Nothing will be changed. You don't delay the release but also expand the development scope, that would defeat the purpose. They'll just take more time to do what they were already planning to do.
Nothing will be changed. You don't delay the release but also expand the development scope, that would defeat the purpose. They'll just take more time to do what they were already planning to do.
I used to work in a Plasma lab/donation center, if I wanted time off I needed to schedule it 2 months ahead of time and if I needed to make any changes it had to be approved a month before. On top of that, there was a good chance I wouldn't get it anyway if I wasn't quick enough because we had minimum staffing requirements by law and that only allowed 2-3 people to take vacation on any given day out of a staff of almost 100.
I'm half and half, because I don't think that concern pertains to their dedicated fanbase. They must have some kind of inhouse metrics that points to borrowed power making an expansion more interesting for the mass majority of players, at the expense of alienating the few that are tired of it: though, they may just be getting the wrong idea of what people liked about Legion.
But I do think this is a case of appealing to the kinds of players who aren't on MMOC.
Making a video game is harder with everyone at home I would imagine. For the first time in a long while I can honestly say I am happy that they actually are worried about the product they are releasing instead of just going with the release some busted junk and fixed as we go mentality.
Posts like this is the reason people will still be pissed even after this delay. I highly, highly doubt you will get anything more than a more specific polish pass and maybe conduit weekly cooldown being removed. But thinking covenants will get fundamentally changed? That will take half a year or more of a delay because the entire system would have to be redesigned and they would need a new hook to sell players, since a cosmetic only covenant system is incredibly lackluster.
Anyone else think Shadowlands was supposed to have a class? [Necromancer/Dark Ranger]?
"You know you that bitch when you cause all this conversation."
I'm glad to see them do it, but the reality is they'll never manage to balance that convoluted mess of systems.
more customization! lots!
I don't know if anything needs to be changed beyond tuning, but I do think there needs to be much more iteration before release. Especially with the awful new heirloom bonuses.
Seems like those two niches are already covered, no?
Both in terms of themes as well as in potential gameplay.
Summoning dead things & plagues: DK
Debilitating soul/life draining magic magic: warlock
Attacking with a neverending host of disposable minions: also warlocks.
And if i recall correctly hunters even had a "Black Arrow" spell at some point, so pretty sure Dark Ranger would just be a forsaken hunter with funky eyes.
Now in regards to stuff not yet covered by existent classes Maiev comes to mind (mostly due to her curious kit in HotS and WC3, excacerbated by her odd armor), but a warden seems too limited in options to get enough speccs out of it, to say nothing of the overlap with rogues.
Others that i could see working would be mixing martial and magic in a nonaligned way, as in the spellblade boss of the Nighthold.
And finally there's tech based stuff like tinkers and alchemists which would certainly qualify but which have been discussed to death and beyond already, so i'mma avoid that one.
Easier to swap covenants and conduits (basically like talents). Covenant choice focusing on story and cosmetics, not player power, which won't be easily switchable (something like it is now, can be even more severe if its mostly story).
Pvp gear requiring no rating but focusing on pvp power, so it wont majorly compete with pve gear. Let people who love pvp have the best gear from there, even if they're not 2k+. It sucks that you have to pve to be pvp competitive even if all you wanna do on a char is pvp. With pvp gear no longer competitive vs mythic+/raid gear in pve, can make the grind for it short too, so pvers can hop in easily. Make honor currency give good quick starter gear with pvp-only stats (not versatility, something thats purely op for pvp like MoP PvP Power or WoD pvp item level scaling). and conquest give slower and only slightly better gear, but the best for pvp.
Make the maw actually functioning. Give you a reason to kill atuff there if you like, but make it a challenge not because of uncounterable time mechanics but rather because the mobs are engaging. Make it a choice if you solo the toughest areas. The debuff mechanic is alright but it shouldnt be the main difficulty, an mmo should have threatening mobs outdoors.
If all of the above happen, SL will be perfect for me.
Important but less critical stuff:
Make a pass on pvp and pve balance.
Delay the expansion. That's fine, a finished game is better than a rushed one.
However,
With the dumpster fire that is BFA still clutching at our ankle and with the prepatch coming in 2 weeks we need to talk about 2 things.
1st Make the Heart of Azeroth instant 85 and essences account wide for all alts.
2nd Make the cloak instant 15 on quest completion or make upgrades purchasable by the 8.3 factions/Wrathion.
With us being stuck with 2 months of Prepatch the only thing to do will be to level Alts until the Icecrown/Scourge invasion comes and when they do they drop loot equivalent to Normal Nyalotha then making the raid obsolete.
The delay made alot of people happy, but having to continue to grind BFA systems in the Shadowlands prepatch won't.