No, they don't have the technology anymore.
Considering the sets we got BfA were shit and we did not get those extra fancy sets as promised, I'd say Blizzard is making a grieve mistake by not giving them back at the start. Raid atmosphere based sets could be good if they weren't as bland looking as they did in BfA. Perhaps the only sets who were acceptable are some Battle for Dazar'alor sets, some Warfronts sets and one or two of Visions of N'zoth.
Interesting reply, Blizzard had a winning formula, Tier sets were a part of that whether you like that or not. BFA has been arguably the 2nd worst expansion and Tier sets are not in the expansion. It certainly isn't THE reason why BFA sucks but it can be attributed to it most definitely. I know it's hard to understand that the game used to be good and during the good periods Tier sets were in the game, it's just one of the many things Blizzard has changed because of reasons. You cannot argue against that fact.
Since I am playing it right now and enjoying it, and SW on my server is packed with players, I guess you are living in your own desillusion (and that maybe you have not even played modern wow for years). That and the fact, that like most modern wow haters, as soon as you are asked for facts, you can't provide one or more. Kids these days.
The covenant armor will be everything we will get this time.
My only memories of Tiers Sets are "those fucking pieces that I had to keep despite being 20+ ilvl weaker than my current ones because the set bonus was just that strong that it still simmed positive". In a way, it made mixing and matching complicated because you had to figure out if the theoretical upgrade with more stats was worth losing a tier set bonus for.
Azerite Armor had the advantage of everything in that slot having traits, so the only thing you had to look for there were the right trait combinations without really having to worry about the piece's ilvl or esoteric stat weights. I agree with omen - the system itself was an improvement, its implementation however completely missed the mark. In case of certain classes, there are even multiple different azerite trait combos that change the way the spec is played(Enhancement has 3 different ones as far as I know, for example). With tier sets, you are forced to play the way the devs decided your spec will play this raid tier. I remember switching from fury warrior to bm hunter because tier set from Tomb of Sargeras forced you to drop Inner Rage to get full benefits, and that turned me off.
sure, over the years tier-sets have proved themselves to not be the perfect solution, but its A solution and despite having tried different things we have yet to see a BETTER solution than tier sets.
armor-sets with set-bonuses have been a thing in RPGs for decades and thats not without reason. the pros far outweighs the cons and even more so if we compare with other ideas that we have seen both in WoW but also in other games..
working towards a gear-set is just a classic RPG thing that increase your characters power, give you a goal to aim for and reach and to kinda show off to other ppl aswell.
imo every set bonus doesnt have to reinvent the wheel turn your characters gameplay upside down. it just needs to translate to a 5-10% dmg increase.
KISS should be implemented alot more. things have gotten out of fucking hand.
Aside from the way they were initially acquired, Legion legendaries were better than tier sets. They introduced a number of ways to customize how you play, and because they were only in a few slots and swapped around, they didn't taint the gearing process with as many locked slots as tier sets did.
Having 4 slots in your armor be effectively removed from choice is not a good thing.
No. Blizzard's developers have been determined to make their life easier in lieu of making the game dull and uninspired for several expansions now. It's why there are no real glyphs, gems are ridiculously minor in the grand scope of things, and talents are in the shape they are. You really think they're ever going to go back to making unique armor sets that no only are custom built for each class and spec, but also look good? You out your damned mind.
Wouldnt know, I swapped to maining a warrior in Legion.
However, I will say that as a person who has gone through every single expansion, it felt normal every other time I did it.
That has always been WoWs cycle and it felt less bad than not accumulating the set bonuses in the first place.
Tier set back for visuals for me please. I think the raid sets from BfA looks generally bad, details are great and all that but there is like no good color themes in any of the raid-sets. PvP sets however look a lot better for me. And this is the first expansion I think this way. Both season 1 and 2 had great PvP-sets. Season 3 and 4 though, not so much.
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