10 Things I would like to see in the next expansion

[Deleted]

In order to make the game better, here's how I would do the next expansion:

1) Merge dead realms (already happening, sort of, so this is taken care of). This was the most important bit. Can't really play the game solo you know.

2) New character models. This absolutely needs to happen and I certainly hope the models will be done when the next expansion hits the shelves.

3) Dynamic questing. What I mean by this is that Wow needs to utilize phasing and it's shared tagging a bit more. Currently the problem with leveling is that you outgrow your leveling zones too fast. The way to fix this would be that there shouldn't be anymore level requirements for zones. Instead the mobs & quest rewards in the zone should keep scaling with your level (as in all mobs are yellow always). This way you would stay in one zone till the end as every zone basically has it's own story and phasing these days. You would only be able to see (unless you group up) players that are within two levels of you. This way you can level one character in zones a, b and c, but you still have the motivation to level an alt through other zones. In order to reach mach level you would of course have to level through the new expansion zones, so this would only apply to old zones.

4) More exclusive content and less faction bloat. In mop there was just too many factions to gain rep with. Of course gating the only valor gear behind rep was bad and shouldn't be done anymore. In order to reduce faction bloat, they should do more scryer & aldor type of solutions. You have to pick one faction to root for which makes you hostile with the others. This should effect your whole leveling experience and other stuff for the duration of the expansion. This would of course also encourage you to level alts to see what the other side is like.

5) Reputations should be an alternative way to gear up instead of mandatory. Mop did good in adding more gear options for solo players, but those valor rewards shouldn't be the only ones. Instead they should be ALTERNATIVE way to gearing so they don't feel mandatory. In addition there should be more ways to gain reputation instead of just dailies. Bring back dungeon tabards and add possible events that you participate in in order to gain reputation. Just add a weekly cap for reputation gains in to increase the amount of time it takes to reach exalted.

6) Reputations should be account wide. This would help altoholics so you don't need to go through all that hazzle again once you've already done it. The mutually exclusive reputations wouldn't be affected by this however.

7) Bring back dungeons! Gearing your alts through dungeons is a much less painful way than through doing dailies in order to get coins for LFR. The cataclysm purpose for LFR worked much better than the Mop way. Scenarios are just really awful.

8) Change LFR into 10 man mode. The difficulty or relative gear strenght you gain from it doesn't need to change. What this would accomplish is that it reduces to chances of people afking and leeching. Your personal donation for the raid is better felt in a small group. I also think this would shorten the queue times for LFR quite a bit when you don't need to wait for so many healers.

9) Remove PVP gear. Blizzard has tried to make the walls smaller between pve and pvp, but it just isn't happening. The amount of effort it takes to gear up in pvp is just too much if you want to do pve as well. Instead you should just automatically get pvp gear when you enter a BG or Arenas. That way everyone has the same gear strenght and you don't just get steamrolled or steamroll others with gear. This would in my opinion make the ladders more competitive. Cosmetic rewards & vanity stuff & transmogging gear could be earned through arenas and battlegrounds. Maybe some gold and reputations as well.

10) 4th specs for all classes. This would be the "big" thing for next expansion. I don't want new classes or races. Most already have enough alts. Instead they should enhance the gaming experience for those. Examples:

Hunter: A melee spec like survival originally was intended to be.
Warlock: A tanking spec.
Shaman: A tanking spec like enhancement sort of was originally.

Obviously this requires a lot of balancing, but we pay to play this game so we can expect it. Besides, fun has always been more important than balance. I mean, it's game, remember?

11) Reduce button bloat! This needs to happen as some classes like warlocks & healing priests are a pain to play. This can be achieved through these means:

a) Simply remove some abilities
b) Merge some abilities
c) Make more abilities spec exclusive.
d) Replace some old spells with new ones.

12) Make classes feel different again. I realize that "bring the player not the class" was the goal, but it just make the game feel dull when every class feels the same. Everyone can do everything. It just isn't right. A boomking doesn't need mad CC and dk's dont need all the same debuffs as some other class. Game was more fun when your class was actually really needed for something.

[SinisterAsc]

I'm down for reducing button bloat. Rogues aren't really bloated but I know that Shaman in particular suffer from this.

[Deleted]

Also I just realized I had 12 suggestions instead of 10, but hoooooooh

Also the button bloat really turns up when you do pvp. Not so much in pve.

[Ericprydz]

Button bloat would be one of the top things for me (warlock).

[Motocarota]

I like your suggestions except for the #3: I would replace it with this:

3) Damage/Numbers shrink: Reduce the amount of power gained between levels, so you can quest in the same zone even at +/- 8/10/12 levels.

example with random numbers:
- actual : level 20 { 200 dps, 1000hp }, level 30 { 400 dps, 2000hp }
- after shrinkage : level 20 { 200 dps, 1000hp }, level 30 { 220 dps, 2200hp }

I even like the idea of a character with a static power (you only level to gain new spells and abilities) but I know this is against the base idea of a RPG.

[Mezzolith]

I like number 3 a lot. I always hated that I'd fly through a zone without finishing up the story of that zone, especially with the way all the low level zones have been tweaked in Cata. And this way I could also go to zones I haven't done, despite my level, and do them.

[lunchbox2042]

Reputations weren't mandatory this expansion. I managed just fine gearing up 5 characters in 5.0 without doing dailies. In fact the only character I did them on was my druid in 5.1. Dungeons get boring when you farm them for months on end regardless of how many there are. The only thing I can agree with is removing button bloat and making some specs feel different like rogues and hunters. I doubt they'll make buffs and debuffs more exclusive. Really they should just remove them altogether as just about every 10 man comp can get all of them.

[Airwaves]

New player models are up the top.

But here is the most important thing for me.

New raids, and no i don't mean "new" raids like the start of every expansion. I mean new boss mechanics. The is what turned me away from raiding and in the end wow in mop. Reused boss mechanics. Almost every single move a boss did in 5.0 was reused from years past. I know this doesn't effect most people because 99% of raiders now days never raided for as long as i did so they have never seen half the raids when they were content. But for me as a long term player i just felt the bosses were doing the same old thing but with a different model. Hell some mechanics didn't even make it one raid teir before being reused again.

It's obvious to me that the blizzard raid design team has run out of idea. They need new people with new ideas. Right now i can never see myself raiding again unless things started to feel new again. I don't see the fun in fighting a boss that does the same move a boss i raided 4 years ago did.

[Teriz]

Please.

That would reduce button bloat.

[Hiroshi]

Personally i want to see more solo content.

[roflwaffle]

3 sounds quite nice, would be very nice if you love a zone and dislike others, could avoid them if ya wanted, idk how easy that would be to do cause of the quest rewards but i like the idea quite a bit.

[Skroe]

I'd also throw in "redesign the level curve" or maybe remove it all together.

The time to do this is at the same time the "Big Number Problem" is solved, or it'll be done weirdly later.

Blizzard would strongly be advised to end the very date leveling scheme as we know it. Leveling to 95 next expansion, or 1-95, is more chore than opportunity. And seriously for new players... 95 levels? Are they serious?

Instead of balancing the "pre-end game" around arbitrarily getting from level 1 to 90/95, instead make it around the talent tiers and a class-specific progression scheme to unlock abilities. Make it flexible though. Give people options how to open up skills. And whatever you do, don't have a bar and don't associate a number with it. Playing one character for a total of 60 hours or so should qualify a person to be "endgame ready".

This would also go hand in hand with dynamic questing.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, they need consolidate their products. It's ridiculous already to expect people to buy independently, the WoW Battle Chest, Cataclysm and MoP. That's a barrier to entry on the order of $80 + a subscription. They'll justify it with some BS about how its a great deal because a person gets a free full month. Yeah... bullshit. It's still the shock of forcing a person to buy three seperate cartons in a store or make three seperate purchases online, even at the Blizzard store.

The next expac needs to be a big old reset button for buying WoW. You buy it, and you have access to all the content up to that point. That's it. That is how a nominally 8 year old game (note: it isn't due to the Cata / MoP revamps) competes with modern games that require one purchase.

Having another expac with the "Expansion Set" banner going across the top will just be the absolute height of backwardness. I mean what is this? 2004? Are we still in the age of Everquest? Is WoW some sort of Card Game? Seriously. You buy the next Expac, you own all of WoW up to that point.

[Chickat]

I like everything but number 3 and 6.

For number 3, make it to where all mobs are shared, but the original person who tagged it gets the loot unless its a rare or you are in a party with them. (quest items will still be dropable). Add level scaling by personal choice. If you want to scale to 35 and get the xp a 35 would get then you should be able too. This would have a reduced effect for say a 95 doing level 40 quests, but if you wanted to level through the old content you should be able to at albeit at a slower pace then the new xpac content.

For number 6, Reputations from past expansions should be account wide. Meaning at level 95, anything from MoP and below will be shared on your account. The newest stuff from the current expansion continues to have the account tagging to gain rep faster once you have done it once. To make sure you aren't required to do them on every alt, all valor and justice gear will be taken off rep venders. They will have 1 or two items that are flex mode item level that cost gold, but valor gear would be better.
There should be 4 lore factions and 2-4 vanity factions like the tillers every expansion. There should be less daily's (perhaps 30 in total at launch), but there will be dynamic events in every zone to compensate that also reward rep.

Also, you should only have to buy the latest expansion. Mop will be added to the battle chest When 6.0 launches. This way, the entire game always costs 60 dollars like most other games. It will entice more people to buy.

[Kyux]

I strongly disagree with a few things stated here. There is no faction bloat. There are only a lot of factions if you are a completionist. You don't have to gain rep with every faction, it's there for you to pick and choose which you enjoy.
Reputations should not be account wide. Everyone is complaining about how the game is getting too easy, this is exactly it. Reputations should be character specific. The mounts you gain are already account wide and it's dumb if you get a main to gain the rep so then your fresh 90 can get straight into top end valor epics. It makes no sense. Also if you want exclusive content, don't make it available to every character (character not player).
The 4th spec idea has already been ripped to shreds, it's not going to happen. It'd be nice but is unrealistic.
You want classes to feel different yet want a reduced button bloat? The amount of buttons adds to class diversity. You don't have to press them all, it's just there if you want to, specific to each class to make them interesting.
PvP gear should in no way ever be merged with PvE gear. It's a completely different game. If it's too hard for you do gear up in both, work harder or focus on one. Don't just ask for something to be changed because it'd be nicer for you.

It really seems like the OP has strung a list of things that'd make their personal WoW experience more comfortable and self-tailored without any regard to the game.

[Deleted]

3 sounds quite nice, would be very nice if you love a zone and dislike others, could avoid them if ya wanted, idk how easy that would be to do cause of the quest rewards but i like the idea quite a bit.

I don't think the quest rewards would be a problem. If you get a sword as a reward as level 10, it would have stats appropriate for that level. If you get it as lvl50, it would have stats appropriate for that level. It would have the same looks in any case.

PvP gear should in no way ever be merged with PvE gear. It's a completely different game. If it's too hard for you do gear up in both, work harder or focus on one.

And you really don't see a problem with this? They shouldn't be exclusive to one another.

[Skroe]

Also take the revamp opportunity and break the "color" association of gear. It is meaningless in a world with 4 separate game modes per tier. Maybe get rid of gear as we know it entirely. Cut slots. Maybe entirely cut the dated idea of gear making a character stronger. Making it pure visual flair and typing power increases to something else may be a better option.

[Tomana]

1) Merge dead realms (already happening, sort of, so this is taken care of). This was the most important bit. Can't really play the game solo you know.

2) New character models. This absolutely needs to happen and I certainly hope the models will be done when the next expansion hits the shelves.

3) Dynamic questing.

Totally agree on these three.

4) More exclusive content and less faction bloat.

I'm not convinced it is a problem to begin with. The problem with factions were dailies to gain rep with them, not their amount. BC had a bunch of reps as well, but it showed less.

5) Reputations should be an alternative way to gear up instead of mandatory.

This would be cool, provided they can resolve some technical stuff and deal with the raiding population's QQ.

6) Reputations should be account wide.

Agree, but this would cause a QQ megatsunami.

7) Bring back dungeons! Gearing your alts through dungeons is a much less painful way than through doing dailies in order to get coins for LFR. The cataclysm purpose for LFR worked much better than the Mop way. Scenarios are just really awful.

This raises complicated issues about catch-up in dungeons ergo invalidating previous raids (see LK).
Frankly, I think at this point the problem with catch-up is more about the queues for DPS (be it for 5-man or LFR) than anything else.

Also, you don't need coins for previous tiers of LFR. I blasted my priest through MSV/HOF and got enough loot for ilvl 480 without coins.

8) Change LFR into 10 man mode.

This one gets a big no from me. With the general quality of players in LFR, 10-man is NOT the right way to do it, as the raid is way too dependent on every player, as you noted.

9) Remove PVP gear.

No, because in this case, PVE players would dominate PVP as well. Not a good idea.

10) 4th specs for all classes. This would be the "big" thing for next expansion.

This would be cool indeed, but horrendous to implement

11) Reduce button bloat!

Maybe for some classes, but I like having a lot of buttons. If I want to have 6 buttons I play D3.

12) Make classes feel different again. I realize that "bring the player not the class" was the goal, but it just make the game feel dull when every class feels the same.

Yeah, but the alternative is like BC, where some specs are garbage and not even brought into raids and some are stacked. IMO, it's not a good idea.

[roflwaffle]

I don't think the quest rewards would be a problem. If you get a sword as a reward as level 10, it would have stats appropriate for that level. If you get it as lvl50, it would have stats appropriate for that level. It would have the same looks in any case.

that would massively bloat the amount of quest rewards per zone, 5 times as many actually because you need one version per lvl. (in a mop style 5 lvls leveling expac).

[Chickat]

Also take the revamp opportunity and break the "color" association of gear. It is meaningless in a world with 4 separate game modes per tier. Maybe get rid of gear as we know it entirely. Cut slots. Maybe entirely cut the dated idea of gear making a character stronger. Making it pure visual flair and typing power increases to something else may be a better option.

I doubt that would ever happen.

Both grey and white should be grey.
Uncommon should be White.
Rare should be Green.
The flex and lfr color would be Purple.
Normal mode would be Yellow.
Heroic mode would be Gold.
Legendary s would continue to be orange.

[Tomana]

Maybe get rid of gear as we know it entirely. Cut slots. Maybe entirely cut the dated idea of gear making a character stronger. Making it pure visual flair and typing power increases to something else may be a better option.

I'd rather not play another GW2, frankly.