Hit the nail on the head with islands.
We lowered our neck requirement since we are not a top ranking world guild, but if you want to stay competitive you have to do the treadmill that is islands.
the only reason i play Island Expedition is mounts that's it. Pet is just like gold for me or at least for others pet collectors as well. But then, they made the chance drop so god damned low. If Island Expedition doesn't even have a single mount, i don't even think it's worth to play it.
Outside of the top ~200 guilds I really don't see the need to set a neck level requirement. The system automatically catches you up with a reasonable level of play, grinding now so you have an extra trait or two unlocked a couple of weeks earlier is not going to make a difference to most groups - and the best stuff is the easiest to unlock anyway. It's ridiculous to put your raid team, or yourself, through such a grind to cut a week or save a dozen pulls off turning an 0.5% wipe into a kill. The system is designed specifically to limit how much you CAN grind ahead and players pushing against that barrier are making a mistake. This is the last tier this will happen with anyway, as per the last Q&A - which is a good move, but the system (without people in the mix at least) isn't as bad as people think it is - top ~200 guilds not withstanding.
Islands seem like content that was custom built to burn out players: mindless objectives coupled with uninteresting mobs, and easy enough with good gear that you never really have to turn your brain on\r\rThis. Most accurate statement I've ever read about Islands...
I kind of like the way the spotter works on trash at the moment: it's a good example of a high risk, high reward mechanic that can save a lot of time if used well, but can absolutely bite players in the ass and contribute to wipes if they use it poorly. I agree it's pretty ridiculous that it works on the last boss, though; if it were up to me I'd leave it basically the same on trash (maybe with some sort of nerf in very high keys; I only really know how much damage it does in the +10-15 range) but make all bosses and boss adds immune to it.
Hit the nail on the head with islands.\r\rYep, apparently burning players out with 2000 maw of souls runs to reach 35 traits for Helya and 54 traits for second half of Nighthold was an experiment worth repeating, with worse content than maw of souls served this time. \r\rThe current AP breakdowns for mythic shoulder from Dazzar'alor, that is the most expensive piece, is 38 for the 3 dps traits (first 3 circles), 43 for defensive trait and 48 for ilvl upgrade. \r\rMaybe Blizzard thinks it's exciting gameplay to only finish unlocking your azerite 5 months into the raid tier when it's about to be replaced with 8.2 Nazjatar drops, but for most raiders that feels like passing you the mustard when the dinner has been already finished. \r\rBlizzard removed most of enchants, gems, items enhancements like belt buckles, spellthreads and inscriptions, and also stat reforging, claiming people should have the shortest way from looting an item to equipping an item. Then BFA comes and "brb only need few more levels of AP before I can use this new shiny piece of loot".
I really enjoy the islands. I like that sort of hectic, unstructured content with a chance at cool rewards. I like that I don't have to shackle myself to a primadona tank and $%^&*!@ healer to have fun.
The system is designed specifically to limit how much you CAN grind ahead and players pushing against that barrier are making a mistake. Not really, if they wanted to limit the farming easiest solution would be to put a cap on the neck that only goes higher as new raid opens and new m+ season starts. But nope, someone has to clock MAU in world quests and islands during 1 month+ content drought between 8.1 and m+ season 2 \/ battle for Dazzar'alor. So they left it in intentionally so people run islands due to lack of anything else meaningful they can do to prepare for the raid. But as Jdotb predicts, this might backfire, since we've already seen in Legion what happens if you burnt the playerbase out (never forget legendary grind and people who after 6+ months of constant grinding didn't have their 1st spec BIS, not even mentioning both of the 2 best legendaries or something for offspec).I really enjoy the islands. I like that sort of hectic, unstructured content with a chance at cool rewards. I like that I don't have to shackle myself to a primadona tank and $%^&*!@ healer to have fun. Islands are still better with a tank. I recommend playing arenas if you hate tanks so much.
Good talk about M+ affixes and issues, agree with most of the points, but I doubt Blizzard will listen.They could easily make Teeming less brutal by never pairing with Fortified (that's what they should have done from the beginning imo).Right now Fortified+Teeming+anything is dead weeks.Same goes to Island Expedition and AP grind. It's not fun or engaging. Having to grind AP for weeks\/months after you looted item to unlock it's full potential is stupid.It serves nothing but to boost teh played time metrics. That grind gonna backfire just like it did in Legion. Blizzard never learns from past mistakes...IMO azerite traits should be unlocked by default and AP should only increase your neck ilvl. Then it wouldn't be such an issue.
They are talking about changing the whole process in 8.2 so we'll see.
The only thing lacking I find is the drop rate for doubloons. I find even with the ship upgrade thanks to Aleria the amount you get back is weak. I get maybe 1-4 doubloons per 2nd island. With the prices the vendor has the pets and mounts for it would take forever to collect them all.
The only thing lacking I find is the drop rate for doubloons. I find even with the ship upgrade thanks to Aleria the amount you get back is weak. I get maybe 1-4 doubloons per 2nd island. With the prices the vendor has the pets and mounts for it would take forever to collect them all.Not to mention that that currency isn't account wide. I probably have enough doubloons across all characters to buy something useful off new vendor, but I can't because that currency isn't account wide when it obviously should be.
Heard some blabber claiming that the heart is locked at max level 40 until battle for dazar'alor goes live. Anyone heard of such?
Hahahahaha. No. They still suck.Islands seem like content that was custom built to burn out players: mindless objectives coupled with uninteresting mobs, and easy enough with good gear that you never really have to turn your brain on. The hardcore raiding community is feeding itself into a woodchipper right now to try to stay one step ahead for next tier, and I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if lots of players from the top guilds take extended\/indefinite breaks after Battle for Dazar\u2019alor.Couldn't have said it better myself.Heard some blabber claiming that the heart is locked at max level 40 until battle for dazar'alor goes live. Anyone heard of such?They haven't said that anywhere, they've only said yall wont be getting anymore Artifact Knowledge until after the raid is released.
I like Island Expeditions. It's akin to a no-pressure dungeon run, where you just mow down mobs and bosses and open chests. The last changes actually did a good job on making them more interesting.\r\rThe thing I agree on is AP drops from M+. At the moment the final chest contains the same amount of AP as you would loot from the final boss in heroic dungeon. These chests should contain scaling amount of azerite, with about 1k around +10 mark. Since most dungeons take about as much time as few Island Expeditions anyway, high end players can do something they enjoy and not fall behind.\r\rThat said, I don't understand the race to azerite. It's clearly Blizzard's intention to have players unlock traits during the raid tier. Top raiders grasping at every little advantage they can get, and then complaining about burnout.
Heard some blabber claiming that the heart is locked at max level 40 until battle for dazar'alor goes live. Anyone heard of such?\r\rhttps:\/\/gyazo.com\/02ecdfe62c69990f6b818d61ea0ae820
Only issue I'd add is the Cyclone Strike on the first boss on Temple being a little weird since 8.1 with the tracking of the player but not where he's attacking.
So they stopped the AP increase so that people would have to do Islands. I get it now. I'm soo glad I don't do any high end raiding anymore. Complete waste of time, energy, and stress.
The system is designed specifically to limit how much you CAN grind ahead and players pushing against that barrier are making a mistake.\r\rMore like, The system is designed specifically to make sure players stay subbed and keep farming AP to gain some mediocre traits and +5 ilvls on azerite gear and players are doing exactly that.\r\r"Working as intended!" \ud83d\udc4d
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