The title may seem trollish, but it's not meant to be. These are issues I consider to be fairly serious.
Specifically in vanilla content. For those of you who played in vanilla (many miss it) while the game could be considered in it's prime back then, it also had many many problems. Specifically classes were pigeon-holed into specs, sometimes for both PvP and PvE. Many specs were just flat out dead save maybe for leveling. Defense gear on cloth, spirit on plate, the list goes on.
While Blizzard has drastically improved since then and has worked towards making most specs viable, and learned how they want gear and stats to work they are still making many mistakes.
1) AoE abilities
Cataclysm is supposed to mark the beginning of the start essentially. That is: CC people, focus a target, interrupt the healer mob and so forth. AoE is not intended to be a big deal. This is great.
But why are many classes getting AoE abilities late in the game while others receive it early.
Ele shamans rely on magma totem (oh hai melee mobs) and chain lightning. Put together the AoE isn't anything to sneeze at, but it's fairly involved. They are the new Ret paladins of the expansion due to the fact that our new 31 point talent is an AoE move, but at least ret paladins had a use for their AoE move in a single target rotation.
Priests don't have ANY AoE capability save for loly nova spam until 75 for mind sear
Rogues have blade flurry if they go combat, and then don't get FoK till 80
Meanwhile mages, warlocks, hunters, and warriors get their moves way before then and are therefore capable of AoEing. Dks are exluded from this because they start at 55...however they also get their AoE ability fairly quick from then on.
Paladins got Divine Storm moved to a level 29 talent, and still have seal of cleaving. Yet, as stated before, Blizzard decided that if they were going to remove a spec's final tier AoE ability they might as well give it to another one (hint: ele shamans).
Simply put: AoE moves should be given out in low levels for every class to a degree. We don't need ZOMG AOE abilities, but every class needs to have one. Specifically shadow priests and rogues the most, followed by shamans and druids. I've already went over shamans and thorns for AoE is not fun (You're telling me to AoE I have to get smacked?)
Druids don't get hurricane til 44 but that's only for balance/resto, and until then rely on swipe/thorns for AoE which is pretty micro-managing. Btw cat swipe seems fine for my leveling druid, but bear swipe is clearly broken whether blizzard will admit it or not. This leads to my next issue
2) WHY DO DRUIDS HAVE TO WAIT TILL 81 FOR THRASH?
I'm going to give Blizzard the benefit of the doubt with this statement:
"AoE Bear tanking currently sucks because Blizzard nerfed swipe BECAUSE Bears will get thrash. Once they get thrash their AoE tanking capabilities will be on par with everyone and the *shattered* world will keep on going"
Bear druids STILL have to wait till 81 to be able to AoE tank? Really? I have to glyph maul, do measly Swipe damage and tab target to keep threat until then? Thrash should be moved down and given to us at lower levels if the above statement ends up being true (I haven't looked into it) and give us a new level 81 ability for the expac. We should not have to wait till 81 for the ability to AoE tank. It's not right.
3) Not all specs were created equal
Blizzard has worked towards making all specs equal. That is to say: DPS spec X, Y, and Z for class A are both doing the same and it's a playstyle choice.
Dumb.
DPS is math. One spec will rule the others. Even if it's by 50 dps. It will scale better in the end. Tier 1 raid the specs are equal but Spec X scales the best so in tier 2 raiding it will do 500 more dps on average. Then 1000 more. Then 3000 more. Then Blizzard has to once again go in and try to tweak numbers, possibly fail and screw balance up (for better or worse for that class) and fix it again.
And what's with tanks in PvP? Sorry, but tanks should be doing LOW damage with HIGH threat in both PvP/PvE. This is how they should work. They should not be able to burst or keep a stready stream of DPS on someone. They will have a niche in PvP come rated BGs and flag carrying/defending and possibly locking someone down with interrupts/stuns, but that's it. They should not be arena worthy save for maybe a 5s team when they can work well with other classes\.
Why you ask? Well let me ask you this, "Whose idea was it to give a spec with high survivability the ability to do damage like a dps while maintaining that survivability?" DPS specs in PvP do not have survivability compared to that of tanks. That is: The absurdly high HP in comparison, the ability to take a melee hit, and mitigate spell damage (Spell reflect/AMS etc). DPS may have oh SNAP buttons and ways to save themselves through burst, but they don't have anything near the survivability that a tank will have.
You also don't see healing specs being able to deal high amounts of damage while maintaining their ability to heal (save for broken holy paladins with exorcism spam currently). They have been, for the most part in PvP, forced to whittle players down slowly while healing themselves. Tanks should be the same way. They used to be great melee counters in TBC when their surv was so high rogues had to play extremely smart and bleed kite them otherwise they wouldn't go anywhere.
Specs need to have a niche, pure and simple. They don't have to be competitive for every aspect. If you want to PvP and the class you "love" isn't good at PvP with your favorite spec then play something else. You got another 9 classes out there. Something will tickle your fancy, and if it doesn't move on to another game. It's a terribly flawed game design because it results in the company having to moderate every little detail that goes on with every spec (all 30 + any unique ones players later come up with) to make sure they are balanced for every aspect.
Until Blizzard realizes that there will be a never ending circle of buffing/nerfing classes to be in line for both PvP and PvE. On that note...
4) Why doesn't Blizzard just make pvp/pve abilities different?
For example:
PvE: fireblast does 1000 damage
PvP: Fireblast does 2000 damage
What? The fireblast damage in PvP is too high and creates a burst that allows a mage to nuke the crap out of someone regardless of healers/gear? Ok well let's fix that and bring it to 1500. Fixed.
Oh good, the pve fire mage's fireblast wasn't altered because it wasn't broken.
I'd like to believe this is possible. While I am not a computer genius by any means I don't think this ability is outside of the realm of possibility. Doing this would make balancing the game easier because when you buff a move for PvE...PvP will not suffer. And when PvP moves are nerfed the PvE'rs won't scream "awesome now my spec is dead because of PvP"
------------------------------
These are all, in my view, silly mistakes Blizzard still makes. It feels like these are obvious mistakes that shouldn't see the light of day. A move being imbalanced is one thing. But there are many design flaws that have a Vanilla feel to them of that which is "We still don't know what we're doing with this game which is now on it's 3rd xpac".
Specifically in vanilla content. For those of you who played in vanilla (many miss it) while the game could be considered in it's prime back then, it also had many many problems. Specifically classes were pigeon-holed into specs, sometimes for both PvP and PvE. Many specs were just flat out dead save maybe for leveling. Defense gear on cloth, spirit on plate, the list goes on.
While Blizzard has drastically improved since then and has worked towards making most specs viable, and learned how they want gear and stats to work they are still making many mistakes.
1) AoE abilities
Cataclysm is supposed to mark the beginning of the start essentially. That is: CC people, focus a target, interrupt the healer mob and so forth. AoE is not intended to be a big deal. This is great.
But why are many classes getting AoE abilities late in the game while others receive it early.
Ele shamans rely on magma totem (oh hai melee mobs) and chain lightning. Put together the AoE isn't anything to sneeze at, but it's fairly involved. They are the new Ret paladins of the expansion due to the fact that our new 31 point talent is an AoE move, but at least ret paladins had a use for their AoE move in a single target rotation.
Priests don't have ANY AoE capability save for loly nova spam until 75 for mind sear
Rogues have blade flurry if they go combat, and then don't get FoK till 80
Meanwhile mages, warlocks, hunters, and warriors get their moves way before then and are therefore capable of AoEing. Dks are exluded from this because they start at 55...however they also get their AoE ability fairly quick from then on.
Paladins got Divine Storm moved to a level 29 talent, and still have seal of cleaving. Yet, as stated before, Blizzard decided that if they were going to remove a spec's final tier AoE ability they might as well give it to another one (hint: ele shamans).
Simply put: AoE moves should be given out in low levels for every class to a degree. We don't need ZOMG AOE abilities, but every class needs to have one. Specifically shadow priests and rogues the most, followed by shamans and druids. I've already went over shamans and thorns for AoE is not fun (You're telling me to AoE I have to get smacked?)
Druids don't get hurricane til 44 but that's only for balance/resto, and until then rely on swipe/thorns for AoE which is pretty micro-managing. Btw cat swipe seems fine for my leveling druid, but bear swipe is clearly broken whether blizzard will admit it or not. This leads to my next issue
2) WHY DO DRUIDS HAVE TO WAIT TILL 81 FOR THRASH?
I'm going to give Blizzard the benefit of the doubt with this statement:
"AoE Bear tanking currently sucks because Blizzard nerfed swipe BECAUSE Bears will get thrash. Once they get thrash their AoE tanking capabilities will be on par with everyone and the *shattered* world will keep on going"
Bear druids STILL have to wait till 81 to be able to AoE tank? Really? I have to glyph maul, do measly Swipe damage and tab target to keep threat until then? Thrash should be moved down and given to us at lower levels if the above statement ends up being true (I haven't looked into it) and give us a new level 81 ability for the expac. We should not have to wait till 81 for the ability to AoE tank. It's not right.
3) Not all specs were created equal
Blizzard has worked towards making all specs equal. That is to say: DPS spec X, Y, and Z for class A are both doing the same and it's a playstyle choice.
Dumb.
DPS is math. One spec will rule the others. Even if it's by 50 dps. It will scale better in the end. Tier 1 raid the specs are equal but Spec X scales the best so in tier 2 raiding it will do 500 more dps on average. Then 1000 more. Then 3000 more. Then Blizzard has to once again go in and try to tweak numbers, possibly fail and screw balance up (for better or worse for that class) and fix it again.
And what's with tanks in PvP? Sorry, but tanks should be doing LOW damage with HIGH threat in both PvP/PvE. This is how they should work. They should not be able to burst or keep a stready stream of DPS on someone. They will have a niche in PvP come rated BGs and flag carrying/defending and possibly locking someone down with interrupts/stuns, but that's it. They should not be arena worthy save for maybe a 5s team when they can work well with other classes\.
Why you ask? Well let me ask you this, "Whose idea was it to give a spec with high survivability the ability to do damage like a dps while maintaining that survivability?" DPS specs in PvP do not have survivability compared to that of tanks. That is: The absurdly high HP in comparison, the ability to take a melee hit, and mitigate spell damage (Spell reflect/AMS etc). DPS may have oh SNAP buttons and ways to save themselves through burst, but they don't have anything near the survivability that a tank will have.
You also don't see healing specs being able to deal high amounts of damage while maintaining their ability to heal (save for broken holy paladins with exorcism spam currently). They have been, for the most part in PvP, forced to whittle players down slowly while healing themselves. Tanks should be the same way. They used to be great melee counters in TBC when their surv was so high rogues had to play extremely smart and bleed kite them otherwise they wouldn't go anywhere.
Specs need to have a niche, pure and simple. They don't have to be competitive for every aspect. If you want to PvP and the class you "love" isn't good at PvP with your favorite spec then play something else. You got another 9 classes out there. Something will tickle your fancy, and if it doesn't move on to another game. It's a terribly flawed game design because it results in the company having to moderate every little detail that goes on with every spec (all 30 + any unique ones players later come up with) to make sure they are balanced for every aspect.
Until Blizzard realizes that there will be a never ending circle of buffing/nerfing classes to be in line for both PvP and PvE. On that note...
4) Why doesn't Blizzard just make pvp/pve abilities different?
For example:
PvE: fireblast does 1000 damage
PvP: Fireblast does 2000 damage
What? The fireblast damage in PvP is too high and creates a burst that allows a mage to nuke the crap out of someone regardless of healers/gear? Ok well let's fix that and bring it to 1500. Fixed.
Oh good, the pve fire mage's fireblast wasn't altered because it wasn't broken.
I'd like to believe this is possible. While I am not a computer genius by any means I don't think this ability is outside of the realm of possibility. Doing this would make balancing the game easier because when you buff a move for PvE...PvP will not suffer. And when PvP moves are nerfed the PvE'rs won't scream "awesome now my spec is dead because of PvP"
------------------------------
These are all, in my view, silly mistakes Blizzard still makes. It feels like these are obvious mistakes that shouldn't see the light of day. A move being imbalanced is one thing. But there are many design flaws that have a Vanilla feel to them of that which is "We still don't know what we're doing with this game which is now on it's 3rd xpac".