I remember when I earned Pathfinder in Wod. The first thing I did was go to places in the world that were a pain to get to before flying. I turned in all quests that had been sitting in my log since before I turned max level.
Sometimes when you restrict things, you get the opposite effect.
BTW. Nothing irks me as much as being FORCED to do content I don’t want to do. I would rather be ALLOWED to enjoy the game. I want to play to have fun - not stroke the ego of the developers.
I am not a fan of it either. I am still irritated that one of the achievements for ‘Love in the Air’ requires me to queue up for a battleground. (I was doubly irritated when the game wouldn’t let me.)
But, for all I know, if the game had allowed me, and I had gone, I may have enjoyed it. Sometimes, getting out of your rut, and with an open mind, you can get a wonderful experience, even in something that is not to your taste.
Are people so entrenched in their negativity on the subject that they are not even willing to look for any positives? Or allow that it might have positives for others?
There is one benefit to Pathfinder. I would much rather grind rep (to revered) than pay gold. It’s a fair trade. I think most people would agree with that too.
The time-gating thing is a slap in the face though. I swear to God Ion does things out of spite, and time-gating is a prime example of it.
My impression, and I could be wrong, is that flying was only suppose to be in a few places, the rabble rebelled at that idea and this is Blizzard’s compromise.
So I guess another of the positives is that, at least, we are allowed to earn flying.
I don’t mind pathfinder or essences. Unpopular opinions.
When Ion deems it so… It’s sour grapes. Ion didn’t want flying so now he makes people wait a year before they can get it. It was one of the best things in the game, and it’s the primary reason Blizzard knocked off all the “WoW killer” games back in the day.
If it were able to be completed on launch and grant you flying in the launch zones, then any new zones get new Pathfinder parts I would have no problems with it. Gating flying for half the expansion just feels like this current Dev team is being spiteful.
Not sure if it’s also been said, but it feels like the fact they have to use flying as a reward for doing the content, really makes you wonder how good the content really is to begin with. Good content will stand on it’s own and not need to be used as a tool for gating flying.
I think some of them are cashing commission checks from Square Enix.
Hopefully not, but you’re right. So much of the game feels like spite right now. It’s like the hired Donald Trump to help design the game. “You don’t like it?!?!?! Take this!”
Meh. Pathfinder is there just to slow people down, nothing more, nothing less. Once you complete the zones quest achievements, they should just let people fly if they like. That way people have seen their copy pasted gather this, or that, or kill random number of irrelevant trash mob bs quests.
no doubt.
Cant wait until that Water walking gear gets turned into a grind, as we can rest assured it will be. No reason to have made a new system out of it if they didnt have some unspoken agenda for WWing upcoming.
new gear for Shadowland’s water walking required because the water wont be the same there as it is everywhere else 
What I’m waiting to see is how Blizzard will handle flying in the WoD, Legion and BFA zones once the level squish goes into effect. Are we going to have to wait to hit level (X) to regain flying again regardless if we have pathfinder, Will we be able to fly at level 10, or will Blizzard do something else completely different?
Exactly. OP is right. I play MMORPGs because I love it when the world feels barren and empty. I hate having to see other players in my world. I also love a huge time gated bs grind to fly so I can earn the empty barren world feeling. I also love non interesting flying mounts that reduce any threat or danger or Warcraft that this game tried to use to immerse you in. Gee I have no idea why this game has been dying for so long.
Pathfinder is worse than atunements were. Atunements at least added content. Pathfinder adds nothing.