Should World of Warcraft focus on strengths from the last expansion? Fans believe that it could significantly improve the game.
When Battle for Azeroth was announced almost a year ago, many fans had some concerns:
- World of Warcraft would change too little with the newest expansion and not bring any innovations.
- Battle for Azeroth would be a “conservative expansion”
- innovative ideas and features are missing.
Currently, it seems more like the opposite is true: Less change would have done WoW good after Legion.
This opinion is at least held by the Redditor gustavposts, who quickly gathered more than 5000 upvotes with his statements, indicating broad agreement.
Fewer changes to the classes. Many players do not understand why Blizzard wants to completely reinvent the classes with each expansion.
Just recently, they had created a solid, fun gameplay for almost all classes with Legion, and now they are abolishing it again. Legion needed three major updates before all classes were in a solid state.
A rework with every addon? With Battle for Azeroth, many abilities disappeared, especially due to the removal of artifact weapons. These gaps are too large and are hardly filled by the new Azerite abilities.
The result is classes like the Elemental Shaman or the Shadow Priest, which are boring to play because important components are missing.
The players’ fear is that Blizzard will now need three patches again to make all classes interesting – only to completely redesign them again in the next addon.
New features meet with little response
Many of the new features in Battle for Azeroth seem underdeveloped or not well thought out. Therefore, there is currently a lot of criticism about many modes.
Island Expeditions without rewards: A large part of the players considers the Island Expeditions to be a flop. They are not as dynamic and repetitive as promised.
Rewards are often insufficient, and for many, it is just a chore to get the weekly bonus. Those who don’t enjoy the pure gameplay of the Island Expeditions are annoyed by them after just a few weeks.
Warfronts as AFK grind: The Warfronts are currently receiving more criticism than praise. This was not only due to the sudden increase in requirements, but also due to the non-dynamic gameplay.
Numerous players are AFK during the battles, thus extending the workload of the actively playing players. For this, there is then equipment with item level 340, making other content (like heroic or mythic dungeons) seem redundant.
Stand still and change nothing
With Battle for Azeroth, the players’ outcry is particularly strong. Many wish that Blizzard had focused on the things that already worked well in Legion, instead of introducing new features that have now become an opaque web.
Many players no longer even know where to get which equipment or what they have to do for it. More and more are longing for “simpler systems,” such as farmable points (like old Honor, Conquest, or tokens for dungeons), with which they can simply go to a vendor and buy their desired item.
The demand to Blizzard is clear: Take a moment to pause and look at what was fun and easy to understand. Bring back what worked.
Cortyn says: Especially from the perspective of a beleaguered Shadow Priest, I can absolutely understand the argument and agree. I would give a lot if my Shadow Priest could play just like in Legion. Leveling was also a pain, but at least the gameplay was enjoyable.
Now it’s just plain boring, and only Patch 8.1, for which there is still no information, is the light at the end of the tunnel. Hopefully.
What is your opinion on this topic? Should Blizzard simply revert some changes and let Battle for Azeroth be “more like Legion”? Or are they already on the right track, and you just have to get used to the innovations?
