Wiping Classes of all Skills and Abilities

[Rivin]

So basically, class redesign is a lot of work and blizzard doesn't want to do it because they are happy with it. But just because blizzard is happy with it doesn't mean everyone is happy with it, and it may not even mean that the majority is happy with it. Sounds like blizzard may need to just swallow their pride and accept that the people don't like their class design philosophy even if they do.

I didn't say class redesign was a lot of work, I said a new combat engine would be a lot of work. A class redesign wouldn't be all that difficult because the core gameplay of each class is already there and Blizzard is happy with how the classes work already. The only ones that would really need a lot of work would be the three pures that haven't gotten one.

And, really, what exactly do you expect to happen without a new combat engine? The gameplay isn't going to change just because you replaced every spell with a new one; the combat engine would be the same, and every new spell would have to follow its limitations. The classes might feel a little different, but it will still feel like World of Warcraft gameplay.

[Angelicat]

So if the game is losing subs, then we should keep things exactly as they are. I don't understand that logic because it makes no sense. Typically, if a company is losing revenue, then they try to change to meet the demands of the consumer. The world is in constant change and resisting that change for your own personal comfort is a death sentence for people and businesses alike. Sounds like you are just afraid of change to me.

The thing is...they are not resisting change if you've been paying attention to their patches. They are doing away with dailies, did their first experiment with a GW2-ish island, added flex and all sorts of other stuff.

What you are asking for isn't change. You are asking for an overhaul. Essentially to put it in real world terms, you are asking Honda to get rid of their cars and make spaceships instead (bad example, I know lol).

[sandmoth12]

Too big of a change, they would have to come out with WoW 2 in order to pull that off. Otherwise, your character wouldn't feel like your character anymore. It also wouldn't feel like your character anymore. You'd lose attachment to it, and likely stop playing.

I hope for a WoW 2 with better item level inflation management, in-game simulated physics, but hopefully a very similar combat system. If I can dodge attacks it's suddenly more of a platformer, which I have no interest in playing at an MMO level.

That is the entire point because I do not want my character to feel like my character anymore. I am bored of my characters abilities and mechanics, and I want whole new stuff. Not just a tweak here or there. Besides eventually you learn stuff again (it doesn't take that long) and your character feels like your character again. AGain resisting change in a constantly changing world is silly.

[SodiumChloride]

Won't happen. Blizzard is already losing a lot of players because of "too much change".

Everytime they change something in a class, they risk alienating some of the players of that class, hence they only do so in extreme circumstances like in the case of Warlocks.

[NightZero88]

That is the entire point because I do not want my character to feel like my character anymore. I am bored of my characters abilities and mechanics, and I want whole new stuff. Not just a tweak here or there. Besides eventually you learn stuff again (it doesn't take that long) and your character feels like your character again. AGain resisting change in a constantly changing world is silly.

Well good for you! I love my druid and its mechanics and don't want it changed. So why is it you feel like you're more important than me and should get your way over me?

[Nanaboostme]

If youre gonna wipe the board clean, might as well fire the whole current team as well and hire a new team of developers if you want to get something "fresh" in. And even then, youre still gonna get many similarities and nostalgia with these newly designed classes. And of course that sounds like a great idea marketing-term -.- where do people get these ideas from

[sandmoth12]

Well good for you! I love my druid and its mechanics and don't want it changed. So why is it you feel like you're more important than me and should get your way over me?

It's been 7 years the classes have not changed that much, and people are unsubbing faster than entranced flies are dropping to bug lights. Fine you love your druids that way he is. How you love the monotony of still enjoying the same abilities and mechanics after 7 years I really do not understand, but you are a single person standing in a mmo environment that is bleeding and dying all around you. So should blizzard listen to you and not change stuff or should blizzard listen to all the people that are unsubbing? You are a spec amidst a wash of what seems like people wanting change. This may piss you off, but you seem to be the minority in this case.

[melodramocracy]

OK, give an example. How would you rebuild this system? Asking for a change and actually making the change are two very different things.

One way is that I'd have fewer actual classes, all with more trees, that a player could mix / match from. For example.. take warriors, hunters, and rogues, lump them all into a single 'class', and allow folks to either respec within these talents, OR allow for a certain amount of mix / match. Do the same for priest / pally / dk, mage / lock / shaman, etc.

It would wreak havoc in PvP of course, which is at least a portion of the reason that something like this would never happen.

[blackblade]

So if the game is losing subs, then we should keep things exactly as they are. I don't understand that logic because it makes no sense. Typically, if a company is losing revenue, then they try to change to meet the demands of the consumer. The world is in constant change and resisting that change for your own personal comfort is a death sentence for people and businesses alike. Sounds like you are just afraid of change to me.

Changing how the game plays at a fundamental level alienates current users, and frankly, does not guarantee that people coming in to check out the reinvented classes will like what they see either.

So lets risk a shit ton more subs so that we might attract subs.

[Forgettable]

What's the point in changing the game such to the point that it isn't the same game anymore? Leave the game the way it is, and just make a new game.

[Grubjuice]

the real reason the game is losing subs is because it's an 8 year old game, that's like 64 years old in video-game years.
who wouldn't be slowing down at the age of 64? There's nothing wrong in a game entering the winter years of its life.

[InDecisive]

I want them to completely redo classes, so they're unrecognisable from what they are today and no one feels comfortable or familiar with the characters they've been playing fo rnearly ten years. And I want them to completely redo all the character models in a new, completely different art style. And I want them to scrap all the game mechanics and make new ones, maybe they just get rid of classes altogether, classes are outdated. And they should make it an fps instead of a hotkey mmo, I'm bored of playing a hotkey mmo, an fps would be way better. And I want them to change the settting. Fantasy with mild sci-fi elements is boring, they should go space opera like mass effect or something, I'm bored of the warcraft lore, they should replace it with new completely different lore with no connection to the old warcraft stuff, that's outdated and they've been doing it since the 90s or something. And this MMO stuff is old fashioned, everyone knows the MMO market's gone, otherwise Blizzard wouldn't only have 7 million active subscribers. They need to give their customers what they want, and they want lobby-based multiplayer titles with short single player campaigns with set pieces.

Doing all this is the only way they'll save this game.

You see what I'm saying here? I think you might just want to play a different game.

[Tuor]

What if blizzard completely wiped every skill and ability from all class, and completely redesigned every class from a clean slate for the next expansion?

I would suport this, under the obvious request that balance betwin classes must be achived. Even that i might cry like a bay for seeing spirits wolfs going away... Or worst, Titan's Grip.

To me the classes have stayed the same for way too long.

No class in wow has stayed the same that long... I still remember seeing warrior stances being worth of something, besides tanking.

The problem here lies with the fact that classes must still reconisable by players, and that is the main problem with current class development.

Sure we get new skills and mechanics from time to time, but when was the last time that you heard from blizzard in a patch note "we completely redesigned X class". Exactly, because have never heard that. It's time for a paradigm shift.

They reworked warlocks in cata, they removed soul shards, and all specs had a feeling of being new, and they have donne the same in MoP, again with warlocks.

Wow is plummeting in subs. If there was ever a time for big changes, then it's right now.

I agree, the game urges for something new, what i don't understand is Blizzard concept in giving something new, it seems identical to /remove_from_game . Hated, and i'm still hating every day the removal of talents and other of such.

[Laz]

If you want a completely new game, go play something else and leave WoW alone. Have been playing since May, 2005. Seen many changes, some good, some bad. But to completely wipe a class is just being ignorant to how things are.

[Deleted]

What you're ignoring is why people are quitting. Classes not changing enough very likely isn't the reason for pretty much everybody.


There wouldn't be a game to refresh in two years of zero content. Not to mention that a change of this magnitude would likely kill the game anyway.

Tbh, I always used to love class changes, until it happened to Warrior and we got totally screwed over with the new rage mechanics in MoP. 4.3 was AMAZING for Arms spec, best spec I have ever played of any class since Vanilla, but thanks to craptive mitigation (cheers for ruining tanking rather than just making agro matter again) Arms now sucks so much. It's just not fun at all.

[huth]

It's been 7 years the classes have not changed that much, and people are unsubbing faster than entranced flies are dropping to bug lights. Fine you love your druids that way he is. How you love the monotony of still enjoying the same abilities and mechanics after 7 years I really do not understand, but you are a single person standing in a mmo environment that is bleeding and dying all around you. So should blizzard listen to you and not change stuff or should blizzard listen to all the people that are unsubbing? You are a spec amidst a wash of what seems like people wanting change. This may piss you off, but you seem to be the minority in this case.

You want a different game. Go play it. There's not half as many people wanting change as you seem to believe.

[Ealyssa]

So if the game is losing subs, then we should keep things exactly as they are. I don't understand that logic because it makes no sense.

That's just because you think you are right...

What if people cancel subs because of too many change right now ? Like Blizzard keep telling us. Everytime something change people leave because "my class changed, don't want to relearn something".

Pretty much nothing can stop the sub loss. It's just the way MMO behave it can't last forever and after 10 years you just can't make totally new player. You have to make people come back, or maintain the people actually playing. And that's pretty much what Blizzard do now with the massive reinforcment of the WOW dev team : quality content for player with just enough change to keep thing fresh, without changing the whole world inside out. Don't like it, don't have to play it... Their is a multitude of other MMO on the market. Why people keep wainting a "different wow" ? It's 10 years old, it won't change. Want something else ? Just play something else...

[Gimlix]

Many players are already quitting, so we just stay the course?

People are quitting for different reasons, this will only speed up the progress.

[NightZero88]

It's been 7 years the classes have not changed that much, and people are unsubbing faster than entranced flies are dropping to bug lights. Fine you love your druids that way he is. How you love the monotony of still enjoying the same abilities and mechanics after 7 years I really do not understand, but you are a single person standing in a mmo environment that is bleeding and dying all around you. So should blizzard listen to you and not change stuff or should blizzard listen to all the people that are unsubbing? You are a spec amidst a wash of what seems like people wanting change. This may piss you off, but you seem to be the minority in this case.

Can you train me in the ways of reading people's minds because you certainly have a damn clue why 95% of the people are quitting. And I'd be willing to bet that it's not because of the classes.

[Seezer]

Then that's worth it to make the game fresh again.

The game will never be fresh again. No matter how many different abilities you have, it's still wow. And it's still going to be the same wow. And everything has a finite timeline. WoW will dwindle. Nothing will stop it. The game is ten years old. It's going to lose ppl.