I’m curious to hear people’s thoughts on this. Back in Vanilla and TBC there was a set linear raid progression where there were no catch-up mechanics so all guilds had to clear each raid before moving onto the next. This is far different to today where each time a new raid is released, it invalidates all the other raids before it.
The question is, which do you prefer? Which do you think had the better system? There are advantages and disadvantages in both systems.
I never played in TBC, I didn’t join until Cata (When it was all removed), and, me personally, I’d really love a Linear raid progression than what it is now. That would make ALL of the raids relevant for a lot of people still, no matter how far through the expansion we are. It would give the sense of accomplishment, and the sense of actually progressing.
Where as, right now, the only reason I feel I’m “progressing” is because last raid (Antorus) I got my AOTC, but I only downed the last boss and the first 3-4 bosses (Think it was 3). Where as, this raid, with my Horde character, I’ve done ALL of the raid on heroic. And so, I’ve progressed there.
But, I’ve seen people who haven’t touched LFR/Normal on Uldir on ANY character and have jumped right into HC. If it were a Linear path (Have to get a full clear of the previous difficulty on at least 1 character before you can move on), this would stop people from joining things they otherwise cannot do.
The biggest downside to ANY of this, is boosters. They’d be an even bigger market than they are now. People would be selling Normal runs as well, selling “Attunements” to each raid tier as well. It’d make the boosting market even bigger, and won’t really solve anything (In my opinion).
This would be something Blizzard would have to carefully consider if they did implement a linear raid progression. Would players be expected to clear all 4 difficulties before moving onto the next raid? If I were in charge of implementing it I would probably expect players to clear heroic, but not mythic.
In fact, what could be really cool is to have mythic raids only open at certain times. Let’s say you had 4 raids active, but only 1 of them had mythic difficulty open at a time. There would be a 3-4 month period where guilds could race to clear that mythic raid before it closed and the next mythic raid would open.
No, I think it’d make more sense of “If you clear it on Normal, you can move on to the next raid of Normal. BUT, you have to go back and clear it on Heroic to move onto Heroic of the next raid”. That’s how I’d implement it anyways.
I think that would be kinda fun. Timed raids to see who is the fastest at clearing them. But, then you’d have a lot of people complain they “never got to do it” and that “It shouldn’t be time-gated”. There’s enough in this game that’s time-gated, this would just annoy people even more.
Granted, I’d never be apart of it. Did my first proper “mythic kill” on Taloc a few weeks ago, died instantly and knew right there that I wasn’t Mythic ready yet xD
What do you mean no catch up in tbc lol ???
Arena gear some bis
Token system via heriocs which had better stats weights then tier 5.
Crafted gear spellfire for fire mage couldnt even be replaced by tier 6 .
Herioc and normal MGT both offered gear better then t4 and was on par with tier 5 .
Did you even play then ?
TBC was the start of welfare epics some of the arena season 2 weapons couldnt even be replaced until deep in SwP.
Ermm, what are you on about?? We’re talking about CATCH UP MECHANICS FOR RAIDS, not gear… Did you even read the post at all??
Edit: Let me clarify, we mean as in once you hit max level, you have to fully clear the first raid of the expansion to move on to the next raid, and then do the same again, and so on and so on. Nowhere did we EVER mention gear…
It’s difficult to say.
I think the oldschool approach was more rewarding if you were willing to put in the effort. Like, if you actually did the grinding and participated in the progression raiding, then it was an awesome MMORPG experience. Quite a hardcore experience, but a satisfying one none the less.
The modern approach with catch-up mechanics and multiple difficulties and what not, it feels less rewarding unless you’re playing at the bleeding edge with Mythic raiding and such, because you know the next tier will let you access easy gear upgrades regardless of whether you mastered the current tier or not (and those gear upgrades will subsequently let you zerg through the old tier).
On the flip side, then it’s far more approachable for normal people who don’t devote every second of their lives to WoW. I’ve taken long breaks in the past 3 expansions, and it has felt nice to be able to get back into the game without being forever behind everyone else.
So it’s hard to say. I liked the oldschool approach, but I think it belongs in the past. I like that today you can play WoW on and off in a relaxed manner without falling hopelessly behind. The game no longer punishes you for having a life 
I didn’t raid during TBC but I believe it involved various attunements. Even heroic dungeons required a rep grind ![:slight_smile:](https://d1bg94bbsh66ji.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/slight_smile.png?v=6" ":slight_smile:")
Oh yeah…
/www.imgur.com/gallery/ppyMF
It was glorious in all its Madden madness! 
Except in TBC after raiders complained they removed attunements so the OP is false in regards to TBC onwards.
Guilds complained they where fed up of being stepping stones .
Ive no idea why you feel the need to be picky and yet again start with the im right your wrong attitude.
Last time they tried it when you had to clear HoF in MoP before entering ToES there was uproar.
Regardless of how it happened, there was still a pretty linear progression (from what I remember anyway) for raiding in TBC, and even right at the end of the expansion there were guilds progressing through Kara. That said, now that you mention it I remember the complaints about guilds being “stepping stones” as you call it, and it was a problem back then.
Except for the fact that it was still apart of TBC, even if it was later removed in the same expansion, it still started with it. So, it was still a “TBC” thing.
And, not to mention, in the post you put before, your WHOLE post was about GEAR, which is what we weren’t talking about. So, in that sense, I was right. We never once spoke about gear, we spoke about the attunements of raids.
I don’t know how you could come into a forum post, talk about something completely opposite to what we are discussing, and because someone pointed that it, you say they are doing the “I’m right and you’re wrong” attitude. It’s just moronic…
Yet again with the childish insults.
Catch up mechanics have always inculded gear as part of it that what catch up is all about .
After the start of Tbc and the massive whines about doing attunes for each char they backed down and removed them but left the questlines in .
Kara and ZA where even pugged for emblems .
Gruul and Maggy where being pugged and people only went to TK/SSC for trash farms IE recipes mats and Boes.
Well i like linear progression on a personal level. It’s rewarding for players who wants to put in the effort and go trought a tier by tier system. However back in the day when i used to be a guild master this also were prone to alot of issues.
In vanilla it was really hard to recruit people acctually ready for Naxxramas, so when we had a fallout and needed to recruit fresh people we suddenly had to start raiding old content. We sort of refused to try steal players from other guilds since it could cause alot of bad blood in the old classic wow community. That’s how long the bridge were between fresh players and end game guilds back then. Even great players could simply get stuck in the progression ladder and have a hard time to recover.
By having the catch up systems and titanforge system of the later expansions(the none linear progression), this gear gap can be closed easier. It makes it way easier for players to participate across the board, easier to recruit players with enought gear etc. Raiding previous tiers are also not about that one and only imbalanced/overpowered trinket anymore, everyone can gain something with a bit of luck. The problems however are that it cause “gear inflation” and players without the skill requirement will still see the same issues as before while at the same time cause issues mostly for pugs.
So all in all I’d say that the current systems are far better. People who lack skill won’t raid high end content or do high end keystones. However people who have skill won’t necessarly be doomed because they are a tier behind(because of any reason).
Yet again with the “I’m right you’re wrong” attitude with you. It’s amazing how hypocritical you are. You’ve called me “Passive Aggressive” and told me I have an “I’m right you’re wrong attitude”, but those are not childish, correct?
So, before the attunements were removed (Since we’re supposed to be talking about BEFORE they were removed), did gear allow you to bypass the Attunements? Did you getting gear give you catch-up mechanics to get to the next raid? Or did you still have to do the attunements?
When it comes to either the “Linear path of attunements” or the “way the raids work now”, GEAR has nothing to do with it. At all. And thinking it does just shows you’re not really paying too much attention to the topic itself. You’re just here for arguments sake, and nothing more…
pretty much this.
I like the old times because they felt more rewarding, people who’d put effort would be rewarded more, and you actually had to play game to experience parts of it.
sadly I doubt it would work nowadays tho, because people want EVERYTHING and they want it NOW.
I think going back to old times would be a really good for people who play wow, and by playing I mean actually playing, not logging in 1 hour a week.
but rest of the playerbase who wants things done for them, would dislike the change.
Where does it mention in the OP at all about attunements please quote it for me .
You calling me moronic is childish nothing else to say about that.
Oni and Naxx had huge questlines which made alot of guilds suffer through artifacl blocks .
Mc was easy to get artuned for but even in Classic you could skip tier one if needed and you had gear via other means and attune for BWL ans jump right into tier 2.
Granted, this isn’t about Attunements, more about progressing from 1 raid to the next by clearing each raid before moving on. So, please, quote the OP where it says anything about gear. You’ve come into this “discussion” and started typing about something that had NOTHING to do with what the OP was talking about lmao.
I said you coming in, talking about something OFF-TOPIC of this post, being called out for it and so you start calling people is you being moronic. Because, simply put, it is. It’s stupid to join into a discussion and start talking about something completely off-topic.
But, if “moronic” is too much of a no-no word for you, then I don’t know how you survive on the internet OR WoW lmao.
As for raids being made invald far from true during legion there was always legos to chase or that TF proc or to go for the 2 x tier and 4 x tier .
As for my views on linear progressuon in classic whilst rewarding was a ballache whilst trying to get players atruned for naxx.
Go read up what catch up mechanics for the general playerbase means please then come back.
As for your snipes and childish quips about sensitive souls and such shows what type of person you are.