The 5 worst decisions blizzard has made to Wow - Your opinions

[Osmeric]

I never though I'd say this but I actually agree with people who said the talent system change. I like the new system a lot more than the old one but I think it should have been implemented a lot better. Old talents where you'd put points like 1/3, 2/3 etc were boring indeed but now you only get one every 15 levels and it feels kinda ''few and far between''.

That's not a problem with the talent system, that's a problem with leveling.

[Venziir]

Do Age of Empires and Call of Duty1 add new content all the time? Do they offer multiplayer? There is your comparison going wrong...
It's not the game being old, it's being a subscription based game being old.
In case you didn't read it: http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2014/01/...egends-surges/

Well, Age of Empires 2 was recently re-released on steam in "HD" and they did actually just make an expansion (or rather turn an older non-official expansion into an official one) and yes, it does have multiplayer so..... What was your point again?

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Worst decisions:

1) reducing Test of Valor to 3000 instead of the original 6000
2) removal of attunements
3) drop 'legendaries' (warglaives, bow, etc).
4) changes to abilities/spells because of PVP related imbalance
5) transmog

Best Decisions:
1) LFR
2) LFD
3) CRZ
4) Cash Shop
5) Long quest chain to obtain a legendary so there are no special snowflakes (cloak quest is great).

Wait wut? How can the option to prevent looking like a miss-matched clown be a bad thing? It's possibly one of the few things in this game that is even remotely close to something RPG'ish (Hint, it's an MMORPG).

Also, the fact that you chose to have LFR, LFD, CRZ and the Shop as your 4 out of 5 best decisions makes me wonder if you are just trying to troll people with your post honestly.

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I really should have put this as my #1:

RNG - worst system ever developed. Example: Main kills rare for over a year, mount doesn't drop. Alt kills, 3rd time it drops...1% mount drop... For raiders, pretty sure you will agree not getting say a trinket for a whole xpac feels pretty decent, right?

Uhm... Blizzard didn't even the random equation. Nor the aspect of RNG, which is needed in such games.

[Chookchan]

1. Removing attunements. Even though they were easy, it really did filter out some really bad people.
2. LFR/LFD. Too many reasons to count as to why this negatively impacted WoW and its community.
3. Homogenization. The unique feeling you got from each class is almost gone.
4. Reducing difficulty of 5 mans/heroics. This one really bugs me, because i really enjoyed long 5-man dungeons like BRD that had multiple ways to complete it.
5. Making the level experience extremely easy. Examples include being able to pull 10+ mobs while leveing with no problem. The best part about leveling in vanilla was that certain quests were decently difficult, and required a little planning (what to cc, what to pull and where etc) because handling 2 or more NPC's proved to be a challenge.

[Keile]

Also, the fact that you chose to have LFR, LFD, CRZ and the Shop as your 4 out of 5 best decisions makes me wonder if you are just trying to troll people with your post honestly.

Well...I still think LFD/LFR are good things to have in the game. I just think they went about it the wrong way, however after spending years spamming in general chats that I was "LFG X Dungeon" and having to spend hours trying to find ONE group only for them to fall apart shortly after....LFD was a breath of fresh air...still is, despite how people act in there. At least I get in and out, and don't spend HOURS waiting for a fail group, instead I spend minutes and can replace them instantly if I need to.

[Horizon]

1. Raising the level cap
2. Flying
3. Less grouping more singel-player style (LFR/LFD, removal of group quests etc)
4. Homogenization

[Deleted]

1) Holy Power. I find it hard to enjoy Retribution now, when I loved it in the latter days of BC/ Wotlk.
2) The new talent system. As an alt-a-holic, I find levelling to be a tidbit less involving now.
3) Having Garrosh go full-retard.
4) Trial of the Crusader. Let this be a lesson as to what doesn't make a good raid.
5) What they've done to Jainas character.

[Giscoicus]

Well...I still think LFD/LFR are good things to have in the game. I just think they went about it the wrong way, however after spending years spamming in general chats that I was "LFG X Dungeon" and having to spend hours trying to find ONE group only for them to fall apart shortly after....LFD was a breath of fresh air...still is, despite how people act in there. At least I get in and out, and don't spend HOURS waiting for a fail group, instead I spend minutes and can replace them instantly if I need to.

Part of the issue pre-LFG was simply that they wouldnt trust us with a global LFG channel, since a couple people got buttfrustrated over anal jokes and thunderfury links.

Global LFG would be good, as well as a UI system to actually look for others, but its been to long to implement the second and LFG has killed /4

[Thelxi]

Oh wow huge surprise here.. yet another post focusing on negative things..

God forbid customers actually have a voice and keep the corporation on their toes and in check. God forbid we want the game we love to be decent and honest, like it started out as.

No we should all roll over and say thank you before asking for more ways to throw money at it, cause Blizzard cares and has our average customer's best interest at heart right? In Blizzard we trust!

[rpdrichard]

They fit just fine. WarCraft's universe has always been cartoony and less about gritty/dark nature. They are just as viable as, say, Tauren.

Ever since WC1 it's been like that, and it will continue to be (although WoD looks to be one of the "darker" and "grittier" Expansions)

Tauren are warcraft cartoony, pandas as they have been implemented don't, the in game male pandaren is a extact rip off of kung fu panda, if they have sticked to samwise original concept art and haven't portrayed them in such a stereotypical way they wouldn't have been so controversial as blizzard themselves recognized that

[Venziir]

Tauren are warcraft cartoony, pandas as they have been implemented don't, the in game male pandaren is a extact rip off of kung fu panda, if they have sticked to samwise original concept art and haven't portrayed them in such a stereotypical way they wouldn't have been so controversial as blizzard themselves recognized that

You must be thinking of the "Pandyr" or whatever Samwise named his celtic-panda-people.

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Well...I still think LFD/LFR are good things to have in the game. I just think they went about it the wrong way, however after spending years spamming in general chats that I was "LFG X Dungeon" and having to spend hours trying to find ONE group only for them to fall apart shortly after....LFD was a breath of fresh air...still is, despite how people act in there. At least I get in and out, and don't spend HOURS waiting for a fail group, instead I spend minutes and can replace them instantly if I need to.

Oh I agree! That wasn't the point though.

[Raiju]

I agree again. That would be interesting.

And by the way, since the article in WSJ piqued my interest, I went reading more about LoL and just digged this infographic:

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/10/...opping-numbers

32 million players a day! 70 million registered users in 2013! Holy s&^%!

Kinda puts WoW's boasting of "100 million players over 10 years (of which only 7.7 remain today and just watch how many more we will lose before WoD)" into perspective...

I think I have 3 Lol accounts

I've never played a game

[rda]

I think I have 3 Lol accounts

I've never played a game

Still 32 million players a day.

[Nihth]

Still 32 million players a day.

Think they were supposed to write monthly instead of daily:

http://www.twurdy.com/league-legends-infographic/

You’re right, the “daily” shouldn’t be there, it wasn’t when we sent it to the designer. And it won’t be for long! Thanks

Still, pretty insane numbers.

[Deleted]

I can't even get to five..

LFR
LFD
The way they handled Pandas.

[Gangplank]

Rather than mention what I don't like, I'll mention 5 things I liked, which in a way should also say what I currently don't like now.
1) 25 man raids ONLY. A good number. It wasn't overwhelming like 40, and it didn't shrink guilds like the 10-man version does now.
2) Hard modes instead of Heroic Mode. I loved the hard mode triggers of Wrath. Doing encounters in a certain way/order/method to increase the difficulty of the boss was great for the game because it allowed raids to NOT get stuck in progression if they couldn't complete it. If you had trouble with a hard mode, you'd complete it the normal way for that week and continue on to try the next hard mode. Next week with a bit more gear, you could try it again. Of course, I understand that creating hard modes is not always easy, as you've gotta be creative about it, but I preferred it over "Heroic" mode just being flat out harder than Normal.
3) Call me old-fashioned, but I loved TBC dungeons, especially heroic mode. I loved that cc was needed, that everyone had to watch their aggro, and even trash was just as likely to wipe you as a boss might. For people who couldn't always enjoy the difficulty of a raid, heroic 5-mans were pretty epic in their own right.
4) Again, old-fashioned, but traveling to dungeon portals was something I kinda enjoyed. Whether it was winding around the tunnels of Blackrock Mountain, or swimming under the lake in Zangarmarsh... it just felt like part of the journey to difficult places.
5) Guilds and groups. I loved being part of a guild that did things together, and also being part of a small elite group of players that did heroic dungeons together. You had to be part of a group in TBC because the content was so hard. You couldn't just pug a heroic back then -- you had to trust your party members. And yes, I know guilds are still around today, but it's not "the same" as it once was. Guilds back in the early days were like a family... guilds today might be random players all joined together for guild perks, for all I know...

[Gheld]

I can't even get to five..

LFR
LFD
The way they handled Pandas.

You see, the problem is, no matter how good the game play was... no matter how you try to spin it, no matter who you try to call immature for thinking it, there is one universal truth at work that is undeniable.

Pandas are not badass. It doesn't matter, whether your prior 7 years of WoW goodness at that point had sealed your heart in place and allowed you to see past the Pandas because the fact is, if you talked to a gamer about WoW, who didn't have that 7 years of heart filled goodness, you were now talking about "The game with the Pandas".

I know people who are non WoW players, who are very mature people, but they scoffed and snickered at WoW when the Mists of Pandaria expansion came to fruition. Because Pandas aren't badass. And as Blizzard has released recently, it's not this "Faithful 12 million" that made WoW. WoW relied on keeping an ever changing population engaged, there was a rotation of different players that peaked at 12 million. And you don't play a game called world of WARcraft unless you are expecting something badass.

Corrupted part-demon crazy night elves who take over a distant world that was exploded by demonic magic is badass.
Undead Lich Kings who command armies of the undead are badass.
Angsty lava dragons who spew hatred and destruction are badass..
Pandas... are not badass. Not even if they are Chinese themed, martial arts adept Pandas. Say, what's the signature martial art of China by the way? Yes. Blizzard has only themselves to blame for the Kung Fu Panda jokes.

[Nefastus]

3 - The direction of the story since the end of wrath. Up until the end of wrath, the story in wow felt like it was growing and getting better and better, it seemed like the devs knew what they were doing, from Illidan and kil'jaeden and the draenei and blood elves, to death khights and the old gods and of course arthas, it felt like the game had a growing appeal on story alone.
And then cataclysm happened, and the story of the game became a joke to so many, everything from one side getting more focus to the other, to over powered lore figures doing all the work, to dumming down of bad guys, to contrived plotlines, to absolute silliness and even parodies of there own story, people were no longer happy with the direction of the lore, and it seemed like that well of story and innovative ideas they had from WC3 had all but dried up.

This is the MAIN reason of why i quit the game. Story went downhill so fast and with so many weak points it was hard to try to ignore it like most of us did with the eredar x draenei awful retcon. So many retcons, boss recycling, etc. I did play a month of mists of pandamon, did somewhat enjoy chasing rares but weak stories become blizzard trademark and therefore i couldnt keep going.

Ah, and talents dumbing down system. Cant forget that.

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I can't even get to five..

LFR
LFD
The way they handled Pandas.

Oh yes, the panda were the last nail. I think i reacted worse than hitler (that part of his movie people use to mock stuff) to that first trailer.

[kary]

I've never understood why people are so focused on the pandas. As far as I'm concerned (content wise) MoP was a more coherent story (and more interesting) than a lot of the previous xpacs. MoP was also one of the more violent xpacs as well, so I still don't know where people get the "cutesy" vibe from the xpac.

As far as the decisions go.
Making previous tiers of gear irrelevant
Removing tier from vp/jp (even previous tiers)
Merging 10m and 25m
Cata class revamps (looking at you, DK)
Arena.

They have done really good things though. Without too much thinking
Class homogenization (to some extent - inb4nostalgia, but if you weren't a pure dps, healer or warrior, vanilla and BC probably sucked for you)
Queue systems. Lets be real, low pop realms would be even more unplayable without queues. Also the ability to farm the lower currency w/o an instance lockout was a gift from heaven. Sure you had to deal with some asshats from time to time. But I'd take that any day over the alternative.
LFR. Players made LFR bad, not blizz. LFR in theory is a fantastic system. People are just lazy and entitled.
Removing ability bloat. The only spell I can say that I genuinely miss after the big ability cuts is baseline mind control. Windwall totem and Seal of the Crusader can suck a fat one.
The leveling experience. I'll agree that it's a ton easier than it used to be. However, it's also a ton better. The old leveling system sucked because in several areas it was downright stupid. Being forced to quest in desolace to get a quest for scarlet monastery was bad and you should feel bad for thinking it was a good idea.
Talent revamp. People either specced cookie-cutter, or had subpar dps/hps/survivability. Some exceptional players would be able to make something out of nothing, but I'm 99% sure that most of you weren't those exceptional players. Special snowflake syndrome :|

To each his own though, whatevs.

[Kalorna]

1) Shifting focus from 5-mans to scenarios - Personal gripe, loved 5mans back in the day, no real point in doing them anymore for gear or valor. I find the LFD system pretty convenient but I feel its made it harder to socialise with the groups you play with.

2) LFR - I just find LFR "unfun" and only run it as part of my newer alts gear or legendary progressions. I also feel LFR has really hurt social/casual raiding guilds that previously worked on normal mode content and has removed the incentive for newer players to get into raiding harder content as they can see everything in LFR.

3) Legendaries no longer feel legendary - I feel that everyone being able to have the cloak made it feel not very special to me and a roadblock to new characters/players. I'd prefer it if legendaries were class/role specific again and maybe only dropped in flex/normal and heroic.

4) Item level inflation - I'm hopeful the item squish will help with this, but at the moment there is such a huge gap between the dungeon heroic gear (463) to heroic warforged SoO gear (580) it just feels like a newly dinged 90 is useless compared to even someone who has looted items on the timeless isle.

5) Class homogenisation - I understand the reasons behind it (10 man raiding mainly - needed x amounts of interrupts/stuns/raid cds and no guarantee of what classes) but I feel a lot of classes and specs no longer really have their trademark strengths and weaknesses and everything sort of has the same abilities just with different icons.

[jimlow]

Heroic Dungeons
Heroic Raids
Overly complex rotations and ability's
Forcing all the main story arch's to culminate in raid environments.
Making crafting obsolete with raid purples.