Essences, the puzzle-piece that doesnt fit the game, newcommers nor returning players - no matter how you turn it

Community General Discussion
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Dear Blizzard,

I have been with you for a long time, through thick (so thicc) and thin, the ups and downs - but my it is time for me to say farewell.
No, it is not because I have changed so much since i registered my account in the end of the original game of World of Warcraft, it is more that the game has changed and it is hard for me to make it fit anymore, even though i turn the puzzle-piece every other way, it just doesnt fit, and that sucks - because i wish it did.

For a few months now I have been a very casual gamer. I have logged into the game with ambitions to do great, to catch up with my friends and get to their level so I can play with them again. For me, leveling is not what I want from world of warcraft. What I want is the endgame content. But for me to get to that point, i need the right gear, which is fine… but I also need the damn Essences and at the best level. Sure, you can say I dont need to have the greatest version of the Essences - but that is what I do, because without I dont feel i can compete with my friends, I will always be “the done that does less” or whatever.

Another problem I have with the essences is that I did progress on a few of them on my Warlock. But now when I have returned, I want to play something else, another class. I want to play my paladin. And now I have to grind all the essences I want which takes forever even if I want just a few - even tho it is the same ones I have grinded on my Warlock. And my gear is not up-to-date and no one wants me in mythic plus because my gear is so bad and my Raiderio score (3rd party scoring system) does not show good enough numbers since I have been away - even tho I have ahead of the curve on mythic g’huune and jaina, I am still too bad for a mythic 10, apparently…

And this is what frustrates me… I know how to play the game, but if I want to play with my friends, they have to do charitywork by playing with me, since I am so behind. And god knows how long time it will take to catch up on both gear AND essences. I just want to play, not feeling I have to grind something I have already done.

I dont get why this is the system you want. You do not make your changes for the hardcore players, it is more the casual ones and have old players return and what not. But I fail to see how this system targets us newcommers/returning players.
I mean I want to play something else, and for me to do so I need to level, get gear and get my essences up. Not only do I hate to level, but even tho if I were to buy a character boost, I would still have to get gear on a character with awfull gear. I wouldnt get into anywhere. And on top of that I would need to grind my essences?(!)

And because of all of this, I dont feel welcome anymore. It doesnt feel like a game that is ment for me, even tho I try to have the “okey, it is whatever” attitude towards it. It is simply too much to do to catch up.
How can I recomand the game to others? when my friends ask “what game should we play?”, how am I suppose to say world of warcraft. Even if someone else said world of warcraft, I would argue for why we shouldnt play it - and I hate it, because I have enjoyed this game so much in the past.
So many people complains about the essence system, and you wont do anything it seems like. How can this be good for the game?

And because of this, i quit. I cant take it anymore. I wish I could say it is me, my fault - but I cant. This time it is you Blizzard. And I cant stay around (not even couples counceling could fix this hehe lol).
I am canceling my subscription to the game, and I wish you good luck. I have waited for changes to be done, but they never happen - even though the community scream for them to happen at this point, and you dont tell us why you dont implement account wide essences even.

I also feel very distant to the developers, which is rare. Other games I play they listen more and communicate more, before changes happen even, not only after - which seem to be your strategy.

farewell

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The thing I’m worried about with 8.3. Can I upgrade my Azerite pieces? Because I currently have the traits I enjoy playing with, I’m afraid I can’t upgrade for months because I’d lose my traits.

The trait system is horrible, essences should be account bound (or removed).

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Re-grinding essences feels bad because they don’t feel like gear pieces. Also the grind for some of them (ex. BotE) is not only very tedious, but does not make any sense for an essence that’s bis for some specs in pve.

Also because it feels like an “unlock” to get an essence, rather than a “ooh, piece of candy”, and the fact that they are universal to all classes. It feels like I’ve already earned this.

The grind for some essences should be drastically reduced next tier, which is currently extremely demotivating for someone that wants to catch up on alts now.

I don’t mind the Trait system in general, but there’s too many outliers that create a very negative view on them:
-overall bad pieces exist
-random way of acquiring them
-having to reacquire the best pieces each tier
-some traits being single target or multi target focused with an exponential reforge cost
-not having enough pieces to play more than 1 spec until very late in the tier (ties in with the exponential reforge cost)

Also not to mention all of this is gatekept behind an item that goes in your neck slot that says “no” on any new character.

All of these things together create a very negative view of this expansions key customization features. Which even at max gear, is very lacking.

I played Prot warrior in m+ for most of S2, there’s almost nothing that I could vary in my setup. I could take Stormbolt or Rumbling Earth, yay. I want to play a different playstyle to vary it up abit? Too bad arms or fury cant tank, gotta level a new character - which leads us back to why this thread exists.

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Re-grinding essences is currently the only reason I am not playing my alts.

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I am not quitting(yet), but the essences are indeed a major problem with the current game, and I recognize the frustration grearly, in your post OP.

I try and need to play my alts to stay in the game, but my alts will never feel usefull it seems. The consrant feeling of being carried by others is just not a good feeling, and it feels like I miss out on gameplay.

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I have 15 alts at 120. I only log some of them to do gold EMs and transmutes.

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I know several people that don’t play the game at this point because of having to grind the essences on alts.

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Upgrading them won’t happen, but:

I’m also happy for my triple festermight right now. On the PTR, all azerite pieces from the N’A raid seem to be amazing for Unholy. They all have really good traits. Did you check the DH pieces on the PTR? Maybe they have great essences as well and you’ll be able to target them more effectively than the dungeon ones.

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For the past few months, I kinda wanted to get back in the game and play a bit of retail too with those of my friends that still play it. But before doing that, I did a bit of digging about how long it would take me to grind mandatory essences and gear and necklace levels so I can go and play the part of the game that I actually enjoy, and the result was not compelling. Needless to say, after doing the math I figured that instead I’d just rather play other games. The process of getting essences isn’t fun to me, the concept isn’t fun, neither is farming AP for neck levels, and that was the result - that I’d rather just wait for the next expansion instead rather than play and have no fun for months before I can start having fun. I totally understand your reasoning, as I felt exactly the same: unwelcome. Good luck and godspeed.

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The unwelcome part I do understand. I just got trashed in ww-discord for not pvp’ing (and thus not having the mandatory essence). Just not allowed to talk without it. Apparently my 35k sim (on a 440 ilvl char) will go to close 50k with it.

“I don’t play this game and I got all the essences”.

Ok…

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I have 30 Alts over 100 , 17 are now 120, I like playing alts.

Most have AP to have opened up the secondary Essence slot , but few have more than 1 essence. I mean it is a feature that is gone in a few months time, most of the activities I do not even enjoy, reputation farming is lame enough that once is really enough, The whole system is not even fun.

and stacking system on system to a system is not fun either… was not fun when it happened in Legion with the argus patch.

Adding to a feature that is far more interesting, than adding a layer each time a new patch comes out.

I seriously enjoy getting to a point where I am finished with a task, to find a new goal to persue… but also that I can just NOT do stuff I do NOT ENJOY. REALLY! PLS Blizz…

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I am afraid it can stay to for another year. We don’t know exactly when the new expansion will launch.

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Hopefully in 6 months because this one is bad.

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I told myself I wouldn’t reply in another of these threads but what’s a goblin to do?

Okay, so do you do pve before you have optimal bis azerite pieces? Of course you do. Why wouldn’t you? Seems silly to not play just because you don’t have the best thing you want yet.

yet I see precisely this argument trotted out for essences: “I can’t do X because I don’t have essence Y” why on earth not? What exactly is stopping you?
Are people declining you invites?
Is the dungeon locking you out because your essence is only rank 2?

The first point may rarely happen, the second doesn’t at all. Fact is, essences don’t have to be bis outside of playing at the higher end of the game, I’m talking mythic raiding and high keys here.

We are regularly in situations where we are not performing our best, because we don’t yet have X upgrade or Y trinket. We know we could do more, but we muddle on until we get there. Why on earth can’t people adopt this mindset for essences? It seems the word essence is uttered and people just shut down and go “I don’t have it, will never have it, so I cannot.”

I agree the purpose of achieving some of them is downright dumb. It really is. BoTE? Yeah no thanks. Point is do you actually need it as much as you tell yourself you do? Can’t you get by without it? If so, why worry? Because theoretically you could do more? You could always theoretically do more based upon gear you haven’t yet obtained or azurite traits and yet onwards we march anyway. Just apply the same perspective to essences.

Unlike gear however, essences are targetable. So whilst I can plan for them if I really really want R3, I can’t do the same for my weekly azerite casino. If I get a bad roll with dumb traits, then oh well, I;ve missed out on “optimum” performance for another week or two. Sucks, but that’s what it is, At least with essences if i’m sick of “making do” I can actually target it and get it!

With 8.3 relaxing reqs it really isn’t so bad. Get chars to revered, boom, that;s it, leave 'em. You can get r3 next patch.

I’m not speaking about bote here, that’s a dumb essence I’ve never cared to grind because despite it being advertised as “good” or “essential” i’m not prepared to do it, and so far I have found my lack of using it hasn’t stopped me doing content i’m targeting. I don’t see the point getting worked up over it. If I want it, grind it (no matter how dumb it is) or just realise that the world won’t end if you don’t use it. Unless you’re chasing the upper echelons of play constantly, it really doesn’t matter that much that you miss rank 2/3 of it surely?

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When you push yourself week in week out to get the last second faster in the dungeon, you want to have the good stuff. I have timed a dungeon with 0.186 seconds on the timer, and I also missed on less than 2 seconds. I try to get the good gear, I try to get the good essences.

Obviously you can play the game on any level. We do not need high ilvl, we do not need essences or azurite pieces. But I like pushing with my friends group to the limit.

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because almost no one treat them as gear, rightfully so, they are not gear and it feels really bad to have gimped abilities. Also for people like me If i know i will 100% never come near to finish something i’m not gonna bother with it, it kills motivation.

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Define: Gear

Because I see this “they’re not gear” argument all the time. What is gear then? Let’s have a definition and see where we go.

And it doesn’t matter what players think it is, it matters what the game positions it as. If I interpret my 2hand axe as a staff, it doesn’t mean that death knights should be made to wield staves because people keep thinking “this axe kinda looks like a staff”. They may have good reasons for thinking it is a staff (perhaps it really does look like one), maybe they don’t have good reasons. The point is it is the systems within the game that determine what things are according to how they fit, and not what a player thinks of those systems or how they personally interpret them, because interpretation as a medium cannot be reliably measured nor recorded - I mean if I asked you “how many players claim they’re abilities then” would you be able to give me an actual figure or statistic? Hence the problem.

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I wrote an essay to you explaining why they shouldn’t work like gear, should not be considered gear and why people don’t see them as such. you haven’t argued any of those points.

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He never said he can’t do something, he said it’s not fun to do something for him, which is not the same thing. Are you going to tell him what is fun for him and what is not? If not, there is no point to your rant.

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I am a total noob when it is about dps, but I am playing/trying it now for a couple of months. On this page are sims about the different essences and the rank impact in mayor and minor. Doesn’t the rank 3 also have a big impact? It does look like not only rank 2 is important? The sims have the date of yesterday.

https://www.icy-veins.com/wow/windwalker-monk-pve-dps-essences