What exactly happened to choice? RANT

[Echocho]

I think they should make talent trees way more complicated, bring back some actual RPG feel to the game. Look at Skyrim for example, there are so many ways to build your character that cookie cutters and theory crafting pretty much becomes pointless.
"But it'll be a balancing nightmare!" so? Let it. The game was a lot more fun when people could come up with interesting builds.

[tikcol]

They managed to remove the RPG elements from WoW and make it seem like they're just antiquated troublesome systems that are bad and stupid.

For the sake of balance and other stuff I can't get my mind around, maybe to catter to FPS and MOBA players I guess.

The irony is the subscription numbers have been lower than ever and balance is horrendous, especially PVP, worst it has ever been

[cFortyfive]

TLDR: Player wants to be amazing DPS while half-assing their rotation and class.

did it really come to that as well ? I want to be top dps but want to have the choice of not having to push buttons.

[Ainyan]

At least you're DPSing using the spec you want. I'd rather be BM over MM but that is simply not possible if I want to contribute to my raid group - and heaven forbid I want to be SV, literally the bottom of the meters (except where Ele shaman so graciously give us a one slot boost). I'm stuck using shit talents on a shit spec that is not in any way, shape, or form the playstyle I want to play - but as I like raiding and want to contribute rather than be dead weight, MM it is.

[Alvito]

Never seen anyone talk shit about resto druid talents. In dungeons, really not a big deal. Some things might be more optimal based on party makeup (like spring blossoms if melee heavy) but really... your dps assessment is correct.

Seriously outside of running higher level mythic + dungeons I dont give a crap what other people have for talents and never check. For mythic + it is just to see how aoe dmg, stuns and other things are going to be taken care of.

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I think they should make talent trees way more complicated, bring back some actual RPG feel to the game. Look at Skyrim for example, there are so many ways to build your character that cookie cutters and theory crafting pretty much becomes pointless.
"But it'll be a balancing nightmare!" so? Let it. The game was a lot more fun when people could come up with interesting builds.

Was it? The only way it was more fun was the big laugh when you saw some dope with a 20/20/21 build or something like that insisting shaman are tanks or any of the other borderline trollish things people did to fuck with others or because they really didn't understand how things effect other things.

[Thelxi]

Well it's kinda what you signed up for as a druid. It's been Blizzard's design philosophy for druids for years. If you want a high quality of life and simple/straightforward dps rotation you should look into rerolling.

[Brightamethyst]

Sometimes I think people place too much emphasis on the little things just because it's the cool thing to do.

While sometimes there's a clear winner when it comes to talent choice, often there are more options than you might think. We live in the real world where everything isn't as perfect as a simmed fight. Often talents are fairly close -especially in the other 99% of the game isn't a raid boss- but people read a guide that says X is 1.5% better than Y, so X or GTFO.

[Tenjen]

all classes can vary their talents up for certain raid bosses/tasks to maximize performance. People can switch talents around depending on whether they are doing progress or farm. M+ calls for different talent combinations.

inventive use of abilities and talents are out there.

Choice will always be there but it will always depend on the circumstances you face, be it in a meta or ingame sense

[Sansnom]

I'm having a hard time playing atm, mostly because I face a lot of frustrating issues in-game. It's no secret loads of Druids are struggling the same atm, the horrendous playstyle of Balance where you can't waste a second to scratch your behind or lift your glass to drink, unless you want to be bottom DPS. This is my issue atm and I'm not alone in this.

As you said, this is the issue. It is nothing to do with a more relaxed rotation or choice. It is simply the current rotation of Balanced is difficult to achieve for good DPS.

My other issue is that I can't choose a more relaxed rotation because those talents suck and I'd be way under the healers if I did. So what happened to choice?

There never were a more "relaxed rotation". There was just one rotation per spec.

So what exactly happened to choice?

There never were any choices. Unless you like being sub-optimal to others. It has been this spec, this build. All "choices" were not really choices. You can choose to pick or not pick, if you are prepared to take the DPS penalty.

Enjoy playing "the way you want!"

You can, in a way. But unfortunately, some members of community will call you out for not playing "the proper spec". So this partially is the fault of the community, not the game.

[Zequill]

You can, in a way. But unfortunately, some members of community will call you out for not playing "the proper spec". So this partially is the fault of the community, not the game.

No, it's your fault to care what those people think. We are far from the day when some spec were really not performing (Retardin/Oomkin from Classic).

When I see people complaining about Raid Leader asking them to go X spec, I really hope everyone in the raid are playing the best spec if not the best class possible. If you are really the lowest performer, no class change will fix that.

Play whatever you want, have fun, and we might see less rant post.

[Echocho]

They managed to remove the RPG elements from WoW and make it seem like they're just antiquated troublesome systems that are bad and stupid.

For the sake of balance and other stuff I can't get my mind around, maybe to catter to FPS and MOBA players I guess.

The irony is the subscription numbers have been lower than ever and balance is horrendous, especially PVP, worst it has ever been

Yeah well they're trying to cater to a crowd that doesn't really like RPGs and in the process they are changing what people expect from those kind of games.
I'd love to see a developer try to break away from the norm and try to replicate the old pen and paper RPGs with their complexities, narrative, immersion and sense of wonder and danger.
What started off with campaigns you did with your friends to experience a story and hopefully come out alive and a bit stronger from have been reduced to quick dungeon runs with strangers for instant gratification.

[fangless]

They managed to remove the RPG elements from WoW and make it seem like they're just antiquated troublesome systems that are bad and stupid.

For the sake of balance and other stuff I can't get my mind around, maybe to catter to FPS and MOBA players I guess.

The irony is the subscription numbers have been lower than ever and balance is horrendous, especially PVP, worst it has ever been

Basically.

I remember their reasoning behind cleaving the talent system in half was because of an example of one designer coming back to the game and being overwhelmed by the talents and not knowing what to pick.

/shrug

[Lane]

My issue with 'choice' is I'll see what looks like a cool talent ("X"), I'm eager to try it out and mix things up only to go to Icy Veins and see "X talent is not worth taking under any circumstance as it vastly underperforms behind Y & Z" (which are usually passives that add no variety to the rotation). I've lost count of how often that happens, it seems to be for every class & spec I've tried.