wow WoW Community Contribution: Preach on Choice in WoW

[Valks 2,373]

One of our favourite WoW YouTubers has recently released a video addressing issues with "choice" and ability use in World of Warcraft. Check out the video and our thoughts on it!

 

In his video, Legion - Interactions and Choice, Preach discusses some of the biggest issues currently leading towards "bored" players in the game. We thoroughly recommend that you watch his video below, before reading the rest of the article. Make sure you also check out his YouTube channel.

 

 

So, having watched the video, I'd like to first share my thoughts on what Preach said. I completely agree with the fact that certain classes are going to find a serious dumbing down of their abilities in Legion. To illustrate another example of what he discusses, I'd like to draw attention to one of the changes that has actually already happened in Warlords of Draenor.

 

The Mage ability, Alter Time, was changed dramatically after it became a staple within many of the Mage rotations.

 

For those of you that don't know, the previous version of the spell would allow Mages to retain their buffs, thereby allowing them to, for example, reset their Pyroblast!. This was an ability that really separated the good Mages from the excellent ones. As a fire Mage, perfect use of this spell would allow them to create insanely large Ignite ticks.

 

Blizzard changed the ability to no longer affect buffs, but this is a prime example of a spell that didn't need changing. It added a certain level of fun to Mages, allowing them to play around with their various buffs and procs in order to maximise damage, while still allowing average players to use it as a DPS cooldown. 

 

It wasn't difficult to get a good sequence of spells, but to get the perfect Alter Time required amazing timing, sequencing and knowledge, as well as a pinch of luck on crits.

 

On a general note, I think there needs to be a very simple attitude when creating new spells and talents. The game of World of Warcraft has slowly become a game of pressing a very small number of buttons for a long period of time. Don't get me wrong, I still love the game, but it's on a downward spiral here. Blizzard needs to take the attitude of allowing talents to perform similarly, with there being options that are easy to use and that do good damage, as well as options that are difficult to use, but can do excellent damage.

 

To try and completely remove any difficulty gate from the game will inevitably make it very, very boring. The difficulty of raids was excellent in Warlords of Draenor and they really hit the nail on the head with Hellfire Citadel Mythic. I thoroughly enjoyed it as a raid, but couldn't help but feel like I spent the majority of it wishing I could re-roll.

 

The classes need to be made interesting again and they need to be rewarding those of us that want to perfect it. I'm not advocating shutting out those that don't want this. People should be able to play a class and do well, but enabling this shouldn't remove the tools by which others may want to min/max their DPS.

 

The example Preach uses of Combustion, as well as our own of Alter Time, really explains this very well. They used to do decent damage when used correctly, but could be a serious game changer when they were used perfectly. That's what the skills should be aiming for.

Fingers crossed for Legion!