When I first logged back into WoW back in December, I was surprised by how many people on my Battle.net friends list were still playing. I guess that's one of the things that keeps bringing many people back to WoW time after time: always having friends to play with. I actually got several offers to join groups for endgame PvE or PvP, but politely declined as I had no interest in getting back into that aspect of WoW. I just wanted to have some fun exploring the new content on a casual basis with my pet tank. But hey, WoW is supposed to be the perfect game for that kind of thing, isn't it?
While we were levelling, this play style worked very well. We actually played quite a lot then, simply because we were having fun. Ever since we hit max level however, I feel that our engagement has been declining. Right now I basically log on to tend to my crops, serve some noodles, do a bit of archaeology and log off again.
I really loved the Tillers by the way. I loved to see the progression of the story and unlocking more parts of the farm. Once that was done, I worked on becoming best friends with all the individual Tillers. Once that was done, I maxed out all my cooking ways and did the various extra quests that popped up along the way (the whole noodle cart thing, cooking one of each max-level food etc.). But now that that's all said and done I can feel my interest waning. I continue planting crops every day to fulfill work orders, but it doesn't feel nearly as satisfying.
Dailies
I have quite a few factions left that need reputation, but I'm just not really a dailies person. That's not to say that I never do them, but even just a couple of days in a row tend to make me feel burnt out. I just don't do this whole "highly controlled drip-feed of content" thing very well. When I'm new to a faction and my interest is high, I'd happily binge play and do loads of stuff for them, but of course the game won't let me do that.
Timeless Isle
The Timeless Isle is a funny thing. I've noticed that once I'm actually there and doing stuff, I tend to have decent amounts of fun, but for some reason I really struggle to motivate myself into going there in the first place. I blame the stupid flight path that insists on going all over Jade Forest before actually turning towards the Isle...
Pet Battles
I haven't really said anything about pet battles aside from a brief mention when I first discovered the feature and that it looked pretty fun. I actually picked out my favourite pets after that and made an effort to level them, but around pet level twelve or thirteen my interest just fizzled out again as it started to feel pretty dull and grindy to continually swap pets in and out just to fight dozens of parrots. Switching zones for variety in opponents didn't really help either. I don't know... I don't think it's you, pet battles; it's me.
Dungeons
We did each Pandaria dungeon at least once, including the heroics (I think there might be one or two we haven't done on heroic left; not sure right now) but there doesn't seem to be much reason to do them beyond seeing the story once, as the gear drops become useless quickly and valor rains from the sky anyway.
Scenarios
There are actually quite a few scenarios left that we haven't done yet, but I haven't been too impressed by the whole feature anyway. I think my interest in queuing for them took a nosedive after the randomiser gave us one too many that seemed to be part of a bigger story somewhere that we didn't know anything about, leaving me with the feeling that I shouldn't queue up again until I've explored every nook and cranny of Pandaria and can be sure that I know the context. (This is an interesting contrast to the dungeons by the way, where I had no problem "jumping ahead" in the story.)
Gearing Up
Ah, that old staple of MMO entertainment: if you've got nothing else to do, improve your character's gear! I recalled that working reasonably well even on a casual basis in WoW as it was before I left it, as you'd get justice and valor points for running dungeons and could then use those to buy gear that was only slightly worse than current raid drops.
How times have changed!
Bizarrely, valor is pretty much raining from the skies these days, as you get some even just for doing daily quests, but finding things to actually spend it on seems to be the tricky part now. I don't find myself saving up to buy valor gear, I find myself frantically searching for vendors because I'm about to hit the cap again and don't know what to spend my money on! I thought it was highly hilarious when I flew to a place where valor and justice point vendors were highlighted on the in-game map, just to find that the NPC labelled as "Valor Quartermaster" won't accept any currency but justice points. Instead, bits and pieces of valor gear are hidden away on various reputation vendors across Pandaria, if you can find them and if you have the right reputation level, but if you want anything close to a full set of "good" gear, it seems that the only way to get one is to run Looking For Raid.
Now, since the last time my pet tank and I went in there wasn't too bad, we decided to give it another go. And it still wasn't too bad, but frankly, as a "casual" form of endgame I think it kind of sucks. The problem is that if you factor in queue times, time to actually kill all the trash and bosses and the occasional wipe, just clearing one raid still takes several hours... so basically as long as a "proper" raid, only without any of the fun bits like socialising or facing challenging content. After spending a weekend in various LFR runs, we were utterly exhausted and once again feeling burnt out.
I think the end of my nostalgic revisiting of the World of Warcraft may be drawing near...
13/03/2014
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You should try challenge modes. Shouldn't be that hard to find a group using the official forum (there's a forum for finding groups) and they are a lot of fun.
ReplyDeleteI feel like I'd need to do all the heroics a couple more times before I'd be ready for that. Also, I'm not sure I would actually enjoy them, as a friend told me that they basically come down to crazy AoE fests if you're going for gold.
Delete> I feel like I'd need to do all the heroics a couple more times before I'd be ready for that.
DeleteYou should watch a video guide on how to run the challenge mode. Normal heroics won't tell you much at this time in the game. You can always try to get/build a group that shoots for silver to learn the instance.
> Also, I'm not sure I would actually enjoy them, as a friend told me that they basically come down to crazy AoE fests if you're going for gold.
I mean... yes and no. If you're going for gold you wont use classic CC like sheeping. But it's not an AoE zerg fest like WotLK heroics, not at all. The trash in there hits like a truck and has annoying abilities. You very much have to "control" the trash with stuns and silences. It's just way more dynamic, there is no DD role anymore in gold runs. They are all DD/control. We discussed after a failed approach what we could do better, what talents we could switch to handle this or that better.
Give them a try. It's the best content Blizzard produced since TBC heroics (and pet battles of course!). You're not a warm body in a raid, your contribution counts!
Oh, and they don't damage your equipment. Wiping is free (besides the lost food buff)!
"It's the best content Blizzard produced since TBC heroics (and pet battles of course!). You're not a warm body in a raid, your contribution counts!"
DeleteExcept for Cataclysm Heroics and 90% of Heroic raiding, that is. Challenge modes are interesting but it took a group of us 2-3 tries at most to get Gold in each dungeon. Heroic Garrosh took us over 300 tries. Heroic Lei Shen took over 200.
Now, groups that aren't as good will absolutely find them much harder, and we weren't sleepwalking through them or anything, but claiming you're less of a warm body than in a heroic raid is an...interesting...statement.
They're definitely not WotLK zergfests, though, as stated.
> Except for Cataclysm Heroics and 90% of Heroic raiding, that is. Challenge modes are interesting but it took a group of us 2-3 tries at most to get Gold in each dungeon. Heroic Garrosh took us over 300 tries. Heroic Lei Shen took over 200.
DeleteStudying medicine takes probably something like 6 years. I don't think the time something takes tells you how much fun content is. :-)
But seriously, raiding and challenge mode is a different type of content. Raiding is getting perfect at "the dance" and flawlessly beat a scripted event. Challenge modes, or TBC heroics, on the other side are way more about reacting to the situation.
While raiding as a warlock you're not watching the tanks hp with your finger over the stopcasting/shadowfury macro to immediately stun the trash pack to save the tanks live. In challenge modes you are. You're contributing way more then just damage (and maybe some scripted component like banishing something).
That's the difference to me. No two challenge modes play the same, especially not if you're in there with a different class composition.
I'm not saying getting challenge mode gold requires more skill then heroic Garrosh (they do not). I'm saying challenge mode are way more fun (to me) then any kind of raiding.
Cataclysm heroics 5 man I never liked. They were way to easy to be any kind of challenge (for a non-LFD group) but way to hard to just breeze through WotLK-style. Stonecore was nice.
> Now, groups that aren't as good will absolutely find them much harder, and we weren't sleepwalking through them or anything, but claiming you're less of a warm body than in a heroic raid is an...interesting...statement.
I wasn't referring to heroic raiding. Never did that and most WoW player aren't heroic raiders.
Your specific claim was
Delete"You're not a warm body in a raid, your contribution counts!"
Which indicates your contribution DOESN'T count in a raid.
"While raiding as a warlock you're not watching the tanks hp with your finger over the stopcasting/shadowfury macro to immediately stun the trash pack to save the tanks live."
No, you're just stunning the mines on Siegecrafter or popping your cooldowns to solo soak Aim on Paragons or Bane of Havoc Chaos Bolting to kill two adds at once on Garrosh or stunning the MCs on Garrosh or setting up gateways or using your self portal.
Raiding is far more about reacting to the situation than Challenge Modes are -- take Paragons for example. Person transformed has to react to where the parasites are, people slowing bloods have to react to where those are, people soaking Aim have to react to that, people baiting the Amber have to react to that, everyone has to react to Xaril's poisons and he'll randomly choose one of three different types with very different results, everyone have to react to Kaztik's Mind Controls, Lucid's Fire Lines, Kilruk's Reave, etc.
Different abilities are used in different orders on different people and people have to react in different ways -- far, far more than in Challenge Modes.
"I'm saying challenge mode are way more fun (to me) then any kind of raiding."
If that's what you meant, fine, but that's not what you said. I can absolutely see how people would find them more appealing than raiding if they like smaller group content and the time trial of an entire dungeon versus one boss.
"I wasn't referring to heroic raiding. Never did that and most WoW player aren't heroic raiders."
90%+ of WoW players aren't normal raiders either.
For the pet battles, I'd keep an eye open for the dailies. They give a good bit of experience. If you can win them with less than three pets, switch in a low level pet and it will get a big batch of experience. I found that things got a bit more interesting at higher levels, as I found more unusual pets.
ReplyDeleteIn regard to LFR, are you picking as many roles as you can perform? I figure that should at least help the queues a little bit. Queues are a good time for pet battles, except that you'll always get a rare during the same fight that the queue pops.
Uh, where are these mystical pet battle dailies? I don't think I've seen one yet, so I thought they were a max-level only thing.
DeleteAnd yeah, I queue as both dps and healer. I don't think the wait times of 20-30 minutes are too terrible on a grand scale, but it all adds up (especially since you need to requeue for every wing).
I think they're all at about the level of their zone, scattered around. There are a ton at max level, but you can find lower ones marked on the map.
Delete> Uh, where are these mystical pet battle dailies? I don't think I've seen one yet, so I thought they were a max-level only thing.
DeleteThere is an account wide pet trainer quest line. You most likely already have that quest in your quest log. After you've finished that quest line all the trainers get turned into daily quests. The quest line ends in Panradia and you will have some level 25 pets by that time, I don't think you've already unlocked the daily quests.
These daily then reward bags which can contain stones to make your pets rare. The other nice thing is that they reward a lot of XP for pets that aren't level 25 yet. You basically build a team with 2 level 25 pets and a small one and you will be able to level a level 1 pet in 4 to 5 fights to 25.
This guide uses the same 2 level 25 pets for all but 1 tamer
http://www.warcraftpets.com/community/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=4580
There's also a hat that increases the XP your pet gains (rewarded through an achievement) and a food buff to increase the XP your pet gains (rewarded in excess through the daily quests). Leveling the first 3 pets to 25 is the hardest part.
Ah, so it is a max (pet) level thing. Because I did do the chain up to the level I got, but so far none of them have been repeatable. Doesn't really help if you're struggling to get any pet up to 25 in the first place.
DeleteIt is, yes.
DeleteYou can buy leveled pets on the AH but you cannot learn pets that have a higher level then your highest leveled pet. There is this guide for getting the first level 25 pet fast.
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/9753545617
"I blame the stupid flight path that insists on going all over Jade Forest before actually turning towards the Isle..."
ReplyDeleteYou may want to look into the "Time-Lost Artifact" that you can buy for a measly 7,500 Timeless Coins that lets you teleport to TI with a very short cooldown:
http://www.wowhead.com/item=103678
I've even used it to teleport back to the quest givers from the other side of the island. :P The only caveat is it requires honored rep with Shaohao.
Hm, no idea why this comment got eaten by the spam filter at first...
DeleteAnyway, nice idea but I'm only neutral. :P (Those Yaungol are annoying to kill!)
"I don't find myself saving up to buy valor gear, I find myself frantically searching for vendors because I'm about to hit the cap again and don't know what to spend my money on!"
ReplyDeleteValor upgrades, spend 500 valor to upgrade an item by 8 ilvls at the Ethereals.
And I'd seriously suggest you look into Flex raiding, which can be done casually in a established group or can find PUGs on OpenRaid (or find a new Flex group each week on Openraid). It's far more forgiving than normal but still has social engagement and a reasonable challenge.
I have been upgrading some pieces. :)
DeleteAnd we've considered trying Flex, but from what I understand we'd still need to upgrade our gear with a fair few LFR drops before we'd actually be an asset in SOO Flex.
To get into most groups you probably need...
Delete510 for part 1
517 for part 2
525 for part 3
530 for part 4
Mind you that 550 Conquest gear and 553 tier items drop from Celestials, Oondasta/Nalak/ToT drop 522, you can buy 522 items with Justice, you can get 535 items from Burdens of Eternity, and 528 items from SoO LFR. And full 496 except for weapons (489) is pretty trivial anyway. I think you can even get 522 gear for Honor points now (convert Justice to Honor).
If you want to link your armory I'd be able to provide more feedback.
This seems like a good review of endgame for a non-raider to me. Also a fairly good account of why after I decided I didn't want to be in a raid force any more, my interest waned, as my "available content" turned into grinding 9,999 dinosaur bones for a mount, or flying endlessly round Northrend looking for a pet I hadn't collected yet (Unborn Valkyr). It was quite hollow as an endgame experience.
ReplyDeleteThe pet battles are fun (or I enjoyed them), but not for everyone. As soon as you rule out pet battles, you have Challenge Modes, which I really liked, but are far from casual. I had a mix of silvers and golds, but it's fairly hardcore content, on-par with heroic raiding I think or with end-bosses at Normal. Then there's flex, but mostly, flex is just a puggable raid, maybe, and best done in a Guild. So a bit like raiding really.
For me, at least. WoW is still a wildly raid-centric game, if you "consume" content at any pace. And I think that's fine, there are legions of happy raiders out there, and also good numbers of people that don't raid, but also don't consume the content too fast.
But as a "feast or famine" player myself, I found this re-review of WoW to be pretty spot on. MoP is a great 2-3 months of content, after which the repeatable bit is essentially raids only, unless you especially like RBGs or Pet Battles, which are the two other sorta niches. Nothing wrong with that, but it's very amenable to tourism.
/boxerdogs
Ever since I got off the "GO GO GO" heroics chain, all I've pretty much done is PvP. No rateds, just regular old battlegrounds to pass the time. As long as I'm not getting ROFL-stomped by the arena team that got into WSG (or worse, Silvershard), I'm fine with playing a few old battlegrounds without pressure.
ReplyDeleteI've also taken to hanging around Hellfire while stealthed, and keeping the max level Hordies who prey on the at-level toons away. Nothing makes a DK who thinks he's a bad-ass wet his pants more than being sapped while harassing a low level toon.