Battle for Azeroth Pre-Patch to Land on July 17th - World of Warcraft Videos - MMORPG.com

TheScavenger

Soki123 said:

Cazriel said:

TheScavenger said:

Mostly PvPers are excited for BoA. Maybe this is the turning point us PvErs can invade various sandbox MMOs and demand PvE

Watching what they've done over the last two expansions, it's obvious that they are pushing PvP as the normal playstyle for WoW.  It makes sense if you consider that Blizzard is moving all its games towards Esports platforms.  (This is why D3 is in covert maintenance mode; it's engine/platform cannot handle Esports.)    PvP battles in WoW would be more interesting as a spectator sport than boss battles. 

In order for WoW to be successful as an Esports arena game, it needs a base that's interested in PvP.  Which means the game has to change to optimize PvP and push PvP out to more players.  And that's exactly what they are doing.

BfA really doesn't have anything of interest to the non-raider PvE player or the non-PvP player.  Its world play is a cut and paste of Legion.  The island expeditions will get really boring really fast.  They are basically the world invasion quests of Legion but instead of taking place in the world, they take place in an island instance.

I'm not seeing WoW as anything other than Blizzard moving its star MMO to be its star of Esports. 

TL;DR:  WoW is becoming a long commercial for arena Esports. 

Beyond wrong.

I see it more that blizzard is getting ready for it to be console ready. Hence far less buttons, far simplified talent trees and the heavy removal of tons of features (like first aid, fullscreen etc) to make it console ready.

So I do agree with you. I don't think they are doing for an Esports style game...they tried that before if I recall and it didn't work. But WoW going on consoles would add a HUGE potential playerbase and extend the life of the game by potentially at least another decade. And everything they do every expansion would fit them wanting to eventually put WoW on the consoles.

Scot

Torval said:

Eldrach said:

Scot said:

Eldrach said:

I'll stay away from WoW until the Classic server launch. They seem to be removing anything related to actual RPG mechanics bit by bit every new expansion.

Very interested if you could elucidate on this, removing roleplaying features began even before WoW. What has been removed?

They have removed Weapon skill and weapon training, they have removed arrows, throwing weapons and poison crafting, they have removed local trade markets (in favor of global AH), they have removed pet happiness/loyalty/food, they have removed spell reagents and now they are removing first aid, they have removed the need for food and health potions for all other purposes than their food effect, they have removed group quests during levling...the list goes on...

Yes, that pretty much proves his point. If the "MMO" portion of the genre has struggled with an identity crisis, then the RPG portion has mostly been smoke and mirrors from its inception. All of the items you listed could easily be features in an adventure game.

MMOs have always struggled with the RPG element, well as far as table top roleplayers are concerned. I am not sure that those who began roleplaying in MMOs would see it that way. For them these sort of features are part of the roleplaying. The local as opposed to global AH would have the greatest effect on roleplay, but any systems will engender roleplay if used the right way.

Dvora

TheScavenger said:

Soki123 said:

Cazriel said:

TheScavenger said:

Mostly PvPers are excited for BoA. Maybe this is the turning point us PvErs can invade various sandbox MMOs and demand PvE

Watching what they've done over the last two expansions, it's obvious that they are pushing PvP as the normal playstyle for WoW.  It makes sense if you consider that Blizzard is moving all its games towards Esports platforms.  (This is why D3 is in covert maintenance mode; it's engine/platform cannot handle Esports.)    PvP battles in WoW would be more interesting as a spectator sport than boss battles. 

In order for WoW to be successful as an Esports arena game, it needs a base that's interested in PvP.  Which means the game has to change to optimize PvP and push PvP out to more players.  And that's exactly what they are doing.

BfA really doesn't have anything of interest to the non-raider PvE player or the non-PvP player.  Its world play is a cut and paste of Legion.  The island expeditions will get really boring really fast.  They are basically the world invasion quests of Legion but instead of taking place in the world, they take place in an island instance.

I'm not seeing WoW as anything other than Blizzard moving its star MMO to be its star of Esports. 

TL;DR:  WoW is becoming a long commercial for arena Esports. 

Beyond wrong.

I see it more that blizzard is getting ready for it to be console ready. Hence far less buttons, far simplified talent trees and the heavy removal of tons of features (like first aid, fullscreen etc) to make it console ready.

So I do agree with you. I don't think they are doing for an Esports style game...they tried that before if I recall and it didn't work. But WoW going on consoles would add a HUGE potential playerbase and extend the life of the game by potentially at least another decade. And everything they do every expansion would fit them wanting to eventually put WoW on the consoles.

Ugh the console-ish MMO trend is one of the worst things for the genre imo, only less damaging than pay to win and cash shops, and not by much.

Multibyte

Increased XP and rewards from WQs if player is PvP flagged!?

So, they wanna push playerbase towards PvP, which can only mean PvE oriented players are about to find themselves under the bus.

MadFrenchie

I have a level 10X Goblin Hunter that's the only real reason I would want to come back.  I always wanted to play a Goblin.  How are Hunters looking with the class changes in BfA?

SBFord

I love this guy's analysis of all classes. He's pretty spot on most of the time, and, from my perspective, his tanking guide is just about right. He also has more specific class / spec videos in his channel. 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUiD1Ph7YbaQfBEn_Lr0DPw/videos

MadFrenchie

Thanks for the links!  Does seem like Marksman feels a bit better than it did in Legion, which is nice to hear!

Scot

So the only classes in WoW are now Tanks, Melee DPs or Ranged DPS? No CC, no pet class, no healers? Or is he just bunching those in with the three videos shown?

SBFord

Scot said:

So the only classes in WoW are now Tanks, Melee DPs or Ranged DPS? No CC, no pet class, no healers? Or is he just bunching those in with the three videos shown?

He's bunching them together but hasn't done a healer collection yet. His channel has individual class / spec videos too.

Gobstopper3D

This is not an x-pac for those who want nothing to do with pvp. I know of raid groups who are requiring you pvp for the benefits that will carry over to pve. The changes to class mechanics and all over all feel seems like they were made with the mindset of pvp first.

While some may like this change, I think wow may see the largest exodus from the game yet if they crap all over the pve crowd with this expansion. Time will tell...