Are the only people left in the game the type to play 2-3 hours a night? This is not possible for some of us, which I don’t mind. If someone wants to play all day they should be rewarded (since they are giving up time in the real world). The problem is you just cannot catch up if you don’t grind and grind. Alts are never going to happen. Am I missing something? Why do I feel like I cannot compete?
Edit: my statement about 2-3 hours a night is referring to the hard core players. It feels like they are the only ones left.
Casuals have it better today than any other expansion. Gear is pretty much freely handed to you that is base 385 and goes up to 425. That’s insane. If you’re casual what do you need to grind? Be casual and enjoy the game.
Even those that grind 23 hours a day will never catch up. And let’s even bring up that RNG can keep out no lifers from completely winning. I don’t worry about it.
I think that the casual game has been dumbed down too much and is as unrewarding as it is unchallenging – Blizz underestimates its player base too much.
I’ll give you alts, they are pretty hard to level for a casual, but for one character there is plenty to do to keep you entertained for 2-3 hours a night and not run out of content for months.
Farm your pearls, do some M+, IE, Warfront, Essence farming, professions. The only difference between a casual and a non casual is raiding really, and that only gives a 5 iLVL higher per slot in heroic, and trust me, mythic is not always worth doing unless you know your guild can down bosses, you can get stuck at 100+ per boss pulls and be no further in progression than when you started that boss 6 weeks ago.
I’d call myself a casual or at least am currently a casual and the most difficult part of being a casual in the current state of the game is levelling 1-120. Benthic is an instant catch up mechanic, if you have a 120 you only need 2-3 hours to get the character in 385 Benthic gear.
As for flying that can be difficult however just making sure to do your emissaries at a minimum is a must. Having alts is hard, i’ve just accepted poverty as a semi casual altoholic however knowing that i am a casual i am not really frustrated about not being ilevel 10 billion, my only frustration is at things like allied races and flying.
Guys in top guilds are battling Mythic difficulty Ashara wearing the same Benthic gear anyone can farm stupid easy.
Easily the most casual friendly patch I have ever seen from Blizzard ESPCIALLYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY with the affixes on the gear plus the ability to farm gear and get sockets.
I only play about 3 hours total every night IF possible. Some nights I hardly play at all. When it comes to being casual I think that I can call myself that. But I wear that casual badge with Honor.
Grinding is has always been in this game since the very beginning I don’t think or foresee that changing for casual players any time soon.
They should honestly extend the concept of emmisaries to all daily style content. I despise the notion of having to log in every day. The 3 day rolling emmisary concept helps weekend warriors to keep up with daily players by allowing them to do the content when they can. It feels very bad to not log in for a day and it shouldn’t be that way.
I dont understand, is this an alt complaint or a main complaint? You say this leaves behind the people who play 2-3 hours a night, and I might understand slightly more but then I saw t his.
Alts for everyone suck, even those that play a lot. Unless you actively spend every moment doing something productive like Method then the alts feel bad to level up.
If that is the main complaint its bad for everyone. If the real complaint is that there are not catchup mechanics… WQ give up to 385 now with high Emissary rewards (I think I saw 415 armor caches for me the other day), and then just doing lower M+ maybe around a 6 (1 affix) gives about normal raid gear as well.
This is not to sound rude, but people are literally thrown 415 gear in far easier environments and can easily get geared up to at least Noraml 415 raid levels if not more with a little WF/TF luck.
I feel like WoW has become more and more “no player left behind”, and I will not argue that the sentiment behind that is bad since you do not want people to fall behind. But, I certainly would not say someone who logs on 15+ hours a week is left behind, and anything they are really behind alt wise is felt by many others.
Out of curiosity, but are you new to the game? Because this is the most alt friendly expansion. It amazes me the short term memory people have but Legion, albeit very alt friendly also as was WoD, this is by far the most alt friendly. Legion is pretty close and if you remember, your alts also had to grind out AP. So not sure why all of a sudden people say this is very alt unfriendly.
This is the first expansion where you can gear an alt within a week or 2 (depending on if time walking is up too), to where you were heroic gear ilvl. My alts also have more in their neck than they AP in Legion for their weapon.
edit: You also don’t need to play 2-3 hours a night to get anywhere but if you play a couple hours a week and expect to be close to someone who plays 2-3 hours a night, then that is just ridiculous and mmos probably aren’t for you then. You make it sound like people who actually put in a lot of effort and hours shouldn’t be allowed to be further progressed than someone who can only play a couple hours a week. Why is that Blizzard’s fault?
Are people so deluded to think that gear is the ONLY motivator for players in this game? Especially casuals who likely the least interested in gear progression?
Heck, this delusion is probably why there’s so many problems with the game in general right now. They’re trying to solve a problem they’re incapable of understanding because the proposed solution – more gear – just keeps making it worse.
Giving players gear was NEVER a solution.
At best, it’s a symptom of a deeper problem… if not the cause to the problem.
So being able to grind endlessly to get a few pieces of raid gear but nothing to do with that gear and then be told it was fast and easy is what’s considered “casual friendly”? No wonder casuals are quitting.
I am going to admit it, I’m totally baffled by your response. What are you focusing on as a casual then? Anything you do in the game pretty much involved combat, and therefore you need gear.
The rep grinds, ap grinds, etc. don’t require you to do much. The only way I’ve “grinded” rep, aside from Nazjatar/Mechagon is the daily emissary. Nazjatar/Mechagon I did do all the WQ’s daily. Which with WM on I still managed to get them all done in 2hrs. I am actually to the point where I’ll be skipping playing every night now, as I feel like I’m in a good spot overall for this part of the xpac as a casual. (I don’t raid, and only occasionally pop into mythic+ and pvp)
What are your goals that you can’t get them done playing on a few hours total a week?
Alts are easy to level up. Rested bonus, xp pots from the honorbound vendor and heirlooms. Then go farm random islands til your rested bonus is gone. Let it build up and rinse repeat. You will go from 110 to 120 pretty quickly.
This xpac hasnt been that bad for alts if you doing the daily emissary.
As for gear be releastic. Dont think every alt will be mythic level geared unless you play all day, every day.
I have a tank that likely wont be farming mythic 10 any time soon as I am focusing on 2 other toons. So I just try and run an 9 each week and then later when one of my other toons plateaus then I will go back.
It shouldnt be too hard to catch up but if you plan to unlock all of the followers on every alt, yeah you got your work cut out for you.