So, it seems Shadowlands is embracing some sort of loot scarcity, Classic Loot or “Loot is more important” type system. However, this system simply does not fit with how retail is designed and here are some reasons why.
1. Relevance - Vanilla WoW Raids did not invalidate previous raids, making them all viable and relevant. This is obviously not the case in retail so making loot (especially raid loot) drop percentages so low feels extremely unrewarding. Why? Because we all know it will be replaced in the next tier.
2. Other Rewards - In previous expansions, even if you did not get loot there was still a guaranteed drop of a resource you needed. Obviously, this is not the case in Shadowlands and 35 Anima from a boss or end of a M+ makes you never want to do those activities again. Insulting the player with such a low level reward will make them never want to do that activity again, it’s not going to make them want to keep trying.
3. Itemization - Retail loot is simply not that interesting for the most part outside of some trinkets. The lack of tier sets for raids or dungeons makes it so even if you do get an item, great… you just got some stats and nothing really exciting. Loot scarcity systems work best when the items you’re going after are special. Just like in previous expansions, nobody will remember the names of 99% of the items in this raid or the dungeons.
4. Filler Grinds - Currently, there are no filler grinds for players to partake in outside of PvP. A good example of this would be the Path of Ascension. Defeating Bosses normally or in a unique way for an achievement does not provide a reward, simply the opportunity to buy that reward with Anima. The problem arises because there simply is no real way to “Grind” Anima. One could make the argument that you can simply do WQ’s for Anima but that’s not what I or I’m willing to bet… many players consider a “Grind”. There needs to be multiple pieces of content that are a repeatable source of Anima.
My friends list was absolutely stacked for the first month or so of shadowlands, but now? no one even bothers to log in because getting upgrades is near impossible with the way loot is. What’s the point of the carrot on the stick if the stick is 100 feet long and the carrot is just the stem.
People just can’t be bothered to log in and grind away for nothing now. Loot reductions across the board feel bad and I don’t blame my friends for staying away from Azeroth
I don’t even want to help my guild with normal alt runs because odds are no one will get useful loot. I think ive gotten 2 or 3 conduit upgrades so far. Most of my upgrades have come from stygia farming.
Filler Grinds used to be leveling. But as I pointed out before WoW decided that all players need to be max level because that’s where the players are. But I agree there’s no filler at all. Or at least any filler that’s worth doing that’s essential to the game if you don’t do the other 3.
I have run SoA… more times than I wish to admit.
If you know how gear drops work in M+ me saying I have acquired every drop from that place aside from the one I am needing, should mean something…
Yet I see the legendary drop for an arms warrior flips desk
I mean I understand it SHOULD be challenging to get but from my understanding most people have got their legos first or 2nd try.
The loot scarcity does not fix the issues that titanforging brought. Seriously.
I can spam 12-14 keys all day and get no loot. Then you have people that run them a few times a week, buy a few heroic bosses and are sitting at 215 item level.
Rewards should be directly derivative of effort. They are not. They’re more RNG than ever.
TBH, I would rather titanforging a thousand times over than this nonsense.
I should also add, the recent nerfs to Ulduar Timewalking got me thinking and I firmly believe that no Game Designer in their right mind would do that. I cannot think of a single time I’ve seen a designer look at player participation going up drastically in a piece of content and examining why… in this case, a good amount of ilvl 200 loot (Which isn’t that high).
The decision to then nerf that (aka fun detected) does not seem like something any rational designer would do, you’re essentially seeing players enjoy themselves and then you take that away instead of saying “Hmm, maybe we could get more engagement in other areas of the game if we made some changes like that”.
I canceled my sub and have gone back to just FPS pvp. It’s been like a weight lifted off of me. WoW devs just hate their own player base It’s rather obvious. Especially when you switch around games.
Welcome to WOW where players are scarcely fed the content, loot, and overall enjoyment to keep them hooked.
I understand why they do certain things like Renown etc but the loot scarcity not fitting the entire rest of the retails core design is not going to keep players around and will result in losing a lot of people…
This is very different then what they’ve done in the past, sadly. SL is a great expansion in terms of the core systems and features, they’re essentially killing their own creation by doing this.
I just can’t bring myself to play anymore, before I unsubbed I just stopped focusing on my main and leveled alts because the grind is so mind numingly boring. And then I realized I’d have to go through the same on the alts I just leveled and I doubt blizzard will actually get off their high horse and fix anything unless money comes out of their pockets so I quit.
Agree with almost everything,except that torghast is the ultimate filler grind… for almost nothing. Loll
Totally agree tho. Doesnt make sense for it to be super hard to gear up when everyone knows their gear is getting replaced with the next raid.
Not being able to keep the appearance from an item you looted if you give it to someone else is also pretty stupid. Ive rolled off the same heroic mail helm three times because its not as good as my leggo, but i still havent collected the appearance even though i got the drop three times? Thats dumb. You should keep the appearance of everything you loot directly from a boss
Agree with almost everything,except that torghast is the ultimate filler grind… for almost nothing. Loll
This is a good example of a place where Anima could be farmed. I am not much of a lore buff but from what I understand the Maw is full of Anima, especially after Sire funneled tons of it lol
This is not something new to Shadowlands. Boss loot has been RNG since the game was created over a decade and a half ago.
Also look at most of the people commenting in here. 208 ilvl that obviously got loot drops from the keys and raids they did, or people around 190 that straight up aren’t even doing the content except maybe one to get a weekly vault reward.
If you’re only going to get a drop every few timed keys (barring extreme outlier RNG), then make sure you’re timing keys with rewards a few steps above your ilvl. Run with a coordinated group, there are countless guilds and communities to find.
35 is the bare minimum (and usually u get multiple) for world quests.
having any “weekly fight reward” give 35 (which is useless as u cant do a full 5 man mission with 35) is a smack in the face.
i’d rather get gold as that can actually be useful.
SL is likely the worst loot options games ever had.
WQ were weaker than normal amx lvl dungeons.
heroics were beaten by cov gear upgrades
pvp scales fine (for those who enjoy that)
but crafted gear? its weaker than heroics.
rep gear? by time u get to rep needed u likely have better.
game USE to have multiple ways to get gear.
Heck as bad as Cata was…at least it had the currency reward from content you could WORK TOWARDS gear if u got shafted with the RNG.