AT World of Warcraft Thread (Legion, Where do you play, General BS and all that)

[Gryz]

When WoW released (Nov 2004), the dungeons would have no player limit. A raid-group could enter any dungeon, and all raid-members could enter at the same time.

This meant that you could have 40 man inside Scholomance, Stratholme, BlackRock Spire (LBRS and UBRS are really just one dungeon). Very quickly after release, Blizzard changed that. They would only let 10 players inside Scholomance and Stratholme. And 15 players inside BRS. This was done before the European release of WoW (Feb 2005). When I started playing, you could already not enter with 40 players anymore.
When Dire Maul was released (March 2005), you could enter only with 5 players.

When Scholo and Strat we limited to 10 players, people who do 3 types of runs.
1) bring 10 players, trying to make it easier
2) do a class run, one player of each class. this would make it worthwhile for everyone to try and get their T0 items.
3) do a 5-man run for the quests
You can't do normal quests in a raid-group. So you never could do your dungeon-quests with 6-10 players. You had to enter with 5 players. And that was quite a challenge. (Maybe not when you're already in T1 gear. But when you just dinged 60, and had a mix of green and blue gear, Scholo and Strat were quite hard).

We used to run UBRS with 15 people (the max). And I think you could do quests with 15 people in UBRS. And you needed all 15. Because most players weren't very experienced yet. Didn't know their class very well. Minmaxing wasn't popular yet. There were no websites yet where you could read how to gear your character. It was awesome. Runs used to last close to 2 hours or more sometimes. Drakkisath was a formidable endboss. And everyone wanted their T0 chest. I never got my Shadowcraft chest. (I didn't care. I liked my Cadaverous chest much better. 40 Attackpower !!). (BTW, it's amazing I still remember all the gear I had in vanilla, and the names of the items. Too be honest, I can't remember a single set or piece of gear or even the name of my MH weapons after 2010). I did get the Dal'Rend set !

A year after release (spring 2006 or so), Blizzard decided to put in something for the non-raiders. So they introduced T0.5 gear. You had to do quests in 5-man dungeons (and in UBRS). I think that was the point where they simplified UBRS, and made it a 10-man dungeon. But by that time I was already in AQ40 (I left the oldies guild for 2-3 months, and joined the top Horde guild on the server. We got into Naxx. But the drama was too big with all the kids, and the guild blew up. That's when I stopped and came back 3 months into TBC).

I was in a small guild (15 or 20 players), and we 5-manned those dungeons to slowly improve our gear. We hoped to grow and do raiding some day. But the guild blew up before we got bigger. I then joined a fun guild. Minimum age was 25y. So the average age was way above 30 years old. That guild grew to over 100 people in vanilla, and maybe 250 people in TBC and WLK. However, they had so many bad players, it took a long time for them to get raiding. They did kill Ragnaros and 2 bosses in BWL, but never got further. In TBC we actually split of a team of the better/more serious players. And we did kill Illidan and got into Sunwell (that was pretty good at the time, especially on our server). All great fun.

After WLK I played maybe 4 months of Cataclysm. And 9 months of Pandoria. (Mists was actually a pretty good expansion, I thought). I played the first month of WoD. And quit. And not been back yet. I was planning to return for the last month of Legion. But I now doubt that will ever happen. I have great memories of WoW in 2005-2010 (till Crusaders' Coliseum in Aug 2009. That was the end of WoW for me). But I doubt WoW will ever be any good again.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

They would only let 10 players inside Scholomance and Stratholme. And 15 players inside BRS. This was done before the European release of WoW (Feb 2005). When I started playing, you could already not enter with 40 players anymore.

Not sure if that part's correct... I distinctly remember zoning raids into L/UBRS to MC those orcs at the entrance to get a fire buff for adventuring in BWL... I guess it's possible we restricted it to 10p at a time, though.

God, I remember the first breakin attempts to MC. Constant wipe to those first two giants, cuz everyone was in blues/greens.

 

[Ranulf]

WoD destroyed me with its Garrisons where I would do them every day for 1-2 hours per day. It was such a chore, but it made me money and got me stuff.

This was a problem many had in WoD. You didn't need to do it to be competitive or be mostly there as a back up character. An alt ready to jump in if you get bored with your main, your main got nerfed to hell or your guild needs you healing/tanking/dps now. But people fell for that trap. Compare it to Legion now... its a nightmare that took blizz about 6 months to mostly fix, to tolerable levels. Yet, it took me 11 months to finally level a second toon to 110, then quickly a third 110 via the invasions. But there is so much to do to maximize the new garrison/hq stuff that it gets overwhelming. You at least can be viable rather quickly gear wise now via mythic 5mans, lfr, some luck on gear drops and the changed AP mechanic. My two alts after the changes in Sept ( I think) caught up to my main very quickly on AP, compared to before but of course fall behind because I don't play them much.

Farming AP for all of your specs, let alone again for alts is just enthusiasm killing. I have fun raiding still but its about all I do anymore. The only people I know who do more are the people just still so much in love with the game and it seems to be all they play. Toss in the randomness of legendary items and I've lost much of my love for the game. I stick around because of the friendships I've made and raiding.

 

[Gryz]

Not sure if that part's correct... I distinctly remember zoning raids into L/UBRS to MC those orcs at the entrance to get a fire buff for adventuring in BWL... I guess it's possible we restricted it to 10p at a time, though.

Yes. You had to restrict yourself to having 15 out of 40 people from your raid in UBRS. I haven't done it myself, but I know that guild of "old people" used the UBRS fire-buf. The way it worked is: they cleared up to Ragnaros in 2 nights. Then the 3rd night they first went into UBRS, had all 40 people go in in shifts, and get their buf. Then they'd hurry to Ragnaros and try to kill him. It require a bit of planning ahead.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

Yes. You had to restrict yourself to having 15 out of 40 people from your raid in UBRS. I haven't done it myself, but I know that guild of "old people" used the UBRS fire-buf. The way it worked is: they cleared up to Ragnaros in 2 nights. Then the 3rd night they first went into UBRS, had all 40 people go in in shifts, and get their buf. Then they'd hurry to Ragnaros and try to kill him. It require a bit of planning ahead.

Ah okay, it was long enough ago that I didn't remember the restriction.

We used the fire buff for the second boss in bwl, the dragon, I think. Until we got used to downing him.

Another fun one from vanilla, duoing in naxx. Me on fury war with a hunter would duo trash in plague quarter, exploiting the snare are shout with him holding threat. Good times, got some purples out of that.

 

[Achilles97]

I just reactivated after not playing original beta through WotLK. I leved up a new character to level 92. So far I feel like the newer content is just pushing me through a story on rails - it doesn't feel like an open world to explore and quest, I almost feel like I'm playing a single-player game. Is this what I can expect from this point on? I miss the days of just exploring big open zones, finding quests, etc.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

I just reactivated after not playing original beta through WotLK. I leved up a new character to level 92. So far I feel like the newer content is just pushing me through a story on rails - it doesn't feel like an open world to explore and quest, I almost feel like I'm playing a single-player game. Is this what I can expect from this point on? I miss the days of just exploring big open zones, finding quests, etc.

They've done a lot of work with streamlining regions... back when you were used to playing they did the same thing, as they never wanted you to 'find' quests... you were generally led to them via leader quests, which they still do. Also depends a lot on where you are though... I personally found the entire Pandaria expansion to be hot trash, Draenor is 'meh' from a questing standpoint, Legion is 'better' with being able to pick your zone to level through, at least.

There's a fair bit of open world exploration to do, in terms of finding those little chest boxes and stuff, caves with rares in them, etc... probably as much, if not more, than vanilla/bc/wrath had. It's still a little 'RPG-Lite' though, as it always has been.

 

[Joeydubbs]

Anybody try leveling since the new patch that introduced level scaling? This worth checking out? (was surprised to see how far this thread has fallen!)

 

[Malogeek]

Anybody try leveling since the new patch that introduced level scaling? This worth checking out? (was surprised to see how far this thread has fallen!)

Yeah I was in the middle of leveling a Warlock when the patch hit. Stuff that was the same level as me before the patch now have 4-5x the HP and thus take much longer to kill. All dungeons, timewalking etc. is no longer a faceroll.

 

[chitwood]

Yeah I was in the middle of leveling a Warlock when the patch hit. Stuff that was the same level as me before the patch now have 4-5x the HP and thus take much longer to kill. All dungeons, timewalking etc. is no longer a faceroll.

to add to that, I've also read that XP in dungeons 1-100 is absolute crap now, and is no longer a viable way to level an alt.

 

[nurturedhate]

to add to that, I've also read that XP in dungeons 1-100 is absolute crap now, and is no longer a viable way to level an alt.

Been leveling a lock since the changes took effect. Getting about a level for a dungeon, about 2 levels if I haven't done it before and the quests are available. I would say it's a hair less than it was before and a welcomed tradeoff to being able to actually stay in a zone and complete the story lines. It's a much more enjoyable leveling experience.

 

[Aikouka]

I never got my Shadowcraft chest. (I didn't care. I liked my Cadaverous chest much better. 40 Attackpower !!). (BTW, it's amazing I still remember all the gear I had in vanilla, and the names of the items. Too be honest, I can't remember a single set or piece of gear or even the name of my MH weapons after 2010). I did get the Dal'Rend set !

Hm, I can't remember for sure, but I think I had the entire Shadowcraft set or at least the majority of it. I played so much during the first year (an average of 8 hours per day) that I had to have gotten it at some point. Another fun note for anyone doing BRS as a Rogue... remember when Sap would remove you from Stealth? Almost every Rogue that wanted to be worthwhile in dungeons had to put.. I think it was 8 points into the Subtlety tree to get Improved Sap, which still only gave you a 90% chance to remain in Stealth! As a Rogue, you pretty much had to have your hand hovering over the Vanish button just in case the thing failed.

Another thing... how many times did you lose a piece of Dal'Rend's to a Warrior or Hunter?

A year after release (spring 2006 or so), Blizzard decided to put in something for the non-raiders. So they introduced T0.5 gear. You had to do quests in 5-man dungeons (and in UBRS).

The addition of the gear didn't really affect me either, but I do think it was a good thing for Blizzard to do. As someone who entered MC with a motley crew of blues/greens, I know how painful it could be. In my opinion, the game should provide adequate jumps in gearing that allow the difficulty in encounters to be determined by mechanics and teamwork. With MC and BWL, players were hindered quite a bit by poor gear drops and farming that had to be done in the raid dungeon. In addition to "the blue set", which I still got regardless of whether I needed it , Blizzard also realized they had a lack of gear at the epic level, and they added Zul'Gurub. ZG had its own smaller set, but it also added in one piece that a lot of players lacked: a good trinket. Sure, you had players with a ToEP (Talisman of Ephemeral Power) or something else, but there wasn't usually much else.

 

[lupi]

As long as this game has been going, have a new first. Just got my first alpha invite. Been in just about every beta since BC, but my first alpha.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

As long as this game has been going, have a new first. Just got my first alpha invite. Been in just about every beta since BC, but my first alpha.

Ive never gotten one lol.

 

[lupi]

Ive never gotten one lol.

Ditto till last night. And guess they really wanted me lol. Opened the bnet launcher and it automatically started the alpha install.

 

[nurturedhate]

Got mine as well. Second alpha though and have had a beta invite to everything since bc. Guess they like my feedback.

 

[Joeydubbs]

Any idea when classic servers will be released? Not part of the alpha is it? (maybe you can't say..)

 

[nurturedhate]

Any idea when classic servers will be released? Not part of the alpha is it? (maybe you can't say..)

It's not part of the alpha and there's been no ETA on classic servers yet.

 

[Anubis]

you arent gonna see a classic launch before 2019
BFA is gonna launch this year Q3/4. the earliest i see classic launching is in the summer of 2019. prob close to a full year after BFA comes out. possibly even later

Blizzcon this year is the earliest i figure we will hear any more about it

 

[Sonikku]

Vanilla servers likely won't launch until BfA hits the inevitable lull after the final boss for the xpack is released but nearly a year before the new xpack comes out. Giving veterans something to do until the next xpack is a good way to buffer out the subs that drop after the final content patch. But they aren't ready yet for a post Legion launch. So Post BfA it is.

 

[ky54]

I was lucky to run beta on Wrath and Cata and now I've been running the alpha. I've only got into one dungeon (TD) which is nothing special. Tight rooms and mobs fleeing all over the place. I've been running a BM hunt and there's really not many changes except now all pets are the same. I've been playing since launch and what Bliz has done to pets should be something even PETA would protest.

 

[lupi]

Expansion releases 8-14 and collector edition comes after an affordable $100.

At least at that price, they actually have it set up so you can buy a digital copy now and get a credit when you apply a collector ed key.

 

[Sonikku]

Expansion releases 8-14 and collector edition comes after an affordable $100.

At least at that price, they actually have it set up so you can buy a digital copy now and get a credit when you apply a collector ed key.

$100?! But they JUST raised the CE's cost to $90 from $80 just an expansion ago. And all the while they're packing fewer good things in it. Who the hell listens to a music cd in this day and age? Gone are the days when we'd get cool collectables like a weathered cloth map rolled up into a brass ring.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

Thinking about resubbing and buying an ahead of the curve kill.

 

[lupi]

Speak

Thinking about resubbing and buying an ahead of the curve kill.

Speaking of which, need to see an exact list of what is unattainable on release of expansion.