To those who aren't playing WoW, what would have to change to resub?

[Hexian]

1. Actual talent trees back.

2. Feeling like classes are unique and bring different things to the table. Not this homogenized bullshit of bring the player, not the class. I picked a certain class for a reason, not just to be caster dps, melee dps, healer or tank.

3. Stop leaning so hard on M+ and Heroic/Mythic raid modes to artificially inflate content length. Bring back actual hard/heroic modes like they had in Ulduar; not just increasing a boss stats and damage and calling it a different encounter.

4. Stop putting the best and/or most unique mounts in the fucking shop and giving us multiple reskinned no effort trash. We pay for this game and we pay a sub. Double dipping has gone on long enough and if it is the only way to keep the game afloat financially then maybe you should either look at whats wrong with the fucking game or trash it and move on. The shark has been jumped, the cash cow has been milked. There is no shark, there is no milk. We are looking at milkless sharks at this point.

[gunner007]

Honestly, for me personally, there isn't anything they really can do to make resubscribe at this point. Obviously a shit-load has changed over the past 17 years (including life) - but the game itself has been theory-crafted, min-maxed, and micro managed to the maximum. The dailies on top of time gates on top of systems have sucked what little fun there was left in the game.

I played little of BFA, and dabbled a bit in SL but what killed it all for me was the sheer number of things to do to stay somewhat competitive. But seems like I didn't miss much as 9.0 was an eternity patch.

Grind Anima, maximize time spent in Maw, Torghast, BIS legendaries changing, new Domination system, PVP, Great Vault. The fact I need to fire up an external engine to figure out how to compare 16M possible combinations of gear/items/covenants says all I need to know.

What happened to just pick the covenant you like? Nope, certain classes and combos are completely pointless.

Having new systems every expansion gets annoying. Tier sets while I agree might be difficult to balance, always gave you something to strive for. Now you have systems on systems. I figured at first the legion weapons were a great gate, then they decided to add the Dark/Light paths for your relics. Just another RNG system on top of something that already worked.

Put sockets back on gear - stop with this stupid system of grinding materials to add sockets.

The real reason? I'd like to take a f'in break. I don't want to feel like missing a week or two is like missing an eternity. Instead the name of the game is just wait for a catch-up system rather than burn yourself out - sometimes I want to raid log after a stressful week. Not feel like it's 1-2 hours each morning I have to do my chores.

My biggest gripe? It feels like Blizzard explains nothing. I have to visit a bunch of websites to understand the content in front of me.

[azka]

Just a general curiosity of what would have to change to make you resubscribe to WoW

Honestly, we don't need the old players; let the old players move on. We need new players.

It's super boring reading complaints about how old Blizzard was amazing, and new Blizzard is poop.

[Osmeric]

how does it look like that exactly?

Reduction in content, lower quality reflecting lack of testing. Attempts to stretch out content by reduced loot rates and increased grind.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

Reduction in content, lower quality reflecting lack of testing. Attempts to stretch out content by reduced loot rates and increased grind.

For that to be the case there would have to have been a ton of layoffs which we would have heard about.

[Osmeric]

For that to be the case there would have to have been a ton of layoffs which we would have heard about.

There were layoffs. No devs were laid off, we were told. But were devs moved to cover the work being done by the non-devs who were laid off? Testing, for example?

Also, headcount can be reduced without layoffs -- just don't replace everyone who leaves.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

There were layoffs. No devs were laid off, we were told. But were devs moved to cover the work being done by the non-devs who were laid off? Testing, for example?

Also, headcount can be reduced without layoffs -- just don't replace everyone who leaves.

given that the last layoffs were the live esports team I'm gonna go with no the dev's haven't been moved to non dev rolls. also we know that they are hiring they even say so in there investor reports.

[Milkofamnsia]

Personally I would like some type of Engineer class. Otherwise, nothing is wrong with the game. I have changed and as I have gotten older I guess WoW really isn't for me anymore and that's okay. I hope someone new who picks up the game has the same feeling I once did and the countless hours of enjoyment.

[Eli85]

I re-subbed for 9.1. I'm not going with 9.1 is bad, therefore I quit again, but I fully realized what I don't like: there are too many daily and weekly activities tied to player power. If your objective is progression (not necessarily world first, but pushing your chosen content) the game demands a considerable amount of time from you. To some people this is good, but I've come to realize that this isn't what I want from a game anymore.

To answer the question directly : there would need to be a separation of player power and all these daily and weekly activities. I mean, some would have to remain, but I would want to see a game where if all I wanted to do is progression (M+ or raids), that I could only do that, ignore everything else, and not feel like I'm leaving player power on the table.

edit: I would also like to see some community-centric reworks on M+. I really enjoy the system, but the idea that I need to grind out every dungeon (and likely on Tyrannical and Fortified) to 12-13+ just to either join or attract good players for +15s (and thus cap out on rewards), is just so unappealing to me. I have no idea what can be done to remedy this, but feeling forced to grind out dungeons I don't want to do, just to get into high level dungeons I want to do, just doesn't work for me anymore.

[D3athsting]

Death from above for sub rogue with legendary cloak and shoulders
/period

[Tumile]

Just a general curiosity of what would have to change to make you resubscribe to WoW

Balance the game more, not asking for perfection, but Shadow Lands and BFA have both been an absolute Joke Balance wise. not saying balancing has ever been good, but this is too much.

Give me Legion M+ back. no more limiting the pulls, no more giving every mob True sight, and give me gear swapping back.

And listen to the PVP community, cuz obviously no one at blizzard has a clue, I understand most people here dont know what happened in SL, but lets just say they changed MMR mid season, which led people to go 16-1 and lose 42 rating.

[bloodykiller86]

Reduction in content, lower quality reflecting lack of testing. Attempts to stretch out content by reduced loot rates and increased grind.

what reduction in content? lower quality how? theres tons of testing but not everything will be caught especially as games become more complicated and as an MMO there cant be long waits between patches (9.1 being an exception due to COVID restrictions in cali), they stretched out raids in others ways in the past as well and has been for 10+ years....and the grind has been reduced so once again wrong lol

[arkanon]

what reduction in content? lower quality how? theres tons of testing but not everything will be caught especially as games become more complicated and as an MMO there cant be long waits between patches (9.1 being an exception due to COVID restrictions in cali), they stretched out raids in others ways in the past as well and has been for 10+ years....and the grind has been reduced so once again wrong lol

If they are making the systems so complicated not "everything" is caught before the product goes live, then those systems are far too complicated to be in the game. If a system has so many unforeseen complication, implications, and combinations / results, then the system is far too complicated for the average player.

As the saying goes, "if it aint broke, dont fix it". Blizzard should never have tried to fix something that was extremely popular and straight forward. Personally, i believe the introduction of all these supplementary power systems was the beginning of some really bad design choices, and things have only gotten worse since the doubled down on them. They had a really simple recipe for a Sunday roast that was very popular, and they added so many other ingredient's and side dishes the average consumer cant even remember if it was Lamb or Beef. Actually, it was Chicken (Turns out it was Turkey).

[Otimus]

Compelling and fun content I can do in the world and stuff I can queue for and use as a way to build up my character in some sort of meaningful and fun way.


This has not existed in any real way since MoP.

Also, fucking bring back badge gear.

[arkanon]

Compelling and fun content I can do in the world and stuff I can queue for and use as a way to build up my character in some sort of meaningful and fun way.


This has not existed in any real way since MoP.

Also, fucking bring back badge gear.

I dont disagree, but for arguments sake, what EXACTLY would you log into MoP tonight to do, that you cannot do in SL right now? Not a general overview of it, a SPECIFIC thing you would get home from work tonight and be excited to do, that you cannot do now.

[Zaktar]

Embrace the short-sub people, there are too many better games out there for me to be playing wow 10-20 hours a week for the next year. Trying to capture the min-maxers in treadmills seems fine, but for the filthy casuals like me? I should be able to finish whatever the available story is in a few weeks at most, because frankly the game's decrepit systems don't hold up for much longer than that. Create a fun, compact game experience that lets your players unsub while feeling happy and satisfied about the experience, looking forward to the next content patch, rather than feeling obliged to keep grinding so they can do something they actually enjoy later. I think the people those systems drive away from the game entirely costs blizzard more than they earn by trapping the people they do on the treadmill. Again it's not to say they shouldn't have treadmills, there is a certain kind of person who loves the game who wants something to do in it at all times, but making that experience integral to the game is a huge mistake.

[Iheartnathanos]

The lore moves back to Azeroth and much of this Shadowlands nonsense is swept under the rug. A fun continent to explore, grounded in existing lore, would bring me back for a couple months.

[arkanon]

The lore moves back to Azeroth and much of this Shadowlands nonsense is swept under the rug. A fun continent to explore, grounded in existing lore, would bring me back for a couple months.

Although I do agree this would help, my main thing is the classes - and no, not the tired old "its the balance!" - class balance has been "the worst its ever been" since cata, every patch, every expansion, every tier, its ALWAYS the "worst its ever been". What I mean is the focus should be FUN, engaging gameplay for ALL specs, ALL roles - for me personally, that should be Blizzards first and top priority.

Recently they seem so focused on supplementary systems and designs, while trying to maintain extremely tight balance. I believe this has come at a cost. For me, the mop iterations of specs were not the best because they were so closely balanced, but rather because nearly every spec I played had something about it I REALLY enjoyed (and I literally played them all at a minimum of normal raid completion with the exceptions of Sub rogue and MW monk, just didn't have time)

I can totally accept fighting aliens on mars - so long as the core gameplay is fun. But again, to be clear, I am not a "lore guy", so for those who are, they will no doubt have a very different opinion.

[Echo of Soul]

Faster patch cycles.

Easily done if they stop fucking around with a bunch of interlocking systems and currencies that they have to spend most of their time trying to get right and then throw in the bin at the end of the expansion only to be replaced with a completely new mess for the next expansion.

[Boricha]

I'm playing TBC very casually, as my IRL is pretty busy right now, but I'm assuming OP is talking about SL. I played it for a few months. The theme of SL never appealed to me, and the writing feels as contrived as ever. For some reason I don't enjoy the dungeons nearly as much as I normally do, as M+ has been my primary content in WoW since Legion. I haven't been able to enjoy pvp since they shifted everything into burst/cd damage several expansions ago. Torghast looked cool in beta, but is nothing but a mundane slog on live. I'm tired and jaded towards all the convoluted single-expansion systems and the seasonal structure of the game. Some of the raid bosses look fun, but I don't think I can commit to a raid guild right now and I don't want to pug it.