But raids would be way easier too. Is that even an argument? Renown is a waste of time. There’s nothing gained from having the system in the game. We have only lost.
I’m not saying people should have to do Castle Nathria. I am saying renown shouldn’t exist. Renown now is fine - you just turn your brain off for 4 hours and you’re done with it. Is this fun? But also, now we are a year and a half into the expansion. Why would anyone tolerate an expansion being bad for over a year just to get good when the catch up kicks in.
Did you really fail to notice that renown having been designed with catch up in mind allowed it to be actual garbage for SL’s first two patches? It stunk! Now imagine if Blizz KNEW they can’t have catch up for renown. They would’ve had to design it to be good from the start. It’s obviously a system that existed to slow players down in the form of… weekly login rewards basically. It was mobile-game tier garbage. We shouldn’t accept that.
On a first character you mean? I didn’t have any issues hitting 80 with four covenants ont his, starting at 40 with each. It’s fast, or is that what you’re complaining about? You think it should be slow?
For currencies such as Anima I agree with you. Having really slow Anima in 9.0 and quite a bit in 9.2 is frustrating and makes me want to wait to start farming in future expansions.
I was irritated to discover (on these forums) that there is an item in ZM that increases your Cypher attainment by 50%. Since I got that I find the Cypher system is actually ok and I’m almost rank 5. Why does this item exist? What about players who don’t know about this item as it’s just in the vendor somewhere, easily missed.
That’s not to say there’s no place for Catch Ups at all, there is. Catch up gear such as Timeless gear or Benthic Gear for freshly dinged Alts or returning players is fine. The gear isn’t great but it’s enough to get started.
Also Skips for mandatory campaign quests on alts is another good catch up system. Although I prefer shorter mandatory campaigns and more world / character building side quests that are optional and provide different experiences for alts.
Enjoy is a word for a system I don’t like, but punished for playing the game? Nah.
If it wasn’t sped up newer players wouldn’t ever finish the covenant campaigns if they began it at the end of the expansion.
I don’t know what you’re grasping at here.
Covenants in one sense was part of the ”AP” grind this expansion, a system which famously had catch ups in the previous expansions. Because, you know, joining an expansion 6 months in would be pointless otherwise.
But that’s the point. Why didn’t Blizz make a system that just works? They’ve done it in the past.
And why would players excuse mobile-tier weekly staggering systems in their PC subscription MMO?
Renown didn’t work (as in it was not fun at all) for everyone who played while content was current. It only kinda works for those who skipped all that and did in 2 days what took us months. This is what is meant when me and a few others say “It rewards not playing the game”.
Change newer players who began it at the end of an expansion with an Alt character earlier in an expansion.
Rescuing 20 souls from the Maw primarily for your weekly renown (also also for the currency, another alt-unfriendly system) and collecting 1000 anima in a week (something I barely managed on my main many weeks) also for Renown were tolerable systems on my main but would have been horrible on any alts (if I could have worked up the enthusiasm to level any this expansion).
I didn’t mind Renown so much really but this is mostly because I didn’t really play alts and I take a rather leisurely approaching to playing this game. I used to like alts but the linear mandatory campaign style of leveling / questing is too repetitive in recent expansions.
If a system is more-or-less Account Wide then it likely doesn’t need much by way of Catch Ups.
There was ALWAYS catch-up. Even in Vanilla.
Even the mere fact that there was more supply on BoE gear and more demand for low level mats was a catch-up mechanic, as new players could make money faster.