This is my first post. It's meant to point the possible changes that improve the raiding atmosphere.
I will try to point out the proposed change, explain the reason for said proposed change, and possibly indicate a historical equivalent change that had already been done.
To start, I've been raiding Naxxramas (https://armory.turtle-wow.org/#!/character/Element) as well as all other raids for a while on different servers, including the past year on turtle wow. I believe that a happy raiding environment will keep raiders around, which are some of the most active and impactful players on the economical/social atmosphere of the game as a whole - meaning we should try to keep raiders happy.
I will try to start with the less controversial and simple changes, that I believe no one should have any issues with:
1.
https://database.turtle-wow.org/?quest=80369, Tea with Sugar.
Tea with sugar has become a staple of raiding consumables for most raiders. You get 4 pieces with 3 charges (12 charges total). My proposal for this consumable is simple - make it 1 stack of 12 charges. Close to all consumables have already had this done to them (Mongoose, giants, free action potion etc. stacks were made 5->10), so it makes sense for this consumable to also take less space.
2.
Recently we have had debuff slots increased to 64. My simple proposal here is to also increase buff slots to 48. From my understanding the current buff slots are at 32 slots. This change affects positively those that wish to have more things to do outside of the raid, but it also affects custom class changes. For example, we have had Bloodlust as well as priest champion buffs push off consumables off our tank and other players. This increases the disincentive from playing these custom specs and also creates more interaction in the game as more herbs etc. are farmed and sold between players.
3.
Some herbalism nodes are lacking. We have had a large increase in costs for Grave moss as well as Gromsblood prices.
You can see that these prices have been constantly high and even increasing lately on https://www.superduperauctions.com/turt ... w/alliance. Grave moss is a component of Greater Shadow Protection Potion and Gromsblood is used for multiple needed consumables, such as Flask of Titans, Mighty Rage Potion, and Elixir of GIants. My suggestions is to either increase the amount of nodes in the world, or increase the amount of herbs you can get per node. You can see this already been done for Black lotus, when it was high in price, by adding it to high level herbs. I think this change is equivalent and much needed. An alternative reverse suggestion would be to make shadow oil require half the Grave moss, and Mighty rage potion require 1 Gromsblood.
Blasted Lands buffs also possibly require some changes. Currently there are not enough spawns for the server. Every spot is filled with players most of the time, which leads to frustration. I personally am not 100% set on this requiring changes, but one suggestion would be to increase their drop amount to a random value between 1-3. This is especially the case for Blasted Boar Lungs and Scorpok Pincers.
4.
Length of consumables
Frostmaul Giants are lvl 59-60 elites in Winterspring that drop https://database.turtle-wow.org/?item=12436 Frostmaul E'ko. These require a group to kill, and even then are not very much a worthwhile time investment. The main issue with said consumable, even if it is the best attack power consumable, is that it only lasts 10 minutes. I suggest making the consumable last 20 minutes, which will create more social interactions of groups farming said consumable.
Other consumables, that I believe should be changed are:
Tel'abim food (30 minutes, maybe people will finally visit the island. Currently they are far too expensive for their duration). I believe there is also value in letting them stack with other food buff (My understanding is that they do not).
Consecrated Sharpening Stone and Blessed Wizard Oil- Currently you need 1 argent dawn token to trade in for 1 stone. I think this is excessive, especially for a class like hunter which requires two stones per hour. I suggest making 1 Argent dawn token trade for 2 Stones/Oils instead.
Ok, enough consumable talk.
I'd like to talk about some changes in regards to gameplay in raids. Some of these will be more opinion based for what I think is good or bad for raids
Rogue tanking. This is gimicky and cute for dungeons. But I do not want to see rogues above 100% mitigation not being able to take a single bit of damage on end game bosses in naxxramas. This is clearly not intended and cheats the entire fight. As our raid never used a rogue tank, I'm not sure if it is anymore possible without wbuffs (someone can comment on this). Nevertheless, I think this needs to be thought through and changed. I can't say I have any good suggestions here outside of removing/reworking the Flourish spell and giving rogues something more enjoyable (better aoe damage, player based combat points etc.). One rework for Flourish could make it a "take 40% less damage for x seconds" instead of pure mitigation. As far as class power, I think mages also deserve a bit more love with world buff removal. Other class balances require far more thought than I can provide here, and it's not really my place to comment on those classes.
You've nerfed Gnomish battle chicken, which is understandable (as it was not working as intended). This left quite a few players unhappy though. I think it would be valid to also fix Battle Chickens by letting their buff (Battle Squawk( stack group wide as it did in classic (https://i.redd.it/0f5gdk39vhg61.png).
As I've played warrior far too much time, I have a lot of thoughts on it. I don't intend to comment on other classes and their possible changes as I do not play them. Note that I do want class balance - if warriors get some kind of a buff, other classes should also receive something.
Warrior is fundamentally different from every single class, as their Rage generation enables their use of spells.
Mages, priests, druids, rogues, shamans... no class gets to cast more spells (outside of lack of mana) from gaining more gear - other than warrior.
With the removal of world buffs, the gameplay of warrior has changed the most out of any class fundamentally. Yes, every class did more damage with world buffs, but they are fundamentally played the same way. Warrior on the other hand, became much less fun to play. This is simply because our rage generation is much lower and we can cast far less spells now. It is a frustrating experience not being able to cast spells due to a lack of rage. My one suggestion is to modify rage formula for warriors to gain more rage. I think this change should come hand in hand with improvements for other classes, as warriors are at the top of dps charts currently.
The other route to go, which I think might be preferable, is to allow Onyxia and Zul'Gurub buffs in raids.
Personally I was against world buff changes, but I understand if it is for the sake of balancing future content. However, I think onyxia+zulgurub provide a similar benefit for all classes. Onyxia and Zul'Gurub buffs are different from the rest, as they require a large raid to clear them. This incentivises people to clear Onyxia and Zul'gurub, allowing lower geared players to get more gear. It also allows for interaction between guilds to create schedules for buff drops - which I think improves the sense of community. There is also something quite fun about having so many raiders stacking up waiting for a buff to drop in Stormwind/orgrimmar and Booty Bay/ZG Island.
One easy way to work these buffs around new content is to disable world buffs for guilds that have not cleared the entire raid. I think my ideal view of raiding is having more difficult progression, which feels satisfying. In this scenario you should not be allowed to cheat your way through bosses by brute forcing them with world buffs. I however believe, that once a guild has proven their ability to clear a raid, they should be able to have fun trying to clear it as fast as possible (which is more enjoyable with world buffs). Raids are already quite slow on this server, as there are only a few guilds that clear Naxxramas in one day. As such, I believe allowing Onyxia+Zul'Gurub buffs in raids after a guild has killed the last boss to be ideal.
TLDR on warrior talk
Warrior fundamentally different. Warrior without world buff rage generation is unfun. Three ways to go about this, either class specific changes(modifying rage generation code) while also buffing other classes or world buff specific changes, or nerfing warrior damage while buffing their rage equal amounts (personally ok with this, other might hate it). Personally I prefer world buff specific changes, as they create other external positive factors (such as improving feeling of a community and gearing new players) and require less balancing between classes.
I make this post because our population has seen large growth and I believe these suggested changes require swift action to keep these new players around.
Thanks for reading.
