Kulldam
Bring the (Right) Class; Player Optional
by
on 08-09-2010 at 08:46 AM (370 Views)
So I saw this as part of the Blizzard feedback a few weeks ago...
Blaaarg, seriously?! As if I didn't have enough to hate about Paladins, they give them an entirely new resource mechanic to play with, with half a dozen effects to choose from when utilizing it? Oh shit, I forgot, as a Warrior, I get to HEROICALLY LEAP into the air when I charge you, instead of scooting along the floor like a chump. WORTH IT!Originally Posted by Blizzard via Twitter
I feel like a broken record and a whiny little bitch, but apparently I must be missing something here, because it sure as hell feels like a few classes (namely Warriors since that's my area of expertise obviously) are sure getting the proverbial shaft in Cataclysm. Maybe I'm just getting bored of the class as a whole, but I'll be damned if the basic play style and mechanics have not changed for Warriors over five goddamn years of WoW!
Back in Molten Core, I was gaining and spending Rage, spamming Heroic Strike, Sundering, and Thunderclapping/Cleaving for AE packs. Nearly six years later, and the core gameplay has remained virtually identical. Still gain and spend rage the exact same as before. Still spam Heroic Strike (albeit less often come Cata, only took 5 years!) and Sunder (called Devastate for one spec) and Thunderclap and Cleave. Still have the same three stances as six years ago, and they do basically the same exact thing as back then. Still have Execute and Slam and Whirlwind and Rend and Mocking Blow and Battle Shout and Demoralizing Shout, and so on.
Truth be told, the Warrior class is very likely the most unaltered class since WoW's initial release back in late 2004. Some might say this indicates the mechanics were so soundly designed from the outset that they required no updates or alterations, but those who would argue such things spend too much time with their head near the microwave.
Obviously I don't know some classes as intimately as I do the Warrior, but even a cursory glance back shows many classes have had moderate and sometimes major alterations to play style and mechanics over the course of WoW that dramatically altered the experience and utility of one or more roles for that class.
However, I digress -- it doesn't serve a great deal of purpose to dwell on the past, so I'll only really examine the present and future, yet we can still see many classes are getting some dramatic changes for the better:
- Death Knight: Entirely redesigned trees to focus Blood on tanking and other two on DPS and rune resource system redesigned.
- Druid: New Eclipse mechanic/resource system, multiple new feral utility abilities (interrupt, extra charge, raid-wide +runspeed buff, sunder armor), Tree of Life cooldown altering all heals for another 5-6 new situational effects, Haste/Crit applies to HoTs/DoTs
- Hunter: New Focus resource mechanic, no ammo, shooting while on the move, active/passive pet system added, numerous lesser versions of raid debuffs from pets
- Mage: Not too much, though automated self-only death save/Ardent Defender is insanely powerful
- Priest: Haste/Crit applies to HoTs/DoTs, new heal, raid shield, new nuke, new self-armor with stacking movement speed buff, life grip, new Archangel/Evangelism mechanic system
- Paladin: New AE attack (certainly needed another one!), new AE HoT, Guardian of kings cooldown with 3 situational effects based on spec, new single-target heal, new Holy Power Resource mechanic (~5 possible new abilities/uses)
- Rogue: Not too much: Combo transfer, self heal, portable/targetable line of sight wall via Smoke Bomb
- Shaman: New AE heal, Spiritwalker cooldown allows casting while moving, totem buff consolidations, new attack to unleash weapon effects (~3 possible new abilities/uses), Totem of Wrath as base ability, new single-target heal
- Warlock: New soul shard resource mechanic which alters multiple abilities for situational use (~7 possible new abilities/uses), demon soul cooldown which buffs warlock and pet situationally depending on pet type (so ~5 possible new abilities/uses), haste/crit innately applies to DoTs, doomguard and infernal now cooldown-based summon without losing current pet
Obviously this isn't a comprehensive list, but even at a glance, it's clear many of the above changes or additions will dramatically change, and in most cases improve, the fun and utility of each class. Yet it seems all too clear that the more "basic" classes are increasingly gaining less and less. Even though I don't know a great deal about Rogues or Mages, the upcoming changes for those two classes, along with Warriors, seem very underpar compared to some of the drastic additions we see above (new resources, new abilities with half a dozen situational effects, etc.).
Yet as I said, Warriors are stuck in this silly stagnant stasis of static struggle, unable to grow in any meaningful way as a class for the past 5 years. Shit, half the "changes" for Cataclysm are simply removing all the bullshit parts (weapon talents, sunder max-stack count, heroic strike on-next-swing) or fixing things Blizzard didn't like (whirlwind good single-target damage). The Warrior class is long overdue for a dramatic change to drastically improve the game play mechanics by making them more interesting and fun.
Looking at the above list, clearly there are a number of changes for some classes that will completely change the way they are played, sometimes across multiple specs. Druids have drastic changes for Balance from Eclipse that provide a new resource and UI module which is a ton of fun. Feral changes add a ton of utility for tanking Bears and will (apparently) simplify the Cat rotation quite a bit. Resto Druids get tons of new effects from Tree of Life's cooldown addition alone, even if they are receiving the fewest actual heal spell alterations compared to the other healer classes.
There are similarly massive changes to Paladins and Hunters, and even a great deal of changes for classes like Death Knight, Priest, Shaman, and Warlock; all of which will moderately to dramatically alter the basic game play mechanics (rotation, priorities, abilities, available roles, etc.) for each particular class.
Yet it seems like, time and again, some classes are getting left out in the cold -- namely Mage, Rogue, and Warrior. I won't pretend I'm an expert, but it's clear that, likely due to being pure classes, the Mage and Rogue are getting very few "drastic improvements" compared to other classes, and even compared to the other pure classes such as Hunter and Warlock. Is this because Blizzard considers the Rogue and Mage already very finalized? Or more likely, in my opinion, because it is much easier to make significant game play improvements for more the robust, non-pure classes?
Ultimately, as a Warrior for the entirety of WoW thus far, going into Cataclysm, it feels very much like the more basic the role your class has been defined to fill, the less necessary you are actually going to become. In other words: For the role(s) that your particular class can fill, what benefit do you provide that another class cannot, and to what degree?
That's right, this is a Pure vs. Hybrid argument! It's worth examining the differences we'll see in a few examples to illustrate my point and why I foresee issues going into Cataclysm that were not as (dramatically) pronounced going into previous expansions:
Warrior vs. Druid
I begin with this because it is the most personal to me. Going into WotLK, I came very close to changing from my Warrior to my Druid as my primary character, due to the utility of the Druid, but ultimately had to decide to stick with the Warrior because of a few key things Warrior's offered in a tanking role that Druids could not match at the time: A reliable interrupt, an armor debuff, more mobility, better block mechanics, better self-cooldowns with Shield Wall compared to Barkskin.
However, going into Cataclysm, Druids have been given equivalent or even better options for all the above issues except arguably better cooldown if you need an extra 20% damage reduction over Barkskin with twice the cooldown time (assuming Barkskin doesn't get changed before release of course). Otherwise, Druids are getting a short cooldown interrupt, an equivalent armor debuff, near-identical block mechanics, and extra charge plus a raid-wide movement buff (plus shifting out of roots of course) for far better mobility than a Warrior tank. What advantage is left to the Warrior tank then in this situation? AE tanking is being changed to be near identical most likely (6-10 second cooldown on Swipe/Thunderclap effects, to force more single-target focus by tanks and DPS, which is fine by me I must say), so that point is moot (and in fact if the new Thrash is kept at a low 5ish second cooldown, Druids will have two cooldowns to rotate for AE threat in the same window as a Warrior has still just one, and the Warrior must spend an extra GCD to get Rend on a single-target before Thunderclapping; super!).
The only actual advantages I can think of that a Warrior tank will have are: A) Two fairly short cooldown stuns from Shockwave and Concussion Blow. And B) Spell Reflect.
Unfortunately, for point A above, Druids will still have a Bear Form stun available with a 50 second cooldown (compared to the 20 and 30 second of Shockwave and Concussion Blow, respectively), and that difference in cooldown almost never matters on boss fights (i.e. You can't use stuns on cooldown as a Warrior for Horror tanking on Heroic Lich King because they'll hit the Diminishing Returns point too soon and you won't get full-duration during Frenzy, when it actually matters to have a full-duration stun, so in either case you'd be saving the stun for well over 50 seconds). Even fights where I might use both stuns back to back as a Warrior, such as Phase 2 Valkyr on Heroic Lich King if a Paladin can't get the opener stun, I could just as easily be a Druid and use a Bash from Bear Form, or more likely I'll be in Cat doing reasonable DPS and can use a Maim instead for a no-cooldown, up-to-five-second stun as often as I want. Lets also not forget automatic Hamstring equivalent via Infected Wounds when using Mangle.
As for Spell Reflect from point B above, it has been and always will be a PvP ability. I can tell you the number of times I've used Spell Reflect and was able to reflect something that made it worth using the GCD for in Heroic Icecrown Citadel fights: Zero. Almost every spell that would be significant to reflect will never be flagged as actually reflectable by the ability -- usually the ability ignored Spell Reflect, or the casting mob is immune if it actually bounces. Historically, the best case scenario is one reflectable boss-fight ability for every one or two raid zones.
In fact, after carefully looking through all the Warrior abilities existing currently or upcoming in Cataclysm, the only significant Utility ability I see that the Druid has no equivalent for is Vigilance. However, everyone already knows the non-Warrior tanks will have perfectly acceptable threat output and therefore don't need the bonus equivalent the Warrior gains from Vigilance, as that is baked into the balance calculations for each tank. The useful part of Vigilance is the Taunt cooldown refresh, which I've used to great effect: once in ToC (doing a fucked up achievement with Anub's Scarabs) and once in ICC (doing Ghoul Taunting during Phase 1). However, the reason such gimmicks are required are because, as a Warrior, I lack any and all ranged threat abilities other than Taunt and a long-cooldown Heroic Throw. As a Druid, I could (with it's 6-second cooldown) fit at least one and sometimes two Faerie Fire (Feral) casts in between Taunts, which by itself already covers the maximum output of Vigilance taunt refreshes by more than 50%, and it's difficult to imagine a situation I'd need more than 2.33 taunts every 8 seconds (Druid) where a max GCD usage of Vigilance of 4 taunts every 8 seconds (Warrior) would be necessary -- especially considering at least one GCD needs to be used per every taunt or two to actually do additional threat to the Taunted mob so it sticks to you, so at most the Warrior is likely doing 2-3 Taunts per 8 seconds to weave between Thunderclap or Shockwave or Shield Slam.
The long-winded point is: Cataclysm is even further eliminating, at least from a tanking perspective, the advantages the Warrior, as a more "pure" or "basic" class, has over the Druid, to the point where, outside of loyalty or self-loathing, there is little reason to choose the Warrior between the two.
And I haven't even mentioned the real nail in the coffin: Alternative Roles
In the above example, if there is a situation where I'm not tanking, my option as a Warrior is obviously to DPS, and luckily Blizzard seems to be reintroducing both Arms and Fury as PvE options for that. However, a Druid obviously has three distinctly different roles: Ranged/Moonkin DPS, Melee/Cat DPS, and Resto Healing. The Warrior choice: Use one big ass weapon or two?
Granted, I acknowledge that with dual spec, in both cases if one spec is a tank spec for each class, the other spec has to be only one of the above choices. However, the point is that the Warrior chooses between two nearly identical things in either case, whereas a Druid can choose to fill the exact role required at the time. Even if that's not the offspec of choice, especially in 10-man where gear is not as contested, chances are a fight will come along where the Druid is better served respeccing completely at the trainer and going Balance for ranged DPS, then another perhaps healing, or another Feral DPS. Whether the raid chooses to use more than 2 specs a night is not the point: The fact that it is possible is the issue.
In the past, especially in Classic and TBC, the "pure" classes were balanced primarily by being slightly to dramatically better at their given role(s) than the hybrid counterpart. Rogues have spent probably more time than any class to date at the top of the DPS charts, because that was what they did and they were designed to do it well. That makes sense logically: Trade in utility to be better at a pure role.
However, these days, and especially going into Cataclysm, clearly that rule has been thrown out the window to some degree. It may be that, for the most part, Fire Mages top the World of Logs charts primarily, but even then, not by such a huge margin over more hybrid classes, and even then, most high-end Mages, such as Manly from Elitist Jerks, have stated this is due to the silly manner in which Mages currently benefit from all stats on their gear, more so than other, even pure classes. A cursory glance at logs shows even in those best of the best scenarios, hybrids are often as good if not better than many of the pure classes, so what is the trade off?
Healing, of course, is a much different beast than DPS since it's much harder to tell if a healer is better than another, but clearly Druids and Paladins, easily the most "hybrid" classes that can heal, are certainly equal in various healing roles as Priests, which are really the most "pure" of the healing classes.
So again, where is the tradeoff? A common phrase in the past was the ever-loved "Hybrid Tax" -- an imaginary (yet not) deficit that hybrid classes had to deal with for various roles that kept their relative power in check compared to pure classes. As of this writing, such a thing is all but vanishing going into Cataclysm.
How about utility? Certainly things besides DPS output matter when comparing a Pure vs. Hybrid role? Take Mages, for example, going into Cataclysm. After spending countless months and now years as the Drink/Port/Intellect bitch, what fantastic utility does Blizzard give them? A fucking copy of Bloodlust -- arguably one of the most prolific buffs in raiding to date, due to its usefulness and therefore the commonality of Shamans in raid rosters.
I'm not suggesting giving Mages Bloodlust is in anyway bad, but fuck all if they don't deserve something more after years of providing nothing remotely utilitarian "in battle" to the raid. Hell, Warlocks, which should be the comparable second-cousin of Mages, have had Healthstones and Soulstones for ages, along with Summoning Portals (which are 10 times better than Portals, since obviously leaving a raid is easy for everyone, but getting there is sometimes a pain).
Shit, it's not hard to think of balanced shit Mages could get to give them some raid utility -- how about raid-wide Evocation? A minor version of course, similar to Priest's Hymn of Hope. Or a raid-wide Frost/Fire Ward/Mana Shield on decently long cooldown? Mana Gem Portal, to give the raid the counterpart to Healthstones? Blink Portal: Works like the game Portal from Valve, where the Mage sets up two portals at various locations, and up to X number of players can click one portal to be instantly ported to the other portal location? Shit, give them anything that isn't a direct copy of an existing ability or debuff, for the love of God!
I won't even go into the retardation that has been (and will continue to be) Paladin utility: a bazillion unique and/or useful Hand buffs, Divine Shield, numerous heals and targettable and/or raid cooldowns, etc. Most of this shit is nearly or completely spec independent too! Warriors or Rogues or Mages get... Safeguard I guess? Tricks of the Trade? A bunch of faggotry by comparison.
Ultimately, unless there are a great deal of drastic, unannounced changes coming (which there aren't), it feels to me like the day of the pure class has officially come and gone, and especially in a 10-man environment, the ability to fill multiple roles, as well or better than a pure counterpart, will be the preferred way to go for any reasonable raid or guild leader.
Obviously a class cannot replace a strong player alone... but it sure makes a strong case for it.
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