Were there actually people who didn't like spec identity?

[Sezh]

I love spec identity, but I also don't like the game having 36 classes. It causes so many balancing issues.

The solution for me is to remove redundant specs from the game. Every class that has 3 DPS specs should have one removed. We already have a class with only 2 specs total, no reason we couldn't have more.

And I know, everyone hates this idea because it's their favourite spec that would be going away and blah blah blah. I still think it would be a neccessary sacrifice for the good of the game.

[Challenge]

I love spec identity.

I want 36 classes, not 12. I want diversity, different aesthetics, different playstyles.

I don't want three specs that all look and feel the same, and have tons of dead abilities on the bars, jsut because Ion thinks that's class fantasy.

A frostbolt in a fire spec?? It just doesn't belong, ruins the aesthetic.

Ever since WoD I am a Windwalker monk. Not a monk, not some stupid hybrid. I love the unique aesthetic of Windwalkers, love how they streamlined Windwalkers away from MW and BM more in Legion (don't like the overall change to WW in legion, but aesthetically I am pleased with it)

I don't wanna go back to MoP, where every class had fourty buttons, twenty of which did nothing and you shared them across all three specs for some reason.

I want 12 classes that feel fun regardless of spec, not 36 watered down dogshit idiot proof unfun specs

I dont want 3 specs that effectively do the same shit with a different name (Survival Kill Command/Rapid Fire/Barbed Shot). I dont want every spec to basically be small attack, medium attack, big attack (crusader strike, blade of justice, templars verdict) alll effectively using the combo point or rage system because they stretch classes too thin to appeal to spergs like you

A non unholy death knight without undead summons? A shaman without totems? A rogue without poisons? That just ruins the aesthetic

Every since wod classes were ruined by pruning and everyone with a brain hated it. No one ever wants to go back to wod class design. You ask what expansion people want, they say MoP a lot, they say Wotlk a lot, they say BC a lot, hell some even say cata depending on your class.

No one gives a fuck or wants wod design back where you had to spam bloodboil/whirlwind cause a single target filler spell wasnt seen as fit for warriors or DKs. Very few want legion design back w/o artifacts propping them up. ABSOLUTELY NO ONE wants BFA Design unless you play a survival hunter.

If you ever felt like you had 20 abilities that did nothing, you were a terrible player, straight up. I played every class except rogue and priest in mop, every spell had a use.

[Odintdk]

Yes. The classic clowns (Who also happen to be the loudest minority).

[Doffen]

EXACTLY THIS. Why the fu** would I want fuck*** frostbolt on my FIRE mage. "tOo sLoW dOwN yEr EnEmY", "bEcAuSe sPeLl LoCk". Ugh, there's other things you can do and not being able to do EVERYTHING if you get countered isn't a bad thing. You get firelocked, use blink, trinkets, engineering, etc, you little crybaby.

Also, melee survival was awesome and near perfect, it made sense and there is lore to support it. There never was need in three ranged specs for hunters. Can't change my mind.

Glad we agree!

Sincerely, little crybaby

PS: Melee hunter ftw!

[Fistfighter]

If you ever felt like you had 20 abilities that did nothing, you were a terrible player, straight up. I played every class except rogue and priest in mop, every spell had a use.

No, you're wrong. A death knight in MoP for example had all the strikes, but you only used like two thirds of them, maybe one more in PvP. That's a lot of dead buttons.

and rogue without poison ruins the aesthetic? They're just adding more aesthetics in the game. One spec has poisons, one spec has void shit. There's different archetypes of rogues in WoW lore and the specs reflect that nicely with their varied aesthetics.

And I am not saying MoP was a bad time for class design, but it just got better in WoD.

[Fewane]

With a Demo Lock, spec identity has been tons of fun in Legion / BfA. It really feels totally different than Destro or Affli, and I've enjoyed the huge differences between the specs. :/

[varren]

Liked it way more than the system we are going back to.

[Challenge]

And I am not saying MoP was a bad time for class design, but it just got better in WoD.

Yeah so much better it was the lowest point in wows history that they practically had to reinvent every spec in legion or no one would of came back.

So much better where I could play triple blood dk in 3s and get up to gladiator level doing nothing because all damage across the board was frontloaded into a single ability doing 80% of their dmg (Unholy = Necrotic Plague, Frost+ Blood = Breath of Sindragosa) and was basically this way for every spec. (Killing spree combat rogues, execute warriors,demonbolt warlocks).

WoD had the most casual friendly idiot proof rotations the game has ever seen.

[iosdeveloper]

Good question!
As an all-time hybrid player i did like it, but losing spells sucks ass!

[maccajoe]

Me, i hated having abilities that were across all specs suddenly disappear. Im a "insert class here" that specializes on a certain aspect not only a "insert spec here". Ill use a mage as an example.
Its called a spec for a reason.

[Shakana]

...this site never fails to amaze me

MMO Champion for the last 5 Years: AMG the pruning is terrible everyone sucks EVERYTHING Sucks

Blizz: WE ARE REMOVING PRUNING

MMO Champion now: AMG THEY ARE REMOVING THE PRUNING WTF BLIZZ WHY DO I NEED FROSTBOLT AS A MAGE TAKE BACK EYES OF THE BEAST GAME RUINED

Literally this.

[Doffen]

I wasn't talking about MMO champion.





No, you truly believe that your opinion is correct, no need to otherwise be so passively aggressive and heavily insinuative of it.
If you've been around for a while, you'd know that Blizzard absolutely DESPISES going against what they deem to be the correct path to take regarding peoples experience of WoW, and the fact that the last two expansions have been some of the most criticized in regards to class design and gameplay, this doesn't really support or strengthen your narrative that my opinion is a minority and yours is the majority, as it's been only two expansions where they've tried to employ the 'spec identity' design before changing their minds.

You see, when you actively attribute the term 'minority' to what I am saying when I'm solely speaking of my own experience and views, you don't get to somehow imply that I am disallowed to talk about minorities and majorities while pointing out the peculiar trend I just mentioned.
It goes both ways, you can't actively say that my opinion is the minority in a passive aggressive manner and then say that I am disallowed to utilize the same tactic.

But yikes, you really do believe that I guess.

It's because you think you are right just because blizzard "agree" with you. They are not changing classes as much as you think. They are adding stuff back to the classes to bring it back a little from spec identity, but they don't think their class design in Legion sucked, just that they went a bit too far on specs. They just roll back a bit on specs because of this a little coming in Shadowlands. You say that class design was criticized heavily in Legion. You want to think that, but the complaints then compared to in BfA where they removed artifact spells, legendaries effects while changing the GCD was siginificantly lower. If it was such a huge flaw in Legion, they would have done this in BfA. The real complaints is about gameplay feels slow for x class in BfA. Class design vs spec design is of low importance comparing it to the actual gameplay where most complaints come from. And this is why I am sceptical to what this really means for gameplay, because gameplay is whats important. Adding spells that got no use and then gameplay still feels out of place is what we can end up with. That's what should bother us, not class vs spec design, which is very opinionated.

It's important to note that most things they give us back are either very situational or things that is a core thing, like paladins aura. Now paladins have auras as well, just more spec spesifics. Majority doesn't necessarily think that spec design is bad, just many might believe having something for the whole class is important. An arcane mage will keep using arcane spells for 99% of the time. Blizzard are adding things back because they agree that they went a bit too far on specs, yes Ion has said a bit at least a couple of times, not that they failed like some people read into it.

[Tradu]

And I am not saying MoP was a bad time for class design, but it just got better in WoD.

For a select few classes/specs, yes. (Blood) DK being one of them, WW another. DoT specs as a whole got worse thanks to the removal of snapshotting.

- - - Updated - - -

...this site never fails to amaze me

MMO Champion for the last 5 Years: AMG the pruning is terrible everyone sucks EVERYTHING Sucks

Blizz: WE ARE REMOVING PRUNING

MMO Champion now: AMG THEY ARE REMOVING THE PRUNING WTF BLIZZ WHY DO I NEED FROSTBOLT AS A MAGE TAKE BACK EYES OF THE BEAST GAME RUINED

It's almost as if "MMOC" isn't a person. There's lots of different people with different opinions.

- - - Updated - - -

Exactly. I love spec identity.

I think they should rather focus on making strange specs round again and remove the GCD changes from BFA

This has nothing to do with class/spec identity and should be done regardless of which they're focusing on.

[mojojojo202]

yeah bud people in the world first guild are clowns, in contrast to you

The game shouldn't be designed for the 200 or so people that are legitimately competing for world firsts.

[Lolites]

OP doesn't seem to have played back in MoP, when Blizz had BOTH class identity AND spec identity. MoP was THE most balanced expansion in all aspects compared to all other expansions.

agreed, MoP seems to be extremely underappreciated, especially in class design

[Lex Icon]

would probably have gone over better if they didn't design them to fit the temporary artifact theme over the spec itself.

[A Chozo]

I didn't like it on Priests.

Every playable priest knows how to wield Holy and Shadow magic. It's part of the training - you are a sorcerer who uses the power of faith, manifested from within, to conjure spells.

But then they separated the three specs too much, and now there are people that believe that just because a Priest casts Void magic, it means that this priest serves the Old Gods, or that a Holy Priest serves the Light, while in truth each Priest has it's own belief, religion or simply uses willpower.

The big focus on Spec Fantasy for Priest hurts the community's perception of it's Class Fantasy.

[Lolites]

I love spec identity, but I also don't like the game having 36 classes. It causes so many balancing issues.

The solution for me is to remove redundant specs from the game. Every class that has 3 DPS specs should have one removed. We already have a class with only 2 specs total, no reason we couldn't have more.

And I know, everyone hates this idea because it's their favourite spec that would be going away and blah blah blah. I still think it would be a neccessary sacrifice for the good of the game.

bcs 32 specs are sooo much easier to balance than 36?
and sure, ppl will be pissed that something is taken from them, despite it being useless step, but lets agree for fun we do it
now, here is the problem, lets take mage, how do you decide WHICH spec to remove? by dps? popularity? usefullness in pvp? and what with the spells from the removed school that other specs have, would you remove them too, change them, or what?

removing spec would probably create more problems with balancing that keeping it in, and after all we dont need specs to be completely balanced, we just need all of them to be usable

[Aeula]

I liked having 36 classes. Dumbing it down to 12 sounds less fun.

[Shiny212]

Hated it. Don't think the changes they've proposed will bring back the past though.