Thoughts on the World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth Beta.

World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth ‎is Blizzard's new expansion for the longtime running World of Warcraft (WoW) franchise which is slated for release August 14, 2018. For the last couple of months Blizzard has been running alpha and beta tests builds for select individuals of which I am one of them. Whilst playing the alpha and beta builds, many players have complained about changes that are being made to both the combat and the looting system in raid content.

Some backstory. I've been playing World of Warcraft Since Christmas 2005 and have been playing it ever since. Currently I'm what players would call a high-end Mythic raider being in a top 10 guild on the very competitive server of Frostmourne. I play Restoration Druid on a very competitive level and know all things healing.

Firstly let's talk about the changes to combat. The biggest change in terms of combat is the addition of big cooldown abilities, trinkets and racial abilities onto the Global Cooldown (GCD). What does this mean? It means that now almost every ability and item has at least a 1 second delay after you use them you can do anything. This makes it so that the pace of the game is slower and less reactive. Is this a positive or negative change? In my opinion, and many others opinion, is that this is a negative change to the game. The addition of more things into the GCD creates a slower playstyle that feels heavy and clunky; not fun to play.

Let's take a Fury Warrior for example. Before they enter combat, they have to use a potion and 2 damaging cooldown abilities before they can hit their target. In the current game they can use a potion, wait 1 second, use both cooldowns at the same time, and then use their charge ability. In the beta they have to use a potion, wait 1 second, use a cooldown, wait 1 second, use another cooldown, wait 1 second, and then charge in. An action that used to take 1-2 seconds now takes 4-5 seconds before they can even think about hitting the boss.

On the other side of the camp we have people who believe this change would benefit a more tactical style of play where players have to think before they act so that they don't want a GCD. It forces the player to think whether or not they should go for the killing blow or use a defensive ability to stay alive, and not both at the same time. This is also Blizzard's reasoning of adding more things onto the GCD.

Whether one camp is right or wrong, Blizzard has taken steps back on putting things onto the GCD. In the latest build of the beta, they putting trinkets and racial abilities back off the GCD.

Now let's talk about the change of the looting system for guild raids. In the upcoming expansion Blizzard is removing the master loot option. This removal of the master loot options makes it so that when a piece of gear drops, the loot council within the guild cannot choose who the piece of loot goes to. This is very important for high-end mythic raiding as giving gear to people who are going to use it or are more deserving is important for helping progress through the raid tier. With the removal of master loot trials, who are not full members of the guild raid team, can get loot and then potentially leave the guild or not be good enough for the guild raid team and the piece of loot is wasted.

Although these changes are rather concerning, the World of Warcraft community have always adapted to changes that come up in future expansions.


Written by: Stevie Alexander

Resources:
https://worldofwarcraft.com/en-us/battle-for-azeroth/media
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMTOr6uou-I
http://blog.askmrrobot.com/personal-vs-master-loot-bfa/