Mechagon and Nazjatar Essence Acquisition in Visions of N’Zoth

I have to say, I am absolutely sick to DEATH of daily quests and reputation grinds.

or how about just making everything you unlocked on your main - 1 rank, available on your alts ?

Not good enough it's still torture to do on alts.

Blizz doesn't realize most of their players are raid loggers/dungeon spammers and any power increases that are gained through other means are always viewed unfavorably, especially for alts.

Lmao catch up mechanics are always implanted way too late. This was needed at launch. I don't even want to play alts anymore due to essences.

Originally Posted by Argorwal

Blizz doesn't realize most of their players are raid loggers/dungeon spammers and any power increases that are gained through other means are always viewed unfavorably, especially for alts.

I doubt this. As a business they would have ways of detecting how their customers are playing their games so they know how to keep their customers content for as long as possible.

i am a returning player and i dont know what this story about essence is

I personally see a bigger problem with the EP essence, unless Blizzard makes the things you need for it drop more in LFR and/or also drop in ny'alotha.
That essence is BiS for some people, and I am sure it will stay that way for some specs.

Originally Posted by DarkShawoman

Hate to break it to you, but it is a fact that you control how much you play and way to make yourself look stupid by typing alternating caps. You must be one of those LFR heroes that wants all your essences on your alts to be rank4 as soon as they hit level 120. "I plae ur gaem blizerd, gif meh all teh fr33 stuph, I pai $15 frm me parints' cridit cerd"

It's not really a question of "how much you play". The point is that people do want to play the game, but don't want to be forced to do the exact same thing ad nauseum for weeks on end just to play the game competitively.

If there was more unique and fresh content to earn the essences each time on an alt I'd agree with you, but it isn't. It's extremely boring. A game should be fun not monotonous.

Blizzard really already acknowledges this by having flying unlock account wide. They tacitly admit that having to grind revered on every alt to fly would suck, so why would it be 'fun' to do so for (the same!) essences which is arguably far more important for gameplay than flying.

Better than nothing, but that's not saying much.

Originally Posted by MakeMeLaugh

Not enough to be honest, still a pain to get essences with alts.

I think one big misconception by Blizz was that they basicly forced players to have numerous alts. First for classes and crafting...but back then it was only for top tier players. It got out of hands when you needed them to run events multiple times for mounts, toys etc.(and finally even forcing you to have a specific class to get a certain toy etc. for your collection)...and when it was the by far easiest way to make a huge load of gold. Now that everyone has numerous alts and invested that much time into them they do not want to leave them behind.
To add a neverending grind in such a situation is not exactly the smartest move then. Unless you want to increase the time played and do not really care if that means to burn your playerbase out, have them rage and quit on the long run.

Originally Posted by Pacster

I think one big misconception by Blizz was that they basicly forced players to have numerous alts. First for classes and crafting...but back then it was only for top tier players. It got out of hands when you needed them to run events multiple times for mounts, toys etc.(and finally even forcing you to have a specific class to get a certain toy etc. for your collection)...and when it was the by far easiest way to make a huge load of gold. Now that everyone has numerous alts and invested that much time into them they do not want to leave them behind.
To add a neverending grind in such a situation is not exactly the smartest move then. Unless you want to increase the time played and do not really care if that means to burn your playerbase out, have them rage and quit on the long run.

Ironically, by making mounts/toys account wide as a concession, players responded by making even MORE alts as that became the best way to grind mounts.

Originally Posted by Laylriana

I doubt this. As a business they would have ways of detecting how their customers are playing their games so they know how to keep their customers content for as long as possible.

They don't care about individual behavior. If 1 player puts in a 100 extra hrs for every half hour 99 other players put in less, by their metrics they come out ahead.

Games with microtransactions rely on a few whales who provide most of the money. WoW has money whales and more than likely time whales and Blizzard monetizes the hell out of both without regard to overall player satisfaction.

In an analysis that maximized returns by ultra maximizing extreme outliers, nothing you do is necessarily going to be based on the good of a "typical" customer. For another real life example, see "airlines".

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Originally Posted by Argorwal

Ironically, by making mounts/toys account wide as a concession, players responded by making even MORE alts as that became the best way to grind mounts.

This too is a choice. They could make them reasonably obtainable by one character with a scaling loot protection that would let people approach these things rationally. Unfortunately, people being irrational is to their monetary benefit and the last thing they ask is what is "reasonable" time input to expect, rather they ask what is the maximum they can get in total. As per my previous post.

The result is the skewed time filching mess whose revenue and player engagement could be equalled dozens of ways but they stick to the one proven formula, take advantage of the most addicted customers on the planet outside the opiod and nicotine industries.

The whole azerite armor and necklace essence system is a huge failure. They are undoubtedly the worst gear system in wow history.

The old glyph system was 100 times better. They have essentially the same functions as azerite traits, but bound to character, unlocked automatically at max character level.

Nobody likes abilities/perks bound to gear, so we have to sim/reforge everytime we get something new. The essences are just another layer of unnecessary crap.

Players already have 4 difference tier of abilites/perks: Talents / Spellbook / Azerite traits / essences. Why is this even needed? And why does Blizzard always want to make things over complicated? And they think that is fun for players

Just make class talents and spells more interesting, and remove traits and essences all together. This is just unnecessarily over-complicated for no reasons.

What an absolute joke. They shaved off what, 2/4 days? Spit in our faces for not wanting to do the same dailies day in day out on every single characters. Do you not WANT us to play alts in BFA, is that it? Is there some bizarre reason behind this torturous system that makes you benefit from canceled subs left and right?

Who gives a crap about people's "alts", all you hear about is precious "alts" and how Blizz must constantly cater to these over-entitled whingebags. If you make another Dark Souls character does the game magically get easier? No.

I feel these catch up mechanics only cheapen the experience overall and disincentivize playing when they're introduced. Sure, fresh max levels can't jump into the latest raid within the first week, but I literally skip some raids or maybe play them once in LFR because I'll get 420+ armor from catch up mechanics and events instead.

However, I'm all for a "New Game+" mode (per faction) for alts for players that have already reached max level on a character. Very few players level alts to re-experience WoW. They just want to play multiple character fantasies and classes at end game.

They don't have to make it different for an alt, though judging by Shadowlands that is clearly the route they will be taking in the future. They should have just had these "lower" requirements been baseline to begin with.

I didn't mind the content or the systems really, just the amount of game time you as a raider had to dedicate to it. Didn't help that 8.2 released during the summer months where time to play extracurricular activies isn't what many mid-30's "raidloggers" have time with. I had two alts in 8.1 but decided to just keep up my main in 8.2 because of that. In turn the game got a bit boring. Been used to variation.

This doesn't go far enough and is honestly insulting as a change. All essences should be account wide to rank 3, rank 4 is a challenge so keep that character specific. Sick of the lifeless spreadsheet design decisions and gating everything to boost monthly active user stat, we aren't even treated like human beings by Blizzard. We might as well be cattle when it comes to game design.

Originally Posted by Biomega

What an absolute joke. They shaved off what, 2/4 days? Spit in our faces for not wanting to do the same dailies day in day out on every single characters. Do you not WANT us to play alts in BFA, is that it? Is there some bizarre reason behind this torturous system that makes you benefit from canceled subs left and right?

It's rediculous.

I just want to chill on my alts not be forced into gated EP for WEEKS per essence on every single alt.

Like chill, raiding the same zone on alts is boring. Stop forcing me into the same raid on every alt for this.