Quality of Life Improvements I’d like to see in Shadowlands
WoW is an amazing and “well-seasoned” aged game. Over the years, through different systems and improvements, many inconsistencies have been created, confusing to returning and new players alike. (And possibly current players two or three expansions later ).
Shadowlands does the first big and important step: Level Squish and that you can choose the expansion you want to level in. I believe that it should not stop there. Max-level content of past expansions is literately lost to the ages, which is a shame considering how much development was put it into it.
-Important to Note- I am not talking about devaluing effort players put into past expansions and taking away their time-intensive, hard-worked grind.
I am talking about a ‘story over grind’ leveling experience-approach, streamlining systems along with some QoL improvements (incl. for alts) – especially for expansions before Batte for Azeroth. For past expansions, many max-level features should be made more relevant and useful to the leveling experience and enrich it. Max-level content of past expansions in not relevant anymore and it does not have to be this way.
Leveling: General
- Flight Master’s Whistle for all expansions (available at Level 15).
Note: Especially relevant before flying, a tool to emphasize the ‘story over grind’ leveling experience-approach. A valuable addition to the Hearthstone.
- Optimize flight paths of past expansions (possibly increasing flight speed).
Note: Especially that weird circling of a flight master for the sake of wasting time. BfA flights are very fluid and amazingly well optimized. I was shocked when I took a flight master in Pandaria the other day and flight time was almost 8 minutes .
- Reduce reputation requirement for equipment from past expansions to Friendly and Honored with adjusted prices.
Note: Make faction equipment and useable items (excl. mounts & pets) potentially relevant and useful to the leveling experience. They certainly won’t be of use at max-level.
Who is going to farm reputation to Exalted and pay 500 gold for equipment that is optimistically useful for 3-5 levels?
Leveling: Quests
- Reduce amount of required collect or kill for all leveling quests from past expansions. Make grind quests -irrelevant to the story- less grindy. And turn some of those into a bonus objective when you enter an area.
Note: HUGE emphasis on ‘story over grind’ leveling experience-approach. For two reasons:
(1) It is more fun, every once in a while, to kill 4 creatures instead of 12, and maybe -in return- making these creatures slightly more powerful. an actual threat to dying.
(2) After the third zone, the player has experienced over 100 collect and kill “10+” quests and instead of experiencing the complete story of the expansion (incl. the story added with later patches) they leave for Shadowlands, never to return. To me, it makes more sense to adjust those grind quests, letting players see the whole story that content creators worked so hard to create; adding more value after all these years.
There is no downside: same leveling time, more story, less grindy. These common slow-down gating-mechanism made sense at the time the expansion was current and relevant. That’s not the case anymore!
Leveling: Professions
- Reduce material requirements (excl. mounts & pets) for past expansion.
Note: Make professions potentially relevant for the leveling experience, not for the non-existent max-level. ‘Craft to use’-approach, not craft to max the skill of the profession.
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Add ranks to gathering professions for past expansions.
In addition, those gathering ranks should be learned automatically.
Note: Make gathering professions less stale and passive. The new rank pop-up is refreshing and creates an exciting moment “what just happened, my skill just became better, perhaps craft something.” An addition to the leveling experience.
QoL-Streamlining: Professions
- Streamline max skill points of crafting professions to 50 for past expansions.
- Streamline max skill points of gathering professions to 75 for past expansions.
Note: Leveling crafting profession of past expansions is no fun. Max skill points of 50 could allow players to reach max-skill while leveling and make the most use of crafting while it is relevant. Gathering professions are passive and useful for scaling ranks (in the model of Battle for Azeroth).
- Reduce cross profession materials requirement for past expansion.
Note: In the model of Battle for Azeroth, for the most part, simple and straight-forward (except for mounts, pets and few special items): Cloth is for Tailoring, Herbs for Alchemy, etc.
And very few cross profession materials, e.g. elemental type: Expulsom, Blood of Sargeras, etc.
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Streamline gathering professions mechanics for past expansion:
e.g. remove Smelting for Mining; replace with Mining Techniques ranks
Note: In the model of Battle for Azeroth, some systems were not carried over for a reason, probably because it does not really add any depth to crafting (a.k.a. time-gating).
In the case of Mining, it is a gathering profession; make it one for all expansions. Replace the Bar requirements with Ore.
Above all: It is inconsistent. Why did a crafting profession once need to process Ore into Bars and can now craft those very same items with unprocessed Ore.
- Improve profession material availability for past expansion.
Note: Especially in Vanilla, there are so many types of Cloth, Herbs and, Ore, depending on where one levels, one might never be able to craft anything. In the model of Battle for Azeroth, make different gathering materials available in the same zones.
- Remove useless crafted items from profession for past expansion.
Note: I dislike the word removing, but I do not see another way how e.g. enchantings with item level restrictions should work with the new ‘Level Squish and choose the expansion’-system.
Above all: These arbitrary limitations are confusing to returning and new players (and possibly current players two or three expansions later).
QoL-Streamlining: Quests
- Streamline dailiy quests into world quests for all expansions.
Note: Make player aware they exist without the need of Online Guides.
In addition, they do not take up space in the Quest Log.
- Streamline shared progress among same faction (except for “boss” creatures) for all expansions (Battle for Azeroth model).
- Streamline turn-in-only quests for all expansions (Battle for Azeroth model).
QoL-Streamlining: Bonus Reputation
- Streamline reputation gain with tabards for all past expansions.
Note: Wearing a faction tabard in Cataclysm allowed the player to earn bonus reputation in a dungeon.
Either remove or add this system for all expansions. Can be a weak bonus for all dungeons and raids. Faction tabards will be available at Revered* to slightly improve the final grind to Exalted for past expansions. (*Friendly for factions without mounts & pets.)
Adds player choice to target what they want to do. In addition, many tabards will be more than cosmetic. Only shirts as purely cosmetic items.
Above all: It is consistent. Like with guild tabard, the player is representing a faction. As such, earning reputation feels logical and natural.
- Streamline 100% bonus reputation unlock for alts for all expansions.
Note: A system introduced and abandoned in Mists of Pandaria to buy a special commendation at Revered to unlock 100% bonus reputation for that faction for the whole account (visible by an on the reputation bar of that faction in the Reputation Tab).
Add this system for all expansions: A catch-up mechanism for alts in addition to being a gold-sink. Available at Exalted instead of Revered. Together with tabards (and contracts for world quests) a good variety system for bonus reputation, consistent over all expansions.
- Remove star button in the Reputation Tab.
Note: A system introduced and abandoned in Mists of Pandaria to select a faction earning bonus reputation for various activities. Preferable is the combo of reputation gain with tabards at Revered and 100% bonus reputation unlock for alts at Exalted.
QoL-Streamlining: General
- Reputation Tab: Fix faction group headers like Alliance Vanguard, The Anglers, and The Tillers. that cannot be turned “inactive”.
- Rares: Streamline rare creatures appearing on minimap for all expansions.
QoL-Streamlining Improvements: Currency Tab Clean-up
- Streamline one PvE bonus roll currency per expansion and list under Dungeons and Raids (along with Timewarped Badge).
- Streamline one PvP currency per expansion (if the expansion had a specific PvP currency and more than one specific PvP currency).
- Streamline one Cooking currency for the current expansion and one combined Cooking currency for previous expansions (or only one like Timewarped Badge; no matter the expansion).
- Streamline one Battle Pet currency for the current expansion and one combined Battle Pet currency for previous expansions (or only one like Timewarped Badge; no matter the expansion).
Note1: The Currency Tab is messy, confusing, and inconsistent. “Important” currency like PvP and Battle Pet is absent, useless currency stays:
- Cataclysm Mote of Darkness: solely to exchange for gems in a raid.
- Legion Timeworn Artifact: solely to exchange for a little honor.
Lingering Soul Fragment: solely for one collect quest (quest item).
Veiled Argunite: only exists to buy catch-up equipment tokens; remove and add as drops from creatures instead (Battle for Azeroth model).
Note2: Many different PvE bonus roll, PvP, Cooking, and Battle Pet currency is confusing for returning and new players and possibly current players two or three expansions later.
- Pandaria: Lesser Charm of Good Furtune only exists to buy Elder Charm of Good Fortune, Mogu Rune of Fate, and Warforged Seal; remove lesser charm, combine all three into one bonus roll currency and make it available as a gold-sink (Battle for Azeroth model).
- Cooking Currency: The separation into Epicurean’s Award and Ironpaw Token once made sense; now it is arbitrary, confusing and more likely to discourage players from cooking.
QoL-Improvements: General
- Professions: ‘Bind On Pickup’-ranks should be learned automatically for all professions.
- Mail System: ‘Total Gold Received’-message in chat after opening all mail.
- Reputation Tab: Clean up unused factions like Ravenholdt and Zandalar Tribe.
Move Wintersaber Trainers to the “Classic” reputation group instead of being the only faction in the ominous “Other” reputation group.
QoL-Improvements: Heirlooms
- Upgrade automatically with each new expansion patch (e.g. Level 60) to previous expansion max-level (e.g. Level 50).
- Option to buy upgrade to current expansion max-level (e.g. Level 60) becomes available in patch x.1, x.1.5 or x.2 (similar to Pathfinder).
Note: Heirlooms is tricky. Should they be removed with the Level Squish or replaced by a different catch-up mechanism?
Either way, the current upgrade system is unnecessarily complicated. One upgrade item surely is enough; possibly for the same gold price as all the current three level upgrade items combined if it is about gold-sink.
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Add a heirloom for each expansion to discover all flight paths of that expansion.
Move or add ‘flight paths discovery’-heirlooms to the Heirloom Tab (where they belong).