Where did all the development effort go? Legion vs BFA feature comparison

[probert]

Recognizing that Legion had lots of content updates over the course of 2 years, Legion at launch still felt vastly more complete.

Legion Dungeons: 8
BFA Dungeons: 10

Legion Raids: 1 (Emerald Nightmare)
BFA Raids: 1 (Uldir)

Legion Zones: 4 + 1 end game dedicated zone
BFA Zones: 6, 3 per faction

So far so good, roughly comparable.

However, the next details showcase how thin the content becomes. Bold represents objectively superior content.

Legion: New Class (Demon Hunter)
BFA: 6 new allied races, reskins of existing character models, require Legion achievements of varying complexity

Legion: Class Order halls (8 class quests & NPCs)
BFA: A reduced mission table + faction campaign (about 2 hours of quests)

Legion: Artifact Weapons (including skins, abilities, artifact power, and quests)
BFA: Heart of Azeroth (including 3 pieces of armor with randomized abilities and random drops)

Legion: Tier sets for each raid, for each class
BFA: Armor types

Legion: Transmography 2.0, Mythic+ dungeons, World Quests
BFA: Expeditions (see: heart of azeroth), a Warfront, voice chat 2.0

I'd argue that Legion wins the last category, as World Quests and Mythic+ dungeons are the main focus of the end game at this point for the majority of active BFA players. Expeditions are being farmed out of necessity for azerite (and some vanity collectors), and Warfronts are only available 2 weeks at a time to a faction with virtually no value after ilvl 340 gear.

My question is... where did the development resources go for all of Legion's new features, versus what was delivered in Battle for Azeroth?

Were Warfronts and Expeditions so difficult to develop, that they consumed all the resources that build the equivalent of 8 Class Hall campaigns, class armor sets, the new transmography system, the new Mythic+ system, World Quests mechanics, and a new tank/dps class?

One area not covered: class and mechanics changes. I'd argue ability reduction and GCD changes were bad design decisions, as are the PvP changes...however these tuning changes occur every expansion; survival was changed and demon form was removed in Legion for example. Also, the deliberate gold deflation put in by Blizzard this expansion fix problems introduced last expansion. Professions aside from herbalism and alchemy are mostly useless, but that was a problem since WoD.

[Musta]

Recognizing that Legion had lots of content updates over the course of 2 years, Legion at launch still felt vastly more complete.

Legion Dungeons: 8
BFA Dungeons: 10

Legion Raids: 2 (Emerald Nightmare + Halls of Valor)
BFA Raids: 1 (Uldir)

Legion Zones: 6, 3 per faction
BFA Zones: 4 + 1 end game dedicated zone

So far so good, roughly comparable.

However, the next details showcase how thin the content becomes. Bold represents objectively superior content.

Legion: New Class (Demon Hunter)
BFA: 6 new allied races, reskins of existing character models, require Legion achievements of varying complexity

Legion: Class Order halls (8 class quests & NPCs)
BFA: A reduced mission table + faction campaign (about 2 hours of quests)

Legion: Artifact Weapons (including skins, abilities, artifact power, and quests)
BFA: Heart of Azeroth (including 3 pieces of armor with randomized abilities and random drops)

Legion: Tier sets for each raid, for each class
BFA: Armor types

Legion: Transmography 2.0, Mythic+ dungeons, World Quests
BFA: Expeditions (see: heart of azeroth), a Warfront, voice chat 2.0

I'd argue that Legion wins the last category, as World Quests and Mythic+ dungeons are the main focus of the end game at this point for the majority of active BFA players. Expeditions are being farmed out of necessity for azerite (and some vanity collectors), and Warfronts are only available 2 weeks at a time to a faction with virtually no value after ilvl 340 gear.

My question is... where did the development resources go for all of Legion's new features, versus what was delivered in Battle for Azeroth?

Were Warfronts and Expeditions so difficult to develop, that they consumed all the resources that build the equivalent of 8 Class Hall campaigns, class armor sets, the new transmography system, the new Mythic+ system, World Quests mechanics, and a new tank/dps class?

One area not covered: class and mechanics changes. I'd argue ability reduction and GCD changes were bad design decisions, as are the PvP changes...however these tuning changes occur every expansion; survival was changed and demon form was removed in Legion for example. Also, the deliberate gold deflation put in by Blizzard this expansion fix problems introduced last expansion. Professions aside from herbalism and alchemy are mostly useless, but that was a problem since WoD.

Legion had 10 dungeons, 2 mythic only like BFA.

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And yeah, IDK what happened with the team that brought us Legion. It makes no sense this abyssal drop in quality and quantity

[Deleted]

BFA zones are much bigger and better than the Legion ones in my opinion.

[ChairmanKaga]

I think you flipped the zones between Legion and BFA

[RobertMugabe]

4/10 shitpost

[Sluvs]

They went to features that didn't pan out. IE and Warfronts for example, not to mention the zones and the loot for each of those features.

[Velshin]

Just curious why did you write Hall of Valor raid? it didn't release with the Legion expansion launch. At launch we only had EN raid.

[Musta]

BFA zones are much bigger and better than the Legion ones in my opinion.

I agree and disagree at the same time.

[probert]

Legion had 10 dungeons, 2 mythic only like BFA.

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And yeah, IDK what happened with the team that brought us Legion. It makes no sense this abyssal drop in quality and quantity

I'm only comparing launch dungeons.

Black Rook Hold, Vault of the Wardens, Eye of Azshara, Dark Heart Thicket, Neltharion's Lair, Maw of Souls, Assault on Violet Hold (recycled), Halls of Valor.

i made a mistake in naming the 2nd raid... halls of valor is the dungeon, trials of valor is the raid.

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Just curious why did you write Hall of Valor raid? it didn't release with the Legion expansion launch. At launch we only had EN raid.

Noted and corrected. Checked the patch notes, Halls of Valor was the dungeon Trial of Valor is the raid launched in 7.1.

[Auberdeen]

4/10 shitpost

damn i was gunna go more 2/10

[Velshin]

I'm only comparing launch dungeons.

Black Rook Hold, Vault of the Wardens, Eye of Azshara, Dark Heart Thicket, Neltharion's Lair, Maw of Souls, Assault on Violet Hold (recycled), Halls of Valor.

i made a mistake in naming the 2nd raid... halls of valor is the dungeon, trials of valor is the raid.

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Noted and corrected. Checked the patch notes, Halls of Valor was the dungeon Trial of Valor is the raid launched in 7.1.

Haha yeah I meant the raid not the 5 man dungeon Trial indeed. :P
I do think in Legion they had more time working on it than they did with BfA (I do think it is also one of the reasons why WoD sucked so much because I think Blizzard said "just F*** it let us continue working on Legion expansion and polish it more let WoD just die") tbh this is the only logical explanation about the quality. Not saying BfA is bad or anything like that in fact I am still enjoying it but I still do think Legion was superior in launch compare to BfA.

[Musta]

I'm only comparing launch dungeons.

Black Rook Hold, Vault of the Wardens, Eye of Azshara, Dark Heart Thicket, Neltharion's Lair, Maw of Souls, Assault on Violet Hold (recycled), Halls of Valor.

i made a mistake in naming the 2nd raid... halls of valor is the dungeon, trials of valor is the raid.

- - - Updated - - -



Noted and corrected. Checked the patch notes, Halls of Valor was the dungeon Trial of Valor is the raid launched in 7.1.

Launch Dungeons of BFA are 8. King's Rest and Siege of Boralus are locked behind the war campaign.

[probert]

damn i was gunna go more 2/10

constructive comment! A+++

we can argue over design decisions -- GCD changes, class design, azerite abilities good or bad, story good or bad. But its all subjective.

OBJECTIVELY, if we measure content output from one expansion to the next, we can see a marked declined in actual volume of output. THAT's my point.

[Deleted]

Launch Dungeons of BFA are 8. King's Rest and Siege of Boralus are locked behind the war campaign.

Both are available at the launch and require no patch so they are both launch dungeons.

@OP. Development went into different Blizzard projects.

[Frolk]

If u put in only 50% effort while only 25% of players quit, that is profit in the short run, and thats what matter these days.

[IBM]

I'm only comparing launch dungeons.

Black Rook Hold, Vault of the Wardens, Eye of Azshara, Dark Heart Thicket, Neltharion's Lair, Maw of Souls, Assault on Violet Hold (recycled), Halls of Valor.

The Arcway and Court of Stars mate. Same situation there as Siege of Boralus and King's Rest. I think you're thinking of the Karazhan dungeons, that came out in 7.1.

[Xilurm]

They are making 9.0.

[clevin]

damn i was gunna go more 2/10

and you're both wrong. OP is correct... forget whether we liked the artifact etc, BfA feels like it has less at launch than Legion did so the question is valid.

[Dracullus]

Launch Dungeons of BFA are 8. King's Rest and Siege of Boralus are locked behind the war campaign.

You literally could unlock both first week (and only 1 require rep and campaign, other is unlocked just by finishing all storylines). And it's exactly the same situation like Court of Starts and Arcway, which required Nightfallen + more than half of Suramar 7.0 questline.

[Gungnir]

constructive comment! A+++

we can argue over design decisions -- GCD changes, class design, azerite abilities good or bad, story good or bad. But its all subjective.

OBJECTIVELY, if we measure content output from one expansion to the next, we can see a marked declined in actual volume of output. THAT's my point.

Honestly, most of the GCD, class changes and azerite abilities/system are objectively pretty poor in this expansion compared to other expansions.