How do I know what I think until I read what I wrote?

Community General Discussion
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I just wrote a reply in Newcomers to a new player who will have relatively little time to play, and just wants to do solo queued content

Sometimes I play for an hour, sometimes for 6hrs, sometimes I cant launch any game for a week or two

asking :

can someone like me enjoy endgame like its supposed to be enjoyed, or its just not for me?

And my response is discouraging. I think it’s the first time I’ve ever actively advised someone away from the game.

This bothers me. :frowning: When I read it, I do believe all of it, I can’t see any errors, but I feel a disconnect.

Do you think that what I wrote is correct, or have I missed something?

Here’s what I wrote:

I am truly diosappointed to say it, but it’s not for you. At least, not right now. Not for me either, these days, but I’m addicted to logging in and looking at my characters every day before deciding there’s nothing to do and logging out again.

  • Part of the reason is that this is universally agreed to have been a very very bad expansion, which has driven off most players.
  • Part of the reason is that the expansion is effectively over, so activity is even lower than the numbers would suggest.
  • Part of the reason is that Blizzard have come up with the most convoluted systems and bureaucracy ever to get set up through the levels 50-60, and then the Kafkaesque nightmare of all the things you need to unlock and get past at level 60 before you’re really squared away to play. So unless you’re playing pretty consistently you will spend a significant chunk of time just unlocking and playing through pieces like The Maw that aren’t relevant any more.
  • Part of the reason is that solo queue Normal and Heroic dungeons at level 60 are effectively empty now, because everyone has already geared past them, and you can buy better gear than they give quite cheaply - so what’s the point of doing them?

And this upcoming “Season 4” just looks like making things worse. Blizzard usually have a “drought” at the end of each expansion, when everybody has done pretty much all the stuff they want to do, and are just waiting for the next. That drought is normal enough.

However, this time, Blizzard have some idea of a “Season 4”, in which some old dungeons and raids will be re-heated to provide a bit of variety, and gear upgrades will be available, but only for the higher-content people. Folks like you and me still stay stuck in the classic drought while the more serious people who remain do at least have something new-old-ish to chew on.

I really am sorry to disappoint you. I wish I had better news. For myself as much as you.

I do expect things to pick up with the launch of Dragonflight. That will be late in the year. Could be December, could be earlier. If I were you, I’d wait for news of that. Or go make a character on a TBC server now, and look forward to the release of Classic Wrath on Sept 26. Or, as you say, check out some other games meantime.

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You pretty much nailed it. The barrier to entry is high with all the systems, exponentially more so when you add in community gatekeeping.

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Yep. Unfortunately you are right and season 4 is a really bad time to be new at endgame i feel like.

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Thank you both. I feel bad, but if yuou agree with me I know at least I have not divorced reality. :smiley:

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As someone whos just returned tbh i dont think your post is discouraging. Its just a accurate bar to set their expectation.

Ive been away alot this week and only got a days solid play out returning to the game ive had to:

  • spend 45 minutes queued for a necrotic wake for my BiS legendary.

  • complete 3 wings with some difficulty on level 10 to achieve a 265 legendary which cost me 20k gold.

  • join a covenant and start farming the levels through dailies in dead content.

  • got the fight with slyvanus finished and now when i get back to unlock ZM and korthia.

Ive still got 70 covenant levels, unlock second legendary, get covenant korthia and ZM quests done.

Gotta regrind torghast for the pieces to craft tbe second legendary. Then pay another 20-30k gold for the base bit.

Unlock flying.

And this isnt even including any attempt to do fated normal for the cat, participate in m+ for gear. Get 4 set bonus,

With every day i spend out the loop falling behind further making when i grt to the content more and more difficult.

Yes people who stuck through SL now have easy methods to prepare alts fast.

But for a returning player. Theres a shed ton of systems here still that take some grind to get through. And overall that may mean return prior prepatch maybe not a valuable use of time unless ur rly going to go at it.

Now i do have a week coming up, which im completely free on which will likely give me a good leg up on the catch up, and prolly will wait til then before i rly post in how hard i think it is to manage.

But i can say from a current perspective seeing what needs to be done, it alone is discouraging from putting the effort in. I have missed m+ alot though so would like to try if i can make it

However advising someone to wait til prepatch or DF isnt bad advice. Burning yourself out on a small season to potientally detest the game or become uncertain due to the hardships of season 4 is worse then simply waiting.

So i wouldnt say telling a player to wait til prepatch / DF is a negative response, given yoy only get that fresh return feeling once and it longevity wise is more important that is done on a positive kick start, where its more even and they arent behind the curve.

With hindsight if i was gonna returnz i shoulda done it a month prior season 4 itd prolly of yielded better results

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Maybe blizzard is trying to tell you something?

Never take breaks, never miss a day.

Never value any thing else over the game.

They don’t want the concept of “Taking breaks” to be a thing.

Just play play play.

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And this is not a returning player. This is someone who has just got their first flying this week and probably doesn’t know about buying Netherweave Bags yet.

This is a great point I hadn’t even thought of. It makes me feel better. Thank you.

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whats the question i dont get it

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Also there is alot to catch up too but it is seemingly fast now tbh, in regards of season 4 its the players fault who have asked for old dungeons to come back in someway and blizzard saw an oppertunity in it, and geuss what people complain again who figured that out. Atleast its a rlly short season.

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Weird blizzard never said to me play play play and i took 2 months off, i just geared a mage from ilvl 140 to 275 in 2 weeks tbh the game is super easy tbh.

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Well, then maybe you missed the memmo?

Yeah same, getting ilvl is super easy atm.

I have not gotten as high as 275, But i have gotten 4 characters to between 265 - 270 in the last 6-7 weeks.

Kinda sucks that they increase the ilvl now tho.

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Agree - what you wrote feels correct from my perspective - they hopefully will wait for the next expansion and play other games in the meantime.

I will do as you do, log in on the various chars, decide I cba and log off again :flushed:

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Unfortunately all you wrote is true. Bein a new player now isnt the best.

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It is never easy to be honest
But at the end of an expansion? A pain in the :peach:

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I tried to keep an open mind, because people said that Cataclysm, Mists, WoD and Legion were bad expansions back when they were around and I enjoyed all of them. But I really really really dislike Shadowlands. It feels like it was purposely done to be an obnoxious expansion with a dumb plot. Like right now I found out that PvP WQs only show if you are in the zone (obviously with WM on) and it is just like everything was made to be annoying and unpleasant.

I did the ZM campaign, and apparently I now need rep with the ZM faction to further upgrade my legendary. Kafkaesque as you put it.

Just going to play Battlegrounds till the expansion ends.

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mmm in fact pandaria and legion werent bad at all. Legion had just the timegating and alt unfriendliness (for the 1st part). Wod was good but no content after some time. Cata… i dislike it. but some ppl like the raids and some things.
SL is 360° bad.

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It’s hard to accept but you are right. Not sure why they decided to have season 4 leave out such a large chunk of the playerbase either.

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maybe is an experiment to check how much % of playerbase is exactly this chunk

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@Grainne - you summed it up perfectly.
If i was a new player going into all the garbage systems in SL, then i wouldn’t bother with it again and look for another game. On the other hand, if i was a returning player, i would most likely wait until DF goes live after seeing the ridiculous amount of hoops to jump through. And that’s without the community timegating from m+ and raids

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post edited

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