wow Mythic+ Azerite Armor Improvements in Patch 8.1

[Stan 5,024]

Blizzard agrees that earning Azerite Armor in Mythic+ feels overly based on luck and in Tides of Vengeance, players will have more control over the Azerite gear they earn through Mythic+.

Blizzard is adding a new currency in Patch 8.1, which you'll earn from your weekly Mythic+ chest and from scrapping and disenchanting epic-quality Azerite Armor. The weekly chest will no longer reward Azerite Armor. Thaumaturge Vashreen will be selling caches that reward a random dungeon Azerite Armor piece for a given slot that will be separated by item level.

To give players even more control over Azerite Armor, Vashreen will also offer ilvl 385 versions of the specific dungeon Azerite Armor pieces for each class, sold at premium.

Only Azerite Armor scrapped in 8.1 will yield the new currency. Vashreen's wares will increase accordingly when the second Mythic+ season starts.

Blizzard (Source)

Couple quick clarifications based on feedback so far:

• Only Azerite Armor that drops after Tides of Vengeance is released will scrap/disenchant into the new currency. Don't worry about hoarding the Azerite pieces you're earning now.
• When the next Mythic+ season starts, and item levels increase, the item levels of Thaumaturge Vashreen's wares will increase accordingly.
• We recognize that PvPers want more options and choice too. We're talking about that separately.

Check out our Tides of Vengeance content hub for the latest Patch 8.1 information.

Blizzard (Source)

Throughout the discussions regarding Azerite Armor, there’s been a lot of talk about how you earn Azerite pieces from Mythic+ dungeons. Players have told us – and we agree – that the process of earning Azerite Armor through Mythic+ feels overly based on luck, and that there isn’t enough control in the players’ hands. Even with our bad luck protection systems in place, the sheer number of potential Azerite pieces you can get from the weekly chest means that trying to get ahold of a specific piece feels hopeless.

That’s a problem we want to solve, and give you some control over the Azerite gear you earn through Mythic+. So here’s what we’re working on for Tides of Vengeance:

First, we’re adding a new (as yet unnamed) currency, which you’ll earn from your weekly Mythic+ chest as well as from scrapping (or disenchanting) epic-quality Azerite Armor. This currency is rewarded in addition to the item in the chest (which can no longer be an Azerite piece), and the amount you earn will scale up exponentially based on the highest level Keystone you’ve completed. For example, completing a level 10 Keystone will reward you with about three times as much as clearing a level 7. Similarly, scrapping higher-item-level Azerite pieces will give you significantly higher amounts of this currency than lower-level pieces.

To spend that currency, we’re bringing back an old friend: Thaumaturge Vashreen. He’ll have two main types of items for sale. The first are caches that reward a random dungeon Azerite Armor piece for a given slot (helm, shoulders, or chest). They’ll be separated out by item level as well (at 355, 370, and 385), with higher item level caches requiring significantly more currency to purchase.

But we recognize that with six or more options per slot, this may still not be enough control for high-end players who want to be able to work towards a specific piece that perfectly complements their build. Thus, Vashreen will also offer Item Level 385 versions of the specific dungeon Azerite Armor pieces for each class, sold at a premium.

We’re still nailing down the exact numbers, but our goal for tuning this new currency is that you’ll be able to purchase one of the Azerite caches that lines up roughly with the item level of the gear you’re getting from your Mythic+ runs every two or three weeks, with the specific 385 pieces as long-term goals for top players.

Overall, we believe that this change will improve things in a lot of different ways:

• Mythic+ players of all skill levels will now have a clear path to upgrading their Azerite slots
• High-end Mythic+ players will have a way to target specific Azerite pieces to optimize their setups
• Duplicate or unwanted Azerite pieces from other sources (such as raiding) now have some additional value
• The piece of gear in your weekly chest will have a more reliable item level

You should see all of this hitting the Tides of Vengeance PTR sometime in the next week or so. We really do appreciate your feedback, and believe that this, in addition to the new traits and other improvements coming to the Azerite system in Tides of Vengeance, will help ease a lot of the concerns about Azerite Armor in Mythic+ and as a whole.

[Keller 25]

I was about to drop Enchanting on my main as I find enchanting in BFA underwhelming. No real good enchanter-only enchants, no longer moneymaking, hard to skill up. This makes enchanting worth it again for me.

[tkioz 229]

So it only took them what? Six months? To go back to a system that... worked in Burning Crusade?

Whatever. I'm just glad they relented on their stupid RNG machine. That said I can see us all doing 'world tours' every week of base mythics to get enough Azerite to buy this stuff.

Edit: Just saw a major downside of this system, they said it gives us a use for raid Azerite pieces... Let's say I get a heroic or mythic piece of Azerite in raid that I've already got (or it simply is terrible and I've got better) now I'll be incentivised to be a greedy prat and keep it for scrap instead of offering up to the group. That is not a good thing.

Currently the only thing you lose when giving up a bit of gear you don't need is a shard or possibly transmog, both negligible, but now you'll be giving up actual character power progression. I know I'll think twice if the gear I'd be giving up would have covered 10-15% of the cost of an actual upgrade, and since they are talking about dramatic scaling (just look at Sangacells and how the drops scale upwards) it might even work out to be more.

Edited October 20, 2018 by tkioz
New idea

[ArusVicious 156]

2 hours ago, tkioz said:

Edit: Just saw a major downside of this system, they said it gives us a use for raid Azerite pieces... Let's say I get a heroic or mythic piece of Azerite in raid that I've already got (or it simply is terrible and I've got better) now I'll be incentivised to be a greedy prat and keep it for scrap instead of offering up to the group. That is not a good thing. 

Not if you have the decency to sacrifice personal gain for others. If it’s not a huge upgrade for anyone, then fine, scrap it, but obviously if it’s an upgrade for someone in your raid group you should be helping your raid gear up. I agree it’s a small downside that might cause the greedy players of WoW to take advantage of it, but for the most part I don’t see it being an issue in a civilized raiding environment.

Edited October 20, 2018 by Maxkitty

[BIGJAKE 4]

2 minutes ago, Maxkitty said:

Not if you have the decency to sacrifice personal gain for others. If it’s not a huge upgrade for anyone, then fine, scrap it, but obviously if it’s an upgrade for someone in your raid group you should be helping your raid gear up.

the majority of people running heroic or normal that have a mythic raid group end up pugging those runs and now they have a reason to never trade gear off. Or if you have an alt person in your raid would you make a main give up something that WILL lead to an upgrade even though its a major upgrade for the alt person?

[tkioz 229]

10 minutes ago, Maxkitty said:

Not if you have the decency to sacrifice personal gain for others. If it’s not a huge upgrade for anyone, then fine, scrap it, but obviously if it’s an upgrade for someone in your raid group you should be helping your raid gear up. I agree it’s a small downside that might cause the greedy players of WoW to take advantage of it, but for the most part I don’t see it being an issue in a civilized raiding environment.

The thing is currently if I get something that isn't useful for me and it's say a 5% upgrade for someone else I don't even blink about handing it off. When this goes live? I still wont hesitate in my normal groups, but when pugging there is a very good chance I'll just keep it for scrap, because frankly instead of there being no incentive beyond being a decent person there is now an active disincentive.

[ArusVicious 156]

17 minutes ago, tkioz said:

The thing is currently if I get something that isn't useful for me and it's say a 5% upgrade for someone else I don't even blink about handing it off. When this goes live? I still wont hesitate in my normal groups, but when pugging there is a very good chance I'll just keep it for scrap, because frankly instead of there being no incentive beyond being a decent person there is now an active disincentive.

I see what you mean, and to be completely honest, it makes perfect sense. It’s probably not going to be a big problem in a mythic raid group but you’re right; it promotes indecency in pug groups. It’s probably going to end up as one of those negative side effects of a positive change that very frequently tend to plague blizzard’s games.

Edited October 20, 2018 by Maxkitty

[Durf24 42]

3 hours ago, tkioz said:

So it only took them what? Six months? To go back to a system that... worked in Burning Crusade?

It's only been 3 months since the launch of BfA.

[Demonpuke 48]

1 hour ago, Durf24 said:

It's only been 3 months since the launch of BfA.

LOL three months? try again guy. bfa launched august 13. you really cant perform math that a 5 year old can do? 

e: and im sure when he said six months, he meant all of the feedback on beta that thousands of us bombarded blizzard with regarding azerite availability in mythic plus.

Edited October 20, 2018 by Demonpuke

[tkioz 229]

43 minutes ago, Demonpuke said:

LOL three months? try again guy. bfa launched august 13. you really cant perform math that a 5 year old can do? 

e: and im sure when he said six months, he meant all of the feedback on beta that thousands of us bombarded blizzard with regarding azerite availability in mythic plus.

Yes, while I would phrased it a little politer, I did include the beta in my time-frame.

[Demonpuke 48]

5 minutes ago, tkioz said:

Yes, while I would phrased it a little politer, I did include the beta in my time-frame.

what is politer? you mean more polite. the stupidity of this generation is unbelievable. 

[Allseye 96]

13 minutes ago, Demonpuke said:

what is politer? you mean more polite. the stupidity of this generation is unbelievable. 

First of all you should calm down. Not everyone is a native english speaker (me included). Its a childish behaviour to judge someones written language. And even if he is a native, it has nothing to do with this topic. We all agree we dont need this behaviour on icyveins!

6 hours ago, tkioz said:

That said I can see us all doing 'world tours' every week of base mythics to get enough Azerite to buy this stuff.

My thoughts too :-). But is this bad? No, not at all. Finally it feels rewarding. And you can help a friends alt too if you take him on this tour. Win-Win-situation.

6 hours ago, tkioz said:

Just saw a major downside of this system, they said it gives us a use for raid Azerite pieces... Let's say I get a heroic or mythic piece of Azerite in raid that I've already got (or it simply is terrible and I've got better) now I'll be incentivised to be a greedy prat and keep it for scrap instead of offering up to the group. That is not a good thing.

Currently the only thing you lose when giving up a bit of gear you don't need is a shard or possibly transmog, both negligible, but now you'll be giving up actual character power progression. I know I'll think twice if the gear I'd be giving up would have covered 10-15% of the cost of an actual upgrade, and since they are talking about dramatic scaling (just look at Sangacells and how the drops scale upwards) it might even work out to be more.

Well yes, this might be a downside. But we can control it, and thats what Blizzard achievs. I really appreciate the decision Blizzard took. Its our decision to trade it or not. And i'm fine with it if someone scrap a piece instead trading it. It might be the only reason why a player is running a specific content. 

Overall: good work Blizzard, highly appreciated on my side! 

[Ragingwolf 286]

All I see is grind again for gear with the slight hope of a better upgrade, where the alts get pushed back for a rainy day, and feel more reluctant in joining up in pug groups outside Guild runs.  I am not familiar with the acquisition of gaining gear from the previous expansions besides Legion and the current affairs of BFA.  imo no system is going to be perfect...you either roll with it or find another way to preoccupy the time in a different game or hobby.

[tkioz 229]

1 hour ago, Demonpuke said:

what is politer? you mean more polite. the stupidity of this generation is unbelievable. 

polite
/pəˈlʌɪt/
adjective
comparative adjective: politer

See also: https://www.dictionary.com/browse/politer

Example of usage: Demonpuke could stand to behave in a politer manner to other posters.

Also, which generation do you mean? Because my age might shock you. Also English dialects exist and not everyone is American.

[Hypersonic 113]

Wow! I can't believe what I read, finally!
Maybe this expansion will be not so bad after 1-2 content patches. 

[Rudy199 8]

12 hours ago, Keller said:

I was about to drop Enchanting on my main as I find enchanting in BFA underwhelming. No real good enchanter-only enchants, no longer moneymaking, hard to skill up. This makes enchanting worth it again for me.

How is enchanting bad this expansion, one veiled crystal goes for 800+ gold on my realm and umbra shard 330+. Any useless epics or blues you turn into gold by just running dungeons.

[Baguettson 31]

So you mean i'm going to have to run every dungeon every week in hopes to drop what I want ?

Mmmmmh, this reminds me of something that was quite legendary in Legion.

 

PS: I am happy about the change, but running old content to try and drop "current content" stuff (with a flex because you go to the scrapper and a merchant inbetween, but you get the idea) still seems weird, even after a long time doing that in Legion.

[tkioz 229]

1 hour ago, Baguettson said:

So you mean i'm going to have to run every dungeon every week in hopes to drop what I want ?

Mmmmmh, this reminds me of something that was quite legendary in Legion.

 

PS: I am happy about the change, but running old content to try and drop "current content" stuff (with a flex because you go to the scrapper and a merchant inbetween, but you get the idea) still seems weird, even after a long time doing that in Legion.

How unlike Legion you can pick which item you want and you have a set amount you need to get to obtain it, far less RNG.

[Lawrenz 105]

This change in the azerite farming situation will solve so many things for me.

Not only will i be able to farm specific slots, or even specific items, but i will as well be incentivised to do all possible content, even if i dont want the loot.

In Legion i always did lfr IDs or normal pugs just for the chance of leggos, even though i was highly overgeared. Now farming this material will be kind of the same for me. I am so happy with this change.

And just ignore the situations where you could use a AZ gear piece of someone else. See it as legendaries, you couldnt demand someones legandary either. In the beginning of bfa they made AZ gear tradeable because the community got frustrated of getting useless items. I think they could revert that change now, since every piece is useful to your own progression. :)))

[Keller 25]

7 hours ago, Rudy199 said:

How is enchanting bad this expansion, one veiled crystal goes for 800+ gold on my realm and umbra shard 330+. Any useless epics or blues you turn into gold by just running dungeons.

prices aren't that bad, 250 & 750, but I need them to skill up aswell. Complete enchants don't sell at all. (there's no demand for old enchant, nobody can be bothered while leveling, plus no transmog value) Also the only reliable source for purples is Mythics. Heroics I have seen 1 purple in 17 runs. Doing all WQ a day, yields about 1.2 purple items.
Expolsum I only get from trinkets. Normal gear I don't even bother scrapping, just disenchant. While 85-125, expulsom is the most efficient way to skill up for me.

I've noticed everyone has made alts for enchanting. In earlier expansions, regular dungeon buddies gave me their drops, I would disenchant and give them an enchant. Now it's only the disenchant. They've got an enchanting alt. The number of enchants has also been lowered to Ring & Weapon. Normally the glove enchant would make multiple sales for a small margins, but even those don't sell. 2 per week, when I'm lucky. All those alts, undercut the prices for gloves too much on my server.

[Aegrotat 80]

20 hours ago, Keller said:

I was about to drop Enchanting on my main as I find enchanting in BFA underwhelming. No real good enchanter-only enchants, no longer moneymaking, hard to skill up. This makes enchanting worth it again for me.

what... does enchanting have to do with this? If you're DEing gear, you aren't scrapping it for this stuff anyways

Edited October 20, 2018 by Aegrotat

[Keller 25]

6 minutes ago, Aegrotat said:

what... does enchanting have to do with this? If you're DEing gear, you aren't scrapping it for this stuff anyways

quote from the OP:

"First, we’re adding a new (as yet unnamed) currency, which you’ll earn from your weekly Mythic+ chest as well as from scrapping (or disenchanting) epic-quality Azerite Armor. "

that line made me keep (dis)enchanting

[Aegrotat 80]

3 hours ago, Keller said:

quote from the OP:

"First, we’re adding a new (as yet unnamed) currency, which you’ll earn from your weekly Mythic+ chest as well as from scrapping (or disenchanting) epic-quality Azerite Armor. "

that line made me keep (dis)enchanting

oh that's on me, I'm dumb and missed it saying disenchanting. Carry on

[Zalto 2]

This shit is just horrifying..... WTF   BLIZZ...........  talk about screwing people over

[Bobbis 208]

22 hours ago, tkioz said:

How unlike Legion you can pick which item you want and you have a set amount you need to get to obtain it, far less RNG.

 

It's basically the Legion Legendary fix from the last patch, earlier in the expansion. Not saying it's a bad thing, just frustrating that they already had a bs RNG system in Legion that pretty much everyone moaned about, they found an ok solution in the Vendor's for class specific and then individual legendary items, but then added ANOTHER bs RNG system without the same fix. All of which was pretty much present in TBC with the badges for gear system a decade earlier.

Edited October 21, 2018 by Bobbis