Things I Don’t Like #2

Hey everyone,

I really enjoyed talking about the things I don’t like in this game and how they’ve changed from the past, so I’m doing a second post on the subject. The previous post can be found here, for those of you who missed it. This time, I will be talking about what parts of raid were bothering me. The three main points I want to talk about are: tank/melee mechanics, class specific buffs, and the diversity of raids. I could talk about each of these three topics in a large amount of detail (and I plan on doing so!) so I will split the post into 3 days of the final days of my 20 in 20.

As most of you know, I play a Protection Paladin, and I have many of them. I enjoy tanking a lot; mainly because you have to adapt your position for the raid, make sure you’re the first person to hit something/have threat on it, and because of their importance in the raid. I like to be the go-to guy that saves the raid, or props them up on my shoulders when things are looking bad. It’s more for the feeling of being useful rather than to say ‘Oh I’m so great /flex epeen.’

The reason tanking is on the list of things I don’t like, along with any melee, is because the mechanics for them are very easy. Blizzard can’t do too many mechanics that involve movement because it will likely cause the melee to be unable to tank, but they still could do something.

Heroic Baleroc had one of my favorite (and somehow least favorite at the same time) mechanics, which was forcing everyone to stay spread out to make sure they don’t spread a debuff. This mechanic was a bit over the top in difficulty, but it’s exactly what I want to see more of for heroic encounters. Heroic should be a clustered terrible place you don’t want anything to do with if you aren’t hardcore, and making mechanics this insane would help keep a nice border for the elites that want to be on their own level compared to casual. I also believe it would cause tiers to take much longer to fully clear, which this game definitely needs.

However, I’m getting somewhat distant from my original point, which was melee/tanks vs ranged/healers. If I were to compare the mechanics between ranged and melee to see the difficulty between them, you’d quickly see that range has much more to do. Looking at the mechanics of a simple fight such as Malkorok: the melee have to worry about 1 pool which could still be in range of the boss (if the tank is kind enough to move to it), while the ranged have to deal with avoiding Arcing Smash, stepping in a pool, and getting all the way in for Blood Rage.

Personally I believe Siege is actually a bad example, since there are fights where either role has a good edge. This makes me believe Blizzard has caught on to their lack of melee mechanics, and plan on fixing it continually into Warlords of Draenor.

Thanks for reading, I hope you look forward to the future posts. Leaving feedback or suggestions is appreciated. As a final reminder (and shameless plug), I am the Paladin Moderater on Icy Veins, one of the leading sites for all sorts of WoW Guides. I recommend checking them out as you main source of class knowledge.

I can be contacted at Fouton@live.com, messaging me through Icy Vein’s forums, or by finding me in-game on Fouton-Argent Dawn, Eiliar-Argent Dawn, or Deathfouton-Earthen Ring