[Suggestion] Badges to replace gearing through mythic+

[Lionor]

Right now there are just too many layers of RNG tied to the gearing system, so I tried to come up with a system that would remove some layers of RNG. I think its fair to agree that it would be unrealistic to expect Blizzard to completely remove all RNG aspects from the game.

A lot of people seem to mention the badge system from previous expansions and how it could allow you to work towards specific loot, making every dungeon boss you defeat somewhat meaningful. I agree that this is a problem and running a dungeon to receive 0 loot feels quite bad.

So I tried to figure out how badges could work with the mythic+ system, considering we have many different difficulties and levels.

First of all let's see how the current system determines the level of gear that drops depending on what difficulty you run:



My proposal is based on the following changes:

• Dungeon bosses in mythic+ drop only badges
• Azerite armor is NOT obtainable with badges
• Higher keystone dungeons reward more badges that allow you to obtain higher iLvl gear
• Higher ilvl gear costs progressively more than previous tiers of gear (encouraging you to run higher iLvl keystones)
• There is a step change in cost/reward at difficulties (4, 7, 10) where new affixes are introduced. These are highlighted in yellow.
• Weapons and trinkets cost twice the amount of normal armor slots (1h & offhands cost half the value shown on the table so that 2x1h or 1h+oh always equal the cost for a 2h weapon)
• The weekly cache drops ONLY azerite armor depending on the highest keystone completed during the week

So how many runs would you need to be fully decked in x,y,z iLvl??




Azerite armor would be awarded ONLY via the weekly cache, which will only be able to drop azerite pieces following the iLvl rules that are in place today:


Let's try an example.

Joey ONLY runs mythic+5.
It would take him 5 dungeon runs to be fully decked in iLvl 345 gear (lowest quality)
It would take him 25 dungeon runs to be fully decked in iLvl 355 gear (appropriate gear level for the difficulty he is running)
It would take him 150 dungeon runs to be fully decked in iLvl 365 gear (gear one category higher than the difficulty he is running)
It would take him 1042 dungeon runs to be fully decked in iLvl 375 gear (the highest possible category - intended to be unobtainable unless you actually run dungeons at the intended level).


+PROs:

• You can target gear and each boss you defeat contributes towards that goal
• Warforged/titanforged remain as end of dungeon rewards (not guaranteed) for timed runs.
• Increases chances to receive meaningful azerite gear as the weekly cache will now only drop that
• Can be updated for each season by bumping up the base iLvl of the rewards
• One currency, instead of one for each difficulty
• This can be further expanded to introduce incentives for running higher that +10s (very expensive BoA gear for alts, mounts, pets, etc) but I'm trying to keep the main idea simple for this first post.

-CONs:

• Can be exploited I guess through boosts (though that requires quite a few high level boosts)
• I'm sure you guys will figure out more things I haven't thought of.

[Felkor]

It's a "good" idea (even if I don't like the huge differenciation between +9/+10, you could reduce the gap here).
However, it will not work if you don't get rid of the WF/TF system

[Lionor]

Thanks for the feedback!

It's not that much higher of a step than the previous ones. Each time a new affix is introduced I bump up cost and rewards x3 to discourage farming lower level keystones for high ilvl gear.

From +9 to +10 I made that bump around 3.5 for two reasons: (a) it's supposed to be end game wrt mythic+ and (b) it just produces prettier round numbers.

[Mafic]

I like the idea. It has great potential as it seems very similar how PVP rated gearing works currently.

[Lionor]

I like the idea. It has great potential as it seems very similar how PVP rated gearing works currently.

Cool, thanks. Haven't PvP'ed since Cata so wasn't aware. Even better if that introduces some consistency in gearing from different game modes.

[Mafic]

Cool, thanks. Haven't PvP'ed since Cata so wasn't aware. Even better if that introduces some consistency in gearing from different game modes.

The lack of consistency of gearing is a huge problem. WoW devs don't see it as a huge problem because they make the assumption that people like the RNG due to activity metrics. They always conflate activity with enjoyment.

Gearing has to become more consistent overall because this is the only way to sustain vets but also keep new players to WoW.

[Tyron]

I like this idea a lot man. Thanks for the effort put into it and don't forget to post it on the WoW forums and send it through feedback too

[Sencha]

BfA has tons of problems but RNG is not one of them. I don't get why people are so upset about this.

[Mafic]

I like this idea a lot man. Thanks for the effort put into it and don't forget to post it on the WoW forums and send it through feedback too

Putting on WoW reddit would yield good results as well I would say.

[Lionor]

Putting on WoW reddit would yield good results as well I would say.

Don’t have a reddit account I’m afraid (I know, what a caveman!) and I can only post on EU wow forums which seems like a waste. Feel free to link to this thread or copy it over!

[Clozer]

nope won't happen. Blizzard wants gear to be an endless grind. No more BIS or anything just wf/tf and pure RNG. This way you can theoretically play nearly endless and still have room for improvement.

It's bad but what can you do about it?