Azerite armor and the constant repetition
One of the lessons that Blizzard learned from “Legion” was this: Players love to unlock new bonuses on equipment to make it stronger as the game progresses. Just like with the artifact weapons in Legion.
This realization gave birth to the “Azerite armor”.
The idea behind it was cool in theory: On certain armor slots, namely shoulders, head, and chest, there are additional abilities. There is always a choice, allowing you to make your character faster, give them lifesteal, or provide passive, permanent healing.
However, unlocking all these abilities was tied to the Heart of Azeroth. Only after collecting enough artifact power for the Heart were the various abilities accessible.
However, the system was not only convoluted due to the Heart of Azeroth but also highly unpopular.
Because anyone who defeated a boss in a heroic raid with their own raid guild and was happy about now being the proud owner of new shoulder pieces was quickly met with disillusionment. The higher-quality shoulder armor had exactly the same bonuses as the previous item (with slightly higher stats), but they could not be unlocked as they required a much higher level of the Heart of Azeroth.
The result: You received new loot with a higher item level, but it was practically worse because you could not yet activate the Azerite abilities.
Additionally, the excitement over having to repeatedly unlock the same abilities was very limited.
In Battle for Azeroth, a lot did not quite go smoothly – from the island expeditions to the war fronts and the somewhat strange story. But nothing of this was as unpopular as the Azerite equipment, which still sends shivers down many people’s spines.
A visit to Battle for Azeroth is still worth it, by the way, because there is currently a new, very exclusive mount: Jani.
