Phase 3 is where SoD dies

[Fivescoops-wild-growth]

I’m calling it now. This phase is where all the casuals that have been keeping the population up quit. There is no way it is surviving phase 3 until the likely release date of late June due to Cata classic coming out May 20th.

1. Economy is destroyed due to incursions giving every player the ability to farm 100g/hr. Potential new players are going to hit level 10, see the auction house and quit, just like era. People who don’t like to farm gold will get frustrated with prices and quit.
2. Upgrading from 10 to 20 mans killed a lot of guilds and tight-knit groups of smaller players. People will inevitability face roster issues or player friction and quit.
3. Week lockout on one raid that is easily clearable in one night after several nerfs.
4. ST raid loot is just tier pieces and epics, rest of the stuff is either insignificant or no improvement from dungeon and Gnomer loot. Raid already feels pointless after one week.
5. Professions were not capped at 250 like they should have been, lategame mats are unable to be farmed by most classes and their prices are absurd as a result.
6. World buff meta is still awful and people defend it as part of classic when everyone but sweats would have preferred if they killed it.

[Stormwolf-crusader-strike]

Dunno if it’s where SoD dies, but it’s definitely going to take a hit.

@Fivescoops-wild-growth

Economy is destroyed due to incursions giving every player the ability to farm 100g/hr. Potential new players are going to hit level 10, see the auction house and quit, just like era. People who don’t like to farm gold will get frustrated with prices and quit.

A bit dramatic, but yeah, this hurt SoD a lot.

@Fivescoops-wild-growth

Upgrading from 10 to 20 mans killed a lot of guilds and tight-knit groups of smaller players. People will inevitability face roster issues or player friction and quit.

As one of the tight-nit guilds facing roster issues it’s just the other side of the sword.
Before it was “too many players, not enough raid” now it’s too much raid, not enough players.

I don’t think it’s going to kill us though, just grabbing pugs and recruiting until our numbers match our need.

@Fivescoops-wild-growth

ST raid loot is just tier pieces and epics, rest of the stuff is either insignificant or no improvement from dungeon and Gnomer loot. Raid already feels pointless after one week.

I noticed this as well. (Tier sets are only mild improvements over my r7 gear) I suspect it’s because they don’t want level 50 raid loot to just be better than anything you might get in MC without them having to completely redo all of loot in MC.

So far they’ve just had to make a few minor changes such as changing Spirit to SP and modifying a few iconic weapons to make paladins mad.

At trajectory up to this point, they would’ve had to redo ALL of the gear and hit themselves in one of two ways:

Having to heavily modify all gear for MC-Naxx (in addition to the boss balancing they’re already going to have to do.)
Nerf the gear we got or give us pure sidegrades.

It seems they’ve opted for ST to be the slowdown so that MC/ZG feels like actual epics.

@Fivescoops-wild-growth

Professions were not capped at 250 like they should have been, lategame mats are unable to be farmed by most classes and their prices are absurd as a result.

This feels like a non-issue.
My professions are sitting at 260-270 respectively and I’m not having any issues since I cannot yet wear most of the stuff I would make anyways.

Prices for next phase’s mats tend to be more expensive, it’s just exacerbated by the very real problem in your first point.

@Fivescoops-wild-growth

World buff meta is still awful and people defend it as part of classic when everyone but sweats would have preferred if they killed it.

I’m not a sweat, and I’m perfectly fine with it.

Yeh it feels bad when you die and lose it in raid…but it also feels great to be destroying with it.
Chronoboon solved all of my issues with it. (Raid logging and the anxiety of getting to the raid with my buff in tact.)

[Balthalor-earthfury]

@Fivescoops-wild-growth

World buff meta is still awful

It’s one of the defining aspects of the game that makes vanilla…vanilla. Its like carrying a power up between stages in Mario because you performed well enough to not lose it (by dying). If you don’t want it, there’s like 5 other versions of WoW without it man.

@Fivescoops-wild-growth

lategame mats are unable to be farmed by most classes and their prices are absurd as a result.

Also a vanilla thing. The game has always had a mantra about certain classes having niches, and solo farming is part of that. There’s the double exp buff to help you roll a new class just so you can farm with it if your main class can’t do it.

@Fivescoops-wild-growth

rest of the stuff is either insignificant or no improvement from dungeon and Gnomer loot.

This is more of a problem with Gnomer loot. It was too good. You may even notice some ST pieces being downgrades to Gnomer loot.
This is intentional.
Don’t you feel the power creep? We as players are so damn powerful, why does the next raid need to be a huge power upgrade? The power scaling needed to be toned down desperately.

@Fivescoops-wild-growth

Upgrading from 10 to 20 mans killed a lot of guilds

We just went over how ST loot is basically a side grade to Gnomer loot in terms of power. Why do you care about guilds not being able to field 20 players to clear a raid if the loot isn’t useful?

@Fivescoops-wild-growth

Economy is destroyed

Seems fine to me man. You don’t know what a destroyed economy looks like.

[Ricus-wild-growth]

That’s too bad.
I’m still having fun.

[Crudlord-tichondrius]

@Fivescoops-wild-growth

Potential new players are going to hit level 10, see the auction house

No they wont.

They have to wait a month to see the AH lol

[Argentia-defias-pillager]

here’s a tip: you lose a lot of sympathy when one of your main complaints is “going from 10 mans to 20 mans”
there are a lot of great reasons why SoD is trash. 20 mans (and God forbid the unspeakable 40 mans) are not one of them.

[Fivescoops-wild-growth]

There’s nothing wrong with bigger raids. I don’t mind 10 or 25 or 40. The problem is having 2 phases of 10 mans then requiring guilds to upscale to 20 mans. That is just inviting roster issues and player friction. They should’ve given us the option to do 10/20 or just had 20s from the beginning.

[Illutiankade-pagle]

@Fivescoops-wild-growth

late June due to Cata classic coming out May 20th

P4 will probably release in May.

Blizzard knows a LOT of Wrath players will not play Cata, but also don’t want to play Era. So, SoD was brought about to give that “Wrath Feeling” for Class Design while pairing it with a “Not Cata Experience”.

[Ricus-wild-growth]

So like you’re the boss of reasons now?

[Stormwolf-crusader-strike]

@Illutiankade-pagle

P4 will probably release in May.

It would probably be the end of may if it’s in may. Typical is about 8 weeks. (P1 was 10 weeks because of the 2 week holiday season, I suspect.)

[Crudlord-tichondrius]

What guild didn’t have 2 raids going?

If you only had 10 people in your guild then add 10 more.

It’s not complicated.

[Crudlord-tichondrius]

This phase will be longer guaranteed.

They will be busy with Cata classic in May and ST is a weekly lockout.

I expect a full 3 months, so a June release.

[Ronarion-lone-wolf]

@Fivescoops-wild-growth

Economy is destroyed due to incursions giving every player the ability to farm 100g/hr. Potential new players are going to hit level 10, see the auction house and quit, just like era. People who don’t like to farm gold will get frustrated with prices and quit.

But new players benefit the most from this.

@Fivescoops-wild-growth

Upgrading from 10 to 20 mans killed a lot of guilds and tight-knit groups of smaller players. People will inevitability face roster issues or player friction and quit.

Not every ten man needs to be a guild. Merge up or recruit.

@Fivescoops-wild-growth

Week lockout on one raid that is easily clearable in one night after several nerfs.

I agree here, but seems at odds with your other points.

@Fivescoops-wild-growth

ST raid loot is just tier pieces and epics, rest of the stuff is either insignificant or no improvement from dungeon and Gnomer loot. Raid already feels pointless after one week.

You got everything you wanted after 1 week? You’re the guy that gets lucky then never shows up again?

@Fivescoops-wild-growth

Professions were not capped at 250 like they should have been, lategame mats are unable to be farmed by most classes and their prices are absurd as a result.

Then don’t do it? I stopped at 270 and you only need 250 to do the crafting quest. So why?

@Fivescoops-wild-growth

World buff meta is still awful and people defend it as part of classic when everyone but sweats would have preferred if they killed it.

Oh no 3 buffs once a week…

[Gwendola-crusader-strike]

20 person raids killed my guild. I joined another that is trying to fill their roster.

[Ronarion-lone-wolf]

@Argentia-defias-pillager

here’s a tip: you lose a lot of sympathy when one of your main complaints is “going from 10 mans to 20 mans”

I don’t agree with you much, but ST is the first raid that felt like a raid.

Even started to have the funny stuff that went on in MC. People shouting way too much that a flask dropped for the looter.

[Italus-bloodsail-buccaneers]

@Fivescoops-wild-growth

Economy is destroyed due to incursions giving every player the ability to farm 100g/hr. Potential new players are going to hit level 10, see the auction house and quit, just like era. People who don’t like to farm gold will get frustrated with prices and quit.

This is there issue, farm gold we have had to this since original vanilla, so whats the issue? Those that don’t like to farm gold are the gold buyers and ya know what good riddence.

[Jacktorrence-benediction]

i know some people are looking forward to 40 mans and i have nothing against 40 mans but i saw what the jump from 10 to 20 mans did to my list of friends playing SoD. I am concerned whether the jump to 40 mans is a good idea. I think the step to 20 mans and not 40 mans right away was the right call.

My guild also folded after p2 and those that are left ~40-50% had to move to a larger guild that is picking up the pieces from about 5 other guilds. I am still enjoying the game but attrition is a thing. I do think the draw of MC will help. And who knows, maybe a well executed MC brings back a lot of players.

[Franklydear-mankrik]

Biggest problem is the lack of upgrades on the loot. If it’s just going to be a “level up” raid with only marginal power increase then don’t milk your playerbase for several months off it, just release phase 4 already.

[Stormwolf-crusader-strike]

Wouldn’t a full 3 months be a July release?

[Franklydear-mankrik]

worst part about guild breakups is if you don’t keep your close knit group together you may end up as a low status filler member who gets mistreated and forced to heal / play meta specs you don’t enjoy and pass loot to the guild master.