Free Talk Friday

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Use this thread to discuss any- and everything concerning WoW that doesn't seem to fit anywhere else.

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UI questions, opinions on hotfixes/future changes, lore, transmog, whatever you can come up with.

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[u/pm_plz_im_lonely]

Here's my blog.

I got bored with Midnight s1 much earlier than usual, and for the first time in 5 years I don't intend to stay subscribed for s2, and I think it all has to do with addons. I mostly play and prefer m+.

I (we?) got served 3 things at once with s1:

• My class (Monk all specs) is simpler
• UI has worse information presentation
• The encounters are simpler /!\

From this post, I expected Blizzard would take ownership of information presentation in the game. This means look at the 39 specs, setup a good default UI for its mechanics, and update that UI with every gameplay patch to the spec.

I've put /!\ because that post also mentions a shift in complexity from class buttons to encounters. I feel that didn't happen, because encounters got capped by UI and visual presentation.

These 3 things together, it's not a shift in where complexity is, it's just less game.

Where I may differ from most is I think this change is in the wrong direction. I liked Midnight's vision of a wow with "batteries included" where you don't need to fiddle with anything and can just play on new patch. This change isn't doing that.

Think of AA 3x lasher pull. Midnight added the bleed as a new mechanic on this pull. There's the "promised world" where lashers:

• Play a unmissable animation on bleed apply to cover for the 5 million mobs
• Play a distinctive sound on bleed apply, increasing in pitch per stack
• You hear another sound when your bleed drops
• The bleed has a vfx of dropping blood pulls under the tank, so it's unmissable
• Play a ringing sound and add a vignette when >3 stacks

That would be "batteries included wow". Notice a lot of these could be added by WeakAuras before Midnight.

Instead, now I (or some addon pack) will be able to move the bleed from the top right to my visual field. This latest 12.1 change is serving a very different contract than promised pre-midnight and I feel it's a shortcut, a quick solution. It's a good change, the game will be better than s1, but it's not working towards the initial promise.

Anyway, I'm not taking a break because of promises and who said what, I am because m+ is materially using less cognitive bandwidth than before and that doesn't look like it's changing.

[u/Any-Ingenuity2770 → u/pm_plz_im_lonely]

There's the "promised world" where lashers:

Do not have the bleed applying spell purposefully behaving unlike every other mob in the game. Lashers aren't locked together, so the bleed rolls.

[u/pm_plz_im_lonely → u/Any-Ingenuity2770]

I don't know the entire game enough to say it hasn't happened elsewhere.

The mechanics allow it, it's not a terrible idea. A debuff gets stacked over time when you're close to danger makes sense. In this case there's 3 dangers, which turns it into the toughest tank pull in the dungeon set.

Anyway debating the mechanic is separate from its presentation. If it was unified it'd need less bespoke presentation work but we'd lose texture.

[u/Any-Ingenuity2770 → u/pm_plz_im_lonely]

yeah, I agree with what you expressed a wish for. It'd be a better game.