What new features of a WoW expansion would make you return?

WoW: Shadowlands will once again go down as a WoW expansion with its very own problems and a record content drought. Even the final patch 9.2 doesn't really knock your socks off. Basically, the Zereth Mortis end-game zone is so interesting that it can be ignored purely for the sake of character power content. In addition, we get a new raid and no new dungeon.

More of the same. Even though many will remain loyal to WoW (buy now ) in Shadowlands, the few new additions are no reason for players to jump back in. Of course, there are also players who have simply skipped Shadowlands altogether. The question is what features a new WoW expansion will have to provide in order to lure these players back to Azeroth. Are you one of these players? Then the current conversation in the WoW section of Reddit should be particularly interesting for you.

What features would bring you back to Azeroth?

Content for the old world (Azeroth) is one of the items players are longing for. "Bring content back to the old world. We need a big world with lots of activities, not just a zone where we do our daily quests" is the top comment in this thread.

Resurrecting zones in Azeroth and scaling old dungeons (beyond PartySync) to all levels is something we've been voting for for quite some time as well. Somehow, the developers would have to find a way to make not only Azeroth relevant, but also zones from other expansions. As mentioned in the said Reddit thread, the developers are squatting on content from seven expansions, but they don't really have that much relevance in WoW everyday life, if we leave out transmog and mount farms.

The longing for the garrison and real housing

After the end of Warlords of Draenor, we already knew it: the garrison will no longer play a role in the future. The feature was trimmed again neatly from alpha to release and wasn't the housing experience we wanted, but some players still miss their outpost in Draenor.

Read also: WoW without housing is boring - please develop the garrison further!

Instead of an expansion of the garrison, however, many players want real housing; their own four walls in Stormwind or Orgrimmar, for example. Why World of Warcraft, as one of the oldest MMOs, still hasn't developed this feature remains a mystery.

No more borrowed character strength

What would bring WoW players back would not only be new features, but also fewer/different features. For example, those that are only relevant to the current content at the time and then lose their relevance. In WoW vernacular this is called Borrowed Power or also Rental Power. The examples of borrowed power in WoW are countless by now.

In BfA it was the azerite armor and corruption effects, in Legion it was the legendary weapons and other Legendarys, in MoP it was the legendary cloak and over the years more and more features like glyphs, sockets, enchantments as well as features like reforging and even class buffs have been taken away from the player. WoW players wish they no longer had the carrot on a stick in front of them, which becomes worthless after the expansion.

Less onerous duties

The following wish is also not directly based on which feature you would like to see, but what would have to be omitted for you to come back. This suggestion is just overwhelmed with likes on Reddit. Daily quests for reputation, Korthia relics and other tasks could be omitted in the next expansion and sold as a feature. The wish for less timegating is in the same vein. From what you can tell from the thread, it's not so much the WoW community's desire for more cool content, but rather for less grind and more freedom.

Crossfaction gameplay

Due to the factional imbalance, the alliance seems to be dying out more and more. We have already discussed the problems that this causes here several times. In the meantime, game director Hazzikostas has relented and announced not too long ago that cross-faction play might become a reality after all, after having ruled it out shortly before. Never say never. According to redditors like Umcorian, the extinction of the Alliance has led him to believe that a new expansion is out of the question until the imbalance between the factions is corrected.

Account Play instead of Character Play

Make all achievements, reputation, resources and so on available account-wide - we personally have this wish as well and it is also licked to the skies in this thread. A step more towards account play would not mean that you only play one character that can do everything, like in Final Fantasy XIV. No. Vieltwinkerer could continue to let off steam, only just the earned is not scattered over all possible characters, but is on all characters at the same level.

So, what features would bring you back to Azeroth? Which ones would keep you there longer or by eliminating which game mechanic would you return? Drop us a line in the comments!

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