It was worse than TBC or vanilla. Data said all. When a game started losing players, something was wrong. The peak subs were just a meme. It was just from the momentum from vanilla and TBC. The fact was that the games started losing players. Even WoLK pservers were less populated.
In my opinion, the 10-25, normal-heroic raid design was the worst. You can argue some parts of the game became better, But overall, it was worse.
I know that many people love some features added in WotLK, like heirlooms, LFG and multiple raid difficulties, but thatâs exactly why the game, at least for me, started to feel a worse MMORPG
Perhaps, for me as a solo player and an altoholic, it is exactly what I need.
I didnât like the raid design (split raids will be awful), but a lot of it did do good for the playerbase at large. Making raids more accessible and the characters themselves stronger individually did a lot for casual players.
One of the reasons it stopped growing so much was it hit, âcritical massâ so to speak. 12 million subscribers is massive for a western MMO.
Yeah, totally. Iâm not saying these things were absolutely bad. Itâs nice to dungeon level, have an easier and faster time with items that are the best you can get for your level and also give bonus exp., be able to do raids as a more causal player⊠But, at the same time, it kinda removes the magic from the world: you donât get excited anymore by getting items like Corpsemaker and Ravager while leveling, as your heirloom weapon is better; you gain more experience than other players, which goes againg the shared space idea; you, after discovering the dungeon, never have to go back there on foot or mounted, which makes the world feels smaller; multiple raid difficulties and sizes (4) break the immersion⊠I think the WoW became a worse MMORPG, but not necessarily a worse game. Idk, itâs kinda hard for me to explain.
I personally loved wrath and and cant wait to play it again
I do see your point though as much as a i love wrath i think it was the starting point of how retail got to where it is today
It wasnât, but ok.
It didnât, but OK.
They werenât, but ok.
It wasnât. but ok.
Not until the end when they started showing the âramped up difficultyâ they were planning to add for the future and people got wise to what was coming in Cataclysm. It was NOT going to be pleasant. And it wasnât.
It was FAR better than 40 man with long graveyard runs when you died.
Overall it was BETTER. The worst thing about it was the zone designs after the first run-through. Thereâs a reason it got the name âBoring Tundraâ.
Class design was improving by then and many more classes felt âviableâ in Wrath. I was a little miffed about some individual specs still being crap though. I spent that entire xpac playing Fire Mage and I hated it. Fire has gotten better now, but I hated it back then. The rotation wasnât fun.
Wrath was objectively a better experience than both Vanilla and TBC. Both of those had their moments, but overall they were improved upon in Wrath.
Cataclysm is where the game turned the corner and started being truly âbadâ. They didnât REALLY pull it completely out of the fire until Legion.
Death Grip castable on players ⊠ugh
Sap castable on beasts ⊠Rogues didnât need more PVP buffs
the awful grating sound effect on Fan-of-Knives ⊠ugh
Strand of the Ancients is only fun if youâre an Elemental Shaman or Balance Druid ⊠on offense
Empty Dalaran zone ⊠over-crowded Dalaran mini-Shattrah
WoTLK is not without its own warts and bonehead game design.
I think Iâll be as excited as I want, but thanks.
I think most of us have previously played WotLK. Why some rando forum poster should tell us what our expectations should be is kind lol-worthy.
Most of the reasons you mentioned were because the game became more accessible. Most of the people who didnât like WotLK were the high end elitist raiders of Vanilla and BC, and especially those that ran the guilds. They no longer were as special, after all, anyone could raid now. And, they no longer could play gatekeeper to end game.
iirc, only 5% of all accounts contained at least one character who successfully downed at least one raid boss in BC. That number jumped to 40% in WotLK, and it hurt the elitistâs feelings that the filthy casuals could raid and have gear without kissing their butts.
The Wrath release was the highest point in WoW population at that point. and was only surpassed by CATA release (~12 million). Unfortunately, CATA did not pass muster, and it fell below Wrath numbers within 3-6 months never to recover.
Pre-Wrath veterans complained that Wrath was watered down (it was compared to Vanilla/BC) because it was made more casual friendly. But Wrath is arguably the high-point in the game, subs/population/popularity wise.
There was nothing wrong with Wrath. It is generally considered the peak of WoW. Wrath was the balance point where the content was still acceptable (if not quite loved) to Vanilla/BC players, but accessible to casuals. But, yes, it was the beginning of the declineâŠ
Thatâs as far as I read because both of these are hogwash. Data in fact says wrath had the highest sub count ever.
Cata Classic>Wotlk Clsssic.
You can argue the quality of WOTLK all you want but this is objectively false. Aside from Nost for a bit WOTLK has dominated the pserver scene as by far the most popular version.
Wotlk was probably the most easily accessible expansion ever. Every kind of raider had their niche, the badge vendor had rewards for pve and pvp players, and it had LFD which gave casual players the ability to jump into dungeons easily.
Sure you can argue that the raids might be watered down and the pvp is a little frustrating due to its high burst but the expansion was still a ton of fun to play.
I can fix WOTLK before itâs released. But, yes, attempting to deliver us a âauthenticâ wotlk experience would be a tragedy in the making. Anyways, here is what blizzard should do to make WOTLK an epic experience.
This is a bad change.
These modes arenât made for everyone. This donât hello kitty island and you donât need to be able to do all the content.
Only problem I saw in wrath came at the end when ICC came out and everyone started asking for gear score and linking achievements before they would invite you. Before that it was working well.
SImple /drop mic time. Bliz ruind TBC with #changes. how will WOTLK be different?
It gained according to the data a half million subs from 11.5 million to 12 million⊠Its not horrible but its certainly not Vanilla and TBC levels of growth; and thatâs really what matter is the growth, its what the investors and share holders want to see.
Wrath was not a âgreat successâ as the lovers of that expansion would like to think its just an expansion thatâs treading water⊠basicallyâŠ
The problems it had were ALL PVE related being that there was too much gear bloat, the content was for the most part Half way garbage being only ICC and Uld being any good, the rest was pure trash.