WoW: Battle for Azeroth (8.3)

ranalin wrote:
Shadout wrote:

I bet that all vanilla raids, maybe with the exception of Naxx, will be relatively easily puggable.

If they have a LFR, that goes against the classic Ethos ;)

Indeed. One of the big issues (admittedly, I've just skimmed a lot of the coverage) seems to be sharding, and folks seems to be really, really against it. It goes back to one of the meta criticisms of the franchise, which is the loss of community from the days when you had to interact (for better or worse) with the same people day in and day out. LFR is one of the culprits here, so I'd be stunned if there was an LFG/LFR feature in Classic. If you want to do something with a group, go back to spamming /2 uphill both ways in the snow (and twice on Sundays).

I know there's a lot of nostalgia for Vanilla - and good for the old heads who pushed and pushed for it and finally will get what they want - but I have zero interest in going back.

Imo the community thing in vanilla was not dependent on not having group finder or LFR (as a matchmaking tool, not as a "easy mode" raid).
Those tools just needed to be limited to your server.

Back in vanilla when you played battlegrounds, you started to know allies and enemies as you met them.
Because it was a relatively small pool of maybe 500 people at most. That did bring something special to the game, when you started having specific strategies against specific enemy premade teams etc. (although probably not enough to compensate for all the benefits cross-realm brings).
Even though BG queues were matchmaking based just like Group finder. They could easily have similar tools for dungeons/raids, but yeah, they clearly want to recreate the exact experience from back then, maybe out of fear of angering the Classis fanbase. Hopefully, if Classic takes off, they might evolve it a bit over time.
I cant see myself ever spend lots of time in Classic, but jumping in from time to time could potentially be fun.

If they don’t shard at launch then they’ll have to do massive server consolidations once the initial rush dies down.

Shadout wrote:

Listening to the Classic panel. They are not bringing (m)any QOL changes, contrary they are going out of their way to remove them. Such as making sure there is a 16 debuff limit on targets, 1 hour mail timer.
Except, the 2 hour loot trading timer, which will be there.

Content will be released over time: So only MC, Onyxia etc. will be available at the beginning etc. to recreate the experience of vanilla, and not just walk into Naxxrammas after a week.

This is exactly what 'everyone' says they want. I still think a lot of people screaming of Vanilla are looking back through rose colored glasses, but i respect blizzard for giving them what they say they want. I recreated for first character, played for about an hour, and yep it was definitely what I remember from vanilla: a rough first iteration at a new genere based on an engine built for RTSes wrapped in all the baggage of Everquest and UO era MMos

Sydhart wrote:

Agree on Northrend. It's one of my favorite expansions.

Tail-end of BC through the Wrath endgame...the golden years for WoW and BHA! (GOLD, JERRY!!)

Grinding Kara. Exploring Northrend for the first time. Figuring out Naxx, Ulduar, and ICC with the crew. Hunting for exotic hunter pets and flying mounts. All towards the top of the list for gaming experiences for me.

*rummages in sack* I’ve still got the Arcanite Ripper that Reap and the gang sent my way when we took down Tenris Mirkblood for the first time.

*cues up “Glory Days” by the Boss*

I just remembered one of the best parts of Wrath. For at least 2 of the zones, you could fly while dead, so corpse runs were actually manageable. Why that isn't the default blows my mind.

One of the perks of being a night elf

I'm generally in favor of the way Blizzard keeps us grounded these days, but I do think I wouldn't be enjoying Northrend anywhere near as much if I couldn't fly there from the start. The same big, open zones that look so nice with the current rendering engine would be a pain to traverse on foot.

Vargen wrote:

I'm generally in favor of the way Blizzard keeps us grounded these days, but I do think I wouldn't be enjoying Northrend anywhere near as much if I couldn't fly there from the start. The same big, open zones that look so nice with the current rendering engine would be a pain to traverse on foot.

Everything was so new and well-done that I remember it being a joy to run around in. That said I also recall liberal use of autorun and joyous celebration upon unlocking Cold Weather Flying back in the day.

Oh yeah, it was great at the time. I just don't think my nostalgia trip would be anywhere near as fun if I had to keep fighting my way out of Vrykul towns after completing a round of quest objectives. Newer expansions find ways to continue the quest chains without making you run back to the quest hub 3-4 times in a single area.

Yeah, starting a new character and not being able to fly sucks after doing this stuff so often over the decade.

lunchbox12682 wrote:

Yeah, starting a new character and not being able to fly sucks after doing this stuff so often over the decade.

At least now once you hit 60 you can fly everywhere except the current expansion. Assuming you unlocked it in Warlords and Legion. I do find it odd that they removed all the barriers to flight in Outland, Northrend, and Pandaria and then kept the stupidly onerous requirements* for Warlords and the Broken Isles.

On a different note, I don't think I really appreciated the new character models until just now. I just hit the Wrath Gate cinematic, which was made with in-game assets. I'm sad that the subsequent assault on Undercity got removed when Cataclysm hit. I would have liked to see the Alliance side firsthand, and that storyline kind of feels like it ends rather abruptly.

*I liked the unlock when they were current. They don't make much sense now that they're leveling zones.

Vargen wrote:
lunchbox12682 wrote:

Yeah, starting a new character and not being able to fly sucks after doing this stuff so often over the decade.

At least now once you hit 60 you can fly everywhere except the current expansion. Assuming you unlocked it in Warlords and Legion. I do find it odd that they removed all the barriers to flight in Outland, Northrend, and Pandaria and then kept the stupidly onerous requirements* for Warlords and the Broken Isles.

On a different note, I don't think I really appreciated the new character models until just now. I just hit the Wrath Gate cinematic, which was made with in-game assets. I'm sad that the subsequent assault on Undercity got removed when Cataclysm hit. I would have liked to see the Alliance side firsthand, and that storyline kind of feels like it ends rather abruptly.

*I liked the unlock when they were current. They don't make much sense now that they're leveling zones.

I wish they lowered it to 40 or 50. It's so boring for base Azeroth.

Who do we have raiding on Horde and Alliance side? I've got my horde rogue up to 120 and 340 ilevel now. I may also be looking at rolling either a druid or a paladin horde side as well so I can heal or tank. There's just too many DPS out there.

Also, is anyone in an Alliance guild on Blackhand that is raiding? I've finally got some time to do some mythic+ and raiding and I think moving into an active guild is the next step.

Or has everyone pretty much stopped playing except me?

I raid on the Horde side. My small guild raids on Wednesday nights starting at 8pm est.

Sydhart wrote:

Also, is anyone in an Alliance guild on Blackhand that is raiding? I've finally got some time to do some mythic+ and raiding and I think moving into an active guild is the next step.

Or has everyone pretty much stopped playing except me?

Check in with Reap or Keldar to see what they're up to.

I figure I'll LFR my way through the 8.0 raid at some point in December. I still haven't run all the new dungeons yet.

Rep update: Over the weekend I got exalted with 7th Legion, Champs of Azeroth and Storms Wake. Am within one emissary quest of getting to exalted with Embers and Proudmore. The turtle folks will take a while.

All in all not a bad rep grind if you're not in a real hurry.

I just hit revered with 7th legion because i wanted to finish off the war questline before the next bit drops in a few weeks.

I'm exalted with everything in BfA except for those blasted turtles. I'm so sick of saving turtles....

astralplaydoh wrote:

I'm exalted with everything in BfA except for those blasted turtles. I'm so sick of saving turtles....

we are seriously interfering with the natural habitat of that turtle species, and probably facilitating a dratic overpopulation that will eventually lead to a high prevalence of genetic diseases, and starvation by outstripping their food supply., similar to what happens to deer populations when you remove natural predators like wolves from their ecosystems

I just maxed out the turtles last night. I'm now "done" with this expansion until the next update, I guess.

It's weird that they didn't keep the post-exalted rep grind bonus caches that were in Legion.

Probably because very few people actually did them

Well, most people don’t raid either but they keep adding more.

I'm about as filthy a casual as you can be, and even i manage to LFR my way through all the raids.

I've been in a very friendly, casual horde guild. We completed the raid on normal last week. We're currently 8/8N, 3/8H. It's pretty fun.

I’m happy for the hardliners and old timers that Vanilla is coming out, and Imma them finish, but LFG and LFR were two of the best things to happen in WoW of all time.

astralplaydoh wrote:

I've been in a very friendly, casual horde guild. We completed the raid on normal last week. We're currently 8/8N, 3/8H. It's pretty fun.

What server are you on?

WizardM0de wrote:

I’m happy for the hardliners and old timers that Vanilla is coming out, and Imma them finish, but LFG and LFR were two of the best things to happen in WoW of all time.

I agree, those were some of the best QoL improvements in the game, IMO. Still when the game originally came out I was too young for me to really remember it clearly now (and with the medications I was on, everything from that time period to about 2012 is a blur), so I'm personally fine with struggling to find groups. WoW is just a bit too easy these days and I would like to have that challenge again. I was doing a dungeon the last time I played my rogue and people were gobsmacked that I used sap -and- distract with the party stealth active so we could skip mobs in the pirate town I can't remember the name of. I realize that these desires may change as things progress, but I want to be able to experience Vanilla again. Edit: forgot to mention it was 3 dps as rogue on mythic.

The horde guild is called We Tried Quitting Once and it is on Thrall. We raid on Wednesday nights at 8pm-11pm Eastern Time.

astralplaydoh wrote:

The horde guild is called We Tried Quitting Once and it is on Thrall. We raid on Wednesday nights at 8pm-11pm Eastern Time.

Well poop, my horde are on Illidan and Blackhand. I'm still looking for the horde guys on Blackhand. I'm not sure they play anymore.