Absolutely. And we’ll see what conclusion(s) Blizzard arrives at.
My own analysis is that WoW has a lot of satisfying content on either side of the spectrum, but not a whole lot in-between.
So there’s a lot of easy content that’s arguably exceedingly easy, like leveling and world quests and LFR and fishing and so on. And then there’s a lot of challenging endgame content like Mythic raiding and double-digit Mythic+ Dungeons and 1800+ Arena games, and so on. And all of that super easy and super challenging content is pretty rewarding and super satisfying to play if you’re the audience for it. Blizzard are quite good at stuffing that content with compelling rewards and making the progression feel meaningful so that the game experience becomes all-around satisfying.
But then you have the mid-tier content, like Normal raids and Heroic dungeons and single-digit Mythic+ Dungeons and low Delve tiers, and so on. And not only does that space not consist of a whole lot of content progression, but it also isn’t very rewarding. What do you get out of a Normal raid that’s very special, or a +5 Mythic Dungeon?
I think that’s where Blizzard has their biggest problem. They’re pretty good at making braindead easy content and they’re pretty good at making breakneck challenging content. The goldilocks in-between content though…not so much. But that’s probably where most players fit in when it comes to commitment and ability.
If I listen to what Holly Longdale has been saying as of late, then Blizzard aren’t concerned so much with easy or difficult, but more with accessible or inaccessible.
I don’t speak for anyone except myself, and I don’t think I try to inflate my own opinion as reflecting more than my own conviction on the matter. I only use Average Joe to infer how I believe Blizzard approaches the matter, because it’s ultimately their decision-making that decides the matter and not my personal opinion. And I think it’s valid to speculate about Blizzard’s perspective because it’s going to be more business-motivated than any personal player opinion is.
I just so happen to lean into the Blizzard perspective because I think it supports my own analysis on the topic. And I think it’s fair game if others want to speculate that Blizzard’s perspective supports their view. And I don’t think that’s the same as the logical fallacy of invoking a majority.
I honestly do not think it’s their problem, it’s just a design choice by making WoW 100% seasonal. In a sense we have a complete new game every ±20 weeks.
You named Normal Raids and M+5, right. Sure, they are pretty worthless. But how come? I think there’s two answers to it; a huge item level gap each season, combined with an equally significant power gain attached to those item levels. This does render the early-to-mid section close to useless. And if a player is in that area, for some reason, they are stuck in a bit of a wasteland.
Close the gap, make low-gear relevant for longer and this whole issue gets mitigated to some degree.
It’s not a problem, it’s a feature.
I do not think we can see this as separate things? You can have very accessible content, but if the players who get access cannot handle the challenge it brings…what’s the point? And by lowering the bar, it also lowers the quality of the players (well, I highly expect it). So this cannot be seen separate from easy / difficult content. More accessible == easier. I think the existing accessible PvE content does indeed reflect this.
Normal dungeons: to level in
Heroic dungeons: … obsolete
Timewalking: to level in / difficulty doesn’t exist
LFR: You literally get a buff the more you fail
…
As soon as PvE content becomes super accessible, the difficulty plummets. That’s just a given. They can shift their focus on accessibility, but that’s only a marketing term for supplying easy content.
Yeah… I remember all the whining on forums that casuals can’t farm plunder from mobs (that where really easy to beat) because other players interfere in PvP-oriented mode. And demands to add pure PvE mode with the rewards
Why? Champion/hero gear is fun to play around with too. It is more a mindset that when it isn’t mythic it is useless. Champion gear goes up to 658. You can easily do +10’s with that gear. Doesn’t sound useless to me. We have gear progression in this game. That isn’t useless to me.
Or… the mindset that has somehow infected the playerbase that its BiS or gtfo.
Like literally, you see people doing a dungeon 100 times for a trinket that is marginally better because otherwise they are “stuck”. Sure buddy, you’re “stuck” on that 10 because of that 1% extra the trinket gives.
The thing is the 4 other players can work literally against you. And then you do not get your big boom off and you are doing 30% of your potential damage. The thing is that others are responsible of that result. Not you.
M+ is a game about coordination. Single player performance is very difficulty to measure.
Because Hero track is really easy to get and the content keeps cannibalizing itself. Delves reward Champion track that is guaranteed if you have keys, so from delves alone you get 4 champion track items on demand. Then you have M+, M0-M+5 reward champion, however +6 rewards hero and its pretty easy complete/time. And then we have raid which is the most unrewarding compared to the other 2.
So pretty much, why do M0-M+5 or Normal when you can just do delves or +6 for either faster and/or better gear. Now if all 3 content types were separated (like PvP and PvE are) you would see way more participation lower keys and NM raid.
Useless may not be the right word. But yeah, the gap between 658 and 671 in absolute power is quite big. And the 658 point you simply skip by going +6 instead of +5 - which is a marginal difference in difficulty.
That I don’t understand either, those players also seem oddly frustrated for playing a game. So absolutely, this mindset doesn’t help either.
I need to grind coffer keys for delves and dungeons are way more fun than delves? Lots of reasons to play low keys. I currently am on 4 +2’s on my evoker this week and 1 on my paladin. And i am getting hero vault slots for it. Not useless at all
Yep cause of another players miss play.
Does the system can see this and don’t punish me?
But it’s not always premade and I thought that system is for soloq?
And what do you mean I have to be quicker?
Kicking is not a race it’s important that all important cats get kicked.
I specifically talked about the trash where classes that burst naturally will have more DPS then classes with ramp up and set up time.
That’s why I asked if any MMR would be able to acknowledge that and not tank my MMR cause I got matched with burst specs as a dot spec
Thats only a part of it. Like previously discussed, how does HPS work with MMR. If your group uses defensives your healing goes down. Does MMR reward high or low HPS? does MMR reward using defensives? Does MMR reward kicks and stops? And if so is it count based or does it matter what you actually kick/stop? How does tank MMR work? Death count? Mobs pulled in 1 go? Optimized route? Similarly how does DPS even work? Bigger packs reward bigger DPS, does it factor in how your tank is pulling? It’s a mess.
i still want this system implemented only to see the new kind of drama to happen.
“soloq was a mistake!!!”
“soloq people wasting my time!!!”
“why am i never paired with the right soloq people!!!”
“soloq should add ‘need br’ and ‘need bloodlust’ button!!!”
