I’ve recently taken an interest in playing WoW for the first time, so I would like to ask a handful of questions to clear things up because there’s a lot that seems a bit confusing to me. For context, the only MMO I’ve played a noticeable amount of is FFXIV, and even then I only finished ARR.
How hard is it for a new player to get into the game? I often hear about how easy it is to fall behind, and I’m not sure what people mean by that. Is it weekly stuff? Is it the latest expansion in general? Patch? If I start playing now (I’m level 11, only done tutorial really) will I realistically be able to do endgame content (raids and such) after clearing the necessary missions?
Why do people say that players spend more time grinding and prepping for raids than actually doing them? Or did I misunderstand? It seems that people say FFXIV is easier in that regard because you essentially just have to que up for a raid and enter it relatively speaking, whereas in WoW you have to do other tasks first before entering a raid, or maybe that’s just Mythic +. So is it not feasible to enter a raid whenever you want? Are players farming buffs or something?
Is queuing up for a raid or other content the same as FFXIV where you press “u” to open your duties such as Trials, Raids, Dungeons and everything and select which one(s) you’d like to match make with other players? Or do you have to physically type and recruit people in chat and form actual guilds for everything? I assume that’s how raids or done, considering they’re more difficult although I could be wrong.
Is there a lot of collectibles such as mounts, minions, achievements and such? Is a late player such as myself capable of collecting most of it, or is it simply too late?
Is it possible to play through past expansion content? I started a character in WoW: Classic the other day and while I’m enjoying it I’d rather play retail that way I can keep all of my mounts and achievements and use them in future content of the game. It seems like a minor waste for me to get cool stuff and then only have them in a relatively irrelevant game world, although I get the appeal and will likely continue my playthrough just as well.
Is there a specific class/race that is more beginner friendly to get through all of the content and raids, or not so much? I prefer tanks as that was what I was in FFXIV so I’m used to it, but if I’d have better luck being some sort of DPS or it’s easier to do something else then I’d like to know.
Final question: what does the future of WoW look like, and for how long will it last? I know it’s still a MASSIVE game and possibly the most played MMORPG currently, but I wonder how long this iteration will last, and what they plan to do in the future. I must admit that coming to WoW after putting 200+ hours into FFXIV was quite jarring. The graphics are severely outdated, and the game seems to be missing a bunch of stuff that’s in FFXIV, at least as far as extra content goes. It doesn’t even have proper housing, which I find surprising. I saw there was an announcement of three more expansions, so perhaps this version of WoW will be here for another 10+ years, but as an outside it seems like it needs to move on into the next iteration. Is this a common opinion among the core WoW fandom, or is my opinion a product of my ignorance of the game?
Thank you to all for your patience, and to any who answers my many questions.
Getting in is relatively easy with the methods of catch-up mechanics and guides. As long as you learn at your pace and don’t try jumping into stuff you weren’t prepared for yet should be good.
Raid prep on the serious level is similar to FF14 in a few ways (running other content for currency to upgrade gear as much as possible before going in, gathering up consumables, going over boss guides and strategies) where the boss fights themselves can get knocked out rather quickly until hitting a wall for progression.
Almost. LFR is like that, LFD are more like the Roulettes, then there is the LFG system which is kind of like Party Finder but the leader has the ability to invite people themselves instead of it being automated. Besides LFD/LFR, you would have to fly to the location.
Lots of collectables, mounts, titles, and transmog. There are a number of time-limited ones (Seasonal things like M+/PvP/AotC mounts/titles and the PvP elite transmog) but a vast majority is still obtainable. -Extra note: Unlike FF14 Trials/Raids, even the old content has the same lockout. Raids being loot-locked for a week so even if you roll in and one-shot all the bosses in an old raid, you will have to wait a week before you can do the same raid at that difficulty again unlike FF14 where you can just run the same thing over and over unless it was the most current content.
Yes. You can go back and do older content however unless you are in Chromie Time, using Level Sync with a friend, or lock your experience before reaching current expansion content, you will find that you’d be far more powerful than the quests and would not be challenging at all, though the rewards still exist.
Race doesn’t matter that much, just go with the one you prefer though tanks are very much like they are in FFXIV, very simple in most situations where boss fights are usually the easiest content for them (Do the boss mechanic dance, push rotation buttons, use defensives/taunts as necessary). They’d also get faster queues for LFD/LFR at times so would be easier to get a step in with pugging things.
It’s been around for almost 20 years, and they already planned the next 10 years of expansions so… There is that. Will it go beyond that? Time has yet to tell.
It’s all about getting into a guild that’s a nice fit for you.
Don’t join any guild that sends a whisper and a random invite, joining those will give you the worst experience. Join a guild doing normal raid or casual stuff and make friends.
Some people like to go all out and farm reps, grind bosses or world content for the best gear, consumables, crafted gear, enchants.
You don’t have to go all out unless you want to or you joined a guild with those expectations. There are guilds who don’t expect that.
You can queue in Wow but generally it’s only for the easier content. You have to manually form groups for harder content. This is why a good guild and friends group is important.
Almost 20 years worth. Maybe like 5-10% is unobtainable? Idk. Mostly still there.
Yes but it’s not going to be as good as it was when that content was current. You may feel a bit too powerful.
All races are fine. All classes are fine though some are easier for very niche old content (tanks for soloing group quests, healers for doing certain old bosses)
People will say bm hunger, demon hunter and frost mage are some of the easiest specs. Guardian druid is also pretty straight forward (and has 3 other specs to play!) but you should play what you find fun and just get good at that.
More or less the same as now with small iterations each expansion for the foreseeable future. They currently have up until 2030 planned and I’m sure they’ll go for as long as they can.
Depends on your tolerance of figuring things out on your own.
Yes it is weekly stuff, but it is something most want, but nobody really needs it. Needs vs wants, one says “I WANT 60 character limit to be increased” another person says “you don’t really NEED that.” What do I think? I think video games is not about needs honestly, it is all about want. Some might say “if you want it, then go get it” but I only see 3 boring hamster wheels and honestly I think blizzard might as well delete everything else but mythic+, rated pvp, and raiding but I digress. Point is, you don’t need it.
Yes
That is another version of the game, it is called classic.
You can do that in retail.
That’s classic.
Yes
You have that option too.
Yes
It is never too late, I joined December 2018 and I have pretty decent collection.
Yes
Your Worgen warrior will do just fine.
Warriors can tank or dps.
No one knows.
I see. I tried ff14, didn’t like the responsiveness of the buttons. So, to each their own.
No community has one single unified consciousness, there are all kinds of opposing opinions. Some were asking for wow 2 for years, others are against it. Anyways, I’m surprised you only mentioned FFXIV only 6 times I thought it would be at least 40 times.
It’s relatively easy to get into the game these days. Combat is snappy and responsive, quests are simple - you kinda zone out after a little bit and just start leveling on autopilot so that aspect of the game is a no-grind and fairy forgiving.
There are several “versions” of the game that are playable right now. The Retail version, namely, the Dragonflight one, is the newest one and you don’t need to explicitly farm anything to be ready for raiding. Definitely don’t need to farm for buffs. There are still consumables like food and flasks that give you combat stats but they are generally relatively affordable and you won’t be using them in the low-difficulty endgame content anyway.
Queuing for content is similar to XIV but not quite. You can queue through automated systems (Looking for Group and Looking for Raid) through the UI but those are enabled only for the low level difficulty versions of that content. Higher difficulty versions of content (same content, just different tier of difficulty) requires groups to be assembled manually.
There are indeed LOTS of collectables to hunt for.
You need to pick a version of the game that you want to play in: Retail or Classic. For new players it’s debatable which one is better but if you want all of the content, Retail is the place to be and you will have access to the content from previous expansions as well. Keep in mind that level sync isn’t really a thing in WoW and thing don’t work that same as how it’s in XIV so once your character outlevels previous expansions, that content will be perma-too-easy/solo.
For race, just pick what you like more. For classes, it’s a mixed bag but the generally good starting points are warrior, hunter, paladin - they are easy to learn.
Well, they have plans for the next 10 years but what those plans are - we don’t know. Regarding the differences to XIV, WoW is just a different type of MMO that is more combat-focused rather than everything else. That affects storytelling in WoW as well, so don’t expect even ARR level of writing in WoW. It’s loose and fast, often stupid and contradictory but fun more often rather than not if you don’t think too much about it.