And I don’t mean vague troll responses like “Oh getting 20 people together to do something is hard” or “Oh it’s hard to find people for this obscure content or super high key / etc.” I mean as in the classes and the raids / dungeons we’re meant to take them into.
Do people actually, genuinely, find anything in the current classes or content hard? If yes, what in particular?
Quick edit: I am not talking about classic WoW. Game was massively braindead until late WOTLK when the class reworks hit. I’m talking late WOTLK to MoP compared to WoD and on. I used to pug the highest difficulty raids before heroic was renamed to mythic, but now everyone acts like mythic is this unfathomably hard content that you simply CAN’T pug – to which I call BS.
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This game has always been easy to learn but hard to master, plus difficulty ranges from person to person.
I for one, find PvP quite difficult at high levels since I have to play with 130 - 160 ms against players with 10ms lol.
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Speaking only for myself, it is annoying that people think the game is so easy that everyone can do it. Specifically I never have been able to do 20s. The farthest I ever make is 14 solo. The problem is the groups I get can’t ever seem to complete the 14, myself included. If the game was so ez then why isn’t everyone doing 20s? Well obviously the skill to do these dungeons do require a bit of knowledge and then being a disc priest I also have to be knowledgable about when to pre-shield, when to burst heal, and when to dps.
So yes I do think WoW is hard. Maybe if only for myself.
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Of the content I choose to do, no. Not particularly. But that’s why it’s the stuff I choose to do. I’m not looking for a challenge.
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getting over the zug and learning how to physically optimize the thing between your brain and keyboard is pretty hard.
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Seeing the green on green bad bubbling on the ground in the triple boss fight of Everbloom was hard. I always struggle when AoE damage areas are nearly the same color as the surrounding terrain. I had some issues with the trash packs in the sand gateway area of DoI too. But if I could see it, then no… the mechanics wouldn’t be hard.
The only other thing that gets hard are some of the reduced camera angles and clutter cutting off parts of your sight. I hated spires of ascension when the tree leaves would constantly be in your line of focus.
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I find hitting 2400 in pvp challenging each season.
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Do you have the gladiator achievement?
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No and it’s because when a game gets hard, I give up!
So, maybe there’s hard content in WoW, I don’t do it. I actively play to the level where I can just show up and win by knowing my basic rotation/boss mechanics, and then stop.
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I am pretty sure near 100% of the playerbase will find m+ eventually hard due to infinite scaling. Along with mythic raiding.
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I don’t do the high end content so no, there’s nothing I find hard in the game. That said, I also don’t find anything hard in Classic WoW either.
I think there’s some aspects that could do with being harder than they are, but as a whole WoW is not a game I play for highly challenging content.
I am looking forward to seeing what delves bring to the table, though.
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I not sure what you mean by hard. I mean there is tons of difficult content. Clearing mythic raids is very hard. Doing high end M+ is a hard. Rated PvP is clearly difficult. If you want hard content it’s there.
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Absolutely. the ability overlap in phase 3 Mythic T-Swift was especially brutal.
With a brain that functions with at least 80% capacity, all WoW content is pretty easy to complete. Difficulty really happens when there are weak spots in the group and mechanics can wipe whole parties with one mistake.
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It’s not that the game itself is difficult, but sometimes people make it impossible.
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A few boss mechanics here and there, sure, but nothing that can’t be learned and overcome. If I’m honest it’s mostly…
that. 
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Pvp, M+ and Mythic raiding
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Yes, folks seek out the challenge mostly due to the rewards. And that stuff is genuinely difficult.
Go do Solo Shuffle and say it’s not hard, lol.
WoW has no shortage of challenging content. Mage Tower, M+ high keys, PvP, and more.
I’m mostly a casual these days from what I used to be, but I still engage in PvP and the occasional M+.
I don’t really raid anymore, but it’s still obviously challenging at Heroic & Mythic difficulty.
PvP isn’t scripted and is moreso based on your own class knowledge and predicting enemy abilities and knowing their classes as well, not many WoW players are well-versed at it because there’s a lot to know, in addition to execution. Takes a lot of practice.
Granted only a portion of the playerbase seeks the challenge, there’s probably way more casual players than those that go through endgame content regularly.
Hence Delves being added, maybe that can bridge the gap a bit, similar to Torghast. It was an activity for “everyone” to engage with.
What do we consider difficult? Is it only difficult if you can’t play your spec within 1% of your theoretical DPS on a fight? Or is it about how you compare to others, like parsing 99% meaning you failed? Or is it about tackling the highest content? Difficulty can be relative, meaning it varies for each person and usually involves content or parses just above what they can currently achieve. Not everyone clears all content, so there is always room for improvement.
Spec
Either way, I find feral difficult. Here’s what’s required to play feral effectively:
- Energy Pooling: You need to pool energy efficiently.
- Bleed Tracking: Multiple bleeds on multiple targets must be tracked.
- Combo Points: Combo points are generated randomly, so you can’t rely on muscle memory and must watch them constantly.
- Spell Order: Spells need to be cast in a specific order for Bloodtalons, while also managing pooling and holding finishers.
- Variable Energy Rates: Energy is gained at different rates during different times (e.g., Incarn), making it hard to develop muscle memory.
- Cooldown Alignment: Several cooldowns don’t naturally align.
- Procs Management: Multiple procs need to be monitored.
- Pandemic Times: Understanding and memorizing Pandemic times, which change due to talents.
- Combo Points Usage: Knowing when to use combo points at 4 or 5.
- GCD Lock: Being locked into the Global Cooldown.
- Snapshotting: Knowing which spells are affected, what cooldowns affect them, and tracking how long it’s more effective to not maintain a non-snapshotted Rip compared to using it with Tiger’s Fury and/or Bloodtalons.
All these factors create a complex priority list that prevents developing muscle memory and demands constant attention to WeakAuras, which can cause missed mechanics.
Fights
Regarding fight difficulties:
- Color Similarity: Nymue’s mint green orbs and lines on a darker mint green floor, combined with mint green circles and lines on me as the tank, make it easy to lose track of visuals. Similarly, Tindral’s seeds and shrooms can get lost in all the red.
- Timing: In fights like Timecap’n Hooktail, you need to aim the breath to kill adds and move before the breath happens. Without a visual indicator, you must time it in your head, which is challenging.
- Communication: Fights like Mekkatorque require calling out colors or shapes, demanding effective communication in a short time. Mythic Smolderon’s dispel is supposedly similar. Large pulls in Mythic+ also require coordinated stops, adding to the difficulty.
Leading
Raid leading can be hard at times. You need to find a group of people who can tolerate each other, perform the content, show up on time, and be willing to let people go if their goals don’t align with the group’s. Additionally, you must mediate disputes, know all the fight mechanics for all roles, and make call-outs. It’s a lot to handle while still playing your own character.
Moo!
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It is pretty disingenuous to claim that there’s no difficult content when you haven’t even attempted the hardest difficulty of said content.
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