What was once the greatest strength is now a great curse for the developers at Blizzard: World of Warcraft is an incredibly versatile game with no clearly defined goal. While some players spend countless hours of their free time on battlegrounds, in dungeons or in the arena, there are also many people who simply like to level up new heroes, explore areas or prefer to send their virtual pets into battle.

Table of Contents

  1. 1Twoworlds collide
  2. 2Nopower to the ninjas!
  3. 3OWNSERVERS FOR PROFESSIONAL GUILDS
  4. 4(K)a question of gold
  5. 5Leaving nothingto chance
  6. 6Abigger event
  7. 7Thefuture of World First

Some players also pursue multiple goals. After work, a quick visit to the Icecrown - maybe the mount will finally drop this week. The evening is then spent in the raid, and to round off the whole thing, you can beat up the opposing faction on a battlefield - what other game offers this variety?

Different expectations

The big problem is that every small change can have an impact on all activities. If a class does too little damage in the raid and the developers increase the damage, it means that the class will push more damage even in PvP content. However, if the class was already one of the strongest in the arena before, this buff can make it unbeatable. The developers are countering this by buffing some abilities only for PvE content.
Even in the dungeons and raids of Vanilla, there was a lot of fighting over loot. Source: buffed The spell is then only half as effective in the arena, for example. But even within a game area, there are many players who have different expectations of the activity. Especially in the raids, there are huge differences in the individual difficulty levels. While in LFR mode you can just have a go, mythical raids require a lot of preparation. And even within the group of players raiding on mythical difficulty, you have to differentiate: Some guilds just want to knock out some bosses with their friends. Other players want to be among the best guilds on the server.

Two worlds collide

Blizzard's developers are tasked with creating an environment that everyone is happy with, from LFR players to world-first raiders. At the same time, the expectations are so different that it becomes almost impossible to reconcile all the wishes. As soon as the developers fulfill the wishes of one group of players, it sometimes leads to another group being unhappy.

250 Million Gold That's how big the US Guild Limit debt was after the Ny'alotha race. If the players had bought the gold with tokens, they would have had to fork out $40,000.

For example, if the bosses are easy to defeat, many guilds are happy that they can progress quickly with little time investment. On the other hand, there are then no challenges for the pro guilds. For example, the race for World First didn't take 18 hours in The Emerald Nightmare raid. On the other hand, bosses that are too difficult (such as Lady Aschenwind in The Eternal Palace) discourage many guilds. Players stop visiting these raids after endless wipes.

No power to the ninjas!

Balancing is not the only headache for certain groups of players. In fact, entire game systems can be perfect for one type of audience, but cause a lot of resentment among other players. One of the biggest points of contention since the creation of World of Warcraft

(buy now 14,99 € ) is the Loot. More specifically, the distribution of that very loot. For many years there was a loot master.
The loot master can distribute the loot as he pleases - this can lead to quarrels Source: buffed If the raid defeated a boss, only that player could loot the boss and distribute the equipment to players of their choice. It is up to the loot master whether he uses currencies such as DKP or gives the item to whoever benefits the most from it. Or he simply keeps all the loot for himself. Such so-called ninja looters were so common that these egomaniacs soon had their own name. There were many dramas, many unhappy players and also some guilds that disbanded because of such incidents.

The Birth of the Perso Lot

The developers wanted to solve this problem and made the "Personal Loot" loot option mandatory for all heroes at the beginning of the Battle for Azeroth expansion. Bosses in dungeons and raids can no longer be looted by just one person. Instead, some randomly selected members of the raid will receive an item. If these players already have an item with the same or higher item level, they can voluntarily give the gear to another player in the raid. For many players, this solved some problems. Especially if you use the group tool to find some fellow raiders, you don't have to worry about the loot being distributed unfairly.

But also in guilds, which want to knock down bosses in the evening with friends, this simplifies the loot distribution enormously. So have the developers at Blizzard created a perfect system? Not at all! In ambitious guilds, loot is not just a way of reward. Items want to be allocated to specific players as efficiently as possible. If a trinket is particularly powerful for hunters, they get it before other agility classes like rogues. The hunters with the powerful trinket can then make the difference between a wipe or a kill on the next boss. In many guilds, it is then annoying when rogues capture this trinket thanks to Perso Loot and cannot give it to hunters. In the top guilds, this can possibly cost the next World First Kill.

Bypass systems

Since pro guilds like Limit don't want to leave anything to chance, they've gone to great lengths to try and leverage the Perso Loot system as much as possible. The goal was to get the item level of twinks as high as possible so that they could trade any item in the raid. Then, if a player happens to capture the coveted trinket, they can give the item to the main hunter, who will effectively be there for most of the progression kills.

Table of Contents1

. Two worlds collide2. No power to the ninjas!3. OWN SERVERS FOR PROFESSIONAL GUILDS4. (K)a question of gold5. Leaving nothing to chance6. A bigger event7. The future of World FirstSo

in the example of Limit, every player had at least one main and then several twinks who were only there to equip the other players' characters with items. Limit wasted millions of gold to equip the twinks. Players bought materials for the crafting professions or got the best pieces of equipment directly from the auction house.

In addition, the loot from MythicPlus dungeons made it easier to pass on raid armor. In Battle for Azeroth, the items you get at the end of the dungeon have a higher item level than the gear from the heroic raids. Characters who have stocked up on gear extensively in dungeons can then immediately pass on virtually any items they don't need in the heroic raid.

Loot in Shadowlands

In Shadowlands, however, gear from M+ dungeons has a lower item level than items from the Heroic Raid. So when you first get an item for a slot in Castle Nathria, you can't pass it on. At the same time, items with a higher item level are not automatically better.

Especially with trinkets, again, it may very well be that you're satisfied with your items from the dungeons and would rather give the trinket to the hunter. So there will be even more restrictions and it will be even harder to pass on items and equip certain characters efficiently. As a result, many pro players and streamers are upset by the major limitations of the loot system and are calling for the loot master to return. Some players are voicing their displeasure in page-long posts on the forums and Reddit.

Why doesn't Blizzard listen?

As in the world outside of Azeroth, however, the loudest voice does not necessarily represent the majority. In fact, most players are not active on the forums at all and simply play the game. For the majority, Perso Loot is still a big win for the reasons mentioned above.

You could accuse the creators of World of Warcraft of wanting to make the game easier and easier for the masses, and that they are only interested in profit. But really, the only question for the developers at Blizzard is: do they want to make their game so that the majority will like it, or do they just want to make a small group of players happy? The developers have decided on the former.

No solution for all

Even compromise solutions don't seem to work. Exclusively guild groups could choose between Perso Loot and Loot Master, for example. However, the problem of ninja looters existed not only in raided groups with strange players, but also in guilds. The problem is that the raid leader gets to pick the loot option and then is automatically a loot master. Three guesses which looting option Ninja Looter always chooses then.

OWN SERVER FOR PROFESSIONAL GU

ILDS

So if the developers can't find a way to make all the players happy, why not create their own server for the top guilds. What might such a server look like? What makes it special? And can such a server make the pro players happy? On a pro server, players could simply buy the equipment of their choice and not have to spend hours farming. Source: buffed Seasonal serversThe
pro servers are not permanently active. So players don't have to choose between playing on a regular server or going to the pro server. So top guilds like Exorsus still have their guild on the Howling Fjord server. Aversion is still on the German server Blackhand. Shortly before the release of a new raid, Blizzard's developers would then unlock the world-first server. The best guilds could then copy their characters to this server or create characters at maximum level.

The idea is not new. There are also tournament servers at large PvP events or M+ tournaments like MDI. Only for these events can participants copy their characters to these servers. This allows the event to run smoothly. All consumable items and equipment are available on these servers. Therefore, the winner is the one who plays the best and not the one who has farmed the best equipment.

Who is allowed on the pro servers?
To prevent the World-First servers from becoming too crowded, only a certain group of players should have access to the servers. For example, the top 100 guilds from the last World First race could have access. In addition, the top 100 guilds from the normal servers will get access for the next race so that newcomers have a chance. This sounds like a very small group at first. However, there are only a few guilds that can raid all day and therefore have a realistic chance at the title. Top-ranked Limit secured World First at N'Zoth on February 6, 2020, while 20th place took 20 days longer. Guild Temerity couldn't take 100th place until March 16, more than five weeks later.

No burn-out before the race

The server for the top guilds could look something like this. Equipment, enchantments, potions and buff food could all be purchased for free from a merchant. So that players don't have to keep farming, all soul band bonuses and media are unlocked. Anima are in abundance. Thus, the preparation for the world-first race is limited only to the study of the new bosses. Especially in Legion and Battle for Azeroth, farming artifact power was a mammoth task for the pro players. For most other players, however, it was a nice pastime (more or less). Even if there was no raid, there was a reason to log in every day to play M+, visit islands or do world quests.

Whether the artifact weapon or necklace is level 50, 51 or even 55 doesn't really matter. For the top guilds, however, every percentage point counts. Besides the daily raids and preparing for the new bosses, many pros played quite a few hours every day to collect as much artifact power as possible. We're not talking about dozens of island expeditions, but hundreds. So the exhausting phase started well before the actual World First Race.

Sure, no one was forced to collect that much artifact power. However, if you don't farm, you might lose the race. If on a special WF server the artifact power level (or similar systems) was predetermined, then undoubtedly not the most diligent but the best players would win.

(K)eine Frage des Goldes

If pro players could equip themselves with items for free, this would solve another problem: The race for first place costs gold. A lot of gold. Already since Classic you have to pay for raiding. For every fight you need potions and buff food. Equipment has to be enchanted and socketed. And if you bite the dust too often, you have to repair your armor. In the top guilds, however, these costs are only a fraction of the expenses.
On a beta server for Shadowlands, you can buy equipment and consumable items from merchants. Source: buffed

In fact, in recent years, you could buy gear from the mythical raids directly from the (black market) auction house. Every item that a guild could grab made a big difference. The tip of the iceberg was the sometimes far too strong spoilage effects on these items. Guilds like Method and Limit not only acquired all the items from their server, but bought other servers outright. To do so, they had to borrow several million gold from friendly players and guilds, which they paid off through numerous sell runs.

Table of Contents1

. Two worlds collide2. No power to the ninjas!3. OWN SERVERS FOR PRO GUILDS4. (K)eine Frage des Goldes5. Leaving nothing to chance6. A bigger event7. The Future of World FirstScripe

, former raid leader of the Method guild, strongly criticized the fact that the purchasable corrupted items were so powerful that with enough gold you could virtually buy yourself a good rank in the World First race. He later admitted that he had bought gold from the Gallywix community for real money, which is against World of Warcraft's terms of service. Whether you can acquire powerful items for free on your own WF server or only get the equipment from the heroic raid is a matter of taste. What is certain in any case then is that it is no longer the amount of gold a guild has at its disposal that determines World First.

Nothing left to chance

Blizzard's developers would then also have all the freedom to set their own rules for the servers. A loot master would be the first step. This would again allow guilds to efficiently equip certain class. In addition, random mechanics could be removed to make the competition even fairer. For normal servers, random loot is basically a good system. When the boss finally drops the much-awaited sword after several weeks, you're happy.

On WF servers, one sword could more or less make the difference between victory and defeat. The developers could therefore specify exactly which items can be captured per ID from which boss. For example, Schrillschwinge, the first boss in the Castle Nathria raid, would drop two leather pants and two cloth boots. If no guild gets the World First in the first ID, other armor from his item list will be up for grabs in the second ID.

This also provides an interesting twist: Perso Loot makes it irrelevant which armor classes the top guilds take. If there are 20 leather wearers in the raid, then only leather gear will be captured. If a class was significantly stronger, then it was also significantly more represented in the raid. But if the loot is predetermined, then guilds have to decide: Do they really take five mages, even though there are only two cloth items on the first boss? What happens to the leather armor? Is it smarter to take a tank class that wears leather?

Get going at the same time

So without randomness, the competition would be much fairer. Right now, it's more like two opponents running a marathon where one is wearing the most expensive athletic shoes while the other is trying his luck with flip flops stapled together halfway. And while we're on the subject of marathon comparisons, it would be nice if all participants could start at the same time.


Currently, the race for World First starts with the server restart in the corresponding region. For that reason, North America can start a few hours before Europe. So far, this advantage has not been decisive. In Ny'alotha, the American Guild Limit was able to secure the World First so clearly that it is the clear winner even without the time bonus.

But what happens if the lead is not so clear? Who is the winner then? The guild that actually defeats the final boss first? Or the guild that takes the least time? If only for the excitement in the streams of the top guilds, a hot head-to-head race would of course be desirable.

A bigger event

WoW: Pro servers could make the World First Race even more interesting (3) Source: Limit

And that brings us to the next point: While other Esport events are getting bigger and bigger, the race for the World First takes place between doorsteps. Most of the spectators are players themselves who want to visit the new raid. Especially in the evening hours, they are faced with the decision of whether they want to continue to cheer for their favorite guild in the stream or jump into the fray themselves. If you choose the latter, you might miss a boss kill of the top guild. The World First Race would get a lot more attention if the raid on the WF server opened its doors a week or two before the normal servers.

This would allow all players to follow the race without missing a raid with the guild themselves. The players can then study the bosses beforehand and prepare themselves well. More viewers would be a huge advantage for the pro players, since many pros earn their living through the streams. And for Blizzard, this would be a good promo for World of Warcraft.

The game that has the most viewers on twitch.tv gets the most attention. More attention means more sales (Among Us says hello). A classic win-win-win situation for everyone involved. In addition, with a little advance notice, it can also be avoided that a guild from a normal server accidentally grabs the World First - even if the chance is very low anyway.

Bugs and Balancing

With a little advance notice, annoying bugs in the bosses could also be removed so that everything runs smoothly when the raid starts on the normal servers. For example, the final boss N'Zoth had some small bugs. The developers had to act quickly, which caused a drop in server performance and therefore affected players who were not into the world-first race. If there are any major bugs with the WF servers, the developers can take the servers offline until they fix the bug.

While this wouldn't help the fact that pro players are sometimes just better beta testers. But at least the other players could then experience a (mostly) bug-free raid. The developers also have more options when it comes to balancing. To prevent an Emerald Nightmare 2.0, they can deliberately make the bosses a bit harder. If even the pro players cut their teeth on these bosses, the game designers can always tone them down before the raid is playable on the normal servers.

The Future of World First

So, by having a dedicated server for the pro guilds, Blizzard's developers have plenty of options to keep the game interesting for the majority, while also providing a fair challenge for the top players. So far, however, those responsible at Blizzard have not shown much interest in the World First Race. However, since the race just got so big in the Battle for Azeroth expansion, it's only a matter of time before they react. We are curious.

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