Is the azerite system dull?

[Deleted]

It really feels like it so far, almost none of the traits change how you play your class. Most of them are passive effects or X chance to do something which you have no control of, this brings nothing to your rotation so progression feels a bit underwhelming.
With raid sets and legendaries being gone our classes will play the same all the way through BFA unless the raid exclusive traits function like raid tier sets in some sense.

What are your thoughts on this?

[MechaCThun]

Perhaps at this time - beginning of the expansion - they feel dull. I think there are new ones coming down the pipe when newer content is unlocked. Raid tiers more specifically.

Also, I think stacking certain traits don't make them dull.

[Deleted]

The one and only thing i hate about AT is losing a trait i fell in love with for the sake of item level.

I already have my favorite traits...i cant imagine losing this traits in place of others

Im going to be so sad once i replace them...

[Kwaai]

I'd much rather traits start out weaker. There's a very fine line between traits being fun and engaging and overpowering and punishing for people who don't get the perfect ones. Remember the outcry over legendaries at the start of Legion?

That said, I think they're mildly interesting. I'm building sets for AoE/ST and for each spec, which is fun. They're definitely more interesting than Artifacts were.

[dope_danny]

Its a a retention mechanic. Eseentially a threat to keep grinding or your secondary abilities/stats on your raid gear will not exist until you get the right number ground out. I'm at rank 18 and already have mythic gear with shit locked behind rank 22 and 26. Just wait and see what the heroic gear is locked behind and watch people go mental.

[tru]

Perhaps at this time - beginning of the expansion - they feel dull. I think there are new ones coming down the pipe when newer content is unlocked. Raid tiers more specifically.

Also, I think stacking certain traits don't make them dull.

Stacking the same passive isn't dull... Ok

Yay with raid gear we get more passives... Maybe by the end of BFA we will have so many passives it's gonna be like the weapons again....minus a active ability. It's super lame. But whatever it's not going anywhere.

[Echoherb]

They are likely being very careful about adding traits or abilities that change the rotation considering what happened with legion. People don't like being given something cool and powerful and then having it taken away, which they said was the original goal in Legion.

Ion said they intended the artifact weapons to be temporary things that they could take away at the end of the expansion otherwise they would end up with ability bloat, but then quickly realized that people felt like they were losing stuff they felt had become a central part of the class rotation. I'm convinced adding artifact abilities to the talent trees was a decision that they weren't actually planning on doing at the beginning of legion.

[Swalload]

It really feels like it so far, almost none of the traits change how you play your class. Most of them are passive effects or X chance to do something which you have no control of, this brings nothing to your rotation so progression feels a bit underwhelming.
With raid sets and legendaries being gone our classes will play the same all the way through BFA unless the raid exclusive traits function like raid tier sets in some sense.

What are your thoughts on this?

There are a few good ones, very few, but yeah most aer simplistic and boring. That being said, that's not the system itself, that's just the trait designs. There nothing to prevent the system to have only active abilities and it could entirely change everybody's rotation if they wanted. The system is fine, the traits are just boring. Which is a good thing, they can easily improve on that and I'm not surprised that the very first one we get in the xpack are lame, reminds me of most first set bonuses of almost every xpacks, always start shitty and then gets better.

There's still hope, but I do agree it is a concern.

[Deleted]

There are a few good ones, very few, but yeah most aer simplistic and boring. That being said, that's not the system itself, that's just the trait designs. There nothing to prevent the system to have only active abilities and it could entirely change everybody's rotation if they wanted. The system is fine, the traits are just boring. Which is a good thing, they can easily improve on that and I'm not surprised that the very first one we get in the xpack are lame, reminds me of most first set bonuses of almost every xpacks, always start shitty and then gets better.

There's still hope, but I do agree it is a concern.

If they are planning to add new traits throughout the expansion that would drop my concerns a bit but i haven't seen any blizzard posts on this, could have missed them though.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

The two main specs I’ve played so far sv hunter and holy pally have both had atleast two passives that changes play style but I haven’t gone though them all so there might be more. Over all I like the little flavour passives that add visuals effects and being able to pick 3 passives means I can take the change changing ones most of the time and which ever flavour one I like.

- - - Updated - - -

If they are planning to add new traits throughout the expansion that would drop my concerns a bit but i haven't seen any blizzard posts on this, could have missed them though.

Why wouldn’t they add new traits?

[Swalload]

If they are planning to add new traits throughout the expansion that would drop my concerns a bit but i haven't seen any blizzard posts on this, could have missed them though.

Yeah I've seen some official sources saying there is more to come in Azerite armor, dunno what yet. That system is pretty flexible though, they can do a lot with it. Unlike tier set bonus we can stack stuff and there's nothing stopping them to put an active skill in there like they did with our artifact weapon. They can add wheels of talents, make spec-only armor (an armor that only has traits for 1 spec), they can add different types of traits, they can even make new armor slots become azerite (like pants or boots).

As a game dev I can easily say I would much rather work withthe Azerite armor system than with the artifact or tier set bonus. Of course I'm only talking about potential here but I think that's what counts. What can this become, how much can it evolve? We don't know yet but it's much easier to imagine this getting bigger than it was with tier set bonuses.

[Diggy]

At the moment, yes. No 2 ways about it.

They do have a potential. They could add more rings to them, change the traits, add more. It's a pretty flexible system; however, I've been burnt by dull lookin thing with a potential before only to see that it remained dul unti the end.

[Theed]

Perhaps at this time - beginning of the expansion - they feel dull. I think there are new ones coming down the pipe when newer content is unlocked. Raid tiers more specifically.

Also, I think stacking certain traits don't make them dull.

Blizzard told us late game azerite traits like from raid gear will be more exiting. Uldir gear has excactly the same traits.

[Daws001]

Yeah it's pretty blah. I'd scrap the whole thing for a level 120 talent row and/or getting new spells and abilities as we leveled from 110-120. Those were fun times during a new expansion while leveling and looking forward to shiny new abilities. Le sigh.

[Ragnarocket]

I don't love it - honestly I'd have preferred something KIND of like the Artifact leveling system before Concordance and the ye olde talent trees of old.

That said there are some cool traits that I've enjoyed. I have one right now that lets my Healing Stream Totems cast small Chain Heals on my party. I kinda like that one honestly.

[Nyel]

It is. It's a horrible system that hasn't been fleshed out and feels like Blizzard abandoned it in beta already.

[Broken Fox]

They need to make the passives more distinct and fun. As it is now it just feels like Diablo 3-lite. If they're gonna go that direction they should go all the way.

[Deleted]

It is. It's a horrible system that hasn't been fleshed out and feels like Blizzard abandoned it in beta already.

You havent fell in love with any of the azerite traits yet?
There are so many

My problem is replacing the ones i like...

[Enkrypt]

I really don't enjoy getting pieces of gear that are only partially useful. I feel like I unlock the first trait on every piece, and before I can unlock the second, I get a small ilevel upgrade that only perpetuates the "partially useful" sensation I keep getting.

It doesn't feel good, especially since the pieces lack secondary stats.

Not a fan of it, actually.

[Nyel]

You havent fell in love with any of the azerite traits yet?
There are so many

My problem is replacing the ones i like...

There are so many? Yet most of the class specific traits are worse than the generic ones everyone can use. The Azerite system is just bad, no doubt about that.