Anima is just Azerite.

[TigTone]

It doesn't matter if it's a choice if it doesn't feel like one because of the consequences being too harsh.

The success of Classic disproves your statement. It wasn't us who changed, I have less time, but I still enjoyed Classic thoroughly.

Because the problem is the fast pacing. It makes you run out of content too fast, and contrary to fast paced games, you can't update an MMO every 2-3 weeks with a new champion, hero or a premium.

Yes, most of the adults with little time play the super slow-paced Classic...

Im offering an explanation for current WoW pace.

People can play a slow paced game with little time for games.
I’m not arguing they can not.

[VinceVega]

Here’s why:

Mop/WoD: guys you’re going to be able to get your own legendary! It’s gonna be great progression throughout the expansion.

Legion: we know that WoD legendary system sucked, we have a better one! Random drop legendaries and artifact power! It’s gonna be so much better, play however you want!

BFA: Ok so the ap/random legendary system sucks, so we’ve replaced it with Azerite. Azerite is going to be so much better (as soon as we figure out what it is).

Shadowlands: Ok so Azerite sucked, but we’ve replaced it with Anima! Anima is going to be so much better...

You’re right that we don’t know but skepticism is certainly warranted at this point.

Well it did get better with each iteration. The Legendaries in Legion were amazing (the randomness not). They addressed that you can craft your own now.
The AP Grind was annoying but served a purpose. The fact, that it was endless and no cap was annoying and simply way to exhausting also horrible for twinks

So they merged it with valor points. Weekly cap. Done. Also not endless. And catchup for twinks

[Huggykaze]

No, it didn't. There was nothing there that made it unique.

Oh my... I can already see you weren't a very successful or active player back then, if at all. It shows with the wording used here. It didn't have to be unique, it was lasting.

no.

In fact, I can't really think of a BC craftable epic at all off the top of my head - let alone one that "felt epic". Only epic item I remember was that bag in shattrath you could by late in the expansion. Hell, I was an Engineer and got that flying gyrocopter and even THAT wasn't "epic" feeling. Just "cool".

Well, maybe if your highest achievement was clearing a heroic dungeon in 2.4? TBC craftables certainly didn't feel as epic as Vanilla's, but they still felt epic and much, much better than anything WLK and later expacs presented us with.

That grind hasn't changed in over a decade

Yes it did. Yet another recolour vs a unique Netherwing Drake? Please do tell me how the motivation, reward and satisfaction remain the same. Unless you mean that grinding reps remained the same. Surprise, surprise... Grinding cannot change, by its very nature.

That hasn't changed since ever

No it did. I remember wearing crafted/T1/T2 items when entering Outlands, despite clearing AQ40 and part of Naxx, because they were better BiS. You can't do it now. I remember using a heroic dungeon item in the Black Temple, because nothing better dropped in TK/SSC. Good luck doing this nowadays. Also, amazing argument again.

You're talking about the expansion notoriously known for poaching players due to attunements and troubles leveling up players, right?

TBC leveling was fine. Leveling itself was part of the content, unlike nowadays where it's just a timegate. Attunements were time-consuming, yes, but... You'd these things anyway, because you didn't run out of reasons to do content after a week or two.

You're also talking about the expansion where PVP arena was introduced, and everybody ran to to avoid the regular grind because of "Welfare epics", right?

Like... 99% of people I have played with didn't run to Arenas to get the welfare epics. That was actually quite grindy in and by itself. Did you even play it, or hear about it from friends?

You weren't there for that Vashj kill? Well, spit, guess you're not going with us to Mount Hyjal then!

And? You will get the kill next week. Guilds were running outdated content because it was still rewarding relevant loot. You know... people played TBC, not patch 2.4.3.

Also, grinding shadow resist gear says "hello"?

Nice, you've found one of few examples of grind being pretty much obligatory. For high-end players. WOW! Btw I don't grinding that gear in TBC. I wasn't a top-end player tho', just a run of the mill raider.

Also, that was the expansion that introduced Daily Quests... it's arguably the expansion that INTRODUCED the idea of falling behind if you don't play everyday! >_<

Yes, and daily quests are not a bad idea. The problem with them was how they interacted with all the other shitty systems that Blizzard implemented over the years. Like AP, or random legendaries (lol Legion best expac)... They were means of earning gold and earning reps you wanted to earn, not ones you had to earn.

tl;dr; No, it didn't. It was a boring ass grind. Rose colored goggles, and all that.

Well, maybe come back after you actually achieve something in those expacs, 'cos you sure sound butthurt over not doing the latest content back then.

- - - Updated - - -

Im offering an explanation for current WoW pace.

People can play a slow paced game with little time for games.
I’m not arguing they can not.

Ah, misunderstood you then.

Well, I don't think it's a good reasoning, but obviously you are not the one responsible for it.

[Ersula]

Azerite Traits/armor were the problem. Anima is only like Azerite in the way Reputation is like Azerite or Experience is like Azerite. If you're just against alternate advancement systems you should just stop playing RPGs entirely because looking at this with no context & harping on blizzard for honestly taking our feedback & improving the BFA experience isn't helping

[Lolites]

Maybe you should follow your own advice, and wait 4-5 months before you start talking about somethig you do't know anythin about. If it it turns out anima isn't something we gather physically to improve ourselves then it's not the same and your confidence will only look stupid.

right? imagine being so salty and mad about something you know shit about... god, OP must really have a sad life...

[Dremmech]

That’s fine if it’s just a replacement of azerite. The important thing stated is that there won’t be an AP grind. And that’s what matters.

[Lorianus]

They dont need a AP grind anymore because from here on out for the next 4-5 years they can conveniently alternate patches with classic wow/tbc/wotlk whenever a current expansion drought sets in, they will milk all the nostalgia bois dry for MAU's tbh.

[kaminaris]

Could be, but they literally stated there would be no "AP grind" in Shadowlands.

AP existing without the grind would be fine.

Then what is the point of having such system?

[PaladinBash]

There's lots of grinds that are way less annoying and wayyyyyyy way less lopsided than Azerite. I don't MIND grinding things. I don't buy into this bullshit of AP being an endless grind- it is for a couple of weeks and then you get the amount you need for X New Shiny Feature and afterwards it's pointless. It's only endless if you grind it on your alts and that's fair because I don't think anyone is saying BFA didn't kill alts.

[mvaliz]

Oh my... I can already see you weren't a very successful or active player back then, if at all. It shows with the wording used here. It didn't have to be unique, it was lasting.

Ah, an e-peener. Yeah, I'm done with you after this.

"Successful Active" player... lol ;P

How do you deem success? Given how shallow you appear to be - Would being part of 1 of the only 2 guilds on our server that downed 2 wings of Naxx qualify? Same went with Sunwell?

For me though, I'd say my personal success was the long lasting friendships I created while also being one of the gold-richest players on the server (legitimately through fishing, of all things. Not through auctioneer or macros n' shit). Was able to buy my epic flying mount the moment I got BC flying (2nd one on the server, I might add! ;P)

Oh, and I was the one who cracked the fishing timetables code for all players in Vanilla.

But, yeah, I guess I wasn't very "successful" since we didn't down Kel'Thuzzad in your eyes....

Anyways, welcome to the ignore list. Please just go back to Classic and pine for BC servers while the rest of us move forward with our lives, thank you very much. ^_^

[Monolithi]

Anyone actually grinded AP in bfa and legion? It came naturally by doing WQs.

[meroko]

Literally no one had a problem with Artifact Power or Azerite Power, the problem was the grind associated with them. So since they confirmed NO AP GRIND....I don't care if Anima is AP or not. It's still gonna be without a grind.

[Gorsameth]

Then what is the point of having such system?

a progression system that continues throughout the expansion to keep people playing week in, week out which keeps people subbed instead of subbing for a month when a patch comes out and then going away for months until the next patch.

A weekly cap still accomplishes that without the burnout from uncapped endless grinding.

[Watchers]

ánima are souls, nothing more.

Welcome to the world of the dark soulscraft

- - - Updated - - -

Anyone actually grinded AP in bfa and legion? It came naturally by doing WQs.

in bfa yes, in legion, never..

[dragnipur]

Then what is the point of having such system?

umm i will give you an example from GW2.There has a system similar to the artifact power and Azerite.It is called mastery and grants special abilities to you when running or your glider,mount.In raids and Open world.There is no hard grind.You just have to invest some time into it.
If Blizzard make it similar to that model this is the answer to your question.Not everything has to be connected to the class specialization.

[Tic Tacs]

The same can be said of raids. You have to keep doing those every patch, and a lot of people do not enjoy raids. I do not understand the issue people have with needing to do something throughout the expansion to remain on top. Do you just want to log in and have all progress mailed to you?

Foolish statement to make considering this game was always raid oriented game not until most recent expansions when pendulum swang towards M+ grind to the point where you have to grind M+ to progress. Personally, I would rather raid 1-2 per week and actually enjoy the rest of the game instead of endlessly farm for titanforged/corrupted gear.

[Wickedtongue]

No no no, there won't be just an AP grind. There are going to be:

1. AP grind
2. Legendary/Tower grind
3. Covenant grind.

Combination of all three will make you wish you could go back and grind Azerite again.

[Eldryth]

OP here.

Ion did say that Anima is going to be like Valor.
But it isn't like Valor.
The reason it isn't like Valor is because Valor had a weekly hard-cap. Anima grinding is uncapped, Anima usage is weekly hard-capped.

What does that mean?
You can only gain so much power from it every week - It's a timegate.
You can infinitely grind it and use Anima to buy items which don't affect power.

Instead of letting people grind infinitely, and then needing to bump up the power levels to the nth % to entirely negate the hard work those players invested as a catch up mechanic, they're instead just putting a hard-cap on the power that can be gained weekly.


You can continue endlessly obtaining anima. But you will only be able to use a small amount of that anima every week, so it's timegated. This allows players to effectively always have anima in reserve for future weeks, but not be able to use that anima on anything asides from cosmetics or things that do not result in a direct gain of power.

TL;DR

like Azerite, You gain anima (valor points) from doing anything and can grind an infinite amount every week

Unlike Azerite, You can only spend 1000 per week on power-increasing items - additional points you grind are spent on mounts or other cosmetics.

You can have 4000 anima points and not need to log in for 4 weeks because your anima progression is timegated.

Unless there are other badge/progression systems this encourages "anima-logging"

you'll simply have no reason to ever log-in more than once per week if you care about progression. because other than your weekly anima hand-ins, there is no point to grinding more Anima. Let's hope there are other additional systems in-place away from this valor-like system.

I'm curious how this works for players that aren't hitting their weekly Anima usage and what catch-up mechanics are actually in-place. (Do weekly quests accumulate? like story quests) but basically, it's not an endless grind. It's a timegate behind anima instead.

Players who only care about progression will have the same incentive to keep playing that they would have without any AP/Anima system- gear, gold, etc. That was never an issue before.

As for catch-up mechanics, it sounds like that'll come from other sources. They mentioned possibly getting catch-up Soulbind points as World Quest rewards if you're behind.

[brt2pp]

You guys might not want to admit it. You guys might not want to believe it.

But, give it 4-5 months of updates here and elsewhere and you'll realise Anima is just Azerite.

They cannot make the game without this system now. Apexis, Artifact Power, Azerite...and now Anima.

Obviously, they don't want you to know Anima is just Azerite just yet. They'll always say that it isn't no matter how similar it is - but it is.

They gave you the bait, now you're going to see the switch.

-

Oh, and that tower in the middle of the Maw. It's literally like one of those Hearthstone repeatable adventures and a diablo rift...but in WoW. Hearthstone used to make real content and real bosses before they started to make those. It's the repeatable-island content of this expansion. Don't let Blizzard keep making those or you might find yourself with no handcrafted dungeons at all come next expansion.

Uh....and, the tower in the middle of the maw....where all souls are going.....infinitely?

and anima is what again? the power from SOULS? Join the dots.


1. Anima is soul energy all beings possess when they die.
2. people like Arthas have a ton of anima
3. higher level mobs in the tower are going to have more anima.
4. That tower is an infinite grinding tower where you'll be grinding anima from mobs.
/end

LOL

they clarified as far as character progression goes there will be weekly cap of anima, rest of it if you chose to grind it will go for cosmetic things, also you seem bitter

[ErrandRunner]

Anima is a ripoff of Azerite which is a ripoff of Artfact Power

Which is the same as:

American Dad is a plagiarism of Family Guy which is a plagiarism of The Simpsons.