What's left for WoW?

[Buildapanda]

I don't want to tell my lifestory about wow, because I doubt anyone cares. What I will say is that I thoroughly enjoyed most, if not all of the things I experienced in wow for the short amount of time I've been a part of the game.(roughly 1 year)

But now here I am at the end of the expansion, and honestly stunned, blizzard has announced no more new content until next expansion. For that reason alone I unsubscribed in November, knowing the only thing I had left to do in wow was bash my head against my keyboard in order to down the last four bosses of SoO heroic. This was not what I wanted at all.

I've always considered myself a very understanding gamer. I have a heart for underdeveloped games because it brings some uniqueness and character to it that polished AAA titles don't have. Wow's appeal to me was that unique balance between polished AAA fluid multiplayer experience, and a vast creative universe.(which you don't see in the cods of the world)

There are a few specific issues that I'm having trouble coming to terms with.
Stat squish(if I wanted to play at BC stat levels I would have played then)
Reused assets for WoD(this is what made me stop playing call of duty)
No new classes or races

I understand they want us to go back and be able to experience old raids and dungeons, but personally I loved the soloing aspect of old content. I was still able to enjoy the lore and the progression of the raids and appreciate the art, but introducing a stat squish as a means to make older content more accessible instead of faceroll doesn't make much sense(well it does from the business side)

The reason I loved MoP so much was because it was pandas in your face all the time.(hence my name)
You felt a sense of value with MoP because it wasn't just a hub expansion. It was its own unique world that did not feel at all a part of Azeroth. You didn't have to have any prior knowledge of the game to be able to jump right in, and for a new player, being able to start with the newest class and the newest race was what kept me hooked.(I've became pretty proficient as a mistweaver)

So for me, what is there to really look forward to for wow in the future?
I ask this as a gamer, and someone who values the video games that I purchase.

[Ginantonicus]

For me its less about the game itself and more about the friends I've made playing it.

[PuppetShowJustice]

I understand they want us to go back and be able to experience old raids and dungeons, but personally I loved the soloing aspect of old content.

I'm confused. Are you one of those people who thinks that you won't be able to solo anymore post stat-squish? Because that isn't how it works.

[Buildapanda]

I'm confused. Are you one of those people who thinks that you won't be able to solo anymore post stat-squish? Because that isn't how it works.

I figured that would be confusing, but no I understand... but there will be the option to squish things to where it would be like you are fighting the raids as current content, and that as a feature, isn't very inspiring or intriguing. What I would like to see is revamp the whole 1-90 leveling process so that there is a tiered progressing and you have some resemblance of a game. I do not see this happening though as buying 90's will be a feature.( i have no problem over this), but it shows more or less what the devs true intents are. And that is to throw people a toggle for those who want to experience old content as intended. I don't have a problem with that per se, but it tells me they are done with making old content jive with the leveling process.

[Malkazam]

For me its less about the game itself and more about the friends I've made playing it.

Exactly.

5 millions solo players

[Dyptheria]

@OP

Soooo....you've only played the game for a year, and yet

Stat squish(if I wanted to play at BC stat levels I would have played then)

Really? So you were well aware of TBC, but you waited until Blizzard inflated the stats before you considered the game to be worth playing? You have great vision.

I ask this as a gamer, and someone who values the video games that I purchase.

Ahhh, but what kind of gamer are you? An MMO gamer? (your mention of Call of Duty suggests otherwise). FPS and/or console gamer sounds more plausible. A dedicated MMO gamer will look at WoW with a different perspective compared to an FPS gamer. FPS gamers expect everything to be done at speed, MMO (and especially MMORPG gamers) tend to look at things differently.

For me, I like the MMORPG genre, and I like WoW. There's plenty material for Blizzard to use (especially if they choose to go off-world); I don't worry about there being 2 years between expansions, as long the expansions are done properly...better than some half-baked effort churned out in 9 months. WoW doesn't need a new class or race every expansion, but what it does need it a good selection of well-tuned (i.e. not wimp-easy) 5-mans, group quests, involved quest lines and good story telling.

I'm not bothered about the squish, it's just numbers. You make a good point about Outland vs Draenor, I think Blizzard could have sent us elsewhere, perhaps Xoroth.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Sounds like you don't really know how WoW was in the beginning like you claimed to have.

You don't have to do SoO you know. Every heard of Role-playing? How about doing Pet battles? Getting exalted and doing those unusual achievements? Try some PvP.

[Socialhealer]

the last 3 bosses in SoO are the only ones worth doing, the other 11 are a cakewalk for 10 or 25 experienced players, but the last 3 will pose a real challenge for anyone progressing it and not being overgeared.

there's no fun in raid bosses that you down within 1 hour, if all bosses was like that this tier would be 14 hours long :s

[Feel The Power]

For me its less about the game itself and more about the friends I've made playing it.

Actually for me it is the opposite. For the 8-9 years I played WoW I played about 80% of it as a solo game and loved it. Of course I did dungeon finders and did LFR sometimes, had been in guilds from time to time. I do not like socializing with people very much, and yet part of what I loved about WoW was that there were tons of people in the world...I just never cared to be bothered with very many friends over the years haha.

[Leih]

the last 3 bosses in SoO are the only ones worth doing, the other 11 are a cakewalk for 10 or 25 experienced players, but the last 3 will pose a real challenge for anyone progressing it and not being overgeared.

there's no fun in raid bosses that you down within 1 hour, if all bosses was like that this tier would be 14 hours long :s

Yeah I never understood the whole "I'm a raider. I've not cleared all the content, but I need new content to come out because I only have the hard fights left!"

The hard fights are the thing you spend all your time up to that point working towards... Enjoy them when you get there and try to beat them! Could understand if you'd finished everything and were bored of farming it, but should be glad you have time to work on the challenges really o.O


I'm also a bit confused by the "reused assets" thing. Draenor is being built from the ground up, they're not taking Outland and upping the texture quality. It'll look and feel different, it'll just have little references where you'll think "Oh hey... this becomes X later! Cool!"

[Jakins]

Huh, you're one of "those people".

You don't understand WoW or know what it's truly like, do you? What are these "reused assets"? If anything, the only thing they could truly keep the same for Draenor is having a few landmarks in the same place as well as the unmodified, undestroyed mountains. Everything else is new. Draenor is an entire planet, Wrathion talked about the Burning Legion making its way to Azeroth in MoP too, so there's that as well.

I gotta ask; what kind of WoW player ARE you? I don't understand what you played the game specifically for other than the aesthetics of playing a pandaren. What were you playing for?

I can say what I play for; friends. I raid with them, roleplay with them, chat with them, even goof around with them in this imaginary world. I've played since 2006 and haven't stopped playing because I am getting my money's worth by having it as a sort of expansive social networking where you can pretend to be something else and goof off with friends doing impossible things. You just sound like you played 'because panda and stats inflation to steamroll the old content'. I don't see the fun in that unless you're with friends to goof off in said dungeons.

[Meiluy]

What I will say is that I thoroughly enjoyed most, if not all of the things I experienced in wow for the short amount of time I've been a part of the game.(roughly 1 year)

But now here I am at the end of the expansion, and honestly stunned, blizzard has announced no more new content until next expansion. For that reason alone I unsubscribed in November, knowing the only thing I had left to do in wow was bash my head against my keyboard in order to down the last four bosses of SoO heroic. This was not what I wanted at all.

Welcome to every MMO that has lasted ever. You complain about having "no new content" until the expansion, not understanding that this is how it has ALWAYS been with WoW. If anything, we have less time to wait and more content with each no patch NOW compared to previous expansions. If you think there's nothing left to do, then you are extremely short sighted. There is nine years of content here to explore, from stuff that arrived in Vanilla (AQ) to stuff that came out in this most recent patch (Timeless Isle and SoO). Have you done any PvP (even if I don't like it, I acknowledge it as a part of this game) or leveled an alt on the opposing faction? What about the thousands of quests, and the multitudes of story lines that have been told within? How are you doing with pets? All level 25 with complete victory over the Celestial Tournament? What about exploring old raids, and soloing them? Are you exalted with all of the factions from this expansion alone, much less the ones from previous ones? Do you have that one amazing mount (Ashes of Alar for me) you've always craved?

There is almost ALWAYS something left to do in this game (which reminds me, I need to level my pets some tonight... still need some more 25s for the Celestial Tournament).

[Buildapanda]

I want new content, not 9 year old content. I have done all of the raids solo, I've raided heroic raids(and played with plenty of bads which is not fun wiping 100 times on heroic malkorok to people standing in shit). I've hunted achievements, I've got all MoP reputations to max. I have 6 level 90 characters. I have hundreds of thousands of gold, brawlers guild maxed.

And now that I think about it, pet battles are just another feature using rehashed assets.

So with that I will say again. I want something new, and as a new player it was pandaland and the monk class which drew me in along with all of the old content. What is exactly drawing in new players now? I've heard WoD is the expansion to bring back old time players, so that brings me back to one of my earlier points, if I would have played in BC I would have.

[Polarthief]

Sounds like you don't really know how WoW was in the beginning like you claimed to have.

You don't have to do SoO you know. Every heard of Role-playing? How about doing Pet battles? Getting exalted and doing those unusual achievements? Try some PvP.

While I'm obviously a different player than the OP...

- 7/14 25H Siege; no interest in continuing
- RP is not for me
- I prefer Pokemon, tbh. Pet Battle lacks so much depth that it just kills it for me, plus the grind is terrible
- Exalted with nearly every faction in the game (the ones I'm not are the ones that take AGES to get [PS: I have The Insane title]), and I have an 89% completion rate on all non-FoS achievements
- Never really been one for PvP, both skilled and unskilled

So when the only PvE is raiding and it's incredibly stale, you don't enjoy PvP, you've completed pretty much every achievement there is to get within reason, you don't enjoy pet battles, and you don't really like RPing, what's really left?

The problem for me more or less was that there was always PvE content available to me. Not to mention expansions ago that I wasn't as skilled (plus I was still a teenager) and the game was significantly more difficult and less accessible. Now that everything is easily accessible to everyone, there's little to no challenge anymore and there's not much else to do in PvE outside of raiding (WHICH IS THE PROBLEM FOR PvE PLAYERS). They need to add more branches of progression such as extremely difficult 5-mans (Mythic difficulty?) that aren't just a speed-race (Challenge Modes are fun until you clear them all on Gold), some way to progress your character by yourself (such as the scrapped Path of the Titans) that doesn't include a retarded MoP-style Legendary quest chain, and other fun things to do, which I feel like Garrisons may fill that gap.

I honestly love smaller groups, and if there was progression in 5-man dungeons, I'd probably come back in a heartbeat. Raiding just gets tiring after the first month or two because you realize how boring and repetitive they can get, and how much they start to feel more like work than a game. Also, when the challenge of killing a boss all hinges on those 1-5 players NOT fucking up, that's not fun. In my own personal experience, my guild would have had Heroic 25 Lei Shen about a month or two sooner if those specific players weren't there, and that's honestly the worst feeling in the world and a feeling I've always had with me. I'm not saying I'm the best god damn raider ever, because I will never claim that, but when I constantly feel held back by other people, I get really upset, and when I can't commit to a higher raid schedule, I just get locked in this horrible position.


If Blizzard truly wants to keep the game alive as well as bring in new subs/bring old subs back, adding PvE outside of easy 5-mans and raiding will be a huge step in the right direction. The worst thing is that the casual and/or bad players only have LFR to do, and we all know how much LFR sucks a fat one, but at the same time, the new flexible raiding system for both Flex and Normal--- I mean "Normal" and "Heroic" won't really do much because a lot of people will just play the game on "Super Easy" and not bother challenging themselves. They need to realize that more difficulty tiers does NOT equate to more content, and that's where they will always continue to drop the ball.

[ponies]

From the looks of things I dont think this game is for you.
Sounds like you are just unhappy with the game and aren't entirely sure what you want out of it.
There are other games out there.

[Rosstafa]

I don't want to tell my lifestory about wow, because I doubt anyone cares. What I will say is that I thoroughly enjoyed most, if not all of the things I experienced in wow for the short amount of time I've been a part of the game.(roughly 1 year)

There are a few specific issues that I'm having trouble coming to terms with.
Stat squish(if I wanted to play at BC stat levels I would have played then)
Reused assets for WoD(this is what made me stop playing call of duty)
No new classes or races

I understand they want us to go back and be able to experience old raids and dungeons, but personally I loved the soloing aspect of old content. I was still able to enjoy the lore and the progression of the raids and appreciate the art, but introducing a stat squish as a means to make older content more accessible instead of faceroll doesn't make much sense(well it does from the business side)

The reason I loved MoP so much was because it was pandas in your face all the time.(hence my name)
You felt a sense of value with MoP because it wasn't just a hub expansion. It was its own unique world that did not feel at all a part of Azeroth. You didn't have to have any prior knowledge of the game to be able to jump right in, and for a new player, being able to start with the newest class and the newest race was what kept me hooked.(I've became pretty proficient as a mistweaver)

So for me, what is there to really look forward to for wow in the future?
I ask this as a gamer, and someone who values the video games that I purchase.

So you've been playing WoW for a year, and you've done everything there is to do? I've been playing a couple of years almost now and I've still got tonned to do.

Your complaints are odd. Why is the stat squish such a big deal? They're just numbers. In a month or two you'll get used to it.
Reused assets - Creating an MMO like WoW takes A LOT of time and resources. If they were to make every single little thing from scratch, expansions would take several times longer to make. Reusing assets is just a part of games with expansions, MMO or otherwise. IT's how they are used that's important. As long as they aren't a crutch for the rest of the game, and there is a significant amount of new assets (in every expansion there is), then it isn't a big deal.
No new classes or races - You haven't been playing long, and I find it hard to believe you've tried every race or class in the year you've been playing, unless you've been seriously doing nothing but WoW the past year. If you have tried every single race/class in the time you've been playing, I doubt the addition of one more is going to keep you hooked for long.

If you've blasted through everything WoW has to offer in such a short time, it's no wonder you're burnt out. I'm starting to spend a bit less time playing, but only because I've done most of the MoP content, cleared SoO and am waiting for the new expansion. I'm still going back and doing odd bits here and there in old content.

[Sastank]

I've been playing since day 1, on the same server, off and on. I take breaks a LOT. (Since BC) I usually stick around for leveling/gearing up the week of the expansions release. Do the first couple tiers of raiding hardcore + heroics. Then casually play / take breaks from time to time. Probably going to keep doing this till a game can actually lay claim to killing WoW or being better than WoW for me (you know, IMO a better game)

[The_Butcher]

Usually whenever WoW is getting dull before the xpac, player's have new features to anticipate while they twiddled their thumbs counting the months away.

- BC: Blood Elves/Draenei + Flyers
- Wotlk: Death Knights
- Cataclysm: Worgens/Goblins + New Class combos
- MoP: Pandas & Monks
- WoD: Garrisons & Model Updates

My Point being, I've done every aspect of WoW PvE. PvP. RP, Brawlers & Pet Battles, etc.
And what keeps me going is preparing for expansions, what i'll need to get, how to work the AH, that sort of thing.
If it wasn't for the model updates or garrisons coming, I probably wouldn't get the expansion or continue playing.

[Deleted]

Just don't play if you don't feel like it. The most pragmatic way ever realized.

[Gorgarath]

I want new content, not 9 year old content. I have done all of the raids solo, I've raided heroic raids(and played with plenty of bads which is not fun wiping 100 times on heroic malkorok to people standing in shit). I've hunted achievements, I've got all MoP reputations to max. I have 6 level 90 characters. I have hundreds of thousands of gold, brawlers guild maxed.

And now that I think about it, pet battles are just another feature using rehashed assets.

So with that I will say again. I want something new, and as a new player it was pandaland and the monk class which drew me in along with all of the old content. What is exactly drawing in new players now? I've heard WoD is the expansion to bring back old time players, so that brings me back to one of my earlier points, if I would have played in BC I would have.

I have a feeling you would've want WoW to stay pandaland forever... Anyways since your new to this let me explain it to you.

You had 2 new races in BC as well as complete class overhaul making every spec viable (back when you had talent trees with stuff like 5% crit) and the 'continent' Outland as well as Draenei starting areas and Blood elf Starting areas, Isle of Quel'danas (or whatever) was added at the end of the expantion.The level cap was also raised to 70 and we got socketed items and Jewelcrafting. Flying mounts. Heroic modes for dungeons where brought to us and you had to unlock them by getting to a certain rep level and buy the respective keys, Arenas where also put in this expantion. Outland had a lot of world PVP zones and waas overall a very complete expantion for both PVP and PVE players, back then there where no 'Heroic' modes for raids and said raids where f*cking hard (Black Temple was out before anyone could down Kael'Thas).

In Warth you had a new class introduced, Death Knights, and the new 'continent' Northrend. This expantion brought to us 'Phased' content (although very little of it), destructible buildings (only in Wintergrasp), blizzard took away profession specialization as they did not want people to go a certain profession just to get an epic two handed sword. 'Heroic' dungeons where dumbed down as to make them more acessible, Achievements where announced for this (tho introduced in pre-Wrath patch) and you got Inscription and glyphs. Heroic raids where unlocked further in the expantion (Ulduar) and the xpack featured both 10 and 25 man versions of the raids whereas the 10 man had worse gear. Class balance changes and new skills where added as lvl cap went up to 80. PvPers had two zones(Grizzly Hills and Wintergrasp) and the first tier of raiding was rehashed content from Vanilla (Naxx). Also dungeon finder.

Cataclysm was basically a overhaul expantion, it gave us Goblins and Worgen, overhauled Azeroth with every zone from Vanilla changed to become a more interesting leveling experience. Level cap was increased to 85. By the end of the xpack you had Raid Finder. Archeology. Tol Barad for pvp and Glyphs where made less 'good'(if that makes sense) . Flying in Azeroth.

MoP added your beloved pandas and a new continent, 5 more lvls and no more talent trees, instead at specified levels you may choose one skill from 3 that may/may not be usefull and should give players more choises over what to use (at least thats what Blizz wanted) and you choose your specc at 10, cenarios and Flex raiding and no more shoulder/head enchant from reputation. Pet battles(how is this a rehashed asset?is it because you use pets previously availible in game?), brawlers and challenge modes. Monks...

Not every xpack needs new races, in fact they are gonna remake the character models for pre Wrath races which can count towards 'new races', Draenor which is NOT the same as Outland, it was said in a previous post that you may recognize some landmarks but frankly I think that's it since Outland is completely ravaged.
Dungeons might be the same with revamped art and models. Timeless Isle style dailies wich is good. And most importantly items squish making numbers smaller (because I wouldnt want to be hitting for 20Million by the time I reach 100) and garrisons.

I realy don't get your problem with WoD, the squish is for everything even old content since smaller numbers are easyer to balance than larger ones and frankly hitting for 20Million is not appealing unless you like to have your screen filled with numbers...
Blizzard has already stated that they do not want to mess with content from previous xpacks so the Vanilla overhaul was the only zone/leveling revamp coming your way.
You said you liked MoP because it didn't feel part of Azeroth...neighter did Outland and Northrend way back when that was out, unless you mean that you like Pandaria ONLY because it is the only place with Pandas and chinese architecture, in wich case there won't be any of in the future, ever.

The xpack isn't out and you have yet to play it...Garrisons might be the next best thing and you might gonna want to rub your panda loving self all over that.

Finally I think you are just trolling, in wich case good job.