The War Within, a returning player's perspective

Community General Discussion
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As a returning player, I am admiring the latest content The Undermine aesthetically and thematically it’s really fun. And so far the only fun content within the War Within.

Visually, the arts department at Blizzard HQ did an amazing job. Visually appealing models, textures and design. The story telling however, it really needs all the help it can get.

My eyes rolled so far backwards in to their sockets when Jaina Proudmoore said “such chaos and destruction” after we landed at the siege of Dornogal. I mean, Jaina Proudmoore is a character who witnessed the culling of Stratholme, the fall of her beloved Arthas, the destruction of her own people at Theramore, the Sundering of Azeroth, two legion invasions she even went to the after life and back.

But some overgrown arachnids causing some small scale collateral damage in Dornagol is what made her sad. At this point she should be unsensitized by all what she has witnessed. The line made no sense and felt like forced empathy and there are many similar cases where the writing is as equally poor.

But what’s good?

Well the leveling experience has improved since last I played, instead of lowering player damage and making npcs damage sponges it feels more balanced than forcibly slow instead of challenging. It’s still not challenging and extremely easy but at least it’s no longer as time consuming as before. Leveling is no longer a fun experience but a chore and speeding it up helps. Pvp, I have enjoyed quite a lot of Pvp lately, something I hardly touched before! I am posting this as my hunter but I am actually playing a arms warrior at the moment which for whatever reason I cannot select as the forum character.

Despite there being many imbalances in pvp and noticeably a lot of premade in both World pvp and regular battle grounds. I am still enjoying it. But what about pve?

I don’t know, just like before World of Warcraft is still a single player game with multiplayer options and a monthly subscription fee. I revisited Wow 2 months after season 2’s release. Which of course means I am not eligible by community standards to participate in any raiding and or mythic plus unless I swipe my card for gold and buy boosts to gear up my character. The same goes for any rated pvp content requiring a pre-made group (Arena duo’s, RBG etc).

Is this a game problem? No, it’s a community created issue that has been plaguing World of warcraft for several years now and probably will never fade. Now people will argue saying things like: “but I have a guild and a lot of social fun experiences, so you are wrong!” And that’s great and good for you! you’re part of a exclusive group that won’t invite new players as they don’t meet the 50% above the minimum requirements (stats) for the content you’re aiming to clear as players aren’t friends and people to have fun with but assets to use for your personal character progression. You and your guild mates expandable but only anyone of equal or greater value can replace you. Little Timmy a first time Wow player, who just bought the game last month hit level 80 2 weeks ago and still is only item level 620 because he can’t get into raid groups or mythic dungeon runs because the community won’t let him, will not be able to.

So for Timmy and many other players joining the game half way through it’s a lost cause and purely a single player experience with a monthly subscription fee. A fee they won’t maintain as let’s be honest if we want to play a single player game, there hundreds of better options with even higher replay value than World of Warcraft.

Now, I also took a look at Classic Wow and it’s just as sad as I left it.
The “no, don’t introduce LFD, it will ruin the social aspect” players are still spamming global chats for character boosts instead of experiencing the game from a social perspective. Which is hilariously ironic! And regarding Season of discovery… well let’s not disturb the dead.

All and all, the War Within is a mid expansion with ups and downs.
Unfortunately, I won’t see it through as I am not willing to spend a monthly fee on a single player game and will head back to Eso and Swtor smaller games, but with more socially skilled communities.

Oh and before I go…

I know there is already some one angerly writing a comment create your own PUG!

Yeah, here’s the PUG experience.

Toxicity to the max. If I want to be insulted and told to romantically engage with my mom I’ll just play call of duty.

“But what about delves!” like I said, if I want to play by myself I know a ton of better single player games I could play.

So for those that do get to actively raid and participate mythic+ enjoy while you can and never content skip or you’re out until the next expansion drop.

Have fun playing!

5 Likes
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There is plenty of catch up gear

visions
m+
delves
LFR
dungeons
crafted
event in open world

no need for boosts or swiping a card

also there are so many communities for all types of game play and guilds you just have to look them up.
Iroinic guild name to be honest.

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When was the last time you actually pugged? Because I have not seen insults this expansion, as almost nobody is typing something other than “hi” in pugs.

Sure, Blizzard could also just disable the chat fully, so verbal toxicity goes from very rare to non-existent, but you know… that’s not worth it. I’d honestly prefer toxicity over people barely typing anything.

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You clearly didn’t read the full post.

M+ requires you to have 50% above the minimum requirement of stats.
Also the majority of players are playing keys above 9 a fresh player can’t participate.

Visions single player content and has a limited item level drop that won’t allow you to catch up to heroic requirements by the community.
Delves, also item levels too low to match community expectations.
Crafted, by the time a player has grinded their skill and efficiency and gold to match the current community expectations the new season would have dropped and they’re back to square one.
World quests also provide gear below community expectations.

Yes, statistically all these sources are well suited to do any pve content.

The majority of the community is underperforming mechanics and in order to compensate they overdemand minimum requirements by at least 30% more.

Meaning catch-up gear won’t suffice.

The game is not the issue here, the community is. :slight_smile:

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Lie next

lots of communities out there that will help

lies again as it drops heroic item level and can be upgraded

its obvious you are just making up BS now and its awful to see you tell so much of it

events not quests pls read

yeah …

lets leave it there as you are talking rubbish

not its a you problem

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I agree low-level mythics are a huge problem, they are barely there. And well Blizz thought this crest system is better because then the low level mythics can just die in the latter half of the season because noone from the super active players has to do them.

I think overall it is a huge loss for the game, but you know, if you ask those individuals it benefits, they are telling you it is great.

Liked your posts for refusing to swipe your card btw.

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Last week M+ a healer constantly on 88-95% mana managed to let the tank die twice in the first 5 minutes and asking if everything was alright was met with toxicity insults and the healer rage quitting. But glad to hear your experience differs.

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They are, but groups are farming 7is for crest always and willing to take anyone, the OP is just generalizing the whole player base which is a blatant lie.

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Yeah the community is not a problem, just he had many bad apples in a row and it scared him off probably to never want an apple again.

It happens and I believe him.

Question is, how to get to the +7s

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It’s easy. You just level score for every dungeon separately step by step, then you usually also hardcarry groups, because you’ll play really well, and you get invited faster.

For example, if you did a +6 theater, don’t jump from a +0 floodgate to a +6. First do the +2, then the +4, then the +6, regardless of your highest completed dung. That’ll make the climbing experience very smooth.

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I see you lack the rationalism and maturity to reply reasonably like an adult.
You are replying from pure blind fanboism and this will be my last reply to your tantrum.

Here are a few facts:

Raids consist out of 3 difficulty levels.

Normal, Heroic & Mythic.

Dungeons exist out of 4 difficulty levels.

Normal, heroic, Mythic & Mythic+.

Normal dungeon gear is intended to gear up your character to be eligible for heroic dungeon runs.

Heroic dungeon gear is designed to make your character eligible for normal raid runs and mythic dungeon runs.

Mythic dungeons are designed as an extra level of challenge with a small increased reward compared to heroic. Giving those who cleared mythic an edge in normal raid runs.

Mythic+ is a unique mechanic designed for challenging content and not a gearing mechanism as a pre-requisite for raiding.

Normal raids are designed for the player to experience the main narrative of the expansion. The gear dropped attunes players to the heroic version of the raid.

Heroic, is a slightly more challing version of the main narrative raid and the gear dropped attunes the player for mythic challenges.

Mythic raiding, the ultimate level of raiding testing the player’s ability to execute pre-scripted events alerted to them via scripts and on screen pop-ups and audio alerts ahead of time flawlessly and with greater rewards.

This is how blizzar designed it and intended it.

Now here’s the community’s expectation:

If I want to join a heroic raid group, I must be on the exact same item level or above in order to be selected for a PUG. So I have to be item level, I am actually trying to get.

See it like this maybe this will make it easier for you to understand.

It’s like wanting to take driving lessons so you can eventually take an exam and get your drivers license. But your driving instructor won’t give you driving lessons until you get a drivers license first, but I can’t get one because I need driving lessons first.

See where I am getting at?

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Punyelf has linked many communities time and time again in the forum that welcome new and returning players .

you say this when the OP said this

so whish is which ?

There are many groups/guilds out there that will help they just need to do a lil effort to find one.

this ^^^ and thats coming from a person until recently hated the idea of pugging and m+

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4 lfr/norm/hc/m

solo/normal/hc/m0/m+

nothing hard about it , 10s were cleared day 1 of the season.

No that is not true at all far from it.

If you can not take being debated then dont make a whiney thread when the answers are out there.

If you like i can even link some posts to u to guilds and comminities that can help

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You’re not debating you’re sharing opinions and not facts.
You’re incapable of seeing a well argumented point and bash it with your personal feelings and emotions because wow is your everything and any criticism to it it criticism to you which is a unhealthy approach and way of life.

But like I said, enjoy the game.

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Calling people fanbois is not debating either and is very immature just saying.

nothing you say is true , your view is very narrowminded to say the whole player base is toxic and elitish.

list of very helpful people stop expecting to be fed a silver spoon.

You know nothing about me and you come across as very toxic and arrogant and refuse to listen to anyone that does not agree with you.

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That’s been my disagreement with Blizzard and Ion Hazzikostas for years now, that the game direction they’ve chosen is not playing to WoW’s strengths.

WoW is an MMORPG, so it should lean into that by having more activities that encourage people to play together and connect and form social bonds.
Easy, accessible, large-scale group content and shared community efforts is the kind of gameplay that WoW can do better than any other game out there, so it should double down on it. But Blizzard don’t.

Chasing eSport and break-neck difficult content is madness, as that by definition becomes an exclusive game experience for the few and the skilled who won’t play with anyone else.

Chasing solo and single-player activities in an effort to keep up with all the modern ARPGs and Blizzard’s own Diablo IV is a futile effort. That’s a losing battle. WoW does not have the visceral combat, the modern graphics, the fast-paced gameplay, or the reward system to match its peers. Even if WoW does copy every type of gameplay content found in these other games, it’s still the poorer option by comparison.

I will never ever in a million years understand why Blizzard have chosen to chase all these gaming fads. Seasons in an MMORPG makes no sense. And you got battle royale with Plunderstorm, Greater Rifts with Myhtic+ and Delves, Rougelike with Torghast, and now Housing, and other things. It’s like Blizzard have spent the past many years just throwing stuff at the wall and hoping something sticks whilst madly waving their arms around proclaiming that they got the latest gaming trend in WoW as well, so come play WoW!!

All that WoW has to show for itself these days, is that it’s not an MMORPG anymore in terms of the game experience, and all these other game modes Blizzard have added, they don’t really have a lot of longevity to them. And they don’t seem very popular outside of the indoctrinated veteran playerbase that indulges in it like rats in a skinner box.

It’s a game direction driven by a need to satisfy short-term financial targets, not long-term health of the game. And it does not age the game in a very pretty way.

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I think having so many difficulty levels in wow is a problem. Of course it leads to better individual difficulty, but in a MMORPG it also divides people into too many segments of skill-levels

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I like to point out that m+ has lasted 5 expac’s so far and to be fair people of all skill levels can use it but with your other points i can mostly agree.

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Sure, M+ as a name for dungeons with timers, but the systems in M+ have massively and wildly changed from its original release

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Yeah I don’t get it either. Or, I do, but it’s for all the wrong reasons.
Again, an MMORPG is all about the shared adventure and the overcoming of a shared challenge. It’s bonkers how Blizzard have gone from something like the opening of Ahn’Qiraj to something like Story Mode. Like, how is the latter even derived from the former?!

And has WoW managed to grow its audience in the last 5 years?

No.

So Mythic+ just runs on the same veteran players that everything else in the game runs on.

And that’s pretty poor, because for all intents and purposes, then Blizzard’s offering of Mythic+ Dungeons and Delves is direct competition to all the ARPGs out there with their fancy dungeons. So if Blizzard’s offering was any good, some of all those ARPG players who are screwing around in Diablo IV and Path of Exile and Lost Ark and Last Epoch, they should feel drawn to WoW.

But they’re not.

So Mythic+ is compelling to WoW players because it’s rewarding and relatively accessible. But for people who aren’t WoW players it seems to be pretty uninteresting. There are other games that have better alternatives.

1 Like