In my years of MMO gaming, I’ve seen a lot of changes. I’ve had to re-learn game mechanics time and time again, each new expansion, in multiple games. I’ve normally taken this with a grain of salt, after all we all learn to adjust and move on – but the latest WoW patch REALLY bugs me, on my shaman in specific.
Shaman used to drop down 4 totems at once, it was “their thing”. What they were known for. You would pick the totem that best fit the situation, and before you started healing or DPS you would place those totems. They could even act as markers, they were raid wide, and they were wonderful. 5.0.4 removed the majority of these totems. Instead of dropping four, you’ll probably only drop ONE constantly (as DPS), with a side order of another here and there. Instead of lasting 5 minutes, they last 10-40 seconds. Instead of having nice totem hotbars where you can make sets of totems to drop, you’ll need them all on your regular hotbars so that you can drop the right ones when you need them. What the totems themselves do has been changed. That nice +agi/str buff is gone. Sure, your flame / stone pets are still there but the class doesn’t FEEL the same, at all.
I spent a bit of time looking over my skills, saddened at how many they removed. They seem to have consolidated every class in some aspect. This is great for freeing up space on my hotbars, not so great for someone who spent a lot of time learning how to play the class to begin with.
I have poked my other characters to some degree. The priest plays pretty much the same except that I have switched over to two heal specs. There is a large difference between the holy and discipline specs now – the level 85 AoE heal all priests used to get is now restricted to holy only. It was annoying to try to heal in my discipline spec. It was also annoying to try to heal a 5 man dungeon in my holy spec. Dropping shadow was something I had been contemplating before the changes, so I don’t mind too much.
Speaking of raids. The new LFRaid loot changes are.. not fun. In fact the majority of players I’ve seen in game have been complaining about them. I told them if people didn’t constantly roll on things that they didn’t actually need, maybe this change wouldn’t have taken place. In other words, THIS is why we can’t have nice things. See, before the change people would just roll on whatever their class could equip, needed or not. Some times trades would go on, some times players would win double items from the same boss. In other words human nature took over and suddenly everyone became a pack of loot hungry mongrels. The new loot system auto distributes 4 pieces of gear to random raiders, and everyone else gets a bag of 25g. You don’t see who wins, and you can’t trade the loot. In other words, blizzard is very literally just handing you your loot and saying here you go. It makes for some very drab and boring raids, that’s for sure. No worries though, people have found other things in-raid to bicker and argue about since they can’t argue about the loot with one another.
Over all? I’m excited about MOP and the pet battles, and even leveling up. I’m not excited about any of my class changes, and the LFRaids are a bit annoying. I LOVE that my guild experience no longer has a cap and they’ve increased the amount of experience you earn for your guild. This has been a godsend to my small guild of 3 people. We’re closing in on level 7, and that’s something that took a few months in the past.
What are your thoughts of patch 5.0.4?
As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.
“even if there were some issues surrounding this type of locational mechanic on a single class.”
They weren’t as much issues as how the class was designed to be played.
Taking away and reducing game mechanics is not the right way to casualize the game. There are many things that can be done to appeal to the mass-appeal / casual crowd that don’t hurt/take away from core game mechanics.
I remember hearing about totems going a while back, It really is a terrible thing, and another example of the dumb casualization of the game.
I still wish I could experience a classic WoW experience. The first expansion wasn’t that bad, but the dumbing down has gone far downhill from there.
Ooooooh a Shaman was my main. This is not good for what I loved about the game. I doubt I’ll get MoP
I could never be arsed to bother with totems, but I didn’t complain about this – I just went and played some other class that didn’t have them. Kind of unfortunate that this sort of thing got lost, even if there were some issues surrounding this type of locational mechanic on a single class.
WHA! The totems were the reason i loved my shaman. That and the class seems to be the most interesting in terms of options it had avalible to it. :( I dont play nor do i plan to return but its still sad to see them change something like that.
And just handing loot with no rolls or even being able to see it. how lame, but im shocked its taken them this long to do that. I really thought they woulda put that in like 4 years ago :)