HEY PEOPLE SAYING THAT IT IS TOO EASY NOW, WHERE IS YOUR HEROIC LEI-SHEN KILL WITHOUT WEARING PANTS?
Coming from a casual pvp standpoint, the game has definitely become much more streamlined, and it overall wastes your time a little less than before. The old "depth" of the game was redundant because many people succumbed to guides to tell them what to do (for those of you who never looked at a guide for leveling/gear/raids back in vanilla, you rock). The problem for me is that getting gear is much easier before you get into normal raiding / casual pvp, making new players feel like they are still getting much more powerful at a rapid pace. Then everybody hits that wall in normal raiding / arenas were now WoW no longer feels like geargrabbing and now feels like a 9-5 job, BUT the vast majority of freshly geared players experience big flashy numbers and set bonuses for the first time, so they feel powerful enough and do not want to put in the extra time and effort for the next level, leaving many players to feel like they are done with that class. Thus, the feeling of "wow being 2 easy" comes out because of that gearzerg right after you hit 90. This is in a direct contrast with vanilla where right when you hit 60 you were sometimes SoL on trying to get any gear without putting in that 9-5 to get it, leading to the "WoW is 2 hard" feeling, which left many 60s without epics or even rares.
Ok, so what about the people who think the game has become too easy but don't use any addons and only play with the default UI?
In Vanilla, the amount of automation provided by addons was way more than it is now. Addons could choose which spells to cast and on which targets. There were even addons that could autocast spells on people who whispered you key phrases.
Before I quit I used the default UI and managed to clear endgame content. I myself can't seem to get used to stuff like Tukui or Elvui etc...
Typically the motivation behind that "too easy" statement has nothing to do with addons.
This is just a veiled criticism of addons in general, rather than anything about difficulty.
Visually the Blizzard UI leaves an awful lot to be desired. Seeing the time left on a debuff like serpent sting, as an example, is extremely annoying to try to focus in on. Same goes for debuffs that happen to me as a player. I have them moved so it's visually less taxing to see what's affecting me.
Healing with the default party or raid frames is just a terrible experience.
With regards to the sort of add-ons that count down for you (ie, ones that give a visual representation of when your next spell is ready), or DBM, which will tell you when the next special attack or phase is going to start? Sure, these are probably things that could be counted as gameplay crutches.
I've no issues to take up with raiding.
I take issue with the entire leveling experience. Things die too fast on my under geared alts to learn much of anything about my spells. I can't do it anymore. It puts me to sleep. It doesn't encourage new players to improve themselves on their way up. It feels a great deal more blind to me than it was years and years ago. Once upon a time, quest text told me directions from a quest giver to do things. Now it doesn't bother with directions, it lights a spot up on my map... and 3/4 of the time, that lit up spot is inaccurate in one way or another.
"Bananas, like people, sometimes look different when they are naked." Grace Helbig
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EniilC7L6AA
From 1:00 on is what I think about this OP.
OT: Addons allow you to focus your attention elsewhere...I don't want to be staring at the top right of my screen because that's where blizzard puts my buffs.
It's too easy!
DBM/BW is annoying, who cares about timers.
The game is for sure not become easier than in other expansion. Lets say the level of how can peeps play become more standard I think. For sure the fights are not easier than before.
Personally I prefer "old style, click and heal" of play. I just use Grid, DBM and Skada and some priest tracking ones (POM and Rapture). Was never fan of healing helping addons like healbot etc. Then I just use cosmetic addons.
Last edited by Vashi; 2013-07-03 at 06:15 AM.
Retired... but for how long? WAS DRAGGED TO THE LEGION HYPETRAIN!!!
http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte.../Vashiq/simple
MY DMB was out of date (as of 1 day? what?) so my weekly TK/SSC runs for pets were met without elemental timers or "all 4 advisors inc" timers, so I was getting excited that Kael and Vashy-poo would be harder... but turned out to be easier when I had to react vs just waiting to be told.
I really don't care, i like addons. At the same time, Ultima Online > WoW.
The game is far too easy now. There were addons back in TBC and Wrath, but the game was challenging.