How's the state of Retail WoW right now?

Community General Discussion
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I’m not as familiar with the retail version of WoW, I stick to classic versions, but i’m interested to know from you guys who have a lot more experience with it, hows the retail game right now?

  • What do you find fun?
  • What do you find frustrating?
  • What could be improved?
  • Is it possible for newer players to hop in and enter some of the more challenging content? (are there friendly outlets for that sort of thing)
  • Hows the m+ community?
  • Hows the PvP community?
  • Hows the raiding community?
  • What is your daily routine for playing retail?

Is it worth getting into in your opinion?

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Games great right now kinda in a slow spot as we’re coming towards the end of a season, but M+ is maybe the most fun it’s been in awhile, the raid is great…I’m not sure how easy it is to get into mythic raiding as I’ve not ever done it

However if your looking into actually playing, right now is a great time as gearing is quick because there’s catch up gear, so you could see what you like and do some low keys or normal runs, and no big deal if you have to re roll.

This has been the most fun I’ve had in wow in awhile.

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  • Raiding and mythic+ are by far the best parts of the game in my opinion
  • Leveling is an experience that practically serves no purpose, it’s unmaintained and its very clear by its pacing the goal is to get you to current expansion content as fast as possible
  • game could be more polished in places that aren’t endgame, newer player direction on how to play could be less reliant on outside resources.
  • Yes as long as you know where to go its easy to hop into keys and raiding, it’s just a matter of knowing how to do those things.
  • Lower keys are very chaotic but the higher M+ key community is pretty good in my opinion.
  • basically a dead minigame that consists of 1000-2000 dedicated players in any given region that never figured out they could move onto another game with more dedicated pvp.
  • The best form of content currently if you have a guild
  • Raid two times a week, slam keys with the boys and chill.

If you like endgame content it’s worth it in my opinion, if you prefer leveling or open world the experience is something I would liken to a mobile game after you are finished with the main campaign of each patch and would not recommend. But I may be biased as I very much do not like the current solo/open world content philosophy, delves are ok but they get old fast.

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From top to bottom:

  • The game overall: M+, Horrific Visions, some crafting (folks are using addons to spam people which makes it less fun), other activities in general, it is just simple normal chill fun.
  • On the forums, it’d be folks making up stuff to complain about when there’s real things one could complain about. In-game though, I’m significantly more relaxed about what frustrates me so… probably the spammy addons making being a crafter less fun.
  • Everything, as there’s no such thing as a perfect system. It’d be by and large minor things fixed here and there. But I can’t think of anything major per say.
  • Technically yes, but one should be aware that we are in the middle-towards-the-end of a season which is when competition is the highest. Folks have gear, scores, achievements - whichever metric you want to use and people want “proof” from folks that they invite.
    One could join at this point but it’d be probably amongst the most difficult times for newer players to get to the challenging endgame content. In general folks are friendly but, socializating is required and one has to avoid the “lowest common denominator” places. Think of it like “Who are the ones who are still doing the entry-level stuff for endgame with how long the season has been out” and it’s gonna be toxic, hardstuck, or otherwise the more miserable players. Doesn’t mean that’s everyone, one could be like me who’s severely behind because I was busy all spring but it still means I’m playing largely within that category of players when I’m not playing with my guild.
    There’s good players and then there’s bad players. Right now, with where we are in the season, the entry point is largely filled up with people who are stuck and can’t get anywhere. Which are typically the type of players I mentioned earlier; so I’d say tread with caution or find a guild or community (in-or-outside-of-the-game that you like to socialize with).
  • The same as it usually is: good, but there’s bad players, good players, toxic players, nice players. Same as it usually is (and no, these forums aren’t a good representation of what M+ players are actually like).
  • No idea, I don’t PvP. Most don’t.
  • There’s not really such a thing as a “raiding community.” You either pug or raid with a guild/community, at which point that becomes your frame of reference. Pugging is the same as it usually is which means it is the same thing as I mentioned with M+; good, bad, toxic, nice, etc.
  • I don’t have a daily routine - I play most days, 5-6/7 days a week, but I don’t have a routine and it isn’t exactly daily either.

I’d say if you are looking for endgame content, maybe? But it entirely depends on how you wish you approach it yourself and your tolerance of other players if you decide to pug. But at that point one is participating in the worst option for endgame content. It might be an idea to get into it, to gear up characters to be ready for the next season, since there’s a lot of Champion (Normal-raid) quality gear that’s available from weekly open world activities, and it is also possible to use the Puzzling Dinars to get catchup Heroic-level gear.

Whether that’s worth it or not is entirely up to you.

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Just wanted to preface, the devs have been rather excited to implement as many timegates as they can. Personally i am waiting to see if they continue the trend, and if so will start looking into other games.

2025 has been a decent year for games so far!

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Games playable, ye.

I don’t know what doom saying you’ve heard but I just got a few keys in with the boys and chilled out the rest of the night.

  • Fun. Subjective. Personally: Transmog collecting would probably be the best way to sum it up for me. Grinding out Mythic+ for full tier set appearances on classes. Just finished my Heroic/Mythic Warlock set.
  • I could go an entire day of Mythic+ and not find a single drop. But, that’s just how RNG is. I could go on and never find a drop from now until season 4.
  • +12 requirements on a brand new alt for myth trinkets is kinda lame.
  • Define challenging. Taking a brand new player into a +12 is a bad idea. +2? Fine. Wouldn’t hurt to read a guide and brush up on a training dummy for your rotation and talents.
  • Same as ever. Getting into keys as a solo dps can be frustrating. Tank and healer get free rides.
  • Toxic. Same as it ever was. Same as it ever was. Same as it ever was. Same as it ever was.
  • A lot of guilds are in hibernation, some are recruiting, some people are making Yolo groups. Mid/End season shenanigans.
  • Used to be doing my professions, maxed those out so now it’s maxing out my vault on main and crafting for my server.

If you want to play World of Warcraft, can’t go wrong with Classic or Retail. It’s an mmo either way.

lmao.

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Context: I predominantly play Retail but I do Hardcore and Classic SoD too.
Raider for Mechanics Optional, raid lead for a little for Depraved Intent. On break from both.

  • What do you find fun?

I like all aspects but in moderation. I think I limit myself to Heroic/maybe first two of Mythic.

  • What do you find frustrating?

My raiding guild for Mythic have all basically mega-quit after a particularly bad day of Mythic Prog where we wiped a lot on Cauldron and some people just make Rik Reverb impossible. We have almost collectively retreated to Wizard 101 and Hardcore Classic.

I think there is a general attitude of ‘get good’ rather than helpful resources from players that would actually benefit them. With that said some introspection would help a bunch for a lot of players too.

  • What could be improved?

I think people try too long to be solo - it would be good if Guild finder could be listed at the front based on ‘activity’ i.e guilds that have actually been active are shown to new players. I find community resources can be hard to find for a new player.

  • Is it possible for newer players to hop in and enter some of the more challenging content? (are there friendly outlets for that sort of thing)

I think Delves is a good way to start and then maybe jump into a dungeon/low mythic key on one of the community discords.

  • Hows the m+ community?

Honestly it’s not as bad as people say. I’ve rarely had ‘bad’ keys and even ones we don’t time, usually people have been super chill. I comfortably reckon most people can get portals done (time each on a 10).

  • Hows the PvP community?

A little bit more brutal once you do rated, IMO. It’s better to get some practice in randoms. Epic BG i see as the ‘alright let me try out how these skills work’ because there’s so many people, it’s lower stakes.

  • Hows the raiding community?

I haven’t pugged raids outside of normal, but we have pugged during MO prog. People tend to be desperate to join runs so it’s been good. I find that because I’m overgeared from Mythic anyway can pretty much carry Heroic.

  • What is your daily routine for playing retail?

when I was in the swing of things my weekly ritual:

  • Get 4 keys
  • 8 delves
  • raid prog Wed/Thurs when I’m not on shift.
  • raid lead sat/sun
  • I’m a tank/dps i fill whatever people ask for in my guilds in discord. Lately it’s been dps.
  • Do some legacy stuff with my bestie yuki (Mythic SoD/SoFO/Amirdrassil/Farm emerald dream for druid stuff)

Is it worth getting into in your opinion?

Hard to say, my best advice is to give it a go and see if you like it. After starting at a time when ‘game is dead’ in Shadowlands I’ve largely been whelmed by my experiences. However I do believe we’re all different and what I might like, might not be for others.

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Then I’d probably say it is time to find another game. WoW is a heavily timegated game because it has to be both because it makes the game play better (not to be confused with “making gameplay better” which it doesn’t but also doesn’t make it worse), but also because players by and large cannot pace themselves.

Which means that they will continue with the trend of timegates most likely. That or make content that has “natural” timegates built into themselves that players don’t think of as timegates but that they are.

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  • Playing different classes and trying them out in various seasons, especially when they get changes I wanted from trying them before. While some classes have similarities, they all have pretty big differences most of the time, and getting to cross learn different things which may even be applicable to the other classes I like playing.

  • Highest end gear is RNG gated if you don’t Myth raid; Some classes also receive much more attention than others and it really shows at times (Ex. Brewmaster)

  • If they don’t want to fix the archaic Mythic raiding system, M+ needs to be able to have a way of accessing Myth track gear that isn’t RNG based in some way, whether it be something like the Dinar system and key level achievement to get Myth gear which does help, or just add it in on higher key levels after a certain point in the season (as to not affect RWF).

  • I would say so, there’s communities that like to take their time and do learner raids/dungeons which are also expected to not be a toxic environment because everyone is there to learn and have fun

  • I don’t see a lot of toxicity that I know a lot of people mention, but can understand that that’s just my perspective, some people might get really toxic if a key fails and I rarely play alone, other than that, the community unfortunately seems to be getting very “meta-minded”, where some people will just straight up not invite people that aren’t the meta spec/class at the time.

  • Never touch it because I loathe PVP.

  • Seems easy enough to jump into a PUG if you don’t feel like finding a guild to settle in with, but there are a lot of guilds that will take on people as fills and you could even start raiding with them even if you don’t join their guild or are on their server.

  • Wholly depends on the time of the season, like right now it seems like it’s very much winding down, so might just do M+ for fun on alts, kill a couple raid bosses for the week to get rep for the raid, maybe do some stuff here and there to make some gold, but since it’s a more downtime oriented time, I usually just go to play some other games if I feel like doing that instead.

  • It doesn’t hurt to try, especially if you already stick around playing on Classic and have a sub already, I would say that the two have vastly different “expectations” to go in with, where I feel Retail WoW is much more endgame heavy, Classic is much more questing and progression heavy

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“ded gaem” since 2004

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  • What do you find fun?
    The story… When we get some, leveling through a new story is always a highlight of the game. I often go back and make an alt to go through the storylines of expansions all over again.
  • What do you find frustrating?
    Min/Max of every little thing. This game used to be “bring the player, not the class/ilvl”, but now, it’s all about getting the right gear, the right spec, the right rotation, the right class comp. So much of this game has become about the numbers instead of having fun.
  • What could be improved?
    There is a lot that could be done to make the game better from a technical standpoint, and with this upcoming removal of assistance addons, its a step towards something better… If Blizzard implements something better or more user-friendly in it’s place. However, the addons that should be removed (WoWLogs, RaiderIO, ilvl checks, etc) are not going to be removed so the largest thing that needs to be fixed will never be… The gatekeeping community.
  • Is it possible for newer players to hop in and enter some of the more challenging content? (Are there friendly outlets for that sort of thing)
    Leveling? No.
    Raiding and M+? No
    We’re at the point where if you haven’t been grinding since the launch of the expansion, it is going to be really hard to catch up. Yes, Blizzard has implemented a few catch up mechanics, but they are too slow when it comes to getting gear to get into the Heroic/Mythic raiding or M+ dungeons that everyone is doing these days.
  • How’s the m+ community?
    Gatekeepers run the community. If you aren’t at max ilvl with the right gear and playing the right class/spec, then good luck getting a group. If you are gearing, avoid M+ like the plague.
  • How’s the PvP community?
    They fight… I have no idea. I’m not a part of that community.
  • How’s the raiding community?
    If you are in a guild, then its a good community. If you are looking to pug or gear an alt, then you’re not going to have a good time as everything is in the end phase where everyone is doing Mythic raids and not bothering with gearing alts or late coming players.
  • What is your daily routine for playing retail?
    I stopped playing daily and now play twice a week. I play after the weekly reset to do my chores of delves, dungeons, weekly quests, and then I come back on Saturday to raid with my guild.
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  • Time gating upon time gating, reaching new lows in TWW.
  • Undermine is probably the absolute worst zone I’ve ever been in, worse than Nazjatar
  • M+ was in such a sour/poor state at the beginning of TWW it’s still fresh in people’s mind
  • Hallowfall Arathi event was so buggy it was borderline unplayable
  • Horrific Visions are terrible, just like they were back in BfA

I will say, as a pro, and it’s always my singular pro these last 10 years~ ish, is that the art team has delivered continuously. It’s all so beautiful. I only play because I have nothing else to play on the night shift.

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Probably my biggest complaint is with the frequent side events. While having frequent side events is not bad, what is bad is that they are the WoW equivalent of junk food content.

What I mean by this is that they are all low-quality, bug-filled, rehashed content that leaves players frustrated and unsatisfied.

And while I have gone back and forth over this, I’ve decided I would prefer nothing or maybe one well-made event over what we are currently getting. At least with nothing I can only be unhappy about the lack of content…and not time gating, bugs, bad tuning, poor rewards, etc which have made me start hating these events

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This is what I mean when i say open world/solo content is akin to a mobile game. Quality over quantity is preferred the number of world events that have been getting spammed out have led me to entirely ignore them because whats the point? I know they will be buggy messes that are less fun than a gacha minigame. Long gone are the days of being excited about a new event.

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Vibing in delves, pet battles, Undermine, and RP

The bad vibes of Debby Downers and what ever dev decided Alleria needs 15 seconds of casting in a room of fire.

Quite a bit, but top of my list is the faction identity and the seam on pandaren necks.

Some maybe? But there is a lot to learn if you are new to MMORPG’s.

We aren’t on speaking terms.

Don’t have one, just do what ever I vibe with that day.

In my opinion, yeah, but my opinion is worth just two cents.

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State of retail right now? Kind of a dumpster fire but it could still get worse I suppose, it used to be great but their writing has been slipping for a while now. Surprised it still has a pulse but Blizzard would still try to milk it for every last penny even if it didn’t. Don’t mind me though probably a biased opinion but I’ll show myself out all the same

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You’re playing classic, paying for retail….try it out and answer all your questions and more!!! We’re all playing wow, self imposed barriers shouldn’t exist.

Heck, barriers shouldn’t exist. I should be able to take a portal from retail to any classic version and join you and vice versa. :slightly_smiling_face:

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They even timegated the timegates!

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The state of retail depends on what you enjoy doing.

M+ is in a pretty good spot for newer/less experienced players content wise. Its fairly easy to shoot up the ranks and get max reward loot.

The raids I enjoy.

A large mix of content aimed at the entry level player. Some rewards are more rewarding than others. There has never been a larger focus on the new/entry level character. With much of that focus allowing for a solo/partial group atmosphere.

Communities are a fickle thing, as there are two very distinct variations of them. The PUG aspect and the guild/community aspect.

PUGs are always interesting. They are always on the entire spectrum. Some people will be great, some…not so great.

Guilds/communities are where its at (imho). Find regular people with common goals makes it a lot more enjoyable to me. The in game UI isnt the best for that, but when you find the right crowd, its pretty sweet.

My daily routine depends on the day. I am in a guild that raids twice a week. Otherwise I enjoy doing keys mostly. When people arent around, I then start to check out the solo/world content.

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The hypocritical nature of this statement, I hope it also is evident to everyone else.