You also have to take into account that most people didn't visit the zone because Hyjal was more important. In order to do the dailies at 85 for Molten Front you had to complete most quests in Hyjal which was enough to take someone from 80-82 so Vash'jir really served no point. Had Vash'jir either been a 78-80 zone or coupled with another zone then we might've seen more people do it. I didn't mind the zone at all, just that it was wiser to do Hyjal so you could get 365's immediately.
In games I usually detest any water zones or levels, but I really enjoyed Vashjir thought it was done well
It's the 3D environment, movement and combat that people don't like.
Make them optional, like Vashj'ir was.
Bam, everyone can do something they like.
First: I loved Vashjir artistically. It was a wonderful zone, very beautiful, very cool to explore.
But, yes, I hated questing there. I hate water combat. I did it on one alt and then put the rest through the completely inferior (but more tolerable) Hyjal. Why?
Because:
- I didn't have to worry about finding something on the vertical access. Oh hey, I'm on top of the mark on my map, where the fuck is it? Oh, it's this cave a million feet above me, hiding in some fucking kelp.
- I didn't have to worry about getting melee range of some tinyass mob, looking like I'm in range but, oops, no, it's actually 15 yards below me.
- I didn't get sim sickness from swimming all the time.
- I also didn't have a problem aggroing things from overhead because it looks like I'm safe but no, there is a patrol 20 feet above me.
I appreciate all the things Blizzard put in to make it more tolerable, but I still hate water combat, I hate vertical axis navigation, and I'm still going to feel like horking after 30 minutes of my character swimming everywhere. If they do more ocean stuff, it needs to be like Throne of the Tides instance where it is indoors on the sea floor, or on islands with short excursions into the sea.
There's no depth perception, which is a royal pain in the ass for looting and combat, particularly for melee classes. Vash'jir sucked.
Water levels should be banned from MMOs... every single one is horrible.
Free-To-Play is the future.
The best way to do any potential new underwater zones
-At the bottom of the sea Azeroth's gravity is so strong you can't swim up, especially with all of your armour and bags
-At certain points there's a "water stream" or "booster pad" to push you into a certain cave or ledge you can't jump onto.
-All times when you're high in the air is when you're riding something
I loved vashjir, but placing spells was mostly impossible.
The problem is that many games gave underwater places a bad reputation, and not because they were bad..., was mostly because they were hard or/and annoying (Zelda, Mario, etc..)
The questing and the environment is nice.
But: I don't know why, but the WoW engine sucks for 3D orientation. Not only applies for Vashj'ir.
At some points WoW managed to not have that problem (for me), I didn't that much of a problem with the Netherwing races (until the last one, like most )
Only good water levels are the Super Mario ones. And thats not even that great..
Would people be okay with an underwater zone if it just had one level? SO no need to swim up or down to other levels.
Only good water levels are the Super Mario ones. And thats not even that great..