This feels like the worst content drought that we ever had

[crakerjack]

You can easily earn one rank3 essence on an alt just doing every emissary/assault/vision/whatever on the first day you log on it.
The rest comes easily as you do content.
Which begs the question: what content do you even do on those alts that you need the essences for? Cuz if you did content you need essences for you would already have those essences.

First off, let me rebuttal your question with another question: What do you lose if blizzard made r3 essences account-wide?

I never once said getting r3 essences were hard. They weren't hard with the original grind and they aren't hard now with the alternative grind. Lets just concur right there that there's nothing difficult about getting r3 essences. Now that we're on common ground, lets discuss the ethics of it. Yes I can do w/e content I want in order to obtain r3 essences, but why? Why have a grind in place for a system that'll ultimately get scrapped when the Shadowlands pre-patch releases? Hell, covenant abilities will be account-wide for alts to access without having to put in the grind.

I'll answer your question though. I'm a competitor. How I perform whether it's in m+, raiding or PvP, is of the utmost importance to me. I know atleast 2 specs for each of my alts and how to thoroughly play them. I pride myself on performing at a high level because I not only owe it to myself, but also to the others engaging in group content with me. Sure corruption effects play a bigger role in dps than essences do, but out of all the systems implemented in BFA, essences change your playstyle the most.

While you might see the r3 essences as an alternative grind, I see it as a missed opportunity. I don't enjoy assaults or much content outside of m+, PvP and raiding. Unfortunately for me, one of the easiest ways to obtain echoes is by doing assaults, which I don't enjoy. The worst part is that I can hop on an alt, get 460 ilvl in a week and barely have enough echoes for just 1 r3 essence.

So again, it's not about difficulty, it's about tediousness. Vacuuming your house isn't difficult, it's tedious. Doing the laundry isn't hard, it's tedious. I could rant all day about how stupid it is that r3 essences aren't account-wide for those that unlocked them already, but I don't think it would change Blizzards mind, especially here on mmo-champ. In the end, it wouldn't hurt you or any soul in the game if they were to make r3 essences account-wide with zero restrictions.

[Tradu]

In your opinion***

Alts are alts. Put in the time on them or don't play them. I think procs and effects that do damage are infinitely more interesting than procs and effects that give you cdr or stats, and that's what additional effects have always been in the past 15+ years.

Obviously my opinion, what else would it be. Stats you can play around(assuming the proc is big enough to be worth it, which hasn't frequently been the case since WoD) or effects like CDR which alter how your abilities line up are interesting. My definition of interesting is, as you can see, something that affects your play. Twisted Appendage has absolutely no impact on your play at all. Same with Gushing Wounds, Infinite Stars, Echoing Void etc. If it doesn't affect your play, it might as well not be there. We especially don't need like 4 different systems which all add effects that don't affect your play.

I completely disagree about "alts"(the concept of mains and alts is some 2005 shit anyway). I multiple characters to do more of the content I enjoy doing, not to repeat stupid ass grinds in content I didn't enjoy the first time around(which is also a problem, but less so than having to repeat it on other characters). And no, "just don't do it" is not an argument. I can't "just not get good essences" and show up to mythic raids on my alts.

[Kehego]

Obviously my opinion, what else would it be. Stats you can play around(assuming the proc is big enough to be worth it, which hasn't frequently been the case since WoD) or effects like CDR which alter how your abilities line up are interesting. My definition of interesting is, as you can see, something that affects your play. Twisted Appendage has absolutely no impact on your play at all. Same with Gushing Wounds, Infinite Stars, Echoing Void etc. If it doesn't affect your play, it might as well not be there. We especially don't need like 4 different systems which all add effects that don't affect your play.

I completely disagree about "alts"(the concept of mains and alts is some 2005 shit anyway). I multiple characters to do more of the content I enjoy doing, not to repeat stupid ass grinds in content I didn't enjoy the first time around(which is also a problem, but less so than having to repeat it on other characters). And no, "just don't do it" is not an argument. I can't "just not get good essences" and show up to mythic raids on my alts.

But if you're doing mythic on your alts, that kinda already implies that some sort of time investment has been made, 1) and 2) again, why play something if you don't want to invest time in it?

Its a gear based rpg where gear is the progression and will always be the progression. Ascending the gear mountain is an integral part of the gameplay loop.

[Garymorilix]

First off, let me rebuttal your question with another question: What do you lose if blizzard made r3 essences account-wide?

I never once said getting r3 essences were hard. They weren't hard with the original grind and they aren't hard now with the alternative grind. Lets just concur right there that there's nothing difficult about getting r3 essences. Now that we're on common ground, lets discuss the ethics of it. Yes I can do w/e content I want in order to obtain r3 essences, but why? Why have a grind in place for a system that'll ultimately get scrapped when the Shadowlands pre-patch releases? Hell, covenant abilities will be account-wide for alts to access without having to put in the grind.

I'll answer your question though. I'm a competitor. How I perform whether it's in m+, raiding or PvP, is of the utmost importance to me. I know atleast 2 specs for each of my alts and how to thoroughly play them. I pride myself on performing at a high level because I not only owe it to myself, but also to the others engaging in group content with me. Sure corruption effects play a bigger role in dps than essences do, but out of all the systems implemented in BFA, essences change your playstyle the most.

While you might see the r3 essences as an alternative grind, I see it as a missed opportunity. I don't enjoy assaults or much content outside of m+, PvP and raiding. Unfortunately for me, one of the easiest ways to obtain echoes is by doing assaults, which I don't enjoy. The worst part is that I can hop on an alt, get 460 ilvl in a week and barely have enough echoes for just 1 r3 essence.

So again, it's not about difficulty, it's about tediousness. Vacuuming your house isn't difficult, it's tedious. Doing the laundry isn't hard, it's tedious. I could rant all day about how stupid it is that r3 essences aren't account-wide for those that unlocked them already, but I don't think it would change Blizzards mind, especially here on mmo-champ. In the end, it wouldn't hurt you or any soul in the game if they were to make r3 essences account-wide with zero restrictions.

I have been asking for account wide essences since I unlocked a full rank3 set on 3 chars.
The system they implemented is fully fair: you have to do minimal amount of work to get them.

If you gear a character to 460 ilvl in a week then how do you not unlock your best 2-3 essences on that same week already? It makes no sense.
I just started gearing a new priest one and a half weeks ago and already have 6 rank3 essences unlocked via the new system by just doing stuff I normally do.

I wouldnt be against the account-wide-unlock but it's simply not going to happen. What we have is easy as fuck tho. Especially if you have 1-2 people boost you through full visions. That is 150 echo per run and you can do like 5-6 in the first week alone. Not even adding all the other sources plus the weekly chests after a reset.

If you are this hardcore then you should already have your essences (afterall you do need cloak levels which come from visions which give shit tons of echoes) and have nothing to complain about.

[Tradu]

But if you're doing mythic on your alts, that kinda already implies that some sort of time investment has been made, 1) and 2) again, why play something if you don't want to invest time in it?

Its a gear based rpg where gear is the progression and will always be the progression. Ascending the gear mountain is an integral part of the gameplay loop.

Yes, and I'm perfectly fine with having to get gear. The problem is that there's multiple other non-gear systems on top, most of which require me to do content I don't enjoy. I can get gear just from content I enjoy just fine, that didn't apply to essences or AP. Gear also didn't need the extra system of corruption on top of it(or WF/TF), it just being gear was plenty. Doing mythic on my alts currently means I did put in "some sort of investment", because I'm forced to. I wouldn't have farmed WQs or BGs or whatever on any character if I didn't have to.

[Kehego]

Yes, and I'm perfectly fine with having to get gear. The problem is that there's multiple other non-gear systems on top, most of which require me to do content I don't enjoy. I can get gear just from content I enjoy just fine, that didn't apply to essences or AP. Gear also didn't need the extra system of corruption on top of it(or WF/TF), it just being gear was plenty. Doing mythic on my alts currently means I did put in "some sort of investment", because I'm forced to. I wouldn't have farmed WQs or BGs or whatever on any character if I didn't have to.

Essences are 100% gear.

[Tradu]

Essences are 100% gear.

They're a secondary(or tertiary, because azerite was there first) talent system, not gear. Not all character power progression is gear(unfortunately).

[saidolol]

So, I have been playing WoW since closed Beta. Usually when an expansion ends, there is a content drought. Thats normal and expected.
When that happens I usually mostly play other games or do some small stuff that I wanted to finish in the current expansion and go back to only raid logging. This is usually the case for me for the last 3 or 4 months of an expansion.
But this time... it has already started like two or three weeks ago. Because of the lock downs I can not really leave the house, so I have a lot of time to play and the last week I thought "Ok, what cool stuff do I want to finish before the next expansion starts?"
And then it clicked - there is nothing in BfA that is of any interest to me. So instead I started to play LEGION content to work on missing artifact appearances that I was missing. I will do that a bit more, but then... there will be nothing left except raid logging until we kill NZoth mythic.
There is one Vision each week of course but its just the same grind every time. Yeah its my personal problem that I do not like to do it, but come one, are we really supposed to do one vision for the next 7-12 months?

I don't know, I just never fell into this hole this early in an expansion and it feels really, really bad to have this much free time but being not able to do anything ingame because everything ingame is old and there is not even something we can wait for.

thx for the novel, you should be starting writing.

[Kehego]

They're a secondary talent system, not gear. Not all character power progression is gear(unfortunately).

They are something you acquire through raids/dungeons/pvp, that you equip and they bestow bonuses to your character.
Sounds like gear buddy.

If they were talents, they'd be given to you for free, which they aren't.

[Tradu]

They are something you acquire through raids/dungeons/pvp, that you equip and they bestow bonuses to your character.
Sounds like gear buddy.

If they were talents, they'd be given to you for free, which they aren't.

Please point on this picture of my currently equipped gear and show me where it shows my 4 essences. Spoiler, it doesn't anywhere.

All gear has an itemlevel, essences don't. They're very clearly not gear.

You also don't get talents or honor talents for free. You get them via leveling.

[Dystemper]

I dont know about Drought , but Its the worst content ever

[twh]

Then unsub. Is that a problem for you? is it mandated in your home that you must play this game? I unsubbed a week or so after 8.3. I didn't like the content, I played enough to get the gist of it, then I quit. Done.

[Kehego]

Please point on this picture of my currently equipped gear and show me where it shows my 4 essences. Spoiler, it doesn't anywhere.

All gear has an itemlevel, essences don't. They're very clearly not gear.

You also don't get talents or honor talents for free. You get them via leveling.

Essences have ranks though, and their relative strength is determined by the itemlevel of your neck, which is also gear.
Still gear.

[crakerjack]

I have been asking for account wide essences since I unlocked a full rank3 set on 3 chars.
The system they implemented is fully fair: you have to do minimal amount of work to get them.

If you gear a character to 460 ilvl in a week then how do you not unlock your best 2-3 essences on that same week already? It makes no sense.
I just started gearing a new priest one and a half weeks ago and already have 6 rank3 essences unlocked via the new system by just doing stuff I normally do.

I wouldnt be against the account-wide-unlock but it's simply not going to happen. What we have is easy as fuck tho. Especially if you have 1-2 people boost you through full visions. That is 150 echo per run and you can do like 5-6 in the first week alone. Not even adding all the other sources plus the weekly chests after a reset.

If you are this hardcore then you should already have your essences (afterall you do need cloak levels which come from visions which give shit tons of echoes) and have nothing to complain about.

First off, lets just put aside all ifs and what nots. Lets just assume the average player doesn't have a clique or is paying for +15 carries. +15 would award 45 echoes per completion. one would have to run atleast 14 +15's just to get enough echoes for one r3 essence. That's quite a bit of work just for 1 essence, granted you'd get more when the weekly chests reset, but that's just the work for one alt, for one essence. It's not hard, it's just long and tedious.

I'm not arguing it's fair or not. It's blizzard game, they can do w/e they want. They didn't have to change the grind or create an alternative grind, they chose to. All my original post was, was that I'd find myself playing a lot more if r3 essences were account wide. I too have grinded plenty of r3 essences on 6 alts, but I have another 6 that are still rocking r1. I'm not the type of player that'll sit on one alt and focus on them for a solid 2-3 weeks to a month. I like to hop from one alt to the next in the same day and gear them up.

The issue is that I'm missing game-altering mechanics. Sure corruption effects will make way more of a difference than essences will when it comes to stats/performance, but they'll never change my playstyle the way essences do. Lets say you're rocking r3 azerite beam and you're doing m+. You're not necessarily going to pop a few class specific abilities for a particular pack, you might choose to use azerite beam and reserve your CD's for the big mob 2-3 pulls away. On an alt with r1 essences, I'm just stuck using my classes rotations, missing the toolkit that essence provide. Unlocking r3 essences doesn't provide me with new/unseen content for my alts, it just allows me to have access to my alts full toolkit.

We're already at the end of BFA which has been confirmed by blizzard. There won't be no 8.3.5, so at this point subs slowly decline as they always do the final tier of each expansion. Why not just make r3 essences account wide so that people can have access to their alts full toolkits?

[Grimlokh]

So, I have been playing WoW since closed Beta. Usually when an expansion ends, there is a content drought. Thats normal and expected.
When that happens I usually mostly play other games or do some small stuff that I wanted to finish in the current expansion and go back to only raid logging. This is usually the case for me for the last 3 or 4 months of an expansion.
But this time... it has already started like two or three weeks ago. Because of the lock downs I can not really leave the house, so I have a lot of time to play and the last week I thought "Ok, what cool stuff do I want to finish before the next expansion starts?"
And then it clicked - there is nothing in BfA that is of any interest to me. So instead I started to play LEGION content to work on missing artifact appearances that I was missing. I will do that a bit more, but then... there will be nothing left except raid logging until we kill NZoth mythic.
There is one Vision each week of course but its just the same grind every time. Yeah its my personal problem that I do not like to do it, but come one, are we really supposed to do one vision for the next 7-12 months?

I don't know, I just never fell into this hole this early in an expansion and it feels really, really bad to have this much free time but being not able to do anything ingame because everything ingame is old and there is not even something we can wait for.

Play other games. Unless someone´s pointing a gun to your head forcing you to play. In that case please ignore my first comment and keep playing!!

[Lochton]

What?!

We've hardly touched content drought yet compared to previous experiences.

[shise]

What are you talking about? I mean, not wow, right? did you clear mythic? once you do so, you can complain. And yet, nothing will beat DS lol

[Wheeler]

that's a stupid analogy and you know it, but I'd be a liar if I said i expected more.

I'm not the one claiming +20's are being done by anything more than a fraction of a fraction of the playerbase, though.

[Merryck]

I'm having a blast actually, but I've just come back from a break so 8.3 is fresh for me.

[Exkrementor]

Its gonna get worse. Shadowlands will come out next spring, maybe february, if Blizzard is smart. If it comes out sooner then WoW might be completely dead.
And people need to get over it. Play something else. Hellfire Citadel lasted for 15 months and we got Legion as reward. I would rather wait 2 more years for a good expansion instead of getting another BFA.