Does anyone else feel like they can't keep up?

[Thetruth1400]

The big failure of WoW's current design is to make people feel like they have to "keep up" with something, rather than just being able to enjoy whatever time they spend in the game. I don't remember ever feeling like I needed to "keep up" in vanilla. Just because someone else was raiding didn't make my low level dungeon experience any worse.

Agreed 100%. That's actually been my biggest gripe with WoW since Cata is there overuse of catch up mechanics. Vanilla - WotLK, if you fell behind it was fine, there would still be people your speed doing all the content that there was. Now, Blizzard's stance is, "If you're not doing the cutting edge of the current tier, you're behind." They say they want people to play at their own pace, but what they put in the game tells a whole different story.

For me, one of the biggest contributors to that is the 4 or 5 different modes of dungeons and raids. Do away with that, bring back 2 max, and the problem will clear up over time. Also, ditch all the catch up mechanics or severely limit them. Gear, for example, maybe only give 4 slots worth of gear as vendor catch up protection. Even then, choose the pieces of gear that are usually just stat stick pieces. Enough to help the catch up, but you're still going to have to actually play the game to get the rest of the stuff.

Back in Vanilla especially, if you saw something with better gear than you had, you were in awe. It also motivated you to keep going, to try and get better and get into those raids to get the same. Likewise, we didn't have much to do besides raiding back then, and again, as you said, we didn't see people complaining about they couldn't keep up.

[anaxie]

Or use your head and don't grind anything and just do the things you want to do. Simple and easy. Above the intelligence level of your average mmo-c poster unfortunately.

To doany meaninful contwnt you have to do multitudes of ahit you dont qant to do or hate doing. Case and point. Wqs. Emmisary shit. Ap and legendary farm. Flying grind. Multiple raid lockouts

You know what 2007-2014 was? Expansion launches. Do 5 mans run raids have fun no bullshit required.

now alts and offspecs are insane to do because of all the stupid side shit required to play a warcraft skin diablo grindfest

And if you dont do any raiding why would you play this game to do the same quests and same 10 5 mans every single day for 700 days each expansion.

Youre an absolute fucking slave

[Deleted]

I am loving the fact that there is sooo much stuff to do. I like the fact that I have to keep chasing the carrot. Best xpac next to TBC.

you don't need a game if you just want something to do.

[Coconut]

Agreed 100%. That's actually been my biggest gripe with WoW since Cata is there overuse of catch up mechanics. Vanilla - WotLK, if you fell behind it was fine, there would still be people your speed doing all the content that there was. Now, Blizzard's stance is, "If you're not doing the cutting edge of the current tier, you're behind." They say they want people to play at their own pace, but what they put in the game tells a whole different story.

For me, one of the biggest contributors to that is the 4 or 5 different modes of dungeons and raids. Do away with that, bring back 2 max, and the problem will clear up over time. Also, ditch all the catch up mechanics or severely limit them. Gear, for example, maybe only give 4 slots worth of gear as vendor catch up protection. Even then, choose the pieces of gear that are usually just stat stick pieces. Enough to help the catch up, but you're still going to have to actually play the game to get the rest of the stuff.

Back in Vanilla especially, if you saw something with better gear than you had, you were in awe. It also motivated you to keep going, to try and get better and get into those raids to get the same. Likewise, we didn't have much to do besides raiding back then, and again, as you said, we didn't see people complaining about they couldn't keep up.

You are right about the excessive number of difficulties and being pushed towards the cutting edge (this is still in no small part community-driven, though, Blizzard is simply complicit), but we can't go back to the Vanilla-WotLK model.

There was a reason catch-up mechanics were introduced: guild poaching was a pretty big issue back then. No guild wants to be stuck perpetually in the first or second tier of the expansion because they can't get enough people geared at once to do a big push and break out. This was possible in Vanilla-WotLK because there was a constant influx of new players who were naturally taking things slow, and these players were the ones creating and supplying these middling guilds with fresh bodies. It's not viable anymore with old and cyclical players; guilds today break apart if they hit a wall for even a couple of weeks. And really, nobody's going to be in awe over someone else's gear, we're far too familiar with the hamster wheel to care about or be motivated by that.

[Accendor]

I don't have a ton of time to play, an hour or two per day, and for the first time ever in this game, I just feel like it's impossible to keep up.
I'm not even close to hitting the required rep, still need a ton of stuff for Pathfinder 1, but that's not even the worst part.
The worst part is people's super exclusionary mindset that you suddenly need 900+ to complete a +4. Just a few months ago we ran +4 with 850. And go figure the raiding scene... "Link curve" and please over-gear the content you're trying to do by 20 ilvl. It's like... what?
My ret paladin, and only character, is sitting at 895 and does perfectly respectable damage, but I can literally spend half an hour in the queue before getting into a dungeon group higher than a +2, an hour or two for a raid that likely falls apart after the first two wipes. So what is there to do? Grind WQ's until I get 910 drops in all slots while everyone else progress to 925 via high dungeons and raids and then face the same problem? Is anyone else experiencing this?

Yeah, it's an mmo and it requires an investment of time, etc., and I'm certainly not looking for pity, but I'm wondering if I'm the only person feeling this.

Getting a guild helps - that what you are supposed to do in a MMORPG either way.

[melodramocracy]

I don't have a ton of time to play, an hour or two per day, and for the first time ever in this game, I just feel like it's impossible to keep up.
I'm not even close to hitting the required rep, still need a ton of stuff for Pathfinder 1, but that's not even the worst part.
The worst part is people's super exclusionary mindset that you suddenly need 900+ to complete a +4. Just a few months ago we ran +4 with 850. And go figure the raiding scene... "Link curve" and please over-gear the content you're trying to do by 20 ilvl. It's like... what?
My ret paladin, and only character, is sitting at 895 and does perfectly respectable damage, but I can literally spend half an hour in the queue before getting into a dungeon group higher than a +2, an hour or two for a raid that likely falls apart after the first two wipes. So what is there to do? Grind WQ's until I get 910 drops in all slots while everyone else progress to 925 via high dungeons and raids and then face the same problem? Is anyone else experiencing this?

Yeah, it's an mmo and it requires an investment of time, etc., and I'm certainly not looking for pity, but I'm wondering if I'm the only person feeling this.

Join a guild, and you can simply forget about the cancerous pile of shit that is the PUG community in this game. Having to jump through hoops to meet some other persons arbitrary approval rating is a terrible use of free time, and I'm not sure how / why people even bother doing it in the first place.

Not sure how you got to this point, are 895, and don't have P1 completed yet, but I digress.

TLDR join a guild.

[Pony Soldier]

I'm always playing catch up with WoW. Every expansion. It's mainly because I can never seem to get in a group when content is still relevant. Before I quit I tried and tried again to form my own groups and also join other groups. 80% of the time I was declined and when I tried forming my own groups they all ended up falling apart because you know how it is these days, people want instant gratification and if they wipe just one time or the dungeon or raid takes more than 10 minutes to complete they leave. I don't know if WoW was always like this but back when I started playing WoW in 2006 I remember people were more inclined to help out and be a team player. These days it seems people are so selfish and self centered and they just don't give a fuck about the people in the game let alone in their groups.

It was because of this that I decided to quit. My patience with WoW ran out after wasting hours and hours of my time just trying to keep up with current content and constantly feeling like I was never good enough to do any of the end game content. So from now on I quit trying to get into mythic dungeons and raids. I'll just stick to the solo stuff and fucking watch the cutscenes on Youtube and that'll be my way of catching up with the game's story. With the amount of toxic douchebags in this game it's impossible to play the game the way it was meant to be played.

[Riistov]

I don't remember ever feeling like I needed to "keep up" in vanilla. Just because someone else was raiding didn't make my low level dungeon experience any worse.

Depends on your perspective. The grind was far FAR worse than it is today if you wanted to be a bleeding edge raider back in Vanilla/BC.

[clevin]

Note that a lot of the issues people are talking about are PUG related. This is a direct result of Blizzard killing mid-range guilds starting in 3.3 with LFD and in DS with LFR. Once you could get into current heroic 5 mans in Wrath without needing a guild, people did that vs spend the time to get in guilds and form groups there and maybe from some peoples' friend list. LFR added to this as it let people see raids without having to be in a guild (yes, many of those people didn't raid before...).

Over time this has led to a culture where people don't bother with guilds since, unless you raid consistently at a high level, you don't need them. Without guilds, how do you see non-queueable content like M+ and normal or higher raids? You PUG. But PUGs are semi-random collections of people so what happens? The leader looks for some way to qualify people and what's the easiest way to do that? Item level. And there you have it.

- - - Updated - - -

Depends on your perspective. The grind was far FAR worse than it is today if you wanted to be a bleeding edge raider back in Vanilla/BC.

But if you didn't, you had little grind. You could do dungeons and stuff without nearly as much grind. Also, once you got excellent gear for the content level you did, you were done. AP being open ended is a bad choice which is entirely focused on keeping people playing vs producing a fun game.

[Riistov]

I'm always playing catch up with WoW. Every expansion. It's mainly because I can never seem to get in a group when content is still relevant. Before I quit I tried and tried again to form my own groups and also join other groups. 80% of the time I was declined and when I tried forming my own groups they all ended up falling apart because you know how it is these days, people want instant gratification and if they wipe just one time or the dungeon or raid takes more than 10 minutes to complete they leave. I don't know if WoW was always like this but back when I started playing WoW in 2006 I remember people were more inclined to help out and be a team player. These days it seems people are so selfish and self centered and they just don't give a fuck about the people in the game let alone in their groups.

It was because of this that I decided to quit. My patience with WoW ran out after wasting hours and hours of my time just trying to keep up with current content and constantly feeling like I was never good enough to do any of the end game content. So from now on I quit trying to get into mythic dungeons and raids. I'll just stick to the solo stuff and fucking watch the cutscenes on Youtube and that'll be my way of catching up with the game's story. With the amount of toxic douchebags in this game it's impossible to play the game the way it was meant to be played.

All of these problems could be easily solved by joining a guild.

Not trying to be a jerk, but there are ton of guilds out there that you would fit in with.

[Uriel]

I unsubbed yesterday. Cause of RL i cant play nor raid as often thus falling behind more and more. In my guild i went from top dps to fifth place without doing stuff differently. The more i fall behind the less i get invited to M+.
This and because i dislike most legion dungeons and because class design is allover the place i foubd it to be better to quit alltogether. This is the second time i unsubbed since cata.

[Deleted]

Legion is not for raiders, I unsubbed after 7.2 hit (first time I unsub since 2008). Either you invest a lot of time to keep up or play super casual only world content (world quests). I don't mind to invest a lot of time for a few weeks but with Legion is a nonstop grinding, too much for me.

Just hope the next expansion have a new direction and they won't continue with this "world of diablocraft"

[Pony Soldier]

All of these problems could be easily solved by joining a guild.

Not trying to be a jerk, but there are ton of guilds out there that you would fit in with.

Yeah I'm aware of that, I was already in a guild once which was disbanded after WoD (It still exists but people don't come on anymore). The thing is with guilds is that I have to dedicate time out of my day to make sure I'm on in time for their scheduled runs. I don't want to be restricted to a schedule anymore. I already have my job's schedule to worry about so I don't want another one. I'm done with that crap. I want to come on whenever I want and do things whenever I feel like it.

[FAILoZOFF]

I picked up this game for the very reason is was "casual" friendly, it has never been this grindy as it is now, even in vanilla.

I feel that Legion is trying to waste as much of my time as possible.
Quite a lot of what I do or rather I am intended to do is indeed wasting time.
I speak of all pointless and boring things that don't require anything... except for time... be it lvling, daily quests now known as world quests, LFG/R and such.
Why do people prefer to do 10 effortless quests than 1 or 2 but that actually put your character in danger, require some thinking? What's so fun in doing same WQ over and over again times 30?

[Deleted]

So you prefer complaining about spending hours in queues because of high requirements set by players instead of creating your group?

Casual logic...

Eureka! Why didn't I think of that? People love joining groups with a solo dps, right? Surely, that must be the answer.

- - - Updated - - -

Not sure how you got to this point, are 895, and don't have P1 completed yet, but I digress.

Because I absolutely loathed Suramar and the quest lines there, so I basically just avoided them after getting the dungeons opened. And not keeping up with PTR stuff and that, it caught me by surprise. It's my own fault, clearly, but.. yeah.

[Trumpcat]

I barely manage to do the things because of my busy schedule (and small amounts of real lifing) I don't have the Legionfall rep for flying yet for example. And I love it. I totally prefer to be overwhelmed with things to do. I fit in some weekly raiding and m+ at least.

[Teri]

+1 my friend, totally agree. I just enjoy WoW as casual, and to be honest, it's not hard to reach a decent gear this way.

Same here, Raided non stop from vanilla to early 2013. 3 years away, now Legion as a pure LFR/WQ person. 7.2 is great quality of life improvement. 7.2.5 will make LFR a huge upgrade compared to other world content again. (Mythic raiders can enjoy their 955 titanforgeds while I get like 910 characters :P)


Now Exalted legionfall on 3 characters, halfway revered on 2 more. Collected most broken shore/invasion armor transmogs (4 alts got 4 different armor classes)

If 7.2.5 doesn't have another rep grind I hope, will focus even more on alts (new heirlooms), and more Transmogs for Trial of Style etc.

Already collected like 3000 pet charms this expansion by just playing, and zookeeper on 1 character so pet battling is a nice activity this expansion too.

I haven't even touched Brawler guild but I should probably check it out now that my characters are mostly 880-890.

[Sencha]

Eureka! Why didn't I think of that? People love joining groups with a solo dps, right? Surely, that must be the answer.

So, people creating groups are tanks or healers only? lol

[Deleted]

I don't have a ton of time to play, an hour or two per day, and for the first time ever in this game, I just feel like it's impossible to keep up.
I'm not even close to hitting the required rep, still need a ton of stuff for Pathfinder 1, but that's not even the worst part.
The worst part is people's super exclusionary mindset that you suddenly need 900+ to complete a +4. Just a few months ago we ran +4 with 850. And go figure the raiding scene... "Link curve" and please over-gear the content you're trying to do by 20 ilvl. It's like... what?
My ret paladin, and only character, is sitting at 895 and does perfectly respectable damage, but I can literally spend half an hour in the queue before getting into a dungeon group higher than a +2, an hour or two for a raid that likely falls apart after the first two wipes. So what is there to do? Grind WQ's until I get 910 drops in all slots while everyone else progress to 925 via high dungeons and raids and then face the same problem? Is anyone else experiencing this?

Yeah, it's an mmo and it requires an investment of time, etc., and I'm certainly not looking for pity, but I'm wondering if I'm the only person feeling this.

I might even be more busy than you(but im very proud of stuff I have achieved).

Its not playing 2 hours per day. Every single person on earth, have this moment every week, where they can shut the door and play effectively for almost a whole day. You plan ahead and smash throu the content. If you waste your time trying to raid within 2 hours span, then it might be better to skip that(for a longer day of the week)and instead do some solo stuff.

When I say plan ahead, this also includes you making your own groups(it as its advantages esp. when you are on timelimit - think of that). Plan on how you can the other stuff, the most efficient possible way.

If nothing else, you go with priorty list, so that you know where you are when next patch comes out(maybe you have more time for raiding, but done with the reputation grind).

[Loveliest]

Yes. As I grew older, I started getting this feeling more and more. I had a job when I started playing WoW so that hasn't changed, but I tend to want to do more things outside the game than I used to. I still play quite a lot, too much even, but that's because I want to 'keep up'.
What I've done to alleviate the feeling of 'not being able to keep up':
I've dropped my goals in some areas. For example, I no longer raid Mythic, I returned to my original pve realm and guild. This guild only raids heroic and only two nights a week. Also, being flex, means I can miss some of the days. Not being Mythic raider also means I don't have to spend so much time perfecting my class and studying encounters.
I've also decided never to feel bad ingame because I have a job and don't invest as much time. Somebody has more time and has better whatever? Good to them, I won't compare.
I have a group of friends I do M+ with. In nights when I don't raid or they raid, I log off for the night. I used to do M+ with my guildies as well, but I've dropped that (also due to some health issues). I watch movies, go out or practice my hobbies instead. Feels like I'm getting much more done now (IRL). So what if I didn't do all the legionfall quests today, so what if I missed out on something.

Why I still feel like I can't keep up:
Well, because I like the game. I like playing it. I like the story and there's just so much to do that, with less time invested in playing, seems I'm never getting around to doing all the things I want to do.

In the end, I think you have to drop your expectations and goals somewhat. And force your mind o realize that it's just a game, that you should never feel bad about not having enough time to play it.