How much time does WoW need/takes...

[Specialistul]

Hello there. I am seasoned WoW player, I played most of the expansions and had my "glory days" in WotlK and WoD, when I heavily raided. So, life moved on, I got a bit older, I am working now in a corporate environment, then there are the usual social activities I take part in and girlfriend. Many times recently I still feel the urge to play WoW. It almost saddens me that I skipped so much in Legion, even if I made a 110 DH, and I have not played BFA at all.
The way I see it the problem is time. If I spend 10 ours working at my office computer, then come home, barely have some time to eat, and then I need to rest my eyes a bit, how can I continue those 10 ours and turn them into what...14-15 hours of computer screen a day.
The thing is I see many people managing it, I'm beginning to chat with them, they joke sometimes that they quit their job and mistreat their wife, but other than that the main answer is that they really enjoy the game, but to play so much, I think you have to take time from other areas of your life, so then you have to choose what is more important, what activities vs a video game.
So all in all this is what I am asking you too, how do you manage it all? How much time do you play? How to juggle all of this.

P.S I keep saying to myself this time I will play casual, I'm just going to be a casual player, but I can't do it, can't feel ok, if I'm not there raiding or doing end game activities.

[owbu]

It depends a bit on your definition of "casual", but you can play the game at a relativly high level with very little time investment.

If you want to do all the content on the highest level available and absolutely need BIS gear for everything, you need at least 2 full evenings of mythic raiding and another one for dailies, islands and mythic plus.

If you are okay with only doing mythic plus and heroic raiding (which gives you nearly all of the best gear in the game and is still reasonably challenging) you can get by with much less. My weekly playtime consists of a 3 hour block of raiding and then maybe 3-4 30 minutes to 1 hour blocks.

[XDurionX]

All of it.

[Twdft]

How to juggle all of this.

If you have to think about how to make time for WoW it's probably best you don't start again. Just leveling to have a bit of fun is no other than playing any other video game which everyone should be able to even with 2 kids. But if you want to some kind of endgame content the real problem is you have to set aside uninterrupted time. The more efficient you are the less you need (3 hours raid, 3x1 hour M+ or so), but the problem is as I said it has to be uninterrupted.

[Azerate]

If you're looking at just doing the current content, some heroic raiding and some ocassional m+, you need like 10 hours per week tops. All the stories about farming AP for 50 hours straight etc. are stories told by people who want to min-max everything.

[Notdev]

Plenty of two night raiding guilds that are deep into mythic.
Add in 1h of AP WQs a day if you are behind in neck level, and maybe another half night to do islands and your weekly M+.

Can easily get cutting edge on 10h/week or even less.

[Throwme]

The way I see it the problem is time. If I spend 10 ours working at my office computer, then come home, barely have some time to eat, and then I need to rest my eyes a bit, how can I continue those 10 ours and turn them into what...14-15 hours of computer screen a day.

I think your main problem is that your worklife is in front of a screen. That makes it so much harder to have your funlife be that too.
One of my friends is highly educated and have a job where he has to sit in front of a screen all day long. We've talked about this so many times over the years, the difference between me and him and our gaming habits. When he comes home, he can't stand looking at the computer, he just wants to relax. He's not physically tired, but mentally. For me, it's the other way around. I don't have a fancy degree, I'm just a lowlife truckdriver. But because I don't stare at the monitor all day long at work, I can, despite being physically tired, easily have 4-5 hours in front of the computer when I come home. We both work more or less the same amount of hours per week, so the only real difference is what we do at work.

So all in all this is what I am asking you too, how do you manage it all? How much time do you play? How to juggle all of this.

I manage it just fine, because in my country, the average workweek is 37-40 hours. Yours appear to be around 50. That makes a difference of 2 hours per day EXTRA to play with and have other social thingies going on. I juggle my stuff by having very little social life outside of weekends. Monday through friday, I eat, sleep, work and entertain myself (no wife or kids or anything, so that's sad). I compensate by being social in the weekends where other people have time for me, or by entertaining myself again. All in all, that leads me to having almost as many hours in front of the screen as my friend per week, mine are just way more fun than his

[Cosmic Janitor]

If I wanted to do it properly,

6h for raiding
3h for m+
10,5h (1,5h x 7 days) for daily shit to stay relevant
-------------------------------------------------------------
~20h

In truth I'm barely managing the 6h for the raid.. because I just don't enjoy much about the game besides the people atm.

[kaminaris]

9h for raids, tho we clear mythic
0.5h for M+
0.5h for islands

~10h weekly. You don't need to anything else to clear mythic. Might even skip islands completely.

There are some occasional surges as getting azerite essence but some of them comes from raids, some from islands, some from M+.

Don't have time? skip it, go for top 1000 guild and skip everything else.

[The Scourge of Azuremyst]

14 hours per day, if you want to get anywhere.

[Specialistul]

thank you all ! I await even more answers! it seems I need 6h for raiding, that sounds ok-ish, good, I need to find however a guild that raids in CET +1h, this has always been a problem living in EET, while everyone was going to sleep at a reasonable time I was always + 1h, and then some other activities. If I finish the leveling I don't care abount anything other than normal/ HC raiding not that into Mythic, HC can satisfy my so called need for endgame. Maybe a test like buying one month of game time will tell me more.

[kaminaris]

thank you all ! I await even more answers! it seems I need 6h for raiding, that sounds ok-ish, good, I need to find however a guild that raids in CET +1h, this has always been a problem living in EET, while everyone was going to sleep at a reasonable time I was always + 1h, and then some other activities. If I finish the leveling I don't care abount anything other than normal/ HC raiding not that into Mythic, HC can satisfy my so called need for endgame. Maybe a test like buying one month of game time will tell me more.

Hmm heroic can be basically pugged. If you aim for that, you might as well need just 4h for raids a week and aim for top 2000+ guilds. And completely ignore everything else if you are tight on schedule, one M+ a week is going to be also good option.

[Shelly]

I'm running into a similar problem, just with the extra fun of having a kid.

Since they are now starting school I'll be trying to shift my main play time to when I'm off - which is monday and tuesday - while they are at school. This is the time when I'll level up alts and such.

For main playtime I raid two nights a week and try to get my three islands done right after the raid, or one or two M+'s. Although I tend not to find M+ all that engaging of gameplay so there are many weeks I skip it entirely.

For my dailies I try to knock those out before work. Having flight definitely makes it easier but it's still very much doable without, just pop in for 30 minutes and you can get a set of emissary quests done and in some cases a full sweep of Nazjatar or Mechagon.

Now here's the important thing to remember, if you skip a day it doesn't matter.

Take your time off, if you're aiming for a goal that takes forever - like let's say "aqua team murder force" recognize that it'll be 90 days to complete it anyway without any of the reputation boosts so don't stress out if 90 turns into 100 or more.

Now if you decide to get into raiding just make sure your SO knows that it's something important to you. Call it a night in with friends or something, if they actually like you they'll understand.

Finally, keep in mind that it's summer. Summer is fucking terrible for MMOs in specific and really gaming in general as an adult. You'll be wanting to do camping trips, weekend trips to the lake, working in the yard, out late for walks after work or just enjoying some warm summer nights. You'll have neighbors over for BBQs and all sorts of just life getting in the way of escapism.

Embrace the real life, winter will be coming on soon enough which will mean you'll spend evenings in more. You can sit back in a blanket with a mug of soup and game while your SO watches movies or reads a book and neither of you should feel guilty.

You can still game and play, but set your priorities and always remember that the only currency you truly have is time so be choosy about how your spend it.

[Specialistul]

Hey guys, sorry for resurrecting this thread.

Yeah it's almost the same if not worse:

- job
- gym
- girlfriend
- motorcycle
- summer incoming

but I am tired of CS:GO and really enjoy fantasy worlds WoW is really relaxing, now I just want the story of BfA and story of Shadownlands with raids on normal............

what do you think?

I could log on whenever I feel like it or have a bit of time..........

A main question: if I log on my level 40 characters will I be introduced to the story of BfA? and if I log in my level 45 character will I be introduced to the story of Shadowlands?

thank you for your kind answers!

P.S I really wanted to play my warlock on alliance but it's an orc now because 3-4 years ago my IRL friends were horde, I guess the horde storyline is just as good...

[Iain]

Since your hiatus the game has only become more accommodating towards your type of playstyle. We now have Chromie-time that allows you to pick which expansion you want to level through. You will be able to play BfA and any other expansion without any trouble. I would recommend it even as that's still the best part an expansion has to offer.

Shadowlands can be experienced at any pace you like as well. There's plenty to do and you can at least taste the end-game content easily through LFR. The Mythic+ seasons are also worth checking out as they're rerunning old dungeons as well now. This gives you a chance to play the Mechagon and such.

Also be sure to check out Exile's Reach on a new character.

Oh and definitely do the allied race quests. All of them. Easily the most fun singleplayer content there is. Don't skip these.


___

So all that said, Blizzard has gotten quite good making the game more interesting for late-comers. There's still a tone more they can do to bulk out the end-game content. But it's the right direction.

[Cæli]

if you have a job sadly I don't think it's reasonable to engage in multiplayer activity; I think the best way to play wow is solo, that way you can eventually catch up all older content, bg and fast arenas are ok

but if you want more you will need to find a way to afford not working, that means having a lot of money. very hard but possible.

[AwkwardSquirtle]

Hey guys, sorry for resurrecting this thread.

Yeah it's almost the same if not worse:

- job
- gym
- girlfriend
- motorcycle
- summer incoming

but I am tired of CS:GO and really enjoy fantasy worlds WoW is really relaxing, now I just want the story of BfA and story of Shadownlands with raids on normal............

what do you think?

I could log on whenever I feel like it or have a bit of time..........

A main question: if I log on my level 40 characters will I be introduced to the story of BfA? and if I log in my level 45 character will I be introduced to the story of Shadowlands?

thank you for your kind answers!

P.S I really wanted to play my warlock on alliance but it's an orc now because 3-4 years ago my IRL friends were horde, I guess the horde storyline is just as good...

If you just want to check out the story, you can absolutely do that at your own pace.

[Specialistul]

Since your hiatus the game has only become more accommodating towards your type of playstyle. We now have Chromie-time that allows you to pick which expansion you want to level through. You will be able to play BfA and any other expansion without any trouble. I would recommend it even as that's still the best part an expansion has to offer.

Shadowlands can be experienced at any pace you like as well. There's plenty to do and you can at least taste the end-game content easily through LFR. The Mythic+ seasons are also worth checking out as they're rerunning old dungeons as well now. This gives you a chance to play the Mechagon and such.

Also be sure to check out Exile's Reach on a new character.

Oh and definitely do the allied race quests. All of them. Easily the most fun singleplayer content there is. Don't skip these.


___

So all that said, Blizzard has gotten quite good making the game more interesting for late-comers. There's still a tone more they can do to bulk out the end-game content. But it's the right direction.

I see, yeah, I was just hanging out with a level 10 shaman in the starting area, for now, but someone very nice answered my question, so if I log on my level 40 characters I can get tides of war from the board on both horde and alliance, then, once I hit 48 I move to shadowlands, well it's a bit extreme to say I think that if you work there is no change to play, because I think so many of us have a job and still play...............and I agree with that answer that the story can be experienced at any pace........................

[Iain]

I see, yeah, I was just hanging out with a level 10 shaman in the starting area, for now, but someone very nice answered my question, so if I log on my level 40 characters I can get tides of war from the board on both horde and alliance, then, once I hit 48 I move to shadowlands, well it's a bit extreme to say I think that if you work there is no change to play, because I think so many of us have a job and still play...............and I agree with that answer that the story can be experienced at any pace........................

Yeah the problem is that you then can't finish BfA before being sent to Shadowlands. So if you want to get to Shadowlands as fast as possible then that's the route.

More fun however, is to start a fresh alt, and Chromie-time the full expansion.

[MoanaLisa]

It depends on your goals, your preferences for play, and a host of other things not least of which is your preference for exploring or if you would rather be efficient. It's different for most people and that's fine. There is no universal correct answer and one will never exist.

I'm more of an explorer type. I play a couple of hours twice a week. I'm not interested in the hamster wheel that is gearing up for M+ or raids. It works for me. I could not care less about keeping up.