I just haven’t able to bring myself to play WoW lately. You know what’s funny? I love all the changes they’ve done for the better and it’s all real great and I don’t want them to stop, but I just don’t care anymore.
I grinded in Legion, I grinded in BfA and then Shadowlands and I hated every minute of it, now I finally have the expansion changes I’ve always wanted them to make and…I just don’t care.
I have a little bit of burnout just because I don’t love these dungeons even though M+ is my favorite game mode. I am really enjoying the raid which is a nice change of pace.
The main thing is that I don’t like the theme of the dungeons. The only dungeons I like the theme of are Freehold and Vortex Pinnacle. The rot and toxic poison theme of BH and UR is gross, both nelths feel like I’m in hell which I don’t like, uldaman is too tight with too many tight corners and it’s dusty and I don’t like the golem people. And HOI is pretty but it’s also like the fifth dungeon that feels like a Vault of Archavon clone.
At least there’s 76 hours until the next patch.
It’s less about raw burnout, and more just how overwhelming it feels to try and participate.
Due to work and outside needs, I missed about 3mo of the game. I tried to log in today and do some stuff, and I am basically assaulted with system combinations that, according to my guild, are kind of required in order to START advancing my character. When I logged out at the end of season 1, I was 2200+ M+ rating, 411ilvl, and a fairly good grasp on the system of the season. Fast forward to last night… And there is normal new stuff: New dungeon rotation, class changes (I main warlock and paladin), and new recipes and such to grind. But there is also Zaralak Caverns (that is supposedly important? But no one seems to ever be there)… the whole shadowflame tier system, which reminds me of that incredibly stupid as stupid gets ingredient combination crap from Nazjatar… And after spending some time with guildies doing the 5 heroic quest just to get reaquianted with my demo lock (holy cow the damage profile changed)… I just got overwhelmed and straight logged off.
Like, seriously, Shadowlands didn’t feel this convoluted.
I recommend trying Hearthstone. All the Warcraft feels without the commitment of WoW.
I’ve been burned out since SL but since it’s hard to let go of characters I’ve had for almost two decades I’m still around. However, I haven’t logged onto the game in close to 2 weeks. It’s been that way for a while now.
I feel, and this is just my feelings, that the game isn’t made for the casual/solo player anymore. I know someone is going to jump down my throat and list all the solo activities but I really don’t want to do any of them. I tried DF and I didn’t like it. The rewards aren’t good enough for me to bother.
I could grind a rep to get a mount but why would I? I’m almost 200 above the current highest achievement. I could grind rep to get a skin for my drake but again, why? Slapping some spikes and paint on my dragon, that I don’t even like, isn’t fun.
A certain infamous streamer pointed out that this game is hard to get into. The example he used was a kid that watched one of the stupid esport events then says to himself “I wanna do that” so he buys WoW. Can he do arenas? BUZZER Nope! First he has to spend a few days leveling his character. Then can he do arenas? BUZZER nope! Now he has to spend days grinding crappy honor gear. Then can he do arenas? BUZZER Nope! Now he has to download a program that installs addons then figure out what addons he needs then again figure out how to set them up. Now surely he can do arenas, right? BUZZER Nope! He’s getting declined because he doesn’t have the right achievement and/or rating. If this kid didn’t alt+F4 by this point then he’ll probably do it now and go play LoL, COD, Overwatch, etc. where he can jump right in and do what’s advertised.
And the above can apply to the other two activities (mythic+ and raiding.)
Well, whatevs. If they don’t want new players or casual players anymore then they’ll just go to FF14 or in my case SWTOR. In that game my time will get me cool decorations for one of my many homes or upgrades to my gear and gives me the option to send downgrades to my alts.
I jumped in season 1 m+ and got to KSH. Then 2 months later it all reset. If I continued I’d 100% have burnt out 1 month into season 2. Instead I’m done with the esports game mode and am enjoying every other aspect of the game.
Burn out is a feature not a bug. Now you’re free to enjoy all the things you used to enjoy before WoW.
Im burned out, but its more that I do ‘care’…if we’re calling it that. More ‘enjoyment’ of a video game.
But 4 characters on Beta and 8 on live and yeah, Im toasted a bit on both sides, eyes are red and bleeding and my feet have fallen asleep from sitting here playing too much lol.
As soon as the burn out subsides, I’ll be right back into hours a day soon enough
Same. This expansion technically has everything I wanted - WoD style PvP gear system, talent trees, profession rework, no borrowed power grind. And yet, I can’t find motivation to play a lot. I just kind of dabble with alts, and that’s it.
A bit, but I’ve been playing a number of other games to help with that.
I’ll name a few to help out:
Voidigo: Really fun twin stick shooter roguelite with a real neat art style.
Oblivion Override: A Dead Cells like but with robots, but it feels and plays really good.
Peglin: It’s Goblins. It’s Peggle. It’s Peglins.
Shadow Tower: Old RPG series based on King’s Field which I’d also recommend. It’s slow but immersive.
Armored Core: Last Raven: I’ve been catching up on the AC series since AC6 is coming out. This is one of my favorites.
Diablo 1: I downloaded a mod that adds a LOT of Quality of Life fixes to D1, and had a blast playing that.
There’s a number of other things I want to play but that’s been on my menu so far.
I took a massive break from Retail. Like most of this expansion lol. I came back a few weeks ago on my demo lock, and while the leveling process still isn’t fun for me in Retail, the endgame is at least satisfying. I’m already raiding heroic, and my gear is catching up faster than ever before. I’m thinking of gearing up my already-leveled shaman as well.
tl;dr Retail is in a healthier spot, but not perfect
I’ve struggled to play alts this expansion, a few things:
There are many other (better) games out there. Just play something else for a change. I feel like quite a few Blizzard fans forget that there are other games, besides those that Blizzard brings out. 
I think WoW is over-designed. It has all the elements of a fun game. There are countless (okay, you could count them) ways to entertain oneself or a group of people in this game. The issue with WoW is that it sacrifices community driven events for theme-park elements to the nth degree.
That’s not to say that there can’t be theme park elements. WoW was built on a more casual-friendly shepherded gameplay. What I’m seeing is that everyone is off in 10 different directions following independent paths.
That’s great for individual hours spent, but it’s bad for fostering a sense of belonging in a game world. Everyone is at different stages and not focused on filling a role in a greater community. This leads to apathy and boredom.
yeah profession changes seemed like a good idea. I mean, I love the detail.
But what it ended up doing is screwing my alts.
I generally max out engineering as much as I can. Wont even bother this time around on alts.
I agree 1000%. I’ve always gotten the Master of All achievement but I really don’t see that happening in DF.
Turns out, you don´t actually love the changes they made. Just admit that Dragonflight is bad, try it, it will feel good to finally let go.
So close my friend. Come join us.
burnt out from WoW since 2012, somehow I am still here 
I did too. I also hated most of it.
I hated renown in Shadowlands. I hated the mandatory world questing of Legion. Like I hated Golden Lotus prereqs in MoP.
There is a bunch of content WoW includes that I just don’t engage with. For a variety of reasons. If I have to do that then I usually don’t bother with anything.
Class design is my biggest complaint going all the way back to 2018. So that’s a very long time.
I think DF is better than BF and no doubt better than SL. Maybe comparable to Legion but nowhere near the class fun, questing, lore and mogs. The vast majority of DF mogs I couldn’t care less about. Just working on getting the dragon mogs and that’s it.