1. A lack of movement or the ability to dodge. Curving spells or arrows should never happen. 2. Macros. Any game that is so over-stretched in moves that macros are required is a failure. Games should be easy to learn and hard to master... they should not require endless macros in order to win. This is the spreadsheet method of fighting and it appeals to the least twitch happy most tediously spreadsheet orientated players. 3. It has been simplified down to the lowest common denominator. Don't get me wrong, it was once fun, but these days it is just simplified to the point of homogeneity. 4. Balance in PVE combat for the purposes of PVP. Again this results in homogeneity of classes. Rock, paper scissors please! PVP should not dictate PVE. 5. You're out of luck you're out of time. This tab-targeting combat is old. It may be that people do not like change, and that is fine, but do not try to deprive others of change. WOW combat is a result of 10 year old technology. I for one am very glad that advances over the last ten years allow for more twitchy combat.
There is a huge flaw that WoW needs to address and im sure its been going around in the circles of players even those who are the most hardcore fans and that is the faceroll difficulty...Now don't get me wrong, i play other mmos but i also played WoW until level cap and just find it way too easy at the core. They throw a lot of stuff at you to keep you distracted from the real issue that the core is too easy if you REALLY wanted to play it straight up to win you would so very easily without all the fancy other abilities you would put in. I played Vanilla WoW, coming from a raid resume in Everquest i dont think i died more than 5 times up until level 50 as a paladin on a solo level. At level 30 i was soloing nameds or elite mobs and thats when it hit me something is wrong. I continued making gold and buying from the auction house to gear myself but it seems every log in was something to "grind for gear" day. At level 50 i had enough. I think i burned through a whole area of mobs by myself to reach an elite mob in the mountaintops just to take a rare sword that made everything much easier than it already was. Yes it took effort but, There's games out there that even at your very best it would take a serious leap of skills and training to achieve a much less and less OP reward then what WoW gives you. The experience of a gear grind makes everything an inevitable chore and seeing other peoples disgruntled experiences with this game it would take an Absolute Miracle for me to go back to WoW. At that point i changed my password and scrambled it so i could never log in ever again. I don't particularly hate it, but i felt gypped somehow by playing it.
I now spend my days raiding in 2016 Everquest in the newest expansion and playing Elder Scrolls Online casually. I think the action combat generation is the next big thing. I also think raiding in Everquest is MUCH more tough than raiding in WoW though i never raided in WoW while i played. There is a maximum mental effort and fail meaning you concentrated on the wrong things approach in Everquest than Lets shoot a basketball from 35 feet in WoW where its all luck if you win or lose. I mean i watch mythic raids on twitch and it seems to me the problem is that people somehow got zapped while in a red telegraph. So if you toss a coin in the air of how you play that certain day you win a mythic raid. The only difference is theres lots of coins you need to fall in your favor cause mythic fights are too long. I dont know thats what i have observed in watching mythic raids in WoW in draenor...In Everquest, it takes a winning strategy that only the top guilds have stored with their officers or raid leaders, the heirarchy is the success in Everquest. You learn it and you kiss their ass because they are the only ones that can give you that ubar loot you desire. If you have no structure in the guild everyting falls apart. You raid strategist or leader needs ABSOLUTE control of actions of the raid meaning Teamspeak comms is an absolute must because the raid leader will talk for 10 minutes prior to the start of the event and during the event with almost everyone relaying statuses or info or combat queries. Out of the 54 people that show up every raid 45 will be talking on the mic. We also have meetings with other people in our classes on a set day of the week for 2 hours i mean some people have work for gods sake! But still, its usually on the weekend so its no bother. We have people who dig up information on the internet up on any fight upcoming that needs to be tackled or class strategies to maximize player preformance and we have groups going out every time you log in to get some of the rarest items in the game. Overall, its a second job but nothing like it compares with any other game out there!
The only things it has going for it is sometimes you get some really interesting rotations, and the execution of the rotations is sometimes fun. Thats it.
The combat itself is not very engaging. No need to aim. Just tab target, watch for bad floor, go through rotations. Much prefer some hybrid of tab target + true action, or just full on true action.
World of Warcrafts combat system? It's pretty old at this point and most people have already scavenged the system of it's good parts and reused them in other games, but what makes the WoW combat system good is simplicity. It doesn't make people worry about dodging and instead focuses on tempo and rhythm via a rotation on a hot bar, so a lot of people can pick up on it really quickly. This is actually pretty different from Final Fantasy XI or older games as while those games had hot bars, they weren't about tempo. The hot bars were meant to act as short cuts to abilities on a character sheet as combat was meant to be a bit more strategic.
1. A lack of movement or the ability to dodge. Curving spells or arrows should never happen. 2. Macros. Any game that is so over-stretched in moves that macros are required is a failure. Games should be easy to learn and hard to master... they should not require endless macros in order to win. This is the spreadsheet method of fighting and it appeals to the least twitch happy most tediously spreadsheet orientated players. 3. It has been simplified down to the lowest common denominator. Don't get me wrong, it was once fun, but these days it is just simplified to the point of homogeneity. 4. Balance in PVE combat for the purposes of PVP. Again this results in homogeneity of classes. Rock, paper scissors please! PVP should not dictate PVE. 5. You're out of luck you're out of time. This tab-targeting combat is old. It may be that people do not like change, and that is fine, but do not try to deprive others of change. WOW combat is a result of 10 year old technology. I for one am very glad that advances over the last ten years allow for more twitchy combat.
It's easy to recognize someone who hasn't played WOW in a long time, if he ever played it...
An actual counterpoint might help more.
"The knowledge of the theory of logic has no tendency whatever to make men good reasoners." - Thomas B. Macaulay
"The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge." - Daniel J. Boorstin
Well designed skills, classes actually play differently and a player who knows their class will get much more out of it than a new player.
NO ANIMATION DELAY. When you push the button, your attack happens instantly, the animation may take a moment but the attack was in fact instant.
Low GCD. I never realized how important this was until I played FFXIV.
I think something that often gets overlooked in MMOs is also camera work - WoW's camera is very adjustable, has plenty of sensitivity options, has no acceleration and no smoothing (or they can be disabled I can't remember).
Movement is instant. Just like with skills, there is no animation delay.
Even if I haven't played WoW in a long time I must say I see think it is by far one of the smoothest. A lot of mmos that came before or after it you often see more animation clipping and delay reaction.
It's the responsiveness. No lagging, no smoothing, feels instant, animations feel dead on
Auto-attack. I liked it even more when auto-attack was more prevalent and combat was slower. I'm not a fan of the flashing lights on the screen that say: You should use this skill. It's just too much holding hands for me. Freedom deprived.
Talking about games where thousands of players exist simultaneously in a single instance and mechanics related to such games.
Comments
1. A lack of movement or the ability to dodge. Curving spells or arrows should never happen.
2. Macros. Any game that is so over-stretched in moves that macros are required is a failure. Games should be easy to learn and hard to master... they should not require endless macros in order to win. This is the spreadsheet method of fighting and it appeals to the least twitch happy most tediously spreadsheet orientated players.
3. It has been simplified down to the lowest common denominator. Don't get me wrong, it was once fun, but these days it is just simplified to the point of homogeneity.
4. Balance in PVE combat for the purposes of PVP. Again this results in homogeneity of classes. Rock, paper scissors please! PVP should not dictate PVE.
5. You're out of luck you're out of time. This tab-targeting combat is old. It may be that people do not like change, and that is fine, but do not try to deprive others of change. WOW combat is a result of 10 year old technology. I for one am very glad that advances over the last ten years allow for more twitchy combat.
I now spend my days raiding in 2016 Everquest in the newest expansion and playing Elder Scrolls Online casually. I think the action combat generation is the next big thing. I also think raiding in Everquest is MUCH more tough than raiding in WoW though i never raided in WoW while i played. There is a maximum mental effort and fail meaning you concentrated on the wrong things approach in Everquest than Lets shoot a basketball from 35 feet in WoW where its all luck if you win or lose. I mean i watch mythic raids on twitch and it seems to me the problem is that people somehow got zapped while in a red telegraph. So if you toss a coin in the air of how you play that certain day you win a mythic raid. The only difference is theres lots of coins you need to fall in your favor cause mythic fights are too long. I dont know thats what i have observed in watching mythic raids in WoW in draenor...In Everquest, it takes a winning strategy that only the top guilds have stored with their officers or raid leaders, the heirarchy is the success in Everquest. You learn it and you kiss their ass because they are the only ones that can give you that ubar loot you desire. If you have no structure in the guild everyting falls apart. You raid strategist or leader needs ABSOLUTE control of actions of the raid meaning Teamspeak comms is an absolute must because the raid leader will talk for 10 minutes prior to the start of the event and during the event with almost everyone relaying statuses or info or combat queries. Out of the 54 people that show up every raid 45 will be talking on the mic. We also have meetings with other people in our classes on a set day of the week for 2 hours i mean some people have work for gods sake! But still, its usually on the weekend so its no bother. We have people who dig up information on the internet up on any fight upcoming that needs to be tackled or class strategies to maximize player preformance and we have groups going out every time you log in to get some of the rarest items in the game. Overall, its a second job but nothing like it compares with any other game out there!
The only things it has going for it is sometimes you get some really interesting rotations, and the execution of the rotations is sometimes fun. Thats it.
The combat itself is not very engaging. No need to aim. Just tab target, watch for bad floor, go through rotations. Much prefer some hybrid of tab target + true action, or just full on true action.
"The knowledge of the theory of logic has no tendency whatever to make men good reasoners." - Thomas B. Macaulay
"The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge." - Daniel J. Boorstin
NO ANIMATION DELAY. When you push the button, your attack happens instantly, the animation may take a moment but the attack was in fact instant.
Low GCD. I never realized how important this was until I played FFXIV.
I think something that often gets overlooked in MMOs is also camera work - WoW's camera is very adjustable, has plenty of sensitivity options, has no acceleration and no smoothing (or they can be disabled I can't remember).
Movement is instant. Just like with skills, there is no animation delay.
Even if I haven't played WoW in a long time I must say I see think it is by far one of the smoothest. A lot of mmos that came before or after it you often see more animation clipping and delay reaction.
Auto-attack.
I liked it even more when auto-attack was more prevalent and combat was slower. I'm not a fan of the flashing lights on the screen that say: You should use this skill. It's just too much holding hands for me. Freedom deprived.