Hello blizzard
You said on blizzcon that you wanted feedback on SOD and its newest systems. Well seeing as im hyped as hyped can be, id thought id give you some feedback of my concerns about SOD. I have been playing classic for a very long time. Im an absolute classic vanilla/era enthousiast and nothing makes me happier then seeing it thrive.
Runes
Great idea, absolutely love the fact that youre bringing in spells/skills/talents and passives from other expansions. However there are a few concerns.
While horribly unbalanced, the character classes in classic have a certain charm to them. They are very distinct, some are incomplete I grant you, but every single class has different strengths and weaknesses and has a different feel. These runes, while awesome, do run the risk of removing class identity by giving everyone a heal, a defensive cooldown and a offensive cooldown. A.k.a. homoginization of the classes. Please dont make the mistake of giving every class, every tool. Thats not classic.
Also , if every class has 9 runes, that will definitly make characters way way stronger and will likely lead to homoginization. Please dont give every character 9 rune slots, its just too much. I personally wouldnt go above 5 runes per character. I think even 5 will be pushing it. Too many rune slots will lead to cookie cutter builds and a meta game that is basically impossible to propperly balance UNLESS you homonigize everything, which I stated before is really really not classic.
Open world
The runes will 100% make people much, much stronger. Add to that the buffed gear we get and well, the world wont feel dangerous. You said youre gonna increase the damage the mobs do, however if they all die in 2 or 3 hits then mobs are gonna have to hit VERY VERY hard. Making melee grab the wrong end of the deal. I woudl strongly recommend buffing mob HP AND DMG.
Arcane mages are a good example. Mobs will need to damn near one shot you if you want any risk of dying as an arcane mage.
PVP
As anoying as it can be, global shotting people is part and parcel of classic. It should be possible. A bland nerf to PVP dmg will destroy a lot about what made classic PVP so good. Dont go overboard here, compensate for the massive increase in dmg, but please dont have as chonk away at people for minutes on end like in retail pvp.
Spec restrictions
Some runes are gonna need spec restrictions. Certain combinations will likely prove to be insanely OP and while I like the experiment, classic is about having the world feel dangerous. I have this sneaking suspicion that some classic are just not gonna feel the world as dangerous at all.
Anyway, thats my rant so far.
40 man raids
Yeah 40 man raids are an hassle to organize. But it has a charm that no other MMO has. Yes it containts drama that makes you wanna vomit somethings, but its also an amazing community building excersize. As an example, in the 1.5 years of classic vanilla our guild created more memes and memories then the other 2 expansions combined and ill prolly carry those with me for a very long time. 10 man raids cannot do that, 20 man raids barely do. Its 40 man raiding that makes classic unique, dont throw it to the wayside because people complain. Its the one thing that truly seperate classic from the rest.
Yourse
Geers