This is going to be a controversial post, but I have a confession to make:
I hate pve.
I mean, I really hate it.
I don't understand why any one does it repeatedly.
Normal experience in an LFR raid is this:
1) Massive amounts of waiting around for tanks/healers.
2) No tactics mentioned, or if they are they are communicated far too quickly.
3) Actual fights often devolve into some kind of demented game of twister,
"stand in the red stuff", "jump in the blue stuff, "move in and out of the green
stuff.
4) Group wipes on anything other than tank-and-spank.
5) Post-menstrual healer (and I'm not talking about women here mainly) blames
poor dps. Or the tank. Or any one but the post-menstrual healer.
6) Some complete bastard wips out recount.
7) Two things then happen as a result i) tank's feelings are hurt and he quits,
more waiting ii) dps start focusing on their rotation and ignore tactics altogether
so the recount nazi doesn't pick on them, group wipes again.
OK, so as I'm sure the pve'rs will say, LFR sucks, which it does, massively. Join a
good guild.
Now, I can appreciate a good guild with a great raid leader would make for a more
positive experience. But, that's like saying working in a bank is great if your co-workers
are fun people. However, you do it, as the content becomes familiar through repetition
it becomes a chore, as does anything. There is no possibility of deviation from your
core tactics/rotation, and these things take hours.
I usually complete new raids at least once. But, I can't understand how any one can do the
same content again and again and again till autumn. Indeed, many don't, judging by
the numbers that dropped off in dragon soul. Seriously, how do you raiders manage it?
If you contrast this with PVP: every new BG is quite a different experience. There are infinite
number of strategies and permutations depending on your own abilities and those of the
teams. You can try something new every game and it feels great when you discover a new
trick that really works.
Yet, pvp is really an afterthought for Blizzard despite the fact it is competitive with PVE based
on subscriber stats.
Also, I really can't understand the lack of importance Blizzard place on questing. No one ever
mentions this, but no one ever actually started wow at endgame content. Most of us had to
level up for literally months, at least, pre-cata. We started by going out in the world, questing
and world pvp. Yet it seems that the world, beautiful as it is, is essentially now just an introduction
to pve content I don't want to do. Why isn't it an end in itself?
You may say: OK, so don't pve and shut up. Which I'd be very happy to do. But, unfortunately at
the moment you can't do world pvp without pve gear. The best pvp is actually world pvp, difficult
as it is to get a world raid going. There is no better experience for a pvper than trying to kill garrosh
in uninstanced Ogrimmar with fifty horde trying to stop us. So, you have no real choice if you want
to do that than grind through raids.