Hi, I expect this post to garner some love and hate, but I thought I’d share my thoughts anyway. The ultimate goal is to hopefully catch Blizzard’s eye, but really I just want my thoughts down on paper and to share them with others. The range of topics is vast, but all centered around PVE (I don’t PVP).
With that said, let’s begin!
Trading Post
First, let’s tackle the most recent evergreen addition to the game: the Trading Post. I think the concept is wonderful and the system has great potential. However, in the recent interview between the CC and some designers, it was said, “Anything that took skill back in the day isn’t something we want to add to the Trading Post.”
I can understand the logic there, although I’d be keenly interested to know how many players who earned those rewards when they were relevant are still playing the game. Nevertheless, that’s not really important. What is important is the Black Proto-Drake and the Plagued Proto-Drake. These were mentioned in the recent interview and were said they won’t touch them for the aforementioned reason. These mounts were in the game for about 6 months before being taken away as a reward–didn’t even survive the full WOTLK expansion.
The argument from Blizzard’s end is moot. These mounts were a reward from two meta-achievements that still exist in the game, and all other meta-achievement-related mounts remain obtainable in the game. I don’t believe “player skill” is a valid reason to keep these mounts off the Trading Post. In fact, I think they should be returned as rewards to the meta-achievements.
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Here are all the mounts I believe should be included in the Trading Post:
- “Old School Ride” mounts (e.g. Ancient Frostsaber)
- Fluorescent Green Mechanostrider
- Spectral Gryphon and Spectral Wind Rider
- Warlord’s Deathwheel (if the legal situation ever changes)
- Retired shop mounts (e.g. Armored Bloodwing)
- Promotional mounts (e.g. Primal Flamesaber)
- Retired RAF mounts (e.g. Obsidian Nightwing)
- Undercity Plaguebat and Teldrassil Hippogryph
Anniversary
My only note is that I believe the World of Warcraft anniversary event should be treated the same, in respect to cosmetics, as the event in the 1st generation Overwatch game. I think all anniversary events should be active every year, so players who missed the Obsidian Worldbreaker or the Core Hound can obtain them.
If there is a direct conflict (e.g. two events can’t occur simultaneously), then the older reward(s) should be placed on a vendor for Timewarped Badges.
Pet Battles
The QoL changes made to pet battles in 9.1.5 were fantastic, and I’m lovin’ the system. However, there was 1 thing missed: punishing players for hunting rare safari pets.
I don’t know what the % chance of seeing a rare-quality pet out in the wild is but it doesn’t feel great to enter a battle, not see a rare, forfeit the match, and lose 10% health on all active pets. I don’t enjoy expending bandages for this purpose. Yes, I know bandages are cheap, but I need my tokens for other purposes.
Please remove the 10% health loss after forfeiting a safari pet battle. I’d like to hunt rare-quality pets freely.
Mythic+
Please remove every affix except the seasonal affix. The designers are limited in what they can do with a seasonal affix because of the existence of the other affixes. Imagine being punished by Quaking just before you attempt to clear Thundering but your allies are too close, and so multiple players are clipped by Quaking and potentially perish. This is just the synergy between the seasonal affix and the existing affixes. Let’s discuss some examples of how the affixes synergize with dungeon mechanics.
A prime example of bad Quaking is the Static Spear ability in the last phase of Balakar Khan’s encounter. Imagine for a moment the entire party is gripped to the spear, then Quaking annihilates the party.
Another annoying example is High Channeler Ryvati in Ruby Life Pools is hardly moveable. On a week like Sanguine, it’s a bit more challenging to get the party NOT to kill the Warriors in the pack, dropping Sanguine (1-2 stacks) under Ryvati. She doesn’t move, and is now almost full health, if not full health, by the time Sanguine despawns.
My thought process here is if you re-tune the dungeons, give the dungeons a flat rating for completion (250 rating @ level 15 with 8 dungeons in the pool), remove all affixes except the seasonal affix, then more players will participate in Mythic+ and not be miserable every week.
These changes would make the mount accessible to more players, but I’m sure the struggle would still be there. Making a dungeon arbitrarily difficult simply because Fortified, Bursting, and Grievous are the week’s current affixes is really silly. I’d like to love Ruby Life Pools, but affixes make that exceptionally difficult. It’s already challenging in its own way when we have other elements (e.g. positioning) to deal with. I may not be able to position Kokia the same way one group to the next, I don’t want to worry about Tyrannical, Explosive, Quaking, Volcanic, etc. I want to worry about raw damage and health increases (from key level), a seasonal affix, and the dungeon’s mechanics.
Another great example is Temple of the Jade Serpent. Everything from Liu Flameheart trash to the last boss is just an uphill battle. The Minion of Doubt’s Dark Claw cast hurt the tank, the Haunting Sha’s Haunting Gaze cast is a brutal tank hit, the little shas in the area explode for a decent chunk of HP, the Mistweaver’s Touch of Ruin does a decent chunk of damage once healed off and their Defiling Mist cast is nasty damage, not to mention some of the healing reduction effects in the area. Then there’s the Jade Serpent Strike in the second phase of the Liu encounter. The healing absorb and damage of this ability is HUGE on Tyrannical.
Another change I think would be great is a player’s rating should be account-wide. If I want to start the season as a tank, then I decide I’m either terrible at tanking or want to heal instead, then I should be able to swap to an alt, gear it up, and start back in where I was. Of course, I wouldn’t get rating until I’m doing keys at or above where I was on my main.
I want to enjoy Mythic+ more than I do. I want to see more rewards associated to it. I want to see more participation.
Legacy Content
Revive legacy content such as the original Zul’Gurub and Zul’Aman raids. Add a Bronze Dragonflight NPC to the Ghostlands and Northern Stranglethorn, then when we travel back in time, we have access to the original instances and quests. The same can be said for original factions like the Shen’dralar and the Zandalar Tribe.
Reduce the respawn timer on some old rares like the Ghostly Pandaren Fisherman.
Can we make Legion, Battle for Azeroth, and Shadowlands dungeons and raids completely solo-able at level 70? I think, as a fresh 70, you should be able to CRUSH the content. I think waiting an arbitrary amount of time, then adding legacy scaling to older content is silly. There’s a noticeable difference between the scaling in Warlords of Draenor content (both non-instanced and instanced) and Legion content, and the difference there is what, 5-10 levels? Mythic Antorus and Mythic Hellfire Citadel should feel exactly the same to a level 70. I think the same could be said for Mythic Sepulcher and Mythic Hellfire Citadel, they should just feel the same to solo.
Legacy content is legacy content, let us farm it and play the game the way we want to! Please!
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I’m sure I have more, but I’d love to hear others’ thoughts. 
That seems a bit unfair. However, we’ll stick with the two that you disagree with.
not gonna go looking for vods so I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree. That’s just one post I knew off the top of my head, and he’s one of the best in the world.