I recently returned to the retail version after a few months, and my characters are already level 70. However, I find myself at a loss with the overwhelming amount of content on the screen. There are too many icons cluttering the map, an abundance of quests scattered everywhere, and an excess of mini-games within the game itself. The multitude of concepts and complexities are leaving me confused.
I’m curious if there are any plans to address the abundance of information and complexity in the game. Are there discussions or updates in the pipeline to streamline the user experience and make it more accessible for returning players like me? Your insights would be greatly appreciated!
Maybe it’s just me, and perhaps I’ll get the hang of it in 10 days. However, waiting that long isn’t ideal. I’m contemplating returning to retail in War Within instead.
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pick one and go with it, one piece at a time like washing dishes.
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No offense but…
Vanilla map on Retail is so barren, that i can practically draw the Sistine Chapel painting on there and it would still be not as clustered as my addon riddled map.
But as Arcato’s noted, just pretty much pick a direction and go.
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It really has gotten to the point where, unless you play a lot each day, you really just need to decide what you want to do and what you don’t, and ignore the stuff in the don’t column.
I seem to have a little OCD, so not doing things is…uncomfortable…but then I remind myself I do that with other stuff, like all PVP content that I ignore these days and pet battling, except to collect them. I also don’t do a whole lot of mythic+ and just raid once a week heroic with my guild and a second night for our alts.
Personally, I still haven’t done all the pet care center stuff to collect all the pets, nor have I done all the collecting yet for the Rumble promotion or the secret stuff that ran for two weeks, but eventually I may get there. I also haven’t collected up enough currency to buy everything for the Time Rift vendors or the Dreamsurge vendors, and now we have a new zone and a new set of vendors. And maybe I won’t get everything for each outdoor content deal, or maybe I’ll get back to that later in the next year before the next expansion drops and collect up what is missing.
I’ve lately been spending my extra time leveling up alts, especially during the TW event that ran for several weeks, and now I till do that durng the weeks when it’s back on it’s normal rotation. it’s a quick way to get some XP and gear for alts pretty fast and easy and gives me an chance to try out new classes and/or specs and their builds and rotations.
/moo 
I thought the same thing when coming back after a year. I downloaded some addons to clean up the ui, went through the spell book (I had a lot of spells that didn’t exist anymore) and spent some time on training dummies. Once I felt semi-comfortable with stuff I started questing. The worst part for me was bag inventory lol. I had stuff from quests and had no clue what went where. Christmas items, mats from older content and tons of junk.
This game has always had a lot of stuff when compared to other games, especially skills.
Either keep plugging along and it’ll come back to you, or start a new character.
Definitely needs to be a better way to show what options are available. Imagine a new player getting into DF late and then they “pick a direction and go” and find themselves in like the Forbidden Reach or Zaralek Caverns with no story context and outdated gear rewards.
Personally, I don’t think the maps show enough information but I use addons to add additional points as needed.
You should be able to adjust what shows on the maps by using the UI. This should help with clutter. Click on the binoculars for the mini-map and the magnifying glass for the world map.
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Unironically this. If OP saw what a fresh battlenet account would see on the map with all the handynotes plugins+ rarescanner was on they would go insane with how much content around them they are unaware about.
Also to OP.
No. Blizz deleted a large swath of content with cataclysm to streamline zones, and they have been seeding that content back in. You just need to find more focus. Or you need to start over in classic for what I say is a far better leveling experience than retail.
I’d say just focus on one thing at a time.
Anything that looks interesting.
It’s not a race unless you make it one.
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Yeah that’s kinda where I’m at right now. I’m not a new player, but the last time I played was for like two weeks in Shadowlands, and now I’m back for the first time since then, so I’m pretty far out of the loop.
I definitely just sighed as 20 different exclamation points appeared when I hit max. And then I started getting random quests trying to force their way into my quest log when I logged on the next time. After I got some spoilers from reading the wrong quest, I threw up my hands and just googled some guides to see which quest led to the next link in the story. Hopefully I didn’t miss anything.
It’s kind of annoying that I have to do homework to figure out where to go next.
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I can actually empathize with this. I came back to the game after a lengthy break shortly after 8.3 went live. As soon as I got my char to max level I found myself in the middle of Nazjatar, the first part of the war campaign, AND N’zoth stuff. I was pretty confused with just that.
I was like you but then bfa come and i quit raiding. Now there’s 3 expansions of content I haven’t finished lol, maybe when it’s soloable ill give it a shot, for the time just enjoy what you play and farm transmogs you want. Worked for me
Idk if I’d call it complex. It definitely was a content shock coming back for 10.2, though. Just muscle through the upfront overload and you’ll be alright.
What I did was:
Create a new character for each storyline, and it worked quite well for me. Obviously, it took me about three months to complete all the expansion stories.
I don’t see the point in doing them all with a single character since you’ll reach level 70 quickly, and all those extra levels from the expansions will go to waste.
Regarding the excessive information on the screen, even though the devs have tried to simplify WoW to the point that, in 10 hours of dungeon spamming, you can reach level 60, you shouldn’t forget that it’s a game with 20 years of history, and the devs already expect you to have experience in MMORPGs.
Now that Microsoft has acquired Activision, we might see WoW on consoles, which would provide support for playing with a gamepad and an update to the menus, making it even more newbie-friendly.
What I do is just ignore everything that doesn’t interest me. I do the “[!]” quests and sometimes I do the “!” quests. All the complex stuff I just ignore.
OP, if you’ve played the game, it’s all just bits and bobs… they’ll usually funnel you into the newest quest, zone, etc… and as with any game, chip away one thing at a time.
Blizzard does a good job, or better than before at explaining and guiding players.
But it’s not complex… you are just looking at EVERYTHING.
When it’s just the same old thing just updated graphics and a few new additions you can get an overview of on YT or WoWhead or just by looking through it yourself.
Your characters are already level 70. You’ve been gone a few months… I think after a day, you’ll get what is up. It is just a new catch up zone with a new raid. Nothing to it.
Unpopular opinion, but I liked that SL made you go through quests in order for this reason. Then I could just skip them entirely on alts. Only having relevant markers on screen should be a goal.
You are right about the overload. I try and follow the story to keep my bearings.