A friend of mine and I have been talking about ways to possibly revitalize World of Warcraft, and think we have possibly come up with an idea that many players would appreciate. I would like to hear the input of other players.
Imagine if every bit of raid content ever released was scaled to be relevant at max level(keeping the option to run at the original level for the sake of transmog runs). The ideal way (in my opinion) to have this work, would be to have one difficulty of every raid. No normal/heroic/mythic. Rather, it would progress as it did naturally during the expansion it belongs to. If you are a more fresh max level character looking to start raiding, you might start with Karazhan, or maybe Molten Core(remaining a 40 man) or Bastion of Twilight. The next tier within the expansion would naturally progress in difficulty as well as item level of drops, just as it would have when it was relevant content. Meaning if you are in the middle of the pack as far as progression, you should be looking to do Serpentshrine Cavern, Ulduar, or similar tiered raids. And “end-game” raiders would be doing things such as Black Temple, Sunwell, Icecrown Citadel, current new raid content, etc.
Alongside every raid becoming viable again, and having a natural feeling of progression as it did in the past, there could be many currencies to give relevance to even things that you have personally progressed past. Each expansion’s worth of raids could drop a currency that is universal to that expansion and is able to be spent on specific rewards that coincide with that expansion’s raids. That way, maybe you are progressed enough to be clearing the hardest raids, but you’ll still go help out a group that’s progressing through an easier raid, because you are benefiting as well.
New storyline content and new raid content would continue to be created, and there would be incentive to be “cutting edge,” with the best drops and most challenging encounters being the newest additions.
I believe this would be a way to appeal to players new and old, and would give life to a massive world that is really so beautiful, but often gets forgotten.
Imagine opening your dungeon finder tool, or gasp making a group on your own server, and seeing groups forming for anything you could possibly want to do. Don’t have much time? Hop into a Gruul’s Lair or Al’Akir run. Don’t want to try very hard but still have a good time and progress your character? Join a lower tier raid that you have out-progressed and enjoy helping other people while still benefiting yourself.
Don’t want to do any old content? That’s fine too, just do what you’ve always done and just keep up with the newest content. However for any of the people who maybe didn’t progress all the way through an xpac at cutting edge, or maybe even didn’t play years ago when it was relevant, this would be new content to them.
Why shouldn’t a group of people be able to progress through old tiers again when the content is still there and is still great?
I realize it would be hard to get the gear scaling proper, and it would be a lot of content with what some may consider “too many” options, but in the end you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to.
Just want to put the idea out there and see what other players think. If you don’t like the idea try to at least be objective. Personally I would enjoy everything that I’ve mentioned, and I have been playing the game a very long time and have played at both a world class level and an extremely casual level.