SoD to Classic+ and where the Devs should go from here
SoD was a good first shot at what the community is wanting from a Classic+ experience. However, in some cases the Devs missed the mark, whereas in others they did great. Let me start first by saying I enjoyed my time in SoD, especially with the Raids, the new abilities, and the new use of Old Zones etc. I greatly appreciate Blizzard and the Devs for making this vision get closer to fruition as we inevitably inch closer to a True Classic+ launch. I want to make it very clear, I am very impressed with most experiences I had in what I consider to be the testing ground for a True Classic+. I will now begin breaking down some of the things the Devs did, versus what I believe most of us really wanted in the cases where things were not fleshed out or over done. Before I do though, just know these thoughts are not simply my own but from my large friend group as a whole who also played and enjoyed SoD, but as we played we spoke about these various issues in hope Blizzard's Devs would do things differently for a real Classic+ game. For this reason I will be speaking sometimes as though I am more than one persons opinions going forward. We know there are many ways you can tweak things to make them work, and we know that making Classic plus is difficult to please everyone so we tried our best to walk that edge when discussing what changes we would enjoy in a True Classic+ rather than what we got for SoD.
1. Class/Spec Tuning
The Devs in our honest opinion had a lot of fun messing with the classes and tweaking them constantly to see what we liked. However we feel this was a bit over cooked, and that what we had really wanted was simply slight tweaks to the Classic experience rather than full blown massive percentage based increases to abilities etc.
An example would be Shaman Tanking, in Classic Shamans were supposed to be like Paladins and were supposed to Also be Tanks, and we can see this by looking into the Vanilla Talent trees. However, we did not want massive reworks, but instead a couple small things would’ve made them more viable rather than super optimal. Here are the more slight changes you can make instead of making them Over Powered. I will use one example of the Tank Shaman and allow the Devs to then think of the other ways they over did some other specs or classes themselves.
- Give them a Taunt
- Slightly* tweak the talent tree to add more defensive capability
(we don’t want them to rival Warriors, but simply want them to be slightly better than they are and then let the players figure out the rest.)
2. More Class/Race Options
In order for there to be more consistency and longevity in a game, you want more replay ability. MMORPGs do this in a number of ways but one such ways is through a lot of character creation options. In Classic+ we hop that you’ll consider various classes/races and combinations reworked and tuned where needs be brought into the game. For this to work you have to appeal to a broader audience. Who is the target audience? Retail. It only makes sense that to make a new version of the game that is long lasting and fun to play that you give a reason for Old players to return, as that’s where most of WoWs revenue comes from. So here are a list of a couple race/class options from other expansion that could be used to bring in more players again. All class options should start at level one, and have reworked talents to fit in the content of a Classic+ or a TBC+ style game. We realize this would take time to import and create starter zones, so these can be released as a part of content updates for Classic+ rather than on launch. Some Classic players will have to understand that WoW players are not created as much anymore, and we all love the game so a new iteration meant to last would have to encourage a place for us all to enjoy. Examples…
- Monks
- Death Knights
- Demon Hunters
- Worgen, Goblins
- Blood Elf, Draenai
- Pandaren
- Zandalari, and Kul Tiran
- Eventually Other NEW Races such as Ogres, and High Elves
- Some retail options such as Dwarf Shamans, Orc Mages, Tauren Paladins, and Human/UD Hunters.
3. PvP Balance
We all know SoD was awful phase by phase for its PvP Balance, as this was not really the focus for the Devs… however the Devs have to admit that a huge reason why people left SoD early or the Population dwindled on their Classic+ testing grounds was because they destroyed PvP because of the over tuning of classes and introducing new ones and tweaking them before testing. So this ties directly in number 1 and why you don’t want to take a class and over do it as it throws everything else off the target.
4. Rework old zones
When we wanted new reasons to go to old zones and discover more things, we didn’t mean e are forced into doing incursions to be optimal, rather that it was an option. We do want World PvP, and better rewards though similar to what they brought. However we wanted places like Mount Hyjal to be brought made into a zone, and other mysterious locations around Azeroth.
In closing most of my friends and I want Classic+ to feel like a new branch off almost like a WoW2, but able to takes it own direction without destroying the foundations of what made Classic special when compared to Retail as a whole. That being said that doesn’t mean we can’t take a bit more from retail for more options, while leaving some of the more busted things behind.
thanks for reading.
