With WoW Shadowlands the developers want to combine class fantasy with reworks - more unique spells so that each class feels good to play but is still valuable to the group. Has Blizzard succeeded thus far?
Each class finding its place in World of Warcraft Shadowlands is more than just important. It's that each class can compete with all the others in some way. The goal of the developers is to give each class a certain unique trait and make it stand out from the rest but not too much (we've seen classes slowly lose their identity for quite some time now)! Players of the other classes will start to complain if other classes are clearly better. It's probably not easy being in the WoW balancing team right now.
For WoW Shadowlands we are supposed to get the classes back in a form we have experienced before. We can expect a mixture of modern, fluid gameplay like in Battle for Azeroth and Legion, coupled with the class fantasy of The Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King. The Blizzard team has definitely set its sights on that! This task now needs to be solved and in the meantime, many big changes are live on the beta servers.
What can we expect?
Paladins get their auras back, which they can activate at will. Rogues of all specializations can poison their weapons, warlocks can support their group with curses again and shamans get many totems back. Also, various spells are now available for each different class specialization again. For example, why shouldn't a fire mage not be able to use Frostbolt even if it is relatively weak? Such changes have found their way into the game to a large extent and will ensure that we will not only have 3-button rotations in Shadowlands. Blizzard wants us to have to make decisions just as we did back then, and if necessary, we'll have to control our cooldowns. Players already feel better in the beta. Regardless of the numbers, the classes now feel more fleshed out and have a deeper class fantasy. The shaman is now simply more shaman and mages remind us so much more of the old times from BC and WOTLK.
With Shadowlands the developers want to do everything right and take every feedback from the community seriously this time. They have already discarded several ideas and tinkered a lot with end game content like Thorgast and the faction pacts.
The professions are nerfed- that's good!
We are slowly approaching the final versions of the classes. At the same time, Blizzard is also changing a lot of the professions - because even they were recently able to and many replace entire classes. Drums from leatherworkers, for example, which were strong as class buffs. In BfA, many classes felt superfluous because they could be easily replaced by professions. Many potions and tools have now been removed and the drums now only give 15% speed - which is no comparison to a real bloodlust/heroism effect.
If Blizzard can balance them, many classes should be able to find their way back into groups because of their utility. We're aware that there will always be a meta, which probably makes sense for the best 1-2% of the world in M+ and hardcore raiding. Neither at the beginning of an expansion nor for the majority of us should the meta of the best in the world be relevant. If we forget that, everyone can play whatever they want to and actually enjoy it because it'll be viable in the Shadowlands.
Don't be afraid to log-in to your shamans, mages, and warlocks again! With Shadowlands you bring back unique and important things to the group or the raid- maybe you will even be one of the strongest specs at the beginning of the expansion?
We think that Blizzard is on a very good path and Shadowlands is taking an important step towards differentiating classes. Something that was lost in BfA since everyone could do everything. What do you think about the class changes in Shadowlands so far and have you already chose the pact spells for your favorite class? Share your opinion on our Facebook page!
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