Yeah well….that’s a bit poopy. I don’t mind that Shadowlands got delayed, I mind that BfA got extended.
Not sure the pre-patch will save it for me, I have barely logged into WoW in the last few weeks because I am just so over this current version. I haven’t received a beta invite so I can’t comment on the current state, suffice it to say a lot of the people I have spoken to who are in beta have very few complaints. So either they are just an easy going bunch of people or they are not up to the parts which are a problem.
I am only slightly bitter about not having received a beta invite and I was only just saying the day before this announcement, I don’t really see the point in having one now when the game was so close to release. I have changed my mind now that we don’t have a release date anymore. It might be worth it. Maybe?
There are always balancing issues in a new xpac so I never expected them to be perfect on release, but I am not sure what the other problems are? Can someone enlighten me because I just see a lot of comments about “it isn’t ready” with no specific things mentioned.
I do have annual leave booked which I will move to whenever the new date is, I am fortunate to have a job where I will be able to do that relatively easily. My biggest complaint is I was going to have 2 public holidays in my leave which saved me two days and now I may not have that anymore, depending on what date they pick. I am not even going to speculate on when it could be, that isn’t my thing.
I just want it to be a fun game and not the drain it has become but the more i read about it the more I fear it will be just as bad as BfA. Conduits = essences which are awful and locked in for too long. Torghast = visions which were awful. Legendaries = crafting and RNG combined which makes it the worst of all options we have complained about smooshed together. Weekly chest chances = just stupid. Just stupid. Gear ilevels = just why would you force people to raid if they only want to do mythic+ but have the best gear to improve their mythic+ runs? Do you know how many arseholes are going to be looking for raid groups now or gatekeeping PUG raids.
“Conduits = essences which are awful and locked in for too long.”
Of the three main systems we got in BFA, Azerite armor, Essences, and Corruption, I think essences were the best. It was like an extended talent tree. The bad part about them was having some essences locked behind content you either didn’t want to do, or had to grind. It sounds like they’re making almost all of them available from more than one source this time which should mean you won’t have to do content you don’t want to do. And you’ll be able to target the ones you want. So long as they’re not a low drop chance, I think they’ll be fine.
“Torghast = visions which were awful.”
I wasn’t that fond of Visions. They were repetitive, grindy, and favoured certain character types over others. I think Torghast is going to get repetitive too, but they look far more fun to me. Escalating player powers, random layouts on a wider variety of dungeons, and after your 100 soul ash for the first four weeks for your legendary, it doesn’t seem like much is going to be locked behind them. You can do more if you want, but you’re not required to. I think they’ll be much better than Visions.
“Legendaries = crafting and RNG combined which makes it the worst of all options we have complained about smooshed together. ”
The locations for legendary recipe drops are known, and are a 100% drop. You get to decide the secondary stats you want on them. As far as I know it’s not subject to RNG at all. I think your biggest complaint is going to be getting your soul ash for them, and the cost of the mats if you go into the expansion with no gold. It shouldn’t be RNG.
“Weekly chest chances = just stupid. Just stupid.” I think it’s a far better and more proportionate system than we currently have. I don’t think anyone at the end of Shadowlands is going to wish for the BFA system of having to do high mythics for one chance at gear, plus the thrill of paying for bonus rolls that award you AP most of the time.
“Gear ilevels = just why would you force people to raid if they only want to do mythic+ but have the best gear to improve their mythic+ runs?” Turn it around. Why would you force people to do M+ if they don’t want to? Which is the current situation, but I did it anyway. I don’t mind doing them occasionally, but I wouldn’t have done anywhere near as many except that 80% of my raid gear progression had to come from unrelated M+ content. I’m quite happy with coordinated large group co-op content being the most rewarding in the game. It’s harder than pugging some 30 min +15 key. It should award better gear!
On the other hand, you haven’t even mentioned the thing I’m currently least looking forward to. The grindy, ugly, un-fun Maw which will give you the ability to put sockets in gear. They say they’re working to make the Maw a more interesting place, but we haven’t seen it yet.