Does anyone have an easy time with the Maw?

Community General Discussion
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Was sharing this story with a friend earlier, about how I’ve lost confidence in myself as a mage and a player in general because probably for the first time ever, I got held up on a non-elite storyline quest as part of a chain within the Maw. I had to get a key to rescue a golden val’kyr lady and try as I might, I couldn’t burst the offender quick enough before I got taken down by Maldraxxi defectors. The various Jailer effects did not help of course, and I was 3/5 at the time. It took a bit for my mage to just kill the assassins when they popped up.

So after that event, I basically gave up, and determined someone like me who plays solo most of the time should be playing a more solo-oriented class. I originally rolled a BM hunter, but have recently gotten into playing an affliction warlock instead which I think I enjoy more. I’m currently level 45 and exp locked into Chromie Time because honestly Shadowlands is just depressing all around, as it constantly reminds me how weak, pathetic, and how much of a nobody I am. I’ve got plenty I can have fun with in older content for the time being.

But, if I ever took this warlock outside of Chromie Time and back into Shadowlands, would my time with the Maw be any easier? Figure a big beefy soul leeched voidwalker would make a huge difference, and I could actually kill some rares and elites with him, but I’m curious about the thoughts of others. Does the Maw feel as oppressive to you guys as it does to me? I was told that the Maw was supposed to be “Warcraft Hell” but it just seems like it’s only that way for me, and everyone else just gets to kill and plow their way through the minions of the Jailer like normal.

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I use to hate the thought of going there, now it has become a challenge of some sort.

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I hate The Maw, and am currently leveling alts outside of Chromie Time so I can level where I please.

I’m probably going to finish this toon doing Archeology in Kalimdor and EK because it’s got the highest exp, especially rested because I hate SL, and I’ve already got a Hunter at 60 and only log on her to do renown chores.

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I absolutely hate maw ,whoever made that content is just oof .

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Chromie Time has been amazing. It has felt good being able to actually compete with folks at my level for things like the Darkmoon/Gurubashi arena chests, as opposed to geared guild groups of 60s just overtaking solo players like me. I got both achievements for the 12 trinkets this week from it. :smiley:

But yup I’ve locked at 45 just to be able to go in and out of CT at will, because some things are better with CT off.

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The only time i go there is for assaults now nothing else and even earlier i just did 3 weekly quests and i was done with it . Never bothered with getting the rep fast and now i see that was an excellant idea as with korthia i m getting boatload of rep .

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Warlock is great for soloing :slight_smile:

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Or any tank spec :slight_smile:

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Pepe told me that if i wear him ontop of my head while inside the Maw, then that place won’t be so bad.

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I had a hard time on that campaign quest with this frost mage at item level 175. The trick was to clear out the non-elites first without ever face pulling the elite ones. Also was helpful to bind the extra action button to my ‘omgwthbbq’ panic keypress to drop combat when I did pull an elite mob

My blood dk main just of course pulled the whole room and left a body pile after a lengthy combat session

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Done that quest on four toons so far. Three tanks (druid, pally and DK) and this shaman in enhance spec. Tanks did not break a sweat. Shaman it took considerable caution and making sure earth elemental was off cool down for any significant pull so I would have an ohhh ****** button.

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Yes! The Maw was downright terrible, especially in 9.0. Many quests and rares were not intended to be soloable, and even the soloable stuff was dangerous due to mob density and difficulty. Also, mounting was not possible at first.

To top it all off, the Eye of the Jailer could spawn dangerous mobs and traps while you were already in combat, and death would result in permanent currency/progress loss if you died again before reclaiming the Stygia you had dropped.

The original Maw is better now once you have 9.1 gear and all perks from the 9.0/9.1 content unlocked, but hopefully devs will think again before creating a zone that is so punishing yet rewards so little.

We all have to ignore the boasts of the raiding-geared hardcores who claim that WoW open world content is too easy and that there needs to be permanent consequences for failure.

Mages are without a doubt the hardest class to do solo content on. When undergeared in the Maw, you really have to eat your mana buns between pulls and save CDs for rares or groups of mobs.

The endurance conduits that allow your Barrier and Ice Block to heal you drastically improve your survivability, though, especially in conjunction with the Triune Ward legendary.

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I don’t like the maw at all either. I only do stuff there when I have to. As a frost mage it’s definitely tough. I’ve used polymorph and ice block more in the maw than any other place in any expansion ever. Every optional power up I have is geared towards healing/leech stuff. My water elemental has done more tanking than it ever thought it’d have to do. It’s absolutely easier once you can mount there and once you get rid of the jailer’s eye, but it’s still a crap place to be.

I feel for you. The maw sucks. Completely sucks. You’re not the only one that despises it, trust me.

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Yeah it took me way too long for me to finally be able to mount. And while I was running around slowly to each objective tons of folks were just riding by on their mounts, probably laughing.

That’s basically where I gave up. I told myself I’d just get the 800 Stygia for the quest, then log out. Ended up dying repeatedly, losing all of that stygia, and logged out in utter frustration.

For sure, I tried all three specs trying to see if one of them would make soloing easier, and nothing did.

The latter stuff, I barely know of. I had recently got the barrier condiuits, though at green quality, and I don’t think I was anywhere near a legendary.

Thanks, I don’t feel alone now.

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Mage is the only class where you can actually easily die while questing. The flip side is that the fragility can make it fun because you have to be careful and plan your actions.

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Only when I get jumped in warmode by a roving gang do Allaince scummery.

Have more faith in yourself though friend. Maybe you need to simply do an honest inventory and determine if you, are in fact a good mage player or have room for improvement.

I’ve been playing this Shaman since, 2007, well, maybe not this one, as I had some convuluted account “issues” and then a rerolled on a different server…anyways, same name, same Shaman, and I still constantly am seeking to improve. And, I’ll allow, I’m likely only a moderately decent player but I still watch and read content, discords, etc.

Just like anything else you want to improve at; use your will to dominate and be a super
space monkey.

But to answer your question, Affliction isn’t in the best solo place currently, with lacking many healing or “drain” abilities and fee defensives.

However, you could make that work to, as Void Walker is argubly a decent meat shield. And I say arguably because you can go right now and read in the Warlock forums where players are discussing how it feels weak and not good, etc.

Again, it comes down to commiting your will to evolve and become an Uber Yeti or just be a dingo ate my baby.

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The maw to me feels forced in that it feels uninspired by the development team. It feels like an area where they had great ideas, each one rejected until we got this uninspired mess.

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I haven’t turned on Warmode once in SL. Feel like I’m not really allowed to with my gear level, I’d just get eaten alive.

Oh no, I’m definitely not a great player. I struggle with a great many things in this game and I’ve been dealing with massive confidence issues. I try my best, but everything I touch seems to melt into failure. I’m just a horrible, extremely twisted version of King Midas.

That’s cool. I’ve been playing mage since Legion. Part of the reason I rerolled though is how utterly unhelpful the altered time discord is. Ask a question, they point to the stickies, as if you haven’t already tried to read them a dozen times already. Can never get any straight answers from them. Maybe if I had a mage coach or something to follow me around and help me with my technique, but as it stands I rerolled because any class community has to be better than that right?

Feel like I’m losing that day by day, to be honest.

Oh. I always thought afflictions were the best soloers due to their more powerful drains and such. What makes demo or destro better in that regard? Thematically I love affliction, I like being a sinister shadow weaver, but I’d consider respeccing if the other two specs offered far more soloability.

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Man, that sucks to hear. I’d offer to help as I like helping when I can but I’m definitely not a great Mage player. Although, I would love to have access to the spell, Altered Time. That is one cool defensive ability. Even cooler the way it was originally…

I know a good bit more about Warlock as it’s one of my two alts but, don’t get me wrong, Affliction can certainly work. Once you get comfortable with it and have properly gauged what you can handle you can send Blueberry in while you apply your Agonies then once you have a decent pile gathered Seeds is pretty insane AoE atm to be completely fair.

Try it, you maybe end up loveing it!

I prefer Demo for soloing though(and really M+)as it is absolutely bonkers and IMHO is literally geared and tailor made for solo players that want to feel comfortable being safely tucked away begind multiple layers of not only Demons and Defensives but you also have some cool spells of your own to pop off. Not to mention, imho, it just really cool, fun and we’ll designed(although there can be some bugs that are supposedly getting addressed. Again.)…

Buut yeah, Demo, you have a Fel Guard as your main demon, while still being perfectly capable of switching to Voidy, or any other demon. But you won’t want to because Felguard is a straight up soldier from the pits of the Nether that is contracted to be your own personal Jesus. With an axe. His Felstorm AoE is rightous damage and can girl his axe at thing to stun them!

Next, you have twin demon dogs that have a short cooldown, can blast AoE damage of there own, and they pop out literally snarling and snapping to kill for you.

Then you have a literal host of Imps, which I personally have always loved the most and they are mainly summoned by casting your main AoE, which looks cool and does good damage in and of itself but you get 1 imp per 1 shard spent on the AoE. These Imp can stack up to where have like 15-17+ or more at time and they all cast rad little fire bolts. OR, you can stack the Imps up and just command them to suicide into your target, blowing up for the amount of energy they have left.

You can also, talent into summon an imp every so often with a chance to just randomly summons random demon.

You can also choose to talent into a SECOND Felguard. He’s only temporary but he’s up often enough to be there when you need him. And like a mentioned above, he’s a hatched wielding maniac that charges in, automatically stuns something then starts chopping away…so, a second stun and, yet another fatty taking your hit.

But the best, is every 2 minutes you get to summon a freaking Demon Tyrant. And when it comes out, it increases in power depending on every other demon that you have out, which, as I’ve illustrated can be quite a lot.

Demo is just amazing, imho and Destroy is equally as cool for different reasons but where Demonology is like an fire that starts of and grows to a raging inferno that just rolls thru everything, Destruction is more front-loaded with it’s damage and relies more on your own direct damage casting, which as a Mage player, I anticipate you will appreciate its own power.

But I do wanna stress, Affliction is definitely not bad, I am just personally dissatisfied with the way it plays, because when I started playing it in Burning Crusade all the way thru Legion it was this super tanky caster that just literally run around sitting everything it could see with Agony’s and Corruption dots while having really good self healing and bring able to take the beating on it’s brow and Drain Life back up while having several passive heals/absorbs building.

Now Affliction just feels different but I’m not gonna speak bad about it, because I understand thats just my personal opinion.

I didn’t mean this to get so long, it’s just Warlock happens to be one of my 3 classes I really enjoy.

Thematically I still like the “concept” of Affliction and it will forever hold a special place in my heart, it’s just currently being executed properly. But, I think the player base and even Blizzard are in agreement and it could be up for a rework in the future as a lot of Affy players appear to proclaiming their different “favorites”.

You can find the threads yourself in the Lock forums as well as a reasonably good Warlock community to help right here in the forums between Epicfire and Mannimarco.

Also, feel free to hit me up here or even add me in game if you have any questions about playing Warlock.

I have faith, that even if it ain’t Warlock, heck, even if it ain’t WoW, you will find your inner space monkey.

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Does anyone have an easy time with the Maw?

No… not really. I avoid it if I can and normally only go there to do the Venthyr assault because it’s the fastest and easiest one to do.

I love Korthia though and even do the occasional Torghast in a group.

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