what classes could be combined to simplify the game

[Schattenlied]

As for "playing a different class", what if the player has no interest in tanking, or healing, DPS'ing? What if they don't care about some of the other classes in the game? What if they don't care about the majority of the other classes?

Sounds like a them problem.

The entire game and class balance shouldn't be upended because a few people are overly picky.

On the other hand, why don't you move on to another class if your favorite class got "changed too much with the revamp"? Your argument works just as well if you flip it around.

No, it doesn't, because in my argument it's because of a personal issue, a person got bored, in yours it's because someone had a thing they enjoyed ripped away from them and removed.

Not remotely the same fucking thing.

People need to understand this: there will never be a "well balanced" state for the classes, for the simple fact that the classes do not function/play the same. Balance will never be achieved unless you remove everything that makes the classes unique, and make them all play the same.

Well balanced doesn't mean every class is perfectly equal, it just means they are all viable and useful and play well, and yes, that can be achieved, and it has been in the past, in fact.

Yes, we would, for the reasons written above.

Wrong.

[Firefall]

This thread is stupid but to play along anyway for fun:

- Hunters and Warriors. Survival is replaced with Fury. Beast Mastery is replaced with Protection (They keep a pet). Markmanship replaces Arms.

- Warlocks and Mages. Arcane stays untouched. Demonology replaces Fire. Frost becomes Frostfire instead. Arcane and Demonology are positioned as the whole backstory that Warlocks are Mages who flunked out of mage-school because they wanted more power faster lol.

- Monk and Rogue. Mistweaver is replaced by Subtlety, Windwalker gets a little more of a ninja-assasin aesthetic, and Brewmaster gets some pirate-y grog action as a tank or DPS spec with a stance or something.

- Paladin and Deathknight. Frost and Unholy stay, as does Ret. Because this represents Arthas best and that has always been the point of each class.

- Priests and Demon Hunters. Havoc stays. Shadow stays. Discipline is given an edgy aesthetic about self flagellation or something. Goal is something like a zealot, or an inquisitioner, willing to use "evil" powers for good.

- Shamans and Druids. They've always been buds anyway. Enhancement stays, and maybe ghostwolf becomes a not-ghost and a shapeshift cooldown. Restro becomes one nature focused spec with water and earth themes. Feral and Gaurdian are one spec again.

[AngerFork]

No reason in reality to do this. But where's the fun in that? Let's try smashing some classes together and see what we get.

Paladin/Warlock - Demonology spec is basically just summoning Lothraxion and the like. Holy and Affliction merge into one spec because why not?
Warrior/Priest - Lorewise, this is basically where Paladins came from, so why not bring that back now that we've merged Paladins elsewhere.
DK/Mage - The new fighting style is to raise corpses, light them on fire, then launch them at your foes. WoW's ESRB rating goes from T to M.
Hunter/Monk - Your new pets are now the August Celestials. Spear-based combat in Survival spec is suddenly much more effective.
Shaman/Rogue - You now use the elements to stab someone in the back. Elements are good at distraction and gaining trust pre-backstab.
DH/Druid - If you've ever wanted to play as a Bear in a blindfold double jumping and gliding down on your foes, your dreams have become reality.

[Varvara Spiros Gelashvili]

No the game problem is that it is to simple and also heavily narrative driven.

[Irian]

What's with WoW players and their obsession with reducing and removing things from the game?

Seriously, that's not WoW's problem and it never has been.

[Ielenia]

Sounds like a them problem.

And what you have is a "you" problem. See how your dismissive argument doesn't work the way you think? It works to dismiss your own problems too.

No, it doesn't, because in my argument it's because of a personal issue, a person got bored, in yours it's because someone had a thing they enjoyed ripped away from them and removed.

Not remotely the same fucking thing.

It is "the same fucking thing" in terms that it's a class the player no longer enjoys. If they grew bored of it or if Blizzard changed it too much, it's irrelevant. If you don't like how Blizzard handles their class design, here's another version of your argument: there's plenty of other games around for you to play.

Well balanced doesn't mean every class is perfectly equal, it just means they are all viable and useful and play well, and yes, that can be achieved, and it has been in the past, in fact.

No, it hasn't. If you find someone that likes how class design was during expansion X, you'll also find people who find that class balance during expansion X was shit. If you think class A was nicely balanced during a given expansion, you'll also find people who think class B was handled like shit within the same expansion.

[kaminaris]

Going with that logic we could merge all dps specs into one, all healer specs into one and tank specs into one
because dps works the same, they push buttons that deal damage, healer buttons heal or deal mediocre damage and tank buttons keep mobs focused on them, deals moderate damage and help him stay alive.

Revamp? - yes, each expansion, Merge? - No, in fact we should get even more options.

We won't get perfect balance ever, only maybe 0.5% of playerbase should ever care about balance as current one allows to down every boss with every spec.
M+ balance is shit but that is completely different story. That is the result of people crying buzzwords "Homogenization".

[Schattenlied]

And what you have is a "you" problem.

No.

It is "the same fucking thing" in terms that it's a class the player no longer enjoys.

Yeah, sure, if you oversimplify the fuck out of it.

If they grew bored of it or if Blizzard changed it too much, it's irrelevant.

No, it's not, one is an internal issue while the other is forced on you by an external entity.

Important fucking difference.

[Eggroll]

Cited for opinion.

Not really, though. Can you remember any xpac including MoP where the main feature was completely overhauled mid xpac? Like HoA. Or look at Legion, drama with the Legendaries, up until MoP content was consistent and thought through when it was published. Now we are playing live Beta.

I'd like to compare it with watching a movie in the movie theater.
Old devs were like you go to the movies, watching your movie in peace and have a good time.
New devs are like you go to the movies, movie starts - but somewhere in the middle of the movie cables start dangling from the ceiling, the director runs into the scene, starting to explain stuff to the audience, etc. it's just a disruptive experience.

[Raisei]

You do realize there is something called Lore governing the class possibilities in the game yes? The classes do not exist in a vaccuum and can be merged and eliminated however you like. That would break the Lore.

Paladins and Priests are similar, and lore-wise they could choose to become the other. Rogues and Warriors would be stretch already as you need very different training, Rogues are nimble and quick and have some basic skills in Shadow Magic, Warriors are juggernauts in heavy armor that rely on brute strength, you can't just switch between those styles in an instant.
Same problem with Shamans and Monks, they have completely different ideologies. One has mastered the Elements of Nature to heal and destroy, the other is a martial artist that has mastered their inner energy for combat (not to mention Brew and Kegs).

I also do not understand why we would want fewer classes. It`s great to have so many options to choose from and that most class in themselves offer choices.

If I think back to SWTOR there were only technically 8 classes (2 advanced classes on every main class) and only 3 healing spec among those. As Bioware was never great with tweaking the UI or allowing addons or balancing it turned out that out of those 3 healing specs usually only 1-2 were even viable for raiding. Great fun to choose from 1-2 classes if you did not want to be a burden on your raid group.

Sure Balance isn`t perfect here either, but if you aren`t going for Mythic raiding you can pretty much choose whichever class you feel best at and usually that is the class you like most.

[Muajin76]

Simply put; the game is becoming bloated in classes and specs and needs to be simplified so the cost of time balancing the game is improved and a new and more fun class and/or spec can be added down the road. what would be the classes to combine with the result that at least 1 or 2 specs would be removed from the total after the combination?.

FF 14 has far more classes and they seem to do alright. This game has fewer classes and you seem it's *bloated*? Just...wow. I for one, feel there is nothing wrong with the current number of classes. It gives the game diversity and variety on what you want to play in the game.

- - - Updated - - -

WTF?

How are they the same?

Blood is a tank spec.
Frost dual wields.
Unholy has pets.
Ret uses holy direct damage.
Warrior uses physical damage and bleeds.

Amen! Next thing they will say is that all 4 druids specs are basically the same. :P

[Eazy]

Priest and Death Knight for being Holy Knight that has 3 spec:
DPS, Healer and Tank!

Rogue and Warlock, so they could become a class like that Night Elf hero from Wc3.

Hunter and Mage and maybe shaman - they'll be a nature magician. Someone who can summon forces of nature to fight with their enemies. Keep in mind that hunter traits in this comparison could make a class become one of their pet, so a tiger for DPS or a big bear for tanking!

[Muajin76]

Problem with this, is that you cannot ignore class fantasy and since you cannot ignore class fantasy, you cannot combine specs.

ties with in lore too. Heaven forbid blizz alter lore just so they can fix classes/specs.

[endersblade]

I think we should simplify the game to 3 classes:
"tank", "healer" and "damage".

Also they should all have 1 button: tank named "aggro", healer - "heal" and dps - "do damage".

That way the game will be simplified enough to be played on mobile by 5 year olds. Win win I say!

People would then complain about the game being bloated with three classes and try to homogenize them into 1. And expect it to auto-play for them.

Also, it is very obvious this was a troll thread. GR8 B8 M8. Managed to get it to 5 pages at this point.

[Bryntrollian]

Remove DH and DK and combine monks with rogues

[Aphrel]

please, no simplifications. Rather, id like more specs. Where is my archon-form magetank?

When will us mages get disintegrate from d3?

Or howling winds...
Or black hole...

CMON GIVE US NEW SHINY THINGS!

[ThiagoTorres]

Simply put; the game is becoming bloated in classes and specs and needs to be simplified so the cost of time balancing the game is improved and a new and more fun class and/or spec can be added down the road. what would be the classes to combine with the result that at least 1 or 2 specs would be removed from the total after the combination?.

I LOL'd so much...

LMAO, ok, ok..

You want more simple classes? More simple than now? Is this a joke or you really want it?

[Ielenia]

No.

Yes. It's a "you" problem because you don't like how Blizzard handles their playable classes in their game.

Blizzard wants to iterate on the classes in every expansion, trying to see what works and what doesn't, trying to keep them fresh and increase the replayability of the game and the classes. If they succeed or fail in those endeavors is another thing entirely, though.

No, it's not, one is an internal issue while the other is forced on you by an external entity.

Important fucking difference.

It's still not really that relevant if the end result is the same. Worse yet: this "internal issue" of yours would've likely brought forth the "demise" of the game much earlier if Blizzard didn't touch the classes expansion after expansion: druids would only have 3 specs, paladins would not be able to properly tank, warriors would've been kicked to the curb and lost their position as "tanks" to the death knight (who was OP as tank AND dps in its inception), and warlocks would just be spamming shadowbolt over and over and over and over and over for fifteen years. Assuming the game would've lasted this long in that scenario.

[Kaver]

I think Hunters should be combined with Priests because the theme is so overlapped anyway, such a waste of resources. Merge Holy with Marksmanship, Shadow and Beastmastery, leave Discipline as is and discard Survival whatsoever.

Then we can finallly introduce Shadow Hunters because the class niche will be available finally without disturbing other classes like DHs did with Warlocks.

Oh how desperate people are to roleplay Sylvanas xD

[Naruto is stooopid]

Hunter/Rogue