9.0 General Discussion

[Dracullus]

As I understood it, you can change Conduits in a chosen path freely as much as you want, but if you want to respec the path that you went with in that Soulbind then it has a weekly CD on that Soulbind.

This is something I would like for covenants. You can switch, but only once every week (or every two if one week isn't MeAnInGfUl ChOiCe enough) and every covenant has separate soulbind/sanctum/followers progression (+ of course you can't use transmog from inactive faction).

Imo choice every 1 (2) week, but without chance to switch is better than just puting it behind some paywall like Azerite.

[IndCold]

As I understood it, you can change Conduits in a chosen path freely as much as you want, but if you want to respec the path that you went with in that Soulbind then it has a weekly CD on that Soulbind.

Other way around, you can switch soulbinds any time but you can only respec the conduits (traits) once a week.

If you want to rebuild your Soulbind trees, once per week you’ll be able to clear all of their Conduits, with a separate cooldown per Soulbind. But once you’ve decided on your desired Conduit placements, we want to ensure that the system offers as much flexibility as other existing talent systems, so you’ll be able to switch which Soulbind is active or redirect the flow of Anima through a Soulbind’s tree (essentially respeccing them) any time you visit your Sanctum.

What I don't understand is "redirect the flow of Anima through a Soulbind's tree", but I'm still a bit behind on the whole conduit system.

Edit: From other responses I understand in this system you pick the traits that show up and then build a path (the flow of anima) among those traits. So, once we have cookie cutter builds we could simply switch paths or soulbinds depending on what content we're doing, doesn't seem bad to me.

[gunner_recall]

Well yeah, soulbinds are new artifact system, but with weekly cap since many people grinded AP in BfA like idiots.

I wonder how many people are gonna be pissed about anima being capped weekly so they can't speedrun a game that has 0 reason for people to speedrun it.

[Cosmic Janitor]

Good enough tbh. Anything beats the abhorent relic system in legion. The cooldown is a bit of a "fuck you, because we said so" thing, but at least you can change them around without needing constantly new ones. Reconfiguring everything on the fly is a bit excessive anyway, just requiring the covenant forges would have been enough for that. Even if you are the most pro mythic raider in the world, no sane raid lead will let you go back for 5 minutes of trash, just to switch covenant soulbinds around.

Limiting to a week seems to be too much tbh if you want to try out a new setting over the weekend or something, but I can live with that.

[Dracullus]

I wonder how many people are gonna be pissed about anima being capped weekly so they can't speedrun a game that has 0 reason for people to speedrun it.

If I remember correctly (from Blizzcon I think), you can farm past cap, but only for collectibles.

What I don't understand is "redirect the flow of Anima through a Soulbind's tree", but I'm still a bit behind on the whole conduit system.

I think it's RP description of clicking a button.

[Atticon]

What I don't understand is "redirect the flow of Anima through a Soulbind's tree", but I'm still a bit behind on the whole conduit system.

It's the pathway within a soulbind.
Think of it like this: Soulbinds are mutually exclusive talent trees. You pick one, and within them you get to pick a path of talents. There are also empty talent slots you can fill up with Conduits.

At the sanctum, you can change your choice of talent tree whenever you want, and your normal talents whenever you want. What you can't change whenever you want are those Conduits in the empty talent slots, you can only reset those once a week with a seperate cooldown for each talent tree.

[Nagawithlegs]

What I don't understand is "redirect the flow of Anima through a Soulbind's tree", but I'm still a bit behind on the whole conduit system.

There are branches on the soulbind talent tree that you need to choose a certain conduit type for (damage/defensive/utility). It sounds like you will be able to socket in conduits once a week but you can switch between the different branches at any time.

[Cosmic Janitor]

I wonder how many people are gonna be pissed about anima being capped weekly so they can't speedrun a game that has 0 reason for people to speedrun it.

There is plenty of reason to get grinds out of the way, be it your own peace of mind, you don't want to log in next week because you are traveling or just because you want the dose of playerpower for the next boss and you want to kill it now, not in 4 weeks. The cap is only neccessary because the acquisition method is already softcapped with scaling mechanisms that hinder you from just finishing it and instead you have to earn it via massive diminishing returns. These softcaps in turn only exist as a scheme to elongate player subscription times. So the problem is entirely of Blizzard's own making in the first place.

That said, I personally did run Islands barely more than 20 times during the whole expansion, so it won't effect me much anyway. It just makes bad content like invasions more aggravating when you have them on your weekly list of chores and you can't just get it over with.

[IndCold]

It's the pathway within a soulbind.
Think of it like this: Soulbinds are mutually exclusive talent trees. You pick one, and within them you get to pick a path of talents. There are also empty talent slots you can fill up with Conduits.

At the sanctum, you can change your choice of talent tree whenever you want, and your normal talents whenever you want. What you can't change whenever you want are those Conduits in the empty talent slots, you can only reset those once a week with a seperate cooldown for each talent tree.

There are branches on the soulbind talent tree that you need to choose a certain conduit type for (damage/defensive/utility). It sounds like you will be able to socket in conduits once a week but you can switch between the different branches at any time.

Yup, got it now, Thanks!

[gunner_recall]

There is plenty of reason to get grinds out of the way, be it your own peace of mind, you don't want to log in next week because you are traveling or just because you want the dose of playerpower for the next boss and you want to kill it now, not in 4 weeks. The cap is only neccessary because the acquisition method is already softcapped with scaling mechanisms that hinder you from just finishing it and instead have to earn if via massive diminishing returns. These softcaps in turn only exist as scheme to elongate player subscription times. So the problem is entirely of Blizzard's own make in the first place.

That said, I personally did run Islands barely more than 20 times during the whole expansion, so it won't effect me much anyway. It just makes bad content like invasions more aggravating when you have them on your weekly list of chores and you can't just get it over with.

I mean, I get wanting to get the grindy stuff out of the way but at the same time, that's a great recipe for burning out and hate what could otherwise be a great expansion.

There's definitely that tedious feeling that comes with having to do chores, like "oh I have to do my emissary/whatever today" but at the same time, I think having that cap kind of enforces the idea that it's like "okay, I can knock this out on Monday/Tuesday and then whatever I want the rest of the week" or "okay, I can spend 20-30 minutes doing this each day and then spend the rest of my time doing whatever"

Like there's no rush to try and max out every system. But given how the player base usually is, I'm more wondering about people who are going to rage about not being able to grind anima for 20 hours a day.

[Cosmic Janitor]

I mean, I get wanting to get the grindy stuff out of the way but at the same time, that's a great recipe for burning out and hate what could otherwise be a great expansion.

There's definitely that tedious feeling that comes with having to do chores, like "oh I have to do my emissary/whatever today" but at the same time, I think having that cap kind of enforces the idea that it's like "okay, I can knock this out on Monday/Tuesday and then whatever I want the rest of the week" or "okay, I can spend 20-30 minutes doing this each day and then spend the rest of my time doing whatever"

Like there's no rush to try and max out every system. But given how the player base usually is, I'm more wondering about people who are going to rage about not being able to grind anima for 20 hours a day.

I think it depends on personality. I personally dread things more that I have to do each and every week than things I can do just once and get it over with. I'm sure there is some psychological take on this out there.

Burnout is definitely real as well though, no questions there.

[Rullis]

Hi! General question here.
I havent played the current expansion at all. I was curious to know how it works when I purchase Shadowlands. Will I be the same level as everyone else (since they mash them down to 60 or whatever), or will I still be behind?
Will I be able to access the current expansions stuff later on, without purchasing it?

[Makabreska]

Hi! General question here.
I havent played the current expansion at all. I was curious to know how it works when I purchase Shadowlands. Will I be the same level as everyone else (since they mash them down to 60 or whatever), or will I still be behind?
Will I be able to access the current expansions stuff later on, without purchasing it?

Lol no. You can't play new xpac content beside general class/system changes w/o buying expansion. It never worked like that. When SL hits, you will be stuck at level 50 if you wont buy it, max lvl will be 60.

[IndCold]

Hi! General question here.
I havent played the current expansion at all. I was curious to know how it works when I purchase Shadowlands. Will I be the same level as everyone else (since they mash them down to 60 or whatever), or will I still be behind?
Will I be able to access the current expansions stuff later on, without purchasing it?

Once Shadowlands is out BfA should merge with the base game, current 120s are reduced to 50 and I believe level 110 toons end up at 45-ish.

[kaid]

Hi! General question here.
I havent played the current expansion at all. I was curious to know how it works when I purchase Shadowlands. Will I be the same level as everyone else (since they mash them down to 60 or whatever), or will I still be behind?
Will I be able to access the current expansions stuff later on, without purchasing it?

It basically halves your current level or close to it. So if you are maxed level now you wind up at level 50 if you are 100 you come out around 45. So if you totally skipped BFA if you play the prepatch I guarantee you will be maxed out before the expansion starts in a couple hours.

[Hitei]

It basically halves your current level or close to it. So if you are maxed level now you wind up at level 50 if you are 100 you come out around 45. So if you totally skipped BFA if you play the prepatch I guarantee you will be maxed out before the expansion starts in a couple hours.

I must admit, I'm just a little bit sad that my very first character, which has been sitting at level 18 for 15 years now, is going to be a different level.

[kaid]

I must admit, I'm just a little bit sad that my very first character, which has been sitting at level 18 for 15 years now, is going to be a different level.

Plus side if you ever want to level them it would take like 10 hours to get them to max level from what I am seeing from beta streamers.

[Pebrocks The Warlock]

Seems this bat will be the Glory raid achievement.

[shoc]

Plus side if you ever want to level them it would take like 10 hours to get them to max level from what I am seeing from beta streamers.

I wonder if they'll take character boost out of the shop. Feels kind of redundant with the new leveling system, it made sense when it was introduced, getting a new alt off the ground took a week or two of casual play. Now it's two or three casual sessions to max an alt.

[Makabreska]

Seems this bat will be the Glory raid achievement.

Perfect fit for Dracula castle raid. Could use more colours though.