Different reasons I suppose. The systems they implemented feel like a downgrade from Legion and the expansion’s features haven’t resonated with the player base.
Not alt friendly and each patch has made it worse.
The main feature of the expansion was an artifact next which, at launch, wasn’t anything more than an upgrading stat stick. Blizz has worked on changing that, but in the process made it even worse for alts.
Azerite armor, another major feature, was heralded as a way to customize your gameplay, but at launch was also, for the most part, just a set of passives to increase your throughput. Oh, and you had to get exactly the right gear piece for your spec because there is a clear tier list of good traits and awful traits. To be fair, specs like hpal got a whole new playstyle with traits, but that’s pretty much the only example.
The 3rd major feature, island expeditions, did not really live up to its potential and have pretty much been abandoned by blizz. Warfronts are similar. The heroic versions are great, but I expected more than just 2 warfronts as well as pvp versions of them.
PvP gearing is…interesting. i dont PvP much but I’ve gathered that the current system is unpopular.
The story telling is kinda weird. The expansion was peddled as this huge faction war, but then azshara and the old gods got thrown in halfway through. The whole faction war was pretty much abandoned.
All in all, I think the zones are fine, raids and dungeons are great. However, the major features of the expansion were incomplete and lacking. The catch up that blizz has been doing to improve them has just made it very unfriendly if you wanted to play an alt because of how much work you have to do in old content just to be competitive.
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And worst of all?? They killed my water strider forcing me to run all the way to BFE, pay 40G each for alts and they are unique so you can only buy one at a time!!!
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I thought Legion, for the most part was great. BFA stripped everything that made Legion good. No class identity, recycled systems but with worse rewards, ilvl scaling made the start of BFA feel awful, GCD change (who actually thinks that was a good idea?), class homogenization.
I legitimately struggle to see what people like about BFA.
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I am a bit confused about people saying it is alt unfriendly. The neck catch up made alts getting their necks close to main insanely easy and gear rains from the sky. The only thing that makes you actually play your alt is the essences. So maybe people are upset that you have to play your alts to get them the same power as your main?
It was hands down the most buggy launch I’ve experienced since release. Sure you could actually play unlike some other expansions, but things were broken, Imbalanced, and just buggy. Performance was terrible. The story was awful, and there genuinely was just a lack of engaging content.
They also once again made it so playing alts was a chore and this time they didn’t even make it something cool like unique weapons with special skins.
The worst for me was the fact you can see how rushed and lazy they were with their armor designs. They removed class specific designs to go with just four sets and those four sets looked awful. I mean the first raid tier is some of the ugliest armor I’ve seen blizzard put out.
This expansion was a cash grab after they built up the good will from legion.
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I don’t hate it, but it’s definitely one of the weaker expansions, imo. The intro launch had a fair number of issues, especially with gear balancing for a fresh 120. The reputation and mission grinds have been bluntly annoying and stupid for the amount of time gating involved. The RNG has been ramped to well over 9000 for even the most trivial stuff, which frankly gets people burned out after awhile.
Then there’s the storyline. Admittedly, I think they did okay with parts of it (enjoyed seeing Thrall coming back), but the entire Red vs Blue nonsense has been abjectly stupid, especially coming off Legion where we had JUST dealt with the Garrosh conclusion of the Alliance and Horde at each other’s throats, and spent an entire expansion working together through the Class Order Halls facing the eminent threat of the Burning Legion.
The story has been bad. There was a giant flaming sword stabbed into the center of Silithus that we continually go back to see, but have done squat to actually fix. All the talk and collection of Azerite Power constantly gets sidetracked by either Sylvanas’ shenanigans, the Warfronts (which were ultimately pointless and yay Alliance apparently won, but of course, not represented in game), or else chasing after Azshara and the upcoming Old God menace.
Blizzard swore up and down “It’s not Garrosh 2.0!” while simultaneously forcing Horde players specifically to have to deal with some fairly horrific deeds as a group. That’s terrible roleplaying and storytelling, when you make a player responsible for things that are outside their own control or decisions. Alliance and Horde need to be story/quest based factions, and let players choose themselves which “side” they want to represent. Plus, the entire faction imbalance continues to be a giant elephant in the room that Blizzard stubbornly continues to ignore to the detriment of the players.
I’m looking forward to Shadowlands, and I hope we see some actual changes as mentioned at Blizzcon. But I also expect like every other time, we’re going to have some positives and negatives rolling into the place as Blizzard continues to figure out exactly what they are trying to make. They could and have done better before.
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What was different about classes in Legion vs. BfA?
How so?
this was introduced halfway through legion…
Again how has this changed since legion?
BfA is basically legion part 2 with more stuff added. Also legion was horrendous until you got your correct legendries or until the 8.1.5 patch that fixed some of the class problems. Then god forbid if you wanted to change specs or level an alt’s artifact weapon. I am thinking we are looking at rose colored glasses here.
Because the faction war is stupid. We unite most every expansion to save the world, then something is contrived to make us fight. The vast majority of people playing the game don’t PvP and don’t care about the faction war.
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Borrowed power, no actual character growth. Lack of any staying power. Contrived stupid story. Essences are a chore, people don’t like pathfinder.
There is positives, but alot of people prefer to focus on the negative. As is how the forums work.
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Lack of Communication
Order halls were actually really awesome. It gave classes a huge amount of identity. Artifact weapons gave each individual spec an identity. The Suramar story alone is better than the entire BFA story.
Rewards are worse. I’m not sure what you don’t understand about this. Less gold and less resources. Mission tables were completely neutered in BFA. They should have been trashed but they persist.
The ilvl scaling didn’t feel near as bad in Legion. We’re just now in 8.2 getting to the point ilvl scaling doesn’t feel like an absolutle slog when fighting mobs.
Yes the start of Legion was rough with how locked down artifact weapons were. You’re absolutely right about that one. Once they started letting us gain reasonable AP they turned out to be fun. It was like another whole talent tree. Azerite armor is nothing like that.
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Because it’s current expansion. As soon as Shadowlands drops, everyone is going to love BFA.
Whiny entitled vocal minority is all.
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So I’m not entitled to a good game if I’m dropping money on it?
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Not many people like WoD even with rose tinted glasses. BFA isn’t WoD bad, but it’s still down there compared to other expansions. If there was an official expansion ranking, i think many people would agree with the following:
- Wrath
- Mists
- BC
- Legion
- Cata
- BFA
- WoD
There might be some wiggle room, but I think thats the general trend. I wouldnt even say expansions can be labeled as bad until you get to BFA on this list. People dump on cata, but i think it was a very good expansion. It might be because Dragon Soul was a pretty lame raid so that’s how it is remembered.
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Pretty much all of that.
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Same with me. I gave myself an attitude adjustment, and decided to play the game as intended. The BFA quests are the best ever.
Ground out pathfinder and did not enjoy that time, pathfinder killed wow for me, but after getting it done, I am really enjoying everything. Just having flight as an option makes the game so, so much more enjoyable.
Thats really the part that blows my mind. There are some things they cant please everyone with given the broad range of player types out there…but there are some OBVIOUS issues that dont need to exist that…while may be ok with some players…will literally CAUSE many to quit.
Yet even with millions of sub losses in the past, they will continue to use these pointless, lazy systems rather than create compelling content, then…as you say…double down and use them again next expansion knowing the stink they cause.
One side will leave the game over them…and the other side, while being ok with it, wont quit if they arent in the game in the first place.
Heres to hoping Ion and the crew figure this out soon. I doubt this game is going to survive many more joke expansions.
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