Well, it’s not that it sounds bad, but you have an internal logic flaw in there. Not doing “hardcore” content is taking a shortcut in life per se after all.
The issue is that a system that allows you to get mats on the side without putting in the effort stands to throw off the rewards for the majority of people playing the game, only to solve a problem that is already easily solvable.
To answer your second question, yes, buses are legal (except pilot ones, avoid that shit), and you usually pay for it by mail or buying a gem from the auction house.
bussing is a part they cant and wont do anything about, other than adding legion raids you can’t “bus” like clown (for now). you pay by buying a gem or item the driver links to you from the AH. so you use your gold… or you know you don’t take a bus… up to you!
Bruh lol. Idk about u but for me and I’d wager most other people, i do legion raids because they arent mindless button presses and actually puts the point into playing a game vs watching a show. As a bonus i get some mats as well. I dont think “ i want to do this raid and this is so fun to me because shitters cant do it wow look at how good i am and how fun this is because im better.”
Then you should have no problem with easier content since it wouldn’t affect you. You keep doing what you like and others would do what they like. Player base grows and more things in AH etc etc. everyone wins. Except I’m guessing you still have a problem with it and we know the reason why.
I get your point OP, at the same time I get the point this rude guy is making. They can’t just cater to everything to everyone. Why get raiding gear from other content when you’re not gonna raid. Just go enjoy your daily/more chill weekly content with legendary gear if you really dont wanna buy bus. But imo best option is when you are doing something else at home but can still semi-afk play go in LFG and buy a bus, all you have to do is buy a gem and they are usually fast and simple and only cost a little amount of gold if you buy boxes to get relics even faster
fun is subjective, I personally don’t find them “fun” after first clear but I find them “reasonable content gate” for progression. Most people play legion raids since it is the most efficient way to progress in game, not because it’s mind-blowingly fun every single week. Same goes for chaos dungeons and other things.
You really think when the “casuals” make it to endgame they suddenly start enjoying them? no, they would start asking for nerf. For proof, remember when vykas first launched and nobody had problem with Vykas hard. After the up to 1460 progression support event happened, suddenly millions of posts were asking for vykas hard nerf.
When you find something you don’t like, you leave not ask for it to be likable even to you. It’s not about exclusion and feeling superior over others.
Time is limited for a business, imagine Smilegate pausing content update for time just to tailor existing ones for those casuals’ taste.
“It’s fine cuz it’s not harming anyone”
It don’t work that way, firstly, they are harming the developers by giving extra work that never needed, secondly, they are harming those who progress to experience new content in the first day by delaying the schedule.
Also it’s very entitled of you to think that population of same taste as yours is more important than ones who wants progression/new content.
Did you know new content update is usually what boosts player count, not the content nerfs?
The problem is that it does and it will. People being able to do alternatives do legion only need gear to do future legion and if they decide one day “todays the day i do legion” after never touching a legion in their life at akkan, were gonna have an influx of trap like never before and regular players pay the price for that
Why do you need relic gear exactly if you are not going to run any group content that matters? I don’t get what’s the point of this post. You are asking to skip literal end game so that you can have end game gear to do what exactly? Not play end game content? Where’s ounce of brainpower behind this post?
Upgrading your gear and getting stronger is a major theme in an MMO, especially in LA since there is little else to do after you do most of the horizontal content. I think OP’s point is there should be casual-friendly content for every raid so in that case you’d be getting better gear for the next raid just like players do now. The only person lacking brainpower here is you.
Why do you need top tier gear to beat the easy mode of the raid is my point? Top tier gear for the most difficult raid. Not to mention how vykas normal and valtan normal are extremely easy and beginner friendly/forgiving raids. If you can’t beat normal modes of those two this game maybe isn’t for you.
The point I am making is once you have Argos gear there is no “gear/set bonus” upgrades to get so you simply have nothing to do, so what’s the motivation to play every day. Allowing casuals to continue to gear to next level at a snail’s pace gives purpose.
I would imagine some players who don’t care for toxicity of most pugs (currently) may make it to legion raiding even at a slower pace one day - this change would have them ready from a gear perspective.
tldr: If you aren’t in a guild and do legion raids the life span of this game from a gear progression point ends pretty quick.
Normal mode of vykas and valtan are extremely casual friendly easy and very forgiving raids. And you can slowly gear your characters just by playing those 2. If you think valtan normal is hard or that entire playerbase running valtan NM on alts is toxic, what are you doing in this game exactly? It’s clearly not for you. You can make yourself a “chill” valtan NM run and impatient people usually don’t join such runs.
You are asking for an end game gear to help you clear hardest content by not actually doing that content yourself, it kinda doesn’t make any sense
I don’t think it’s hard but 1/2 the pugs you go into seem to have big troubles with all of them. It’s frustrating to go into a pug spend an hour or two and then it just breaks apart with nothing to show for it.
Allowing players to keep improving their gear without the frustration of most pugs doesn’t hurt the game it just keeps more players playing for a longer period of time.
Nobody is asking for handouts…it would be a very long grind but it could be an option.
EDIT: If you have a static group you aren’t dealing with 1/2 the raid learning the raid every week. This game is always about a few over geared or over skilled players carrying the masses (in any raid) it’s a free ride for most or a bus ride with gold.
Paying for gear with gold buses is ok but working hard for it by grinding different content isn’t?
just buy bus if you dont wanna raid and you still want to progress for whatever reason. bus is cheaper than final reward in raids anyway so you are not even losing golds.
I agree 100% with this poster. I’m at Vykus now and cant get into a group without out a title, nor do I want to ruin a group since I have only done G1 and G2 successfully. As a dad in his late 40s, I just dont have the time wait for and try multiple Vykus groups. Most are now HM and same with the busses. The normal modes require titles, and I would love to learn the mechanic bettter, so I try to get in learning groups when ever I see one but, they are not as common any more now that HM is out and Clown is starting.
I would love an alternate way to earn relic gear. Some of us are just not great at certain game mechanics (like speed typing) built into the legion raids and with there being group wipe mechanics, it has gotten pretty corrosive. I know games like Guild Wars was aware that not everyone is playing the game for the same reasons and are at the same levels. so they made multiple ways to earn the same gear and weapons. I really enjoyed the storyline and the challenge guardians like Argos, but I don’t think I can go much further than Valtan/Vykus. I’m sure a lot of people run it with the same people/guild each week but I just don’t have that sort of friends/connections at this point in my life.
I now have about 5 people up to 1415, and one at 1455 but don’t want them all stuck on Vykus.
I am over 40 as well, I guess they built this game for 10 - 30 year old gamers. Things just slow down as you get older…speed typing isn’t fun for over 40s.
Maybe they can create an older-person version!
The game is great and I love it but some of the raid mechanics are pretty rediculous…I don’t expect any 15 year old with cat like reflexes to get it.
Kind of like putting a 40-50 year football player against a young player in his prime. Easy for the young guy to make fun of the older guy, but it’s not apples to apples.