Why? WHY?Before Legion there was no massive mandatory grind at max level. You got to max level, you geared up and that was it - you were ready to kick ass.Why are developers adding these nasty grinds? To offset their participation metrics, so they could show bosses how much time players are spending online? If it wasn't for AP grind and NLC#2, BfA could have been an amazing expansion.
There's always been a grind in WoW. Only time the game wasn't really too grindy for progression was Cataclysm. Also I'm guessing you never had to experience the EverQuest grind lol..
People complaining about the grind; while I'm not going to dismiss your point outright, I'm gonna engage in the tiniest amount of "it could be worse". I know, it's not the most logically sound argument, but bear with me.TL;DR: Final Fantasy XIV has a worse grind because powering up their equivalent of Artifact Weapons / Azerite Equipment uses RNG drops with a terrible drop chance, as opposed to guaranteed progress even if the progress gets very slow very quickly, so in my opinion World of Warcraft respects your time more than FF14 does.If you've ever played Final Fantasy XIV (FF14 for short), to power up the equivalent of their Artifact Weapons (Relic Weapons) is not only a huge grind, but it's also completely down to RNG. For instance, in order to get past the first step of the first tier of weapon in the current expansion, you have to grind something called a F.A.T.E. (they are world quests that pop up semi-frequently - every 30m-1h or so - and need to be completed within 15-30 minutes or they vanish) in order to get some item drops.You need 2 items from 3 different zones, for 6 items in total. The drop chance on launch (it gets nerfed 6-8 months later) is atrocious, something like 5%.This means you could be spending 5, 10, 15 or more hours grinding, and you could have made exactly 0% progress. Unlike legendary cards in Hearthstone (and maybe legendaries in Legion?), there's no pity timer. It's RNG all the way. It is an unbelievably terrible system, and really shows the cultural difference between Asian and Western MMOs in my opinion. Looking at Korean and Japanese made MMOs, they all feel a lot more grindy to me than WoW has ever done, but I digress.Say what you want about the grind to polish off your Netherlight Crucible talents, but if you go do a world quest or a dungeon or whatever, you know that those 20 minutes of your life is going to result in SOME amount of progress. Even if it's just 1% or 0.1%, that time you spent has real, measurable, quantifiable value. Not so in FF14.Again, I don't mean to dismiss people's feelings about the grind, but as someone who has played both games, I will take Legion and BfA's systems any day of the week.I personally feel like World of Warcraft respects the time I put into the game more than FF14 does, when it comes to making progress on my character. If I enter a dungeon below max level, I will gain experience that I will never lose from dying or failing a mission or failing the dungeon. If I enter a dungeon on max level or do a world quest, I will gain progress (however little) towards the next power level of my gear (however small the power level increase may be).I hope I have been able to provide some perspective that may ease some of the tension in this comments section. If you disagree with me, that's fine. Your opinion is valid. To a certain extent, I agree with you (f.ex. I wish there were more EXP and reputation bonuses for alts, if not outright reputation sharing). However, when it comes to the particulars of the Artifact Power / Azerite Power systems, I can't help but bear the above in mind, which tempers my opinions somewhat.
No, the whole point is that your HoA is the item that levels up where as the Azerite armor simply opens up as you reach the required levels.