The problem with Azerite

Community General Discussion
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Hi. So, I know this topic has been discussed a number of times, but since the last QnA and the admission of the system being a pretty big issue, I wanted to bring criticism and suggestions forward on this whole… system. I’m going to be open and say that no, I’m not a fan of Azerite and how it works right now.

Criticism

  1. So this is basically never brought up, I feel like. There’s been questions asked and brushed off (In my opinion) in one of the past QnA. That is, the cost of resetting your azerite traits. I feel as though many are unsatisfied with the response, and to me, the response that “well you should keep more gear in your bags, it should cost a ton to reset” isn’t all excellent and wonderful. When we had tier in Legion, at least, say I had all four pieces and got my effects. I could switch specs, and my effects would change to that spec. There was no need to buy any sort of change. Sure–I had to keep pieces like rings, or trinkets, or off-pieces in my bags. But azerite is supposed to “Replace” tier (and is doing a terrible job of it, by the way.) Tier was important, you always worked for those effects in raiding. Completing that set was the core of your character when it came to PvE content. You didn’t have to hold different pieces of tier in your bags–but you do for azerite. Therefore, the extremely high cost of changing makes no sense because it used to cost nothing in the first place. Hence why so many are mad.
  2. This system is entirely lackluster. With Legion, we had abilities catered to our specs. A “complicated” talent tree(ok, moreso than now.)! Cool abilities to work for, in some cases. With this system…
    “Oh, look. Gutripper. Well, that’s the best one over most others. Ok.”

“Oh look, Power Overwhelming (or whatever). Supposedly this is the best for what I’m supposed to be doing.”

Yes. I get that we already min/max. But with practically every trait being very similar in most classes and specs, it’s really lackluster and silly. Sure, there’s a one-off ability exclusive to that spec. Awesome. But it was nothing like the Legion artifact weapon by a longshot. This system is lackluster and, sorry, very boring.

  1. Why exactly do we need it to expand all the way to three other azerite pieces? The legendary system was fine aside from the RNG. The biggest issue was the RNG. If we had some pieces to work for that had legendary effects, and could apply or work for two of them, that would be great. Yes, again, people will min/max, but again, things change based on situations. Which is ANOTHER reason why the huge cost to change things is nonsense, lately.

  2. Nothing to work for. At all. No appearances, no special challenges. Just… meh. With artifacts, we had things to go for. Mogs and such. Yes, I get the big complaint was “oh but I am now stuck with this weapon, this stinks.” Moving to a necklace is a great idea! Except… now, we have nothing to work for, not at all, and again, it’s really boring.

I’m sure there’s way more that I’m missing. Others can feel free to bring up what they dislike and would like to see changed. But these are my thoughts, post QnA.

Suggestions:
Oh boy, here we go. I suppose there’s a need for me to say this now, judging by how this post is going. But if you don’t like a suggestion–that’s great and perfectly understandable. Point out what you don’t like, why you don’t like it, and such like that. That’s how a discussion is supposed to go.

  1. So, here’s an odd thought. Get rid of chest, shoulder, and helm that have the silly artifact wheels.

Give us the traits, trees, on two rings–wait wait, don’t kill me people, I’m not done. These rings would power up with our necklace and have two talent trees–the talent tree end results would be one of the legendary effects for your spec from legion (they even could be modified). This way, you’d have your two that you did in Legion. WITHOUT THE RNG. You could pick different paths based on what you want to do. If you mess up, hey, you should have to pay a little to change it, but certainly not a ridiculous amount. Do I think a huge change like this will happen? Of course not. But I might as well bring it up.
2. A less drastic change. But, put a bit more work into making the stuff… I don’t know… unique. These traits have so little variation and I’m not excited in selecting practically any of them. The “WHOOSH LOOK AT WATER GO BY MY HEAD, WOO!” thing is fun, yeah. Ok. But a spec specific effect would be nice, and refreshing. And more than just a few one-off things. I’m talking back to when artifact weapons were a thing, and we had much larger variation.
3. Have artifact traits swap when you switch specs. That’s right. Just like with tier. If I’m in blood, I should be able to choose different spots on my rings, that would swap when I go to frost (that I also could choose and would save for my spec). Again–this is what tier did in Legion, I don’t understand why it’s such a hard thing to do now. People are clearly upset about this and the QnA, in my opinion, did not give a satisfying answer.
4. Give us something to work for. This artifact power gain stuff is extremely boring. There’s nothing exciting about AP. It was back in Legion, when it was fresh and new. There’s no mogs to work for, not appearances or effects. So here’s my examples of what could be added:
a) I don’t know, a glow you could toggle that is based off of your spec.
b) Spec specific wings, only for looks.
c) Spell effect changes. Like greenfire. I’m aware this requires tons of work. This would be our “challenge” this expansion, in that case.
d) Neck/ring/trinket mogs
e) you get my point.
5. Bring back reforging. No, really. Or even currency to reforge even better. Reforging is something people enjoyed quite a bit. Being able to change out stats that are really useless shouldn’t be a bad thing. Make it cost some sort of currency, or something, to perfect your gear. But for goodness sakes, it would reduce RNG.
6. PvP vendors are a hot topic that I support, I don’t really think I need to elaborate here on it.

Edit: Gods forbid I make suggestions on the forums, which is what they’re used for. If you don’t like it, at least suggest your own rather than just plain mudslinging. It isn’t that hard to do.

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No no, you’re absolutely right. That’s why Blizzard is revamping the entire system. So let’s move on to solving real problems like slavery or human sacrifice or speculating about where the sun goes at night. No point in beating a dead horse on the Azerite subject.

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Could have SWORN this was a video game forum and that’s completely having nothing to do with anything here about said game. Also could have sworn the forums were here for bringing up ideas and suggestions especially after it’s still an issue being brought up.

And people wonder why they don’t listen to the forums and are doing so badly. This right here is the answer.

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But what about the Tanaan Apexis farm? That’s a slog. And I think Ragnaros in MC is currently overtuned. And the Booty Bay guards. Amirite? Let’s focus on something that actually matters instead of debating a system that is totally changing in a few months.

This debate is as useful as discussing what color to paint a barn that’s on fire.

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The problem with the Azerite system is that it has way too many moving parts to be any good. It’s always going to be chaos, by nature. What I would recommend is making Azerite gear more like tier. But Blizzard is standing by Azerite and the traits, etc so that 100% won’t happen. Just saying they could’ve done tier instead of the Azerite system and more people would’ve been pleased with BFA.

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Gallywix isn’t gonna like this…Shh

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Thank you very much Solar. I tried to put a good foot forward and give my suggestions. It’s a shame that rather than people give their own suggestions, they jump right into saying ridiculous nonsense and trying to mudsling.

I’m aware that not every idea is going to be liked. And I tried to suggest people give their own, but thus far no one that’s actually tossed and insult has done so.

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This is the root of the problem. Blizzard went ham on the artifact weapon in Legion. They noticed it did relatively well. Now they have to one up themselves. They tried to do it with Azerite. It flopped. But it’s too late, the trigger’s been pulled. Blizzard is stubborn, they will not change their minds because the decision has been made. The problem with the Azerite system is that it’s too complex - not the traits themselves, but the actual system.

I pray that they don’t try to one up this system in the next expansion where there’s twice as many moving pieces and three times the traits the four times the complexity. They should chill out and bring back tier. It’s a way more fulfilling, satisfying gaming experience to just collect and use tier.

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No matter how you or I look at this … Azerite armor is a failed system and Blizzard will never admit to it! it’s beyond failed IMO and I’d rather have just normal armor no tier set vs. this BS we have now

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Don’t bother with Crowlay. I made a thread a while back about why the mission table was spamming me with rep tokens for factions I was exalted with back in 8.0 before paragon caches and it was completely sidetracked. He basically derailed the entire thread with vague, useless anecdotes about slipping on banana peels. I’m pretty sure it’s just Ion trolling on the Alliance alt he claims he doesn’t have.

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Posts like this are prime examples of why GD is a terrible place for feedback.

You just can’t win. No matter what you try to suggest people will tear it apart within minutes.

Try to point out something you think is wrong with the game, people dismiss it in the most rude ways imaginable.

Try to give suggestions, you just get met with hostility and people questioning your mental health.

I do resonate with some of the ideas here. And PVP vendors is something a lot of people want.

Btw there is an Items and Classes forum, with decent traffic but dev posts there are few and far between. Might not be a bad place to repost this - the community there is a lot more receptive to ideas and feedback than GD is.

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It really just seems more that they cannot just pull it. I imagine developing an armor system take quite a bit of time. They make adjustments and at this point I suspect that’s the best we can expect. Hopefully they are, at the same time, completely revamping or abandoning this system for the next expansion.

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If they haven’t noticed yet, they’ll notice by next expansion that tier sets are a god send in comparison to Azerite.

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I agree. Yes, I can be snarky sometimes… you saw it. And I apologize. But that bit was just over the top. I can’t side with Blizzard (which I do a lot), because I’m a “White knight”. I can’t point out what I dislike right now, because then I’m a “useless forum poster that shouldn’t say anything because she’s not a raider”.

I could very well hide my profile, but am I about to do so? No, because I refuse to hide just because some would like to be rude. I’m not giving mythic raiding advice, or suggesting changes on the mythic raiding scene. I’m trying to discuss a system that encompasses all of us, not just raiders. Yet somehow nothing I say matters. Ah well. I tried.

Thanks for the suggestion though! I might take you up on that eventually.

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Pfft… shame on you! :unamused:

And when are you coming to discord? :heart_eyes:

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the azerite system was suppose to make up for us losing tier sets, legendaries and artifacts. and it has failed at it.

like stated, tier sets used to adjust based on specs, legendaries had annoying RNG on them, but you never lost the benefits once you got them. artifacts had a clear progression that, again, you couldn’t lose once acquired.

one of my biggest frustrations is the lack of spec swapping with azerite, they made the QoL changes in the past to make main stats, tier, etc swap based on specs, but they neglected it with azerite.

and i’m pretty sure its solely to make people put more time into chasing good traits for their off specs. but i’m pretty sure all its accomplished is making people less likely to take up their off specs, which i believe is one of the major reasons leading to lack of Tank/healer roles in group content.

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No worries… seriously, and nothing wrong with defending your stance on things.

I like to think that most of the people here who aren’t receptive to feedback and lash out just don’t know what it’s like to be eaten alive for sharing an opinion on something. Some people only lurk in comments and try to make a mockery of thread creators.

Everyone thinks differently too. I can be critical of the game but I’ll also white knight when certain things are brought up. Sometimes people think I’m some monster for thinking some part of the game is terrible and needs work but I know for a fact that even they don’t think everything is great.

WoW is always a work in progress. Even Blizz representatives have come out and said they aren’t happy with the state of the game and things are being worked on and discussed.

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One of the major issues is, if I see something wrong with the game and want to improve it, people think I despise Blizzard. But that’s the opposite of true. I’m still subbed, I still play a lot and collect. I’m leveling up toons, have plenty to do, and don’t see BfA as the worst thing in the world.

But I don’t let my love of the game blind me, and I really would like to see others having fun as well. I am aware that many see issues, and I myself am unhappy with a few things. I’m not someone just raging about this and that on the forums, I want to see the game flourish, and want to see the game happy. It really is a shame though that as soon as I do try to come out with some suggestions, people say things like that. Which is expected, but I’m not going to sit here and let it pass. I’m going to point out nonsense and rudeness when I see it.

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Cool story. You don’t like it, and at this point, I don’t care about what you think, like you don’t care about what I do.

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Azerite was a mistake. Along with the grind that they’re enforcing along with it. Who thought it was a good idea to do the AP grind again after how much it was hated in Legion?

Who thought it was a good idea for us to lose traits that we were using while leveling?

Who seriously thought that this was worth removing tier sets over? And while yeah it was frustrating having to work around the 2p/4p in terms of gearing, it at least switched up how you played in the current raid. These traits are just random dps or buff procs.