Strongly disagree with covenant skill system

Community General Discussion
21

Blizzard already reveal some part of the system , so I think even it just a small infomation of unfinish system we still should show them what we are concern better than stay silent and let the bad system pass

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22

Get your choices out of this RPG right now!!

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23

Not impulsively according to whims - thoughtfully and strategically based on the type of content we’re about to run, in the role we’re about to run it in.

That’s why being able to change them based on the various kinds and combinations of content and roles available to us matters and makes a significant difference.

24

And to me that is not player agency.

When you are given everything and you can do whatever you want with no choice consequence…that isn’t a meaningful decision.

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25

what does borrowed power accomplish exactly? It just feels weird as somebody who started in Wotlk and stopped taking the game seriously after MoP.

26

Fair enough. I’m glad they’re making the Alpha/Beta longer, and establishing clear communication.

I have hope for these next few months of testing, as well as for Shadowlands.

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27

But there is a consequence - for the content you’re running, you can’t use the other covenant abilities. There’s no need to cascade this to the entire expansion and for all forms of content when there’s so much to choose from.

The consequence can be limited to the time you’re in combat, or away from a rest area. It doesn’t have to be so broad that it punishes players for simply wanting to play the game.

BTW - the second definition to Agency on google: 1. action or intervention, especially such as to produce a particular effect.

There doesn’t need to be such a broad consequence to enable agency the way these covenants are being executed.

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28

If it gave 1 race to be above other at all situation , yes . If it gave benefit depend on situation no, thats cool

29

I don’t see that as an actual consequence.

People change talents/essences constantly in a single raid night. Not having access to something for a few seconds isn’t an actual consequence for a choice. It just means you can change the choice pretty easily without actually having a consequence.

Player Agency carries a different definition than Agency, specifically when talking about video games.

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30

Just level an alt then?

IMHO, I’d rather have extremely impactful choices. Let’s take the hyperbolic example of the guy in another thread who plays a Druid and plays all 4 specs at a super high level, depending only on what he’s doing.

He has a choice to make. What kind of character is he gonna be? There’s more to play than just raw numbers and theoretical best setups. Lots of people do better playing passive talents than sim worse because of various reasons, even at high levels of play. The cannonball trinket from TD, for example, sims awesome, but sucks pretty bad in practice.

Faux dispersion sounds kinda meh, unless there are several bosses with an energy bomb. Then it’s suddenly BiS for low HP casters at a certain key level. How about that.

Numbers aside, because trying to pontificate on that matrix against class/spec/gear levels is madness, as long as every class has an answer to most mechanics (and definitely not ALL mechanics) it’ll be great.

31

It has a HUGE impact during the fight or dungeon you’re on. I think you’re severely limiting the consequences of being able to change them freely in a rest area.

32

Nah, let em blow up the forums. It’s the only way Blizzard will actually listen.

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33

So you want someone to re-level the same exact class and go through all of that rep all over again, simply because they may have picked the wrong covenant and abilities? There’s a huge difference between an alt after you decide you’d like to play another class and your main being screwed over for the entirety of the expansion.

Impactful storyline choices is one thing. Screwing people over out of abilities, because they couldn’t be arsed to link them to the talent tree and threw out another throwaway system that’s crazy difficult to change is extremely poor design.

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34

I don’t actually, you just said that it was so easy, I was saying if it’s easy then that’s the obvious answer.

35

I preferred a time in the game when choices such as this had virtually no impact on how your character played the game.

Expansion-related factions once only provided access to certain useful items. Cenarion Expedition in BC, for example, had zero impact on your toon but it enabled you to buy certain very useful patterns, pieces of gear and a mount. It was a similar situation to the factions in MoP. I understand that they want to give us ways to improve our characters but I’d prefer it if it was done through natural character talents and abilities that we earn as we level.

But hey, that’s just me. I’m getting very tired of “grind this thing to get something that will be nerfed/changed/removed in a few months”.

36

How is that NOT a consequence? It would be HUGE if you could access all of the abilities, or all talents at the same time.

But you can’t. That’s why you have to think about what you’re doing and what choices you need to make - because they’ll matter when you’re progressing in raid - or pushing an M+ key - or PvPing.

Mind sharing your official definition then?

37

It’s easy to make an alt. But people still have their mains. Talent abilities should not be locked behind storyline factions that are extremely difficult to change. Abilities in gameplay are way too important to be treated like this.

Exactly. My gameplay talents/abilities/passives should NOT be tied to a damn faction that makes it extremely difficult to change.

38

Am I the only one concerned with having out of place weird abilities in my spellbook that don’t come from worn equipment or my own class? D:

I mean I admit I miss profession specific abilities like lifebloom but this is weird.

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39

Nope. It’s not just you. The whole idea is ridiculous. Their laziness in adding abilities and talents is getting out of hand.

40

As a DK i want to go necrolord, but as a Blood Dk (tank spec) Death and Decay becoming a skill that also reduces damage taken sounds way too good on paper… There it seems to be a cap to that reduction though.

Edit: Well i’m gonna wait and see what happens on alpha/beta so we have actual data on the skills rather than just a description.

Edit 2: Screw it, i’m gonna go Necrolord DK, sounds nice and they “make up the armies that defends shadowlands” which is cool as well. If that somehow costs me m+ or raiding, so be it.

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