Mists of Pandaria class design/gameplay philosophy

[Malikath]

Not a fan. Everybody felt like a superhero but the balance was awful, ranged was so good and mobile that made most melee obsolete, the healing was stupid, everything was smartheals, tanks toping heal and dps meters, it was the pinnacle of class homogenization.

bullshit, with shit like symbiosis the classes were at their most distinct.
unless you consider specs being viable at their roles as mistaken for class homogenization intently because of a lack of actual player-skill being compensated for by shit imbalanced classes design from classic and even BC, because no matter how thick your nostalgia that is how it was.

the fact is the devs for wow have always been it's weakest point, many of the ideas lolgion fans hype up were based on xelnath's plans for warlock's green fire quest which was since cata's world rework the first class quest added to the game.
ghostcrawler even changed from the original stupid "assigned spec" mentality for wrath, until chilton came back and reinstated the old model of dumbed-down proc-based combat that has slowly killed the game.
as much as i loved MoP there are still cataclysm changed i wish weren't in it, like the removal of art of war as a crit-reliant reset for exor which if that was still in the game in MoP paladin's wouldn't of had such an aversion to crit until they got enough haste to operate.
hell i wish destro still had the BC version of nether-ward and was built more anti-caster.

[Wyrt]

Casters not being turrets was great.

[Shadowferal]

As a solo druid, symbiosis was wasted for me.

But MoP had so much to do...and the aesthetics was pretty damn good.

[Socialhealer]

As a solo druid, symbiosis was wasted for me.

But MoP had so much to do...and the aesthetics was pretty damn good.

You missed out big time, so much fun on timeless isle doing PvP, elemental+ balance, he gets purge, i get solar beam, double solar beam for pvp droooool.

That or being feral from a paladin and getting divine shield or dispersion from a priest, insane fun.

[Alpharius]

MoP had no Shockadins so it was crap.

[Malikath]

MoP had no Shockadins so it was crap.

go play cleric.
paladins are supposed to be bow/2hd/sword and board.

[TigTone]

go play cleric.
paladins are supposed to be bow/2hd/sword and board.

What?

On topic, i do miss the first version windwalkers especially for pvp.

[Malikath]

What?

On topic, i do miss the first version windwalkers especially for pvp.

DnD paladins were the crusader archetype, holy warriors wielding sword and shield, dual-wield, 2-hand weapons(bladed or blunt, only clerics had to use blunt by law), or bows(or even guns if a steampunk setting) as a ranged fighter.

wow paladins are poorly made scraped paladin/cleric hybrids that ruined both classes archetypes.

[Socialhealer]

What?

On topic, i do miss the first version windwalkers especially for pvp.

5.4 windwalker, unkillable 1v1 can't get though their 97 health bars

[dez1216]

Also, let's not forget about Smite Priests being viable.

I miss this most of all . Mostly cuz it was OP and super fun.

[Melsiren]

Protection Paladin was amazing in MoP.

Haste being good for tanks was a game changer, I loved it.

[Relapses]

I miss this most of all . Mostly cuz it was OP and super fun.

I got to play this for our Heroic Tsulong kill. I played Smite DPS in the night phase and I was the GS bitch for the day phase.

I have but one complaint about that fight... it was Tsulong.

[Syegfryed]

Talents, glyph, skills, specs, the flow of the combat, how the skills worked/interactions

i feel good playing all the classes and specs i can remember, Destro, 2H frost, arms second wind and MM hunter were gorgeous to play.

i mean warlock had his best era, was amazing how they made destro different with the thing of recovering mana from the twisting nether.

[Detritivores]

Lots of good points raised so far, but if I could try to distill some of this down to common tendencies in the class design, I would summarize it as this: reasonable skill floor, very high skill ceiling. By which I mean, you could grasp the basics and perform reasonably well as any spec, but if you invested enough time and energy, you could perform at a godly level. Mechanics like vengeance, dot snap-shotting, etc, let good players flex how good they were, while people that didn't really grasp these things could still play the game. Alas, the higher skill ceiling mechanics were stamped out in 6.0 and subsequent patches.

Additionally the synergy between gear and class design mattered in MoP. In MoP, most classes had clearly defined gear they needed and breakpoints they needed to hit to play a certain way. In Bfa, who fucking knows? I can't keep track of which slot I can give up how many ilvls for how many haste points. Things like hit and expertise get a bad rap, but they've been replaced by a loot system where I have literally no idea what to do with anything that drops. I'll take my clearly defined breakpoints and my reforges please.

Edit: I may be showing my age with the second paragraph. Loot may be defined. But if that's true, I've seen no evidence in any main stream resource.

[Gestopft]

Disc gameplay and healing overall is also something I miss dearly. Also my destro warlock. Hard hitting Chaos Bolts.

I definitely miss both of these. Although as fun as it was, I have to admit that Disc's design was waaaaaaay OP, just by its nature.

Casters not being turrets was great.

Not if you were a melee player :P

[Raugnaut]

I definitely miss both of these. Although as fun as it was, I have to admit that Disc's design was waaaaaaay OP, just by its nature.



Not if you were a melee player :P

The various melee specs were mainly dependent on getting a specific trinket - WW and Ferals, for instance, needing the heroic RoRO to do massive damage. If you got it, yay. IF not, have fun being at the bottom of the pack!

I think strength users were similar with their CDR trinket from SoO (Which, imo, had the best trinkets in the game since)

[Relapses]

Lots of good points raised so far, but if I could try to distill some of this down to common tendencies in the class design, I would summarize it as this: reasonable skill floor, very high skill ceiling. By which I mean, you could grasp the basics and perform reasonably well as any spec, but if you invested enough time and energy, you could perform at a godly level. Mechanics like vengeance, dot snap-shotting, etc, let good players flex how good they were, while people that didn't really grasp these things could still play the game. Alas, the higher skill ceiling mechanics were stamped out in 6.0 and subsequent patches.

At what point is it skill and when does it just become... ridiculous? Some things in MoP were nuts. Warlocks were pretty insane for the entire expansion and especially so in SoO. (I rolled one just so I could get a 1 million DPS parse on Fallen Protectors.) There were some stupid tricks with Fire Mages, too. (This one comes to mind.) Not to discredit the MoP circlejerk here too much, I had a fucking blast because I was able to play the game at the level where I could take advantage of this shit... just that, you know, there is a bit of merit in Blizzard not wanting only people who play with a ridiculous number of add-ons to feel like they're getting the full potential out of their toon.

[Malikath]

just that, you know, there is a bit of merit in Blizzard not wanting only people who play with a ridiculous number of add-ons to feel like they're getting the full potential out of their toon.

oh look, more bullshit.
the classes were more complex but nothing that couldn't be learned by the player given time and practice, furthermore basic mathematics and algebra should be assumed to be easy to any functioning adult so don't tell me that we NEEDED mr.fix-it when i did my own re-balancing work long-form by hand on paper to check the add-ons suggestions.

- - - Updated - - -

Not if you were a melee player :P

nah, getting them to cast-while running gave you more openings for an interrupt.
warriors, namely arms were great.
but DKs and paladins were still rather shit since cata ruined the classes conceptually.

[Relapses]

oh look, more bullshit.
the classes were more complex but nothing that couldn't be learned by the player given time and practice, furthermore basic mathematics and algebra should be assumed to be easy to any functioning adult so don't tell me that we NEEDED mr.fix-it when i did my own re-balancing work long-form by hand on paper to check the add-ons suggestions.

- - - Updated - - -



nah, getting them to cast-while running gave you more openings for an interrupt.
warriors, namely arms were great.
but DKs and paladins were still rather shit since cata ruined the classes conceptually.

What's your issue, dude? I'm sorry your galaxy brain is so far above us mere plebians on the internet that you feel justified in being a complete dick to anybody who doesn't share your incredibly narrow viewpoint.

[Kithelle]

You say that but look what happened to people who think like this^.

They made Warlords of Draenor!! worst fucking garbage class design ever, did you try elemental in MoP then WoD? fucking hell blizzard should have paid me $15 a month for that horse shit unfun garbage design.

You should stand still for 15 seconds during ascendance casting non stop lava burst with zero mobility, this will place you behind EVERYONE on the meters, WOWOWOW fucking epic please more of this!

Probably the only thing I can think back fondly of in WoD was Ret....that was truly a awesome spec.