Dear Blizzard and WoW lovers,
So WoW has said that in Forever we will Forever be Level 60? Or We will Forever be in Azeroth only? The idea of vertical progression is rooted in levelling, but that means character levels. The other issue is new gear and better gear, now is that vertical or horizontal? I think it can be both.
I think the Blizzcon discussion around keeping gear relevant means that they want to slow the rate at which gear from T1,T2, and T3 become redundant.
So the problem properly defined is “How do you keep the game interesting without increasing level caps, and without increasing gear power, such that you need to have an item level squish every time you bring out new content?”
Solution: Introduce a loot system that requires drops/shards/essences from bosses that drop from new raids - and old ones too - and those “essences” can be crafted into both new and existing crafting designs. So this means a few things then:
- You have a T1 piece of gear from a previous raid e.g. Ragnaros Plate Chestpiece
- You fight a new content boss that is T3 or T4 equivalent
- You receive an “essence” (or you could require 2 or 3 of these essences) and you have to take these to a Blacksmith who opens their Blacksmith screen with a section for you to drop your existing gear in and your essences, you are agree on terms (e.g. you can pay him in gold or murloc eyes or whatever)
- The Blacksmith re-crafts the new gear with imbued essences and lifts its item level.
- Instantly your crafting professions such as Blacksmithing, Leatherworking and Tailoring (and Engineering) become relevant again, and for crafting BiS gear.
- The entire game across all gear can function through this. Isn’t it a bit stupid that a boss has fully functional gear dropping in pristine state? At very least make it that they have to be repaired or restored through imbuing. You could allow people to use the item immediately after drop but in a damaged or reduced state, but recrafting/restoring/imbuing will improve it to BiS.
- What this also does is allow for old bosses to drop certain essences, and maybe combinations are required for certain crafts or recrafts.
- This system would also overcome the transmog problem because people could keep their items with whatever properties and just improve them using essences. You could call them “Essences of Azeroth” and they have different colors with different attributes - similar to how jewelcrafting works in retail.
- This system would also give massive customisation that many players loved from being able to change secondary stats (not sure when it was during catalyst or legion you could change secondary stats)
- I think crafting should be at the centre of BiS gear and I think essences should be tradeable on the AH so people who want to craft can get BiS gear, the whole point of classic+/forever was to give people who dont necessarily want to be hardcore raiders, to just make the best gear and not have to raid day in day out.
- Keep in mind most of the criticism from the community are Retail players who are hardcore PvE and want more content to raid. Those people will be gone from Forever in 2-3 months. The people who will stay, the people who left retail (and classic) after the first 2-3 years, are the people who want more crafting, more from fishing, more from cooking, and just want to PvP a a bit, and raid a bit. The people who are posting for “Progression” in WoW Forever will be complaining now and in 2 months when they have cleared the raid content and have it on farm.
Please Blizzard listen to what I have suggested, I have recruited about 6 offline friends new to WoW, and they have brought about 4 to 5 friends, each. What will keep us coming back is interaction. Introducing Enchanting vellums is convenient for a solo player, but it kills interaction. Vellums should be tradeable and on a cooldown timer, similar to Arcanite or Mooncloth. Make people interract with each other, make them form guilds. Be part of something.
I played the original Orcs v Humans as a kid, I played Tides of Darkness and Reign of Death/Frozen Throne. I missed WoW release and started in 2006 just after BC released. I raided realm firsts in 2008 in Wrath, deleted my account, restarted 1 month of Cata, completely missed Panda and WoD, played for 1 month again for Legion, BFA, and then PvP 2200+ on SL and played Classic until BC released. Have played not more than 2-3 months each of DF, WWI, and Midnight. The same pattern emerges every time.
I have been involved in Ui/UX, games testing, design and development for over 17 years now, and I can tell you what I see as a user from what you dont see or know once you deploy a game.
Blizzard Team, if you are listening, you only care about making money off us, well I have ideas that can help you, but remember what made WoW so popular was its community, the community that was not toxic. The campsites are a start, but you have to listen to your community.