First expansion without major class changes/reworks?

[Obelisk Kai]

Pretty disappointed about no class changes. For ages it's been a fun aspect for me of a new expansion and further down the line playing alts. Having even less of a learning curve on the class you play than before means that you just need to learn the content once on one character and you're set. Maybe this way of thinking is in minority and most only play one char anyway but meh, not excited.

I think people are reading too deeply into what was said.

After all, there has to be come class changes to accommodate the loss of our artifacts. Some of those artifact abilities are becoming passive or being baked into the class.

What I believe is more accurate is that the huge, sweeping class revamps we saw in Legion will not be repeated.

Some specs clearly require more work, such as ret paladins and I have no doubt those specs will see a considerable amount of attention in the beta.

But overall, I think less change is good.

Most of the specs worked out fine and are probably going to be left alone. People are right, Blizzard needs to stop reinventing the wheel with every expansion.

[Deleted]

It was said that there are no Survival Hunter scope reworks planned, so a logical assumption will be that no spec will be torn apart and built from the ground.
What that probably also means is that survival stays melee.

There are a few specs that need looking into though. Ret, Fire, Frost DK, Shadow, Affliction, Havoc.
Some are not even functional without the artifact, some are too bland, some are an RNG shitfiesta.

[EternalBany]

i play ret paladin.
so i am fucked.

[Youn]

I really would like for a slight rework on MM hunter. I have this first tier that has a talent that is required making the other two completely irrelevant. It's that way because some non-hunters in beta complained that hunters have to have a pet. Great, play one of the other two specs.

And I am pretty sure no designer has ever actually done anything with explosive shot in a dungeon or raid. Because if standing in melee to dps for the spec with increased range for mastery made any sense. Sure, you can fire this slow moving shot off at range and then push the button again as it gets near it's target, but don't try and do anything else at the same time.

[Apology]

Honestly, good. I hate having to relearn my class every expansion, or (even worse) having to reroll when they outright ruin whatever im playing. Ive played ret paladin since we were lolret in BC, and Legion butchered it bad enough to make me reroll to monk. There's no need to reinvent the wheel every expansion. Tweak the specs that need tweaking, but leave it at that.

[Wikiy]

i play ret paladin.
so i am fucked.

Some people are actually satisfied with how ret works. People like me. I'm not only satisfied, I fucking love how everything revolves around Crusade.

[Letdown]

The only reason I'm particularly bothered by this is I just feel like the ranged : melee imbalance is pretty frustrating.

There's a total of 3 lock, 3 mage, 2 hunter, 1 shaman, 1 priest, 1 druid specs for ranged.

Druid and 3 mage are on the same token, 3 locks and 1 priest are on the same token, and then the remaining 3 are on the same token.

Then you get into the part where there's usually a pretty huge gap between those specs on the classes that have multiple, so it's not like (most patches) you have 3 viable choices for those classes, which leads to some extremely stale gameplay.

It's just not fun or interesting when you're the 3rd or 4th Frost Mage (or I guess it's fire atm?) in your group because they're just objectively the best, or the 3rd affliction lock. This even further compounded by most fights requiring (or strongly suggesting) you have more ranged than melee, so now you need more players on fewer specs.

I do think it's a legitimate problem, but maybe I'm saying that because I find myself consistently struggling to find room for me to exist in WoW when so many people are playing tanks/melee and I'm pretty doodoo at and don't enjoy the current ranged offerings.

[EternalBany]

Some people are actually satisfied with how ret works. People like me. I'm not only satisfied, I fucking love how everything revolves around Crusade.

issue is the colossus smash mechanic

[Niwes]

have ppl thought about the possibility that BfA is an xpac that offers good reasons to do world/game stuff BEFORE class changes ?

maybe they add some cool new spells, or effects to existing spells, that fit perfectly in war fronts and such stuff. i.e. a rogue with a grappling hook on a 2min cd, that can climb war fronts walls etc.

dont focus my example above too much. it was pulled out of the ass. but imagine for yourself what could be possible. at least, from a greater point of view, this xpac is THE xpac that have good reasons to look at class changes later in the process.

so, i wouldnt assume there are more or less class changes than in previous xpacs (maybe not that much like in Legion, which was outstanding). furthermore i think this time they will just do them later in the process.

[Sylvaeres]

For the first expansion since maybe the transition from BC to WotLK, Blizzard seems content on current class design and doesn't plan to make any sweeping changes to specs.

Why? This is arguably the most stale some classes have been in over a decade according to a large portion of the player base. I don't think it's possible for them to ever please everyone, but some specs like BM and even Ret are insanely boring. A change back to MoP style of depth gameplay (complex rotations, snapshotting, etc.) would be great.

Blizzard seems content on the class design right now and is not planning big changes. What are your thoughts?

What's a "large portion of the playerbase" even mean? Out of 5 million players or so, you have a few thousand people who cry, bitch and moan endlessly. They are not representative of anything but a minority

[Deleted]

The classes are pretty good right now and I wouldn't say they need a major revamp, just tweaks. They will have to figure out how to bake all the artifact ability stuff into the class at the very least. They lose a lot of players just from changing the classes so much, so I understand why they would be reluctant to change them too much.

In a couple years we can pretty be guaranteed to get a new ranged class, plus another round of class revamps, but I really don't think it's necessary at this point.

No, class design is bad right now.

But f*** reworks. We just need a few tweaks

[izayoi80]

Some people are actually satisfied with how ret works. People like me. I'm not only satisfied, I fucking love how everything revolves around Crusade.

Interesting, because I love how ret plays now except for "how everything revolves around Crusade".

Sure, Holy Wrath/Virtue's Blade needs to go, and I wouldn't mind to see Consecration back to being baseline, but overall, I'm having more fun with my ret than I've ever had since I made it in early TBC.

So, a few tweaks here and there and booyah, we're good to go into the next expansion and beyond.

[Fappy]

Druids are mostly in a good place, but they could use some tweaking here and there. I currently main moonkin and I'd love to have more meaningful talent selections outside of ST vs AoE. Other than that our rotation looks the same outside of possibly Full Moon and something added from the Azurite stuff.

[shammypie]

The only reason I'm particularly bothered by this is I just feel like the ranged : melee imbalance is pretty frustrating.

There's a total of 3 lock, 3 mage, 2 hunter, 1 shaman, 1 priest, 1 druid specs for ranged.

Druid and 3 mage are on the same token, 3 locks and 1 priest are on the same token, and then the remaining 3 are on the same token.

Then you get into the part where there's usually a pretty huge gap between those specs on the classes that have multiple, so it's not like (most patches) you have 3 viable choices for those classes, which leads to some extremely stale gameplay.

It's just not fun or interesting when you're the 3rd or 4th Frost Mage (or I guess it's fire atm?) in your group because they're just objectively the best, or the 3rd affliction lock. This even further compounded by most fights requiring (or strongly suggesting) you have more ranged than melee, so now you need more players on fewer specs.

I do think it's a legitimate problem, but maybe I'm saying that because I find myself consistently struggling to find room for me to exist in WoW when so many people are playing tanks/melee and I'm pretty doodoo at and don't enjoy the current ranged offerings.

no kidding. We are actually 1 less ranged spec than classic due to the loss of survival. To date not a single ranged dps spec has been added to the game. Heck they even made a melee healer.

[Echoherb]

No, class design is bad right now.

But f*** reworks. We just need a few tweaks

I don't think class design has been that terrible this expansion. I do think ranged classes need some love, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen until 9.0

[SupBrah]

I really wish people would state what class/spec they play and WHY it needs a re-work. 9 times out of ten, it's just ret/MM hunters.

I don't play it but:

Spec: Survival Hunter
Why: ...Do I really need to say?

[Army Dreamer]

Maybe they finally realize that they never get it right and won't even bother.

This, or they think WoW is broken enough already.

[Sastank]

Survival has no business remaining melee imo lol.

[hulkgor]

For the first expansion since maybe the transition from BC to WotLK, Blizzard seems content on current class design and doesn't plan to make any sweeping changes to specs.

Why? This is arguably the most stale some classes have been in over a decade according to a large portion of the player base. I don't think it's possible for them to ever please everyone, but some specs like BM and even Ret are insanely boring. A change back to MoP style of depth gameplay (complex rotations, snapshotting, etc.) would be great.

Blizzard seems content on the class design right now and is not planning big changes. What are your thoughts?

What does a expansion and feature announcement have to be with class changes and balance, or possible reworks? Nothing. That comes later in the process, a lot later.

You could login in the expansion upon release and realize most classes were changed or tweaked along the way. I don't understand why you would think this expansion would be any different.

[Deleted]

I don't think class design has been that terrible this expansion. I do think ranged classes need some love, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen until 9.0

It has not been terrible but the pruning hurt a lot of classes, especially in PvP. Some specializations are also extremely yawn-inducing compared to what they could be or used to be at some point during WoW lifetime (lock specs, BM and MM, havoc to name a few). But I would rather they did not to complete overhauls again (and not just in BfA, I mean EVER) but instead focus on improving what we have. Also, mid-expansion changes to talents are very welcome as well. There are some blatant disparities in talent rows in EVERY spec in the game and some of them have not been touched since August 2016 when the expansion launched.

Also, looks there will be no class changes planned before BfA, only percentage buffs, so some of these specs see no love until a year from now. I hope Im wrong. But yeah, I hope lack of major class changes means more attention on actual talent choices for both PvP and PvE.