Spell Variance Returning in Shadowlands

[exochaft]

Of the varied people I know that play RPGs, variance in numbers output has never been considered an integral part of an RPG. With respect to WoW, I generally see people wanting less variance in player output by control being more directly related to player input, not some RNG factor behind the scenes.

Also, averaging out to be negligible does not mean the effect won't be negligible. Blue post states "most non-periodic spells"... alright, which spells? What's the impact on specs that are mostly DoT/HoT oriented versus those with mostly direct damage abilities? What if you're a spec that relies on infrequent, large-damage direct spells? Over what duration of time is this supposed to be averaged to 'negligible'? Is there "bad luck protection" so you don't get constantly positive or negative background spell amplification? Why not apply this to all spells instead of just direct damage? To my first statement: who even asked for this and was it a problem having static values versus behind-the-scenes random damage variance? If the current system isn't broken or an issue, why 'fix' it?

I keep hearing Blizz repeat the mantra of making SL more like an RPG. However, I feel like Blizz keeps adding elements typical of single-player RPGs that don't necessarily translate well to an MMO. I'd rather have Blizz making game decisions based upon how fun/entertaining they are. When I think fun with a game, forgive me for not immediately thinking random damage values variance in the background. If I'm playing D&D, the variance in my damage output is fun because I feel like I am in direct control of it by rolling my dice... and that behavior doesn't translate well to WoW's combat system.

[klogaroth]

I love this, I love how much Blizz are doing to poke at the idea of "solving" the game and showing how silly it is. Calm down, play with friends, or solo. All three options are supported.

Are you implying that people in progression guilds aren't friends? Cos people spend hours with each other, play other games, hang out and chat, meet up IRL.

So no, I don't think it encourages playing with friends by having some RNG on the base damage of the spell instead of through the random power procs that we got now. I have no idea why you would even suggest such a thing.

[Demsi]

Weapon speed doesn't need to be a thing, it wasn't really that important.

It was certainly important, made a big difference in your damage depending on it's speed

[oldgeezer]

1d8 damage for longswords in 1/e AD&D iirc. Brutal if the dice were against you.

[Ealyssa]

Because somehow, more RNG is what the game needs...

But addin up to 5% of your DPS being totally out of your control on top of all the RNG allready out of players' control is "RPG flavor".

[Poppincaps]

I didn't even notice that this wasn't the case honestly.

[Echocho]

Here we go again, mythic raiders are gonna be pissed

[Sageless]

Changes like these make me question who they are making this game for:
- Players serious about their performance hate these kind of uncontrollable variances
- Players not serious about their performance don't care about these kind of uncontrollable variances

Also might just be the abundance of under-the-hood procs that are in the game, and to be fair I don't particularly pay attention to the numbers, but I have never felt like two of my spells did the same damage back to back.

It's changes like these that make me feel pessimistic, since it becomes more and more apparant WoW is moving away from what made me enjoy playing it.

[Edward Wu]

"How can I spite Preach today?" - Ion

[Lunavale]

I'll admit I don't bother paying much attention to my floating damage text anymore, but am I missing something? Is there not variance on the spells at this very moment? Or is this something that only applies to casters because there's already variance on melee weapon damage?

Like, it's fine, but I'm really just scratching my head at this one.

[aeuhe4yxzhds]

People whining about this.... holy shit

[Kralljin]

Players: Can we get some original RPG Elements back that have been lost over years?
Blizzard: We have original RPG Elements at home
At Home:

[Unholyground]

Because somehow, more RNG is what the game needs...

But addin up to 5% of your DPS being totally out of your control on top of all the RNG allready out of players' control is "RPG flavor".

Take an axe, go chop into a tree and then try to make that exact same mark again with identical depth and splintering, I can tell you it is impossible even for a machine in real life to make something 100% the same outside of nano printing. I honestly never even noticed this wasn't a thing in the first place haha.

[BananaHandsB]

I just foresee even more server instability from this. When the values are set, the game has to generate far less random numbers, and the server already lags hard when I'm doing the world boss in vale with ~30-40 ppl due to all the random procs from gear.

[schwarzkopf]

I honestly never even noticed this wasn't a thing in the first place haha.

I'd always thought it was this way all along - people posting screen shots when they did 1337 damage etc was a thing.

[GreenJesus]

I don't really get what the point of this? Like.. okay? Cool I guess? We already have so many randomly proccing buffs anyway that change the numbers. The only thing this will do is just add another dice roll that the server will have to calculate.

[Deferionus]

If they're gonna do this they may as well bring back DoT snapshotting.

I, for one, would welcome our new Affliction Warlock overlords.

Having 5 dots and snapshotting them was much better gameplay than the current. I hate affliction being based around these cool downs and only a few days and sb spam.

[Darknessvamp]

So hypothetically Hunter One and Hunter Two, both Beast Mastery, same ilvl and pull off the same rotation on raid boss and Hunter 1 unluckily has consistent low variance over the course of the fight (average damage -5% on kill commands and cobra shots) whilst Hunter Two has average damage then the difference in outcome would be negligible between them? Methinks the logs would tell a different story.

[Belloc]

This is a very minor change that will not have a major impact to anyone.



So expect a sea of criticism in 1...2...3...

In other words, it's a completely unnecessary change. Additionally, it will have a minor impact on everyone.

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So hypothetically Hunter One and Hunter Two, both Beast Mastery, same ilvl and pull off the same rotation on raid boss and Hunter 1 unluckily has consistent low variance over the course of the fight (average damage -5% on kill commands and cobra shots) whilst Hunter Two has average damage then the difference in outcome would be negligible between them? Methinks the logs would tell a different story.

Considering how critical strike already works, this is basically already the case. That said, I don't see why this change was necessary or even desireable.

- - - Updated - - -

that seemingly nobody was asking for.

I don't think this change should have been made, but I'm going to yell at you for using that line. It 100% does not matter whether players ask for something or not. Developers do not and should not design games based on what players ask for. People need to stop saying "nobody asked for this!"

[Esotaric]

this makes it less desirable to do any mythic raiding.