Blizzard is rowing back. Racial abilities and trinkets are being freed from the global cooldown in World of Warcraft.
With Battle for Azeroth, many abilities of all classes in World of Warcraft are being assigned the global cooldown (Global Cooldown or “GCD”). The feedback from players has been largely negative, causing Blizzard to free some abilities from the GCD.
Which abilities are being freed from the GCD? All active racial abilities (such as “Arcane Torrent”, “Blood Fury”, or “Every Man for Himself”) will be freed from the cooldown. Furthermore, all trinkets with a “Use” ability will also be exempt from the cooldown.
Why were abilities assigned to the GCD in the first place? The developers wanted to combat large macros that activate four or even five buffs simultaneously, resulting in a massive performance boost for characters. This made decisions less important and individual abilities lost significance, as they were only activated in conjunction with other effects.
Why does Blizzard reverse the changes to the GCD? According to community manager Lore, it does not feel good to have additional cooldowns from racial choices. Additionally, it is not ideal to have to activate multiple GCDs that all only enhance the performance of other abilities.
When will the changes come to the beta? The cooldowns for racial abilities and trinkets are planned to be removed next week and will then be playable in the beta.
Overall, Blizzard is continuing to row back and is gradually removing further abilities from the global cooldown. Whether the changes will ultimately create the desired effect of more conscious gameplay remains to be seen.
What do you think about the changes? Is it good that Blizzard listens to player feedback? Or should they stick more firmly to their plans?
