New types of PvE content, share your ideas!

[Deleted]

With the introduction of scenarios, and some solo scenarios, as well as Battlefield:Barrens, it's clear to me that Blizzard is experimenting with new types of PvE content, something differing from the grind of daily quests, and different from the countless 5 man dungeons we've had for as long as we can remember. I for one welcome these changes, but I feel like there is alot more potential in these ideas.

The point of this thread will be to share some ideas of possible new types of PvE content, and how they could be implemented or expanded upon, what kind of content could you see yourself having fun with besides what you are doing right now?

Personally, I thought Battlefield:Barrens was a great idea, I like going there on alts who are in dire need of some gearing, and while it may not be as dynamic as games like guild wars 2, it's definately a nice step in the right direction towards a different experience. This got me thinking, how could this type of area evolve into something more meaningful, something more epic?

I started thinking about a concept, I'm not sure what to call it yet, but for the sake of ease, for now we'll call it "Heroic Zones".

These would be Zones that were full of difficult mobs, world bosses and rare mobs. Going there alone would be possible, but not advisable, what I'm thinking about is a type of zone where you would have to group up for safety and slowly make your way through the area to various boss or objective spawns. Kind of like Battlefield:Barrens, but with a greater feeling of danger, and a higher level of difficulty. (And no, NO flying mounts in this area)

This brings the question, what sort of rewards could you expect from such an area? The problem I feel the Battlefield:Barrens suffers with, is that by the time it came out, alot of players simply had no need to go there, the rewards were sub par and really the only point in doing it was to gear under geared characters or just experience the story line once or twice, and then you were kinda done. But how do we make it rewarding enough, but not something players feel forced to do?

A difficult question to be sure, obviously a nice start is cosmetic items, maybe challenge mode type sets, transmog pieces, mounts and pets, always nice rewards to many players, but nothing that raiders feel like they have to do to do progress. I have some more thinking to do about other possible rewards, what ilvl the items could be ect. I'm no good at balancing so maybe others have some ideas on that.

As you can see, my idea is not fleshed out, and I haven't thought all that much about it, but I can definately imagine myself doing alot of something along those lines.

What about you guys? What sort of content do you hope to see in the future? are you happy to keep to the tried and true dungeons/raids/daily quests we have right now, or would you prefer to see some more different content added? Share your thoughts!

[Airwaves]

World events like rift and gw2 have where anyone can join at any time and it scales to how many are say in the zone/group.

[Alienshroom]

Vanity world bosses or events, make a universal currency for it. Put transmog gear, mounts, battle pets, tabards, vanity items etc. Left over frost wyrms in Icecrown, emerald nightmare creature in duskwood, giant qiraji bug in silithus. That way people can go do them for fun, and get fun rewards, and people who dont want to for progression, dont gotta.

[Deleted]

Vanity world bosses or events, make a universal currency for it. Put transmog gear, mounts, battle pets, tabards, vanity items etc. Left over frost wyrms in Icecrown, emerald nightmare creature in duskwood, giant qiraji bug in silithus. That way people can go do them for fun, and get fun rewards, and people who dont want to for progression, dont gotta.

I quite like this idea, also gives another reason for people to visit these old areas, perhaps there could be a weekly/daily quest giver, like back in the wotlk "*enter boss name here* must die". Could give some currency or a transmog reward.

[RicardoZ]

I say more class/race specific quests. That would definitely give the game a lot of replay value for the bored altaholic.

Another thing would be "heroic" quests. At max level you can unlock some new quests in various zones that will push your solo-play skill to the absolute limit.

[namelessone]

Something to add dynamism and interactivity to the world would be great. Azeroth as it is now feels extremely static. As for rewards, I think this is a major hurdle they must solve - creating meaningful rewards OUTSIDE the gear treadmill. I personally find gear to be really boring as a reward (+50 to crit, yay, what a priceless treasure), and it suffers from a problem where obnoxious minmaxers complain how they are OMGFORCED to do something to optimize the gear.

What they could do is create, for example, unique-looking cosmetic pieces and attach them to specific events, make them unobtainable through any other means. Or, take a step further, and attach them to crafting system, require unique components that can only be obtained by participating in random events.

Of course the perfect solution would be to have something OTHER than character that a player could customize - a stronghold of some kind. By participating in alternative PvE, you develop your stronghold, populate it with NPCs, develop their personal stories, gain some benefits for crafting, customize your stronghold cosmetically, basically make it a center of your character's story.

[Deleted]

Something to add dynamism and interactivity to the world would be great. Azeroth as it is now feels extremely static. As for rewards, I think this is a major hurdle they must solve - creating meaningful rewards OUTSIDE the gear treadmill. I personally find gear to be really boring as a reward (+50 to crit, yay, what a priceless treasure), and it suffers from a problem where obnoxious minmaxers complain how they are OMGFORCED to do something to optimize the gear.

What they could do is create, for example, unique-looking cosmetic pieces and attach them to specific events, make them unobtainable through any other means. Or, take a step further, and attach them to crafting system, require unique components that can only be obtained by participating in random events.

Of course the perfect solution would be to have something OTHER than character that a player could customize - a stronghold of some kind. By participating in alternative PvE, you develop your stronghold, populate it with NPCs, develop their personal stories, gain some benefits for crafting, customize your stronghold cosmetically, basically make it a center of your character's story.

Yep, these are the types of things I'm thinking the game needs. Thing is, every time blizzard makes something new and interesting, but has gear rewards, all the raiders come out of the woodwork, complaining how they are forced to do this new content. I'm thinking we could just remove this obstacle entirely, and make it purely about the cosmetic and fun items. They kind of solved that hurdle in Battlefield barrens by making the rewards a lower Ilvl than the current tier, but they neglected to add much else worth getting instead, if you didn't need the gear, you didn't need to go there.

I could see transmog rewards becoming a big thing, just look how many people run old raids for transmog gear, that's a sign to me that people would queue up to do content like this if it rewarded cool looking stuff.

[Anprionsa]

I've never complained about gear... and I've raided since Vanilla. Raiders aren't really like this, unless they suck.

[RicardoZ]

Something to add dynamism and interactivity to the world would be great. Azeroth as it is now feels extremely static. As for rewards, I think this is a major hurdle they must solve - creating meaningful rewards OUTSIDE the gear treadmill. I personally find gear to be really boring as a reward (+50 to crit, yay, what a priceless treasure), and it suffers from a problem where obnoxious minmaxers complain how they are OMGFORCED to do something to optimize the gear.

I totally agree with this. I'm not at all gear-motivated and it's frustrating how the game just becomes this huge quest for gear at max level. All that really means is that you can kill mobs a few seconds faster than you could before, after putting in huge amounts of effort and time.

I'm not against putting in huge amounts of effort and time by any means, but I personally would rather have my work pay off by getting titles, achievements, cool transmo stuff, mounts, pets, and maybe a little smattering of gear thrown in for good measure as lore permits. I think what will really motivate people more than gear with better stats is having something unique. Like you said things are getting pretty static and everybody all has the same items. It would be nice to get something to spice up that monotony.