Tuesday, August 4, 2015

What Do You Hope to See in the Next Expansion?

With all the guesses going around on what the new expansion will bring, be it more legion, azshara, or what have you, I have found myself being much less interested in where the story will lead us than I am on what we are going to do when we get there.

I've always liked to quest, I've always liked to follow the story, and one of the reasons I believe that wrath was the best expansion was because of the extremely well done story telling and how they tied everything together from the questing experience into the raids as one fluid story.  Even when we did a side step into Ulduar, story wise it made sense. Sure there was that argent tournament blip in the story line that made little to no sense, but otherwise wrath was well told and the story is a big part of why I remember it fondly.

So it would be easy to say that the story of the next expansion is going to be important to me but when I think about it, surprisingly, it is not.  I really do not care where we are going next expansion.  Back to azeroth, to take the fight to the legion, to argus, to the south seas, I really do not care.  I've lost all faith in blizzard to present a fantastic story, so I will settle for a decent one no matter were we go.

So with all that said, even if I would like a well written expansion, it is the game play I am placing over the story and as such my list of things I want to see have nothing to do with new story, new races new classes, new anything.  What I want from the next expansion is to fix the game.  To make it more playable.  So here is my list, in no particular order, of what I would like to see next expansion.

Flying:

Lets start at the beginning.  When you hit max level you should be able to fly.  Tie lore master and explorer to it if you must, that is no big deal.  But as soon as I hit max level I should be able to fly.  I should never have to wait for months and months to do something that is a staple part of the game, no thank you.

Oh, and if they are going to tie an achievement to it, it must be account wide.  I am not doing all the quests on all my alts, no thank you.  And this is coming from someone that loves to quest and I am not going to do it, so I am sure most others wouldn't want to either.

Valor:

This is going to be long, hold on to your hats.  Valor gear needs to return.  Call it valor points, valor badges or even valor jellybeans for all I care, but some sort of currency for gear that helps make content repeatable is required.

How many of you did the dungeons for your legendary and / or achievements and basically never went back to do them again unless you were helping someone else out?  ~raises hand~ 

Dungeons have always been a far bit of content, except for this expansion.  The reason for that is that before there was a reason to keep running them, valor and the badges that came before them.  Now there is no reason to keep running them.  Make no mistake about it, if it were not for some sort of points you received from them, dungeons wear out their welcome within a couple of weeks, at best, after hitting max level.  Points you can collect to buy better gear is what kept them so popular and kept people doing them.  Valor helped keep people busy, lack of valor helps keep people bored.

I suggest using some sort of PvP type system when it comes to what you can buy where you need to do X to buy Y.  Something along the lines of if you kill 20 raid finder bosses you unlock the normal mode raid gear for sale, if you kill 20 normal raid bosses you unlock heroic raid gear and if you kill 20 heroic raid bosses you unlock mythic raid gear.

A system like this works on the simple basis of people can always see a substantial reward at the end of the journey.  If I am raiding heroic normally, having me kill heroic bosses to unlock buying heroic gear does not seem like a bonus, "woohoo I opened up the ability to buy something I can get for free from what I am already doing every week", not really a compelling reward.  You will get the heroic gear eventually, in theory, if you are raiding heroic.  Yet offering that person mythic keeps them playing, keeps them collecting points, keeps them seeing that substantial reward at the end of the line.  And if they use the old pricing system that means someone can only get one new piece every 2 or 3 weeks anyway, so it is not like someone is going to gear up super quickly this way, it keeps them active, it keeps them logging in, and it keeps them playing.  If you only offer rewards equal to what you are currently doing the motivation, while it might still be there, is not as much as offering you something better would.

In the end, valor is a great motivator.  It keeps people logging in, it keeps people capping, it keeps people playing and most importantly for blizzard, it keeps people subscribed.  They stay subscribed longer because it takes them longer to get everything they want, and offering people gear in a higher difficulty means that most definitely the only way people will get it is by logging in each week and capping, which means more weeks they are paid subscribers.

Removing valor gear, and by process removing the desire to keep logging in, was a huge mistake in my opinion.  I am not sure why they did it and I really wish to see it return, in this better system I just outlined, for the next expansion.

Options:

Having many options to do things is a good thing.  Blizzard seems to have forgotten that with warlords.  They need to add scenarios back into the game.  They need to add daily hubs back into the game.  They need to make them rewarding, like offering above mentioned valor, and they need to keep those options there.

Having options works to benefit everyone.  If people do not feel like "I have to raid" they will enjoy raiding a lot more.  Once people feel as if they have to do something it starts to lose its fun as it begin to feel more like a job.  It is the number one reason for the dislike we hear often for garrisons from people, it felt like a job.

With options, and valor as their rewards, they take away the feeling of "I have to raid" to get gear and it lets people do what they want to do instead of feeling they are pigeonholed into doing one thing and one thing only.

If people like doing one thing, they can feel they are moving forward doing the one thing they like.  If they are a regular raider they can cap their valor from raiding, if they like small groups, they can cap their valor from dungeons, if they do not like group content they can cap their valor from questing, if they like tight groups they can cap their valor from scenarios.  You get the idea, everyone can play the way they want to play because they would have the option to do so.  Now this my friends, is good design.

And it is not just valor that needs options when it comes back, it is everything.  Like reputations.  Have dungeons offer reputation, dailies that offer reputation, mob kills that offer reputation, etc.  They do not need to make the reputation grind faster, they can keep it at whatever pace they wish to do, but by giving people various options to gain reputation people will not feel like "I have to grind a million mobs for this" like I have heard so many times this expansion.

Options are good, in every aspect of the game.  I'd like to see more options in the game, but with that comes the need for more content end game, which leads us too...

Content:

Can someone explain why daily hubs were remove?  Can someone explain why scenarios were removed?  Now, even if you can come up with the text book blizzard response I will say you are wrong.  There was no actual justification for removing content from the game.

Did everyone do them?  Of course not.  Did everyone like them?  Of course not.  But some people did and those things need to be in the game.  I like to raid, always have, it is the focus of the game for me, but from the company standpoint, it should not be the entire focus of the game.  The game can not be a one trick pony because, Does everyone like to raid?  Of course not.

There needs to be more content end game that does not require a raid to do it.  Sure I like T2 as much as the next guy but that is just a little bit of what should be a much bigger picture.

The original rares in the world that were one and done when you kill them should be like the T2 rares, once per day, not once ever.  The pop up quests in different zones should be weekly, and also offer reputation like they do fitting in with the desire I mentioned in the above header.  The items you find in the world that once you found them they were gone did not all need to stay gone, there could have been a few that were weekly treasures with a chance at something decent in them to make it worth going around and collecting them each week.  The garrison, and then tanaan, weeklies were nice, but once you do them they are done, they could have easily just randomized them that once you did them all you still had another each week even if at that point it was now a repeat.  Why does everything this expansion need to be one and done?

So much this expansion was either missing (like scenarios) or one and done content (like treasures) that you, if you were an active person, could find yourself with nothing to do really fast.  They need to assure that there is content to do at max level.

Would someone go collect treasures every week?  Would they continue to do the weekly quests after they finished the quest line?  Would they keep killing rares they already killed?  Would they do these things?  Maybe, maybe not, but having them there would give people more content to do, even if they did not do it.

They could add baggies to the rares like they did with the warbringers and scouts, to be added motivation, the reputation from the pop up quests might be motivation enough, if we had some sort of resource like garrison resources again, finding those treasures each week could be motivation.

We just need more content at the end game level that isn't inside a raid.  I love to raid, but I do not raid every waking second I am in game and having lots of other content would be a nice thing, at least I think so.

RNG:

I would like to see the random number generator shot, multiple times, have its skin ripped from its bones and then dip it in lemon juice.  Then just for fun I would set it of fire and watch it scream as it was burned alive.  Then just for fun I would cast revive on it just so I could do it again.  And again.  And again.

Seriously, I wish more than any other wish I could wish that the reliance on RNG was reduced to a minimum next expansion.  With that being done there would need to be a new, smarter system, put in place that notices when people are not lucky to try and smooth it out.

Doing a run and winning on early every bonus roll you do it just as bad as doing a dozen and winning none.  Both show there is something not right here.  They need to smooth out the RNG for things so they are not as randomized, or controlled randomized if you will.

I am just about as sick and tired of RNG as any person can be about any thing and I would like to see it removed if at all possible, but I know that isn't possible, so I would like to see it smoothed out.

Oh hell, I get so frustrated about RNG lately I do not even know what to say about it.  I just want it gone, or at least fixed to not be so hot and cold streaky.

What do you hope to see in the next expansion?

26 comments:

  1. I agree with all of your points. No surprise there given what's been written here for the past year. Flying is a line in the sand for me. If that isn't in, I'm not playing.

    I like your idea of working towards rewards of ever increasing power: RF to N, No to H, N to M. That should be a no-brainer both for game play and for a business model. Probably means it won't make it.

    In thinking about your question, I do have a few other "hopes" for the expansion. These are not deal-breakers, but things I enjoy.

    First, I want shorter raids. For whatever reason, I am more fond of raids of seven-ish bosses than 12 or 14. I'd rather have multiple instances with 7 than one with 14. Maybe it is a change of scenery I want? Who knows. I just seem to get burned out on longer raids way before I do on shorter ones.

    I also want shorter raid fights. I want all fights to be six minutes or less, including final bosses. You can have a significant, hard, complex fight in six minutes. They don't have to be 20 minutes slogs. That is less fun to learn, less fun for wiping. Six minutes.

    I want more variation in mechanics for boss fights. This round it is adds first, then boss. Oh, and adds. Then more adds. Seriously, you sound like a broken record summing up the fights right now. That is boring and lazy.

    For the first time since launch, I have canceled my recurring subscription. My current term ends at the end of October. What I learn in the mean time will dictate whether or not I keep it active from that point forward month-to-month. The moment Blizzard takes the game I want from me for the longer term, I'm done.

    Sad. Sad, but true.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Edit for typing ability:

      "I like your idea of working towards rewards of ever increasing power: RF to N, N to H, H to M. That should be a no-brainer both for game play and for a business model. Probably means it won't make it."

      Old fingers, old brain.

      Delete
    2. The building up in power is awesome. It is the carrot on the stick that keeps people playing. And with each piece taking 2 or 3 weeks to get it keeps everyone busy for a long time. That means it keeps them playing and paying.

      It is, as you said, a good idea, which means they will not do it. That is certain. They do not think logically, and most definitely do not think long term. An idea like that is not long logical, but long term. Will never happen sadly.

      I understand why many like smaller raids. It is easier to fit and 6-8 boss raid into a nice compact 2 hour raid schedule. Heck, even much less once you start to over gear it. I personally like longer raids, but I have no issue with smaller ones either. If it were an option of 1 big raid to two smaller raids however I would want one big raid. Blizzard has done horrible with split smaller raids. Like the starter ones in mists, the starter ones here. With the different items levels in them they are not companion raids. If they keep different item levels I want nothing to do with 2 smaller raids in the same tier.

      But I 100% agree with shorter fights. Even 5 minute fights are pushing it. But I can deal with them. Those long fights are just too much. I lose interest in what I am doing half way though the fight. Even more so when working progression on a fight and it is long. There is absolutely nothing fun wiping 50 times 13 minutes into a fight. I would rather the fights be harder and wipe 200 times 1 minute into the fight than 50 times 13 minutes into it. Long fights bring nothing entertaining to the table.

      They over used the "adds" as a mechanic for this tier, that is for sure. Sometimes they get caught up in an idea and beat it to death, this is one of those times.

      Sad to hear more and more dedicated players are letting their subs lapse, but it is with good reason. Warlords really brought nothing to the table in terms of moving the game forward or being fun.

      I hope they announce the "little" things we want, like you and I mentioned, because if I do not hear the words "valor gear is coming back" in their introduction to the new expansion, I don't think I will be interested in buying it either.

      Delete
    3. I've been in the same guild with the same core of folks for over ten years now. We've seen three marriages happen as a result of the guild, which is awesome. Our members have had, at last count, 41 children during that time as well. Some of those kids now play -- although not yet raid -- with us. We keep a clean kiddie channel for them to use.

      Indeed, we have one family that has four generations playing, from great grandmother down to great granddaughter. Those two play hide-and-seek with each other in-game while living many states apart in real life. Marvelous!

      I would very much miss those connections, but I'm being driven away from my own form of fun. :-(

      Delete
    4. @To Bee or Not to Bee

      "Those two play hide-and-seek with each other in-game while living many states apart in real life. Marvelous!"

      This is not only awesome, but it is part of what Blizzard seems to have forgotten. That the players really bring the game to life. They add a flavor to the game that can't be predicted or planned for.

      They are so focused on raid-raid-raid (or PvP in past times) that they lose sight of the fact that some people get so much more from the game. And when they go about restricting how to play, it drives away those other people.

      Delete
    5. @To Bee

      I've been in the same guild, or with the same people for most of my 7 years on my main. We are a family or at least it feel like it. Not so many love connections there as in yours. My girlfriend is in my guild, she server transferred to be in it, but I knew her before I started playing wow, so it is not a wow connection, just something we have in common.

      We have multi generations in my guild as well. A father and son that raid as part of the core team, a three generation family, not raiders but been there forever. I like being part of a guild like that for the human connection, but for game advancement reasons, it seems guilds are losing their luster to me.

      @Casually Odd

      The raid or die attitude of the game as it has been more and more focused on it lately is what hurts guilds more than anything. Look ay myself for only one simple example. I want more progression and I really do like my in game family, but it has become more and more likely that sooner or later I will have to choose one or the other. I am not looking forward to it.

      Delete
  2. In addition to what you listed, two things are high priority for me.

    First, I would like to see a good faith effort to bring back realistic class/spec balance, along with unique feel and play styles. And yes, that might mean some classes/specs over perform on some fights and underperform on others, but honestly I am sick and tired of every little tweak to hunters making them seem more and more like physical damage mages. Though I am not anxious to see yet another bottom-up redesign of spells and rotations, I would accept it if the outcome were to restore my real joy in playing any hunter spec I want.

    The second thing I would like to see is a series of changes that would restore guilds as active, vibrant parts of the game. That might include guild halls. Or guild achievements that are not raid-centric, ones that would get guilds working on even such mundane tasks as gathering mats, or having profession craft-ins, or guild group explorations. Ways to help guilds hold events that promote some great social interaction.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If they could just balance it out so they do around the same damage, that would be a start. There is no reason any spec should ever be where survival is right now. It is just a matter of numbers, if they can not figure something that simple out they need to hire better people.

      I think when they ditch guild levels they ditched the idea of guilds as a whole. Unless you are in a progression guild and needs to do guild runs for ranking, the only real use of a guild is to have a chat channel for friends, and to get the mass ress ability.

      I'd like to see them make guilds worthwhile again but with the group finder and the ability to get more progression cross realm without needing a set schedule, it seems like guilds are not longer needed for most.

      Delete
  3. Flying and Valor gear - those two points ring home to me the most.

    I like how they have Draenor Flight attainment tied to rep (and NOT requiring Exalted), exploration and treasure finding; but that needs to be in the game at launch, not an unknown future patch - AT LAUNCH!

    Valor Points or Valor Jellybeans. Like you said, I don't care what they call it, but that system needs to come back. I like you ideas for killing X number of bosses on one level opens up the ability to purchase gear for the higher level. Honestly, when WoD dropped I thought it Apexis was the currency that was replacing Valor and would work the way Valor always had. How wrong I was!

    The other thing I would like to see return (after they get some type of Valor style system in place) is incremental gearing upgrades like they had in MoP. I LOVED this system! For one, gear lasted longer and held more value to me once I had it at 4/4 upgrade. That meant that if a WF piece dropped and I had the non-WF piece but mine was at 4/4 upgraded, if someone else needed it, I didn't feel like it was hurting me in the least to pass on it. Second, it made me want to get all of my gear upgraded once I had the BiS piece for that slot - so it kept me running Heroics and Scenarios to cap Valor each week.

    Lastly, the one thing that I feel REALLY needs to return is Reforging! Sure... Hit, Expertise, Dodge, Parry are no longer on gear and we no longer have to work around those stats, but without all those stats in the game that is where Reforging would have REALLY made a huge impact. I wouldn't be passing on all of that Versatility gear if reforging was there and allowed me to take 40% of that useless stat and turn it into a stat I actually can use.

    Anyways, that's my wish list. :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think apexis gear was "intended" to replace valor but they did a horrible job of making that happen. In part by the extremely high cost of items and by not adding it as a currency that you got from doing things like dungeons and killing raid bosses. Apexis gear could have been good, but like much of warlords it was halfassed.

      I think the incremental gearing for the end of the expansion. Even more so knowing we will be in this raid for over a year. Letting us upgrade our gear some here and there is a way to both nerf content we are doing sort of and to help against bad luck streaks. Sure I can not get an upgrade from that 670, but I can make that 670 into a 690 while I wait for one, something like that.

      Oh hell yes. Reforging needs to return. There was no reasonable explanation for removing it so they need to have it come back.

      They said they removed it because it was too much math. Well, they removed hit and expertise, they removed things like haste break points, they removed the math. Then they removed reforging. Excuse me? There are not math issues any longer, so there is no longer a reason to call reforging too mathy. It made no sense. It should have never been removed.

      Delete
  4. I want much shorter queues. Waiting is what will kill this game. I keep hearing over and over, 'Why am I going to wait 30 minutes for a dungeon when I can just jump into League, Heroes, or Hearthstone and play right away?" I've been asking myself the same question a lot lately, and I love Warcraft.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Adding valor as a motivating factor with the substantial rewards I mentioned will get people playing more in dungeons and raids through the random system which in turn will help with the queue times.

      I am glad this week I had a nice and easy wait. If I were forced into long waits again I probably would have switched to play something else, for sure.

      Delete
  5. More than 3 crafted, 1 more large and medium Garrison plot and meaningful veteran rewards.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Would have loved to see the 3 crafted rule removed for the end of the expansion at least. Doesn't look as if that will happen sadly.

      Delete
  6. Professions. Assuming the next xpac will not have a garrison feature, what clever mechanic are they going to come up with to gate us?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The good old daily cooldown and needing X daily cooldowns to make stuff has been their go to design for slowing us down. So I think they will stick with that. I would like to see the gating gone personally.

      Delete
  7. I agree with all of your main points, though flying, options, and RNG probably rank the highest.

    While I'm going to have to think a bit more to come up with other ones, I do have one thing I'd like to see.

    More actual communication. Blizzard talking and explaining to the players why they are doing things and evidence that they are listening, even if they don't change their mind in the end.

    I know I've mentioned this before but if they are going to remove something or fundamentally change it, give us a reason. And if there is a huge push back, listen and respond to all of the points raised. Flying is the perfect example - they dictated that flying wasn't immersive, when it is to many of us. I'll grant that it isn't for others. I honestly don't get that and it is basically the antithesis of my view, but fine. It bugged me that they just wouldn't listen to the objections and say, "okay, fine you think it is, but here's why we want it removed" They did kind of do that but again it never addressed those of us saying it was immersive.

    It's not that they just have to do whatever we say if we shout loud enough. It's that if we are shouting, there is probably a reason and it would be best for them to find out what that reason is and address it. Either by changing to make us happy or by respectfully explaining their rationale and intended outcome.

    Do they owe that to us? No. But I don't owe them my subscription either.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They need a skilled PR person. We get too many of the "we know what is best for you" remarks for my liking. Sorry, when I am the one paying you that is not an adequate response in my opinion.

      And like with the flying, the "you will get it later" that turned into "we are thinking about when it might happen" then to "it will be later" to "we will not be adding flying" to "okay we will add flying" and then ending with "but you need to get achievements to unlock it." Was just too much back and forth. They need to a clear design before opening their mouth and a good person to convey that information.

      You say "do they owe it to us? no" but I say do they owe it to us? yes. We are the ones that pay them. So they do in fact owe it to us to at least have better communication. I would rather hear nothing than hear BS and back and forth like they have been giving us.

      Delete
  8. Warcraft 4:
    The lore the game is based on is approaching 12 years from its last release and it is the main obstacle Blizzard has to story writing. In 2010 Cata orphaned many quests, and many other quest lines were flatly removed. The best example of this is the Dragons of Nightmare, world bosses who were removed to prepare Azeroth for the next chapter the Emerald Dream, which never came. The Lore that Cata was building off of was already 7 years old and it seems to no longer be a driving force in the story line of WoW. Expansions since Cataclysm feel like one off excursions. Half of what cata was now feels like a bridge that was never completed, projecting only halfway across an abyss. A Warcraft themed RTS would not only make Blizz money, but be a quick and relatively cheap way to re-introduce the Lore, now largely ignored in the game.

    Gathering:
    With current materials gatherable at level 1 there is no longer any reason for these. Make all gathering professions passive and allow players to have two main professions.

    PVE:
    When there is a raid there has to be dungeons. I cant say it more clearly than that, LFR cant gear players for new content when they take 6-8 weeks to all come out. In addition it’s a crime that an expansion with some many arena’s littered across the world to have so little PVP content. Blizzard zero’d in on raiding content to the point that the raids are great and the world is empty. There needs to be a rule of thumb for them going forward. For each new raid three new dungeons and a new BG or arena.

    Flight…
    Just shamelessly copy FF14, when you complete the story line in a zone make the reward a flying mount in the last quest of the zone. Use the mount to get to some inaccessible final encounter where upon completion you keep the mount and the ability to fly (in just that zone, on that toon).

    Give Clear and Concise Answers:
    The best thing Blizz did this expansion was letting Bashiok go. How they talk to their customer’s needs to be address on every level from press conferences to forum posts to tickets.

    Fire the Development team:
    My 2nd visit to Draenor was full of stunning visuals, moss covered ruins, flame spouting furnaces and eerily corrupted landscapes. A truly great job was done by the art team. But the team responsible with filling it with content flat out failed. New ideas and new leadership are badly needed in the content department. The amount of artwork that when into the shipyard, only to fill it with a command table’s worth of content, could not better paraphrase the failings of this expansion

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It does seem like the writers have been really slacking off of late with the game. Leaving so many stories open ended and the stories they do use are not really all that well written, but that is only my opinion.

      Not sure of adding a warcraft 4 with some new lore they can pull from it would be the answer, but it surely could not hurt. I am sure it would be a great success. Even people that left warcraft might buy it and play it just because they still like the game even if they do not want to play the MMO any longer. And that could turn into some of them coming back to the MMO. If those stories end up being used at some point.

      I could go for all gathering professions being secondary and having 2 main professions. My prediction however is that crafting professions will become account wide soon. So no need for 2 crafting professions as everyone will have all of them.

      I would love a three new dungeon block with each new raid tier. Loved that at the end of wrath and cataclysm. It was good design and a great way to catch up alts.

      Clear answers from blizzard. lol That has become a joke. I do not expect that from them. Not now, not ever. I don't think they know how to do that.

      Draenor, even if it took forever to come out, felt like an unfinished product. In truth, all we really got this expansion was hellfire. Everything else should have been in the game since release. All that and some. They really dropped the ball this expansion. Sub numbers prove that.

      Delete
  9. Make this game SOCIAL again. There should be reasons to group up (and not hide in your garrison), there should be reasons for raiders to go into LFR and organize it, there should be reasons to go into old world content and teach beginners....

    Rauxis, chosen of CAT

    P.S.: nothing of that will happen, and subscription numbers will continue to drop.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They made too many advancements to remove the social aspect of the game I do not think there is any way to go back now. It is part of the reason guilds seem useless now. Having that social network of a guild used to be extremely important, but now with all the tools to avoid social interaction in game even guild seem unneeded now.

      Delete
  10. They didn't remove scenarios from the game, they just didn't make any more of them. I would tend to believe a technical justification rather than a storytelling choice justification as to why; scenarios are to MoP what garrisons are to WoD. Small, short lived, low population phases/instances.

    Ideally, I would like to see 1 less raid difficulty. How exactly they would smooth out the difficulty is a longer discussion, but 4 difficulties seems too many. I don't think LFR provides a valid representation of raiding to casuals, most boss abilities are rendered inert and each fight blends into one another as a result.

    I would like it that the 'bottom tier' raid (currently LFR) didn't render heroics and proving ground attunement pointless after a week or two, and thus requiring dev time on making "mythic" dungeons. I think normal/heroic raid difficulty should be managed through gear and progressive zone buffs (like Hellscream buff from ICC) rather than LFR level difficulty. Casual players would stamp their feet about lack of instant gratification but _as long as they had adequate content in the meantime_ the game would be so much better for it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That is removing them.

      If they did not make any more dungeons would you say "they didn't add any this expansion"? No, you would say they removed them.

      Scenarios should have become a staple of the game. A way for 3 DPS to not have to wait in queue. I think the garrison invasions would be suitably called a replacement for them but as you need to trigger them and they are not always there, they are most definitely not a replacement for them.

      Scenarios were added and expected, by myself and most others, to be part of the game from that point on. We expected them to be here this expansion and they were not.

      Mathematically, if they were going to remove one raid difficulty it should be mythic. It has the lowest participation rare of all difficulties. Not saying I agree with it, I think it needs to be there, but if one had to go, that is the one that needs to go.

      I agree that the buff system would be better. Not sure why they lost it. I think over all it would be better for the game to give a buff of say 5% every month after the world first race is done. That should be more than ample.

      Delete
  11. Many good points. RNG is probably my biggest gripe. 117+ kills for Ashes of Al'ar and about as many for Attumen's mount almost made me quit. I also never got the original ZG raptor mount, and then it was removed..

    I can sympathize with removing things that are skill based, but I think removing things isn't good for the game anyway. If I get something by skill I'm fine with others getting it later when new skill checks have come. The bonus roll with bad streak protection is good, the protection should just be default for pet/mount drops at least.

    On the contrary I also think the game has gotten a bit big for its own good; for a new player there are very many things to do. It's also a bit overwhelming for us that must collect/complete everything..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The being big part is both a draw and a deterrent. Depending on the person of course. If you are looking for something with real depth then joining a game with a rich history and a lot to do in the past is a plus. If you are not into that and just want what is new then seeing all that stuff and feeling you should do it could be a deterrent. For me personally I would rather have a rich game with a lot to do, but that is a personal opinion.

      I do not think they should remove things once they get old and hate that blizzard has been doing that a lot more lately. Why should I care if I got the garrosh mount in june when it was still current and someone else got it june this year. It doesn't matter, it shouldn't matter.

      Delete