Azerite has failed, for now

#1 - Sept. 12, 2018, 3:15 p.m.
Blizzard Post
I was excited for this system, in many ways I still am. But right now it's a massive failure. And there has been TONS of feedback on what I'm about to say. I am one voice of many, but as usual Blizzard has ignored the feedback that has been given, so we're left with this failure for now. But anyway, let's talk about Azerite.

Tuning & Balance

This is the biggest issue with the system right now. SO. MANY. spec traits are just tuned like a rat's bum of fel poo. If you have 5 spec traits, and only one of them is good....you don't have choice anymore. I have to take those 1-2 traits that are 150-300% better than all the others. There has been so much feedback on these traits, and on the ones that are poor I have to wonder wtf the people are doing that work on these. Let me give a few examples.

Crushing Assault - Speeds up gameplay, interacts with the Fervor for Battle talent in a very nice feeling way (especially in dungeons), it can dynamically shift some ability priority. It's a fine trait in idea. But it's tuned terribly, both in the frequency of procs and the damage it adds. It's a non-option, and there's no reason it shouldn't be an option.

Gathering Storm & Seismic Wave - Again, fine traits. They interact with different abilities for AoE and cleaving. Seismic Wave has a cool interaction with Sweeping Strikes, it interacts with the Dreadnaught talent. Gathering Storm mimics the old Arms Legendary helm. I'm going to be a broken record here, but the ideas ARE FINE. The tuning is SH*T.

Simmering Rage - Rage refund and more rampage damage. Emphasizing Rampage. Fury Warriors like all of that. But...AGAIN (xD) it's tuned like hot garbage lol.

Infinite Fury, Bloodcraze, and Trample the Weak are the same. I think you get the point. Many of the ideas are out there and are fine, but if they aren't tuned to be worth a damn they are also not a choice. It's the communication age. There are guides, sim sites, discords. Everyone has access to what is good and what's not. If the traits were tuned worth a damn, there's a lot of choice here. But for now it's nothing but a failure.

Availability of Azerite Armor

I'm glad the weekly chest does not drop 1-3 items, that would have been retarded. However, that leaves us with no even mediocre reliable way to get Azerite Armor. Many of the best traits or combos are not in the raid, and they shouldn't all have to be, but we do need a way to actually get the armor lol.

I think the chest should drop two items. One azerite, one non azerite. No 1-3 RNG bull!@#$, just 2 items. The current ilvl scaling associated with M+ dungeons is fine, but the loot needs to be accessible.

It's a combo of them being tuned terribly, or not being able to even get the trait you want at a competitive ilvl to begin with. It reminds a lot like Legendaries until basically Antorus. The options and choices of that system were a great idea, but you had to actually have the damn pieces to make those choices. We couldn't get legendaries in a reasonable way in early Legion, we can't get Azerite in a reasonable way now in BfA.
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Community Manager
#4 - Sept. 21, 2018, 9:58 p.m.
Blizzard Post
Couple things:

We agree that the trait imbalance is a real problem right now. We made a bunch of tuning adjustments last week, and have more planned for the very near future (primarily focused on buffing underperforming traits). We see this as the source of most of the frustrations with the system; if the delta between your best and worst traits wasn't so big, it'd be less frustrating when a piece of Azerite armor doesn't have your best trait on it.

We also agree that the Mythic+ Azerite Armor situation isn't ideal. However, we need to be careful with how we award Azerite Armor through M+. Right now, easier access to Azerite Armor is one of the main advantages that raiding has over gearing exclusively through Mythic+, and we want to keep some additional benefit there as compensation for the extra effort and coordination needed to organize a raid team. That's is why we're hesitant to do something like add a guaranteed piece of Azerite Armor to the weekly chest - it'd be too lucrative.

But like I said, we do agree that the current setup can be frustrating. We're looking for better options.