wow Conduit Changes Improve Multi-spec Viability

[Staff 1,488]

Blizzard have implemented changes to Soulbiund Conduits, making them more multi-spec friendly. Each Soulbind will now have 2 Potency Conduits available, instead of the previous 3 for the tree. The removed Coinduits have been replaced with Endurance or Finesse ones.

If you need more information about Soulbinds and Conduits in general, you can check out our guides.

Conduits (source)

In this week’s Shadowlands Beta build, Soulbinds have had their tree layouts changed in a small, but important, way. All Soulbinds now have access to 2 Potency Conduit sockets, whereas previously all trees had 3 Potency sockets. The goal of this change is to increase the flexibility of Soulbinds, and make it more viable to use one Soulbind for multiple specializations.

Due to Potency Conduits’ effects being mostly spec-specific, they are the Conduits most likely to make a Soulbind layout feel locked-in to one specialization. While we expect this to be a natural way for many players to engage with Soulbinds –- picking one Soulbind per spec, and building them out accordingly –- we want to make sure there is room to discover other setups that work for you, based on the content you prefer to participate in.

The removed Potency sockets have been replaced with either an Endurance or Finesse socket which, by virtue of primarily being class-wide effects, are easier to justify using across multiple specializations.

We’re looking forward to seeing how you choose to build out your Soulbinds, and your continuing feedback on this system!

[Mishmish 65]

Im not in beta so i dont really inderstand the intricacies of this change, but im glad they're making efforts to make covenants less specc restrictive

[Senou 40]

Perfect. Instead of adjusting it for multispecc, they're applying another nerf to the tree. Why would a pure DPS Spec need something else besides Potency Conduits?
Instead of giving each spec its own tree which actives once you change spec, they ruin it more and more. Just get rid of it for heavens sake... Remove Soulbinds entirely, make covenants talents and *filtered* the system. It cannot be rescued or fixed at this point.

I call it here and now. Shadowlands will be a *filtered* mess until they fix it more and more in 9.1.5, .9.2 and 9.3

[Ulzorn 29]

4 hours ago, Senou said:

Perfect. Instead of adjusting it for multispecc, they're applying another nerf to the tree. Why would a pure DPS Spec need something else besides Potency Conduits?
Instead of giving each spec its own tree which actives once you change spec, they ruin it more and more. Just get rid of it for heavens sake... Remove Soulbinds entirely, make covenants talents and *filtered* the system. It cannot be rescued or fixed at this point.

I call it here and now. Shadowlands will be a *filtered* mess until they fix it more and more in 9.1.5, .9.2 and 9.3

a few finesse conduits DO have DPS value (the "RP on interrupt" one for DKs comes to mind),though yeah its an overall nerf for most specs

[Whiterhino 31]

i actually like these changes. not a fan of the system in general, but i like that this adds more flexibility and room for more utility/survivability and also makes the conduits have a choice. Many specs only had 3-4 potency conduits for a spec so u didnt even really have a choice in what you wanted to use, you just used them all. 

[miggfo 12]

This doesn't solve the fundamental problems that make soulbinds not multispec friendly, it just makes soulbinds a bit less impactful.

[Starseed 113]

what i dont get with the people complaining about this is blizz trys to somewhat make the system better without completle losing what they like about it and people are still not the slides bit happy its like they dont get that blizz likes the soulbinds and the covenant system and wont change to much to it even if many people sit here and cry there eyes out and sreaming that the never play wow again.

and the reason blizz dont take them to serious is that the have the same *filtered* with every addon over and over again every addon a group of "experts" emerge from the dust and call out a new feature saying that this is the reason wow will end and is going to be unplayable but after 15 years we are still here. 

in the end blizz always manages to get a addon on the tracks even if some poeple dont like the main features of it overall i would say we never had an addon that was unplayeble cause of some features because if that were the case nobody would care about blizz and wow anymore

[Senou 40]

On 10/8/2020 at 8:37 AM, N3ilo said:

what i dont get with the people complaining about this is blizz trys to somewhat make the system better without completle losing what they like about it and people are still not the slides bit happy its like they dont get that blizz likes the soulbinds and the covenant system and wont change to much to it even if many people sit here and cry there eyes out and sreaming that the never play wow again.

and the reason blizz dont take them to serious is that the have the same *filtered* with every addon over and over again every addon a group of "experts" emerge from the dust and call out a new feature saying that this is the reason wow will end and is going to be unplayable but after 15 years we are still here. 

in the end blizz always manages to get a addon on the tracks even if some poeple dont like the main features of it overall i would say we never had an addon that was unplayeble cause of some features because if that were the case nobody would care about blizz and wow anymore

I can tell you why people are still "crying". When Blizzard released the alpha state of the game to a couple of players, they cared about the feedback and was willing to adjust and make changes. Now, that a gigantic mass of people is crying out over how bad the system is and how restrictive it is, they adjust but still don't fix whats the issue. They basically refuse to let a failed system fall and to fix it, now when they still have the opporturnity.
Sure they can design whatever they want, it is their game, but we players are the customers and if a product is *filtered*, we will do things against. It doesn't matter if we cry out because it sucks or if we move to something else on the market.

You can only imagine how many people will bail if Shadowlands fails like BfA or even harder. Fixing things with coming patches won't do this time. They cannot release two broken expansions back to back.

[Starseed 113]

11 hours ago, Senou said:

They basically refuse to let a failed system fall and to fix it, now when they still have the opporturnity.

the thing is who tells you the system is failed? is it failed cause the top player who say they cant minmax enough for every possible situation say so? i think blizz really likes the idea of the whole thing and are willing to adjust it but not in a way that destroy there vision of it and i think when it goes live the majority of the player base will be just fine with it.

i can see and understand why the hyper i must min max every thing comunity isnt thrillt about it but should a developer really sacrefice there vison of something that probebly work quite well for the majority of the playerbase just because one part isnt happy about it?

i mean its not like the game is going to be unplayable it just dont allow you to max your dps out to the very last point in every scenarion

[Senou 40]

3 hours ago, N3ilo said:

the thing is who tells you the system is failed? is it failed cause the top player who say they cant minmax enough for every possible situation say so? i think blizz really likes the idea of the whole thing and are willing to adjust it but not in a way that destroy there vision of it and i think when it goes live the majority of the player base will be just fine with it.

i can see and understand why the hyper i must min max every thing comunity isnt thrillt about it but should a developer really sacrefice there vison of something that probebly work quite well for the majority of the playerbase just because one part isnt happy about it?

i mean its not like the game is going to be unplayable it just dont allow you to max your dps out to the very last point in every scenarion

A system failed when more than 70% of the people argue about it constantly about how much it sucks. Everyone in beta is making jokes about it, people in the forums, on icy veins and ingame are joking about it. Every youtuber who's in touch with blizzard has the same opinion, that this system was doomed to fail.
It it would work, the need to nerf everything wouldn't be there. Instead blizz was forced to hammer everything into the ground so the impact at launch would be minimal and with that they can re-tune the stuff which in essence makes the covenants or rather the soulbinds and the conduits useless or a little useful at best. 

Edit:
Yes a developer should sacrifice their vision in this case. Blizzard managed to mess up the Legion launch with the hyper rng legendaries and how people were mad about a bad legendary, they messed up the beta testing of BfA, its launch with the messed up Azerite and its following patches. While some might have liked the raids and such, the system around azerite, essences and corruptions was a huge clusterf*ck. They gave in and implemented a vendor to balance out a system which was hugely hidden behind rng and endless grinds.

Currently we're in this state, where we have endless grinds and massive rng and with Shadowlands at the horizon, they need to make it good. It cannot fail and at this point they do not have the freedom to develop as they please, because they are no longer just designers but providers and a provider who cannot provide will be replaced in the long run. That's common sense.

Edited October 10, 2020 by Senou

[Starseed 113]

47 minutes ago, Senou said:

the system around azerite, essences and corruptions was a huge clusterf*ck.

thats the thing that i dont get and why i dont think the whole system of sl is going to be as bad as the people say i would say that i am a casual i play maybe two to three a hours a day when its a quiet day and i nerver had problems with all that i got nice azerite bonuses and essences every once a while and i managet to get every raid down in heroic without much off an issue.

maybe i underestimate how little the part of casuals is maybe 80% of the playerbase is the hardcore i need to have mythic down in week 3 or so and for those people the systems could be a pain in the *filtered*.

i just like the fakt that this system prevents poeple from wanting to much min maxing when you search for a group i like the idea that i go with a cov that i like and nobody come and say: but for m+ you MUST be this and for raid you MUST be that.

 

 i dont try to *filtered* of somebody here i just try to tell how i from a pretty casual point of view the it

[Senou 40]

2 hours ago, N3ilo said:

thats the thing that i dont get and why i dont think the whole system of sl is going to be as bad as the people say i would say that i am a casual i play maybe two to three a hours a day when its a quiet day and i nerver had problems with all that i got nice azerite bonuses and essences every once a while and i managet to get every raid down in heroic without much off an issue.

maybe i underestimate how little the part of casuals is maybe 80% of the playerbase is the hardcore i need to have mythic down in week 3 or so and for those people the systems could be a pain in the *filtered*.

i just like the fakt that this system prevents poeple from wanting to much min maxing when you search for a group i like the idea that i go with a cov that i like and nobody come and say: but for m+ you MUST be this and for raid you MUST be that.

 

 i dont try to *filtered* of somebody here i just try to tell how i from a pretty casual point of view the it

That's totally fine. I think from a more casual point of view there are a lot of people who can enjoy the idea of a covenant. I am a heroic raider and I tend to go as high in M+ as I can or want. (usually +15 since I dont care about score) The reason I am so massively pissed off is because I love to swap between specs. I am not the tank in my raid group but I like to tank dungeons when I'm going with friends and with the build they introduced that is almost impossible. I for my part want to deliver as much as possible. I like to min max my character in the content I play as much as possible and give it my everything.