Just came back to play, decided to jump on and make myself an old death knight.
It then dawned on my how much I preferred the old WotLK class design from anything modern.
It largely feels free from gimmicks that exist in retail; my death knight feels like a death knight and less like a ghoul pimp.
My dots do decent damage; pestilence makes me feel like I’m bringing the plague, death coil doesn’t feel like a noodle and Scourge strike feels like a beefy hit.
White damage even feels nice when you slap a big crit.
I then decided to jump on my rogue and play around with combat.
My sinister strikes feel like they slap, killing spree feels amazing to use again in its full glory.
Obviously it’s slower; the rotations are more static but it spiked a few things in my memory.
I remember how good getting an instant cast pyroblast felt on fire, opposed right now to it not feeling like a bonus fire bomb I’m shooting but something so common it’s lost meaning.
I think I preferred the old model of less actions but every action felt way more impactful.
Part of the problem is I’m good at doing rotations, when I get a rotation down pat it’s like second nature.
For a comparison with unholy death knights today is nothing feels good to press, apoc is kind of fun, but it still feels like a gimmick that feels less good to press than a fat SS.
TLDR WotLK class design feels way better than modern class design
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Its because they went from that design to rotation spam, high APM clickfests.
It doesn’t feel better to spam rotations 10x quicker just because they wanted to expand the skill gap in this game.
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Yeah, doing an action every GCD watered down the good feels button pressing.
That or the spec is completely held hostage by an ability - BoS on frost DKs
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WoD was the pinnacle of class design and good casual pvp. The last time that wow was as wow as it’ll ever get. People poo on it as much as they can, but it was the last expansion with almost everything most people loved about earlier wow. Wrath lacked a lot of the good stuff that showed up later and had horrible nearly everything but raids imo.
Current class design is actually pretty good imho… WOTLK was a slower game and most classes were getting their “signature” abilities or the start of become their best version, WOTLK is the GOAT XPAC and it’s not close… but gameplay currently is better. WOTLK just had everything going for it, the best villain in game series, 2 of the top 5 raids and just a great set of zones and fantastic gameplay with class design.
This purely my opinion… but the gameplay is currently superior in most ways.
DK’s were the Flavor of the Month in Wrath. That’s why they were a bit OP during those times. It’s like Demon Hunters a bit OP during Legion. Expect Evokers to be a bit OP during Dragonflight.
Wrath like other Classics are slower which were perfectly fine during its time. Modern WoW needs fast pacing becoz its games are way faster/harder than old WoW.
Death knights just specifically in my mind felt way better when there was actually impact on abilities
I’m not sure I truly agree. Today many things are faster but less nuanced and fairly shallow.
DK is probably a good example where older design not only had multiple different rune types for different abilities, but also modifiable rune mechanics that changed their type.
Sure it was a slower pace, but there was more depth to how you interacted with your abilities.
Same with things like attack resets, timing abilities between weapon swings etc.
It’s just a different style, just as valid today as it was 13 years ago, but aimed at a different genre.
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I think they had some better interactions with choice making
Like do I want to spam 3 death strikes with my runes and get some health back or am I going to try to finish this thing off and slap Scourge strikes
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There’s no comparison how much wrath DKs are better than retail. And much more fun!
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Yeah hard agree on this one, ive never really enjoyed my dk much after the legion rework
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i know people love legion but that expansion just KILLED a lot of classes, the biggest victim is the ret paladin. That hasn’t been fun for a good while.
but wrath did have a lot of good class design though
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it was also the last expansion where you had actual customization in classes. instead of a cookie cutter with different animations like the current talent posts force on you instead of actual talent trees that made your character unique. different visuals of the same effects are not uniqe characters.
I also miss Wrath class design, I hope the return of old school talent trees in Dragonflight means a return to something more like Wrath class design.
I enjoy a lot of the high APM spam hyper-proc-y rotations but it does feel a little odd that there aren’t really ‘slower’ classes anymore, not the same magnitude of difference as there used to be. Classes being defined by things like DoTs felt a lot stronger.
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I can’t endorse this comment enough.
I hold Legion accountable to so many atrocities.
Was really hopeful with DF fixing many issues, but after seeing the results of the Paladin talent trees I currently not even going to purchase it.
The current design is very shallow in my opinion, as you said there should really be options, it doesn’t really feel like there are options anymore.
Sure there are some “slower” classes, but not to the same magnitude of before, nor with the same depth and complexity that they had. Instead they are like a few ApM lower and typically lose that after the first patch and get a degree of haste speeding up their rotation.
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They pruned the skill trees and made each spec focused on one thing (no more Frost tank or Blood DPS). Really they got rid of Frost Tank And Blood DPS in one of the first major patches of Wrath, but it was fun while it lasted and mostly possible because of Blood and Frost presence. DK was OP in Wrath, just like DHs were OP in Legion, everyone rolls one and only a few keep playing them after the nerfs, same will happen with Dracthyr.
WoD SPriest dots would like to have a word with you.
I’m having a blast in Wrath Classic’s prepatch right now. I just wish it looked better and had xmog.
Oh, and mana downtime. Come on, priesty. Drink faster.
The joys of playing a warlock the first time when it was current. I never had to drink.
I will always hate Legion because of this. Idc if the content was fun for some people, Blizz removed the souls of so many classes in the name of “class fantasy” which ruined the entire expansion. For you it’s Ret, for me it’s Sub rogue. Sub has been strong since, but never been less fun to play or play against than this Legion+ era.