World Of Warcraft

So, if/when I want to raid, I should find a guild, shouldn't I?

Yes. And religiously stick to the schedule. And farm as much as possible of out-of-raid gear.

edited 4th Feb '16 9:54:32 AM by Adannor

No, you can jump into Raid Finder as soon as you qualify by virtue of item level. You get randomly matched and a good chunk of the people will be undergeared and/or underskilled, plus there will be some decked out players (like me) cruising for valor and/or lulz telling everyone how terrible they are.

If you want organized raiding with a group of players at higher than Raid Finder difficulty, there are two options: find a guild, or use the Group Finder to get into pick-up groups. For the former, you'll usually need to pass some bar of competence and maintain a regular schedule with the guild. For the latter, most raid leaders will demand experience and a higher item level than is strictly necessary to beat the content, because they don't want to waste time with people who can't cut it.

Another option is paying to get into "carry" runs, where raid groups will run players through content for a fee.

edited 4th Feb '16 9:55:45 AM by Fighteer

I've been raiding with pick-up groups all expansion, and indeed for most the time I've played. But that's because I can't be online at regular times, and it's a constant pain seeing raids wait for hours to find enough tanks and healers then falling apart on the first wipe. So yes, find a guild that raids at times you find convenient.

Reading the alpha feedback, I wonder what's the point of the ten new levels, now that mobs and quests scale with level. Wouldn't the artifacts alone make for a good enough questing experience?

edited 4th Feb '16 4:34:25 PM by Reymma

People expect new experience levels so Blizzard gives them new experience levels. It's sort of enforced at this point. Besides, endgame content will be designed for level 110, period.

To be sure, Blizzard could take progression in a different direction but that'd be too much of a break from how the game has worked up until now.

edited 4th Feb '16 10:00:13 AM by Fighteer

People like shiny numbers. They could make everything scale, with difficulty of raids being autoset to -20/-10/0/+10 ilvls of average in the raid and people would still want new friggin shiny numbers!

But until now you could feel the effect of levels by mobs becoming weaker and moving to new areas. Now it will be little more than a number as far as the outside world goes, with no new abilities or talents. I'm not a fan of so many levels but at least it had an obvious effect on gameplay; now it looks more like a comforting illusion. Players and mobs scale together, why not cut out the complexity and keep them in the same place? Especially since the artifact progression offers choices and gameplay changes.

A dev came to the alpha forums to say they acknowledge the negative feedback on Subtlety and the next build will make closer to the live version. First reaction: good, the new ideas were thematically suited but I couldn't see them working well when played. Second reaction: maybe this will blunt the complaining that the devs don't listen.^note Oh who am I kidding

Your optimism sickens me.

Your pessimism dismays me, but I'm sure it will get better.

You have got to be kidding me. Levels have always been symbolic and arbitrary; why is a bear in Northrend 60 levels higher than a bear in Kalimdor? They serve mainly as a gating mechanic for content and have never had any meaning as a rational gauge of relative character power. They exist so you can narrow down where you should go next on an arbitrary progression path that somebody decided on over a decade ago.

Why can we beat Deathwing at level 90 but have to be level 100 to beat up some ogres in Highmaul? Why can't a single Stormwind guard defeat the entire Defias Brotherhood? The whole thing is absurd. The only reason it's lasted so long is because it's an Enforced Trope in the RPG world. I like the idea of content scaling because it does away with arbitrary distinctions between levels and instead makes it a simple matter of "you have to do X [progression stuff] before you are eligible for endgame content."

Of course, the idea of character levels is so built into gaming culture that they are getting shoehorned into more and more genres. The latest Assassin's Creed games use level-ups as a way to arbitrarily gate what gear you can equip (and tease microtransactions, as noted below).

edited 5th Feb '16 6:44:46 AM by Fighteer

Assuming that you don't just buy all the gear from the 'microtransaction' store that's more expensive than the actual game.

I had no idea Subtlety for Rogues was that different. Pity. I was looking forward to something much different than the current Sub which I do not really like...

Shiny◊

Fuck that noise, I have cheat engine.

Prettyshiny, yeah. Although just remove the horns and turn brightness up a notch it'd look pretty magey.

Or you can play the game. It's not like it's hard to max out.

I'm about a general principle of cash shops in single player game Specific one may not be too grindy, and then it's fine to play, but if the grind wheels start, I stop them.

If the grind wheels start, and aren't entertaining in and of themselves, I don't play the game. I'm not going to reward some company that thinks it can force me to pay extra for content out of frustration. Anyway, back to World of Warcraft.

edited 5th Feb '16 7:02:38 AM by Fighteer

I'm still miffed about the Tirisgarde.

I wanted to be part of the Council of Tirisfal ;_;

Neverwinter was a fun MMO to try but its p2w thing is real frustrating. And no servers of it are even remotely close to where I live, dammit

Same thing with the U.S. Latin American servers are full of guilds so shitty I stay at NA because of that. No options.

But that's my point. Levelling only makes sense from a strict gameplay point of view, by making each zone gradually easier. Remove that, and it simply has no reason to be outside of dungeons.

They are changing that in Legion. Levels of areas are not set. They will scale with your level in the order of zones you pick, so your first zone will be level 100 - 101 the second zone will be 102-103 and so on.

Apparently there will be an adventure mode style thing where you do old objectives but mobs are scaled up to your level and potentially gear level.

Levels themselves are more progression and opening up new skills for your weapon and such Diablo III style.

You need level advancement because players want level advancement. They want to allow progression to be up to player choice, so they scale content to your level. These are not difficult concepts to put together.

So, how do you know which zone is the beginning and which one is the ending?

After the intro quests you are given a choice of two zones, with the same UI as the current daily quests, choosing one will send you off to do that zone's entry quest.

Can you switch between them, or is one closed forever if you choose the other?