Coming Back

[GrayGods]

A little about me: I haven't played since the last few days of Cata, I remember Ruby sanctum (or something along those lines) being the last raid I assisted my guild through. Before going on my very extended hiatus, I played WoW quite religiously and though I didn't get into raiding until the end of the Burning Crusade, I found myself pushing the higher content through WotLK and Cata, delving deep into min/max, and even put together my own Feral guide in the beginning of Cata. At the height of the raiding days, I found the rush in pushing for server first after each raid was finished being gated. Unfortunately my living situation changed drastically and until recently I haven't had the time nor funds to get back into.

Now I find myself visiting forums daily again, and wanting to itch a scratch. Admittedly I have only a surface pro 3 right now, that I am only able to log into and play sporadically, before getting booted off due to lag. I have started eyeing up building my rig and will hopefully have it in the next 2 weeks.

With all that being said, I have found the last 5/6 years, have made DRASTIC changes to WoW and I find myself quite confused about what is happening in wow, and how exactly to get back into the swing of things.

So I come to the great community of MMO Champ, one place that I used to love and frequent, in hopes that maybe ya'll can lead me in the right direction of threads, forums and guides that I can read up on in the next 2 weeks, to catch me up on everything that I missed while away.



TL;DR; I took an extended break 5/6 years and I need help getting back into the game. Send me links/guides or tips please!!!!

Thank you!

[AlmightyGerkin]

Honestly wait till 8.2. At the moment not going to be much till than.

[Cathululock]

you might be disappointed

[Galathir]

A little about me: I haven't played since the last few days of Cata, I remember Ruby sanctum (or something along those lines) being the last raid I assisted my guild through. Before going on my very extended hiatus, I played WoW quite religiously and though I didn't get into raiding until the end of the Burning Crusade, I found myself pushing the higher content through WotLK and Cata, delving deep into min/max, and even put together my own Feral guide in the beginning of Cata. At the height of the raiding days, I found the rush in pushing for server first after each raid was finished being gated. Unfortunately my living situation changed drastically and until recently I haven't had the time nor funds to get back into.

Now I find myself visiting forums daily again, and wanting to itch a scratch. Admittedly I have only a surface pro 3 right now, that I am only able to log into and play sporadically, before getting booted off due to lag. I have started eyeing up building my rig and will hopefully have it in the next 2 weeks.

With all that being said, I have found the last 5/6 years, have made DRASTIC changes to WoW and I find myself quite confused about what is happening in wow, and how exactly to get back into the swing of things.

So I come to the great community of MMO Champ, one place that I used to love and frequent, in hopes that maybe ya'll can lead me in the right direction of threads, forums and guides that I can read up on in the next 2 weeks, to catch me up on everything that I missed while away.



TL;DR; I took an extended break 5/6 years and I need help getting back into the game. Send me links/guides or tips please!!!!

Thank you!

Am I the only one confused because Ruby Sanctum was in WotLK following ICC and Cata's last raid was Dragon Soul?

Regarding funds you may like that you can now buy game time through ingame gold with the WoW Token from the auction house. Prices depend on the region you are playing in.

I recommend just taking your time leveling to get back into the game. You have several expansions of content to catch up. If you want to you can just solo dungeons/raids with 5-10 levels more than they are intended for the story.

The Adventurer's guide ingame will show you what regions are fitting for your level. Because of world scaling you can decide mostly by yourself where to go.

[GrayGods]

welcome back - everything you need to know to catch up is here:


The game hasn't actually changed that much. The core is still the same. "Quest through zones to level cap and then do some end-game stuff".

Thank you Greyscale for the link! I just know I logged into my toon, was "gifted" a 110 level boost and I ended up on a ship for some reason. All my spells/abilities were removed and the talent system looks like it received a major overhaul.

[Galathir]

The ship is intended to be a small tutorial of kinds for boosted characters. You'll get your skills back by playing it.
At 110 you can directly start into BfA content if you wish.

[Redroniksre]

If it really has been that long it will be quite a bit of getting used to. On the plus side you have loads of content to experience, even do old raids solo if you want for that story purpose. Play around with the talent system and have fun with it before looking up specific guides and builds. In this thread though expect a lot of salty people, if you are coming from so far back it will be a complete different experience then most of them have gotten. This site has gotten very...critical, to put it lightly.

[Aeula]

Don't come back. The game is in a shite state.

[Galathir]

Don't come back. The game is in a shite state.

Dunno. As Redroniksre already said our experience is different. For someone coming back after years of absence the dumbed down gameplay may be just right to get back in.

[SirCowdog]

So I come to the great community of MMO Champ, one place that I used to love and frequent, in hopes that maybe ya'll can lead me in the right direction of threads, forums and guides that I can read up on in the next 2 weeks, to catch me up on everything that I missed while away.

Here's the problem: 8.2 is probably going to go live in about a month or so, and everything you might learn about level-cap between now and then will be made irrelevant anyway.

In truth, my strongest suggestion is that you avoid WoW for the time being until things settle down a few weeks or a month after 8.2 goes live. Not to mention how the company of Acti-Blizz has really gone downhill since you played last.

[Thage]

Playing the 8.2 PTR until it goes live is honestly the best suggestion I can give you. It's free, you can get a feel for endgame systems without having to relearn the 8.2 changes just as you're adjusting to the 8.1.5 changes, and you'll get to mess around in the new zones and go right into Nazjatar/Mechagon once you hit level cap.

[Proskill]

Step 1: Install the PTR client
Step 2: Copy over your desired character(s)
Step 3: Play the latest version of the full game for "free" on the PTR
Step 4: Remember why you quit
Step 5: Profit

kek my man

[Greengrim]

Come back if you don't mind the complete homogenization of the classes. Everything a class could do before, can be done by all other classes who can fill the same role. This took away a lot from their identities and made them less thrilling to play. Another (actually even greater) minus that I personaly am disgussed from is the fact that nearly all instant casts were placed under gcd, and as if that wasn't enough already, gcd was increased to 2 seconds for all classes. When you combine that with the ridiculous reduction in the number of spells (people have 3-4 buttons to press nowdays) it makes for some extremely boring and underwhelming gameplay. Not only are the buttons too few, but you also stand and watch like a retard while that endless gcd makes a 360. The current talent system is also ridiculous in my opinion.

On the bright side, graphics and voice acting are ACE in this expac, I'm simply loving them. The fact I can have decent gear without raiding (I'm too old for that shit), just by spamming some 5mans or arenas with friends is also a plus for me. But that's about it really. Sadly when I think about the current state of the game - more negatives are floating up in my mind, rather than positives.

[GrinnersGrin]

Wait till 9.2

[Razzako]

Let the man do whatever he wants, Jesus. We all want to have a bit of WoW after a while (just look at the recent free weekend), especially after years of absence regardless of the state of the game. The game is bad right now but fuck it, he wants to play and that should be the end of it.

[Breccia]

Send me links/guides or tips please!

A couple tips, nothing huge:

1) Professions are now separated by Xpac. You can do, for example, Cata blacksmithing 1-100, then skip Legion, then to BfA blacksmithing 1-100.
a) Except Archaeology.
b) Nobody cares about Archaeology.

2) Instead of having fancy new talents, artifact trees, tier bonuses or Path of the Titans, you get Azerite Powers in your head, chest and shoulders. These can vary by spec and expect to take some time tracking down the best combo of powers to fit your playstyle.

3) If you like battle pets, good news, there's a bazillion of the damn things. No really, there's a bonus for hitting 1,000 now. A freaking thousand.

4) Oh, and Sylvanas is evil and the Horde are the bad guys. It's gotten so bad, even Baine is taking action. As in Baine, the least effective leader in a faction that includes Gallywix and Lor'themar "Bob" Theron.

[GrayGods]

A couple tips, nothing huge:

1) Professions are now separated by Xpac. You can do, for example, Cata blacksmithing 1-100, then skip Legion, then to BfA blacksmithing 1-100.
a) Except Archaeology.
b) Nobody cares about Archaeology.

2) Instead of having fancy new talents, artifact trees, tier bonuses or Path of the Titans, you get Azerite Powers in your head, chest and shoulders. These can vary by spec and expect to take some time tracking down the best combo of powers to fit your playstyle.

3) If you like battle pets, good news, there's a bazillion of the damn things. No really, there's a bonus for hitting 1,000 now. A freaking thousand.

4) Oh, and Sylvanas is evil and the Horde are the bad guys. It's gotten so bad, even Baine is taking action. As in Baine, the least effective leader in a faction that includes Gallywix and Lor'themar "Bob" Theron.

The profession thing is badass and helps a lot with people like me. I never really liked Sylvanas much, and always thought that she would have died off years ago. Honestly Thrall leaving as the Warchief kind of put a bad taste in my mouth lol.

Thank you everyone for the recommendations and tips.

As for the cynical peeps, I understand, those people were always a part of WoW nothing new changed there. They raise some valid points so can't disregard everything they say, but in the end, this is still an individual decision, and a rather cheap hobby once a rig is built/bought.

[crono14]

A little about me: I haven't played since the last few days of Cata, I remember Ruby sanctum (or something along those lines) being the last raid I assisted my guild through. Before going on my very extended hiatus, I played WoW quite religiously and though I didn't get into raiding until the end of the Burning Crusade, I found myself pushing the higher content through WotLK and Cata, delving deep into min/max, and even put together my own Feral guide in the beginning of Cata. At the height of the raiding days, I found the rush in pushing for server first after each raid was finished being gated. Unfortunately my living situation changed drastically and until recently I haven't had the time nor funds to get back into.

Now I find myself visiting forums daily again, and wanting to itch a scratch. Admittedly I have only a surface pro 3 right now, that I am only able to log into and play sporadically, before getting booted off due to lag. I have started eyeing up building my rig and will hopefully have it in the next 2 weeks.

With all that being said, I have found the last 5/6 years, have made DRASTIC changes to WoW and I find myself quite confused about what is happening in wow, and how exactly to get back into the swing of things.

So I come to the great community of MMO Champ, one place that I used to love and frequent, in hopes that maybe ya'll can lead me in the right direction of threads, forums and guides that I can read up on in the next 2 weeks, to catch me up on everything that I missed while away.



TL;DR; I took an extended break 5/6 years and I need help getting back into the game. Send me links/guides or tips please!!!!

Thank you!

I would save yourself the pain of playing BFA and wait until the next expansion.

[Breccia]

Honestly Thrall leaving as the Warchief kind of put a bad taste in my mouth lol.

It wasn't Thrall leaving, it was Garrosh arriving. It's been downhill ever since. And yes, the Horde being the villain damn near twice in a row is insulting.

[Agera]

Ignore the negative comments. The main thing is to google what servers are good for the faction you want to play. Find good people to play it with. Don't play on sparcely populated servers. I hounded a friend that lives in another state about how I joined wow to be able to do something long distance with him and for over a year and a half we played together in a raid... once. He 'only like raiding' and he got 'easily bored with wow'. We've been using quests to level a monk and a rouge and he's been having a blast. The game isn't bad. If you find that it's not for you, by all means go do something else with your time. Me, I have found people that i care for deeply all across the globe. It's been worth every bit of my time and money.