All those things have always been freely swappable have they not? At least recently anyway
Essences are what i am currently dealing with. My spec feels very bad compared to how it looks with them. And they’re swappable… i cant imagine what Id do if they werent
+1. Look at theorycrafting for ideal BC comps in preparation for Classic BC servers. Shamans are a hybrid and a lot of these theorycrafts stack 5 of them, add a Shadow Priest even though Shadow Priest DPS was sub-par, etc.
I don’t think you can put that genie back in the bottle. Every DPS believes they’re entitled to top meters. I don’t know how you can bring back raid-utility in the way you had in BC while still allowing “every class to top meters”. I don’t know if you can.
Why are you so disgruntled? Nobody is forcing you to keep posting. You just keep chiming in with your angry $.02 when no one is asking for it. If you can’t not insult people, maybe take a break.
The player is never the best at everything in a RPG, even in an MMO. The whole driving point behind a RPG is to play a character that has certain qualities and characteristics you find interesting to play.
But you’re never the best at everything. Even in games where the level scaling is capped, like Fallout or Skyrim, the perks/skills/attributes you pick won’t optimize you for every situation.
On top of that, if the player wants to change his choices, there’s a cost associated with it (used to be in WoW). It made the player weigh his options if he really wanted to change or not.
In WoWs particular case, the characters have everything to be optimized at everything already. You need AoE, pick the AoE spec and the AoE Talents, etc.
No other MMO is as easy as WoW from a RPG perspective.
Since the community has become used to the idea of getting everything; decisions like the Covenants seem outright hostile or incomprehensible. They’ve never had to make a hard decision outside of choosing a class.
Yea, it’s simple that people like cosmetics. Plus Cosmetics are art. The artists put a lot of time into making it beautiful. So by saying Cosmetics doesn’t matter, your also saying art doesn’t matter. And video games are an art form.
I rather get cookies from Grumbles, thanks. 
He has just better cookies.
Okay i understand the example your going for, but what makes you think people didn’t do the challenge modes?
If you put a cookie behind a homework, then obviously a child is gonna do it just for the cookie. Same with the Cosmetic in Challenge mode. This only further proves that Cosmetics matter, friend.
You’re talking about the people who didn’t start in MoP to Legion. Obviously if somebody notices your mog and realized they come from the challenge mode, they would want that, and they would be disappointed to find you can’t obtain it. And that makes cosmetics matter to them.
Grass grows, birds fly, sun shines and rogues hurt people.
People has multitude of reasons to stay subbed or not, few of them being collecters or those who want to look awesome. Cosmetics effect the user experience, if it’s great, it improves the experience. If it’s not, then it decreases. It’s the same sort of story with the cutscenes really. They don’t affect the gameplay, yet people enjoy them, all but 8.3’s raid finale.
Also …
So thinking in your subjective opinion WoD is any good is problematic, but thinking the dungeons from WoD in your subjective opinion, the same unpopular and worst expansion that tanked subs, is not? 
I’m not sure what you think you’re doing. You’re utterly failing. You’re like a fish out of water flopping around on the beach. I’m not sure what to make of it.
How many times in how many different ways do you have to reassure yourself that you’re winning an argument that only you are involved in?
Speaks volumes to your self esteem.
I don’t think we need to bring back mandatory raid utility. But 100% some players need to understand that their spec cannot and should not be S tier in every aspect of gameplay across all content.
That is not how rock, paper, scissors works.
Freely swappable? Inb4 the memes about 60 ony kills no helm…
So is the answer to actually design these characters with strengths and weaknesses in the characters themselves, or is the answer to have the characters be wildly unbalanced, but you make a choice the first time that you boot up the game that gives them extra abilities and somehow that magically fixes the balance problem?
Ironic coming from you. 
I see what you’re saying. I’m just not sure I’ve played many games that are so adamantly restrictive in the way WoW is attempting to be with some of these features. I’m not “used to getting everything” in WoW, I just primarily play other MMORPGs and only dabble in this game and these things seem like they are very arbitrary to our enjoyment.
As for the best at everything bit, I guess my point is won’t the right player be better at everything than me regardless of what he’s playing? Why do we need to artificially solve that by restricting options for people that don’t care where they are on your meters
Yea…about that. Blizzard pushed out azerite gear because “the people giving feedback have no idea what they’re talking about”, to then turn around and rework the system for half the expac. So you were saying?
Lol I don’t know what that means
Yes_Nord.
Something something autobahn. https:/ /en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autobahn#1930s
I can like a piece of something bad but you’re being ignorant if you ignore how much people (the people who matter, the people who speak with their wallet) hate the thing as a whole.
I don’t want to be S tier across all content, but I do want to perform the best I can in said content. Why would I want to be at a distinct disadvantage to someone playing the same class/spec as me?
Lol i dont think all the covenants in the world would make Arcane S tier! Class design probably impacts more than anything no? These borrowed powers will probably impact gameplay enjoyment (positively or negatively if it’s a lack-of covenant) more than they will efficiency
Yes to the former (I don’t think anyone is arguing to make greyblob balanced classes, different but equal) and half yes to the latter by having choices to polish out strengths enough (as seen in the first question) so that people overlook your weaknesses by bringing in equally strong options to reciprocally cover each other’s downsides.
Have you ever played a CD Projekt Red game? Or Fallout? Or even a MMO like ESO or Guild Wars? There are plenty of RPG’s that intentionally limit features to get more players invested into the RPG as a whole.
WoW never had fleshed out Factions. Outside of mounts, tabard, bags, and some gear, the factions are completely forgettable. Not a single one has committed more to the world than the player, which should be the exact opposite.
You honestly don’t notice it, since the game’s been around for fifteen years. But I can’t think of another game where I can swap between class specs for certain situations, pick the exact ability needed, and swing away.
I have no idea how WoW can be considered hard or engaging that way.
The pragmatic player always finds a use for everything he’s given. That’s the type of person you want to bring into your RPG–more than the competitive players, at least.
I was saying what I was saying. I don’t blame you to be skeptical of them, but using that as a crutch for your argumentative point seems a little lacklustre.
…Why you have given a link to Autobahn’s history and to 1930 specifically?..
And so can everybody else, heck, everybody else can like or hate a thing as a whole if they want to, because it’s an subjective opinion they have, despite how good or bad the games are.
By the by, you shouldn’t call me ignorant because i did said this comment that you’ve missed. So i’l copy it down here again so you can give it a nice read. 