How Many Specs Does Your Class Need in World of Warcraft?

To be honest, I want to discuss this, but it wasn't my idea.

     On the latest Blizzardwatch podcast they discussed whether classes needed more specs, less specs, or were just right.  The episode (#99 that came out Dec. 22nd 2016 respectively) had a large discussion.  To summarize Anne Stickney and Alex Ziebart both felt there were classes that could use less specs.  They pointed out rogues in particular in which Assassination and Subtlety had very little difference in idea and weapons.  Matt Rossi felt that with some classes that was correct, but with others (and he cited his favorite which is Warriors) saying that they could use a couple more specs as they lost Gladiators stance which was a DPS sword and shield spec, and single minded Fury which was duel wielding with two one handed weapons.

      Honestly, you should dig in and listen to this podcast for this discussion.  It is why I want to bring it up here.

      There are three classes I have played for any amount of time this expansion.  Rogue, Paladin, and Demon Hunter.  I have toyed with others a bit, but I have to start with the ones I know.

       Paladin is near perfect.  They don't need another spec, they don't need to lose another spec.  All three specs feel good and different.  Ret doesn't feel as good as I would like it too, but damage wise it is fantastic right now and tanking feels smooth.  I don't heal on my Pally, but what I have seen of that spec was fine.

      Demon Hunter is good as well.  While I would like them to figure out a ranged spec for the class, (I think the game is a little Melee heavy when you look at the classes right now) The two it has are solid and feel different.  Tanking felt alright the couple of times I have done it and DPS is nice as well.

     Rogue I will have to agree with the hosts.  They could go to two specs and not lose much.  Roll Subtlety and Assassination in together and call it good.  I don't see a need for further specs, but unless they can make it feel different pare it down a little.

     And the next opinions are subjective as I have not played the classes extensively and I will admit upfront to possibly being dead wrong.

     Monk- Keep it as is.  Three distinct specs.  Three different roles.

      Shaman- As is, two roles, two very different types of DPS.
   
     Mage- This I can see being pared down to two specs.  I like the suggestion that you do fire and frost and mix the arcane spells into them.  Arcane has always felt weird to me in the first place.

      Warlock- I think this one needs someone smarter than me.  I think all three specs are distinct, but as mentioned in the podcast, Demonology has been overhauled into something else.  I don't know how your reface it without stepping into the demon hunter feel of things which is why the demon form aspects were removed.  The idea of being a master of demons is still cool, but I don't see why we can't have two classes taking on those aspects if they are different.  (Make your demon featured warlock fly and shoot fireballs)

      Priest-  I am going to disagree with the podcast here.  I like all three of the specs.  The idea of two different types of healing, one re-active and one pro-active interests me.  If anything I would split Discipline into two different specs and have a DPS spec for priests that wasn't shadow/void based and one healing spec that was all about shielding and preparations.  I think having Disc straddle both kind of keeps it from being it's own animal.

     Druid-is good- Four specs for four different jobs.

     Hunter- This one I think is better now that survival is melee spec.  From what I've played around with all three specs feel different enough to be justified.  No complaints.

     Warrior- I am going to agree with Rossi on one point.  I would like a sword an board DPS spec. It would make more sense to me with the warrior, but I could see the Paladin having one as well. I do like the idea of the fighter who uses his shield as a weapon as much as his sword.  I think a single minded fury spec would end up being to similar to the fury spec we have now.  Harder to justify.

     Death Knight- I would love to make the argument for a fourth spec here.  My favorite tanking was duel wielding as a frost DK in Wrath of the Lich King.  I would love to see it come back as I though at the time it had felt darn near perfect.  I can't honestly make the argument though.  Blood is a good tanking spec, and works.  The two DPS specs feel different enough that I can't say we need another choice there either, or that we might need to merge them.  Keep them as they are.

     How do you feel?  Does your class need more specs and variety, or do you feel lost with your choices and would you like it pared down to something else.  Is the three spec idea outdated, and would things work better if classes weren't limited by a number that might serve some better than others?  Demon Hunters started with two specs, how would you feel if the next class had four?  Or maybe just one?

    Where do you weigh in on this discussion?

Lag

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The First Week of Legion's Excitement

So three days in, and I’m loving it.

   Yes, I realize that Legion still has its new shine to it, which can be heavily influential on opinions.  So far, I have been leveling my Paladin Lag as Retribution, and enjoying the experience.  The balance with this scaling seems nice as everything I fight doesn’t go down quickly, but at the same time the damage they deal is manageable.  I normally don’t die unless I have several mobs on me, or if I take something on that is bigger than I can chew.

   The only area I have finished so far is Azsuna, and I thought the zone was great.  The locations are beautiful, the stories are interesting, and I’ve flat out enjoyed exploring the area.  My favorite thing, and I know it’s silly, was the fact we have Murlocs again.  After two expansions, (I don’t remember Murlocs in Pandaria, but I could be wrong) I was questing and heard the familiar Mrggglggglggl.  My heart jumped in excitement I was down sword swinging with a smile on my face.  Sometimes the older traditional mobs are the best.

    The side quests have been fun too.  Stopping to fight a demon invasion in Exodar (I can’t say much more without spoilers) Khadgar pulling me here and there randomly to explore things.  And the artifact quests.  So far I’ve done Ret Pally, Prot Pally, and Frost DK.

    And let me tell you, (just not in this post) the DK artifact weapons quest brought up a lot more questions for me than it answered.  It also might point to some things coming up.  But after some time passes I will comment more.  Enough people are hopping in still I don’t want to destroy the surprise for anyone.  I really don’t.  All the quests and fun have been worth discovering and doing first hand.

    The one theme of this expansion I am hoping is Redemption.  I think that we will see a redemption of Illidan in this expansion.  I think he will remain demon formed and sarcastic, but there is a path set forward in which we could see him become one of the champions of Azeroth.  Hopefully this time he won’t get shafted (thank you Malfurion) and we won’t put him back into the position of being the enemy.   

    If you have read the book Illidan, you probably feel this way as well.  There are some heavy implications towards the end of that book as to Illidan’s destiny.  The other half of that book did prove that Illidan was a bit villainous, however I don’t feel he didn’t do anything for the sake of evil, more for the sake of him feeling the ends justified the means.

    I am hoping, against odds, that we see a Sylvanas redemption story as well.  This one may be a bit unlikely.  There was an interesting discussion on it between Matt Rossi and Anne Stickney on Blizzardwatch where they laid out the reasons she really can’t be redeemed.  Part of it being that she is undead and that has a severe effect on her mindset.  Meaning, some things for her are rational when they shouldn’t be. (for example, killing her sister so they can be together forever, which was one of her ideas in “War Crimes.”) And the fact she really isn’t corrupted by an outside influence. The Lich King holds no sway over her, she recovered her body so that’s her own, and other than being undead which effects how she experiences the world, her thoughts are her own.

    That being said, we have magic in Azeroth.  What if she was brought back to life somehow? Why do we consider her being brought back to life the same as redemption?  Is there an in between we could find?  There is a chance they that her redemption could be sacrificing herself for the greater good. I honestly ask these questions because if anyone deserves some happiness in her story it’s Sylvanas.  I would not be unhappy if they did find a way to bring her back to life, and or if she found redemption.  It is strongly hinted her sister Alleria will be showing up, might she have found something in her off world adventures that could bring Sylvanas back?

    I will say it now, if she stops leading the forsaken, I vote for Lillian Voss to fill that role.  I have always found her interesting, and she is probably the next most recognizable forsaken that I can think of.  While her fate wasn’t certain after Scholomance, I’m a firm believer that if we didn’t see a body, they aren’t dead.

     The trolls have a similar problem.  Other than Vol’jin, who amongst them is going to lead now?  I can’t think of a single one that is nearly as recognizable.

     What is everyone else’s thoughts on this new expansion so far? Are you loving it? Is it more of the same to you?  Or is there an opinion you would like to share that is in between?

Lag

Illidan- A book review.

So, I read the book Illidan by William King.  And of course I have opinions.

There may be spoilers... so quit now if you don't like 'em

Serious, spoilers ahead.  IF you read, your own fault

Spoilers.

Alright then.

     So, for those who haven't read my blog much, or haven't heard me rant, Illidan to me is one of my favorite villains in Wow.  however, I have never seen him as a villain.  To me, with the lore I've read and playing World of Warcraft III I've always felt he got forced into the position he inhabits by his own people continually turning their back on him.  Yes, he make questionable decisions, but he also made some pretty big personal sacrifices as well.  

     He infiltrated the burning legion for his people, loses eyes, gains power, but is punished by his people for taking the wrong side.  I can't defend his choice to make another Well of Eternity in Hyjal, that was a complete power play.  I also don't think his being locked up for 10,000 years by his own people was a good decision either.  I think in that case the Betrayer was betrayed.

    Then in Warcraft three he is freed and fights the burning Legion for his people despite their incarceration of him.  Of course he is a bitter character at this point.  When he takes the power and transformation for the skull of Guldan to fight the burning legion more effectively he is again punished by his own people.  Once again you can argue whether this was a "good" decision. Whether it was or not he continues to fight against the Legion and in the end is rewarded with exile.

    After that his decisions are not very good, but I feel everything after that point would have been different if his people had treated him as a hero who had helped them defeat the Legion rather than acting as if he had betrayed them again.  Which, I would argue he didn't.

    This book takes place after this, right after he has first arrived in Outland after he was rescued from Maev.  It details what happens between that point and when we killed him in black temple.  It gives some insight into his motivations, why he made some of the choices he did and what Illidan's goals were.  It also somewhat explains why he wasn't very present as we moved through that expansion unlike Arthas who popped up every other moment in Lich King.  Simply put, he was focused elsewhere.

     His motivation in this book is simple.  He wants to find a way to take the fight to the burning legion rather than waiting for them to come for him.  While he makes several decisions in this book that would be defined as evil (creating fel Orcs, sacrificing souls for power) over all his interests align with ours.  Making me think, once again if he hadn't been exiled, things would have been different. Then again he is so obsessed with his goal he might have done similar things on Azeroth.

    You basically get four point of view characters in this book.  Vandal, a demon hunter that allows you to see the Demon Hunter process, Maev who is, well Maev, and Akama.  Out of the four unfortunately for me I felt Vandal had the most interesting story arc.  In a book named Illidan it should have been Illidan but instead If felt the "sidekick" was a little more interesting.

    That brings me to my first complaint.  This books is really serious to the point of making it dry.  You have Illidan who is very serious, Maev who is essentially a female version of Illidan in seriousness and obsessiveness, Vandal whose also driven by revenge and seriousness, and then Akama, once again very serious.  We needed someone or something to put some bright points in the book or some levity.  Instead it is all a dark crawl to the end page.

    My second complaint is there is underutilized side characters in here.  Prince Kael'thas and Lady Vashj are in there on the side, but have no real interesting dialog or even part in the book. They kind of show up in the beginning, then are mentioned a few times on the side.  Maev has her small contingent of night elves, but even the two main ones (I forget their names, they were that important) never get a moment to shine.  Those two should have been built up so when they are killed later you actually care rather then going, um... ok, I'm over it.

     My third complaint is this book should have been longer.  Instead of digging into details it feels it gives you a quick path of what happened with Illidan in outland.  They could have dug in and gone into greater detail in several places.  They could have build more character into several folks but instead we get just enough to tell the story.  I feel there is a lost opportunity here.

     That aside I did enjoy this book.  I found seeing Illidan's point of view on things interesting as he amassed power in Outland.  He does have several choices that do put him in the villain box including betraying Akama and planning on torturing Maev when she's captured at the end.  He had a definite "the means justify the ends" problem.   At the same time you see his motivation is that he has seen the Legion for what it is.  He has seen the fate of the worlds they have destroyed and he is driven in a desire to stop them before they lay waste to Azeroth.  His belief of course is that the only way to do that is to go defeat them on their home turf, rather than waiting for them to show up and invade.

    I enjoyed that right before the end there is a promise of redemption shown to him, not that he believed it was possible.  We of course know he's coming back (if you've played the Alpha you know a little more about why)  I for one, want to replay the Demon hunter campaign and look for a couple of names now.  I am pretty sure after reading this book he will be on our side completely, if not trusted by the rest of our leaders.

My rating on this book is 3 of 5 stars.  It's good and worth reading, just don't get your expectations up for something new or a thrill ride.  If you don't play World of Warcraft, I would look up know your lore articles from Matt Rossi or Anne Stickney on Illidan before reading so you know the background that will help this book make sense.

Please note, this is the first World of Warcraft novel I have read.  I have a couple in may stack but I moved this one to the front because of Legion's approach.

Lag