The Random WoW Thread

[ThePixelbarks]

Emotionally manipulative tripe. His main complaints in the video are things that were introduced over a decade ago, yet only making a video about it now to dogpile while it's the "in thing to do".  The game he wants to play doesn't exist any more, and it can't exist. WoW classic was a perfect example of how modern gaming trends of "meta" playing just aren't compatible with the original design of WoW. Just look at the amount of Warriors and Mages there were in Classic.

While I do have issues with current WoW design, these aren't them. The current party finder system is excellent, you can find groups for any content you want to do, but leaves the social interactions to you. It doesn't teleport you, you need to communicate with your team to do any sort of high level content, and works almost perfectly. I just wish I could filter the groups by key level for dungeons.

 

[Captain Kelsten]

Left my guild of two years and some good friends to take a punt on a mythic guild. Was going well. Got third boss down on Wednesday and, at the end of the raid, the raid leader announces it will be the last raid because almost half the bloody team are transferring elsewhere to raid with another guild. Guess we’re not progressing fast enough for them, or they’re not happy with how much/how little effort others are putting in compared to them (they’re quite the m+ clique). It’s fair enough and I respect their decision, but it completely screws our guild and effectively ends mythic progression as we don’t have enough backups to field a team. 
 

Going to see if we can get some joint raids going with my old guild to just run heroic rather than nothing but I’m not too hopeful.  
 

In other news the server, Defias Brotherhood, is dead. I was in org the other day and I was literally the only one there. The game itself seems super quiet, actually, and blizz taking their sweet time with patch 9.1.5 which adds lots of nice quality of life improvements (which should have been in day one of the expansion) but no new content (except for the return of the legion mage tower and legion timewalking dungeons), doesn’t help matters. God knows how long we’ll have to wait for 9.2 and who will even be left around to play it! 

[df0]

Come back to Muk. It still exists on Draenor I’m sure.

[Captain Kelsten]

Hit 1800 in 2s arena on my resto shaman, unlocking the elite pvp set for him. I got to 1800 as holy priest a couple of months ago, too. Might do paladin next, or maybe Druid! 
 

PvP is still a frigging mess, with classes capable of one or two shotting you if they get their win condition off, which playing as a healer is super frustrating as there’s very little you can do to counter it.

Earlier a warrior did 65k damage to me in less than two seconds and I only have 46k health (which is actually pretty low these days, more geared players have 50-60k easy, some even more). 
 

Despite this, I still bloody love arena. I’m kinda sad it’s taken until this expansion for me to properly try it, especially since pvp this expansion is probably in one of the worst states it’s ever been, but I enjoy it anyway, especially healing. I found my calling, it seems, as a healer in pvp! I miss playing with @Trigg and @Loki, as always! 
 

[Trigg]

10 hours ago, Doctor Shark said:

Hit 1800 in 2s arena on my resto shaman, unlocking the elite pvp set for him. I got to 1800 as holy priest a couple of months ago, too. Might do paladin next, or maybe Druid! 
 

PvP is still a frigging mess, with classes capable of one or two shotting you if they get their win condition off, which playing as a healer is super frustrating as there’s very little you can do to counter it.

Earlier a warrior did 65k damage to me in less than two seconds and I only have 46k health (which is actually pretty low these days, more geared players have 50-60k easy, some even more). 
 

Despite this, I still bloody love arena. I’m kinda sad it’s taken until this expansion for me to properly try it, especially since pvp this expansion is probably in one of the worst states it’s ever been, but I enjoy it anyway, especially healing. I found my calling, it seems, as a healer in pvp! I miss playing with @Trigg and @Loki, as always! 
 

 

Miss you too! I try to keep in touch with the PvP and it looks worse now than it did when I last played which is a shame

[Captain Kelsten]

Yeah it’s bloody daft how unbalanced it is. Windwalkers can kill an entire team if they catch them just right in a clump. Convoke is still bullshit but a bit easier to play around. I got hit with a 32k execute yesterday. Rogue Mage is still bullshit. 
 

I still love it, though

[Captain Kelsten]

https://www.wowhead.com/news/cross-faction-dungeons-raids-and-pvp-coming-in-patch-9-2-5-325824
 

As of 9.2 you can do dungeons, raids and rated pvp across faction. 

[Varsity]

Could be interesting I guess. Actually cancelled my sub for the first time in years the other week, I normally leave it running just for when I feel like logging in and pissing around but man, the wait for 9.2 is nuts so an elongated break was definitely needed. 

[George Clooney]

I logged on for a bit yesterday and have been messing around with the new content.  Shadowlands so far is easily the least played expansion for me, and not because I've had other things that have prevented it.  I enjoyed leveling the first time, but the end game content at launch didnt keep me occupied for very long as a lot of it was just tedious or drawn out for the sake of it.  I logged on long enough to get flying done (which thankfully wasnt that lengthy)

 

Zenith Mortis isnt much better.  It doesnt help that I dont like the aestheitic thats all over this expansion, which has made the last 2 raids really uninteresting to me.  A lot of the bosses look very....indistinct?  They're just boring faceless blobs that mostly look similar.  There isnt really a lot (save a few) to make them stand out.  Thats been similar for most of the expansion to be honest, the art in the last 2 raids really wasnt very interesting, same with how most the gear looks.  Its a shame, as the concept art from the expansion release was some of the best they've done.  The zones looked wonderfully pretty, and some of the gear at the start is cool.  But it dropped off a cliff pretty quick.  Similarly with BFA, there isnt much there that makes me want to go back for transmog pieces.  It also doesnt help that they drown you in new systems with different currency each patch now.  They've always done this a bit, but it seems worse now.

 

The only good bit is that alts are fairly easy to catch up gear wise now.  You can get to 230 ilvl pretty quick, though the BOA pieces from the vendor require anima, which if you're like me you werent arsed with (though you can get enough to gear up an alt quick still).

 

The whole expansion has left a bit of a sour note tbh.  A lot of people had concerns at the start with covenants and how tied to them you were, but they didnt listen and then undid it later on when they realised people didnt like it.  Legendaries are tedious to get.  Torghast seemed fun at first and conceptually was cool, but is super boring and the "difficult" levels are more born from frustrating mechanics rather than requiring skillful play.  They seem intent on adding systems on systems, then forcing you to engage with them regardless of if they're adding anything to the game other than a time sink.  Then of course there was the issue of the harrassment that came up while the expansion was going, which didnt help.

 

Shadowlands so far is bottom 3 of my list for expansions, I'm unsure where I'd rank it amongst WoD and Cata, both of which I wasnt massively keen on.  That said, Cata was followed by MoP and WoD was followed by Legion, both of which I really enjoyed, and they're announcing the next expansion soon (just under a month) so it'll be interesting to see where they go from here.

[Captain Kelsten]

I stopped playing before Christmas and haven’t come back for the new expansion or raid. I just can’t be arsed. It looks so dull and uninspired. The story is dross. The gameplay is stale. The next expansion, to be announced in April, really needs to shake things up a lot. I can’t take another expansion of poor writing, borrowed power, systems built on systems, grinds, daily quests and rep gating. 

[Sumire]

33 minutes ago, Doctor Shark said:

I stopped playing before Christmas and haven’t come back for the new expansion or raid. I just can’t be arsed. It looks so dull and uninspired. The story is dross. The gameplay is stale. The next expansion, to be announced in April, really needs to shake things up a lot. I can’t take another expansion of poor writing, borrowed power, systems built on systems, grinds, daily quests and rep gating. 

 

I used to play a long time ago, but stopped mainly because of what felt like a free to play mobile game grind type system. I am amazed there has not been a pay to win system implemented by now. Shame as it seemed such an awesome game back in the day.

[Zael]

26 minutes ago, Sumire said:

 

I used to play a long time ago, but stopped mainly because of what felt like a free to play mobile game grind type system. I am amazed there has not been a pay to win system implemented by now. Shame as it seemed such an awesome game back in the day.

 

There is in a roundabout way using WoW Tokens to pay for in game boosts.

[George Clooney]

Expansion announced yesterday- and honestly it sounds really promising so far.  Expansion is called Dragonflight and as you can imagine centre around the dragon aspects and them coming back to help start sorting the world out after all the stuff going on.

 

key things

New race AND class in a two for one (as in the race and class are tied together and can’t be picked with and other race/classes) - Dracthyr (human dragon hybrids created by Neltharion) and evokers

Class lord is that because they intrinsically have dragon powers it doesn’t make sense for them to no use them, hence only being evokers, which are dragon themed.  Evokers wear mail (good to get mail wearers added!) and will have 2 specs, a rangers caster based on red and blue dragon abilities (fire and arcane) and a healer based on green and bronze, which they said involved “timey wimey stuff” but only gave an example of healing faster. I think a few people are assuming you’ll be able to “rewind” damage too.

 

Takes place on the dragon isle which has been revealed now summoning the dragons to return, and the players have to help them restore it, by the sounds. 5 zones, one being a starter zone for Dracthyr, who get the DK treatment and start at high level, then 4 zones to level up. They’ve not shown maps yet but say the zones will be bigger than previous expansion zones.  Because of this they’re adding in the next feature…

 

Dragonriding will be a new feature a available from the start of levelling. You’ll get a dragon companion (which you can customize) and it works differently to flying, but will allow it in some form, which you can improve. Stuff like momentum and gaining speed by diving has been said which makes it sound like it’ll be good for getting from A to B, but will be limited.

 

sounds like they’re listening to players as well as there isn’t a big system for borrowed power like the covenants/artifact/weapon that you spend all expansion grinding only to lose a bunch from them. Instead they’re looking at revamping persistent player systems meaning that talents and professions are getting big revamps.

 

Talent trees are back! And the ones they’ve shown have a lot of stuff on them. You also use 2 at once, so one for your class and one for your spec. The idea being that the class one will give you options for hybridization like having some healing options or utility, while your spec one can focus just on that. I quite liked the trees as they are now for a bit as they had some good options that felt like they could change the spec quite a bit, but for a while they’ve been a bit stale and not very interesting.

 

Theyve slacked with professions for a bit in my opinion and aside from catch up gear and legendary base pieces, they haven’t provided desirable end game items for a while.  They’ve said you can really upskill your crafting here to make better items so that will be interesting see how they do that. The interesting bit is work orders. You can put up a work order for an item, provide what materials you want to part with for it, and what you want to pay, and someone can accept if they fill in the mats you don’t provide.  You can also do this with soulbound items, so you can get an item they can’t sell normally. They’ve said that this will let them offer more powerful items as soulbound items.

 

Im sure I’ve missed some bits but they’re the main ones and it sounds like they’re listening to player feedback more. That said, a lot of people were excited by the initial pitch for Torghast and that ended up being bad, so it remains to be seen.

[makkuwata]

I got bored halfway through watching the new cinematic. When I think of the uncountable number of months playtime across various alts there should probably be some reflection on that. Quite tempted to resub for a month just to go on a vast nostalgic walking tour.

[Captain Kelsten]

The cinematic did nothing for me. When you compare it to others they’ve released it just felt super bland. 
 

I like they’re moving away from all the “phenomenal cosmic power!” Stuff and onto more typical fantasy adventures, 

 

I’ll no doubt be back at some point, but I’ve still not played since before Christmas and the current raid/patch/ new zone haven’t done anything to entice me back. They really screwed the game with BFA and Shadowlands back to back.
 

New race/class is meh. Would have preferred new specs for old classes instead (WHEN WILL I GET MY EARTHWARDEN SHAMAN TANK?!?) 

[Varsity]

3 hours ago, George Clooney said:

and honestly it sounds really promising so far

 

 

C'mon man, dont buy into this. They ALWAYS make them look really promising. Save your hype and ZOMG need it now stuff until we've seen more lol....in like a year.

 

They made Bfa and SL both look amazing and look how that turned out! 

 

 

[tejinashi]

It's nearly expansion time again! Dragonflight looks really solid from what I've seen, and I love the new talent trees introduced with the pre-patch. Probably the best in the history of wow tbh.

 

I skipped Shadowlands entirely, but found myself logging in this week to level up my Shadowpriest and prepare for DF. After 3 years away I am recharged and more hype than ever to play.

 

But what about you? Do you plan to come back, or did you never leave? Does an MMO not fit with your lifestyle these days, or are you taking two weeks off work just to no-life it all again. Do tell!

[ThePixelbarks]

I'm coming back, at least for a few months. Then I think I'll be a bit too busy as a new dad to play for a bit, at least in any sort of serious fashion.

[RabMyself]

I’ll probably come back, I’m one of the last 6 Alliance left on Draenor EU, and probably the only tank! But hey, I always did enjoy exploring and levelling new zones.

[ThePixelbarks]

I've not looked into it properly, but I believe everything up to mythic raiding is now cross server AND cross faction. So we may be able to get a few groups going regardless of our servers.

[Captain Kelsten]

I’ll be playing. Not played in a month or two just because I’d “finished” shadowlands and didn’t want to spend any further time there. Comfortably the worst expansion ever. Even WoD and BfA had redeeming features, Shadowlands was just shit after shit after shit. 
 

As a result my hype levels for Dragonflight are at an all-time low. Doesn’t help that I don’t know what class to play. Currently a toss up between Druid and paladin, purely for pve raid and m+ tanking and arena healing. Neither are meant to be particularly good at the moment though. 

[makkuwata]

I still haven’t played since Pandaria, but they do keep tempting me back.

[Captain Kelsten]

This is the best expansion in years (so far). Currently up there with WotLK, MoP and Legion. 

[tejinashi]

Completely agree, they've made a great start. Everything about the expansion is so refreshing, I'm loving it.

 

In a way, I'm kinda worried about Metzen coming back. Are we going to give up this innovation of Dragonflight for more Orcs v Humans, Thrall, Thrall, Thrall nonsense? Perhaps I'm being unfair. 

 

The roadmap for 2023 looks pretty good too, looks like this expansion will have the support it needs to continue impressing.