Ch Ch Ch Changes: What Would Be Your Last Straw?

Please excuse that little David Bowie changes stutter at the beginning, for some strange reason every time I think about changes lately the song changes pops into mind.  Now on with the post.

I've been saying, quite often lately, I am not really fond of changes for the sake of changes.  There are some changes I can get behind like the coming stat squish because it was needed even if the way they are doing it is not exactly going to fix anything.  As I said when they first announced it, the undertaking will be huge and if they really wanted to do the stat squish correctly we would not see warlords for another two years.  But it is a change that I can get behind, even if it is being done halfheartedly like it is now.

Some changes were done for quality of life purposes and those too I can get behind.  Who thinks that the removal of soul shards and their related bag space consumption and bullets and arrows an their related bag space consumption was not a good thing?  Sure I might have some fond memories of arrows and a few funny stories to tell because of them but their removal was more about quality of life and it was a good thing.  A change, but a change for the better.

Some changes are bigger and each time you make changes like that you really take the chance at upsetting people.  Some changes seem like changes for the sake of change.  Like when hunters where changed to focus.  It was one of those "if it ain't broke don't fix it" things.  Hunters were fine with mana, they did not need the change to happen but it was done anyway.  It seemed like change for the sake of change to a great many, me included, and it chased away some people for playing hunters and others from playing the game entirely.

That is the danger you run into every time you make a big sweeping change like switching the resource of a class like that.  That is a huge change.  Like most hunters I went with it and learned how to deal with my new resource even if I was not behind this change.  I would have rathered to leave well enough alone.  In the end I am glad I went along with it because the change to focus worked out well.  For the losses of not having mana (such as burst on demand as long as you had mana) we gained so much more (no need to ever sit in viper to regain mana).

Some times you just need to ride the change out.  Some times we have to believe that the people making the game know better what their intention is and where they are going with it and give them a chance to get there with it.  Focus still has its problems, but nothing is without problems, hunters never really felt natural with mana because they are not casters, so a resource all their own did make sense.  Just like the stat squish makes sense.

Reading the patch notes coming from alpha is it easy to get distracted by seeing all those "X has been removed" and just having your jaw drop and think wtf?

Just like my recent remarks about the gutting of the marksmen spec for hunters.

I know what they are doing, they are breaking the spec down so they can rebuild it.  It is not going to be released that way.  Not even blizzard and with how much I question their intelligence sometimes is that stupid.  Marksmen is not going to be stuck as the shell of a spec with no heart when it gets released.  It will be rebuilt.  I am sure of it.  Doesn't mean we will like what it becomes, no, but it certainty will not be released as a spec that will just be remembered as an entire list of "X has been removed".

But the question is, how will it be rebuilt and what would be the last straw before you just quit?

Some change is good, change for the sake of change is not.

Even if all the intentions blizzard has are for the better of the game, reading those lists coming out, the lists with removing all my arms warriors abilities, removing all my disc priests abilities, removing all my marksmen hunters abilities, when is the point going to come when I just say enough is enough.  I know they will be rebuilt, sure, but I do not want everything I do to be changed just for the sake of change.

This will be the third expansion in a row with sweeping changes to our abilities and can even arguably be an even larger change than the loss of talent trees because they are stripping abilities completely, redesigning others, and then adding new ones.

They are basically changing everything we know about our classes, but really not so much outside of abilities and rotations, at least for the damage dealing classes.  But the healers with their cast times and mana regeneration and tanks with resolve instead of vengeance are in for some serious changes once again.

Just like some hunters quit playing hunters or quit playing the game when they made the switch to focus and some healers quit at the beginning of expansions because they seem to put all the pressure on healing in the first tier and tanks that quit because they did not like when vengeance was added people will quit playing their class, role, or the game entirely because of these coming changes, whatever they might end up looking like.

Which brings me to the question, what would be your last straw, what could make you quit playing your main, what change could they make or are they making that has or could have you thinking it is time to find another class or another spec or maybe even another game to play?

Changes can be good for the game but constant changes just for the sake of changing things can be bad for the game.

Next up on ch ch ch changes:  When will blizzard stop adding things they know they have to change as soon as they add it. 

Such as the draenor perks.  You know come the expansion after they are not going to leave a chunk of new abilities just sitting in that small 91-99 leveling range, so why not add it over the course of all 100 levels now instead of having to change everything again the expansion after to fix what they added this time when they know what they are adding will need fixing later.