After playing Wow for roughly 4 months and honestly giving it a go at 2 roles (healer/tank - hours and hours spent on icy veins, wowhead, youtube guides, etc. perfecting rotations and studying dungeon mechanics), I’ll be calling it quits.
For any devs that might by chance see this (and for the player base that might see it), I thought I’d cap my wow experience by leaving some thoughts to consider.
First and foremost, the WoW community itself is the main reason I’m quitting - at least the part of it that I frequently ran into. The level of abuse and negativity for mistakes is insane (at LOW keys - where the “beginners” are supposed to play). I’m not really sure who this game is for other than people who don’t have jobs or families and can devote 16 hours a day to memorizing hours of m+ guide material so they can perfectly execute it (and curse out people who don’t). The other category would be people who’ve played for 15+ years maybe?
The demands on a tank in comparison to any other role are absolutely insane. In addition to keeping up active mitigation that constantly has to be renewed to live, pathing, pulling, positioning, threat management, core rotation, etc. - you’re expected to know every single thing in every single dungeon. And people are merciless in their criticisms. I’m supposed to do better when I’m being cursed out and caps locked? Maybe somebody does, but that makes me worse.
Healer was less intense. DPS wayyyy less so - for sure, if they don’t do their thing well, we don’t live. But the decisions are way less intensive and way less consequential (funny how these people were always the first ones to start with the insults and curses as they’re being carried through whatever content they’re doing).
I ultimately found that at the end game (at least the part I got to… +10 keys), this experience was no longer fun at all. Instead, it’s super stressful and sometimes downright damaging to your mental health. There are even multiple videos on how to deal with the anxiety you get as a tank or healer in m+ lol. I’ll be moving on to something that’s way less toxic.
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Not that I’m condoning the abuse, but M+ isn’t the place for people for thin skinned people to be in.
It’s by design the most toxic environment for PuGs, outside of premade PuG arena/high level PvP I guess.
Finally you’re suffering through M+ of your own volition, when we have many chill endgame content available, like Delves.
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Yeah, that’s M+ for ya, sorry you missed out on all the other chill content
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Yea pugging mythics is horrible
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I’m sorry a game was so awful and experience it negatively affected your mental health. Quitting sounds like a reasonable thing.
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There’s a reason why I gave up PvE-
No chill folks to continually run it with.
Friends I had, are looong gone.
PuG scene is far worse today than it ever was before.
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As tempted as it is to leave a snarky comment, I will not. I just returned after taking a 4 month break prompted by many of the same reasons you have given. I plan on playing MoP classic and not touching retail again. Hope you enjoy your break - everyone needs one every once in a while. Don’t reinstall until you know exactly what you plan on doing when you log in.
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I’ll admit the OP’s message sounds like they’re spending more time discussing how toxic the community is than actually experiencing it. So… one bad egg in an M+ run ruining it for the rest of us.
At the same time, the first few responses pretty much confirm how the OP feels. I mean come on folks, would it really kill you to be remotely nice to disprove them?
[Edit] Looks like the comments were flagged and removed. A positive turn I’d say.
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You know what I did for years and literally years when I first start playing WoW? Mount farming. It kept me occupied for literally years and I had no complaints as mount farming is usually soloable. Mostly. Have a paired up with groups to get Vitreous stone drake waiting for that spawn camping for 3 days ? Yeah. Was it worth it? In my eyes yes. Also Making Tarecgosas staff was pretty fun as in itself was a unique mount transformation. There’s so many other things to do in WoW I think you should give it a second swing.
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Sorry it wasn’t for you. In only 4 months time of playing you were hopping into mythic dungeons, that’s really good! It took me a long time to get to that point. Like from starting playing wow to gaining some amount of “raid awareness”. I hope you got to dive into some of wows lore and the stories it has to offer. The characters and the art style of wow is what sucked me in. Oh and the music. There’s a lot to take in. Maybe someday if you come back if you missed some of the old content I would recommend trying some of that out. It’s really a great game. Until then, best of luck with wherever you spend your off time. 
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We are not all terrible cretins glad for your departure! Let me provide some grace in asking that the imprint of your snowflake never be washed away in the rain.
For realz though, you needed good friends, you didn’t find what you were looking for in wow. Best of luck!!!
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I am suprised that you played for 4 months and did spend most likely more time on Icy and other nerdy websites than most players did in over 20 years.
To me it seems you were overthinking WOW, assuming you would need to become an expert at things, while WOW is just a silly game with no real challanges to it´s gamers.
Wipes do happen because people are human and just like you may cross a red light, you may pull an additional pack, it´s natural and happens to everyone.
You are right when you say, that WOW players are toxic, because they are. They do not allow mistakes, they do not socialize and they always want the most out of their time. All this leads to a toxic environment that you can only escape if you play with a pre selected bunch of players or if you play all by yourself.
I am sorry that you had such a bad experience, but If even Palia has a toxic community nowadays, then you most likely won´t find peace at another MMO, if you invest so much time in researching as that won´t stop others from attacking your performance.
Try to find like minded people and play with them, the game you play won´t matter as long you can be together.
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You’re not wrong. After the M+ squish, I decided that it wasn’t for me anymore…and I don’t miss it. I’m much happier now that I don’t have the game I play to relax stressing me out, lol
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I swear, doing M+ in PuGs, trying to move up starting with low keys, in addition to healing Solo Shuffle-
These two activities will shorten your lifespan, they’re so stressful.
Probably the worst things you can do in WoW.
And so much of it is out of your control.
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For much of my 3 months’ time back after 12 years, I was like “screw M+,” because I knew the experience would be exactly like yours. But, then I got a friendly invitation to a guild from someone I happened to PuG a TW with. I knew the only way into M+ was being guilded up. I now have KSM, thanks to them. I used to have the mentality a lot of folks dishing out criticism in M+ have. But, I’ve gotten older and wiser since then. I just don’t care anymore. It’s just a game. Stuff happens during runs, nothing to get bent out of shape over.
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The very reason I don’t do M+. I play to escape. M+ did not do that for me.
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I’m just wondering, why did you push so hard for M+ if you weren’t enjoying it? If you’re going to do something, you should at least have fun or some sort of fulfillment doing it, and it seems like M+ did neither.
WoW offers more avenues for game progression than ever before, Delves are flat out the best thing this game has added in a long time. I like the option to play alone (albeit with a spotty AI partner that gives me Resident Evil 5 flashbacks) or group with others. I like the Delves being semi-randomized and it provides a fresh enough experience, and that’s only improving in S2.
I’m looking to clear at least the normal raid S2, aiming for AotC overall, but M+? I considered KSH for the mount but…eh. I just didn’t have fun doing it back when I did do it, I don’t know why I would subject myself to it again.
Ultimately I would never do M+ again unless it’s with friends. Pugged it up twice, and that’s enough for me. Although I will pug the raid because I honestly had nothing but positive experiences pugging raids.
Anyway, best of luck on where ever gaming takes you. Sorry it wasn’t a great time.
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I mean 2 keys are the old 11s and new players used to do 2 - 5 keys , so its not really for new players, maybe m0s
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It wouldn’t kill them they just don’t have any experience with being nice. Which is why the OP is kind of right.
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