I mean, you can certainly keep any gear you want after the expansion ends, but it isn’t “power” at that point - it’s useless.
So, a whole expansion with one new talent? Or are you asking for multiple new talents per expansion, permanently, which get built on top of existing talents, adding more numbers and complexity bloat forever instead of a few systems per xpac?
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That doesn’t subtract from the fact that I choose when I change my gear, not Blizzard.
They really aren’t though, they are glorified gear. Content is dungeons, raids, quests, zones, and story it is never ever gear to me. So systems like this aren’t content, they are grinds and distractions. Even daily quests that require grind like turn in isn’t content… it’s just grind designed to extend the amount of time we play.
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Nonsense, of course Blizzard chooses. They are the ones putting the higher level mobs in the game. Did you think they just spawned from the ether?
I totally agree with this! Make classes and crafting matter again. Let me grind lootz not ‘powers’.
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Is Blizzard dragging gear off of my character and deleting it? Is Blizzard arbitrarily changing all my Intellect to Uselessium? Is Blizzard giving me -100% XP unless I take off my gear?
By your definitions, transmog, pet battling/collection, achievements aren’t content? I want to say PvP too since you didn’t specifically mention it, but I feel like that was an oversight rather than you not thinking that’s content.
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It was only the first two expansions that continued the vertical power progression. That was deemed unsustainable and we’ve been on borrowed power ever since. Sure it makes short term balance more difficult, but it makes long term balance and design much simpler.
Because eternal bloat is also bad (worse, in fact). That’s why the Great Pruning happened at all.
In order to prevent another Great Pruning, Blizzard is trying to make sure that they add and remove buttons in an approximately balanced way, and that includes systems that are deliberately designed to be temporary (although some of the particularly liked bits get kept anyway, like Glimmer).
This is exactly what Blizzard wants to avoid for WoW, because it leads to “Hi, new player, have fun trying to get your necessary drops from content that’s been obsolete for 5 years!”. I’ve played games that have that and it is hellish.
Uh, have you seen the designs of old raids? Did you participate in the anniversary raiding event? Old raids are awful compared to recent raids.
And you didn’t feel that way about Drustvar, Vol’dun and Nazmir? (Let alone Nazjatar – sure there were some annoying things about it, but it definitely felt epic.) Well, you do you, I guess. Tiragarde Sound was kinda basic but there were definitely some awesome zones this expansion. And I don’t doubt there will be next expansion too.
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I am actually not entirely close-minded to this point, because I think you’re right about power bloat happening. We do need new stuff each xpac, and 16 years in that can get nuts.
I just can’t get onboard with this approach they’ve taken though. It just sucks out all the fun.
Nope it’s collecting, not content
Raiding with leashes is, the rest is collecting or grind
Absolutely not content, they are just markers of content or grind you did.
I was deliberately avoiding it since it’s really its own thing and doesn’t usually factor in. But PvP gearing is grind. PvP itself is… PvP. It’s not content and it’s not grind.
For sure, I’m not a real fan of all the locks in place. I like being able to optimize my toon for the content I plan to tackle. Personally… I’d like them to delete soulbinds (or better yet turn them into bodyguards for out in the world!) and delete conduits. Just stick with legendaries, signature abilities, and covenant class abilities. And make those abilities an expansion themed new talent row.
That’s what I would do, but regardless… I still think SL is going to be fun.
Edit: delete conduits! not covenants! lol
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Ah, okay. Do you also want Blizzard to stop developing on everything you don’t consider content, then? I didn’t want to put words in your mouth, but you seem pretty clear. Because
To the exclusion of all else would make for a very unfun game.
You’re functionally getting -100% XP if you can’t kill anything because you refuse to take off past expansion pieces.
Tell me, how long did your Cata gear last you into MoP before you took it off? For me it was Dawn’s Blossom, which had vendor greens for every slot that was better than most of my raid gear. That’s a borrowed power system.
Not exclusively, but they are focusing right now it seems 70% gear/30% everything else. They could have made PvP better, they could have more and better content if they shifted priorities. But instead they are so hyper focused on a glorified trinket system that it is hurting literally everything else. There needs to be balance and they’ve swung the pendulum so far into gear that it’s stupid, and the result is that every expac they are throwing away hundreds of hours of dev time that they didn’t need to. That’s wasteful and unnecessary. In development you’re supposed to iterate not rewrite from scratch every time.
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And I like being able to play optimally in each content the game without dumb restrictions to lower my performance.
Then it’s essentially gone. Doesn’t matter at that point if it works in SL or not. If it only works there then it’s essentially gone within the next expansion.
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I was still wearing my 4pc set bonus until I needed to craft the frost resist for Naxx.
I just want a good story to be the focus again. Starting BfA by forcing a Tauren druid to burn a world tree and try to assassinate a hero fo the druidic orders was utter garbo. Following that with a long round about ramble that leaves me with Vol’jin’s urn in my bag was terrible. Ending it with 'oh hey we are done, sure that giant sword is still in the planet but it is just Azeroth going edgelord piercings!" is just depressing.
Covenants seem more like an iteration on the BFA systems than a complete rewrite to me, so I think our perspectives here just don’t line up. I can understand your view on the rest though ^^
The zones are nice, especially drustvar, however the system hoops that is the side game overshadows everything else. I would love to get caught up in the beauty of Drustvar but I have to do XYZ for the system requirements.
Also back in BC and WOLK you were engrossed in end game content in those pivital zones that meant they felt more alive. The story evolved in the zones. Once you finish leveling through a zone in BFA you are essentially done. Its a dead zone with the exception of WQ and picking weeds. The last two expansions took you to a new end game zone that was a hot mess and ppl generally don’t like being in more than they have to.
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