A lot of people will be surprised that the game is a lot harder than the last few xpacs this time around I found the difficulty ramp up with certain quest. I needed my guild to run me through dungeons leveling up because I couldn’t get past certain story milestones. I’m gearing up through heroics to outscale them but I find this insane. Also the LFR thing is so true I’ve been left in lfr with multiple stacks of determination just for the group to die knowing I needed a chance at my 4 set to do anything in this game. This brings me to my last point this dreaded 4 set. Like if I don’t get it I feel like my class is so dead. I main a frost death knight and let me tell you without that 4 set my damage is below the tanks always in my heroic dungeons. I hope blizzard takes note and really helps us out sure I’m not in echo or liquid but I think with help and balancing I can do equal content to them
There is a super simple solution. Go play the extraction shooter.
It’s true. I’ve been trying for weeks to kill an LFR boss but I just can’t do it. When the queue pops up, i accept it and it puts me in a raid with that boss already killed. Then it gives me a deserter debuff and the time i have to play for the whole month is used up.
Endgame is all about status. It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.
We always were; WoW released when I was in my 30’s. I’m now in my 50’s and run a Cutting Edge Mythic guild made up almost entirely of older folks with careers and/or families.
And we’re hardly unique in that regard. That’s most people playing the game.
A little bit about me , before I start in on this. I have played the game since 2005. I have played quite a few different toons. I favor healer, myself.
I do have heroic and mythic achievements by the handful, for raid and 5 man content, depending onthe expansion pack.
Their are many things to do within WOW, One can level and get gear in many fashions. Like those above me are going to tell you. You get what you put into WOW. Do you think you can make a toon today and be in endgame content when you hit 80. Do you know how much time amd how many runs it takes to get gear to the level you should be at to run endgame. Most of the people, that run end game content have poured plenty of sweat and hard earned crappy bs runs , to get to that point. Anyone can try to que for a raidfinder. They will always sort them out , after a few pulls. I understand where you are coming from , but that’s never been the way the game was intended to be played. Go out and run 15 or 20 runs and reach for it. It wasn’t easy for anyone that you think was cruising it through the run you had. It takes a ton of work to get good raiding gear
Peace
I agree a lot on what you say in the OP but has there ever been a time in any long running MMO where the endgame isnt just bullshi, arbitrarily so, to keep player retention?
Its the result of the games genre, and something that you kinda have to accept and deal with, and see if that is for you.
Delves are the one and only stopgap that ive wanted for a long while, so that i can avoid the toxic sweatlords with daddy issues demanding that im several ilvls higher than what the endgame content rewards for their high M+ key runs. I can chill and farm T8 Delves and get amazing rewards while avoiding spending hours upon hours in overly complicated raids, that id rather spend elsewhere.
Like, yeah, it sucks if we wanna try that specific endgame content without the garbage that surrounds it, namely the elitist playerbase that actually cares for that content to be kept as hard as possible, but on the flipside, that content is made for that elitist playerbase. Its not for us who wanna chill and take our time, thats what Delves are there for.
Think about how theyre setup, you get your weekly keys, do your weekly Delves, and build up your weekly vault, easily ensuring, eventually if rnjesus is not on your side, that your character will be fully geared in 603+ gear by the end of a few months.
If that isnt enough for you, id recommend you just start levelling again. That way you get to still enjoy the game, but avoid the endgame as much as possible.