A lot of good points here and btw Im hoping that none of the criticism is directed at Kaivax who is pretty much just the messenger here.
One follow up to the topic - people often speak of progression in mmorpg. It normally touches on the character one in terms of power/gear but similar principle applies in this case to anima and world quests.
The anima conductor could have played the role of amplifier since day 1. Yes, you gotta invest into it but you would do so knowing its worth it, that anima intake will be getting higher over time. Instead it just unlocks a handful of blue quests that are on top of the rest, sometimes just have a gold reward.
On the world quest side, if the rewards are to stay the same, then a player’s hope should be that if it took them X min to do a certain quest, it will eventually get faster and faster each time due to better knowledge or gear. Many of the quests are literally blocking that (e.g. the ones where players control an avatar).
In addition, many of you guys are probably not seeing it yet because you gave up on the system early enough (probably the right choice) but, other than anima, vendor items also require another resouce - Grateful offerings. Although less of it needed,its sources are very narrow (conductor only activities that will grand maybe 2-3 each). Even if you have all the anima in the world, the maths on the time needed to get these offerings is in itself scary.
There is a way to send your troops to missions using the mobile app though, but I know what you’re saying.
This update definitely does not work for people that go the path of least resistance, but still it’s an improvement and design wise I think it makes sense. I wish Blizzard used this kind of design philosophy more in content in general.
When I first read that Anima drops were going to increase based on Sanctum upgrade achievements I was really excited (I was on the verge of leaving wow for a bit but this got me excited to work on my alts). But I have a fully upgraded Sanctum and all the cosmetics I want except for the Ember Court. Mainly because that’s not my cup of tea, but this was potentially the push I needed to give it another chance. Then when I logged on to start farming for that fully upgraded sanctum; I realised that there was no rewards I really wanted to get from it, the vendors or the Court and there’s no more mounts or transmogs I was as bothered about now that I had the anima vendor mounts and armour colour variants I initially farmed for.
It’s taken me literally all expansion to get this far on my main, right now I’m more looking at upgrading alts, but again, I’m completely demotivated to because of the minimal anima and I don’t want to have to put myself through that again on 15 other characters to collect the other transmogs. Please can these achievements be account wide? otherwise a fun, relaxing cosmetic grind just becomes a very painful, unrewarding and tedious experience. I mainly just raid, mythic + and pvp on my main these days, but I love leveling alts and kicking back with a long term goal/grind like this but right now, the lack of anima (even with the hotfix) really demotivates me from doing this and I have no really motivation to farm anymore on my main because I have the rewards I wanted most and upgraded the sanctum features I use. If the hotfix was account wide however, I’d hop back onto my main, max out that ember court, maybe farm some more Ember Court cosmetics and then I’d start over through all my alts till I had all the cosmetics I wanted and unlike a lot of people, im one of those people who will sink hundreds of hours into that and push to get my alts to that point. But the current state of anima is even too much for me (captain patient) and an account wide boost like this would really do the trick.
In short , i was initially excited for this hotfix, and I think it’s a big really needed change because a lot of players are missing out on some good content because of it, but after letting it sink in, it’s not actually made a difference for me personally as I have everything I want on my main after months and months of grinding and I don’t have the time or want to go through a slog like that again on my alts. Especially all 16 alts if I want all the sweet transmogs. But if it was account wide I would at least try on my favourite alts.
Cut us evergreen alt farmers some slack blizzard please make the achievements account wide. I would be 100% certain for my 6 month resub in september if I new I was going to have a more enjoyable time on my alts while waiting for patch 9.2.
Anima should also be looked at from a perspective that you’re going to grind this resource until the end of expansion pack, with very likely further anima gains increase over patches.
Nothing about this is being made with the idea of acquiring it fast and easy, but as a result of a long-term grind.
In that sense, getting the achievement increase should be calculated over a longer period of time and it’s a net positive if you look at it like this.
The Anima Conductor used to do this, but they removed that functionality without so much of a mention in any patch notes AFAIK. I remember quite clearly getting 1000 anima quests from conductor tier2 unlocks as a Necrolord during the first few weeks.
I reluctantly switched covenants last week as I felt I had to to try and min/max. Lost all sanctum upgrades when switching and now I also lose the achievements to get more anima… Can these achievements please detect if a character has ever unlocked the sanctum upgrades rather than if they are currently unlocked plzzzz!!!
my very lazy brain math + guesstimations tell me that rank 2 upgrade averages out to around 25% ish more anima from all sources, and 5k is roughly a 20% extra on that grind, so it’s slightly faster to get rank 2 or at the very least averages out to the same time. getting rank 2 now makes any future anima grinding more efficient so it’s worth getting it.
Unless they decide to up and abandon Anima in 9.1
For myself, while i understand this is inherently a somewhat good change, this feels bad for any player who has changed covenants. Personally changed covenants as i am doing all achievements on one character yet, now i have to re-grind all buildings again despite completing this on my previous covenant, please re-take a look at this and at the very least put it in retrospectively for these players.
Can’t say i have a personal opinion as to whether it should be account bound as i only use alts for profession achievements; however, i can certainly see the argument that these achevements should apply account bound
I’m still keen to take advantage on my alts, getting everything to level 1 then 2 then 3 for the bonus gains. However this is only on the three plate alts where I intend to collect everything.
Its obvious they want people to, from this point on, still be subjected to the grind on alts (why else not make it account bound?) or convince those who havn’t bothered with the grind to start with the promise of more of the currency
Personally I have all buildings at 1 because there’s just nothing Anima can get me that I’m interested in at this point of the game (maybe future patches will add something).
Because there’s nothing I really want from the anima rewards. For people like me this change is unconvincing and won’t get me to start the grind.
To be honest its quite cozy to not have anything you want to get from Anima, I’d probably be more bummed out if suddenly I had to farm a lot of it for whatever reason
as I have everything I want on my main after months and months of grinding and I don’t have the time or want to go through a slog like that again on my alts. Especially all 16 alts if I want all the sweet transmogs. But if it was account wide I would at least try on my favourite alts.