So I like that Bliz is struggling with how to make “borrowed power” not feel terrible after the xpac is over - which it does! Legion artifacts being eliminated, corruption now eliminated; they should do what they wanted with SL - make the power only work IN the xpac - BUT they should have then gone and made that true for all xpacs.
So, for example, if I stroll into Legion content, I get back the FULL artifact that I earned and can use it (and legiondaries). So we then “earn” each xpac’s great things and still can use them whenever we go there - but not break the rest of the game.
That’s the way to solve this dilemma - allowing us to “unlock” each xpac and have fun - and also make each leveling experience totally legit like the original time we did them.
This would also give some value to doing multiple xpacs if you wanted to unlock more stuff (say you never did Legion on a toon) etc - this is a big change that would enhance the value of prior work.
The only reason it was acceptable in Legion is because they gave us so much lore and cool stuff to go along with the borrowed power. BFA’s borrowed power was garbage. All of it.
Reintroduce talent trees. There’s lots of potential in bringing back talent trees. Borrowed power systems exist to counter bloat. Bloat can be avoided by using talent trees. Every new expansion the developers can extend the talent trees and introduce new powers (and abilities when it’s absolutely necessary because bloat).
Well, i think they exist to make the game “different.” I rather enjoyed Legion artifacts, for example. Corruption could have been fun, if they didn’t “fun-gate” it so incredibly hardcore.
Because adding permanent power every x-pack would make the system impossible to maintain as well.
At least with borrowed power they get to start over at baseline and not worry about balancing in all the new permanent abilities.
They already have over 768 permanent skills to worry about. Then add in a few hundred for Legion plus a few hundred for BFA…we would be in the 1000s before SL even started.
Can we solve the borrowed power situation? I would say it shouldn’t have been in if it were to be removed like in legion, We worked hard to set up our artifacts and legendariies only to have sacrifice them in the end, brave and dramatic yes i agree . This set up a lose feeling which is a sense of defeat. This is also echoed in the same manner again in BFA when we used the azerite system with our heart of azeroth if they decide to lose it’s power.
By taking these powers and just cutting out of the game makes people just give up on even trying to play what they like even if it is a expansion or two old it is still something worth to them,rather than something for just looks and stored in their bank. i would love to have used them in timewalking and did save my old set pieces just for that as a memory to a time past but as it is now they sit there as a i stare at them ,completely a museum piece gather dust.
Ok. Think of the consequences of what you are asking for.
If everyone gets to use their Legion Artifact Weapon/Legendries forever that means every new player to the game has to get both the weapon and legendary items before they can even play new content.
This would also apply to every alt you make, plus every one of your off-specs if you hadn’t prepped for them before.
This would create and giant gateway into the game and would encourage people to not play.
This is why the expansion cycle works the way it does: every time players get reset, new/returning/alt players get an invitation to be on equal footing with people who spent 6 months grinding last tier.
Now maybe this feels bad to the people who spent 6 months grinding last tier! But it’s also absolutely necessary to the long-term health of the game that new players and alts be allowed to enter and not be 6 months behind.
If there’s no borrowed power, then prepare yourself to have 1 or 2 new skill at most per expansion with possibly them replacing other skills you had before. And you’re right back here complaining your character feels the same it did the previous 2 expansions.
This, 100%. And eventually, even this will lead to prune. Borrowed power fills alot of voids.
As was stated, the temporary nature means that new and returning players don’t need to replay old xpacs or risk being behind. It prevents ability bloat and future prunes. And probably most importantly, it passively soft nerfs content in a more manageable way, instead of having to just nerf everything by 30%.
How about designing classes and specs fully, then using these borrowed power systems to enhance those classes and specs. That way when the expansion ends we still have fully functional classes and specs. Your class and spec should be a solid foundation and able to stand on its own without anything bolted on to it. It would also solve the ability bloat issue by giving us new stuff every expansion, but since those enhancements would go away at the end of the expansion you don’t have the bloat issue.
Well glimmer is a really good example of them trying to change things around. It was so well received by the holy paladin community that it’s now a talent.
If it is well received then by all means add it as a talent to replace one that isn’t as popular. Still though, our classes and specs should be able to stand on their own without anything bolted on to them.
Have you heard of Path of Exile? If you have then you probably know about the passive tree. It is a massive tree that has so many options and possible routes that there is never one meta path. This is what I’m referring to when I say potential. I’m not saying bring back the exact version of the talent trees that existed in the past. That would be bad news. I’m saying that talent trees, if implemented correctly, could be the answer to these borrowed power systems. All it takes is a little imagination and an open mind.
Yes and min/max would have a fit if there wasn’t a dedicated elite path. If one path offered more damage over the next they would on there crying just like covenants.
