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Please consider the evergreen portability of this content. Please carry over Normal/Heroic from expansion to expansion with level and ilvl scaling BY DEFAULT. Mythic can be designed as FOMO content tightly tuned for this specific expansion, but we need WAY more evergreen content that matters in this game and this would be a step in that direction.
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Tied into the first point, alternate difficulty settings are a must. The one-size-fits-all approach to Mage Tower 1 and Mage Tower 1.5 ain’t it. We need a Normal mode for story-oriented players, Heroic mode to get players using their class kit and getting them to challenge themselves a bit, and then a Mythic mode to really cut their teeth on.
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Please consider particle systems for these. The datamined models look good, but I’m hoping that we’re just missing the particle system. https://www.wowhead.com/news/class-specific-weapons-shields-and-offhands-on-the-patch-10-1-ptr-331787
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12 Encounters would be the ideal sweet-spot. I’ll say straight up that all tanks sharing the same fight and all healers except Disc (who did a DPS boss instead as there were no alternate fights for healers) sharing the same fight ain’t it. It was fine for the first version but something like 12 or maybe 13 fights would be a nice sweetspot, roughly 3 specs per fight. It also reduces the chance of nonsense like Shadow Priest, a very immobile caster, being saddled with a fight revolving around kiting and the mechanics of the fight having to be tuned way down to make it work for SPriest as opposed to how it operates for specs it was clearly designed around such as MM and Frost Mage.
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Please normalize the lengths somewhat. Some fights being 3-4 minutes and others being 15 minutes is absurd. Ideally they’re all sitting around 6-8 minutes, with three phases, two phases and an intermission, or a single static escalating phase (like the Valajar Council fight).
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Similarly, please normalize the difficulty somewhat. Fury being a 1-2 pull boss and Bear having been a 100+ pull boss is kind of absurd. For normal/heroic this is less important, but I hope if we do get a Mythic variant, the tuning should be a bit more tight. Mistakes happen and if players find out some cheese strat or build that works well that’s fine but the variance should not be so wild… especially variance of specs on the same fight (Bear Kruul vs BDK Kruul for instance).
Just my thoughts. I’m extremely hyped for this content as I enjoyed almost all of Mage Tower encounters and the satisfaction of solo progression scratches that “Fourth Pillar” itch quite well, I just don’t want to see Blizzard repeat some of their mistakes that reduced the engagement/popularity/longevity of Mage Tower 1 and Mage Tower 1.5.
5 Likes
I like this, normal can just be for the experience, heroic gives you a title and mythic gives you the transmog
2 Likes
I don’t know what exact reward distribution is optimal I just think from a content POV we need both more evergreen content AND more solo prestige content. This could serve both needs IMO.
I see that you’re specifically talking about the healer challenge here. Yes that was especially annoying given that I would always have to wait 10 minutes between each phase for drums to come back. Even without that artificial waiting it’s a very long challenge, which makes losing in the final fight sting a lot more than other challenges.
1 Like
I was just about to reply “NO, no more mage tower, it’s too stressful!” but then I saw your point on difficulty choice with an option for less-skilled, story driven play.
If the primary focus for people is self-challenge at higher difficulties and not a reward I guess I’m ok with that.
I’d prefer a reward being available at all difficulties.
Also, what you appear to be describing is a training simulator.
Apologies if I’m misunderstanding.
Having difficulties for something that is marketed and supposed to be a challenge mode makes no sense and is a waste of development time. They already out major balance changes virtually every three weeks this expansion. They don’t need something else to balance.
3 Likes
What reduced the popularity and engagement from MT 1 to MT 1.5 is that people couldnt outscale the encounters like you could in 7.3 raid gear.
Once Blizzard stated that the MT encounters were ilvl locked, it heightened barrier of completion because you cannot cheese fights with better gear nor is every spec in the game well balanced enough to do the encounters at the set ilvl.
2 Likes
Why? It better justifies dev budget if it is content everyone will see and experience, like how raiding has LFR but also Mythic.
1 Like
The better way is just to do it like how they did in Legion - bring it out for two seasons where you can outscale it as you gear but it is still challenging: then refresh it with new prizes after two seasons.
Not really. I hate the idea of missing out on a challenge because the content is now a patch old and trivialized by gear. And no, it isn’t easy to go back and farm the previous season’s raids and impossible to farm the previous seasons dungeons to get the gear that was appropriate during that patch.
You have to jump through hoops to gear your alt for herald of the titans and that’s content you only need 1 friend to help you gear for. Going and doing last tiers mythic raid for gear for MT on an alt is likely a non-starter.
But by your post for Normal - it wouldnt be as much of a challenge if its for story-only players.
So whats your point? Just make it as the same how it is - just with better tuning.
My point is like… do Mythic, do it like Challenge Mode and give people like a year and a half to plug at it, and leave it challenging that whole time as best you can do people have the chance to play it the way it is meant to be. Then you can have other difficulties you let people outscale sooner, so everyone has a shot at the content in a way that feels appropriate. Then you can ditch Mythic once the next expansion is out as the purpose of it and the tuning are gone. Something like that.
Gonna be really honest: it sounds overly convoluted. MT suffers from two issues:
- Tuning/balance
- Reward
Tuning/balance can easily be solved by how it was done in Legion. On top of that, you need to figure out a reward structure: if Mythic (from your example) is limited time stuff - then Mythic needs an ample reward for people to strive too, which then creates the FOMO issue. We saw this with Challenge Mode for dungeons, no one wants to participate in a challenge in WoW if it offers nothing that is interesting to the player.
Who cares about a Title? Only a hardcore completionist - not the general player. Unless you can balance rewards, then the idea is DoA - it becomes an issue of “well everyone will do normal, because there isnt a reason to do challenging versions of it.”
I don’t like fixating on rewards. Talking too much about rewards looks like begging for a handout. First and foremost I enjoy the content and want more fun challenging content, and then Blizzard can tune the incentives accordingly from there.
2 Likes
Just because something is hard doesn’t mean it won’t be seen - mage tower did not, and does not, have a gear based barrier to entry like mythic raiding does.
Will having better gear during legion make it easier? Yes, will it allow you to play terribly and still clear? No.
The same isn’t the case for raiding where you need both skill and gear to conquer mythic. LFR was added primarily because they started adding the main story arcs into raids and wanted those players to see them. There’s no real meaningful story for mage tower challenges
A lot of solo players like LFR and LFG because it allows them to not be social. Mage tower is a solo challenge and that concern isn’t present.
these datamined models do not look good.
my wish list is for blizzard to make genuinely good looking cosmetics and tie those to challenge content like the mage tower.
I believe these cosmetics should only be available for a limited time BUT blizzard would commit to making new challenge content every expansion.
do you think people would be complaining that they want MOP cmode gear back if there were better models created in game during BFA or Shadowlands? No.
I think they look good, if they end up having overlaid particle systems etc.
Artifacts generally couldn’t have particle systems applied, maybe these don’t yet have those systems or would look with custom enchants.
How did I miss this thread this morning? It’s got me daydreaming already
Bumpity bump 
look at the paladin two handed mace… it looks like a gray item you find at level one while questing lol
if these weapons are introduced into the game, they are 100% being put into the trading post with all the buckets and shovels.
