For me there seems to be a huge difference in how people are wanting to play. There are those who are totally gear driven. This comes in a variety of forms, and thankfully I've yet to see the most extreme characteristics of what I fear is just around the corner.
I worry that the drive for gear will lead to people refusing to run 'normals' shortly. Now I am not adverse to heroics (although I've not ventured into them greatly). The major gripe I have with heroics isnt the one you hear most regularly "its just too haaaaard" QQ. Sure they are hard. Sure they are a bitch to heal. But thats not it.
What annoys me most is that a heroic takes 2-4 hours to run. Even a normal Grim Batol or Halls of Origination takes around an hour to run.
Now I am back at work I wont play until I've returned from work, wound down, cooked/eaten. If I get onto WOW at 6, do my dailies, scan the AH, check my various toons its going to be 8pm.
Throw a heroic into the mix - its 11pm.
Even if I focus just on Puraa and Sardonica - two normal randoms and two heroics - it would be 3am before I even could consider going to bed.
I'm sorry Blizzard, but if I want to spend 4 hours throwing myself at something I'll raid. And on my schedule. Don't force me to spend every evening doing instances when I want to be doing archaeology or levelling an alt.
No doubt I will receive comments that if its taking me 3 hours to do a heroic I am doing it wrong.But a lot of people are still learning the mechanics of each boss fight so yes it IS taking that long.
I enjoy the heroics. I enjoy the new instances as well. Of course I want to gear up (although this huge rush to gear up amuses me - you just all replaced your 264s/277s with greens within the past month. And now you have to have your pretties NOW NOW NOW. What the hell is the rush? The raids will be there in a month. In 6 months.)
WoW was released in November 2004. BC in January 2007. WotLK in November 2008. Cata in November 2010. You are looking at late 2012 before you see another expansion. Sure there will be new content released over time, but it also wont be long before Blizzard nerf justice points and everyone is wandering around in 359s/377s/
So therefore I will focus on heroics on the weekends and try an enjoy all the other changes that have been introduced over the past month. For example Breevok is now a level 16 worgen. The Gilneas starting zone is phenomenal - everyone should take the time to roll a new worgen and take a look. It'll take you around the same time as a heroic to do.
Archaeology is surprisingly relaxing and somewhat addictive. And it gives you the opportunity to take in the breath taking graphics of Azeroth in all its new glory. Have you taken a look at a Thousand Needles? Or Loch Modan? Or the Badlands? Have you taken a trip down Darkshore and seen all the changes that Deathwings assault caused?
Did you read every quest in in of the new areas? Did you embrace the storyline that's being laid out before you? Or do you just want your epics cos it makes you l33t?
12 comments:
Great read. You have inspired me to hit up Archeology...And no, I haven't read one quest since cata. But I do really like the "minimovies" quests to get the portals. Nice touch Blizzard. Made the same ol' same ol' interesting.
ALTOs Gold"ish" Advice- The Worst WoW Blog Ever!
Well said! I haven't been dragged into heroics yet because I'm still doing the occasional normal & I hate pugging. I hate the gear grind so I've steadfastly refused to do many of the cata normals. When my guildies want to do a guild run, I usually suggest a lowbie run to get a guild achieve :) distracts them nicely, lol
I levelled my 2nd main to 85 using archeology - the xp is pretty good & whilst it is definitely slower than questing or dungeons, it's a lot more relaxed.
I loved this post and could not agree more, I haven't gotten any of my 80's to 85 yet. My Hunter is 83, my Druid is 82 but... they've been at that level for a few weeks. I honestly have no idea when they'll hit 85. I'm in no rush since the content will be here for a while.
You have me curious about archeology too. I think I'll pick it up on my level 35 Paladin. I like exploring and it will give ma a chance to gain some XP along the way. :)
I applaud your stance toward heroics, albeit from the opposite perspective (of wanting to get them to done soley for gear/rep reasons). Anything that keeps the bads from queing and wasting everyone else's time is appreciated. I've got the urge to play my alts, but I can't do it without feeling guilty until my main has the best gear that I can get her short of a boss drop in a raid. Once that's done, I can then safely do the same to another character. Oh how I wish I had the ultramarine batle tank though. I guess it boils down to not having all day every day to devote to Wow, so you've got to triage what's most important to you to get out of the game.
Well, Breevok - I definitely feel the same way, even though I've spent ~30k on gear, and I'm probably on of the best-geared players in my guild.
We have one tank. One. Likewise, we have only one healer who's geared for heroics. One. Which means my rogue not only spends 2-4 hours in a heroic, but he spends 45-75 minutes waiting in a queue beforehand. Ridonculous.
Do you know how many things swim through my head as I wait for a queue to pop? How many times I have to resist the urge to log on another toon for something?
Nice read. I have a similar story thus far.
I have yet to run even a regular instance. My goal was to get my profs up first, toons to 85 so i could see the new content and then begin working on dungeons.
You are right. They aren't going anywhere.
So far I have one 80 who will be ready to hit Abyssal Depths (the only zone I haven't done yet) very soon. After that there will be time for dungeons.
Good post, I definitely agree and ever since returning to normal working hours, I have shelved my warrior from heroics during the weekdays. With pugs taking 3-4 hrs to finish some of the harder heroics, all I have time for is doing one heroic on my main anyway, and I literally pray to finish before 11pm, every run.
It's funny that it takes about 40 minutes to finish out the first boss in Baradin Hold and it takes 3-4 hrs to finish a heroic for the same 70 valor points. Admittedly BH is only once a week.
Clarification: I have one FINAL 80 to push to 85, the others are there now.
Well, the content isn't going anywhere - but we obviously all play for different reasons. If I spent 2 hours scanning and playing the AH I'd probably have more money, but I'd probably kill myself too. I hate dalies, I love my tabards. I don't touch alts until I've done pretty much everything with my main. The only alt I have near 85 is my double gatherer - since he feeds me herbs and ore.
I love that heroics take hours. I remember UBRS and Live/Dead Strat taking forever as well. I love that CC matters, that you can't ignore boss mechanics, all of it. And of course, I love to raid.
I also love only playing three days a week for more than 2 hours, so I'm fortunate to be in a guild where I can get my heroic done almost instantly.
Yes,you're right. I didn't notice it so much when I was holiday but now I'm trying to keep to a working schedule a heroic really does eat your evening. I'm all for heroics being difficult and they're definitely *interesting* but they are exhaustingly lengthy these days, and an endurance test is not a challenge.
I'm probably gonna get flamed for this but my opinion differs completely from breevok's...
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I don't like playing the AH, I do, believe me, I do, but my main goal on my Toon is to get him the best I can. If you pop my toon's armory you'll see that I'm using lot's of BoEs along with raiding/crafted stuff, you'll see that I've ran lots of heroics/raids the past few weeks, you'll see that I've got every cataclysm reputation maxed out along with both his professions, you'll see i'm at revered with my guild, you'll see that I've got all the achievements from heroics and the Glory of the cataclysm hero drake...
HOWEVER if you were able to check my entire account you'd see that my alts are ALL still 80, you'd see that the only professions I touched are my dk's JC and Alchemy (because they support my mage needs and because the profits there were too much and too easy to let go ^^). You'd be able to see I barely touched archeology on my mage, barely experienced the revamped lowbie zones.
I guess it's just a matter of priority and right now my priority is gearing my mage. I MUST run at least one heroic everyday for the valor points.
Am I running my TB dailies everyday? NOPE, I already got the trinket, now I only run them when I feel like doing it. AH Scans? Same thing only when I feel like.
PS.: I'm around 5000/21000 on reputation with my guild, once I get to exalted my alts can MAYBE start getting some love that is, of course, if I feel like it...
Best Regards
@Jabarj: not a flame at all from me; I had to decide whether to take the single toon or multi toon route when Cataclysm came out. I went the opposite way from you. By the end of next week I will have 3 85s with maxed profs and be well down the road on my 4th.
But, no raid gear, no heroics, no time for either.
Neither path is more correct. Each seems to satisify its user the same.
Bravo on the guild rep and other success! Keep it up!
Post a Comment