Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Pondering, End Game Motivation (WoW)


I've been thinking about endgame lately, I've not been really doing much of it. I was pondering why and really it's just a lot of reasons. I wanted to share a few thoughts. I am enjoying the game but I'm not really working towards any goals at 85.
Why? I apologize for the long post ahead of time! Takes a deep breath.

I find myself a recluse these days in WoW. Cataclysm is fantastic, leveling alts is fun but still I really only group with my husband as a duo, recently. Its quite fun really but sometimes it feels like I have no real goals to aim for in Cataclysm. Besides working on my newest alt, then what? Our guild is small and we are very casual with no raiding. I don't think we could even if we wanted to. So, that leaves casual group play.

The game is so highly polished and wonderful while you level. Better than ever. Once you get to the top, especially if you've played it for as long as me, you can get a bit weary from all the changes. The way of thinking is constantly changing. It's like a blur, just when you get comfortable it all changes again. Developers are constantly trying to reinvent the game.

First off, I find myself very wary of pug groups. My guild is small and in most cases it is only me on for most of my play time, depending on the time of day. It's really nobody's fault that I don't enjoy the community as much. LFD doesn't offer the chance to make friends or recruit guild members, it feels so random and lackluster. Plus, I've had more than my share of nightmare random groups to come to this conclusion. This expansion pushes us towards working with guilds- Are we to randomly invite people, not getting to know players on the playing field? I suppose that's how it's been since LFD was added. The content is suppose to make us work together harder.

While I think harder content is cool, I don't think spending more time doing a long dungeon is fun. Or working on harder content with a PUG is fun. I don't really want to spend more than half an hour, an hour tops, in an instance, anything longer should be kept to raids. Unless it's a static xp group... which does not exist in WoW (think of setting up camp in EQ or DAoC).

In Ghostcrawler's latest blog post, 'Wow, Dungeons's are hard!', he states:  In fact, we think the game is more fun overall when you play with friends, which is why we put so much effort into encouraging players to join guilds for Cataclysm. Running a hard dungeon with friends tends to be a much better experience. Communication feels less awkward, and everyone is generally more supportive of mistakes. You learn the strengths and weaknesses and nuances of players that you run with regularly. There tend to be fewer loot arguments as well. PUGs have their place -- don’t get me wrong. But we don’t want to sacrifice dungeons being fun and challenging for organized groups in order to have everything be conquered by any possible group. Make sense?

Learning things is something that you do (to enjoy) with friends and guild members not random strangers. You can, but there is a reason PUGS have such a bad name. That's why we raid. We do groups for casual fun, or rather... we did. Now they're just stepping stones [almost exclusively in WoW] we turn our noses at because we're too uber once we over-gear them. So why penalize small guilds because they lack the numbers or casual guilds? We must be in an active, large guild to really enjoy the game, even casually, at this point in time?

Is there a place for the casual player? The casual guild? What about people who can't find a solid guild at odd play-times? Other parts of his post continue with; '...There are only a few level-85 normal dungeons. For a level-85 player who isn’t ready for Heroics but wants to run dungeons, these can get old pretty quickly.' Which led on to talk about heroics and heroic-heroics... Seriously? I suppose we wait it out and continue to PUG along until we get there. Maybe a little slower, maybe a bit burnt out by then.

He also writes: 'We do understand that some healers are frustrated and giving up. That is sad and unfortunate.' Blah blah... Still wondering why you sit in LFG for half an hour? Last time I queued I waited 40 minutes (as dps) for a normal instance and logged before one popped up. While they want to take the pressure off healers for 'covering' for other people by flinging out tons of heals- it still falls on the healers as they sit OOM holding the group up. Even if the dps was too low they will still get blamed in many cases. It's not a fix. It's not fun. It's not harder, its wasting time. It's the reason I'm playing as and not healing. Sure, things will get easier when people are over-geared. By then it's back to the same cycle. It was also said- In Cataclysm, the Heroic dungeons and raids are intended to be challenging -- and they are, at least until you overgear them.

The whole post sounded as if it were aimed at raiding but it's just the group scene. ITS HEROICS!! What about casual shorter instances for non-raiders? Longer time spans in instances make them harder? Harder to get done I suppose.

I don't really think ANYTHING in WoW is truly hard. That's why so many people play it, honestly. Polish and accessibility those are the keys of success with this game. Once you learn mechanics and are geared properly [well] it's really quite easy.

[I'm not saying the game doesn't take skill for some aspects and hard work from guilds- there's just a lot of jumping through hoops and fire. And I do see plenty of monkeys in the best of the best with gear and guilds who are some of the worst players I've ever encountered]

'Ultimately, we don’t want to give undergeared or unorganized groups a near guaranteed chance of success, because then the content will feel absolutely trivial for players in appropriate gear who communicate, cooperate, and strategize. ' You may as well throw LFD out the window then! That's all LFD is- an unorganized group of people thrown together randomly. Shall we plot things out for several hours of learning and wipes? I've had friends tell me how they've done this. I thought that was raiding! Sorry but I'm not wasting that kind of time on five man instances and pretending it's something special- on group content.

You could tell me to go find a bigger guild, there you go no more LFD. But what about the little guilds, do they suffer and fall apart, friends get left behind? I'm more casual than ever, with WoW, and I don't want to leave my friends. So I suppose for me it's the little things to focus on, the solo game. If I don't feel up to raiding, at least group content should be enjoyable. Right? I might give PUGS more of a shot in the future, just not at this point in time. I don't want to totally burn out this early into the expansion. I don't like the developers outlook thus far.

On top of that, I suppose I feel I may as well not get attached to a specific play style. That's a big thing that has me bummed. I feel like the rug is constantly being pulled out from under my feet. The classes change too much, I don't like relearning a class I've been playing for six years. I adapt and get accustomed to things but it does dampen my urge to play certain classes I worked hard on and enjoyed before those changes.

Maybe I've just been burnt too many times, maybe I'm too old school, maybe I'm just not giving it enough of a chance? Whatever it is, it doesn't feel like it should. Maybe it's just me?

In conclusion, I suppose I sometimes wish LFD used Horde and Alliance for random groups, at least being able to play with your own server population- creating a closer community. But mostly I wish game play and class mechanics, we've had in place for years, weren't discarded on a constant basis. I think the rest would fall into place and the community would be better off for it. I wish the goals of the developers didn't change like the tides rolling in and out...

The moral of the story? There is no working as intended, we simply don't know how we intend it to work so we keep changing it!  Ok, there is no real moral of this story. I just wanted to share some of my thoughts thus far in with a casual guild and a casual outlook: Sometimes playing WoW feels the equivalent of  screaming on the top of my lungs in a crowd where nobody hears me. If you've read thus far, thank you for keeping up with my insanely long post and ramblings! 


-kaozz

26 comments:

  1. ah kaozz you are a shining light in the dark that is the mmo world.

    Firstly let me say i think cataclysm is the best expansion blizzard have produced. My problem is it was far too late in the game. Ive played wow since just after launch and I think Im just getting to the stage where I have had enough. The journey from 1-85 on my rogue was probably one of the best mmo experiences Ive encountered in my gaming life however here I am sitting at 85 with only grinding treadmills facing me, be it reputation,pve dungeons or pvp honor I just dont think I can face the repetitive nature of it all.

    In short I think my days in wow are numbered. Rift is a big no no as its just the same old fantasy game..... Swtor will hopefully be my saviour. Until then who knows what Il get up to prob wow pvp mixed with something else.

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  2. Awww

    I admit that I've had the most fun just playing through Cata and the 'new'1-60 content. More than I have had in a long time. Maybe I should just keep playing atls ;)

    I wonder if mine are too some days. Not quite yet. Rift... I'm still on the fence but I'll most likely play it for something new.

    I hope TOR does it for you, I know you've been looking for something to captivate you for awhile!

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  3. I've had the most fun playing with my alts, although I have to admit my guild on Ysera is a lot of fun and does go out of its way to include all (even though most o them are 85 and are already raiding.)

    However they do realize that not everyone wants to play end-game so there are activities focused on those (like me) who enjoy the leveling process. /grins I'm actually hoping I can make some of the old world raids planned for this Sunday.

    Smaller guilds are great but at times they can work against those who are looking to become part of the group.... say for a newbie wanting to come on board but never seeing anyone online. That can be a turn off since well... they could do that unguilded (speaking of myself here.)

    I'm the opposite I do like the rug being pulled out from under me when it comes to gaming. I get so bored when things stay the same.

    Call me a glutton, but I've always enjoyed PuGs. Yep been in a lot of bad ones (as most people have) at times those can be good too, since there are a lot of oh crap moments and it's interesting to see how your class handles the encounter. Now if the PUGS are bad because people are acting like a jerk, well I'll vote kick them in a heartbeat.

    OT
    I hopped on my Mage last evening and ran into the sweetest tank. He paused after every encounter. When a DPS was asking him why he wasn't going, his reply was, I'm making sure our healer is ready and has enough mana. I applauded him for being concious of others in our group. I noticed our healer kept heals on me if/when I needed them and that was because I always made sure the mobs stayed off her. although My DPS was high, I stopped to dispell and help others out when needed. In groups, you can't have tunnel vision. I mainly play healers (and more recently tanks) however, whatever role I play, I make an effort to remember that. Sadly you don't always find that in athe LFD.

    Sometimes I think the designers believe that the LFD will work like a guild run. The ideal guild run works together as a team, unfortunately that isn't always the case in LFD so yes wipes (especially with the new content) is inevitable.

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  4. I don't like my games to stagnate, that's where content updates comes into play. If you played many of the classes from release you'd be astonished how different they are today. That isn't mainstream for most MMO games, players get upset.

    I always say WoW needs more change on a more frequent basis- but in different areas, more content, more things to do. Some change is good and needed.

    ----------
    You know that's what I miss. I use to throw heals out when I wasn't healing on say the druid or pally, cc if I could, off tank.. things to help out the group. The whole dps race changed that aspect and I miss it.

    Sounds like you had a really good tank there. Was he, by chance, on your server?

    The developers are getting their wires crossed. Add in a cross server LFD system then aiming for guild groups as a focus. What are they smokin'?! I jest- Seriously it's a bit contradictory.

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  5. I just realized that other than gaining reputation, I get absolutely no gain from running normal dungeons. There were no upgrades from justice points, and only a few decent upgrades from random drops on 3 specific bosses (trinkets).

    And I still haven't run a single heroic, and only bought 1 item with justice points.

    So I'm in a donut hole. Regulars are pointless, heroics require too much time and commitment.

    I think what is needed is valor point rewards from doing a random regular. That way more geared people would queue for a quick run instead of spending 3 hours trying to complete a heroic.

    That would increase the number queueing for regulars, decreasing wait times.

    Right now, regular dungeon randoms need to be the heroics of wrath: obligatory "daily dungeons" to get a few valor points inching your way to some 359 gear. And the way for new players to gear up more quickly.

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  6. I'm pretty much with you, Kaozz. The LFD is a nightmare right now, especially as a tank or healer. When wiping is so much more common, those two players getting blamed and berated is also more common. What fun is that? I guess there's some solace to be had in the fact that we *don't* get those half hour queue times.

    I think Blizzard was really stuck on this. They're definitely incentivizing guild runs and have brought back the need to communicate to boot. The problem is that it's gone from the far end of the easy pole in WotLK to the other end of the spectrum in Cataclysm. I don't see where there couldn't be some kind of scaling going in. Or simply more variety in difficulty. Sure, with only five levels, itemization is a problem, but it's far from insurmountable if they didn't want to offer equal rewards for lesser challenge.

    Overall, unless you're able to play with friends or for extended periods, or simply don't mind things the way they are, it may be best to level an alt or take a break from the grind. It just seems like a recipe for quick burnout to me. Players got a single month respite from the treadmill grind they left in Wrath and then enter into a more frustrating and far more stymied LFD game than they've ever had... doesn't seem like the best option.

    A final thought, though: Without adding anything new -- new dungeons, etc. -- I don't know that I'd change things. Wrath killed group inter-reliance and, more importantly, communication. Using other players without so much as saying hello is a pretty worthless trend for an MMO to support. If this is the trial by fire we have to go through to get that back, it may just be worth it.

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  7. @ Bristal- It would be really nice to just have some regular instances to play about in until we could get more time and people to focus on heroics. With our little guild especially. Or just to do some quick randoms with my husband when he plays after work.

    I just can't make myself join a heroic if it means that it could take up as much time as raiding. If I want to spend huge amounts of time on content it better be worth it!

    I agree with you that there needs to be a balance and incentive. Maybe it will be added in eventually as it was in Wrath. I suppose only time will tell.

    @ Chris- I like that the developers tried to add a challenge to things but it's in the wrong area of the game drawing from the wrong pool of people. Maybe if LFD was server based it might just work.

    As a gamer,I've always considered harder content and content we really spend big chunks of time on- were aimed more at guilds and raiding. Sure this could pull people together but really do you ever see the WoW community pulling together to step up to the plate, in it's current state?

    Not saying everyone is a horrible person but there s a reason people say don't pug if you want to get things done [without grief]!

    As long as the game condones the things used to gauge and rate players they will continue to be elitist and work against each other instead of with. IE: Recount, Gear Score...

    And I think I got off track a bit...

    I love the game. It's truly a wonderful game. I am just a bit overwhelmed by the fact that the direction of this game is forcing people into huge (old school mechanics!) time sinks for any content they choose as far as progression goes.

    Who knows maybe the community [as a whole] will surprise us and become a kinder place. Somehow I think that's not going to happen, it's going to take bigger changes ;)


    I just want to thank you all for your input it really makes me feel like I'm not alone here ranting like a lunatic!

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  8. Hiya Kaaozz,

    The tank wasn't from my server but he did pop on and say hello to me on Ysera. How sweet was that? :) I did the same with him too.

    Although I haven't been playing since launch some of the classes have changed a bit, overall I like the changes. it's just the way I am. I realize not everyone likes playing the way I do-- and that's perfectly ok too. ;)

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  9. It's always so nice when you meet someone like that and you can keep in touch.

    I'm just old school, I like going away from a game and coming back to the same class, same feeling to it. However Paladins and Druids are far superior, as many other classes, than they were at launch. So I can't complain TOO much ;)

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  10. Prot Paladins have changed for the better I love it. Mahnia is currently lounging about in Thrallmar. She's 62. I most likely won't play her until a buddy hits that with his Mage. :)

    Today I have some time so dumped Resto on my Druid and am playing around with Balance, It's new, kind of scary and frustrating too, since it's not coming easy to me. However I like that!

    I'll have to write a post about that. This expansion, at least right now, I really don't want to heal too much. A huge jump for me since the last two expansions that's mainly what I did. :)

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  11. I enjoy healing too but I figure I'll do it at a later point in the expansion.

    I've healed for so long, sometimes it's nice not being the one to worry about it :)

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  12. Great article.

    In Cataclysm, I log on to do a random dungeon every day and raid. I hate playing the game right now. I work and don't have the time to run randoms with my guildies, so I pug. I usually get it done, but 100 minutes to queue and complete a dungeon is absurd, and more importantly, it's not fun.

    Blizzard puts many into anonymous group and then gives them more challenging content. That's idiotic.

    I'm currently downloading another game. I'm not ready to quit on my guildies yet, but I am getting close. I'm more burned out now than I was at any point during Wrath.

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  13. Thanks!

    I didn't want to leave my friends either but I just felt like it was time to take a break. Disappointing that it was so soon.

    I play on and off through the evenings in my games and I just can't grasp spending that much time trying to progress through trivial content. I know exactly how you feel!

    I hope you have more fun in the other game you're downloading. Maybe in due time things will even out in WoW.

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  14. Great post!

    I'm very old school too I started WoW in 2004 as a warlock and when wrath came out I was looking at an entirely different class (not to my liking). So I picked up a paladin and have been tanking since the dungeon finder came out. My problem with wrath is that as a casual player who likes to raid occasionally. I've got no where else to go. I've already maxed out the gear I can get from Justice points and I often dont want to bother to run a heroic pug if there are no guildies on.

    My biggest love for WoW has always been that there are always ways to progress your character. Be it leveling, dungeons, heroics, reputations, badges, even up to pugging raids. But now with everything more 'hardmode' pugs are out of the question and raid progression is completely out of the question for casual raiders.

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  15. AMEN!

    PUG's and the attitudes that are currently the 'norm' on WoW is horrible, horrible, HORRIBLE!

    Blizzard listened to the hardcore, elitist of WoW and made the expansion for THEM! The vocal, whining, minority who thinks griefing others is fun.

    The rest of the PAYING CUSTOMERS of this game are looking at far, FAR too much effort for dubious gain, if any.

    Hey, it's only 15 bucks, right? I need to buck up and LTPLOL and dedicate my life to a video game....right? is THAT what I'm supposed to do? Unbalance my whole life to satisfy some unemployed child living in mom's basement? Is THAT what I'm supposed to do?

    CATA is a fail. A well crafted POS. As I am not having fun, I am going to let my subscription lapse. That is why Cata is fail.

    Bottom line is: I am not going to stay in a game that encourages bad attitudes and rewards them.

    I truly do not understand why dungeons don't scale based on the ilevel of the group. If a PUG has a lower average then script the boss to only have 1 or 2 special attacks. More mechanics layered on as the ilevel rises to provide a challenge.

    But when I wait 45 minutes or more in a que, only to get booted, it's not fun. Period.

    So, for all you who feel that newbs are to discouraged from playing, you got your wish. Enjoy your long que times.

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  16. My wife and I are both taking a break from WoW... we have both played since vanilla, but now can't even be bothered to log on. Our accounts are canceled and we aren't sure if we will ever return. It's really sad, how this expansion was supposed to be the best ever, but in the end, left us with nothing to do that we could enjoy.

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  17. Thanks for the input!

    I sometimes feel like I rant too much about WoW these days but it does seem a lot of players are starting to feel the same way as I.

    I was very excited about this expansion until I hit 85 and really took a long hard look at what was in front of me. I suppose it's just a waiting game, to see if things change. Or for some it will be a goodbye to the game. I never like to say I'm quitting a game but I don't see myself going back to a game where play-styles are more or so 'forced' and others are left out in the cold.

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  18. I have been playing WOW for a little over three years now. My main is a Ret Pally...and I was playing and enjoying Ret in BC when Ret was pretty much laughed at, and really enjoyed it in Wrath. I am not going to turn this into a post about how they broke my spec (which they did), but it has put me in a critical mindset about this expansion. I was looking forward to it a lot as I was getting quite burned out at the end of Wrath....

    I feel a lot like the original poster....I am a mainly casual player, but I really came to enjoy raiding in Wrath. I work all day, and by the time I get home, get the dog walked and fed, the cat fed, all the other little things, I want to be able to sit down and play WOW for maybe two to three hours, and hopefully have fun....well, at least for when I play my Ret Pally, it is not fun....I have been in a few heroics, and my DPS was bad, and the runs were painful....and LONG. I do not have the time to run three+ hour dungeons.

    The comment is that as everyone gears up, they will become faster and easier....but I am almost to the point where I don't know if I want to beat my head against that particular wall for however long that takes. I am wanting to play and have fun now....today...this week...not three months from now.

    The developers stated intent during Wrath was to get as many players as possible in to see all the cool content they designed....and I think I read somewhere they wanted instance runs to be in the 1 to 2 hour range because they realized people didn't have enormous time to devote to playing....so what happened with Cata? they went they opposite direction and totally screwed with how we play our toons on top of that....

    I have levelled my hunter to 85, and have my priest at 83....I think the idea of starting a new alt and going thru the new content is what I will try next....but right now I have lost most of my interest in running heroics. Cata, rather than making me more involved in WoW has pushed me the opposite direction....I hope something happens soon to change all that, as I have a lot of good friends in the game.

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  19. I know what you mean with Paladins, they have probably had more changes than any other classes as far as mechanics go. Some of them great and some of them... well, meh.

    My husband is the same way, works a lot and wants to sit down and get some stuff done in his little amount of play time. But we can't do that now, it's really something that should be considered right off the bat. Not everyone has huge amounts of play time.

    I did the alt thing and just felt like I was aimlessly playing to avoid end game. Lets hope Blizzard thinks things over before shutting out a lot of players!

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  20. How hard would it be to have a little check-mark box on the LFD tool that said "Only look for players on my server/realm." How many problems, including guild recruitment, would that alleviate? Would it increase queue times? Probably on lower pop servers, but perhaps not as more players on higher pop servers opted for same-realm groups, the lines could be the same or shorter just as easily. However, Vanilla dungeons were hour long grindfests even at lvl 20. Wailing caverns wasn't a 30 minute casual run, and none of the lvl 50-60 dungeons were either. Burning Crusade I don't remember regulars very much but there weren't casual heroics in there either. It wasn't until Wrath that you got casual heroics like Violet Hold, and yet at launch some people still refused to run Halls of Lightning through Ulduar, despite the relative ease. I would like to see a tier of 5 man content that wasn't just 2 regular instances that lvl 85's could run with friends that aren't ever going to play at a level to raid or do heroics w/out out gearing them.

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  21. Aye, that would be a very useful addition to the LFD tool, Peter.

    I suppose many of have been spoiled spoiled by the way of Wrath heroics, but really was it a bad thing? I started back in vanilla and remember just how long it could take to form a group and then try to get the dungeon finished and really it almost feels like we're reverting but taking out the middle man and forming them with the LFD tool.

    I'd love to see more options open up for end game content to cover more bases with play style, as well.

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  22. I honestly thought that I was the only one who was having these feelings. I hit the day of the expansion excited and motivated. But now that I've hit 85 on my main and two different alts, I have no idea what to do.

    My guild basically died three-quarters of the way through Wrath, with a few people returning here and there and then disappearing again. At this point, we are so small that guild leveling and achievements are more or less impossible. Even if a few players reactivated their accounts and came back, it would be weeks -- if not months -- before we would be ready to attack guilded heroics.

    I haven't even tried to PUG a heroic in this expansion yet. I've done a few level 85 normals, but they have been pretty horrible. I even, for the first time ever, got kicked out of a normal group a few nights ago, and I honestly don't have the slightest idea why. We had only done 3 or 4 trash pulls, and hadn't even done a boss when I got kicked, and another 40-minute DPS queue was out of the question.

    With no guild to do instances with, and PUGs so horrible, about all I'm doing is leveling professions and running some lower-level alts through all the new old world content. I got the first of these alts into Outland last night, and ... well ... I frankly don't want to do Outland and Northrend again.

    The one thing that you didn't mention is the way that the new quest lines are so linear and the zones phased in response to quest progression. If you want to have an herbalist alt do some flower-picking in Twilight Highlands, and you want them to have access to all of the nodes, you have to run them though (more or less) the whole damn quest line -- even if you've already seen it and done it on two or three characters beforehand.

    The opening quest sequence for Horde characters to start Twilight Highlands was somewhat cool the first time around -- running over to Bilgewater Port, tracking down the goblins who weren't getting the fleet ready, waiting for the zeppelin to arrive in southern Azshara, flying in fleet formation into the Highlands, and fomenting a revolution in Dragonmaw Port.

    But the second time, it seems like a chore. The third time, it was a serious pain in the ass. I'm dreading the fourth time, and I may not even bother to do it. Maybe I can just do all my mining in Uldum instead.

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  23. I feel the same way about Cataclysm.

    PUG heroics are not fun. BGs are not much fun on my hunter - too many classes I can't counter. Hunter in fact isn't nearly as much fun for me as it used to be. The rug constantly pulled out from underneath, having to learn new mechanics, and the idea that hunter changes aren't done (due to poor scaling?).

    If Blizzard wants to cater to the hardcore large guild raiders at the expense of casuals, well, good luck with that. I'm done for now. Hope they can cover my dropped sub.

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  24. @ Richard- Very good points. I applaud you for trying to keep things fun with alts. I tried and didn't make it nearly as far.

    We had a small guild to work with and were in the same boat. The only suggestion I have to people is trying something else for a bit until things cool off and possibly take a new direction. Who knows when that will be.

    I did the same thing with BC, in that case it was due to getting behind with a few characters and nothing else to do besides professions or alts to keep me busy. I think I left until a few months before Wrath for a refresher.

    @ Anon- I think if enough people talk with their wallets Blizzard might get the idea. There are still people showing love for the direction but it seems to me far more people are disappointed.

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  25. I don't think everyone should write off heroic dungeons as being a challenge that's reserved for raiding. I have zero interest in facerolling my way through content for 'x' badges so I can then hit the fun, challenging stuff. Heroics could maybe be a tad more forgiving though - there are a few boss abilities that are instant wipe if someone fails (i.e. tank gets one-shot).

    Ideally the dungeons would have 3 difficulties - the normal difficulty (80-84 dropping up to 316/325 loot), the '85' difficulty (dropping 333 loot) and HC difficulty (dropping 346 loot). Make the level 85 dungeons lower by a level or so (if that can still match the zone quest level). Otherwise you've got very little content available if you're not up for HCs.

    I like the new itemisation and loot too - makes it a lot easier for Blizzard. Create a loot table, then for HCs just call it HC and make the stats match ilvl 346 (I don't need nicely named unique loot for everything I do).

    Ariskovar.

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  26. Good points. GC mentioned adding three different instance difficulties, recently. Maybe it's a direction the game may take on. Wouldn't bother me.

    Sorry for the delay in publishing your comment, I've been under the weather!

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