9.0 speculation.

[justandulas]

Has Blizzard hinted at/mentioned anything about azerite gear for 9.0 or can we safely assume it's gone after this expac?

No chance it stays. It is probably one of the most polarizing and unpopular additions to wow in its 15 year history.

[huth]

I am very much certain that AP is here to stay. It will exist in some form for the rest of WoW.

And like now, it won't be a grind, though shortsighted people will continue to insist that you have to.

No chance it stays. It is probably one of the most polarizing and unpopular additions to wow in its 15 year history.

Well, it's nowhere close to WoD not getting flight.

[justandulas]

And like now, it won't be a grind, though shortsighted people will continue to insist that you have to.



Well, it's nowhere close to WoD not getting flight.

You are forgetting the flight decision of bfa too

Secondly, I’d argue azerite is far more loathed overall. Very few players like it at all and it’s a clear downgrade from legion

Some people advocate for no flying. There’s not much push for more azerite

[Zandalariprelate]

Ion said in an 8.2 interview that they wanted to move away from expansion-specific systems to more permanent systems

Ion says a lot of things that turns out to be fake or just ignored later in the dev process

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https://www.wowhead.com/news=292244/...-edition-print

Will Yrel be big bad of next expansion then?

Well her character has got some attention in Hots and some other media, maybe blizzard wants to pull a Sylvanas on her with "rescuing" the factions against the forces of N'zoth and getting more power within the alliance and then she starts a war of conversion against the horde which will bring back the feral side of the horde instead of soyboy Baine

[Nathanyel]

https://www.wowhead.com/news=292244/...-edition-print

Will Yrel be big bad of next expansion then?

Well we know that the Mag'har AR was planned for a later date, and moved up due to Zandalari being paired with KTs. I'd say we'll definitely see the Lightbound again before BfA is over, or during the next pre-expansion event.

[Soon-TM]

https://www.wowhead.com/news=292244/...-edition-print

Will Yrel be big bad of next expansion then?

Gotta say, the gal does look badass in those pics. She could really use more character development.

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Ion says a lot of things that turns out to be fake or just ignored later in the dev process

- - - Updated - - -



Well her character has got some attention in Hots and some other media, maybe blizzard wants to pull a Sylvanas on her with "rescuing" the factions against the forces of N'zoth and getting more power within the alliance and then she starts a war of conversion against the horde which will bring back the feral side of the horde instead of soyboy Baine

Soyboys Manduin and Baine are getting their softy asses kicked by a crazy, glowing goat? Sign me up please

[matrix123mko]

Gotta say, the gal does look badass in those pics. She could really use more character development.

Yrel was denied her development because of bad gameplay. I hope Blizzard will never cut expansion again.

Soyboys Manduin and Baine are getting their softy asses kicked by a crazy, glowing goat? Sign me up please

Me too.

[Raugnaut]

Exactly as gone as Artifact Traits after Legion, which we knew from the start, yet obviously people will still bitch about power loss and "actually having to play the new expansion".

Azerite pieces will likely just receive a good amount of secondary stats, the neck might auto-level 110-120, but of course there will be no power increase at 120 just from these items.

Azertie pieces actually have their item budget taken up by enlarged primary stats, with the azerite traits being "free" comparitively.

The thing that sucked the most about Legion Artifacts was being unable to really abuse them for Timewalking, though I guess that being able to nearly solo a few of the Timewalking raid bosses wouldn't have been a good thing overall.

Personally, I hope that we can keep the Azerite necklace for Timewalking at least, rather then just picking Legiondary BiS or that 3 socket neck.

[Keltas]

That could definitely work but then there is the issue of Knaifu being free.

They could've easily solved this by making a "build your own weapon" system for this expansion, instead of re-using old ones or making azerite gear. Just give you a forge, let you pick your weapon type, each type has 3-4 "slots" you can put any weapon part you want, all content drops cosmetic weapon parts, some are class specific but most aren't.

you throw in the blade you want, the hilt you want, the pommel you want, and boom, you now have your own custom sword. All held together by some azerite jewel in it's center (and lorewise holds the weapons power). Obviously you can swap your parts and even weapon type at will, as long as your class can wield it.


Would've been 1000x cooler than azerite gear, and would have so much potential customization. Could even throw parts into old content. They suck ass at realizing how much people love visual customization.

[matrix123mko]

They could've easily solved this by making a "build your own weapon" system for this expansion, instead of re-using old ones or making azerite gear. Just give you a forge, let you pick your weapon type, each type has 3-4 "slots" you can put any weapon part you want, all content drops cosmetic weapon parts, some are class specific but most aren't.

you throw in the blade you want, the hilt you want, the pommel you want, and boom, you now have your own custom sword. All held together by some azerite jewel in it's center (and lorewise holds the weapons power). Obviously you can swap your parts and even weapon type at will, as long as your class can wield it.


Would've been 1000x cooler than azerite gear, and would have so much potential customization. Could even throw parts into old content. They suck ass at realizing how much people love visual customization.

It would be difficult not to get it bugged, but Blizzard has money and people for that. I like it.

[JoshuaNLG]

It'll be removed and replaced with something equally as shit.

[Nixiuz]

Sylvanas needs to be a raid boss and be killed. I still believe it will happen in BfA. Defeating N'zoth accomplishes nothing to end the battle for Azeroth. Only way is to kill Sylvanas for good. Even if she just leaves the horde, the remaining forces will be going after her. This expansion has to end with her. I don't see any other way. N'zoth is best saved for next xpac.

Maybe or N'zoth and Sylvanas will be bosses or joint end bosses in a BFA raid.

[vertigo12]

Azerite 2.0 for sure. Some facelifted Artifact weapon to Azerite gear with their signature AP grind.

[Swnem]

Maybe or N'zoth and Sylvanas will be bosses or joint end bosses in a BFA raid.

Though wasteful, it is possible, yes. Her style is probably to try and enslave him. She might do that to power up.

[Octoberfest99]

Azerite is specifically linked to the plot line around the wound Sargeras opened in Azeroth so Azerite gear will be limited to BFA. The power-up grind will likely continue in a new form. Legendary boots perhaps?

[Battlebeard]

It will stay in one form or another. WQs will never go away. M+ will never go away. Azerite/Artifact power, or a similar system where you collect a currency and empower some gear, with traits or talents or w/e will never go away.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Does it bother anyone else that when you hover over your bar, it says "Artifact Power" and not Azerite? Why is it called artifact power, if we do not have artifacts? Just something small that bugs me every time I see it.

Because the system is a 1:1 import from Artifacts and Blizz was too lazy to change the name.

[Zandalariprelate]

Gotta say, the gal does look badass in those pics. She could really use more character development.

Indeed, blizzard is always top notch in making fan arts of characters, such a shame Yrel got her deveploment cutted alongside Durotan which has a lot of potential with his honor code of war(pragmatic but not totally ruthless and neither a pansy)

Soyboys Manduin and Baine are getting their softy asses kicked by a crazy, glowing goat? Sign me up please

Me too, I would even main my paladin draenei paladin for the whole expansion if that happend, wishfully Yrel will throw Anduin to some Colisseum to fight against many taurens and black dragons "wink". Also Locus Walker having crashed with her will be another flavor I would like to see in the alliance.

[Taeldorian]

The problem with Azerite Armor is that you just refarm every new season for the exact same traits you had before. If your BiS azerite comes from m+ (2 of my pieces do) then you’re literally refarming the exact same piece of gear every single new season. This is one of the biggest downsides imo.

Another big downside is how they’ve been using these systems in general. They need to stop treating these rental systems as permanent class design for the expansion and instead treat them as bonuses. They only serve to hurt class design if the class barely functions without the armor considering they get removed at the end of each expac. It forces them to either rework classes each expansion or hope and pray that the rental gear system fixes all the issues (which it won’t).

Honestly, if they just made the Azerite Armor traits available as soon as you get the armor and the grind is for the neck with essences (similar to 8.2) I think that would be a fantastic system to carry forward. We basically get tier sets again just in the form of Azerite Armor without having to grind for the traits while also having the essence system that provides big class gameplay changes that we grind for.

[xblubbx]

Blizzard is gonna make very sure that there's is no mentioning of "Azerite gear" or anything what people might be naming "9.0 Azerite gear" in 9.0