World of Warcraft suffers from various small and large problems, the fans agree. Blizzard wants to solve one of them, perhaps even one of the largest, with the upcoming WoW expansion Shadowlands, like Game Director Ion Hazzikostas in one Interview with the Twitch streamer Sloot announced (via MMO Sankar) – namely the loot system.
Shadowlands declares war on chance
What's the problem with the loot system in WoW and Battle for Azeroth? Many players currently find the WoW loot system very frustrating because elements such as »Corruption« and »Titanforged« play a large part in chance.
Each item in the endgame currently has a random additional effect. Therefore, players can never farm a specific piece of armor, as was the case in WoW in the past – and that causes frustration.
Hazzikostas explains how this came about:
"Titan-Forged, Warforged, and Corruption are attempts to solve a problem that we created ourselves. (Previously), loot was a goal in itself (…). At some point, you got the loot that you wanted (and) it was best-in-slot, but with the added difficulty we increased the number of items you could get, over and over again, until bosses gave you seven or eight items per raid, most of the raid groups were then over-saturated with equipment before they even got close to being through with the raid. (The random systems should) give you a chance to still be happy if something great drops in the raid. "
However, Blizzard's Battle for Azeroth RNG systems have overshot this target.
What changes in the loot system with Shadowlands? The next WoW expansion takes on the loot problem, according to Hazzikostas, by taking the developers one step back. Instead of trying to make loot more interesting using random systems, Blizzard in Shadowlands reduces the amount of loot a boss drops.
It also means that there will be no "Titan Forged," "War Forged," "Corruption," or any similar loot scheme in Shadowlands. "Let prey remain prey," is how Hazzikostas summarizes this principle.
What happens to gemstones and pedestals? The developers are not yet fully aware of the extent to which gemstone bases in Shadowlands will complement the item system. The alpha data already shows that there will be (new) gemstones. However, we do not yet know what exactly happens with it.
more on the subject
WoW: Shadowlands-Alpha amazes with controller leak
What else can WoW fans look forward to when it comes to loot? Finally, there is another piece of good news for animal set fans: In an interview, Hazzikostas revealed that animal sets for classes in WoW could return later after the release of Shadowlands.
Blizzard likes the class fantasy aspect that the animal sets underline. At the same time, the tier sets should not invalidate the other rewards that players receive in the endgame (such as items from Mythic Plus dungeons).
We think that this is good news that gives hope for a development in the right direction. Or what do you mean?
