8.3 looks good quantity-wise. However, the quality... Since I've pretty much avoided the PTR, I'll give it a chance, but I'm not really enthusiastic tbh.
Isn't that basically the entire point of a "patch" for any game though? Improving upon what you have while adding some new content to keep players busy?The new stuff for the patch would obviously be the raid, the renewed AP grind, new invasions, new Horrific Visions, new gearing. Is most of it refreshed, re-hashed, or improved upon earlier content? Yes, obviously. You don't need to re-invent the wheel to put out a new patch, but you need to make improvements upon your current systems where they may be failing. That's basically the entire point of a patch. If your game was in a perfect state of content and balance, patching wouldn't be necessary but massive sweeping changes mid-expansion has pretty much always had a negative response so when in doubt, stay the course and change it next expansion.
Very excited! My DK can be a Kul Tiran and I'm gonna RP the crap out of him.
I think the problem could be, if you are already bored of the game\current content. A small this and that change is just not going to do it for you. I just assume I'm burnt out of WoW or MMOs myself. For the first time ever I played 3 months at launched and then left for a year, 2 months back and I'm pretty much ready to log out until the pre-events start up. I think some of us always hold on to hope that the next patch will offer something to really engage us and then we get the details and sometimes it's meh.
Most patches have no new zone...
Only 1 tbc patch added a new zone
ZERO patches in wotlk added a new zone.
cata added zero new zones unless you count the molten front.
mop added... 2? maybe 3 if you count isle of giants but there is nothing there and its tiny.
Wod added 1
legion added 3 cause as you say "An old zone changed is not a new zone" which the broken shore was a zone.
BFA has already added 2 zones, which is more then most past expansions.
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so... what patches do...
if you want complwete utter shakeups of the game that change the entire thing, what your looking for is called an expansion.
8.3 seems to me to be a lot like episode 9 of Star Wars: A decent attempt at recovery from what is otherwise a trainwreck, but that ultimately falls short.
While the patch itself has some interesting parts, overall it just doesn't make up for the rest of the expansion or Blizzard's shennanigans as a company outside of the game.
The Black Empire deserved its own expansion. Both Azshara and Nzoth deserved more than a single patch. Essences should have been in from the beginning and should STILL be account wide.
Sorry, but for a final major content release patch, it just seems like too little too late. Hard pass for me.
Last edited by SirCowdog; 2020-01-10 at 05:54 AM.
What really bugs me is, that they are putting in another progression system (cloak).
Which means, that if I don't start next week, I'll probably lag behind again, which would further demotivate me from playing let's say 2 months before Shadowlands or so. I get the whole "working towards something for gratification" and generally, I agree, but this used to be targeting specific items and not just a long churn. Maybe I'm just not made for modern gaming anymore.
The Black Empire might get it's own expansion still though.
About essences, I agree it should have been here from the start instead of Azerite Armor. But I disagree about the account wide part. Especially if it was from the start. It would work like in Legion, at this time, and earlier, lets say between 8.1 and 8.2 people would have gotten it on their main and alts already. They are making some essences a lot easier to get in 8.3 and we are talking 1/3 of the 8.2 effort. What they should do though is to make Eternal Palace Essences buyable. There is no sense that people gotta do EP in 8.3 just to get that.
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I think the main point of BfA, the story, was handeld terribly in 8.2.5.
The conclusion to the war campaign including the ending cibematics was a sput in the face for me as an alliance player. What I need is a real closure FOR THAT and not for BfAs C-Storyline N'Zoth who suddenly becomes A-Storyline.
In addition to that I am already underwhelmed because N'Zoth should be a boss that has a whole expansion build around him, not a single oatch.
this patch appears to be mostly recycled character models, recycling an existing zone, with the standard raid applied ontop. we already know the big baddy is the next expansion so this is just filler content (moreso than ever before). they've found ways to recycle death knights, add more layers of grind, and have more nonsensical plot developments that no one cares about.
i uninstalled BFA to make room on my m.2 for other games I'm playing, and in the meantime I'm looking forward to BWL in classic. i suspect the uptake for 8.3 is going to be pretty poor at this point, Aszhara was at least a known boss and lore figure so there was some draw to that patch.
It's meh..
I mean I really love old god stuff, so gonna play it for story at least but I can't stand BfA class design, PvP and general philosophy and 8.3 won't change that(I think?)
One thing is for sure though. If it has more boring stuff to grind, I won't be doing that. I hate grinds, be it AP or otherwise.
Their stubborn approach to Essences is them repeating the exact same mistakes from Legion - Legendaries.
Watch. 8.3.5 will have a vendor for Essences that you can buy with Coalescing Visions. Just like 7.3.5 and Legendaries.
It proves they really haven't learnt anything at all. Which is incredibly worrying for Shadowlands.
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That's the problem though. The content and gameplay in BfA isn't good. So anything you add or improve upon is already bad.
You'll notice there has been zero class changes over the course of the entire expansion. That is BfAs main problem and they refuse to improve upon it.
Because BfA is the lowest point this games ever been.
It doesn't help that we already had so many content droughs in this expansion so far. Now we are looking at another one for at least 8 months while 8.3 doesn't seem to offer enough. Compared to 7.3 this patch looks sad, so much wasted potential to not turn Nya'lotha into its own zone.
I have no problem getting into groups with my alts with everything of essence, bad ones, rank 1, rank2, rank3. People in our community(shard, how much you can call that a community) doesn't even bother to look on the essences that the other's have. Well I do, but then again, I do it for curiosity.
I do agree that the essences got limited replay value. I think rep-grinds on multiple characters is tedious, but I choose not to do them. I do them if it's like clear BiS and shit if one need, but I don't feel the urge to have the absolute best on alts. The 3 you get from fun content(imo) raids, m+ and that little questline for Crucible of Flame is easy to get as rank 3. Though like I said in the post you quoted, the raid one should be very easy to get and are generally good for most.They are already making the Naz'jatar/Mechagon rep essences quite a lot easier to get in few days. I don't think it makes sense to not touch the raid ones. I am not 100% though if they are changing the requirement on that one.
I do get the feeling of getting the best on multiple character's, I really do. I have a couple of guildies that doesn't even want to try getting them on their alts because they want to be 100% optimized on all chars. But it do take some time, and instead of doing it halfway, people stop instead. I do get that, I do try to get the best on my my main alt, but rest of my alts are more random. But still good enough for m+ 8-15 and heroic raid, but that's where my limit goes on content on alts. Someone wanting to do mythic raiding and push 20+ etc on their alts, I see the issue, definitely.
Last edited by Doffen; 2020-01-12 at 12:43 AM.
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