Lets Discuss! (+my thoughts/ideas)
Ok so I, and I'm sure most forum goers as well, have been seeing posts/videos about the current state of the game (most of them have been somewhat negative). They discuss/complain how there is no new "fun" or worthwhile content and that the game has become repetitive. Topics such as "too much gold lootz", the everest climb to arcane artifacts, the grind to unlock m5, new players cant make gold, and so on have been on page 1 of general discussion for weeks or months. And I would agree with some of them...to a degree.
Right now end game pve progression consists of doing artifact dailies, AP's, and running m5-6 (sorry if I missed any others). Other content along side that is jewel/crate farming, PVP, guild battle grounds, bard dailies (lol), arena runs, northal/cryostar, and maybe a few others. There really is not much, at least personally, that gives me a "thrill" anymore. Sure I still have fun while I am playing; why else would I be playing. By thrill I mean super hard elites such as bloodhammer when he first came out (pre and post nerf) or when Tindirin elites could only be handled by groups of geared and skilled players, and legendary drops were worth all the effort. Content that took as much as strategy as it did gear to clear (not just pressing nilbog AA), and being able to solo it was even more impressive (S/O Kalizza!). IMO maus does not take that much skill to clear, just the right weapons procs and a half decent team.
However, STS has done some good things that could be awesome for the future of the game. Let me explain. Many people have noted that old elites become more and more obsolete every expansion, but I believe Mausoleum has been the first step taken in remedying this problem. Maus will not become irrelevant. Players who can only go m1-4 can still make ~15k/elite runner chest/tokens/locked crate, and M5-6 will always be a sweet spot for farmers. The 10k gold chests will also help maus stay as a farming area, and voice sets will still be useful even after this expansion. While artifacts may take a while to upgrade and the system might need a few tweaks (I am not making a twink.), at least there is daily quest that players can do to actively progress towards better stats.
Now for my final point (sorry for all the text!). This expansion has been out for 8 months. There is most likely a new expansion coming at some point (maybe soon maybe later, remember there are still more events coming and heroic pets that have to be taken care of!). This recent expansion was a new model, and hopefully STG has taken some good insights from it and will come out with a content rich xpac. An expansion with a good story and awesome maps that has both hack n slash and skill elements with worthwhile drops. Combined with the stuff we have right now I think it would put AL in a great place. Plus, who said STS cant add a new maus level every now and then?
Instead of asking for new vanities lets make discussion about content ideas and community held events between players AND devs. Bring back previews and teasers of upcoming stuff. We need less forum flame and more interaction.
Anyways these are just my thoughts and I really hope the next expansion helps rejuvenate the game; please comment your thoughts/opinions/arguments/counter-arguments/+1 or -1's about my post or the game in general!
