I’m curious as to why templates/fixed gearing was so unpopular in other expansions? They got removed really quickly, and before shadowlands dropped i only heard negative things about them. I hear arena was pretty dead because of it.
If it comes back what would make it different from last time? I think currently shadowlands gearing and the difference in ilvl is a mess, but I honestly came back to shadowlands because of gear being a factor in PvP again, I just think the gating behind rating is garbage, and I also think the power difference in ilvl is way too much.
What if the difference in ilvl power wasn’t as strong as it was now, and they just removed gear being gated by rating. I honestly don’t want templates back, but I don’t want things to remain how they are, its tough lol.
because people convinced themselves that the lack of secondary stat customization mattered, as if they don’t pick the same cookie cutter items and use the same ‘best’ build as everyone else in the current system
The answer to your first question is probably going to vary from one person to the next, but I think the most common complaint was just that templates were boring. I know that was the case for me and my friends, and believe it or not, most people do just play the game for fun. The secondary stat allocations also tended to favor some classes/specs quite a bit more than others.
I’m not a fan of templates and I don’t mind gear being tied to rating all that much. I’d rather they reduce the ilvl gap between tiers and (ideally) reduce the number of tiers. But they shot themselves in the foot by insisting on having 4 ilvl tiers in pve, so that probably won’t happen.
I think templates could work if they just scaled primary stats (stam, int, str, agi) to some static ilvl, but players could adjust or pick their secondary stats. It seems like that would address most of the power gap problems while still allowing players to control how their character “feels”.
I think scaling (and squishing the gap with scaling) is the best of both worlds… You enjoy an even playing field, and you still get to choose what gear you’re going to be using to suit your playstyle and build choices. Even if there is an “ideal” meta template, it may not apply universally to every class/covenant/spec combination.
For example, from a warrior perspective, Venthyr will often want to focus on crit, while the other covenants will focus haste. If the template was haste focused, there wouldn’t be any more Venthyr warriors.
They didn’t favour anyone that was the whole reason for the templates. The last 4 seasons of pvp during legion there was only 1%-2% changes to skills to bring them into line.
If your spec had THE worst stats for the classes and they were STILL viable what happens when you give them the best stats? How do you balance something like that its stupid.
Templates not only brought a balance that will never again be seen in arena due to ilvl differences and skill differences but it allowed you to play alts instantly. which was amazing for anyone who just couldn’t care less about grinding to have fun.
Are you sure about its uselessness? I checked armory of my HolyPally healer now, he is Versa-Mastery by choice. Perhaps there is a perspective difference between a rank1 person and rbg elite, mastery doesn’t seem useless at all.
Its not even for light of dawn, its just bigger wogs primarily which is nice
Angrycuban is my fave hpal by far and i was ecstatic when he ran a night fae mastery build because i hate cookiecutter
But overall hpal mastery is bad. Even in pve they’re not fond of it
And yes, hpal is good but it feels bad and its sad
Edit: literally every mastery for other classes and specs is a flat damage or healing increase with no condition and hpal is the only mastery that has a condition tied to it, requiring proximity. Why does holy priest get a free hot for all of their healing
Haste or crit is worth much more than mastery for some specs, while others value all three stats pretty much equally. If the templates are forcing mastery then they’re going to be better for some specs than others.
