Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Who's Getting the Big Overhaul?

Every expansion brings changes. Sometimes they're big changes, sometimes they're moderate changes, and sometimes they're just tiny tweaks.

Indeed, some classes have remained pretty similar to how they were in Vanilla, while others are practically unrecognizable.

Despite cries of homogenization, the underlying mechanics of a lot of classes have shifted considerably over the lifespan of WoW. So let's take a look at each class and see what has changed and what is likely to change in the future.

Warlocks:

Warlocks got a huge overhaul in Mists of Pandaria, finally killing the Soul Shard mechanic for two of the three specs, and turning it into a somewhat central thing for Affliction in addition to the Cataclysm-era utility.

The three Warlock specs feel very different, while still retaining that "dark caster" flavor. I think we can chalk up the Warlock revamp as a big success, so I imagine we'll only be seeing a few tweaks in the next expansion.

Mages:

Mages are kind of the baseline of casters, that all other caster specs are built on. But is that enough? After all, all three Mage specs are basically "keep up your Mage bomb, use your main nuke until you get a proc, and then use that other spell." Mages are fun, but the distinction between the rhythms of its various specs is pretty thin.

I'd like to see an alternative to the Mage Bomb, focusing the Mage more on direct damage. I don't know if we need alternative resources, except perhaps building a new UI tracker for Arcane Charges somewhat akin to the Holy Power meter.

Also, the level 90 tier feels like a punishment for hitting the level cap, and that's not good. "Oh, you liked just going through your rotation? Tough, Evocate always forever!" or "Grats on 90. Now stand in this circle forever!" or "Take raid damage forever!"

Priests:

Hey! It's the one class I can't really comment intelligently on! I don't really know what issues Priests have, except perhaps that I don't know how mobile Shadow is compared to other casters.

Druids:

…It's the other class that I can't really talk too intelligently about. Personally, I'd like to take another look at the active mitigation abilities of both Rage tanks, perhaps tying survival more into offensive abilities, as they do for the other three classes.

Monks:

Monks are in a remarkably good place considering how new they are. I can imagine maybe simplifying Brewmasters a bit (maybe give them a chance to use Breath of Fire more?) and perhaps allowing Fists of Fury to be used on the move (or making it more of a situational ability.)

Rogues:

Oh man, if anyone was in need of a Warlock-style revamp, it's rogues. Rogues have only been slightly tweaked over the years, and fundamentally, they pretty much work the way they did in Vanilla (relatively speaking.) First off (and this is something I think Ghostcrawler once said,) the need to be running Slice And Dice as well as Rupture for all three specs is a little absurd. Granted, Assassination doesn't really need to worry about the former once it's up, but I think playing around with fewer "maintenance" finishers and more interesting active finishers would be a good step.

And maybe let the combo points build on the rogue instead of the target? This would seriously make Rogues way, way more fun to play.

Hunters:

Hunters got their most profound change in Cataclysm, and while I think Focus is a little more awkward to deal with than, say, Energy, the fact that they are a ranged class with absolutely no penalty for moving is a pretty strong niche.

The main thing Hunters need is a reduction in button-bloat, perhaps making some of the talented cool downs into passive proc effects (you're just going to hit Dire Beast every 30 seconds anyway, right?)

Shamans:

Totems got a big revamp in Mists, and while it's sad not to have our little forest of glow-sticks anymore (I remember one time I was in a dungeon group with three shamans. It was pretty insane,) the spells feel like they have more of an impact now.

Does Enhancement need some kind of different resource system? Possibly, but that's the only really world-shattering change I could imagine for the class.

Warriors:

Warriors are in a pretty good place now. The changes to Rage took some getting used to, but they feel a bit more like a real resource now. Granted, that's slowed down the rotation a bit, but the class seems to be working.

Like the Guardian Druid, I might take a look at Protection and the way its active mitigation abilities work. The Prot Warrior toolkit has always been a little crowded, and I think the active mitigation changes have exacerbated it a bit.

Paladins:

Since the Cataclysm overhaul, Paladins have made sense in a way that they didn't really before, at least for the melee specs. I think they could spare a look at some of the "filler" abilities, like Holy Wrath, and possibly give Consecration back to Ret (it's so iconic!) but overall, I'm actually decently happy with Paladins.

I guess the one issue is that haste is really the only way to affect the rotation. Imagine if crit could somehow generate more Holy Power? I also miss the old Divine Purpose, which would cause you to occasionally have your Crusader Strike and other such spells generate an additional HoPo.

Death Knights:

Main thing I would do? Shuffle the talents so that the Runic Empowerment/Runic Corruption/Blood Tap tier is the very first thing you get to decide on.

Death Knights are somewhat locked into their rotations based on their resource system (though Soul Reaper found a way to sneak in there.) I think the real space for expansion here is Runic Power.

Also, Runeforges are awesome - don't get rid of them - but let's have DPS specs take something other than Rune of the Fallen Crusader. Currently, the only other DPS rune that gets any play is Razorice, and that's only because DW Frost DKs already have FC on the other weapon.

Alternatively (and this would suck, because we'd have to start buying enchants) you could make weapon runes more like Shaman Imbues, and have situational ones that would really do better in different situations (you might actually use Lichbane against Undead!)

But don't do that. I like my free enchants.


No comments:

Post a Comment