In today’s Live Developer Q&A for Patch 8.1.5, World of Warcraft Game Director Ion Hazzikostas called the Titanforging system a “solution to the problems” proposed by specific loot tables in raiding. He stated that Titanforging was essentially an “answer” to the demoralizing feeling you may get if you’re clearing a boss countless times and an upgrade is seemingly never on the horizon.
Hazzikostas went on to drive home the point that Titanforging provides players with “hope of continued power progression” and that raiders have “things to look forward to” when stepping into a raid.
This couldn’t be less accurate.
Titanforging, in the time that it has made its climb to the pinnacle of relevance, has mainly served as a disservice to the game, as players are essentially pigeonholed into a longshot belief that there’s always a chance at an upgrade whenever they raid. However, after a certain point, this “hope” turns into frustration, and eventually, that frustration turns into flat out disdain for the system.
If you were to run a raid for seven consecutive weeks without an upgrade, perhaps “hope” isn’t enough to make you want to come back and ram your head into a wall for an eighth week in a row.
Players are slowly coming to the conclusion that loot tables are becoming nothing more than a lottery, and now more than ever (especially since the removal of all other loot options besides personal loot) it feels as if players have less and less control over the progression of their character.
Hazzikostas even went on to discourage the reimplementation of a Valor Point system, saying that Valor Points and manual progression “make transitioning from one raid tier to the next awkward”. He also stated that Valor Points and item upgrades inflate players’ strength. In all fairness to the system, that’s the point.
Let’s say you’re in a guild focused on normal raiding and you struggle getting heroic bosses down. Perhaps if you were able to manually progress your gear, you’d stand a fighting chance instead of having to ram your head against a wall eight weeks in a row with nothing but “hope” to guide you through the incredibly lengthy and frustrating process.
On top of all of the misconstrued promises, proposals, and elusive question dodges featured in the section of the Q&A surrounding Titanforging and character progression, the ever-eloquent Josh “Lore” Allen hearkened back to the days of The Burning Crusade when Titanforging was nonexistent and he had to “farm Black Temple for a year-plus for no upgrades”.
With all due respect, Josh, this isn’t Burning Crusade, and the game has evolved since that point. WoW is no longer an archaic fossil of a game that requires you to blindly push forward, simply “hoping” that one day, you’ll break through the barrier and grab the upgrade you’ve been working months to obtain. WoW has evolved heavily since TBC and to compare the current state of the game to the way things were over a decade ago is frankly absurd. If I cared about the way loot tables and item upgrades worked back in 2008, I’d wouldn’t be caring so deeply about the way things work in 2019.
And now, five months into the current expansion, all of that precious “hope” we had as players back in the summer of last year is all but gone. And as we progress further into BfA, especially with the release of the Battle of Dazar’Alor in full swing, raiding might just be the last bastion of hope that the expansion has left. And still, the main draw of the raiding scene – loot – is heavily plagued by an oversimplified and downright puzzling system.
If Blizzard wants to see a revitalization when it comes to “hope” in its players, giving them more power over their character’s progression would be the first step in the right direction. Titanforging is a broken mechanic – it always has been. If anything, the system we have in place now is a threat to inflate players’ strength – not the one that focuses on Valor Points and manual upgrades. The only players that are receiving any sort of gratification from Titanforging are the lucky ones – the ones that essentially pull the lever on the slot machine when the boss is at 1% and “hope” the tides turn in their favor. The system effectively removes the factor of skill from the game and replaces it entirely with luck.
However, if there was any comment from today’s Q&A that could provide players with a sense of “hope” when it comes to manual progression, it came when Hazzikostas said that Valor Points and manual upgrades were “only necessary during the final tier of an expansion when everyone is trying to reach their goals for the expansion”. It may take a few more months, but perhaps a solution to the “solution” may be on the horizon. Let’s just “hope” it isn’t too late.
Photo Credit: Blizzard Entertainment, World of Warcraft
This sounds like it’s written by someone who did 8 weeks of raiding too long…. It makes sense but none of the systems “work” depending on people’s playing time. If you’re a hardcore raider the valor system quickly becomes your realm to bis loot and you don’t have to play after the first month of a major release and have nothing to do for the next 6… Titanforging at least gives you something to play for even if it isn’t your bis slot that gets Titanforged it may be an upgrade right? I’d almost say a combo of the two might be the way Blizzard needs to focus to help short term and long term players stay interested on a game that has such a long space in between content
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Blizzard must think we are really dumb to believe the reason they put titanforging in was to solve the loot problem. There was no loot problem, they only put titanforging in to increase time played metric, have people chasing that elusive titanforged carrot forever. Same with the pvp vendor, if you think there is no pvp vendor because of their official answer that ‘some people bought the wrong items and complained’ then think again. They only removed pvp vendors so people have to pull the slot machine lever for pvp gear. So many more than a handful of people have complained about the removal of pvp vendors but there is no way they are coming back. So sad to see what this game has become. I wonder if Blizzard ever factored into their calculations the people who left the game because of these junky systems and reduced their precious time played and MAU metrics.
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I am tired of disheartened players that play expansion after expansion declaring their disappointment and not realizing that if you can’t find a good thing in this for so long, the problem probably lies with you and not the game. Stop playing. Not for the other players. For you. Cheers
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“If you were to run a raid for seven consecutive weeks without an upgrade, perhaps “hope” isn’t enough to make you want to come back and ram your head into a wall for an eighth week in a row.”
What do you think happens if the TF system is removed? You kill boss day 1 of raid opening, you get the bis item you needed! Congrats! You now get to farm this boss for 6+ months with zero upgrades because you already got the item you needed on day 1, congrats! Doesn’t this feel way better than TF?
With TF, you get base item level day 1… now, the next time you kill this boss, its not a complete waste of your time. There’s a chance you’ll get an upgrade… which is WAY better than having ZERO chance of an upgrade whatsoever.
What do you do when you’re a mythic raider, and your nooby friends ask you to help them out in a normal clear? Well, you’re geared to tits, there’s no upgrades for you in this world of no titanforging… so you tell your friends “sorry, there’s no upgrades for me, its a waste of time”
No, with TF system, you’re super geared and your nooby friends asks you to help out “Sure, I’d love to help out, I dont need anything but if an item TFs, it could be an upgrade so it might not be a total waste of my time!”
But yes, keep saying how horrible TF system is. The game sucks without TF. Imagine playing for months on end knowing full well you CANT get an upgrade because you already got items. That is so much worse than TF.
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Every drop in wow was LUCK, it had nothing to do with skill whether or not the huntsman’s rifle dropped, or felstrikers blade. Which my gf got on her first time to that dungeon during vanilla, and I NEVER saw it drop again.
The game itself isn’t far from the same drop rates of previous expansions, meaning it’s all luck. Titanforging does add that extra bit, it does give the potential for an item. But by no means is the drop rate system good, however this article seems to be written in the context that this is a whole new World of Warcraft. It’s not, and you can’t understand the future without knowing the past.
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im not a raider, i do dungeons sometimes, witch isnt easy because often wether its a raid or dungeon, people often boot you because your gear isnt good enough, or there is some jerk thet seems to win all the rolls or they just wont slow down and let anyone loot. how am i to get my gear up if i can’t loot anything, or even stay in the dam group. I still play not as much as i used to. and they totally destroyed legion, why quest at all when your artifacts are nothing. like wtf is the goal
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