What can be done to improve BFA & what can damage it?

[Nerovar]

As well intentioned as this can be, I'm pretty sure Blizzard garners better feedback from the data they collect from actual players than a fan forum.

That's only true if you equate time spent with an engaging and overall fun experience. This could even be the reason why WoW is so shit atm. Huge if true.

This would make a great sig for anyone that's looking to make other readers spit out their coffee all over their pc monitor.

And yet you're here commenting on a WoW forum.

[Prophet June Bug]

As well intentioned as this can be, I'm pretty sure Blizzard garners better feedback from the data they collect from actual players than a fan forum.

This is such a shortsighted and out of touch view, you may as well be one of the Blizzard individuals OP is talking about. Their transition from listening to fans to mere analytic data collection is exactly what conjures products like BfA.

Also, have a look at the official forums and you'll find the complaints similar to the ones here.

OT:

Improvements:
- More player agency (RNG reduction, removal of TF, gear currency)
- Make character progression wortwhile again (ditch 'seasons', reduce iLvL inflation)
- Diversify content (not just WQs, they're apparently aiming to do this with Nazjatar)

Damage it even more (if that's even possible at this point):
- Double down on 'seasons', taking away agency, RNG, microtransactions etc.

[haxartus]

Nothing. The fact that they thought that all of this may be a good idea means it's beyond hope now. There is nothing that they can do to save the game. Just give up on it and try something new. Preferably not with the same team.

[MasterHamster]

The biggest mistake Blizzard could do in a failing BFA state is to double down on the short-term, instant gratification traps that has brought us here in the first place. I'm talking even faster, even easier loot pinatas, reducing difficulty (lol) of non-raid content, 5mans, and raids below Mythic.

The biggest factor why BFA is in the state it is, is because Blizzard has made oh-so-many bad changes with good intentions. Changes that players have supported, directly or indirectly, mind you.

So the HoA, is supposed to be the expansion-spanning way of getting more powerful, and providing a reason to do content. But artifact weapons got all this feedback that it was mandatory to have x levels before y opened, yada yada. They also got a lot of feedback for being hostile to those who change specs, since your other artifact weapons aren't as leveled (imagine a world where there's some sort of power difference between main- and offspec... imagine that). At the same time there was the Legendary fiasco, where players, now entitled to no end and any non-raid content is now just an additional item on the "Must do before raid"-bucketlist, thought it was unacceptable to have such powerful items (and ofc, having the best 2 was mandatory!), since you couldn't just go up and buy them from a vendor.
BiS 1 and 2
Checkmark

And the favorite, removal of tier sets because nothing is worse than having specific items you really want
The absolute biggest non-issue in the game, are raiders who feel forced to rerun content for specific tier set bonuses.

so here we are in BFA with the HoA that:

Does not lose power when changing specs.
Does not have that steep of a "mandatory level" curve
Attempts to fill in the role of:
Legendary items
Tier set bonuses
New talent row
New abilities/passives

So the endgame progression has been streamlined to near perfection, you have the HoA, and you have random incremental items being thrown at you from all sides
(Challenge: name more than 3 of your equipped items without checking ingame.), boom you're ready to raid. Everything else is just pointless filler content.
BFA is utterly destroyed thanks to good intentions design that has tried to adress the bigger points from this incredibly entitled playerbase that no longer sees new non-raid content as things to do and conquer, but another 20-30 min waste of time before they can go raid again. And I can't blame them too much for that mindset, because Blizzard meanwhile makes sure you NEVER. RISK. FAILURE.

[Kokolums]

In its current state, a "perfect" expansion like Legion may have just been able to maintain its playerbase or perhaps lost a very small amount of players. Anything less than perfect is going to lose players, and a subpar xpac is probably going to lose quite a few players. But the real mistake is when they nuked the in-game community, and to fix that requires unwinding quite a lot of "upgrades" over the years which is way beyond the scope of an xpac. Modern WoW is about numbers and being efficient when it used to be about people, and that will turn off a lot of casuals.

The best thing they can do now is what they are doing, which is just re-release vanilla and start all over. Although they are adding sharding to vanilla which might do heavy damage to it because THAT will interfere with the social aspect which is the golden goose in the room.

[Ryuji]

Off the top of my head(stuff I'd like to see):

1. Cap titanforging to +15 ilvls(if it has to stay, imo get rid of it), warforging still at +5 to +10 ilvls. Mythic+ weekly cache still would give the ilvl appropriate to the key you completed the previous week and whatnot. Same with quest rewards being auto 370 for the Arathi Warfront per cycle etc.
   
   
2. Put sockets automatically on certain gear pieces so Jewelcrafting isn't a 100% luck based profession for gems. Since Azerite covers helm, chest and shoulders, have it be two sockets on two-handed weapons and one on mainhand/offhand or shield, one on each ring, and one on necklace(even heart of azeroth). Jewelcrafters also being able to add a socket to a belt for anyone to use.
   
   
3. Buffs and debuffs covered by more than a few specs at a time. Demon Hunters handle magic damage debuff at the moment but I don't see why Warlocks can't too considering Curse of the Elements was the exact same thing back then, just make it to where any damage applied by the Warlock applies the curse to affected mobs, or Balance Druids being able to have the magic debuff application too since Moonfire/Sunfire is a reliable way to dot up stuff. Same with Monks having physical debuff, give it to Rogues or Hunters too, or Feral/Guardian Druids. Paladins converting Blessing of Kings to Stamina buff(for all Paladin specs) and Blessing of Wisdom as Intellect buff(again for all specs). Bring back Blessing of Might for Attack Power buff since Warriors are the only ones who offer it at the moment(if need be, have Kings for Prot spec, Wisdom for Holy, Might for Ret though all three being available for all Paladin specs means less stacking of Paladins in groups).
   
   
4. Mission tables bringing back the raid cache mission available to players once per two weeks or so like it was in WoD and Legion. Would help for gear chances/catchup and also for transmog fanatics like myself.
   
   
5. Reforging coming back. Nothing sucks worse than seeing a huge item level upgrade pop up due to insane titanforging luck but you drop so much haste for a crit/vers item(or something with stats you don't want, just throwing 3 secondary stats out there as an example). Hit and Expertise aren't a thing anymore so it shouldn't be a problem to reforge 40% of one secondary stat to the other. Blizzard's argument of this is that they want you to equip an item upgrade right off the bat. Problem with that, simming is a thing for those who care about upgrades and most times they don't equip the piece immediately without running some sims so the "immediate equipping" thing is a moot point. Also allows for more customization in what should be a MMORPG but is just a MMO nowadays.
   
   
6. Allied Race unlock requirements lessened over time. Reputation catchups help, yes, but as a personal example, trying to invite a friend to play WoW for the first time and seeing them get excited over the possibility of playing as a Dark Iron Dwarf, Lightforged Draenei or Highmountain Tauren only to realize they will have to level a character they don't want to play to unlock the race they DO want to play is...disheartening. Dark Irons and Mag'har are fine since the invasions give a lot of rep for the factions you do stuff for that unlock them but not so much for Argus reps or Nightfallen.
   
   
7. Turning the vendor price of every crafting reagent in every profession since Wrath(ore, leather, scales, cloth etc.) to be a minimum of one gold per piece(or unchanged for older stuff if it's worth more to vendor) so stuff like Skinning as a profession would actually have stuff to sell instead of seeing stacks of 200 scales/leather for 10 gold on the auction house. Could do some numbers shenanigans to make it work but it would help make selling raw materials worth more to sell on the auction house for professions that currently aren't selling well at all. Bare minimum, vendoring raw profession mats would be 200 gold per stack instead of 2 silver.

As far as damaging BFA, it's less the current expansion but more WoW in general. Changing every class spec or performing class and spec overhauls/gutting once every 2 years is not a good thing. Changing just for the sake of change isn't wise.

[Soon-TM]

The biggest mistake Blizzard could do in a failing BFA state is to double down on the short-term, instant gratification traps that has brought us here in the first place. I'm talking even faster, even easier loot pinatas, reducing difficulty (lol) of non-raid content, 5mans, and raids below Mythic.

The biggest factor why BFA is in the state it is, is because Blizzard has made oh-so-many bad changes with good intentions. Changes that players have supported, directly or indirectly, mind you.

So the HoA, is supposed to be the expansion-spanning way of getting more powerful, and providing a reason to do content. But artifact weapons got all this feedback that it was mandatory to have x levels before y opened, yada yada. They also got a lot of feedback for being hostile to those who change specs, since your other artifact weapons aren't as leveled (imagine a world where there's some sort of power difference between main- and offspec... imagine that). At the same time there was the Legendary fiasco, where players, now entitled to no end and any non-raid content is now just an additional item on the "Must do before raid"-bucketlist, thought it was unacceptable to have such powerful items (and ofc, having the best 2 was mandatory!), since you couldn't just go up and buy them from a vendor.
.

While this is true, it's nothing more than an extra step on devs' long history of catering to raiders (especially mythic ones) first and foremost. Everything outside raids is treated by devs as a nuisance, and the playerbase has evolved accordingly.

[Powerogue]

The upcoming changes to the heart of azeroth giving it some sense of permanent upgrades should help my biggest grievance with the system. Giving the new content more rewards that don't rely wholly on RNG was helpful but I think they went overkill on the amount of them you have to do.

Tuning up the challenge of warfronts so they're possible to fail seems a pretty obvious one. Not sure what they were thinking. Even LFR can be failed if people ignore the mechanics entirely.

Making gear rewards more proportional to actual effort. My alt who's never raided shouldn't be equal geared to my raiding main. Ludicrous.

Making gear rewards and azerite upgrades actually help in the world at least a bit. In legion artifact traits were outside the scaling. Azerite traits aren't.

Add things like the brawler's guild or mage tower appearances to give me a reason to gear.

On the flip side, I think the worst thing they could do is give up like they did with WOD. I'm invested in this story, damn it.

[Heeresman]

And yet you're here commenting on a WoW forum.

And?

You obviously think that the comment i quoted is true.
What does that have to do with me posting here and being subscribed to the game?

- - - Updated - - -

We got an edgelord here folks.

If you think your comment is 100% spot on and that it applies to to all the current players' views then you need to think before posting bs.

Tip: Re-wording works wonders.