WTF happened after 8.1.5?

[Alcsaar]

So I quit playing around 8.1.5 because well the game sucked lets be honest.

I wanted to come back to kill some time just doing arenas with my buddy, only to find out that to even stand a chance in pvp I basically have to do max level questing (which i despise) for 10-15+ hours just to stand any chance in pvp on ONE CHARACTER (I play lots of alts)

WTF happened to this game? Why are they make it so difficult and grindy for people who just want to pvp and not do any questing get back into the game?

[Gaidax]

2 major patches happened with their own systems and gear.

I sympathize, but really, you can't expect return after a year and have nothing change. It's not SWTOR.

The upside is that catching up is not terrible, the downside - until then you are 2nd class citizen.

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As a side note, we have similar thread running and I absolutely think that Blizzard has to do something with their x.3 patches. It's these final patches where shit snowballs hard with multiple layers of systems glued on top of each other that are both confusing and unwelcoming to a returnee or a new player.

[Ladey Gags]

Why are they make it so difficult and grindy for people who just want to pvp and not do any questing get back into the game?

Because they don’t care about those people. They only care about people who compulsively log in every day to fill a bar. That is Blizzard’s target audience now.

[crusadernero]

Yeah it sucks. I want to play all my alts now as I often do late in a xpac, but I cant really be bothered with it. Especially not after reaching max lvl on any of my alts.

Its like.. I enjoy the leveling and once I hit 120, the air goes out of me. Cant be bothered with the insane grind to be viable.

[xblubbx]

There are lots of games out there that don't require grinding. WoW has never been one of these. So?

[Alcsaar]

2 major patches happened with their own systems and gear.

I sympathize, but really, you can't expect return after a year and have nothing change. It's not SWTOR.

The upside is that catching up is not terrible, the downside - until then you are 2nd class citizen.

There was a time when returning to the game after a year just meant you had to grind gear to catch up. There was new PvE content but it wasn't necessary to do because it didn't introduce its own systems of adding power to your character that you could ONLY get by doing that content. I could easily just farm up gear I needed from pvping or dungeons and never had to spend 15 hours doing max level boring ass questing.

[Kuntantee]

2 major patches happened with their own systems and gear.

I sympathize, but really, you can't expect return after a year and have nothing change. It's not SWTOR.

The upside is that catching up is not terrible, the downside - until then you are 2nd class citizen.

---

As a side note, we have similar thread running and I absolutely think that Blizzard has to do something with their x.3 patches. It's these final patches where shit snowballs hard with multiple layers of systems glued on top of each other that are both confusing and unwelcoming to a returnee or a new player.

Did you read his damn post? He says PvP. What you can not expect is questing for 15 hours just to PvP. This azerite system is trash. Worse yet, we will have the same shit in shadowlands in a different form...

[Alcsaar]

There are lots of games out there that don't require grinding. WoW has never been one of these. So?

WoW in the past has always allowed you to jump back in, farm up gear in pvp, and get right back into the action. Only in the last couple expansions has this game turned into this shit fest of 20+ hours of post max level questing garbage to stand a chance in pvp.

[Phabulous]

I sympathize, but really, you can't expect return after a year and have nothing change. It's not SWTOR.

This cut so hard I had to log in.

[crusadernero]

There was a time when returning to the game after a year just meant you had to grind gear to catch up. There was new PvE content but it wasn't necessary to do because it didn't introduce its own systems of adding power to your character that you could ONLY get by doing that content. I could easily just farm up gear I needed from pvping or dungeons and never had to spend 15 hours doing max level boring ass questing.

100% this. It was great being able to get into the game at any time during a xpac and easily enough get decently up to date with gear etc. It was also great cause alot of my friends would join in late, and so have I over the years. Just had to lvl up, grind out some dungeons/bgs/arenas and quickly have OK gear to work from.

Now? Its a shitshow of a grind that I bet are helluva confusing for people. Total shitfest

[Luxeley]

Welcome to the reality of WOW. Unfortunately, Blizzard thinks time synch mechanisms, gated content and tons of hoops to jump through = great content. Like the Goblins say "time is $$$." And as long as players are stuck in the maze and addicted to what WOW used to be 10 years ago, they'll gladly hand over $$$. The bottom line is Blizzard is no longer the company that makes great games, although there are remnants of that here and there. Blizzard's #1 priority is profits and WOW is largely designed to keep players on the treadmill and therefore paying a sub fee.

[Onikaroshi]

WoW in the past has always allowed you to jump back in, farm up gear in pvp, and get right back into the action. Only in the last couple expansions has this game turned into this shit fest of 20+ hours of post max level questing garbage to stand a chance in pvp.

Bit of an exaggeration there, most questing you would have to is like... 4 hours if you're slow as fuck to get the cloak.

[Alcsaar]

Bit of an exaggeration there, most questing you would have to is like... 4 hours if you're slow as fuck to get the cloak.

4 hours per char I want to pvp on is 4 hours more than any amount of max level questing I have any desire to do right now.

[Onikaroshi]

Welcome to the reality of WOW. Unfortunately, Blizzard thinks time synch mechanisms, gated content and tons of hoops to jump through = great content. Like the Goblins say "time is $$$." And as long as players are stuck in the maze and addicted to what WOW used to be 10 years ago, they'll gladly hand over $$$. The bottom line is Blizzard is no longer the company that makes great games, although there are remnants of that here and there. Blizzard's #1 priority is profits and WOW is largely designed to keep players on the treadmill and therefore paying a sub fee.

Blizzard was always a business and was always in it for profits, don't delude yourself into thinking otherwise. The landscape has changed and they had to change with it.

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4 hours per char I want to pvp on is 4 hours more than any amount of max level questing I have any desire to do right now.

Then play something else, people have wanted better questlines at max level for a LONG time.

Where the hell were you when we needed to do the MoP legendary quest line or the wod ring quest line anyway? WoW has always had a few hours of mandatory max level questing.

[Gaidax]

Did you read his damn post? He says PvP. What you can not expect is questing for 15 hours just to PvP. This azerite system is trash. Worse yet, we will have the same shit in shadowlands in a different form...

His problems have nothing to do with Azerite armor, get off your roofies.

His problem is purely 8.2 and 8.3 stuff - essences and corruptions, which indeed take time to gather, but are immense power boosts. Azerite armor is just a piece of gear at this point you can get pretty easily, either from pugs or simply buying all heroic pieces in a matter of one week's chest.

Essences and corruptions, on the other hand - you can't get from one shitty HC pug run or buy a full set of those from vendor in capital city almost immediately.

Other than that, I am not sure what you are so triggered about - ultimately it was always the case last 5-6 years. 2 major patches gap is a serious gap that always required grind. That's literally difference between how you are at start of expansion and at the end of it - was always big and you always had these tacked on systems in the end.

[Nevcairiel]

You expect to come back after a long break, and not need to do any catching up to be competitive again? Have you ever played this game before?
Thats just a veeery unrealistic expectation. Why should you be able to compete with players that did play over the last year, and you did not?

[Great Destiny Man]

2As a side note, we have similar thread running and I absolutely think that Blizzard has to do something with their x.3 patches. It's these final patches where shit snowballs hard with multiple layers of systems glued on top of each other that are both confusing and unwelcoming to a returnee or a new player.

I can kinda forgive 7.3 because it generally made the prior systems extremely trivial in terms of acquisition and unlocks (and you were largely just doing the content you want to get it).

8.3 is a whole different kettle of fish because you're constantly pulled in different directions to unlock/obtain different parts. Do I farm for Azerite? Do I farm AP? Do I farm for my essences? Do I farm my cloak? Do I farm echoes for corruptions? etc. If we have more end patches like this then I'll be really dismayed.

[Alcsaar]

Blizzard was always a business and was always in it for profits, don't delude yourself into thinking otherwise. The landscape has changed and they had to change with it.

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Then play something else, people have wanted better questlines at max level for a LONG time.

Where the hell were you when we needed to do the MoP legendary quest line or the wod ring quest line anyway? WoW has always had a few hours of mandatory max level questing.

I didn't play after the first few months of MoP, wonder why. People can have max level questing content with out it being a requirement for returning players to complete it if they don't want to.

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You expect to come back after a long break, and not need to do any catching up to be competitive again? Have you ever played this game before?
Thats just a veeery unrealistic expectation. Why should you be able to compete with players that did play over the last year, and you did not?

You blatantly ignored the contents of my post. I said you used to be able to come back and just grind gear (thus, catching up to be competitive again). You didn't used to be required to do 10-15+ hours of questing, you could grind the gear from pvp or dungeons or whatever.

[Onikaroshi]

I didn't play after the first few months of MoP, wonder why. People can have max level questing content with out it being a requirement for returning players to complete it if they don't want to.

Almost every expansions has required it in recent years.

MoP had the Cloak, WoD had the ring, Legion had the artifact (if you didn't do it you wouldn't unlock important artifact abilities or items like the Nether Crucible), and now BfA has the new cloak. Like I said, if that bothers you too much, play something else, doesn't look like it's changing, since SL will require who knows how much max level questing to unlock things in your covenant.

[Luxeley]

His problems have nothing to do with Azerite armor, get off your roofies.

His problem is purely 8.2 and 8.3 stuff - essences and corruptions, which indeed take time to gather, but are immense power boosts. Azerite armor is just a piece of gear at this point you can get pretty easily, either from pugs or simply buying all heroic pieces in a matter of one week's chest.

Essences and corruptions, on the other hand - you can't get from one shitty HC pug run or buy a full set of those from vendor in capital city almost immediately.

What are you talking about? Essences and corruptions are just as time consuming the same as Azerite Armor if not more. The catch up mechanisms help a little bit, but they are nowhere near what they're cracked up to be. You're still looking at at least 10-14 hours game play just to still be 15-20 ilvls behind everyone else. This isn't opinion, this is fact. If you've been MIA from the game since late last summer like he states, you just buy essences if you didn't unlock lvl 3 and where exactly is he going to buy gear? The AH? Run Pugs? Seriously, Pugs aren't letting into M10, let alone M5 with a 410 i-lvl. It's just not happening.

So essentially you're saying pay Blizzard $200 for tokens and buy gear that's going to be useless in less than 4-5 months? Sounds P2W to me. Do you work for Blizzard cause you sure love defending their extortion practices.

The dude speaks the truth, its a massive time synch for a returning player to catch up.