Future Endgame System in the vein of Corruption - yes or no?

[Golden Yak]

TLDR: Corruption-style upgrade system for Endgame Shadowlands, yea or nay?

I subbed back in recently towards the end of 8.3 so I didn't get much time to play around with the Corruption system, but I actually enjoyed it and I think there are some good ideas there. I prefer it to hoping for Titanforged drops, and then hoping for Titanforged drops with jewel slots. With the Corruption system, once you had the base piece of gear you wanted, you could target what bonus stats it was given and upgrade it with a gem-socket, guaranteed upgrades that you could unlock through playing however you liked, since everything was giving you the currency you needed. Being able to upgrade and build up your gear progressively through gameplay of your choice is preferable to raiding raiding raiding and hoping to get super lucky.

The downsides of excessive Corruption, while annoying, were at least a creative spin on the idea of restricting how much super-powerful upgraded gear you could have right away, and the ability to steadily build up Corruption resistance so you could equip more and more powerful gear was another aspect of character progression that was also nicely creative - slowly obtaining greater access to stronger gear.

I wouldn't mind a similar system returning for endgame Shadowlands. Calling it 'Shadowed' gear just for the sake of speculation: Gear would have X number of Shadow Energy points along with bonus stats. Maybe rather than allowing any amount of Shadowed gear and penalizing you for high amounts, your character starts off with a low limit on how much Shadowed gear they can have. For example your character has 50 points of 'Shadow Endurance', and so you can have two pieces of gear that have 25 Shadow Energy. Every week you can gain +10 points of Shadow Endurance, gradually building up how much Shadowed gear you can equip.

Like Corruption you could choose to remove Shadowed gear, getting rid of Shadow Energy as well as their bonus stats, and then upgrade gear with different, better Shadowed bonuses as you gain more Shadow Endurance. And have it all work off a currency that drops from any activity - mythics, raiding, pvp, world quests, etc. So whatever it is you like to do, you can always be progressing towards getting a gear upgrade through acquiring more of this global Shadowed currency.

I prefer the idea of always being working towards a specific and targeted upgrade by playing however you like, to raid RNG. And you would eventually hit a point where you had all your gear fully upgraded with Shadowed bonuses and gems, which would be very satisfying since a lot of it was through your own personal efforts in acquiring targeted upgrades, rather than hoping your raid group can pull off getting you a chance at a random drop that is also a very extra special random drop.

Any thoughts? Disagreements? Downsides to this kind of steady gear enhancement that I'm not seeing?

[RoKPaNda]

They'll do something over the course of the expansion as people get bored with loot just being loot. I'd take TF over corruption any day tbh.

[Doffen]

Rather TF than Corruption, but picked the neither option. Let loot be loot.

[arandomuser]

Rather TF than Corruption, but picked the neither option. Let loot be loot.

so for 10 months of the last raid you rather have no incentive to raid ? corruption has made 8.3 one of the liveliest end expac tiers ever

[Doffen]

so for 10 months of the last raid you rather have no incentive to raid ? corruption has made 8.3 one of the liveliest end expac tiers ever

It was my least active patch ever, and mostly because of corruption. My incentive to raid is having a fun raid to do with fun bosses. More than enough incentive for me. I think it's fine that they tried with Corruption, but I doubt we'll ever see that kind of system again.

Stuff that is so broken they have to put it on a vendor within 4 months is a bad thing, and should never been implemented imo. Progress was over anyway when the vendor came, sure, but another point is that when they put it on the vendor is when I stopped playing almost completely. Not just because of the corruption system, but when you put all kinds of upgrade on a vendor, that takes out a bit of the immersion gear and power ups are giving. I know people did not understand this point when I tried to explain it before(maybe I just explain it badly) but I'll try again:

I rather do an effort killing a raid boss for power up, gear or whatever instead of getting a currency which will just let you buy whatever is best for you. I think that takes away a lot of what I think is fun when it comes to muh immersion in the game. When we got the valor thing like we had in WoD for example when you upgrade gear you already have from before I think it's both a lazy and a silly way to upgrade your character. I guess the point is that I like the RPG feeling gear and power up gives when you get it from the body you loot directly, not so much from gathering a currency which you don't only use to buy one set of power ups, but three. Then it stepped across my line anyway. I think TF was better than Corruption just to say that, and I did not mind it at all, but I feel for just trying the let loot be loot thing again and see how it turns out.

For people who have had fun with it, that's great. I just do what's sensible when I don't like stuff. If its not fun, then I won't play as much. Nothing wrong with that either. For you and others that had fun, I think that's cool.

[Soon-TM]

so for 10 months of the last raid you rather have no incentive to raid ? corruption has made 8.3 one of the liveliest end expac tiers ever

8.3 was literally my least played patch, even less than 8.0, which had already been quite a !@#$show on its own. As a matter of fact, I only stayed subbed because of Classic, because the whole essences/cloak/echoes grind was even worse than anything in Classic. Let loot be loot, shall we?

[Byleth]

I didn't mind how corruption played out at all. I just wish it didn't cover me in blue goop for a whole patch.

Corruptionesque system, minus blue goop could play out well.

[VinceVega]

TLDR: Corruption-style upgrade system for Endgame Shadowlands, yea or nay?

I subbed back in recently towards the end of 8.3 so I didn't get much time to play around with the Corruption system, but I actually enjoyed it and I think there are some good ideas there. I prefer it to hoping for Titanforged drops, and then hoping for Titanforged drops with jewel slots. With the Corruption system, once you had the base piece of gear you wanted, you could target what bonus stats it was given and upgrade it with a gem-socket, guaranteed upgrades that you could unlock through playing however you liked, since everything was giving you the currency you needed. Being able to upgrade and build up your gear progressively through gameplay of your choice is preferable to raiding raiding raiding and hoping to get super lucky.

The downsides of excessive Corruption, while annoying, were at least a creative spin on the idea of restricting how much super-powerful upgraded gear you could have right away, and the ability to steadily build up Corruption resistance so you could equip more and more powerful gear was another aspect of character progression that was also nicely creative - slowly obtaining greater access to stronger gear.

I wouldn't mind a similar system returning for endgame Shadowlands. Calling it 'Shadowed' gear just for the sake of speculation: Gear would have X number of Shadow Energy points along with bonus stats. Maybe rather than allowing any amount of Shadowed gear and penalizing you for high amounts, your character starts off with a low limit on how much Shadowed gear they can have. For example your character has 50 points of 'Shadow Endurance', and so you can have two pieces of gear that have 25 Shadow Energy. Every week you can gain +10 points of Shadow Endurance, gradually building up how much Shadowed gear you can equip.

Like Corruption you could choose to remove Shadowed gear, getting rid of Shadow Energy as well as their bonus stats, and then upgrade gear with different, better Shadowed bonuses as you gain more Shadow Endurance. And have it all work off a currency that drops from any activity - mythics, raiding, pvp, world quests, etc. So whatever it is you like to do, you can always be progressing towards getting a gear upgrade through acquiring more of this global Shadowed currency.

I prefer the idea of always being working towards a specific and targeted upgrade by playing however you like, to raid RNG. And you would eventually hit a point where you had all your gear fully upgraded with Shadowed bonuses and gems, which would be very satisfying since a lot of it was through your own personal efforts in acquiring targeted upgrades, rather than hoping your raid group can pull off getting you a chance at a random drop that is also a very extra special random drop.

Any thoughts? Disagreements? Downsides to this kind of steady gear enhancement that I'm not seeing?

Nah. Let loot be loot in reduce the drops even further. No epics under normal raiding, mythic+10, PvP 1800. No epics ever in open world content other than world bosses. Make them purplez matter again!

[Sunderella]

No thanks. I just hate having RNG over RNG over RNG on my gear.

[Melusine]

The warforged system from Pandaria was about the best it could be. I would go back to a system like that if it were me designing the game and such. But there are also other things I would revert before attempting to do so.

In Pandaria, we were able to upgrade our gear up to 4 times. That would be reinstated. Since we are in Shadowlands, the 2 different types of specialty items would be soul-forged and Shadow-forged.

Soul-forged item: This item would be slightly higher item level than its original piece. It would be able to be upgraded 4 times, meaning it would be better than average to the same item fully upgraded. It would have an increased chance of having a gem slot on it, and would have the leech characteristic on it.

Shadowforged item: This item would be the equivalent of a fully upgraded piece. It cannot be upgraded at all, and comes with the indestructible characteristic, a guaranteed gem slot, and avoidance trait or speed trait.

I would also be reintroducing Meta gems back to the game, of which only one can be equipped in either a two-handed weapon or a main-handed weapon (It never made any sense to me why they were in the head slot). Since set bonuses aren't a thing anymore (but of right should still be a thing), there is no need to have any gem color combinations, and, similar to the old belt buckles pre-WoD, blacksmiths and inscriptionists will be able to make meta sockets for weapons (scribes making slots for wands and staffs)

[Nnyco]

Corruption was a good system but massive flaws however. It was too random, not just via obtaining it, but also the fact it were mostly just procs.

[Rendark]

No more gear upgrades plz. Stuff like enchanting and gems are fine but the more you add the more crap gear becomes.

[Mardux]

They'll do something over the course of the expansion as people get bored with loot just being loot. I'd take TF over corruption any day tbh.

TF didn’t allow specs to be viable and not practically dead weight in raids/keys. Corruption did.

- - - Updated - - -

Corruption was a good system but massive flaws however. It was too random, not just via obtaining it, but also the fact it were mostly just procs.

The vendor wasn’t random, it had a set rotation.

- - - Updated - - -

Nah. Let loot be loot in reduce the drops even further. No epics under normal raiding, mythic+10, PvP 1800. No epics ever in open world content other than world bosses. Make them purplez matter again!

Just remove loot from the game at that point.

- - - Updated - - -

8.3 was literally my least played patch, even less than 8.0, which had already been quite a !@#$show on its own. As a matter of fact, I only stayed subbed because of Classic, because the whole essences/cloak/echoes grind was even worse than anything in Classic. Let loot be loot, shall we?

Right. So because you made the choice to play it less, that means everyone else did as well. Cool.

[cuafpr]

so for 10 months of the last raid you rather have no incentive to raid ? corruption has made 8.3 one of the liveliest end expac tiers ever

add me to the ones saying 8.3 was the least played patch ever namely due to corruption.

let loot be loot, add tokens so that if you never get that item drop you want you can buy it or something else almost as good for the same slot.

[Jujudrood]

I don't really care for the added systems like this when they are piled onto each other.
We will have soulbinds and other systems already adding to character power outside of gear, so another grind-type currency that isn't directly linked to dungeons/raids would just be too much.

If they did a "corruption" style system later, it should be pure passive, basically MoP style WF/TF.
Enhance an item to add 5 ilvls to it, which give it a stat bump, and that's that.
If need be, add 2 steps total to the upgrade, so a normal item of 100 can be bumped to 110, but the heroic item of the same name starts at 115, so it's always an upgrade.
Keep the systems simple, allow them to have value (you want to raid now to collect the currency to bump items up), and stop with all the wildly unbalanced crap that comes out of things like Corruption.

[Unholyground]

Corruption was fucking retarded period. There was no skill involved with any of it's effects and I don't ever want to see something like that again.

[froschhure]

only if this is not on BoE items like it was in bfa which trashed the whole game and made people eq wise better than score wise - oh and not to forget it also made wow p2w from that phase on

[Nnyco]

TF didn’t allow specs to be viable and not practically dead weight in raids/keys. Corruption did.

The vendor wasn’t random, it had a set rotation.

A vendor that got added extremly late into the patch.

[GreenJesus]

I'm fine with targeted upgrades on gear with valor points like in mists of pandaria, but not with a corruption-like system. But honestly, I'd just prefer professions have more enchanting options again instead of some convoluted end-game system. Therefore, I just won't vote.

[Zyrinx]

I just don't ever want to spend my playtime running away from that Eye, like, ever again.

While snared. Ofc.