Expansion worth coming back for?

[Nightshade]

What do you guys think about the latest expansion?  I retired from WoW after the 2nd one, is it worth a try?

[Ratman_tf]

What do you guys think about the latest expansion?  I retired from WoW after the 2nd one, is it worth a try?

Depends on why you cancelled. I'm playing and having fun, so IMO it's worth a try.

[Nightshade]

What do you guys think about the latest expansion?  I retired from WoW after the 2nd one, is it worth a try?

Depends on why you cancelled. I'm playing and having fun, so IMO it's worth a try.

Raid guild basically drove my fun for the game into the ground.  That and I found it to be quite time consuming.

[Ratman_tf]

What do you guys think about the latest expansion?  I retired from WoW after the 2nd one, is it worth a try?

Depends on why you cancelled. I'm playing and having fun, so IMO it's worth a try.

Raid guild basically drove my fun for the game into the ground.  That and I found it to be quite time consuming.

Uhnf. Well, my focus in WoW has been on raiding since last summer. There's always stuff to do, and Wrath is like.. BC with vikings and icebergs. There's been a few tweaks and it's easier than ever to "raid casual", but it's still a time investment.

So I dunno! 

[Nightshade]

What do you guys think about the latest expansion?  I retired from WoW after the 2nd one, is it worth a try?

Depends on why you cancelled. I'm playing and having fun, so IMO it's worth a try.

Raid guild basically drove my fun for the game into the ground.  That and I found it to be quite time consuming.

Uhnf. Well, my focus in WoW has been on raiding since last summer. There's always stuff to do, and Wrath is like.. BC with vikings and icebergs. There's been a few tweaks and it's easier than ever to "raid casual", but it's still a time investment.

So I dunno! 

Guess I'll try out the trial version just to see what its like, although all of the new parts are in end game...   I guess gaming in general is a time investment! 

[pants]

Guess I'll try out the trial version just to see what its like, although all of the new parts are in end game...   I guess gaming in general is a time investment! 

I think it is a good bit better than BC.  The overall 'feel' of Northrend is more well-put together (YMMV).  Fighting the scourge and Arthas feels more like 'real' warcraft to a WC3 player like myself.  Phasing is really cool, and they've done it really well - expect a lot more phasing in the future.

Re: raiding - changing so all raids can be done in 10 mans to me reduces a lot of the bullshit that comes along with raiding.  Naxx is a lot easier to raid than Kara was when BC first came out - which reduces a lot of the stress etc.

Re: Time consuming - depends on what ate up your time.  Most 5-man instances can be done in under an hour now - one (Azjol-Nerub) can be done in 20 mins if you don't wipe.  Naxx I'd imagine could be cleared in 1-2 nights (havent been on a full Naxx clear yet - our guild is working through it).

Of course, its still WoW.  If you hated WoW, this aint gonna change it.  But if you generally liked it, but quit for 1-2 reasons - I'd say give it a go.  Its pretty good.

[Selby]

I think it is a good bit better than BC.  The overall 'feel' of Northrend is more well-put together (YMMV).

I agree.  I didn't care for TBC much at all.  I got into a few zones, but for the most part wasn't happy with it (Netherstorm and Hellfire Peninsula really irked me).

Of course, its still WoW.  If you hated WoW, this aint gonna change it.

Probably the most accurate.  If you hated leveling, questing, grouping for instances, or raiding, not much has really changed.  There are some cool new features and quests, but you still have to get through most of the older content (up to 70+) to see it and if you absolutely hated it, it really won't be worth your time to do so.

[Paelos]

TBC sucked. Tanking was stupid, class balance was king, and raiding was more about setup and banging your head against a wall long enough to win. WoTLK eased tanking back to being fun, DPS were buffed and changed to being interchangable regardless of class, and raid encounters are doable with groups that can semi-PUG it in 25 mans. It's essentially fun for the masses instead of fun for the uber-guilds so far. I fully expect them to fuck that up with the next patch though, and make Ulduar a gigantic cockblock.

[Tale]

I bought the expansion when it came out, for the sake of playing alongside a workmate and came back for a day and a night (after being almost entirely away since 2007). Initially I meant to play more, but it never happened. Cancelled and haven't played since. Nothing about it sucked, but it was just more WoW and I'm over it. I didn't want to put the time in. I was intrigued, but I wasn't prepared to let it take over my spare time, which is what's needed.

Just posting because you'd be best to ask ex-players who have returned, whether they stayed or not, rather than people who were already playing.

[Ironwood]

No.

[Tarami]

I tried going back, but really, nothing new to see. If you've burned out on it once, you see through the novelty far too fast.

Northrend is alot more convincing than Outlands ever were, though.

Edit: Schpelling-belling.

[Montague]

I'm enjoying myself, and I was kind of on the fence whether to get the xpac or not. The accessibility curve to endgame content has been smoothed out, and if you get some gear from level 80 dungeons/heroics and quest blues you can step into 10 man raids no problem. It doesn't require catassing of any form, really.

The pluses:

Better storyline. The Lich King is involved in a lot of quests and there is some cool lore if you stop to read it.
Better rep system. The tabard system means you dont have to run the same dungeons over and over to get X reputation.
Better raiding for casuals.

The minuses:

Blizzard is in love with their goddamned vehicle system. If I see another quest where I have to ride something and spam buttons I'm gonna fucking scream.
PVP is borked. Sky = blue, etc.
You can't walk 3 feet without tripping over a Death Knight.

Bottom line is its more of the same with more polish and accessibility. If you're interested in a more laid-back raid experience I'd give it a go. Having a small group of friends to run with is ideal.

[Fordel]

A lot of people bitch about the vehicles quests. Those people are crazy 


Seriously, every quest should end with me driving a Storm Giant and slaughtering all before me.



More seriously, all around quests are less annoying. Even gathering quests mostly have that 'castbar' waiting removed. If there is an item to pick up, you click it and poof it's in your bag, the end. This is especially nice for my druid in epic flight form, she can finish the first three Argent Crusade dailies in like under 5 minutes (with travel time). Which is good because I can never find the fucking frozen basilisk brain for the 4th one 

[Dren]

No.

You are just bitter about queue time and trying to reduce it one player at a time.

[Azaroth]

As far as endgame, there's no catassing involved really. You can be part of a small guild, you can have bad gear. You can still clear Naxx 10.

Hell, it can be pugged successfully on a regular basis. And when you pug things you can't expect half of the people in the raid don't even speak english - let alone DPS above 1200 or so.

Early game, the zones are good. Howling Fjord is fantastic... lightyears away from fucking Hellfire.

[Fraeg]

i cancelled about 11 months ago, re-subbed a little before xmas.
I play a druid.

The game feels pretty so so to me the zones aren't that particularly cool or interesting.  I am 77 now and I will hit 80 and take it from there.   If you were bored of the game, sick of rep grinds, heroic token grinds, pvp arena grind.... it hasn't changed much.

Personally I wish Blizzard encouraged their artists to partake in recreational LSD.  The Art just seems so ho hum to me... not bad, but would be nice to see a zone that makes you stop and go.. "wow.. that is amazing art."

My feral druid seems pretty crazy at the moment, death knights are crazy as well and like all new classes, it is just a matter of time before they are *tweaked* to be *brought in line*.

playing on the unofficial kiwi/aussie server means the vent is very entertaining.

[K9]

The game feels pretty so so to me the zones aren't that particularly cool or interesting.  I am 77 now and I will hit 80 and take it from there.   If you were bored of the game, sick of rep grinds, heroic token grinds, pvp arena grind.... it hasn't changed much.

The Zones up to 77 are well designed but not particularly interesting. Icecrown and Storm Peaks, particularly Icecrown are awesome. They're the first zones in the game where I actually enjoyed the storyline and wanted to see it finished.

Overall WotLK is TBC but with a lot of polish. There's less new an interesting stuff, and vehicles are someone's idea that can't die soon enough. Overall there are far fewer bad elements though.

[Soulflame]

WRT Naxx 10, I've read that it's actually harder and less forgiving than Naxx 25.  Which is saying something, as I've found Naxx 10 to be relatively easy.

As has been said, Wrath is pretty much TBC, but with more polish.  There's still rep grinds (Hodir, oh god the wyrm stabbing, why oh why oh why) although that particular rep grind is avoidable if you take inscription.  Phasing is really neat, but only really used in Storm Peaks and Icecrown, and not even in all the places where it could be reasonably used in those zones either.  For example, the giant robot in the cradle.  I solved that problem!  Why is it still there.

I think it's worth giving it a go.  Everything is fairly easy for the "experienced" WoW gamer, leveling, quests, instances, even the raid.  Although Blizzard has said the glass chewing begins with Ulduar.   

[DraconianOne]

Personally I wish Blizzard encouraged their artists to partake in recreational LSD.  The Art just seems so ho hum to me... not bad, but would be nice to see a zone that makes you stop and go.. "wow.. that is amazing art."

It's clear to me that the Blizzard artists were on mushrooms when they designed Zangarmarsh and everyone hated that zone* so probably not the answer.



*Everyone apart from me, that is.

[Ratman_tf]

WRT Naxx 10, I've read that it's actually harder and less forgiving than Naxx 25.  Which is saying something, as I've found Naxx 10 to be relatively easy.

Huh. My guild cleared Naxx 10 easily enough, and we're stuck on Naxx 25 - Thaddius for now.

[Setanta]

The game does some interestin new things, but nothing truly innovative. Death Knight is ezymode to level, which is just as well as I had to retire my enhancement shaman as it felt very underpowered (I have multiple 70+s: Shaman, Druid, Warlock, Hunter, Mage and Warrior/Priest at 61+ as well as an 80 DK).

I think I preferred Outlands, Northrend feels unfinished, almost like they pushed it out the door to compete with WAR (unnecessarily IMO). End game doesn't feel up to it but it's Blizzard so it will be added to AKA BWL/AQ20/40/Naxx/Sunwell). It's fun, but I can see myself getting bored quickly.

The lore as usual is immersive and graphically it feels like pulling on a comfy set of shoes which have a touch of fresh polish on them.

[Sjofn]

Seriously, every quest should end with me driving a Storm Giant and slaughtering all before me.

Preach it, brother Fordel!

[Soulflame]

Are there different mechanics on Thaddius 25, or is it failure to not cross the charges?

I find the vehicle quests to vary from annoying to ok, with most falling about "meh".  The Hodir wyrm quest can really be annoying, sometimes the stupid thing spams his attack on you, and hooray for eating repair costs.  I'm also annoyed that hits and heals from vehicles are counted among your achievements.  Or maybe I was asleep when I hit something for 200k damage.  Hooray for ret!

The storm giant quest was fun, right up til the prince.  I don't know what happened, but I failed pretty quickly at that point.  Fortunately another player was at the same point, and I got credit anyway.

Another example is the wyrmrest vehicle daily, Aces High.  That quest is miserable... until you turn autocast self back on.  Then it's insanely easy.

[Fordel]

The storm giant quest was fun, right up til the prince.  I don't know what happened, but I failed pretty quickly at that point.  Fortunately another player was at the same point, and I got credit anyway.

The Prince has a damage reflecting transfer beam. All the damage that you would deal to the prince, is dealt to yourself instead. You just stop attacking while that is up and the prince can pretty much do fuck all to yea.

[Ratman_tf]

Are there different mechanics on Thaddius 25, or is it failure to not cross the charges?

Consensus is that we just lacked the DPS. We ran with 5 tanks and 7 healers that night.

On an interesting note, dying to the polarity damage does not seem to lose durability. So if we were behind on the enrage timer, we'd all collapse into a bunch and suicide to give it another go.

Another example is the wyrmrest vehicle daily, Aces High.  That quest is miserable... until you turn autocast self back on.  Then it's insanely easy.

God I fucking hated that daily. I'm so glad I'm done with it.

[Merusk]

Another example is the wyrmrest vehicle daily, Aces High.  That quest is miserable... until you turn autocast self back on.  Then it's insanely easy.

God I fucking hated that daily. I'm so glad I'm done with it.

Anyone have tips for getting the achievement on this one? I can't figure out how to kill everything AND get to the shrine and back in under 2:00 when just getting to the shrine takes nearly a full minute.

[Gobbeldygook]

Anyone have tips for getting the achievement on this one? I can't figure out how to kill everything AND get to the shrine and back in under 2:00 when just getting to the shrine takes nearly a full minute.

Aces High! is a different wyrmrest daily in Coldarra at the top of the Nexus.  It's designed to let you practice Malygos phase 3 without having to, you know, get to Malygos phase 3.

[Merusk]

Ah shit that's right.   

Anywho, same question for that wyrmrest temple one.

[Fabricated]

TBC sucked. Tanking was stupid, class balance was king, and raiding was more about setup and banging your head against a wall long enough to win. WoTLK eased tanking back to being fun, DPS were buffed and changed to being interchangable regardless of class, and raid encounters are doable with groups that can semi-PUG it in 25 mans. It's essentially fun for the masses instead of fun for the uber-guilds so far. I fully expect them to fuck that up with the next patch though, and make Ulduar a gigantic cockblock.

I watch MMO-Champion and WoR regularly and nearly -every- fucking update until the recent patch discussions started had a Blue responding to someone complaining about how easy Naxx was. The uber-guilds are pissed at how easy it is and don't consider achievements or "hard mode" kills like Sarth +3 drakes good enough regardless of rewards. They just wanna down the boss before the scrubs. I dared check out the official Raid&Dungeon forums a while back and there was always 4-5 topics on the first page where people were begging for Ulduar to be a massive cockblock or at least have a gear check boss that requires best-in-slot items on everyone in the raid in both versions.

[w00key]

I'm glad the raids are the way they are now. Yes, it's way easier, but after you graveyard zerged the boss for the first time you can come back later and dick around - not doing what you normally must do at Maexnna -> boss hits like 4 times harder. Still win the fight? +1 Achievement! When you have done the instance, you can come back with alts and hangarounds from the guild and still clear it in 5 hours.

The ones who play casually benefit hugely from these changed - they can get inside every dungeon released instead of only Kara/ZA and the difficulty isn't much higher than the average heroic, but almost every boss got it's own unique twist. The change from designed for elitist to more casual friendly is very noticeable in Naxx - for example, Loatheb used to be a pain because you *had* to farm Fadeleaf for the stupid shadow pots, you use 3 of them a try. Now, it's just no healing for 15s, heal for 3s, repeat.


I've run out of content to do for now, but I sure hope Blizzard doesn't artificially lengthen Ulduar by just adding +200% hp / damage / whatever on the bosses. Staring at the same boss for weeks / months doesn't match my definition of fun. I don't mind something hard, but boss like Huhuran which is clearly designed as a roadblock is just too lame.

[Fordel]

TBC sucked. Tanking was stupid, class balance was king, and raiding was more about setup and banging your head against a wall long enough to win. WoTLK eased tanking back to being fun, DPS were buffed and changed to being interchangable regardless of class, and raid encounters are doable with groups that can semi-PUG it in 25 mans. It's essentially fun for the masses instead of fun for the uber-guilds so far. I fully expect them to fuck that up with the next patch though, and make Ulduar a gigantic cockblock.

I watch MMO-Champion and WoR regularly and nearly -every- fucking update until the recent patch discussions started had a Blue responding to someone complaining about how easy Naxx was. The uber-guilds are pissed at how easy it is and don't consider achievements or "hard mode" kills like Sarth +3 drakes good enough regardless of rewards. They just wanna down the boss before the scrubs. I dared check out the official Raid&Dungeon forums a while back and there was always 4-5 topics on the first page where people were begging for Ulduar to be a massive cockblock or at least have a gear check boss that requires best-in-slot items on everyone in the raid in both versions.

If everyone is special, then no one is. 

Fuck the uber guilds though, seriously.

[Ratman_tf]

I'm glad the raids are the way they are now.

Me too. The uber raiders are gonna decimate "hard" content in any case. May as well open it up to serious and casual players as well.

[Koyasha]

Ah shit that's right.   

Anywho, same question for that wyrmrest temple one.

It seems to be very luck-dependent.  I got it on one of my characters simply because I caught the right number of dragons on the right path at the right time.  Soon as you take off, look around.  If the NPC guardians have softened up any dragons or drakes, blast them, you'll get a quick kill and credit for it.  Watch out for those that are tagged by other players, wasting time firing at them is very bad.  Fire up your sprint, head for the dragonshrine, and take out anything on the way that you need.  Keep moving as you fire at enemy drakes and dragons - you can even fire backwards last time I did it, as long as you start the cast with the enemy in your line of sight.  Do the destabilization, head back, reuse sprint the moment it pops, and kill anything else you need on the way back.

If there aren't enough dragons and drakes spawned and pathing on your direct line between the temple and dragonshrine, you fail.  Nothing you can do about it, gotta try again and hope for better luck on the locations.

I've also heard that you can get help from friends.  Get a couple other people out there with you, and as soon as you tag a dragon or drake they blast it down while you keep flying.

[DraconianOne]

The storm giant quest was fun, right up til the prince.  I don't know what happened, but I failed pretty quickly at that point.  Fortunately another player was at the same point, and I got credit anyway.

The Prince has a damage reflecting transfer beam. All the damage that you would deal to the prince, is dealt to yourself instead. You just stop attacking while that is up and the prince can pretty much do fuck all to yea.

is this reflection in the same way the mage hunters in dragonblight reflect? Because if so, the trick is to hit them with a damage type you're not going to use before hammering them with another type.  E.g. as a warlock, I use shadow - so I throw an immolate on them so that they reflect fire and then hammer them with shadow as they have no defence against that.

If it's not the same mechanic then ignore this advice but it still stands for some of the other mobs that spell reflect.

[Sheepherder]

Your character rides on the head of a storm giant which he smashes shit and roars.


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