Possible fix to this slot machine is tokens of merit actually rewarding targetable loot.
If you collect like 3 tokens (doesn’t have to be 3 , i’m not a guy who can balance things ) of merit you will be able to purchase whatever gear you want from the vendor. Ilvl will be relevant to the score you currently have ( 2k score = 252 ilvl piece , heroic raid loot if you cleared the raid on hc etc.) . This way there will still be rng existing but at least we can target specific pieces on 252 which there is no other way obtaining them outside of the vault. Number of tokens of merit that drops from vault will increase according to the content you complete ( +20 dungeon rewards like 3 , killing first 3 bosses in the raid rewards 1 etc).
I do believe this way we can at least target something and make the vault rng bearable
Edit : Or a possible solution is something like azerite vendor in bfa. Targeted pieces cost more rng boxes cost less.
Targetable gear is all I want. I’m almost about to give up on getting certain pieces that I’m after on this warlock and also my BDK, both of which are at over 30 attempts to get the item to drop. It’s seriously demotivating. I wish I could at least know that I’ll get it eventually by some form of a guarantee, but now there’s a very good chance I won’t get it in the next 30 runs, or even the next 30 after that.
Not even just the great vault, but M+ gear in general.
I didn’t get Plaguefall trinket once not even in the dungeon itself since 9.0. Any system with 0 bad luck protection is bad and there is 0 bad luck protection atm with the current gearing system. They also removed reroll tokens with SL which kinda served as a bad luck protection.
Possible fix to the vault:
remove the vault.
most toxic game system that was ever introduced into this pile of trash they call a game right now.
Time gated on top of rng gated on top of punishment for missing a week of max reward = mega garbanzo design
By your logic, raids are the same thing. Time gated, RNG, and you get punished for missing a week. I’m sorry, but this is a stupid opinion.
raids are introduced like this in the game, doesn’t mean it is a great mechanic in the first place.
Also it isn’t the same as you can raid and get 5 pieces in a run to catch up or nothing to fall behind.
Missing the vault is a guarantee to fall behind and you cannot make up for this till you are maxed out.
Just a small example:
Get pvp weapon first week means you got 1800 conq points for free, while other maybe only got 550 or if you missed it you got 0.
You effectively can never catch up no matter if you play 24/7 or are blizzcon champ. Until you max out your gear which takes like 14 weeks or something (including some vaults)
Tell me how this is good design?
Especially punishing if you want to play any alts whatsoever
Stupid opinion but when the game was at its peak we didn’t have the stupid vault and when the vault (or chest) was implemented the game died even more. Obviously not the only reason but the loot systems (TF, chest, vault, time gating, upgrade etc.) are one big reason why the game is in the trash can and why the game has lost all his players
How about this ?
- Get rid of the vault for all players
- Allow valor to upgrade gear up to HC ilvl, with the upgrade to cap ilvl being unlocked if you clear something like a +15 or reach a given M+ score (below keymaster of course but dunno what would be fair)
- Bring back Bonus rolls for raiders (The vault was more valuable for them but the very design of “do content, come back later for loot” is flawed imo)
At least you keep the reward loop of “kill boss, get loot” which is imo core to the MMORPG genre, still have a degree of RNG with the drops but you can target the items you need by killing specific bosses and then upgrade the drops with valor.
You still have the incentives of aiming for higher keys (more valor & will require less upgrades), can more easily aim for BIS and still have to actually play the game to gear from M+.
I would be okay with that but if vault should exist in their design teams eyes it should at least let us target specific loot
It is far too sensible to get implemented, sadly.
I’d like an option for currency to buy Domination socket pieces and tier sets next patch.
Gives m+ players a way to acquire them and solves the rng a bit .
domination sockets and getting the right gear is terrible at the moment. I dont know if thatis working as intended though.
Still rocking my 226 Nerzhul helm when I have a 252 M+ one from the vault. Feels very nice.
imagine if we got some currency from raids/m+. and there was no drops, every thing earned and spent on what you want. this is called userfriendly gamedesign, i dont think blizzard could grasp it.
earn currency from raids/m+. spend on armor/weps of your choise. to hell with rng.
It also makes gear variance pointless, as you could go straight for the BiS pieces.
At most you could call it desireable from the players perspective, which is not necesarily equivalent to good game design.
i dont want useless gear anyways, no loss for me. if u pref having worst gear, u could buy the worst pieces for your spec, happy help you with your odd desires.
I do think some kinda rng is needed for mmorpgs. But the system we have atm is overkilling it. Your idea is also overkilling . I think middle ground would be a rng system with targetable loot serves as a bad luck protection
i feel no need for rng, perhaps some ppl pref rng, but maybe make rng and non rng servers. wouldnt be that hard. and then we shall find our answers…
Just remove the vault and make gear upgradable to 252 with X rating. How it’s not obvious to everyone at blizzard that gearing up entirely with a weekly chest is mental is beyond me. Even more so when upgrading your items with a weekly capped currency is already a thing in the game.
but how can blizzard artificially inflate MAU metrics if players can actually get gear they want in a timely manner as opposed to playing the forced weekly lottery
easy - by returnung fun and pleasure in the game by removing such crapy timegating