Maybe its cuz i have zoomer attention span but autoattacking mobs in classic for 2 hrs straight just makes me drowsy. I have also had some epic heart pounding close calls but those don’t really happen anymore.
You guys genuinely enjoy just questing for hours?
It depends on the class and the quests I do. Some quests are more involved and have me looking for things where there are packs of mobs roaming, others I can just enjoy the progression.
I have a very weak appetite for straight grinding unless it’s for materials, but I genuinely do find the game fun. I often have a podcast, video, or music playing on a second monitor as I zone out if it’s an easy grind, but lean forward and focus if it’s a dungeon.
I don’t particularly enjoy questing. I leveled 4 characters in Classic 2019 through dungeon spamming.
Right now, I feel a little disconnected to any version of the game. I’ve actually been playing oldschool D2 (not even D2:R) recently more than WoW.
My schedule changed a few months back. I no longer have primetime weeknights available to raid, and I wasn’t able to find a weekend raid group that was progressing as mains…
I find myself logging into a random version of WoW (Classic Era, HC, Anniversary, Anniversary HC, Retail), and logging off after a checking mail, or maybe venturing out of town for a few minutes… and feeling just lacking any direction, focus, or drive.
Perhaps I’m somewhere between burnout and decision fatigue.
how do you play an rpg and not get immersed in the world? why would you waste even 5 minutes of your Call of Duty free time playing an MMORPG if you’re not into the character progression? That’s like being a dude and watching a RomCom when you’re single and alone.
Questing, exploring and gathering. Yes that’s what I like about WoW. As I have played the no death challenge almost from its “invention” (or at least formalization) in 2012 I have levelled almost 100 characters through the starter zones and further, but never to max. OG HC also was no talent, no groups or dungeons, and no stats gear - we died a bit more 
Fixed it for you.
Close-knit guilds where we all knew one another, and an online leaderboard with a chat-room?
It did not feel anti-social back then, rather it felt more social than my “normal” guilds which all disbanded during Cata, and where the leaders time and again begged people to at least say Hello and Bye in Gchat, and actually meet up for the things they signed up for.
Playing together and being social in WoW is a choice, not a function of running dungeons.
It was anti social, as I remembered it. Trying to do a bottleneck quest? No one wanted to group. Trying to do a dungeon? You only get one per dungeon per life. Trying to quest next to a “hardcore” player? They would try to tag the mob you were about to fireball. Just because you have a chatroom (guild) doesn’t make it social.
Oh, you’re talking of the Addon players of 2019 … I have to partly agree. I played on HW (the EU RP realm) then with my crew, which is what I talk of … the OG IronMan crew of 2012.
Since these are U.S.A. forums, yes I was talking about U.S.A. servers. Appealcore was problematic and anti-social. I don’t consider having a clique to be social. As it alienates outsiders. When I say “social” I mean for the general public. Like randoms you’d group with for DeadMines.
The IronMan Challenge originated in US (Link here: https://www.bluetracker.gg/wow/topic/us-en/4452527-till-death-do-you-part/), and I know from our forums that the situation was virtually the same as in EU.
And if Dungeons is your only social, yes IronMan and HC both are anti-social. But I think this is a very narrow definition of “social” and not one I agree to.
I like to use examples. But people really like to laser focus tunnel vision on the examples as if it’s the ONLY thing. Old hardcore is anti-social.
You never even noticed them. Which realm did you play on during Cata?
I forget exactly that long ago. But, my retail server has mostly been Moon Guard.
Moon Guard was (is?) one of the bigger RP servers, thus not much sought by the IronMan Challengers. Late in Cata I find only Willneverdie, Blood elf Hunter around level 62 and Neverdied NE Hunter around level 75 back in my old IMC archives
As you see I can readily find only two out of a realm population of 30.000 or thereabout. Earthen Ring and Wyrmrest Accord were the “big” ironMan servers with challengers amassing to 3-400. It’s in no way comparable to the massive presence of the Addon-players on the Classsic RP servers.
Edit: At that time we were around 480 IronManChallengers worldwide
Because retail WoW doesn’t offer a meaningful leveling experience anymore, and that’s what I enjoy.
Your core rotation is already handed to you by level 10, you get riding early, it’s just zoom zoom to cap.
Personally it’s the questing experience that I love, I’m at endgame now close to Pre Raid BiS and it feels boring a chore.
The leveling experience in hardcore is 10/10, grouping up, questing, watching each others back, heart pounding moments, adrenaline pumping. It’s a great experience.
The endgame just reminds me of retail, just endlessly spam dungeons for gear just a lot more strict team composition in hardcore.
when I get bored I drive into packs of mobs to see if I live
poor warriors dont even see a real rotation till 40 the first instant attack doesn’t even show up till mid 30s basically a handicap class meanwhile rogue starts with ss zooming through mobs
100% the journey to the destination is so much more fun