Found this reference to Ion on another thread. I don’t understand why taking on a tanking/healing role when the need arises (and wanting to do it optimally) isn’t supported more. What benefit is gained through these kinds of restrictions?
“The fact that you can change your azerite traits adds a lot more flexibility” – not compared to Legion Tier gear.
“You can just spend a few dozen gold to shift all of your azerite traits to another spec, if you haven’t been respec’ing much” – Yes, but this completely ignores those who DO change roles often to help out with dungeons and raids throughout a given day/week to fill in the tank/healer roles. Reality doesn’t always work out nicely where a tank/healer KNOWs that they’ll be out for a couple of weeks; often times it’s a spurt of the moment thing and can happen a lot more often than Ion seems to imply with his examples.
“If you’re going back and forth between 2 specs – generic traits are available.” – this really only works for DPS specs and is mitigated with the new outer ring of azerite gear that will have spec specific traits.
“We think there is value to friction between changing specs and operating optimally in a given spec. Someone who is dedicated to one spec should have small advantages than someone who is constantly switching specs.” WHAT VALUE is gained? There’s also plenty of dedication already in place with grinding out weapons/trinkets/and all the OTHER items to get the optimal secondary/tertiary stats for a given spec. Why limit a players ability to tank or heal optimally when they’re asked to do so by other players? How does this restriction make the game better and/or make the game more fun?
I imagine the value he’s referring to is the increased /played time required to farm additional azerite gear just to play these half-finished specs . Probably very valuable to Activision.
I thought of that - but that argument only makes sense if they awarded Azerite Gear in M+'s.
Once you’ve reached your cap on Uldir Bosses and looted your M+ chest (which is going away as an option for AG), you’re basically waiting for a new emissary quest to give you a roll at the gear - which doesn’t take much time.
I have a feral set of Azerite Armor and a guardian set of Azerite Armor. It takes up 3 slots in my bags since one set is always equipped. When I change specs, I change gear. I have been doing this since Vanilla.
If I have to respec my Azerite Armor, it is going to be a rare circumstance.
Besides the time played metric everyone gives, the only other feasible reasoning he has, is he doesn’t want players to feel FORCED to play a role they don’t want.
I haven’t raided with a guild in a while, but it was nothing out of the ordinary to see someone who loves to dps to be pressured into tanking if the normal tank didn’t show up. In the last couple of xpacs there was very little difference between gear for specs (maybe ensuring your artifact was leveled up), so you had no reason to say “No” other than you didn’t want to. With so much money required to respec now, you have some excuse.
But let’s face it, even that reason is a dumbly huge stretch.
I think that the state of the game as is is God awful in terms of any sort of progression, and based on reading the OPs quotes Ion doesn’t seem to be trying to answer the idea of hybrid classes (classes with tank/healer/dps roles optional).
The mentality of the team seems to be more-so in line with you grabbing a class and only playing that one spec that you like while ignoring that the game is supposed to be an MMORPG, where you need to interact with and adapt to the setting.
I’m personally fine with having to farm a dps set or a tank set if they are dead-set on not allowing traits to change with your spec, but they need to introduce easier ways to get gear than pulling a lever, crossing your fingers and toes, and praying to whatever deity you believe in.
Azerite gear vendors are an okayish fix for 8.1 for this, but we could still really benefit from an all gear vendor that isn’t an RNG based loot pinata like the Legionfall or Argus welfare loot vendors.
I get that feeling too - but then why give us the options for various specs if there’s already so many classes to choose from? And what harm is being done by allowing players to tank/heal freely?
Being able to grind out the extra gear through M+'s seems ok. But for Azerite gear - the new approach to being able to convert Azerite Gear into currency eliminates any motivation for players to trade away any pieces they don’t need.
Right - but it seems like there are multiple players wanting to know why this is Blizzard’s stance. How does this approach make the game more fun and add value to the community?
It is, for example, more fulfilling to be the best protection paladin than it is to be a paladin who also heals and does DPS to fill. The former is a paragon e-living their class fantasy and the latter is a gamer who will likely move to another game because they characteristically lack dedication.
Personally, it is more fulfilling to play a game and have fun.
While I often get asked to tank or heal (vs dps; which I enjoy much more) for various content - I enjoy being able to play with my guildees and friends.
It’s fulfilling to fill the need of a group rather than my own desire to play one thing.
That’s actually why I choose to be a druid. They can fill all of the roles. Helping out with tanking/healing doesn’t really bug me if I can still have a great time playing a fun game.
Even if the benefit was to fulfill the selfish desires of players wanting to feel glorified by themselves as a particular spec - is that really the reason Blizzard wants to give as the benefit for restricting/punishing players that would rather fill a role to fit the need of something (group/raid/etc) greater than themselves?
![:clap:](https://d38bqls1q93fod.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/clap.png?v=6" ":clap:")