I want to start with a small disclaimer for the things I will write below:
By no means am I diminishing and looking down upon the stellar work that the wow team has done and is doing. You guys have created for us one of the greatest games, if not THE greatest game ever made and nothing we say or do will be enough to thank you for that.
Now… as the title suggests, this is about the Class-specific Covenant abilities and what that involves, in terms of balancing as well as RPG elements.
I have given some thought to what Ion said about not wanting to choose any ability regardless of the pledged Covenant due to theme and rpg-element inconsistency (EX: being pledged to Bastion and using Maldraxxus abilities) and I have to agree. It is a fantasy game after all and elements such as these should not blend illogically into each-other. However, class-mechanic-wise, that raises a couple of problems in terms of balancing, due to some Covenant abilities being stronger than other or more suited for different game-types (PvE, PvP, Open World content, etc).
I want to display the following idea, over which I am literally begging you, Blizzard, to consider:
Give the players freedom over choosing and cycling through all 4 class abilities (that are currently separated by Covenants), having access to only one at a time, like they would with a talent row, but change their theme, name and visuals in order to match the specific covenant’s theme and feel.
EX: A Warrior is pledged to Kyrian because he wants the Spear of Bastion ability. If he Switches to Revendreth, he can have access to the same ability (as mechanics) but it’s called “Blood Lance” and looks darker and more in theme with the Venthyr. He switches to Ardenwend ? Same ability… but it’s called “Blackwood Thorn”… and so on and so forth (you get the idea).
This way, you can offer the full-blown RPG experience of the Covenants without sacrificing class efficiency due to ability-lock.
I know this implies extra work regarding visuals, icons and new names for the abilities counterparts and I am fully aware how much you guys are pushing the work hours… but I think in the long run it will be better than patching tweaks, cutting, altering or removing pieces of content, which can be more of a hassle, more stressful and having some raging players screaming on the forums while you’re at it…
That would be all, I would appreciate if you read all of the above, and keep doing what you’re doing Blizz ! WoW still rocks after 15 years because of you.
Sincerely,
An old player