Why Does WoW Have Cool-downs Instead of Real-time?
Some games have immediate button functionality: Press a key or button = swing your weapon or cast your spell. No wait timer no individual or global Cool-downs.
Wow on the other hand Has Cool-Downs. Why? What do Cool-Downs do for your experience? Lots of other games do not use this Cool-Down system. I don’t understand why we need it in Wow. It makes no sense to me?
Was the original idea to create a semi-turn based simulation for the people who were new to real-time combat? Like some games tried to do?
I don’t get it it? Do we really need to wait 2 or three minutes to use a spell or swing a weapon? Why?
The technical reason behind cooldowns is usually balance related. Imagine if you could keep Icy Veins or Time Warp up 24/7. It would be ridiculous. So those abilities have a cooldown to keep the game balanced.
From a flavor standpoint, I view it as abilities that require a lot of energy/mana/what-have-you, so we can’t keep using them, we need to “recharge,” just like we do when we do work in real life.
Just out of curiosity, what games didn’t have cooldowns? Were they MMOs, or single player experiences? Single player games don’t have nearly as much need for cooldowns as MMOs.
Most of the games I play are single player games some are fantasy rpgs with NPC companions. Some are more like Uncharted, Mass Effect. The Last of Us. Mount and Blade. Dragon’s Dogma. Call of Duty, Etc.
I also have played Everquest, Dungeon Siege. Star Wars Galaxies. Star Wars the Old Republic. Etc. Some of these games use the Cool-down System. Some use the Real-Time System. For me Real-time seems a lot better all around system. Cool-Down system seems unnecessarily frustrating and archaic.
That’s it, isn’t it. I’m surprised they didn’t also make Wow a three quarter isometric view to boot. Really go old school Like the Diablo series.
I’m not gonna say that I hate Cool-Downs. But I will say that I dislike them. To me they feel like I need to do something but I can’t because it is artificially restricted. Like fighting with one hand tied behind your back.
What is funny with ESO, is many like the OP who try it - attempt to just stack their slots with pure damaging abilities/spells then rush to the forums there after getting melted in both pvp and pve cause they didnt pick their defenses which have CDs (very short, buts still a CD).
Not to mention all proper rotations (at least pve spellcasting, can’t comment for melee) devolve into somehow DoT managing rotations and spamming at the same time. Like a spriest on speed. Ugh, it’s so bad.
I’m confused what no cooldowns looks like. One of my core abilities as a Brewmaster is “Keg Smash”, it does a lot of AoE damage and reduces the cooldowns on some defensive spells, has an 8 second cooldown.
A normal AoE rotation might look like: Keg Smash, Breath of Fire, Spinning Crane Kick x2, Exploding Keg, Keg Smash, etc. Without a cd, wouldn’t I just do KegSmashKegSmashKegSmashKegSmashKegSmash ?
Me it would me; Infernal + Infernal + Rain of Fire + Spawned Infernal + Infernal + Rain of Fire + More Spawn Infernals + Infernal.
Probably have an entire zone covered in Fel Fire and Infernals in mere seconds. Given talent bonuses and no more CDs. Yes, that mean Soul Shards would count as a form of CD and just sit as full as spenders.
Sit in WM and stun lock and burn away the entire player population with a single macro / mouse over.
