So as most of us all know in Shadowlands we will be getting yet another borrowed power Covenant Abilities. Why can’t we as player’s get stronger? I feel like as a player this game just keeps getting worse and worse. The class design keeps getting worse and worse. I just want to level and learn new abilities again. I want to feel powerful. To feel like I’ve done something. Legion I feel at least tried to hide it. The artifact weapons were dynamic and they augmented our characters along with the legendaries. Sure legendaries were cool, but implemented terribly they augmented our characters and made us feel stronger as well. With BFA however it just feels like a terrible grind up a hill in a snowstorm. At no time am I compelled to want to level my necklace or deal with azerite traits. No matter what I do I can not find enjoyment in it. I came back to play BFA with a friend and I legitimately fell asleep doing the pre-quests to get your legendary cloak. The game PUT ME TO SLEEP! What the hell happened? Why have we the players allowed this game to fall into this state of disrepair? Maybe I’m wrong. I just feel like I’m done with Wow even with Shadowlands looming on the horizon. I just don’t see it changing in any meaningful way. Again I hope I’m worng.
So I end this long ramble with a question does this bother you?
19 Likes
Borrowed power is something I see complained about from time to time, but it’s not likely to change in Shadowlands at this point. Best case scenario it’s not used after Shadowlands.
Though I doubt it’ll stop the grinds being the way that they are. Even the Legion artifacts were a grind. That just seems to be how Blizzard does things now. I know the game has always had its grinds, but lately they’re all tied to core features of the game rather than optional ones like they used to be.
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Because it’s not a game anymore. It’s a grind timesink to run through your subscription time for profit margin.
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See and I think having that option is healthy to make the game not feel like a chore. That and the class stagnation is just adding to major issues with the game.
We are going to get borrowed power x10 in SL. The covenants are all about gaining power, slowly through time gating. They will add tree after tree that you have to earn over and over again.
If you miss out on day one, you will be behind every single patch. You must keep grinding in this new wow system, never a true new start every patch.
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And honestly I came back after months and I had to level up a cloak now on top of a necklace and gear and essences and I was like nope I don’t care anymore.
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It’s not just boring. It’s also confusing and convoluted. How many types of currencies does one game need.
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Borrowed power allows them to test new mechanics without tying them to core class functionality, so if a certain Azerite power or Essence or Corruption sucks and makes it unfun, you can choose not to use it. It (in theory) allows for more polished and less frequent major changes to base class design, because the borrowed power keeps the game feeling fresh, while the class roots can stay more stable.
It hasn’t been done well, and it has damaged the game in it’s execution. That doesn’t make it a bad idea on its face.
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And I can agree with that with Legion as a working example.
Treadmill grind to keep people playing, I don’t like it either but that’s the sum of it.
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My guess is that a lot of this stems from Blizzard trying to figure out “How do we stop people from unsubbing so much in between patches?”.
They needed to figure out how to make the content last longer so we got a bunch of grinds based around core content that feel a lot more mandatory and time gated content to artificially inflate play time.
I think a big part of the problem is gear right now feels like it’s taken straight from the Diablo 3 playbook, which is currently a game designed around seasons that last 3-4 months before resetting all your progress for the next season.
Only in WoW we don’t actually re-roll characters every major patch, so they needed something else.
I personally preferred it when the gear treadmill was the main thing.
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A quest chain puts you to sleep…?
It was boring. I was doing stuff in Uldum under a pyramid and it was the most boring thing I did that day. It put me to sleep.
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Which would be easier for this staff;
-Making multiple classes fun enough to play and easy enough to gear?
-Or making classes just unobtainable enough that Borrowed Power makes them smoother?
Blizzard keeps trying to innovate and they end up failing hard. I have a feeling Shadowlands is going to flop hard.
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WOW is more of a job with a never ending grind then a game. The fun factor goes down with each expansion. Even professions are not exempt. Look at BfA. Takes massive amounts of farming of materials just to make anything.
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And it sells for peanuts.
Because WoW is a 15+ year long Shonen manga.
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100%.
Emissaries and World Quests are the equivalent to D3s missions, not the story mode but that chore-like stuff you’re supposed to do between running rifts.
Rifts themselves are like the M+ system and the visions in 8.3 that offer some form of mini progression systems.
D3 is boring though in the same way 8.3 is boring. In that the gameplay loop is very rigid. People don’t mind the grinds. Grind is a subjective word though. What are we grinding?
The old WoW way was very diverse in how you got your gains. Put on a rep tabard if dailies weren’t your thing. Do arenas for power if you hated dungeons and raids. Etc, etc.
The old game was far more respecting of player time and choice than the current one is. The D3 team I guess doesn’t understand this and it makes sense. They were brought on for D3.
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Because the Shareholders need to keep “borrowing” your money.
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