Getting Sucked Back In: Part Duex
Posted by 
iTZKooPA on Friday, May 8, 2009 - 35 Comments Tags: Ulduar, getting sucked back in, ilvl, itemization, left behind, playing catch up, questing, the burning crusade, wotlk, wrath, wrath of the lich king
iTZKooPA on Friday, May 8, 2009 - 35 Comments Tags: Ulduar, getting sucked back in, ilvl, itemization, left behind, playing catch up, questing, the burning crusade, 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?
Reader Comments (35)
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
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.
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.
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
its also thanks to PL. TY lylelovett
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.
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...
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!
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.
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.