Quick note, actual content below:
Obviously this topic is being brought up by me again because of the new one button rotation and Hekili implementation, so you might think this belongs in those threads - and while it could, I don’t think it’s quite right, because this issue is a lot bigger than that and I’ve been talking about it for a very. long. time.
So please, moderators, indulge me. This isn’t actually about the macro, it’s about how we got here.
Actual content:
What’s the problem?
Combat in WoW has broken down because people are playing the game like a piano sheet that’s telling them which notes to hit (and most people can’t remember the melody) instead of giving players time to think and a kit with which to apply their thoughts.
I’ve been on this ball for a long, long time, and I’m very disappointed.
I am disappointed on behalf the thousands of people who now have RSI, or got close to it, due to World of Warcraft. I am disappointed on behalf of the millions of people who quit the game or changed classes against their will because it became too stressful. I am disappointed on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of PvP’ers who left the game or PvP because they couldn’t tell what was going on. I am disappointed on behalf of all the people who found the fights repetitive because they were always “playing the piano”, as they put it.
I’m also disappointed on behalf of all the hundreds of addon authors who have had to spend years of their limited lifespans creating addons and WeakAuras solely focused on trying to tell people how to play the game moment-to-moment, and I’m perhaps even more disappointed that they were able to do this using UI elements that were not context aware of the world around the player.
And of course I am also disappointed because I belong to every single one of those groups. -_-
My prior comments on this:
Ridiculous picture
https://i.ibb.co/mrSkfRQF/Sk-rmbillede-2025-04-30-kl-22-53-06.png
Blizzard’s “solution”
Blizzard are the only ones who can stop this cycle. They are the chosen ones.
Wait, so they implement their own rotation assist??
Okay, I guess they were the chosen ones.
How can it possibly get to this point?
Playing your class is like a bossfight unto itself:
World of Warcraft’s classes are becoming increasingly famous for just having you fight your own class. It will actively tell you what to press and what not to press based on a whole state machine that has absolutely nothing to do with the state of the game world. It’s not control, it’s not a different use case, you’re not being pressured. Nothing is happening. You’re pressing Ice Lance because you have Ice Lance and because Ice Lance is better than Frostbolt.
The fact that Ice Lance could be worse and yet still be used because it can be used while moving is completely ignored, and instead we have another button that allows us to cast while moving. … Why? Because it’s a state machine, and the player is expected to manage this state machine which is really just a fight against yourself. It’s… I’m fighting a frost mage’s rotation. Why am I fighting a frost mage’s rotation? It’s MY power.
It should not be a struggle for me to call upon my powers in this way. I’m not trying to play a song on the piano. And more importantly I guess, I don’t want to play the same 2-3 songs all the time. It should be a struggle for me to figure out which power the situation calls for. I want to be looking at the world, looking at my options, and finding solutions.
That’s what this game used to be like. Why did you do this to us?
The good solution
Firstly, we need to reduce the number of abilities and especially cooldowns and make more classes use shared resources between abilities so we have to make choices. Secondly, spells need to have obvious roles and uses. Thirdly, the state machine needs to be reduced. You don’t use Ice Lance because you used Frozen Orb so it procs something aand I shouldn’t hold off on Ice Lance because Frozen Orb is available in 3 seconds and it buffs Ice Lance. I should not have a friggin’ one ability combo point system. -_-
I should have a spell that hits hard but makes me vulnerable to interrupts. I should have a spell that doesn’t hit as hard, but I can use it while moving. I should have spells that deal AoE damage but require me to maintain concentration and one that doesn’t. I should have a spell that keeps the enemy in control.
I SHOULD HAVE SPELLS THAT ALLOW ME TO SINGLE TARGET!! It is currently impossible for a frost mage specced into a standard raiding or M+ build to hit a single target. You cannot do it.
How do you make a game where I have to juggle like 16 buttons just to deal normal damage and yet I can’t choose to only hit one target?!
Blizzard, you have to stop listening to these elitists and make classes more about interesting toolboxes. I want a variety of possible tactical decisions. If a group of enemies come at me and I want to slow, damage, and not root them, that’s the role of Cone of Cold. The role of Cone of Cold is not to reset my other AoE abilities. How do you even come up with that stuff?
I should not have 160 line long tooltips in other to explain what Frostfire Bolt does.
We should change which ability we press when the boss does something to us that requires us to do so. For the sake of PvP, it should be clear what was pressed and what it did even if you are not that player. Procs should be drastically fewer and all players should be able to hear it pop. WeakAuras, Hekili, PowerAuras - all of that stuff should be completely unnecessary because I hear the proc, I see the proc on my character and I know what’s going on. My buff and debuff frames need to be clean so I know what’s happening to me.
It shouldn’t be hard to attack a target dummy; it isn’t doing anything. Any difficulty you have hitting a target dummy is a fight against your class, not an enemy.
Implementing the tool isn’t the problem. Considering implementing them is revealing the problem. We have too many talent points, our classes are too chaotic and do all sorts of random things, and we’re fighting ourselves more than we’re fighting our enemies.
TL;DR
Fixed-form noisy whack-a-mole rotations are stupid