wow Reduced Loot Quantities in Shadowlands: Yay or Nay?

[Stan 5,240]

Blizzard decided to reduce loot quantities in Shadowlands and eliminated Warforging and Titanforging from the game. Loot right now feels special and earned, but is it for the better?

Blizzard reduced loot quantities across the board in Shadowlands by completely removing War/Titanforging from the game along with bonus rolls and limiting end-of-dungeon rewards to 1. They highlighted all the specifics in a blue post back in September.

(Source)

I’d like to take a step back on this subject and look at the big picture.

As has been observed in the Beta, loot quantities overall are reduced in Shadowlands. Following the proclamation “let loot be loot,” we’re entering into a world without Warforging and Titanforging, where getting an item from relevant content should feel rewarding on its own more often, without needing to hope for random upgrades.

Bonus rolls no longer exist, and the Great Vault captures the value they used to provide to raiders. Non-raiders should also factor in the Great Vault, as completing a Mythic Keystone +15 will award a choice of up to three item-level 226 pieces from the Great Vault.

Currently, in the Shadowlands Beta / first tier of the expansion, PvP loot for top ratings caps out at item level 226.

While outdoor world gameplay and professions offer a range of epic gear, the very strongest loot in WoW comes from the three organized multiplayer endgame progression paths: Rated PvP, Mythic Keystone dungeons, and raiding. The design intent is for all three paths to provide parallel progression over the course of a tier, while providing players who engage in multiple paths at a comparable level a faster advancement experience. For example, we’re currently targeting item level 213 for Challenger-level PvP, Heroic raiding, or Mythic Keystone dungeons at the +7 difficulty.

Of course, there could be further adjustments to all of this in the weeks to come before Shadowlands launches.

The community had more than a month to react to the changes, and the responses were mostly mixed. Some players really like the slower pace and think less loot feels more rewarding, and they are fine with doing more content for less rewards.

Conversely, other players complain they don't get invited to groups because they can't gear up as quickly as in previous expansions and think each activity should guarantee loot.

We have summarized the most interesting responses in this article.

K3vB ran 9 dungeons to finally see some loot, but in the end, he was genuinely excited, and the rest of the players on Discord celebrated with him on Discord when he got an item. The player says loot hasn't felt better for a long time.

Mormuth didn't like the community's reaction to less loot in Shadowlands and thought you should change your guild if you are getting benched for not getting enough loot.

Another player hopes all the community whining won't bring back Warforging and Titanforging.

Reddit user DryProperty thinks Shadowlands is the first expansion in a long time, where he doesn't have anywhere near Best-in-Slot gear 3 weeks after launch, and he loves that.

Bdan4 thinks people are short-sighted, and 1-2 pieces of Item Level 213 loot per week are more than enough to keep you excited.

On the other end of the spectrum, we have players that received no viable loot in a week and do not like the changes.

ManqobaDad ran Plaguefall 16 times to get the trinket but received just 1 item from all the runs.

Finally, RetKennedy has a more proactive approach to the problem at hand. With the reduced loot quantities, the player would like to see raid tokens and vendors return to the game. In the past, raid bosses dropped tokens that could be exchanged for specific gear slots. That way, it was easy to target specific items, even though loot was scarce.

What do you think about loot quantities in Shadowlands? Do you have issues gearing up, or do you appreciate the overall slower pace?

[FireLordJohn 91]

Imo, the anima drops need to be increased. It’s way too much of a grind.  

[Pandabuffel 184]

20 minutes ago, FireLordJohn said:

Imo, the anima drops need to be increased. It’s way too much of a grind.  

I agree it should be a little bit higher, but not too much or people will be overflowing with Anima too quick. Would like just a small buff to the tokens like the 5 anima ones increase to 10 anima each, and the 35 anima ones to 50 anima each. I don't think it'll be too much, but just give that slight boost that makes it right (not sure till tested offcourse).

[Muleface 16]

I'm fine with war and titan forging being gone. I'm also fine with bonus rolls never coming back, too.

Three pieces of loot for 20 people is a tad punishing in my book, though.

[Hypersonic 119]

The changes are absolutely pain in the *filtered* if you are a working man and have only few hours (or even less) to play per day. 

I understand someone love that feeling if get something after lof of suffering but I don't. Do 4-5 (or more) dungeons without even see a piece of loot and suffer in M+ for that 35 Anima is ridiculous. If you have only this small amount of time to play you want at least some reward but the system only punish you and force to play more and more.. but you already paid for it and don't want to be forced to even play more with it. I don't understand the thinking behind this changes at all. And even slow down the gearing alternative specializations or make an alt characters to be able discover for example other covenants. 

Overall I absolutely hate this new changes in the loot drop chance. Removing TF and WF was a good move but the rest... mehh...

 

[Calorat 78]

Add loot to Torghast, even if it's only 1 piece a week.  My biggest issue with loot is item level of WQ rewards being tied to renown, way too many conduits being offered as rewards,  and  the seemingly random gear rewards where I have not seen a ranged weapon reward even offered on my hunter and all my shammy sees are melee weapon rewards with agility when I play elemental.  And don't forget the issue a week or so ago when the WQ offered a super sweet Mastery trinket, but to only like 1 class and the rest got stupid conduits as the reward.  Or today where the elite quest to kill 2 Arena opponents in Maldraxxus rewarded my shammy witha sweet 250 anima, but my hunter, DK, and druid got useless conduits.

Edited December 28, 2020 by Calorat
addition

[Migol 433]

I'm fine with reduced loot but we should in turn see smarter loot.    I can't tell you how many rings and shoulders I've given away the last few weeks, while I'm stuck with 184 legs.    Should be obvious that if you're going to make loot more rare per player you need to make sure what they do get isn't worthless to them.

[Brutalis 165]

I have to do more of the content I've been doing for years to get less rewards than I've gotten in years. It's very demotivating.

[PatrickHenry 293]

I personally feel like this is a side-ways attempt to funnel people into alts.  You wanted alt-friendly, less grinding and such... well you get it but in the end some things get pulled with it.

Its the law of unintended consequences. 

i could use it as a time to work on alts instead for more impactful playtime, but the levelling is so fresh that i burn myself out after half a level.  I just have to stop.

I think its just a "everything has trade-offs" and this is one of them.

[Ragingwolf 310]

Ran 15-17 different Mythic+ keys that range from Level 5-8 and gotten mostly anima power with 3 items that were not an upgrade for either my Specializations.  The RNG factor is aggravating and needs to be reworked imo.  And I'm not too thrilled of what I have to choose from the Vault either this Tuesday.

[Oberyn 5]

I'd say Yay and Nay. I love the Great Vault, that has worked great two weeks in a row (for me, anyways). I legitimately had tough choices to make out of my 4 total loot options (2 m+'s, 2 PvP) and they were all beneficial in their own way. I like having a shot at helpful loot from World Bosses (Only got 1 item out of the 3 so far, though.), from the Jailer, and the PvP vendors with the option to spend honor to upgrade both the honor pieces and conquest pieces is a delight. 

The nay part comes in when you get unlucky in a PUG and miss the timer by like, a minute or two and only 1 damn person gets something at the end of the dungeon. Or, even worse as it's happened to me plenty, is toughing through an hour long failed M+ run with a PUG to have the same thing happen. And as mentioned by guys in the article, I've gone quite a few M+'s in a row with nodda. At least hook up some gold for repairs! hah hah. 

I'm not a big raider so I can't comment on how that's going.

[Elsiane 1]

im hunter

this week i ran more than 15 m+, most of them was 5+ keys and 6 keys of 6+ and 7+

also i did raid on normal 4 bosses and the lfr, still nothing from the hunter boss

my item lvl is 192 but im still with a 171ilvl weapon.... 😞

Edited December 29, 2020 by Elsiane

[Senou 40]

All of these people who posted on reddit were fine with having a drop after X amount of dungeons but I bet they were massively frustrated when they got 35 anima per run before loot dropped for them...

This is BS at the highest rate. I myself hate world of warcraft as it is now. I stopped raiding after clearing NHC because blizzard cannot be asked to fix tuning issues with lots of classes / specs as well as horrible loot drops. My raid consists of 30 people and the amount of drops per boss is retarded, just as the conduits.

[breck 29]

12 minutes ago, Elsiane said:

im hunter

this week i ran more than 15 m+, most of them was 5+ keys and 6 keys of 6+ and 7+

my item lvl is 192 but im still with a 171ilvl weapon.... 😞

I feel your pain, my hunter has a slightly lower item level. His weapon just went from 158 to 171. There are a couple of world quests each day for survival at 171 nearly every day but they have all been staves. No hunter weapons,  if i wanted to play survival spec i would just main a Death Knight. After multiple runs of no loot i was demoralized and feel like this game is not worth my time. I think i am gonna play out shadowlands call it quits. 

Edit I work 12 hour days and my time is limited, i dont expect to be showered with loot but i dont expect to get nothing from 3 weeks of my time either.

Edited December 29, 2020 by breck

[DahFemur 14]

Smarter loot that increase the chance you have on low ilvl piece and/or guarantee for 1 loot per X number of boss down would be interesting , i get the positive change less loot bring but some ppl are so unlucky it feels unfair for them im in the average but i got a friend who didnt loot a single piece in 3 week of raid and most of his m+ are very low because of ilvl problem , on the other hand some are getting BOE back to back and 5/6 piece per raid run... 

[Daxist 1]

Smart loot would be nice, but i have no problem with the actual drop rate. Out of the 30+ Mythic+'s i have done i have gotten 2 pieces of loot, a trinket and a pair of hands. I also got traded a piece of gear during one of the raids i did, yet to receive a drop but i don't really mind.

I don't play for loot, i play to have fun, and loot eventually comes. Sure sometimes you feel like you get nothing, other times it feels like you get everything. It sucks to only spend a few hours a week and not get much but i much prefer this over both legion and BFA where i was drowning in gear.

I think the biggest problem is the community perception that you need BiS straight away.

[elmurufdd 45]

with loot liek this im playing less i do my raid clears and run 4 pluses and that it no reason to spam pluses when u have a 1% chance at loot why bother 

[alicefear911 2]

i should say, there is a weak point of loot, the hunter weapon, other class can get their weapon from other class, but hunter can not do that, they have to loot the bow or gun by themselves, in my raid team,  we have 4 hunters, but all of us only use lv184 weapon to raid, we do a lot of m+, but still no one get a weapon.they need forced on it

[Senou 40]

7 hours ago, DahFemur said:

Smarter loot that increase the chance you have on low ilvl piece and/or guarantee for 1 loot per X number of boss down would be interesting , i get the positive change less loot bring but some ppl are so unlucky it feels unfair for them im in the average but i got a friend who didnt loot a single piece in 3 week of raid and most of his m+ are very low because of ilvl problem , on the other hand some are getting BOE back to back and 5/6 piece per raid run... 

^^ This Post ^^ This is the truth we're facing.

Right now everything in WoW is time gated except for M+. You cannot grind conquest at yoir hearts content, you cannot kill bosses multiple times and you cannot finish the effing campaign which revolves around revendreth being a shithole.
Yet blizzard dares to fiddle with loot too much as well. Why would I play a MMORPG where my character level, stats and gear matter when I cannot get stuff? Of course it is a made up problem by the community but man, the community sucks as well. Imaging a world where you go to work for days and you have to be lucky to get paid for a day of work. No one would do that. The 35 Anima at the end of a run is blizzard spitting in your face and laughing at you for trying so hard.
 

[SkArcher 0]

The weapon drop rate is a real issue; because all the weapons are single stat locked, trading weapons is much less likely to happen, and this results in the RNG completely screwing some people over.

 

My guild's main tank from BfA is iLvl 195, but still using Heroic Warglaives because nothing drops, despite 20+ M+ runs a week.

[Violent 1]

This loot system is complete BS.  No one likes to run 20+ mythics just to get one piece of loot which has s&!t stats, thanks for that Blizzard.  Now on the other hand, if you are a streamer you get properly stat'd gear on the 1st or 2nd run.   Streamers get the loot that they need because it promotes the game, and the rest of us peasants get handed the garbage gear. 

Maybe I should start streaming so I too can get BiS gear and BoEs.  And maybe Blizzard should rethink this loot system.  Just because I get the gear I need does not mean I will stop playing the game.  But running countless mythics with no gear to show for it makes you rethink, "it might be time for a new game".  And Blizzard can go eat a fat

[calledyouout 16]

Loot is fine, content is doable without it if you are a stronger player.

People will gear over time and then it will be doalble for weaker player.

We run sub optimal M+ keys 11/12 with Warlock, Pally tank and arms warrior... not hard at IL 190+

Get better or wait? Imagine it was easy now? The soubinds and covenant rewards as you level it is a way of getting stronger over time. The mediocre/weak players just need to play for the long haul and they will be.

Blizzard have done the right thing this expac, it is a shame some of the community are not all there in the head and need 200 IL for a +2 (genuinly see it all the time)

 

[Hypersonic 119]

14 hours ago, PatrickHenry said:

I personally feel like this is a side-ways attempt to funnel people into alts.  You wanted alt-friendly, less grinding and such... well you get it but in the end some things get pulled with it.

Its the law of unintended consequences. 

i could use it as a time to work on alts instead for more impactful playtime, but the levelling is so fresh that i burn myself out after half a level.  I just have to stop.

I think its just a "everything has trade-offs" and this is one of them.

That is not alt-friendly if you need to do 10 dungeons for 1 loot. I can't even gear my main. 

[Ragingwolf 310]

13 minutes ago, calledyouout said:

Loot is fine, content is doable without it if you are a stronger player.

People will gear over time and then it will be doalble for weaker player.

We run sub optimal M+ keys 11/12 with Warlock, Pally tank and arms warrior... not hard at IL 190+

Get better or wait? Imagine it was easy now? The soubinds and covenant rewards as you level it is a way of getting stronger over time. The mediocre/weak players just need to play for the long haul and they will be.

Blizzard have done the right thing this expac, it is a shame some of the community are not all there in the head and need 200 IL for a +2 (genuinly see it all the time)

 

I say nay to your response due to the fact that pug groups are now requiring ilvl over 200 and a io of over 900+ to run keys Level 9-11+.  When you farm constantly for any type of upgrade that won't drag your secondary stats down to hinder your dps it becomes a nuisance.  And when you run close to 20 keys per week and only gotten Anima power that is not 'self progress' for self improvement or 'rewarding' to say the least.  I'm not a shabby player when it comes to Tanking or DPS and I'm not lazy, mediocre/weak when I perform the role I play in for keys.  And I work hard and learn on navigating the Dungeons for timing, with completion being secondary unless the group falls apart.  And when you get pm's ingame asking why you are not pushing 10's and higher yet and your response is lack of gear it's a bit nerve wracking.

Pending on Covenant you chose the time gating factor limits progress.  I say this that some Soulbinds like the Nightfae have access to the secondary potency slot a lot sooner than that of Kyrian.  Pelagos you have to wait till Renown 21 before access and Kleia will have an open pathway for another Endurance slot starting today.

'Get better or wait?', if you think that justifies me running and timing 30 Mythic+ of level 8 or higher for one possible upgrade I say nay.  Get better?  Hell I'm pushing more than I can say for my own Guildies as  DH with dual Spec while pugging myself for increased difficult keys. Wait for the gear?  No, not when my goal is to work and complete 15's on time for the Achievement and mount before Season 1 ends.

[Menzo 1]

Smartloot would be ideal for me.

I don't mind having a lower loot chance but at least give me an upgrade the next time I Loot something.  No duplicate.

In 3 weeks, I have looted 3 pieces from M+ and they were all pants ...  I already got the Legendary one ... This is sad and makes me feels like running M+ in completely Useless.

Oh yes, take notes that I have killed the world boss 3 times and 6 raid bosses.  0 loot from those too.  Meanwhile, a friend of mine keeps getting several 3 loots from the last boss of dungeons. (Gear, Legendary, conduits)