World Design and Music
I'm going to start on the positive thing that I think Blizzard has straight up knocked out of the park. The newer zones and the music that accompanies them are straight up fantastic. Whenever I'm doing my homework, I'm listening to the what I believe is called the "General Walk" music of Vol'dun. The main theme with the Armenian duduk makes me look forward to going to that zone as much as I looked forward to going to Grizzly Hills.
From the massive Cthulhu Squid structure in Stormsong to storm struck statue in Vol'dun, from the cold and ghastly chills of Drustvar to the savage lands of Nazmir, and from the pirate infested lands of Tiragarde Sound to the dense jungles of Zuldazar, these are some of the best zones I've seen in World of Warcraft.
Mythic +
Unfortunately that's kind of where it stops for me. I say kind of because I like the dungeons and still enjoy doing them. What I'm disappointed in is the fact that Blizzard saw that this was something that a lot of people enjoyed in Legion and didn't take it to the next level in BFA.
While I think that the affix that comes from the current raid is an interesting idea, it blows my mind that Blizzard didn't consider an actual rating system similar to what PvPers get in terms of rewards. They could have a seasonal rotation just like they do for PvPers and give out rewards based on how hard you made pushes in M+ while it was available. They could have also made it thematic and based each season rewards on the dungeon in question.
Like a Waycrest Manor themed season with xmog sets based on how hard you pushed in all the dungeons in M+, a wicker mount if they pushed to the next level, and then a Gorak Tul tabard with a glowing aura coursing through it. Something like that would make M+ a lot more interesting for players that already enjoyed it in Legion, and people that are somewhat interested in it to begin with. You could even add a rotating affix that based on the current raid and the current seasons theme to switch it up.
Dunno, I feel that M+ in BFA was underwhelming and definitely missing new features for it. And I'm suggesting creating sets for M+ since we have lost, and yes Blizzard it's a loss for everyone, our tier sets.
Also who's idea was it to remove gear swapping in Mythic +? If a player comes prepared for the encounters then let them be prepared. Let the gear they've acquired over time help them push keys.
Island Expeditions
I don't like it. Personally I really don't enjoy them. The main issue is that content was specifically designed to be a thing to go in and farm Azerite Power instead of try and create a quality experience with it. You can change the design of each island all you want with it being open exploration. But the main goal is right clicking the bags and mines and killing the mobs for Azerite.
It's just not interesting. My suggestion is going to be to add more end goals other than Azerite. As well as a rotation to Island layout that changes from open exploration to something like a linear path. Like lets say you drop on the island and there's an outside area that has some Azerite. And upon both sides getting a certain number of Azerite from a counter, a big intimidating cave entrance opens and it's your job to clear it and claim the Azerite all while trying to defend yourself from Alliance / Horde attackers.
I think anything that switching up the goals would change the experience a bit because literally farming Azerite is something that makes a lot of people upset because it's something nobody truly enjoys. Which brings me to my next point but I want to end it by saying this.
It should have been a more worthwhile thing that drops gear similar to how Warfronts do. It would give players an option to do either the Warfront, complete a M0 dungeon, or a fun and more fulfilling Island Expedition. On to the next point.
Azerite Power and the Neck
This was flatout a huge mistake. A big grind with a huge payoff at the end is 10x better than an endless grind with no hope of reaching a point where you're finished. All the feedback on Artifact Power was flatout ignored. It's a massive issue in my opinion because it just seems that this is one of several things that Blizzard sees that people don't like and then they say.....
"Okay but how about if we did this instead? Would you like it then?"
Just let it go Blizzard. Please! I and many other players don't like the endless grind. It makes alts a nightmare to level, and only seeks to keep metrics up on our time played seeing that we don't want to fall behind.
GCD Change
Something else that was ignored by Blizzard was the GCD change. When they asked for feedback on what people thought, from what I saw and I know there's a sense of bias on my end, a lot of players voiced that they didn't like it. And once again the feedback given was brushed under the rug. It just makes classes clunky and slow for the sole reason of making them clunky and slow.
An example for me was doing Mythrax on Heroic. I was doing completely fine and adhering to all the mechanics while the boss was active. 4 people get Orb MC'd at once and get a typhooned out which nukes the entire raid. I'm sitting at 10% health and stop my rotation and spam my defensives cause Turtle was down. Then the ruin debuff that does raid wide AoE damage goes off and I die because of it.
Why are defensives on the GCD? They're all reactions to what's happening around you. Am I supposed to know that I'm going to randomly get 1 shot from a boss, stop my rotation and then wait for it to happen when there's really no clear indication of it coming my way? It's just silly to do this.
Another massive problem occurs for me in PvP. Whenever I'm fighting melee classes the first thing I do is put down a Freezing Trap because I know most people will trinket the first thing in either World PvP or Random BGs. Well great! They're trinket is down! Now lets go through the list of things I have to use before I can start doing my burst rotation.
> A Murder of Crows (1.5 sec GCD)
> Beastial Wrath (1.5 sec GCD)
> Aspect of the Wild (1.3 sec GCD)
> Dire Beast Basilisk (1.5 sec GCD)
And then we top it off with....
> Intimidation
WHICH HAS A 1.5 SEC GCD! This is beyond dumb to me. Slowing down the burst isn't our problem when opposition can't see the signs due to their own incompetence. It has always been...
"Hunter turn red and pet get big? I pop defensive!"
PvP was so much more exciting when you got to do things in a fluid motion. The GCD makes PvP feel like I'm playing UNO with my grandparents.
Class Pruning
This is the first expansion that I've played that I actually feel that I've lost more than I gained as I leveled up. This is also the first expansion where we've gotten no new talent lines for the max level. This was a massive mistake.
It blows my mind that ever since MoP we've just been losing abilities left and right. When people say "Fun was detected" they aren't wrong. Almost all of the things that I enjoyed about Hunter has been pruned to the point of just pressing a 3 button rotation. And let me put this in words as well for everyone to understand.
Removing abilities and then re-adding them in later expansions isn't new content for our classes
I was FLOORED that Blizzard thought it was a good idea to remove Freezing Trap from all Hunters except Survival. Something that was part of all Hunter specs for YEARS
Creating a game that's easier access for casual players gives them nothing to aspire to. It gives them nothing to look back to when they were inexperienced and didn't know what they were supposed to manage their resources, buffs, dots, or whatever it is. It just makes the top end players more frustrated when your DPS rotation is 1, 2, 3 with the occasional 4.
Make classes complex with plenty of abilities at their disposal. The current class design is dry and uninteresting for most classes.
Tier Sets
It makes me sad that Blizzard decided to do away with Tier Sets. I personally don't care about the whole Tier 2 or Tier 4 bonuses system going away but just the fact that we lost them for the faulty Azerite System, and for the idea that they can just create Raid sets based on Armor types.
Something that makes me sad is that if I didn't like the tier set for Hunters, I had a shot to grab the Shaman set. Same goes for Priests. Look at the Siege of Zuldazar set.
https://www.wowhead.com/news=287373/patch-8-1-siege-of-zuldazar-raid-armor-cloth-leather-mail-mythic-tints
Do Priests want to look like warlocks nowadays? You don't get a choice in the matter now with this set.
Do I want to look like....
https://wow.zamimg.com/uploads/screenshots/normal/790532.jpg
God I don't know what that is, but I'm stuck with it!
There's just no more variety when it comes to representing classes through raid gear. If Blizzard wants to do away with their tier bonuses then whatever. But let us retain our class identity through the Raid sets.
Titanforging
Whoever came up with the mentality that players stop playing en masse after they get geared back in the day is a straight up lie.
I remember getting my full Conquest gear set and then going out in the World or Random BGs and pwning noobs. Getting to experience us at our maximum potential was amazing because you felt validated in your hard work and got to play the game how you see fit in whichever gear you've acquired.
Now there will never be an end to your gearing. In its current state you will never be at your maximum potential of you class and spec and that feels horrible. Having to go back and reclear and refarm raids for gear only causes even more burnout than retaining players. Because once you got all the gear you needed, you got to sit back and enjoy the game be it getting high parses in raid, going into Random BGs or WPvP and pwning noobs, or going into the Arena to compete.
Something's gotta change or it needs to get removed. Because smacking your face against the wall with no chance of being at your best is only pushing people away.
Warfronts
It actually made me quite upset that it was never considered to let guild groups and premades go in and complete pretty much a PvE Battleground. And on top of that, it's pretty damn boring. Every time I hear Muradin say, "HAHA! (x) building is up and running!" I flatout ignore him because it doesn't change the flow of the fight or even mean anything. There's no real strategy or overall. It's straight up a guaranteed win with no changes in the flow of battle or how you achieve it. The opposite faction literally just stands there and gets their face beaten in and we're supposed to celebrate.
In the last warfront that I did, when the siege became available I just sat back and watched until the gate went down then killed the final boss. It's boring, it's not engaging and is just not worth my time at all in between raids.
On top of that it's rather dry to me that only 1 faction goes to the zone at a time. Nobodies going out there en mass to kill the rares when they don't have control of the zone. And it baffles me even more that the faction that isn't in control of the zone is force flagged into warmode, when there aren't even any World Quests or Dailies to complete for something like Conquest or Honor!
They should really consider adding something like that when you don't have control of the zone out in the Open World. That way it can rotate between PvE when you're in control with the Dailies, and then PvP when you're not in control. As well as the typical Azerite Power and Order Hall Resource type World Quests on top of that.
As for in the instance, they said it at the Q&A but they should have already had a Heroic Warfront for communities to actually have to strategize and work together as a team to complete. As well as a PvP mode for it based on what's happening in the current cycle.
Grinding resources, killing players, and capturing locations in the PvP warfront should give a certain currency we'll call "War Effort" for now. Killing players in the Warfront will also reward Conquest and Honor but back to the currency. You would then take that currency and then purchase pieces of gear at the vendor within your home city be it Boralus or Dazar'alor. Speaking of vendors....
PvP Vendors
Still really confused as to why PvP Vendors aren't back in the game yet. Its been said over and over in Legion that we don't like the RNG system and would greatly prefer having some player choice in the matter but we keep getting ignored over countless threads.
The only thing I recall hearing was that it felt bad when you messed up on what you were supposed to purchase and it threw things off. But the thing is that players would then learn from their mistake and then make sure that it wouldn't happen again in the future. Or make the same mistake again, which isn't a Blizzard problem that needs to be fixed, it's a player problem that they should recall their previous mishap and act on it while they can trade it back to the vendor. While we're on PvP....
Warmode
I have mixed feelings about warmode. I like the warmode incentives that are given and reap the rewards from it. But that's it really. It has nothing to do with faction imbalance or any of that stuff to me. What kills it for me is the sense of server community.
Not too long ago I was out in Vol'dun and ended up running into a guildy and we started doing World Quests together. We then attracted a group of 4 Horde and they killed us 3 times and it was clear that they wanted to just camp us. So I turned to the guild and we rallied together a squad to not only take them out, but to take over the World Quest area and then informed all the Alliance in the zone that we were taking over and to come complete the World Quest while they could.
That group from earlier then turned to the Group Finder and dropped a full CRZ raid on us shortly after and then bailed for us to never see them again because they were from a different realm.
How is that fun? CRZ and phasing is something that really hurts warmode. I can't tell you how many times I've been sitting in Boralus and heard about a city attack to only look around and find that I was in a different phase from the folks making that call in gchat. It's dumb, and it just further kills community.
I really don't have an answer as to what can be done because CRZ and phasing has been so embedded in the game that I'm not sure that it will ever go away. But I would love to see it go forever. It doesn't create a sense of community. Only frustration.
Shamans and Shadow Priests
There should never. EVER. Be an expansion launch that tells certain classes and specs to wait for a patch drop to become a viable and whole class. If there was a serious rehaul that needed happen you guys should have waited to drop BFA.
Nothing else here. Was very disappointed when this news came out.
Azerite Armor
There is no reason for Azerite to not drop in Mythic plus. Why do we have to wait every Tuesday for the chance of getting an Azerite piece due to random RNG. Possibly with traits I have no interest in getting whatsoever. It completely takes away the players ability to create a goal and then work toward it with some layer of RNG. But the thing is if I run several keys repeatedly, eventually it's going to drop and I'll get a sense of satisfaction from it.
Just put Azerite in Mythic + already. Please consider this and make it happen. You're making things harder than they need to be and it comes across as stingy!
To touch on a previous point, there's no reason to lock abilities behind the Azerite Neck ilvl other than increase playtime metrics. It makes Azerite drops unfulfilling when you get them then realize....
"Well dang. My neck ilvl isn't high enough so I don't get to use the abilities on it"
It just feels really bad.
ADDRESSED: And a fix that I think a lot can agree with. Now bring back PvP Vendors.
Link: https://us.battle.net/forums/en/wow/topic/20769667833#1
Master Loot
This made me mad when they announced this. This was something that was utilized to help gear your team to its optimal power. It had player control with some RNG. Now it's complete RNG and little to no control to help out players potentially falling behind on ilvls.
I don't believe at all that the status quo of top end raiding guilds was to cheat every single trial out of loot. That makes no sense at all because if every trial was being screwed how does a guild make it to the finish?
It also makes it extremely frustrating when going into Mythic and seeing something like Zul, Mythrax, and Gh'uun being killed from class stacking and not being able to feed gear to players that are looking to bring in those classes on alts for those encounters.
And before people say it was to slow down gearing for the World First race it didn't do jack. Method and other guilds still cleared the raid within 1-2 weeks of progression. So it didn't change anything.
If it's really that big of a hassle to use ML, then have it only be able to be done through guild only runs or have it be Mythic only. It's extremely frustrating to solely rely on RNG and a bad luck protection system.
World Defense
https://us.battle.net/forums/en/wow/topic/20752338547#post-1
We got lied to. I'm not meaning to be rude, but we straight up got lied to on this. We never heard of, or had any conformation on anything like this after the QA listed on the bottom. This one really riles me up because it was a big thing that hurt the RP PvP community side of the game.
So much for claiming and defending guild bases....
Conclusion
I'm sure there are things that I've missed but overall I'm disappointed with the xpac because it has potential to be good. The issues that are being brought up are ignored and we're being told to just deal with it or there's nothing you can do. Yes. Yes there is something you can do. Stop telling us about how you want to improve communications with us and just engage in conversation with us. The only person I've seen do this is Ythisens (who has been amazing by the way) but it's just not enough.
I know people are going to complain about the game regardless but there are some blatant things that BFA has brought that I feel should have been a conversation. I love World of Warcraft and I want to see it succeed. Some of my best memories come from playing this game, making friends, and creating some amazing experiences be it through PvP, PvE, or even RP.
Please listen to your playerbase Blizzard. Not just my post. I'm just 1 of over millions of players but we're telling you what we don't like.