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So it seems like Blizzard may actually be listening to their customers again. The new Shadowlands expansion, might be back to some fun times ahead;
https://www.mmo-champion.com/conten...acter-Moves?postid=52235541#comments_52235541
Shadowlands Class Philosophy
Classes have evolved throughout WoW’s 15 years of development, and so have our philosophies on class design. With new expansions and an increasing level cap came new spells, abilities, and Talents. While earning new powers is exciting and a natural part of growth in a role-playing game, eventually we began to butt up against the limits of action bar and accessible keybind space, and many of the tools and perks that had once defined certain classes became increasingly widespread, diminishing class uniqueness. To address this in the past, we made changes to Talents with Mists of Pandaria, and even removed several abilities in Warlords of Draenor. In Legion, alongside the introduction of Artifact weapons, we focused on class identity and carving out a distinct fantasy for each specialization to go along with their weapon. Mechanically, this meant revamps to most of our specializations, removing several long-standing class-wide abilities and adding new spec-specific abilities in the process.
Today in Battle for Azeroth, while specializations have unique and flashy abilities, we’ve heard feedback that in some cases we’ve moved too far away from the core of the class that initially sparked players’ interest when they first created their character. At times, there is more that divides two specializations of the same class than there is that unites them.
In Shadowlands, we want to return to the idea that a specialization is about powering up a specific part of a class’s kit, not narrowing down their toolset. In an expansion that is all about choice, we also want to give players more opportunities to make impactful choices to customize their gameplay and express their own vision of how their characters engage in combat. Many specialization-specific abilities and spells that help define the identity of a class will once again be available class-wide, and we’re reintroducing some iconic abilities to give all of Azeroth’s heroes a fighting chance against the dangers ahead. In addition to these changes, players will have their new Covenant class abilities to look forward to, which we preview comprehensively in our Shadowlands: A Look at Covenant Class and Signature Abilities blog.
Today, we’d like to give you a look at some of what’s in store for each class, including our overall goals, some cool new (and returning!) powers, and some key changes to abilities and talents. This isn’t meant to be a comprehensive list of updates—these changes represent a starting point for a dialogue with the community—but this should give you a good overview of what to expect.
https://www.mmo-champion.com/conten...acter-Moves?postid=52235541#comments_52235541
Shadowlands Class Philosophy
Classes have evolved throughout WoW’s 15 years of development, and so have our philosophies on class design. With new expansions and an increasing level cap came new spells, abilities, and Talents. While earning new powers is exciting and a natural part of growth in a role-playing game, eventually we began to butt up against the limits of action bar and accessible keybind space, and many of the tools and perks that had once defined certain classes became increasingly widespread, diminishing class uniqueness. To address this in the past, we made changes to Talents with Mists of Pandaria, and even removed several abilities in Warlords of Draenor. In Legion, alongside the introduction of Artifact weapons, we focused on class identity and carving out a distinct fantasy for each specialization to go along with their weapon. Mechanically, this meant revamps to most of our specializations, removing several long-standing class-wide abilities and adding new spec-specific abilities in the process.
Today in Battle for Azeroth, while specializations have unique and flashy abilities, we’ve heard feedback that in some cases we’ve moved too far away from the core of the class that initially sparked players’ interest when they first created their character. At times, there is more that divides two specializations of the same class than there is that unites them.
In Shadowlands, we want to return to the idea that a specialization is about powering up a specific part of a class’s kit, not narrowing down their toolset. In an expansion that is all about choice, we also want to give players more opportunities to make impactful choices to customize their gameplay and express their own vision of how their characters engage in combat. Many specialization-specific abilities and spells that help define the identity of a class will once again be available class-wide, and we’re reintroducing some iconic abilities to give all of Azeroth’s heroes a fighting chance against the dangers ahead. In addition to these changes, players will have their new Covenant class abilities to look forward to, which we preview comprehensively in our Shadowlands: A Look at Covenant Class and Signature Abilities blog.
Today, we’d like to give you a look at some of what’s in store for each class, including our overall goals, some cool new (and returning!) powers, and some key changes to abilities and talents. This isn’t meant to be a comprehensive list of updates—these changes represent a starting point for a dialogue with the community—but this should give you a good overview of what to expect.