AT World of Warcraft Thread (Mists, Where do you play, General BS and all that)

[cronos]

Ok I had to buy the last two expansions to catch up.

You shouldn't have to do that. The base game includes up to Cataclysm (and if you've had the game before, you automatically have access), and you only had to buy Pandaland to catch up with the latest.

 

[lupi]

going 1-60 was more difficult than raiding MC.

 

[Adrenaline]

going 1-60 was more difficult than raiding MC.

Leveling in WoW has always been easy, sorry. I flew through my 40s and 50s to hit 60 on my first character. My friend that got me to play the game said something like:

"You are leveling too fast and are missing out on things."

I told him I wanted to be max level to play with them (all the level 60 people) and all the other stuff was not that important.

Kind of like, how it is now. Max level is all that matters. You spend 95%+ of your time doing things at max level.

 

[Gryz]

Leveling in WoW has always been easy, sorry.

Easy as in: no difficulty if you avoid the harder parts ? Yes, certainly. Easy as in: takes no time ? Nope.

It took me 25 days played to get from 1 to 60. That was 3 months in real time. February to May 2005. And tbh, I was "ahead of the curve". I was not quick. But I was still quicker than the average player. I leveled with 3 friends. Two of them played less hours per week than I did. So I spend some of time of my 25 days played messing around. I was the first to have gold for my mounts. I always explored areas that were too high level for me. Awesome days. One of my best experiences in WoW.

Was it easy ? Yep. But don't forget: there was no wowhead. There were no addons to help with leveling. The "super-efficient, super-boring questhubs" did not exist. A lot of running around. Many small quest-chains ended with an elite mini-boss. Ever been to Jintha'Alor in Hinterlands ? A huge temple full with elite mobs. And a few interesting chains. You needed a full party to play there. People didn't know their optimal spec. People had crappy gear. Great fun. We did all dungeons from SFK to BRD while leveling. In those days, dungeons were also not really hard. But still 100x harder than the zergfest that sub-90 dungeons are today. And they took 2 hours easily.

I understand that those will not come back. Leveling with friends. Keeping the same pace. But Blizzard could do something to make leveling more interesting. Like allowing you to pick up higher level quests. As a lvl30, fight lvl36 mobs. Introduce patrols again (in dungeons and the outside world). Bring back some elite mobs. Bring back a few (just a few) elite quests at the end of quest-chains. With CRZ there should be enough players around to form ad-hoc parties for 5 minutes.

Max level is all that matters. You spend 95%+ of your time doing things at max level.

If you think max-level is all that matters, then yes, you will spend 95% of your time at max level. If you think leveling is fun too, and Blizzard gives us content to mess around with, then you can spend less time at max level.

I think it's a shame that Blizzard does not do more with the world for max-level characters. All we do is stand in the Shrine, and wait for queues to pop. If Blizzard had more imagination, there are things they could do to make better use of the budget they invested in the world. Not just dailies in Pandaria.

One option would be to let max-level characters play in different areas in the world. Where all mobs are level 90-93. E.g. when you are level-90, you go to The Barrens, suddenly all mobs are level 90-91. You only see other level-90s. All quests are available again, but at level-90. You can re-experience all quests you missed out on. And make a little extra gold. I bet many non-hardcore players would enjoy this. And it would alleviate the problem of lvl-90s ganking lower levels a bit.

Another option would be related to class-change. You can change everything about your character. Name, race, faction, server, appearance, spec. But not the class. I have picked a rogue as my main. I am emotionally attached to her. I have *loads* of time invested. I have *loads* of good memories. (The 3-month leveling, doing 5-man dungeons, killing Lucifron with the guild I am still in, fighting C'Thun, fighting in Naxx40, killing Illidan and Brutallus, killing Arthas, etc). I don't wanna give that up, by rerolling a new character with a different class.

So I want to change my class from rogue to something else. Druid probably (as those are the most versatile). I don't wanna pay 30 euros and just change. I don't want it to be easy.
So let me re-level my character from 1 to 90, as a druid. You go to Orgrimmar, you talk to an NPC. You pay a shitload of gold (10k ? No problem. 100k ? No problem for me too). Poof, I am back to level 1. I keep my character, keep my achievements, keep everything in my bank, keep my gear (but can't use it). Keep my 70 exalted reputations, etc, etc. But I have to quest and level back from 1 to 90.

I think that would be awesome. I don't understand why Blizzard doesn't do this. They seem to think "reroll and stfu". If so, then they don't fully understand the attachement some people have to their characters. If they worry about time-investment and months-of-subscription-sold, I don't think there's much difference with rerolling.

But alas, Blizzard seems to have lost their imagination many years ago.

 

[Joeydubbs]

Leveling in WoW has always been easy, sorry.

Have to agree with Gryz on this. Leveling in Vanilla was a GRIND. No heirlooms, no flying, overpopulated servers where people tagging quests mobs was the norm (NE huntards!). If you were on a pvp server you could spend hours in stranglethorn without completing a quest b/c of pvp/griefing. But this was the game, and at the time, it was the best gaming had to offer.

People didn't flock to wow because of the awesome raid content in the beginning, they joined for the fantastic seemingly endless leveling content which was far more difficult than it is now. Now leveling feels like it is on rails, over streamlined imo and yes, now very easy. Post cata leveling gets old very fast. I always enjoyed the leveling experience and am glad that we get 10 new levels instead of 5 in WOD

 

[Adrenaline]

Have to agree with Gryz on this. Leveling in Vanilla was a GRIND. No heirlooms, no flying, overpopulated servers where people tagging quests mobs was the norm (NE huntards!). If you were on a pvp server you could spend hours in stranglethorn without completing a quest b/c of pvp/griefing. But this was the game, and at the time, it was the best gaming had to offer.

People didn't flock to wow because of the awesome raid content in the beginning, they joined for the fantastic seemingly endless leveling content which was far more difficult than it is now. Now leveling feels like it is on rails, over streamlined imo and yes, now very easy. Post cata leveling gets old very fast. I always enjoyed the leveling experience and am glad that we get 10 new levels instead of 5 in WOD

I didn't start at the beginning of WoW. I came along when BWL was opened up. I flew through leveling. I did my 50s in Azshara. I did not use WoWhead and it was a total breeze. I was even on a PvP server.

Leveling in vanilla WoW was easy to me. One of my guildmates said it was a joke compared to Everquest.

 

[Sattern]

I used to play World of Warcraft and loved the Undead Warlock. They were the best in my opinion as they could hide underwater for a limitless amount of time and attack anything that comes our way.

All we had to do was lure something with the summon and bring them underwater for a nice fight.

 

[alkemyst]

Have to agree with Gryz on this. Leveling in Vanilla was a GRIND. No heirlooms, no flying, overpopulated servers where people tagging quests mobs was the norm (NE huntards!). If you were on a pvp server you could spend hours in stranglethorn without completing a quest b/c of pvp/griefing. But this was the game, and at the time, it was the best gaming had to offer.

People didn't flock to wow because of the awesome raid content in the beginning, they joined for the fantastic seemingly endless leveling content which was far more difficult than it is now. Now leveling feels like it is on rails, over streamlined imo and yes, now very easy. Post cata leveling gets old very fast. I always enjoyed the leveling experience and am glad that we get 10 new levels instead of 5 in WOD

I never played Everquest but my Guild was "Shield of Azeroth" which was good at Everquest. We ran through WoW well.

Now a days it just takes too much time and there is too much risk from a griefer.

 

[Subyman]

I didn't start at the beginning of WoW. I came along when BWL was opened up. I flew through leveling. I did my 50s in Azshara. I did not use WoWhead and it was a total breeze. I was even on a PvP server.

Leveling in vanilla WoW was easy to me. One of my guildmates said it was a joke compared to Everquest.

WoW leveling was a complete joke compared to EQ. No way to level past mid-20s without being a necro or wiz without a leveling group. Killing one to two mobs at a time, it took hours and hours to get one EXP bubble (five per level.) If the group wiped once then you'd lose hours of experience. It took 5-10 mins of looking at a meditation book to get full mana.

Yup, WoW leveling was a joke compared to that, but I had a lot more fun leveling in WoW. Its almost like saying going for a casual swim is a joke compared to being water boarded. I played launch WoW and it was a lot harder than it is now. Not hard, skill wise, but hard as in took a lot of grinding and time compared to now.

 

[lupi]

looks like the network problems due to some group going around doing random attacks.

https://twitter.com/lizardsquad

 

[robvp]

looks like the network problems due to some group going around doing random attacks.

https://twitter.com/lizardsquad

Man no wonder, got kicked out of bnet so many times, lost a couple of hs games where i was doing fine

 

[rh71]

I've quit for close to a year now I think but thinking about jumping back in with the xpac. The group I had been playing with for years has moved onto Elder Scrolls Online. I'm reading it's also $15/mo. Would I like it? Or is it another try-but-can't-match-up MMO? I really like the WoW gameplay and how I can kill some time with it - just don't want to 10-man raid into the midnight hours anymore - so coming back as a casual with mostly LFRs.

 

[robvp]

LFR is pretty casual, you can go in, down a boss and leave and queue up some other time, it's pretty decent, i never thought i could actually raid but LFR has made it easier for me

 

[Malladine]

I've quit for close to a year now I think but thinking about jumping back in with the xpac. The group I had been playing with for years has moved onto Elder Scrolls Online. I'm reading it's also $15/mo. Would I like it? Or is it another try-but-can't-match-up MMO? I really like the WoW gameplay and how I can kill some time with it - just don't want to 10-man raid into the midnight hours anymore - so coming back as a casual with mostly LFRs.

LFRs are great i have to say. Otherwise as a casual with kids i'd have no chance at seeing raid content. So yeah i think you'd like the changes.

 

[Anubis]

looks like blizz is getting DDOSed again today

http://www.shacknews.com/article/85...wide-ddos-attack-update-fbi-now-investigating

 

[AznAnarchy99]

looks like blizz is getting DDOSed again today

http://www.shacknews.com/article/85...wide-ddos-attack-update-fbi-now-investigating

This is how I picture the group behind the DDOS attacks

 

[lupi]

they've been doing it for a week or so now, looks like they like to harass these "pro" streamer schmucks and target what they play.

 

[lupi]

after a ~25 minute wait to get back into bnet...been going around to the old raids for the pet achievement. Pretty good luck so far, getting 2/3 or 3/3 each time but when I turned in nef's head it was almost 5 minutes from turn in till the announcement was made. just barely caught it as i was flying out of the city. so she's laggy folks!

 

[ewdotson]

Was it easy ? Yep. But don't forget: there was no wowhead. There were no addons to help with leveling. The "super-efficient, super-boring questhubs" did not exist. A lot of running around. Many small quest-chains ended with an elite mini-boss. Ever been to Jintha'Alor in Hinterlands ? A huge temple full with elite mobs. And a few interesting chains. You needed a full party to play there. People didn't know their optimal spec. People had crappy gear. Great fun. We did all dungeons from SFK to BRD while leveling. In those days, dungeons were also not really hard. But still 100x harder than the zergfest that sub-90 dungeons are today. And they took 2 hours easily.

There was Thottbot though. That worked just fine for the most part. And the elite areas were completely skippable. Sure, I visited Jintha'Alor back in the day. Lots didn't though. And the length of dungeons varied dramatically by dungeon. I mean, getting through BRD in only two hours would have required a miracle. Stockades obviously quite a bit less. And a good bit of the difference there really was experience.

I remember my first trips through Deadmines. You know, back when people called it "VC" to note that they intended to go through the instance rather than doing the elite quests in the non-instanced portion? (A lot of people claim that people called it VC to distinguish it from Dire Maul, but at least on Draenor, people were calling it VC long before Dire Maul was a thing.) It took SO much longer than it would in a few months once people knew what they were doing. One of the things that I found remarkable back in the early days of WoW was just how many people played it that had absolutely no prior MMO experience. I remember having to explain the whole concept of "aggro" to people, and why they shouldn't unload as soon as the tank engaged.

 

[blackened23]

Yeah that's what I used in vanilla. Thottbot. It had all of the loot tables, quests, etc etc etc. I have to say I think vanilla was the best WoW experience if you played it at launch, it was just so new and uncharted at the time. WoW has just become meh since then, although I really loved TBC and Wrath.

 

[robvp]

Vanilla had a feeling of unknown that i will never feel in any other MMO, back in the day there was not a lot of info and for a lot of us it was really the first big MMO experience, everywhere you went it felt massive and new, when you were done with a zone you just went exploring until you found a new town or area, i will never feel anything like that in any other MMO because we're now bombarded with information

 

[AznAnarchy99]

Vanilla had a feeling of unknown that i will never feel in any other MMO, back in the day there was not a lot of info and for a lot of us it was really the first big MMO experience, everywhere you went it felt massive and new, when you were done with a zone you just went exploring until you found a new town or area, i will never feel anything like that in any other MMO because we're now bombarded with information

Also it was the first MMO for many so people didn't know what to expect. I played SWTOR and I never felt the same immersion feeling from the first time I walked through Ashenvale.

 

[BoberFett]

Exactly. It's that the game has changed all that much from a noobs perspective, gamers have changed.

 

[Gryz]

And of course I disagree again.

In vanilla WoW, the path of leveling and questing was much less predictable. Today's questing has a very strict pattern.
Let me give you the recipe for the secret sauce:

enter new area.
you find a quest-hub as soon as you enter the area.
pickup 5 quests at the hub.
2 quests are "kill 6 of these mobs".
1 quest is "kill these other mobs, and pick up an item from them. need 6 items".
2 quest are "go get 6 magic mushrooms that lie around the mobs you're gonna kill anyway".
all mobs and items are within 100y.
do 5 quests simultaneously. return within 4 minutes. turn in all quests.
1 new quests opens: kill a named mob, but still not elite.
go kill the 1 named mob solo.
get a fedex-quest to the next hub.
which happens to be 400 yards (40 seconds run) from where you are now.
repeat this 4 times, and you get sent to the next area, with mobs 1 level higher.

Now give me one example of an area post-WLK where the questing does not follow that pattern. It's the same everywhere. No group quests. No elite quests. Never ever a quest where you have to find a wandering NPC. No inefficient fedex-quests where you need to go back and forth between continents. Never a quest you get early, but which is too hard to right now. Never quest-chains that send you into a dungeon. All dungeon-quests are given right at the start of each dungeon, without any prerequisites.

And don't get me started on quest-markers on the map and minimap.
There used to be a quest "go find something small under a bridge in Swamp of Sorrows". Nowadays you get arrows pointing you towards the bridge, a yellow mark on your mini-map, and the little thingy is now sparkling.

It's boring.
Yes, gamers got better. Yes, we have more tools out-of-game.
But the really big change is that Blizzard now makes games for the mentally challenged.
Sometimes I almost feel ashamed that I play this game.
That was not the case 9 or 6 years ago.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

Now give me one example of an area post-WLK where the questing does not follow that pattern. It's the same everywhere. No group quests. No elite quests. Never ever a quest where you have to find a wandering NPC. No inefficient fedex-quests where you need to go back and forth between continents. Never a quest you get early, but which is too hard to right now. Never quest-chains that send you into a dungeon. All dungeon-quests are given right at the start of each dungeon, without any prerequisites.

And don't get me started on quest-markers on the map and minimap.
There used to be a quest "go find something small under a bridge in Swamp of Sorrows". Nowadays you get arrows pointing you towards the bridge, a yellow mark on your mini-map, and the little thingy is now sparkling.

It's boring.
Yes, gamers got better. Yes, we have more tools out-of-game.
But the really big change is that Blizzard now makes games for the mentally challenged.
Sometimes I almost feel ashamed that I play this game.
That was not the case 9 or 6 years ago.

I'll agree with you on the dungeon quests but that's a sad outcome of the dungeon finder. The rest of it is nostalgia. Did you really enjoy traveling continents at level 25 (no mount by the way, all run) to deliver some package that didn't lead to any other quests? That run alone would take you 1-2 hours.

Elite quests and group quests were cool if you were on a new server. If you weren't, finding a group for them was next to impossible.

Also Blizz basically took an add-on and put it into the game with the quest tracker but you can't tell me you did all of your quests without alt-tabbing to thottbot every couple of minutes.

I think the flow of quests is a much better thing. It lets Blizzard tell a story rather than having a disjointed run around. I wouldn't mind if they were a tad more difficult but the problem is, if you're final raid epiced out at the start of a new expansion, it all comes easy until you're about halfway done leveling.