So I’ve played very sparingly since the release of bfa. Came back yesterday from a month break roughly and played some arena with friends; we played some ret /warrior / r sham. My ret friend was explaining to me how he finally got his traits (on his alt) and how game changing they are. The traits specifically buff his mastery when he uses wings which gives him incredible burst. From his perspective the traits are game breaking to not have. (this is just one example of broken traits stacked, i’m sure there are many more out there)
I still don’t understand why blizzard doesn’t want a more balanced / fair system of rated play. Historically blizzard has had “questionable” balancing issues throughout arena’s existence, how more so now with RNG (both azerite procs and rng of gear awarded) thrown into the pot.
I understand the argument of “it’s an MMO”, this is just my opinion after all, but I think blizzard just does a terrible job. I personally LOVED the template system since it created the fairest skill based play of all, not saying we have to go back to that since there is a hidden system already in place for balancing pvp, just advocating for the removal of azerite traits in pvp while allowing 2ndary stats to still be customizable as a compromise.
Gear shouldn’t matter at all in a pvp skill based setting, it’s honestly so dumb. The neckbeards that say ‘it’s an MMO of course it should matter’ are enabling blizzard to make all these bad pvp decisions…
Honestly I think what makes the RNG behind azerite traits worse is that we’re only locked a set amount chances of them per week. We only get one mythic cachs, and one PvP cache that MAY drop an azerite trait but still could drop so many other items.
That’s been my biggest gripe, we can’t actually farm the azerite pieces even if we wanted to. Every time you do a Mythic+ you’re locked ot of getting azerite pieces from a drop, and can only get other pieces from the loot pool. Same with arenas, only other random items. Ok cool, but then your weekly cache can contain pieces of gear that are actually farmable from both of those pieces of content, limiting your already small chances of getting an azerite piece let alone the right one.
Also for PvP the gearing wouldn’t even be so bad with guarenteed stuff if we could actually just get warlord trophies instead of battleborn sigils. Or give us a way to upgrade those sigils. I have 18 battleborn sigils in my inventory, and one week our guarenteed piece was a challenger warlords trophy. I don’t really have any upgrade possibilities in sight besides praying on insane RNG to get BiS non azerite pieces. Sockets and titanforging are also frustrating to deal with imo, and lead you to feel dissappointed that you didn’t titanforge or get a socket with a piece - but when you do it also feels pretty silly as well. The satisfaction isn’t there imo.
I like having gems available but I prefer the older versions of gemming that was guarenteed. And for titanforging I wish it was just like we could get an RNG chance of our piece of gear on being maxed iLvL, but if not we could still do something to upgrade it to that higher iLvL instead of hoping to get another one (think WoD JC rings that had multiple tiers I guess). If titanforging a piece would make it say 5/5 on upgrades, and maybe gladiator or mythic level content pieces could be a 3 or 4/5 baseline, and other content at the lower tiers and then give us the ability to upgrade it would be much more satisfying.
Azerites biggest issue though imo isn’t even how big its impact is, it’s that there is such a low chance of getting it. Losing my chance on an Azerite piece to a random farmable piece of gear is incredibly frustrating. A clear gearing path would make me happier, even if it was more of a grind. At least some way to know I can achieve BiS after putting in enough time instead of relying on luck.
This azerite system was one of the dumbest additions to the game. The concept behind it is not all bad, but the execution … man … RNG over RNG and absolutely no chance to have all traits on all pieces (even via RNG) available from all sources (both PVP and PVE) is what killed it for me.
Being obligated to run PVE every single week and hope for a piece of gear to drop from the only boss who can drop that crap, only to make my class/spec viable in rated PVP matches?!?! Tell me how stupid is this design?
I don’t think it’s a dying genre at all. The game had a much larger playerbase when traditional RPG elements were still a core part of the game and classes still had their unique identities. IMO, the shift to the bring the player, not the class design philosophy in Cataclysm started the homgenization trend and it’s why this game’s gone downhill despite a brief uptick in quality during late MoP. Couple that with across the board pruning and you’ve essentially dumpstered all semblance of class identity and fun.
My class is the vehicle I drive to experience the world they’ve created, and right now that vehicle sucks. Blizzard needs to get down to brass tacks and really rework all classes into a playable state with the next expansion and abandon this idiot tier augmenting system where you’re essentially gimped without X, Y, Z legendary and/or trait. Make classes feel whole and stand on their own two feet and people will have fun again.
If they don’t, I think it’s only a matter of time before some studio comes along that really gets it and takes this market from them.
Yeah I agree, I’m just outlining the frustrations of the system, also not much help for PvP in terms of Azerite (need from cache still or warlods trophy to upgrade to proper ilvl, not satisfying).
Dilly, that was an incredibly good response! That is a compromise I could 100% live and be satisfied with allowing players the decision to choose which traits to use on a farmable scale. The other point you mentioned about titan/warforging and gem sockets i whole hardheartedly agree with too and would love to see changed if able.
Now, I’ve had a negative view of blizzard for a LONG time, and not much will change that; but a difficult reality for me is how little they seem to care about what’s actually good for the competitiveness of the game vs. their RNG scheme as a whole.
Just imagine the added layer of RNG we’re gonna get with the 5th ring… now instead of looking for that 1 trait to get your BiS, you’re going to be looking for that combination of two BiS traits (the trait you want in the 5th ring, AND the trait you want in the 4th ring). We’re literally going to see EXPONENTIALLY worse RNG next season.
without Azerite traits we would just be a bunch of pruned monkeys running at eachother in arena, like Dilly said, the problem isnt the traits themselves but how hard it is to get them
of course there are some over the top traits but most of them are either tuned or removed with 8.1
I agree and disagree. Yea the time gating sucks. Yea, If you have bad rng youll just be bad all season which sucks. The flip side is that if they werent so strong the only thing you would have to worry about was player skill and ilvl. Making the game less tilting and way more engaging(minus class design being awful). Youd probably have more player retention too.
Then there is the classes that no amount of trait stacking/acquiring helps. The whole system is bad and needs to be removed or curtailed while they make the classes work well with out the traits
Azerite traits are cool in the sense that you can “build sets” for different occasions, the issue is just not having more PvP sets tied to vendors so we have an easy way to access these items.
PvE traits and Trinkets (no other slots) should be reduced by 90% in PvP, and every spec should have a vendor with 5 helms, 5 shoulders and 5 chests to choose from.
I really enjoy logging onto my holy paladin and having the option to use Judgement damage Traits when I play with my rogue friend in 2v2, or to use traits that heal me when I’m stunned to counter comps like PMR. But when I log onto my Horde paladin, and all those options are removed, it really feels punishing and makes the game feel like it has a lack customization.
Traits as a concept add in a level of customization that helps flush out classes and a bit with the skill cap, knowing what traits to use when or vs what, but yea, the way Azerite is acquired is just bonkers.
What’s even worst is blizzard saying they need to “test vendors” out in PvE before such a dramatic change can come to PvP. Like we didn’t have vendors for the last 12 years lol, that had to be a joke, right?
Maybe dumb question, but why do they care how long you’re logged in if they’re still receiving money from your sub? Just a numbers brag to investors to indicate interest or is there some other gain?
It’s weekly gating. Some Azerite PvE (dungeon) items can only come from your weekly Mythic+ chest, and that’s all tied to RNG.
Says there’s a helm that drops from Freehold with a trait you want, and that’s the only way to get it. You have to run a Mythic+10 and hope the item you get out of the chest is that Helm. There’s a long list of items it could be and hence why they are introducing a currency for Mythic+ players.
Similar, some Azerite PvP items can only come from your weekly chest, and again, that’s all tied to RNG.
For at least 3 weeks I have gotten trinkets out of my Chest. If I want my helm, I got to keep coming back week after week, (monthly subscription) and hope that it drops next time.
[quote=“Dillon-sargeras, post:5, topic:38856, full:true”]
Honestly I think what makes the RNG behind azerite traits worse is that we’re only locked a set amount chances of them per week. [/quote]
Why did you sell your opinions for greentext. Azerite traits shouldn’t exist in any form. If a spec needs XYZ trait they should simply have it as their class. We have this crazy thing for customizing your character right now, it’s called talents.
Apparently they changed how Activision gauges the game. Instead of going off subs to indicate the state of their game, they go off of time played. Now we’re all miserable being forced to play this game hours upon hours on end to get those best traits or grinding AP.