9.0 General Discussion

[ercarp]

Is tomorrow the day?

I think it's possible we get an announcement of some kind this week, but I'm betting on the Alpha itself starting in March. The earlier, the better.

[Harbour]

Famous "Class Unpruning" Blizzard talked about seems like shameless dust the throw in people eyes. I dont know who can fall lfor it.
Most of these abilities except maybe Paladin's auras were scrapped for reason - they add almost nothing to active gameplay and were barely used.
In nowadays gameplay system that only asks for HPS/DPS and Tank things, something like return of Eye of Killrogg adds literally nothing.

This feature is nothing and used purely to shamelessly sell the Shadowland to bots with no critical and rational thinking.

[Manu9]

Famous "Class Unpruning" Blizzard talked about seems like shameless dust the throw in people eyes. I dont know who can fall lfor it.
Most of these abilities except maybe Paladin's auras were scrapped for reason - they add almost nothing to active gameplay and were barely used.
In nowadays gameplay system that only asks for HPS/DPS and Tank things, something like return of Eye of Killrogg adds literally nothing.

This feature is nothing and used purely to shamelessly sell the Shadowland to bots with no critical and rational thinking.

Depends on your Class, Totems were great.

[ercarp]

Famous "Class Unpruning" Blizzard talked about seems like shameless dust the throw in people eyes. I dont know who can fall lfor it.
Most of these abilities except maybe Paladin's auras were scrapped for reason - they add almost nothing to active gameplay and were barely used.
In nowadays gameplay system that only asks for HPS/DPS and Tank things, something like return of Eye of Killrogg adds literally nothing.

This feature is nothing and used purely to shamelessly sell the Shadowland to bots with no critical and rational thinking.

It's about bringing back RPG elements. Not everything needs to serve a definitive "purpose".

[eillas]

Dawn of a new week. So what are the chances of something, this week.

[ercarp]

Dawn of a new week. So what are the chances of something, this week.

I'm not expecting the Alpha itself, but I am expecting an announcement of some sort. Alpha probably won't happen until March.

[FlubberPuddy]

I'm not expecting the Alpha itself, but I am expecting an announcement of some sort. Alpha probably won't happen until March.

Let's hope Tuesday, since that's when I think the new poe league gets announced

lol I have no idea whether that matters but we're all a little bit superstitious here anyway!

[Revamp Man]

It feels like Blizzard is getting a lot of credit for adding back abilities they took out of the game. Like Divine Intervention was just a fun ability that didn't break game or pvp balance. There really was no reason to remove it unless you hate fun.

It's kind of like the old movie trope of praising someone for rescuing them from the danger that they literally put them in to begin with.

Divine intervention actually did break one encounter in vanilla.

[Craaazyyy]

Famous "Class Unpruning" Blizzard talked about seems like shameless dust the throw in people eyes. I dont know who can fall lfor it.
Most of these abilities except maybe Paladin's auras were scrapped for reason - they add almost nothing to active gameplay and were barely used.
In nowadays gameplay system that only asks for HPS/DPS and Tank things, something like return of Eye of Killrogg adds literally nothing.

This feature is nothing and used purely to shamelessly sell the Shadowland to bots with no critical and rational thinking.

most of pruned abilities added nothing to active gameplay? or you only talking about the ones they shown at Blizzcon? obviously it's not gonna be just those abilities lmao

also if you think that most of the pruned abilities were useless then tell me how exactly things like howl of terror, fel flame, soul swap, shadowflame, all the curses, armors, life tap, drain mana etc. were useless? And that's just one class and i can name more abilities that warlocks lost since cata/mop

also not everything needs to be a part of your rotation to be useful.. situational abilities are very important

[Sondrelk]

most of pruned abilities added nothing to active gameplay? or you only talking about the ones they shown at Blizzcon? obviously it's not gonna be just those abilities lmao

also if you think that most of the pruned abilities were useless then tell me how exactly things like howl of terror, fel flame, soul swap, shadowflame, all the curses, armors, life tap, drain mana etc. were useless? And that's just one class and i can name more abilities that warlocks lost since cata/mop

also not everything needs to be a part of your rotation to be useful.. situational abilities are very important

It could very easily be "just those abilities". At least for a few classes. Hunter is one which i think was shown all the abilities it would get. Maybe rogue as well. DH and Monks should be getting something more though.

We will just have to wait and see.

[Nyel]

I saw plenty of hype with Thorgast, new char customization, general system improvement etc. But if you don't want to see something, you wont.

I think Shadowlands is the least hyped expansion yet. It's more of a de-hype or anti-hype honestly because it lacks almost anything exciting (besides Torghast maybe and if it's Island Expeditions just vertically... ouch).

[Sondrelk]

I think Shadowlands is the least hype expansion yet. It's more of a de-hype or anti-hype honestly because it lacks almost anything exciting (besides Torghast maybe and if it's Island Expeditions just vertically... ouch).

Or Torghast is not islands because it is 1-5 instead of a 3 man scenario. It does not have a timer, which is one of the most criticised features of islands. And it is properly roguelike, unlike Islands which just had enemies in different areas each time.

[Craaazyyy]

It could very easily be "just those abilities". At least for a few classes. Hunter is one which i think was shown all the abilities it would get. Maybe rogue as well. DH and Monks should be getting something more though.

We will just have to wait and see.

well again i doubt that..

also how did you determine that for certain classes they've shown all that they gonna get?

anyway, let's just take a look at the abilities that we saw at blizzcon:

DK: AMZ baseline - very useful, garg baseline - very useful, raise dead baseline - very useful(especially if they gonna give pet sac to everyone baseline as well)

Druids: cyclone baseline - very useful, ursol vortex baseline - very useful

Hunters: killshot - pretty fucking useful, Eyes of the Beast - while not insanely useful in many situations there are situations it can be really useful in, hunter's mark(if it's gonna be old style) - pretty useful

Mages: Frostbolt, Fire Blast and Arcane explosion are baseline for all specs - pretty useful, maybe not in your core pve rotation or in every situation, but its very, very useful nonetheless

Paladins: Auras - useful, baseline consecration and hammer of wrath - very useful

Priests: mind blast, flash heal and SW are baseline for all specs - very useful

Rogues: Poisons are baseline for all specs and shiv is baseline for all specs again - very useful

Shamans: many more totems made baseline for all specs - pretty useful, i hope for totem management to be back(not hopeful tho), frost shock is baseline for all specs - very useful

Warlocks: Curse of Tongues, Weakness, Recklessness etc. are all baseline for all specs - very useful, demonic circle is baseline again - very, very useful

Warriors: Shattering throw - pretty useful, Challenging shour and shield block are also pretty useful

so pretty much every ability that we saw is useful in some situations with most of them being very very useful in every part of the game pretty much

[Nyel]

It's about bringing back RPG elements. Not everything needs to serve a definitive "purpose".

Having back useless skills doesn't rewind unpruning. They didn't prune only useless stuff (buffs you barely used, skills that were mostly pointless). They turned basic skills into talents, they removed legendary effects and artifact skills, they removed skills that served a purpose... Earthliving Weapon comes to my mind. That was a great weapon enchantment for Restoration Shamans and there was ZERO reason to remove it. I don't need useless totems back just for the nostalgia, I want things back that made sense and improved my gameplay.

[ercarp]

Having back useless skills doesn't rewind unpruning. They didn't prune only useless stuff (buffs you barely used, skills that were mostly pointless). They turned basic skills into talents, they removed legendary effects and artifact skills, they removed skills that served a purpose... Earthliving Weapon comes to my mind. That was a great weapon enchantment for Restoration Shamans and there was ZERO reason to remove it. I don't need useless totems back just for the nostalgia, I want things back that made sense and improved my gameplay.

Earthliving Weapon isn't the strongest example you could've provided. It's essentially a totem disguised as a weapon enchant, except this one lasts 60 minutes so it does nothing to alter your rotation. It's just a box that you tick once every hour and forget about.

[Nyel]

Earthliving Weapon isn't the strongest example you could've provided. It's essentially a totem disguised as a weapon enchant, except this one lasts 60 minutes so it does nothing to alter your rotation. It's just a box that you tick once every hour and forget about.

My example makes sense in that cast that weapon enchantments are (or were) a core part of the Shaman class. They are still important for Enhancement Shamans and removing Earthliving Weapon never made sense. It fit the class fantasy and the removal was pointless while keeping the other weapon enchantments. It's just one of those examples were Blizzard just saw a skill and removed it without even thinking it thru. You can say the same about the shields. Every spec had a shield that made sense but they removed Water Shield yet kept Lightning Shield... which had a point for Elemental as well but after WoD they got rid of that too and now it's a pretty useless talent for Enhancement. And then there is Earth Shield as well... and you know the worst part of it is they once again turned a basic skill into a talent. This is the biggest shame.

[Marlamin]

https://www.twitch.tv/towelliee/clip...oshawkBatChest

if it's fake somebody invested a lot of time into faking bnet client

This is what it looks like if you try and force install the Alpha in Battle.net, so it's correct/real in that sense. Though if said person had an actual Alpha license on their account the Battle.net app would likely already know the key and not ask for it.

[Captain Marvel]

I am of 2 minds about the unpruning. Going back to classic, you can well see what a random shit storm most of the class skills are. I mean, I love mana burn, but having such a niche skill made a bar add on almost necessary so you can have the 6 other mildly usefully skills ready to go.

On the other hand, this is a great chance to undo the talent squashing and fold some of the most useful pvp talents away from war mode. Give me a baseline sw: d again. Turn void shield into talent.

[Craaazyyy]

My example makes sense in that cast that weapon enchantments are (or were) a core part of the Shaman class. They are still important for Enhancement Shamans and removing Earthliving Weapon never made sense. It fit the class fantasy and the removal was pointless while keeping the other weapon enchantments. It's just one of those examples were Blizzard just saw a skill and removed it without even thinking it thru. You can say the same about the shields. Every spec had a shield that made sense but they removed Water Shield yet kept Lightning Shield... which had a point for Elemental as well but after WoD they got rid of that too and now it's a pretty useless talent for Enhancement. And then there is Earth Shield as well... and you know the worst part of it is they once again turned a basic skill into a talent. This is the biggest shame.

all this shit really makes you think that Blizzard have 0 idea about what the fuck they're doing

[Siglius]

How I understood Anima based on the Blizzcon interviews is that it'll just be a currency which will have a weekly cap for how much you can spend to character power and anything excess you earn beyond that, you can dump into getting cosmetics and the like.