I see a lot of people discussing this all over. And there are a lot of varried opinions on the topic, but there is one common thread that ties them together. This is that affixes be it all or some, make the game less fun to play.
While I see the point in changing the variety in the M+ system, but affixes were designed during a time where the M+ dungeons were the same line-up for the entire expansion. They forced variety. While I see the idea of keeping things feeling fresh week to week, in most cases for me, its just looking at what unfun things I will have to deal with. And in the case of some affixes, which specs/classes I wont be playing that week.
With how M+ dungeons endlessly scale, and the seasonal rotation, I think affixes can go away for the most part. Tyrannical/Fortified while two of the most dull affixes and, by and large irritating are honestly the most straight forward, and can stay. This alternates the week to week feel.
Also seasonal affixes can stay. They can keep in line (Even though Thundering is meh) with the kiss/curse theme. Where doing the affix right can give you a buff. Encrypted, Tormented, Shrouded and Awakened are good examples to different degrees.
Prideful was a good concept, but the precise nature of spawning one, made min/maxing the route too important, and punished too hard when the wrong route was taken.
In my opinion, all the other affixes range from ignore completely, to irritating to frustrating. Some affixes punish casting classes too much and result in even further pushing the melee/meta. Volcanic, Quaking, Storming. These three, simply cause the person to stop their cast and move. Simple concept, but it really proves to be frustrating. Especially when popping CDs and trying to burst. You cannot time your burst around them. They just happen.
Affixes like Spiteful just keep you in combat. And again, can cause you to have to stop what you are doing an move/run. They are easy to deal with using stuns, fears, roots ect. But with the amount of interrupts and CC needed on trash in the new dungeons, they can eat your resources.
Then the mechanics which just limit the group arbitrarily. Bolstering, Explosive, Bursting. These affixes just reduce how much you can pull. They arent fun to deal with, and in the case of bolstering, it gives mobs more health to burn off. And explosive is a little RNG and can just spawn a flood of orbs that everyone needs to swap targets and pop.
Sanguine. This one can go in the trash. Especially now, with the amount of mobs that that chain cast or charge then chain cast. Many that cannot be interrupted or feared and need to be pushed out. And in dungeons with hallways or tight areas, Sanguine is just utterly unfun to deal with.
I can go on and on about the affixes and how they arent really working out anymore. But I want to mention the combinations. Certain combinations of affixes, just make the game unfun to play. There are “completion” weeks. Where people just want to complete keys, and not try to push, because the affixes make the dungeons too punishing.
And in my opinion, if you have a system in the game where it actively makes your players not want to play the game, then that is a bad system and needs to be removed or changed drastically.
