Old player looking to come back - how does MoP compare to previous expansions?

[Devia]

Hello there. I'm sure you don't care whether or not I come back to play in WoW, but perhaps my posting this will help others struggling with the same question, or else if there's a thread already like this that I missed please point me in the right direction!

So I played WoW for 5+ years starting 2 months after release. I loved loved LOVED vanilla, and I thought TBC was pretty great too. Then WotLK sucked horribly, and Cataclysm had the right idea but I was still extremely disappointed. Along came Diablo III and almost completely killed off any hopes I had for Blizzard gaming.

However, I've heard mixed things about MoP and that the PvP is actually really great - and that's possibly enough to get me to come back, as much as I hate having to level AGAIN. So what do you all think? What things do you think are great about MoP? Or do you think this expansion has ruined some things you really used to love? Are you glad you've been playing it or do you wish you had something better to do and are a bit like myself and only keep playing in hopes that one day it will get better?

Would love to hear your opinions.

[LuminousAether]

So far it is the best WoW has been. PvP balance is a bit wonky atm, but that's been true for every expansion on release. Certainly nowhere near as bad as balance was during all of TBC or the first two seasons of Wrath. There's a bit of a daily grind, but the dailies are very fun and fast and it typically takes me 15 minutes to do all the dailies I want each day. The 5 man heroics are a bit easy, but that's a very good thing. Challenge modes exist if you want challenges and they are pretty brutal. The raids we have are perfectly tuned and very fun with incredibly lore and graphics.

I'd highly recommend MoP.

[Pebrocks The Warlock]

If you loved vanilla you will like MoP.

[Firebert]

Then WotLK sucked horribly,

Why?

and Cataclysm had the right idea but I was still extremely disappointed.

Why?

Along came Diablo III and almost completely killed off any hopes I had for Blizzard gaming.

Because Blizzard make every game the same. Or, Starcraft is World of Warcraft is Diablo 3. Don't accept this.

However, I've heard mixed things about MoP and that the PvP is actually really great

Do you play a Hunter or Warrior then?

What things do you think are great about MoP?

LFR refined, more things for casuals to do as well as dedicated hardcore content (Challenge Modes). Plenty of stuff to do in the world though (my quest log is always full).

Or do you think this expansion has ruined some things you really used to love?

Unable to do 7 heroics for VP cap and also unable to do the Conquest Cap Arena Bracket for cap any more. Gear progression is incredibly slow if you're not in a raiding guild.

Are you glad you've been playing it or do you wish you had something better to do and are a bit like myself and only keep playing in hopes that one day it will get better?

Been interspersing my WoW time with BF3. Glad I've been playing both, but just disappointed that the caps are now unreasonable to get via queuing methods (which have been the greatest things Blizzard have added, as if you can queue for it its exposure to the population goes up and hence its worth in creating also goes up. See Rated BGs currently being able to be queued for with a 5s team, but people hardly play the 5s Arena bracket either).

[Hellprank]

I would compare it to the start of WOTLK. Havent tried PvP yet, but the PvE is pretty boring. The dungeons are easy and cleared without providing a real story or challenge. The quests are very fun though, and most of them provide a really good story. Its still kill 15 of those and collect 100 of those but overall i like them. And if you like doing dailys, then this expansion is for you. Some of them are pretty boring, but others again provide a decent story. They also change each day with a cycle of like 3-4 different places so you wont burn out on them too quickly

[LuminousAether]

Unable to do 7 heroics for VP cap and also unable to do the Conquest Cap Arena Bracket for cap any more. Gear progression is incredibly slow if you're not in a raiding guild.

What? Did you skip Cata completely?

---------- Post added 2012-11-04 at 01:28 AM ----------

I would compare it to the start of WOTLK. Havent tried PvP yet, but the PvE is pretty boring. The dungeons are easy and cleared without providing a real story or challenge. The quests are very fun though, and most of them provide a really good story. Its still kill 15 of those and collect 100 of those but overall i like them. And if you like doing dailys, then this expansion is for you. Some of them are pretty boring, but others again provide a decent story. They also change each day with a cycle of like 3-4 different places so you wont burn out on them too quickly

Actually we have the hardest set of dungeons in WoW history with MoP.

[jontunnel130]

If you love pokemon you will like MoP.

fixed that for you.

They've let completely broken mechanics over-run pvp. Warriors/hunters/mages have been running amok for quite some time. Only the most recent changes fixed hunters, but warriors wont be fixed completely for sometime. Basically they've been devoting more time/resources to pet battles than actual pvp. Nothing new in the way of their pvp balance model/structure, just the new iteration of it. So if you've come back for pvp make sure you read up on whats going on. Bottom line though no matter how good or bad the class you pick is perceived to be just make sure you'll have fun. Otherwise it will get as old as the "he chose poorly" guy in indiana jones and just as fast.

[Drii]

Actually we have the hardest set of dungeons in WoW history with MoP.

Hahahaha haha ha ... ha *wheeze* haha haha ha...
Bless you that put my inhaler to good use.

[Pebrocks The Warlock]

fixed that for you.

Is there a hidden message in that or am I just not understand something there.

They've let completely broken mechanics over-run pvp. Warriors/hunters/mages have been running amok for quite some time. Only the most recent changes fixed hunters, but warriors wont be fixed completely for sometime. Basically they've been devoting more time/resources to pet battles than actual pvp. Nothing new in the way of their pvp balance model/structure, just the new iteration of it. So if you've come back for pvp make sure you read up on whats going on. Bottom line though no matter how good or bad the class you pick is perceived to be just make sure you'll have fun. Otherwise it will get as old as the "he chose poorly" guy in indiana jones and just as fast.

I don't pvp so I can't comment on this.

[jontunnel130]

wasn't negging you, just simply used your quote to get my point across.

[Firebert]

What? Did you skip Cata completely?

I played the entirety of Cataclysm. I assume you mean the Arena part: what I meant was you are forced to do unqueuable Rated BGs to maximise your Conquest gain, as opposed to only having to win 8 Arena matches in the imbalanced bracket and then go on to win 5 random BGs in a week to get the full cap.

If you meant the VP part: you get 40VP per scenario for the first in a day and then 20VP afterwards, 80VP per heroic for the first in a day and then 40VP afterwards, and the cap is 1000. The usual "7 heroics in one day" tactic that everyone did in Cata now only nets you 160VP, leaving you with 840VP to make up.

---------- Post added 2012-11-04 at 01:42 AM ----------

Actually we have the hardest set of dungeons in WoW history with MoP.

Cataclysm heroics and inaccessible raids (by the hands of either Blizzard or the community itself) causing millions of casuals to unsubscribe say hello.

[Splatter]

If you loved vanilla you will like MoP.

This isn't even remotely accurate. MoP is more of a combination of TBC and Wotlk. A good shift away from the boring "nothing to do" expansion that was Cata.

[Zdrasti]

Cataclysm heroics and inaccessible raids (by the hands of either Blizzard or the community itself) causing millions of casuals to unsubscribe say hello.

I strongly believe that Cataclysm heroics (at launch) were easier than even wrath heroics at launch. People don't remember wrath heroics because easy raids made grinding them irrelevant and no LFG made the runs better organized. But as for actual difficulty at launch I strongly believe wrath heroics were in fact harder than cata heroics.

Look at your heroic drake achievement for one simple comparison.

[Ovacor]

In my opinion Mists of Pandaria is the best expansion World of Warcraft has seen thus far.

PvP is not as unbalanced as everyone makes it out to be. If you read the forums you will see the following on each class forum (except Rogues)...

"Hunters are overpowered, their burst is too high, nerf them"
"Warriors are overpowered, their burst and situational control is too high, nerf them"
"Priests are overpowered, their off healing is too high, nerf them"
"Shamans are overpowered, their healing and off healing is too high, nerf them."
"Druids are overpowered, they don't die, nerf them."
"Mages are overpowered, their burst is too high, nerf them"
"Warlocks are overpowered, they don't die, they absorb everything and they do a lot of damage, nerf them"
"Paladins are overpowered, their healing and off healing is too high, nerf them"
"Monks are over-"...just kidding

PvP is in a much better spot now that Stampede is no longer ridiculous. If you are knowledgeable of other classes' abilities and can adapt your situation you'll do just fine (do NOT GO ROGUE).

I measure MoP's PvE much to The Burning Crusade's; they have a lot of content for us to clear at the start; however, very few guilds can actually progress far enough in heroic modes to actually say they're ready for the next raid to be unlocked. Raiding is in a pretty good spot at the moment, nothing anyone can complain about.

As i'm sure you've read on the forums already Daily quests are a huge part of this expansion. Which is perfectly fine in my opinion. The key is to not overload yourself and make yourself feel as if you NEED to do Klaxi, Golden Lotus, Shadow Pan, Tiller, Angler, Cloud Serpent AND August Celestial Dailies. Otherwise you'll burn yourself out and find yourself bitching on the forums.

In my opinion give MoP a shot, get yourself on an active realm (I switched to Emerald Dream and it literally made me love the game again). I hope this helps, good luck!

[LuminousAether]

fixed that for you.

They've let completely broken mechanics over-run pvp. Warriors/hunters/mages have been running amok for quite some time. Only the most recent changes fixed hunters, but warriors wont be fixed completely for sometime. Basically they've been devoting more time/resources to pet battles than actual pvp. Nothing new in the way of their pvp balance model/structure, just the new iteration of it. So if you've come back for pvp make sure you read up on whats going on. Bottom line though no matter how good or bad the class you pick is perceived to be just make sure you'll have fun. Otherwise it will get as old as the "he chose poorly" guy in indiana jones and just as fast.

If your criteria for "bad expansion" is wonky PvP balance during the first few weeks of release, then man you must hate WoW because every expansion has been this way. Remember Wrath's first two seasons with Ret pallies and DKs? Remember mace spec warriors with Deep Thunder and a resto druid partner in TBC 2v2?

You must have a really, really bad memory.

---------- Post added 2012-11-04 at 01:49 AM ----------

Cataclysm heroics and inaccessible raids (by the hands of either Blizzard or the community itself) causing millions of casuals to unsubscribe say hello.

Who said anything about heroics and raids? We are talking about 5 man dungeons. With even half an iota of thought you would've immediately realized that I was talking about challenge modes.

---------- Post added 2012-11-04 at 01:50 AM ----------

Hahahaha haha ha ... ha *wheeze* haha haha ha...
Bless you that put my inhaler to good use.

Link me your character with a full set of gold rankings on the challenge mode and link me your top positions on the charts. Ok?

[Firebert]

Look at your heroic drake achievement for one simple comparison.

I'm three off my WotLK drake, and twelve off my Cata drake, and there's 10 less achievements required for the Cata drake...

You've not made your point clear to me.

---------- Post added 2012-11-04 at 01:53 AM ----------

Who said anything about heroics and raids? We are talking about 5 man dungeons. With even half an iota of thought you would've immediately realized that I was talking about challenge modes.

I'm sorry, I totally forgot about them because they're not aimed at me and I don't ever see anyone talking about it ever.

Thanks for the flame though.

[Immitis]

I'm three off my WotLK drake, and twelve off my Cata drake, and there's 10 less achievements required for the Cata drake...

You've not made your point clear to me.

i can say one thing i remember being able to survive wrath heroics if 1 or two people died but in cata heroics if one person wasnt doing their damn job it would make us wipe.

however i did take a long break from wow around mid wrath so maybe i was rusty

[Tziva]

Obviously it depends on the kind of stuff you enjoy. Not everyone has the same opinions just because they have played for a long time; I've seen people say that all the people who critique vanilla never played it and I've also seen people say that all the people that exalt vanilla never played it. I think the obvious answer is simply that different things appeal to different people.

I am really enjoying Mists. I'm not much for dailies -- which is is the primary complaint I see -- but they're largely optional so I haven't been burning myself out by simultaneously trying to grind exalted on ten factions at once which appears to be what most of the hysterical people are doing. In every other manner, I think it's a hit. The sense of exploration is back. The quests are cool and give useful rewards. Some of the zones are really neat, and they all have a different atmosphere so there's kinda something to appeal to everyone. There's a ton of new fun rewards to work towards (mounts, pets, etc), but there is also gear progression for non-raiding characters through rep grinds. The dungeons are easy but at least mildly interesting and are holding novelty decently well, a little less brainless than Wrath but still quick with low stress. Raiding seems cool so far. Storylines seem cool. Farming is more enjoyable than I expected it to be (I loathe the real farmville and similar games). I haven't tried pet battles yet, but the idea of being able to tame basically any critter in the world for a pet opens tons of options if you're a pet person. New features like the loot charms are a nice perk. Tons of fun, new items either through quests or killing rare spawns. More achievements, etc, etc, etc. There's always stuff to do; the exact opposite of Cataclysm where I would log in, have no goals to work towards and say "meh" and AFK in town.

[Buxton McGraff]

I like it better than Cataclysm, better than WotLK, about the same as BC, and less than vanilla.
In other words, I love it.

[Firebert]

i can say one thing i remember being able to survive wrath heroics if 1 or two people died but in cata heroics if one person wasnt doing their damn job it would make us wipe.

however i did take a long break from wow around mid wrath so maybe i was rusty

I remember wiping in the original Cataclysm Heroics during 5.0 whilst levelling my Rogue, because people couldn't understand the tactics of Corla, but during 4.0 in WotLK DPS were only needed to make the dungeon go faster. Most things could be killed with one tank and one healer (or one Blood DK if you were good enough).