I expect that this thread is going to get a lot of hate, but honestly it's time to rip a bandaid off.
We've all seen the countless debates, the Preach interview, the threads, the content creators giving this or that opinion, and one thing has become clear to me reading between the lines here.
Blizzard devs do not want us to overthink the game to the point of apoplexy... and honestly I can't blame them.
Our over-analysis of every point of performance has made the game unapproachable for new players to try anything even remotely ambitious. We've created a social compact of "don't be new on my time, I've been playing X years." It's eroding the things that let content get done in a fun way, and so no wonder every new content type since M+ has been solo-capable, self-enabled via queues, and/or trinity agnostic, bringing in diverse groups but not demanding the tank/healer/DPS balance of dungeons and raids. They are developing a lot of "solo in parallel" content because having us rely on each other as strangers who are indeed each individual customers jacks our paranoia and cruelty. They're building a game that's working around a stressed out hostile environment where no one is allowed to be new because the game has been "solved" and some people make Esports money playing it, so
clearly that's everyone's destiny
.
The devs have understandably given up on entertaining our extreme and toxic obsession of "don't be new" or "don't have a character concept more important to you than the team's performance," because we've just lost the delineation between pick up
groups and content intended for actual
teams.
I play WoW on a very simple mantra: "Good enough is good enough." I'm a veteran player who knows, generally, how to play my favorite specs well enough to consider myself competent, and I don't go anywhere near content intended for a
team because I can't form one regularly enough. At the same time, I haven't missed a single dungeon's story, or a raid step in the core story of the game, because I read the writing on the wall and know where my limits are. I'm not a genius, this isn't rocket science. I'm looking forward to covenants because I've selected characters that fit all four of them conceptually, and I will therefore see all four stories. I won't be in your M+ listings because my friends aren't interested in M+, therefore I don't belong there. And yet, I'll be fine. I'm not worried or even acquainted with how the covenants/soulbinds/conduits will impact the minutiae of my 30+ characters' performance because I know I can see any dungeon I need to if I have the ilvl. If there's a "mythic only" dungeon step, I can get that done too because I'm competent, or ultimately I'm patient to see it go into the queue in a patch or two.
I'm not saying everyone needs to be like me, I'm saying Blizzard developing the game with reasonable expectations that don't align with unreasonable players doesn't make them wrong. It doesn't mean we shouldn't give feedback, it doesn't mean they're perfect and we shouldn't question them, but at the end of the day, the cost of letting them "DM us" like D&D played in their world is that it IS their world. I personally am furious about elements of the lore and how they align with the game, but I respect that this is their game and their vision and if I don't like it, after giving my feedback, I can leave. I'm still here.
The messages of throwing out wild systems like covenants, two handed frost, single minded fury and other conceptual options that might not be optimal but will certainly be cool are thus:
Calm down: They are working hard to bring us their vision. Yelling at them in text or in a streamer interview only makes us look dumb.
Play with friends: There is a cutoff point where we leave "good enough to play with strangers," and the balance has to be allowed to be cushioned by "play with friends and don't stress about it, enjoy the company of friends."
...Or solo: If you can't form a
team, that's ok. The game's main vein is
group-approachable, and in the worst case, Torghast and the Maw, and I'd imagine most of the core of the game is solo-enabled or at least queue-enabled, gated only by item level.
Just because you were once a server first mythic+amillion superhero raid leader world champion gjillion views professional streamer twitch partner content creator guide writing analyst spreadsheet wielding god doesn't mean you still are in the context of, what is every two years, a new game. That's the hardest pill to swallow each expansion and I sympathize, but it's true. The good news is, WoW builds a personally accessible game for everyone to enjoy one account at a time, which thankfully is how we pay to play.
This has been longer than intended but if you're still here, thank you for reading, and for the Void's sake, calm down! The devs can't come out and say that, but it's clearly there between the lines!