It might not end well either way. It does feel a bit like the modern WoW dev team keeps wanting to take ideas from the older versions of the game but they don’t fully understand why people loved those versions of the game.
So we end up with a bunch of half measures that don’t really bring back what people used to love about the game.
Right now the system makes it feel like every choice is a bad one.
Personally? I go for whatever thematically fits my character. I go for fun factor first. The meta can die in a fire for all I care. I research my class and spec and etc. and strive to be good at it and contribute to parties.
But when it comes to this kind of stuff I don’t care. I’m going for the stuff I like.
How is a defensive CD with a cast time going to be the “fun” option compared to a teleport? Unless it lets you stand in fire and no sale a geared melee mongo in your face, which I don’t see happening. Remember Blizzard’s motto regarding defenses: “If the tank is having fun, no one else is.”
Yes different people get fun different ways, I can respect that. For me I need to try my best else it doesn’t seem that enjoyable. I also don’t really feel like a meta slave, if anything dks haven’t been fotm for a long time. I just would hate covenants to make me “worse” than I could be if my class is already not that great.
From the OP:
Instant. Full value of the shield. Passively absorbed corpses to empower the next cast. When used, empowers itself based on nearby enemies.
It’s an extra defensive ability at this point, via suggestion.
I think it’s a cool ability and fits the theme perfectly. But it’s missing that extra something to make it special. Making it feel similar to Bone Armor from Necromancers in Diablo 3 would be a solid fit.
Because people are blowing this up into hysterics once again. The whole idea behind the Signature Abilities is to tie into the grander theme of Covenants.
If people are badgered into going into Venthyr because of Door of Shadows, then that’s there issue.
The only reason that this is even a problem is because of World Firsters and MDI. They get on, reflect on what they see, and then the copy cats double-down on it. Then other people feel pressured to get the obvious choice because they lack a spine and then they all complain when Door of Shadows gets nerfed.
It’s Blizzards fault for making cool abilities. It’s also Blizzard’s fault for fixing obvious problems pragmatists take advantage of.
They do seem to be moving away from the idea that it is still possible to play the game if you joined late and toward the concept of “You expected to be able to play the game when you bought it? LAWL. Sucks to be you!”
I’m not too sure that’s actually a good strategy for getting and keeping new players.
I know I play this character less since they removed her ability to buy essences while giving half corrupted gear she can neither use nor cleanse, so a big nerf to playability.
I’m not world first or MDI (not to mention it doesnt affect MDI at all as MDI doesn’t happen on live servers). I want to use abilities I think are fun. It makes the gameplay fun. I also want to have an aesthetic I enjoy. If no option contains both, then any choice I make feels like a bad one. Covenants should not affect gameplay in any way.
They don’t value player time. You can achieve the same rewards in much less time by choosing to wait for content nerfs and catch up mechanics. Past catchup mechanics were a better balance. Catchup dungeons that could be difficult and were new.
So pick one.
So pick one.
So pick one.
Then that’s on you.
Only the covenant abilities that associate with player power. Only they need to be talented. Torpedoing the Signature abilities before you can even test the Soul Binds is hysteria at a phenomenal level.
They’re utility spells. They are meant to compliment your class, not become apart of it.
It’s MY player time YOU don’t respect. Wanting me to spend the entire rest of the expansion grinding old content and still be unable to catch up and play the game is bad for me and it’s bad for the game.
Admit it. You want people to pay and never get access to the content. Because “Sucks to be you!”
Actually it isn’t on the player to roleplay a satisfied customer when devs have decided to design the game in a way that is intended to cater to people who think other players deserve to be punished.
Any changes you are pretending will happen here won’t. If somebody doesn’t find their gameplay fun because of a choice they made, they’re probably not going to say, “Oh, I need to grind that over here now on this covenant. And I need to stop wanting to do that content that used to be fun to do but isn’t any longer because of how covenant abilities are designed.”
People don’t do that. A lot of people are going to fail once and see the system and its strong supporters for what they are, and find some other game to play.
The game will experience another expansion of shrinkage.
It’s actually “on” a lot of people. I’m not nearly the only one that holds this opinion.
There is no way to balance different utility abilities. No amount of soul binds will do that.
Like talents.
Please stop trying to use ‘Oh they can’t balance it’ defense. Blizzard has never been able to balance anything before, and saying that a teleport with a cast time is the greatest glaring issue, then you’ve not been paying attention for the last fifteen years.
No, not like talents. Talents are class/spec oriented. Covenant Signature Abilities are neither of those things.
‘What? I have to make a choice? The Horror! Where is my eraser?’
Again, player powers aside, everything else is fine. If you people really think Door of Shadows is going to break the game then it’s honestly on you at this point. Nothing will change your mind unless Blizzard rips everything down so each and every ability is balanced and homogenized so no one is ‘left out’.
It’s this mentality that killed crafting specializations, but nah, we have to make everything competitive for some reason.
It’s not a “defense” at all. You are the one defending these unsupportable changes, not me.
Thank you mr sophie’s choice. Just take the least worse choice and live to regret it. Because games should never be about having fun.
Keep saying that and maybe it’ll sound like you believe it. Right now you sound like a PR flack working off a checklist of “points you must make”.
You mean, for not being gullible enough to accept some anonymous stranger’s word based on nothing whatsoever more than his agenda?
Keep telling me what I think, because clearly you are convinced you are a mind reader who can cross the intertubes to learn everything about everybody.
Nope. It is YOUR “accept everything including nerfs that make your profession more work and more expensive to learn but with no useful craftable items” that has wrecked professions.
The concept of a social co-op RPG is all but gone.
Everything is PvP through actual PvP or parsing PvP.
It’s more like ‘my calculator is better than your calculator’ at this point.
But outside of talenting the player power abilities (which is totally fine), freaking out about the utility spells is mind-boggling.
Indeed, which is why people are hoping they actually fix this before it gets to the live game this time.
The type of abilities are, in fact, like talents. The only difference is any class can have them. They could add them as a “covenant” talent line, below the class/spec specific talents.
Then that doesn’t make them talents.
Just end me with this nonsense.
T obe fair, they become part of the toolkits. Teleport is strong because very few specs have a teleport-like ability. It opens up a new playstyle the specs weren’t originally designed around.