The developers have clearly stated their position on whether “warforged” has a place in World of Warcraft. They have also justified it extensively.
Unfortunately, not all planned questions in the “Q&A” panel for World of Warcraft were answered at BlizzCon 2018. Blizzard has now answered the remaining questions from fans in a forum post and reiterated their position on the question of warforged items and whether they would ever abandon them. The developers’ response: “Highly unlikely.”
What is “warforged”? Most rewards in World of Warcraft have a low chance of being titansharded or warforged in the newer expansions. In this case, the item level is higher than the normal value, making the item more valuable and powerful. A weapon with a standard item level of 340 could thus be upgraded to 350, 370, or even higher.
Why “warforged” remains: Over the course of the expansions, the possible sources of items have increased. In addition to raiding, there is now also PvP as a source of income, as well as harder dungeons (Mythic+). Due to these diverse sources, the actual rewards have gradually begun to lag behind.
To ensure that players can still raid with their friends when the normal rewards have been collected, there is the incentive of an upgrade. This ensures that individual players continue to play with their raid members, even if the “obvious” reward no longer motivates them.
Sometimes the system is also buggy and results in “super loot”!
The chance of an upgrade: Blizzard likes the system around “warforged” because it gives a chance to get a better armor piece even for content that has actually been “farmable” and can sometimes lead to a pleasant surprise. This applies to almost all activities in World of Warcraft.
Mythic raiders are always the best: Blizzard understands that it can seem odd when an extremely lucky player receives a perfect “warforged” item from LFR. Ultimately, this is just a single item, and players who complete mythic raids will generally be better geared than those who only experience LFR or other “easier” content.
Additionally, the system has been adjusted so that “extreme” upgrades happen much less frequently, making the constant clearing of far too easy content hardly worthwhile anymore. Weapons can only be upgraded by a maximum of 10 item levels in BfA.
What do you think of the system of “warforged” items? A good addition for WoW or should it be urgently abolished in the current version?
