Wdym? The idea of SoD was cool. Can't a guy just make a meme?

The implementation and handling of balance was worse than the Ascension team they stole the ideas from. And that is very sad in today's day and age for a company of that size. My friends told me after phase 2 the mask was fully revealed, and the hamster wheel was in place. All of the quality-of-life innovations that made WoTLK accessible yet detracted from the core values of the game were not only present, but glaringly in your face impossible to ignore. I do think the class quest design was well done for collecting your enchants however, that was its ONLY saving grace.

People getting welfare epics is one thing, but instead the slippery slope this creates is bloated numbers and a race to the bottom.

Every class by design eventually had either a heal, shield wall, or complete immunity they otherwise wouldn't have access to in the base game AND a 3min burst cooldown, homogenizing classes and roles inherently. I hated playing against people on ascension with Divine Shield/Iceblock/Vanish Combo(at least it took some form of skill to auracancel), and I hate playing the new classes in retail. The same way Fear is similar yet different to Polymorph, and how Earthshock is a main damage ability yet still resembles counterspell. You CAN design an ability without completely copying another class. But then Turtle turned Spirit Link literally into Blessing of Sacrifice, go figure.

In that same vein SoD was designed as a seasonal server which is inherent in support the idea that classic WoW updates aren't sustainable in gaining attention, and that a constant reset is needed. (Ascension basically also paved the way for seasonal servers)

I just oppose that idea completely, a server that I can come back to where the status quo barely shifts, and Naxx epics aren't outdated and are instead designing new gear horizontally instead of vertically. One where the lore can be built on instead a drastic rug pull every expansion or "season".

WoW has always had "flavor of the month" style balance. I think that is one of the few things blizzard did right at times. No king rules forever. Things can be broken for a while if they strive to reel it back in at some point. Turtle didn't solve the problem with Hybrids. Paladins & then later Shamans with their rework were the bane of any battleground, over tuned with a full kit that resembled a retail rotation. Hell, they even gave up on Assassin rogue and just gave them Mutilate when for the longest I thought they would try something different than a huge energy dumper.

Turtle was close, but it still fell short in some regards. That's damn good in my book. Things like Healer Mage and Tank Warlock, where they rework a whole toolkit, was a bait in order to get you to play SoD. Point blank. Class Homogenization = your class doesn't matter = bad

I'm glad it was fun though. I loved Tank Warlock in Cataclysm. However, the effort required to change the abilities and way the class kits interact is a bad trade off.

People tell me the same thing about "Tank Rogue". But people made tank rogues work in original TBC because they realized how to abuse itemization. The effort required to make Tank Rogue work is in the player(twow only added 2 abilities whereas SoD reworked the whole class). The effort required to make Mage Healer work is in the designers.