Eh, whatever. I hope they’ll be atleast somewhat balanced (without 400% difference) and i can safely play my necrolord buddies
2 Likes
necrolord or vacate
1 Like
Here’s how valuable Ion’s opinion on how I should have fun is:
7 Likes
He’s not trying to change people’s minds, he’s just not designing the game to cater to that mindset. In other words, if you stubbornly hold on to the simming raidbot mindset, you’re robbing yourself the authentic MMORPG experience these concepts are giving us. That’ll be your choice, not his.
8 Likes
It is goin to be such a hard choice between necrolords and venthyr
Difference is his opinion affects the game
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No. They’re robbing people of the ability to change something they may end up not liking. Not even talking numbers.
It’s less choice, not more. Stuck with something someone may regret and then abandon the game when their favorite character suddenly has to do a long grind to find something else they like better.
And what happens when Blizz decides to change the abilities in a patch? Rework or retune them and suddenly it’s not as fun to someone anymore? That person is stuck with a long grind because Blizz changed things and the person no longer finds it fun.
What happens when someone loves one ability for its fun in PvP, but really thinks something else is more exciting for PvE?
This isn’t even about numbers. This is about people being stuck in a type of gameplay they may find unappealing after they take it or after Blizz inevitably changes things.
Someone may love a Covenant for the cosmetics but hate the abilities it gives. So they’re just screwed.
Abilities should not be locked behind a story faction.
20 Likes
Didn’t Blizz say during BlizzCon that we would be able to test each Covenant as we level up and make our final decision upon reaching level cap?
4 Likes
I think what you want is for covenants to be either cosmetic or something you can flip between like a switch. Something that either doesn’t impact gameplay or you don’t have to commit to. This is the point where you say “YES EXACTLY”. Fact of the matter is that that type of design inherently makes the choices lose flavor. The RPG portion of committing to a covenant, and have them reward you with their power, is lost. It just becomes another stale gameplay thing with pretty visuals.
I get your fears. I get it. BfA has been a sh*t show. The balancing team has screwed us more times than I can count. That said, Blizzard needs to be bold in how to handle their MMORPG. You clearly don’t find immersion in what they’re doing here, so all you see are the risks, but I fully encourage the direction the game is taking in terms of adding meaning to our choices. It rekindles a special feeling of identity that hasn’t been felt since when we initially committed to a class to level.
5 Likes
Blizzard also said mounted combat in WotLK, and I’m still waiting…
But, alpha is a week away and I think a lot of questions will be answered!
1 Like
Difference is the players’ opinions keep the game economically viable and the servers working.
2 Likes
Have you seen the world we live in? If correct people’s opinions mattered we wouldnt be in this mess.
And the same goes for videogames, hell they often might not even care as you might not be the most profitable person to cater to.
That is why i expect the game to go the way the lead dev’s opinion points to instead of some random forum man.
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good. Those people have been such a pain even back when I was raiding. “Oh you’re one talent point away from what I want? Too bad, get out.” like dude.
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I’m getting the feeling Shadowlands is going to be the roleplay expansion. All these new customization options. Picking a covenant and you can’t just walk away from it for another.
I don’t imagine we’ll have too many “no turning back” choices to make, but it feels like the point in Shadowlands is to live the table top fantasy, not worship the spread sheet, the latter of which is kind of what BFA did. Hard.
People are hard pressed to say anything good about BFA.
2 Likes
Maybe people need to stop simming raidbots.
1 Like
Oooh such exclusive information!
Stop.
As a super casual player I really don’t care if 1 will be better than the rest. I’m gonna have all 4 done for the cosmetics any way. 1 class per covenant that fits its fantasy so this dh will go venthyr, do will go necrolords, paladin will go Kyrian and druid will go Night fae
That wont rly be possible unless they make everything feel a lot more personal too, something that affects you and your gameplay.
For example I am using the exsanguinate talent which is sub par to toxic blade, but i still use that because i find the game play a lot more fun. (Plus have great memories from legion prepatch where it was 400% and just deleted ppl with it)
But with things like corruption where I dont really care? my gameplay isnt changed, most of the time it is just random silly damage, there’s no effect on my so in this case i ll just keep simming my corruption item collection and choose the biggest DPS one because it doesnt truly affect my character, corruption isnt controlled by me
They definitely need to focus on more gameplay affect talents if they want people to stop simming everything, min maxers will never stop that but for casual players like me that often do harder endgame content I am forced to simply because of the million silly irrelevant effects that boost dps.
They said they will offer the option to switch covenants, but it won’t be easy. They said this at the blizzcon panel.
1 Like
Spoilers ahead!
According to Wowhead your first character will start the story by escaping from the Maw and then quest through the four major zones, each controlled by a different Covenant. When you compete the story and reach level 60 (the new max), you can choose a Covenant. (With subsequent characters, you will have the option to choose a covenant right from level 50.)
'https://www.wowhead.com/guides/shadowlands-covenant-overview-abilities-rewards
(minus the ')
So… maybe?
I just really want to go Venthyr. Even if it might look lackluster DPS-wise compared to the other mage choices.
Just glad I have a guild and friends who won’t nitpick and take me along to raids and M+ regardless.
2 Likes