Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
[Column] World of Warcraft: 5 Improvements Coming in Patch 6.0.2
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Patch 6.0.2, the pre-expansion patch, is just weeks away and is already available for testing on the private test realm. This week we look at five new features that will drastically improve the game.
Read more of Reza Lackey's All Things Warcraft: 5 Improvements Coming in Patch 6.0.2.
)
Comments
거북이는 목을 내밀 때 안 움직입니다
All this looks great. Can't wait to see all the changes and especially all the class changes.
while the changes are good this patch is a trainwreck just about everywhere else. Low level characters cannot even level in peace because the stat changes are sloppy at best. People still cannot even copy their characters in beta or PTS to see what real dps they are pulling etc. To think its less than a month away from this patch going live is scary at best it has more technical bugs and crashes than ESO at launch ...
With all of the ability bloat pruning and stat changes/additions/squishes, the PTR is feeling like an improved WotLK, which was WoWs hayday to the vast majority of players.
yea, being able to copy your char is so important for WoD. you got it
"I'll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up! Not me!"
its not an important feature in the sense its needed to test 90-100 content but its a broken feature that people are complaining about even on zorbrak twitter and getting no blue responses at all or from their CS. Along with all the crashes errors wrong version numbers and the many other issues and crashing. But you are right blizzard should get a free pass right?
I don't know about saying "Drastically Improve" there are no real changes that are going to make things that much better. Some features are nice improvements that make things cleaner, others not so much.
1.) Inventory Management: This would probably be the one change that stands out as being the biggest Quality of Life change. Over-all its an improvement (at least for the few who don't use bag mods) that helps out a lot making things cleaner. I think it could use more work (being more selective with gear, since it will mix different gear sets up say your pvp gear with random loot that drops). Its not a 'drastic' change by far, though its a good improvement.
2.) New Quest Log: Honestly, the new quest log for me (testing) has been more on the negative side. The quest log has become a LOT more clunky having a map pop up with it. While its nice to have quests listed based off were you are, its pretty much limiting them based off zone. Peeking at quests in other zones you have become much more of a chore to do. It just over-all feels bogged down. It does little to improve the experience in comparison with with the disruptions it adds to the game. Its not terrible, but I'd rather keep the current design then deal with the troubles it adds.
3.) New Character Models: I suppose it could be considered an 'improvement' though it depends how you look at it. It take away some nostaligia (which one could argue is a large part of what keeps old games like WoW so popular despite their age). Its nice though having improved models. The issue is that the changes aren't all that sweeping. Some of the new looks just look horrible. To many of the options are just goofy and end up feeling like your down to the same limited selection of choices of making a character not look AS weird. No additions to change up character creations so expect plenty of clones of one another still. At the very least animations look to be improved in some areas which is nice... but over-all its not as impressive as you would hope.
4.) Itemization Changes: Here... is were they screwed up badly. Its perfectly fine to trim down stats, to simplify it to an extent. I agree with removing expertise from the game as it was an extra bit. Hit... honestly I think was a poor choice. It was required, sure, but a big part of the game was something that had you build around through gems. Dodge and parry I think are a shame as well being interesting for tank gearing... but fine. The part that really makes me facepalm is the addition of Multistrike and versatility.
Really? Your trying to simplify it, so you add two new stats? Multi-strike was mildly interesting due to the fact it was rare and a few trinkets gave you the ability to have it, making the item more valuable. Having it all the time makes it such a trivial and boring thing. When it happens all the time it really is unexciting. It loses that value it had. Ele shamans had that element being 'interesting' due to it being specific to them. When everyone has it its so unexciting. Versatility is... well... the most boring stat I've seen in an MMO. A flat damage increase and damage decrease? So exciting! By exciting of course it means its not at all. Mastery (another stat which honestly wasn't all that entertaining) at the very least effects certain areas and could of entertaining on some classes when it had effects that weren't "Increases damage/healing of this". Versatility is just such a bland stat.
The new stats are just horribly face palm it makes me wonder if Jay Wilson came into the office one day and went "I got an idea for your game" and pitched them (Sorry, I got to keep giving him crap for the original version of D3 being so bad). If they had taken out the stats I'd be okay with it, disappointed and finding it bad that they removed hit at least, but still fine. The new stats though are just a complete joke and one of the dumbest things I've seen added into the game in a while. I'd happily gamble that one, if not both of the stats will be taken out in the next two expansions.
5.) Group Finder: This is what LFR should of been the entire time. Seriously, its a good idea and this is one I'd happily say is a clear improvement with the bag functionality. It can use more options, sure, but its a very good start to things. Its a good improvement to have around, particularly if its able to provide grouping across realms.
Lol, I can tell you most definitely how they will react. They'll talk about how much they hate it and how Blizzard is ruining WoW and how they're immediately unsubscribing from WoW, yet sub numbers will somehow rise because they're secretly awesome! That's pretty much it in a nutshell.
Crazkanuk
----------------
Azarelos - 90 Hunter - Emerald
Durnzig - 90 Paladin - Emerald
Demonicron - 90 Death Knight - Emerald Dream - US
Tankinpain - 90 Monk - Azjol-Nerub - US
Brindell - 90 Warrior - Emerald Dream - US
----------------
#3 - They can be turned off, thus not affecting nostalgia in the least
#4 - They are not trying to make things more simple...they are trying to make things more interesting. Having a stat that dictates wether you hit your target or not, is not interesting/fun. Replacing that stat with giving you a chance to hit your target multiple times with 1 swing is a heck of a lot more interesting/fun.
I don't think there's any denying that the updated models are better than the previous ones. It also doesn't take away any nostalgia because there's an option to turn them on & off, sooo....
As for the stats, it's an MMO. It's old, a lot of brand new games don't even have the complexities in min/maxing that WoW has. Making it more straightforward is a good thing. You're right, a big part of the game was, usually, gemming for hit with a main stat, but that's because it was required, nobody actually wanted to gem Hit, again, it's a bit more straightforward to know what you should be gemming for now, especially for new players, now instead of having 7.5% hit and exp for melee PvE, 3% hit & exp for melee PvP, 15% Hit or Exp for Ranged PvE & 6% for ranged PvP, you don't need to worry about it, that's not a bad thing. Then you had to use addons & websites to calculate reforges & gems because how much really is 160 Hit? It seems like they're trying to remove a lot of addons & website use, auto sort bags, keybind changes, quest log which looks identical to similar quest helping addons, again, how is this a bad thing? A lot of the addons you have & almost NEED to play WoW are now built in.
As for multistrike, vers, and all of that, that's just nitpicking just to nitpick (kind of like your whole post), I'm not sure why people complain so much about making the game easier, I'm pretty sure that nearly 1% of WoWs playerbase have killed heroic Garrosh, right now in WoWs current state, if you're a new player you have SO much to learn & figure out, that's probably a good reason for why they're changing mechanics that have been around awhile, I don't think it's a bad change, an easier game = more players.
And in the end you're still going to have the separation between good players & bad players, making the game easier to understand can only be beneficial imo, maybe you'll have more people doing Heroic/Mythic, because the game is easier to understand, again, I don't see how that's a bad thing.
Blizzard is really slow at QoL updates. It's too big and bureaucratic. Management hinders progress there. They have so many resources and money, these QoL updates could've been put out in less than a couple of months.
Overall ....... It feels more fun to play then the current game does.
Nothings perfect. These changes, though any of us could argue some or all the points negative or positive, in my honest opinion, makes the play feel more fun. How you ask?......because i "Feel" more powerfull vs. the enviroment without it becoming stupid easy." For me, this makes the game overall more fun. In beta i can always find a challenge vs currently there are few in game for me. I have 12 lvl 90's, 5 mains all geared above 560 atm. Played wow since year 1, minus 2, one year breaks. I think many will enjoy where they are taking WoW too!
I like the new models especially the dwarfs, i would not make a male dwarf cause somehow blizzard decided to give all the males a dick and balls on their faces, will be nice not to have that.
Quest log and maps, this game is so easy now, I would rather have the option to turn off a map that shows me where everything is, sure sometimes it is helpfull but really was never needed. This also just adds to the speed race.
LFG- I would like to see all LFG type of tools removed from the game and make people be social again. hard to imagine the need to communicate and be interactive with others on your server but it was once a social game. I know the LFG tools will never leave since WoW has become a casual game, just had to say it.
Edit, ok after logging into the PTR i see there is an option to turn off the objectives so that takes care of that issue for me
Huh. Cool. I was just debating with myself whether or not to continue my subscription this morning, and I came down on the side of "Yes", mostly for the in game events for the upcoming expansion, so now the quality of life additions are just a bonus.
:-)
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
Why not have just one stat called "stat" and the better the gear the more "stat" stat it has. That'll eliminate all that unneccesary thinking about gear.
Sheesh!
RIP Ribbitribbitt you are missed, kid.
Currently Playing EVE, ESO
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.
Dwight D Eisenhower
My optimism wears heavy boots and is loud.
Henry Rollins
You act like it's a big deal, let's think about it.
How many people do you think are actually theorycrafting & min/maxing different stats? An EXTREMELY low amount. They write up guides on forums/websites, and that's that.
You have websites like Askmrrobot.com -- That's about as much thought process and depth are put into gearing for average raiders, and even heroic raiders.
Again, overall, we're losing confusing non sense stats, and making it easier to figure out what you should be stacking on your own, rather than relying on people who've been playing since Vanilla & are heavily invested in graphs & things for min/maxing.
About the talent trees, again, you had very little freedom, much less than you do now. And still when you check raiders talents, the general population anyways, it's all the same copy & pasted glyphs and talents because they just follow a guide and don't read into it.
A lot of talents are actually better than the "basic" one's in certain situations, but the regular playerbase just doesn't care, so stop acting like it's a big deal if they make a game easier.
How much thought process did it take to use the cookie cutter talent build off EJ, or else you mathamatically gimped your charecter?
How much thought did it take to gem a required stat to a certain predefined number?
If its not an option, how is it "more complex/requires more thought"?
Personally, I would rather have 3 equally usefull abilities to choose form each tier, than be forced into a cookie cutter build to be competative.
Personally, I would rather have 3 stats to choose from now instead of gemming for a mandaory 2 stats where i already knew the number I needed.
TSW - AoC - Aion - WOW - EVE - Fallen Earth - Co - Rift - || XNA C# Java Development
Dodge is removed as a stat on gear, not as a mechanic. Players can still dodge.
With all of the ability bloat pruning and stat changes/additions/squishes, the PTR is feeling like an improved WotLK, which was WoWs hayday to the vast majority of players.
tell that to warriors :Pthe pruning has killed the game for me, the class rebalancing and redesing has been a failure.
Logged in the other day and storage changes will not effect me lol, someone sold everything I had. Fortunately some old guild mates managed to reequip a couple of characters for me.
Kind of odd as I have the iphone app for authorization and none of my other Blizzard accounts were touched.
Always love the complaints that come with changes, you can basically put all of them in one basket: "don't want to learn to play with the new ruleset". Your character is not broken, it is you who are broken because you won't take the time to adjust your gameplay.
I'm an on again, off again player. The bag and model changes look great. I'll have to wait and see on the new quest log. The other won't affect me much at this point, but may become more important the longer I play.
The one thing that always bugs me the most is the in game guild finder tool. Basically useless. Scrap it or update it with search features that make it easier than just scrolling through a long list.