Bump for huge brain comment.
Ive done some of the worst essence grinds on 3 or 4 toons. 100% Done this garbage and wont play anything else until Shadowlands.
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Here here, Blizzard have said they listen to our feedback - So if we want account bound essences we need to be the squeakiest wheel possible.
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Just throwing support on here for account wide essences. I dont even raid anymore as it just takes too much time. I used to play several alts along with my main, but with this constant grinding for “power” on one main, I don’t really have the time for alts anymore.
Essences will most likely be worthless once the new expac hits, make them BoA.
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I can appreciate how annoyed you are with them - and while your word choice is pretty much on point - I think Classic is just better suited for them.
These sadists who have ample time to throw at the game are still around here and there.
I was hoping Classic would have gotten rid of all of them by now.
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i think the reason they aren’t gonna do it is due to how close the new expa is. i suspect they dont want to have to put the time into making the interface systems for a mechanic that is being outright removed later and left in the dust entirely.
i outright skipped essences once i hit max with my main once i realized just how much work it was going to take (considering i suspected that like artifact weapons they would just go away again). after artifact weapon grind, and early-BFA neck grind, im just no longer gonna bother with expa-specific grinds outright unless they ARE acct-bound. ill just hit max, and once those are req’d to do more, unsub til next expa (or raise alts to max and not go further if feelin like it).
at this point IMO expa-specific power boosts that go away after the expa (weapons, neck, essences) is not a good mechanic. makes classes unstable and constantly needing further rebalancing than just focuing on the class itself. leave external power to gear alone says I.
The release date hasn’t even been announced yet. All speculation is at 8 months plus. Emphasis on the plus.
In that time we are getting some reworked zones (not new Zones) and one raid. It looks good don’t get me wrong but we are about to have a big content drought and by making alts more readily viable they could alleviate it somewhat.
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They will 100% be useless, It’s the standard blizzard formula
- Introduce new system poorly
- Fix it in last patch before new expansion
- Scrap it.
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oh, i fully agree they SHOULD make them acct bound, for that very reason. thats just the reason i think they won’t.
its a lot of time and more importantly money to get that kinda interface coded and put into functional place, and for something just going away they may see that as a waste of resources. they may feel people unsubbing for that time may be even LESS of a loss than making such a sysyem (thats a guess on my part though).
Big content drought? It will be May/ June before HoF is even full…
Hall of fame is irrelevant to the vast vast majority of the player base. Most probably don’t even know it exists tbh
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If you definition of “fixed” is when they make it free in the pre-patch before the new xpac, then sure.
But, whether you agree or not, many players don’t like LFR and catch-up and they want their feedback valued too.
And I usually find its those players that complain about lack of content.
can only speak for me, but i’ve never complained about lack of content, but at the same time, if catchup mechanics of some kind weren’t in place, i’d prolly never bother with alts at all. i’d run a single main for a month to max, and stop until next expa, only subbing occasionally if something nifty became available to do. im fine climbing a mountain once or twice to get to the plateau point. after that it feels like a waste of time for me.
catchup mechanics also help folks that can’t get into an expa until late, and still be able to get involved in some of the funner near-endgame stuff (im not talking mythics or bigtime stuff, just the entrance- or mid-level endgame stuff)
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I mostly agree. But what no one understands is that this opinion, like every other is a bell curve.
Loud people at both ends with exactly opposite opinions that will never agree. We’ve tried no catch-up. Vanilla was popular but we complained about it. We’ve tried mega catchup/ free in MoP/ WoD, people complained too.
Now we have a compromise. Some catch-up, but nothing completely free. Still some grind, but not weeks for one small piece of something shiny.
But ultimately, people will never be happy either way.
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I think this is a great conversation to have. You touched on so many points itll be tough to comment on them all right now as I am in an underground train.
I think the line that caught my attention the most was when you said that “ IMO expa-specific power boosts that go away after the expa (weapons, neck, essences) is not a good mechanic. makes classes unstable and constantly needing further rebalancing than just focuing on the class itself. leave external power to gear alone says I.”
To me there are a few things going on there. As you say the Blizzard team needs to focus on making classes great again. I think their biggest issue with front loading class design so it feels great out of the box is that they think it would remove our goals to chase sown.
Look at the 120 level boosts. Activision Blizzard have accepted that some people would just pay money instead of actually playing the game vs learn and level a new class. So now they added a leveling grind to max level to compensate for those players and drive up their MAUs overall by also making seasoned players grind endlessly also.
They said no more AP for Shadowlands but no one really knows what that means. I think Blizzard needs to take power progression out of these things. Blizzard has convinced themselves that the only way they will get players to do stuff is by pigeon holing them to do so for power progression.
To me that is very telling. Its basically Blizzard admitting that they have failed in making good optional side content and failed to offer good enough rewards that they have to bake every single system into power progression. However players are now opening their eyes and noticing how bad the endless grind is.
When it comes to alts in BFA it can feel like an endless grind. A very unfun one. It diminishes the value of the person paying $15 a month and encourages people to play less and only play with one character. I guess for some its a win for “mains” but to many its a loss for the “player”/subscriber
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in this case that is kinda the big issue: it IS still a big grind. im fine with a big grind for cosmetics (im working on shadowmourne right now), or for some gear, something that will LAST, or at least make the reward feel it was worth the effort. at least with gear i get something i can mog. i think the math most are doing at present is that with essences, the work isnt worth the reward, particularly if its really whats needed to even get involved at a later level.
they need to make it something that the playerbase as a whole’ll feel is worthwhile to do. gear is decent since its a steady rate of gain generally, but the large grind for each rank of essences, coupled with the fact that its gone in a year or so, is hollow work. theres, IMO, no sense of payoff while being more or less needed to do the high-end stuff in the expa. its one thing to not be top in the meters, its another to not feel even able to get involved WITHOUT doing it, which the essences generally end up being (whether this is true or folks overestimating them, i don’t know). not to mention those in serious groups more or less not being taken if they DON’T have them in some cases.
ultimately it boils down to what i said earlier: climbing a mountain once or twice is fine. once its a case of climbing the same steep climb constantly to even get involved, personally id rather just not be involved and spend my time elsewhere.
Gear lasts 3 to 4 months max. It used to last longer, but we literally complained that a raid tier lasting 9-12 months was horrible and call it a content drought.
Essences will last a year. Most take less than 2 weeks of farming. Farming being subjective because R3 iris takes 3 10 keys. CLF a few weeks of doing the raid, etc.
Only a few require rep or lengthy grinds and even then aren’t required.
You make the argument that players don’t feel grinding for two weeks for an essence they will use for a year is worth while. How? You want them to last longer? How long before we are tired of essences and want something new?
How is doing 10 minutes of world quests a few days a week for a month a steep climb?
You realize that for every player saying this game is too hard and too grindy, there are players that say the exact opposite, that it is too dumbed down and caters too hard to casuals…
:doubt:
How many alts do you have Daark?
Oh you mean only the good ones, pepelaugh
I can safely speak for the hardcore crowd when i say non account bound essences is garbage, and I don’t know if you’re in tune with the casuals but I don’t think they like it either. Why would a casual appreciate spending their limited time doing daily quests?
note this is only my view. to each their own.
one of the reasons i personally prefer transmogs: i can access the appearance indefinately. even gear ill replace gives me a mog i can use if i want. something that LASTS. i.e. that will be of use even just in fun long after the expa. mage tower was a great idea.
power climb here and now that goes away (for me including gears ilvls) is something else. theres a reason im only subbed about 6 months out of a year it that nowadays. gear, temporary mechanics (essenses and AP for example) i only put in enough work to get me where i really feel is worthwhile to go, and otherwise skip the rest, because i know itll just go out the window eventually.
im fine doing the climb for the power and am not ‘asking for a free ride’, but only when the effort feels like its worth the payoff (which it doesnt), and the steeper the climb, the less inclined (i made a funny!) i am to bother more than once if even that. too many hoops to jump through and im out.
this seems to be, at least in part, a recurring sentiment. if R3 essences are REQUIRED to get in the ground floor of the endgame, as it were, and those require a TON of work that will be thrown out the window come next expa, why bother doing it more than once? seems like a lot of work for little payoff to me
Happy 200 posts everyone 