World of Warcraft
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I am toying with trying to salvage my old account and having a go at classic... not subbed in nearly 5 years...
I see they’ve announced the new add on, as ever the trailer looks immense. Heard rumours they’ve dropping the level cap back down to 60 to make the game more accessible to new users.
I see they’ve announced the new add on, as ever the trailer looks immense. Heard rumours they’ve dropping the level cap back down to 60 to make the game more accessible to new users.
Shappers24 said:
I am toying with trying to salvage my old account and having a go at classic... not subbed in nearly 5 years...
I see they’ve announced the new add on, as ever the trailer looks immense. Heard rumours they’ve dropping the level cap back down to 60 to make the game more accessible to new users.
I haven't played the game in 3 weeks now but that's not because I don't want to its because of the damn queues. They are always at least 90 minutes deep whenever I get the chance to log in and sometime they can be double that.I see they’ve announced the new add on, as ever the trailer looks immense. Heard rumours they’ve dropping the level cap back down to 60 to make the game more accessible to new users.
Sheets Tabuer said:
I'm only playing classic now, so much better than retail, actually joined a guild whereas in retail I've been playing solo for years.
Goes to show how they totally broke WoW when they made LFR and showered every man and his dog with epixxx, and removed loot rolling, and hence removed the need to be in a guild, and be respected(trusted) on your server or you can't get into raids. Totally removed the community element in a blink with LFR. I used to shudder at the behaviour in LFR raids - people AFK'ing until the boss they needed, then just looting and running.Did think about WoW classic but it was just too many years of my life, it's done, and in the past. Shame nothing else has come anywhere near since.
Been playing now on and off since Classic release. Got a shaman up to about level 30 but high queues and PvP server hasn't encouraged me to log on. Prefer a PvE server but they're all massively over subscribed. I've actually gone to play Retail and level up a character or two through the two expansions I've missed.
As a returning player coming in towards the end of an expansion the end game is a convoluted mess of things to do. Or so I've found. I don't know whether to grind pearls to upgrade Benthic gear that only seems good in one zone / raid, or do mythic dungeons for off-set pieces, or expeditions for azerite to upgrade necklace, or do rep grind for flying mount, or pvp, or go do the quest chain on the Alliance island. I've just opened up Mechagon but havn't been yet.. etc etc etc
Thankfully my Druid still feels like a druid, same for my Mage and my Tankadin. Really didn't like the feel / playstyle of my priest so I've left that one for the time being. I was always Disc priest but doesn't seem super viable for 5 mans, more for raids and Holy feels too stuck in one place for 5 mans with all the AoE effects.
As a returning player coming in towards the end of an expansion the end game is a convoluted mess of things to do. Or so I've found. I don't know whether to grind pearls to upgrade Benthic gear that only seems good in one zone / raid, or do mythic dungeons for off-set pieces, or expeditions for azerite to upgrade necklace, or do rep grind for flying mount, or pvp, or go do the quest chain on the Alliance island. I've just opened up Mechagon but havn't been yet.. etc etc etc
Thankfully my Druid still feels like a druid, same for my Mage and my Tankadin. Really didn't like the feel / playstyle of my priest so I've left that one for the time being. I was always Disc priest but doesn't seem super viable for 5 mans, more for raids and Holy feels too stuck in one place for 5 mans with all the AoE effects.
Shappers24 said:
I see they’ve announced the new add on, as ever the trailer looks immense. Heard rumours they’ve dropping the level cap back down to 60 to make the game more accessible to new users.
Just watched the new trailer and I'm confused. Pretty certain the Lich King was taken care of 8 years ago. This prompted me to view the cinematic trailer for "Wrath" again and considering the technological advances in CGI in the last 8 years I think the "Wrath" trailer is more polished. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCr7y4SLhckmoonigan said:
Shappers24 said:
I see they’ve announced the new add on, as ever the trailer looks immense. Heard rumours they’ve dropping the level cap back down to 60 to make the game more accessible to new users.
Just watched the new trailer and I'm confused. Pretty certain the Lich King was taken care of 8 years ago. This prompted me to view the cinematic trailer for "Wrath" again and considering the technological advances in CGI in the last 8 years I think the "Wrath" trailer is more polished. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCr7y4SLhckI was so excited for the release of lich king back in the day... loved that expansion. Lost interest after that.
We (my wife and I) ended up resubbing to play some classic whilst on the final countdown of her pregnancy. We ended up at level 30 in 5 (calendar) days so we did a fair bit of cramming but then baby was born and we've not touched it since!
It brought back some fond memories, we didn't get any queue issues so I guess we're on a fairly low-pop realm but we have joined a guild that a bunch of our ex-retail guildies are part of. I've been keeping an eye on them, generally they have an approach of just hoover up all of the >level 55's on the realm and then go raiding, I watched a stream of their first couple of raids and the leadership team clearly didn't have any knowledge of vanilla WoW - and pretty much just fumbled their way through it. On their second reset they oneshot everything, every MC boss incl. Raggy and also Onyxia which just makes you realise how easy the content was back then - my vanilla guild genuinely struggled to reclear MC every week, even right till the launch of TBC!
From a raiding point of view I'd like to get to level 60 and get involved once the more interesting content comes along, and classic is always something you can pick up and go back to because of the slow rate of gearing/upgrades - you can't really fall behind too far.
As for retail, the new stuff is sounding pretty damn good for Shadowlands. Levelling is finally getting an overhaul which will bring much of the world back into relevance - essentially you do level 1-10 in the usual starting zones (or I think they're bringing in a new starting zone you can also choose to do) and then level 11-50 you can pick any of the previous expansions and do those all the way through.
So you could do one character 11-50 in TBC, another you could do 11-50 in WotLK, etc etc. That's great stuff, for anyone that's levelled an alt recently the world is just a mess - you do a few quests here, then move on to do a few more, then move on - you can't get stuck into any of the old-world storylines.
50-60 will then be in the new Shadowlands zones, obviously.
It seems like they've learned a few lessons from BfA, we're getting loads of "un-pruning" done to the classes so a lot of old abilities/mechanisms are returning such as Rogue poisons, Shaman totems etc.
Raid content really has been fantastic all through Legion/BfA so they don't need to make many changes there IMO - the classes/gearing has all just got a bit "passive"... like I know a lot about my class, was often getting >95 percentile ranks on Mythic bosses but the gear is just so complex without actually impacting my playstyle that much - just loads of random proc stuff flying off, it's impossible to figure out what gear is best without using third party calculator tools etc... all that needs stripping back, and give players more ability to do well using higher skillcapped stuff.
It brought back some fond memories, we didn't get any queue issues so I guess we're on a fairly low-pop realm but we have joined a guild that a bunch of our ex-retail guildies are part of. I've been keeping an eye on them, generally they have an approach of just hoover up all of the >level 55's on the realm and then go raiding, I watched a stream of their first couple of raids and the leadership team clearly didn't have any knowledge of vanilla WoW - and pretty much just fumbled their way through it. On their second reset they oneshot everything, every MC boss incl. Raggy and also Onyxia which just makes you realise how easy the content was back then - my vanilla guild genuinely struggled to reclear MC every week, even right till the launch of TBC!
From a raiding point of view I'd like to get to level 60 and get involved once the more interesting content comes along, and classic is always something you can pick up and go back to because of the slow rate of gearing/upgrades - you can't really fall behind too far.
As for retail, the new stuff is sounding pretty damn good for Shadowlands. Levelling is finally getting an overhaul which will bring much of the world back into relevance - essentially you do level 1-10 in the usual starting zones (or I think they're bringing in a new starting zone you can also choose to do) and then level 11-50 you can pick any of the previous expansions and do those all the way through.
So you could do one character 11-50 in TBC, another you could do 11-50 in WotLK, etc etc. That's great stuff, for anyone that's levelled an alt recently the world is just a mess - you do a few quests here, then move on to do a few more, then move on - you can't get stuck into any of the old-world storylines.
50-60 will then be in the new Shadowlands zones, obviously.
It seems like they've learned a few lessons from BfA, we're getting loads of "un-pruning" done to the classes so a lot of old abilities/mechanisms are returning such as Rogue poisons, Shaman totems etc.
Raid content really has been fantastic all through Legion/BfA so they don't need to make many changes there IMO - the classes/gearing has all just got a bit "passive"... like I know a lot about my class, was often getting >95 percentile ranks on Mythic bosses but the gear is just so complex without actually impacting my playstyle that much - just loads of random proc stuff flying off, it's impossible to figure out what gear is best without using third party calculator tools etc... all that needs stripping back, and give players more ability to do well using higher skillcapped stuff.
Also another bit positive from the new content will be that you’ll get some kind of reward for each level you go up... which is better than the current system.
I managed to dig out my old account and resubbed for a month. My characters are a complete mess and I literally have no idea what’s going on with the storylines...
I managed to dig out my old account and resubbed for a month. My characters are a complete mess and I literally have no idea what’s going on with the storylines...
Shappers24 said:
Also another bit positive from the new content will be that you’ll get some kind of reward for each level you go up... which is better than the current system.
I managed to dig out my old account and resubbed for a month. My characters are a complete mess and I literally have no idea what’s going on with the storylines...
Yeah character progression all went a bit backwards in BfA. We picked up loads of new stuff, some of it quite fun with the Legion artefacts then it all went into the bin and we didn't really gain anything with BfA with the new armour system - just a bunch of passive stuff, which rarely changes your play style.I managed to dig out my old account and resubbed for a month. My characters are a complete mess and I literally have no idea what’s going on with the storylines...
One part of Classic that certainly wasn't just nostalgia is the talent tree - they're SO much better than retail, and I really really hope they come back. I remember Blizzard's rationale at the time and they said that "most talents are boring, stuff like +1% to crit aren't fun" but the whole point was that you had to spend in 'boring' areas to gain something fun.
On my rogue on Classic I was spending points into +1% to hit, pretty boring - but still feels good each level because you're working towards a class/spec defining ability every time you level, and every 5-6 levels you pick up a brand new ability from the trainer. So much better, and I think a level squish will help to regain some of this progression.
The new talent system is just a case of picking and choosing the abilities based on the content/encounter you're about to tackle - no sense of earning the abilities or working towards them, and no investment in your class/playstyle as it just changes on each boss fight/encounter.
I think the current mess of the levelling system is just because it’s become so huge. If it was like the classic system, all the best stuff wouldn’t come until towards the end when you’re 110-120 and would make levelling a complete pain. They’ve become a victim of their own success and in many ways they can’t do it all - how do you keep old players happy (increase level cap) but the keep new players/ alts happy aswell who face a 120 level grind...? I am really struggling to get my head around my old characters as the moment. The accounts are a mess but I’ve not used them in maybe 4-5 years. So much has changed.
I might try classic until the new expansion comes out and then head back to retail. The other alternative is just roll a new character and learn the current game all the way up to 120. But that seems daunting...
I might try classic until the new expansion comes out and then head back to retail. The other alternative is just roll a new character and learn the current game all the way up to 120. But that seems daunting...
Yes you're absolutely right, the leveling became too diluted as they kept nerfing the XP requirements so it's just a mental flurry of zones, barely getting into each storyline before being ushered on to another zone or continent.
If the classes gained new abilities every 2 levels as per classic we'd need four keyboards by the time we hit 120!!
The level squish in Shadowlands will be a great change, but I would also recommend trying a fresh character on retail now - there's still a s
t tonne of good content to go through and it's not as daunting as it looks.
If the classes gained new abilities every 2 levels as per classic we'd need four keyboards by the time we hit 120!!
The level squish in Shadowlands will be a great change, but I would also recommend trying a fresh character on retail now - there's still a s
t tonne of good content to go through and it's not as daunting as it looks.I started afresh with a few new characters on a new account after a LONG time away, my last character was lvl 80 when that was the level cap.
In a couple of weeks I’ve discarded a few new choices and gone back to undead priest, which I’m levelling as shadow with a view to coming across to holy when I get somewhere near lvl 120. Currently at lvl 74 and getting all nostalgic over Outland. It’s not changed from how I remember it. I don’t find the level grind at all daunting yet. Maybe that’ll change when I get into the 90s and still have 20-30 levels to go.
A lot has changed
In a couple of weeks I’ve discarded a few new choices and gone back to undead priest, which I’m levelling as shadow with a view to coming across to holy when I get somewhere near lvl 120. Currently at lvl 74 and getting all nostalgic over Outland. It’s not changed from how I remember it. I don’t find the level grind at all daunting yet. Maybe that’ll change when I get into the 90s and still have 20-30 levels to go.
A lot has changed
LeftmostAardvark said:
I started afresh with a few new characters on a new account after a LONG time away, my last character was lvl 80 when that was the level cap.
In a couple of weeks I’ve discarded a few new choices and gone back to undead priest, which I’m levelling as shadow with a view to coming across to holy when I get somewhere near lvl 120. Currently at lvl 74 and getting all nostalgic over Outland. It’s not changed from how I remember it. I don’t find the level grind at all daunting yet. Maybe that’ll change when I get into the 90s and still have 20-30 levels to go.
A lot has changed
I too went back to retail and surprisingly managed to get from 110-120 in three days of casual play and then geared up to raid level within a couple of hours. I just want to complete the 15th Anniversary raids for the Deathwing mount. In a couple of weeks I’ve discarded a few new choices and gone back to undead priest, which I’m levelling as shadow with a view to coming across to holy when I get somewhere near lvl 120. Currently at lvl 74 and getting all nostalgic over Outland. It’s not changed from how I remember it. I don’t find the level grind at all daunting yet. Maybe that’ll change when I get into the 90s and still have 20-30 levels to go.
A lot has changed
Level 1-120 on retail is still significantly quicker and less of a grind than 1-60 was in Classic, so it's not that daunting really. The only problem is that you rush through zones/continents so quickly the game doesn't feel all to cohesive, and I imagine not particularly attractive to brand new players.
The Squish in Shadowlands should fix that, but for now - enjoy!
There are some great catch-up mechanics in retail at end level too, so as said you can quickly get heroic raid ready - which is good for alts too.
When progressing Uldir Mythic we needed to stack rogues for one of the fights (Zul), I mained Druid at that time and had a 110 Rogue. We killed the boss before Zul on the Sunday, and by the following Friday my Rogue was levelled to 110 and geared enough for us to kill Zul along with the other 3-4 rogue alts that did the same. TBF the fight was a gimmick, and the rogue would have been no good for other "normal" fights, but was fun nonetheless!
The Squish in Shadowlands should fix that, but for now - enjoy!
There are some great catch-up mechanics in retail at end level too, so as said you can quickly get heroic raid ready - which is good for alts too.
When progressing Uldir Mythic we needed to stack rogues for one of the fights (Zul), I mained Druid at that time and had a 110 Rogue. We killed the boss before Zul on the Sunday, and by the following Friday my Rogue was levelled to 110 and geared enough for us to kill Zul along with the other 3-4 rogue alts that did the same. TBF the fight was a gimmick, and the rogue would have been no good for other "normal" fights, but was fun nonetheless!
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