Shadowlands Conduits Update

[Wulfey]

This is okay. I think it gives up too much of their choices matter ground to the wailing rabble. If I were designing the system, I would leave in some of the changes hurt.

You start with a full catalog of level1 soulbinds.
Changing out a soulbind causes it to lose 1 level.
Changing out a soulbind incurs a 1 hour cooldown (to limit mid-raid swaps).
Damage/Survivability/Utility upgrade coins are dropped in lots of content (and expensive craftable).

Leveling quests drop uncommon souldbind upgrade coins (upgrades up to lvl 8)
WorldQuest/Dungeons/BGs/LGR drop rare soulbind upgrade coins (upgrades up to lvl 15)
Heroic/Mythic/M+/RatedArena drop epic soulbind upgrade coins (upgrades to level 20+)

This makes it so that the upgrade coins are universally useful and worth keeping around. There is a treadmill to enforce the choice.

[MrLachyG]

This is okay. I think it gives up too much of their choices matter ground to the wailing rabble. If I were designing the system, I would leave in some of the changes hurt.

You start with a full catalog of level1 soulbinds.
Changing out a soulbind causes it to lose 1 level.
Changing out a soulbind incurs a 1 hour cooldown (to limit mid-raid swaps).
Damage/Survivability/Utility upgrade coins are dropped in lots of content (and expensive craftable).

Leveling quests drop uncommon souldbind upgrade coins (upgrades up to lvl 8)
WorldQuest/Dungeons/BGs/LGR drop rare soulbind upgrade coins (upgrades up to lvl 15)
Heroic/Mythic/M+/RatedArena drop epic soulbind upgrade coins (upgrades to level 20+)

This makes it so that the upgrade coins are universally useful and worth keeping around. There is a treadmill to enforce the choice.

no. just no.

[ShmooDude]

no because each spec has a different path. which means if you're a tank and you wanna tank then you go the one with more endurance conduits. dps, you go with potency ones instead.

But all soulbinds have nodes that all paths must take, so while yeah, being able to change the path helps, it doesn't completely allow you to just ignore what you have setup for your other spec.

That said, I'm sure it's intentional to have some friction for multi-spec just as it was with Azerite Traits.

[Thetruth1400]

[*]Earning a more powerful version of a Conduit you already have will simply upgrade that Conduit in your collection.

Well, I guess this confirms the stupid 15 rank system nonsense. Buckle up folks, the grind is here, the grind is long, and the grind is an unbalance-able nightmare.

GG Shadowlands, you're headed for the dumpster thanks to overambitious and tone deaf developer heads.

[BrintoSFJ]

Holy fucking tinfoil Batman! Do you hear yourself dude? That developers would waste valuable hours of time and code developing a throwaway system to create controversy just for the sake of appearing like they're listening to feedback. Seriously, think about that. How fucking dumb does that sound? So instead of believing that they are trying to listen to concerns from their player base, it makes more sense that this is some secret operation for the virtue of looking just.

We've all complained, myself included, that they've not listened to our feedback time and time again in the past. So now that they're showing a step in the right direction, can we applaud them a little? I understand some apprehension as we need to see more than a gesture or two, but your tinfoil deep state idea is just outright malice for the sake of malice.

It is very easy to see why we now have glorified slot machines published as games and companies making billions out of them.

[Nnyco]

Sounds fucking lame to be honest...

The irony.

[MrLachyG]

But all soulbinds have nodes that all paths must take, so while yeah, being able to change the path helps, it doesn't completely allow you to just ignore what you have setup for your other spec.

That said, I'm sure it's intentional to have some friction for multi-spec just as it was with Azerite Traits.

yeah one, maybe 2 but there are at least 2-3 that depend on the path you take. so you can have 2 specs with the same soulbind.

- - - Updated - - -

Well, I guess this confirms the stupid 15 rank system nonsense. Buckle up folks, the grind is here, the grind is long, and the grind is an unbalance-able nightmare.

GG Shadowlands, you're headed for the dumpster thanks to overambitious and tone deaf developer heads.

you don't even know how the ranks will be obtained yet. maybe wait to see that little tidbit first before slamming it and calling it a failure

[goldentforce]

way better but still gonna suck refarming every new tier for the next levels. Still a good improvement

[Lorgar Aurelian]

Because initially Conduits supposed to be just an items you get and put and go with it without the need to level it up doing the same thing again. Dont confuse gear and item for power customization. They are not the same and serve different purposes.



read above



read above

They essentially turned another system into grinding fest. They put the water from red glass into blue glass and you call it a huge improvement. Its not.

You are aware that they are destroyed if you took them out before right? Let’s say there was only one rank you would still need to do the same content over again to get more then one when you wanted to swap them.

Instead of doing that stupid idea they made them function the same way as gear has since wrath so in practice they are no different then getting a trinket on normal then heroic and so on. The game has worked this way since wrath them having a stupider idea They moved away from before doesn’t change that.

[MrLachyG]

way better but still gonna suck refarming every new tier for the next levels. Still a good improvement

I'm curious as to how they are going to do it. like will it be a set drop? for instance will rank 2's only drop in normal dungeons? rank 5 from reputation vendors? etc etc. we know that there are 15 ranks available from launch (I think) so will they increase it by 5 ranks to accommodate the new content each patch?

[Sangris]

Sounds much better than having to refarm the same conduit over and over again.

[Geckoo]

What the hell is wrong with this people!, it's like "don't you dare have fun with our system!"

I get them not wanting people to change from boss to boss, but one week!?

edit to add something positive: except for the week thing, everything else looks great and way better than the previous plan.

[MrLachyG]

What the hell is wrong with this people!, it's like "don't you dare have fun with our system!"

I get them not wanting people to change from boss to boss, but one week!?

edit to add something positive: except for the week thing, everything else looks great and way better than the previous plan.

the question is will it actually limit people? the answer to that is no. there are multiple options for multiple specs.

[Geckoo]

the question is will it actually limit people? the answer to that is no. there are multiple options for multiple specs.

It's the design contradiction what bothers me.

They have this premise that "the Soulbind system aims to give you the freedom to essentially build your own talent tree for yourself". But at the same time "If you want to rebuild your Soulbind trees, once per week you’ll be able to clear all of their Conduits". You can't talk about freedom and flexibility when you are also placing a one week lock to the most essential part of the whole "build your own talent tree for yourself".

[Mardux]

Well, I guess this confirms the stupid 15 rank system nonsense. Buckle up folks, the grind is here, the grind is long, and the grind is an unbalance-able nightmare.

GG Shadowlands, you're headed for the dumpster thanks to overambitious and tone deaf developer heads.

People bitch and complain and cry about them being destroyed so they change the system to where they arent destroyed but still require some effort.

And now you bitch and cry because you still have to put forth some effort.

If you're to fucking lazy to actually play a game, just stop playing a game that requires effort.

[MrLachyG]

It's the design contradiction what bothers me.

They have this premise that "the Soulbind system aims to give you the freedom to essentially build your own talent tree for yourself". But at the same time "If you want to rebuild your Soulbind trees, once per week you’ll be able to clear all of their Conduits". You can't talk about freedom and flexibility when you are also placing a one week lock to the most essential part of the whole "build your own talent tree for yourself".

they have just announced a bit of an update to the soulbind system specifically about conduits but I would find it hard to believe that you could exhaust 3 different soulbinds worth of options and still have content you can't achieve max results in because of your soulbinds.

if you're a tank for m+ you can choose soulbind A. you choose the soulbind talent tree which has the best results against whatever affixes are there that week (let's say you go full defensive) which means you go down the left hand side of that tree.

you're also a dps in a mythic raid group so you have dedicated soulbind b right route for aoe, soulbind c middle route for single target and soulbind a right route for cleave fights.

you like to heal in pvp so you choose soulbind b left route for bgs and soulbind c right route for arenas

so yeah while you may only be able to change the tree completely once a week (which they may very well change) if you're clever you can set it up so that you won't need a change.

[Cede]

People bitch and complain and cry about them being destroyed so they change the system to where they arent destroyed but still require some effort.

And now you bitch and cry because you still have to put forth some effort.

If you're to fucking lazy to actually play a game, just stop playing a game that requires effort.

Putting forth so.e effort isn't the complaint but you know that. The complaint is the same one essences had except now there's 15 ranks of them and they are very class/spec spwcific. You do realize they took essences and pumped them full of steroids here right?

3 ranks of generic essences was too much for most people across several characters and now we're seeing 15 that are class and spec specific. This isn't about being lazy, it's about not wanting to have to spend 40 hours a week per character to be able to play the game.

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the question is will it actually limit people? the answer to that is no. there are multiple options for multiple specs.

How do you figure the answer is no? You haven't seen enough, if any, theorycrafting to make that claim because it hasn't been done yet.

I personally change my essences about 10 times on any given raid night if not more. A 1 week lock to essences would mean I have to pick between do I want to raid or do I want to M+. What if my best single target soulbind and best ae soulbind are the same tree? I pick one or the other for the entire week. Sounds like a limitation to me.

[taishar68]

they have just announced a bit of an update to the soulbind system specifically about conduits but I would find it hard to believe that you could exhaust 3 different soulbinds worth of options and still have content you can't achieve max results in because of your soulbinds.

if you're a tank for m+ you can choose soulbind A. you choose the soulbind talent tree which has the best results against whatever affixes are there that week (let's say you go full defensive) which means you go down the left hand side of that tree.

you're also a dps in a mythic raid group so you have dedicated soulbind b right route for aoe, soulbind c middle route for single target and soulbind a right route for cleave fights.

you like to heal in pvp so you choose soulbind b left route for bgs and soulbind c right route for arenas

so yeah while you may only be able to change the tree completely once a week (which they may very well change) if you're clever you can set it up so that you won't need a change.

Well said and explained. To add, for anyone worried about the flexibility of this system, Wowhead has their calculator up and running now, so you can see what the paths look like and maybe that can allay some fears. Or worsen them XD

[MrLachyG]

How do you figure the answer is no? You haven't seen enough, if any, theorycrafting to make that claim because it hasn't been done yet.

I personally change my essences about 10 times on any given raid night if not more. A 1 week lock to essences would mean I have to pick between do I want to raid or do I want to M+. What if my best single target soulbind and best ae soulbind are the same tree? I pick one or the other for the entire week. Sounds like a limitation to me.

the chances of your best ST and best AoE soulbind being the same tree is miniscule at best.

[Mardux]

It's the design contradiction what bothers me.

They have this premise that "the Soulbind system aims to give you the freedom to essentially build your own talent tree for yourself". But at the same time "If you want to rebuild your Soulbind trees, once per week you’ll be able to clear all of their Conduits". You can't talk about freedom and flexibility when you are also placing a one week lock to the most essential part of the whole "build your own talent tree for yourself".

Why cant you? Did they take away the ability to choose what conduits you select or not?