The classes in WoW are becoming more diverse again, because with “Bring the player, not the class” it was overdone back then.
Longtime fans of World of Warcraft surely remember that Blizzard announced a long time ago the phrase “Bring the player, not the class” (“Take a player, not their class”). The design idea behind it was that raid leaders or group leaders should be able to take friends and acquaintances into their groups and not prefer an “unknown” player just because they have the right class that was still missing.
This core idea has also led in the past to the classes in World of Warcraft becoming increasingly similar (especially in Mists of Pandaria and Cataclysm it was extreme).
In the recent interview between Josh Allen (Community Manager) and Ion Hazzikostas (Game Director), they admitted that in past times they had kind of overdone this philosophy.
That is why since Warlords of Draenor they are also trying to give the classes distinct abilities again that no other class brings – one example would be the Warlock’s portal, which allows you to quickly bridge large distances in a boss fight.
Cortyn says: Ultimately, this philosophy will probably lead to a healthy middle ground. I still remember a time when you had to have a shaman in the raid if you wanted to be successful. Because only they had the Bloodlust back then – mages didn’t have Time Warp yet, and you couldn’t summon War Drums either. I don’t want to go back to such a rigid raid schema where every raid needed 6 mages, 3 paladins, and 4 hunters. However, I consider more variety among the individual classes to be worthwhile. The artifact weapons (and some legendary items) are a good way here.
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