Is it me or does wow is getting little more casual/easier each new expansion?

[Themanintobuildafire]

OP: I played in Vanilla and TBC and it wasn't that hard tbh. I came to WoW because it really was a casual game compared to the game I was played before WoW, which was Lineage 2.

The problem with this game is 99% of your power comes from gear, and players want to be as powerful as they can in an RPG. Even if you don't raid, you want to be powerful. If really powerful gear was only available to those who raided, this game would probably be half as populated as it is now. A vast majority of wow players don't raid. (I don't include LFR as raiding).

So the developers have to put the gear out there. The thing I would really be interested in is the age of those who use the term "welfare epics" or "free loot" etc. to describe the easy way one can pretty much get to 930ish ilvl without raiding. I played in Vanilla and was in the #1 alliance raid guild for my server. I took a 4 year break from TBC to Cata skipping WoTLK. Since gear gets outdated so fast in this game, you really have to have a system in place that keeps players subbed and that means feeding them gear. Not the best gear, but still gear.

I wonder if only mythic raid gear were purple if that would make the 1% happy? Honestly, I don't care anymore what the 1% thinks. This game will be better once they leave and the raid or die mentality leaves with them.

[elaina]

you picked up on that? only been happening since Wrath

[Tiwack]

its just you

if anything wow is getting hard each expansion

in case of legion the jump is very steep - most of people are stuck on lfr/WQ unable to join any groups or gear up due to crazy itlv req everywhere

the reason why you see groups more usccesfull is because more people then every simply dont bother and either just do WQ/lfr or unsubbed.

legion is much less casual friendly then even mop. unless you like farming low level difficulty for crazy rng that nobody besides nolifers do.

This is my experience as well, exacerbated by players themselves gate-keeping and/or wanting others to carry them. So many just up and leave as soon as you hit a bump or two in many a pug. Many end up flying solo or un-subbed if they're not part of a remotely active guild in some form or fashion.

[RobertoCarlos]

Gearing is the easiest its ever been. You can get heroic raid ready in one week.

[xcitng]

Wrath onwards its been pretty casual friendly, don't really see it getting worse since, can't say I blame them though I would want to make more money also.

[Sliske]

I doubt successfully having completed a M+15 with the timer, even once, is casual.

casual =/= bad. It really is not that hard to get 930 ilvl. I got it from 2 LFR antorus runs on my priest, then did a +15 with ilvl 931 as disc through the group finder, full pug.

there are plenty of casuals that raid at a high lvl or parse consistantly. They only play once a week though for a few hours. I was in a guild comprised almost entirely of those kinds of players - ex world <100 EU raiders, challenge mode boost sellers, gladiators etc.

If you call putting 6 hours a week into the game anything other than casual i don't know what to say to you, but thats how long it takes to run full heroic antorus, a +15 and do your weeklys for argunite.

[Osmeric]

casual =/= bad. It really is not that hard to get 930 ilvl. I got it from 2 LFR antorus runs on my priest, then did a +15 with ilvl 931 as disc through the group finder, full pug.

Take 5 average players at ilvl 931 and put them in an M+15 and they wouldn't have a chance in hell of finishing it on time. They probably wouldn't finish it at all.

[docterfreeze]

Sad truth, but I would do the same if I were them.

I don't get why people say this. Doesn't blizzard make enough money? Would designing the game around their loyal players instead of new players really destroy them?

[Osmeric]

I don't get why people say this. Doesn't blizzard make enough money? Would designing the game around their loyal players instead of new players really hurt them?

The people who run a publicly traded corporation have a fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders, not to their customers.

[docterfreeze]

The people who run a publicly traded corporation have a fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders, not to their customers.

Makes sense. Sucks cock though.

[Sliske]

Take 5 average players at ilvl 931 and put them in an M+15 and they wouldn't have a chance in hell of finishing it on time. They probably wouldn't finish it at all.

You never mentioned average players. You mentioned casuals. The average casual interested in doing a +15 weekly can absolutely do it. Don't be absurd and yes, 931 ilvl is more than enough to do a +15. Group finder has brain washed you. You forget that we did Argus Heroic in ilvl 925 gear, now you can't get into a group without being 960.

We did +15s in 915 gear on time with ease.

As a general rule, any ilvl a pug asks you for , take away 30 item levels and you're approaching what is actually needed to do it comfortably.

[nekobaka]

Take 5 average players at ilvl 931 and put them in an M+15 and they wouldn't have a chance in hell of finishing it on time. They probably wouldn't finish it at all.

So are we discussing average or casual. They are not the same thing.

[Soon-TM]

The people who run a publicly traded corporation have a fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders, not to their customers.

Amen brother. Shareholders >>>> customers, just in case that some white knight hasn't realized it yet.

[FelPlague]

I measured this by looking at pug successes every expansion (anecdotal )
How quickly you can get geard (anecdotal )
How easy are the mobs whlist leveling etc.

Ofcourse pugging in vanilla/tbc was pretty nonexistent, gearing was slow and 2/3 mobs killed you.

As Activision partnerd with Blizzard during wotlk it is then we got some taste of catching up mechanics;

1. Badges
2. Tuned raids for pugs
3. LFD

Turning back to legion, everything is a faceroll. Players assume mythic+15 is hard content, where I see my casual friends running them daily. The gear is very easy to get in Legion, the systems in places are created as everything is a faceroll.
PVP got very easy now too.

Pugging in Legion is soo easy that people don’t bother with normal/heroic guilds no more.


Is it me or wow is getting more casual each expansion/]?

Finally found what the title reminds me of.

[Osmeric]

You never mentioned average players. You mentioned casuals. The average casual interested in doing a +15 weekly can absolutely do it.

The average player IS casual. Casual players are the great majority of players.

The fraction of players who could clear M+15 at 931 is tiny.

- - - Updated - - -

So are we discussing average or casual. They are not the same thing.

The average player is casual.

[nekobaka]

The average player IS casual. Casual players are the great majority of players.

The fraction of players who could clear M+15 at 931 is tiny.

- - - Updated - - -



The average player is casual.

That is still not the same as the average casual let alone casuals as a whole.

[ohwell]

could be, I think they cater to their biggest player groups. seems like a sound bussiness model.

Good business for a short while, but not one to sustain. The loud bad players that left during Cata because of "difficulty" were not as many as they'd lead you to believe.

[Osmeric]

Good business for a short while, but not one to sustain. The loud bad players that left during Cata because of "difficulty" were not as many as they'd lead you to believe.

Blizzard's reaction says you're wrong. Or maybe you mean the vast majority of people who left because of the difficulty increase were silent? We weren't seeing 5000 new "I quit" threads per day, even though at least that many people were leaving.

[ydraw]

The game is far harder now than it ever was.

It's just that a lot of people choose not to do the hard content, and therefore assume that the easy content they are doing is the entire game.

Mythic raids are the hardest raids the game has ever seen. M+ dungeons are more challenging than anything that has come before. Mage tower challenges are some of the most challenging solo content in the history of WoW. But I am willing to bet that the OP has not done any of those things.

[ohwell]

casual =/= bad. It really is not that hard to get 930 ilvl. I got it from 2 LFR antorus runs on my priest, then did a +15 with ilvl 931 as disc through the group finder, full pug.

there are plenty of casuals that raid at a high lvl or parse consistantly. They only play once a week though for a few hours. I was in a guild comprised almost entirely of those kinds of players - ex world <100 EU raiders, challenge mode boost sellers, gladiators etc.

If you call putting 6 hours a week into the game anything other than casual i don't know what to say to you, but thats how long it takes to run full heroic antorus, a +15 and do your weeklys for argunite.

People seem to equate casual with bad because people who are bad keep claiming they're casual when they log more hours a week than most mythic players.

- - - Updated - - -

Blizzard's reaction says you're wrong. Or maybe you mean the vast majority of people who left because of the difficulty increase were silent? We weren't seeing 5000 new "I quit" threads per day, even though at least that many people were leaving.

Most didn't leave due to difficulty. Blizzard reacted to loud bad players which they shouldn't do.

- - - Updated - - -

The game is far harder now than it ever was.

It's just that a lot of people choose not to do the hard content, and therefore assume that the easy content they are doing is the entire game.

Mythic raids are the hardest raids the game has ever seen. M+ dungeons are more challenging than anything that has come before. Mage tower challenges are some of the most challenging solo content in the history of WoW. But I am willing to bet that the OP has not done any of those things.

It's easier and harder. Remove the add ons and you'd have an argument, but with add ons half the game is played for you.