Anyone else nervous how classes are gonna feel at Shadowlands launch?

[Bryan Adam]

I know that blizz is at least going to do some work on classes for shadowlands... And I know there is this new talent tree tied to the covenants.. but is anyone actually worried that our classes once again are gonna feel terrible? Class design has not been one of BFA's strong suits... but now with all these systems on top of each other (double ring azerite traits, essence system, corruptions), many specs actually play as fast if not faster than what they did in Legion, even if a bit uninspired. But again, all these things that kept BFA gameplay afloat are going to be ripped away, just like the Legion artifacts.

So do you share this same concern? Or do you believe blizz has already addressed this internally, and will make sure that gameplay won't feel as sluggish during BFA launch.

1. Lose Power
2. Farm Gears
3. Kill Bosses for Epic Gears
4. Specialize your points in Rental Power System (RPS)
5. Deck yourself out in all enchants, gems, and whatever forging-power they are going to add in the Shadowlands.
6. New Expansion hits.
7. Rinse & Repeat

It's pretty much the game cycle of WoW. I am not surprise but excited about the changes that the Shadowlands brings to the game.

[Bepples]

I am really anxious to see how Hunter ends up. I am playing BM right now, but I would prefer to play SV, but BM is just ridiculously good right now. Will they backpedal and revert it to ranged SV? Do another complete rework of it like they did Legion -> BfA? Who knows!

Hopefully they do.

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There was a reason my sentence started with "Even". I was not praising vanilla hunters as the epitome of their game design. They felt flat and meh both in vanilla and BC, and the class only really started to get rolling (IMO) with Wrath.

I was saying that hunters have ridden WoW's lifespan on kind of a bell curve and even during the class's other nadir, the other time in the game's lifespan where it was essentially whittled down to 2 specs and 1 lol gimmick spec, where it had a whopping 2-3 buttons to push (which was all far more forgivable because this was during the game's infancy), it still felt more fulfilling because all of those 'mundane side-chores' were RPGesque touches that still made you feel more like a hunter and not like a watered down Diablo 1 rogue ripoff.

Cool story. I still think you're exaggerating the benefits of those old mechanics. They just felt like a penalty for playing a Hunter.

[Fumu]

Hopefully they do.

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Cool story. I still think you're exaggerating the benefits of those old mechanics. They just felt like a penalty for playing a Hunter.

Okay? To each their own. I never belittled your opinion, just explained the reason for my feelings in the previous posts.

I also stated multiple times that the vanilla hunter systems weren’t necessarily good. Like, no one in their right mind cries themselves to sleep at night over the loss of the awful deadzone, or their rare new Windserpent tame running away out of starvation due to the devs deciding a winged snake doesn’t eat meat because ??? The old mechanics just helped prop up what felt like shallow gameplay in an era where MMOs were transitioning from “Blow your nukes, autoattack and pray before drinking for a full minute between each mob - if you survive” (EQ1) and “full rotations and a stronger focus on gameplay over RP systems“ (EQ2, WoW and it’s endless copiers, etc).

Also, the amount of general interaction we had with the pet, the choices in skins, how deep the system was was all really cool for an early 2000s game that didn’t really have much inspiration for that side of things besides maybe Pokémon/Tamagotchi at the time.

What’s lolworthy today was revolutionary 16 years ago.

[Uko]

The power loss will suck but it happens every expansion. I am kinda optimistic that with them bringing back some old favorite skills will lead to a fun to play rotation but we will know soon as alpha info either leaks or gets out due to no nda's. They cant really do any worse than bfa with so much of our damage just being us farting out random lasers and explosions and stuff unless they just make everyone have one button for dps, one for healing, and one for tanking.

[Algorath]

My expectations are honestly at rock bottom, so I doubt it'll disappoint me. 2-3 months of seeing the story, clearing the raid and mythics. Doing the greater ri-.. tower things. Then it'll lose it's charm and I'll quit again. Same procedure as each expansion since cata

[cface]

Anyone remember how absolute dogshit bfa was at the start? Wow is always more fun at the end with haste and more polished classes and gear. If all you do is world quests then yes, you're probably gonna miss having "challenging" content.

In Legion each class and specc had a unique class quest with weapon and spell, now we get shat upon with generic abilities that buffs everyones crit on a cooldown (covenant bs). They keep making lazy af decisions.

Oh, and here, take this one useless unpruning spell back and call it a feature, nvm we nailed your class to the cross for several xpacs now. Never seen a more lazy development in a game, well, I think they have rough competition with valve's csgo on being laziest

[Jikate-Stormrage]

I know that blizz is at least going to do some work on classes for shadowlands... And I know there is this new talent tree tied to the covenants.. but is anyone actually worried that our classes once again are gonna feel terrible? Class design has not been one of BFA's strong suits... but now with all these systems on top of each other (double ring azerite traits, essence system, corruptions), many specs actually play as fast if not faster than what they did in Legion, even if a bit uninspired. But again, all these things that kept BFA gameplay afloat are going to be ripped away, just like the Legion artifacts.

So do you share this same concern? Or do you believe blizz has already addressed this internally, and will make sure that gameplay won't feel as sluggish during BFA launch.

I reject your statement about the systems keeping BFA afloat. If anything BFA is held aloft just like a turd is right before it Plummer’s down the hole.

That said, Blizzard themselves stated that no major class overhauls will be happening in SL. They are returning abilities you already played with before (apparently we have been good lil boys and girls paying for our subs; so we get our toys back?). They will remove the trash heap that was BFA.

Will this make classes feel better? Idk. I’m leaning toward No. We’ll still have the GCD changes which heavily neutered classes in early BFA. You will be losing your azurite gear, talents, essences and corruption. Tittyforge is going away, so no large leaps in gearing.

So my guess will be either they discover they have to:

A) Rework most of the classes around having shite stats for a prolonged period of time.

B) Increase the rate of stats from gear due to lack of TF. So back to a massive upswing in power during the expansion.

C) Your new Hetero-life mate Jeff from the underworld’s bond will have to be buffed to make up for your limited power growth early on.

D) Nuclear option: They decide to bring back a bunch of the old stats and take the game back to static gearing like earlier expansions. Simplify gear to the point of I rolled and won it so it must be an upgrade.

D will be held off until next expansion so more promised can be made. You still have 3-4 years of Jeff to enjoy before you must wave to him as a spirit guide takes your hand and returns you to Azeroth. RIGHT before the 5th war kicks off. Boy you guys won’t BELIEVE what’s going to happen!!! All out war between the factions where you can fight in warfron....No! Battlefronts against the opposing factions AI!!!!!!! Que fireworks, and a cinematic that looks so fucking amazing it almost draws your attention away from the crappy story twists and poor product you won’t receive for another 10-14 months!! But we promise to give you back things we took from you years ago! Reasons change!!!!

[BigToast]

Nope. Not my first expansion.

[Ihazpaws]

I am pretty sure all classes get nice things and have their core design tuned to be super fun to play... exept ofc shamans. Shamans will get the treatment of bfa and left as they are which is broken mess without set theme (ele and enha).

Elemental is nowadays better and has it's theme somewhat in place with correct builds (use this to buff your another skill that will buff your other skill to deal crazy dmg if you combine it with this CD). And elemental summoning build is kinda fitting the theme even tho it's just for a moment and then back to waiting because of long CD.

Enhancement is total mess and feels really awkward to play + is really bad in pvp even tho that spec have always overflow with the idea of close/mid range nature warrior that is used in front lines. AND it is the embodiment of horde... to me atleast. So why keeping that spec as a mess and useless in pvp? It's so useless in pvp that people rarely even play it in pve compared to other classes even tho it is quite good in there. Also the combat feels just awful and has no set theme.

Why no make enhancement shaman to be something what it's name says = enhance = boost your weapons and armors to be tanky melee with very powerful auto attacks that reach close mid range and enhance your team with powerful totems.

Back in the old days if you saw enhancement shaman in BG you would prefer to run away because of how scary they were with their 1 shotability and crazy high control over your momentum during the battle. Now they are just free kill because they cannot do enough burst dmg to make you go defensive/run nor they can take the beating like other melee and they are most vulnerable class to slows/roots, yeah even DK have more tools and better chance against those annoying OP frost mages.