wow Changes to Raid Achievements (11th January Hotfixes)

[Valks 2,375]

It looks like there have been some changes to the requirements for older meta achievements in raiding, namely the Dragon Soul and Pandaria Raider. Is this a sign of what is to come in the future?

 

The most obvious reason for the meta achievements to have been changed is to allow players to complete them alone. Blizzard seem to be pushing themselves towards a "please-all" attitude, in which they make everything available regardless of playstyle. The achievements, Holding Hands and Show Me Your Moves!, were known for their difficulty to solo when farming the achievements.

 

By removing them from the meta, players can now fully complete the achievement alone, without needing to go to any extreme lengths to solo them. While this might be a good idea, one has to ask the question of, will this continue? 

 

There are a number achievements that remain in the game, which require a certain number of players to complete. One of the most well known ones is Share The Love, which requires a full party of 5 to complete.

 

If it is that Blizzard wishes to "downsize" the game to be solo-friendly, then there are a huge number of changes to be made in the raid achievements section. While it ends up being more friendly to solo players, does it add to what the expansion already started?

 

Warlords of Draenor is famed for the toll it had on social interactions due to garrisons, so surely expanding this "isolation" into achievements is only going to make the problem worse. When you need to get these achievements, you are forced to find people that will help you, whether they are friends or strangers. There have been a number of players that I personally have become friendly with, caused by us playing together to earn an achievement.

 

Don't let these changes cause the same impact that garrisons did, please! Let us know what you think continuing these changes might do to the game. 

 

 

[johndavidson806 0]

Personally I do content solo as I have issues with some individuals attitudes to others gameplay/style when they do something, these individuals just have to comment as they are obviously better at the game (in their own eyes).

 

Doing solo content for me fills time when no-one else is available in guild/b.net, rather than jumping toon to toon to do the interminably boring dailies (as they've become).

 

May be a way ahead is for some better reward system for metas achieved whilst in a group. This ensures that the grp system for older content stays and has a carrot for doing it in a grp. So a 2 tier meta system maybe? A grp meta and a solo meta.

[Valks 2,375]

Thanks for the comment John, I agree that it's sometimes nice to just relax and plough through some older content during the quieter hours of the day.

 

May be a way ahead is for some better reward system for metas achieved whilst in a group. This ensures that the grp system for older content stays and has a carrot for doing it in a grp. So a 2 tier meta system maybe? A grp meta and a solo meta.

 

This is an interesting idea, but it would perhaps mimic exactly what they removed in the past. Blizzard seem to have a problem at the moment with allowing things to be "gated", such as with the Wrath of the Lich King meta achievements. You were required to complete them in both 10 and 25-man, and since they all gave different rewards, they saw it as unfair to those that couldn't raid in a smaller/larger group.

 

I'd be very interested to see something like this implemented, but I feel like the solo-part of it would somehow be neglected. Soloing has never really been a big thing in the game, like Proving Grounds being pretty much the same thing as they were in Mists of Pandaria, but with "Season 2" slapped onto the achievements.

 

There's also the fact that they really don't like re-visiting old content. This was a quick fix for them, to just remove the achievements from the meta, but they'd need to bring in a separate reward if there are two metas introduced.

 

I like the idea, but I don't think it's in the "spirit" of Blizzard.