(WoW) Shifting Expectations

Just reflecting a little...


Wrath of the Lich King was released on November 13th, 2008.

- By January 22nd (almost 10 weeks later), I had one character at max level. A few guildmates had beaten me there.
- By February 23rd,I had some dungeon experience and my main was at max level.
- By February 27th (roughly 15 weeks in), I had started on heroic dungeons with guildmates. There were some rough patches and wipes, but generally success.
- Raiding? It looks like we started somewhere around September in 2009, not quite a full year into the expansion.

Cataclysm came out December 7th, 2010.

- By December 11th (fifth day), my main was max-level. A handful of guildmates did it faster and were already queueing up for random dungeons.
- By December 15th (a week in), I'd started the occasional dungeon run with guildmates. Others are randoming daily.
- By December 23rd (two weeks in), I'd tried at least one heroic. And it was almost painfully hard.

Y'know... I'm not surprised that heroics are hard at this point. Cripes, this early into the last expansion, we were still questing to level up. I probably hadn't even considered doing a dungeon.

I'm a little torn, really.

On the one hand, I'm proud to see the guild making faster progress this time around. We have the opportunity to be doing content when it's new, instead of a tier behind. That's awesome.

On the other hand, I think we might be overdoing it a bit. Expecting people to be successful in heroic 5-mans two weeks after their release and just as characters reach the minimum threshold to be allowed into the instances via the dungeon finder might be a little unrealistic. If we're pushing that much, it's going to be hard. And while I like seeing what there is and learning new fights, sinking three hours into a dungeon run with no expectation of success (and lots and lots of wipes) isn't entirely fun.

I'm also worried about myself (and others) burning out and/or getting bored with things. It's going to be several months before there's any new content added, I don't think we need to burn through everything there is now in the span of a few weeks.

Comments

  1. kyn_elwynnDecember 27, 2010 at 11:11 AM

    Despite the volume of quests and content, it seems like it's "not enough". Getting the minimum gear to go into Heroic dungeons is a chore, as the progression should be normal dungeons first, then Heroic versions, but some normal dungeons don't give gear that helps get you into the Heroic threshold (Lookin' at you Blackrock and Throne). Unlike burning Crusade and Wrath, the crafters can't even assist with passing that threshold this time either, as their isn't enough gear in the right range to fill every slot, or it has a focus (like PvP stats on cloth) different than your spec and role.

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  2. marinredwolfDecember 27, 2010 at 11:33 AM

    Well... ToT and BRC are, on normal, not giving heroic-prep stuff, true. Being set toward level 81-82, that happens and isn't new. I think it applies to Stonecore and Vortex Pinnacle, too. They get you closer, perhaps, but they aren't the sub-heroic peak. That still leaves... Halls of Origination, Lost City of the Tol'Vir, and Grim Batol as the places to "gear up." In Wrath, that would have been... Utgarde Pinnacle, Oculus, and... umm... Halls of Lightning? Three max-level normal dungeons, so that's about the same. I think you're slighting crafter contributions, but you're not totally off your rocker there. I'm not familiar with top-end tailoring or leatherworking, but... Scribes can make some decent offhands and good (ilevel 346) relics that apply to many people. Jewelcrafters can make rings and necks of many sorts. Blacksmithing is sort of in a rough spot - most of their high-end gear (including 359 epics) requires one or more chaos orbs... which only come from heroics. o.o; So I think you're right that crafters aren't in as good a place to contribute to heroic-readiness as they have been in the past, but they aren't completely useless. One thing that's being overlooked (or so it feels) is the rep rewards. There's a lot of stuff there, including some epics, but the grinds can be rather long. Level 85 dungeon runs can server duel purpose of going after drops there and accumulating rep toward the good stuff. Is that all enough? Maybe, maybe not. I think heroics are a bit harder, partly due to the overall mechanic changes (especially the adjustments that mean healers can run out of mana again). But I think some of the difficulty comes from us simply not being as prepared as we were in the past. It was close to three months before I seriously tackled a Wrath heroic. By that far into Cata, I almost certainly will have a couple epic items from reputation gains alone. That may not make a huge difference, but it's something. And people who are now just squeaking past the "minimum requirements" (and may be taking sub-optimal gear to get the item level points) will likely be in much more solid shape themselves.

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