World of Warcraft is a game with a very strict division between ranged and melee. If your ranged your ranged, and if your melee your melee. You do not cross rolls, in this sense. Yes there are classes with both ranged and melee dps specs, those being Shaman, Druid, and to some extent Paladins (ie Shockadin), but the split is made very clear by the simple fact that there is no gear overlap between ranged and melee. Melee is almost purely focused on physical damage, with supplemental magical damage, while with the exception of the hunter ranged is primarily a spellcaster's game. For majority of my time playing WoW Hunter's played more like physical caster's than anything. We used mana. We used a filler spell until our other abilities came off cooldown or proc'd, and most of those abilities did magical damage, Kill Shot and Aimed Shot and Multi-Shot did physical damage while the rest of our damaging abilities did some kind of magical damage either nature or arcane. Really the only difference was that our weapons affected our dps and auto attacked and caster wands didn't.
With Cataclysm we saw a drastic shift in the hunter playstyle. The shift to focus which drew on rogue energy and death knight runic power brought the hunter class from the caster realm into the physical damage realm. And the obvious, and yet brilliant choice of focus as the name made the system feel natural, focus being the resource of our pets for as long as I've been playing. We saw similar shifts in other classes as well, with enhancement shaman receiving the rage-esque Primal Wisdom, and Paladins getting the combo point-like Holy Power giving these class' melee specs a more melee resource system. However these changes have made the differences between Melee and Ranged much more obvious, as the idea of a physical class became more visible. The game's weapon system with two hand slots and a ranged slot had already provided some balancing issues in the past, which lead to the creation of the relic slot for classes who couldn't equip a ranged weapon.
Initially the relics were tailored to each class and spec, with specific effects. This made the relic unique but also made them problematic and relegated them to Badge items. With Cata brought the change to a item with stats and a gem slot with no class restriction other than the ability to equip relics. This really made obvious the fact that the ranged weapon slot really is nothing more that a stat stick for everyone except hunters who class feel the same way about melee weapons. In early days of WoW there were obviously many reasons for things like the troll thrown weapon racial and wand specialization in caster trees, but in the current game abilities like Heroic Throw have replaced using a ranged weapon to pull, while casters wand only as a last, desperate resort focusing instead on actually casting spells. The roles of the classes are well defined in the regard, melee have little or know ranged ability, while the reverse is true of physical ranged. At the same time caster don't even use their weapons at all. What's worse is there is only one class that is capable of physical ranged dps, which makes the overall value of ranged weapons much lower than other weapons.
The best solution is to remove the ranged weapon slot and slightly tune up player characters to make up for the lost stats. This at first seems a very simple change, however, seeing the layout of the game we run into some very problematic issues. First and foremost is the lack of demand for ranged weapons. With this change Rogues and Warriors will have no need at all for ranged weapons. As warriors were the only class able to use strength ranged weapons, which means they should all be switched over to agility, this would be a plus, but with hunter as the only class able to use ranged weapons effectively we'd see a decrease in the already limited selection of ranged weapons. At the same time hunters would lose all interest in melee weapons making the drops of two-handed agility weapons decrease as well, which would be negative for melee druids. The next issue is what to due with some ranged weapons, like thrown weapons and wands. The best way to solve this is to look around. Not just at other games but the lore of WoW itself has the answer. Troll Head Hunters, Axe-Throwers, and Shadow Hunters, Night Elf Sentinels, and Gilneans all show the answer to both of these problems.
First step we redesign the weapon system. This is not an huge sweeping overall but a few relatively minor changes. First off auto-attack should be fixed to work with what ever weapon is equipped removing the need for hunter's auto-shot which was basically just preventing melee classes from trying to play at being ranged. Then you reallocate weapons as either one or two handed. Bows and Guns would be two handed while wands would be one handed. To solve the issue with ranged weapons that melee will never use create three new weapon types, Throwing Glaive, which would include a number of existing thrown weapons, Pistol, and Hand Crossbow (Hand Crossbow and Pistol could be merged) these would be ranged weapons but can also function as melee weapons, and be used with all melee attack as any other weapon would, at the same time in the hands of a hunter these serve as deadly ranged weapons. Abilities like Raptor Strike would be the only way for a hunter to use in in melee, and Deadly Throw would be the only way for a rogue to use the weapon at range. Along the same lines, a number of throwing weapons would be converted into a normal melee weapon like a dagger, axe, or polearm, anything else (like a shuriken) would become a glaive. Daggers, one handed swords and axes, and polearms and staffs would be usable as ranged weapons for hunters as part of their class design. Two handed agility axes and swords would be phased out, since they would not carry the throwable property for hunters, and would not be usable for anyone else, since shamans get dual wield at ten. At the same time it grants an increase in one handed options for casters, though the ability to dual wield wands should be prohibited. This grants us a spread of usable weapons across classes not to different from the current one, however there still remains the fact that hunters are the only class that can use bows and guns.
The final step in this is to implement more physical ranged options. The first and most likely is to implement a new class. Either mail or leather, likely with a healing spec, this class would focus on physical ranged damage, possible with some magical support, without any pets preferably. There is however an even simpler option, and that is, using this new system, give enhancement shaman the option of being ranged rather than melee. This would work almost identical to the Titan's Grip/Single Minded Fury choice for fury warriors. A single talent point choice would change how the class plays. Insert a talent at the same tier as Stormstrike, call it Thundershot or Jetstrike or something shaman-y like that, this ability would serve the same purpose as storm strike but would be a ranged attack. At the same time Lava Lash would be modified to work with offhand weapon or two hand weapon. Shaman could be limited to two handed ranged weapons or dual-wield however to simplify things and prevent to much power, but the play style would remain almost exactly the same, except at range. The rotation would not change, neither would the rest of the spec except maybe taking talents to increase your shock range to forty yards. The ranged version of Stormstrike would have slightly more power to support the loss of Flametongue Weapon on the off-hand and the bonus damage on lava lash. Lastly I would grant ranged classes some benefit from expertise, possible allow to grant some amount of ranged hit chance. Only ranged hit chance and less than hit rating, but enough that what's leftover after reforging isn't as much of a waist. Even with all of this the removal of the minimum range is optional, but preferred.
With Cataclysm we saw a drastic shift in the hunter playstyle. The shift to focus which drew on rogue energy and death knight runic power brought the hunter class from the caster realm into the physical damage realm. And the obvious, and yet brilliant choice of focus as the name made the system feel natural, focus being the resource of our pets for as long as I've been playing. We saw similar shifts in other classes as well, with enhancement shaman receiving the rage-esque Primal Wisdom, and Paladins getting the combo point-like Holy Power giving these class' melee specs a more melee resource system. However these changes have made the differences between Melee and Ranged much more obvious, as the idea of a physical class became more visible. The game's weapon system with two hand slots and a ranged slot had already provided some balancing issues in the past, which lead to the creation of the relic slot for classes who couldn't equip a ranged weapon.
Initially the relics were tailored to each class and spec, with specific effects. This made the relic unique but also made them problematic and relegated them to Badge items. With Cata brought the change to a item with stats and a gem slot with no class restriction other than the ability to equip relics. This really made obvious the fact that the ranged weapon slot really is nothing more that a stat stick for everyone except hunters who class feel the same way about melee weapons. In early days of WoW there were obviously many reasons for things like the troll thrown weapon racial and wand specialization in caster trees, but in the current game abilities like Heroic Throw have replaced using a ranged weapon to pull, while casters wand only as a last, desperate resort focusing instead on actually casting spells. The roles of the classes are well defined in the regard, melee have little or know ranged ability, while the reverse is true of physical ranged. At the same time caster don't even use their weapons at all. What's worse is there is only one class that is capable of physical ranged dps, which makes the overall value of ranged weapons much lower than other weapons.
The best solution is to remove the ranged weapon slot and slightly tune up player characters to make up for the lost stats. This at first seems a very simple change, however, seeing the layout of the game we run into some very problematic issues. First and foremost is the lack of demand for ranged weapons. With this change Rogues and Warriors will have no need at all for ranged weapons. As warriors were the only class able to use strength ranged weapons, which means they should all be switched over to agility, this would be a plus, but with hunter as the only class able to use ranged weapons effectively we'd see a decrease in the already limited selection of ranged weapons. At the same time hunters would lose all interest in melee weapons making the drops of two-handed agility weapons decrease as well, which would be negative for melee druids. The next issue is what to due with some ranged weapons, like thrown weapons and wands. The best way to solve this is to look around. Not just at other games but the lore of WoW itself has the answer. Troll Head Hunters, Axe-Throwers, and Shadow Hunters, Night Elf Sentinels, and Gilneans all show the answer to both of these problems.
First step we redesign the weapon system. This is not an huge sweeping overall but a few relatively minor changes. First off auto-attack should be fixed to work with what ever weapon is equipped removing the need for hunter's auto-shot which was basically just preventing melee classes from trying to play at being ranged. Then you reallocate weapons as either one or two handed. Bows and Guns would be two handed while wands would be one handed. To solve the issue with ranged weapons that melee will never use create three new weapon types, Throwing Glaive, which would include a number of existing thrown weapons, Pistol, and Hand Crossbow (Hand Crossbow and Pistol could be merged) these would be ranged weapons but can also function as melee weapons, and be used with all melee attack as any other weapon would, at the same time in the hands of a hunter these serve as deadly ranged weapons. Abilities like Raptor Strike would be the only way for a hunter to use in in melee, and Deadly Throw would be the only way for a rogue to use the weapon at range. Along the same lines, a number of throwing weapons would be converted into a normal melee weapon like a dagger, axe, or polearm, anything else (like a shuriken) would become a glaive. Daggers, one handed swords and axes, and polearms and staffs would be usable as ranged weapons for hunters as part of their class design. Two handed agility axes and swords would be phased out, since they would not carry the throwable property for hunters, and would not be usable for anyone else, since shamans get dual wield at ten. At the same time it grants an increase in one handed options for casters, though the ability to dual wield wands should be prohibited. This grants us a spread of usable weapons across classes not to different from the current one, however there still remains the fact that hunters are the only class that can use bows and guns.
The final step in this is to implement more physical ranged options. The first and most likely is to implement a new class. Either mail or leather, likely with a healing spec, this class would focus on physical ranged damage, possible with some magical support, without any pets preferably. There is however an even simpler option, and that is, using this new system, give enhancement shaman the option of being ranged rather than melee. This would work almost identical to the Titan's Grip/Single Minded Fury choice for fury warriors. A single talent point choice would change how the class plays. Insert a talent at the same tier as Stormstrike, call it Thundershot or Jetstrike or something shaman-y like that, this ability would serve the same purpose as storm strike but would be a ranged attack. At the same time Lava Lash would be modified to work with offhand weapon or two hand weapon. Shaman could be limited to two handed ranged weapons or dual-wield however to simplify things and prevent to much power, but the play style would remain almost exactly the same, except at range. The rotation would not change, neither would the rest of the spec except maybe taking talents to increase your shock range to forty yards. The ranged version of Stormstrike would have slightly more power to support the loss of Flametongue Weapon on the off-hand and the bonus damage on lava lash. Lastly I would grant ranged classes some benefit from expertise, possible allow to grant some amount of ranged hit chance. Only ranged hit chance and less than hit rating, but enough that what's leftover after reforging isn't as much of a waist. Even with all of this the removal of the minimum range is optional, but preferred.
No comments:
Post a Comment