World of Warcraft’s Borrowed Power system has always been the subject of intense debate, but as WoW Shadowlands comes to an end the issue has reared its head once more.
As World of Warcraft’s 2020 expansion, Shadowlands hurtles towards its finale in Patch 9.2, Eternity’s End, WoW players are already looking forward to the next chapter in the game’s ongoing saga.
With fans speculating that the Dragon Isles (an unused part of the Lich King expansion) may be the next stop on your hero (or villain’s) journey, all eyes are on the future when it comes to WoW.
One specific thing that has left players quarreling is the “Borrowed Power” system and given we’re about to close the book on Shadowlands, the issue has gained traction once more.
WoW players want Blizzard to scrap Borrowed Power
Each time there’s a new expansion, players can level their character up to 110 and gain a “Borrowed Power.” Introduced back in 2008’s Legion storyline, these powerful class-specific abilities become integral parts of your kit but are ripped away at the end of the expansion.
“Blizzard PLEASE… Just remove Borrowed Power from rotations next expansion,” pleads one fan on the game’s official subreddit, going on the write that “doing the Mage Tower on all of my classes has taught me that it is VERY apparent some specs were designed around their Covenant abilities and conduits. Namely, balance druid and priest. Getting my Covenant ability taken away just left me feeling like my class is clunky and ended with me not having very much fun.”
Instead, they propose that Blizzard don’t take Borrowed Power into account when balancing classes. “And what’s worse, same thing with Legion and BFA [Battle for Azeroth], we are going to come out of this expansion once again feeling worse off and weaker than we had been for the prior two or more years. Borrowed Power has no place in a rotation, balance classes around their rotation, and THEN add in that power after.”
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The comments section echoes the original post, with one respondent stating that “if there is another Borrowed Power system I’ll just stay unsub and skip the let down.”
“I can’t wait for pre-patch for 10.0 to come, Blizzard takes away Shadowlands Borrowed Power system, players feel like their characters are sluggish and s**t; then forget about all of it when the 10.0 Borrowed Power comes out, drooling over their keyboards grinding the next system,” fumes another.
One fan offers an alternative, suggesting that “the best way to implement Borrowed Power is horizontally instead of vertically; instead of giving you a new power on top of what you have, add it to the talent system.”
As tempers continue to fray, we’ll have to wait and see if Blizzard chooses to scrap the controversial system once and for all. Until then, though, make use of your powers while you can. After all, they are on borrowed time…
