I don’t want to be that person, but I’m going to be.
I thought it was nostalgia, but now I can feel it, and know it. Classes are an absolute shell of their former selves. I always thought it was myself growing bored of the game from playing for so many years, but it isn’t. It’s the fact classes have become so hollow.
Whatever the developers did with class design and flavour in Wrath needs to be replicated into retail. Instead of trying to make each class spec entirely unique try making each CLASS feel unique could be a start.
Also, bring back Insect Swarm in it’s entire glory (no, Adaptive Swarm isn’t the same). Thanks.
I just thank Blizzard for making Classic. But wish retail was worth playing. Even having professions can have an impact on gameplay. I love things like herbalism having Lifeblood. Especially on my Warlock while Life Tapping.
It’s an RPG after all.
Balance doesn’t automatically make a game more appealing or fun.
Know how they say ignorance is bliss? I think I would be more blissful if I didn’t see that rework for Spriest. They keep driving one of my oldest favourite DPS specs into a grave.
Say thanks to legion rework that turned fun specs into some obnoxious Minigames and mess.
Unholy, combat (it’s outlaw now lmao), surv, frost mage for example.
Subsequent expansions make it only worse since many legion specs only worked on legion mechanics that got partially removed.
Just look at unholy and compare it with mop one. Like wtf is that?
Warrior felt unique like none in the early days, and was fun, challenging and hard to master but now the playstyle is completely different and so simplified.
I wouldn’t go so far as to say hollow but certainly a loss of key identity features have made some classes feel less like they used to.
My shaman misses Totems. Not sure going back to vanilla planting four separate totems would work now though, a bit clunky but I do wish we had some more totems for general use. I use the healing stream one sometimes and that does help a bit but I don’t use any others.
My Paladin wishes big shiny Auras and giving out blessing of Kings or Might.
Maybe it’s just one of the few exceptions, but I am enjoying Shadowlands fire mage and the version that we’ll seemingly have going into Dragonflight far more than Wrath fire mage. It’s just a more fun, complete spec that has more depth to its gameplay. If they replaced my current playstyle with the Wrath one, I would either reroll or quit.
It’s as clunky as putting one totem down. In wrath you put down all 4 totems with 1 button. Another class that got absolutely obliterated by pruning and reworks.
I’m happy you enjoy it. There are definitely outliers for specs that have improved in some form. But things like Shaman, Druid, DK, Warlock imo have really been left feeling completely hollow.
I hope Dragonflight ignites my motivation and enjoyment in Retail, but at least if that’s not the case I can enjoy Wotlk again while it lasts
I disagree having played both extensively. The Wrath fire mage feels absolutely brutal. The crits are big, the explosions noice. The retail version is insane button mashing during combust and whenever combust is down… well let’s put it this way: The damage of Fireball in Wrath and SL is the same, but the health pools are 9 times bigger.
Seeing a big number on the screen is not enough to make gameplay engaging for me. A sustained damage profile is the only satisfying thing about the WotLK gameplay. There’s very little going on in the WotLK rotation and the only difficult part of the spec is the lack of mobility we currently have access to.
I love seeing chunks going off the health of my enemies. Feels good. It’s not about the number of digits in the number of whatever.
The fire rotation has scorch and bomb (which depends on how long the mob lives) which gives crits and therefore free pyroblasts and combustion and fireblast and blastwave into instant flamestrike and DB is there and gives instant flamestrike too.
The tBC version is kindda slow paced but the wrath version is very similar to the modern version except way more satisfying lol.
I cant hear your complains from all the explosions of bombs from survival Hunters which are 1 Button spec and still are desired by every single m+ group proving what you say a complete nonsense.
People just want their specs to do big big numbers. Nothing else.
Yes, I do remember that being added and it was a great help for sure. Although there were still times when you wanted other totems. It may have been a bit clunky but it was still fun (for me anyhow).
Also this comes down to playstyle. Being Proactive vs. Reactive.
Shaman were Proactive, putting down the totems before the fight (if you knew what you were doing to get) but Rogues were Reactive, kicking to interupt as it’s being cast.
Now everything is Reactive, Tremor Totem has to be cast pretty much whilst the Fear is being cast and lasts a few seconds (long enough just about to break Fear if cast at exactly the right time, I’m fuzzy on the details as I have used it since around Wrath).
I don’t want to play Guitar Hero, press Red & Green at just the right time to score your points. I like the being ready type of playstyle, put my totems down in advance and get on with the other things.
For me it feels like they toned down a lot on rotation complexity, while it becomes easy for new players to pick up and understand, it also becomes repetitive quickly
I think its one reason why Brewmaster stuck with me well when tanking, it feels engaging in itself with juggling the stagger management, Defensive and Offensive CD usage and aggro management. There is rarely a moment I feel passive and im always pressing something different than 3 set buttons in a row
Was that even used if you had a different spec that gave the buff in your raid? Searing Touch and the new Improved Scorch talent give the spell much more use than applying a buff every once in a while if no one else in the group provided it.
Come on. Let’s not pretend that Wrath combustion is in any way comparable to the current one. All they have in common is the spell name and the icon.
I’ll take the current version with multiple charges, guaranteed crit and the ability to be casted while casting over the old one.
Blast Wave working on Flamestrikes is a part of the WotLK design that I would not mind becoming part of the current gameplay. I’ll give you that one.
