WoW feels emptier than ever

Community General Discussion
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I’ve never been one of those dooms-dayer type of people standing on the corner with a sign reading “The end is near!”, so that’s not what this thread is about.

There’s been a lot of that over the years as an attitude towards WoW; when it will die, is it dead, it will die soon and yet WoW is still here today in 2024. I’ve never really payed much attention to what others have said about WoW either but how I’ve enjoyed it myself and what I experience in game.

Recently though, I’ve been really feeling the drift of players away from the game as a casual player. The world seems really empty at times. Queue times for Bg’s are taking 30 mins. Queues for Arena are taking the same amount of time. I mean, for me to do the most basic things I like to do I have to wait 20 to 30 mins to do it, with nothing else to do in game or that I really want to do, especially if I’ve done mostly what is to be done.

Ironically, I feel like WoW is better than it’s ever been, in terms of class balance, fun-factor, diversity, alt-gearing, not having “daily chores” and finally after years and years of neglect they implemented solo-queue for Arena. Now, I can finally PvP without having to rely on the try-hard player-base of the game deciding whether the class I want to play is meta enough or not. I’m done with raiding/mythic for that reason and everything that isn’t queueable, plus I don’t find being good at WoW a flex, I just mostly want to enjoy my experience.

I want to be able to launch WoW, wait maybe 5 or 10 mins at most, if not immediately have access to the content I want, have fun until I have enough then go on with my day. I think that’s where we are in 2024 but WoW is falling behind. This waiting around and not really having content like Torghast, or interesting content I can do solo while I wait and challenge myself as an individual player isn’t really worth the time.

Although WoW is the best it’s been in many regards, maybe not in terms of game-content, but getting to actually play is taking too long. I think for that reason I’m considering taking a break from WoW until the expansion and try to find a game with a more active community and less downtime in between playing.

Anyone else going through the same thing?

6 Likes
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Nah u are panicking tbh. Wow is not empty i mean. Ofc bg will take more time if u are dps. Same with m+ or lfr.

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If you suggesting a random/epic BG pops faster for a healer you are mistaken. It takes the same amount of time for a healer as for a dps. This misconception is the reason you getting subpar healers in R/EBG’s is because they change spec they have no clue about thinking it gets them there faster.

BG maps are stale but you may see an insurgent after reset as CP will be uncapped.

NM and HC dungeons will take longer with the intro of AI as this is new and players are exploring it.

M+ low keys are not in demand and here is where being a dps may be the reason it takes longer for you to find the group for higher keys.

There are mixed feelings over this. Some feel the quality is lacking and some seem to be happy with it. For me judging the low attendance of players in our guild after 3 weeks of a patch suggests nobody is really satisfied with the content. There is not enough to log in other than raid nights or m+.

I for one have never been more bored and dissatisfied with an expansion in the 15 years I have been playing. This has led me to hold off purchasing the TWW and I won’t be setting myself up for more disappointment.

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Do you mean, like, in low-level BGs and late of night? When do you queue? I’ve never experienced this at 70, and I did quite a lot of BGs in the past month, finishing my hundred victories in all non-epics, consistently playing both factions with mercenary. Early in the morning, deep in the night, mid-day, mid-evening, anytime – and I’ve never had the queue lasting even remotely that long.

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maximum time that i had to wait was max 10 minutes .it has not ever exceeded that for bg or arena

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Yes i am agree with you. its totally boring for now

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It will be until the pre-patch for the next expansion. Is always like this.

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But the problem also is, that you are praising them for finally implementing solo-que (which is a rated game mode), yet expecting it to have que times as if its not…

If you don’t care about your rating, the comp, try hards etc. you can just que shuffle, which in my experience is a few minutes… But you of course want to play with players similar to your own CR

1 Like
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which ones? BG normal is around 3 mins both factions and heroic 5 mins. Always (ok except maybe during late night)

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I noticed when nothing sells in the AH… I know not much activity now but kinda deserted compared to other xpacs

2 Likes
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I’m afraid I don’t PvP so I really can’t comment on any activity there. PvE is still thriving, I see plenty of players out in the open world and in M+ and Raids. I’m still playing daily myself. Every season there will come a point where some are done with their goals and will come back for the next season or if they feel there is something new to do.

We do get regular topics about the awful queue time for Solo Queue. Not tried that either myself. I do have a guildie grinding honor levels atm for an artifact recolour, he’s always in a BG.

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Ive noticed a ton more layering the last few months, my server population is listed as “high” but in the open world and even in major cities most of the poeple around are from other servers.

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Noticed that WoW has become empty as well with almost nobody in zones and Orgrimmar and Stormwind quite empty.

However the cause for this is likely the annual period in the expansion stage where content is being stretched out, and when there is no more content updates until the next expansion. This is when many people take the opportunity to take a break, likely because they don’t see much point in playing until the next expansion is released.

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I play about 8 different chars, some more of less, but one of them is a healer.

This morning was 40 mins. Right now, as I post this, 15 mins so far. Peak hours around 10 mins at least.

That’s impressive. That would be reasonable for me. Maybe your realm group has a better population.

Solo-queue is one of my best features they’ve implemented in a long time for casual PvPer’s, but they did it about 2 to 3 expansions too late, many people have long quit already.

It’s also really punishing for healers. Can’t play without addons because the game UI isn’t up to date and issues like that, which contribute to the queue times. The feature itself I think has been very positive.

Might be related to server pop to some degree then. I hardly see people out and about, which is nice, because having Warmode enabled nobody really bothers you, it’s like playing solo for the most part, but when you want to do anything that requires other players, like the WQ elites, it’s rare, even in the Emerald dream. If I want to do that elite there I better do it on the day of the reset.

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The game isnt dead its still getting content.

The problem is the content it gets isnt noteworthy enough to make headlines and generate new interest.

Like the new expansion is a fan service bringing back old leads etc.

But it will do little to make new players, just appease the existing ones.

1 Like
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What shall we use
To fill the empty spaces
Where we used to talk?
How shall I fill
The final places?
How should I complete the wall

3 Likes
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I’ve always found WM on to be the lesser populated of the shards. Even on busy realms you are having to be sharded with players from several realms to even attempt to get the numbers.

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WoW still got plenty of active players at any given time even tho its not nearly as much as it used to be.

I never had much trouble with pvp queue times tho. Maybe should try queueing as the other faction or are random bgs now also standard cross faction?

But yeah out in the world its entirely empthy. And this is all because of sharding. The sharding is so absolutely badly done you rarely ever will encounter another player unless you actively go into LFG and find a raid group for some event like the soup one.

I always liked the world more when we were bound to our server pvp, or pve and we didnt have like a million different shards wich hides all other people

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One thing that contributes to that is that for most people, season 3 is over, and season 4 is going to be reheated old content, so i’m sure a bunch of people stopped their subs until the TWW pre-patch…

But that’s how every expansion until now has gone, the last part of it is slower and a bit less busy than the rest of it.

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I think BG queues are a poor indicator for how active the game is. I feel that BG participation is directly tied to how attractive the rewards are and how “balanced” PvP currently is. There haven’t been new BGs in a while, so they generally feel pretty stale by now.

Arena … well, I tried to love arena, but I never succeeded. It’s always been a highly frustrating and infuriating experience for me. The amount of CC, pillar humping, etc never made arenas enjoyable for me. When I did arena in the distant past, it was solely for gear that could be used in PvE. In TBC, for example, arena was a viable source of PvE gear. But unless there is a massively juicy carrot that provides a real benefit, it’s not something I’d do (and I’m glad it’s as optional as it is now).

There are some metrics like M+ participation / keys run per week, that imply that activity levels are stable or have even increased compared to previous seasons.

I do think taking breaks is fine. There are a lot of great games out there and I think playing the same one for years, day by day, is a poor use of recreation time, even though it’s very economical. Whenever I play WoW, I hardly ever buy other games or recreational stuff.

I used to stay subbed for years and play every day (and eventually deleted my account because that was the only way I could break the habit and FOMO at the time), and it wasn’t good for me. I now approach the game more like a seasonal game, much like Diablo 4 that I play hard for a few weeks each season, then stop and come back when there’s new content.