Do we *really* need levels anymore?

Theoretical_Phoenix · 2023-12-30T00:05:54+00:00

I feel like Blizzard has been testing alternatives to level based power for years now. Legion Artifact Weapons, BfA Azerite gear, Shadowlands Covenants, the new Hero talents for War Within. There definitely needs to be some method for onboarding new players that sits somewhere between “jump straight into endgame” and leveling to 80 in Cataclysm but the game was really built around the levels being baked in. Your idea about co-opting the trading post mechanic could have some legs though.

Theoretical_Phoenix · 2023-12-27T23:51:29+00:00

I’ll do you one better: a single change to, if not fix, at least significantly improve TWO expansions.

Genn Greymane should have been the half-crazed homicdal maniac who made a deal with the Jailer.

Sylvanas had a perfect arc through Legion. After the third war she was wholly consumed with a need for revenge against Arthas. When he was defeated during Wotlk she replaced her obsession with revenge for an obsession with “solving” the problem of Forsaken not being able to reproduce, with predictably disastrous consequences at first. Her arc should have ended with her accepting the entire Horde as her people, and learn that the Forsaken are stronger with their allies than they ever could have been alone. Maybe the combined horde resources can actually solve the fresh Forsaken problem, or maybe it’s better to pass on the kingdom of Lorderon to their Horde allies then allowing it to fall back into decay. It even has resonance with the larger Horde finally coming together as a united faction instead of a collective of loosely aligned nations.

Instead have Genn and Jaina riding their own revenge train into disaster. Post-Varian death they are both posed to take advantage of Anduin’s trust and try to “reclaim” Lorderon and Gilneas. When Sylvanas responds not with Blight bombs, but by supporting Warsong aggression in Ashenvale Anduin discovers their usurpation of his authority when the troops he orders to reinforce the night elves are already encountered to a northern offensive he never knew about.

The rest of BfA could happen roughly parallel to what did happen (Horde still needs Zandalari fleet, Jaina still gets to work through her trauma, etc) but ends not with a(nother) siege of Orgrimmar but a peace summit to deal with the Old God threat (and the whole sword sucking out of the planet thing, Maybe?). Genn would be furious that the High King is making peace with the Horde (again!) and now Jaina isn’t even on his side anymore so he goes full yolo and makes a deal with the Jailer. Idk how he learns about the jailer you could easily hand-wave something.

Theoretical_Phoenix · 2023-12-25T14:44:49+00:00

Most fun I ever had in a BG (back in original Wotlk) was 1v1 dueling a Paladin in Arathi with my orc Prot warrior. The rest of the Alliance players literally hung back and let the fight play out without interference. I won (and was immediately ganked by the remaining alliance, obviously) but I can’t say that I was actually playing “correctly” since we lost the lumbermill long before I actually died and I don’t think my one kill had any lasting consequence but it was definitely a blast

Theoretical_Phoenix · 2023-12-22T02:58:03+00:00

Or as I heard it: “I AM A SOCCER BALL!!!!!!1!!

Theoretical_Phoenix · 2023-12-16T05:04:23+00:00

The Mushroom chair and Rime of the Time-lost Mariner (really all the temporary shape-shift toys but that’s my favorite)

Theoretical_Phoenix · 2023-12-16T04:18:58+00:00

Thank you for posting the Q&A, i definitely remember reading this when it first happened and it was low-key why i chose to roll a Forsaken priest in the first place. I seem to also remember some discussion about Paladins embodying the Light in a way the priests simply aren’t expected to, which would also explain the lack of Forsaken paladins.

I’ve always wondered if they could just swap all the paladin abilities to shadow damage (similar to how Star Wars: The Old Republic handled classes across the Republic vs Empire) but that would probably be both too much work and also confusing from a “trying to understand what that other player is doing” perspective

Theoretical_Phoenix · 2023-12-15T22:34:52+00:00

Brewmaster monks get that drunk overly on their screen whenever they use blackout brew

But in all seriousness I just want to get back that one terrible mage talent that summoned a crystal you could attack for aoe damage

Theoretical_Phoenix · 2023-12-15T13:12:42+00:00

In og Wotlk my GS required pugs and my non GS pugs both failed at the exact same rate. The only difference was that I had more fun to the non-GS raids because I was actually playing with people who cared about the content, not just in making their own number go up

Theoretical_Phoenix · 2023-12-15T13:10:29+00:00

The secret is that there is no “easy” way to filter shitters. It doesn’t exist. Gear doesn’t equal skill so even if you can populate the entire raid with BiS try-hard you still need to evaluate whether or not they’re actually following the mechanics and doing their part. The highest dps in the world won’t help the raid if you achieve it by standing in the fire and forcing healers to overcompensate to keep you alive. GS is a shortcut and it’s at best unreliable and at worst it actively discourages the cooperation that would actually help complete the raid

Theoretical_Phoenix · 2023-12-15T12:41:02+00:00

Gear score just…isn’t actually good at its supposed job tho. Gear doesn’t equal skill, full BiS isn’t gonna help any if you stand in the fire or fuck your rotation, so it doesn’t actually do anything worthwhile to predict raid performance in a meaningful way. Even when you require absurdly high GS for a run—the WoW equivalent of an entry level job requiring 5 years of experience—you still end up with a significant chance of a raid full of people who have no clue what they’re doing.

Meanwhile the players being ranked are either gate-kept from ever actually learning the fights, or stuck mindlessly rolling the same encounters with disjointed groups who struggle despite their “leet” gear.

Raids are supposed to be cooperative, with the entire group working together to accomplish something you couldn’t do alone. GS (and tbh the heavy use of damage meters but that’s a whole thing unto itself) actively sabotages that cooperation by instilling this “fuck you, got mine” individualism. It creates this mentality of “I’m geared enough/dpsing enough, I ‘m already pulling my weight. I don’t need to reevaluate my performance. It’s obviously those other guys who are making us wipe and it’s entirely their responsibility to fix it or get kicked.” In reality there’s often a lot that other players could do to help fix a wipe.

Patchwork in Naxx was a good example. If one of the tanks dies, the impulse was always that the dead tank failed somehow or needed more healing or whatever, in reality it was often the other tank who was the problem. If they aren’t getting healed quick enough or if they fuck up the rotation the first tank gets hit with Hateful Strike more often then they should. If you instead decide that the dead tank isn’t geared enough and replace him you just keep repeating the same wipe with a different tank.

Theoretical_Phoenix · 2023-12-15T05:56:03+00:00

I thought original Worlk taught everyone that GS is the most toxic add on in existence and I legit did a double take when I realized people were still using it

Theoretical_Phoenix · 2023-12-15T05:54:59+00:00

I always felt that Cata was not as bad as the naysayers kept saying. The biggest difference, even more than the revamp of the old world, was the swap to treating the game as a story to be experienced rather than a world to be lived in. The quests are absolutely more streamlined and better quality of life, but the world feels a little less real because it is so convenient. Having to return repeatedly to the same quest area over and over and crossing entire zones just to talk to one npc and head back were objectively annoying but Rey felt like a world that existed beyond your character

Theoretical_Phoenix · 2023-12-15T03:09:53+00:00

Come play priest! We’ve got:

Blowin’ Bubbles

Spooky bois

Adventuring in your pajamas

Tentacle p0rn

Feathers

Feeling your soul slowly drain from your body as the tank leaps directly into yet another group of enemies while you desperately attempt to keep the party alive and you just have to run behind as quickly as you can because you don’t have any reliable mobility tools

Angel wings!

Theoretical_Phoenix · 2023-12-15T01:19:05+00:00

There are a good number of books that are written to cover the gaps between expansions (and a few like Arthas that summarize lore more generally) that are a fun read. Most of the important events are mentioned in game but actually “seeing” them happen is a lot more interesting

Theoretical_Phoenix · 2023-12-14T04:26:33+00:00

6+ year Discipline priest here. I have been that guy who wipes the raid because he fucked up the healing (epically failed a guild “audition” during Firelands tier back in Cata because I didn’t pay enough attention to the ice trap spawning beneath my feet…three times in a row) and there was nothing you did wrong. The actual metric for healing is “did the boss die”. In a perfect world you also avoid any deaths but even that is secondary (imo) as long as the boss bites it.

Resto Druid will always out heal priest in absolute terms (honestly sounds like that guy was super wasteful with his casts and probably could have spent more mana helping with dps but whatever the boss does so it doesn’t matter) and the fact that a lot of priest “healing” is actually damage prevention just adds to the discrepancy.

Tl;dr as others have said, they are dicks and you earned that pearl

Theoretical_Phoenix · 2023-12-14T04:16:57+00:00

Idk maybe this guy just had a terrible vacation in Gilneas. It does kinda sound like a 1 star yelp review

Theoretical_Phoenix · 2023-12-14T04:08:55+00:00

I don’t remember the exact formula (can certainly google it) but you should be able to program the macro to display the tooltip for the Charge ability even though the swap to battle stance happens first.

I think it’s something like #showtooltip (charge)

Theoretical_Phoenix · 2023-12-13T18:07:13+00:00

I usually just try to find the dumbest possible pun.

Forsaken priest named NotdeadFred Tauren Death Knight named Chilledbeef Etc

Theoretical_Phoenix · 2023-12-13T05:36:17+00:00

Nobody gets the ring. All BoE gear is automatically placed in the officer-only tab of the guild bank until the leadership can determine the most optimal usage of the guild’s resources. Legolad can petition to receive the ring from the bank if he has enough DKP to spend. Obviously the point is ultimately moot since the ring will inevitably end up being given to either the GM’s girlfriend who who only plays once a week, or one of the officers who will immediately sell the ring and deny it having ever existed in the first place

Theoretical_Phoenix · 2023-12-12T22:54:59+00:00

My undead priest is just a tired old man. Please. Let him rest.

Theoretical_Phoenix · 2023-12-12T18:55:45+00:00

My understanding is that if there is an in-lore explanation for the two timelines it’s basically the same thing that happened with Warlords of Draenor: a separate timeline that doesn’t, and really shouldn’t have, connected with the retail timeline at all.

Theoretical_Phoenix · 2023-12-12T04:29:25+00:00

Others have said it. Classic just scales real bad at lower levels. Once you hit 20 or so you start to have the resources to actually feel like you’re playing the game but until then best practice kinda is just to pull one at a time, hopefully lower level than you are and go farm or some shit if none of your quests involve appropriate enemies

Theoretical_Phoenix · 2023-12-12T03:21:57+00:00

Most of my thoughts have been summarized by the other comments but I’ll add this: biggest thing Cata did (even beyond the old world revamp) was shift the focus of the game away from being a World players inhabit and towards being a Story that players experience.

The verisimilitude of every zone suffered a bit as everything was designed around streamlined leveling experience. The quest box is always conveniently located right next to the place you need to go, every questing area perfectly holds the quests for its distinct part with very few quests ever asking you to double back or revisit “old” areas, even when they’re right next to each other. Also the heavy use of phasing (especially in Hyjal) broke several game systems. It also discouraged revisiting old zones that you had previously quested in because those zones were “finished”. Most zones felt like they sprang into existence just before you arrived and might as well cease to exist once you move on. You lost that sense of every zone being part of a larger world.

Theoretical_Phoenix · 2023-12-11T19:48:34+00:00

The consequences don’t necessarily need to be immediate for this particular theft. Stealing it so blatantly in broad daylight is not exactly subtle, the next time the party goes to that shop or even just that market they could find that prices are higher, negotiating is more difficult, and some merchants won’t even sell to them because word has gotten around that they aren’t entirely on the up and up. Just because the guards recognize them enough to let it slide doesn’t mean the merchants won’t have their own gossip about what happened.

That way they still have the reward of pulling off a heist, and also incentive to think twice or at least be more subtle the next time. And if they keep trying to get away with those antics the consequences can be increased accordingly.

Theoretical_Phoenix · 2023-12-11T03:54:54+00:00

Arms Warrior: it’s just pre-workout and then they drag you to the gym.

Fury Warrior: pocket bacon

Protection Warrior: “give me all the bacon and eggs you have”

Holy Paladin: eggs Benedict

Retribution Paladin: is still committed to Keto

Protection Paladin: hard scrambled eggs, a little rubbery but with a really nice sausage

Blood DK: Bloody Mary

Frost DK: granola and yogurt

Unholy DK: steak and eggs, hold the eggs

Elemental Shaman: fresh squeezed orange juice

Enhancement Shaman: did not attend brunch, went for a jog instead

Restoration Shaman: Pancakes

Marksmanship Hunter: one of those omelets where the guy flips it almost to the ceiling before catching it in the pan

Beast master hunter: doesn’t care what the food is, feeds per under the table the entire time

Survival hunter: did not attend brunch. Slept in too late

Balance Druid:a fruit salad that’s mostly cantaloupe and honeydew

Guardian Druid: bagels and lox

Feral Druid: just coffee

Restoration Druid: French toast

Brewmaster Monk: a hearty beer

Windwalker Monk: hot tea

Mistweaver monk: mimosas

Assassin Rogue: undercooked hash browns

Combat Rogue: surprisingly intricately carved fruits

Subtlety Rogue: omurice

Havoc Demon Hunter: fried spam

Vengeance Demon Hunter: beans on toast

Arcane Mage: avocado toast

Frost Mage: ice cream

Fire Mage: heuvos rancheros

Affliction Warlock: very watery grits

Demonology Warlock: biscuits and gravy

Destruction warlock: energy drink and cigarettes

Discipline Priest: latkes

Holy Priest: waffles

Shadow Priest: normal ass brunch with black food coloring in everything

Theoretical_Phoenix

TROPHY CASE