4z234o
I started playing WoW back in 2005. I played an enhancement shaman almost the entire time until I stopped playing about a year ago. I’ve seen what started as a really terrible, unfocused class spec dramatically improve, get tweaked, and finish off into mediocrity. Coming from that experience I’ve been very pleased with This is a brain
First, my WoW experience.
Back in classic WoW, enhancement shaman had two active abilities. I would use one, use the other, then wait for the cooldown to end. In a group my job was to cast a buff or two and keep it up. Our spec was shit. All shaman had to be healers if you were in a serious raid. There was no gear itemized for my class and my class sets were useless. Of course I didn’t know any better and I was playing with my friends, so I got enough enjoyment out of it.
Burning crusade was such a boon for enhancement. We went from buff bots to central DPS characters. Not only could we finally hold our own against other DPS classes, we still provided very valuable buffs. If you knew how to spec and gear, you could get in the top 3 damage in most raids. I spent a lot of time theorycrafing and gathering gear to optimize my damage, and I was rewarded for it. Our gear sets made sense for the first time. I’m definitely one of those that found Burning Crusade to be the best expansion WoW had.
Since Lich King, Blizzard has been homogenizing classes. I still spent the same amount of time or more getting my character to the very best it could be, but I was just mediocre in damage and my might as well bring along another rogue or mage.
Through all this time, ever saw one enhancement shaman in the national finals and there was just about never one in the top 100 that I .
Blizzard never balanced for 1v1 combat and barely balanced for 2v2 combat. On the small scale it became a game of rock-paper-scissors-spock. I could kill priests, druids and I would stalemate, and paladins would kill me. Then there were rogues that could kill just about anyone. I couldn’t believe blizzard thought it was a good idea having a class that, with equal gear, would almost always win in one-on-one combat. I still did battlegrounds, but it was just too frustrating to go into the arena.
After a year or so without playing any MMOs I started SWTOR.
The companion character with me at all times.
Through all my leveling I PVP’d a lot. Unlike WoW, in spite of being a tank, I felt useful. I was boggled how well my utility play any spec in any class and have a place in the warzone. There was never one class or spec I felt would /always/ kill me or vice versa.
My player communication and skill where gear didn’t matter.
Final thoughts.
Looking back I found that tier of epic gear you’re ready to start raiding successfully. However, if you do spend some extra time, you’ll notice a difference in your performance and you’ll have an easier time.
If design decisions that make me work so, so hard just to stay competitive. It doesn’t provide the 40-hours-a-week playing time that WoW could, but I simply don’t need that anymore.
