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My Raiding Days May Be Over - Till Wrath

WAR Orcs are here!

A few things happened this weekend that have me worried about my PvE excursions for the week. As you can see by our chilly site, Blizzard Entertainment has officially announced Wrath of the Lich King's release date. Wrath is officially set to launch November 13, just shy of two months from now. Why does the launch of the second expansion have me worried?

Simple. With a new expansion coming so soon, many players will go into a coma of sorts. Most will simply cut back on their playtime.   Perhaps in a squirrel like effort to store it up for Wrath's inevitable push to level 80. Then there are the players who will no longer see a point in putting the time in, when any activity they pursue will change drastically in a months time. Especially when the change will make all those efforts fruitless. Many guilds will take a break from their normal schedules and perform some house cleaning as they wait for the new content. The launch of patch 3.0.2 – which hit the PTR this weekend as well – will keep many people interested but I doubt my guild will be performing any Karazhan badge runs again.

That is one half of the battle though.  So what was the other thing that has me worried about my PvE plans? Well, a little game called Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning has gone live. The game isn't actually out until September 18th but Mythic Entertainment and Electronic Arts have a head start program if you pre-order the title. If you ordered the Collector's Edition, one of the bonuses is getting the server to yourself for two days.   That started on Sunday morning.  Then the people who pre-ordered the normal edition join you for two days before the game launches to everyone.

I know many of my guild mates are interested in WAR, so if they aren't put off by the closeness of Wrath then they may head there to check out the title. Blizzard's recent timing of various announcements - a new round of beta keys, PTR character copying enabled and official release date – are an obvious diversion tactic from WAR as well. Thinking about it further I am not worried about raiding anymore.  Now I am just hoping my main's guild still exists two months from now.

Reader Comments (20)

That is almost 2 months not just shy of a month.

September 15, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterDerik

I was hoping it was October...I love halloween.

September 15, 2008 | Unregistered CommenteriTZKooPA

All i can say is i hope you have more fun in WAR then i did =/

September 15, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterAlex

Lol I love halloween...and Hallows End MMmmm

September 15, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterGrant

I'm excited about WAR, even ordered the Special edition as I've been a fan of the Warhammer universe for longer than the Warcraft one, but I'd have to go out of my way to purchase a grunty PC to run it, wheras I can currently run WoW quite nicely on my MBP...

September 15, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterWML

As annoyed as I am, I'm not going anywhere till at least after wrath. MMOs have left a sour taste in my mouth and I'm giving WoW one last chance to redeem itself with this next expansion. I am worried about an end to raiding as my guild is a little over 2/3s the way to exalted with ashtongue and we still haven't cleared bloodboil or gorefiend, or reliquary yet. And well, I dont want to leave that faction .< since i'd like the trinket to level with.

I think WoW has a lot of potential in it, which we'll see revealed with wrath. At the very least I'm looking forward to a fun hallow's end (and an OK brewfest)

September 15, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterOzzel's Cousin Fred

I have played WAR and it is a TON of fun. I was going to start playing during the head start but we got hit by Ike and lost power. War is like WoW but the PVP is killer and a lot of fun. I can see a lot of WoW people leaving for War and not coming back. Me I will be playing both although I think War will be my main game with WoW being my casual game I play on my Macbook when I'm out and about (I don't think this will support War) War isn't going to be smashing on WoW numbers but I think it will get a good solid base of players.

September 15, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterJosh

WAR is definitely an interesting game. I enjoyed the beta and looking forward to my regular edition head start. I'm concerned though that faction imbalance will kill many servers.

September 15, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterSirUrza

I beta tested WAR for a bit and I have to say I am dissapointed.. After so much hype was put forth about this game by the marketing reps, I am just in awe when a friend of mine states to me that WAR will overthrow WoW. Sorry to say but WAR will never overthrow WoW. I have my opinions including the one just stated, players will go check out WAR and be right back on WoW a few days later. I am not the only one to think so, there are plenty of forums out there with beta testers such as myself pointing out interesting things about WAR and I invite all of you to check them out. Google search ftw.

September 15, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterJulien

WAR is definatly alot of fun - the public quests rock - and i will definatly be playing WAR while i wait for WOTLK, aswell as after it comes out

Goblin Squigg herder all the way

September 15, 2008 | Unregistered Commenterrighteous fury

WAR will be a threat but a lot will stick because of the type it takes to get from lowest to highest level the grathics are good and everything is PVP enabled and you can capture certain locations, there are 3 talent trees per class. so people will go but some will come back

September 15, 2008 | Unregistered Commenterandy25100

WAAAGH!! I'm soo excited about WAR

September 16, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterEric

I had the chance to see some of Warhammer. The graphics where great and the public quests we interesting. But I don't think there was enough content to keep some on interested like WOW does. All so I like PVP but Warhammer just has to much for even me. Yes I will stick with WOW. I have only been playing for a year. I can understand why some will leave. A lot have been playing since WOW's beta. They has seen it all.

September 16, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterRedaurora

WAR is great (i'm on the Head Start in UK), the Public Quests is a great idea as it gets you to learn your class's tactics very early in the game (an idea Blizzard could poach).

My Guild is slowing down with Raiding, but we all agree that when WotLK comes out we are all going to come back to WoW with avengance.

So blizzard have nothing to worry about, the majority of us are loyal and will stay loyal.

September 16, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterStevedb

although its not good for guild already in those instances, for some players suck as me who started playing a short while ago and still doesnt have a 70 char, its good, cuz it gives us a boost to get to 79 and gear up a little to get ready for WotLK

September 16, 2008 | Unregistered Commenternebrakaneizzar

yes there are tons of people who want something new from wow, and will go to WAR. yes there are tons of people who think they want something new, but end up staying with wow bc of the improvements in WOTLK. Either way, both games are for personal preferences and i know that wow has too big of numbers to every be fully threatened by another mmo, but with great competition, comes better offers and more cool stuff they offer us to real us in. as long as that doesnt go off the walls, i think i'll be fine.

September 16, 2008 | Unregistered Commenterfriskydingo

me and my guild are on wolfenburg and we are rolling destruction

September 16, 2008 | Unregistered Commenterbraindead

Even not considering the release of WAR, I've been hearing the same things from in-game friends and guildies. With RoLK out relatively soon, there doesn't seem to be much of a point to keep grinding away at arenas and raids. If we can expect a similar experience as the TBC release, we will be picking up greens from regular questing that are better than most of our current epics.

I can see people still running Kara or Heroics just to horde badges, as they might be useful in the expansion. Same thing for arenas and PVP, people will be stocking up on points just to see what might be available.

September 16, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterWookieeB

It is already happening, A few weeks ago in our guild people stopped showing interest in Kara badge runs. Now slowly even the normal raids are slugging off. This past week we called off a raid because people didn't log on to attend. Friends are farming to be prepared and selling everything they can to make money for upcoming Adventures. I on the other hand took a year long break from WoW and returned 5 months ago and have plenty of things to keep me busy with lvling the other 4 alts to 70 and gearing them as best as I can.

My husband on the other hand will probably be done with WoW and will turn to WAR, mainly because he enjoys the PVP aspect of WoW and not so much the PVE anymore. Lets see how long he enjoys the PVP in WAR.

September 16, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterElky311

I already took my break and played Age of Conan for a while.

In my opinion, the leap from 1.x to 2.0 was huge in comparison to what 2.x to 3.0 is going to be.

I was in a late starting progression guild half way through AQ40 when BC release date was announced along with all the changes to PvP, gear and raid sizes. It was clearly obvious that guilds were going to cut some of the fat to reduce their guilds to optimal raiding sizes. This left a feeling among many to the lines of "Am I gonna be left out in the cold?" So many people just gave up to did nothing but wait. I myself farmed for honor in preparation of hitting 70.

With WotLK coming out in two months, the situation has changed. Raid sizes aren't changing, there isn't much difference in obtaining PvP and PvE gear via badges and tokens. Once again, I find myself in a progression guild. We are working on Sunwell and from the look of things will continue to do so until we start leveling up our toons.

The only thing I'm thinking right now knowing the expansion is so soon, is what class am I going to take to 80 first.

September 16, 2008 | Unregistered Commenterbrett

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