I know it’s a bit soon to already talk about a new expansion I do think wow has some problems that it can only fix in a new expac. The main thing is a new focus on community and progression:
- Old world revamp:
There are already a few things hinting towards an old world revamp and I think that would be an amazing thing. If WoW wants to have players interact more they need to make leveling an actual part of the game again, and get players used to it during leveling. I don’t want it to be as difficult as in classic of course, these are 2 different games and every class has way more abilities and options now, but it has to be challenging enough to encourage team play.
- Make it so that enemies have more health and do more damage, so you can’t take on more than 2 at a time
- Make it so that rare enemies can’t be defeated by just one player, even if he pops all his or her cooldowns.
- Have some missions where there are a lot of enemies in one location which would encourage group play without forcing it, it should be rewarding to group up not just for a single quest.
- Make class buffs actually useful, they can always scale down as you level up so it doesn’t change the endgame
It shouldn’t take as long as it does in classic to level, but I think an ideal would be around 80 hours, the length of a normal rpg. This also works well with Chromie time since any alts could just level from 1-60 in one of those zones, making it very alt friendly.
- End game community:
The reason I generally prefer retail to classic is because there is so much to do in end game. This has however made it feel like there are 3 different games you play when you reach max level with very little crossover. WoW should incentivize joining a guild and doing end game content together, which I think they could do in a few ways:
- Make normal raids end game progression. This one is the simplest but instead of something like Torghast to get your end game currency have it come from normal raid bosses. Raiding is the only form of end game play where you NEED a guild, by requiring everyone to complete the normal raid of that patch at least a few times you incentivize people to form guilds that can later be used for pvp, mythic+ or even RP. You shouldn’t have to do it every week, but maybe just like 3-5 times per patch.
- Focus more on open world pvp. As a pvp’er the pvp community feels like the most shut of community in WoW and it’s pretty easy to see why, most pvp content is done in small groups and can be done by just queuing in your capital. I think there should be a lot more focus next to progression rated pvp on fun world pvp. Have events where players of opposite factions have to fight for a goal to have their faction get a buff for a day. Have end game missions where you have to get something from the opposite faction capital. Make these open world pvp events something everyone can participate in, something that isn’t a grind but just something where everyone can come together to earn some fun cosmetic rewards.
- Have end game loot that require you to do different content then you’re used to. Think about a blood DK getting a weapon that requires a strong soul, so you have to go out and kill an opposite faction leader, or 25 enemy players. Think about a Arcane Mage weapon that boost the effect of time warp, but to unlock it you have to complete a mythic+ in a certain amount of time. Players should never have to do the harder content that they don’t want. These cross content rewards should only be on the lowest levels (honour for pvp, normal raids for raiding and something like +5 for mythic) but that way it feels like everyone is playing the same game.
- End Game Rewards:
- Character progression should be made more rewarding. Blizz is already taking good steps towards this by having less rng in gear and less gear overall but there are still things that need to be fixed. While classic has way to low drop rates it did do one thing right and that was making gear feel impactful. This is something that is completely missing from retail. Who here can name his BiS weapon or the shoulders they just got, an epic piece of gear or part of a tier set should be a big thing that isn’t only good for you but for the rest of your guild and pvp group as well.
- We need some old school legendaries. There should be rewards that take a at least a whole patch to obtain, not just rare raid drops but items that you need the rest of your guild for and that stay good for the rest of the expansion. These would be actually hard to get and could be a characters of guilds goal for a certain patch, where next to just being BiS items that would help the whole guild they would also just be really cool.
- Borrowed power systems:
Borrowed power (BP) is a necessary part of the game, I think Blizzard is right on that but while there is nothing inherently wrong with it the system right now is creating a some serious problems.
- Some classes don’t work without them. BP should be a fun way to change up your class every expansion, but your class shouldn’t require it to function. While some specs like Fire Mage do this very well, having a clear play style around crits and pyroblast which can change with new systems, other classes like Feral druids require their BP to even function and feel completly empty without it. I don’t think blizzard should be making a new class in 10.0 but that they should focus on making every class feel good without Borrowed Power*.
- It shouldn’t be the only power boost in an expansion. A lot of classes feel unfinished before the final patch, while you’re always going to be underpowered at the start, you should feel stronger in 11.2 than in 10.3. BP should work alongside actual progression not be a complete replacement.
*Class skins and new allied races could be a replacement for a new class.
I think overall WoW isn’t doing as badly as people think and I am quite enjoying shadowlands, but with these addition 10.0 could be one of the best expansions in the history of the game.