Haven't played WoW in a long time, how is the game now?

[Deleted]

I played a lot in Burning Crusade but didn't like the wotlk changes and quit there. Have played a few hours since then, but everything seems so automated now. How is that now? and how is PvP? can you still meet arena teams with way better gear than yourself?

[Darsithis]

You can, of course, meet teams with better gear, but if you persist you will gain the gear you need. In the next patch they're removing the arena rating requirement from all gear and breaking gear into 4 tiers (for PvP) so that eventually everyone has gear and it becomes skill vs skill instead of gear vs gear.

[Deleted]

aah, thanks for the answer (:

[Mawnix]

inb4 shitstorm of fans vs haters.

Just try it. There's a free trial period. Also just read through wowpedia or MMO-champion to see the features and what's coming in 5.2, which drops in probably less than a month.

[Pebrocks The Warlock]

Just play it and see if you enjoy it. We can't help.

[treehumper]

Everything below this line is my opinion, which should not be considered facts or even truth about the general WoW status quo (and a lot of you are going to think my opinion sucks, and that's fine):

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I...didn't like the wotlk changes and quit there.

This

and everything is indeed automated. Dailies are the current norm, and they are abhorrent at best. PvP is also automated, but you get through without getting pwned by someone far out of your rating that way. You can't go far today without someone complaining about how this new system or that new system sucks or how it's made the game more for the casual. This is all true, however, and I can't complain: I went from top 50 hardcore raiding down to casual LFR reject, even if the hardcore mentality stuck.

The truth is that I got old over the past 9 years and so did WoW, and far more mature. When your primary audience grows and changes, you change with it or you abandon your subscribers. Most people that have played since Vanilla or TBC got old and got better/different careers and/or families and just don't have the time for hardcore-ness anymore.

I came back recently (January 5) after a 1.5 year break and found that the game still does what it was intended to do; it's a fun diversion. I can do LFR or 5mans with my friends or PvP even if I don't like it. I can also solo/duo a lot of old content that I really enjoyed for Transmogrification gear (a favorite pastime of mine, going back and doing TBC and WotLK raids for the hell of it). I stay on the forefront of casual progression* all while looking totally awesome; right now it's Paladin Tier 7.5 because looking like a Power Ranger is amazeballs.

I'd say give it a shot. Play some of the new content. Once you're through Cata content (80-85) you're in the clear... I really didn't like Cata.

*Even some casuals like to play the story out. Right now, I'm working on my Legendary meta and I think this Wrathion guy is more about using us for his own means instead of helping the world, but we'll see.

[Xazzi]

Like Destil said, just try it for yourself with the free trial. As with any game there are things I love about it and things I dislike, but imo it's at a pretty good spot right now. Not OMFG amazing but not bad either. I like the MoP talent trees and having to get back into the world again, but I dislike dailies (so I don't do them, it's weird, I know). I recently picked up PVP again and I'm looking forward to the 5.2 changes.

[corebit]

Other than the shitton of dailies, which get boring fast, I say it is pretty good, and it's getting better. I look forward to PVPing on my alts and gearing them up in 5.2. Also the Thunder King raid looks and sounds pretty epic, and most of the players who are testing it in PTR are saying very positive things about it.

[Anjerith]

Going into tBC from Vanilla, I had the same view; everything is so automated now.

In retrospect, it wasn't. However, removing tedious features is not always bad and in fact keeps the game fresh for old-timers like myself. Honestly, if I had been travelling the world for the last nearly decade learning new versions of "Shadow Protection XXVII" for my pets, I'd probably have let them all starve and run away.

The main difference between now and Wrath, or even now and tBC is that we now have an absurd amount of control over what type of characters we want to have, we have more control over getting powerful items and we no longer have to support terrible players because of a #'s or class makeup requirement.

There are downsides, the community is shit now. Self-entitlement is pretty much a character talent that everyone gets after they hit the ripe old age of level 10 on their first character.

[KrumTheKing]

PvP in 5.2 should be pretty good. If you plan on returning to the game, now would be a good time because you have time to level and prepare for the patch (which will probably be out in 1-2 months)

[BenBos]

If you quit 2 years ago or longer .... The best thing to do is just start from scratch. Less trouble to advance a new character then trying to decypher what changed on your old avatars.

WoW is difficult to get back into if you have a level 70 or 80 because not only talents were changed but the complete flow of the game and many features you would have no clue about like transmog, duals specs, gear changer, professions, stats changing, reforging, experience turn off modes, pets, farms, BG brackets, etc.

So it is better to digest it all with a new lvl experience from lvl 1.

[bionics]

I'm someone from the "God, I loved BC era" and I'm still able to find something I enjoy from every expansion. The raids and PVE in Pandaria are very well-done, and though there's a lot of hate for the locales being "too Asian looking," and daily quests being shoved in your face -- they're not nearly as bad as everyone makes them out to be. I think the negative backlash against dailies is more along the lines of people feeling pigeonholed into doing something and therefore complaining about it rather than genuine dislike of the content.