wow Player Counts All Anima Items... and It's a Bit Much

[Starym 3,779]

 

We've all encountered/are regularly encountering bag space issues, it's just one of those things that comes with WoW and has been alleviated in many different ways over the years, from mount vendors to giant bags etc. However, Shadowlands decided to go a different route and drastically reduce our inventory size.

The anima items we get rewarded, while cool in terms of lore and immersion, with each related to the zone and (somewhat) activity we get it from, are becoming an issue, and Grayvves went and counted/listed them all. In total, there are 78 individual, non-stacking anima items in the game at the moment, with 39 35 anima ones, 24 5 anima ones, 14 250 anima ones and one glorious 3 anima.

Source.

This is just a little excessive, and it really feels like an oversight instead of an actual intentional design decision. We had the Artifact Power items that were very similar, and these are clearly a continuation of them, however it feels like somewhere along the line in the development process they added the "deposit to sanctum" mechanic, but then forgot what that would do to the many different types of anima item. The AP items were fine, as you could immediately use them, so they didn't really impact bag space, but once that immediate use effect was removed for anima items, things got messy. And while depositing a big chunk of anima into the sanctum reservoir does feel good and is a worthy addition in and of itself, the insane bag clutter really REALLY is not a worthy tradeoff.

One final argument that could be made for keeping them is the story enhancement they offer, as these small pieces of anima showcase the drought and how difficult it is to get any significant amounts of anima (especially compared to the numbers needed for sanctum upgrades etc.), but we kinda got the idea now, and with players buying cosmetic items for insane anima numbers, that's a little out the window anyway.

Hopefully this can get addressed in some way in 9.1, as currently the only real purpose of the items is lore/immersion related, and after this much time with the expansion, players don't seem to like the tradeoff, so... currency? We can still deposit it and keep the same sanctum mechanic, but do we really need seventy eight individual non-stacking items?

[Libraridan 36]

I have wondered from the start why we would get quest credit for attaining anima but then need to deposit it manually into the sanctum. Glad to see I was not alone.

[Aernath 173]

A lot of yes to this, I also ranted about this the other day.
Please fix this Blizzard! Don't move back, learn from Legion's mistakes!
 

 

[Guest]

Didn't Elon Musk start putting "fins" on his Model Y electric car?  on a serious side, is this non stack stuff considered "unique" or can it go into void storage?

[Kaelshazar 3]

There is no bag space issue if you just deposit the stuff into the sanctum, like what, once a day? Hearthstone > Deposit > Carry-on. No big deal.

[Starym 3,779]

5 minutes ago, Kaelshazar said:

There is no bag space issue if you just deposit the stuff into the sanctum, like what, once a day? Hearthstone > Deposit > Carry-on. No big deal.

Personally I have plenty of issues with it and I deposit more than once a day. It's just about how much stuff you like to keep in your bags/which bags you have. But the main point is it's needlessly spamming your bags, even if you do have space. I can't tell wtf is an actual item im looking for and what is one of the 50 different anima items.

[Qisapa 11]

Funny how is this game so poorly designed. Rpg with an inventory management system, how outrageous! People cry about about the smallest things. I like to read about the game, but it’s so hard to filter out that never satisfied crowd.

[Starym 3,779]

14 minutes ago, Qisapa said:

Funny how is this game so poorly designed. Rpg with an inventory management system, how outrageous! People cry about about the smallest things. I like to read about the game, but it’s so hard to filter out that never satisfied crowd.

Do you actually play it though? I personally also dislike the constant whining etc, but this one is an extremely annoying issue, mostly because it's utterly pointless. I actually like inventory management, but when there's 70 different icons that all mean the same exact thing and do NOTHING other than be there until you deposit them... Basically imagine an RPG that has gold as actual 70 different  inventory items taking up space until you deposit it in a bank and only then you can spend it.

[Starseed 113]

2 minutes ago, Starym said:

Do you actually play it though? I personally also dislike the constant whining etc, but this one is an extremely annoying issue, mostly because it's utterly pointless. I actually like inventory management, but when there's 70 different icons that all mean the same exact thing and do NOTHING other than be there until you deposit them... Basically imagine an RPG that has gold as actual 70 different  inventory items taking up space until you deposit it in a bank and only then you can spend it.

i dont get why they did it this way i mean its not like holding tons of anima in your bags would give you something u cant even hoard anima for the weekly in your bags or sell it for gold so why making it an item in the first place 

[phosarius 2]

I think a good compromise is to introduce a single item, carried in bags, that acts as a temporary container for each anima type that can then be emptied into the sanctum reservoir. This would maintain the RP elements of acquiring different anima types from different activities and the warm-fuzzies of a large sanctum deposit, without changing the system entirely by making it a currency. (FWIW I would be fine with it as a currency but if the devs feel there's an intended RP reason for having it the way it is, this would at least clean up our bags.)

[willowbird 8]

I've been saying from the beginning that there has to be a reason for the anima items being this way, not simple oversight.  I think that at some point we'll be able to join a second covenant, either in some future patch or maybe at some point after hitting renown cap.  That would make this all make sense.  If you have several places you can choose between to dump your anima, of course it can't be automatically put in the currency tab, right? 

[Aernath 173]

13 minutes ago, willowbird said:

I've been saying from the beginning that there has to be a reason for the anima items being this way, not simple oversight.  I think that at some point we'll be able to join a second covenant, either in some future patch or maybe at some point after hitting renown cap.  That would make this all make sense.  If you have several places you can choose between to dump your anima, of course it can't be automatically put in the currency tab, right? 

Good reasoning, but since it's not certain if that will happen making it a currency or its use more practical and less bag-invading would make a lot more sense, that way it could be enhanced to be working on several Covenants at the same time, for example you can learn a toy item, use it with a low cooldown and make that carry and deposit the anima amount you want to the Covenant of your choosing. You know, so it can be more practical and would also fit the fantasy and theme.

[Calysia 220]

15 minutes ago, willowbird said:

I've been saying from the beginning that there has to be a reason for the anima items being this way, not simple oversight.  I think that at some point we'll be able to join a second covenant, either in some future patch or maybe at some point after hitting renown cap.  That would make this all make sense.  If you have several places you can choose between to dump your anima, of course it can't be automatically put in the currency tab, right? 

Nice theory but I highly doubt we'll be able to join a second Covenant...it doesn't jive whatsoever with the whole story arc.

[Frogspoison 63]

Hopefully "fixed" in 9.1. Maybe. Probably not though.

[Yolo 40]

First of all, comparing Anima to AP is not right, it acts more like order resources. Except the latter was literally falling from the skies if you did anything other than raiding. 

What bothers me in the whole Anima system is the imbalances between acquiring methods. 

For example, downing a normal boss is around 4 to 5 minutes with a non-overgeared boss. This is around the same time you can complete a world quest, right? 

However, you get 3x35 Anima on average for a world quest, and only 1x35 from downing a raid boss. 

That being said, Anima wqs are finite, but so are raid bosses. 

M+ is even more outrageous: you may spend 30+ minutes to receive ONE 35 Anima item (and a chance to get some item from weekly cache) 

Not to mention world bosses. 

Downing the whole of normal Nathria awards 350 Anima total, while the WB wq gives a whopping 250 for what, 4 minutes of your gaming session? Let's make it five for the sake of easy calculation. 

Summary:

Mythic plus: 1,5 Anima per minute

Normal raiding : 5 Anima per minute

World Questing: 21 anima per minute

World Boss: 50 Anima per minute

This, and the absolute overwhelming amount of Anima needed to make a nice sanctum (its 16k only to move between Oribos and Sanctum confortably!) made me, and probably a lot more ppl absolutely cba to do anything with Anima, other than naturally acquiring the 1k for renown. 

[Vince 13]

An idea, quick and dirty: add an buyable item „anima vessel“, which will stack up anima. If purchased, you can click=>merge your different anima sources/items into that vessel, letting you reduce the clutter into one bag slot on the go.
It should feel als rewarding to empty that thing into the sanctum. Price tag, lets say, 1000 anima.

Edited January 22, 2021 by Vince
No native speaker, better translation

[SidonisAntares 288]

It's stupid. I run adventures from my phone, and prioritize the ones that reward anima and resource chests. I log in and my bags are already half full or more.

[DahkCeles 18]

I think that the ability to 'remotely deposit' should have been a purchasable sanctum upgrade... allowing you to do it from anywhere in the shadowlands once you purchase that upgrade (with a single click via the mini-map icon).

[Guest]

On 1/21/2021 at 1:50 PM, Starym said:

Do you actually play it though? I personally also dislike the constant whining etc, but this one is an extremely annoying issue, mostly because it's utterly pointless. I actually like inventory management, but when there's 70 different icons that all mean the same exact thing and do NOTHING other than be there until you deposit them... Basically imagine an RPG that has gold as actual 70 different  inventory items taking up space until you deposit it in a bank and only then you can spend it.

I agree with you.  Remember "void" storage that was suppose to give the players an additional area to put their crap?  Great idea until Blizz put a small caveat with making most things (such as tabards) "unique" or anything "stack-able" and not allowed in the void storage.  That is what this reminds me of.   Thought out ideas but not "well" thought out.