What classes actually look decent, gameplay-wise, in BFA?

[Deleted]

I'm coming back to retail after a long absence, and I'm going to roll something for BFA. I'm wondering what classes aren't too bland in BFA's alpha so far, because if I understood well, many specs were gutted.

Thanks a lot.

[Valrok]

arms warriors look pretty cool, overpower making a comeback as well as colossus smash being the DPS CD opposed to cornerstone of rotation

[Deleted]

Survival.
WW.
MM.

[infinitemeridian]

From the general consensus, Arms, windwalker, demo lock, vengeance, and ret pally seem to have be generally well received on the forums.

I've seen some love for survival, thought personally I don't think it looks that good (better than what we have though).

[Nyel]

Survival looks like trash compared to the Legion Survival Hunter. The spec needed no drastic changes just some tuning. Survival was (imho) the best and most fun spec in Legion and now they're butchering it with some horrible design ideas.

[Mafic]

BFA classes look like trash

No new talent tier since WoD. No new baseline abilities since MoP.

[Cyero]

Survival looks like trash compared to the Legion Survival Hunter. The spec needed no drastic changes just some tuning. Survival was (imho) the best and most fun spec in Legion and now they're butchering it with some horrible design ideas.

I still prefer BFA melee/range hybrid over the Legion SV pure melee combo any day. already looks much better, I'm glad blizzard are improving over their mistake on making SV pure melee and reverting back to the Hybrid Range/melee combo as it should have been.

[ttylol]

BFA Survival is literally simpler than BM, which gets a lot of hate. So...

Besides the others mentioned, all three mages are looking decent. Arcane is a lot more mana-starved, rather than just "burn for 90sec, evo, repeat". Fire got their legendaries as talents. And Frost just got changes today.

[Nyel]

I still prefer BFA melee/range hybrid over the Legion SV pure melee combo any day. already looks much better, I'm glad blizzard are improving over their mistake on making SV pure melee and reverting back to the Hybrid Range/melee combo as it should have been.

What looks better? That you're down to 4 buttons now without any variation in playstyle? Sure you can buff up your Kill Command or you play with the usual Kill Command but that's not what I call variation at all.

Survival in Legion has an amazing design but fell flat due to numbers and a challenging playstyle. As ttylol said, Survival in BfA is even simpler than BM (if that's even possible).

Hybrid/melee combo will never work. The build in "Momentum" build doesn't make it better. Survival in Legion was complex but fine gameplay-wise, numbers were the problem.

[Cyero]

What looks better? That you're down to 4 buttons now without any variation in playstyle? Sure you can buff up your Kill Command or you play with the usual Kill Command but that's not what I call variation at all.

Survival in Legion has an amazing design but fell flat due to numbers and a challenging playstyle. As ttylol said, Survival in BfA is even simpler than BM (if that's even possible).

Hybrid/melee combo will never work. The build in "Momentum" build doesn't make it better. Survival in Legion was complex but fine gameplay-wise, numbers were the problem.

Yeah, I think SV BFA is already miles better than SV legion if blizzard keeps this up I'd main a survival spec now.

[Steampunkette]

Survival at the start of Legion was great. It was different and engaging and -fun-!

Then they redesigned traps to build up the trapping side of things with Waylay and Caltrops and such. It became bloated.

Streamlining it back towards the start of Legion would've been fine. But they went too far with it and I'm really hoping that it being in a continuing state of flux will result in further changes to try and get it back to the core visceral rush of playing it. Survival looks good in Actioncam, it used to be better. In BFA? It feels like Actioncam might be wasted on them.

[Jaransan]

Survival looks like trash compared to the Legion Survival Hunter. The spec needed no drastic changes just some tuning. Survival was (imho) the best and most fun spec in Legion and now they're butchering it with some horrible design ideas.

Optional Mongoose Bite is basically the reason your wrong about survival there boss. No offence, but Mongoose Bite was a shit mechanic that by its very nature is guaranteed to either be A) So powerful you have to sink most of your uptime into it - thereby negating the vast majority of the rest of your specs buttons or B) So shit that the time sink can never possibly be worth it.

The 6 stacks mechanic and all the RNG of getting it working, and the sheer ease with which someone in pvp can gib you out of your stacks/eagle fury means that there isn't really any in between. Any possible solution to it would once again either be A) too powerful in that your making an already strong ability easier to use or B) a waste of time because your making a shit ability easier to use when most people will just take the more powerful option.

Every other design change they've made in BfA seems mostly quality of life to me. the raptor strike dot is baseline, explosive trap is gone and now is replaced by an ability that is targeted instead of ground targeted, mongoose bite is optional, there are significantly more midrange and kiting options in place of blatantly stupid talents like '2% chance at a mongoose bite stack when lacerate ticks'.

[Nyel]

Optional Mongoose Bite is basically the reason your wrong about survival there boss. No offence, but Mongoose Bite was a shit mechanic that by its very nature is guaranteed to either be A) So powerful you have to sink most of your uptime into it - thereby negating the vast majority of the rest of your specs buttons or B) So shit that the time sink can never possibly be worth it.

The 6 stacks mechanic and all the RNG of getting it working, and the sheer ease with which someone in pvp can gib you out of your stacks/eagle fury means that there isn't really any in between. Any possible solution to it would once again either be A) too powerful in that your making an already strong ability easier to use or B) a waste of time because your making a shit ability easier to use when most people will just take the more powerful option.

Every other design change they've made in BfA seems mostly quality of life to me. the raptor strike dot is baseline, explosive trap is gone and now is replaced by an ability that is targeted instead of ground targeted, mongoose bite is optional, there are significantly more midrange and kiting options in place of blatantly stupid talents like '2% chance at a mongoose bite stack when lacerate ticks'.

Moongoose Bite is something I love about Survival. It's a very special skill and a very special playstyle that was rewarding when played right. Again, numbers where the problem here, not the gameplay mechanics. I agree that it's difficult for PvP but in PvE it worked. The bigger problem was the artifact skill (imho) which added nothing to the spec.

They completely watered down SV and removed nearly everything that made the spec interesting. I mean SV with a crossbow/bow now? Wth? It's so bad lore-wise that I really don't know what to say at the moment. I really loved Legion SV where most hated it and now they're bringing up half-assed ideas that not just look bad but play bad as well (see the "Momentum" build type).

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Yeah, I think SV BFA is already miles better than SV legion if blizzard keeps this up I'd main a survival spec now.

Yeah it's better after they removed every interesting aspect of the spec. Sure about that! Glad you like it, I don't.

[Queen of Hamsters]

I'm actually optimistic about ALL the specs of my class (Hunter) rather than right now where I'm stuck between a rock and hard place, with one spec (SV) being completely off the table.

BM still needs something more, too many choices to improve and make the gameplay more engaging, is put into talent rows with other massive choices. I'd rather have a much more complicated gameplay for the spec and have it be a top DPS, than having it serve as some sort of "gateway spec"...

[Lorgar Aurelian]

BFA classes look like trash

No new talent tier since WoD. No new baseline abilities since MoP.

What do you mean no new baseline?

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I still prefer BFA melee/range hybrid over the Legion SV pure melee combo any day. already looks much better, I'm glad blizzard are improving over their mistake on making SV pure melee and reverting back to the Hybrid Range/melee combo as it should have been.

I mean it kinda is a hybrid in legion with things like wildfire bomb axe though ect. Though I do agree it looks better on bfa in my option.

[Super Kami Dende]

BFA classes look like trash

No new talent tier since WoD. No new baseline abilities since MoP.

Shield of Vengeance and Blade of Wrath for Ret Pally say Hello.

[Tikishock]

Shield of Vengeance and Blade of Wrath for Ret Pally say Hello.

And I guess "technically" there hasn't been any baseline abilities added but I'm pretty sure every artifact in Legion made changes to a class rotation. Also, some abilities were changed as well so it was different in Legion compared to WoD. Some may have not liked the changes but I don't think you can argue that there were changes.

And isn't that the point of new baseline abilities? To do something different in the rotation?

[Super Kami Dende]

And I guess "technically" there hasn't been any baseline abilities added but I'm pretty sure every artifact in Legion made changes to a class rotation. Also, some abilities were changed as well so it was different in Legion compared to WoD. Some may have not liked the changes but I don't think you can argue that there were changes.

And isn't that the point of new baseline abilities? To do something different in the rotation?

He said no new Baseline Abilities since MoP. Both Shield of Vengeance and Blade of Wrath are Baseline Abilities added in Legion that are available before Legion content.

[Dmitro]

Shield of Vengeance and Blade of Wrath for Ret Pally say Hello.

but you gotta count removing of 10+ abilities, so adding 2(in 4 years) and then removing 10 will make it -8. simple math, honey

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He said no new Baseline Abilities since MoP. Both Shield of Vengeance and Blade of Wrath are Baseline Abilities added in Legion that are available before Legion content.

false, blade of wrath is not a new ability, its a revamped exo.

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And isn't that the point of new baseline abilities? To do something different in the rotation?

so you judge classes by rotation only? do you know theres something else in the game besides doing 1-2-3-4-2-3-1 on bosses?

[Super Kami Dende]

but you gotta count removing of 10+ abilities, so adding 2(in 4 years) and then removing 10 will make it -8. simple math, honey

You don't have to count anything, since what was removed is not what he brought up. So your point is completely irrelevant.

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false, blade of wrath is not a new ability, its a revamped exo.

The only similarities of the 2 is they are abilities that generate Holy Power at range. So your point is irrelevant once again. Kind of a common thing with you.