Originally Posted by
CalamityHeart
Player power being reduced because of the loss of Corruptions was destined to happen. It's a consequence of that borrowed power system going away. Say what you will about borrowed power in general, but a reduction in player power because of those systems going away is exactly as intended and will remain to be the case until Shadowlands.
Old raids being harder than they should be is both a pure numbers issue and a legacy content issue. As in, a double-whammy on low-priority tasks, compared to, you know, working on classes and the upcoming novel content. I'm not surprised Blizzard isn't talking much about it. There are much more important things that need to be talked about.
If you're worried about whether or not Blizzard is going to be going back on their legacy loot rules come Shadowlands, let me help you out there. The answer is "Obviously not." If legacy loot isn't enabled on the PTR -- Was it ever? I dunno. -- then there's either no reason for it to be enabled on PTR (understandable), or there's a bug somewhere that should reasonably be fixed between now and when prepatch goes live. There is zero reason to think that Blizzard is going to affect your raw-gold gain and transmog hunts intentionally when it comes to legacy content. You can shelve your "devaluation of gear and raw gold" post that you were planning for "another day". It likely would've been meaningless drivel that gets either immediately invalidated or quickly fixed come the live release.
The AOE cap as it pertains to legacy content is something I'm rather interested in, though. Personally, for my weekly rotation of legacy content, which is either: all of WoD raids + SoO across four characters, or simply all of HFC across nine characters, it... doesn't matter. At all. Mob density is usually not big enough for me to care, and I can count on one hand the times that it ever is. So for me, I can probably safely say that I don't give a shit. But I don't know other people's rotations or what they do in other instances that I don't bother with, or what those other instances are even like, mob density wise. So that could be a problem for some? I honestly don't really know that much. But me personally? Who cares.
Covenants are definitely not as rigid as people make them out to be. You can change your covenant, and from what I understand, you can jump from one covenant to another pretty easily. It's jumping back to the covenant you've abandoned that takes a little work. I don't know much about this. How much work actually is it? I heard something about it being a couple quests or something? Is there a redemption process implemented right now for getting back into a covenant you betrayed? But that's beside the point, mostly. The point is, if you want to change your covenant, fucking do it. Even they implemented an actual rigid punishment system on covenant changing, like not being able to switch back to one you've abandoned until the weekly reset or something like that, then ration your time better. Do all the content that you're best at in one covenant until you're satisfied and then switch to another to do content that's better with that covenant. Obviously, that's a little bit more stifling, but the wiggle room is there. You aren't locked into a covenant when you choose one. But at the same time, they're not a talent row that you can just spin around willy-nilly as it suits you.
As much shit as people give to borrowed power and how it stifles the growth of classes, there has to be a point where classes just eternally growing and growing and growing and growing and growing and growing and growing MUST stop. I would personally rather have classes that are made relatively simple with room to grow as the expansion progresses through the systems that those classes introduces, and then go back and do it again when the next expansion hits than to either a) continue to pile new shit onto my action bars every expansions or bake abilities/talents into other abilities/talents to make room for the new shit, or b) get no growth over the life of the game. Between A and B, B is probably preferable. But the concept of borrowed power and looking at my classes through an expansion-by-expansion lens, rather than this huge mass of mess across all expansions? I get why people dislike it, but personally, I'm fine with it. Azerite was a shitty iteration of borrowed power. Artifacts were better, if you ask me. Soulbinds and Conduits? They look promising, but it remains to be seen. I want to get my hands on them and find out for myself.
Zone design? I'm not very opinionated on it. If it sucks to navigate, it sucks to navigate, and that would be unfortunate, because the zones themselves are just gorgeous. But just because they haven't shared their Pathfinder info yet doesn't mean they have no plans. I would like to hope that flying will eventually be a thing in Shadowlands. There's no reason for it not to be, and there's no apparent reason why they wouldn't be able to. Disconnected zones? ...So what? Just let us fly within those zones. My issue, potentially, with disconnected zones is the feeling of tinyness, potentially. I know they're not tiny zones, but I don't know. We're basically getting five Nazjatars bridged by portals, instead of whole navigable landmasses. Maybe it won't feel so bad once I get into it, but just the thought is a tad worrying. But flying? Not really. Being totally on-foot in the Maw could get annoying, though.
I don't know. Shadowlands has its issues, sure. Some things that, conceptually could be better, and some things that have been changed already by Blizzard, an indication of, you know, them listening to feedback.
I'm never jumping on the doom-and-gloom train. Mostly because most of the passengers on said train are fucking annoying and uncompelling. Partially because I'm just generally a glass-half-full kind of player who would rather wait and see for myself if Blizzard fucks it up than give the opinions of others rent space in my head. In tiny part because since I pay for this game in gold, I have absolutely nothing to lose and will more than likely just have a good bit of fun with this game whether or not I generally enjoy what the expansion has to offer or not.