I don’t think this is a dumb argument at all. The very nature of this game is in character progression, not account progression. Sure they add a few things to remove tedium like pathfinder or rep tokens, but ultimately they rarely affect your character’s power progression. It’s not even comparable to forcing people to go through multiple raid tiers. That requires major time AND logistical commitments WITH a big group. Essences are literally a grind that for the most part, can be completed solo. Yes I am aware of CLF and C&S, but those are very clearly outliers and I suspect, overtuned. CLF was even nerfed to make it less mandatory so people don’t have to go back to EP.
Getting an essence off the bat completely removes a major component of your character’s progression. Yes it is a grind, it is not “fun” but it is progression content. I despise certain dungeons. Would it be okay if I just automatically get the exact piece of gear from it I need without even setting foot in there?
Finally, time gating character progression, apart from keeping players subscribed, is actually a necessary evil. I remember in WotLK when our guild was pushing for realm first we would regularly switch to alts on the fly. There was no attachment to any characters, we would simply swap to better performing classes and gear them within a week or two and put them in the main raid. In some instances I had less than 2 days /played at max level on characters who had more heroic kills than 90% of raiding mains on the realm and, most importantly, ZERO attachment to said toon. It is not a good thing.
I don’t care how many strong characters you have. You shouldn’t be able to skip a bunch of character progression and have stuff awarded to you for no logical reason though. I worked for all of my essences. Why should my alt all of a sudden get all of them for doing nothing?
Your boosted alts arent going to vanish into thin air the way essences are going to when the xpac ends. I never claimed im going to “beat” this xpac. Im not a CE player cause im not in a CE guild. It doesnt mean the xpac isnt over. I know how far I’m going to progress on my main, and i would like to enjoy playing other classes within the current content at a level that feels competitive to me. R3 essences would allow that for me, and would not hurt anybody else.
Make it so where theres only ONE character slot then. Simple. Take out alts altogether if as a company you expect your players to put in as much time on their alts as they do on their main to be at the same level. Every game i’ve ever played with multiple classes has had mechanics that make your alts an easier experience. Take out heirlooms too, that’s literally giving gear and power to your alts, the very same thing they’re claiming they dont want to do with essences. It’s all bullcrap.
They will both vanish exactly in the same way. Essences won’t do anything and my alts won’t be max level anymore.
So, like I said. If you skip half the game, then the xpac can be over day 1. If you aren’t going to raid, pvp, do dailies, or keys in SL then it’s already over for you.
Neither would mailing my alts gear to match the level of my main. But they don’t do that because that’s not how this game has ever worked.
Imagine saying the same thing for the pathfinder achievement.
There’s no character progression in half the essences since they are rep rewards. VoP and blood of the enemy I understand. But why gatekeep a rep essence? Or the MoLD essence?
I think you’re mistaking character progression for something else.
Why would I say the same thing about pathfinder? Pathfinder doesn’t give your character abilities that do more damage or healing. Pathfinder and essences are two completely different things.
Why gatekeep the rep essences or MoLD essences? Because New_Character_08 isn’t friends with so and so faction. Why would they sell you a rank 3 essence?
because BOEs are a thing. Imagine arguing that as a company you dont want to give players free power on their alts, but allow BOEs to be a thing. CORRUPTED BOEs for that matter.
its character power to character power. Who cares when it was introduced? its not consistent. Also Corruptions are on BOEs and that wasnt introduced day 1
