My 7-year-old’s response to the question, “Hey, why aren’t you playing your paladin anymore? He’s level 60.”
The words, the look on his face, said it all. All in one phrase from a boy who loves this game. It was no longer fun to play a level 60 character. It was chore, and therefore not a game anymore.
I couldn’t even respond because he was right. ‘Work’ in a game is supposed to be fun. Not feel like chores.
This is good insight because unlike BFA or Legion, we had a separate currency for various things in-base (order resources or war resources) but it seems like Anima is playing both that war resource role (mission table and in-base upgrades/research) and AP (with regards to at least the covenant armor upgrades). Hopefully valor will help replace some of this concept.
Yeah, i’m always running low on the stuff even though i have done very little in the way of upgrades to my covenant systems, the gains are just too low so it leads to me playing less.
My 9 year old son stopped playing also because “getting anima is boring and you need to much of it”. I couldn’t disagree with him.
I want to feel like anima comes in a natural way as I play the game. It doesn’t every feel like that. It feels like a chore to get it. And you need for some many things and the cost of things is so high, it is discouraging. And my son figured that out and hence doesn’t want to play anymore.
My hunter is Night Fae and I got really excited about the Queen’s Conservatory. Until I started doing it. The more I did it, the more discouraged I got. Here’s this super cool puzzley type area that can give me some neat resources and I can’t even play with it. The sheer amount of anima it will take to unlock it all is discouraging. And what little I’ve done with it so far isn’t rewarding. It feels like a waste of time. Just let me PLAY THE GAME. Stop making me do chores to unlock stuff. Or at least make PLAYING the Conservatory UNLOCK the conservatory. Make gaining REP with the Mushroom unlock the mushroom. Make doing the anima conductor, unlock the anima conductor. Make doing the command table, unlock the command table. Getting anima to unlock all these features is discouraging. WHY IS THIS GAME I LIKE SO MUCH SUDDENLY MAKING ME FEEL LIKE LOGGING ON IS LIKE A JOB, NOT RECREATION?!
Anima isn’t even close. It needs x10 or x50 boost at least.
It’s the dumbest thing in the world to restrict, too. Ion literally just went -> “casuals like sinking time into cosmetics. Let’s get them to sink an entire expansion into 2 armor recolors and a mount.”
I think he’s incapable of understanding what’s wrong with it, too. Like he literally cannot understand why people don’t LOVE the idea of grinding 1.6M anima 35 at a time from 15 minute world quests.
Inb4 people somehow start defending the ridiculous anima situation
Someone already did.
I leveled a second toon to 60 to see another covenant story. Once I was done with that I’ve pretty much sat her. The thought of grinding all the anima I need again to open her covenant goodies and upgrade her gear is daunting especially since my main doesn’t have everything unlocked and has none of the cosmetics. And I’ve been playing the main all expansion. Anima isn’t fun the way AP was in (later) Legion. In BFA AP felt like a natural biproduct of gameplay. Anima is flawed, like the Path and Purpose.
I think you make a good point here. I wouldn’t mind anima even at current pace if it ONLY went to armor tints, pets, mounts, and illusions.
But having it serve the war resource role was a mistake. Sanctum upgrades, gear upgrades (not looks, but ilvl increases to covenant gear pieces), healing troops, etc. should not be using anima.
I’d rather spend the nite with a bunch of Victoria’s Secret models than collect anima 
mmos are for adults
That bad, eh? 
I stopped collecting it but I do understand how painful it is for collectors that want to obtain all the transmog pieces. My guess is that Blizzard will slowly increase how much we earn until it no longer feels like a grind.
Can’t really say I don’t agree with him, I hardly upgrade my stuff and I still barely have anima left on my main, let alone my alts lol
I’m not really bothering farming it though, since I plan to take a long break from this game by the time my game time runs out (which sadly is only by may, 2), by the time I’m back anima will probably be plentiful and have like 10 different catchup options (a person can dream, I am right?)
funny, where are the elitist trolls telling us to suck it up, put in the time and work for your loots. Oh yeah it isn’t M+ or raiding so it should come to you for free. Grinders and casuals have been farming and working and putting in the hours for this stuff. demanding it it come easier cheapens their efforts. suck it up put in the time and work for your loots.
Now… While I agree anima is a bit short? I think this is more a parent issue, or ignorance on their behalf.
I play with my niece, one reason I’m fairly “casual” atm. When she said there wasn’t enough anima, or the gear “Sucked 
” I lifted a brow and checked myself. On this character, you will see I haven’t played much, have maxed out Covenant gear, many of the anima cosmetics, Covenant boosts. And I play only a couple hours a day.
I showed my niece instead, how to get anima during this horrible drought. But how?! Well, chests galore, WQ’s, World Bosses, Dungeons etc. And, the gear she wasn’t finding, was because her renown wasn’t high enough to unlock it. I explained the renown system, and how to get 3-5 renown quickly in a week or even more.
So, if you treat it like a chore? Yes, it’s a chore. If you instead get the most you can each week and day, then do other things like TC or Torghast, or Dungeons or PvP? Then it’s just normal gaming.
It is a chore. I’m guessing his 7 year old is not pushing M+. There’s only 1 world boss a week that awards 250 anima (so about 1/20th the cost of one cosmetic item). Chests sometimes give 5 anima, lol. At best, they give 30 anima. It’s garbage.
This is the crux of it for me… Unlocking it fully takes far too long. Let’s just look at the rewards from the garden. I would have loved all the extra things while I was leveling professions, for example. But it’s too little too late. By the time I unlock the garden enough to get anything I don’t need what it gives me and certainly the tiny amounts it gives are pointless to a character which has been playing long enough they have gathered all they need in passing.
The covenant unlockables aren’t really much fun in their beginning stages and cost far too much to even bother with given the tiny trickle of anima we’re given. I’m never going to get enough anima to get later stages until the expansion is almost over and, at that point, who cares?? These things should be available WHILE THE EXPANSION IS CURRENT. That is NOW, Blizzard. Not a year from now. 
And no… There is nothing fun about grinding anima. However, unless you do, you’re not going to get anything to play with in the covenant. It absolutely IS discouraging. I’m already ignoring it with a “maybe I’ll have enough at some point” and putting it on the back burner.
IMHO Acti-Blizz really mis-judged their playerbase, and the bean counters took over from the devs.