Back in the 19th century Wotlk was viewed as an amazing time to pvp ( arena)
but now in the 21st century it’s completely dead
Did people change?
are we more demanding , less?
1 Like
pve gear in pvp
5 Likes
Haven’t been following wotlk classic at all so not sure how the arena has been since its release, but if had to take a guess now based on the tier/season Shadowmourne is in the game and PvP is pretty much no longer fun because of it.
It was still pretty popular until hardcore and SoD. Just nothing to do now. The meta is stale because there are no changes to strong/weak specs. So from 1k mmr to the top of the ladder are just people playing meta comps only. I tried to get my demo lock into pvp back in season 1 but no one wanted to play a non s tier comp on classic.
1 Like
It’s because Classic is a rehash of an ancient game.
4 Likes
Didn’t they just have every season based on the last patches balance? So there really weren’t any changes from season to season apart from new gear? Or am I wrong about that.
Yeah, the only thing that kinda dented the meta was some specs becoming more viable as they get more armor pen. Like mm.
1 Like
That’s the primary reason then, I remember season 1 was pretty popular, so people just get bored of playing the exact same game every single season. If they balanced it like normal seasons and changed things up a bit, it would probably retain a lot more players since it wont get stale as fast.
Back in 2008-2010 wow arenas were one of the prime pvp esports. WoW was at its peak and there just wasn’t much else that had an easily accessible online ladder with people to play with. Games like tf2, dota and league were still in their infancy, if you wanted to play ssbmelee in a competitive fashion you had to do it locally, and there weren’t very many just jump in and pvp games like tf2/overwatch/fortnite/CoD/league/dota with an online competitive ladder.
At the time too Wrath class design really just perfected that class era class design and made everything feel so unique and fluid to play.
Wrath was also when they were actually trying to balance pvp, and honestly it makes a pretty good attempt at balancing the game without dampening. I’ve always thought dampening was a very lazy bandaid solution to real balance between healers and dps.
Wrath with some numbers rebalancing (not mechanical) I think could be really fun.
Times change, WoW was also really accessible at the time(2008-2010) and now its really not, at least not for the pure pvp player who just wants to jump in and only their skill holds them back on ladder.
There was also this sense of ‘mystery’ back then because everyone was still basically trying to figure it out, resources weren’t nearly as numerous back then either. Wouldn’t shock me if 50%+ of the og wrath arena ladder people had less than 10 keybinds, if they had any at all.
Also in terms of wrath areans there are huge barriers of entry by todays standards, leveling and needing to raid for gear are basically the two big ones. But not having things like cross-realm q on wotlk launch was a huge mistake too that didn’t help.
10 Likes
It’s not possible to truly go back. Like, the world and people were different. You could have the literal exact same game but as it’d be entirely known and of course 10-20 years later people have changed it’ll change drastically.
1 Like
Why am I playing mobile games over WoW? Both have that fomo mentality except it’s much easier for me to play a game on my phone. I’ve been playing Warcraft rumble more than WoW and talking to my guild on there more than the one in game ever says
obv no arena teams is why…
I mained demo lock in TBC and part of Wrath (the real ones, not Classic). I did very well in 2’s but that’s because I was playing with a guildie. If I tried to play pickup style, no one would take me because I wasn’t playing sl/sl. LOL
This is what Classic players often forget when they’re trying to “go home”.
Yup! Same thing with addons.
2 Likes
It was fun because it was still new, 2nd expansion with arena and classes started getting more abilities and further depth so more comps were viable. Playerbase was massive and overall player skill was still low.
Unlike this time around, where it was sitting around on private servers for 10 years with sweaty private server weirdos just waiting for classic wotlk to launch after playing endless hours of private server wrath arena where every comp and sweat tactic was discovered. And then it turns out that compared to the refined and smoother gameplay on retail, wrath arena just isn’t that fun when you have the retail option
2 Likes
Wotlk ended 13 years ago. Much, much has happened since then.
As someone actively playing wotlk. They shot the participation in the foot in s5 and it never recovered.
You couldnt transfer to the servers everyone was playing on. Forced to level from 1. & You couldnt play cross realm (you can now).
These two things single handedly killed the population.
Its been pretty consistent until SoD dropped tho
2 Likes
Back when wrath was current, there were a LOT more players, and the sweaty meta-only culture didn’t exist the same way it does now. There was a lot more variety on the ladder. Contrast that against today’s Wrath classic, filled with nothing but dusty old pserver players that have been playing the same three comps for the past 15 years. There’s nothing new, fun, or interesting left.
3 Likes
Not that big a deal depending on your seadon goals tbh.
Its actually not that big a deal at lower ratings. Im sure at glad rang the free damage adds up but its basicslly a great tool to have squishy warriors overextend trying for a kill.
Yeah this is true. Last week was the first week with any diversity ive seen above 2k. Generally all you see is enhance ret, spr, wp, preg dk, hunter priest / feral priest / the rare warrior druid. And random double dps or mage priest.
No huge changes (from devs) between seasons iirc. But the artificially inflated pve gear (and pvp gear) changed how gear looked between s6&7, but not dramatically.
Main noteworthy thing about 3.4.7 is 0.01s batching which ruins fun stuff like porting cheapshot, bladestorming cheapshot, and vanishing blind / instant cast abilities without travel time. Game updates too fast and youre just an invalid target. They keep their cooldown and just hit you when you come out of vanish.
It really cannot be overstated enough how much better the average arena player is today, vs. 2008. Definitely another factor that makes the game mode inaccessible for new players. It’s not for casuals anymore.