Queueable leveling dungeons are also easy mode
and if you pug it, they will pull from door to end boss with astonishing speed, so buckle up. If you haven’t played since Wrath, this has been a thing since then, so it’s not new by any stretch, even if it’s new to you. Heirlooms started it, and this is where we are.
Get to the Endgame
Where retail truly shines (which has always been true, but even moreso now) is the endgame. There are challenges of every description there, and there is content so much more complex and difficult than anything we had in classic iterations of the game, it will blow your mind.
That said, my advice to a returning player is to go check out what you missed. Do some of the stories. Discover all the new zones. Find a guild of people you LIKE. Take a minute to familiarize yourself with the talents and builds and how everything has changed. Find your people. Find your preferred level of gameplay. WoW is still a really good time.
Thank you to all the players who responded in a polite and civil manner. I appreciate and respect those persons who wish to engage in a civil dialogue.
To those players who responded in a snarky and uncivil manner - you will (and have) gotten the “Ignore Player” treatment from me. I’m at a point in my life in which I refuse to either engage with or have negative persons in my life. Period. That includes forums and other online areas too. BTW, my OP was from the perspective of a level 64 main Shadow Priest in wow retail. I never mentioned end game content or raiding. I was sharing MY opinion and MY observations on retail wow. Your opinion may be entirely different from mine… and that’s fine. Your experience in retail wow may be entirely different from mine… and that’s fine too. Your mileage may vary. I play wow to “escape” for a little while and I come to the wow forums to engage with other wow players in a polite and respectful manner. I don’t think that it is too much to ask and expect polite and respectful responses from other players. Game on!
Let’s be real. The soft tutorializing in 'nilla didn’t take. One of the most notoriously lethal mobs at low level were Defias Pillagers. In a town. With OODLES of walls to LoS the only thing dangerous about them: their fireball.
I believe you are playing the game wrong. Modern Wow is more of a sandboxy themepark game meaning you can do alot of activities that dont require leveling your character. For a new player or even returning after 10 plus years it may seem too much because there isnt a direct order to do these activities. Alot, and i mean alot of people say that retail wow is just too overwhelming. I was in the same boat im a classic wow lover and retail seemed too fortnite graphics and overwhelming shyt at first…i rejected it until i broke down the game.
First thing is first what do you enjoy about world of warcraft? Do you enjoy the exploring and quests? Do you enjoy the social aspect and doing activities with others? Do you enjoy collecting things and leveling professions? Are you into pvp or roleplaying? Pokemon battles?
If you dont enjoy questing and exploring that will be 90 percent of the game
If you only enjoy the social aspects those are more late game so early game will be a chore.
If you do not like collecting things or leveling professions you will consider most everything u pick up as trash or just AH selling.
If you dont like pvp or even Rp as your character race etc then that is a part of the game that will be gone for you.
Dont like the mini pet battles then another part of game that will be gone for you.
Odds are if you dont like number 1…at least the exploring factor…you probably not gonna enjoy the rest of the game because the exploring factor ( going to new zones and dungeons ) is the most thrilling part of the game to me.
My suggestion to you…screw the rat race crowd at late game, put a halt on your leveling by seeing that one guy in major towns, and just quest and explore for another couple months until u feel u seen and did enough and u want to move onto the latest expansion.
The game has it’s ups and downs, I don’t complain about it too much mostly because I enjoy what the game has to offer. I’ve been playing since 2013 and I’ve complained beforehand and just accepted it as it is what it is.
I love when these people come here saying how easy retail is. None of them have ever made it to 1800 or higher in any rated content. Or raided mythic or done high level mythic keys. But Retail wow is to easy.
The easy part is only the leveling and braindead content they put out there for noobs so they can farm there 15$ a month. Lets be real here. Retail is as hard as you make it. And if you want it easy. Then you can. If you want a challenge… then you can.
Just don’t get how these classic andy don’t realize this. And I been here since 2005. I aint new to this stuff. All the dad gamers will cry that retail is to easy while doing none of the challenging stuff.
I think the main thing is that in Classic, you don’t really get to ‘choose’ how difficult the game is.
It’s uniform it how it presents itself, and there’s a clear path of questing → dungeons → raiding.
Retail, well now you’ve got hardmode dungeons that are more difficult or on-par with raiding, and actual solo content that’s hard and meant to be done alone. Delves, Mage Tower, and so-on.
Stuff that infinitely scales in difficulty until it’s basically impossible.
Obviously these Classic folks haven’t touched that stuff, or they wouldn’t be here saying Retail is easy lol.
They’ve only touched the leveling, if even that, and judged the whole game from it.
That’s like judging the entirety of Classic just based off the starter zones, same energy.
Just a small portion of the game, and they’re not seeing the whole picture.
General Gorwarth, I agree with your good list. 20 odd years ago when I earnt the General title I also would have agreed with your “not so good” list too. I think the challenge comes once you are at max level, solo you have Delves (next patch horrific visions will return too). If you want to group up there is still M+ and heroic/mythic raids for a challenge.
I think leveling is an archaic system. They should scale up everyone to max level in instances, so if all you want to do is raid the game should allow it. If you want to do everything more power to you. If you just want to do outdoor leveling, that should be your game.
Excellent response! Using your list as a template, I’ll fill it in for me.
1. I enjoy questing and exploring. Especially like how some quests are interconnected, tell a story, and in the end your actions did something significant. e.g. freed captives, liberated a town from an evil curse, made something “wrong” “right.” Exploring undiscovered zones and seeing the new area open up beneath my flying mount. Poking around in newly discovered zones and picking up new quests, always an enjoyable activity for me.
2. Social aspects - I don’t care for them right now. The newcomer channel is annoying and distracting for me. I hate being spammed guild invites. I’ve disabled chat and blocked guild invites. It may change after I level some more. I’ll see how I feel about it.
3. Collecting things and leveling professions. I focus on these gathering professions - herbalism, skinning, and fishing. I can make a lot of gold in a relatively short time in the AH. I also enjoy leveling professions - especially fishing and like to collect special fishing gear. Hey - I’m one of those guys who likes fishing!
4. pvp or even Rp. I’m too slow at the controls for pvp and have never cared for Rp.
5. Mini pet battles. I’ll have to try them. Just never had a burning urge to do so.
So, adding up from your excellent list, I’m in a pretty good space now! I need to focus less on leveling / end game and more on enjoying the journey - kind of like real life!
Again, thank you for your thoughtful and informative post!