Account-wide rank 3 Essences are happening!

[Zarvel]

Honestly, the theme of Essences does seem to indicate, to me, that they should be character-driven. I just rolled a new toon 3 weeks ago and I'm already nearly rank 3 on all the super grindy Essences so while this is a welcome change it's hardly a necessary one (imo).

Not everyone likes (or can because of weekly time limitations) to grind through boring time gated content for their character to be setup to tackle current content.
It's like holding back legiondaries on stuff like frost DKs or Demo locks - sure, you could "play" those classes in current content, but your classes were intentionally gimped by virtue of not having those pieces of gear, it's like the classes/specs depended on them for acceptable performance. It's the same with essences. I fail to understand the logic some of you use when you defend blizzard's stance on this.
I'm totally fine with Gear being locked behind effort and time gating. I'm however never going to be ok with class/spec playability and acceptability being locked behind the same.

While it is great that we can finally cut the time on obtaining essences, I can also sympathise with folks who still see this as blizzard only going 50% of the way by still gating it behind a grind.

To each their own though. Both you, OR, I, could be wrong in our approach to this. So let's not put down anyone outside our echo chambers yeah? Unless it's that negative nancy who got banned earlier who keeps responding in negatives to everyone's post - have at him, I will too.

[Devilyaki]

Now I have to actually get a rank 3 one now..

[tankbug]

When are they going to learn that this kind of thing needs to be implemented as soon as the feature launches?

First Legiondaries and now this. These systems leave a bitter taste when they could have been loved from start to finish.

Well, as our experience shows, there are a lot of factors that need tuning in almost any piece of software, which is revealed only after the the real users have been at it for a while.

[Cloto]

Rejoice! They heard the feedback and actually made it happen in good time.

Actually, people wanted to have the essences available on alts without having to grind for them over and over and over again.

So no, blizzard is not listening to feedback, they just added another time gate and moved the effort to play alts from another grind to a new one.

Fuck the shadiness of these idiot devs.

[Specialka]

all of my healer alts run r1 lucid major and it has never stopped them from being able to clear heroic raids/15 keys

Well, not all ppl like to get carried through raids and keys with grey parse, huh. Who would have thought that?

[SkagenRora]

When are they going to learn that this kind of thing needs to be implemented as soon as the feature launches?

First Legiondaries and now this. These systems leave a bitter taste when they could have been loved from start to finish.

Because they want you to progress and "Finish" your main before you start working your alts. So they don't intriduce alt friendly systems until the end of expansion.

Or that's what i assume any way.

[mauserr]

You are all fucking way too optimistic about this. This is Blizzard we're dealing with here, after all. You can bet your fucking left nut they will not allow you to get all your favourite 4 essences in a week. I mean come on, they even introduced a currency for fuck's sake.

If they actually listened to your fucking feedback, you would've gotten all your already earned essences on your alts instantly, but that is not going to happen, because this is just another grind you have to get through. Shorter than the normal essence grind, but it will defo take a week or two to get 4 essences or so.

[Cloto]

Also, most people do not even have level 3 essences. The devs just, once again, design their game for hardcore players.

In the end, it changes nothing for typical casual gamers, which are the majority of the players of world of warcraft.

Once again, the devs fucked it up.

[Aeula]

Well this isn’t what we asked for. This is just an alternative way to get essences if you got them once before. And it’ll probably be one long, retarded grind for just a single essence.

What a joke.

[Free]

Also, most people do not even have level 3 essences. The devs just, once again, design their game for hardcore players.

In the end, it changes nothing for typical casual gamers, which are the majority of the players of world of warcraft.

Once again, the devs fucked it up.

Then get rank 3 instead of whining about it. They are all pretty easy to get including the pvp ones

[FelPlague]

Ok, but idea of mandatory legendaries is bad anyway. And at that point any long term (that is comparable with length of "season", so player just can't do it on alts) grind should be account-wide. Because "endless main progression grind" vs "play on alts for fun" problem should finally be solved. And you should understand, that I won't buy Shadowlands, if it won't be solved. 100% at this time, because unfortunately since BFA there is no hope, that game will improve by the end of xpack, so there is no reason to buy xpack even around x.2, when flying becomes available.

"idea of mandatory legendaries is bad anyways"
yes, so the idea of legendaries in general is bad.
cause idk if you know, but if your class could get the legendary, it was mandatory.
You were a rogue in black temple? those warglaives were mandatroy, they were your BIS.
you were a dk/warrior/ret pally in icc? get that shadowmourne, there was no such thing as a ret pally who went "eh i dont want shadowmourne" no it was "What number am i for shadowmourne queue?"

[Cloto]

Then get rank 3 instead of whining about it. They are all pretty easy to get including the pvp ones

Essences are part of an old patch. I want to entirely focus on patch 8.3 and not have to grind old content.

I cannot do that? Well, fuck WoW then. There are other games. Fuck the devs and their endless greed for grind /played time.

I have long lost the wish to play the skinner boxes those incompetent devs deem playworthy in world of warcraft.

They can take their grinds and shove them up Hazzikostas ass. I am sure he even would like that.

[Adaren]

But to be fair, even a full on free of charge account shared essence system wouldn't bring me back at this point, it's about a year too late to implement that.

I just thought this was funny because Essence have only been out for 9 months.

[Dakara]

None of that disputes my point though, but keep digging buddy. It's entertaining.

- - - Updated - - -



This depends entirely on your "up to speed" definition. Many (maybe you as well) seem to take this as "same level as my main" and obviously that is quite a chore. However rank 2 essences have been easily available for quite a while now. So if you define "up to speed" as "a bit behind main progression" then that hasn't been a problem.

It's all in the optics really - people (in this forum) will readily tell you they absolutely need rank 3 essences for their alt that only does world quests. But obviously that's not the case.

I do agree that this has been a growing problem for "serious" players - for example people who like to push keys on alts. Getting Blood of the Enemy R3 on 6 alts is painful if you want to push +15 and beyond or if your main access to higherlevel content is pugs. But "serious players" are minority after all, so I can understand why Blizzard hasn't prioritized it.

Agree that you don’t need R3 essences on Alts. My mains progressing in Mythic at the moment and my guilds brining alts to Heroic clear night. I also don’t need to be pushing high keys on alts, but I don’t want to be mucking around in low keys either.

Thing is, for me anyway, I didn’t enjoy getting even Rank 1 for many of the essences, regardless of how easy they were to obtain. Any essence that pushed me into content I don’t usually do, felt like a chore at any Rank and I have no intention of repeating it.

Raid and M+ essences came naturally as part of my gearing progression.
Islands were always a brain dead chore for AP, but as I was doing them that essence also came naturally.
Rep essences were frustrating as I don’t usually grind reps, rather I take my time with them.
Naz follower quests made me want to quit.
PvP essences made me actually quit.
8.3 essences aren’t so bad.

Long story short, if my BiS essence for certain content actually came from doing that content I’d be ok with the system, even for alts. But it doesn’t. Conflict and Strife is BiS for several PvE specs, as is Blood of the Enemy. Memory of Lucid Dreams is BiS for most of my healers but that’s gated behind Naz follower XP. It’s just frustrating and not enjoyable to repeat that type of content.... so I don’t.

[mauserr]

I just thought this was funny because Essence have only been out for 9 months.

Which is just about a year, or do you not know that a year has 12 months? Fucking played yourself right there.

[FelPlague]

Which is just about a year, or do you not know that a year has 12 months? Fucking played yourself right there.

Actually 8 months, wont be 9 months till another 2 weeks.

but idk mate, 8 months is pretty far from 12 months that is literally a 33% increase...

thats like saying 40 minutes is bassically an hour.
nah, 40/60 or 8/12 is 2 thirds, not 1 whole

[WowIsDead64]

"idea of mandatory legendaries is bad anyways"
yes, so the idea of legendaries in general is bad.
cause idk if you know, but if your class could get the legendary, it was mandatory.
You were a rogue in black temple? those warglaives were mandatroy, they were your BIS.
you were a dk/warrior/ret pally in icc? get that shadowmourne, there was no such thing as a ret pally who went "eh i dont want shadowmourne" no it was "What number am i for shadowmourne queue?"

My current problem is:
I play all classes, so I can say, how their class design feels in every xpack. And my opinion - all base classes have been nerfed both in Legion and BFA by some % to make room for endgame progression systems. Problem is - it has made base classes literally unplayable. At least for me. And this can be compensated by long term grind only. Ok, I can even agree to suffer and do all this long term grind. But... Only once. I.e. it should be account-wide. That's it. I'm not ready to do this grind on every single alt. And I just can't throw my alts to trash. Because... You know, I've put my soul into them. I've invested months of time and effort into them. This time and effort just can't be trashed, sorry.

[Memnok]

So we need a rank three essence on main character, are we going to be able to purchase the rank 3 for our alts or will they only have rank one available?

[Doffen]

So we need a rank three essence on main character, are we going to be able to purchase the rank 3 for our alts or will they only have rank one available?

The ones you can buy will be rank 3 only. Skipping rank 1 and 2.

[Dioporco]

This isn't listening it is still a way to milk people time with old content.

Only shills cannot understand