So borrowed power seems to be a wow exclusive term and I’ve become pretty interested in the idea and why people hate the concept so much.
From what I understand, borrowed power are systems that make your character stronger, that are designed to expire either at patch end or xpac end or I guess whenever really.
People seem to not like it because it feels like a waste of time and effort. Or maybe some other people don’t like being forced into it.
But it confuses me because isn’t everything in this game meant to expire and change?
No one is rocking gear from SL anymore because even the bad DF stuff is better. Your talent build from last xpac doesn’t even exist anymore. Hell your talent build from beginning of xpac might not work as well anymore.
So what isn’t borrowed? When you have to re gear and re learn your character every patch what’s the problem with a more powerful system that expires at the same time as everything else? Personally I would be interested in a “dragon soul” or some dumb trinket with a skill tree to f around with in DF.
I think the real issue was the daily grind or difficulty in respeccing these borrowed power systems. I never played during those times unfortunately but that’s what I’ve seen from other players talking about it.
It seems as if borrowed power gets too much flak when the real culprit is mandatory busywork or too much upkeep. Of course I’d like to hear what more experienced players have to say about it.
While gear would technically count as borrowed power, I think people usually use the term to refer to things that fundamentally alter the way their character is played. Whether they be active abilities or passive, things like your covenant soulbinds or Legion artifact weapon provided a ton of unique abilities that we simply don’t have anymore. The loss of those abilities is felt pretty keenly the second you move on to the next expansion and all you have is your spellbook once again.
There’s clearly a cutoff threshold for how much “borrowed power” the player base can stomach. Tier sets are an acceptable part of borrowed power and even something the player base tends to get excited about.
why dont people understand that when people mean borrowered power they mean insane power gains outside of the conventional gearing methods…
notice how when people mention borrowed power it’s only in reference to artifact weps, crucible, azerite power, essences, corruption, covenant abilities, dom shards, that stupid neck from forgotten reach, etc.
That makes sense, I forgot the actives on the artifacts or covenants.
Losing a square on your hotbar has gotta hurt way more than doing comparatively less dps.
I know that some skills got put into the talent trees from SL right? Like I know on my priest mindgames was from that. Maybe they could do that? But I could also see that making trees super bloated super fast.
Unless you’re being obtuse and/or arguing in bad faith, it’s generally understood that when people say “borrowed power,” they mean artifact weapons, legendaries, HoA, corruption, covenant power, etc…
It’s a given that replacing gear with higher-stat gear is a staple in rpg’s, and is functionally similar/consistent every expansion.
Gear is enough ‘borrowed’ power.
personally Id like to keep it contained to that instead of adding more.
But I spose if it fits the context of the expansion well enough, the legion weapon, for example. But then again, the weapon was gear.
Its the conduits and the like that I could do without.
The difference is gear Ilvl always go up. It is a core idea of the game, you kill things you get better gear. A new expansion doesn’t reinvent this wheel, it just keeps it rolling.
Your class is expected to have certain spells and abilities, a frost mage will always have frostbolt from expansion to expansion.
Now MY problem with the expansion-feature-temporary abilities is that they become the core progression of the expansion, they add new abilities that homogenize all classes and everyone now has this mandatory chore to maintain to be competitive.
Progression should always be about killing things and getting better gear. New Abilities should only come from class rework(new talents, change how a talent work, talent removed). Chores should be optional for reputation/professions.
This is what we have in Dragonflight, you can just focus on raiding because there is no power tied to a mandatory system that will exist only during the expansion where all your efforts will be left behind in your bank as a powerless artefact of your old dedication.
It’s also the fact that the redesign that comes with borrowed power results in some classes or specs losing abilities that were integrated into the latest greatest borrowed power system and not getting them back.
It’s parasitic development. You’re broken when the prepatch comes around, and you have to earn back what was taken from you, if you get it back at all.
Yes, it sucks if its gone esp. when you like certain abilities or spells. Not really, the core abilities of the character itself never expire or change.
Also because borrowed power has such a huge impact on classes. Without it, they’re nothing. And when your borrowed power ends after an expansion, everything that had to do with it ends. As a result, that interim where players realize this really gets to them. And Blizzard isn’t the quickest to fix or balance the lack of it either, they don’t spend resources on it so its even more hated as a result.
There’s also the fact that it requires insane amounts of grinding. You’re lucky that you didn’t play during those expansions. Sit and grind it out for hours, days, weeks, months not once but on multiple characters for them to be valid in any type of content. Wait till you ask yourself, what are you really doing? Are you having fun farming out stuff for borrowed power instead of actually playing the aspect of the game you really enjoy? That’s it.
Is this in response to me? I have been playing wow since the end of mop. I played Legion from week 1, came to BfA mid-expansion, and Shadowlands toward the end (when the free offer happened).
Honestly? We’re not really playing a true RPG, so yes. It’s all borrowed power.
Your skills and abilities? Meaningless, they’re deleted and reworked at the end of every expansion.
Your professions? Again, meaningless. Their form and application changes every expansion.
Your gear? Even more meaningless. It’s replaced every content patch.
Your character’s level and raw power? Meaningless. It will be whatever the developers need it to be to keep the game running. If they want to squish your level and stats? So be it. If they want to buff all the npc’s to create a “more challenging experience” then too bad if you don’t like it even if they effectively just wasted dozens of hours worth of your time.
