As someone who returned in late legion after that expacs pathfinder part 2 came out, I definitely feel what the OP is saying. That being said, not having to deal with the massive time gate between part 1 and part 2 was really awesome.
WTF ?
It doesnāt have to be fun , you know how stupid that sounds?
This is a video game ,it should all be about fun . Thatās what they are for is having fun .
Oh well. If you leave the game for a long time and come back, you have to do the same amount of content as everyone else to unlock flying. Get over it.
Totally agree.
And (directed at those of you saying āwe all have to do it so get over yourselfā), just because everyone else is having to do it doesnāt mean it doesnāt suck. Totally not the point of the OPās complaint.
It awful and it makes the game less enjoyable - thatās his point. It takes away from the fun of the game, makes it a chore to play, and itās sucking the life out of me. Iāve been playing for many years and Iām playing less and less these days because of this grind. Itās not necessary, itās off-putting, and Iām actively looking for something else to play because of it.
The argument that they make it hard to fly because they want people to do all the quests and see all of the zone before they can skip over it by flying is complete B.S. I have done all the things - many, many times. I am sick to death of this zone, and yet the grind continues.
Whoever decided to change the process from buying flying, like in Northrend, to this nonsensical rep-grind should be fired. Then covered in honey and left on a fire-ant mound. Then crucified. Then left for the buzzards.
Except itās not that simple at all. Iād assume a multibillion dollar company has some half decent number crunchers that have min-maxed their slog vs reward system for dragging out player subscriptions. It appears that they have found 4 weeks is an ideal sweet spot in terms of time spent vs reward of nullifying content with flying.
Itās been here since WoD, an expansion that came out five years ago or 1/3 of the gameās life ago. The trend doesnāt look like itās going to change because Shadowlands has already confirmed itās going to be in the game, which means it will be true for at least another two years, taking that total up to 7+ out of 17+ years that the game will have been out, which will be almost half of the gameās life.
If itās 100% fun all the time, then your bar of expectations gets set too high and nothing seems fun anymore. You need to strike a balance between. Hell, look at games like Skyrim or BotW or the Souls games, you spend at least half your time, if not more, doing āchoresā like farmingā¦
You must not do the zone quests or really any of the questing content. Pathfinder and flying unlock as you just play the game.
No, the OPās point was that it is a grind that he shouldnāt have to do. Everyone else played the game, did the zone quests, experienced the expansion content, and unlocked pathfinder easily. He should join the club.
i hear ya man. i havent played since the beginning of wod; its really been that long. i had no pathfinders from any xpac and when i came back a couple months ago from that long hiatus, i aint gonna lie. it sucked. but i just put my head down and got my grind on with that newly boosted mage that i made with the bfa token. it took right about 3 weeks of just grinding. getting all alliance allied races took me 2 more weeks after that. its not fun, but once its doneā¦youre done. start a new alt? bam they have it, no worries. what im trying to get at is, its gonna be a drag but just suck it up and get it done and youre gonna feel a heck of a lot better flying the āfriendlyā skies. good luck.
Achievements to aim for have always been in game, in fact the same achievements required by Pathfinder have been there since the introduction of achievements. All they need to do is slap a meta deed on finishing all and put a mount behind it. This meta for flying should just not be required. Itās nothing original or new but the laziest way the devs could find.
It thatās why itās ok? This grind should not be there in the first place.
āItās something to do. It doesnāt have to be fun.ā Really? Sometimes I wonder if some players just play because they are to bored in rl and need something to do. This is a game. It should be FUN for the most part. Flying for me determines the fun factor of WoW and there is none besides questing through the story without it. So I donāt play. Maybe Iām not bored enough in rl.
Blizzard must remove pathfinder rep grind portion. Completing all story zones and war campaign is more than enough
Like I said, itās no different in many other popular single player RPGs. In games like Skyrim, BotW and the Souls games, you spent a very large amount of time farming and itās just as monotonous.
Not having flying does NOT hold you back from completing content. You can still complete everything without it just fine. You are just spoiled by being used to having it.
Here are some alternatives that they might implement if you want flying right off the rip:
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Implement a very intrusive anti-air system that demands your attention and causes you to not be able to straight bee-line from objective A to B. Throughout the expansion, youād upgrade some kind of protection or reduced aggro radius.
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That or implement systems like other MMOs have where you can only be airborn for so long before having to touch back down to the ground. You already have a system like this, to an extent, in mechagon, but it would have to be much faster and would only allow you to be flying for 10 or so seconds at a time and would require a few seconds on the ground to recharge. Throughout the expansion, youād upgrade your mountās ability to stay airborn longer and would reduce the amount of time needed to recharge.
In either case, it will extend time played and thatās what Blizzard looks for. Thatās why they wait until a year into the expansion to put out PF2. They donāt want to trivialize content early on because it has negative results for their subscriber/MAU counts.
Well, there are consequences for oneās actions, and because you left, you fell behind. I left too, due to being overwhelmed in school, and now Iām doing what needs to be done in order to get the pathfinder, but for some reason you canāt do the same thing as I. What makes you so special?
This exists in Mechagnon already with the flying robot that looks like its from a Skynet production line.
I donāt think Iāve ever once aggrod any of the air drones and as for the HK-8, Iāve never had it attack me because Iāve always landed before the debuff got too high. Itās has an almost negligible impact on my traveling. What Iām suggesting would be far more hostileā¦
Itās not, actually, because it forced you to the ground.
All you have to do is touch any ground, for 0.1 seconds, and the stacks reset. Itās negligibleā¦
I have all of the Pathfinders from WoD to BFA - it still stinks.
Rep grinds for anything more than cosmetic rewards is kind of poisonous in general, and Pathfinder is nothing but. I honestly donāt mind flying being gated, and really enjoy the initial part of an expansion where everyone is grounded, but they need to find a better way than a lazy, stretched-out grind.
Itās 2 hours of content stretched over 3 weeks, essentially. We need either more variety in activities we can do for rep (tabards, please!) - or just a new system entirely.
I have pathfinder, I hated it. Basically quit the game with the exception of emmisaries as it took up all of my casual play time. Then continued months later when pathfinder was complete. Those saying it takes no or minimal time at all, I could finish a single RPG many times over in the /played it takes to do pathfinder. You do not represent the average person when you say it takes no time to grind out something we already had last expansion.
I have been with the game since release, so I am more compelled to actually sit through this rubbish. Your average casual non-forum poster will not sit through it though, they will just go play something else. If Blizzard wants to do that to appease a few sadists here, go for it. Its their financial loss, not mine.