Hi, I am a veteran WoW player who has played the game between 2005-2020 until my main account was hacked and permanently banned. I returned to WoW in november 2023 and I would like to write my thoughts and feelings about the new season 4.
Gear reset
First off the gear reset. The farm for maximizing your equipment should have been over with Amirdrassil, the last raid of Dragonflight. To restart from scratch like a mini-expansion were blue heroic gear is better than most gear before season 4, is not how an expansion should end. The grind should be over by now and people should relax a bit and do what they have left of Dragonflight which they may want to complete, for example legendaries, achievements or quests. If this is the new norm for future expansions it will not go well for the endgame quality of WoW. It sounds bad on paper and it is in all its forms bad.
Mythic+
In Legion and Battle for Azeroth I did the keystone level that gave the highest reward pretty much every week on multiple characters, and I have seen how dungeons have changed historically through the years when I have been playing. And only after playing a few +2 keys I quickly realised that the season 4 dungeons are far too overtuned. Something as basic that the power-to-scaling ratio: I was tanking 4 +2 keys with my 486 Blood DK with the group’s gear at 480+ as well and during those dungeons the DPS, HPS and tanking was what you’d expect from a +20 in season 3. Only that the performance of those groups were barely enough to complete a +2 in time, due to the high health and damage on the mobs and bosses.
The actual Mythic+ dungeons is something I am also going to bring up. Why only dungeons from Dragonflight? What does it hurt if Legion and Battle for Azeroth dungeons are also used for season 4? Also it’s dull and boring when every boss in every dungeon feels like raid bosses due to their unforgiving mechanics, something often the tank have to do.
Raid rotation
The raid rotation sounds good on paper, but in reality it is not playable. This is due to the fact that almost every group in LFG are requiring curve, or checking Raider,io, and/or logs for that particular raid. And if you did not play Dragonflight when they were current content you seem to be screwed. And no trying to start your own group does not work either, I gave up after 20 minutes of relisting in LFG. I am not lying when I say that less than 5 people signed up during those 20 minutes. while on my 486 Blood DK tank.
Weekly caps
Something else I really dislike is the Crests and Bullions weekly cap, that gives the illusion that there is something to do every week. But in fact the purpose of the weekly cap is for Blizzard to limit your progress so that you stay subscribed and so that they make more money, while people are waiting for The War Within. That is the only reason.
I don’t know why you spend a paragraph establishing credentials then prove you fundamentally misunderstand what makes the game tick in the next.
Do you think all the people that came back thought “yay old dungeons I’ve done before” or “yay gear!”?
On the mythic+ bit as well, seems you missed the memo of what changes were made and why. Yes, the scaling has changed, no its not as extreme as you are making out. A +12 is roughly a +12 from last season, except now you’re walking into it undergeared, it will be challenging - which is sort of the point.
I like the gear reset. I will have something to do while I wait for the TWW. I like farming outfits but WoW is not like GW2. It is a treadmill mmo so ilvl is important.
The above two points are the ones I agree with the most. I think what has made this S4 poorly received is the fact that most people feel like they have grind another patch from scratch and it is meant to be a filler patch between expansions.
I have no issue with the bullions and the way they are being executed, this season we get more options to target items than we did in SL. SL was 3 max this season we can get up to approx 4 - 5.
S4 should have felt like a continuation from S3 with just an increase in ilvl till the next expansion and it should allow players to go ham and have fun.
I don’t really agree with this, if there was no more gear to earn, people would complain there was no point in the new season. Blizzard has had to something to give m+ people something do to for the months before the new expansion.
The game has also migrated to a new m+ system with fewer keys, but a larger gulf in challenge between the keys, this will result in teething issues, especially as the 480 gear while impressive in s3, is barely LFR in s4.
Being upset that LFR level gear is unable to complete the highest content in the new season smacks of “I could do 20s before, so why not now?”
you play for this. a lot of people use gear as a means to obtain goals. If they can obtain goal without excessive time spent on gearing, they will take it. A lot of people take it easy in s4 to complete old achieves, grind etc.
And thats a bad thing? Again i have said it many times, ITS A BUSINNES A COMPANY not some charity simple, ofc they want most people to stay subscribed its freaking normal.
instead of making content that keeps you paying , they put artificial time locks that makes you stay if you want to progress
its something you expect in a f2p mobile game not a triple A with full price dlcs+monthly sub, but at the same time you sounds like someone who dumps money on mobile games so its all make sense now
Its not the first season it happens. S3 was exactly the same gear reset.
I think a lot of people didnt realise it because they skipped it or came later on when groups already were able to carry a lot
Peopel are generaly used to last patches being catvh up patches . And here its total and compelte gear reset not your typical catch up patch
1 thing is certain. People who came into season with almost full 489 gear Had much smoother way in . People who were like 470 or lower ? They can just give up and wait for prepatch’s like 500 itlv gear from events
Gear is what most of the people goes for. It’s the whole “I’m becoming stronger” thing that keeps us going.
What you described about m+ is more than dramatizing. First thing I’ve done when this season started was to pair up with 4 friends and we leveled up our keys. All of them were easy +3, and we didn’t even struggle. And I was tanking them, with a tank I learnt in 3 weeks last season. I didn’t see too many tanks in 20s last season at 455-457 ilvl, meanwhile this season I completed most of the 10s in 493-495 gear, which is the exact ilvl difference between seasons. Once I put on the new set on me, I feel like cheating in 10s and 11s. Not even close to proc my cheat death trinket from last season, and doing 3-4 packs pulls. Tank doing the unforgiving mechanics in m+? Half of the bosses that mechanic is “move the boss”. As a tank is 3 times more boring than as a healer. So I have no idea what you are talking about. Raid bosses when it comes to taking you literally need to listen to the addon lady saying “taunt”. And whenever there is a tank boss, they are the reason that there is a wipe (see diurna), just because for once tanks have something else to do except taunting.
The raid leaders asking for curve, again no idea. I have done both normal and hc raids on 3 characters, and none of them asked for curve, and it took me less than 2 minutes to find a group for any of them (and no, I did not play season 1 for more than 5 weeks, and I didn’t even recall raiding in those weeks).
Weekly caps are in place to give players like me a chance to play on alts, without having the impression I am loosing something on my main. I stacked my tank with 2k rating, consumed all my crests, time to move on. Let’s try play affliction lock, or this mage again. Nothing wrong with them. Most of my guild plays at least 2 characters, and having a weekly cap keeps this in order.
I don’t know but s3 was garbage in terms of tuning
it was far too easy …
I like m+ this season much better
but s4 is boring for me cause i already did play DF dungeons.
You must see Doti HM. It is brutal. I have played it in s2. Now it is even harder. I like it a lot. I am enjoying how it replaced its 2 M+ parts. Having more mechanics to deal with is great.
I don’t know how many items it is dropping. I was not able to kill the 1st boss yesterday. But having something not on a timer dropping useful loot is awesome.
I enjoy getting gear again at the start of a season. It’s really easy to get Hero track items, and they already get you close to the max ilvl for the season. The Myth track items only add a couple of ilvls more, but it’s still nice to have those small upgrades to look for as rewards for doing hard content.
Dungeons in a new season always feel really hard in the first week. That’s because the dungeons are designed for ilvls for the season. 480 ilvl is basically the starting point. Also remember that a +2 is basically equivalent to a +12 now.
I was only able to do +2 to +4s on the first day with my M+ buddies when we were around 480. (I healed at 462 and it was brutal). But as we got tons of ilvl upgrades, we all became more tanky and now we’re able to survive +8s.
Practice on LFR (and a chance for tier gear), and then do Normal. I doubt people check logs and require Curve for Normal raids. If you want to easily get into Heroic as a DPS, join a guild.
I don’t understand all the criticism you pretty much nailed it. And you can see it that most players think and feel like you. The Season 4 is the “emptiest” Season 4 I have ever seen in a expansion. So few M+ groups, you can’t play the game right, since people are minmaxing scoring gearing even for +2 keys. Since so few groups sometimes you need hours to start a M+. The dungeon choice is horrible. Dragonflight Dungeons are, IMO, the worst Dungeons ever made for M+. I don’t understand too, why can you choose DF Dungeons for this season. They were hated in S1 and S2 and now they take all of them for S4. And the only good Dungeon(s) (Dawn of the Infinite) of Dragonflight they leave out. They ruined the game for many many players with that choices they made.
Thats because people still seem to miss the memo… When I put up a +2 key on an alt I have people with 435 ilvl whispering me “Easy +2 bro, big dmg”… People still seem to think of +2 as s3 +2 and not the fact that its now a what… +12?
Why not start off gearing in M0? On forums, the same argument arises: “Urrggh because I was doing +15’s last season and now I have to do M0???”
Please do remember, that both Cata and MoP Remix has come out too… There is no real “new rewards” in S4, its a chill season where people can push if they want or go for the alternative game modes.
You can still do that though? With pretty decent loot for HM… So I don’t really follow your logic here?
I can see why its so hard, but on the other hand i can run a whole bunch of +9 keys in the time it takes to wipe your way through DotI hardmode, its absolutely brutal.
I don’t know but s3 was garbage in terms of tuning