Is no flying/pathfinder doing what it is supposed to do?

Community General Discussion
1

I always thought this removal of flying right at max level was designed to encourage people to play in the world content more, i.e. pathfinder.

However, I am working on getting some max level characters on my second account and I find instead of doing what I normally would do, level up my professions I have decided since pathfinder will take more time than I want to devote that I will skip professions and just do old raid content for gold. And since I am not likely to be able to earn 180k gold per month from running old raids, I will just likely just quit playing that account once my time runs out.

Has anyone else experienced this ? Avoiding world content since you don’t have flying ?

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So, you’re saying that world content isn’t worth playing because you have to run to it? Is the content just that much more compelling if you fly to it?

Seems to me you don’t want to do the content at all, rather you want the results of the content. And even those results “aren’t worth it” (for assorted values of it) because you can’t fly?

Let me assure you, the encounters don’t get any better if you can fly to them. You still have to absorb the azerite at the shiny spots, kill the 10 mobs, collect the 15 pieces of barleycorn, etc.

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I wanted to level up blacksmithing/mining and it really just takes more time than I want to spend because of not being able to fly.

I boosted a mage on that account because I was leveling up a dk via the AV event and I went to Nazjatar and I actually log into my main account to fly the character around to get enough pearls for the gear because I just can’t stand ground travel in that area at all. Again with flying that character would be spending time earning rep and essences but I can’t be bothered with it as it is.

I didn’t encounter this on my main account because I had 9 months before flying, however, I am wondering if people who have limited time to play or who start late are just bypassing world content entirely because of this.

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That’s entirely what I did. I didn’t finish Archaeology or Pet Battles until I had flying unlocked.

I’ve been playing more BFA with flying than I ever did without it.

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Most world content in BFA isn’t worth doing, padding it out with a slower mount and god awful zone design doesn’t exactly improve my likelihood of doing it.

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I have read and heard a similar sentiment from many players that I have interacted with.

It is unfortunate but Blizz thinks PF makes players play and log in more but it has had the opposite effect.

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This whole doing all the content so that way when you get flying it’s pretty much irrelevant has driven me away from the game. I hate modern wow design so much. Flying is a big part of it but it’s their paper thin reasoning behind it and every other unfun thing in wow.

I want to get to max level, get flying and do the content from there. Like it used to be. Like when wow was fun. The devs need to release their choke hold on fun.

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I think they have Pathfinder completely backwards. Why make it so that flying is locked until you have completed a vast majority of the content of the expansion? So you get it after you need it? It’s like making you hammer a nail into a board using only a spoon and your forehead and only after the nail is driven into the board are you given a proper hammer to do the job with. In the end you just have a bump on your head and a shiny new hammer that you don’t really need anymore.

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Let me state that when players quit BFA early on many said there wasn’t much to do outside of raids, mythic +, or unrated/rated PVP.

It is more accurate to say there wasn’t much to do outside of instanced content in BFA that is worth while as a reward, and as a time investment . This is due to how punishing ground mount travel is in BFA zones, and flying heavily restricted.

AP in BFA is time gated by rotating world quests and those world quests are hard to navigate via the ground so you are forced to use the antiquated flight master system. Only time I would ever utilize the flight master system is when I am done questing. But the use of the flight master system going from quest to quest is very tedious and puts you out of the feel to play the game.

A hearthstone does something similar but at least it is a travel system that directly takes you where you want to go versus watching you go AFK on a flight path. The flight whistle is also designed in a similar way but again it is not good enough to help you navigate a zone for example if you goal is go for all the AP you can find.

Why navigate the world on the ground when AP is better doing island expeditions? Blizzard designed it this way and to reward players for navigating the world on the ground the rewards must be appropriate for the time investment. But that is not the case with BFA.

Gold rewards from world quests early in BFA were inferior than Legion because of two reasons. First because of the travel time associated and also due to the gold rewards not scaling for difficulty or time invested versus legion counter part gold quests.

Players quickly figured out that doing legion gold quests was better gold/hr than BFA gold quests via the ground/flight whistle. Even when the legion gold quests were nerfed, players figured I can do old content that I can fly to or even port to versus doing content on the ground and waiting for flight master whistle.

Crafting also takes a big hit. Why craft the new bags when I can go craft imbued silkweave or hexweave bags?

The time investment is greater to craft the same bags in BFA versus previous expansions. How does this make sense?

Why slog through the ground when I can save time. With that saved time I can actually play my alts, play another game or even go do some yard work outside.

If I can save time while still enjoying the game why not?

BFA is a failure of design in many ways and the gating of flying just points it all out like a sore thumb.

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pathfinder in a nutshell I mean they set us out on an almost Wizard of Oz type of expectations of success

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I think you’re missing the point that you don’t “need” flying. It’s a QOL benefit when content is no longer current.

You don’t need it to do anything.

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LOL!

It sure feels that way doesn’t it? A MP parody come to the game as a “feature”.

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Objectively, definitively, yes.

Do you want to walk to the movies or drive? Literally no one will choose to walk.

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I am separated from play often, and return when I can. The difficulty in obtaining Pathfinder once it’s old content prevents me from doing a lot of content in the zone where it’s required.

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That is unfortunate.

PF is very punishing for returning or new players trying to earn PF in old expansions. In shadowlands I have no clue how they are going to handle so many PFs while they do a level squish. It is one giant mess to be honest.

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So, Blizzard took flying away because they wanted people to engage with their world content. Perhaps, instead of making the PF slog, just make world content that is naturally engaging?

And you’re right, world content doesn’t get better with flying. It gets faster. If, to accomplish an unrelated goal, you have to do a boring tedium, being able to get through that tedium in less time is superior. It also does result in more fun, because then it’s less time on the “chores” and more time doing the fun stuff.

I absolutely did this.

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Playing wow is a luxury that nobody needs. Eating a well prepared steak is a luxury nobody needs.

Point is, flying isn’t needed to do any current content but it sure does make things better.

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If it was supposed to create an endless supply of spam… then yes.

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Nope. I’m experiencing the same thing. Do you even play the game?

If it takes 4 times as long to complete something because of arbitrary restrictions on it, does that inspire you to choose content that doesn’t have those arbitrary restrictions?

How is it your determination to make whether people who don’t want to take 4x longer to reach and complete world quests (sometimes a lot longer than that) get demotivated and do something else?

Are you still walking to those world quests every day because it’s the morally righteous thing to do?

This is just a lie. I’ve done pathfinder in Draenor and in Legion. They certainly do get better if you don’t have to take half an hour to find something that’s got a sheer cliff face between you and that quest that has already popped up for you.

You’ve convinced me. You have so little idea how people actually play the game that you must be working from a script.

I’m working on pathfinder 2 right now. Sometimes I just can’t take anymore of this and go farm old mounts or argus.

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Koloi, you just made my afternoon! Thanks for the giggle! I LOVE Monte Python!