Mage Tower Appearances Revival

Community General Discussion
#1

What I’m Proposing
An alternate, second chance, at being able to obtain Mage Tower Artifact Appearances!

Why I’m Proposing This!
I am a super invested World of Warcraft player that came back to the game in August 2019 (after leaving during the Cataclysm Pre-Patch). Since coming back to the game, I’ve had a TON to catch up on. The biggest heartache for me aside from missing out on tons of AOTC kills and various other awards, was the Mage Tower Artifact Weapon Appearances from Legion.

It took me a long time to even figure out how some players had these amazing flails or Druid man bear forms. Once I realized it was Legion content, I figured, “Cool! Let me just go back and grind out some old content.”

As most of you know this was not the case and I was super sad to realize they aren’t obtainable anymore. As a player that totally missed out on this opportunity, and would have committed a ton to the Challenges had I known about it at the time, I would love a second chance to earn these rewards. I just don’t feel like I’m a good enough bear tank when I can’t stand on my fists!

"Too Bad! You Missed Out!"
The obvious concern for enfranchised players who already have these rewards is that they earned something cool and exclusive. They deserve to flaunt that achievement and appearance to prove they were there, to prove they did the challenge. I don’t necessarily disagree with this. There’s a lot of us who play this game for the sense of achievement we get for doing difficult content and Blizzard really followed through on these appearances.

I think there is a middle ground or a solution here though, that allows new/returning players who missed out to prove themselves the same way you did. I think one of amazing things about our game is the limitless amount of challenge we can find in different systems. A revival of obtaining these artifact appearances SHOULD have an immense challenge for current 120 players.

Another appeal is the visual scarcity, or rarity of the appearances. It is the same feeling people get when someone is riding Invincible or a Season 3 Glad Mount! I think due to the number of players who actually have these appearances, the scarcity/rarity is actually pretty low, however. There is likely a minority of folks who didn’t get to play Legion and get these appearances and they are worn publicly enough that they don’t feel rare as is. These will essentially become the same as players who grind on 12 alts for 12 years for mounts like Invincible (I’m also that guy…) and Invincible sure hasn’t lost its appeal!

How I think Blizzard could go about this!
I want to propose a few ideas I had and potentially spark discussion for other ideas you all might have.

  1. Scale the Mage Tower challenges up to current BFA power level. Have the difficulty be mirrored to that of a 5 mask Horrific Vision. This is the lowest-cost in mind for Blizzard to do. It seems like the highest amount of upset for enfranchised players though.

  2. Annualize Suggestion 1. Players have one week every few months to get back in there and obtain their appearances. This will function similarly to the way our current holiday exclusives work, and maintains a level of you had to be there!

  3. Create a new colorway of the Mage Tower appearances exclusively for Horrific Visions. Perhaps make the others purchasable for Corrupted Mementos (priced similarly to the mount). This would further enhance doing current content/systems, while providing an enhanced reward to the feature!

Pros/Cons of Allowing the Mage Tower Appearances to Be Obtainable Again
Pros

  • Add to the catalog value of achievable rewards for new/returning players
  • Potentially reignite old/current content for folks who either missed out entirely, or have a few more classes to fill out with appearances
  • A FUN system can be brought back to make the game feel THAT much better
  • I can finally prove myself to all of you when I wipe us in a +15 Tol Dagor as a Druid on Two Paws

Cons

  • Players who once worked hard to achieve these appearances may feel their achievements are tarnished

What Do You Think?
Sorry if this is a broken record request! I tried to put some effort into this post and could probably spend more time proving out why I think this is a good change and not a bad. Please provide feedback that’s critical, or even your own ideas to allow for these appearances to return and maintain the value they have now!

11 Likes
#2

Awwwh shucks. My character defaulted to my classic toon for some reason :\

#3

no thanks

let’s get a new mage tower and new appearances though

17 Likes
#4

it is very confusing to me that players are still advocating for these appearances to remain locked away. i just will never understand that mentality, it’s been years

3 Likes
#5

NO
/10char

12 Likes
#6

new mage tower with new appearances.

7 Likes
#7

Visions are extremely easy compared to some mage tower challenges.

11 Likes
#8

I tried to address this in my post! I think there’s a lot of guarded feelings around wanting the content to feel exclusive. I think there comes a time to evaluate whether or not it is because it was challenging, or because you can’t get it anymore.

It makes sense to me, but I’m also more of the opinion with things where I want my friends and others to be able to work to achieve things. Removing access entirely feels forced and against the plethora of other difficult to obtain content in the game.

#9

Yes, please! I’m disabled and was never good enough to get any of the original ones, but I understand if folks who were would be disgruntled.

Perhaps we could get very similar appearances?

1 Like
#10

I think you are jaded by only listing one con.

#11

You really should at least try to come up with a compromise as to how to meet the people who earned things when they were relevant in the middle. You just tried to explain away why people shouldn’t feel that way, and it’s not a good pitch.

Like, keeping the original color palette or tint unavailable but remake the model in a different color at the very least. Some kind of variation so that people who earned things when they were current at least have that to show off.

5 Likes
#12

i have over half the appearances, i wont care if you sell them on a vendor for 1 copper. they arent prestigious anymore, they were prestigious for maybe one raid tier, if that.

4 Likes
#13

I honestly had issues figuring them out. I’d love to generate a conversation around this, however. I’m a game developer, just not at Blizzard. I understand the woes to an extent, but not necessarily the viewpoints of someone who does have these appearances!

#14

I think this is a great idea. I played during Legion and tried my hand at the Mage Tower challenge a bunch but never had success due to the fact that I was playing on an awful Macbook that was like 8 years old, the frames made it extremely difficult. I would love a second, or third, chance to get the transmog I really really want. Your ideas would make implementing this very simple and the only people who might have a problem - well suck it up? You’ve had a rare appearance for years and we understand you were able to do something difficult but - shouldn’t we all get a chance to prove we have the ability to complete the challenges the game has to offer?

Thanks for your post.

4 Likes
#15

The Mage Tower was designed around the talents, spells, gear (including legendaries), artifact weapons and the level of the player in Legion. You can’t experience what we experienced unless you bring back all that I listed, not just “scale it to level.”

Also, like I say in every thread like this, you don’t get a participation trophy unless you participate. And no, trophies don’t get backdated. You just need to earn the new one when it comes out.

It’s been a year and a half :roll_eyes:

5 Likes
#16

They could easily create unique challenge modes in Torghast. In order to provide another chance at getting the unique artifact skins, plus new skins.

1 Like
#17

Then

  1. Items lose their rarity. Nothing becomes sacred as you can just get it later.

  2. Encourages people not to stay subbed because everything can be earned in their time.

  3. Time. Slapping a normalization of stats won’t bring the challenge to it for some classes and would take development time to scale properly.

That’s just off the top of my head.

4 Likes
#18

That’s a great point. I hastily pulled together this post and definitely should have put more point into the other side and I’m sorry for that!

I think introducing a new title, or reserving one of the appearances to be just for the time seems like a fair counter balance. Even a special mount for those who got the Feat of Strength. I definitely DO NOT want to remove the feeling of luster and achievement from those who were there. I just want to garner a new opportunity for folks to get them now! :slight_smile:

1 Like
#19

a year and a half since their release? feels like years

regardless, they were prestigious for a month, and they no longer are.

#20

No the last day you could get them. BfA dropped in… August? Ok so 22 months (almost 2 years.)

1 Like