Now, before you take your pitchforks out, read everything and think carefully. I’m not defending Blizzard for the record content drought. I am however, exclusively blaming High End Mythic raiders or “the 0.1%” for the state of the game at the moment and how we got here.
Shadowlands has been riddled with restrictions in one form or another since before it’s inception. Here are 6 examples how high end raiders/keystone players ruined the game for everybody:
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AoE cap was introduced to some classes and/or specs.
This was done only for the reason that high end mythic keystone players don’t clear dungeons too quickly or do some insane pulls. Some classes have a few abilities that aren’t AoE capped, while others have none. This has done nothing to help people enjoy their classes more, but was put in place only to prevent the high end players from abusing it on high keys. -
Loot.
Loot was nerfed to the point where mythic + participation dropped to below BFA levels in just a few months. Why? Because of high end mythic raiders. In order to make them clear the overtuned raid in 2 weeks instead of 1, Blizzard effectively screwed gearing for the entire playerbase in every single form of content. NO ONE had a better experience because of these changes. The 0.1% still cleared the raid in 2 weeks and the rest of us were left with the consequences. -
Overtuned Heroic end bosses (last 2).
Tier after tier we see Heroic bosses overtuned to the point where they are stronger than 2 or 3 of the first bosses in Mythic. This is done EXCLUSIVELY to promote boosting and token sales. There is absolutely no other reason to gatekeep last 2 bosses on each tier and make them way, way harder than the first 8. Who benefits from this except the boosts? How can this help new players take the next step into mythic raiding? This way of balancing bosses is done literally only for token sales. -
Mythic raiding record low participation and dying guilds.
You’ve all seen it. Guilds are breaking one after the other and going on breaks. Mythic raids feel like annoying work conferences that no one wants to attend instead of feeling like fun nights with the boys. The rewards are just not worth what you go through and it’s normal more and more people are stopping after they reach CE. Of course, no one can make you raid Mythic, but at the same time, the entire game shouldn’t be balanced around that raid difficulty alone. -
0.1% treating the game like nothing.
After the “round table” Preach video, I was left speechless. When they asked the guild masters how they are keeping the guilds together, they basically said they are treating WoW as a seasonal game and they almost exclusively play other games. These are the people that the game is designed around. These are the people who ONLY play the game for financial gain. These people are the ones impacting developer decisions. These are the people who leave after they have their little race every few months. -
The delay is MAINLY because of high end mythic raiders
The time developers have spend on conduit energy gating systems - all done so 0.1% cannot change them in raids. The time spend creating worthless legendaries and worthless class covenant abilities - all done because of high end raiders. All the time spend into overtuning the next raid so the 0.1% take more than 2 weeks to finish it. All the time spend on time-gating Legendaries behind months of Torghast so the same people cannot finish the raid 1 day faster. Every single delay, every single system is implemented to be a blockade against those people to make them have their race at a slower pace. Everyone else pays for the consequences.
Now, whether or not you agree with me on these issues is not important, because it doesn’t change the outcome of the current situation. The game is being balanced exclusively over high end raiding while the population is going down and mythic raiding in general is being less and less popular by the patch. Here’s my simple message to Blizzard:
STOP BALANCING THE GAME AROUND PEOPLE WHO ONLY PLAY IT FOR FINANCIAL GAIN. THESE PEOPLE HATE THE GAME AND MAKE IT WORSE FOR EVERYBODY. LET PEOPLE HAVE FUN, GIVE PEOPLE NEW CONTENT AND STOP CREATING THOSE DISGUSTING RESTRICTIONS.
I am beyond disappointed with how badly they are treating Shadowlands. The game had so much potential, but the way it’s being treated by the developers is just tragic.