Might depend on the class you play. I liked my Warlock much more in Legion than I do in BfA. BfA is the only expansion that i leveled to max and immediatly started an alt, only to then do the same again. I resent BfA's class design that much, which spoils every other aspect of the game, no matter how great it might be.
But maybe your class feels fun to you so you don't have the same problems as me.
Shadowlands can end up being great if they:
Fix the classes, unprune them enough, change existing stuff, add more stuff
Remove unnecessary RNG from loot system, give more customization(sockets, enchants etc.)
Bring back proper gear vendors and something like badge system to buy that gear
Introduce more dungeons during patches so M+ doesn't become stale(start with 8-10 and then introduce 1-3 more per big content patch, like they did in Wrath)
Remove PVP talents and just make class design the way it always was and supposed to be.. Classes should be the same always regardless of what type of content you're doing.. classes should be complete after you level up to max
Reduce this almost mandatory daily/weekly grind, it's getting out of hand..
Stop the power creep, maybe by reducing amount of raid difficulties(i'd be fine with them removing LFR and normal), stop giving people essentially free high ilvl gear
Fucking add main stat to rings ffs
Make professions matter more
For me it wasn't about class design. It was, and still is, about replay-ability and dungeons & raids. However the sheer amount of grind required to play competitively yeeted me out of the game so far that I don't remember surviving a full tier throughout the entire expansion, even though I played during each of the patches.
I honestly think that in order for Shadowlands to be a success that withstands the first tier of skepticism, they need to break the formula they've had in place since the very start of Legion.
I personally think Covenants are going to be more of the same systems we've all been privy to for the better part of the last 5 years, so I'm not confident in those being what shakes it up.
I think the best chance they have at breathing some much needed life into the game is to put a hard focus on class design and the way the classes play. They've played very, VERY similarly to how they played at the start of legion - and some new abilities would go a very long way to switching it up. I'm all for them tossing pruned abilities back on the classes they were stripped from, but that should just be a start.
Let's see some new abilities, some new rotations (more difficult than Demon Hunter, less difficult than Fire Mage Combust GCD Perfection - Think easy to learn, difficult to master).
They can exceed expectations by doing a complete gear overhaul - reducing ancillary buffs/procs/stats that boost items with low ilvl past much higher level counterparts (once again - Fire mage bracers, Corruptions, Benthic).
Interesting replayability (Visions added this somewhat, but it feels like more of a "tech-demo" for what's to come).
Make the more boring specs engaging again, make the already decent ones better.
Better gearing, less rng. (The m+ chest change sounds like a good step forward)
More alt-friendly (Hopefully what they presented at Blizzcon actually helps alts!)
For open world content.. It really depends on what "World quests 2.0" means. If it ends up being good, then all we really need is more unique gameplay content in the open world.
And finally.. get rid of Sylvanas
For me, the most important change they can make is to address the server population. Years after they acknowledged the problem and nothing has been done. All these content ideas sound decent, but I don't want to spend another expac on a dead realm or be forced to paid transfer so I can buy things at a decent price or join an active guild.
Classes actually feel good to play. This alone will make or break the expansion for me. It made legion for me and it ruined bfa.
- Way less RNG (enough is enough)
- More balanced classes (no more rogue and DH must for mythics+)
- 100% shared archivs (like doing 10k WQ only with 1 toon)
- Increase in difficult
- Reward efford, not grind, and not RNG as stated on point 1
- Mobile app more useful (AH back please !)
Most likely Shadowlands will be fine. Many people will play it and enjoy it. YouTubers like Bellular will complain about everything in order to keep their views and subs up. The vocal minority will fill message boards like this with continuous bitching and whining. Just like every other expansion.
Not game design related, but Vulkan support would be nice.
Great thread, OP.
- Covenants being the new way they do reputations
- Torghast primarily being about legendary acquisition and cosmetics afterwards, not really about gearing
- Sylvanas finally dying in the first raid
- No Told Dagor like instance
- Alt friendliness in general
- Level squish making leveling great again
-covenants could have unique content to each akin to how there was heavy encouragement to play both factions, and even a loyalist/honor route in the Horde route that encourages alts. Hoping for this.
-what you said about Torghast. I've really liked what I'm seeing from horrific visions so if people are saying Torghast follows a similar structure it sounds good to me.
-they've said corruption isn't staying in 8.3 so there's a decent chance they finally find a good structure that doesn't have the downsides of it or titanforging.
-what you said about abilities. They've said they'll un-prune, which is nice, but I likewise hope it's actually useful things. My outlaw rogue does not need or want poison, damn it! He needs curse of the dreadblades back! Poison would just nerf gouge. Cannonball barrage would also be nice. or even Bribe if they fixed it to where it doesn't go on cooldown when the cast fails.
-level squish will make leveling faster, the story as you level more coherent, and the individual levels feeling more meaningful, something that has been universally wanted.
-a minor point but would satisfy a lot of others I think is Pathfinder being available on release, but staggering it so the additional parts of the achievement added in the patches unlock flying in the patch content areas.
- Factions get deleted.
- New stats on gear.
- Professions become important, like the main source of gearing, content drops lesser gear that can be used right away or dismantled for mats used to craft the actually good gear, the entire crafting system is reworked so it's made to become a core feature of the game instead of a boring list menu with a cast bar.
- Combat system is reworked by focusing on player skill instead of automatisation. Following this, PvP is reworked as well where many CC are removed from the game and those that remain are ALL skill shots in some way, always able to be counter played by anyone with a brain. PvP will become about playing vs players who can play instead of players not allowed to play for extended periods of time. I mean it's a game, the only purpose is to play it, not watch your toon being unresponsive because of CC spam or any other reasons.
- Healers get nerfed to the point where they are only worth 1 dps in pvp instead of 2 or 3.
And many more things but I don't have all day.
For those who think they're very clever by saying I want something that is not WoW: you're right, that's why I play other games and not WoW.
The convenants replacing the factions as the prime drive to do world pvp (and shadowlands inspired 4way battlegrounds).
The convenants evolving with an extra layer of covenant unique power boosts for each patch so they dont become an old irrelevant relic after 1 teir.
A system to allow players to swap at any time so you can rep up all of them then pick and choose as to which covenant you want empowering you at any time with new abilities and interesting procs. Similar to ow we leveld up 3 different followers in nazjatar.
Thorgast being well balanced, fun to do and not superfavorable to meles. I think i prefer a model where yo got infinite tries but can only rewards similarly to how you get them now from sw/org visions.
Honestly, the expansion is going to stand or fall on two features. Covenants and thorgast. If they do lame and boring stuff with those, the expansion will prolly suck, if those turn our great, the expansion is likely to be recieved favorably.
None of us really changes over time. We only become more fully what we are.