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[Bogey]

I've given retail WoW a brief shot the other day (last I played retail was MoP I think). Started leveling up a paladin. Since I don't have any lvl 50, I had to go to that BFA area to level in.

Hot damn, this game really isn't my kind of thing anymore. The zone and leveling process feels so absolutely over-engineered and like a theme park. Every other quest is some sort of "click on the cute pets around town". The zones are absolutely over-stuffed, and while nice to look at, miss any sort of open world feeling. And what's up with those cartoonishly bouncy orc walking animations?! It's like WoW has become a satire of itself, and any form of a somewhat believable immersive world has been replaced with memes about itself.

Oh well. I think the gist for me is - I think my retail WoW days won't be coming back anytime soon.

 

[Coolwhhip]

I've given retail WoW a brief shot the other day (last I played retail was MoP I think). Started leveling up a paladin. Since I don't have any lvl 50, I had to go to that BFA area to level in.

Hot damn, this game really isn't my kind of thing anymore. The zone and leveling process feels so absolutely over-engineered and like a theme park. Every other quest is some sort of "click on the cute pets around town". The zones are absolutely over-stuffed, and while nice to look at, miss any sort of open world feeling. And what's up with those cartoonishly bouncy orc walking animations?! It's like WoW has become a satire of itself, and any form of a somewhat believable immersive world has been replaced with memes about itself.

Oh well. I think the gist for me is - I think my retail WoW days won't be coming back anytime soon.

Just play classic, not this clown game.

 

[Spukc]

I've given retail WoW a brief shot the other day (last I played retail was MoP I think). Started leveling up a paladin. Since I don't have any lvl 50, I had to go to that BFA area to level in.

Hot damn, this game really isn't my kind of thing anymore. The zone and leveling process feels so absolutely over-engineered and like a theme park. Every other quest is some sort of "click on the cute pets around town". The zones are absolutely over-stuffed, and while nice to look at, miss any sort of open world feeling. And what's up with those cartoonishly bouncy orc walking animations?! It's like WoW has become a satire of itself, and any form of a somewhat believable immersive world has been replaced with memes about itself.

Oh well. I think the gist for me is - I think my retail WoW days won't be coming back anytime soon.

That bad eh?
i got into wow woth the WOTLK expansions.

binged it for 2 months then stopped

 

[Mista]

What’s the best way to level alts? I’ve been jumping from expansion to expansion and just run out of quests

 

[JSoup]

What’s the best way to level alts? I’ve been jumping from expansion to expansion and just run out of quests

Play WoD, install HandyNotes, pick up most marked treasures on the map, get garrison to level 2 and then skip around the expansion doing bonus missions (gold cross-swords icon on map). If you do all of them, that will easily get you to around 44 - 46. Switch to anything from that point and do a few dungeon runs, done.

Another option:

 

[Mista]

Play WoD, install HandyNotes, pick up most marked treasures on the map, get garrison to level 2 and then skip around the expansion doing bonus missions (gold cross-swords icon on map). If you do all of them, that will easily get you to around 44 - 46. Switch to anything from that point and do a few dungeon runs, done.

Another option:

I appreciate you mate. Thank you!

 

[Mista]

I want to level a healer so I need your help GAF. I still haven’t decided but my top 3 are:

- Discipline Priest
- Mistweaver Monk
- Restoration Shaman

Please help me decide

 

[Flintty]

I want to level a healer so I need your help GAF. I still haven’t decided but my top 3 are:

- Discipline Priest
- Mistweaver Monk
- Restoration Shaman

Please help me decide

I haven’t healed as Discipline since Ulduar and even then it was only for one boss. Holy is the way for me on Priest. From what I’ve heard, Monk and Shammy are pretty decent. I think you can demo max level from the creator screen?

 

[Mista]

I haven’t healed as Discipline since Ulduar and even then it was only for one boss. Holy is the way for me on Priest. From what I’ve heard, Monk and Shammy are pretty decent. I think you can demo max level from the creator screen?

Everyone is praising the Disc Priest especially in high level content. I like the three picks I listed. But if you think Holy is great then I might go with that.

About the demo I think I used it before

 

[Flintty]

Everyone is praising the Disc Priest especially in high level content. I like the three picks I listed. But if you think Holy is great then I might go with that.

About the demo I think I used it before

Don’t listen to me, I rarely heal
If disc is strong and you find you like the play style then go for that.

 

[JSoup]

While Disc is strong, it also takes a competent player.
That's not intended as an insult. It's always been a confusing spec to use, but is pretty strong given the right gear and enough time on the rotation.

 

[DeceptiveAlarm]

What’s the best way to level alts? I’ve been jumping from expansion to expansion and just run out of quests

I went straight through WoD and just did the quests as they came. It took me around 18hrs i think to hit 50. I'm sure there is faster but it went pretty fast.

 

[Mista]

I went straight through WoD and just did the quests as they came. It took me around 18hrs i think to hit 50. I'm sure there is faster but it went pretty fast.

I did the same honestly. I levelled two characters to 50 in 2 days. Someone levelled from 1 to 50 in 4-5 hours. He’s called DesMephisto, very well known speed runner in WoW’s community

 

[Xyphie]

Finished up few heritage armor sets and Gorgrond and Spires of Arak with the bonus XP zone buff so good. Also worth keeping an eye on Legion invasion timers. Also remember to use the consumable from the anniversary event, it's +16% exp or something.

 

[Faust]

Still not sure if I will dive into this. I despised what they made WoW into with Legion while I thought BFA was marginally better, mostly thanks to the better zones and overall story in them. It was still heartbreaking seeing them rush through so many story threads in single patches that they built up over decades.

 

[Jooxed]

I really have high hopes for this expansion. I doubt anything will ever draw me in like pre Cata WoW though. I will be sticking with my Wind Walker Monk.

 

[DarkestHour]

I too tried Retail up until last week after quitting Classic due to burnout. It was cool at first with the new mechanics and QoL improvements, but I found it overwhelming, brainless, and too detailed for its own good. There is just way too much in the game right now to try and understand. They keep all the old class trainers around too which makes no sense. Bandaging is somehow a tailoring only thing. I don't think I talked to a single person in any of the dungeons I leveled in either.

If I had kept with the game instead of dropping off during Cata, it might be more enjoyable, but it's just way way too much to take in right now for me.

 

[Coolwhhip]

Both versions suck now sadly. Classic is overwhelmed by bots and new Blizzard doesn't give a fuck. Retail is just a different game, not even an MMORPG.

 

[Mista]

Do the prepatch daily quests and world bosses. You’ll easily hit 100+ ilvl and be ready for SL

 

[JSoup]

Do the prepatch daily quests and world bosses. You’ll easily hit 100+ ilvl and be ready for SL

Yep. The Nathanos kill will give you a 120 weapon (it's a weekly kill, so there is only one more kill before launch).

 

[Mista]

Yep. The Nathanos kill will give you a 120 weapon (it's a weekly kill, so there is only one more kill before launch).

Yeah got one for my hunter now the rest of the alts. Are you not on discord anymore bruv?

 

[JSoup]

Yeah got one for my hunter now the rest of the alts. Are you not on discord anymore bruv?

I am, I just bounce around a lot. I don't always see messages. Or, rather, I see a message, say in my head "I'll take care of that in a moment, gonna finish this other thing first" and then forget. I do that with physical mail too.

 

[Jooxed]

 

[Mista]

Nobody can beat Blizzards cinematics team

 

[Jooxed]

 

[Mista]

Releasing a survival guide in the after life

 

[Mista]

Anyone up for a last bfa raid?

 

[turtlepowa]

Great cinematic, but retail feels like some free to play smartphone game. Should have kept TBC in good memories.

 

[JSoup]

Great cinematic, but retail feels like some free to play smartphone game. Should have kept TBC in good memories.

Strong indications that TBC will be in Classic at some point, so there's that.

 

[Coolwhhip]

Great cinematic, but retail feels like some free to play smartphone game. Should have kept TBC in good memories.

Classic is much, much better than retail. The problem is that current Blizzard is so goddamn shit, that they even manage to make an amazing game, worse. They let bots go rampant and put in zero effort to change a few things for the better.

 

[Manus]

Let's goooo. Have all week off for holiday. Got my main disc priest ready and with alt frost mage for DPS.

 

[Mista]

Let's goooo. Have all week off for holiday. Got my main disc priest ready and with alt frost mage for DPS.

Good picks! Don't know how the Disc Priest will be after the recent nerfs

Especially that its healing depends on the dps too

 

[cucuchu]

Good picks! Don't know how the Disc Priest will be after the recent nerfs

Especially that its healing depends on the dps too

Disc priests will always be god-tier just due to the nature of how often they can ramp up for damage events and provide DR vs strictly just throughput reactive heals, at least when it comes to mythic raiding. They are still looking to be one of the top healing specs for pushing m+ this season too, and the nerfs were not so much nerfs as they were just fixing what would end up being an insanely OP spec.

 

[cucuchu]

I've given retail WoW a brief shot the other day (last I played retail was MoP I think). Started leveling up a paladin. Since I don't have any lvl 50, I had to go to that BFA area to level in.

Hot damn, this game really isn't my kind of thing anymore. The zone and leveling process feels so absolutely over-engineered and like a theme park. Every other quest is some sort of "click on the cute pets around town". The zones are absolutely over-stuffed, and while nice to look at, miss any sort of open world feeling. And what's up with those cartoonishly bouncy orc walking animations?! It's like WoW has become a satire of itself, and any form of a somewhat believable immersive world has been replaced with memes about itself.

Oh well. I think the gist for me is - I think my retail WoW days won't be coming back anytime soon.

The leveling is not really representing end-game. Raiding in WoW has improved dramatically when compared to vanilla/classic, and I say this as someone who loves vanilla/classic. Its weird though...the leveling has become this easy-mode theme park version of its former self, to include normal/heroic dungeons, but everything else is harder once you reach end-game. I guess LFR/Normal raiding is easier than classic raiding, but mythic raiding in current WoW is leagues more complex and requires much more player awareness vs vanilla/classic. M+ also provides plenty of challenge that never use to exist in WoW.

So yeah, I wouldn't let that brief snapshot of leveling hold you off from giving retail wow a solid go, especially with SL which is looking to be much better than BfA in all aspects.

 

[royox]

The leveling is not really representing end-game. Raiding in WoW has improved dramatically when compared to vanilla/classic, and I say this as someone who loves vanilla/classic. Its weird though...the leveling has become this easy-mode theme park version of its former self, to include normal/heroic dungeons, but everything else is harder once you reach end-game. I guess LFR/Normal raiding is easier than classic raiding, but mythic raiding in current WoW is leagues more complex and requires much more player awareness vs vanilla/classic. M+ also provides plenty of challenge that never use to exist in WoW.

So yeah, I wouldn't let that brief snapshot of leveling hold you off from giving retail wow a solid go, especially with SL which is looking to be much better than BfA in all aspects.

For me (played from TBC to end of Cata, high end PVE) WoW's raiding was always about following Deadly Boss Mobs instructions more than playing myself or needing any kind of awareness.

Raiding on other MMO's after abandoning WoW's ship was one of the best experiences I ever had just because of the lack of Addons for everything (and In this list of MMo I'm including SWTOR so imagine how tired I was of following DBM instructions xD).

 

[The Cockatrice]

Alright bought a month with 3 other friends just to see how classes changed/leveling and we'll see after if we decide to buy the exp as well. Havent properly played since WoD but I always mained a disc priest my whole WoW life but I'm thinking of changing to a diff class healer or a tank. I know shadowlands brought some class changes more or less, I heard druids are still same-ish but I was thinking of a Holy Pally or Protection. Never really played paladin so might as well try now. Not sure how they fair these days tho I'd rather play something more difficult.

 

[cucuchu]

For me (played from TBC to end of Cata, high end PVE) WoW's raiding was always about following Deadly Boss Mobs instructions more than playing myself or needing any kind of awareness.

Raiding on other MMO's after abandoning WoW's ship was one of the best experiences I ever had just because of the lack of Addons for everything (and In this list of MMo I'm including SWTOR so imagine how tired I was of following DBM instructions xD).

Yeah, it did go through a phase where the add-ons played the game for you. Now Blizzard designs encounters with that in mind, so in turn it creates some rather crazy, hectic raid encounters at least on mythic. Its probably the one area where they really nailed it in BfA, and Castle Nathria looks to be an amazing raid as well.

 

[cucuchu]

Alright bought a month with 3 other friends just to see how classes changed/leveling and we'll see after if we decide to buy the exp as well. Havent properly played since WoD but I always mained a disc priest my whole WoW life but I'm thinking of changing to a diff class healer or a tank. I know shadowlands brought some class changes more or less, I heard druids are still same-ish but I was thinking of a Holy Pally or Protection. Never really played paladin so might as well try now. Not sure how they fair these days tho I'd rather play something more difficult.

Prot pally is great fun with a lot of self-sustain/utility but they do get trucked more than other tanks. Go Kyrian and have fun throwing 5 captain america shields out at once though with your Divine Toll covenant ability, that alone will make it worth rolling. Holy pal is what I'll be playing this tier since I need a change up from Disc/Holy priest, but they are looking to be no where near as strong as they were in BfA (at least in terms of throughput).

 

[Manus]

Disc priests will always be god-tier just due to the nature of how often they can ramp up for damage events and provide DR vs strictly just throughput reactive heals, at least when it comes to mythic raiding. They are still looking to be one of the top healing specs for pushing m+ this season too, and the nerfs were not so much nerfs as they were just fixing what would end up being an insanely OP spec.

True. Plus Priests are in a great spot for covenant abilities since all of them are great for each spec.

I'm excited to get the ball rolling tonight. Hopefully Illidan queue times aren't to long.

 

[cucuchu]

True. Plus Priests are in a great spot for covenant abilities since all of them are great for each spec.

I'm excited to get the ball rolling tonight. Hopefully Illidan queue times aren't to long.

Agreed...plus they funneling all players through the same zones. It has potential to be a mess but I've heard they are heavily sharding players and if its anything like beta, there shouldn't be too many issues with having hundreds of players trying to tag mobs or anything like that. You can log on before launch and just wait for the starter quest to get pushed out at 6pm EST. I'll probably log on a couple hours early (on Thrall, another large pop server) just to be on the safe side and would def do the same on Illidan.

 

[Manus]

Agreed...plus they funneling all players through the same zones. It has potential to be a mess but I've heard they are heavily sharding players and if its anything like beta, there shouldn't be too many issues with having hundreds of players trying to tag mobs or anything like that. You can log on before launch and just wait for the starter quest to get pushed out at 6pm EST. I'll probably log on a couple hours early (on Thrall, another large pop server) just to be on the safe side and would def do the same on Illidan.

Yeah I'm gonna be logged in and waiting to go. Gonna level as shadow with loot spec set to disc. Gotta make sure I also turn my sound back on. I only ever play with sound the first month or two of the expansion then it goes right back to off.

 

[RokkanStoned]

I'm definitely feeling no excitement about this expansion. Honestly, since MoP the game has overall felt less stellar to actually play. Playing some of my classes during WoD felt awful or just like a lesser version of the class. However, there were hype things about WoD, albeit I did unsub after a month or two, due to literally everything revolving around sitting in your garrison a lot of the time. Story-wise it seemed like it could be interesting (it wasn't), garrison was finally the closest to player housing we would get and seeing a whole Draenor was enticing. Then came Legion and I honestly didn't even bother buying it until way later, expecting WoD again. It was actually fine or even somewhat good, albeit that was mostly in the perspective of playing a Demon Hunter. Then came BFA and I was pretty hyped, solely due to the "Warbringer: Jaina" video, which made me think they were going to explore something interesting in the story for once. Nah, got disappointed there as well. Then the other interesting features were duds, like IE and Warfronts. Worst of all were Azerite armor, which is honestly baffling that the devs somehow let loose upon live.
So with how Shadowlands has been way focused on story (including cut scenes, which are honestly uninteresting most of t he time), which is honestly something that's never been a strength of the game for a long long time, while still keeping on with borrowed power systems, I have very little interest in it. The big saving glory which made me want to possibly buy the expansion was the class unpruning, but even that was an overall half-assed job, making me pretty much skip this expansion. At least until much much later, in the last major patch perhaps, on a sale.

It honestly feels like Blizzard wants to make a single player story-based game at times.

 

[Arthimura]

I want to play this expansion but the timing is so bad, Blizzard is releasing Shadowlands just after the release of PS5 and Xbox Series S|X.

I know a lot of WoW players only plays PC and mostly WoW, but for me i can't justify compriming myself with a MMORPG when the next generation just released.

 

[AV]

Retail ain't my WoW, but I hope you all have fun tonight. Lok'tar, or king's honour, whatever you prefer.

 

[Jooxed]

Looking forward to this but probably wont be able to play until tomorrow. Hope everyone can get through and has fun tonight.

 

[N1tr0sOx1d3]

Sorry for my lack of knowledge, but how do bots ruin the game for someone like me as just a casual gamer?

 

[AV]

Sorry for my lack of knowledge, but how do bots ruin the game for someone like me as just a casual gamer?

Bots have zero impact on retail. On Classic they don't necessarily ruin the game, they ruin the economy. Ish.

 

[TexMex]

Wait - they put bots in Classic? Why? What do they do?

 

[N1tr0sOx1d3]

Bots have zero impact on retail. On Classic they don't necessarily ruin the game, they ruin the economy. Ish.

Cheers for the explanation.
I hope Blizzard addresses people’s concerns. They pay Blizzard enough money.

 

[AV]

Cheers for the explanation.
I hope Blizzard addresses people’s concerns. They pay Blizzard enough money.

It's a funny one with Blizz. Their Activision overlords are well aware that every bot account is still money in their pocket, so they'll never entirely get rid of them, they do just enough to look as though they care.

Yet at the same time, they've just essentially banned multiboxing (one person controller many characters at once), even though each of those accounts is also a subscription. It's a really strange dynamic.

It's a tough pill for some to swallow, but honestly the real solution is putting the WoW token in Classic. Bots are only prevalent because so many people are buying gold for raid consumables anyway, it would make absolutely no difference in that sense, just remove many bots, and Blizz gets all the extra proceeds.