
Originally Posted by
Hitei
Yes, they are. The fact that they're "like specs" is irrelevant, because specs are attached to an entire class and microclasses aren't.
They introduce several classes to the game that are abhorrently difficult to balance, because unlike every other class in the game, their viability is solely dependent on a single spec's performance, so if that one spec is at any point less than average, they have no fallback they are just awful and get blacklisted.
They introduce, for the first time in the game's history, the potential to be locked out of doing content with friends simply because you happened to choose the wrong combination of classes, and now can't even queue for dungeon together because you're the same role--and unlike every other class, who can just respec, you only have one option.
They add significantly more work anytime even basic class content (e.g. tier sets) gets added to the game, because now you have four more classes that need armor sets designed and set bonuses figured out. Introducing them isn't just a matter of the time investment to produce them for 10.0, it also means signing up to have four additional things to deal with if you ever want something like class halls again, or class quests.
They are awkward to balance for solo content, because while it's acceptable for a regular class to feel slow or a bit clunky when questing as a healer/tank spec (because they are choosing to do so but have DPS specs available) a micro just is slow or clunky when doing so, because they are a thing which can only ever off-spec that content.
They are a shit ton more work than just adding a traditional class, because they are not specs. They are single-spec classes. So while adding a normal class is adding a "class kit" and then three sets of rotational spec abilities and shared/specific talents, each individual microclass requires an entire functioning class kit in addition to its rotational setup. i.e. a regular class adds 1 general tab and 3 spec tabs; micro classes add four general tabs and four spec tabs. You'd have less work from introducing a five spec dragon class than four microclasses. The same applies to core mechanics and features, a class generally uses a base mechanic for all of its specs (holy power for paladins, CP for rogues, all shamans using totems as a class gimmick, etc), but microclasses involve coming up with an individual unique mechanic for each spec, instead of making a class with three spec iterations you're making four unique classes.
They are a shitty idea. Adding them would significantly increase the shit almost every team has to deal with for relatively little gain over just adding a regular class.