Artifacts were powered up via getting Artifact Power which was obtained by doing WQs, M+, Heroic dungeons, raids and maybe PvP I think I don’t know I didn’t PvP?
Class Halls were just mission tables. They took about 5 minutes of your time (+/- 15 minutes of traveling and loading screens to/from your Class Hall).
Heart of Azeroth was like artifacts where you obtained Azerite Power by doing WQs, M+, Heroic dungeons, raids and maybe PvP I think I don’t know either because I still didn’t PvP?
Covenants had a Renown grind that you obtain by doing WQs, M+, Heroic dungeons, raids and maybe PvP I think I don’t know either because I definitely didn’t PvP?
Wrathion Cape IIRC was upgraded by doing a solo scenario and is really the closest thing we can say is actual solo content with progression. (Though, it wasn’t open world, so I’m not sure if that is a big deal or not…)
I miss when battlegrounds had reputations and gear/tabards attached to them.
Made PvP feel moreso a part of the real world instead of instanced content.
Wonder why they stopped after Vanilla, like TBC doesn’t have a rep for EoTS or anything, and going forward they stopped entirely.
They never gave a reasoning for this, as far as I know. Maybe it’s because they shifted focus over to arena pvp (gross).
Except the world PvP zones like Tol’barad and Ashran, but those were mixed bags. Still prefer battlegrounds to those, in terms of gameplay.
Imo, a battleground better illustrates what an MMORPG is for.
You got your frontlines/melee/tanks, healers/support, backline/ranged, and some leaders calling out directions. It felt like a raid, and against other players instead of a scripted boss fight, stuff like that was always epic to me.
Which makes me wonder why they (Blizzard) were so quick to abandon 'em. Epic BGs were always a lot of fun.
Actually, some crafed gear was on par with raid gear, and some world epics were BIS, so I don’t think you’re quite right on this one. The Lionheart helm was BIS for furry warriors, and that didn’t require any dungeon grinding. Some of the rep rewards were on par with raid level gear. MoP had some pretty decent rep gear that was on par with the first raid tier.
The game has always tried to provide content for non-instance players.
Everybody is entitled to their own opinion, but for me SL was the worst in WoW history. While I have found some to be excellent (Legion) I have found the others to be more or less tolerable. Prior to SL Cata was at the bottom, but still remains a close competitor with SL.
True, but you could acquire a decent amount of gear without raiding in the past. I can do some research if you would like. I don’t have the time right at this moment. There was actually a lot of decent gear that could be acquired without have to do instance content.
All the borrowed power systems were bad, but only SL had it so some power was in one place and not the other. For Warrior our AoE was in one covenant, single target in another. It was a bad system.
Probably because it’s incredibly difficult to balance BGs. There’s a reason why they abandoned 5v5 arenas, and I would guess it most likely has to do with the sheer number of permutations of specs they would have had to balance around. BGs are just that on steroids.
They had more then this too them. They also had story quests, some player power rewards, and a lot of cosmetics you could unlock all expansion. Based on what you did with them. You also got Order resources from almost anything. Making every task feel rewarding in the Xpac.
Exactly, EVERY single piece of content and gameplay you did, you got rewarded for. You got power increases, or you were able to level up to the next stage of your Travel Network or Covenant Mini-game.
Heck, one of my favorite things still is going to Ardenweald on a new toon, and leveling the Anima Conductor, to see how it changes the overworld, to look like the forest is coming back to life.
It was also doable as a group, I did them with my Fiance a LOT, and we enjoyed them. The progression in the open world, also gave us an advantage for M+ or the Raid if we went to do it.
Current WoW doesn’t provide ANY outside progression really beyond M+ or the Raid.
Like in previous Xpacs, I could do a simple World Quest, maybe get 50 AP, Order Resources, or Anima. That I could then use for player power, cosmetics, or convenience unlocks. Like travelling faster around a SL zone. Or Mage Portals through the entire Broken Isles.
It provided a level of Roleplay and Immersion, that was very rewarding. With the added benefit of knowing that if I felt like playing WoW. I could log onto my favorite toon, and just have fun in the Open World at end game, knowing EVERYTHING I did mattered and was helping me progress.
That is NOT how DF was designed, and I hardly play this Xpac because of it.
They’ve only ever been benefits honestly. Because the entire expansion you could get more powerful and feel like you were making progress just by playing the game.
This was the only real downfall. You had to Pick ONE covenant for powers until they opened it up. It should’ve been you pick the power you want, then you pick the aesthetic you want. So players got to feel like they were making an RPG choice.
Personally I thought they meant progression in the game. Not just for gearing in a sense of like ilvl.
I’m an open world player and I have no complaints about what I’ve gotten, been able to do, etc… it’s been great but I also know that the game has a very diminished pop count and that part of the reason for these very fun things being added is to encourage existing open world players as well as newer players to try out mythics, raiding, etc…
I also don’t mind that but I know I wouldn’t exactly be a benefit to a group much. I’m just old now.
It sucks sometimes.
No because of censorship. Forums, ingame chat are not easy to use for talking really.
Discord may be but Idk as I don’t use it and I don’t run group content so can’t comment on that.
I agree with the rest of your post. Blizzard has made mistakes but they’ve also made improvements.
I counted them up and I’ve had 18 RL friends play WoW at some point that I’ve known.
They have all quit over the years, and 0 have moved to another MMO. They either game less, or just play mostly console or single player games. To them WoW was just another fun game to play for a while then move on from.
Huh, Wrath had a ton of great crafted gear, and decent rep gear.
I don’t get this revisionist history here of the past versions of the game?
The game always had decent progression paths for players that didn’t run instance content. Sure, it wasn’t BIS, but a lot of players didn’t care about that.
I don’t think it is silly to want character progression outside of instance content. MMO doesn’t mean you have to stuck group content.
