tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6556575758010903163.post329193715688868164..comments2024-03-29T06:17:54.994-06:00Comments on Eight Years in Azeroth: 4.66. Pander ExpressShawn Holmeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05110605868875966328noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6556575758010903163.post-69216077708482200542016-09-22T15:39:26.257-06:002016-09-22T15:39:26.257-06:00Bad troll is bad.Bad troll is bad.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02485477715655915956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6556575758010903163.post-37811804989206395322016-09-22T15:38:49.207-06:002016-09-22T15:38:49.207-06:00Bad troll is bad.Bad troll is bad.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02485477715655915956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6556575758010903163.post-90124949687625347872016-07-28T23:40:48.956-06:002016-07-28T23:40:48.956-06:00I preferred the classic talent trees for three rea...I preferred the classic talent trees for three reasons: potential, learning, and leveling. Potential in terms of them always feeling like maybe, just maybe, there was a cooler combo lurking under the cookie-cutter builds, not something all packaged up into an Activate Spec button. Learning because you had to put each point in, which meant you had a better idea of what your character was eventually doing, instead of all these random passives being packaged up with a given spec, suddenly proc'ing auras all over your screen or around your ability buttons, not knowing why you're suddenly getting random buffs without studying and re-studying your spellbook on a new class you're trying out. And Leveling because you got to improve your character in some way each level, sometimes in a really powerful way. These days, a character's toolkit barely improves as you level, and later in the leveling curve it's possible to go hours between any sort of character kit power or variety (made even more horribly worse by Legion's removal of Draenor Perks, resulting in literally ZERO character ability power/variety improvements from lv90 until lv100). Those last two are of course less relevant for those who have no alts, but it all just became way too streamlined for me, much like other parts of WoW.Laeushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09833324917009939970noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6556575758010903163.post-35793416211344075962016-04-06T15:48:33.131-06:002016-04-06T15:48:33.131-06:00Regarding talents, although I prefer the current t...Regarding talents, although I prefer the current tier system for customization, Blizzard's pre-Mists design had something that was irreplaceable, I think — flavor.<br /><br />Old trees showed not only how a spec functions mechanically, but why a character would assume that persona fictionally. <br /><br />The pinnacle is the 3.0 death knight. I don't even like the class, and still those three trees make me want to play one. For fun, I've sat down and read each tooltip while click-resurrecting a fallen hero through Blood, Frost or Unholy powers — oh, I totally buy into it. This is Greg Street's and Alexander Brazie's magnum opus, from what I understand, which takes you back to a high point of excitement. Subtle marketing, but so effective.<br /><br />Nowadays, specs work because they work, and in the Warlords beta many passive talents were consolidated — reduced to abilities' footnotes.<br /><br />Even with modern talents, I'd love to see class anatomy once again described this way.Aedilhildnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6556575758010903163.post-3927087195235670802016-04-03T16:07:59.478-06:002016-04-03T16:07:59.478-06:00Agreeing with legends & waerloza. With the tal...Agreeing with legends & waerloza. With the talent tree there was very little room for personalization as (as you yourself stated in an earlier post) any deviation from the accepted cookie-cutter form was seen as an example of not knowing your class. With the new system they tried to make all the options viable to allow for gameplay customization. You could now tailor it to your own personal preferences eg pursuit of justice (constant moderate speed buff) vs speed of light (big burst speed buff with cd), your level of experience/coordination eg holy shield (constant passive, no button-pressing needed so easy to use) vs seraphim (burning holy power for burst, very effective in the hands of someone experienced & disciplined enough to manage their rotation correctly) vs needs of the encounter eg execution sentence (single-target) vs lights hammer (aoe). Not having a fail-proof model to follow means that players need to be more aware of mechanics, stats & their own limitations in order to leverage the best build for each encounter. <br /><br />-PallyAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6556575758010903163.post-41874364245143904942016-04-02T10:13:23.800-06:002016-04-02T10:13:23.800-06:00Ha! As I read, I was working up a quip about Blizz...Ha! As I read, I was working up a quip about Blizzard's predilections over the last 5 years, then saw you already nailed it with "designing for players whose defining characteristic was that they didn't like MMOs."<br /><br />With the company's portfolio as conspicuously diverse as it is, maybe there's hope one-off extras can stop finding their way onto the top of priority lists.Aedilhildnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6556575758010903163.post-89745710276101767522016-04-01T10:29:43.426-06:002016-04-01T10:29:43.426-06:00@ Legends Anonymous
I agree. In Cata I re-specce...@ Legends Anonymous<br /><br />I agree. In Cata I re-specced my Prot Warrior I think twice, once for a Maloriak add0kiting build and then back to my usual tank spec. In MoP I found myself swapping Glyphs and Talents based on the encouter and my role within it. Some have argued that the previous trees offered the illusion of choice, but as you stated, one just went to a website and looked at a spec's tree and spec'd that way and put their one to four spare points where ever the hell they wanted, it rarely made a difference. <br /><br />For the most part I really enjoyed MoP, particularly the second two raid tiers. Also, CMs were a blast and I loved knocking them out. <br /><br />Prot Bladestorm on Iron Qon trash with trinkets and a Strength Pot was awesome. <br /><br />Linc - Malygos USWaerlozahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03241453774559482654noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6556575758010903163.post-58156833067567509132016-03-31T18:49:50.041-06:002016-03-31T18:49:50.041-06:00I'm going to have to disagree with you on the ...I'm going to have to disagree with you on the talent tree change. I found that the old system was archaic and completely non-intuitive. <br /><br />When I started playing WoW and tried to figure out my talents, a friend showed me a website that broke it all down. So there I was, one-click away from maximizing my talent potential. <br /><br />That's OK for things like the old-school Thottbot to figure out a quest. But the new talent system has been a breath of fresh air that is being fine tuned.<br /><br />In the old talent system, they would just add more points every expac (or take some out in Cata). In Legion, they appear to be maximizing the potential of the new system. <br /><br />Hell, in MoP, I reveled in the fact that my Prot Warrior would actually get to use Bladestorm. <br /><br />I can see why you felt that way about the change, but the cookie-cutter click to find your talent system was just boring. It was filled with mostly passives that did nothing.<br /><br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13094409403832096798noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6556575758010903163.post-90464462935971002262016-03-31T15:56:27.365-06:002016-03-31T15:56:27.365-06:00Wow, was that other comment a Blizz employee?
The...Wow, was that other comment a Blizz employee?<br /><br />The funny thing is, when looked at through a WoD point, MoP wasn't that bad. In fact, I had a lot of fun PvPing in that expansion. The raids were decent too. I agree with everything you wrote though and I think WoD was the end result of Blizz's effort to expand their audience which in turn decreased it tremendously. If Blizz was still independent and focused on making great games, a lot of the employees that made these horrible decisions would be fired, but the bigger a company gets the more the failures hang around.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6556575758010903163.post-79663007517992162312016-03-31T14:33:20.371-06:002016-03-31T14:33:20.371-06:00Ahh thank you Shawn for a most amusing April Fools...Ahh thank you Shawn for a most amusing April Fools article. The parody of the whiny entitled toddler like MMO player, so wrapped up in their own narcissistic arrogance and (lack of) sense of self worth had me in stitches of laughter. I swear you didn't miss a single trick - tho perhaps the ANAL "jokes"? :-)<br />I look forward to the followup where you and your guild clearly saw past these surface negatives and instead saw all the opportunities these changes had made, and how you exploited those opportunities to your guild's benefit, as my own guild and so many others did!<br /><br />Cheers!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com