Blizzard is trying to keep World of Warcraft fresh.
Does that mean dumbing the game down to make way for new players?
and decided to do away with a fair chunk of our abilities.
Yes, theres such thing as too many abilities.
Theres a fine line between having not enough abilities and having too many abilities, however.
To answer that question, we must first talk about versatility and complexity.
What make a class versatile and/or complex in the first place?
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Versatility, in essence, comes down to having multiple options.
Versatility gives players room to save the day by doing something largely unexpected of their class/role.
Versatility in itself can be complex, but complexity is more broad.
Blizzard got rid of this mechanic because they felt it was complex, but also easily accomplished by addons.
An encounter that often requires the raid to completely adjust their tactics mid-fight is complex.
Is there a base number of required abilities that make a class complex or versatile?
Complexity is more about having meaningful choices and a lack of repetition.WildStars focus on mobility makes combat complex.
InWoW, complexity typically comes down to a set ability rotation.
Lets take a closer look at 6.0 now.
SomeWoWclasses saw the removal of more abilities than others.
Some classes, like Retribution Paladins, changed very little.
Others, like Hunters and Blood Death Knights, changed quite a bit.
Blood Death Knights might have seen some of the heaviest ability pruning that affected their base rotation.
Complexity, in part, depends on the nature of the fights and their difficulty.
This is why its hard to judge class complexity on the current state of liveWoWservers.
Theres nothing extremely difficult in the game at the moment once gear comes into play.
Even Mythic raidsthe most difficult raids in the game at the momentare not a solid benchmark of complexity.
Thats another story altogether.
Theres also the fact that many classes still have versatilityjust not in as many ways as before.
The options are there.
Theyre just not as numerous.
Nothings really special when it all looks the same.
Priests always feel like Priestsand never quite like Paladins.
Feral Druids may have combo points like Rogues, but theyre never quite rogues.
And thats the way it should be.
We should wield our classes with pride.
The orc part might be right.
There are a lot of orcs waiting for us in Draenor.
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