People complained about Korthia and the ilevel back when it was current. M+ and raiders complained it was a bad system.
But did anyone think to ask the open world casuals what they wanted? Because most I know did have issues with some aspects of how Korthia gearing worked… but for the most part, were content with the long term progression system it gave them and engagement time.
Yet we ended up with a worse system in ZM that wasn’t engaging, was too short, didn’t give us equivalent pieces for some slots and we had no sense of progression this time around.
Why? None of the open world players I know asked for lower ilevel slots. None of the open world players I know wanted to be bored after a month with no sense of progression.
So why are the M+ and raiders dictating what happens with our open world content? It doesn’t affect them of we get the highest Normal ilevel in every slot months after they’re decked out in Heroic and Mythic raid gear. It doesn’t affect them if we have our own slow progression path to keep us engaged.
So season 4 adds 252 weapons. Yet everyone else— including LFR— will have a much higher ilevel to work towards. We get no new ranks in the Cypher system. Nothing new for us to progress towards. Just stuck with the same ilevel of things.
What open world player piddled in your Cheerios, Blizz?
Editing to add this part of a much later comment to give an idea of what I’m personally looking for:
For me, a more refined version of Korthia is what I’m looking for.
gear with a ranking system: something that I can upgrade slowly over time, through the course of the entire season (Normal ilevel is fine, it’ll take forever to get there)
questing in the form of everything: storylines, but don’t make them tied to things, just let them exist; daily quests because I like the repetition; world quests because it mixes things up and they should reward rep and cosmetics/pets/toys/fun stuff
rep that people can grind in some way: maybe through repeatable quests, certain mobs like we had on TI, and through some sort of events
weekly events in the zone: not just some weekly bar quest to fill, I’m talking about events, like fun things that take place in a different area of that zone, say dragon race week, dragon training week, or something along those lines to give more of a mix up and interest in things that will reward cosmetics and rep
Do not tie player power for raiders and PvPers to the zone: that needs to stop. Cosmetics and fun things should be the goal there. The gearing system is irrelevant to progression players, but the zone should only be fun for them, not a requirement for player power
When I think of more ideas, I’ll add them. But that’s the basic premise of what I think would be more engaging for people and last us all season to keep us engaged and have our own progression.
I’m not sure what that is. What’s an “open world player?” A solo player? There are fewer of those than Mythic raiders lol. If it’s not a solo player, an open world player is literally anyone that engages with the open world.
Someone who mostly runs open world content, that’s where the majority of their gear and progression comes from. They can still do that as a group, they might run a dungeon every once in a while, but they don’t run raids or M+ on a consistent basis and don’t use it as a main gearing path, because they just don’t enjoy it.
Edited for clarification for the people who keep nitpicking wording and can’t have a real conversation about the actual topic.
M+/Raiders weren’t complaining about the korthia gear. M+/Raiders were complaining about how archivist codex rep was mandatory as the only guaranteed socket/conduit source.
Bored players can’t be a motive for Blizzard changing the game. The changes would be endless if that was attempted. Boredom has to be a personal issue and those who face it must face it in many aspects of their lives, not just WoW.
I see it a lot in these forums and, it is kind of strange that it is presented as an element of being superior, it is difficult to entertain such a person when it is a sure handicap and a pitiful one. Even worse, coming to the forums to declare how bored you are: astonishing!
I can see normal raiders complaining that it was too good (mindless grinding giving 233 gear when to get 233 from raid, you had to kill KT or Sylvanas), but if you were a heroic or mythic raider, you were getting better gear from M+ before it was even possible to unlock R5/R6 of the korthia gear
It’s not. Most people do not depend on gearing up in Zerith Mortis. Even on Moonguard if you go around and inspect people, most people have gear from somewhere else. Thallia seems to think m+, raiding and pvp are very unpopular and that the majority of the player base is just a solo player. There’s no way that’s the case or Blizzard wouldn’t bother with these other systems so much.
I didn’t move goalposts. It’s people like me. This isn’t rocket science. Instead of trying to be dismissive and argue semantics, why not try to have an actual discussion about the topic?
Go look back through posts from when Korthia was first open.
They should make it like Timeless Isle. Remember when you spent a lot of time on Timeless Isle, and were rewarded really good gear for it if you killed rares? You didn’t get the best gear, but you got some high ilvl stuff enough to step foot into heroic Siege of Orgrimmar without tier pieces, and I think you could even upgrade it to mythic ilvl too. Not sure.