Gilded Crests
Let’s start off with the biggest bait in this season so far…Hero track gear.
This is not about how or with what content you aquired you hero track gear.
This is about how players get baited into the idea they got something that “looks” like an upgrade to their champion track gear, until they realize it’s in fact not. Atleast not until you can clear +9 keys preferably in time or you’re again wasting you time.
Here’s the problem with this system, any hero track gear is worthless going from the weekly vault of doing low keys (2-5) or doing mid keys (6-8) or end dungeon loot (7-8) nothing of any of these rewards you get has any meaning and won’t help you at all making your progress towards 9-10 keys. You’re hard stuck on 619 ilvl.
If you’re doing these +9 keys on a consistent base and get a +10 key every other dungeon which you do and let’s assume not complete in time, you can get in the weekly vault a Myth track reward.
That all said as it is now, any key below +4 is worthless and key above +4 is worthless. Because you get champion track gear from +4 and you get crests to upgrade champion gear to 619. There NO point doing anything higher to gear up, the next cap is doing 9’s.
The Gap between being able to upgrade Hero track gear past Champion gear and getting that Mythic track item in the vault is way to HUGE. There basicly is nothing in between Champion track and Myhtic track gear. There’s even no point filling up your weekly vault if not doing 10’s , it’s worthless gear more or less.
Blizzard, please do something about this. Let the gilded crest drop in atleast +8’s, make Hero track gear worth the time.
Sorry mate , I get that you’re trying to be helpful with bringing up “solutions” but I’m not throwing my runed crest in the garbage bin for a whooping 15 crests. Neither will I farm any delve at this point for 3% dropchance maps. Delves was fun and all that week 1, maybe week 2. We’re past that.
The problem here is more complicated than what I wrote in the post. There is mutiple factors playing a role atm. I tried to avoid rambling about how I feel and expirience the current situation. But in a big nutshell.
I timed all keys on +8 and half of them on +9 , I’d like to point out I’m ok with the difficulty so I have no issue with that. But pugging is a dreadful experience at this moment.
An other of the problems is the community is protective over their keys and rightfully so , because they’re easy to brick in the state of m+ , will it saddle down over time? who knows.
Because of that , you’re spending more time trying to get invited to a key instead of playing the game even listing your own key is no guarrantee of succes. It’s a grind that requires alot of time investment.
Having crests drop on 8’s would allow players to upgrade atleast their hero track gear to 626 over time to gap the bridge and hopefully help them succesfully finishing 8-10 keys.
At this moment there is nothing besides 619 ilvl champion gear , we don’t count the hero track gear, it’s meaningless (untill you can consistently clear +9’s. But again , if you can clear 9’s you can probably also clear 10’s)
An other thing is for many players KSM and portals is their end goal of the season, mythic track gear only appears in your weekly vault when finishing a 10.
That’s the end goal , if you’re getting 10 keys that means you’re succesfully completing 9 keys and if 9 keys are possible for you , you probably will also succeed 10 keys after a couple practice runs and get your portals/achivement. At this point mythic track gear is pointless more or less. Ofcourse if you like to push more score it’s useful. But having in mind what most players aim for, it’s worthless.
Nothing makes sense in my mind how this gear and crest progression is set up.
If they drop gear requiring the crests at 7 then so should the crests needed for that gear end of story. At the point you can get the crests to upgrade the hero track gear to 6/6 you likely don’t want to since then you “waste” them on the wrong gear as you want them for the myth track gear.
Exactly! All the information you gathered, practice you have done and time you have spend in order to time a +9 key is 95% enough to time a +10 key aswell. And ANY smart player would at that point realize that if they can time atleast 1! (Edit: not even timing required) +10 key a week they’d get mythic track gear from the vault and use the gathered Gilded crests on THAT piece of gear. As you stated a waste otherwise. Hero track grear progression at this point is no exsistent , it has to change , period.
Not seeing the logic honestly. Normal ilvl gear goes all the way up to 619 using crests you don’t get from normal. Surely that’s the outlier? Being an x/8 track instead of x/6.
I’m sorry but did you read up on it?
Do you realize 8/8 champion is the same ilvl (619) as hero track 4/6 (619)?
Have you noticed that Gilded crest are only available via Mythic raiding or +9 keys?
If so, then you’d know aswell as I do and any other smart player that upgrading that 619 - 4/6 heroic gear is a total waste of your gilded crest.
I repeat myself , if you practiced 9 keys and manage to time them and recieve a +10 key at the end of it. you then do that +10 key either timed OR not timed. You will recieve a mythic track item → 623 - 1/6 upgrades from your weekly vault , requireing 15 gilded crests for every upgrade.
Now my Question to you is , what do you prefer most (when accomplishing the explanation above) to upgrade with your gathered Gilded Crests , a 4/6 hero track piece to 626 ilvl or a 1/6 Myth track piece to 639 ilvl? And keep in mind , once again. You’re already doing 9’s with 619 (repeating myself again) because there’s no way to upgrade it more unless doing THAT 9.
My guess is the 639 ilvl , right? Well in that case ANY hero track gear past 4/6 is irrelavant. Because it’s = to champion 8/8.
Exactly why I suggested to bring Gilded Crests down to +8’s so it is atleast somewhat relevant and helps players to get 9-10 done with having the feeling of actualy progressing in small steps week by week rather then having this HUGE gap for no reason.
The gear progression system this season is awful. I have 6 items right now upgraded to 619. It’s painfully slow. My group have for the most part +7 keys on farm atm and I got KSM done last week, but the step up to +9 seems too steep because of the extremely punishing “challenger’s peril” affix, which basically bricks your key after a full wipe. End of dungeon runs only drop 610 hero track gear, which is barely an upgrade anymore.
So from the looks of it, I would have to put in ridiculous amounts of grinding to progress after 619ilv, and with the overall state of dungeon tuning, tank nerfs, interrupt changes, etc I’m not sure if it’s worth playing M+ much more this season. Most of the dungeons aren’t even fun, especially the new ones. It’s just 30 minutes of various weakauras warning me about 7 different overlapping mechanics.
There are a couple of transmog sets from the 20th anniversary event I want to get, but other than that, this season is looking grim.
Hopefully Blizzard comes to their senses and gives gilded crests from +7. If the current state of M+ remains unchanged, I don’t really see any reason to keep playing much longer.
I feel you. But I wouldn’t give up yet!
I personally think the dungeon difficulty is fine.
Other then maybe a tweak to Challenger’s peril as you mentioned and some bugfixes on the weekly affix, I’m more or less positive about the current state.
But I stand with it, having access to Gilded Crests on a +8 will smoothen out the progress in general specialy for those that struggle and not to forget it will in some way make the dungeons “easier” to overcome in the long term.
Portals should be accessable to most of the playerbase, and that’s 10’s.
Edit: Also to point out why I think Gilded Crests should drop on a+8? A +8 key gives nothing , it’s a “death”-key on your progress track. Having 7 drop hero track → 8 drop crests → 9 drop crests and be the stepstone into 10.
In a way I kind of like this system, because I am personally starting to feel a bit done with wow after playing too much. So in 90 crests I will be 619 capped and will be forced not to be a FOMO slave since realistically I won’t be doing any 9+ keys this season.
I’ll actually hit gear “cap” and can unsub for a while, nice for me but I don’t know what blizzard is thinking if they enjoy my money.
It only matters in saving 15 gilded crests per slot (619 => 623 upgrade). But that’s it. And it won’t matter when season crests cap will be removed (usually after half of the season).
a +10 non timed gives myth track gear which is easier than a +9 timed key that you need to upgrade the items from the key higher that you got loot from
Just went to a NW +9 yesterday. I was tanking on 614 bear. Wiped twice on trash and had 3 extra deaths from DPS. Still had 2:30 left.
The damage performance difference between some spec (or player) is so will, I would say it is not a Challenger’s Peril problem, but spec balance problem. Or maybe player skill problem.
I did. What I meant, that Hero Gear is not useless and it is no different in relation to Champion Gear. Difference between +9 and +10 is bigger than between +7 and +9. So if you struggle with +10, then do just +9 and use the crest to progress your gear. That’s what it is for. So it is not useless.
And relative to Champion, it is the same because you can also just “skip” Champion, as you suggest you can skip Hero. Veteran goes up to 4/8 of champion and Hero starts there, so you can skip Champion entirely, you see.
You’re right about that. But in the same way it sounds like a band aid solution for the majorty of players and cattering the 5% players. So we have to wait again for crests to unlock and these are locked because “oh no, Giga chad mythic raiders might clear raids to fast. Gotta slow em doawwwnn”. No. Not accepting that.
It’s fine to have limited progression at the start of the season. So people are not forced into running 80 mythic+ in 1st week of the season so they can upgrade their hero track gear to maximum.
Jump between +9 and +10 is not big, maybe in theory but not in practice. I quote from a previous post → All the information you gathered, practice you have done and time you have spend in order to time a +9 key is 95% enough to time a +10 key aswell. We did that.
“And relative to Champion, it is the same because you can also just “skip” Champion, as you suggest you can skip Hero. Veteran goes up to 4/8 of champion and Hero starts there, so you can skip Champion entirely, you see.”
Yes, absolutely right. Not debating that. But you’re still missing the point I’m trying to make with my statement. Adventure , Veteran and champion gear can be maxed out while progressing over multiple different diffculty levels of the content and helps you to progress further. Hero track gear can only be progressed on the “last” level of content. 9-10’s.
Here’s the thing, 65% of the players played for the portals and KSM achievement. proven by DF S3 link below.
As is now, is that goal achieveable with champion 8/8? Yes.
Does Hero track gear matter at that point? No.
THIS , is the point about hero track gear I’m trying to make. It’s meaningless at this moment. Because you’re only able to upgrade it when you achieved your goal. This is not for me personaly, there will be alot of players , btw there already are , that will tune out because of this. They have a goal they feel they can’t reach because of a bottleneck. There’s little to no gear progress week by week, etc. etc.
M+ was GREAT in DF S2-S3-S4 and I want it to be great again for EVERYONE.
Edit: Just to give you some background on myself as a player and what I achieved in DF when I was actively playing my monk, I was also 1 of the top 10% of players on a “off-meta” tank.
This edit is not about bragging or w/e. I’m only trying to back my post up with proving that I’m a player that achieved some of the high end content goals.