The biggest MMORPG streamer on Twitch is Zack, also known as “Asmongold”. For personal reasons, he is currently streaming irregularly and mainly on his second channel. There, he has recently complained about World of Warcraft, particularly criticizing the raids.
Who is Asmongold?
- When Asmongold isn’t cleaning his room or taking a shower with bugs, he streams MMORPGs
- He is the biggest MMORPG streamer on Twitch, for which he has even received an award
- He has a love-hate relationship with WoW
- Thus, he has been unfaithful to the game and faced trouble with his fans for it
- Now he explains what bothers him about the raids in WoW
Even though he complains a lot about Blizzard, he is still impressed by the new expansion Dragonflight. He is particularly taken by the Evoker class. You can see the gameplay of the new class here:
Asmongold thinks raids in WoW waste too much time
This is the situation: Since 2021, Asmon has increasingly showcased Final Fantasy XIV and Lost Ark. With the latter, he even broke his viewer record. When he returned after his WoW hiatus, he expressed frustration with the “terrible and boring raids.”
What bothers him about the raids: On August 1, 2022, Asmongold posted a video titled “Blizzard Is Killing WoW”. In it, he particularly criticized the raids. He claims they are outdated, antiquated, and a waste of time.
Asmon accuses WoW of deliberately wasting players’ time. A large part of the boss fight, he says, is spent dealing with other things. This also leads to many players simply not finding the time for raids anymore.
This is how a raid in WoW proceeds from Asmon’s perspective:
- The organization: First, you have to get the whole group to the right place. Forgot the Warlocks? Then two people have to run all the way back to fetch the missing players.
- Wipe Protection: One person should always survive to revive the whole group. If that’s not available, the one without it has to run all the way back in case of a wipe.
- Trash Mobs: Endless waves of trash mobs need to be dealt with that are no fun and only artificially extend the time.
What could actually be done in 30 minutes, Asmongold says, is stretched to 3 hours. Eventually, people lose interest and simply stop doing it. The game does not respect their time.
The difficulty of the raids themselves is not the problem. Much more, it is the organizational hurdles that must be overcome to even get to the raid. That’s the real challenge.
Especially the trash mobs seem to annoy Asmon particularly. In the past, they used to have some value. One could learn the boss’s mechanics through them or earn cosmic flux, a currency in WoW.
Additionally, one would not have noticed how poor some mechanics were when there were fewer direct comparisons. However, they are now a relic of a past time. Other games have since overtaken WoW.
Raids should focus on the essentials
This is how other games do it better: In FFXIV and Lost Ark, everything is better. There, you are actually engaged with the boss most of the time.
- Epic raids in FFXIV no longer have any trash at all. You jump right into the boss fight and can start immediately.
- The Abyss raids in Lost Ark do have trash, but you can return directly to the boss after a wipe.
Both FFXIV and Lost Ark also offer raids for much smaller groups than WoW, which significantly eases the organization. Additionally, in FFXIV, you keep your food buff after dying, which makes organizing and preparing for the raid easier as you do not consume as many items.
This is what Asmongold wishes from WoW: In the past, WoW drove innovation in the genre, as it was a pioneer in many areas and improved existing MMORPG mechanics. Nowadays, everyone would benefit from this groundwork, except for WoW itself. They need to become pioneers again. Furthermore, they should focus on mechanics that truly enrich the players:
These improvements are not taken into account in World of Warcraft’s design. And they need to be. World of Warcraft must return to being what made it a good game in the first place. A pioneer of the genre.
Asmongold via YouTube
And more specifically? When one dies, they should respawn directly in front of the boss without having to battle their way back there again. There should also be a portal to summon teammates.
The food buffs should not be completely removed either. Instead, they should be designed to be more unique and have an effect on gameplay. This is what he hopes for from Dragonflight as well.
Can players do better as well? Asmongold is frustrated with the mentality of some players. They take pride in wasting their own time. Just because someone can overcome a time-wasting mechanic does not mean that the mechanic itself is good.
Here, he wishes for a change in mindset in parts of the community. This also concerns players who have not been playing for long or do not have a high skill level. They should also be able to have fun in raids.
What does our editorial team say about it?
Cortyn sees things a bit differently:
“Most raids in World of Warcraft simply have a different target audience than those in Lost Ark. Raids should be undertakings lasting several hours – indeed, an evening-filled program, a grand, cohesive adventure. Sure, it doesn’t require endlessly long return paths, but they are now significantly shorter than they used to be. Trash mobs can always be debated; for some they are merely filler, for others they are logical inhabitants of the respective place – henchmen to be defeated, which sometimes also drop nice loot.
The most annoying problems with raids in WoW have already been adjusted by Blizzard over the years, which is why I can only partially understand Asmongold’s criticism.
Overall, the raids in WoW are still considered a prime example of good boss design with interesting mechanics in most communities. Many other MMORPGs would clamor for such encounters. They are also so good and memorable because they require time and are not finished in 20 minutes.”
Irina believes that Final Fantasy XIV does many things right:
“I can’t say what it’s like in WoW, but I definitely don’t miss trash in FFXIV. In the early days of FFXIV 2.0, there was still trash in the Bahamut and Alexander raids, but it gradually disappeared. Also, the loss of the food buff after death was initially handled the same way as in WoW and was later changed. I remember how our guild celebrated this change. These are small ‘quality of life’ improvements that you learn to appreciate when they are missing in other MMORPGs.”
How do you see it? Have you also switched over, or do you remain loyal to WoW? Are the mechanics really outdated, or simply exactly what makes WoW what it is?
Asmongold can also strike a very different tone. Even if he usually has nothing good to say about Blizzard, Dragonflight also brings a sparkle to his eyes.
