If there was no drops. No RNG. You run X and you get Y. Each boss gives every player the same amount of currency.
Vendors would work like PvP vendors.
You are in for X kills you can buy X items. You could have things like weapons or trinkets and tier cost more then other items. But if every raider kills same number of bosses, they all have same chance at loot.
Why this would be better
No drama -
No frustration when a item wont drop
Motivate you to do content, the more content you do weekly = the more currency you get
It could have caps on it to limit how fast you gear, but basically you’d have LFR clear for a currency, Normal clear for a currency, Heroic clear for a currency, and Mythic clear for a currency. Could be similar to crests being the different levels (maybe currency could be crests, so you can either upgrade pieces or buy more pieces?)
Rewards players based on time played/invested. You play more, you earn more. You don’t play? You don’t get.
This would also prevent gear funnel runs, class stacking runs, and all those issues that come with the RNG - if anything it would make the race to world first more balanced/fair as it’d take the RNG out it
Also just make M+ it’s own separate gear to raiding can stay balanced. If you miss raids, or don’t kill all the bosses you /should/ be behind in loot. Catch up is when faster guilds have no use for currency anymore and you’re still earning it/spending it that you’d catch up to them eventually, it’d just take longer to max out your character
No rng at all would make it boring and repetitive. You could also just make a dinar type of system to balance the current rng system.
Also, what you’re trying to accomplish when you remove funneling/split runs is basically remove the ability to trade gear. Removing trading gear for the 2 first weeks would solve a lot of the high end madness like they did with high end boes.
As far as M+/raid gear go I agree but then Ion has this war on raid logging which is what M+ serves for. He wants players to logon all week and to be heavily incentivized to do so, which is understandable but still puts the bar higher just to play the game at a decent level. As far as I know, as long as he will be lead game designer I do not expect a change on this.
There’s also just players that are very resistant to the idea of having multiple gear sets for raiding and M+ which you’d probably need to develop a new gear set UI if we’re gonna go this way that doesn’t just flood your bags.
The problem is they did this and it just felt boring not seeing more stuff drop “oooh shiny”. The pendulum has swung already. This system is actually a compromise, there is bad luck protection in the form of crests and vault and catalyst. We’re kind of at the best place we’ve been in that regard. I think it’s stupid that they try to detect what’s an upgrade and disallow you to trade–that is dumb as hell.
People hate RNG as a system but can’t stop engaging with it, it’s a carrot on a stick. Very few people are like hell yeah randomicity! but it’s why people engage the loot system, because getting a good drop feels better that way.
The problem is mostly raid gear, raid gear doesn’t seem to drop enough and some of the rare piece can elude you for very very long if you aren’t lucky as there is no bad luck protection.
You can’t really replace the “op” raid trinkets for example with crafted gear, or some of the weapons with special effects. Even M+ can be really annoying that way but at least you get to spam it till it drops. I’m sure a lot of dhs this tier had fun farming their double-time weapons.
I been trying to promote this kind of systems for years, but the playerbase absolutely refuses to acknowledge the benefits. They would rather run their loot treadmills and no amount of logic will refrain them from trying something better.
yes i’m aware of the badges and the valor and justice tokens, everytime i get a rush to play wow for like a few months or so i come to the forums and make the same topic how we need the justice and valor system back and i get hate on every time.
It’d be hella boring, but it would at least be consistent and cause less frustration.
But WoW is a game where the only reward to do anything is gear, so if you make gear a reward you can get consistently, then it’s boring and everyone would quit after 2 weeks of getting bis and then cry about how great it was to be at the mercy of rng.
the pendulum will continue to swing, don’t worry. i think they’re at a decent compromise. i feel like you get a lot in the form of dragonbucks/vault/catalyst/sparks(crafted). these are all guarantied vertical progression just for playing. engaging either system too liberally results in a frustrating experience. you want some rng but a lot of power should be accrued passively for engaging end game activities.
However they have to remove all trade restrictions on raid and dungeon loot, the game deciding what is an upgrade for you is ridiculous. They can slow the loot trickle in other ways.
Thats the problem with modern gamers, i want to play games because they are fun, not because of the prize. Example: I’m playing Warhammer 40k Gladius. Its like Civilziation but way more focused on war and combat. I’ve played over several matches and gotten my rear kicked each and every time. I’m not gaining any rewards other then some steam achievements i don’t care about, i’m not progressing for cosmetics or better chances next time. All i’m getting is skills to do better next time.
But why would i do something that isn’t rewarding me? Cause its fun. If wow isn’t worth doing because of the gear it means wow isn’t fun. You may find fun in the effort = reward structure but an rng system doesn’t make sense in that context. It would make more sense if it was a point base system but then as you said “boring”. Which really means is “WoW is boring”.
Sure but let’s be realistic, you don’t represent of the type of gamer that makes up most of Blizzard’s revenue. They design the game based on metrics derived from high spending players.
I mean its better then ever i fully agree there, but i love how the pvp system does it the most. PvP is where its at for me, the content, the gearing, the rewards. When I wanna play retail i only care about the pvp.
Shadowlands is what broke me, when i realized my money means crap to them. I paid over $3000 for heroes of the storm cosmetics, i whaled it up, and it got put on maintaince mode, i pvp all the time for not a single new bg or anything cool for multiple expansions. After the events of shadowlands, i’m quite detached from retail, and my only interest in seasons of discovery is the pvp when i get to unlock Alterac Valley.
I regret none of my Heroes of the Storm purchases. I also think Blizzard is probably going to make a new MOBA or ressurect hots. Ybarra and Phil Spencer keep talking about bringing back retired franchises. During that time HotS received it’s first tuning patch in years.
