This is on Wowhead from 17hrs ago. Why within The Maw? Exalted also? Does Blizzard know The Maw is getting more negative feedback than positive? At any given time, The Maw isn’t as packed with hundreds of thousands players running around gathering Stygia and completing quests, no, it’s more of a simple “get in and get out” content. If you stay within The Maw until you reach Tier 4 or 5, you’re pretty much dead at the point and you need to wait for daily reset to reset the Eye of the jailer Tiers. The Maw is more of a side content than main. Sure, The Maw initially has you go through to complete certain items/quests to open Torghast and free the Runecarver, after that, all you need to do is Torghast for “end” content to obtain Soul Ash to craft your legendries. Myself, I barely go into The Maw after I’ve awakened the Runecarver, there’s really no point except the weekly boss there who can drop 190 ilvl items but that’s mainly for BoE farmers. The Maw isn’t for everyone and since players can’t mount within The Maw, it’s becoming less and less interesting for player to keep playing that content, but if you like spending time there, that’s up to you, but to put a “Socket” behind side content rather than main is just disappointing. Blizzard could of done so much better with this. At least in BFA, you can grind main content for socket currency to obtain a socket from Wrathion.
Has Blizzard even thought about enabling “Covenants” to offer sockets to be purchasable through Covenant reputation and Anima currency? Why just ONE avenue of obtaining a socket? I’m certain that had to be discussed at the round table. What about adding a socket choice at the Runecarver since you’re pretty much there crafting your legendries anyway? Soul Ash exchanged for Socket would be better in my opinion, so not only will you have a legendary but with a socket already there!! One and done!! It’s a no brainer! That’s way more appealing than running within The Maw exhausting your Eye of the Jailer Tiers just for a measly 100 rep. Especially how slow the rep grind is within The Maw, a whopping 100 rep from quests/weekly content and that’s pretty much it. Do you know how long it will take players to reach Exalted in The Maw? Has Blizzard account for that? I’m half way to Revered with Venthyr and could easily obtain a Socket from my Covenant when I reach Exalted. You see now? Why does socketing need to be put behind a lengthy reputation? It makes that much sense to put it behind Covenants since that’s what the majority of the player base is playing.
Most players play the MAIN content which is your covenants building rep and Anima reservoir. So, why lock Sockets behind side content? Is this another stab from BFA repeat with Visions…seems like it to me. The only difference is, the currency is from the Maw ONLY!! With Visions, you can obtain Corrupted Mementoes through the MAIN content with Weekly Assaults from Uldum and Vale. You don’t get Stygia from world content in Shadowlands, ONLY The Maw. Do you all see what’s happening now? This is pretty much gating your character upgrades behind secondary content that is underlying relatable main content for you to progress through gear.
This is also from WoWhead in retrospective from the Morale Suppression Team:
This change doubles the amount of reputation required with Ven’ari in order to players to get their sockets, from 21000 total rep to 42000.
In the long run, this change won’t really have a large impact on players besides delaying how long they can start farming for sockets. Before, players could expect to unlock the ability to get sockets by their third week of questing in the Maw. Now, the ability will take around six weeks or more.
That six weeks or more is also based on everyday grind until you reach Eye of the Jailer Tier 5 where you’re not surviving at all. The Maw is currently not a favored content but you’ll put a dangling carrot in front of The Maw for players to feel compelled to play the content anyway. Very disappointing.