The difference is I didn’t feel like the game was a complete chore during Legion, but I do now. Also, the game is way less rewarding for my gameplay.
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Gotta wonder if Blizzard isn’t secretly playing the long game and trying to “New Coke” Warcraft.
The only time re-inventing the wheel works is big class and spec changes. When they do this, it makes all our chars feel fresh and new. Right now we are largely playing the specs the exact same way that we did all of BfA. After playing a spec for going on 3 years, having pretty much the same rotation and talents feels bland.
Which is why I think I am enjoying my shadow priest over my other classes.
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After I completed KSM I can’t get myself to play the game, except doing 4 dungeons per week, there is no loot improvement, anima is super starved that I am not motivated to farm it. For now I am just taking a look at the classic WoW. Let’s see…
That is also one of the big things. We don’t have character progression we have xpac system progression. All of that resets next xpac as they reinvent what they want to progress. I personally rather have a little bit of persistent character progression then a lot of xpac progression. Instead Blizzard has been regressing charactors.
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I get what you’re saying but I think it’s less that they can’t make it into a great one but rather people don’t want to deal with the bad parts between when they already pointed out the bad parts during beta.
Further blizzard going back on one of the expansion features (customization) really leaves a bad taste in one’s mouth.
It’s really more about faith in blizzard at this point being honest or able to deliver on promises and expansion completion.
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People seriously stop needing to call things “alt unfriendly”. Alts are NOT mains. The fact people have been crying for catchup mechanics a month into the expansion for “alts” is rediculous. They are ALTS. They don’t need to be the same gear ilvl, unlocked progression etc. as your main. If you need it to be then they are not called alts.
Well, we did have character progression until the “brilliant” idea to make nearly every zone in the game adjust to your level so you feel no more powerful than you did ten levels ago.
This is a great point. Legion had the AP grind. But it directly correlated to our chars power. As we continually did the grind, we got incrementally stronger. There was a linear progression path. A reason to keep doing it.
Azerite took this system and tried to make it even more of a time sync. And it failed miserably and took an entire expansion to iron out the wrinkles of it being broken.
Shadowlands doesnt have that progression. Conduits get stronger each upgrade, but they are largely passive and bland.
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I think that’s kind of what they meant the conduit system to be like, but not only is it really limited, it doesn’t feel like its having anything near the impact the artifact weapon had.
I like to play multiple characters at the heroic raid level. That is the difficulty I like to play at. I like being able to get several chars to that level. I may “Main” 3 or 4 different characters at that level during a patch.
And we call them alts. Alts is short for Alternate Character. It has nothing to do with them being weaker, or less geared. Or that they should be weaker or less geared.
Additionally, what about re-rolls? They arent alts. That is a person deciding to primarily play a new character as they are not enjoying their current one. They shouldnt catch up mechanics?
Here’s the problem right now.
Either we get 9.1 early and it’s a more broken mess than 9.0 was at launch, or we get it later and maybe it’s not.
Maybe.
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AND…the artifact weapon, as much as I disliked it, had enough personality to still be able to enjoy the game.
Azerite crap ISNT the same as the weapon was. Not even in the same galaxy.
bliz somehow got the impression from Legion that grinding numbers = fun.
Uh…no…it isnt. The artifact weapon had its own life. Azerite gear was boring and dead. Not interesting. Not fun.
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Legion didn’t start this rough. Nothing has except for Warlords and I would argue that’s still a better expansion than Shadowlands is.
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Not to hijack the thread, but with the Covenant renown coming to an end this coming week…until much later…what are they going to do? That is one carrot gone.
I suspect a .5 patch is on the way that will add more renown levels within 2 weeks.
.5 will probably drop the week before the six months lapse.
Personally, I disagree with OP.
I think Legion started out fantastic
It was generally excellent all the way through. Definitely one of the best expansions. Some of the features that worked great at launch:
- Dynamic zone phasing and level scaling in zones. These did the following:
- For the first time in a WoW expansion you could level anywhere except the final end zone (Surumar). You weren’t restricted to 1 or 2 starter level zones.
- Also, wherever you went you saw other players doing things. This was a stark contrast to other expansions where most zones were completely dead and you were the only one around.
- World Quests were added - these were far more varied and interesting than the daily quests from prior expansions.
- Warforging added - personally, I think this was the best new feature added to the game since flight in BC. This one feature kept players interested in and playing otherwise obsolete content. Both casual players and mythic players could still do any of the game’s activities and have at least a small hope for an upgrade due to this feature.
- Artifact was very cool.
- Legendaries were a mixed bag.
- It was fun to do content and hope for a good one to drop, but it sucked when you got a bad one.
- Also they seriously detracted from the ability to level alts or even an off-spec.
I think the worst expansion at launch was BFA:
BFA had so many broken and poorly done things at launch. Truly awful. Especially coming after the masterpiece that was Legion.
- Azerite system sucked in that you could not equip new higher ilevel gear due to azerite traits being locked on it.
- Island expeditions seemed pointless at launch
- Warfronts were only interesting the first time.
- Buffs/nerfs - This was the biggest problem with BFA in its first 6 months. Every 2 or 3 weeks Blizzard would come out with massive buffs and nerfs via hotfix, mostly to azerite traits.
- The result was the BiS azerite you just spent weeks working towards were suddenly worst-in-slot.
- This led to a feeling that nothing was permanent. It felt like the game was playing you rather than the other way around.
- Blizzard devs appeared to have completely forgotten the lessons of old: that players hate massive buffs/nerfs mid-expansion. It took the first 6-12 months of BFA for them to relearn those lessons.
Shadowlands?
The jury is still out on SL as we’re still early in the expansion. My opinion:
- Definitely better than BFA at this point by a lot.
- Dungeons are fun
- Covenant system is ok
- Maw is boring. Feels a lot like some of the content patch quest zones from prior expansions. Very much a “been there done that”.
-
Removal of warforging - horrible decision on Blizzard’s part. We’re early enough in the expansion that it’s not so noticeable yet. But very soon players will reach a point where they will run out of content they are capable of doing to upgrade their character.
- In the last 2 expansions that was ok. They could still look forward to a rare warforge. In SL, they’ll have nothing to do and will be bored.
- Personally, I think this one feature removal could be enough to sink SL from a “good” expansion to a “poor” one, by the end of the expansion cycle.
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Dynamic zone phasing and level scaling in zones. These did the following:
For the first time in a WoW expansion you quest objective will disappear as you approach it.
because…
World Quests were added - these were just as mundane and tedious if not more than prior expansions.
not to mention can’t not auto-accept causing voiceovers…over voiceovers of actual stroryline progression quests I’m on. . literally 2 voices talking at the same time at you sometimes 3.
Can’t untrack so you have 3 quest boundry lines and obj point cluttering your minimap. I’m literally standing at an obj(right now) in broken iisle’ that disappears everytime i try to engage it because of this phasing and world quest trash.
I would argue SL is super alt unfriendly. Yeah, you can level it quick, you can catch up on anima and reknown but god forbid you actually want to play any higher than casual because the gear situation is horrible.