Am I crazy or are spells uglier in Retail?

[happyreech]

I feel like the spell effects (or whatever they're called) are not nearly as nice as in Classic.

Be that melee skills or spells like chaos bolt. They look just fine in Classic, but on Retail I'm always thinking that something's off.

On retail their resolution is probably much higher than what ever was in Classic, so how come they kinda look lower res or something. I can't explain it.

Idk maybe I'm crazy, I just can't shake the feeling, hard to make a thread about it. It just doesn't look right.

[Morae]

I think some are, not all.

But its an old problem that happens over long period of time.

Blizz updates skills and along with it their effects. They have seemed to prefer more subtle effects and sounds over time when in the past they were more... impressive, at least in my opinion. Some go the opposite way too, but it seems to be more rare.

[vian]

Who ever was in charge of the pixel art spell effects should be fired.

[kranur]

I feel like the spell effects (or whatever they're called) are not nearly as nice as in Classic.

Be that melee skills or spells like chaos bolt. They look just fine in Classic, but on Retail I'm always thinking that something's off.

On retail their resolution is probably much higher than what ever was in Classic, so how come they kinda look lower res or something. I can't explain it.

Idk maybe I'm crazy, I just can't shake the feeling, hard to make a thread about it. It just doesn't look right.

Some are better some are worse. Weapon sounds are also horrible in retail.

[FAILoZOFF]

if you are I am too.
OG incarnate vs new incinerate for instance

[Ashana Darkmoon]

Are you playing with low graphic settings?

[Zoura]

Never thought of them being uglier, better on the other hand. As Ashana said, you playing with Low settings?

[Just Passing through]

If anything...they are "uglier" because sometimes there is just to much stuff flying around and on the ground. On top of that you have glyphs to add more FX to spells.

[Ereb]

You are def crazy lol. You can state how you prefer the older style, but to claim it looks better in classic with all 4 pixels? nah no way fam lmao

Figure out how to properly use your graphics settings imo

[Relapses]

Pfft, I can't believe you like the Classic spells. They're way too high fidelity for my tastes. Sorry fam, I'm only interested in extreme 192i gaming.

[username993720]

You're not wrong.

Old shadowbolt:


New shadowbolt:

[happyreech]

You're not wrong.

Old shadowbolt:


New shadowbolt:

Oh that's a great example. Even the effects around your hands looked so much better with the old one.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

You're not wrong.

Old shadowbolt:


New shadowbolt:

Old version looks like real black/death magic. New version looks like some generic purple magic thing.

[AtomR]

I'm more tired of how many effects we have at any given time. It's blinding and it's ridiculous!

[Holdodlig]

Matter of taste I guess. I enjoy most of the modern VFX as much as I like to see the old school stuff. Mage spells are way better in retail, but I have more love for the Classic priest spells.

As for the sound, I once had a theory about the weird changes they've made to iconic sounds. Most of those sounds came from Soundbank which is why you can ear some of those sounds in other games or in movies. I made some research back then when I saw a South Park episode with Heroes of Might and Magic 3 sound effects and I think Blizzard either changed that because their right to exploit the sounds came to an end or because they only wanted authentic sounds.

But yeah, no sound can be as iconic as the one from Classic. Bring back the Arcane Missile sound !

[Jester Joe]

Old version looks like real black/death magic. New version looks like some generic purple magic thing.

You mean one looks like an actual bolt, the other looks like a weird skull being thrown for whatever reason.

Right?

[kranur]

You're not wrong.

Old shadowbolt:


New shadowbolt:

For warlocks unfortunately, many spells look better in the old version .. incinerate, chaos bolt ... no idea wtf is up with liquid fire in retail.

[ro9ue]

I remember thinking this in a few cases, some of it has better audio too. Shaman lightning spells in particular. In classic Chain Lightning or something had this aftershock sound that was like a distant rumble of thunder that was really cool. Also I prefer lightning to be depicted more like how it really is... an instant zap with a solid jagged beam, the new stuff just looks like a lightning fireball.

[Aucald]

I've always thought the Classic version of Shadowbolt was rather goofy-looking and hokey, personally speaking. I actually prefer the more modern incarnation because it seems to be Shadow energy flecked with Fel, which seems more suitable to the Warlock class's general aesthetic. The only thing I don't like about it is how it arcs toward its target as opposed to flying straight:

[Brewhan]

og chaos bolt