What do you think so far Of Battle For Azeroth and what it brings to the table, namely Warfronts and Island Expeditions?
Rogerbrown: BfA is essentially like the previous expansions, with a few additions that don’t really affect the game. It’s good but there’s not something there that excites me like, for example, Legion’s Mythic+, which was great, of WoD’s Garrisons that was OK but still a change in the day to day experience. Since their announcement at last year’s BlizzCon, Warfronts felt like side content to me, something I’d try but not at the level of Mythic+ that really changed the game. I had lots of doubts for Warfronts since first checking out the concept, doubts about whether it would be something to like or just something some you’d eventually get around to playing. Up to this point, they’re the latter. They’ve said they’ll be adding another difficulty level you can choose for your guild, something that might make Warfronts better and more interactive as, they things stand now, they’re something you go into and practically completes itself.
Elserat: For me BfA started out promising, with something I was looking forward to, the seasons affixes, that I think are a very good addition to the game. Just like Roger said, I see lots of repetitive stuff, things I’m not hyped enough to dabble in. I’ll get around to doing Island Expeditions only in the absence of world quests for azerite or something else better to do. The same goes for Warfronts.
What did you think of Uldir as the first, introductory raid of BfA, compared its equivalents in previous expansions?
Rogerbrown: Overall Uldir was a very good first raid for an expansion, especially in comparison with Legion’s Emerald Nightmare or WoD’s Highmaul. Boss mechanics showed variety that keeps you from getting bored as you progress. In terms of difficulty, they did better than last time around, when Exorsus completed it in a day. This time it was a very tough raid with the final boss surviving for more than a week, while it’s usual to finish a first raid in less time. The only issue was with Fetid Devourer’s tuning being off, definitely Blizzard’s foul. Other than that, the bosses were very well designed and aesthetically pleasing. One problem lots of us faces was frame drops when facing the final three bosses, we had lag visibility issues during the fights. But overall it was a very good read, much better than I anticipated.
Elserat: For me Uldir was the second introductory raid I ever played, after Emerald Nightmare, as I started playing WoW during WoD. What I have to say is that I hadn’t had such fun in a boss fight since G’huun of Gul’dan. Even though there’s more RNG at play, I believe its the second best boss fight I’ve played in WoW. With my being a healer, I like that there are quite a few healing checks I have to keep an eye out for, meaning I have to heal the right player at the right time. Now, beyond G’huun fights, as a raid, Uldir is ten times better than Emerald Nightmare.
Roger, what do you think of master loot’s change into personal loot and how did that affect you at Method?
Rogerbrown: The top guilds’ overall impression has been negative on this, but I’d say I’m one of those that see it in a more positive light. This changes surely takss away the guild’s choice in loot allocation, which is annoying, but weighing it as Method, I think the good things is you no longer need to do 6-7 Heroic raids to get gear to the proper hands. We still did split runs, but fewer than before, something that I assume applies to most other guilds as well. Moreover, where alts’ role was to help with equipping the mains, now the idea is to have 2-3 alts with good gear and they might come in handy in progression. I like this change as it lends more weight to alts. I prefer having fewer alts to sink time in than having lots and ending up playing just my main. The other positive effect of this change, for me personally, since I was the guild’s Master Looter, is that now I don’t get headaches trying to split gear amongst members (laughter). Not that we never need to give someone someone loot, but it’s rarer, especially when in progression.
Elserat, in BfA the ability to change gear during Mythic+ is gone, the reasoning being that your choice in gear before running the dungeon is now more important an initial decision. Do you think that’s the case in practice?
Elserat: I understand why this change was made, Most gamers couldn’t gear-swap and min-max like the high-end players they were watching on streams. This difficulty stems from the role of gear-swapping, which is achieving the correct combinations of the right legendary with the right trinket, along with cool down, and, at the same time, players were expected to make sure they have all this at the ready for a specific moment when in a dungeon. Sometimes the average player couldn’t do that, both because they didn’t have the gear for it and because most wouldn’t;’t even bother. If you just do a +10, you won’t bother with gear swap or changing macros. You’ll just get in with your friends and finish the dungeon. At least that’s what I did. With the option to do away with that, you have less to think about. But, well, there’s a “but”. Mythic+ and everything related to it depends on that in more competitive situations, on higher keys. For better or for worse. Since this mode started out, we’d learnt that particular pulls depended on particular items, particular legendaries in the case of Legion. Now that you can’t gear swap, you have to go for the middle ground, resulting in your gear being average for everything. For example, if there’s even one dungeon fight that needs lots of helloing, I have to play with healing trinkets, not DPS trinkets. It might be just for one fight, but it doesn’t change the fact that I have to heal. This keeps me from offering more during the dungeon, something that used to make the whole process a lot more fun.
What do you think of the changes in gear and the addition of Azerite gear?
Roberbrown: When I first checked it out during the beta, Azerite gear seemed like a good aidea, a good alternative to legendaries and tier sets, as they’d said they wanted to remove tier sets, mainly for those that prefer playing Mythic+, not raids, which, OK, is understandable. What I didn’t expect them to do and what impressed me one the end, something that apparently is here to stay, is giving each Azerite armour 4 options at its first ring that, essentially, really are only 2, something that I just don’t get. In essence you options for other specs, instead of having 4 for the spec you’re playing with. I expected to have 4 options for my spec, options what would later on be locked, just like with talents, and that by changing spec I’d get 4 more. If you need to respect, either to heal or tank, you must spend gold and dabble into a cumbersome process. Moreover your choices are significantly narrower. If you get an item with underwhelming traits you go “now what?”. You need to farm for a particular items with a certain trait. If you had 4 options for your spec, instead of 2, you wouldn’t have to do that. They said that 8.1 will add another ring with 2 options for your spec. This will be helpful but I don’t like where this is going. It will be helpful because it’ll make it easier to find a better trait combination. But the more competitive players that want to find the best gear combo for DPS just go to Raidbots.com, enter their gear and the site highlights the best combinations for it. This had gone too far with Legion, as there were so many tier sets and legendaries that it was all a mess. I hoped for a simpler system this time around. By adding another ring, the simulation process for finding the best combo will become harder. I understand why they’re doing this, but I’d prefer them to keep the rings as they are and just give more option for every spec. This change would be very good and I think that would make the community warm up to Azerite gear more.
Elserat: It’s been quite the issue how many tier sets, at least for classes I’m playing, had quite the impact on my plays. For example, the Restoration Druid’s tier set from Nighthold was one of the best I ever had. Its first bonus was Wild Growth mastery and the second one was that with each use of Rejuvantion there was a chance another player would Rejuvenation as well. The thing Is, this proc wasn’t random, it was smart heal, something we usually see with AoE spells, which means that if someone had a rebuff or low HP, the proc would give that player priority. This bonus had tremendous impact on my plays and not having as many options this time around, as a healer, is something I Donn’t really like. I think it’s good to have more options to pick from. I enjoy having to pick the right tool for each case.
Roger, you seem to not agree with the removal of tier sets. Do you believe that there’s no real gain now from raiding compared to going for Mythic+ dungeons of comparable difficulty?
Rogerbrown: I liked tiers as they provided another to be rewarded for finding a guild, a raid group. Now there’s no real gain from raiding. If you don’t like Mythic+ dungeons but you enjoy being in a certain guild, that’s why you’ll do a Heroid or a Mythic raid now. I’m against it because I believe that when removing a motive likee tier sets from the raid, it’s like doing away with a reason to join a guild. You’re losing the sense of community, the need to go as a group and progress etc. The games ends up being more about solo. In the sense that I can do an LFR, watch the raid, then I’ll group up with 2-3 friends, do a Mythic+ and that’s it. I don’t appreciate that, I don’t that’s where WoW should be moving towards.
Do you think that Azerite armour traits adequately fill in the gap left from the removal of tier sets, Legendaries and Artifact weapons? Do you feel that, with the new system in place, your characters is as powerful as in Legion?
For me, Legendaries, method of acquisition aside, which was very bad, were one of the highlights. They changed how you played and provided you with tools that could make your plays more interesting. Artifact weapon traits were far more important then than Azerite gear traits are now. Amongst the traits I come across with the classes I’m using, the only interesting one I’ve found is Mistweaving Monnk’s Overflowing Mist. From Legion I remember the Dreamwalk trait, which got you a Regrowth, a Rejuvanations and those would extend to to more players. Those were very nice traits and I can’t seem to find equivalents in the game now with as much of an impact. As I’m mostly playing Mythic+, I believe that in Legion you had many choices and stuff to think about. The game was really fun for me, it peaked there as far as I’m concerned. Out of those, you’ve lost half and I don’t see the reason why. My character’s progression was tangible once I got my first really good Azerite traits but, even so, there aren’t many that truly influence your plays. The Restoration Druid’s trait, Autumnn Leaves, changes the way my character plays, since it makes Rejuvenation heal more if it’s the only HoT on a certain target, and it’s one of the more powerful Druid traits, but the problem is it makes go against the class’s main play style. A Restoration Druid relies on mastery for spot healing. The more HotS you have, the more Regrowth and Swiftmend heal. So as my most powerful trait for raid healing makes me not use other HoTs, otherwise I’m losing in value, you end up with a dilemma, a sort of a mess. On the other hand, in the case of a Mistweaving Monk, when I got the Uplifting Spirit trait, then yes, I felt my character became more powerful. Ditto for Rezan’s Fury with a Discipline Priest.
Rogerbrown: Surely, after Legion, what with losing the Artifact weapons, the Lengedaries and Tier bonuses, there’s big shift in the feel of you character. When you remove so many systems from the game, it’s not easy to fill the void. At the same time, I think things had gone a bit overboard. I remember seeing my character’s damage break down, noticing 15 things that were just passives and proc. So I believe that they rightly removed some of these. Now I feel powerful with certain Azerite traits, which, unfortunately, aren’t many, but they’re there. Primal Instincts for the Hunter or the Warrior, that I happen to enjoy lately, Test Of Might, all are very good examples with measurable impact during a fight. There aren’t very many of this kind unfortunately as we still have many passives and more that are around during a fight that you don’t have the time to take into account.
What are your thoughts on the fact that many abilities were passed to GCD (Global Cooldown)?
Rogerbrown: Definitely, GCD changes have annoyed lots of people and I believe some changes were for the better and some very negative for me. Personally, as a Beast Master Hunter, I don’t mind if the Aspect Of The Wild, with a 2-minute cooldown costs me a GCD. But with Beastial Wrath in GCD as well, an ability you activate every 40 seconds, you can definitely feel the change as you’ve spent years with this ability not on GCD, there’s a big difference and it’s annoying. But it’s also a matter of habit, even though I believe that every coulddown below a minute shouldn’t be in GCD, especially when it comes to abilities that amount to a simple buff. What bugs me the most is the fact Exhilaration is one GCD. About getting defensive abilities on GCD, I can’t but wonder why. What I mean is, just as you’re about to die and you want to hit Exhilaration, but after having hit a damaging ability, you’re essentially dead. So you end up wondering why make this kind of change at all? This is frustrating. They had a lot more abilities on GCD, they pulled some and I believe they’ll be pulling more, there will be more changes in the future. I think they have noted people’s reaction and they will be looking at this gain for the next patch.
What do you think of BfA’s dungeons? We see a lot more dungeon mechanics and we wonder whether you believe these mechanics are helpful to someone that plays dungeons, by getting him ready for the realities of a raid.
Elserat: Dungeons in terms fo design, mechanics, trash packs? They’re amazing. For starters, bosses now have mechanics you have to do. Unlike Legion where the mechanics where one shot and you needed needed particular gear and abilities to survive them. Amazing fights for healing. One of the best fights we now have is with the 3rd boss in King’s Rest. That fight is like a raid boss. I tried It at +17 Tyrannical and it really was like going through a raid boss. You have to soak, put markers, establish a line for them, in order to go through the mechanic. For as long as I’ve been playing Mythic+, that’s the first time I had to do something like that. Overall, for me, dungeons get 10/10. My issue is with affixes.
Rigerbrown: Surely, I’d say that many mechanics used in dungeons give you a taste of what raiding is like. For example, inn Temple Of Sethralis, you have to get the orbs, put them on the head to open the door to the final boss and then you encounter a similar mechanic in G’huun. We could be seeing such loans from dungeons in following raids. Of course this doesn’t mean that playing a 5-person dungeon is the same as with a 20-30 person raid, but I do note this philosophy. I basically believe they’re trying things out in dungeons, see how players react to certain mechanics and if they like something, they incorporate it in some bosses in particular.
Elserat, please do tell us about your gripes concerning the affixes of Mythic+.
To begin with, I haven’t really made up my mind about whether the Infested is good or bad. Maybe, and I’d like to put an emphasis on the “maybe”, we think Infested is bad because we’re accustomed to playing dungeons in a completely different way. What I know and hear from those I’m playing with, but also from the community, is that the Infested has destroyed big pulls, something that characterised Legion’s dungeons. With Infested you’re forced to play more cautiously, with more restraint, something that regardless of how it feels to us as we play, I’m not sure is fun for those that are watching us play in a tournament like MDI was. I mean, how fun can it be to watch us hold back with pulls, CC Infested, CC Infested from the other pack and draw 8 mobs? In Legion we had pulls like the Halls Of Valor, the Maw Of Souls and the Vault Of The Wardens that I believe both I and the audience enjoyed a lot more. The pressure was different and the action was different, when comparing a 30-mob fight to an 8-mob pull that we do now. Because the more the mobs, the more the mechanics you have to keep in mind. For me, Blizzard have the opportunity to make the whole Mythic+ experience more fun overall, as, let’s not forget, Infested is just a seasonal affix. As for the rest of the affixes, what I like is that Tyrannical and Fortified aren’t as far apart, so you can play your keys every week without much drama.
Rogerbrown: One thing I have to say about affixes is what Elserat also pointed out, that I’d like them not to keep me back when trying to quickly go through a dungeon. And I’m not just talking about Infested but the others as well, like Bolstering and Necrotic to a point. I’d like those affixes to change, because they keep you back. Others, like Volcanic, Quakening, Teeming, are better. I’d like affixes to not slow you down and keep that feeling we had in Mists Of Pandaria’s Challnge Mode, where speed was valued above all else.
As a closer, is there something you’d like to share? A change that made an impression or something you’d like to see change in the future of Battle for Azeroth?
Rogerbrown: BfA’s PvP was a pleasant surprise and I hadn’t touched PvP in the last 3 expansions or so. I’m not sure if it’s because PvE content doesn’t impress me much, but I decided to get back into PvP this time around and the fact that you can amass gear that you can use for PvE definitely helped. So far PvP seems good in this expansion. Gameplay improvements and the augmented rol of gear aside, when compared to Legion, one change they made that I think is very good has to do with how you achieve Gladiator. You show up, you go for it, you feel good, it’s quantifiable now, just like in PvE. You go for the raid, kills the boss and that’s it, it’s done. You get the achievement, you get the loot. I personally believe this change has led to having more players playing the Arena, shooting for Gladiator.
Elserat: Something I’d like to happen is have better rewards for us playing Mythic+. What I mean by that is that in Mythic+ there’s no achievement, no way to quantify an accomplishment. In raids, for example, you get titles, achievements, special loot and an official leaderboard. These are things I’d like to see in Mythic+ or something like the Hall Of Fame that was added to Uldir.
If you want to follow and get in touch with Rogerbrown and Elserat, you can do so through Twitter and Twitch.
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