How would you make WoW great again!!!???

[Polygons]

I would bring back tier sets, get rid of titanforging, get rid of LFR, and make raiding only two difficulties. More story telling cinematic's and rich lore. A storyline that rivals the Lich King story or better. I wouldn't change M+, but I would bring back talent points in some shape or form that feels meaningful like in classic. I would add more RPG elements and stats, less action RPG, and arbitrary RNG. I would release multiple raids at a time instead of just one linear one and make them feel handcrafted and meaningful instead of the soulless raids we have now. I would stray away from anything that seems rushed because of corporate deadlines and their partnership with Activision. I would also make the cinematics dark like the new Diablo 4 trailer and Diablo 2 or WotLK.

[unbound]

How would you make WoW good heading forwards?

Put effort into the game again.

There are a lot of ways and approaches that can work quite well, but the biggest issue I have with WoW is the sheer laziness of it all. Multiple difficulties of dungeons and raids is not content. Having rewards being almost exclusively around AP is not rewarding. Having a new race that is merely a reskin is not exciting. Updating graphics is nice, but not the top priority.

I would much, *much* rather spend an evening in a single interesting dungeon that wasn't easy to complete than bounce around in a queue to race through 5 or 6 dungeons in record time...dungeons that I've already played in dozens, if not hundreds, of times already. Adding a mechanic or two into the same dungeon is like getting into a ten year old cheap car with a new paint job...it's still a ten year old cheap car despite having a shiny paint job.

I'd also like to see something new added. The reason we don't have real housing is, again, because of laziness. It would require Blizz to add something of significance and add a whole lot of new things to support the customization that comes with housing.

Part of the reason that BC and Wrath were so great is because there was new things added to the game for the first time. The last few expansions are just doing the same old thing over and over again or adding things that involve minimal effort (e.g. garrisons).

[Lolites]

Legion only gets praise because it landed in a very special spot. Here I'll show you.

Warlords of Draenor (TERRIBLE, MASS UNSUBS) -------> Legion ------------> Battle for Azeroth (TERRIBLE, MASS UNSUBS)


Make sense yet? People praise it because it landed between two awful expansions.

Legion had all the same issues as BfA. People just like remembering it when it was at it's peak with everything fixed. 7.3.5.

You could purchase Legendaries. Classes were fun because they had full rental systems unlocked etc.

Legion is the expansion that RUINED class design.



Also Ion didn't make Legion from start to finish - he inherited it. Battle for Azeroth is the first expansion he had full design control from inception to launch.

sorry, but EVERY expansion had its flaws... in march it will be 15 years i play and i have yet to see "perfect" expansion
so sure, legion had its flaws (7.2 was pretty low bar) and obviously getting it after WoD helped it to seem better, but it was still great expansion, in my (very subjective obviously) view its second best after WotLK (very closely ahead of pandaria)

on the other hand, wod or cata were definitely way worse than legion and wod was even worse than bfa imo so i fail to see how ion is at fault of shitty expansions when 2/3 worst expansions were done BEFORE him...

i would understood how firing him would be reasonable if we got 6 great expansions, he took over and then we got two bad, but thats just not a case at all...

[Stormwolf64]

WoW needs to stop playing it safe every expansion and try to take more risks. As of now the game has stagnated where we do the exact same thing every single time. It worked for some time but now the game is 15 years old and needs to improvise more often.

They could try to settle the Alliance and Horde on a whole new planet which is double the size of Azeroth, have villains win more often which leads to devastating results for both the factions and the world, utilize existing features to their maximum potential rather than just leaving them to die and forgotten for the next expansion (examples are take pet battles far enough to make tournaments for them like in Pokémon, make warfronts actually challenging that uses strategy over zerging to win, use more dynamic battlefields for any big feature.)

A WoW 2.0 is a possibility but I doubt that a lot of people would want to lose all of their progress. It would be very refreshing to start all over on a new world and try to recapture the experience you had when you first played WoW, but apparently its not something everyone wants. If you carry their progress over than it kinds of ruins the point of entering a new game. Also imagine the possibilities of a vastly updated engine. The current engine is still very old and has troubles to do a lot of features properly.

This is faulty. Wow has been taking many risks and is getting huge flak for it. For good reasons mind you, the changes they've made has been more or less terrible all the way. Take FFXIV for example, it does the exact same thing every single expansion. The exact same. It doesn't compromise much of class difficulties though, but people devour it. What do we learn from this? Yes, Blizzard is making is trying to reinvent the wheel all the time, even when it's completely uncalled for, but all too often they make a square wheel instead of a circular one.... How they don't foresee the problems beforehand is completely baffling to me. Creative arrogance complimented by idiocy and status is probably the reason. Someone makes a stupid change and no one really dares object to the change. Typical thing.

[huth]

BfA did that. Ion and his crew did that.

I thank you for the enormous amount of evidence you provided to support your claim.

I get your point. But if the game was exactly how it was 15 years ago, there wouldn't be people asking for classic.

Think about that.

There still would have been, because things changed that are outside Blizzard's control.

On top of that, you want him to be more objective - cool. How he's about to achieve it? He asks a question yet you avoid the answer by saying that being more objective than an average person is not that hard...

Nice strawman. I said getting a more objective metric than a single persons opinion isn't hard, because that's as simple as getting opinions from multiple people with different points of view.

If your goal here was to sound smart, well, you've failed.

Look who's talking.

[Amerissis]

How would you make WoW good heading forwards?

I'd start by banning people who ask for MAGA (make azeroth great again). It implies WoW isn't great anymore, which is not an objective truth and thus false. Then I'd ban people who hog all the exclamation and question marks. THERE ARE OTHER PEOPLE WHO NEED THOSE TOO, KAREN! Then I'd ban people who complain about no content because they don't want to do PvP, pet battles, explore, level alts, all quests, raid and/or dungeons. Not LIKING content (or refusing to do it) isn't the same as there not BEING any content. I'd also ban people say stuff that isn't even released yet is bad. Play it first, form an opinion and thén come with arguments as to why it's not good.

I think that'd go a long way to making this game even better.

[Lolites]

I'd start by banning people who ask for MAGA (make azeroth great again). It implies WoW isn't great anymore, which is not an objective truth and thus false. Then I'd ban people who hog all the exclamation and question marks. THERE ARE OTHER PEOPLE WHO NEED THOSE TOO, KAREN! Then I'd ban people who complain about no content because they don't want to do PvP, pet battles, explore, level alts, all quests, raid and/or dungeons. Not LIKING content (or refusing to do it) isn't the same as there not BEING any content. I'd also ban people say stuff that isn't even released yet is bad. Play it first, form an opinion and thén come with arguments as to why it's not good.

I think that'd go a long way to making this game even better.

I wouldnt say to wait for release, but hell at least wait for alfa footage ffs
but no, ppls whine about things they know nothing about yet, bcs thats helpful somehow

[Demontjuh]

Making the gameplay fun again. Not being a Demi god that crushes the world without a second thought would be nice. Think timeless Isles but worldwide with some areas easier then others. Mobs with kill shot abilities. World Quest varity. More mini games like we got in Naz/Kin'tor in legion. Jump puzzles. Vault dailys from mists ect... ect..

Revert most classes designs back to Mists. Giving back choices gearing/glyphs/talents that actually would change gameplay. I used to have 3 sets of gear for PVP and one set for PVE. I had glass canon. middle teir between defense and offense and pure tanking set. Depending on what I was wearing I would have to change my glyphs and talents before matches. Which reminds me adding a wardrobe into the game so you dont have to have your bags full of armor and making it easy to swap between what you need.

Make professions useful again and interesting. I think The Farm+cooking was the best verson of a profession we ever had. I loved planting my crops for what I needed, going and mass murdering turtles/animals for meat. Collecting spices with currency and putting it all together in the end. They even added a mini game senerio where you ran a noodle shop for extra resources and I personally really enjoyed it. Expand on good systems instead of throwing them away and keeping the worst systems in(Mission Tables im looking at you).

Imagine if Blacksmiths had their own forge and production line that every expansion you could add on to like a Professions hall thats not tossed out the window at the end of an expo. Using old materials and new. They should all be mini games that if you do yourself increases production. Something as simple as a timed based button mashing system while creating armor. Everything you do increases quality so players that focus on skill based profession making can create items everyone wants. Gameplay in professions that actually add Skill to it. Adding Garrison style followers to do the orders for you for less quality ect.... Just add DEPTH and choices. Even go so far to add player created cosmetics as well through professions.

Fishing should be a UI changing system like pet battles with actual fishing involved. Could have its own system/resources as well that tie into cooking.

Archeology I would go with an expedition that requires decent amount of resources that last for 2 weeks. Say you find a Dig site that has potential for extremely poweful enchantment recipe as well as treasure that you could sell. Something like Thunderfury proc that you could add to a weapon. You would have to go clear that area out yourself(with the 8.3 scaling systems they are adding and the AI they have been working on could make for some fun gameplay if done right).
The more rare, the harder the event. Once you clear it you have to spend gold to hire your team. Professions would offer different things. Blacksmithing picks/shovels. Enginnering blasting caps/powder. Leatherworking buildings. Tailors gearing/beds. ect... Your team would set up camp in a phased section of the world map and start digging. Every day you would have to stop by and make sure things are going well with different daily quests. Or you could just leave it alone but wont yeild as much reward. You would also have the normal Archeology that you could do around the world(some people like it..) that would reward similer items that give gold but also items that could increase your dig site speed.

oh i like where this is going. +1

[Lolites]

They should poll the playerbase. Simple.

Runescape does it and it works.

- - - Updated - - -



Thanks for completely disregarding the point of my post. Which was to say you only look upon Legion fondly because it landed smack bang in the middle of the two worst expansions of all time.

i said it helped to get it after WoD, soo obviously i didnt disregard that...
and no, i look upon legion fondly bcs it was great expansion and i enjoyed it a lot, way more than anything since wotlk...
i understand YOU didnt like it much, or you only liked it bcs it was after wod, but surely you are not the metric rather than crapload of people who enjoyed it...

[Loveliest]

You'll get as many responses as people. Some like some features and don't like others - anyone here will only answer "what would make the game the best for me".
So yeah, since it's like that, my gripes are:
- I don't like deadlines - don't make activities that are available only in certain days, certain weeks, or even certain hours (like invasions)
- I don't like pet stuff being changed to be more "challenging" randomly - after doing it the first time, having a long ass fight is just tedious

What I would like:
- Get rid of servers ; make cross-faction group play also available - don't care how, not being able to do help out a friend because he's on a different server or because he's a different faction is an issue for me
- Change how Mythic size works - again, not sure how, but some guilds have nothing to do when they're don with hc because they don't have the numbers; maybe the previous point would alleviate that

Oh - and I want housing. And making furniture with all professions.

Just off the top of my head. I'm pretty OK with how the game works, I tend to like all types of content and I've been belessed with a class / spec that hasn't ever sucked too much in the last 10 years (prot paladin).

[Amaterasu65]

Remove WF/TF/random sockets. Bring back socket specific gear.

Bring back PvP Gear bought with rating and weekly cap resource (Conquest).

Weekly PvE resource that can be used to raise item level once or twice per item and buy one socket slot. Fixed amount of that resource per week, resets per Season.

Mythic+ like it currently is, but maybe more creative affixes. Also class-specific utility in M+ in the form of buffs/skipping mechanics(like a Mage might find a teleportation beacon that can activate and teleport the group once to skip some packs, or a druid find a seed that can be amplified to create some big ass roots that entangle enemies for a specific period of time). Inspired from profession enhancements in Court of Stars. These could be tuned depending on class popularity, in order for all classes to be favored in M+ environment. If for example rogues, (r)druids and demon hunters are favored for X reasons, then other neglected classes like shamans would get better class-specific mechanisms.

Challenge Modes. Either in the traditional form of item level squish to dungeon ilvl, hard tuning and time restriction, or bring fancy scenarios to replace Challenge Modes in dungeons (since M+ holds the spot right now). Mage Tower was great and brought class-specific customization similar to the CM sets in MoP. They seem to be looking at solo scenarios with Visions and the Shadowlands Tower, but focusing on class or race (or both) would be insane. Also titles, mounts and other goodies.

World PvP events in every area for those with WM on. Just how it happens in Nazjatar, but everywhere else as well. Many different rewards (with commendation system so you know you are gonna get it someday without RNG involved) so players are active towards a goal they can actively see they are close to reach every time they participate. Adding more every patch or two to keep people invested (similar to how they add a new Warfront mount).

Flying enabled from the start. When a PvP event is up flying is disabled (or not, depends on how it affects the gameplay, it's ok in Nazjatar). Pathfinder Achievement as a requirement is ok for me as long as it is attainable in the first patch (first few weeks).

I feel raiding is fine. Blizzard keeps delivering a variety of cool, annoying. easy, hard and memorable encounters.Bring back class tier sets and set bonuses. They spice up how a spec plays and feels, adds variety every patch. PvP sets could also have bonuses.

I'm also fine with a resource item(Azerite, Artifact Power) that stays through the expansion, as long as it's on an off piece (neck, ring, cloak) and that offers additional spec customization ( a la Legion, I don't like how you might get a 440 Azerite Piece which could be garbage compared to a 430 that has your bis trait). Having a talent tree on that item where you can choose from a variety of utility, QoL and active fighting enhancements is cool in my book.

Replace obsolete talents with something fresh. Also some specs need an overhaul (arcane is a one button spam right now, I'm sure other specs feel clunky or punishing to play) and all classes would be ok with new spells to freshen them up.

[Amarys]

Dial down the cosmetic shit and shift your focus on game play/mechanics. Pretty simple.

This!!!

Also separate arenas from the main game completely. Add arena servers with max level geared characters that can only participate in arenas with different balancing, separate from the normal game and earn cosmetic rewards. Stop ruining PvP for the rest of us by balancing it around arenas.

[CrawlFromThePit]

I do play something else. Havent played WoW in almost a year...

So we're back to the first thing I said in the post you replied to, you expect the game to have given you progress even if you haven't played it. Yo dude, if you want things to unlock you have to play it, not shelve it for a year, of course you won't get anything if you don't play, like wtf man.

[Mermeoth]

Er, I'd probably end it. And make a Warcraft 4 in RTS terms. Then a WoW 2 10 yearsish later.

Honestly I think this is the best way. WoW story is absolute mess. They should make new RTS. Build up properly new interesting heroes and than base new WoW on that.
With all their experience they should avoid to make them again. With new fresh game, they can do far more than with dinosaur they currently have to maintain.

[Loveliest]

I don't believe in redemption. When you don't like something, it's hard to enjoy after, not impossible but, you just lose a big part of the enjoying while that bad thing is going on, for months, and 2/half years. (For other people, longer than that).

I have always been told, better safe than sorry. Nowadays, i understand this better than i ever did, and wow systematically contains the best example of this, on the opposite side "better sorry than safe". They apply things and expect to be forgiven after applying or re-applying more bad things, that just makes it a mess.

Pretty dramatic, considering it's about a game. You sound like your husband / wife cheated on you for the second time and you just can't forgive him for it. Like you have been hurt so bad that you never want to risk it again and you'd better be safe. Talk of redemption and forgiveness. Gives me the chills, you were probably very invested in this game to sound so hurt.

[Somewhatconcerned]

Every class/spec desperately needs another talent row, at least.

[Shakana]

Pretty dramatic, considering it's about a game. You sound like your husband / wife cheated on you for the second time and you just can't forgive him for it. Like you have been hurt so bad that you never want to risk it again and you'd better be safe. Talk of redemption and forgiveness. Gives me the chills, you were probably very invested in this game to sound so hurt.

It's a relationship, with blizzard.

Btw, relationships can be "business relationships", if you never heard that term.
If i give them MY own money, i at least do it because i want to enjoy something they do. If they keep failing on me or people, and expect to be forgiven each time they fail, then it's just a reason to not approve their "business".

I'm not talking in a romantic way, and it's not even dramatic, it's pretty logic. I start questioning what a person defines as dramatic.
But since you put it on a romantic level: If your partner cheats on you, although you love them so much, you will feel weird and feel things changed and don't know if you can keep it like that.

Just a stupid analogy. But forgiveness can be made, doesn't mean it will change the way you feel about things.
If for me BfA has just been bad, i find it really hard to give a chance on patches and i just feel off in giving them my money.

I didn't even invest that much time in the game to be "hurt", but i indeed invested a lot money over the course of the years. And my relation with blizzard has been decaying over that course.

Lately it has been hard to say "pleasure in doing business with you."

It's mentally draining, and because of the burnout i come to this forums to speak about it. But i can't be here always, as, as you said, it's just a game and my life doesn't revolve around it. When i can be doing something better with my money and time.
So ye i get in a mood, logical mood, with blizzard and i feel patches are not enough to solve this. And shadowlands has not much info, but i'm looking forward.

Meanwhile i just live my life and i'm here discussing but "make wow great again" it's not on our hands, and they need to be the ones that solve that problem. Not us with our ideas on the forum. No matter how much mastermind ideas you can see here, the reality will be different in most scenarios.

[huth]

It's a relationship, with blizzard.

Btw, relationships can be "business relationships", if you never heard that term.

Personal relationships and business relationships are rather different beasts. You're treating a business relationship like a personal relationship.

[Shakana]

Personal relationships and business relationships are rather different beasts. You're treating a business relationship like a personal relationship.

It's a personal business relationship when it's you giving your money to a company and i'm a client. You're not even being payed for a service, you have to have something that takes you to pay for theirs. Not the contrary. They need to provide to YOU with at least good things that will interest you and therefore, it ends up being something personal, because you're giving more than receiving.

I treat what i want to treat the way i want to treat. As the money they get is mine (and yours), if i want to take it personal i do.

[huth]

It's a personal business relationship when it's you giving your money to a company and i'm a client. You're not even being payed for a service, you have to have something that takes you to pay for theirs. Not the contrary. They need to provide to YOU with at least good things that will interest you and therefore, it ends up being something personal, because you're giving more than receiving.

Which just goes to prove my point. You're treating an impersonal business relationship as a personal relationship.

No, Blizzard doesn't need to provide you with something that will interest you, because they don't care about you personally. They are a business which has to make money, and will therefore strive to provide something that appeals to a large group of people, with no particular concern over whether you specificially are part of that group.

I treat what i want to treat the way i want to treat. As the money they get is mine (and yours), if i want to take it personal i do.

You can do that. But you really shouldn't, and you'll just get disappointed if you do. But hey, it's your life you're fucking up.