In shock, Ion said NO FLYING, and PATHFINDER AGAIN

Community General Discussion
780

I have no issue with what they are trying to accomplish with pathfinder - having us be boots on the ground to enable PVP opportunities and to see the world we are experiencing for the first time is a good idea, in my opinion.

The PROBLEM is the way pathfinder is acquired: ENDLESS world quests. The only reliable way to acquire reputation to get anything in this game now (because everything is gated) is to grind world quests. NO ONE LIKES THEM! They’ve been stuck on this idea since Legion that world quests are the only option for end-game content, and it’s gotten old really quick. They should give us more options for gaining reputation. And perhaps pathfinder should come out after 6 months instead of 1 year.

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781

I hope you’ve never skipped a single mob then. And you definitely shouldn’t have ever used your flight master’s whistle.

I have no fear of PVP thanks to warmode being optional. Further, I would argue that they should massively buff the net-o-matic. Give it a longer range, shorter cast time, and make it an AOE so it can dismount multiple people hovering near each other.

And most of the fauna is ignored even when I’m stuck on the ground. The one good reason to bother with trash mobs, the shoulder enchants from Legion, was dropped like a hot potato with zero explanation.

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782

Trite is the sentiment that people who want the return of purchasing flight at max level are somehow entitled, lazy, wanting to skip content… Trash mobs are not content, they are timewasters.

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783

Now, now.

Put those pitchforks and torches away.

There’s no need for that. Blizzard isn’t going to take away flying just because Krutz told them to do so.

But if they want to fix the game, flying needs to go. Permanently.

784

They need to shake the dev team up again. From top to bottom.

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785

still trying to figure out how flying broke the game

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786

Honestly, will my words really have an impact on your opinion on how flying deteriorated the game?

I’m dubious.

787

its certainly possible, I disagree with the other arguments you made though

do you have anything to add to them, or any other arguments to support your position?

788

I’m curious as to how you can make this statement after the disaster that was WoD. They tried yanking flight and it failed miserably because what the world needs the most is content. How we get to the content is mostly irrelevant.

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789

Sitting in the sky on a flying mount, out of reach from danger or even the dreaded net-o-matic, turned an MMO into a single player action RPG.

The local fauna isn’t a threat, and according to another poster, they’re nothing but a, “time waster.”

So, we have a game that’s deteriorated into trivial NPCs that die in moments and a flying mount that eliminates even that small amount of danger.

When you reach your world quest, (depending on the variety of WQ) a player quickly completes the trivial difficulty of said quest.

Zero challenge, zero engagement and is off to the next quest. (Rocketing there in record time on a 310% speed mount)

No grouping required.

So this immersive, beautiful MMORPG is now an action RPG with efficiency as its main objective.

Efficiently going from world quest to world quest like a honeybee going to flowers and gathering pollen.

Flying is fantastic for efficiency. But for an MMO, it’s disastrous.

790

I am gonna play devil’s advocate a moment if I may: You know what else is disastrous for a MMO? Losing half its playerbase like what happened in WoD when they announced they were removing flight.

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791

I feel that they should’ve never continued flying after The Burning Crusade.

It’s an unpopular opinion but Blizzard should’ve put a stop to it there.

Now pathfinder is in place as a compromise and it seems like a fair compromise to me.

There’s no need to worry about my opinion, though. Blizzard isn’t listening to lowly Krutz as an advisor and flight isn’t going anywhere.

792

Which is why they should significantly buff the net-o-matic. Longer range, faster cast time, and AOE effect. Also, this is only a concern if you have warmode turned on.

The local fauna hasn’t been much of a threat in a long while. And even if they were a threat, there’s generally no reason to even slow down when running past them.

When grouping is required, you can just press a button and get a group. And if it’s too difficult, players will just keep throwing more bodies at the threat until either the threat dies or the server falls over, or both.

Also, WoW has been solo-friendly since it’s inception. You never needed to group up during vanilla. Which is part of the reason why it was so successful.

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793

ok, I get this point I see it happen a lot, removing flying certainly would fix this, but maybe there are other ways to fix this that let more people be satisfied … maybe disabling flying in war mode? just a thought

this has nothing to do with flying

isn’t eliminating a triviality trivial in and of itself?

again, this has nothing to do with flying

the challenge (or lack there of) of a WQ certainly doesn’t have anything to do with flying, its just as unchallenging if you walk there backwards

im not sure what you mean by engaging in this context and how it relates to flying? how does flying make WQs less engaging that ground mounts?

again, not sure what flying has to do with grouping being unnecessary

so, ill grant you that people hovering above a WQ waiting for the other faction to leave will certainly reduce the instances of world pvp skirmishes

which, frankly, is one of my favorite parts of the game, I would love to find ways to encourage more world pvp

while removing flying would certainly do that, im not sure its the right answer, flying is also incredibly convenient if you need to get someone thats not near a FP, or you aren’t near a FP and don’t have a hearth

perhaps a different solution would work better for both sides of the debate, I like the idea of no flying in war mode, do you think that would help?

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794

Well, we have every indication they feel the same way, but unfortunately that genie is out of the bottle and the attempt to put it back in didn’t end well for Blizzard. :slight_smile: You are entitled to feel how you feel, and it’s not about any fear they may listen to you (if you pay attention to the forums they don’t listen to any of us:P) but more of a “Why would you want them to do something that has a big chance of actually killing the game?” Obviously you don’t have to answer that… just explaining why I replied to you…

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795

That’s no more fair to players since there are players that prefer to fly in warmode. This kinda comes down to what Ion said at Blizzcon, if you didn’t hear it was in regards to flying/Pathfinder and he said “If everyone is a little bit unhappy then it is probably the right choice.” Pathfinder makes everyone a little unhappy (not literally everyone, I am sure there are a random few), but you have your people that think flight should not exist at all… they are bit unhappy but maybe also a bit happy it is delayed. Then you have your people who want it at the beginning who are a bit unhappy, but maybe also a little happy that they still get it at some point… so on and so forth. When we try to say “flying should never be allowed in XXX” while that may make some of us very happy (those who want flying at the outset), it also makes another group very unhappy, those who will now never be able to fly if they choose to be in warmode.

796

I literally prefer no flying at the beginning of an expansion. It’s a better way to experience the world and pvp is harder to come by when every chicken with warmode on for the +10% bonus only flies away at the first sign of trouble. The designers make the world, place mobs, events, points of interest in a specific way that they want people to experience them, free form flying takes a lot of that away, but after you’ve already been given time to experience everything, that’s ok.

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797

Like I said, “deteriorated.”

Flying didn’t single-handedly destroy the game.

The other things I mentioned did their part in eroding the game too.

The game is still fantastic; but could be SO much better.

798

I think the indication is that some of the devs feel that way, but not all of them. I think at one point Ion said it was split about 50/50 on the team whether flight should stay or go.

For me, I find it curious that once the devs from the cancelled Titan project were moved onto the WoW team prior to Warlords, we saw this push to remove flight in Warlords. Something tipped around that time. There certainly was a change in design priorities/goals after Mists. You can almost say WoW has gone through three major phases in its game design: Vanilla to Wrath, Cataclysm to Mists, and Warlords to present.

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799

You know…

This is really succinct.