Originally Posted by
paxen
No, you do not have to gain anima at all. Renown drops basically from "playing the game", be it callings, doing dungeons, killing world/raid bosses, or doing the covenant weeklies.
It's a common mistake, based on the early months of SL where we all did our weeklies and campaigns to stay on top of the renown track. But even back then it wasn't true, and it's certainly not true now: Anima has nothing but an extremely weak connection to Renown. Anima is not in any way Artifact Power. Renown and/or Soul Ash, they have things in common with Artifact Power. Anima doesn't.
To take a Legion example: back then we had some World Quests that gave AP, and some that gave Order Resources. The AP world quests died with BfA - the Order Resources WQs have stayed with us, and now give anima.
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The publishers have a vested interest in keeping us subbed, but the way we, as players, should look at it is: Do I want to play? If no, then don't. *Especially* if you're a casual player, a collector, only play if you like the experience of flying around collecting. If you honestly feel that SL doesn't have anything for you now, then let your sub lapse and come back later to check it out. Or, go back to old content, if there are still things undone. I spent a lot of time in BfA mainly running Legion raids, mostly for transmogs but also to see quest lines (Balance of Power) and to see how far I could push solo (for me, that was Mythic Nighthold up to but not including Gul'dan).
I maintain that if you really feel that "I could come back later and do this, why am I playing" my honest belief is that you should unsub. For me, my guild has awoken from its sleep and we're running m+ and normal raids, so I'm happy as a clam. I do find that the "anima grind" has become surprisingly more pleasant after the recent hotfix (more anima for upgrading covenants), which is good as it gives me stuff to do while waiting four guildies to log on, or just for having a low effort game when I don't feel like pushing m+, herding slackers in raid, or trying to escape bronze in Overwatch.
I mostly prefer to do content when it's current if possible, even though I also like to go back and solo old raids. But if you honestly don't care about "staying current" - it's perfectly possible to just play old expansions. I know several people who enjoy wow without buying the latest expansion, and are happily freeloading one expansion behind as they become part of the base game.