When the current PTR changes apply to live server, will the players lose their current HWM score with a new default score? If my current HWM for chest piece is 600, will the new “expertise score” be 600 or 500 for my chest piece?
I hate the PTR changes, and so do a lot of people, but if you are going to push through with this regardless, we need some answers. Grinding dungeons/elite zones/elite chests is in a grey state until this question is answered (i.e. endgame players have no reason to login if the HWM resets).
p.s. the live chat customer service is giving mixed answers, so I’m asking directly to the devs.
I understand your concern with the “Expertise score” As of right now I can only confirm what the Dev Blog stated, so this:
In the December update, Expertise will govern the highest drops you can get per slot, much like HWM did. But starting in early 2022, it will also govern the effectiveness of your gear. This means if your War Hammer Expertise is 520, and you equip a 550 Gear Score War Hammer, the weapon’s effective Gear Score will be reduced to 520.
Basically the HWM as we know will be revamped and called Expertise, which is what the developers chose as a solution long term.
This is insane. I spent a lot of hours to drop legendary itens, and up my Engineering, and to drop Void ore, etc, etc, and now all that effort goes to waste. Only those who grew the HWM will benefit?
This is very unfair, I understand the idea behind it, but you need to think better before punishing so many players.
This update does NOT punish those who have not gotten their watermarks up yet, it actually does the opposite. Expertise makes it not only easier to get up, but gives you a way to target what gear/weapons you want. Also, Expertise itself will be implemented BEFORE the update that will reduce your gearscore to whatever your expertise is, giving you time to get it up if you want to.
This actually seems pretty logical and avoid the issues of large companies with a lot of players that do not do a lot, they have the company craft or buy their gear at 590-600 when their watermark is 505, effectively turning them into an endgame player with top spec gear. I 100% agree that people that do not play much shouldn’t have the same stats as someone grinding daily. Will likely kill crafting income though, as few will be able to fully benefit from 600 gear if they bought it.
This is assuming that players are not negatively affected by this, ie the ones that have grinded and have the 600 water mark keep that or an equivalent. People with 500+ hours who did grind gear should 100% have better specs than players that saved all their gold leveling and are 60 but running 600 gear with 75hrs played.
