What i miss (old man rant)

Emerald Dream
1

Hey guys. Old bull talking from the dead here.

Ever since the 8.2 live show announcement of what is too come ive been hit with mixed feelings. Ive seen plenty of discussion videos both positive and negative and it got me thinking of what i truly missed of the game.

Ill be honest. I was never much of a leader. I only started up Redwood tribe as a means to continuing what i used to do with friends on this game years ago in Firetotem Tribe.

When i came back on WoD, i loved that the rp pvp community was strong here. And people had a deep and serious interest in the lore. Wanting to make their own adventures without it being story breaking.

While i wont go into the overall state of the game. I will talk about things that i do miss in this game.

Back in the days of vanilla and bits of BC, gear wasnt such a super grindy thing as it was more of a reward or badge of honor you got for those completing that rank in pvp honor or completing a story raid to finally get that drop in gear that said… “Yes! I was there and i did it. See this cool gear”

Back then it was not so much about item level. people would sometimes use a weapon that was 10 levels or more lower than them. Cause then gear was only as good as how well you played your class.

Speaking of, i miss class quests, adventures and even unique racial powers for those classes. while they stream lined the game to make it easier, it took away almost a social aspect of the game where when i was a young shaman, i used to have a mentor (shout out to Twofeather), which creates a good role play experience in my mind. We allowed to sacrifice long term fun for the sake of convenience. Where its fine in certain aspects but applying it to everything in general does not work.

Spending time to go buy abilities. While many are down for the stream lined content. One thing i do miss was the grind in skills and abilities. WoW and FFXI did this great initially with the skill points system

If they applied the skill points to specific groups of magic as well that would have been cool as well. But that is me in ranting into something else.

Socially its been harder to want to raid anymore. I mean with the gear grind of moving up item levels each patch is tedious and serves no purpose.

While i understand the overall story is being focused on Zandalar and Kul’tiras. I thought this was battle for Azeroth? Not “battle for patches of island and bits of ocean but nevermind”

In the end what all this comes down to me is this. Im getting old and tired in my old…dead age. I love this game but at the same time i love the people more. I keep playing this game for the people in my lives. Those on the best faction, and those on the alliance as well. Because to me we are all humans who love this game and each other and we want the best for each other.

Especially when we fight.

But this old bull is done rambling back to the earth mother i go. Just wanted to get this off my spiritual chest

19 Likes
2

While I started in MoP, I can certainly empathize with you as for the current state of game. Socialization being so often toxic or completely nonexistent, it can seem that the main reason I am playing an MMORPG has been lost. I am guilty of being hardly sociable myself, to boot. I have extreme social anxiety, and for me it is easier to be silent than trying to navigate guilds and Discords. This issue is further enhanced when, as I said, many players have bad attitudes. I’m casting a light on general crappy player-behavior, and while this comes off cynical (it is) it is not to say there are not many, many (mostly?) good people within this game’s ranks. The worst are the loudest.

I am also struggling to intellectually ignore a lot of Blizzard’s decision-making as of late. I am finding the blatant timegation (I coined this word) and greed hard to ignore completely. I am just crossing my fingers and patiently waiting. Hopefully you can, too, my friend. :grinning:

12 Likes
4

I am both …ranting and old, but I don’t miss much. It’ll be a year since retirement in a couple of weeks and every once in a while I’ll get on the forums to see if anything strikes an interest. I probably spent a good percentage of my wow life here on this very forum, trolling away and enjoying a bit of conversation with friends from both sides. That may be the one thing I miss, the conversations.

In game I missed clever and immersive RP activities and gatherings, but those were happening so infrequently as if that way to play had been eliminated from the game entirely. Now I watch my dog hunt for lizards in my yard as I clean up. Mini-pets are still a thing I guess (she’s a 20 pound puggle, not much of a serious dog, but she occasionally does that pug butt-scoot move that causes a chuckle or two). Real life, when done with intent and vigor, can be pretty rewarding.

Enjoy your travels on Azeroth, ol’ friends,

Zigra,
Still walking in the direction that leads away from the game.

4 Likes
5

I miss the back and forth RP-WPvP between guilds. Kingship of the East vs Nyx like Aitana, Ankor, Leothiel. Etc

They’ve provided such great memories, including their post. It will live on in my heart :stuck_out_tongue:

Edit: I miss zigra’s top picks :stuck_out_tongue: I miss ya mane.

8 Likes
6

Good old times :smiley:

1 Like
7

I’m cautiously optimistic SL is returning to a better gear system. The Azerite Armor was an unmitigated disaster. The simple joy of getting a shiny new hat now replaced with a fox chicken worm puzzle where I’ve to look at all my exisiting traits and feel like I should bust out a spreadsheet. Nothing says high fantasy adventure like spreadsheets.

And the lack of a PvP vendor has been particularly offensive. The system in BC was fine, and I liked how you’d earn some currency even if you lost. It’d be difficult but it was possible to fail your way to a shiny piece of gear. You never felt like you completely wasted your time.

Now though PvP gear is a joke. The CP items get outpaced by Emissary rewards, the chest is a fickle mistress, and you must play a fair amount of PvE content to have a competitive edge. I did play competitively in 8.2 but I stopped after getting a duplicate chest item and having a particularly nasty losing streek that knocked my rating down.

And it’s ironic as the PvP is what’s keeping me here. Some of my best, ‘I cannot believe that just happened’, video game memories come from WoW’s WPvP and continue to. The combat on all the classes feels distinct, visually interesting and offers a solid fantasy feel.

Hopefully in SL I’ll be able to get gear from it in a normal, reliable way. Rather than this disappointing slot machine system that seems to have wandered in from a MOBA.

4 Likes
8

Am I the only one that misses Azeroth being an actual threat? We all play Mary Sue’s. Nothing can stop us while out in the world. Classic brought back that feeling as if the world was trying to kill you. Now all you have to do is round a bunch of crap up and 3 shot groups. The world just isn’t scary or tough. It’s a carnival ride.

4 Likes
9

Yeah. After Legion I was hoping BFA would be a more grounded sequel. It partially was. I liked the Zandalar storyline quite a bit. It does crescendo with a kaiju attack on the city but honestly I felt the plot had earned it’s finale by then.

The war campaign was a disappointment. I was hyped at the start of the War of Thorns. That had some of the best WPPVP I’d played in years. And it did have some interesting moral grayness. There was a quest where you had to kill highborne ghosts possessing Alliance and Horde troops alike. And to my surprise the Alliance soldiers, despite being hostile, would give you a nod and run away if you freed them. I thought that was really cool. You the player got to decide how honorable or cruel the war was through in game mechanics.

And then the Warbringers cinematic happens, and that plot immediately flew down hill, hit terminal velocity and crashed into a bus full of nuns and orphans.

And then in 8.3 when that thread triumphantly doesn’t get solved, the game just shrugs and throws a squid in our face. Because I guess this was a secret black empire / dragonflight expansion.

It felt like I sat on a remote and changed the channel, but the war movie I was watching before was so lame I’m game for whatever dragon octopus nonsense this is. Or would’ve been if they added in more assault and vision locations. I’m on my 4th cloak now and I cannot tell you how tired of purple tentacles I am.

10

I keep wanting to play on ED again but I feel like it will just be depressing. On WrA at least I can attack SMC and get a feeling reminiscent of how world PvP used to be due to how many people inhabit the city. Even seeing the state of these forums is bleh.

11

i am here to destroy all of you

1 Like
12

Lol it’s quite funny… In retail I literally try and grab everything. I pull 10+ mobs with elites and never drop below half health. In classic if I didn’t pay attention to that patrol coming around the corner I’m a dead man. The difference is so drastic :joy:

also yeah from a story perspective it also felt like you were a Joe part of the world. Now you’re God and the world is as you make it. Not a fan.

I’m a bit bored of classic right now but retail ain’t really scratching that itch either :slightly_frowning_face:

13

I really wish all of you wra transfers didn’t feel the need to tell us every week about how you moved, nobody cares.

1 Like
14

Wait. This the Rollin I remember from Pandaria?

15

Haven’t really moved. I play on both, and I don’t take any pride in being on a different server.

16

that is correct… say… why dont we meet up sometime…? away from guards

1 Like
17

May as well ask for her number at this point, Rollin.

18

Thanks for keeping this post alive. I really hope in Shadowlands that ED will get a breath of fresh air from the stale tediousness that it seems to be dregging through.

Blizzard really cut this servers uniqueness off when they swapped us to RP. ED still has alot to offer. But at the same time. if the settings do not go back to being Rp-PvP will ED adapt to its role as a RP server and move forward or will we try to rehash the past struggling to keep what glory we once had?

I want more for ED but at the same time we have to think of where our faults and responsibilities lie as a community.

Good Journey.

19

Anna, i wouldn’t mind if you joined us. Glad to see you are alive.

Tanahrok, I am also looking forward to the new expansion. For now, it has been kill on sight for most Alliance.

20

I don’t see why this would affect continuing to do RP-PVP and be known for that.
It can be what sets us apart from the other two big realms, WrA and MG.
To actually offer both, to be the RP realm where people go that want to fight.

The ED player base is mostly PVP players.
Our faction balance is better than any other server. (Though more Alliance tend to keep WM OFF.)
We’re primed for it. All it takes is for people to take up the reigns and put those plans in to motion… Apathy is a bigger problem for this server than anything else.

21

I miss the good natured RP-WPVP wars from vanilla and tbc, tbh.

2 Likes