What’s the point of pressing 10 buttons in rotation when you can press 2-3? People had fun in classic pressing 1 button. (Tbc and maybe lk). Classes like Hunter and warrior are popular cause of it.
23 Likes
I’m in the camp of rythm and sound design > amount of buttons.
We only got 10 fingers, half of which are occupied with the camera and 3 that are mostly on the movement keys.
12 Likes
They could certainly cull a few DPS buttons here and there for most Class/Specs.
But have different utilities does make play classes interesting.
7 Likes
Personally i would love lesser spells/buttons. Maybe like 5 max (already including cooldowns, ress etc)
How the game is currently designed, with lots of interrupts, stuns, defensives, offensives etc etc being a necessity i get that this wouldn’t work.
Yet i’d love to see the game being redesigned entirely and dumbed down a TON because it would not only be more relaxing, but far more accessible to new/lower skilled players too.
Or maybe adapt Diablo 3’s gear sets and builds, where certain gear allows to play a certain build rather than cramping all 50 spells possible into specs. Diablo was always the most enjoyable blizzard game to me personally.
8 Likes
All the buttons I press on my characters do different things. To reduce the number of buttons, they would have to combine some of those things or remove them entirely, and that would be boring.
6 Likes
Pressing 1 button to play a piano would get boring fast.
There’s some form of thinking involved with multiple buttons, and decision making. Not to say it’s hard or difficult, but it makes it less monotonous. It’s also why there’s different specs and classes, some people enjoy different themes and different playstyles.
6 Likes
Zero buttons !
2 Likes
I play most classes, Hunter has more binds than most specs in the game.
I don’t know where people get this impression that Hunters are 1-2 buttons, they have tons of utility
Yes, definitely.
Games like Heroes of the Storm, Overwatch, and Diablo prove that one doesn’t need more than 5 ability buttons for complex and challenging combat mechanics.
Not all classes in WoW are bloated, but there are several, such as:
- Priest (discipline is the most bloated spec in the game; they have more offensive abilities than a lot of DPS classes, plus all their healing related stuff)
- Monk (way too many defensive and offensive CDs)
- Druid (a bit too much stuff in general, and some of it requires spending a GCD on shape-shifts, which is annoying)
And a lot of other classes have active abilities that are too niece or too similar to others (e.g. multiple offensive abilities that all kinda do the same).
8 Likes
I’m complaining about rotation button. You have a ton of utility buttons even in tbc. But mage pressing arcane blast and that’s all. Or frostbolt in classic.
there are a bunch of abilities that should be removed or merged
mage scorch, fireball, pyroblast, all similar just different cast times, replace pyro and flamestrike with meteor and combine other in better looking fireball
also many classes have 2 almost identical abilities just one single and other aoe like cleave and mortal strike
bunch of similar mitigation skills, cooldown bloat
some leftovers from technical limitations others just there because class didnt have overhaul for ages and they kept adding abilities with patches.
seems like they will be doing something with paladin, evoker shows that they can do that, though borderline too many cds for preservation and aoe skills feel like trash because they are spammy no cast time
1 Like
I like having more buttons, but i think my main issue is the pace everything’s at in wow. IMO the game is just too fast, and plays more like an action game rather than an MMO.
12 Likes
It most definitely wasn’t. While the rotation is in an okay spot for most classes (I’ll never forgive what they did to Survival hunter, but it is what it is), what is lacking is everything else. The PvP is what I care about most, and as such, my opinion is largely based on that aspect of the game, and the game is ducking dying.
Rotation is for the most part satisfying, while not being bloated. Having 5 to 10 abilities, excluding cooldowns with a 30+ seconds ability is a good spot, and having a few classes with less is a positive as well, Fury Warrior exists for a reason: it hits fast, and it just mashes 3 keys. Ok, great.
What has become a serious problem since WoD, and has worsened since Legion, is the approach Blizzard has had regarding specialisation vs classes. Characters are no longer classes, they are characters. An Arcane mage has very little in common with a Frost mage, just like a Feral Druid is very different from a Balance one. While the latter have always been different by design, they have, until WoD, remained the same class. They had almost everything in common, except for their rotation, and as such, had access to 4 healing abilities, baseline, the same buffs, the same CCs, the same utility, and there was a lot of it. That is the problem. Rotations have remained consistently good throughout WoW, from Cataclysm to Dragonflight, while everything else has been severely reduced.
Dragonflight had the decency to try and bring back some of that utility in our talents, but so far it feels like Blizzard snatched our icecream from our hands, took a couple bites, spit on it and gave it back, while telling us that we should be happy we have it back.
It doesn’t matter for PvE. I would even go as far as to say that gameplay is a minor part of PvE, what matters most is, in order:
- Emotional involvement.
- Difficulty (don’t make it too hard)
- Possibility to minmax.
The reason Ulduar is very popular is not because the WotLK rotations are fascinating (they’re not), the class design is off the charts (it’s not), it’s because the raid is challenging but fair, and carries with it all the emotional background built by the lore, the gigantic size of the raid, and now nostalgia.
The influence that gameplay has over PvE is minor, and utility is just a way to justify bringing classes that cannot compete with the top tier in sheer DPS. A genius move by Blizzard, by the way.
But in PvP ? That is completely different. In PvP, gameplay is king. In fact, PvP is the only metrics that should be taken into account, and features are only bad when they negatively influence gameplay. Poor balance? It makes me gameplay less fun. Shadowlands chores? Yeah, that’s gameplay too, we have to play for hours before we can do what we want to do. Overwhelming RNG? You got it. It affects our gameplay.
As I have established above, Gameplay is king, and how do you make a PvP good have good gameplay? One of two things has to be true:
- Rich array of abilities to react to or anticipate enemy abilities.
- Action combat.
Action combat can get away with having subpar abilities, because of the possibility to avoid enemy attacks. That does not exist in tab target combat, unless you’re willing to give a short CD Shadowmeld to every class. As such, classes need to have a heavy spellbook, so that all classes can respond appropriately to most situations. It is no longer the case. PvP is now just another form of PvE, with micro CCs to prevent healing, defensive CDs to use when the enemy uses offensive ones, and a PvP trinket to remove one of those micro CCs, so that you can use your defensive CD.
Obviously, Blizzard has been completely oblivious to this fact and tried to copy Action Combat, seeing only the popularity of the “fewer keys games” without understanding the fundamental principles behind the gameplay itself.
tl;dr: Rotations are fine, utility is too low, action combat games have killed WoW and yall are unintelligent.
6 Likes
Rather have lots of buttons to press like now instead of 2-3. I mean you’re doing the same rotation thousands of times why would you want it to be boring.
‘there are a bunch of abilities that should be removed or merged’’
Why should they? The pruning we had before was the dumbest thing ever imo. ‘‘Wooooo now I have less buttons to press and less abilities! How awesome!’’ like why be happy that your class now has less to it.
This sounds like one of those changes you are asking for just for the sake of it. Just leave well enough alone.
2 Likes
1 can get boring, so I prefer 3 or 4ish.
Such as how Wrath Ret or Enh works (Fury is more spammy because… heroic strike).
I also like quite a few melee specs on retail that are like this 
I like the idea of having a few short CD abilities that you try to keep on cooldown.
On the other hand I’m not satisfied with most casters because they have more abilities to keep track of (I often simplify specs because of the button bloat… if I can’t keybind it, I’m not taking it).
2 Likes
Yes 100% yes.
If a class has over 3 buttons its too much
Yes.
Thus why i play wotlk and not dragonflight
No, it is better to have a wide range of abilities, there should be a difference between League of Legends and WoW classes.
Even having Corruption ability as a Destro is better than not having it, even if it doesn’t see use, it shows you that you are a DestroLock and your Shadow abilities are weaker compared to Affli, such small details are important for an mmorpg.
1 Like
As much as I enjoyed spamming Rank 8 Flash heal on repeat in raids, as it made raid leading easy, I definitely don’t want to go back to that. I prefer a bit of complexity, a lot of other MMOs went for the more simple approach (GW2/ESO/Wildstar when it was a thing) with limited buttons and it just doesn’t scratch the itch for me.
I prefer having more complex rotations, feral is in a nice spot right now in terms of buttons.
1 Like
People in this post are reducing wow to its damage rotation, surely there must be other mechanics in this game right?!