Dragonflight Class Design Progress Update

[Tehdruid]

.... but most classes have had several rounds of tuning for their talents by now.

Bear druids would like a word with you.

Out of all the classes, that have had passes, feedback, changes, feedback cycles more than once... Ion said that priests and G-Druids had received little to no communication. He apologized. He promised that would be fixed. Priest got an update the next week. Still nothing on bears and that was weeks ago. If tues comes and nothing for bears is pushed/communicated. I can say it feels like another BFA 2.0 where G-druids had to wait 9 months into the expac to fix glaring holes left over from the change into BFA.

[PenguinChan]

While I get the pessimism people have in this thread, Blizzard's willingness to actually listen to some feedback for once and alter the gameplay experience is pretty dope. I don't expect them to make sweeping changes mid-expansion though, unless it's just needed in even the player's eyes. Regardless: This should tell people that the expansion is going to be done relatively soon. 2 months, maybe? I can see an early December release with raids being pushed back until after the holidays.

[Buffbringer]

Reading this as a Ret pally feels bad kek

[Cynical Asshole]

"We’re now primarily focused on fixing bugs and tuning the game."

Ok. I mean Evokers, the star class of DF, are hot garbage at PVP, but ok, focus on those bugs and tuning.

[Revamp Man]

Hunters may have had good comms, but our utility is basically non existsant, and unless tuned high will be far less desirable than other classes for a raid spot

right now SV hunters are still very strong

[lordjust]

People saying its rushed is just stupid imo. Ive been around waaaaay worse betas then rhis one, this is one of their best betas to date.
They reworked the talent system, not your class. So stop expecting so much from that. That essentially means tjat you might not see any gameplay difference from the previous expansion but that isnt to say it wont change over the course.of the expansion

The thing is that it feels rushed. They made some big changes for specs with the talent trees and we got feedback and changes on lots of things and it felt good to be heard and getting answers that they agree and change things or disagree and hear their goal and how they imagine things playing out. Hearing that they're finished with the design progress and we shouldn't expect big changes anymore feels bad just like in the past betas. It felt like they were on a good track and needed to iterate for like another 4-8 weeks to flatten out all the kinks before starting to balance. We know what their designgoals were for most specs and for a lot of them they didn't reach those goals. They started removing talents, reverting some bigger changes and lots of specs went from feeling fresh and good back to the way they play now which is OK but people were excited to play a better version of the spec.

Most classes and specs will be fine but far from what they told us they want. Also people still need to be convinced that if they say they're changing talents over the course of the expansion that it isn't we'll fix your spec in 10.1 or 10.2 or next expansion. They fucked fury at the start of 9.2 and did nothing to fix it since then and was "fixed" by gear scaling and the fated affix that made most boss fights more aoe focused. They said at the end of 9.2.5 that they don't want big changes in a season once the meta has formed so we can probably expect the same going forward which means, yes there will be changes, but only when a new season starts. If your spec isn't in a good place in the next build, better luck in 6-9 months or so when 10.1 hits.

[Addiena]

I hope you like healing then, the dd spec is very bland and simple and would have been one of the specs that would have deserved 2-3 months more of iteration.

Ill take what I can get in regards to something new.

I also dont mind being a healer, being able to pick who lives and dies is always a good thing.

[ClownPrincess]

It seems a bit early to consider the classes finished and limit yourself to "just tuning", don't ya think?

Not if you consider how much time they supposedly have until release. They need to stop adding new shit and changing shit up if they don't want the game to be a buggy mess at release, because programmers need to focus on stability and fixing bugs rather than implementing new features. Designers can still play around with numbers.

Class balance will be fucked up, but the alternative would be that + the game would be ridden with bugs.

If blizzard's really lived by their vaunted motto "we release when its done", they'd push the release back, but it turns out they're only human after all and have the money people riding them like everyone else in the industry.

[THEORACLE64]

Anyone who pretended this expansion would not be rushed was fooling themselves. Beta by August coming to release candidate in 2 months max in terms of design.

This filthy company deserves to die, Riot's MMO and FFXIV's 7.0 update can't come soon enough.

Lol. If only you knew how much an idiot you're making yourself look

It's been in development since before Shadowlands launched, so uh, it's anything but rushed. Just because outsiders get a small peek during a testing window doesn't mean that that's how long they've been developing it if you actually paid any attention, all of the zones were basically complete with questing when the alpha lauched - something which hadn't happened before. Compared to prevoius alpha's and beta's, this game was pretty much in mid-beta when they tested it for alpha

[loras]

Not if you consider how much time they supposedly have until release. They need to stop adding new shit and changing shit up if they don't want the game to be a buggy mess at release, because programmers need to focus on stability and fixing bugs rather than implementing new features. Designers can still play around with numbers.

Class balance will be fucked up, but the alternative would be that + the game would be ridden with bugs.

If blizzard's really lived by their vaunted motto "we release when its done", they'd push the release back, but it turns out they're only human after all and have the money people riding them like everyone else in the industry.

Honestly past games illustrate quite well that it's better to have a buggy but conceptually sound game than something that's not gonna be bug free either by a long shot. ^^'

It's lovely to think you can declare something to be done and then be done with it, but that's not how reality works. It just means you're now consciously ignoring problems you will most likely still encounter, and will still need to fix.

[Grinning Serpent]

I'm glad enhancement shaman is looking solid at the moment, then. I'm sorry for the people who aren't satisfied with the current incarnation of their choice of class spec.

Is there a place to look at the current setup of trees? I clicked the links I could find in previous news posts and it just directs me to what seem like buggy Shadowlands talent trees trying to incorporate the numbers changes from Dragonflight news.

[TEHPALLYTANK]

Is there a place to look at the current setup of trees? I clicked the links I could find in previous news posts and it just directs me to what seem like buggy Shadowlands talent trees trying to incorporate the numbers changes from Dragonflight news.

Could try https://www.wowhead.com/beta/talent-calc, though I don't know if it is using the most up to date build.

[tomten]

"We’re now primarily focused on fixing bugs and tuning the game."

Ok. I mean Evokers, the star class of DF, are hot garbage at PVP, but ok, focus on those bugs and tuning.

Nobody really cares about PVP, not even they devs, who has multiple times gone on record saying they regret adding pvp to wow and it was a mistake doing so.
Dont expect much in that area.

- - - Updated - - -

Could try https://www.wowhead.com/beta/talent-calc, though I don't know if it is using the most up to date build.

they are usually very fast updating it, usually within the hour following several class discord but spec mileage will vary.

[Qnubi]

Skipping through the thread:

Paladins are crap, druids are crap, evoker are crap, shadow priests are crap.

Basically, if everyone feels their classes feel crap then they are in a good spot balance wise I would say. :P
I will roll arcane mage this expansion, regardless how good/bad it is, made up my mind long ago.

[Arkura]

Lol. If only you knew how much an idiot you're making yourself look

It's been in development since before Shadowlands launched, so uh, it's anything but rushed. Just because outsiders get a small peek during a testing window doesn't mean that that's how long they've been developing it if you actually paid any attention, all of the zones were basically complete with questing when the alpha lauched - something which hadn't happened before. Compared to prevoius alpha's and beta's, this game was pretty much in mid-beta when they tested it for alpha

Oh I remember MoP beta... jade forest was broken, in beta... it had to be completely redone so yeah you have a point there

[stormgust]

Hunters have received the most yes, but most classes have had several rounds of tuning for their talents by now.

The druid class tree is the same as it was when it was previewed prior to alpha, that was back in June. That's ZERO rounds of iteration, even though the design philosophy and goals supposedly have changed significantly over the course of developement. Apparently this only holds tue for any class tree but the druid one?