Opinion: Changes / compromises that must be made for WoW to survive

[Mirishka]

I say compromise because the BfA changes are obviously based on certain reasoning. Taking the GCD change, for example, their current reason for it is to prevent bursty one button macros (which they could have easily solved by changing the way macros work instead).

While that might be true in certain cases, the change to speed (from 1 second to 1.5 seconds) was complete unnecessary. Seeing the pattern of Blizzard games getting ported to Nintendo Switch, I am guessing they probably had/have plans of porting WoW to consoles, which, to me, seems to be the actual reason behind this GCD change, but since mobile/console gaming has clearly been unpopular among the fans, they used this macro example which has been going on since the beginning of WoW to BS the fans.

FFXIV has a 2 second GCD and a ton of skills on the GCD, however, the action bar does have a TON of abilities, unlike WoW. Un-pruning alone will not help with balancing this awful GCD change as that would not add enough active skills to spec rotations across all classes.
If they don't want to revert the GCD change, then the current rotation would have to change to be more interesting with many more active abilities.

Other than that, the idea of a completely brand new 1-10 intro zone + BFA + Shadowlands for new players is brilliant. New players will only be seeing the shiniest, latest graphics with this change.

Blizzard will have big competition in 2020/2021 (New World, Blue Protocol, PSO2, A:IR, Crimson Desert, Project TL, Crowfall, Lost Ark).
Class/spec rotation is the soul of the game. If this change doesn't happen, Blizzard won't be able to maintain the 1 million or so players it currently has and will most likely have to go f2p or buy2p and change the expansion cycle to be once every year or year and a half (Base expansion = 6 months, x.1 = 6 months, x.2 = 6 months, final patch) which would probably be the best way to reduce mindless grinds and get rid of exalted rep requirements for non purely cosmetic rewards.

"I come up with random theories other people do things, decide those random theories are fact, then create topics attacking Blizzard for doing the random thing I decided they were doing despite having literally zero evidence other than words that I pulled out of my ass."

[Kokolums]

The WoW engine handles large-scale PvP WORSE today than it did in 2004.

A big reason is the switch to "virtual servers" instead of dedicated servers (presumably to save money) in 2013. They renamed "virtual servers" to "connected realms". For a game bringing in massive amounts of cash, they could at least give the game some dedicated hardware. Instead, its on crappy virtual hardware which pushes the dev team to design solo content and small encounters. This is an MMO, we need large scale stuff.

I remember Asmongold being shocked at how poorly the game was running in large-scale PvP last year. He hadn't seen how disgusting it is. Its a black eye on Blizzard. First thing to fix is get it some decent hardware instead of pocketing the cash.

[Zyky]

Blizzard needs to embrace a more single-player focused game with the multiplayer being optional. Allow all content to scale for dungeons and raids and NPC options for PVP. I would even be fine with renting a private server for that option. Keep all the multiplayer options there for people that enjoy that.

Then it isn't an mmo anymore, this will be the one thing that would kill WoW immediately.

[Potatowizard]

Blizzard needs to embrace a more single-player focused game with the multiplayer being optional. Allow all content to scale for dungeons and raids and NPC options for PVP. I would even be fine with renting a private server for that option. Keep all the multiplayer options there for people that enjoy that.

Did toy just recommend the biggest MMO of all time switch to a single player story mode?

[melodramocracy]

What, exactly, needs "fixing"? I think I have an idea of what you mean, but you need to be more specific instead of just making vague statements.

You can't fly in either one. After a decade, this is just stupidity at this point in terms of shoddy world design

You can already set your hearthstone location in any major city you want. You'll just have to take one additional portal or tram/zeppelin.

How many cities have AH's, xmog vendors etc?

Nah. Rare materials are used for rare recipes. You won't be using them in your day-to-day crafting. Besides, there isn't any "90% of the mats end up unneeded" since a long time ago. We haven't had "purple lotus" equivalents in a long, long time. If you find a rare material, nine times out of ten you are not going to use it to craft anything, so why bother making them "less rare"?

Never mentioned rare anything. An alchemists no longer needs Kingsblood (as an example) the minute they go to Outland, if not well before. There's no need for older materials to go unused when end game professions could be made that much more interesting with their inclusion.

[Nnyco]

This thread just proves that alot of people have actually no idea what the gcd change actually did and they just jump on the bandwagon to complain for the sole reason to complain.

[Very Tired]

Blizzard needs to embrace a more single-player focused game with the multiplayer being optional. Allow all content to scale for dungeons and raids and NPC options for PVP. I would even be fine with renting a private server for that option. Keep all the multiplayer options there for people that enjoy that.

Not the worst idea in the world. Despite what many others are claiming, plenty of games have actually made single player oriented MMOs doable. Even in WoW, solo content like Mage Towers were one of the most well received parts of the Legion expansion. And people are already hungry for more of that in Shadowlands.

But I wouldn't go as far as to completely remove the incentive for multiplayer content. A lot of people tend to enjoy raiding and being rewarded for raiding. However, forced group content for the sake of being group content is just trash that shouldn't be a thing. Island expeditions, namely.

[PrairieChicken]

You are playing the wrong game.
WoW will never be a good single player game, you will never have the moment to moment gameplay other single player games or mobas/rts/shooters have.

WoW's strength is multiplayer gameplay, blizzard should embrace that.

It's of course just my subjective opinion and apparently some people like poop with sparkles but most of the solo stuff in WoW is super boring/chore like.

Overwhelming majority of players have never done and will never do organized multiplayer activities. They only do solo activities or things that are multiplayer in name only (LFD/LFR).

[MoanaLisa]

So take the multiplayerness out of a mmorpg? Sorry, but you are most definitely playing the wrong type of game. Should there be more single player content? Possibly, but multiplayer being optional isn't it. I mean it's in the title Massive Multiplayer Online RPG. Not Massive Singleplayer Online RPG.

To be clear and maybe over-precise Massive Multiplayer Online RPG does not necessarily mean that players, most complete strangers, need to be playing together. It only means an Online Gaming Platform of a suitable size in which multiple players can be on simultaneously. The assumption that "multiplayer" means grouped up is not really true. Like a large urban area somewhere in real life it's easy to imagine an MMO with 200,000 concurrent players who are going about their own business getting stuff done while ignoring everyone else.

I'm really only saying this because grouping up with total strangers to do something difficult is NOT something we do a lot in real life. It's unnatural in most circumstances where someone wants to relax. The best experience in any MMO is with friends or acquaintances in something like a guild. That is where the incentives should be. The anti-social experience that most receive at some point in the game where people, usually total strangers, are screaming insults at each other? Better to go solo. Probably better for business too.

That is not to say that multiplayer group activities shouldn't exist. They should but be more optional than they are at present. There have been studies and surveys of this. Anywhere from 60%-70% of players prefer to go about their business on their own. It does much to explain the huge crowds that come along for expansions, do their leveling and then leave.

Bias: I don't play with strangers any longer. I purely play with people I know and trust or else play solo stuff. I'm done with trying to do anything in this or any other game with strangers who stand an excellent chance of being at a different skill level which will either hold me back or hold them back or complete assholes who are more interested in ruining someone else's game.

[SinR]

drop 238 layers of RNG
drop grinding levels at the level cap

[jellmoo]

I would love to see something akin to a Dev Thinktank Server. Seperate from the test server or alpha/betas, this is a place where developers just try mixing things up and letting players try them out in a controlled environment. See what the playerbase thinks of some more 'radical' ideas.

- Make the global cooldown 0.5 seconds
- Remove the global cooldown and maybe add specific cooldowns to abilities
- Different flying systems
- Spell combos
- Different types of player collision

Just a place to try out new ideas and methodlogies, get feedback, and maybe refine. A lot of stuff will suck and not be fun, but if players actually like things, they can start looking at implementing them into the game.

[Gref]

New World, Blue Protocol, PSO2, A:IR, Crimson Desert, Project TL, Crowfall, Lost Ark).
.

Had no idea about all those games. Will definitely give a try when they release.

[Ielenia]

How many cities have AH's, xmog vendors etc?

As far as I know, all major cities have auction houses. As for as "xmog vendors", I do not know, since I just use the ones located in the main expansion city(ies), in this case, Boralus and Dazar'Alor.

Never mentioned rare anything. An alchemists no longer needs Kingsblood (as an example) the minute they go to Outland, if not well before. There's no need for older materials to go unused when end game professions could be made that much more interesting with their inclusion.

Want a lore-friendly reason? "Those plants do not possess the same amount of power as the plants found in this other part of the world."
Want a game-mechanic reason? I sincerely doubt people would enjoy having to go from Shadowlands' zones (for example) all the way back to Durotar or Elwynn Forest to gather Peaceblooms and Silverleaves, then all the way to Badlands or Feralas, then Plaguelands or Winterspring, etc, just to create their cauldrons for the raid.

[sam86]

-snip-

-so what exactly u want from professions exactly? some had unique mounts etc
-no, u have memory of goldfish, to refresh some: the rogue 50/50 built that had to be nerfed in 2 weeks, the healadin who use tank spec, the readiness hunter, all those weird builds had to be hotfixed, hence why i said they need insane work, there wasn't a single patch that didn't have lot of talent changes, something they don't do anymore, heck they don't even add new talents in first place
in wrath specially, every single patch a weird broken OP built show up and need to be nerfed
-we agree on dk, i loved dk blood dps btw, the idea of leeching life from enemies to heal themselves, Hysteria blood buff specially was very unique
-that i disagree, give me 5 abilities that 3 of them are situational, as someone who was in hardcore raiding guild those extra buttons is what distinguish between good dps and amazing dps, blizz flat out removed them
-again not, try it urself, any poll Grizzly Hills always win, 2nd spot is competition between Nagrand and other wrath zones, u are right to say if u personally don't like, but u are wrong when u deny that majority love it
-to be flat out honest, the story is meh, but the problem is comparing to other wow lore, it is at least solid, childish idiotic but solid
-no they are just lazy, nothing else, like talents, they cutting work by making hard mode a right click thing, Ulduar had some bosses with no HM, and Mimiron himself was just a right click
-for u maybe, but again there is reason why most popular transmogs were always TBC/Wrath tier sets, also in BFA they show how ugly low polygons they are now sadly (maybe ppl not farm them as hard as before now? I only played 1 month in BFA)

[Niwes]

Obviously the grind of the past two expansions needs to go. Stop trying to stretch content beyond its logical expiration date.

I don’t know the right answer here but I think they need to address two related problems:

Players are often doing content that is far too easy for them
Outside of guilds, it is very hard for players to group with people of similar skill level

When you have a group of people running content and some are way more powerful and skilled than others it is a recipe for aggravation. The reason LFR is often a toxic cesspool is that there are highly skilled players who don’t really want to be there grouped with others who are far lower skilled and who are causing wipes. I think this is less of a problem in BFA, but it’s just poor design when you create reasons for people to do the content they outgear.

Similarly, it’s hard to pug unless you’re already AOTC. I feel like Blizz could improve their group finder to encourage less skilled groups to form so that you would end up with more homogeneous grouping.

sign that. with my blood.

and add that i do not have any interests in doing the same 10 million quests and rep on 4-5 alts. or at least 3 (because i play 3 minimum full finished full equipped over the whole exp). they should introduce (seperated for alliance and horde) a „if we have do it on one character of one faction it gets account wide“ rule.

together with the above 2 quoted points, i say these are the main reasons that drive a good portion of players (not all) away.

[Lucetia]

Wish you'd break the quotes down so it was easier to follow, but here we go.

-no, u have memory of goldfish, to refresh some: the rogue 50/50 built that had to be nerfed in 2 weeks, the healadin who use tank spec, the readiness hunter, all those weird builds had to be hotfixed, hence why i said they need insane work, there wasn't a single patch that didn't have lot of talent changes, something they don't do anymore, heck they don't even add new talents in first place
in wrath specially, every single patch a weird broken OP built show up and need to be nerfed

Attempting to insult doesn't help your argument in any way.

With that said, no I don't have a memory of a goldfish. Just because there were broken specs doesn't change anything. Why? Because people used those broken specs which means they were the cookie cutter. There was always a cookie cutter build and everyone always followed it. That doesn't change despite builds change over time. You are trying to equate that the specs kept changing that it wasn't cookie, but it was.

-so what exactly u want from professions exactly? some had unique mounts etc

Professions should be able to provide useful items throughout the entire expansion. Whether it's crafting, being able to upgrade others or alter them.

-again not, try it urself, any poll Grizzly Hills always win, 2nd spot is competition between Nagrand and other wrath zones, u are right to say if u personally don't like, but u are wrong when u deny that majority love it

Polls like that typically mean nothing because the amount of people polled are so small that it doesn't accurately represent the player base. That's like taking a poll here and saying everyone in WoW agrees with the polls when the representation here is probably 10%.

-no they are just lazy, nothing else, like talents, they cutting work by making hard mode a right click thing, Ulduar had some bosses with no HM, and Mimiron himself was just a right click

They aren't cutting work, they are making it clear. There is no guesswork if you activated a hard mode or not or possibility of not activating it. For instance, there are probably plenty of raids who could handle Hard Mode XT, but for some reason not able to push the heart. Are you saying because they couldn't push an activation feature that means they need to be locked out? Ulduar while they may seem simplistic if they kept it going could've been way worse in activation. What if a raid didn't want to do Hard Mode XT, but you had 2-3 people who would push into it? There are many problems with it. At least with the toggle now it's a clear option or not. This also eliminates any issue of "Well you can't do HM on last boss because you didn't do the rest".

-for u maybe, but again there is reason why most popular transmogs were always TBC/Wrath tier sets, also in BFA they show how ugly low polygons they are now sadly (maybe ppl not farm them as hard as before now? I only played 1 month in BFA)

If you want to say most popular you might want to have a credible source to back that up that shows a substantial amount of people agreeing. Just by looking in game I can't remember the last time I saw anyone use sets from back then. Most are using current sets of some sort.

[Soon-TM]

So asking questions is 'belittling'? Seriously? Opps... sorry for belittling you.

Don't be disingenuous. You aren't simply "asking questions" now, are you?

- - - Updated - - -

drop 238 layers of RNG
drop grinding levels at the level cap

Basically this. Make levelling take longer, if anything (at least for your first toon), it's incredibly silly that you can level 110-120 in a couple of days, even without heirlooms or the xp buffs that came later (8.1 iirc).

[Seranthor]

Don't be disingenuous. You aren't simply "asking questions" now, are you?.

I pretty much was... but you seem to want to convince the folks you are psychic as well... Why is that? oops... sorry for belittling you again.

[Soon-TM]

Why, exactly, should Blizzard embrace any of your suggestions?

There aren't... just folks that pretend they know more than the devs.

So asking questions is 'belittling'? Seriously? Opps... sorry for belittling you.

I pretty much was... but you seem to want to convince the folks you are psychic as well... Why is that? oops... sorry for belittling you again.

See? You have 4 posts in this thread already, if I'm not mistaken, and you haven't addressed the actual subject at hand in ANY of them, and you chose instead to post useless 1-liners in your usual smug mood. So it looks you are either trolling, or VERY bored. Not that I care though, keep up the good work

[Seranthor]

See? You have 4 posts in this thread already, if I'm not mistaken, and you haven't addressed the actual subject at hand in ANY of them, and you chose instead to post useless 1-liners in your usual smug mood. So it looks you are either trolling, or VERY bored. Not that I care though, keep up the good work

What exactly is there to address? Damn, there I go belittling you again, I'm really sorry. Someone that believes they clearly know more than the devs that still cant/wont answer the simplest of questions regarding his position. No answer means there isn't anything to discuss. One does not need to write a long winded reply when a succinct question will do the same work.