Posted by iTZKooPA on Friday, May 8th, 2009 - 35 Comments
Tags: getting sucked back in, ilvl, itemization, left behind, playing catch up, questing, the burning crusade, Ulduar, wotlk, wrath, wrath of the lich king
If you look back at my blogs since the launch of Wrath of the Lich King and compare them to my collection of thoughts from the The Burning Crusade days, you may notice a trend. During Illidan’s and later Kael’thas’ respected reigns my posts were more often focused on news and game updates, rather than discussions and dissections about our favorite MMORPG. The reason for this is quite simple really, I wasn’t participating in World of Warcraft as much then as I am now. For the longest time I couldn’t pinpoint the exact reason for is. It had nothing to do with why I quit WoW in the first place, and I still followed the lore almost as closely as I do now, yet, I was hardly ever pulled into the game.
It took me a few months of play, up and downs and a new guild, but I had an epiphany while biking around Philadelphia the other night. The reason I am more drawn to WoW now is that I don’t feel left behind. Thanks to the new expansion Solidsamm was put on a level playing field with every buddy else. No longer was I three tiers of gear behind, thousands of rep in the hole or penniless because I hadn’t been doing dailies for over a year. Solidsamm was on equal footing, grinding his way to level 80 with the majority of players and entering the same raids that many other toons ran on a weekly basis. Sure, he still hasn’t seen Ulduar yet, but it’s only been available for a few weeks.
The irony here is that this ability to catch up was one of the reason I was annoyed with the first expansion. TBC’s opening quest rewards were good enough to replace some of the AQ40/Naxxramas gear that players - including myself - had spent months collecting. As a hardcore raider I felt that all the time I had put into the game would be tarnished since a player with less than a third of my playtime could now be as geared as I. How naive I was.
It was odd being on the exact opposite end of the spectrum for the second expansion, but it made me realize that the changes are necessary if the game is to grow at all. That being said, I would argue that the replacement rate of The Burning Crusade’s gear wasn’t nearly as drastic as vanilla WoW, which was a very smart move by Blizzard.
Now that we are almost 6 months from Wrath of the Lich King’s release, how is it treating you? Are you enjoying it more than The Burning Crusade or is it pretty much the same to you? Personally I think the questing is far better than TBC, but itemization at the high end (normal vs. heroic vs. hard mode loot) seems to be a bit screwed up. What is your take?
Related Posts: Drama Topics: Guild Runs With PUGs, A 40 For My MR Hommies, Leveling A Mage… Again…, Recruit-a-Friend Woes, WoW Life Lesson #13: Gossip Is A Waste Of Time,
By Jondare on Friday, May 8th, 2009 at 1:54 pm
wow, first
anyway, yeah i too was WAY behind in TBC (only got started on Kara and a little grull’s and ZA) in WotLK however, i wasnt too far behind in the beginning, gearing up nicely, but then i hit the raid wall.
my guild is too little and too casual to get any raids going, although i keep struggling to change that, so at the moment of writing i have just killed KT around 2 weeks ago, have yet to se any UD or even EoE kills, and havent even participated in a Sarth+ any drakes attempt yet
By Sathas on Friday, May 8th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
I completely agree with you. I didn’t play before BC and the only thing raiding wise that I did was dps kara with full greens. Now, I’ve cleared 25 ulduar twice and have 2 pieces of t8.5 (algalon still up, obviously).
By Laeltis on Friday, May 8th, 2009 at 2:14 pm
I feel the same way. It was a smart move for Blizz. I came in just 6-8 months before WoTLK came out, fresh start. I still feel today that I missed out on alot of good things in TBC.
By Mooshake on Friday, May 8th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
For my server woltk was what had to happen to open the pug scene back up, which is very strong and one of the reason I was recruited into my current guild. Honestly I’ve been so concentrated on gearing both my dps and tank set that I don’t really care what drops unless it has dodge,parry, defense, or crit. I hit my hit cap (without the dual wielding dk talents) long ago and am sitting at 12.28% hit so I really don’t care about looking at hardmode loot or heroic loot unless it has some crit or higher stam and defensive stats for me.
By Xian on Friday, May 8th, 2009 at 4:16 pm
“By Laeltis on Friday, May 8th, 2009 at 2:14 pm
I feel the same way. It was a smart move for Blizz. I came in just 6-8 months before WoTLK came out, fresh start. I still feel today that I missed out on alot of good things in TBC.”
I agree with what Laeltis said here, except I came in only about two months before WotLK and missed out on most content since I had JUST upgraded to TBC.
By onthebuses on Friday, May 8th, 2009 at 4:54 pm
Well I prefer the questing in WoTLK, I had just hit 70 when it hit the shops, so didnt have time for any end game stuff. Which fitted in nicely, as i could grind to level 80. And now i am level 80 raids? hmm odd one, my guild do naxx once a week, or once every 2 weeks, i tend to join them for that, other than that i normally do OS with PUGS and so far have had 3 pieces of t7 gear drop for me, the rest i have bought with emblems of valor, only the chest to go now, and i am fully epic-d out. Apart from the ranged weapon. I haven’t even stepped into EoE yet. OS,VOA and Naxx seem to be the only raids i do, on my server not alot of peeps want to do EoE. :S But yeah overall i think WoTLK is better for pacing you through the game,
Next Step: 2 more emblems of valor.
then Ulduar, and then hopefully the new 5 man content in next patch or bg in next patch, get into that. As a casual player, i take my game at my own pace , and there is always something to do in WoW . Always
By Rhoda on Friday, May 8th, 2009 at 6:00 pm
i was 65 when woltk came out so i was just hurrying along and missed alot of things in tbc. Now the proud owner of an 80 i find going back in some tbc things is alot of fun. I guess what im saying is its never too late to go back
By Elwero on Friday, May 8th, 2009 at 7:01 pm
It’s great that we don’t have to spend hours in front of the computer just farming rep just to go to 1 heroic instance.
I started playing WoW when the patch of Zul Aman was new, and at the time I reach lvl 70 the WotLK was coming out.
By Rikaku on Friday, May 8th, 2009 at 7:34 pm
I think it used to be good, til 3.1. Ever since 3.1 came out, there have been more gear checks and dps checks for everything. now sure, you need that stuff for Naxx, OS, and especially Ulduar; but I’m sick of seeing it for Heroics. It’s getting downright annoying and just sad when people are losing their thrill of the game because people won’t allow them to gear up in the first place.
Other than that, I think I’m still into WoW more than I was in TBC, but as of 3.1, not as much.
By Jeff on Friday, May 8th, 2009 at 7:48 pm
I started playing at the end of Jan., 08 and I still haven’t done a full run of BRS or Dire Maul… my first venture into Onyxia’s Lair was a 5-man L80… still haven’t done a full Kara run. or got the key…
TBC & LK Instances have hardly had a look in…
The list goes on…
I get the feeling that - given when I started playing WoW - I am in a minority of wanting to actually DO the older content, before I get to the likes of Naxx. (new) & Ulduar; please tell me I’m wrong…
OK; lie if you have to… but am I…?
By Zoczoc on Saturday, May 9th, 2009 at 2:14 am
Well i must say that i prefer or TBC content, i think the instances felt harder and liked the rep u got from doing them.
I have never been a raider just playing instances and quest but must say that i like questing better in TBC too.
Some how Northrend seems to big for me gets boring.
But the design of Northrend is much better then TBC
By Sofica on Saturday, May 9th, 2009 at 4:07 am
Prebc was the best and epic time ever on wow. I still dream that it will come back. But when wotlk was released i was so disapointed that its even more easier to get epics than in the TBC.
Please blizzard bring the epic time back!!!!!
By Krowtz on Saturday, May 9th, 2009 at 6:32 am
Dear Project Lore,
Please fix your forums -cause they are broken.
Love,
Krowtz
By Tothas on Saturday, May 9th, 2009 at 8:28 am
Started 1 day after vanilla wow release, miss it so much
I acctually think Expansions makes the game worse :S
By Dan on Saturday, May 9th, 2009 at 9:01 am
I’m starting to get bored. Only 3 or so guilds Horde side are doing Ulduar on my server and I can’t get into their runs…..cause they are guild runs
Hopefully my guild will get going and figure out a day we can start knocking it out……..
By gigio on Saturday, May 9th, 2009 at 10:47 am
there is nothing hard in this game anymore..it`s just to easy..i totaly disagree with you..there is nothing challenging
By cocopuff on Saturday, May 9th, 2009 at 11:04 am
i am in the same boat as you guys i started plying a few weeks before TBC when TBC came out i still havent even picked a class to be i tried many even tried a few horde then finnaly sattled on a hunter i my first 70 about a year in to TBC and a bunch of failures of a charaters i never got to injo the molten core AQ or onixia bieng completly new to 70 and rading i was clueless of what to do i have managed to get all blues beat 2 bosses in kara beat magisters terrace beat ramparts on Herioc oh ya and raise my rap with a bunch of useless bastards the need for keys to do heriocs held me back from heriocs from gear and from raids i have allso do lots of pvp on my hunter half of my armor on my hunter is pvp gear i got a fresh start when WOTLK went on the air i got the expenshion the day it came out instead of a year later i hit the DKs hard i completly droped my hunter a month into the game i had an 80 instead a year into it and 2 months into the game i was ready for raiding with all herioc gear even some heriosm gear but the raiding sttomped me first came the fiding a group for a raid my current was useless so i had to leave look for a raiding guild and DKs are not wanted on my server in guild let alone raids i did manage to do some raiding i beat reg an herioc VOA reg and herioc aracchnid guarter and military quarter i have beat OS reg 3 times from all that fuss i got all superior gear 1 epic piece allmost 6 months into teh game i stand superior geared with one epic honnored or higher with with races of NR thier are just a few friendlys and now i have a guild that once in a while raids i mean they mosly fail bu i am way etter of now taen i was in TBC so ya i like WOTLK better i eespect to be completly read yfor teh next expenshion and joi nthe elites of the hard core raiders by the end of this expenshion i may 2 ready charaters i been hittin my mage hard lately i am 1 level away from 80 and summer coming soon the skys the limit and i hope to narrow my possiblitys down over teh summer that is whn i got my hunter
By cocopuff on Saturday, May 9th, 2009 at 11:05 am
maybe not for you but i am swamped with work
By Shamtastik on Saturday, May 9th, 2009 at 11:33 am
In my case, the loot is the pwnage is the loot is the pwnage is the loot is the pwnage…..
Basically the more mobs I kill, the better loot I get
no matter how long it take or what expansion I’m in, I’ll get em sooner or later, either as a group run or a solo blitzkrieg >D
By Azizrael on Saturday, May 9th, 2009 at 12:03 pm
I started playing just after TBC came out and I only hit 70 a matter of weeks before 3.0, so endgame is kinda new to me. I joined a guild at 80 and we’re halfway into our second Naxx 10 run together after a few months of recruiting the right people and it’s going great.
If you can find a group of like-minded players at a similar stage in the game to you, then Wrath end-game (whatever that means to you - heroics, raiding, battlegrounds, arena) is more accessible than WoW has ever been before.
Despite the feelings of a small percentage of hardcores who lost the ability to measure their e-peens effectively, this is most definitely a good thing.
By Kalcifer on Saturday, May 9th, 2009 at 3:21 pm
Me nad my friends do all the old stuff. I started playing during TBC but i never had got to heroics stage by the time Wrath came out but then i started doing wrath and we started feeling like we had missed out half of the game.
Now we run old instances and raid stuff at the weekends and most of the vanilla wow stuff is better than the wrath stuff. We just cleared Zul Gurub and had a great time doing it and we did LBRS and UBRS last week. The instances then are so much more dense and harder than in Wrath. All wrath is is corridor with aoe then boss. I just wish blizzard would put a heroic mode on the old stuff cos it’s a shame that it’s being missed out.
By cocopuff on Saturday, May 9th, 2009 at 4:59 pm
tell me how is it better how is teh old crap better you say you want chlanges what kind chlanges can old crap give u fase the only reason you like old instances better is becasue you can beat am they are easier the only reason your doing all of this old stuff cause you cant beat the new stuff appartly you prefer to spend half hour finding yur way around the instannce instead half an hour trying to kill the boss do i really need go over why the stupid idea of puting in heriocs for old instances whould be stupid
By cocopuff on Saturday, May 9th, 2009 at 5:21 pm
whats the point of showing those numbers representing your level if does not mean anything today i had an epiphany of my own while doing HOL a ret paly with many of his 70 epics was able to out dps me a 79 frost mage with mosly blues sure allitle out dated a combination from DB quest rewards gun’drak rewards and IC quest rewards aand UP quest reward yat a 79 ret pally pally with mosly 70 epics was able to out dps perhaps scill at playing your spec was a factor i turned frsot just yesturday o i am still rusty but it is still wierd a level 79 with most of his 70 epics could aout dps a 79 mage with NR blues so when you say hat epics that you had worked on for “months” can be easily replacete by beginer NR makes me wonder hwo you came to aht conclusion or do you even know waht good gear is
By Jederus on Saturday, May 9th, 2009 at 5:32 pm
“Just when I thought I was out… they pulled me back in!”
By iTZKooPA on Saturday, May 9th, 2009 at 5:33 pm
@Cocopuff:
My inability to beat all of the raiding content has nothing to do with my skill as a player. For the most part its entirely due to my inability to put descent amount of time into raiding. Secondly, I refuse to PUG, which is another reason I haven’t killed Malygos or gone to Ulduar, as my guild is largely casual.
As for my idea of heroic old world stuff, I enjoy the design of those dungeons immensely. It is correct that the boss fights are dated in comparison to the new stuff, but the scope of the instances and the lore that each of them possesses is why I am so drawn to them. My main knock for the new stuff is the 2-3 pulls then boss, done in 20 minute design for mainly of them. If you look at it from an RPing perspective, what high ranking, high value target (ie the bosses) would only have a few guards in front of them? None.
Your second comment leads me to believe that you misunderstood the post. I am essentially am saying what (I think) you are describing, that TBC’s ending gear stayed relevant in Northrend for a long, long time.
By cocopuff on Saturday, May 9th, 2009 at 9:02 pm
you took my comments and addressed the ideas one at a time i feel i must do the same
first refusing to pug i take wah ever i can get i dotn care if its a pug or not if your a homeless guy and your asking strangers for money you cant get picky about what you get you wont get anywhear
i wont argue with teh design but how much lore do you really get out of old world instances
i think 2-3 pulls is minor excederation waht i teh appeal of fighting though horde of mobs like old world instances especially raids the fact that the bosses are so poorly guarded may not be logical to you but nieghter is walking though a person or standing in him/her
if i am not mistaking naxx naxx was beat in t6 gear was it not
By iTZKooPA on Sunday, May 10th, 2009 at 6:39 am
I hate the fact that WoW lacks collision detection as well.
I guess we will have to agree to disagree on these points, but appreciate your insights nonetheless.
By Alex on Sunday, May 10th, 2009 at 2:10 pm
I agree with the post here but disagree with the gear points. i’m not into raiding or running heroics never have been. been playing the “GAME” since just after TBC (around late april 2007) tried several different races and classes first 4 toons were all horde stopped playing them about a month in and started playing with a work friend on alliance. had a level 70 about 7 months prior to WoLK’s release needless to say prior to being level 70 had most of his PvP gear all s1 at the time. done a little arena in TBC got a few pieces of the new guardian gear and the s4 gloves other then that never really geared up past that because of all the talk of the next expansion and all. so I pretty much started quite a few more toons to bring back the thrill of playing so never really got drawn into running alot of instances or raids. and I’ll say my lack of experience in the whole aspect of grouping for raids or instances has probably hurt my whole in-game experience but it’s my fault i’ll admit it, but that’s just me i’m a loner in life so i may as well be 1 in a “KIDS” game. well on to WoLK by the time of release had most of my “alt” toons in their 20’s a couple of 40’s and a 64 and the main 70. soon i found myself on the shores of both the borean tundra and howling fjord the second day after release confronted with crash after crash and lag out the butt cuz everybody and his cousin was there all at the same time trying to do what i was there to do which was get that all might level 71 etc…… thus i hung my level 70 back up in the closet after trying and trying to start things off fighting with literally hundreds of peeps all doing the same quests and such and with all the lag and zonal crashes finally decided to work on my level 64 a but more. yeah i know a little long but you asked about the experience needless to say got my once level 64 to level 68 in about a couple of weeks since at the time was at my current full time job so had only 2 days a week to play the game. tried once again on my level 70 after about 3 weeks after launch finally had minimal lag and most of the peeps moved on to other areas so questing got better finally in january had my first 80 still in level 70 gear cuz i never got any upgrades in all my questing upto 80. started his unending rep grind with the factons finally got a chest piece from the hordir facton but that’s about it still no raids and no instances and even PvP was at a 0 been outta that since 3.0 preWoLK. ok so basically it was now grind grind grind got boring so broke out the alt got him upto 80 with the help of a couple of new friends and as always still friends with um but don’t do much together since reaching level 80 cuz they’re hardcore players where im the casualest of casual players out there. so started more boring grind on the second 80 till the new argent tournament came out new grind. but yeah missed alot of the content in game but did get alot of the lore from questing but that just my experience with the game so far. my hats off to those of you hardcore players out there best of luck in your long journey to best all the new instances and such. it’s just not my cup of tea. by the way both 80’s still have low level gear 1 in level 70 PVP gladiator gear and the other 1 in level 77 / 78 crafted gear which is in both cases not much worse then the current s5 s6 PvP gear and since i’ll never see the t7 / t8 gear that’s from what i can tell not much better the the current s6 PvP gear i guess i’ll stick with what i have and continue to be the casual player i am. maybe even go back and work on my loremaster title revisiting the “OLD” world stuff which i mostly missed on both of my 80’s may just stop and go level my 60 DK and other alts who knows may actually be able to get into some heroics with them sooner or later. when i run out of alts to level up that is.
Hats off to the PL team love the stuff on here gives a little insight on stuff i’ve never experienced before but hope in the future will eventually experience it myself.
By dwarflordfiv on Sunday, May 10th, 2009 at 2:12 pm
i started playing a couple months before TBC but i wasnt taht much of a player. i liked it, it was fun, i didnt eveb have TBC until about 8-9 months before WOTLK because i was so far behind then i finally hit 70 a couple weeks after WOTLK came out. so im finally catching up to every 1 being 79 atm but i liked it more becuz there are still people lvling to 80 not just me this time like in TBC. and im finally actually learning how to tank not just stand there and look fancy in all plate
By dwarflordfiv on Sunday, May 10th, 2009 at 2:12 pm
its also thanks to PL. TY lylelovett
By Shnoo on Sunday, May 10th, 2009 at 3:51 pm
The biggest step from 80 to raids - Tanks.. i don’t know why but a crappy geared dps can get pulled through an instance… as well as a not so well geared healer.. who can also dive into heroics.. Whereas tanks for some reason have hardly any reg 80 dungeon drops no quest items and a few crafted items… It seems blizzard is trying to make a tank’s life miserable. I have a 25 man 2 7.5 Geared rogue around 2.2k dps and a full 10 man 1 7.5 Holy pally and my 78 warrior is the most difficult to find new gear with.. i mean, the grind to get crit capped is way more difficult than before and it’s not until you hit raid gear that you actually get enough HP to tank a raid… or am I doing something wrong? (My tank had been my main since Vanilla - TBC but after 2.4 i quit playing him) Any suggestions on non-crafted gear would be helpful.
By pie on Sunday, May 10th, 2009 at 5:06 pm
Shnoo-
I had this exact problem when i was gearing my tank, and i completely agree with you on the difficulty of gearing, the way i geared personally was tbh with any blues i could find… zuldrak q chain for a tanking weap… Wyrmrest and argent reps at revered for several blue tanking peices.. and unfortunately the unavoidable crafting blues/epics… as soon as u cap def n ur hp is at a decent number just farm them heroics till your ready for the raids…
By Redaurora on Monday, May 11th, 2009 at 5:52 am
I have a hard time getting the time to raid and getting the guild on the same times for raids. Everyone is not able to reaid at the same time. Now add in the fact we don’t have enough people all together to raid we are kinda suck. The great thing is I can still raid. I have found some great groups to run with. In BC I could never have done that. I had just gotten to Kara when Wrath hit. I had started playing after BC. Sorry I missed the game before that. I really enjoy the game. I also love the fact I can come and go as I please. I don’t have to be tied to the computer every night.
I LOVE THIS GAME!
By Ombrenoire on Monday, May 11th, 2009 at 9:59 am
Gold wise, this place is treating me much better that vanilla and TBC. I actually passed the 5k gold mark and am still rising despite the spendings I do for my other toons.
Gear wise I find I am a little more choosy with what I pick up and equip. Resistance gear is not an absolute must any more and the gems do help a lot to make up for short comings some gear may present.
I haven’t been to Ulduar yet… come to think about it the highest instances I’ve done are Heroic Vault for the old boss and new boss, and 10-man Naxx. I’ve run Heroic Old Kingdom and Heroic Nexus, as well as Heroic VH, but I have yet to touch on any of the places with any real ties to Ulduar.
Nevertheless I feel well geared and know how to play my toon quite well with the new stuff that has been thrown out since the last patch.
By Pegraath on Monday, May 11th, 2009 at 7:08 pm
Emalon is so annoying, but not for the fact of himself, but because of all the players he attracts that are still in greens and blues.
Its going to be a month or so more before anyone can be pug boosted through Emalon, so please, if you want to do VoA, make a separate raid and specify to everyone who joins that it’s for Archavon only. Don’t ask to “Do the old boss first as we’ll have better gear then”.
I’ve done Emalon a few times on Normal and Heroic with my main, and at the moment everybody needs to be doing their job right, and a wipe or two with a pug is the norm.