I played from Beta and stopped when i hit level 60. Came back to WoW a year ago and obviously there was a lot of content to catch up on. For the most part I have been really enjoying it all. But there is one thing that has been constantly annoying me…
Phasing…
It just seems like a really lazy way to introduce some new content without having to spend the time making a new area. I was already getting fed up finding out after wasting my time in some areas that I had to speak to an NPC to go back in time to see a particular NPC or quest item from an older phase/expac.
What really bugged me and prompted this post was the fact that I was casually fishing in Nazjatar and saw someone asking for help for a rare mob. I said I could help and got an invite. Got to the area where they were and couldn’t see them at all. Asked what war mode they were in just to make sure (yes I know if I saw their chat we should be in the same WM) and we were both WM ON. Assumed it was because there was a WQ in the same area that I had not completed. I completed the WQ and still could not see them. By the time I left the party and asked for a re-invite they had completed their quest.
So the whole idea of this genre of game is a Mutli-Multiplayer-orpg so why are you putting mechanisms in place that stop this happening ?
You are a multi-million dollar profit making business so there is no excuse for you to rehash old areas for new content or overlay WQ’s which interfere with other content.
I really hope that Shadowlands does not have any of this introduced because in my opinion it is inexcusable. If you keep doing this it will probably be the reason that I unsubscribe and maybe there are other people that feel the same way.
Phasing can be good when used for its original purpose I. E. environment changes as a storyline progresses (look at gilneas kezan/lost Isles for instance), but yes such a technology is of course annoying when used as an excuse for lazy design.
To be fair, as this is Nazjatar it’s possible you weren’t able to see your party mate because of different elevation. Nazjatar is more vertical than horizontal, and just because you appear on the same spot on the map, that doesn’t really mean much. I remember hunting a rare and I was stepping exactly on the star, and I was underwater. There was no caves, no nothing around. Turns out, I had to go around, find a cave that is in a totally different place, run around the cave and that’s where the rare was.
I’m not sure the design is lazy, so much as wrongheaded. Instanced areas, like Gilneas / Kezan / Molten Front, can be justified well enough. Phasing for a single quest or short chain is fine. Central Jade Forest around Yu’lon’s statue, and the greening of Mount Hyjal, come to mind as non-instanced areas where there is a big cost, but also a big payoff, so arguably justified.
Everywhere else I see phasing I get the sense that somebody in there jumped up and down a lot and said “I have a GREAT idea! Can I please please pleeeeeze!!!” until they let him, just to shut him up.
Had during a TBC TW dungeon run last week, a Zandalari Druid asking my BE DH a pair of pants that were a good upgrade for him.
Unfortunately he clicked on the mage portal, when he wanted to click on my character.
We came out while still grouped, I asked him to come to Ogrimmar and I couldn’t see him.
Asked to take off WM two times but still couldn’t see him.
So basically we were in different layers.
We had to go back to Magister’s Terrace again and trade.
AFAIK WQ’s don’t affect phasing and from what I’ve seen that Naga Zone isn’t phased (except maybe for the intro quests).
Personally I dislike pgasing, at least in the later zones you have an option to ‘phase back’ to the original zone but in the early phased zones (Ashenvale and Borean Taundra for example) you have no option, so if you want to help someone that isn’t on the same phase as you you’re SOL I’m afraid.