The State of TWW S1 and What Needs to Change for Season 2

[@JuanitodelmarDJ]

I totally agree with you when you talk about crests names as it is really confusing, specially as a non english native. I would rather have rank I II III IV V or advanturer/normal/heroic etc

[@Tactyks]

Happy to hear I'm not the only one that feels that way hahaha

[@The99miner]

I came here to make this same comment, it is really bad when I need to have a WA that just puts a tier on the crests to know which ones are the ones I actually care about. Why we need these stupid names is crazy. I never really liked it in DF, but like you said in the video at least it made some sense naming wise.

[@christopherdaffron8115]

Yes, Blizzard has used the same term for Valorstones since BFA. I don't see why Blizzard can't come up with a similar naming convention for crests and just reuse it.

[@dirusj4006]

Its odd that they aren't using something as simple as 1, 2, 3, 4...or even common, rare, epic

[@christopherdaffron8115]

@@dirusj4006 Well It is a fantasy MMO, so it makes sense that Blizzard adds SOME flavor to the naming convention.

[@timhundhausen1386]

The combination of different mechanic changes (xalatath affixes, challenger's peril, stop philosophy change) has completely turned me off pug tanking this season and I'm not returning next season. I'll tank for my friends to farm my portals and maybe the 2850 rating, but the combination of losing my self-reliance, harshness of tank deaths, lack of cheat trinket and general volatility and toxicity in pugs makes it so I don't want to waste my time pugging. Hope many other tank players out there feel the same and just deplete the pug scene of tanks next season as well. Blizzard needs to understand they messed up

[@Ashidazx]

Signing my name to this. I love a challenge but Blizzard needs to fix this. I’m not paying money to deal with these issues they refuse to do anything about. Hope more tanks follow suit

[@Vulvv]

As a bdk not being able to lock down a pack with double grip, blind, stun and interrupt i have no feeling of being able to carry a hard pull anymore, hate the stop chances

[@slymcfly123]

I was 3200 in S2-S4 or higher in DF as tank. I quit. I won't tank again until changes are reverted. I unsubbed.

[@Fharlion]

Tank damage taken needs to be tuned back, hard. The threat of getting absolutely chunked by white swings and spam casts combined with Challenger's Peril makes gear/skill appropriate runs way too punishing and stressful for tanks and healers. The depletion protection only unlocking at 2850+ feels weird, considering even this late into Season 1 that is only the top 2-3% of all M+ participants. It really should be tiered, like you have suggested. Also, it would be nice to have Delves have a challenging end-game if it is really a system designed to serve as the next PvE "pillar". 11s became fairly trivial for most specs once they were in full Hero-track gear (or much earlier, looking at BDKs), and there was no reason to even run them besides two achievements. (Now non-M+/raiding people will have a reason to run 3x 11s per lockout, with the double-capped Gilded crests being added, but that is not much.)

[@Ahandii89]

The problem with the hero track gear at 619 is that you have to use 15 gilded crests to upgrade it to 623, but a myth track item starts at 623 ilvl. So for people who aren't farming gilded crests as easily, it felt really bad to spend those 15 gilded crests on an item, and running the risk of getting that slot in the vault on reset, effectively wasting 15 gilded crests. Once you start farming gilded crests comfortably, it does become a non issue tho. But the wall wouldnt just be moved to 623 instead of 619 if they remove the bad overlap

[@metsfan1932]

And this would be totally fine if crests weren't capped per week. Nothing feels worse than wasting a time gated currency.

[@deseanroot75]

With the changes, if you are doing content that drops Myth track gear, you are getting 15 myth crests as well lol. So this isn't really an issue

[@slymcfly123]

​@deseanroot75 don't say it's not a problem "IF". Exclusion is why people left.

[@deseanroot75]

@@slymcfly123 I don't think you read my comment properly. You do content that gives Mythic track gear. You also get 15 crests. You no longer have to feel bad about spending those crests as you get 1 upgrade per content completion.

[@slymcfly123]

@@deseanroot75 you said IF

[@IJKez]

Something I haven’t seen people talk about is the unnecessary 250 valorstones cost to create a spark from a fractured spark. Obtaining valorstones on my alt is a grind while I’m sitting on hundreds of crests that I can’t spend because of the lack of valorstones. If they need to keep valorstones they need to remove this cost. It creates a situation where you’re competing on spending valorstones on sparks for crafted gear over saving them for upgrading current gear. Valorstones are pointless to me, but if they have to remain this needs removed.

[@Tactyks]

Very true, I actually completely forgot about how annoying this cost was on fresh alts!

[@SouthernDrinkSlinger]

Nailed the tank rant! Keep it up, maybe they'll hear you. DFS3 was so much fun as a tank. Q time was instant. You could pull big & the dps see big numbers on the meters. Now I dont even try to pug my own key as a dps.

[@Tactyks]

Yeah really hoping to see tanks across the board get some love, I'm definitely biased but I think seasons are better when the tank role as a whole is strong.

[@blindshellvideos]

mythic plus needs more rewards and needs to be more independant of raid. right now if you dont raid you are behind 10-15 ilvls for like 2 months and by then the season is dead. it just needs mythic plus only items, fuck raids and fuck the 1% who blizzard designs the game for unfortunately.

[@Tactyks]

I think the topic of M+ items was brought up multiple times to Blizzard and has always been shot down. I do kind of get their logic of not wanting to separate gearing from PvE, and I think there is a world where they (finally) get the balance between the 2 modes right in terms of rewards, but M+ definitely felt behind raid in Season 1 so hopefully some stuff gets changed going into Season 2.

[@Skuggi88]

You seem unhinged. You complained about the 1% but act as if you are competing with them because you feel "behind."

[@Patrickl1988]

​@@Skuggi88I think what he meant by 'behind' was by means of gearing. It's not that we compete against them so to speak.. but if high lvl raid gear is attainable before those who can obtain comparable gear that just do M+ creates an extra barrier to get into groups as the current culture has always been to select meta classes/highest ilvl people etc..

[@Varindral96]

​​@@Patrickl1988 never had thay issue. I push keys, mythic raid etc and i work full time Just make your own groups and your life becomes easier.

[@snakebyteOne]

That ridiculous spike damage is really just starting to look like sloppy game design

[@k9tirion927]

It needs to be there to even threaten us due to defensive creep.

[@marcell_22]

23:40 The re-roll NPC always appearing is a great idea. However I think the best solution I heard so far to depletion feeling super bad is that keystones should have 3-5 charges before being depleted. That would help provide opportunity for a few practice runs on a key level without incentivizing to reset the key after the first mistake.

[@Tactyks]

Having a charge system on keys would definitely be nice as long as they don't go too overboard. Personally I'm more a fan of 2-3 charges to avoid the "tournament realm style" of doing M+ I referred to in the video which I personally don't enjoy, but I think in combination with something like the depletion immunity it would feel great even with a low number of charges.

[@marcell_22]

@ tournament-style wouldn’t be beneficial for the health of the game. Indeed not the most enjoyable, and also it would make it so people burn out much faster. But 3 charges would be a great quality of life change especially if they keep the death affix as it is now which makes mistakes especially punishing in the current system.

[@olawfhjorth9985]

I would like to see item slots in the vault UI where you can move one-two items randomized by the vault that you never want to drop again. That way you would be rewarded for playing a lot and loot would become more deterministic the further into the season you get.

[@Tactyks]

Yeah that would be a nice addition to help prevent some "bad luck" scenarios where your vault just consists of item slots you've already gotten in the past.

[@wrongman5495]

i mean you can change everything you want, but if people have to wait 30 min for a tank and 15 for a healr, nothing change

[@Muziejininkas]

Many things we already said by others, but what I could suggest is different rating system. Less points for fast and high keys. Give points to interupts, defensives, utility usage, active time damage, mechanics done correctly... So everyone could see that this player rating is personal and he is not blindly dpsing or getting carried. Also, at the end of every run there should be some popup info of these stats so players know what they did wrong and what skill to improve

[@Tactyks]

Would love there to be stats at the end of the dungeon like FPS games have so I don't have to search through details and logs to find stuff hahaha

[@Punsakimbo1101]

My thought was about giving tanks a 1.5 modifier for threat on their first hit with an active ability

[@Tactyks]

Definitely would not be opposed to this!

[@derangedhermit7981]

I really don't want to see more rewards past +10. It seems like there is constant move to push up the required difficulty in M+ all the time anyway and I think there really needs to be a cut off. As it is the system works fine with some people pushing for the mount, others for portals, still others for weekly mythic items and finally people who want to push for the title. After +10 you are doing it because you want to push yourself, its an intrinsic reward to see how high you can go you don't need Blizz to give even more rewards to an extremely small part of the player base. We've already segregated the community enough we really shouldn't add more. If anything I think we should start removing some of the highest difficulties and push it back into a model that rewards playing with friends of varying skill levels once again. I don't know about others but there are a lot of people I don't play with much any more because they simply can't play to the same skill level and frankly I'm tired of having to choose between pruning more friends or just not chase rewards.

[@Nr4747]

Imho, the biggest current problem (after crests had been fixed throughout multiple changes) is how extremely uneven the difficulty of certain M+ dungeons is, at least for pugs. I can easily pug a +11 Mists, Dawnbreaker or Ara Kara without even breaking a sweat (if the group is decent, if not, Ara Kara can still be painful), but I still don't have the portals for CoT or SV because most pugs fall apart before even reaching the final encounter.

[@Tactyks]

Tuning is definitely an issue from season to season, for example this season it felt like they were either very slow to tune (like the tank busters) or just kind of left things as is. That being said I don't think it's possible for every key to be the same difficulty, and they've been a lot better at reducing how different the outliers are since DF S1 when we had things like Court of Stars and Shadowmoon Burial Grounds that were multiple key levels easier than the next easiest key.

[@Nr4747]

@@Tactyks Oh yeah, I think this season feels reasonable good in terms of difficulty balance. I just wish the easiest 3 and hardest 2 dungeons were a bit closer together (and NW really needs a full rework in terms of spears and Stitchflesh basically being an auto-wipe if you miss a hook).

[@dane-train]

All good suggestions. No idea how PvP catchup works but something like 50% crest gains if more than 150 crests behind the current cap. Also definitely agree on runes crests going to 5/6. For two reasons. 1) I don’t want to use gilded for 523 since I’ll get that eventually out of the vault. It’s like throwing 15 gilded alway. 2) Since champion gear goes to 619 and reason 1 means champion and hero gear are the same.

[@Tactyks]

True I didn't even think about Champion gear also capping at 619, so if you don't want to waste Gildeds they are essentially the same as Hero gear which feels a bit odd. Also yes I believe the conquest gain is 50% from all sources (could be wrong though) which I think would be really nice late in the season or for players who are very far behind like you mentioned!

[@Machoman7.]

Love the discussion style vids, keep up the great work Tactyks!

[@Tactyks]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@driiifter]

Healing keys is just irritating now, it's not fun. Current Disc is also irritating. People take so much damage you can't even get a cast off. I'll go to start ramping and before I can ramp the tank has been hit for 70% of his HP, someone else simultaneously gets hit for 70% of their HP and then the rest of us are getting rotted down by something, then add on top of that the dumb ass heal absorb affix that I feel compelled to heal, I'm the only one doing it, the party is just letting the absorb sit on themselves. I may not heal in keys ever again until they get rid of affixes. There needs to be a pressure release valve, right now there is just way too much crap going on.

[@Sykretts]

The M+ influencers are over-complicating things as usual. Blizzard literally has to make just 1 change to "fix" participation and in this game mode - just make it fun. It's current iteration just isn't fun. It's over-designed and is targeting the wrong audience. Plain and Simple. Designing to gatekeep a large portion of your playerbase is a death sentence to any game mode in any game. It's just basic common sense. The M+ sweatlords are too invested to admit that's the fundamental issue with this pillar.

[@palewindtv]

Great video as always. I really want to emphasize that you are my favorite wow content creator. You strike such a great balance between providing summary, insight, and opinion without trying to be an FM radio shock jock. Keep up the great work!

[@Tactyks]

Appreciate the support friend, always nice to hear people enjoy my style of content!

[@derangedhermit7981]

Crest changes where amazing as were the crafted gear change. Took a new toon to 633 in under two weeks and I don't need to rely on the vault as I can finally just craft the gear which is really what I want. I've gone so many weeks on my main and alts with 0 upgrades in the vault despite more than half my gear at the time being upgraded if the slot dropped. Just a sea of trinkets that are not even on the trinket lists and rings with the wrong stats or gear that I already had from a previous week. Going into S2 I can buy sparks if its a bad vault and have the crests to actually make the item.

[@ic3t3ap3ach]

for me mythic upgrade is too much 6 steps is crazy and it makes hero gear usless. in df it was way better.

[@danielharvey3662]

Do you have a link to bansherz doc? I’ve missed it if you’ve shared it.

[@Tactyks]

Looks like the post he made on the competitive wow subreddit got removed so I'm not sure there is a public link available unfortunately, the doc I was showing on stream is private currently but I can ask if he'll open it up.

[@danielharvey3662]

@ I’d really appreciate that of you don’t mind.

[@Tactyks]

@@danielharvey3662 Try this link and let me know if it doesn't work: docs.google.com/document/d/1BJKcOuqmdrGoQjygS10deTXFXOWBuKtCAEV-_htIkRw

[@danielharvey3662]

@@Tactyksthat works! Thanks 🙏🏻

[@Costinvlad]

This should be viewed by blizz ! I think you "touched" everything that should be done !

[@Tactyks]

Hopefully someone there sees it!

[@christopherdaffron8115]

Well, Valorstones have been the fundamental way of upgrading gear since BFA. For Dragonflight Season 2, Blizzard introduced crests as an additional layer to the gear upgrade system. Apparently, Blizzard didn't like players simply obtaining their BIS gear in Mythic+2 Dungeons and then farming Valorstones ( Flightstones) to fully upgrade them. They wanted to force players to do higher level content in order to get the better gear.

[@Max-9871]

There are alot of things that need to change. 1.) no impactful non magic debuffs - so transform debuffs to magic or reduce the damage 2.) no targeted abilitys on DDs/heals that require def cds to survivie past +12/+13 3.) remove depletion - it sucks to fuckup a +15 GB for example and have to grind keys for 10 hours to get another try cause f you RNG. If they dont want to remove depletion give us atleast a option to trade our key for a specific one after completing a key instead of the RNG reroll. these migh be 3 things that dont impact below 3k score as much but for everyone pushing for the title its just pain and makes the grind so much worse

[@cocinaquemola]

I pug tanked every season since Bfa and I stopped this season. I also don't think the changes for S2 are enough to come back, so here we are, another season of lurking and mount farming :D

[@JBX5677JB]

Overall great suggestions. I think the only thing I additionally would like to see is separate tuning between M+ and Raid. I am thinking League of Legends-type tuning between ARAM and the normal Summoner's Rift. Where champions that perform better or worse in an ARAM type of mode receive aura modifiers that make them stronger or weaker while not impacting the base game. I believe this type of balancing would enable Blizzard to have more frequent balancing in M+ and not affect their preferred mode of raiding. The current environment of balancing is too slow and leaves many "losers" this patch to feel the need to FOTM reroll to get into higher content.

[@Tactyks]

I definitely think they could add more of those passives that empowers certain abilities in 5man content, but from a few interviews I've seen with Blizzard they seem very opposed to change how abilities work (or what works) between world, dungeon, and raid content, just so things aren't confusing. I do understand that logic, but it does restrict how far they can go with this form of tuning.

[@DierdreWolf]

On the subject of Tank Busters...they reduced a bunch in Theater of Pain down to .5 sec cast times. >.< Why do they do this to us? They are on track to make S2 just like S1 and then sit there and wonder : Why isnt anyone playing tanks? I donno maybe cause of BS like this again? I'll prolly just collect KSM and dip like I did this season again.

[@Tactyks]

My hope is that these are older changes that were pushed before the holidays and that they are open to adjusting them moving forward. Short cast times aren't inherently a problem, but when it forces you to pre-defensive in something like a +10 key or else you get one shot that's when things need to be seriously looked at.

[@Whistopher96]

Ok wow the treasure map is fking brilliant. Blizzard needs to steal that idea!!!!!

[@Tactyks]

Glad you liked it, I thought it was pretty clever and even uses something they've already implemented into the game.

[@Whistopher96]

Can we just get rid of flightstones omg

[@Tactyks]

Amen

[@metalhead375]

Can’t name the crests the same thing because when the next expansion comes along you’d be doing database calls to old crests.

[@darkwa456]

Nerfing the least played role was just a recipe for disaster, tanks should be given extra loot or crests. They have more responsibility they should have more rewards

[@DiogoSerranito]

I'm surprised you didn't find important for the health of the game that myth+8 drops myth track 1/6 on the vault. And it upgrades with difficulty like at level 12 should award myth track 4/6. As simple as that. Only way you won't think this is a great improvement is if you are a elistist jerk and if you don't use alts and never pug mythic plus.

[@omgnowairly]

Repeating the hero track complaint, that you don’t share, was silly. So many events and 7+ keys dropping hero track, where was no wall at 619.

[@Tactyks]

Maybe I could've been more clear, the complaint wasn't about not being able to get hero gear, it was about the fact that the hero track crests have very little value compared to other crest types, so players that are on the edge of content that grant gilded crests/myth gear get walled at 619 ilvl and are in this weird space where upgrading a hero piece to 623 feels really bad because its essentially "wasting" a limited currency. Gilded crests this season were at an all time high in amount of upgrade tracks they are used for, so my suggestion was to make the 619-623 upgrade instead cost the heroic crest to remove that feeling and give players who are on that border of content a bit more of a boost.

[@RioDru]

Tactyks, WoW community doesn't deserve you. Keeping calm and sharing rational thoughts is quite rare nowadays. But nonetheless, I agree on most. I am weirdly exited about season 2 due the course Blizzard took since the DF that make rational changes to the game and make game overall better from patch to patch. Even considering sometimes it's 1 step forward 2 steps back. Also holy priest rework makes me excited. Although, I hope they don't overnefr prot war. Anyway, regardless of their tuning state/meta, I will play them both 😄

[@Varindral96]

My only issue this season is just the players. We are seeing so many new players and players who are out of their league due to the key changes. With the old system bad playeds would get stuck at the 14-18 level but now they are stuck at the 8-10 level. Like legit 11s are easier then 8-10s its wilds.

[@dirusj4006]

Myth track is a massive wall right now for M+ and it sucks. Those extra ilvls are punishing for anyone that doesn't Myth raid. Praying Vault gives you a myth upgrade every week for months sucks.... NM getting BIS

[@TheRabbit68]

They probably need to make a lot of drastic changes at this point to even have a chance to convince the players who left to try a new season a chance. Season 1 might have actually be one of the worst seasons ever.

[@kv_6584]

I reckon that 95% of season one's problems ( in Mythic +) actually comes down to some really just terrible encounter design. City of Threads, Dawnbreaker and Stonevault are all some of the worst mythic+ dungeons in the history of the game imo. I would honestly rather have the hellhole of Shrine of the Storm on quaking and bolstering back than heal a Dawnbreaker ever again. Also, The Devour affix (the healing absorb one) is literally just a worse version of Afflicted. No-one, and I mean NO-ONE ever bothers to dispel themselves. Its only 1 global people...

[@vjr6939]

Or just use valor, crests suck, have since whatever mongo thought them up. Considering how many M+ puggers get to discussed milestones, you tell me how much quality of life the crests changes for alts really matter…

[@sergiobaudino6749]

Remove the vault, just let people get geared based on skills, if you do harder content you get best rewards

[@bubbasernie5762]

Don’t think that gatekeeping ilvl is helpful to the player base

[@Tactyks]

I mean the vault does give you better rewards for players that do harder content as it stands, definitely would not want to go back to a gearing world without it personally.

[@TheRabbit68]

They'll never get rid of the vaults because it essentially timegates bis pieces for a majority of the playerbase.