World of Warcraft Dragonflight season two is just around the corner, and with it, the game is expected to change immensely. This spring, WoW players will get to experience a new raid, a new pool of Mythic+ dungeons, and a host of fresh open-world experiences that will bring even more life to the Dragon Isles.
While the reception to Dragonflight has been overwhelmingly positive throughout the first four months of its lifespan, there’s still room to improve upon an expansion that already is promising to be among the best in WoW’s lengthy history. While most of the changes we’d like to see are purely technical and cater to the marginal progression of your character, instead of wide-sweeping gameplay experiences, there’s still enough progress that needs to be made for Dragonflight to ascend from “one of the best expansions” to “the best expansion.”
Here are four specific changes we’d like to see Blizzard take a stab at in Dragonflight season two.
More engaging Mythic+ affixes
Mythic+ players have been brutally honest this season when it comes to their opinions on affixes: something needs to change.
Mythic+ dungeons, to a certain extent, are overwhelming, and with mechanics (specifically those from non-boss enemies) becoming harder to deal with, the affixes that have been in the game since 2016 are starting to grow stale. Although affixes originally were meant to make Mythic+ dungeons more engaging and difficult, they’ve now made them particularly frustrating, as even more responsibility is shouldered on top of players. Blizzard’s dungeon design team is only getting more creative as time goes on, so to have affixes that make your gameplay experience unenjoyable only takes away from the progress made by engaging mechanics. Things like getting your spellcasts interrupted and having to constantly heal players above 90 percent HP isn’t fun in the face of uniquely difficult enemies.
It’s unlikely that a massive overhaul will come to Mythic+ affixes in Dragonflight season two, but with how much noise the community is making, it’s probable that we’ll see the foundations of change before the expansion ends.
Faster access to the Revival Catalyst
Being able to turn your gear into tier set pieces is one of the most convenient mechanics in all of WoW. Unfortunately, the Revival Catalyst took a bit too long to debut in season one. Having access to at least one guaranteed tier piece a week would make life a lot easier for raiders, especially now that group loot is back in full swing. Wearing normal or LFR-level tier pieces six weeks into your guild’s Mythic raid progression isn’t a situation you want to be in, but earlier access to the Catalyst would solve that problem. While having access to the Catalyst off the jump might be too intense (especially in regard to the World First race), putting it in the game ahead of the season’s third or fourth week could serve as a happy medium.
A higher Valor cap
Valor is one of the best ways to upgrade your WoW character’s gear since you can use it to incrementally increase the item level of pieces you get from Mythic+ dungeons. But only having access to 750 Valor a week is pitiful. Getting a piece of gear and only being able to marginally increase its power on a week-to-week basis feels unrewarding. While totally uncapped Valor is best left as a later-in-season catch-up mechanism, a more lenient Valor cap each week (somewhere between 1,000 and 1,250) would at least make players more incentivized to spend their Valor points en masse, while still keeping the general populous’ power creep in check.
Fewer mandatory items
Season one of WoW Dragonflight has featured plenty of already-iconic items that have become mandatory for certain classes. Items like Elemental Lariat, Manic Grieftorch, Neltharax, and others became used at a near-100 percent clip for certain specs and classes due to their relative strength over other options. While uniquely strong pieces of gear are intriguing and class-specific items are definitely cool, they lose that sense of overpowered mystique once everyone in the game starts to use them. In season two, it would be ideal to see fewer items dominate the meta and, as a result, fewer specs being pinholed into identical builds. Of course, best-in-slot items will always exist, but the difference between the best option and the alternatives shouldn’t make or break a class.
Published: Mar 1, 2023 03:39 pm