TL:DR: All content and gear relevant, you can opt out of scaling except for size scaling, which automatically adjusts to your group size, and there is a difficulty for masochism so the rest of us don’t have to suffer from badly tuned content.
Back in the old days, you ran either a Dungeon or a Raid, and got stuff done.
I.E, BDA and M+ are separate from each other.
What if they didn’t have to be?
Hear me out. I want Blizzard to increase the amount of dungeons and raids by increasing the amount of instances available to play with for a wider audience.
It would kind of look like this:
- There are two formats of Dungeon, regular Dungeon (What used to be called just a dungeon, under the M+ System as it stands currently), and Megadungeon (Legion Kharazan, Mechagon, and Raids under the current system come to mind.)
- There are a whole host of features from legacy content that could be implemented. First, let’s get down to the toggles.
Beginner (Used to be Raid Finder, used for Leveling), Normal, Heroic, Mythic, and Mythic+ at the cap of either the current expansion or that particular expansion. World First Raiders would earn a difficulty called “Sport” after doing all content on Mythic+. “Sport” is where Cutting Edge/Keystone Master achievements would lie under the proposed system.
Megadungeon: Yes or No. Is Tempest Keep: The Eye at 355, or 385? If No, 355. If Yes, 385.
Scales to Cap: Yes, or No. Yes ensures the mobs are always at your level. No means the oneshot buff from two item squishes take place and you can breeze through the content, up to a certain point, as it stands currently.
Size is flexible from 1-40, no need to toggle that. The game will calculate if the group composition needs to change, I.E, do you need tanks/healers, or do you need all DPS?
Loot will be addressed in Bullet Point 3.
- I will be using BFD (Battle For/Of Dazar’alor) item level values for content going forward.
Beginner: Dungeons scale from lowest iLevel of that bracket to 340 at cap. Megadungeons reward 370.
Normal: 355 or 385.
Heroic: 370 or 400.
Mythic: 385 or 415.
Mythic+: Your goal is to reach Titanforge Cap, or 425 at the time of this writing. If a system is stated to not TF, like Azerite and now Weapons, that restriction is removed.
Achievements: So your group is a premade and coordinates toward an achievement. Remember Council of Elders from Terrace of Endless Spring in Pandaria, where if Protector Kaolan died last, gear would be labeled “Elite”? Kinda like that, in addition to bonuses such as higher WF/TF chance, WF/TF currency if that ever gets added, and Socket/Tertiaries and currency to buy those if that gets added in. You still get a chance to TF to 425 if lucky.
Scaling/Non-Event Timewalking: ALL GEAR IS USEFUL. Remember that one weird trinket in whatever expansion you loved? Imagine that at 425 with a socket and a tertiary. This would promote all manner of weird combinations and builds.
- A regular day in the new system:
I go to the Dungeon Finder, click “Random Timewalking Dungeon (Warlords of Draenor)”, select my difficulty of choice as long as it remained in the queue-able range, hit queue, and enter dungeon. I run the dungeon, get my fair share of 355’s, Disenchant into Luminous Shards, and call it a day. What’s this? Someone wanted to do an achievement? Sure. Suddenly, my item that would normally be a 355 is a 365+ item, and RNG had blessed me with at least a Socket and a pair of 380+ boots when I had received it.
Later, I wanted to queue up “Timewalking Raid: Tempest Keep: The Eye”. Unfortunately, I’m by myself. The good news is, I can solo it! I read guides on people in a similar situation to myself, and apply accordingly what needed to be done instead of being oneshot and flatout leaving the instance with a frown as it currently stands. What’s this? Ooh! A 415! Apparently I can solo this Megadungeon on Mythic, which is deemed rare but not impossible.
An average day for a “World First Raider”:
First, they would do split runs of every instance on Mythic or Mythic+ if they are blessed with that instance’s Keystone. (A new profession may be able to forge a Keystone to provide these guys a leg up and a quick buck to the Keystone maker.) Once they get their BIS, they would do a specific-to-them difficulty called “Sport”. A timer would be presented of the best time, which is calculated by using the formula “Blizzard Timer - World Record”. For example, 39 - Excess Time. A leaderboard would be calculated based on not only who did it first, but who did it fastest (39 - Excess Time Formula Example) and/or efficiently (least amount of deaths/wipes).
If there is any feedback on how to improve the idea, let me know.