain life hit all affected targets. This is incredibly weak for destro and demo, but has some potential to be strong for affli, if it’s built around it. But still doesn’t come to the other options.

Warlock, Kyrian, Scouring Tithe + Warlock, Venthyr, Impending Catastrophe
Work the exact same for all 3 specs

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76

Sure your class ability might change slightly based on your spec and covenant. But your chosen soulbind, once you reset it, is locked to that spec for an entire week.

You have 3 soulbinds, with each soulbind having 4 traits and 4 gems you can socket in, you can choose what you want as you level, but the minute you reset it and choose whatever traits and gems for the spec you are currently playing, that is locked to any other spec for an entire week.

So if you choose Kyrian as a paladin and setup Pelagos for DPS, but than decide you want to now heal for some dungeons you hit the reset button, reset all the traits and gems to holy, but than what? Pelagos is now locked for an entire week to holy, you can’t all of a sudden place some DPS gems just because you changed to ret, you absolutely have to wait the entire week lockout before you can now place DPS gems back in, and than it is locked for the next week to the DPS gems.

“Conduits will not change depending on your spec - you will still need to respec Soulbinds in order to change them and setup your preferred Soulbind “build” aimed at how you intend to play.”

So early on especially when you need renown to unlock your first soulbind and than X number of weeks more to unlock your second and third soulbind, players are going to have to make a definite decision, tank, heal or DPS and stick with it for at least a week at a time.

Meaning if you choose to tank, than you can change back to DPS, but your soulbind will be setup for tanking and you will not be doing anything near optimal for your DPS. Vice versa if you setup for DPS and change spec to healing or tanking than you will not be as strong.

Imagine taking your Legion weapons, choosing to heal and picking up your healing weapon, but now not being able to use your DPS or tanking (or any other spec) weapon for an entire week.

77

Some players certainly care.

I think the majority of players actually are willing to let blizzard make the game in the manner they think best. This game has last 14+ years because blizzard is capable of making a game of value. I personally think in face of that, it is actually high arrogance on the behalf of some players to think the way they want the game to be is the ‘best’ way.

78

16 years, but not because the game has enough value or we would still be up around the 10 million player mark, but because everything else out there has less value.

All I care about at this point is not locking all your class specs to the same soulbind setup for a week at a time. I should be able to change spec and have a different setup for the same soulbind, but how it stands that is not the case meaning for the first X weeks I am going to have to spec for tank, DPS or heal and stick with that for a week at a time with no options to setup for another spec.

79

I would be okay with a daily (even several hours) limitation. Just as long as it doesn’t turn into swap constantly because “muh meta”.

Really though need to get away from this “why can’t I be the best at everything all the time” mindset though.

80

For a lot of players the gripe is I can’t change to spec A, otherwise I am locked to spec A for a week, and especially for multi role classes you cannot one day tank and the next day heal.

All that work over the years learning multiple roles and helping each other where needed, gone. And if it was the same with AZ I would have been buggered royally in BoD since one day I swapped to DPS, went into the raid and needed to halfway through the raid swap to tanking, and than when I left the raid, swap back to DPS not because I wanted to be the best, but my guild needed me to be in that specific role.

1 Like
81

You just love to smugly tell people not to play the way they enjoy.