What does Blizzard need to do to rescue BFA?

[probert]

A month into the expansion, I'm spending most of my time chasing achievements in previous expansions. While I'm not pushing max ilvl nor running mythic heroics yet, its merely because the content is just so tedious and boring. There's no 'pull' into the BFA content.

Thinking about the game, I'd say there's 4 or 5 big 'misses' for BFA that destine it to be worse than WoD in the pantheon of WoW expansions.

1) There's little to do.
Yes you can chase dailies. Most people are chasing a single emissary quest daily, as the rep gain for dailies themselves are small otherwise. Its the same as Legion but there's no Class Halls, the mission talbe is incredble barren, azerite is just a grind vs artifact weapons (skins, unlocks etc), and expeditions are destined to be worse than Pandaria scenarios in terms of interest.

2) Dungeons are poor
Fights aren't particularly interesting, there's no gripping stories, and they've seemed to overdose on trash.

3) Azerite is a bad system
Its artificial progression, and contributing to two problems: a) gear upgrades are now seem as new work (as opposed to wow! new loot!), and b) Legion removed the need for multiple sets, for BFA to require multiple sets for gear abilities.

4) Island hoping is a chore.
Many of the WQ seem to be designed to encourage island hoping to get your limit, but unless you're playing Warmode its just a headache. I feel badly for alliance though...their zones seem particularly bland and uninspired.

5) Class balance is horrible, and mechanics are boring
Homogenization and GCD changes make this game more boring to play than ever. 15 years ago hotkey MMOs were cutting edge; in the modern era they're slow. Making them more mundane has hurt the player experience. Sub rogues, shadow priests, feral druids, any mage spec but frost, any warlock spec but destruc, ... all horrible. ret paladin is powerful but boring AF to play. Huge degrade in the player experience since 8.0.

Subjectively, I'd say the zone designs are worse (even if the art design is top notch). Bigger zones means leveling takes forever... I got 5 levels out of Volduun for example. The music is uninspired, and sadly the theme music for login is ALSO the theme music for Zandalar. I'm sick of the theme already a month in.

So how does Blizzard fix this? Patch 8.1 is already set in stone. I doubt it will hold people past October/November... warfronts are questionable interest given the beta response, and raiding is raiding. Hopefully its a *good* raid, but that remains to be seen.

Some thoughts:

- Major revamp of Azerite needs to happen. Allow selection of unlocked abilities; remove the 'oh shit i got a gear upgrade too bad i can't use it fully yet' game design penalty. I'd get rid of Azerite gear altogether -- make them glyphs or unlocks you can apply to gear based on azerite level of your heart of azeroth would be one possibility. Its likely going to go down as the worst design mechanic ever implemented in a WoW expansion; back in the day Blizzard killed Path of the titans late in the expansion (and wisely!), they didn't have the cojones to do it this time around.
- I'm sick of mission tables in general, but certainly the Champion Halls had more variety of quests and phases. Need to make these relevant somehow. BFA's premise (Horde vs Alliance) is paper thin after Cata/WoD/Legion, but they need to do ~something~ story wise. An option to be able to kill Nathanos Blightcaller would be welcome, putting a smug / arrogant NPC infront of your dailies for 2 years was poorly thought out.
- Class revamps have to happen, and *fast*. Raiding will only expose liabilities even more to poor specs. Its probably too late to go back on GCD and ability homogenization, but the tedious process of class monitoring is taking way too long.
- Need to implement alt friendly mechanics to keep people playing. The rep grinds, mission tables, lack of flying, etc make leveling alts a huge undertaking. As it stands, i can't be bothered to bring anything other than my main to the level cap and gear. This is ok in an exciting expansion; in this expansion alts will be the way they keep the economy and groups alive.

I'm not sure what else can be done, given development lead times and internal roadmaps committed years in advance. But BFA is going to have a huge dropoff in the next few months if things are sorted fast.

Thoughts? What would you do -- within the realm of reason -- to fix this expansion?

[Wnderful Weeknd]

Bored player framing the entire expansion as bad because he dislikes it. Haven't seen that one before.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

Nothing. Just gotta release content at a regular pace like legion and there good if you ask me.

[meroko]

Wasn't aware it needed rescuing? Sure you're not just bored of WoW? BFA is the most fun I've had in years. Legion was even a breath of fresh air. So yeah, I think you're just burned out of the game in general. It's okay, it happens. Get out there and get some fresh air, you might come to enjoy it again some day, but if not, that's okay.

[Qnubi]

I have like 200 hours by now in BFA and I still play 6+ hours a day and not even all content was unlocked yet (raids, warfronts, pvp season). I think the expansion doesn't need to be rescued.

[Teaklog]

Bored player framing the entire expansion as bad because he dislikes it. Haven't seen that one before.

Ehh, I do feel his pain on the azerite. I'm full 340 geared, but am still using my 325 head because the azerite ability is THAT good. I can't use the three 340 helms I have because of poor azerite traits

[PlazaPlaza]

Maybe the mods can change BFA into OPs name?

Let me answer: Stop playing the game what you don't like 'anymore'.

[Wnderful Weeknd]

Ehh, I do feel his pain on the azerite. I'm full 340 geared, but am still using my 325 head because the azerite ability is THAT good. I can't use the three 340 helms I have because of poor azerite traits

I find that very, very hard to believe. With the exception of a single Azerite trait on 3-4 specs (Swift Roundhouse on WW monks for example) none of them offer more than perhaps a 3-4% dps increase. Besides that, that type of pain has been present in pretty much every expansion because it's literally just 'Tier set bonus lite'.

[Deleted]

Maybe the mods can change BFA into OPs name?

Let me answer: Stop playing the game what you don't like 'anymore'.

This entire expansion honestly feels like Argus 2.0. The content is quite literally the same.

Yeah, it's a filler expansion before the good one.

[Dormie]

Get rid of you whiny babies

[Mr Biscuit]

Nothing? Most fun I’ve had with an expansion launch in a long time, maybe ever. Just keep the content coming.

[Video Games]

I dont know why people keep saying its the most fun theyve had in years. Bfa is a worse legion.

[saidolol]

Nothing? Most fun I’ve had with an expansion launch in a long time, maybe ever. Just keep the content coming.

same here, cant really remember when i had so much early fun in a wow xpac.

[Selah]

Nothing? Most fun I’ve had with an expansion launch in a long time, maybe ever. Just keep the content coming.

Agreed, this expansion has been a blast. Absolutely loving it.

[Deleted]

Don't you just love it when you make a thread with a lot of critiques and well thought out points, and the very first reply you get is "This is the best expansion ever"?

It really restores your faith in humanity when you know there are some people out there with such low standards that they would literally enjoy ANYTHING at all, no matter how bad it is.

[Rigsy]

give us legendarys again, lets us play the legion dungeons in mythic+ also instead of just the boring bfa dungeons, remove the azerite armour , make rep account wide.

[Directionalk9]

Nothing, just keep a good cadence of content like Legion, continue to tell the story. It'll be fine.

[Deleted]

Gief back Sephuz!

[sunxsera]

Ehh, I do feel his pain on the azerite. I'm full 340 geared, but am still using my 325 head because the azerite ability is THAT good. I can't use the three 340 helms I have because of poor azerite traits

Ohh no, after those really long 3 weeks you`re not totaly bis geared ! : `(

[McNeil]

Improve all the new features by a lot, do a lot less timegating, less with the grindy quests, and most of all improve the classes.

Maybe its not ''rescue'ing'' BFA but rather improve it.