Patch 5.0.4 (or so) is out. It has a lot of changes. This post is going to focus on things which I believe are objectively stupid. This means I'm going to ignore "change sucks" things, such as the new specialization, talent, glyph system which are clearly different and confusing, but I can't yet say that they are stupid. Let's get to it.
Glyphs: Everything I have is now a major glyph, which isn't the problem. However there is something odd about minor glyphs now: the category doesn't make sense. Bladed Judgement is an icon change. Falling Avenger adds slow fall to avenging wrath. The first is a pretty benefit while the second is potentially useful. Focused Wrath makes holy wrath a single-target ability, which isn't merely visual or a slight buff, but a total change to how the spell works. It might ahve looked odd having three categories of glyphs, but maybe it made sense. Minor glyphs could do the truly minor things of appearance and reductions in the mana costs of 30 minute buffs. Major glyphs could do something significant. Prime glyphs even more so. Maybe separate those and make one category "improvement" glyphs and the other "tradeoff" glyphs, since there are clear trends of some glyphs simply buffing an ability and others having an upside and downside.
Spellbook: "What has changed" barely scratches the surface. In fact, all it really confirmed was that the seals on my aura bar weren't a bug. Also, "holy power is generated faster" isn't quite right: it's still generated by player actions, but the phrasing makes it sound like it's rogue-style energy that automatically fills up. Even worse, it appears that the space needed for this worthless tab was freed up by dumping guild perks into the general spell book, creating a nice big mess.
Why does Seal of Truth say "replaces seal of command"? We've not had seal of command in a long time. Now I'm just plain confused.
The new spellbook is overwhelming and confusing. It is good that I can find all my abilities in one tab rather than needing to go through three. However, why have a huge list of the spells for other specializations? Tie that into the specialization tool. While we're on the subject of bad sorting, why are the spells alphabetical? If I can't find a spell, am I really looking for "A... A... avenger's shield!" or am I looking for that one ability that throws the shield and hits multiple things in which case I'd be better off with the abilities being sorted by effect: damage, healing, buffs, etc. Furthermore, the information on what other specializations have is scattered too much, with the spec tab giving only the faintest overview and requiring major digging into the pages-deep spellbook to figure out what is different.
"Core abilities" for protection does not include hammer of the righteous, yet somehow finds space to tell us to use holy wrath when no other ability is available.
To end on a high note, Blizzard did finally find a use for that valuable real estate freed up by removing the key ring: moving mounts and pets to their own book.
Cancel that, low note: Reset the damn talent points when you upend the entire system!
Maybe I'll have good things to say later. Actually, since I'm not having much luck, I'll get to them now: Or not. I had one, I swear I did, but I forgot it too soon. And the world server is down so I can't easily look. Oh here, the "core abilities" thing, that seems nice. Way to go with that.
Glyphs: Everything I have is now a major glyph, which isn't the problem. However there is something odd about minor glyphs now: the category doesn't make sense. Bladed Judgement is an icon change. Falling Avenger adds slow fall to avenging wrath. The first is a pretty benefit while the second is potentially useful. Focused Wrath makes holy wrath a single-target ability, which isn't merely visual or a slight buff, but a total change to how the spell works. It might ahve looked odd having three categories of glyphs, but maybe it made sense. Minor glyphs could do the truly minor things of appearance and reductions in the mana costs of 30 minute buffs. Major glyphs could do something significant. Prime glyphs even more so. Maybe separate those and make one category "improvement" glyphs and the other "tradeoff" glyphs, since there are clear trends of some glyphs simply buffing an ability and others having an upside and downside.
Spellbook: "What has changed" barely scratches the surface. In fact, all it really confirmed was that the seals on my aura bar weren't a bug. Also, "holy power is generated faster" isn't quite right: it's still generated by player actions, but the phrasing makes it sound like it's rogue-style energy that automatically fills up. Even worse, it appears that the space needed for this worthless tab was freed up by dumping guild perks into the general spell book, creating a nice big mess.
Why does Seal of Truth say "replaces seal of command"? We've not had seal of command in a long time. Now I'm just plain confused.
The new spellbook is overwhelming and confusing. It is good that I can find all my abilities in one tab rather than needing to go through three. However, why have a huge list of the spells for other specializations? Tie that into the specialization tool. While we're on the subject of bad sorting, why are the spells alphabetical? If I can't find a spell, am I really looking for "A... A... avenger's shield!" or am I looking for that one ability that throws the shield and hits multiple things in which case I'd be better off with the abilities being sorted by effect: damage, healing, buffs, etc. Furthermore, the information on what other specializations have is scattered too much, with the spec tab giving only the faintest overview and requiring major digging into the pages-deep spellbook to figure out what is different.
"Core abilities" for protection does not include hammer of the righteous, yet somehow finds space to tell us to use holy wrath when no other ability is available.
To end on a high note, Blizzard did finally find a use for that valuable real estate freed up by removing the key ring: moving mounts and pets to their own book.
Cancel that, low note: Reset the damn talent points when you upend the entire system!
Maybe I'll have good things to say later. Actually, since I'm not having much luck, I'll get to them now: Or not. I had one, I swear I did, but I forgot it too soon. And the world server is down so I can't easily look. Oh here, the "core abilities" thing, that seems nice. Way to go with that.
3 comments:
Why does Seal of Truth say "replaces seal of command"? We've not had seal of command in a long time
Seal of Command is now the one that baby paladins get at level 3.
Ya, my wife skype'd me this morning to display some serious anger at the changes, especially the spell book. We had both been reading all the beta info through wow insider/mmo-champs but didn't do much to help. Also noticed a bug where account wide pets are only accessible on the first character you "learned" the pet, figured it was a bug but it happened to me as well and being a pet Nazi, she was fairly annoyed.
I spent most of the time last night running around TB laughing at how easy the new 2H Frost is for solo.
With that out of the way, the first time I managed to log onto the beta server, and stay connected for more than 10 seconds, was damnably confusing. I think that this will be easier for new players compared to the old system but it's not very friendly when they dump it on you at level 85.
And that spelling change to Judg[e]ment really annoyed me and my macros.
Post a Comment
Comments in posts older than 21 days will be moderated to prevent spam. Comments in posts younger than 21 days will be checked for ID.